Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World

FOR INFORMATION: SAGE Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044 India SAGE Publications Ltd. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd. 33 Pekin Street #02-01 Far East Square Singapore 048763

Vice President and Publisher: Rolf A. Janke Senior Editor: Jim Brace-Thompson Project Editor: Tracy Buyan Cover Designer: Janet Kiesel Editorial Assistant: Michele Thompson Reference Systems Manager: Leticia Gutierrez Reference Systems Coordinator: Laura Notton

Golson Media President and Editor: J. Geoffrey Golson Director, Author Management: Susan Moskowitz Senior Layout Editor: Mary Jo Scibetta Layout Editors: Kenneth Heller, Lois Rainwater, Mary Sudal Copy Editors: Anne Hicks, Laura Liebeck, James Mammarella, Mary Miller, Barbara Paris Proofreaders: Joyce Li, Mary Beth Curran Indexer: J S Editorial

Copyright © 2011 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Encyclopedia of women in today’s world / Mary Zeiss Stange, general editor, Carol K. Oyster, general editor, Jane E. Sloan, multimedia editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4129-7685-5 (hardback) 1. Women--Encyclopedias. 2. Women--Social conditions-21st century--Encyclopedias. I. Stange, Mary Zeiss. II. Oyster, Carol K. III. Sloan, Jane, 1946HQ1115.E55 2011 305.403--dc22 2010049272 11 12 13 14 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents Chronology of Women in

vi vii xv xxvii xxxix

Resource Guide Appendix: Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action Index Photo Credits

1609 1623

xlix 1–1608

1633 1777 1891

About the Editors Mary Zeiss Stange, General Editor, is Professor of Women’s Studies and Religion at Skidmore College, where for nine years she served as director of the Women’s (now Gender) Studies Program. Her work is broadly interdisciplinary, with current emphases on the intersections among gender and environmental studies, social and environmental justice, and global ecofeminism. Her books include Woman the Hunter (1997), Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America (with Carol K. Oyster, 2000), Heart Shots: Women Write about Hunting (2003), and Hard Grass: Life on the Crazy Woman Bison Ranch (2010). She edited Stackpole Books’ “Sisters of the Hunt” series of reprints of classic women’s outdoor writing, and is the author of numerous scholarly articles and review essays, for publications ranging from the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, the Women’s Studies Quarterly and the Women’s Review of Books to the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Liberty Magazine. She is a contributing writer for USA Today’s Op-Ed page. She earned a B.A. in English Literature, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion and Culture Studies, all from Syracuse University. Carol K. Oyster, General Editor, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Institute for Ethnic and Racial Studies at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. Her work focuses on gender and racial stereotypes, and attitudes toward societally marginalized groups. Her books include Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America (with Mary Zeiss Stange, 2000), Groups: A User’s Guide (2000), and Introduction to Research: A Guide for the Health Science Profesional (with W.P. Hanten and L.A. Llorens, 1987). Other works include “Whose Death Is It, Anyway?” (in N. Bauer-Maglin and D. Perry [editors], Final Acts: Death, Dying and the Choices We Make, 2010) and “Social Insecurity: A Cautionary Tale” (in N. Bauer-Maglin and A. Radosh [editors], and Women Confronting Retirement: A Nontraditional Guide, 2003). Oyster earned her B.A. in Psychology from UCLA, an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Loyola Marymount University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Delaware. Jane Sloan, Multimedia Editor, is the Media Librarian at Rutgers University Libraries in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and former Women’s Studies Librarian at Rutgers, and Cinema-Television Librarian at the University of Southern California. She is the author of several cinema studies reference books on Robert Bresson, Alfred Hitchcock, and most recently Reel Women, on contemporary feature films about women. She was the recipient of the Award for Significant Achievement in Woman's Studies Librarianship, from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Women's Studies Section (WSS) in 2008. vi

Introduction

The close of the first decade of the 21st century is an ideal time to reflect on the status of women in today’s world. Women’s situation in virtually every conceivable arena—from poetry to politics, education to economy—changed more dramatically in the last 100 years than in the preceding 1,000. And, especially since the turn of the millennium, as the pace of new technologies and new information continues to accelerate, so too has the apparent speed of that social and cultural evolution. It is therefore an apt historical moment to mark progress made in so many areas, while at the same time pondering the complex challenges that accompany change, and bearing in mind that change is not always or invariably for the better. This, in a nutshell, is what the Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World is all about. When we commenced this project, we immediately became aware of its unavoidably vast scope. How does one (or, in our case, two) begin to identify which issues are of greatest import to over half the world’s population? Who should appropriately be singled out, in terms of their accomplishments, as the most significant women on the planet? How might a reference work capture the myriad realities of what it means to experience life as a female in genuinely global terms: across lines of nationality, class, race and

ethnicity, ability, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, politics . . . to name just some of the considerations we had constantly to bear in mind? Our assignment, for this initial edition of the encyclopedia in four print volumes and online, was to identify roughly a thousand entries, with a one million-word limit for the resulting text. As daunting as this may sound, we quickly understood that while this encyclopedia could do considerably more than merely scratch the surface it would not be possible to cover everything about women in today’s world. Nor, indeed, would it be desirable to attempt it. Any reference work that claimed complete comprehensiveness on this subject would immediately, and rightly, be suspect. We knew there would be some gaps in the areas these volumes cover, many of which will be filled in the two successive updated online editions, consisting of an additional 500 entries and another half-million words, that we project over the next two years. We have, in this initial four-volume offering, done our best to include what we believe to be the essentials. And we are confident that anything this encyclopedia of women in today’s world may lack in terms of completeness is more than made up for by its overall coherence and consistency of purpose. vii

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A few words about its purpose, as we general editors envision it: In terms of its audience, we see this work, like any good encyclopedia, more as a starting point, than as an end in itself. That is, whether those who consult this work are simply casual readers looking for some reliable information on a particular subject, or students or scholars commencing research for some specific project, we intend that the entries here will not simply provide reliable information, but will also spur further reflection and provide the essential guidance as to where to look next for more specialized or refined information. You might say that, as its structure evolved, in global terms this encyclopedia is conceived more as a map or an itinerary than as a travelogue. Additionally, while it is intended to be useful for a variety of audiences, there is one in particular that deserves special mention here: the community of feminist and women’s and gender studies scholars. Our approximately 400 contributors are, overwhelmingly, members of that community, here in the United States and around the world. We are aware that its critics charge that scholarship grounded in feminism is tainted by political and other biases. However, we also recognize that just as the global women’s movement is primarily responsible for the positive changes that have occurred for women and girls over the past century, so too the “academic wing” of that movement—women’s and, more recently, gender studies—provides the best lens through which to chart and analyze those changes. Feminist analysis is today acknowledged to be a fundamental critical tool across the academic disciplines. Throughout the process of assigning and editing entries, we have emphasized fair and balanced presentation as a fundamental requirement, no matter how controversial a given topic might be. Entries that leaned too far in any political or theoretical direction suggesting bias—including that for which only the hackneyed phrase “political correctness” suffices— were not included. We are pleased to say that as a result, the Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World represents the genuine depth and diversity of current scholarship by and about women, and is the most comprehensive reference work available on women worldwide that is firmly grounded in women’s and gender studies.

How the Encyclopedia Was Created: Goals We drew our inspiration for the overarching goals of this encyclopedia from its title, and these goals are threefold. First, this encyclopedia is about women in today’s world. While the ever-expanding disciplines of gender studies, LGBTQ studies and queer theory all afford ample opportunity for addressing the lives and experiences of men, those subjects fall outside the purview of this work, except to the extent that information about men is necessary to illustrate or illuminate some relevant aspect of women’s reality. Hence, for example, the entries on the social construction of masculinity and the Roman Catholic priesthood, while superficially male-centered, are included here to serve the larger goal of comprehending some specific facets of women’s lives. Second, our goal is to focus on women in today’s world. The emphasis throughout is consistently contemporary and, in spirit, future-oriented. Of course, any definition of “today” is bound to be to some extent arbitrary, but our guiding principle was to concentrate on the world post-2000. While we realize this excludes some iconic issues and individuals in women’s studies, our aim here is to create a unique resource, containing information that is as current and forward-looking as we could make it, and which cannot readily be found in one place elsewhere. Such historical information as is necessary to an adequate understanding of any entry’s subject is, naturally, included. But we kept this as much as possible to a minimum, as readers searching for deeper history of subjects like the 19th-century women’s suffrage movement or educational opportunities available to women in medieval Europe have plenty of other places to look. Our focus is on the issues, ideas, and people that will extend and expand our understanding of women’s progress into the future. Our third goal, and in some ways the most challenging to achieve, has been to focus on women in today’s world. In a sense, in global terms, there are so many facets to women and their lives that only an encyclopedia could hope to begin to capture them all. Yet, at every step along the way of aiming for a truly global perspective and content, we were reminded of how much ground there is (quite literally) to cover, and how impossible it would be to cover it all. We therefore identified 15 broad thematic categories that

Introduction



we felt would, with reasonable inclusiveness, organize this work as a resource on today’s women in global terms. We shall turn to the category list (Reader’s Guide) presently, but first must note one other question we had to address early on, regarding how to approach the subject of women in today’s world. That question was, simply put, which women do we want to feature? Standard reference works on women invariably include entries devoted to individual women: their lives, discoveries, accomplishments, places in history. While we appreciate its utility, we determined from the start to eschew this “great women” approach. This was, in part, because there are so many prominent, high-achieving women out there around the world these days that any attempt to include them all would be doomed to futility. But, more fundamentally, as scholars and as feminists we wanted to steer clear of the distaff version of the “great man” approach, which must necessarily entail setting some sort of standards for what constitutes “greatness” in the first place— standards which are clearly impossible when one is thinking in global terms, and which tend to default to the patriarchal “conquering hero” model which we intended to avoid at all costs. This is not say readers won’t find some conventionally “great women” here: heads of state, corporate CEOs, entertainers, scientific innovators, powerbrokers and Nobel laureates. Failing to include such extraordinary, and often internationally celebrated, women would weaken our goal of accurately representing women’s status in the world today. But for every household name, there are two or three others who will be, while no less remarkable in their accomplishments, unfamiliar to most persons who consult this encyclopedia. We call the entries on all the women we have included “Signal Biographies,” to suggest that their life stories exemplify some particular aspects of the range of women’s experience. We trust that in reading these women’s stories in light of one another—for example, Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust and Nepalese education activist Stella Tamang, or Serbian human rights activist Stanislavka Stasa Zajovic and V-Day founder Eve Ensler—readers will come to appreciate the depth and breadth of the ways in which some truly great women are changing the world in which we all live. In keeping with our

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emphasis on women in the world of today, all but a very small handful of the women whose lives are included as Signal Biographies in this work are still alive and active. The Organization of the Encyclopedia Once we determined our overall goals and objectives for this project, our next task was to figure out the most effective way to organize its content. As mentioned above, we wanted to create a unique resource, containing an array of information about women not available in one unified source elsewhere. After playing around with a variety of categorical combinations, we lit upon the following as the best overall structure for organizing our material for the encyclopedia’s Reader’s Guide: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Activism in Theory and Practice Arts Business/Commerce/Economy Countries Education Environment Government/Law and Justice Health: Mental and Physical Media and Popular Culture Religion Science and Technology Sports and Recreation Sexualities War and Conflict Women’s Lives

Each category contains several different types of entries. But descriptions of theories, organizations, women’s social, political or cultural problems, and the roles they assume are not enough. We accompany these entries with the biographies of some of the remarkable women who have developed the theories, worked in or run those organizations, sought to solve those problems and lived those roles. Granted, our strategy has created some strange bedfellows: Where else could Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dolly Parton and Lady Gaga comfortably occupy the spotlight together under the category “Arts”? Or legendary White House correspondent Helen Thomas share a press pass with supermodel-turned-interviewer Tyra Banks? Or, on a somewhat darker note

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perhaps, Iraq war heroine Tammy Duckworth march with Abu Ghraib’s Lynndie England and Algerian terrorist/freedom fighter (and, subsequently, senator) Zohra Drif-Bitat. But what may, to the casual observer, look like serendipity we prefer to think of as an illustration of the astonishing variety of women’s lives, on every level. As to the categories that make up the Reader’s Guide: While the guide is arranged alphabetically, the categories are organized thematically, and in many ways their themes necessarily overlap. Nonetheless, those themes can be broadly summarized as follows: Activism in Theory and Practice. Having historically been largely excluded from access both to power and to resources, women have been forced to identify and create their own strategies for change. Both in theory and in practice (and the necessary relationship between the two is complex and often subtle), women have been in the forefront of the creation and development of groups for the protection children’s rights and family rights, animal rights and nature rights; movements for and against reproductive freedom; and, of course, for women’s rights, under a variety of banners both liberal and conservative. Women have worked together to create groups as diverse as RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), MADRE in Latin America, the Tibetan Women’s Association, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. The lives of women like Native rights activists Winona LaDuke and Wilma Mankiller, disability rights activist Simi Linton, human rights activist Shirin Ebadi and women’s rights activist Engy Ayman Ghozlan illustrate the interconnection of efforts worldwide to conquer inequality, as well as the theories underpinning those efforts. Arts. As recently as a generation ago, when literary anthologies and art history texts featured at best the occasional token female, and the worlds of theater, dance and cinema were totally under male control, the bitter joke in feminist circles was that “Anonymous” must have been a woman. Not only have feminist arts historians and literary scholars done superb work of rediscovering a tradition of women’s artistry, women are today among the prime movers in the shaping of contemporary arts. Because of—and explicitly in resistance to—the conventional association of “wom-

en’s arts” with “lower” art forms, we have included in this category a broad array of women’s artistic production, comprehending rock and hip-hop as well as classical music, romance novels along with the work of Pulitzer- and Nobel-prize honorees, feminist filmmaking and Bollywood, urban architecture and landscape design. Business, Commerce, and Economics. Women increasingly participate in the institutions that have traditionally been the bastions of male power. Women run small and large companies, multinational corporations and sports organizations. They work in offices and laboratories. They design clothing and model the designs on the catwalk. Women are also, however, the largest unpaid—and underpaid—workforce in the world. The entries in this section highlight both women’s positive advances across the fields of business and commerce, and also the long way they have yet to go. In the latter regard, we paid particular attention to contemporary efforts to raise the standard of living of women and girls, and their access to financial and other resources, in developing nations—ranging from Grameen Bank of Bangladesh to UNIFEM to women’s thrift cooperatives and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development. Countries. This article category significantly gathers together up to date information about the current state of women’s affairs on a country-by-country basis, arranged by continent and/or hemisphere. While each entry is an invaluable resource in its own right, taken together these entries also provide an international, intercultural platform for the comparative and cross-cultural thrust of this encyclopedia. Education. Feminist historian Gerda Lerner has argued that the educational disadvantaging of women and girls has historically been the primary reason for their subordination. In this category we bring together comprehensive information regarding efforts, worldwide, to counteract that disadvantaging, in initiatives like UNICEF’s “Girl-friendly Schools” program, the Global Campaign for Education, No Child Left Behind and the Campaign for Female Education in Africa. We pay attention as well to the roles women play in education at all levels, in institutional and alternative contexts. And we mark the achievements



of scholar-administrators like U.S. university president Shirley Ann Jackson, and Brazilian indigenous educator Adir Casaro Nascimento. Environment. Ecofeminism, and the environmental activism it engendered, from the Green Belt movement in Africa and India’s Chipko, to diverse movements for environmental protection ranging from Love Canal to the antinuclear protests in the United Kingdom: all have been the products of women’s grassroots energy. This owes in no small part to the fact that, whether the environmental crisis takes the form of drought or disease or toxic waste, women and their children are invariably most directly affected. Women like Val Plumwood, Wangari Maathai, and Vandana Shiva have therefore devoted their lives both to theorizing about, and activism for the protection of, the rights and interests both of endangered people and endangered places. Government/Law and Justice. Women today run countries as well as companies; they head political parties as well as social justice action movements. This broad category attempts to give a flavor of the manifold import of women’s political activity today, and the extensive range of issues confronting political activists and agenda-setters. It also comprehends the increasing role women play in framing legislation— yet with a critical eye to the fact that when it comes to laws surrounding their own reproductive health and behavior, control of that legislation still too frequently rests in the hands of men. This category takes up, as well, the role that violence plays in women’s lives, in regard to such worldwide facts as rape and domestic violence on the one hand, and to their own capacity for violence on the other. Women serve as police officers, attorneys judges, and prison guards. Sometimes the crime perpetrators they arrest, prosecute, convict, and guard are also women. Health: Mental and Physical. The biology of their bodies creates a unique set of life experiences for women. Women’s lives are affected by such universal health issues as cancer, heart disease and—particularly in the developing world as well as in poor communities in the United States and other developed nations—HIV/AIDS. Yet evidence shows that, up until recently, in virtually every area medical research

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has failed adequately to include women, either as researchers or as subjects. The complex realities of sex, sexuality, and reproduction shape the contours of women’s mental as well as physical health. Pressures on girls and women to focus on body image and beauty are associated with increases in eating disorders and cosmetic surgery. Such pioneering women’s health reformers as Somali anti-FGM activist Waris Dirie, Dutch abortion rights activist Rebecca Gomperts, and former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders are profiled in this category. Media/Popular Culture. Some of today’s women gain celebrity for discovering cures or creating art, others for breaking athletic records or bringing peace to hitherto war-torn countries or managing media empires or producing cutting-edge journalism. In our increasingly image-obsessed age, some women are famous simply for being famous. And beyond fame and celebrity, popular culture presents a potpourri of images, ideas, ideals and role models which shape the possibilities of self-perception available to girls and women for better and for worse. The entries in this category run the gamut from Barbie dolls and Dora the Explorer to Ms. magazine and Our Bodies, Ourselves; from baby beauty pageants to pornography, slasher movies to soap operas, reality television to roller derby. Religion. Perhaps no aspect of human social or cultural life worldwide has had a greater impact on the lives of women and girls than religion. The ways in which religious ideas and ideals about the female/ feminine shape the expectations of and possibilities afforded to women are portrayed in these entries across religious and national boundaries. We pay significant attention, as well, to feminist resistance to patriarchal religion in a variety of contexts, to the changing landscape of marriage and ministry, and to the role religions play in shaping public policy relating to sexual and reproductive behavior. The signal biographies in this category include Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori and Amina Wadud, and religious renegades like Sonia Johnson and Starhawk.

Science and Technology. This category suggests the many ways in which women are entering scientific and technological fields formerly closed to them—

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from aerospace exploration to astronomy, engineering to earth science—and transforming those fields in the process. It also includes several entries exploring 21st-century technological realities as various as sexting, Internet dating, computer gaming and cyber-stalking, and their potential impact on women and girls. Sports and Recreation. Women play tennis and soccer, they excel at golf and figure skating, they lift weights and run marathons, they hunt and ride in rodeos. A post-Title IX generation of girls has grown up experiencing exercise and sports participation as normal components of their education. Some have gone on to careers in coaching or as referees. The entries in this category point to the breadth of women’s sports participation, which is borne out by such biographies as those of figure skater Kim Yu-Na, golfer Annika Sörenstam, race-car driver Danica Patrick, boxer Laila Ali, and Olympic shooter Kim Rhode. Sexualities. This category of entries takes up the increasingly complex discourses surrounding sexuality and sexual orientation, LGBTQ theory and activism, and queer theory. Some entries depict how in certain cultural contexts, tolerance of diverse gender identity and expression is institutionalized. Others portray the institutionalization of discrimination based on these same factors. War and Conflict. Women invariably suffer disproportionately in conflict zones, both in terms of being victimized by the hardships that all people experience in wartime and, more especially, in being treated by turns as instruments of and/or as spoils of war by enemy combatants. Women at the same time serve in the militaries of several of the world’s nations, in some contexts seeing combat, and suffering from its aftereffects. Women also figure as very active participants in terrorist and insurgent movements around the world. Women’s Lives. Finally, there are certain social and cultural features of women’s lives which are intimately tied to institutionally defined social roles among humans in general, and among women in particular. Issues of aging and discrimination are universal. For many, heterosexual marriage, motherhood, divorce

and widowhood are pivotal concerns. Lesbians’ loves and lives revolve around other women, sometimes generating hatred or violent reactions from society at large. To marry or not, whether or not to bear children are for some women matters of choice, while for others the “choice” is dictated by biology or by other people—sometimes without the affected woman’s consent, or even her knowledge. Parenthood is for some a solitary journey, perhaps chosen but sometimes involuntary. Women are mistresses and mail-order brides, Quinceañeras and prom queens, nannies and homemakers, “helicopter parents” and “soccer moms.” This brief summary of our organizational themes can at best suggest the virtually inexhaustible range of material available to our contributors. We trust that, reading one category of entries against another, users of this reference work will make their own further connections among our original 15: indeed, we very much encourage them to! One final dimension of this encyclopedia that must be noted is that it is quite intentionally a work still in progress. The process of putting together this initial offering, available simultaneously in four print volumes and online, was itself a lesson in how much work there remains to be done. Our approximately 400 contributors, representing dozens of nationalities based in educational institutions and working as independent scholars on five continents, have amassed an astounding amount of information about women in today’s world. But there is, needless to say, more ground yet to cover. Hence, in a very real sense, our end in this project is also our beginning. We are already hard at work on the first of two online supplements of this encyclopedia, to be published in 2012 and 2013. Each will contain another 250 entries, adding a total of 500 more entries and approximately a half-million more words, to amplify and supplement the content of these first four volumes. Therefore, while as its General Editors we are both proud of what we have accomplished here, we are equally pleased to say that, in a very real sense, the best is yet to come. Multimedia Edition The print edition of the encyclopedia is complemented by a multimedia online edition, with the



inclusion of some 99 video clips from news agencies that were researched by Multimedia Editor Jane Sloan to illustrate key articles and themes within the work. Reflecting what life is like for women around the world, the multimedia clips work with the text articles, ranging from the topics of abortion in Poland to women’s political status in Yemen. Moreover, the several hundred photographs and captions complement the articles as well, yielding a multifaceted presentation. Acknowledgments This encyclopedia is the result of the combined efforts of a number of people without whom the project could not have been completed. We wish, first of all, to thank Rolf Janke, Publisher, and Jim BraceThompson, Senior Editor, of SAGE Publications for their vision in creating this encyclopedia and for their continuing enthusiasm. We owe Multimedia Editor Jane Sloan a wealth of gratitude for her skillful and thoughtful selection of the multimedia components which complement and enhance the written words here. We are grateful to Geoff Golson, President and Editor of Golson Media, for inviting us to edit the encyclopedia and for his patience, organization, and support throughout the process. Sue Moskowitz, Golson Media’s Director of Author Management, has been amazing in her ability to recruit and manage a cadre of writers whose diversity and expertise have contributed so richly to the finished product. Thanks as well to Senior Layout Editor Mary Jo Scibetta. Finally, we wish to thank the SAGE production team. In addition, Mary Zeiss Stange is grateful for Skidmore College’s support of her work on this project, in

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the form of funding travel and research assistance. My special thanks to the students in the fall 2009 Women’s Studies Senior Seminar, for their brainstorming and constructive suggestions about potential headwords, and more especially to my 2009/2010 research assistant Arielle Kouffman for her energy and many creative insights. During summer 2010, Alexis Shenfil Smart brought a “Millennial” perspective and a global awareness to our continuing work: The forthcoming online supplements of this encyclopedia will owe much of their international depth and topical variety to her invariably savvy discoveries and suggestions. As always, my appreciation for Carol Oyster’s good humor, sharp intellect, and willingness, from time to time, to yield the social scientific passive voice to my editorial pen. Carol Oyster would like to thank her colleague, Mary Zeiss Stange, for continuing our previous collaboration by asking me to join her in this project. Coming from complementary academic disciplines, our joint efforts have once again resulted in a product of which I am very proud. I would also like to express my most profound gratitude to my daughter, Katherine, for her patience in allowing me to prattle on endlessly about the project, for contributing a number of the headwords that appear in the work that reflect both her generation’s perspective and her own successful progress in her medical education, and for making me proud in too many other ways to express. Mary Zeiss Stange Carol K. Oyster General Editors

Reader’s Guide

Activism in Theory and Practice Animal Rights Arab Feminism Bat Shalom—Jerusalem Women’s Action Center Chicana Feminism Children’s Rights Codepink Critical Race Feminism Domestic Violence Centers Eagle Forum EMILY’s List Environmental Activism, Grassroots Family Research Council Feminism on College Campuses Feminist Majority Foundation Feminists for Life Focus on the Family Gay and Lesbian Advocacy General Union of Palestinian Women Global Feminism Granny Peace Brigade Independent Women’s Forum Indigenous Women’s Rights: Bolivia Iranian Feminism Islamic Revolution in Iran

MADRE Million Mom March Mothers Against Choice Mothers Against Drunk Driving NARAL National Organization for Women National Women’s Political Caucus Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq Panchita’s House: Domestic Workers Rights in Lima, Peru Peace Movement Rape Crisis Centers Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan Social Justice: Activism Take Back the Night Third Wave Tibetan Women’s Association Transnational Feminist Networks Vagina Monologues, The White Supremacy Womanism Women in Black Women Involved in Farm Economics Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom xv

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Signal Biographies Brady, Sarah Ebadi, Shirin Ensler, Eve Ghozlan, Engy Ayman LaDuke, Winona Linton, Simi Mairs, Nancy Mankiller, Wilma Michelman, Kate Zajovic, Stanislava Stasa Arts Australian Aboriginal Artists Bollywood Classical Music, Women in Country and Western Music, Women in Dance, Women in Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago) Film Actors, Female Film Directors, Female Film Production, Women in Guerrilla Girls Hip Hop National Museum of Women in the Arts Novelists, Female Photography, Women in Poets, Female Representation of Women Studio Arts, Women in Sweet Honey in the Rock Visual Arts, Women in Women Make Movies Signal Biographies Chicago, Judy Coppola, Sofia Duffy, Carol Ann Holzer, Jenny Kngwarreye, Emily Leibovitz, Annie Lessing, Doris Morrison, Toni Oates, Joyce Carol Parton, Dolly Showalter, Elaine Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri Walker, Alice

Walker, Kara Zaimont, Judith Lang Business, Commerce, and Economics Association for Women’s Rights in Development CEOs, Female Child Labor Cosmetics Industry Cowgirls Crafting Industry Diet Industry Direct Sales Domestic Workers Economics, Women in Entrepreneurs Equal Pay Fair Trade Fashion Industry Financial Independence of Women Glass Ceiling Grameen Bank of Bangladesh International Monetary Fund International Women’s Day Management Management Styles, Gender Theories Maquiladoras Mentoring Microcredit Migrant Workers Nannies 9to5 Nontraditional Careers, U.S. Parental Leave Partner Rights Part-Time Work Philanthropists, Female Poverty Poverty, Feminization of Sewa in India Sex Workers Sexual Harassment Sweatshops Trafficking, Women and Children Unions United Nations Development Fund for Women Unpaid Labor Wedding Industry Women’s Cooperatives

Reader’s Guide



Women’s Funding Network Women’s Thrift Cooperatives Work/Life Balance Signal Biographies Ledbetter, Lilly Mehta, Renu Nooyi, Indra Stewart, Martha Countries Africa Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic Côte D’Ivoire Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger

Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Principe Senegal Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Americas Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Bahamas Barbados Belize Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname

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Trinidad and Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela Asia Afghanistan Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Bruei Darussalam Cambodia China East Timor Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Moldova Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Oman Pakistan Palestine Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Seychelles Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan

Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen Europe Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia (FYROM) Malta Monaco Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania San Marino Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain

Reader’s Guide



Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Pacific Australia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu Education Adjunct and Contingent Faculty American Association of University Women Attainment, Elementary School Completion Attainment, College Degree Attainment, Graduate Degree Attainment, High School Completion Campaign for Female Education College and University Faculty Community Colleges Educational Administrators, College and University Educational Administrators, Elementary and High School Educational Attainment, Effect of Unpaid Labor on Educational Opportunities/Access Elementary Educators Family and Consumer Sciences Fields of Study Financial Aid Forum for African Women Educationalists “Girl-Friendly” Schools Global Campaign for Education Hate Speech and Bias on College Campuses High School Teachers Home Schooling National Women’s Studies Association No Child Left Behind Professional Education, Trade/Vocational Schools

School Fee Abolition Initiative Single Sex Education Title IX Vocational and Trade School Faculty Women’s Colleges Women’s Resource Centers Women’s Studies Signal Biographies al-Faiz, Norah Jackson, Shirley Ann Nascimento, Adir Casaro Tamang, Stella Environment Birth Defects: Environmental Factors Cancer: Environmental Factors Climate Change as a Women’s Issue Drought Ecofeminism Environmental Justice Famine Green Belt Movement International Conference on Population and Development Locavorism/Slow Food Movement Love Canal Navdanya Overpopulation Rachel’s Network Toxic Waste as a Women’s Issue Vegetarian Feminism Water as a Women’s Issue Women’s Environment and Development Organization Signal Biographies Brockovich, Erin Gibbs, Lois Maathai, Wangari Plumwood, Val Shiva, Vandana Waters, Alice Government/Law and Justice Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity AMBER Alerts Attorneys, Female

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Convention on the Rights of the Child Convention to End Discrimination Against Women Council of Women World Leaders Crime Victims, Female Drug Trade Equal Rights Amendment Feminist Jurisprudence Gender Quotas in Government Girl Gangs Guns and Gun Use Hate Crimes Heads of State, Female Honor Killings Honor Suicides International Action Network on Small Arms Judges, Women as Law Enforcement, Women in League of Women Voters Lilly Ledbetter Act Megan’s Law Nongovernmental Organizations Parental Leave Act Perpetrators, Female Political Ideologies Prison Administration Prison Guards, Female (U.S.) Prisoners, Female (U.S.) Rape, Legal Definitions of Rape, Prosecution Rates Representation of Women in Government: International Representation of Women in Government: U.S. Roe v. Wade Self-Defense, Armed Self-Defense, Unarmed Sex Offenders, Female Sex Offenders, Male Social Justice Theory United Nations Conferences on Women United Nations Conventions Violence Against Women Act Voting Rights White House Council on Women and Girls Signal Biographies Albright, Madeleine Bachelet, Michelle Bhutto, Benazir

Bruntland, Gro Harlem Clinton, Hillary Rodham Gandhi, Sonia Ginsberg, Ruth Bader Kirchner, Cristina Fernández de Merkel, Angela Obama, Michelle O’Connor, Sandra Day Palin, Sarah Pelosi, Nancy Queen Noor Rice, Condoleezza Robinson, Mary Sarkozy, Carla Bruni Sigurðardóttir, Jóhanna Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson Thatcher, Margaret Health: Mental and Physical Abortion, Access to Abortion Laws: International Abortion Methods Addiction and Substance Abuse Anxiety Disorders Bariatric Surgery Birth Defects Body Image Botox Breast Cancer Breast Reduction Surgery Caesarean Section, Rates of Chastity Pledges Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital Childbirth, Medication in Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural Contraception Methods Cosmetic Surgery Crisis Pregnancy Centers Depression Diabetes Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of Disability: Definitions Doulas Dysthymia in Minority Population Eating Disorders Fecundity

Reader’s Guide



Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of Female Genital Surgery, Types of Fertility Freedom of Choice Act “Freedom of Conscience” Legislation Gardasil Gender Dysphoria Gender Reassignment Surgery Global “Gag Rule” Health Insurance Issues Heart Disease HIV/AIDS: Africa HIV/AIDS: Asia HIV/AIDS: Europe HIV/AIDS: North America HIV/AIDS: Oceania HIV/AIDS: South America Hysterectomies Infant Mortality Infanticide Infertility, Incidence Infertility, Treatments Life Expectancy, International Comparisons of Maternal Mortality Medical Research, Gender Issues Menopause: Medical Aspects Menopause: Social Aspects Menstruation Mental Health Treatment, Access to Mental Health Treatment, Bias in Mental Illness, Incidence Rates Midwifery Nurses Nutrition Nutrition in Pregnancy Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Physicians, Female Physicians, Specialties Physicians Assistants, Female Plan B Planned Parenthood Post-Abortion Trauma Syndrome Postmenstrual Dysphoric Disorder Postpartum Depression Postpartum Psychosis Pregnancy

Premenstrual Syndrome Prenatal Care Psychotropic Medications Puberty Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined Rape, Incidence of Rape and HIV Rape Trauma Syndrome Rates of Psychological Disorders by Gender Reproductive Cancers Reproductive Health Issues Reproductive Rights “Revirginization” RU-486 Self-Mutilation Sex Education, Abstinence-Only Sex Education, Comprehensive Sex Education, Cross-Culturally Compared Sexually Transmitted Infections “Snowflake Babies” Sterilization Sterilization, Involuntary Suicide and Race Suicide Methods Suicide Rates Women’s Health Clinics World Health Organization Signal Biographies Bowers, Marci Dirie, Waris Elders, Joycelyn Gomperts, Rebecca McCorvey, Norma Solomon, Suniti Suleman, Nadia Yates, Andrea Media/Popular Culture Action Heroes, Female Advertising, Aimed at Women Advertising, Female Professionals in Advertising, Portrayal of Women in American Girl Dolls Anime Barbie Dolls Beauty Pageants Beauty Pageants (Babies/Young Children)

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Blogs and the Blogosphere Body Art Bratz Dolls Cartoonists, Female Celebrity Women Censorship “Cougars” Disc Jockeys Dora the Explorer Feminist Publishing Hello Kitty Journalists, Broadcast Media Journalists, Print Media Manga Media Chief Executive Officers, Female Ms. Magazine Our Bodies, Ourselves Pink, Advertising and Pornography, Portrayal of Women in Pornography Produced by Women Pornography/Erotica Reality Television Roller Derby Romance Novels Slasher Movies Soap Operas, Cross-Culturally Considered Sports Ilustrated Swimsuit Edition Toys, Gender-Stereotypic Women’s Cable Networks Women’s Magazines Signal Biographies Amanpour, Christiane Banks, Tyra Couric, Katie DeGeneres, Ellen Ehrenreich, Barbara Goody, Jade Hefner, Christie Huffington, Arianna Maddow, Rachel Madonna Paglia, Camille Queen Latifah Steinem, Gloria Thomas, Helen vanden Heuvel, Katrina

Walters, Barbara Winfrey, Oprah Religion African American Muslims Anglican Communion Black Churches Buddhism Candomblé Catholics for Choice Chinese Religions Christian Identity Christianity Chabad Movement Clergy Abuse/Pedophilia Contraception: Religious Approaches Creation Care Movement (Evangelical) Da Vinci Code, The Evangelical Protestantism Feminist Theology Fundamentalist Christianity Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Hindu Female Gurus and Living Saints Hinduism Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Indigenous Religions, Global Islam Islam in America Islamic Feminism Judaism Ku Klux Klan Kumari, Living Goddess in Nepal Lesbian/Gay Clergy Machismo/Marianismo Mary Magdalene Metropolitan Community Church Ministry: Protestant Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Mujerista Theology Native American Religion New Age Religion Nuns: Buddhist Nuns: Roman Catholic Operation Rescue Orthodox Churches

Reader’s Guide



Orthodox Judaism Polygamy, Cross-Culturally Considered Priesthood: Episcopalian/Anglican Priesthood: Roman Catholic Progressive Muslims (U.S.) Pro-Life Movement Purity Balls Rabbis, Female Religious Fundamentalisms, Cross-Culturally Considered Revolve Roman Catholic Church Santería Secularity Law, France Shari`a Law Sikhism Southern Baptist Convention Stem Cell Research: Religious Arguments for and Against Suttee Taliban Veil Virgin Mary Virgin of Guadalupe Voodoo Wahabism Wicca/Goddess Spirituality Witchcraft: Worldwide Womanist Theology Women’s Ordination Conference Yoga Signal Biographies Barclay, Aviel Johnson, Sonia Pagels, Elaine Schori, Katharine Jefferts Starhawk Wadud, Amina Winkett, Canon Lucy Science and Technology Astronauts, Female Astronomy, Women in Biology, Women in Chatrooms Chemistry, Women in Computer Games

Computer Science, Women in Earth Science, Women in Engineering, Women in Internet Internet Dating Mathematics, Women in Multiverses, Gender Stereotypes in Pedophilia Online Physics, Women in Science Education for Girls Sexting Stem Coalition Veterinarians, Female Signal Biographies Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise Billa-Komaroff, Lydia Grandin, Temple Ride, Sally Shoemaker, Carolyn Sports and Recreation Auto Racing: Formula One Auto Racing: NASCAR Basketball: College Beach Volleyball/Volleyball Boxing Coaches, Female Coaches of Women’s Teams Cowboy Action Shooting Dykes on Bikes Exercise Science Figure Skating “Fitness” Golf Gymnastics Horse Racing, Women in Hunting Little League Olympics: Summer Olympics: Winter Pilates Rodeo Running/Marathons Shooting Sports, Women in Soccer, Children’s Soccer, Professional Sports Announcers, Female

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Reader’s Guide

Sports Officials, Female Steroid Use Swimming Team Owners, Female Tennis Track and Field Weightlifting Women’s National Basketball Association Xtreme Sports Signal Biographies Ali, Laila Kim, Yu-Na Patrick, Danica Rhode, Kim Sörenstam, Annika Torres, Dara Visser, Lesley Williams, Venus and Serena Sexualities Africa Asia Bisexuality Civil Unions Coming Out Drag Kings Europe Gender, Defined Heterosexism Heterosexuality Homophobia Human Rights Campaign Intersex Lesbian Adoption Lesbians LGBTQ North America Oceania Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Queer Theory Same-Sex Marriage Sex, Defined Sex Education in the Home Sexual Orientation Sexual Orientation, Theories of Causation Sexual Orientation and Race

Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States Transgender “Two-Spirit” Signal Biographies Chase, Cheryl Feinberg, Leslie Flannery, Sarah Shepard, Judy Vincent, Norah War and Conflict Abu Ghraib Combat, Women in Community Defense/Resistance Conflict Zones Guerrilla Fighters, Female Land Mines Lesbians in the Military Military, Women in Military Leadership, Women in Military Stationed in Muslim Countries Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Female Military Prisoners of War, Female Prostitution in Combat Zones Rape in Conflict Zones Suicide Bombers, Female Terrorists, Female Wars of National Liberation, Women in Signal Biographies Cornum, Rhonda Drif, Zohra Duckworth, Tammy England, Lynndie Karpinski, Janis



Women’s Lives Adoption Aging, Attitudes Toward Antifeminism Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural Child Abuse Perpetrators Child Abuse Victims Childcare Childlessness as Choice Dating Violence Diet and Weight Control Divorce Domestic Violence Elder Abuse Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America “Fatherlessness” “Femininity,” Social Construction of Feminism Foster Mothers Gender Roles: Cross-Cultural Girl Scouts Girls, Inc.

Reader’s Guide Grandmothers “Helicopter Parents” Homemakers and Social Security Homemaking Household Decision-Making Mail-Order Brides Marriage Marriages, Arranged “Masculinity,” Social Construction of Mistresses Mothers in Prison Property Rights Quinceañeras Rural Women “Security Moms” Single Mothers “Soccer Moms” Stay-at-Home Mothers Stereotypes of Women Teen Pregnancy Welfare Widows Working Mothers

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List of Articles

A Abortion, Access to Abortion, Ethical Issues of Abortion, Late Abortion Laws, International Abortion Laws, United States Abortion Methods Abu Ghraib Action Heroes, Female Addiction and Substance Abuse Administrative Assistants/Office Managers Adolescence Adoption Advertising, Aimed at Women Advertising, Female Professionals in Advertising, Portrayal of Women in Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Afghanistan African American Muslims Aging, Attitudes Toward Albania Albright, Madeleine al-Faiz, Norah Algeria Ali, Laila Alternative Education

Amanpour, Christiane AMBER Alerts American Association of University Women American Girl Dolls American Idol American Samoa Amish Andorra Anglican Communion Angola Animal Rights Animal Trainers, Female Anime Antifeminism Antigua and Barbuda Anxiety Disorders Arab Feminism Archery Architecture, Women in Argentina Armenia Art Criticism: Gender Issues Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview) Association for Women’s Rights in Development Astronauts, Female Astronomy, Women in xxvii

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Attainment, College Degree Attainment, Elementary School Completion Attainment, Graduate Degree Attainment, High School Completion Attorneys, Female Australia Australian Aboriginal Artists Austria Auto Racing, Formula One Auto Racing, NASCAR Aviation, Women in Azerbaijan B Bachelet, Michelle Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Banks, Tyra Barbados Barbie Dolls Bariatric Surgery Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise Basketball, College Bat Shalom Beach Volleyball/Volleyball Beauty Pageants Beauty Pageants (Babies/Young Children) Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bhutto, Benazir Biology, Women in Birth Defects, Environmental Factors and Bisexuality Black Churches Blogs and the Blogosphere Body Art Body Image Bolivia Bollywood Bosnia and Herzegovina Botox Botswana

Bowers, Marci Boxing Brady, Sarah Bratz Dolls Brazil Breast Cancer Breast Reduction/Enlargement Surgery “Bridezillas” Brockovich, Erin Brundtland, Gro Harlem Brunei Darussalam Buddhism Bulgaria Bullying in the Workplace Burkina Faso Burundi Business, Women in C Caesarean Section, Rates of Cambodia Cameroon Campaign for Female Education Canada Cancer, Environmental Factors and Cancer, Women and Candomblé Cape Verde Cartoonists, Female Casaro Nascimento, Adir Catholics for Choice Celebrity Women Censorship Central African Republic Chabad Movement Chad Chase, Cheryl Chastity Pledges Chatrooms Chemistry, Women in Chicago, Judy Chicana Feminism Chief Executive Officers, Female Child Abuse, Perpetrators of Child Abuse, Victims of Child Labor Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital Childbirth, Medication in



Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural Childcare Childlessness as Choice Children’s Rights Chile China Chinese Religions Cho, Margaret Christian Identity Christianity Civil Unions Classical Music, Women in Clergy Abuse/Pedophilia Climate Change as a Women’s Issue Clinton, Hillary Rodham Coaches, Female Coaches of Women’s Teams CODEPINK College and University Faculty Colombia Combat, Women in Comedians, Female Coming Out Community Colleges Community Defense/Resistance Comoros Computer Games Computer Science, Women in Conflict Zones Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of the Contraception, Religious Approaches to Contraception Methods Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Convention on the Rights of the Child Coppola, Sofia Cornum, Rhonda Cosmetic Surgery Cosmetics Industry Costa Rica Côte d’Ivoire “Cougars” Council of Women World Leaders Country and Western Music, Women in Couric, Katie Cowboy Action Shooting Cowgirls

List of Articles Crafting Industry Creation Care Movement (Evangelical) Crime Victims, Female Crisis Pregnancy Centers Critical Race Feminism Croatia Cuba Cyber-Stalking and Internet Harassment Cyprus Czech Republic D Da Vinci Code, The Dance, Women in Dating Violence DeGeneres, Ellen Denmark Depression Diabetes Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of Diet and Weight Control Diet Industry Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago) Direct Sales Dirie, Warris Disability Definitions Disc Jockeys Divorce Djibouti Domestic Violence Domestic Violence Centers Domestic Workers Dominica Dominican Republic Dora the Explorer Doulas Drag Kings Drif-Bitat, Zohra Drought Drug Trade Duckworth, Tammy Duffy, Carol Ann Dykes on Bikes Dysthymia in Minority Population

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E Eagle Forum Earth Science, Women in East Timor Eating Disorders Ebadi, Shirin Ecofeminism Economics, Women in Ecuador Education, Women in Educational Administrators, College and University Educational Administrators, Elementary and High School Educational Attainment, Effect of Unpaid Labor on Educational Opportunities/Access Egypt Ehrenreich, Barbara El Salvador Elder Abuse Elder Care Elders, Joycelyn Elementary Educators EMILY’s List Engineering, Women in England, Lynndie Ensler, Eve Entrepreneurs Environmental Activism, Grassroots Environmental Issues, Women and Environmental Justice Equal Pay Equal Rights Amendment Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Evangelical Protestantism Exercise Science F Faculty, Adjunct and Contingent Fair Trade Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America Family and Consumer Sciences Family Research Council Famine Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies

Fatherlessness Faust, Drew Gilpin Fecundity Feinberg, Leslie Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of Female Genital Surgery, Types of “Femininity,” Social Construction of Feminism, American Feminism on College Campuses Feminist Jurisprudence Feminist Majority Foundation Feminist Publishing Feminist Theology Feminists for Life Fertility Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Fiber Arts, Women in Fields of Study Figure Skating Fiji Film Actors, Female Film Directors, Female: Europe Film Directors, Female: International Film Directors, Female: Latin America Film Directors, Female: United States Film Production, Women in Financial Aid Financial Independence of Women Finland Fitness Flannery, Sarah Flight Attendants Focus on the Family Fonda, Jane Forum for African Women Educationalists Foster Mothers France Freedom of Choice Act “Freedom of Conscience” Legislation Fundamentalist Christianity Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints G Gabon Gambia



Gandhi, Sonia Gardasil Gardening Gay and Lesbian Advocacy Gender, Defined Gender Dysphoria Gender Quotas in Government Gender Reassignment Surgery Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural General Union of Palestinian Women Georgia Germany Ghana Ghozlan, Engy Ayman  Gibbs, Lois Ginsberg, Ruth Bader Girl Gangs Girl Scouts “Girl-Friendly” Schools Girls Inc. Glass Ceiling Global Campaign for Education Global Feminism Global “Gag Rule” Golf Gomperts, Rebecca Goody, Jade Government, Women in Grameen Bank of Bangladesh Grandin, Temple Grandmothers Granny Peace Brigade Greece Green Belt Movement Grenada Guam Guatemala Guerrilla Fighters, Female Guerrilla Girls Guinea Guinea-Bissau Gun Control Guyana Gymnastics H Haiti Hate Crimes

List of Articles Hate Speech and Bias on College Campuses Heads of State, Female Health, Mental and Physical Health Insurance Issues Heart Disease Hefner, Christie “Helicopter Parents” Hello Kitty Heterosexism Heterosexuality High School Teachers Hindu Female Gurus and Living Saints Hinduism Hip Hop HIV/AIDS: Africa HIV/AIDS: Asia HIV/AIDS: Europe HIV/AIDS: North America HIV/AIDS: Oceania HIV/AIDS: South America Holzer, Jenny Homemakers and Social Security Homemaking Homeschooling Homophobia Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward Honduras Honor Killings Honor Suicides Horse Racing, Women in Household Decision-Making Household Division of Labor Huffington, Arianna Human Rights Campaign Hungary Hunting Hysterectomies I Iceland Independent Women’s Forum India Indigenous Religions, Global Indigenous Women’s Issues Indigenous Women’s Rights, Bolivia Indonesia Infant Mortality Infanticide

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Infertility, Incidence of Infertility, Treatments for International Action Network on Small Arms International Conference on Population and Development International Monetary Fund International Women’s Day Internet Internet Dating Intersex Iran Iranian Feminism Iraq Ireland Islam Islam in America Islamic Feminism Israel Italy J Jackson, Shirley Ann Jamaica Jameson, Judith Japan Jewelry Design, Women in Jingjing, Guo Johnson, Sonia Jordan Journalists, Broadcast Media Journalists, Print Media Judaism Judges, Women as K Kali for Women: Feminist Publishing in India Karpinski, Janis Kazakhstan Kenya Kim, Yu-Na Kirchner, Cristina Fernández de Kiribati Kngwarreye, Emily Ku Klux Klan Kumari, Living Goddess in Nepal Kuwait Kyrgyzstan

L LaDuke, Winona Lady Gaga Land Mines Landscape Architecture, Women in Laos Latvia Law Enforcement, Women in League of Women Voters Lebanon Ledbetter, Lilly Leibovitz, Annie Lesbian Adoption Lesbian/Gay Clergy Lesbians Lesbians in the Military Lesotho Lessing, Doris LGBTQ Liberia Liechtenstein Life Expectancy, International Comparisons of Lilly Ledbetter Act Lin, Maya Linton, Simi Lithuania Little League Locavorism/Slow Food Movement Love Canal Luxembourg M Maathai, Wangari Macedonia (FYROM) Machismo/Marianismo Madagascar Maddow, Rachel Madonna MADRE Mail-Order Brides Mairs, Nancy Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Management, Women in



Management Styles, Gender Theories Manga Mankiller, Wilma Maquiladoras Mariana Islands, Northern Marriage Marriages, Arranged Marshall Islands Mary Magdalene “Masculinity,” Social Construction of Mata Amritanandamayi Math Maternal Mortality Mathematics, Women in Mauritania Mauritius McCartney, Stella McCorvey, Norma Media Chief Executive Officers, Female Medical Research, Gender Issues in Megan’s Law Mehta, Renu Menopause, Medical Aspects of Menopause, Social Aspects of Menstruation Menstruation, Rituals Surrounding Mental Health Treatment, Access to Mental Health Treatment, Bias in Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of Mentoring Merkel, Angela Metropolitan Community Church Mexico Michelman, Kate Microcredit Micronesia Midlife Career Change Midwifery Migrant Workers Military, Women in the Military Leadership, Women in Military Stationed in Muslim Countries Millennial Generation Million Mom March Ministry, Protestant Mistresses Moldova Monaco Mongolia

List of Articles Montenegro Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Morocco Morrison, Toni Mothers Against Choice Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers in Prison Mozambique Ms. Magazine MTV Mujerista Theology Multiverses, Gender Stereotypes in Myanmar N Namibia Nannies NARAL National Museum of Women in the Arts National Organization for Women National Women’s Political Caucus National Women’s Studies Association Native American Religion Nauru Navdanya Nepal Netherlands New Age Religion New Zealand Nicaragua Nicks, Stevie Niger Nigeria 9to5 No Child Left Behind Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide Nontraditional Careers, U.S. Nooyi, Indra North Korea Norway Novelists, Female Nuns, Buddhist Nuns, Roman Catholic Nurses Nutrition Nutrition in Pregnancy

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xxxiv List of Articles O Oates, Joyce Carol Obama, Michelle Obsessive Compulsive Disorder O’Connor, Sandra Day Olympics, Summer Olympics, Winter Oman Operation Rescue Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq Orthodox Churches Orthodox Judaism Our Bodies, Ourselves Overpopulation P Pacifism, Female Pagels, Elaine Paglia, Camille Pakistan Palau Palestine Palin, Sarah Panama Panchita’s House: Domestic Workers Rights in Lima, Peru Papua New Guinea Paraguay Parental Leave Parental Leave Act Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Partner Rights Parton, Dolly Part-Time Work Patrick, Danica Peace Movement Pedophilia Online Pelosi, Nancy Perpetrators, Female Peru Philanthropists, Female Philippines Photography, Women in Physician Assistants, Female Physician Specialties Physicians, Female Physics, Women in

Pilates Pink, Advertising and Plan B Planned Parenthood Plumwood, Val Poets, Female Poland Political Ideologies Polygamy, Cross-Culturally Considered Pornography, Portrayal of Women in Pornography Produced by Women Pornography/Erotica Portugal Post-Abortion Trauma Syndrome Postpartum Depression Postpartum Psychosis Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Female Military Poverty Poverty, “Feminization” of Pregnancy Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder Premenstrual Syndrome Prenatal Care Priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican Priesthood, Roman Catholic Prison Administration Prison Guards, Female (U.S.) Prisoners, Female (U.S.) Prisoners of War, Female Professional Education Professions by Gender Progressive Muslims (U.S.) Pro-Life Movement Prom Property Rights Prostitution, Legal Prostitution in Combat Zones Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of Psychology/Psychiatry, Women in Psychotropic Medications Puberty Puerto Rico Purity Balls Q Qatar Queen Latifah Queen Noor of Jordan



Queer Theory Quinceañeras R Rabbis, Female Rachel’s Network Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined Rape, Incidence of Rape, Legal Definitions of Rape, Prosecution Rates of Rape and HIV Rape Crisis Centers Rape in Conflict Zones Rape Trauma Syndrome Reality Television Religion, Women in Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of Representation of Women Representation of Women in Government, International Representation of Women in Government, U.S. Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights Reproductive Cancers Revirginization Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan Revolve Rhode, Kim Rice, Condoleezza Ride, Sally Robinson, Mary Rock Music, Women in Rodeo Roe v. Wade Roller Derby Roma “Gypsy” Women Roman Catholic Church Romance Novels Romania RU-486 Running/Marathons Rural Women Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia

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Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Same-Sex Marriage Samoa San Marino Santería São Tomé and Principe Sarkozy, Carla Bruni Saudi Arabia School Fee Abolition Initiative (Kenya) Schori, Katharine Jefferts Science, Women in Science Education for Girls Secularity Law, France “Security Moms” Self-Defense, Armed Self-Defense, Unarmed Self-Employed Women’s Association of India Self-Mutilation Senegal Serbia Sex Education, Abstinence-Only Sex Education, Comprehensive Sex Education, Cross-Culturally Compared Sex Education in the Home Sex Offenders, Female Sex Offenders, Male Sex Workers Sexting Sexual Harassment Sexual Orientation Sexual Orientation: Scientific Theories of Causation Sexual Orientation and Race Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States Sexually Transmitted Infections Seychelles Shari`a Law Shepard, Judy Shiva, Vandana

xxxvi List of Articles Shoemaker, Carolyn Shooting Sports, Women in Showalter, Elaine Sierra Leone Sigurðardóttir, Jóhanna Sikhism Singapore Single Mothers Single-Sex Education “Singletons”/Single by Choice Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson Slasher Movies Slovakia Slovenia “Snowflake Babies” Soap Operas, Cross-Culturally Considered Soccer, Children’s Soccer, Professional Soccer Moms Social Justice Activism Social Justice Theory Solomon, Suniti Solomon Islands Somalia Sörenstam, Annika Sotomayor, Sonia South Africa South Korea Southern Baptist Convention Spain Sports, Women in Sports Announcers, Female Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Sports Officials, Female Sri Lanka Starhawk Staša Zajović, Stanislava Stay-at-Home Mothers Steinem, Gloria STEM Coalition Stereotypes of Women Sterilization, Involuntary Sterilization, Voluntary Steroid Use Stewart, Martha Studio Arts, Women in Sudan Suicide and Race

Suicide Bombers, Female Suicide Methods Suicide Rates Suleman, Nadya “Octomom” Supermodels Suriname Suttee Suu Kyi, Aung San Swaziland Sweatshops Sweden Sweet Honey in the Rock Swimming Switzerland Syria T Tajikistan Take Back the Night Taliban Tamang, Stella Tanzania Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri Teachers’ Unions Team Owners, Female Teen Pregnancy Tennis Terrorists, Female Thailand Thatcher, Margaret Third Wave Thomas, Helen Tibetan Women’s Association Title IX Togo Tonga Torres, Dara Toxic Waste, as Women’s Issue Toys, Gender-Stereotypic Track and Field, Women in Trafficking, Women and Children Transgender Transnational Feminist Networks Transsexuality Trinidad and Tobago Trotta, Margarethe von Tunisia Turkey

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Turkmenistan Tuvalu “Two-Spirit” U Uganda Ukraine Unions United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United Nations Conferences on Women United Nations Conventions United Nations Development Fund for Women United States Unpaid Labor Urban Planning, Women in Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vagina Monologues, The vanden Heuvel, Katrina Vanuatu Vegetarian Feminism Veil Venezuela Veterinarians, Female Vietnam Villa-Komaroff, Lydia Vincent, Norah Violence Against Women Act Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Mary Virgin of Guadalupe Visser, Lesley Vocational and Trade School Faculty Volleyball. See Beach Volleyball/Volleyball Voodoo Voting Rights W Wadud, Amina Wahhabism Walker, Alice Walker, Kara Walters, Barbara Wars of National Liberation, Women in Water, as Women’s Issue

Waters, Alice Wedding Industry Weightlifting Welfare White House Council on Women and Girls White Supremacy Wicca/Goddess Spirituality Widows Williams, Venus and Serena Winfrey, Oprah Winkett, Canon Lucy Witchcraft: Worldwide Womanism Womanist Theology Women in Black Women Involved in Farm Economics Women Make Movies Women’s Cable Networks Women’s Colleges Women’s Cooperatives Women’s Environment and Development Organization Women’s Funding Network Women’s Health Clinics Women’s History Month Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Women’s Magazines Women’s National Basketball Association Women’s Ordination Conference Women’s Resource Centers Women’s Review of Books Women’s Studies Women’s Thrift Cooperatives Working Mothers Work/Life Balance World Health Organization X Xtreme Sports Y Yates, Andrea Yemen Yoga Z Zaimont, Judith Lang Zambia Zimbabwe

List of Contributors

Abatsis McHenry, Kristen University of Massachusetts, Boston Ackerman, Alissa University of California, Merced Adams, Jennifer DePauw University Adams, Tony Northeastern Illinois University Addison, Michelle Newcastle University Adney, Karley University of Wisconsin, Marathon County Agüera Cabo, Mercè University of Girona Alcalde, M. Cristina University of Kentucky Alexandre, Chandra Institute of Transpersonal Psychology Alexy, Allison Lafayette College Allison, Jill Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador Almond, Amanda Connecticut College Altinay, Rustem Ertug Bogazici University

Anderson, Kristin University of Houston, Downtown Anstey, Erica University of South Florida Anthony, Deborah University of Illinois at Springfield Anuik, Jonathan Lakehead University, Orillia Appelbaum, Jenna New York University Aseltine, Elyshia University of Texas at Austin Atay, Ahmet University of Louisville Avishai, Orit Fordham University Bagilhole, Barbara Loughborough University Bagwell, Dana Independent Scholar Baker, Carrie Berry College Baker, Nancy Sam Houston State University Baker, Vanessa Bowling Green State University xxxix

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Bakirci, Kadriye Istanbul Technical University Barlow, Constance University of Calgary Barnard, Sarah Loughborough University Barnes, Rebecca University of Derby Barr, Elissa University of North Florida Barrett, Hazel Coventry University Bassett, Deborah University of Washington Bassett, Molly H. Georgia State University Basu, Pratyusha University of South Florida Baxandall, Rosalyn State University of New York, Old Westbury Bello, Barbara University of Milano Bello y Villarino, José-Miguel Independent Scholar Bent, Emily National University of Ireland, Galway Berry, Bonnie Social Problems Research Group Bilous, Adriane Fordham University Bittarello, Maria John Cabot University Block, Marcelline Princeton University Bogstad, Janice University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire Bond, Cynthia Loyola Marymount University Borck, Cathy The Graduate Center, The City University of New York Boros, Claudine Touro College Bos, Angela College of Wooster Boslaugh, Sarah Washington University

Bouclin, Suzanne McGill University Bowles, Emily Lawrence University Bowles, Ryan University of California, Santa Barbara Boyers, Robert Skidmore College Brännlund, Emma National University of Ireland, Galway Braun, Yvonne University of Oregon Bray, Una Skidmore College Brigley Thompson, Zoe University of Northampton Brown, Carl East Tennessee State University Browne, Kath University of Brighton Brunson, Jan Bowdoin College Bueskens, Petra Deakin University Burkett, Jennifer University of Southern Mississippi Buscher, Austin Claremont Graduate University Buss, Candice University of North Carolina, Greensboro Calarco, Jr., Paul Hudson Valley Community College Canelo, Kayla California State University, Stanislaus Carter, Daryl East Tennessee State University Cermele, Jill Drew University Cerven, Christine University of California, San Diego Chen, Ya-chen Clark University Choubey, Asha M.J.P. Rohilkhand University Chrisler, Joan Connecticut College Churcher, Kalen Niagara University



Coelho, Maria University of Minho Cokely, Carrie Curry College Comerford, Lynn California State University, East Bay Cornelius Smith, Erika Purdue University Coulter, Myrl Independent Scholar Crain, Crystallee California Institute of Integral Studies Crutcher, Emily University of California, Santa Barbara Cruz, Gemma DePaul University Cunningham, Carolyn Boston College Currans, Elizabeth The College of William and Mary Cutts, Qiana Argosy University Atlanta Daprano, Corinne University of Dayton Dasgupta, Arundhati University of Lethbridge Davari, Dordaneh Rutgers University Davey, Gareth Hong Kong Shue Yan University Davidson, Cait Independent Scholar Davidson, Deborah York University Davis, Corrie Kennesaw State University de la Porte, Susan University of KwaZulu-Natal DeHaas, Jocelyn Eastern Washington University Del Moral Garrido, Marian Universidad de Granada DeLap, Alpha University of Washington Desnoyers-Colas, Elizabeth Armstrong Atlantic State University Dethloff, Heather Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

List of Contributors Deutsch, James Smithsonian Institution DeWan, Jennifer Independent Scholar Dewey, Susan Indiana University, Bloomington Dicken, Virginia Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Diduch, Amy McCormick Mary Baldwin College Doll, Yvonne U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Donohue, Stacey Central Oregon Community College Dowsett, Julie York University Drew, Patricia California State University, East Bay Duffy, Donna University of North Carolina, Greensboro Duprat-Kushtanina, Veronika École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Duquaine-Watson, Jillian University of Texas at Dallas Eagleman, Andrea Indiana University Edmonds, Regina Assumption College Edy, Carolyn University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eileraas, Karina University of California, Los Angeles Elkind, Perrin University of California, Berkeley Enszer, Julie University of Maryland Etaugh, Claire Bradley University Fackler, Jennifer University of Houston Fahs, Breanne Arizona State University Fairclough, Kirsty University of Salford Farkas, Zita Independent Scholar Farrell, Annemarie Ithaca College

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List of Contributors

Federer, Lisa University of California, Los Angeles Finn, Melissa York University Fischer, Clara Trinity College Dublin Fitzgerald, Monica Saint Mary’s College of California Fleetwood, Jennifer University of Kent Floyd, Nancy Georgia State University Flynn, Johnny P. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Ford, Elyssa Arizona State University Fornengo, Graziella University of Turin Foster, Stephenie Legacy Fountain, Kim Independent Scholar Fumia, Doreen Ryerson University Furia, Stacie Northland College Galman, Sally University of Massachusetts, Amherst Garner, Karen State University of New York, Empire State College Gatrell, Caroline Lancaster University Gillentine, Andy University of Miami Good, Deirdre The General Theological Seminary Gordon-Dseagu, Vanessa University College London Gosztyla, Shell State University of New York, Albany Gotlib, Anna State University of New York, Binghamton Gott, K. C. East Tennessee State University Grady, Marilyn University of Nebraska-Lincoln Graetz, Naomi Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Graney, Katherine Skidmore College Gregg, Elizabeth Jacksonville University Groeneveld, Elizabeth University of Guelph Gunnison, Elaine Seattle University Gustafson, Diana Memorial University Halasz, Judith State University of New York, New Paltz Hant, Myrna University of California, Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Women Hardy, Kate Queen Mary, University of London Harris, Sian Newcastle University Hayden, Sara University of Montana Hayes, Brittany City University of New York Heilbrunn, Sarah California Polytechnic State University Heitner, Keri University of Phoenix Helgren, Jennifer University of the Pacific Henderson, Heike Boise State University Hern, Warren University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Hernandez, Marcia University of the Pacific Herrera, Cristina California State University, Fresno Hidalgo, Danielle University of California, Santa Barbara Hilarides, Bridget Reed College Hill, Emily University of North Dakota Hinze, Susan Case Western Reserve University Hirani, Vasant Royal Free and University College London



Hixon, Amy University of KwaZulu-Natal Holcomb, Briavel Rutgers University Hopkins, Jason University of California, Santa Barbara Horn Sheeler, Kristina Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Horsley, William Reed College Houlihan, Meggan A. Ball State University Huang, Yu-ling State University of New York, Binghamton Hung, Li-Ching Overseas Chinese University Huntoon, Alishia Oregon Institute of Technology Hurst, Rachel St. Francis Xavier University Husain, Jonelle Mississippi State University Ignagni, Sandra York University Jacobsen, Joyce Wesleyan University Jaffer, Jennifer Independent Scholar Jamal, Judy Columbia University Janssen, Diederik Independent Scholar Johnson, Phylis Southern Illinois University Johnson, Carolyn Columbia University Teachers College Johnson, Helen University of Queensland Jones, Meredith University of Technology, Sydney Jones, Rita Lehigh University Kaell, Hillary Harvard University Kahl, Mary State University of New York, New Paltz Kain, Edward Southwestern University

List of Contributors Kalmbach, Hilary University of Oxford Kane, Jennifer University of North Florida Kaptan, Senem Sabanci University Karakurt, Gunnur Texas Tech University Kaul, Nitasha University of Westminster Kaur, Mandeep University of Texas, Austin Kaur, Jasmeet Independent Scholar Keifer-Boyd, Karen Pennsylvania State University Keith, Tina Pathways Community Behavioral Healthcare Keller, Jessalynn University of Texas at Austin Keller, Mary University of Wyoming Kelley, Kate S. University of Missouri Kelly, Kimberly Mississippi State University Kermani, Zohreh Harvard University Khan, Farida University of Wisconsin, Parkside Khoja-Moolji, Shenila Harvard University Klein, Jessica Adelphi University Knight, Wanda Pennsylvania State University Koh, Adeline Richard Stockton College Kohlman, Marla Kenyon College Koncikowski, Jeanette State University of New York, Buffalo Koppelman, Constance State University of New York, Stonybrook Krehbiel Keefe, Susi Brown University Kreitler, Katy Nicole University of San Francisco

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Kretzschmar, Uta Chemnitz University of Technology Kronenfeld, Jennie Arizona State University Kuehl, Rebecca University of Minnesota Kwan, Samantha University of Houston La Monica, Nancy York University Lai, Suat Yan University of Malaya Lans, Alexander College of Wooster Lee, Jason University of North Florida Leitz, Lisa Hendrix College LeSavoy, Barbara State University of New York, Brockport Letherby, Gayle Plymouth University Leyser, Ophra Haskell Indian Nations University Liberman, Rachael University of Colorado at Boulder Little, Christopher University of Toronto Lizzio, Celene Harvard University Logsdon-Conradsen, Susan Berry College Love, Bettina Northern Kentucky University Lumsden, Rachel The Graduate Center, The City University of New York Lyons, Courtney Baylor University Maatita, Florence Southern Illinois University Edwardsville MacLean, Vicky Middle Tennessee State University Madonia, Heather College of Wooster Madsen, Susan Utah Valley University

Maetala, Ruth Ministry for Women Youth and Children Affairs Maina, Julie Roanoke College Malzac, Julien Université de Toulouse Mann, Carol University of London Manning, Jimmie Northern Kentucky University Mansfield, Katherine Cumings University of Texas at Austin Marsh, Patricia University of Central Missouri Mayhead, Molly Western Oregon University McCarthy, Ashling University of KwaZulu Natal McKelley, Ryan University of Wisconsin, La Crosse McIntosh, Heather Northern Illinois University Mendick, Heather Goldsmiths University of London Merriman, Katherine Harvard Divinity School Meyer, Doug The Graduate Center, The City University of New York Mignon, Sylvia University of Massachusetts, Boston Mills, Shirley University of Texas–Pan American Mizumura, Ayako University of Kansas Mlinarevic, Gorana University of Sarajevo Moghadam, Valentine Purdue University Morales Villena, Amalia Universidad de Granada More, Alison St. Bonaventure University Moreau, Marie-Pierre University of Bedfordshire Moreno, Gerardo Northeastern Illinois University



Mortenson, Joani University of British Columbia, Okanagan Movileanu, Angela University of Siena Mupotsa, Danai Monash University Murray, Dara Rutgers University Narasimhan, Vasantha Skidmore College Nario-Redmond, Michelle Hiram College Nash, Catherine Brock University Newman, Matthew Arizona State University Ní Mhórdha, Máire University of St. Andrews, Scotland Nichols, Tracy University of North Carolina at Greensboro Nix-Stevenson, Dara University of North Carolina at Greensboro Noyola, Sonia University of Texas at Austin O’Brien Hallstein, D. Lynn Boston University Ochoa Rodríguez, M. Delores Universidad de Granada Okopny, Cara University of Maryland O’Leary, Pamela Independent Scholar Oleson, Kathy Reed College Ortbals, Candice Pepperdine University Oxford, Connie State University of New York, Plattsburgh Pabón López, María Indiana University School of Law Pamonag, Febe Western Illinois University Pankake, Anita M. University of Texas–Pan American Pantea, Maria-Carmen Babes Bolyai University

List of Contributors Parenti, Brittany Northwestern University Parsons, Jacqueline St. Mary’s University Patel, Priti Southern Africa Litigation Centre Patterson, Natasha Simon Fraser University Pease-Hernandez, Christine Slippery Rock University Pfeiffer, Alice Independent Scholar Plant, Rebecca University of California, San Diego Plec, Emily Western Oregon University Polacek, Kelly Myer Independent Scholar Policek, Nicoletta University of Lincoln Poloni-Staudinger, Lori Northern Arizona University Poltera, Jacqui University of Western Sydney Predoi-Cross, Adriana University of Lethbridge Purdy, Elizabeth Rholetter Independent Scholar Raimist, Rachel University of Alabama Ramalho, Tania State University of New York, Oswego Rangil, Viviana Skidmore College Reed, Jennifer California State University, Long Beach Reger, Mark Limestone College Reid Boyd, Elizabeth Edith Cowan University Reviere, Rebecca Howard University Reynaga-Abiko, Geneva University of California, Merced Rholetter, Wylene Auburn University Richards, Judy Newcastle University

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List of Contributors

Richman, Alice UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Richter, Nicole Wright State University Ricordeau, Gwénola Université Lille 1 Riley, Jeannette University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Rittenhofer, Iris Århus University Rodgers, Julie National University of Ireland Maynooth Rodriguez, Jenny University of Strathclyde Rodriguez Medela, Juan University of Granada Röhner, Jessica TU Chemnitz Rose, Jennifer Connecticut College Roth-Johnson, Danielle University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rowley, Sarah Indiana University Royce, Tracy University of California, Santa Barbara Ruminski, Elesha Frostburg State University Ruspini, Elisabetta University of Milano, Bicocca Salina, Doreen Northwestern University Sanders, Sara University of California, San Diego Sanford, Kimberly University of Nevada, Las Vegas Sardadvar, Karin University of Vienna Sauer, Michelle University of North Dakota Scheckler, Rebecca Radford University Schuster, Paulette Hebrew University Schütz, Astrid Chemnitz University of Technology

Selen Artan, Zeynep The Graduate Center, The City University of New York Shankar, Janki University of Calgary Shearer, Christine University of California, Santa Barbara Shearman, Mary Simon Fraser University Shelton, Nicola University College of London Shouse Tourino, Christina Saint John’s University Siddique, Julie The Graduate Center, The City University of New York Simic, Olivera University of Melbourne, Australia Simpson, Roona University of Edinburgh Singh, Shweta Loyola University Chicago Singh, Parminder Independent Scholar Sippy, Jessica Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Smanick, Abbey College of Wooster Smith, Cary Mississippi State University Smith Koslowski, Alison University of Edinburgh Soliday, Elizabeth Washington State University, Vancouver Solovieva, Olga Union College Souder, Donna Colorado State University, Pueblo Stackman, Valerie Howard University Stange, Mary Zeiss Skidmore College Steegstra, Marijke Radboud University Nijmegen Steiner, Linda University of Maryland



Stephenson, Carolyn University of Hawaii at Manoa Stettner, Shannon York University Steyn, Petrus Stellenbosch University Stiles, Erin University of Nevada, Reno Strentzsch, Julie St. Mary’s University Struve, Jennifer Towson University Sulik, Gayle Texas Woman’s University Tallis, Vicci Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa Talukdar, Jaita Loyola University, New Orleans Tayeb, Lamia High Institute of Human Sciences in Tunis Taylor, Yvette Newcastle University Teetzel, Sarah University of Manitoba Thacker, Devon Colorado University, Boulder Thomas, Sue Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation Thomas, Valorie Pomona College Thompson, Phyllis East Tennessee State University Throop, Liz Georgia State University Thrower, Leesha Northern Kentucky University Thurston, Wilfreda University of Calgary Tolley-Stokes, Rebecca East Tennessee State University Tolstokrova, Alissa International School for Equal Opportunities Tosolt, Brandelyn Northern Kentucky University Treitler, Vilna City University of New York

List of Contributors Trevino, Marcella Bush Barry University Turner, Bryan The Graduate Center, The City University of New York Vallance, Denise York University van den Hoonaard, Deborah St. Thomas University van der Tuin, Iris Utrecht University Vancour, Michele Southern Connecticut State University Varnum, Charis Columbia University Versace, Jaimee Connecticut College Vieitez-Cerdeño, Soledad Universidad de Granada Vijeyarasa, Ramona University of New South Wales Wadhwa, Vandana Boston University Wall, Jessica Indiana University Bloomington Walters-Kramer, Lori Independent Scholar Wayne, Tiffany Independent Scholar Weaving, Charlene St. Francis Xavier University Weida, Stacy Indiana University Werhun, Cherie University of Winnipeg Whatley, Jonathan Independent Scholar White, Katie University of Maryland, College Park Whiteside, Erin Penn State University Wies, Jennifer Eastern Kentucky University Wilhelm, Brenda Mesa State College Williams, Hettie Monmouth University

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List of Contributors

Williams, Joyce Middle Tennessee State University Wing, Adrien University of Iowa Law School Winter, M. Corrine St. Ambrose University Wolff, Kristina University of Maine, Farmington Wolford, Karen State University of New York, Oswego Wright Miller, Gill Denison University Wyatt-Nichol, Heather University of Baltimore

Yanus, Alixandra High Point University Young Barstow, Eliza Harvard University Zagura, Michelle State University of New York, Albany Zamir, Sara Ben-Gurion University, Eilat Zárecká, Petra Masaryk University Ziegler, Sianna Reed College Žnidaršic Žagar, Sabina University of Primorska, Koper

Chronology of Women in Today’s World

2000 The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 1325, reaffirming the vulnerability of women and children in conflict areas around the world and calling for greater female participation in cease-fire and peace negotiations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the controversial RU 486 drug (mifepristone) known as the abortion pill, giving American women access to a noninvasive abortion that had been available in some countries for over a decade. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) becomes the first former First Lady in American history to serve in the United States Senate. Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice becomes the first African American female National Security Advisor in American history.

go far enough in addressing inherent gender inequities in Egyptian society. Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Interpreter of Maladies, the tale of an Indian American family vacationing in India while their marriage slowly crumbles. Writer Stacy Schiff wins the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography for Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), which follows the 52-year marriage of the Russian American novelist and his wife. Paying homage to When I Lived in Modern Times, the Orange Prize for the best English-language novel of the year written by a woman is awarded to British writer Linda Grant.

Tarja Halonen, a long-time member of the Finnish Parliament, is elected president of Finland.

American actress Julia Roberts wins the Best Actress Academy Award for playing the title role in Erin Brockovich, a film about a financially struggling mother and environmental activist challenging a polluting conglomerate in court.

By presidential decree, Egypt creates the National Council for Women. Many feminists claim it does not

American actress Marcia Gay Harden wins an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Pollock xlix

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in which she plays artist Lee Krasner, the wife who subsumes her career to what she sees as the greater talents of her husband, artist Jackson Pollock. Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel in space, begins spearheading NASA’s EarthKam, an Internet-based project that provides interactive access to space shots for middle schoolers. She subsequently founds Sally Ride Science, a program designed to support greater female involvement in science and mathematics. For the first time in the history of the Olympics, female athletes compete in as many events as males. Czech-American Martina Navratilova is in-ducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Marla Runyan, who is classified as legally blind, wins her first title at the USA Track and Field Championships. Australian track and field Olympian Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, who won every Australian event she entered between 1950 and 1954, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Chris Carver, four-time Olympic Coach of the Year, is honored for her career in coaching synchronized swimmers by being inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Rachel Carson, the author of the environment-themed The Silent Spring (1962), begins putting together a “good ol’ girls’ network” to improve the environment and empower women. The Guerilla Girls, a group of radical feminist artists, establish the Guerilla Girls BroadBand Website as a focal point for activists involved in issues of justice. In Stenberg v. Carhart, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Nebraska law banning intact dilation as a method of late-term abortion because it makes no exception for when maternal health is threatened. In U.S. v. Morrison, which involves the alleged rape of a female student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the U.S. Supreme Court determines that the Violence against Women Act of 1994 is unconstitutional because Congress cannot use powers granted them under the Interstate Commerce Clause or the enforcement clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to provide civil remedies for gender-related crimes. In Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that victims of gender discrimination are not always required to produce direct evidence of discrimination to prove their claims.

Three-time American Olympic synchronized swimmer Tracie Lehuanani Ruiz-Conforto is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Dora the Explorer is added to the Nick Jr. television schedule, chronicling the adventures of a young Latina whose quests to discover the world while helping others becomes a hit with both male and female preschoolers. In addition to serving as a role model for Hispanic girls, the series also teaches basic Spanish to young viewers.

Considered one of the greatest freestyle swimmers of all time, American Olympian Shirley Babashoff, the winner of eight gold medals in team events, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Former jockey Julie Krone becomes the first woman in American history to be inducted into the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame. Seven years earlier, Krone had made history by becoming the first female jockey to win the Triple Crown.

At the age of 55, Diana Hoff becomes the second woman and the oldest on record to row across the Atlantic Ocean.

At the age of 90, Doris “Granny D.” Haddock crosses America on foot to bring public attention to the need for campaign finance reform.

Under the leadership of Winsome McIntosh, the Founding Circle of Rachel’s Network, named after

Texas homemaker Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her five young children in a bathtub.



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2001 On September 11, four commercial jetliners are hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists to be used in two attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and one on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., causing nearly 3,000 deaths. The fourth attack is averted when passengers rush their attackers, resulting in the deaths of everyone on board when the plane crashes in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

In February during a 90-day 1,717-mile trip, American explorer Ann Bancroft and Norwegian explorer Liv Arnesen become the first women to cross Antarctica on skis. Bancroft had earned the distinction of being the first woman to cross the North Pole in 1986. After leading an all-female team across the South Pole in 1996, she became the first woman in history to have crossed both the North and South Poles.

In Ferguson v. City of Charleston, the U.S. Supreme Court decides that a South Carolina hospital’s actions in forcing pregnant women to undergo substance testing and reporting the results to the police violate constitutional protections against warrantless searches.

Halle Berry becomes the first African American woman in history to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Monster’s Ball, a dark drama about the romance between an African American woman and a racist prison guard.

In Pollard v. E.I. Dupont Nemours Company, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that “front pay,” which is awarded to victims of gender discrimination, who successfully challenge discriminatory behavior under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is not subject to the damage caps placed on compensatory awards. In Nguyen v. INS, the Supreme Court of the United States upholds the constitutionality of a law requiring children born out of wedlock to American fathers living abroad to prove paternity by the age of 18 to claim citizenship, even though such children born to American mothers living abroad become citizens automatically. Economics professor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is elected president of the Philippines. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of President Sukarno, who led Indonesia into independence, becomes the first female president of Indonesia. Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, an Olympian in track and field, is elected Governor of South Australia. Rwanda passes minor women’s rights legislation in an effort to improve the lives of women and children. In the United States, Maine joins other states in providing legal protection for breastfeeding mothers.

American actress Jennifer Connelly wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Alicia Nash in A Beautiful Mind, which is based on the life of mathematician John Nash and his descent into madness after becoming a cryptologist. Australian writer Kate Grenville wins the prestigious Orange award for the best English-language novel written by a woman for The Idea of Perfection, the tale of Harley Savage, an awkward and eccentric quilter afraid to love after the unexpected death of her husband. Chinese-American skater Michelle Kwan wins her fourth straight U.S. Figure Skating Championship. Tennis players Venus and Serena Williams become the first sisters to face off against one another in the Grand Slam final of the U.S. Open. Five-time gold medalist for the United States, speed skater Bonnie Blair is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Blair, who is one of the most honored athletes in American Olympic history, also has one bronze medal. She held the record for most Olympic medals won by an American until 2010, when the record was broken by male speed skater Apolo Ohno. Hungarian gymnast Agnes Keleti-Biro, who has won 10 Olympic medals, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

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Four-time American gold medalist and swimmer Janet Evans, who is best remembered for her unorthodox windmill stroke, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Drama in homage to her play, Topdog/Underdog in which she chronicles the struggles of two brothers named after President Abraham Lincoln and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Noted African American figure skater and coach Mabel Fairbanks is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in the coaching category. Because of segregation, Fairbanks was shut out of many ice shows in the 1940s and 1950s. She responded by forming her own ice shows and touring the world.

Writer Diane McWhorter wins the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.

Three-time American Olympic synchronized swimmer Tracie Lehuanni Ruiz-Conforto is named Synchronized Swimmer of the Century by the International Swimming Hall of Fame. American Venus Williams shuts out Justine Henin of Belgium in the women’s singles series at Wimbledon. 2002 Females 17 years of age and over are granted suffrage rights in Timor-Leste. In the United States, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is extended to provide coverage to unborn children who require medical procedures. The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), an international group committed to promoting women’s rights from a global perspective, celebrates its 20th anniversary. Olympians Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers become the first American women to win Gold Medals in bobsledding. Flowers is also the first Black athlete from any country to win a Gold Medal in a Winter Olympics competition. The two women are chosen to carry the flag into the Closing Ceremony. The first time the women’s skeleton competition is included in the Winter Olympics, Tristan Gale carries home the Gold Medal for the United States. Playwright Susan-Lori Parks becomes the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for

American writer Ann Patchett wins the Orange Award for best English-language novel written by a woman, for Bel Canto: A Novel, which follows the intricate relationships of a group of terrorists and their hostages. After placing fourth in the women’s short program, ice skater Sarah Hughes engineers an upset and wins the Gold Medal for Women’s Ice Skating by landing seven triple jumps in Salt Lake City, Utah. British ice dancer Jayne Torvill, who along with partner Christopher Dean became the highest-scoring ice dancers in Olympic history in 1984 after producing a routine based on Ravel’s Bolero, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Four-time Australian Olympian in track and field, Betty Cuthbert is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. American Olympian Valerie Brisco is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 1984, she became the first Olympian to win gold in both the 200- and 400-meter track and field events and won an additional gold medal in 1988. Temple University fencing coach, Nikki Tomlinson Franke, an African American, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. American tennis player Venus Williams beats fellow American Lindsay Davenport to claim victory in the women’s singles at Wimbledon. Australian actress Nicole Kidman wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of British feminist writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours.



In Athens, Greece, the Deste Center for Contemporary Arts honors the work of contemporary female artists with the Fusion Cuisine International Exhibit. 2003 In Oman, women 21 years of age and over win the right to vote. California Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Democratic Minority Leader in the history of the United States House of Representatives. Career politician Micheline Calmy-Rey of Switzerland becomes the Swiss head of state by virtue of her position on the Federal Council. She subsequently heads the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Valeria Ciavatta of the Popular Alliance of Democrats becomes one of two Captain Regents of San Marino. Nino Burjanadze, an international law professor, becomes the Acting President of Georgia, a former Soviet republic. Fiji passes the Family Leave Bill, recognizing the fact that women contribute to households in non-financial ways and stating that divorced women have property rights based on those contributions. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the cost of partner violence in the United States exceeds more than $5.8 billion annually. Female literacy surpasses that of males for the first time in the United Arab Emirates, and women now are the student majority at the university level. A female is elected to the national legislature in Qatar, becoming the first woman to win election through universal suffrage in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which also includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights works, which focuses par-

Chronology

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ticularly on protecting the rights of women, children, and refugees. The United States Congress passes the Partial-Birth Ban Abortion Act, banning late-terms abortions performed by intact dilation, without including an exception for protecting maternal health. In a Nevada state law case, Department of Human Resources v. Hobbs, the Supreme Court holds that Americans are allowed to use the federal courts to bring suit for violations of the federal Family Leave Medical Act of 1993, which provides for unpaid parental leave when families are having or adopting a child or when employees or family members are experiencing serious illnesses. Egypt enacts a restrictive law that makes it more difficult for all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including those that support women’s rights, to obtain official recognition. The law is later deemed unconstitutional. The Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority reinstates Shari`a family laws and reestablishes religious courts but reverses itself the following year. The African Union adopts the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, calling for all member countries to cease discriminating against women and guarantee the protection of their rights. South Africa–born actress Charlize Theron wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Daytona Beach prostitute and serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster. Actress Renée Zellweger wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Ruby Thewes in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain. American writer Valerie Martin wins the Orange Award for best English-language fiction written by a female for Property: A Novel, which takes place in New Orleans in the 1830s. After 58 years of males-only competition, Swedish golfer Annika Sörenstam joins the PGA tour.

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African American track and field athlete Jackie JoynerKersee is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. She won gold for the United States in both 1988 and 1992, becoming one of the most celebrated female athletes in American history. Australian Heather McKay, who is often cited as the greatest female squash player of all time, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Chinese diver Min Gao who won gold medals in 1988 and 1992 is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Golfing coach Linda Vollstedt is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Financial reports reveal that British author J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter novels about a boy attending a school of witchcraft and wizardry, is now richer than the Queen of England. Rowling is the only author in the history of the world to become a billionaire from the proceeds of her writing. When the Williams sisters face off in the women’s singles championship series at Wimbledon, Serena claims victory over her elder sister Venus. 2004 Educator and activist Gertrude Ibengwe Mongella of Tanzania is named President of the Parliament of the African Union. Luisa Diogo becomes Prime Minister of Mozambique. Former exile Baleka Mbete becomes Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa. In Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, the U.S. Supreme Court determines that employers may not defend charges of gender discrimination filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by claiming they have taken action to prevent further misbehavior in cases where plaintiffs have been forced to vacate their jobs to avoid hostile environment sexual harassment. Noted primatologist Jane Goodall wins the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest for

her work with chimpanzees and her dedication to improving the lives of animals. She is also invested as a Dame in her native Britain. The Turkish-centered Women’s Human Rights group holds a regional conference in Malta to address the violation of the sexual and bodily rights of women. American biologist Linda B. Buck wins the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for her work on the olfactory system. Austrian playwright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of her best known works is The Piano Teacher (1988). Jamaican British writer Andrea Levy wins the Orange Award for best English-language fiction written by a female for Small Island, which is set in World War II London and Jamaica. Kenyan activist and parliamentarian Wangari Muta Maathai wins the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the environment and women’s rights. She is the first African woman to win this prize. Writer Anne Applebaum wins the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Gulag: A History, a chronicling of Soviet labor camps under Joseph Stalin. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act holds convicted murders liable for the deaths of both a pregnant woman and her unborn child. Women participate in the first democratic elections in the history of Afghanistan. In Morocco, the national legislature enacts major reforms to Islamic family codes, expanding the rights of wives and mothers. In the United States, opponents defeat the Freedom of Choice Act, which would have provided additional protection for abortion rights. Italian-born Sonia Gandhi stuns her adopted home of India when she brings the Gandhi dynasty to an end by refusing to become Prime Minister several years



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after the death of her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, a member of the Gandhi family that had ruled India since the 1940s.

are stranded at the Superdome, where they have fled for safety, without food, water, medicine, and other basic necessities.

The most destructive tsunami in the history of the world occurs in the Indian Ocean in December, creating massive waves with energy levels equal to 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. In its wake, 150,000 people are dead or missing and millions are left without homes. For years afterward, women and children were disproportionately affected by the aftermath.

Kuwait finally grants female suffrage, but because of existing suffrage laws, it is limited to those who have been citizens for 20 years.

American actress Hilary Swank wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Maggie Fitzgerald, a female boxer. Australian actress Cate Blanchett wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role as Hollywood film legend Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, which is based on the life of notorious recluse Howard Hughes. University of Texas women’s track and field coach Beverly Kearney is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Brazilian tennis player Maria Esther Bueno is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Her record includes 19 Grand Slam titles, 11 women’s doubles titles, and one mixed double title. American swimmer Nancy Hogshead Makar, who won three gold medals and one silver medal in freestyle swimming in 1984, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Maria Sharapova of Russia holds off American Serena Williams to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon. 2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast of the United States in August, causing structurally unsound levees to flood 80 percent of New Orleans. The flooding results in major destruction to the people, property, and infrastructure of the city. Many of the poorest residents, who are predominately African American,

Social activist Michaëlle Jean, who was born in Haiti, becomes the first black Governor General of Canada. In this capacity, she serves as a representative of the Queen of England, who appoints the Governor General in consultation with the Canadian Prime Minister. In Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, the Supreme Court upholds rights guaranteed under Title IX of the Education Amendments that ban disciplinary action against anyone bringing charges of sex discrimination, including those not being directly discriminated against. Angela Merkel becomes the first woman in the history of Germany to be elected as Chancellor. That same year, Forbes names her as the most powerful woman in the world for the fourth time. Maria do Carmo Trovoada Silveira becomes Prime Minister of the island nation of São Tomé and Principe. After serving as National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice becomes the first African American female to serve as Secretary of State. Her nomination is controversial because of her association with the George W. Bush administration’s preemptive actions in Iraq. Feminists in Afghanistan hold demonstrations demanding that the constitutional rights of women be expanded. Turkish officials launch a media campaign designed to combat honor killings. Iraq passes a new constitution guaranteeing equal rights, but in practice women continue to face discrimination in the public and private realms.

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Algeria reforms its Family Code leading to a major spike in divorce rates. Feminists claim the reforms serve to impoverish women and children. While males in Saudi Arabia are allowed to vote in local elections for the first time, women continue to be denied the right of suffrage. Officials claim it is because segregated voting booths, which are required by religious law, are unavailable. South Africa limits the practice of “virginity testing” of young girls, which has resurfaced in response to rising rates of HIV/AIDS. American writer Marilynne Robinson wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Gilead, the story of a dying minister writing letters to his young son to provide him with a written memory in lieu of being a physical presence in his life. British author J. K. Rowling and illustrator Mary GrandPré win the Quill Award for Book of the Year for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the phenomenally successful series about the boy wizard and his friends. They also win in the Children’s Chapter Book/Middle Grade category. Elizabeth Kostova wins the Debut Author of the Year prize at the Quill Awards for The Historian, which blends history, folklore, and fiction. Ann Brashares wins the Quill Award for best Young Adult/Teen book of the year for Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, which follows the hugely successful Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001) and Second Summer of the Sisterhood (2003). Sue Monk Kidd wins the Quill Award for Best Fiction book of the year for The Mermaid Chair, which tells the story of a woman in her 40s falling in love with a Benedictine monk while facing a life crisis. Debbie Macomber wins the Quill Award for Best Romance of the year for 44 Cranberry Point, a contemporary romantic mystery. Television chef Rachael Ray wins the Quill Award for Best Cookbook of the year for Rachael Ray’s 30-Min-

ute Get Real Meals: Eat Healthy Without Going to Extremes. The Division for the Advancement of Women and the Commission on the Status of Women conduct an assessment of the 10-year impact of the Beijing Platform for Action. American actress Reese Witherspoon wins the Academy Award for her portrayal of country music legend June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. British actress Rachel Weisz wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for the role of Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardner, the tale of a man seeking answers in the brutal murder of his wife. American writer Lionel (née Margaret Ann) Shriver wins the Orange Award for best English-language novel for We Need to Talk About Kevin, which is written from the perspective of the mother of a boy who perpetrates a fictional school shooting. With a record of 880 wins, University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt becomes the coach with the most wins in the history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur breaks a world record for solo circumnavigation of the globe, traveling more than 27,000 miles in less than 72 days. Ice skater Katarina Witt, who won gold medals for East Germany in 1984 and 1988, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Cleveland Cavaliers basketball coach Lusia HarrisStewart is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 1976, she became the first female to ever score in a game of women’s Olympic basketball. Softball coach Marjorie Wright is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. When two Americans face off in the women’s singles showdown at Wimbledon, Venus Williams wins over Lindsay Davenport.



The Danica Phelps’ Wake exhibit opens at New York’s Zach Feuer Gallery, depicting daily female routines that include a morning shower. 2006 The women of the United Arab Emirates are granted nominal suffrage, but because the national legislature is appointed rather than elected, women essentially remain disenfranchised. According to the rotation on the Federal Council, Doris Leuthard becomes President of Switzerland. Michelle Bachelet, a moderate Socialist, becomes Chile’s first female president and brings the number of current female heads of state to 11. As President of Liberia, economist Ellen JohnsonSirleaf becomes the first woman to be elected head of state in any African country. Fatoumata Jahumpa-Ceesay becomes the Speaker of the Gambian National Assembly. Republican Sarah Palin becomes the first female governor of the State of Alaska. Katie Couric becomes the first solo female anchor of a broadcast network evening news show. Attorney Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain is selected as the first Muslim woman to serve as President of the United Nations General Assembly. The Pakistani national legislature approves the Protection of Women’s Rights Bill, which is designed to overturn the Hudood Ordinance of 1979 that had been enacted under military rule, resulting in an epidemic of rape and other crimes against women.

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American singer/actress Jennifer Hudson wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Effie White in Dreamgirls, becoming the third African American actress to win in this category. Previous female African American winners were Hattie McDaniel for Gone With the Wind (1939) and Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost (1990). Native American novelist Louise Erdrich wins the Scott O’Dell Award in historical fiction for The Game of Silence about the life of young Omakayas of the Chippewa tribe. American poet Claudia Emerson wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Late Wife, a series of poems about a woman’s journey through divorce, recovery, and remarriage. Australian American writer Geraldine Brooks wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel March, which tells the story of Louisa May Alcott’s March family from the perspective of the father of the four girls featured in Little Women and its sequels, Little Men and Jo’s Boys. Historian Caroline Elkins wins the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya, which examines the truth behind Britain’s colonization of Kenya and the ethnic cleansing that took place as the British sought to subdue the Mau Mau. British writer Zadie Smith wins the Orange Award for best English-language fiction written by a woman for On Beauty, which deals with ethnic and cultural differences in the United States and Great Britain. One reviewer remarks that it is “a transatlantic comic saga.”

Effa Manley, who co-owned the Negro League team, the Newark Eagles, with her husband in the 1930s and 1940s, becomes the first woman elected to the American Baseball Hall of Fame.

Julie Powell wins the Quill Award’s Debut Author of the Year recognition for Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. It is made into the movie Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in 2009.

British actress Helen Mirren wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen.

Laura Joffe Numeroff wins the award for Best Children’s Illustrated Book for If You Give a Pig a Party at this year’s Quill Awards.

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Best-selling author Janet Evanovich wins the Quill Award for Best Mystery/Suspense/Thriller of the year for Twelve Sharp, the 12th book in the series about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. African American poet Maya Angelou wins the Quill Award for Best Poetry of the Year for Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem. Diana Gabaldon wins the Best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror book of the year at the Quill Awards for A Breath of Snow and Ashes, which features time travelers of the American Revolution era. Television chef Rachael Ray wins the Quill Award for Best Cookbook of the Year for Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats: A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners. Charmed, a television show about three sister witches living in San Francisco, becomes the longest-running television show in American history with all female leads. It debuted in 1998. At the age of 16, high school student Michelle Wie ranks second among female golf players. American swimmer Diana Nyad is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Almost three decades earlier Nyad broke the record for the longest swim by either sex, swimming 102.5 miles from the Bahamas to the Florida coast. Basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Australian swimmer Shane Gould is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. She was the first swimmer in Olympic history to win three gold medals in world record time, and she is the only person of either sex to have simultaneously held every freestyle record from 100 meters to 1,500 meters.

drowning her five young children in a bathtub by reason of insanity. 2007 Democrat Nancy Pelosi, a congresswoman from California, becomes the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives in the history of the United States. Philanthropist Pratibha Patil is elected the first female president of Indonesia. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the wife of former president Néstor Kirchner, is elected President of Argentina. Educator Dalia Itzik becomes Acting President of Israel. Jurist Nino Burjanadze becomes Acting President of Georgia, a former part of the Soviet Union. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Ban Abortion Act, dismissing arguments from some critics that it is vague and places an undue burden on a woman’s constitutional access to abortion. In its 371st year as an American institution of higher learning, Harvard University finally chooses a female president, Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust. She is the fifth woman in American history to lead an Ivy League school. After steadily dropping in the years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the number of women in the Russian Parliament begins to rise, surpassing the number of seats held during the Communist era. In Kuwait, the national legislature opens debate on the expansion of women’s rights.

Amélie Mauresmo of France defeats Justine Henin of Belgium to claim victory at the women’s singles at Wimbledon.

Biochemist and astronaut Peggy Whitson becomes the first woman in history to serve as commander for the International Space Station.

Following an appeal that led to a second trial, Texas homemaker Andrea Yates is found not guilty of

Iranian British writer Doris May Lessing becomes the oldest person in history to win the Nobel Prize for



Literature. Her best-known works include The Grass Is Singing and The Golden Notebook. American poet Natasha Trethewey wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Native Guard, a series of poems that connect the author’s own multiracial history to the broader history of the American South. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngoz Adichie, who divides her time between her native country and the United States, wins the prestigious Orange Award for best English-language novel written by a female for Half of a Yellow Sun, which follows the travails of two couples caught up in attempts to create an independent nation amid ongoing strife between Christians and Muslims. French actress Marion Cotillard becomes the second actress in history to win the Best Actress Academy Award for a non-English-speaking role, playing legendary French singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, roughly translated as “The Beautiful Life.” British actress Tilda Swinton wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton, a George Clooney vehicle about business corruption, Wimbledon officials announce that henceforth prize money for female athletes will equal that of males. Moroccan Olympian Nawal El Moutawakel, a member of the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, is named Minister of Sports in the Prime Minister’s cabinet. Moroccan hurdler Nawal El Moutawakel, who in 1984 became the first African-born Muslim female Olympian, is named to the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. American tennis player Venus Williams defeats Marion Bartoli of France to win the women’s singles at Wimbledon. Romance writer Nora Roberts carries home the award for Book of the Year for Angels Fall at the Quill Awards, voted on by the public via the Internet.

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Diane Settterfield is honored as the Debut Author of the Year by the Quill Awards for The Thirteenth Tale, a gothic suspense novel. Actress Sissy Spacek is honored for Best Audio Book by the Quill Awards for her reading of the Harper Lee classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. The Quill Award for Best Adult/Teen book goes to Patricia McCormick for Sold, a novel about a young girl tricked and sold into prostitution in Nepal. Laura Lippman wins the Quill Award for Best Mystery/Suspense Thriller for What the Dead Know in which one of two sisters kidnapped as children returns as an adult to reclaim her identity. 2008 The United Nations Development Fund for Women launches the Say No to Violence Against Women initiative to combat violence worldwide. New York senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) becomes the first woman in the history of the United States to win a presidential primary when she claims victory in the New Hampshire primary and becomes the first female to be considered a viable candidate for the office of President of the United States. Attorney Evaline Widmer-Schlumpf becomes a member of the Federal Council, which serves as Switzerland’s head of state. Baleka Mbete is passed over as a presidential successor when the current president is forced to resign. She becomes Deputy President instead of becoming South Africa’s first female president. Guatemala passes new legislation designed to prohibit the practice of femicide, gender-related murders. A new Nicaraguan abortion law criminalizes abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or dangers to maternal health and bans physicians from treating pregnant women with cancer, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS), malaria, and cardiac diseases.

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French virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which she shares with her colleague, Luc Montaginier, for their discovery that HIV produces AIDS. The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 1820, reaffirming its commitment to ending violence against women of the world. The Internet site Women on the Web (wowo wow. com), a daily mixture of conversation and advice, is launched by Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Liz Smith, Joni Evans, Mary Wells, Sheila Nevins, Joan Juliet Buck, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Reed, Joan Ganz Cooney, Judith Martin, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner, Cynthia McFadden, and Marlo Thomas. Responsibility for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women is transferred to the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. The committee is responsible for overseeing compliance with the United Nations program implemented in 1981. Narrated by Morgan Freeman and produced by the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), Where the Water Meets the Sky is released, chronicling the true stories of 23 Zambian women who have benefitted from CAMFED’s efforts to use education as a tool for breaking the cycle of poverty. The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., launches Clara®, an interactive database of more than 18,000 female visual artists. British actress Kate Winslet wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Reader, a drama set in post–World War II Germany. Spanish actress Penélope Cruz wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a romantic drama about two women traveling in Spain. British writer Rose Tremain wins the Orange Award for best English-language novel written by a woman for The Road Home about a poor Russian immigrant

trying to eke out a living in London while sending money home. Chinese American writer Maxine Hong Kingston wins the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Japanese professional golfer Hisako “Chako” Higuchi, who was the first Asian-born golfer of either sex to win a major championship, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Hassiba Boulmerka, a runner and the first Algerian to win an Olympic medal, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. University of Southern California at Los Angeles softball coach Sue Enquist is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. American gymnast Shannon Miller, who has seven Olympic medals, is inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. Evelin Stermitz founds artfem.tv, an Internet television site, dedicated to showcasing women artists from around the world. Traveling on board Soyuz TMA-12 as a guest of the Russian government, South Korean astronaut Yi SoYeon becomes the third woman in the world to be her country’s first space traveler. Running for Vice President of the United States, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin becomes the first woman to represent the Republican ticket. When tennis-playing sisters Venus and Serena Williams face off in the women’s singles event at Wimbledon, Venus wins her fifth Wimbledon title. American race car driver Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 and becomes the first woman in history to win an Indy Car race. 2009 Barack Obama, the newly inaugurated Democratic President of the United States, revokes the Republi-



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can-initiated global gag rule, which withheld funding to any NGO that provided or advocated abortion as a method of family planning in foreign countries, and restores American support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Nepal liberalizes its abortion laws, making the procedure more accessible.

President Barack Obama signs the Fair Pay Restoration Act into law. The law, which is named after Lily Ledbetter, who brought wage-discrimination charges against Goodyear, changes the time an employee is allowed to bring suit against an employer from 180 days after the first discriminatory paycheck was received to 180 days from the date on which the last paycheck from that employer was received.

Bahrain enacts Sunni Family Law, which is intended to improve the legal status of women. Feminists point out that the reforms do not apply to non-Sunni women.

Michelle Obama becomes the first African American First Lady in American history. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) becomes the first former First Lady to become a member of a presidential cabinet when she is selected as Secretary of State. Sonya Sotomayor becomes the first Hispanic American and the third female to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the prime minister of Iceland, becomes the first openly lesbian head of state in modern times. Career politician Dalia Grybauskaité is elected President of Lithuania. Rose Francine Rogombé, a former secretary of state for the Advancement of Women and Human Rights, becomes Acting President of Gabon. Forbes magazine names German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the World’s Most Powerful Woman for the fourth year running. The Falkland Islands, a British territory also claimed by Argentina, grants female suffrage. The Mexican national legislature decriminalizes firsttrimester abortions. In response, several states pass new antiabortion laws.

Indonesia passes new legislation making adultery punishable by stoning to death.

The world is outraged when Afghanistan passes a restrictive law that allows husbands to withhold food and sustenance from wives who refuse to comply with sexual demands. The law also grants full guardianship of children to fathers and grandfathers and requires that wives obtain permission from husbands to work. Taliban gunmen kill Afghani feminist Sitara Achakzai outside her own home in response to her fight for women’s rights. In the Congo, women launch a campaign to achieve justice for rape victims. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights holds the Mexican government responsible for the deaths of three women killed in 2001, stating that the government had failed to go far enough in eradicating the practice of “femicide,” murders motivated by gender hatred. American political scientist Elinor Ostrom wins the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her work on economic governance. Romanian German writer and humanitarian Herta Müller wins the Nobel Prize for Literature for producing novels such as Everything I Possess I Carry With Me, a tale of life under a repressive Communist regime. Australian American biologist and biochemist Elizabeth H. Blackburn wins the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, which she shares with Carol Greider and Jack W. Szostak, for her work on DNA and cell division. Her work has enormous implications for the study of fungal infections and cancer.

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American molecular biologist Carolyn (Carol) Widney Greider wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing the award with her former boss, Elizabeth Blackmurn, for work on chromosomes. After grossing more than $4.47 billion, Warner Brothers announces that the Harry Potter film series, based on the novels about a boy wizard by British author J. K. Rowling, have become the highest grossing series in the history of film. Israeli crystallographer Ada E. Yonath wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her work on the structure of the ribosome. She is the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first Middle Eastern woman to win a Nobel Prize in the science fields. The Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the Affordable Health Care for American Act passes the House of Representatives but falters in the Senate. The amendment would have placed major restrictions on public and private insurance coverage of abortions. Actress Sandra Bullock wins the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy, a White mother who adopts African American future professional football player Michael Oher. American comedienne Mo’Nique wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of an abusive mother in Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire. Mo’Nique is the fourth African American female to win in this category. University of Tennessee Women’s Basketball Coach Pat Summitt cements her place in women’s sports history by claiming her 1,000th win. 2010 On January 21, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The epicenter strikes 16 miles from the capital city of Port-au-Prince, leading to an estimated 200,000 deaths. On February 12, Amy Bishop Anderson, an assistant biology professor at the University of AlabamaHuntsville who had been denied tenure, opens fire

during a faculty meeting, killing three faculty members and wounding three others. On February 27, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Chile, leaving an estimated death toll of just under 500 and triggering tsunami warnings as far away as Hawaii and Japan. More than half a century after the end of World War II, female pilots are belatedly honored for their service to the United States when they receive Congressional Gold Medals. Running for election on a platform that promotes anti-crime measures and free trade, Laura Chinchilla is elected the first female president of Costa Rica. Ecuador passes major reforms, upholding gender equality and providing penalties and enforcement for gender discrimination. The Dominican Republic ratifies a new constitution that provides for gender equality and pledges support for eradicating all forms of gender discrimination. Bolivia’s newly ratified constitution mandates “equal conditions between men and women.” In Bolivia, President Evo Morales achieves parity in his cabinet, appointing 10 males and 10 females to ministerial positions. Director Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Her movie, The Hurt Locker, which is about an elite American bomb squad operating in Iraq, also beats out Avatar, directed by her ex-husband James Cameron of Titanic fame, for Best Picture. UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, announces that globally six out of every ten women are physically or sexually violated over the course of their lives. A study released by the World Health Organization reveals that partner violence is pervasive throughout the world, ranging from 15 percent in urban areas of Japan to 71 percent in rural Ethiopia.



Working under the auspices of UNICEF, the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force announces that it has accelerated its efforts to protect the human rights of adolescent girls in developing counties, particularly those between the ages of 10 and 14. Doris “Granny D.” Haddock, the nonagenarian who walked across the United States to arouse the public about the need for campaign finance reform in 2000, is dead at the age of 100. NBC’s Universal Sports chooses Olympian alpine skier Lindsay Vonn as its Female Athlete of the Decade.

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Canadian hockey players shut out the United States in gold medal battles between both male and female teams in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Upon winning her 12th Grand Slam Championship, Serena Williams ties tennis legend Billie Jean King for the most wins by a female athlete. Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications launch the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) designed to provide entertainment, information, and inspiration to the American public.

Yu-Na Kim of South Korea wins the Gold Medal in Women’s Figure Skating at the Winter Olympics.

Elena Kagan is sworn in as the 112th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She is fourth female justice, and eighth Jewish justice.

Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic wins the first Olympic gold medal in speed skating for her country.

Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

A Abortion, Access to In 1994, the United Nations Population Information Network (POPIN) issued guidelines for improving the health of women around the world. In Paragraph 8.25, POPIN proclaimed that, while ultimate goals should focus on preventing unwanted pregnancies through family planning, all nations should ensure that women dealing with such pregnancies be provided with “ready access to reliable information and compassionate counseling” as well as access to safe abortions and follow-up care whenever necessary. The following year, the Beijing Platform for Action, the product of the Fourth World Conference on Women, issued a challenge to world governments, calling on them to “recognize and deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern,” particularly among the “poorest and youngest who take the highest risk.” By 2008, 70 countries, which contained more than 60 percent of the total world population, were providing unrestricted access to abortion. Over the previous 12 years, 17 countries had removed legal restrictions on abortion. The nations that liberalized abortion laws ranged from the highly developed Switzerland to the African nation of Togo, which is one of the poorest nations in the world. At the same time, other nations, including the United States, restricted access to abortion, and countries such as El Salvador and Nicaragua virtually abolished all access to legal abortions.

Since the 1990s, abortion reforms around the world have generally focused on increasing access without expanding reproductive rights generally. In France, legislators extended the period of unrestricted access to abortion from 12 to 14 weeks and allowed minors to be accompanied by an adult of their choosing instead of requiring them to obtain parental consent. Legislators in India focused on providing greater access to safe abortions by placing oversight authority in the hands of the district rather than the state, making it easier for new clinics to open and giving local authorities more power to prosecute individuals operating illegal clinics. Lawmakers in Thailand liberalized abortion laws to allow medical personnel to perform abortions in cases of rape, fetal impairment, or threats to the physical or maternal health of pregnant women without fear of prosecution. Legal Changes to Abortion Access Women in many former Soviet Republics saw reproductive rights erode along with communism. In Poland, for instance, a liberal abortion law was overhauled in 1993, and access to abortion was restricted to instances where a woman’s health or life were threatened, when fetuses were impaired, or when a pregnancy was the result of rape. A 1996 revision to the law provided for abortions on social and economic grounds, but this law was declared unconstitutional the following year on the grounds that it violated the rights of the unborn child. Albania, on the other 1

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hand, rejected previous restrictions that provided access only to women who had been raped or who faced threats to their physical or mental health and to girls under the age of 16. The new law stipulated unrestricted access to abortion for the first trimester. Liberalized Access to Abortion Ten of the 17 nations liberalizing abortion laws since 1986 are located in Africa, where poverty and disease are common, and where both infant and maternal mortality rates tend to be high. As a point of fact, 47 percent of all maternal deaths take place in Africa, where 60 percent of rural women have only limited access to skilled attendants during delivery and where postpartum care is rare. In 2003, Benin legislators overhauled the existing law, which provided for abortions only to save a mother’s life, to extend access to women who were victims of rape or incest and to those faced with threats to their health or with fetal impairment. Burkina Faso’s abortion laws offered access only to women whose lives were in danger; access to abortion had been extended in 1996 to include victims of rape and incest, those whose health was threatened, and to women carrying impaired fetuses. In 2002, legislators in Chad backed away from a restrictive law offering abortion access only to women whose lives were threatened to enact a reform that provided access in cases where women’s health or lives were at risk and in instances where fetuses had been declared impaired. Before 2004, Ethiopia allowed abortions only when a mother’s health or life were threatened or in incidences of rape. A new law enacted at that time included exceptions for incest and fetal impairment and extended access to females who had not reached the age of majority, and to those who were physically or mentally disabled. Four years earlier, Guinea had expanded exceptions beyond rape, incest, fetal impairment, and threatened maternal health to include instances where a woman’s life was threatened. Before 2002, Mali restricted abortion access to women whose life was endangered, but the new law provided access to those who were the victims of rape or incest. South Africa’s laws provided no specific exceptions to bans on abortions until a new law was passed in 1996, granting unrestricted access for the first trimester and in limited instances thereafter.

Swaziland’s abortion laws were likewise restrictive, but amendments to the constitution in 2005 provided for legal abortions in cases of rape and incest, fetal impairment, threats to maternal health, and when unlawful intercourse had resulted in the pregnancy of a disabled female. In Togo, previous laws ignored abortions, but custom had declared it virtually unobtainable. In 2007, new laws were enacted to provide for legal abortions in instances of rape, incest, severe fetal impairment, and threats to the health or life of a mother. In Asia, only Cambodia, Nepal, and Bhutan have liberalized abortions laws since the 1980s. While Cambodia’s existing law provided abortion access only when a woman’s life was at risk, a 1997 law legalized access during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Nepal’s abortions laws were even more restrictive, providing no access to abortion at all. In 2002, the law was changed to allow unrestricted access during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and afterward in limited circumstances. Before 2004, abortion law in Bhutan was generally interpreted as providing for access only when a mother’s life was threatened. The new law extended access to victims of rape and incest and to women whose mental state were deemed “unsound.” In Japan, legislators attempted to erase a history of support for eugenics with a 1996 law that banned abortions on the grounds of fetal impairment. However, Japanese women may still obtain abortions for medical or socioeconomic reasons. In the Russian Federation, early abortions are legal, but grounds for abortion during the period covering the 12th to the 22nd week of pregnancy were reduced from 12 to only four by a law passed in 2003. Among the nations of South and Central America, Colombia and Saint Lucia have been the only two to enact laws that liberalized access to abortion in the last several years. In 2006, Colombia’s Constitutional Court overturned laws that banned all abortions. Subsequently, exceptions were added in cases of rape, incest, fetal impairment, and endangered maternal health. On the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, abortion laws restricted abortions to women who required medical or surgical treatment that interfered with continuation of a pregnancy. A new law passed in 2004 extended access to victims of rape and incest and to women whose physical or mental health was threatened. Two countries in this area have gone in the



other direction, making it more difficult for women to obtain abortions: in 1998, El Salvador passed new legislation banning abortion entirely; Nicaragua followed suit in 2006. European nations have also been faced with extensive battles over access to abortion, particularly in countries such as Portugal, where nearly 85 percent of the population is Roman Catholic. Before 2007, the law allowed abortions only when women’s lives or health were threatened or in cases of rape or fetal impairment. Reforms provided for unrestricted access during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and on specific grounds thereafter. Switzerland’s laws were more liberal than some other European nations, offering considerable leeway in defining health reasons that called for a pregnancy to be aborted. In 2002, access to abortion was greatly expanded with reforms that provided for unrestricted access during the first trimester and on specific grounds in later stages of pregnancy. Giving in to antiabortionists in 2000, Hungary passed new legislation that required all women seeking abortions to undergo counseling that pro-choice advocates have labeled “onerous and biased.” The Hungarian government now funds abortions only in cases of rape and threats to a mother’s life or health. In some countries, abortion laws have been changed at the state rather than the national level. In Mexico, for instance, laws permitting unrestricted access to abortion during the first trimester and providing for free abortions at public health clinics were enacted in the Federal District in 2007. Several other Mexican states have also passed laws permitting abortions on specified grounds. In Australia, changes at the state level were more liberal. Western Australia removed requirements providing access to abortions only for specific reasons in 1998, and the Australian Capital Territory decriminalized abortions entirely. The United States and Individual State Laws Nowhere in the world has the battle over access to abortion been waged more strenuously than in the United States, where access to abortion varies along lines such as race, class, geographic location, age, and duration of gestation. Through the Hyde Amendment, the U.S. Congress curtailed the use of federal Medicaid funds to procure abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or the endangerment of the woman’s life if she were to carry the pregnancy

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to full term since 1977. Abortion remains legal, in some form, in all states. Abortion policy implemented state by state greatly affects the lives of those women seeking abortion. Major obstacles in U.S. women’s access to abortion include state control, the cost of abortion, the ever-shrinking pool of abortion providers, physical proximity to abortion providers, crisis pregnancy centers, and violence in and near reproductive health facilities. The 1992 Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 505 US 833 found that while Roe v. Wade remained safe due to stare decisis, states could place restrictions on abortions that did not place an “undue burden” upon women. In the majority opinion, the court found that while several of Pennsylvania’s abortion restrictions did not place undue burden, which is defined as placing significant difficulties into the abortion process for women carrying nonviable fetuses, the spousal notification requirement did, and was struck down by the court. This issue of viability also changed from the court’s previous stance that viability began in the 28th week of pregnancy to an earlier 22 or 23 weeks, due to technological advances made since the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions in 1973. However, the court held that many of Pennsylvania’s abortion restrictions, including informed consent about the abortion procedure and any possible health risks or complications, parental consent for minors seeking abortions, a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before an abortion could be performed, and the reporting of certain information by facilities that provide abortions, were constitutionally sound. While this case was decided in 1992, it laid the groundwork for many of the current issues women face when seeking access to abortion services. At this point, most states impose certain restrictions upon abortion seekers. Current policy, decided on a state-by-state basis, includes the following figures: 35 states have parental consent or notification laws for minors seeking abortions; 19 states require that abortions be performed in a hospital after a certain point in the pregnancy. Nineteen states also require a second physician for all abortions past a point. In 38 states, laws require abortions to be performed only by licensed physicians. An equal number of states outlaw abortions past a certain point in gestational development, usually fetal viability,

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except for those cases where the pregnant woman’s life is put into danger by continuing the pregnancy. Sixteen states prohibit so-called partial-birth abortions, with only four states’ legislation applying only to postviability for the fetus. Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia will only use state funds to cover abortions mandated by the federal government, such as in cases where the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. South Dakota refuses to fund any abortions except when the woman’s life is in danger, even though this flies in the face of legal precedent. Seventeen states pay for most medically necessary abortions for state Medicaid enrollees. Four states restrict even private insurance companies’ abilities to pay for abortion unless the pregnant woman’s life is at risk if she were to carry the fetus to full term. Forty-six states allow individual healthcare providers to refuse to participate in an abortion; 43 states allow institutions to refuse to perform abortions, and of these states, 16 only allow religious or private institutions to refuse abortion services. Seventeen states require that women receive counseling before procuring an abortion that has negative connotations. In nine of these states, women must be told about the fetus’s ability to feel pain. Six of these states require that women be informed about any possible linkage between abortion and breast cancer. In seven of these states, women must be informed of the long-term mental health consequences of abortion. Eight of these states require that women be informed about ultrasounds. (The science behind these studies is highly contested.) Twenty-four states require a waiting period between counseling and the abortion procedure; within the majority of these states, 24 hours is the allotted time. Financial Cost of Abortion The average cost for a surgical abortion conducted in the first trimester is between $300 and $900. Medical abortions, available only in the first seven weeks of gestation, cost approximately the same as surgical abortions, due to the combination of pills and multiple clinic visits. In the second trimester, the cost of abortion increases steadily along with how far the pregnancy has progressed. The cost for a late second-trimester abortion can easily reach $3,000. The majority of women pay out of pocket for their abortions. Some health insurance policies cover abortion.

Because very few states cover abortions for lowincome women, their access to abortion is severely limited. Additional costs may accrue for women who live in nonmetropolitan areas to procure an abortion because of travel expenses, and with the cost growing in those states that require a 24-hour waiting period with the addition of housing costs. Lost wages are another factor to consider when discussing the cost of abortion. The low number of abortion providers who perform late-term abortions often makes travel necessary for those abortions. Doctor Shortage and Distance Factor The number of healthcare providers who perform abortions has been decreasing steadily for decades now. Between 1982 and 2001, there was a 37 percent drop in the number of abortion providers in the United States. If these numbers hold steady, there could be a crisis due to the shortage of healthcare practitioners who will provide abortions. One change since 2000 is that increasing numbers of family practitioner physicians have been prescribing RU 486 for their regular patients. If this trend holds true, this could be a way to counter the difficulties non-metropolitan women face in accessing abortion services. Early intervention through Plan B, or emergency contraceptives, could also be a way to decrease the need for abortion while also improving the reproductive health justice of women living in non-urban places. Geographical proximity to abortion providers remains a serious problem in accessing abortions for many women in the United States. A large majority, 87 percent, of all counties do not have an abortion provider; 35 percent of U.S. women live in those counties. For these women, the cost of abortion is much higher when factoring in travel and accommodations. These additional costs may help to explain why the abortion rate for women living outside of metropolitan areas is half that of women who live near abortion providers. In recent years, pro-life organizations have begun operating crisis pregnancy centers. These centers are misleading in their purpose. They often entice pregnant women with the promise of a free pregnancy test. While they do provide free pregnancy tests, they also provide information designed to make women choose to carry their fetus to term. These services include sonograms, fetal representations, and misinformation about the effects of abortion.



Women who have turned to such a crisis center are subjected to videos and pictures of aborted fetuses, and otherwise pushed to “choose life.” These centers prey on pregnant women’s fears and manipulate their situation, providing the minimum support needed during pregnancy but leaving these women alone to rear their child or place the child up for adoption. Clinic Violence and the FACE Act Healthcare providers who perform abortions are frequent targets of antiabortion protesters. Pregnancy crisis centers also have pro-choice protestors. Outright violence has decreased in recent years, largely due to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former president Bill Clinton in May 1994. The FACE Act was prompted largely by two shootings of abortion providers in 1993: the murder of Dr. Gunn and the attempted murder of Dr. Tiller. The FACE Act not only applies to freedom of choice in reproductive health services, but also protects citizens’ (including those who either work in or use reproductive healthcare centers) right to exercise their religious freedoms. FACE makes it unlawful to use force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure or intimidate a person because (s)he is or has been either providing or receiving reproductive health services. These same criteria are illegal in exercising their right to worship. The FACE Act also makes it unlawful to intentionally damage or destroy a place of worship or a place that provides reproductive healthcare. The penalties range from fines for first time offenders to a life term for repeated and egregious offenders. The federal government is the only entity that can file criminal charges through the FACE Act. FACE also protects the civil liberties of protestors. They are free to peacefully protest, which includes carrying signs, making picket lines, putting forth antiabortion materials, and singing hymns. Shouting is also allowed, with the stipulations that no threats are made and the level of sound does not exceed the legal decibel limit. FACE had a demonstrable effect on the levels of violence outside of clinics; however, as the abortion debate has once again been gathering momentum, the violence has resumed. In 2009, Dr. Tiller, an abortion provider who did not refuse to provide late-term

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abortions for women carrying nonviable fetuses, was shot and killed in his place of worship. However, the violence is not only among pro-lifers. Jim Pouillon, a pro-life protestor, was killed in 2009 outside a high school by a man who claimed to be offended by the images displayed by Pouillon. These murders brought to the forefront the question of rhetoric within the pro-life movement and also the effects of the visual propaganda displayed by pro-lifers. While FACE has made it easier for those who need to cross the picket lines to work or to receive reproductive health treatments, the often-present pro-life protestors remain a barrier to abortion in the United States. Some states have adopted policies requiring protestors to stay a specified distance from reproductive health service centers. Abortion providers in the Midwest report the most demonstrators. The threat of protestors only in being there is an obstacle for women seeking abortion. Access to abortion in the United States is in flux. The introduction of RU 486 into the abortion equation has changed how doctors view their role in abortion. If this trend continues, access to abortion will improve across the country. However, this does require having a family physician who is familiar enough with a woman to not send her elsewhere when she needs an abortion. The current healthcare debates will also impact women’s access to abortion, although it is much too soon to know how or if these changes will occur. See Also: Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Abortion Laws, International; Abortion Laws, United States; Feminists for Life; Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality; Pregnancy; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; RU 486. Further Readings Blasdell, Jennifer and Kate Goss. “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.” Washington, DC: National Abortion Federation, 2006. http://www .prochoice.org/pubs_research/publications/downloads/ about_abortion/face_act.pdf (accessed July 2010). Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Center for Reproductive Rights. Abortion Worldwide: Twelve Years of Reform. August 13, 2008. http://www .isiswomen.org/index.php?option=com_content&task =view&id=1080&Itemid=200 (accessed July 2010).

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Faúndes, Anibal and José Barzelatto. The Human Drama of Abortion: A Global Search for Consensus. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006. Finer, Lawrence B. and Stanley K. Henshaw. “The Accessibility of Abortion Services in the United States, 2001.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health,, v.35/1 (January–February 2003). Fourth World Conference on Women. Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. September 15, 1995. http:// www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e5dplw.htm (accessed July 2010). Guttmacher Institute. “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States.” http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb _induced_abortion.html (accessed July 2010). Neft, Naomi and Ann D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in Over 140 Countries, 1997, 1998. New York: Random House, 1997. United Nations Population Information Network. “Conference 171/13: Report of the ICPD.” http://www .un.org/popin/icpd/conference/offeng/poa.html (accessed July 2010). U.S. Department of Justice: Civil Rights Division. “Freedom of Access to Clinics Act.” http://www.justice. gov/crt/crim/248fin.php (accessed November 2009). Jessica Wall Indiana University, Bloomington

Abortion, Ethical Issues of In both ethical and public debates, heated discussions occur about whether and under what circumstances abortion can be morally justified. Answers to this question are typically categorized as to whether individuals or governments are “pro-life” or “pro-choice.” Pro-life theorists defend the conservative view that abortion is morally unjustifiable, unless the woman’s life is in danger. Conversely, pro-choice theorists ascribe to a more liberal view that abortion is morally justifiable, particularly in the earlier stages of pregnancy. The ethical issues that arise when making decisions about whether to have an abortion or not include the status of the fetus, the right to life, autonomy, moral responsibility, motherhood, and the rights of an individual concerning their body. The ethics of abortion is

a particularly complex moral problem as it intersects with questions of biology, religion, the mother’s mental and physical health, the law, sociocultural norms, and the nature of women’s lives in contemporary society. Historically, discussions concerning whether abortion is morally justified have been connected to considerations of the biological development of the fetus. From a biological perspective, it is more common to justify abortions within the first six to eight weeks of pregnancy, before the embryo develops into a fetus. Further, in some contemporary societies, it is regarded as morally acceptable for a woman to take the “morning after” pill or “emergency contraceptive” within a few days of having unprotected sex. Nonetheless, some pro-life proponents and certain religious groups, in particular, think that a zygote or an embryo is a potential human being that has a right to life, and that any method terminating the pregnancy is morally unjustified. Questions concerning whether an abortion is morally justified tend to arise later in the pregnancy. If, for example, the fetus has reached viability and could survive outside the womb, to the morality of abortion becomes subject to dispute, although it is sometimes considered acceptable if carrying the fetus to term could result in the mother’s death. Although some pro-choice proponents believe that having an abortion in the first trimester has little moral difference than removing any other group of cells, once the fetus starts to develop, it becomes more human than when it is in the embryonic stages. The biological development of the fetus intersects with people’s position on the moral status of the fetus, and whether they think the fetus’s right to life trumps the mother’s right to life or vice versa. On one hand, pro-life theorists claim that abortion involves killing an innocent life and that the fetus has a basic right to life. On the other hand, some pro-choice theorists argue that it makes little sense to talk in terms of the right to life of the fetus (particularly in the early stages of the pregnancy) as it is first and foremost part of the mother’s body: it does not automatically have independent rights. Pro-life and pro-choice theorists are generally divided by whether and at what point in the pregnancy they think that a fetus is a potential human being. In 1973 the Roe v. Wade case ruled that a fetus should not be attributed the status of personhood. Rather, the ruling states that woman’s right to privacy



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Pro-life proponents and certain religious groups believe that a zygote or an embryo is a potential human being that has a right to life, and that any method terminating the pregnancy is morally unjustified.

and right to choose whether to have children or not overrides claims concerning the fetus’s right to life. Responsibility and Legal Considerations The ethical aspects of abortion connect to questions of consent and moral responsibility. For example, although a man is in part (at least causally) responsible for the fetus when he impregnates a woman, insofar as the woman has to carry the fetus to term at some risk to herself, she is often considered more morally responsible for the fetus than the man is. In cases where women have not consented to intercourse (e.g., when rape or incest has occurred), they cannot be held responsible for the pregnancy and abortion may be seen as morally justifiable. Some pro-choice theorists, like Catriona Mac­ kenzie, argue that choosing to have an abortion can sometimes be more morally responsible than carrying the child to term. For example, if the woman knows or suspects that she cannot provide sufficient

economic, social, and psychological support for the child; if she suffers from severe mental or physical illness; if she suffers from a serious illness like human immunodeficiency virus or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS); or if she has a history of addiction and substance abuse, then abortion can be morally justifiable. Questions of responsibility and consent also intersect with legal considerations. For example, in many states and countries, abortion is legal if the woman has been raped. This is significant given the prevalence of rape in many countries, and the increase in women becoming victims of the use of “date rape” drugs. Proponents and opponents of abortion largely generally agree that in extreme cases like rape or incest, it is ethical and justifiable for the woman to choose to abort. However, some pro-life theorists argue that even in extreme cases, the woman should opt for adoption rather than abortion, as the former does not involve ending a potential life while the latter does.

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Conversely, pro-choice theorists have argued that it can be less morally responsible to put the child up for adoption than to abort, as the child may suffer physical and emotional trauma from the adoption process. In general, the woman’s mental and physical health, as well as the nature of her social situation, is central to deciding whether abortion is morally justified. Questions concerning the mother’s psychological well being are complicated and similarly subject to dispute. Opponents of abortion claim that it causes psychological trauma and emotional suffering to the mother, and suggest that pro-choice theorists tend to underemphasize the maternal bond between mother and fetus. Proponents of abortion argue that having an unwanted pregnancy has similar potential to cause psychological trauma and suffering to both mother and child. Similarly, some pro-choice theorists have argued that there is significant psychological trauma associated with having an unwanted pregnancy and/ or finding oneself in a situation where legal, safe abortions are not available. In countries where abortion is illegal, there is often a greatly increased risk of harm and death from the illegally performed procedures. Decisions about the ethics of abortion are framed by social, religious, and ethnical norms. For example, in countries where unwanted pregnancies are frowned upon by the community, or where sex selection is promoted, women can be forced to abort whether they want to or not. Conversely, in countries or communities where abortion is illegal or opposed, women can be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Thus, questions of abortion are irreducible from questions of women’s autonomy.

potential person) lacks the relevant interest in its own future existence to be attributed the same moral status as the woman. Some hold the opintion that if a woman is denied the right to choose to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy, it undermines her autonomy. Soran Reader goes so far as to claim that calling the abortion debate “a debate” reinforces the patriarchal norms that have historically framed discussions about abortion. The idea here is that because pregnancy is intimately connected to an individual woman’s situation and decision-making process, to debate it at all implicitly undermines her capacity as a competent, rational adult to make decisions about her body and her life. The relationship between women’s autonomy and abortion is less clear in cases of teen pregnancy, as teenagers may yet lack the capacities to make fully autonomous, rational choices. Proponents of abortion also argue that a woman has a right to bodily integrity: to decide what happens to her body and whether she wants to carry a fetus to term. Some pro-choice theorists have argued that the fetus’s moral significance is in part contingent on the women’s relationship to the fetus, and on whether she chooses to be a mother. In such accounts, the decision to abort or not cannot be reduced to decisions about the nine month gestation period. Rather, choosing to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy amounts to choosing not to be a mother where motherhood involves a life-changing decision and a commitment to provide long-term care and support for a child. In contemporary society, mothers are not just the primary caretaker, but are often in the workforce, and are sometimes the sole provider for the family.

Autonomy, Motherhood, and Bodily Integrity A woman’s autonomy—and her right to bodily autonomy—is central to discussions concerning the ethics of abortion. Pregnancy and childbirth are gender specific, and thus women’s rights to choose whether to abort or not generally supersede men’s rights. Autonomy is most commonly associated with an individual’s capacity for reflexive self-evaluation, and her ability to freely choose how to act and lead her life. The relevant capacities for autonomy are also connected to future self-concern, moral reasoning, and self-determination. Some pro-choice theorists argue that unlike a fully autonomous woman, a fetus (who is at best only a

Abortion in Contemporary Society Women often have to juggle their career with the demands of motherhood and caretaking. When deciding whether or not to have an abortion, women in contemporary society often need to take into account whether they will be able to provide for the child financially, socially, and emotionally; raise the child as a single parent; and protect the child from domestic violence and/or other threats. They may also have to factor in considerations like whether they are vulnerable to social injustice, war, environmental disaster, or economic recession, each of which may mean that if the woman has the option to abort the fetus safely, she is morally justified in choosing to do so.

Abortion, Late



Contemporary discussions of abortion also intersect with recent developments in embryonic stem cell research (where an embryo is cultivated in a laboratory to be used for medical research). There are heated debates concerning the similarities between the ethical issues raised by abortion and those raised by embryonic stem cell research. Some feminist ethicists argue that if the moral status of the fetus is tied to the nature of its relationship to the mother, then embryonic stem cell research is morally different from questions of abortion. Opponents of abortion, however, argue that stem cell research is unethical precisely because it shares moral features with abortion: just as abortion is considered immoral in this faction, so too is stem cell research. Pro-life theorists have also argued that stem cell research and the practice of screening for fetal abnormalities could increase abortions, as it increases the likelihood of sex selection and eugenics; however, this is widely disputed. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, International; Addiction and Substance Abuse; Rape and HIV; Roe v. Wade. Further Readings Bennett, Belinda, ed. Abortion. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004. Harman, Elizabeth. “How Is the Ethics of Stem Cell Research Different From the Ethics of Abortion?” Metaphilosophy, v.38/2–3 (2007). Olen, Jeffrey, Julie C. Van Camp, and Vincent E. Barry, eds. Applying Ethics: A Text With Readings, 9th Ed. Belmont, CA: Thompson Learning, 2007. Overall, Christine. Ethics and Human Reproduction. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987. Reader, Soran. “Abortion, Killing, and Maternal Moral Authority.” Hypatia, v.23/1 (2008). Satz, Debra. “Feminist Perspectives on Reproduction and the Family.” In Edward N. Zalta, ed., The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition). http:// plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/feminism -family/ (accessed May 2010). Tooley, Michael, et al., eds. Abortion: Three Perspectives. New York and Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009. Jacqui Poltera University of Western Sydney

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Abortion, Late There is no agreement in the medical community about the definition of a “late abortion.” The great majority of abortions are performed during the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and most of the rest occur before the 21st week. For this discussion, therefore, “late” abortion is defined as any abortion performed after the 20th week of pregnancy. Abortions performed at this stage of pregnancy are more difficult and more potentially hazardous than those performed early in pregnancy. In the first trimester of pregnancy, the embryo is quite small—between the size of a thimble or a finger. In the early second trimester (from 13 to 20 weeks), the fetus is larger, but the uterus is still small enough that a woman may not be aware that she is pregnant. This is especially true for a woman with irregular menses, a woman who thinks she is menopausal, or a young adolescent unfamiliar with the signs and symptoms of pregnancy. By the time the pregnancy has advanced to 21 or 22 weeks, however, it is much more likely that she will be aware of the pregnancy. Terminating a pregnancy at 21 to 24 weeks is quite different than performing an abortion during the first six to eight weeks of pregnancy. The fetus is much larger in relation to the size of the uterine opening (the cervix) and it is surrounded by amniotic fluid. A critical complication in late abortion is being able to sufficiently open the cervix to permit expulsion or removal of the fetus without damaging the uterus. Another critical issue is preventing the amniotic fluid from entering the woman’s circulatory system. If this occurs, it could kill the mother. The second trimester is when some of the most dangerous, life-threatening conditions can arise during the course of the pregnancy. An example is preeclampsia, which, if untreated, can lead to eclampsia, a fatal combination of high blood pressure, kidney failure, liver failure, bleeding disorder, blindness, seizures, and stroke. Other complications appearing in the second trimester can include pregnancy-induced diabetes and hyperemesis gravidarum, the “uncontrollable vomiting of pregnancy,” which can be fatal. Serious fetal abnormalities or genetic disorders are most likely to be identified and diagnosed in the second trimester. These medical complications or fetal

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abnormalities account for a large proportion of decisions to have late abortions. Late Abortion Methods Techniques for performing late abortions have changed over the past 40 years, and late abortion has become progressively safer. One early technique required the introduction of a balloon (Foley) catheter into the uterus under sterile conditions. The balloon was inflated, and the distal end of the catheter (the part farthest from the woman’s body) was attached to a cord, at the end of which was a weight. The weight was suspended over the end of the bed in which the woman was lying, and the pressure of the balloon within the woman’s uterus was allowed to dilate (open) and efface (thin out) her uterus until the fetus could be expelled. The woman was immobilized during this treatment, which could last for many hours or days. Aside from the woman’s severe discomfort from pressure, traction, and immobility, there was also a high complication rate associated with this method of late abortion. Another method used at this time was a hysterotomy (a mini-C-section), in which incisions were made in the woman’s abdominal and uterine walls to remove the developing fetus. The vertical uterine incision usually associated with this operation put the woman at high risk of uterine rupture in subsequent pregnancies, and the operation itself had a high risk of death. From 1965 through 1990, various substances were injected into the pregnant second-trimester uterus to kill the fetus and cause the woman to go into labor. These included concentrated glucose solution, concentrated saline solution, concentrated urea solution, and various synthetic prostaglandin preparations. All of these methods were associated with a variety of serious and even fatal complications. At the present time, the method with the lowest complication rate in late abortion includes the following steps: an intrafetal injection of digoxin into the fetus; treating the cervix over two or three days with hygroscopic (water-absorbing) dilators to allow the cervix to open; introducing misoprostol (another synthetic prostaglandin) into the uterus; releasing amniotic fluid to reduce the risk of amniotic fluid embolism; gently inducing labor, causing the uterus to contract so that the fetus and placenta are expelled; and removing the fetus in some cir-

cumstances. However, as of 2010, there is no agreement in the medical community on the safest way to perform late abortions. See Also: Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Abortion Laws, International; Abortion Methods; Roe v. Wade. Further Readings Hern, Warren M. Abortion Practice. Boulder, CO: Alpenglo Graphics, 1990. Hern, Warren M. “Second Trimester Surgical Abortion.” The Global Library of Women’s Medicine. http://www .drhern.com/secondsurg.htm (accessed May 2010). Paul, Maureen, Steve Lichtenberg, Lynn Borgatta, and David A. Grimes. Management of Unintended and Abnormal Pregnancy: Comprehensive Abortion Care. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Schoen, Johanna. Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare (Gender and American Culture). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Warren M. Hern University of Colorado

Abortion Laws, International Although it is considered a medical procedure, most countries in the world deal with abortion through the law, whether to restrict access to abortion or provide full access to abortion services. However, legal regulation of abortion, referred to in some countries as termination of pregnancy, varies widely throughout the world. The domestic legal regulation of abortion can be found in a variety of legal authorities, including the penal code, domestic constitutions, and case law. For example, in Swaziland the Constitution specifically provides women the right to abortion in cases where there is a serious threat to the mental and physical health of the pregnant woman, fetal impairment, or rape or incest. In contrast, in the United States, one of the primary sources of legal regulation of abortion is found in case law, under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions. In general, legal regulation falls under two main categories: countries that provide for at-will abortion



and those that permit abortion in specific circumstances. The primary circumstances in which countries do permit abortions are to save the life of the pregnant woman, in cases of fetal impairment, to preserve the mental and physical health of the pregnant woman, in cases of rape and incest, and when needed for socioeconomic reasons. In addition, international and regional treaties provide specific legal rights to individuals within countries that have ratified the respective treaties that are relevant to abortion. Though these treaties may have limited applicability within domestic legal spheres, they remain critical to understanding the international legal context around abortion. It is hard to generalize the laws in such diverse parts of the world, but it is clear that most of South America, Africa, and the Middle East (with a few exceptions, such as South Africa, which provides for at-will abortion) permit abortions in specific circumstances. In contrast, much of Europe and North America, with a number of exceptions, does provide for abortion at will. However, throughout the world significant hurdles remain to accessing medical abortions, even in countries where the law permits at-will abortions. At-Will Abortion A number of countries legally provide pregnant women access to abortions without requiring them to provide a reason why they are seeking the abortion. These are often called at-will abortions, or abortion on request. In these nations, women only need to find a doctor who is willing to perform the abortion. In some countries, such as Albania, Belgium, and France, pregnant women are legally required to formally state that the abortion is necessary because she is in crisis. Practically, however, the requirement is a formality as long as the woman can find a doctor who is willing to perform the abortion. There is no country in the world that provides for complete, unrestricted abortion. Even in countries where at-will abortions are legally permitted, in general there are restrictions in place for pregnant women seeking abortions after the first trimester. After the first trimester, most countries require that a pregnant woman present a valid reason for the abortion. As of 2007, only three countries in Africa (Cape Verde, South Africa, and Tunisia) and two countries

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in Latin America and the Caribbean (Guyana and Cuba) permit abortion on request. A handful of countries provide for abortion on request in Asia. Most countries in Europe permit abortion on request. Abortion Under Specific Circumstances Most countries in the world permit abortions in specific circumstances. In some cases, countries will permit abortions in a range of circumstances; other countries have a limited number of grounds on which abortions can be performed. For example, in Zambia the law provides exceptions for a woman’s mental and physical health, fetal impairment, and socioeconomic reasons. In contrast, Malawi permits abortions only when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk. Restrictions to accessing abortion even in cases where the exception is clearly provided for under the law can be limited because of rules requiring medical approval and other such hurdles. To Save the Life of the Pregnant Woman The most common ground on which countries permit abortions is when an abortion is needed to save the life of the pregnant woman. More than 60 countries in the world have a wholesale prohibition on abortion or permit it only when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk. Many of these countries are in Africa and Latin America; Ireland remains one of the few countries in Europe that permits abortions only when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk. The specific requirements for determining when a pregnant woman’s life is considered to be at serious risk vary from country to country, with a handful of countries providing a detailed list of conditions considered life threatening. In most countries with this exception, the decision whether to perform an abortion is left up to the treating physician. There are few countries that do not provide for an exception in a case where the pregnant woman’s life is at risk. In those countries that do fully restrict abortion, such as Chile, Malta, and El Salvador, an argument that the abortion was legitimate under the legal defense of necessity may be a possibility. Many countries where abortions are heavily restricted do, however, provide for abortions in cases where there is fetal impairment. The precise nature of the impairment needed to fall under this category is often specified under the law.

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Abortion Laws, International

Another common ground for permitting abortion is in the case of rape or incest. This is reflected legally in countries in a variety of ways. In some countries, abortion-related legislation specifically makes exceptions for cases of rape and incest; in other countries, abortions are permitted under the arguably broader provision of pregnancy as a result of a criminal offense. This latter provision could arguably include statutory consensual rape. Preservation of Physical and Mental Health In many countries, abortions are permitted when needed to preserve the physical health of the pregnant woman. What constitutes physical health varies among the countries. Countries that are part of the British Commonwealth, including those in Africa, are more likely to have a broader definition of health within the abortion context than civil law countries in Africa and Latin America. Some countries specifically provide for abortions when necessary to preserve the mental health of the pregnant woman. In many Commonwealth countries, mental health is defined as emotional distress caused to the pregnant woman or the other children in the family. In other countries, there is no specified definition of what constitutes mental health. In countries where exceptions are provided because of a woman’s mental health, abortion on this basis generally requires the approval of a medical professional. Furthermore, some countries do not explicitly define whether health includes mental health in addition to physical health. Arguably, this lack of clarity could mean that mental health is included as part of the broader definition of health, though it is not specifically mentioned. Socioeconomic Grounds A number of countries permit abortions for socioeconomic reasons, though the specifics of the socioeconomic grounds are rarely detailed in the law. The permission of abortion on socioeconomic grounds is provided for under the law in a variety of ways. In some countries, the law requires doctors to assess the health of the pregnant woman, including taking into account her social and economic environment, as in Barbados and New South Wales, Australia. In other countries, the need to take into account a pregnant woman’s socioeconomic circumstances is implied, as in Belize, where the law requires that a pregnant woman’s actual and rea-

sonably foreseeable environment be taken into account when assessing whether an abortion is needed for her health. Finally, in a few countries, such as Burundi and Ethiopia, a pregnant woman’s socioeconomic situation can be taken into consideration in sentencing. In some countries, abortions permitted for socioeconomic reasons in practical terms function as at-will abortions. However, in countries such as Zambia, which permit abortions for socioeconomic reasons, procedural and other access hurdles translate into very few woman obtaining abortions for socioeconomic reasons. International Law There is no specific international law regulating abortion. However, there are various international treaties that provide rights relevant to abortion. These treaties are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The relevant rights included in these treaties are the right to health and healthcare; right to equality; right to security of person; right to liberty; right to privacy; right to decide the number and spacing of children; right to be free from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; and right to life. At the regional level, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa requires all member states to take appropriate measures to protect the reproductive rights of women by providing medical abortions in cases of rape, incest, and sexual assault and where continued pregnancy puts the pregnant woman’s mental and physical health or life at risk. Though the legal regulation of abortion varies from country to country, it is clear that all countries regulate abortion through their laws, either choosing to provide for at-will abortion or specifying the circumstances under which abortions can legally be performed. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, United States; Maternal Mortality; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Roe v. Wade; Women’s Health Clinics. Further Readings Boland, Reed and Laura Katzvie. “Developments in Laws on Induced Abortion: 1998–2007.” International Family Planning Perspectives, v.34/3 (2008).

Abortion Laws, United States

Eser, Albin, et al. Abortion and the Law: From International Comparison to Legal Policy. The Hague, the Netherlands: TMC Asser, 2005. Rahman, Anika, et al. “A Global Review of Laws on Induced Abortion, 1985-1997.” International Family Planning Perspectives, v.24/2 (1998). United Nations Population Division. “Abortion Policies: A Global Review.” http://www.un.org/esa/population/ publications/abortion (accessed June 2010). Priti Patel Southern Africa Litigation Centre

Abortion Laws, United States The foundation of current abortion law in the United States is the 1973 Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, which held that a Texas criminal ban on abortion violated a woman’s constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. Under Roe, states had limited ability to restrict or regulate abortion during the first six months of pregnancy. In the last trimester, states could ban abortion, except when necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman. Federal and State Funding In 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which excluded abortion from Medicaid coverage, except when necessary to save a woman’s life. This law was upheld in a series of Supreme Court cases. Over time, the U.S. Congress made some exceptions to the funding ban. At present, the federal Medicaid program mandates abortion funding in cases of rape or incest, as well as when a pregnant woman’s life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury. These restrictions also apply to federal employees, women in the military, and Native Americans using government provided health facilities. Currently, 32 states and the District of Columbia follow the federal standard, whereas 17 states use state funds to provide all or most medically necessary abortions, and one state provides abortions only in cases of life endangerment, in violation of the federal standard.

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Subsequent court decisions have allowed further funding restrictions. In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), the Supreme Court held that a state may prohibit all use of public facilities and publicly employed staff for abortions. In Rust v. Sullivan (1991), the court held that the government may, as a condition of funding family-planning clinics, insist that recipients not recommend abortion, refer clinic patients to an abortion provider, or even mention abortion as a possible method of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy. Another significant funding restriction is the Mexico City Policy, known by critics as the global “gag rule,” first adopted by Ronald Reagan in 1984. This policy required all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) receiving federal funds to refrain from performing or promoting abortion services, including providing advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available. This policy has been consistently rescinded by Democratic presidents and reinstated by Republican presidents. Restrictions for Minors States have also passed laws restricting minors’ access to abortion by requiring parental notification or consent to their daughter’s abortion procedure. The Supreme Court has upheld these laws if states also provide a judicial bypass procedure, by which minors can obtain court authorization for abortion without parental involvement if a minor can show that she is mature enough to make the abortion decision herself or that the desired abortion would be in her best interests. Currently, 35 states require some type of parental involvement in a minor’s decision to have an abortion. The Supreme Court opened the door to expanded state regulation of abortion in decision of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), which held that states may restrict abortion before viability, as long as they do not place an “undue burden” on the woman’s right to choose, which the court defined as a law that has the “purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.” Under this standard, the court allowed several new restrictions on abortion, including an informed consent law requiring doctors to give state-scripted counseling to patients to discourage abortion, a 24-hour waiting period after

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Abortion Laws, United States

counseling, a requirement that minors must obtain informed consent of one parent by an in-person visit to the facility, and a requirement that abortion facilities must meet detailed reporting requirements. The only restriction struck down in Casey was spousal notification. Since Casey, many states have adopted these types of restrictions, including waiting periods and informed consent laws. New Laws and Restrictions Casey also opened the door to new restrictions, including bans on certain types of abortion procedures and expanded regulation of abortion. In the case of Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), the Court relied on Casey to strike down a Nebraska law banning the intact dilation and extraction abortion procedure because it did not have an exception in cases where the procedure was necessary to preserve women’s health. However, in 2003, Congress passed a similar ban, without a maternal health exception, and the law was upheld in the 2007 Supreme Court case of Gonzalez v. Carhart. Sixteen states have laws in effect that prohibit the dilation and extraction abortion procedure, four of which apply only to postviability abortions and 12 of which do not have a health exception. Eighteen states have targeted regulation of abortion laws, requiring facilities where abortions are performed to adhere to particular standards. Thirty-eight states require an abortion to be performed by a licensed physician, 19 states require an abortion to be performed in a hospital after a specified point in the pregnancy, and 19 states require the involvement of a second physician after a specified point. In addition, 38 states prohibit abortions after a specified point in pregnancy, most often fetal viability, except when necessary to protect the woman’s life or health. If Roe were to be overturned, 13 states have unenforced pre-Roe abortion bans, four states have passed “trigger laws” that would immediately ban abortion if Roe is overturned, and seven states have laws that express their intent to restrict the right to legal abortion to the maximum extent permitted by the Supreme Court in the absence of Roe. Abortion opponents have sought to pass abortion bans in several states. In 2006, South Dakota passed an outright abortion ban, with only a life endangerment exception, but voters repealed the ban by referendum. Other laws restricting abortion access include laws allowing healthcare

providers to refuse treatment (46 states) and restricting coverage of abortion in private insurance plans (four states). Twenty-one states allow the production of “choose life” license plates, 11 of which donate a portion of the proceeds raised to antiabortion organizations. Significant federal funds have been given to crisis pregnancy centers (of which there are over 2,500 in the United States today), which attempt to discourage women from having abortions. Several legal initiatives have focused on creating independent legal status for fetuses. In the fall of 2002, the United States government instituted a new rule to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), allowing “unborn children” to qualify for health benefits. In 2004, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act became federal law, allowing two charges to be brought against someone who kills a pregnant woman, one for the woman and one for the fetus. Bills defining life to begin at conception or granting rights to fertilized eggs have been introduced in several state legislatures recently. Protecting the Right to Choose There have been some legal initiatives to protect and expand women’s access to abortion. Seven states have laws that protect the right to choose abortion prior to viability or when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman. In 2004, members of Congress introduced the Freedom of Choice Act, which protects the right to abortion, but the act has never passed. In September 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Mifepristone, or RU 486, also known as the “abortion pill,” an approval that antiabortion activists have sought to rescind. Protecting abortion clinics has been the focus of several legal initiatives. The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act prohibits the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person who is obtaining or providing reproductive services. Fifteen states have passed similar laws. In the case of National Organization for Women v. Scheidler (1994), the Supreme Court allowed the use of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against abortion clinic blockaders on the basis that they formed a national conspiracy to eliminate access to abortion clinics through the use of extortion and harassment, with the goal of driving clinics out of business.

Abortion Methods



The most recent abortion controversy arose in connection with the debate about national healthcare legislation. The Stupak-Pitts amendment to the House version of the national healthcare reform bill sought to prohibit coverage of abortion in a public option or in any private insurance plan that would have been part of the national healthcare exchange. The amendment was withdrawn in exchange for a presidential executive order placing federal funding restrictions on abortion consistent with the Hyde Amendment. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Freedom of Choice Act; Global “Gag Rule”; Roe v. Wade; RU 486. Further Readings Garrow, David. Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Guttmacher Institute. “State Policies in Brief.” http://www .guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/index.html (accessed November 2009). Hull, N. E. H., William James Hoffer, and Peter Charles Hoffer, eds. The Abortion Rights Controversy in America: A Legal Reader. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Carrie N. Baker Berry College

Abortion Methods Methods of abortion have always been available to women, even in the earliest societies, but the methods that are now available are much safer. During the first three months of pregnancy, the abortion is performed by dilating the cervix (the opening of the uterus) with metal rods or other methods, then removing the embryo or fetus and placenta by vacuum aspiration (suction) through a plastic cannula. Later abortions are performed with a variety of techniques. Most of these techniques involve the use of medications that cause the uterus to contract and expel the fetus and placenta or control bleeding after the uterus is empty. The fetus is also removed by the use of instruments (“dilation and evacuation,” or “D & E”) following adequate opening, or dilation, of the cervix.

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History of Abortion Methods Although it cannot be known with certainty, women have probably been having abortions in some manner from the time of the earliest tribal societies. Anthropologist George Devereux’s classic study of abortion in traditional societies showed that women in most of the tribal societies he studied used abortion to control fertility. In classical times, women used various herbal concoctions to induce abortion, and in medieval times, women were known to use “slippery elm” sticks which, inserted into the uterus, would swell up and cause contractions resulting in abortion. In the Middle Ages, a mold on rye produced ergot, a powerful alkaloid that caused uterine contractions. Ergot was used by women in small doses to cause uterine contractions, especially to control hemorrhage after childbirth. In larger doses, women used it in hope of causing an abortion. In many tribal societies, abortions are caused by striking or jumping on the lower abdomen of a woman who is pregnant. Whether or not the woman requests this action to end a pregnancy, the violence can cause uterine rupture and immediate death. During the 19th and early 20th centuries in America, women famously used coat hangers, knitting needles, and other instruments to disrupt a pregnancy and cause an abortion. Other procedures by lay midwives included the placement of a balloon catheter through the uterine cervix and into the uterus. This was allowed to stay in place long enough to cause an abortion. All these techniques were and are inherently dangerous, especially when done under unsterile conditions. Perforation of the uterus by such an instrument could result in rapid death due to hemorrhage. Other traumatic methods of self-abortion have included putting lye or other caustic substance in the vagina, throwing one’s self down a flight of stairs, and taking toxic amounts of alcohol or other drugs. In Denver, in the late 1960s, a woman who was six months pregnant shot herself in the uterus to kill the fetus and then drove herself to the Denver General Hospital emergency room. Modern Abortion Methods With the advent of antibiotics and blood transfusion, it became possible to save the lives of women who had sought an unsafe illegal abortion or had attempted self-abortion. Physicians and lay practitioners alike learned to perform early abortions by dilation and

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Abortion Methods

curettage using modern surgical instruments. In a dilation and curettage (D & C), the cervix is dilated with a series of gradually larger metal rods that are tapered. Once the cervix is opened sufficiently to admit a curette, a spoon-shaped instrument whose tip is shaped like a loop, the sharp edge of the curette is brought along the wall of the uterus from the top (fundus) to the bottom (lower uterine segment just above the cervix). This stroke is repeated around the entire inner lining (endometrium) of the uterus until contents and lining of the uterus are removed. Mid-20th-Century Developments In the mid-20th century, the concept of using a vacuum aspiration procedure to remove the uterine contents in early abortion was introduced in the United States by a Yugoslav obstetrician-gynecologist, Franc Novak, and this became the procedure of choice in early abortion by the early 1970s. At about this time, physicians performing early abortions began using the stalk of a seaweed, Laminaria japonicum, to dilate the cervix instead of forcing the cervix open with steel rods. Laminaria had been used by the Japanese for this purpose for a long time, and the successful treatment of the Laminaria to make it sterile made it safe to use without a high risk of infection. The advantage of the Laminaria was that, after leaving it placed in the cervix for a time, it absorbs water from the woman’s body and produces a gentle dilation adequate for early abortion with less risk of perforation of the uterus or other damage to the cervix. The disadvantage is that it took hours, or even overnight, to produce a good effect. The disadvantages in time and expense have meant that few physicians or clinics use Laminaria at this time for cervical dilation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the method used for second-trimester abortion was principally that of the injection of a hypertonic (concentrated) saline solution into the fluid surrounding the fetus in the uterus. This hypertonic saline method had the advantage of being highly effective since it killed the fetus and irritated the uterus, causing contractions and expulsion of the fetus. Injection of the saline solution was also accompanied by induction of labor using oxytocin, a naturally-occurring hormone that causes the uterus to contract. The principal disadvantage of the hypertonic saline was that it could kill the woman if it entered her circulatory system.

This meant that the injection would have to be accurately placed in the amniotic fluid and not in the placenta or uterine wall, but this was difficult since it was a “blind” procedure. Another disadvantage was that it didn’t always work. The fetus might be born alive, or with agonal movements, and sometimes the woman didn’t go into labor. If the placenta obstructed the opening of the uterus as it does in a placenta previa, catastrophic hemorrhage could occur while also preventing expulsion of the fetus. Another problem was that saline abortion could not be done until the 16th or later week of pregnancy when the amount of amniotic fluid was sufficient. There was a gap of three to four weeks between the 12th week and the 16th week when no abortion could be performed. Performing a D & C or vacuum aspiration abortion during this interval was considered too dangerous. In 1970, a synthetic prostaglandin was introduced for use in abortion. Prostaglandin is a naturally occurring hormone which assists in causing the cervix of the uterus to soften and open at the time of term delivery. Physicians discovered that injecting the synthetic prostaglandin into the amniotic fluid, giving it by mouth, or placing it in the vagina could cause an abortion in the early second trimester (after 13 weeks) of pregnancy. The use of prostaglandin appeared to be safer and more effective than saline abortion, and it soon supplanted saline abortion as the method of choice in terminating more advanced pregnancies. Unfortunately, numerous problems and complications associated with the use of prostaglandins in more advanced pregnancies appeared. Some women with asthma or other respiratory conditions were adversely affected by prostaglandins, and prostaglandins were associated with a higher risk of uterine rupture. In the mid-1970s, a study by Dr. Christopher Tietze showed that performing abortion with instruments by “dilation and evacuation” (D & E) during the interval between 13 and 16 weeks was safer than previously thought and was safer than requiring the patient to wait until a saline (or prostaglandin) abortion could be performed after 15 weeks. Soon after this, clinical studies were published that confirmed Dr. Tietze’s analysis. The innovation was accompanied by the use of a “serial multiple laminaria” dilation of the cervix using repeated treatments in which one set of Laminaria were removed and replaced by another set over

Abu Ghraib



a period of two or three days. This method, in which larger specialized instruments were used, made it possible to perform abortions on patients with much more advanced pregnancies with great safety. At the current time, this method of D & E abortion has supplanted both saline and prostaglandin techniques in second-trimester and later abortions. With the discovery of mifepristone (RU-486), it has been possible to initiate an early abortion during the first few weeks of pregnancy without the use of instruments or vacuum aspiration. Medical abortion now accounts for about 10 percent of all abortions performed in the United States. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Abortion, Late; Abortion Laws, United States; Roe v. Wade; RU 486; Women’s Health. Further Readings Devereux, George. A Study of Abortion in Primitive Societies. New York: The Julian Press, 1955. Hern, Warren M. Abortion Practice. Boulder, CO: Alpenglo Graphics, 1990. Joffe, Carole. “Abortion in Historical Perspective.” In Paul, M., E. S. Lichtenberg, L. Borgatta, D. A. Grimes, and P. G. Stubblefield, eds., A Clinician’s Guide to Medical and Surgical Abortion. Philadelphia, PA: Churchill Livingstone, 1999. Riddle, John M. Contraception and Abortion From the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. Sciarra, John J. The Global Library of Women’s Medicine. http://www.glowm.com (accessed March 2010). Warren M. Hern University of Colorado

Abu Ghraib Abu Ghraib is one of nine districts surrounding Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. It is recognized for its prison, where prisoners were abused under Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and later, by members of the U.S. military. Several U.S. military personnel, including four women, have been identified as responsible for the abuse of Abu Ghraib detainees and three of the four

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women have been tried and punished for their participation. The United States returned control of the prison to Iraq in 2006. It was reopened as Baghdad Central Prison in 2009. Designed by American architect Edmund Whiting, the prison was built by British contractors in the 1960s. The prison occupies 280 acres and contains five compounds surrounded by a brick wall topped with barbed wire and 24 guard towers. The prison was under Iraqi control from 1970 until the end of Hussein’s reign in April 2003. Under Hussein, the prison housed individuals accused of crimes as well as those suspected of being political dissidents. Hussein’s political opponents were housed in the “special sentences” section of the prison and denied any outside contact. Prison overcrowding was a constant issue; the prison may have held as many as 60,000 prisoners at its peak. Torture was routine and thousands of prisoners were executed in Abu Ghraib’s gallows. In October 2002, Hussein declared amnesty for the majority of Iraqi prisoners; all but Abu Ghraib’s political prisoners were freed. Scandal and Scrutiny From 2003 to September 2006, the U.S. military managed the prison. Concerns about prisoner abuse emerged soon after U.S. takeover from groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, who visited the prison 29 times from mid- to late 2003. Worldwide attention to Abu Ghraib was garnered in late April 2004 when photographic evidence of detainee abuse first surfaced on the CBS 60 Minutes II television show, followed by the publication of the photographs in The New Yorker. The photographs, turned over to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command by Specialist Joseph Darby, depict U.S. military personnel participating in various forms of abuse. The pictures, and subsequent sworn statements given by detainees, reveal a range of abusive practices: “hooding” (putting a bag over the head of the detainee to disorient them and prevent them from breathing freely); prolonged exposure to loud music and extreme temperatures; forcing detainees to remain in uncomfortable positions for extended periods; intimidation by unmuzzled dogs; physical beatings; and denial of food, water, and sleep. Evidence also highlights sexualized forms of abuse of male detainees: being forced to parade nude, sometimes

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Action Heroes, Female

with women’s underwear over their heads; forced to simulate masturbation; and forced to simulate anal or oral sex with other detainees. Though the majority of detainees were male, reports also indicate abuse of the handful of female detainees. Suspected to be among the photographs not released by the U.S. government are pictures of a female detainee being sexually assaulted, and a female detainee forced to expose her breasts to male guards. Investigations of Abuse It is likely the remaining photographs of Abu Ghraib and other U.S. military prisons will not be seen by the public. In May 2009, U.S. President Obama reversed his decision to support the public release of the remaining photographs. In October, Congress passed legislation granting the Defense Secretary authority to deny their release. In November, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside the decision of the lower appeals courts to reveal the photos, citing the new legislation. Concern from the White House is that releasing the photographs would further inflame anti-American sentiment and endanger American troops. Multiple investigations of abuse at Abu Ghraib have been conducted. The first investigation, conducted by General Antonio Taguba, identifies several military personnel as bearing responsibility for detainee abuse, including four women: Specialist Megan Ambuhl, Specialist Sabrina Harman, Private First Class Lynndie England, and Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. Of the four, Harman and England appeared in multiple photographs and Ambuhl appeared in one. Ambuhl, Harman, and England were found guilty by military tribunals for their participation in the abuse (Ambuhl was found guilty for her failure to report or prevent the abuse). Harman and England were sentenced to six months and 3 years, respectively. Karpinski, the commanding officer charged with overseeing Iraq’s prisons in 2003, maintains she was unaware of the abuse. Karpinski was demoted from brigadier general to colonel on an unrelated charge. There are competing explanations of women’s participation in the abuse at Abu Ghraib. One explanation emphasizes the psychological problems of individual participants. Other explanations focus on Specialist Charles Graner as the ringleader and emphasize his use of his romantic involvement with both Ambuhl and England to pressure them to participate in the

abuse. Graner was sentenced to 10 years. Additional explanations include broader criticisms of military training that socializes recruits, male and female, to an aggressive and hypermasculine culture conducive to abuse. Finally, other explanations suggest that such abuse was condoned, if not encouraged, by members high in the military hierarchy. Abu Ghraib remains significant because it brought public attention to abuses suspected of occurring in U.S. military prisons operating throughout the world, including Guantánamo Bay, as a result of the U.S. Global War on Terror. In late 2006, the U.S. military closed Abu Ghraib and transferred its prisoners to other sites in Iraq. The Iraqi government began $1 million worth of renovations of Abu Ghraib in late 2008 and reopened the prison as Baghdad Central Prison in February 2009. The renovations include a museum dedicated to documenting Saddam’s crimes (but not those of its U.S. guards). At full capacity, the facility will house 15,000 inmates. See Also: England, Lynndie; Karpinski, Janis; Military, Women in the; Sex Offenders, Female; Sex Offenders, Male; Sexual Harassment. Further Readings Greenberg, Karen and Joshua L. Dratel. The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Karpinski, Janis. One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story. New York: Miramax Books, 2005. McAllester, Matthew. Blinded by the Sunlight: Emerging From the Prison of Saddam’s Iraq. New York: Harper Collins, 2004. Elyshia Aseltine University of Texas, Austin

Action Heroes, Female Scholars have long debated if female action heroes— represented in comics, genre literature, cinema, television series, cartoons, and videogames as strong women, expert fighters, muscular, and independent,



but often emotionally fragile—are empowering for women or not. “Tough girls,” inspired by the classical portrayal of the Amazons, were already part of the imagination of modern culture when, in 1941, Wonder Woman, the Amazon super-heroine, made her appearance in comics strips. The introduction of this female action hero, as Mitra C. Emad has pointed out, was related to the social situation created by World War II, when U.S. women took jobs outside of the home and held responsibilities traditionally reserved for men. Subsequent shifts in the representation of action heroines have also been produced or influenced by economic, social and cultural changes. Films in the popular action genre proposed action heroines in the 1970s (such as those played by Pam Grier). Nonetheless, the most famous female action heros are those portrayed in Hollywood’s science fiction action blockbusters produced from the 1980s, as if, as some have noted, characters such as Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Alien (1979), Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in Terminator 2 (1991), or Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) in the Matrix (1999) could only exist in imaginary settings. American cartoon films have also presented outstanding female action heroes, who also act in fantasy settings, such as Mulan (1998), inspired by a traditional Chinese story, or the independent princess Fiona in Shrek (2001). Female heroines have long been present in Asian popular action films, especially in Hong Kong, but also in films such as the House of Flying Daggers (2004) by Ang Lee, where actress Zhang Ziyi plays a blind, skillful swordswoman. Japanese cartoon television series also introduced several female characters who fight as hard as men, for example, in The Rose of Versailles (1979–80). Many recent TV series have centered on female action heroes. These characters support, rather than challenge, the established structures of society, as they are often police women, as in Cagney and Lacey (1982–88), private investigators (the Charlie’s Angels trio in the late 1970s), or members of governmental agencies, as in The Bionic Woman (1976–78), Dana Scully in The X-Files (1993–2002), or Sidney Bristow in Alias (2001–06). Female Action Heroes and Patriarcy The main question that underlies the academic debate on female action heroes is if they are examples

Action Heroes, Female

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of resistance to patriarchy or, rather, if they instead perpetuate and reinforce patriarchal domination. Are characters such as GI Jane (1997), played by Demi Moore, or Nikita (1990) in the French film by Luc Besson, examples of empowered and self-directed women? Some scholars, such as Sherry Inness or Jeffrey A. Brown, tend to read positively the gender roles’ transgression that female action heroes perform by using violence and weapons. Several scholars have instead criticized the action heroine’s use of violence, as the stylized violence of her performance appears to be offered to the (male) viewer’s gaze, rather than aimed at empowering women. Yvonne Tasker, among others, has noted the sexualization of the action heroine’s body and translate the muscular bodies of heroines, an element with roots in the comic strip tradition, as a response to feminism and a way to contain women within patriarchal boundaries. Rikke Schubart draws on psychoanalysis in stating that the action heroine performs a masquerade, constructed to tell two different stories to male and female audiences. Carol Clover, instead, considers certain heroines as “men in disguise,” or “phallic women,” who do not represent, and are therefore not empowering, for women. Action heroines are indeed shown in male disguise and are often ascribed sexual ambiguity, especially in Asian films. Other scholars have noted the relative scarcity of nonwhite heroines, though, as Mary Beltrán has highlighted, Latina heroines, presented as “masculine” are now often represented in fantasy settings. Popular television series such as Xena: Princess Warrior (1995–2001), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), or La Femme Nikita also send mixed messages to viewers, as Mary Magoulick has pointed out, since all such characters present male fantasies, and move in a world controlled by masculine powers that determine their destiny. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Representation of Women; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Beltrán, Mary. “Más Macha: The New Latina Action Hero.” In Yvonne Tasker, ed., Action and Adventure Cinema. London: Routledge, 2004. Brown, Jeffrey A. “Gender and the Action Heroine: Hardbodies and the Point of No Return.” Cinema Journal, v.35/3 (1996).

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Addiction and Substance Abuse

Clover, Carol. Men, Women and Chain Saws. London: BFI, 1992. Emad, Mitra C. “Reading Wonder Woman’s Body: Mythologies of Gender and Nation.” The Journal of Popular Culture, v.39/6 (2006). Giukin, Lenuta. “Boy-Girls: Gender, Body, and Popular Culture In Hong Kong Action Movies.” In Murray Pomerance, ed., Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. Gender in Film at the End of the Twentieth Century. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Inness, Sherrie A., ed. Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Inness, Sherry A. Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Magoulick, Mary. “Frustrating Female Heroism: Mixed Messages in Xena, Nikita, and Buffy.” The Journal of Popular Culture, v.39/5 (2006). McCoughey, Martha and Neal King, eds. Reel Knockouts: Violent Women in the Movies. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. Schubart, Rikke. Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970–2006. McFarland & Co., 2007. Tasker, Yvonne. Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema. New York: Routledge, 1993.

in Bulgaria, Poland, and Turkey (52 percent); Brazil and Mexico (53 percent); Canada, United States, and Cuba (58 percent); Bolivia and Peru (60 percent); Australia and Japan (77 percent); and Germany, France, United Kingdom, Russian Federation, and Ukraine (81 percent). Countries with the highest consumption also had the smallest differences between men and women; gender gap of 10 percent or less in Russian Federation, Ukraine, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. In another WHO report of developing nations, female consumers of alcohol reported drinking problems highest in India, Nigeria (an average of 8 percent of problems), and Uganda (14 percent). The lowest were in Costa Rica (4 percent), Brazil (3 percent), Sri Lanka (2 percent), and Argentina (1 percent). Most

Maria Beatrice Bittarello Independent Scholar

Addiction and Substance Abuse The number of women using and abusing substances has been gradually increasing since the 1990s, in some cases matching the rates of men (e.g., alcoholism among young adults) or surpassing them (e.g., higher drug use among women). The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) publish studies that evaluate substance abuse across nations; however, few provide a breakdown by gender. Worldwide, men consume and abuse more alcohol than women, but the differences vary within each country. In a WHO alcohol study of 14 subregions, the percentages of female drinkers were above 50 percent

Once women develop a drug problem, they are at greater risk for adverse effects, such as a faster rate of dependence.



of the drinking problems across countries are more prevalent before age 30. If gender patterns of alcohol use/abuse are applied, then countries with higher substance prevalence rates probably have higher percentages of women abusing these substances. In a UN report covering other substances (opiates, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, and ecstasy), North American populations tended to abuse opiates, cannabis, and cocaine (listed in order of lower to higher percentages). African populations abused opiates, cannabis, and amphetamines. Central and South American populations abused cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamine. In the Caribbean, they abused cocaine and cannabis. Asia populations abused amphetamines and European populations abused ecstasy more than other substances. The increase of women’s substance abuse is primarily seen among younger women with the first onset of use occurring due to the desires to fit in with peers, impulse control problems during adolescence, escape from traumatic early life events, or introduction by a romantic/sexual partner who is currently using. Intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships, gender role expectations, physical and mental health status, and their physiology all are important components of women’s substance abuse. Women also have more incidents of comorbidity (co-occurring addiction with psychological disorders) as compared with men. These factors continue to be overlooked, minimized, or ignored by society, and in some cases by professional staff. Risk Factors Several studies indicate that being a woman buffers against developing alcohol/drug dependency (i.e., rates are still generally higher for men), but once women develop a problem they are at greater risk for adverse effects. These effects include a quicker time from the first use to the start of dependence, becoming more impaired compared to men with the same amount consumed, and reaching advanced stages of disease of the liver, heart, and brain at faster rates than men. Even when body weight is accounted for in the consumption of alcohol, women still have higher risks than men do. These differences are thought to be due to a woman’s body structure (i.e., alcohol becomes more concentrated). Also women’s different hormone activation in the body affects the

Addiction and Substance Abuse

21

metabolism rate, making women become intoxicated more quickly. In addition to greater physiological vulnerability, women tend to internalize their stressors and problems (higher rates of depression and anxiety) and use more coping strategies to avoid rather than manage their emotional symptoms, compared to men. Women often have emotional issues related to distress from physical and sexual abuse that may have begun early in life and often continues throughout their addiction. Women may use sex to trade for various resources, such as drugs and/or alcohol, which can contribute to being in unhealthy relationships and in situations that give their partners more opportunities to physically or sexually abuse them. Another set of risk factors associated with women’s substance abuse is being part of an underrepresented group. Several national and international studies define these groups as ethnic minorities within society, including the economically disadvantaged, such as homeless or working-class women, and nonheterosexual women. Women from ethnic minorities and lower socioeconomic status share similar challenges, such as less access to resources, including healthcare (particularly in areas without a government-funded healthcare system), stereotypical reactions to their status within the society, and higher incidents of chronic life stressors (e.g., victimization and unstable forms of shelter). The few studies that have examined acculturation (adjustment to a new culture) patterns in the United States have shown a correlation to substance abuse. As one increases, so does the other, which might impact the successful treatment of ethnic (non-native) women. Examining the role of sexual orientation in substance abuse among women is an emerging focus in the 21st century. Lesbian and bisexual women are thought to be at greater risk for using and abusing substances because of their multiple minority statuses (e.g., being a lesbian Hispanic working-class woman) and the higher incidents of overt discrimination (e.g., homophobia and hate crimes). The type of substance used/abused varies in the different minority groups, but women in general lean more toward drugs than alcohol. Treatment Treatment formats have traditionally been modeled for and created by men, which has emphasized a confrontational style within a highly structured inpatient

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Addiction and Substance Abuse

setting; the addict is physically separated from everyone except for the professional staff and their addiction is directly challenged within a coed group format. This style can be viewed as threatening and nonsupportive by women addicts who may need to maintain some outside social networks (e.g., supportive family members and their children) and they may be uncomfortable addressing sexual behaviors or relationship issues in front of male staff members or clients. There are conflicting findings regarding whether women-only programs are equal to or more effective than mixedgender programs, especially because women typically start treatment with more problems and greater severity of addiction than men. However, given these challenges, several studies have shown that women can obtain positive outcomes from mixed-gender treatment programs. Alternative structures are needed that address the risk factors and barriers experienced by women addicts or alcoholics to help rebuild their lives without substances. Some alternative approaches involve a holistic set of procedures where the woman and her multiple roles are treated in an integrated fashion, instead of piecemeal, which separates her addiction from other aspects of her sense of self. These can be achieved through a program involving only women, or be embedded within mixed-gender programs where gender-specific and gender-sensitive techniques are intentionally incorporated. Gender-specific treatments for women involve programs that provide training on assertiveness, healthy relationships and family systems, parenting, nutrition, housing and employment opportunities, and referral for physical and mental health issues. Gender-sensitive treatment typically involves separating women in some manner (e.g., separate groups for women only or those who experience physical/sexual abuse; matching client with staff member; or having an all-female staff ). Barriers to Treatment Treatment centers are underutilized and often have few openings for women. The exceptions seem to exist where there are government mandates or incentives (e.g., funding for pregnant women). Other barriers for women include her own views on treatment, family members’ actions to protect women from outsiders, past experiences with professionals’ distain or stigmatization, lack of support from a using

spouse/partner, the appeal of the treatment program itself (e.g., cost, health insurance requirements, and absence of an all-female staff ), and the practicality of attending treatment (e.g., childcare arrangement and transportation). In a variety of U.S. and international studies, women’s substance abuse is associated with legal (similar to rates of men) and child custody issues (e.g., family services–related agencies requiring treatment). Women who voluntarily consider treatment on their own face comparable fears to those associated with law enforcement referrals. Studies have consistently shown that women experience lower self-esteem and self-efficacy, more shame and guilt about their use, are stigmatized and alienated more by their usage, receive less support from nonusing/using friends, more prejudice and discrimination from members of society, and suffer from fears of losing custody of their children. Each of these contribute to women remaining addicted. Although successful outcomes for women have been demonstrated across different types of programs, getting women into treatment seems to be one of the largest hurdles. Some researchers have proposed that women-only, gendersensitive, and gender-specific programs may address several of these concerns and thus attract more women into treatment. Feminist researchers argue that a woman’s substance use is viewed as a violation of her gender role. This violation results in a narrowing of her social network, such as reduced interaction with nonusing family and friends, and increased interaction with her romantic/sexual partner’s friends and other users. When women contemplate not abusing substances, they may lose all or a majority of their support network, and thus are at greater risk of being socially isolated compared with men in similar situations. When a woman addict or alcoholic becomes isolated, her thought processes may deteriorate, and she may become suicidal with continued thoughts of hopelessness. These factors becomes additional barriers when women wish to seek help and remain sober. Medical coverage continues to be a growing concern, especially in countries without a national healthcare system. In some states within the United States, if a person has a felony drug charge, that person is excluded from state health benefits due to their drug charge. Residential treatment programs tend to



Administrative Assistants/Office Managers

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be more expensive, and therefore more exclusive to wealthier patients or those with medical insurance, thus economically disadvantaged women may be limited in their treatment options (e.g., community/ government versus private/hospital programs). An interesting finding from research is that women from wealthier backgrounds are less likely to seek treatment, which may be due to factors mentioned earlier (e.g., higher expectations placed on them to maintain gender roles). Age is a consistent barrier for women. The younger a woman is, the more likely she will receive a diagnosis of substance use or abuse. However, several studies have shown that older women encounter mental and medical professionals who are reluctant to ask about substance abuse. This pattern is ironic because most studies show that women will seek out medical or mental health professionals first before considering specific substance recovery programs. When women do seek treatment, they may face the challenge of professional staff identifying their problems as primarily psychological (mental illness) and not substance abuse, or vice versa. This separation denies that a woman is a complex person who fills multiple roles and responsibilities; she is more dynamic than simply a substance user/abuser or someone with a mental illness. This continued compartmentalizing contributes to the revolving door phenomenon where multiple professionals are visited and referrals keep patients moving in a perpetual circle.

ing previous relationships and cultural environments without relying on avoidant strategies (e.g., slipping back into using alcohol or drugs).

Successful Treatment Support throughout treatment can incorporate three levels: emotional, instrumental, and cognitive (thought processes). Emotional support involves having someone to listen to a woman’s problems, believe in her, and help her to have the confidence that she can change and create a new life for herself (and her children). Support is needed to learn how to form new social networks with professional staff, role models within self-help groups, and reconnecting with family members. Instrumental support includes resources on housing, finding work, education, parenting, and healthy relationship skills, and providing vital services, such as transportation and childcare, to help women attend their treatment sessions. Cognitive support involves looking at a woman’s coping and problem solving skills in preparation for re-enter-

Patricia A. Marsh University of Central Missouri Tina M. Keith Independent Scholar

See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Health, Mental and Physical. Further Readings Green, Carla A. “Gender and Use of Substance Abuse Treatment Services.” Alcohol Research & Health, v.29 (2006). Hecksher, Dorte and Morten Hesse. “Women and Substance Use Disorders.” Mens Sana Monographs, v.7/1 (2009). Kaskutas, Lee Ann, Lixia Zhang, Michael T. French, and Jane Witbrodt. “Women’s Programs Versus MixedGender Day Treatment: Results From a Randomized Study.” Addiction, v.100 (2005). The Office on Drugs and Crime. Global Illicit Drug Trends. United Nations Website. http://www.unodc .org/pdf/trends2003_www_E.pdf (accessed June 2010). Trulsson, Karin and Ulla C. Hedin. “The Role of Social Support When Giving Up Drug Abuse: A Female Perspective.” International Journal of Social Welfare, v.13 (2004). Walter, Henriette, K. Gutierrez, K. Ramskogler, I. Hertling, A. Dvorak, and O. Lesch. “Gender-Specific Differences in Alcoholism: Implications for Treatment.” Archives of Women’s Mental Health, v.6 (2003).

Administrative Assistants/ Office Managers Today’s administrative assistants, a position largely held by women (97 percent), may be the most important support position in the business world. This worker often serves as “office wife,” confidante, guard dog, and facilitator in addition to performing routine office tasks. Christopher W. Felt, author of What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business: Opening Up

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Administrative Assistants/Office Managers

the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook, contends that the administrative assistant to the alpha male, which he defines as “the great white shark of the ocean of business,” is the most powerful woman in a company because she knows more about the boss than anyone else in that environment. If she is loyal and efficient, she will keep his secrets and prevent his mistakes from becoming known to others. The power that an administrative assistant has may vary greatly according to the size of a company and length of an individual’s service. From the time women entered the business world, administrative assistants were known as secretaries; the women’s movement led to a re-examination of women’s roles and to a newly awakened recognition of the contributions of support staff to a company’s success. Thus, secretaries became known as administrative assistants. In 2008, there were 4.2 million jobs in the United States for secretaries and administrative assistants. Some 90 percent of those jobs were in the service industries. The United States Labor Department has predicted that between 2008 and 2018, the number of administrative assistants will increase by 11 percent. The median annual wage of these workers, excluding administrative assistants in legal, medical and executive positions who earn higher wages, was $29,050 in 2008. Workers at the higher end of the scale earned as much as $43,240, while employees at the lower end of the scale averaged $18,440. Unlike the administrative assistant who tends to work closely with a single boss, the office manager is generally responsible for a group of support people. She is likely to work closely with management, performing such tasks as hiring and firing staff, preparing payrolls and maintaining financial records. Average salaries range from $27,676 for office managers with less than a year’s experience to $54,914 for managers with more than 20 years experience. There is a high turnover rate among office managers, the result of firings, job hopping, and retirements. Office managers often become scapegoats when problems arise within companies, and they may take the blame if their employers make major mistakes. In the 21st century, many office managers are required to have college degrees, and potential employers look for individuals who have taken courses in organizational behavior, psychology, sociology, finance, and English. Accounting capabilities may be essential for office managers in

small companies. A large number of office managers use their positions as a stepping stone to careers as bookkeepers, bank assistants, or purchasing agents. Qualifications for administrative assistants tend to be less stringent than those for office managers. In the past, typing and shorthand were the chief qualifications. No longer. Today’s modern office requires what the U.S. Labor Department calls “extensive knowledge of computer software applications.” Job applicants must know a variety of programs including word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation design as well as have the ability to prepare reports and newsletters. Knowledge of basic computer skills is a given. Training may be achieved in high school, vocational and trade schools, or through employersubsidized classes, community colleges and even over the Internet. Many administrative assistants now have college degrees related to a specific field. The shift in job requirements was directly related to the redefinition of job responsibilities, and many administrative assistants now assume tasks once reserved for predominately male managerial and professional staff. At the same time, many administrative assistants continue to be responsible for scheduling, controlling access to a boss’s time, storing information, and performing general office tasks such as filing, answering phones, and opening mail. Some administrative assistants, such as those in the medical and legal professions, may perform and analyze highly specialized research. In large offices, a team of administrative assistants often work together to provide executive support. New technologies also have produced what is known as the “virtual assistant,” a person who works from home via the Internet, e-mail, and/or fax to perform tasks such as scheduling, data entry, writing letters and reports, bookkeeping, and desktop publishing. In the 21st century, the vast majority of administrative assistants and office managers continue to work 40 hours per week on a five-day schedule, but many companies have begun working with women who have families to provide more flexible work schedules through flex time, job sharing and telecommuting. About 18 percent of all administrative assistants/ office managers now work part time. See Also: Business, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Working Mothers.

Adolescence

Further Readings Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Secretaries and Administrative Assistants.” http://www.bls.gov/oco /ocos151.htm (accessed April 2010). Felt, Christopher V. What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business: Opening Up the Heavily Guarded Alpha Male Playbook. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. “Office Manager.” The Princeton Review. http://www .princetonreview.com/Careers.aspx?cid=103 (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Adolescence Adolescence commonly occurs between 12 and 18 years of age. However, for girls, it may begin before age 12, whereas for boys it may extend beyond 18. It is associated with rapid physical growth, body transformations (menstrual periods, growth of under-arm, body, and pubic hair) and intense emotional changes. Physically, today adolescent girls are maturating and enter puberty earlier than the previous female generations. Socially, they detach from parental models while the importance of social life increases. Bigger parent– child conflicts may occur in immigrant families, when adolescents adapt faster than parents and when the new values are incompatible with the native culture. The first theorization of adolescence as a life stage was Stanley Hall’s book, Adolescence (1904), where, following the German Sturm und Drang art movement, he linked adolescence with “storm and stress.” Subsequently, Margaret Mead argued, based on her (controversial) research in Samoa, that culture and upbringing, and not the very nature of adolescence, are responsible for adolescent’s distress and anxiety. Later, Jean Piaget provided cognitive and not cultural explanations. Today, many religious and secular coming-of-age rituals are preserved. Examples of religious rites of passage are Confirmation in Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, and Anglican Churches; Gwallye in Confucianist societies (Korea); Bat Mitzvah in Judaism. Among the secular ceremonies, are the Quinceañera (in Latin American culture), “Sweet 16” parties (United States and Canada), Baile de Debutantes (Bra-

25

zil), Debut (Philippines), débutante balls (Australia and many countries). In Mexico, Panama, and Paraguay, the coming-of-age celebrations are rather a middleupper-class practice. In Japan, all 20th birthdays are celebrated during a January national holiday. In Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, and areas of Transylvania, particular ceremonies are held at the end of high school. Other school-related ceremonies are in Vanhojen tanssit (Finland), Galas (France), and many more. “Adolescence” and “youth” are often used interchangeably, although they are rooted in different scholarly traditions. Adolescence is a concept drawn from developmental psychology. It is based on the assumption of common age-related characteristics. It uncritically links the social being with physical traits, assumed to be identical to an age group. Such views reproduce a normative and stereotypical image and are criticized for incorporating Western middle-class and gender biases. Youth is a concept used in sociology. It tends to allow consideration of other characteristics than age (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, social class, etc.). Sociology of youth tends to focus on young people’s relations with adults, institutions, and with the cultures they develop. Yet, age tends to remain a major category. For this reason, the approaches of youth as a life stage or age group have been challenged as adultocratic. Besides, according to Lynne Chisholm (1997), youth tends to be socially constructed as masculine and associated with disturbancy and ephebiphobia, or the fear of youth. Adolescence does not follow a linear trajectory, or a uniform rhythm. In developed societies, there is a tendency toward the prolongation of youth together with a destandardization or deregulation of youth transitions, according to Syka Kovacheva, Andreas Walther, and Jeffrey Jensen Arnett. The concept of “yo-yo-ization” of transitions between youth and adulthood has been proposed by Andreas Walther in order to capture the flexible movement between various social roles that are less age related (e.g., education, work, and the starting of family life). Different societies understand adolescence differently. Agrarian communities view it as a (short) transition between childhood and adulthood, whereas in industrialized societies adolescence is a socially recognized life stage in its own right. Yet, although at present, 86 percent of the largest-ever generation of young people, aged 10 to 24, are living in developing

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Adolescence

world, still, the attention is drawn to the adolescents living in Western developed countries. Adolescence in Western Societies One phenomenon largely associated to Western countries is eating disorders. Medical evidence shows that disordered eating usually begins during early adolescence and a main risk factor is an experience of physical or sexual abuse. In the United States, bulimia has a higher prevalence among girls from low-income families, more likely to be African American. Despite being associated with Western societies, increased evidences of eating disorders in the developing world may be attributed to the globalized media, but also to less studied local factors (e.g., urbanization, new cultural constructions of female body image). Adolescence is a precious market niche for age and gender-segregated markets of goods and media. Consumption is simultaneously an expression of identity and a factor that shape identity formation. Teen media is contributing to constructions of femininity that value body image, appearance and consumption. Today, youth cultures proliferated immensely and cannot be explained by previous theories on the rejection of the social system. They are maintained by leisure industries and contribute to adolescents’ self-definition. The increased use of Internet social networking sites generated debates on its value and benefits for adolescent girls. On the one hand, it appears that the Internet allows girls to claim power and assume more authority in the construction of a heterosexual relationship, according to Lynn Schofield Clark. On the other hand, there are recent concerns on the sexual advances, Internet-initiated sex crimes, and dating violence. Gender-based roles, stressors, poor body self-concept and negative life events are reported as responsible for the overrepresentation of depressive symptoms and anxiety among adolescent girls. Generally, there is a higher level of parental control exerted upon girls than upon boys and a relative gender bias in documenting girls’ risk-taking behaviors. In developing countries, pregnancy and childbirth related complications are the principal cause of death in girls aged 15 to 19, whereas in Unites States, 10 percent of adolescents of the same age became pregnant, followed by birth, abortion or miscarriage. Criminalization of abortion in many African countries endangers the health of many adolescents. The recent intro-

duction of the human papilloma-virus (HPV) vaccine for cancer prevention raised various reactions: from immediate vaccination to skepticism on its side effects, or misapprehensions of its role for fertility control. School-based immunization programs may be problematic in areas where housework or work is a serious deterrent to girls’ attendance. Issues in Conflict Zones Teen prostitution is a surviving strategy for some adolescents living on streets or in areas of conflict. Girl combatants are a severely under-researched group. Extreme poverty, malnutrition, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) orphanhood may push adolescent girls into prostitution in the context of increasing tourism and demand, (e.g., Tanzania, Kenya, Thailand and the Philippines). Abduction or trading of girls during armed combat involves forced prostitution or war rape (e.g., Angola, Burundi, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, the former Yugoslavia, and Turkey). At present, a cohort of “war babies” born following war rape of Muslim women during the mid-1990s Bosnian war is reaching adolescence in a context of social stigmatization. Adolescent girls may be trafficked for forced prostitution, bonded labor, domestic servitude, forced marriage, or begging. Trafficking increases the vulnerability to abuse (e.g., intimidation, isolation, physical force, and debt bondage, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV, unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions). At highest risk of being trafficked are adolescent and young women from minority ethnic groups who are disempowered and face economic exclusion and violence at home. Worldwide, there are several rendered cultural practices that endanger the health and autonomy of adolescent girls. Breast ironing (Cameron) is an induced form of breast reduction, performed by mothers with a heated item, for protecting adolescents from the risks of sexual attractiveness. Female circumcision (or female genital mutilation/cutting) is performed on girls until preadolescence in large African Muslim areas. Bride kidnapping is a practice in central Asia, the Caucasus region, and partially Africa. Besides, in several former Soviet countries, it has been reinforced recently as an expression of cultural identity and main-

Adoption



tained for economic reasons. Honor killing and, more recently, honor suicides in several Muslim cultures are ultimate forms of violence. Opinions on adolescents’ political activism vary: from a large perception on adolescents’ apathy, to claims that the very forms of political activism have changed (including now boycott campaigns and cyber-activism/ protests). Recent examples of youth activism are student-led protests in 2007 Burma, the so called “Twitter Revolution” in Iran in 2009, and in Republic of Moldavia in 2008, the demonstrations of Tibetan youth (2008), of French young people (2006) or the 2002 feminist movement “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” initiated by young French Muslim women against the suburbs’ gender-based violence. Despite the fact that most young girls and boys have positive social experiences and are striving to succeed in school or work, adolescence received a bad press. In recent years, society ceased to see young people as “the future” out of the concern for various socially constructed problems like teen pregnancy, adolescent crime, substance abuse, premature and unsafe sexuality, etc. The “fear of youth” informed legal decisions on reducing the age of criminal responsibility and various methods of surveillance and control (e.g., security systems, mobile phones, computer surveillance, metal detectors, and surveillance cameras). See Also: Child Labor; Children’s Rights; Eating Disorders; Internet Dating; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Arnett, J. J. Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006. Chisholm, Lynne. “From Unequal Opportunities to Equal Lack of Opportunities? Gendered Dimensions of Social Change and Youth in Europe.” Young, v.5 (1997). Clark, L. S. “Dating on the Net: Teens and the Rise of ‘Pure’ Relationships.” In Jones G. Steven, ed., Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998. Kovacheva, Syka. “Flexibilization of Youth Transition in Central and Eastern Europe.” Young, v.9 (2001). Walther, Andreas. “Regimes of Youth Transitions.” Young, v.14 (2006). Maria-Carmen Pantea Babeş Bolyai University

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Adoption Adoption is a form of fictive kinship in which an individual or a couple assumes the parental status of a child who is frequently not biologically related. In legal adoption, the biological parents relinquish all legal rights to the child; these rights are transferred to the adoptive parents. Because of the permanent and legally binding nature of adoption, the child is socially recognized as “belonging” to the newly constituted family unit and theoretically acquires the same status as the other family members, regardless of whether ties are established on the basis of biological reproduction or not. Formal adoption differs significantly from other forms of childcare in which the child is raised outside of the biological parent–child dyad, such as guardianship and crisis and voluntary fostering, as such lessformal care systems allow children to inherit from the biological parents, and the biological parents retrain the right to veto decisions taken by the foster parents. In fostering, a child may at any time be removed from the foster care parents, whereas removal from adoptive parents is improbable because of the legalities surrounding adoptive kin. The History of Adoption The history of adoption is a long one, dating back to the Roman Empire. In Roman antiquity, adoption was the mainstay of the aristocracy and served the primary purposes of strengthening political ties between wealthy kin groupings and providing a readily available pool of potential male heirs where no biological children existed who were able to assist in running estates. Although the emphasis on adoption during the Roman Empire was clearly founded on the expansion of the family, with strictly political motives, adoption recorded in other parts of the world during this period, such as in India and China, served the purpose of the continuation of religious and cultural rites that required male intervention; for example, ancestral veneration. The process of adoption, which was so prevalent in the Roman Empire, saw a stark decline during the medieval era. In the medieval period, strong emphasis was placed on biological genealogies, and ruling families who were unable to provide suitable evidence of a biological heir were frequently replaced. The move

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Adoption

A trend in contemporary adoption featured prominently in public debate is the adoption of children by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, and is only legal in certain countries.

toward the prominence of the biological child–parent dyad saw many children abandoned during medieval times; these children were frequently absorbed by churches, resulting in the establishment of the orphanage system. The increasing numbers of children in institutionalized care lead to the revival of the family as the “best-fit” model of care for destitute children. However, although adopted children increased familial status during the Roman Empire by providing oft-needed sons, children integrated into families during medieval times were most often absorbed for financial reasons; most notably, the provision of cheap labor. Despite the blatantly financial motives for adoption at this time, the reabsorption of children into families led to what is commonly heralded as the rise of the modern system of adoption. In the 19th century, activists concerned with child rights rallied around the notion that children should be integrated into families for reasons of sentiment,

rather than as a mechanism for providing cheap labor. This idea was increasingly accepted in the United States and was ratified in 1909, when the U.S. president of the time, Theodore Roosevelt, declared the nuclear family to be the most suitable institution for rearing orphaned and abandoned children. However, although familial adoption was accepted in the uppermost echelons of society, the sentiment of adoption did not gain widespread precedence until after World War II, when it became a natural option for unmarried mothers and couples who were unable to conceive. In modern adoption, in America, as in other parts of the world that have followed America’s lead, the best interests of the child are considered to be of paramount importance, and as a result, the process of adoption became shrouded in secrecy in the 1900s. The secrecy surrounding adoption served the purpose of protecting the rights of the child by making the adoptee a fully fledged, legally recognized member of a new family



once ties with the biological parents had been severed. This model of adoption has become the global norm. Modern Adoption In the contemporary era, placing a child for adoption occurs for a number of reasons, such as the death of the biological parents, the lack of financial wherewithal for the biological parents to raise a child, and parental pressure exerted on young biological parents to relinquish rights to the child. Adoptions in the present day occur between both related and unrelated kin. The primary reasons for biological kin adoption include parental death; the inability to care for a child because of age, medical conditions, and alcohol and drug abuse; and a child being formally adopted by a parent’s new spouse, which is commonly referred to as stepparent adoption. The most common reasons for choosing to adopt a child include the inability to conceive, maternal yearning, and the desire to provide a safe home to a child in need. Adoption today is divided into what are termed “open” and “closed” adoptions. Open adoption permits free-flowing communication between the child and the biological parents, which may include access to information about the child’s well-being and visitation rights. In open adoption, the adoptive parents retain sole responsibility for the child and are able to terminate communication as they deem fit. In the case of closed adoption, the adoptive parents may be given information that does not reveal the identity of the biological parents, such as ethnicity, medical history, and religious denomination, and the adoptive parents are in turn given limited information that does not specifically identify the biological parents. Withholding personal information stems from the ideal of secrecy surrounding adoption that arose with modern adoption. Although adoption has historically been limited to taking place within the borders of a country, a global trend has emerged that entails transnational adoption. Transnational adoption may occur through either a private or public agency, and the laws regulating international adoption vary significantly from one country to another. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), war, and poverty have resulted in an increase in cross-border adoption, in which adoptive parents opt to adopt pri-

Adoption

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marily to provide a safe haven to a child in need. International adoption is also undertaken to secure access to a child who is of a similar ethnic origin, to speed up the adoption process by avoiding internal waiting lists, or to fulfill maternal desire by providing ready access to a child. Despite the fact that adoption is closely monitored and regulated in much of the Western world, adoption for financial gain is a growing trend, especially in the international adoption arena. Contentious Issues in Modern Adoption An issue that has been hotly debated in the modern era of adoption is that of transracial adoption. In America, as in many African countries such as South Africa, adoption experts have stated their preferences for placing a child in a family that shares the same racial background as the child. Reasons for this preference include culture, language, identity formation, and the issue of exceptionality. Informal fostering is a childcare practice that has been common across the African continent, and this culturally sanctioned practice has historically allowed for economic resources to be extended throughout the lineage, skills to be acquired, labor to be offered, companionship to be given, education opportunities to be exploited, and kin ties to be strengthened. Despite the growing number of children in need of care, permanent legally binding adoption is still not as common as informal fostering, and transracial adoption is regarded as a last resort only. A new trend that has emerged in adoption is embryo adoption, a process that allows women who are either unable to conceive or unable to carry to term the ability to form a bond with a child from the embryonic stage. Although embryos may be implanted in a woman who is unable to conceive, allowing her to experience pregnancy, women who are able to conceive but unable to carry to term may gain access to an embryo and, through a surrogate mother implanted with the embryo, experience the maturation of the fetus and the subsequent birth process. Embryo adoption is a contentious issue that has garnered both support, being regarded as an act of kindness and goodwill, and criticism, being viewed as interfering with the natural order. Another trend in contemporary adoption that has also featured prominently in public debate is the adoption of children by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. In certain countries or

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Advertising, Aimed at Women

states within countries, same-sex adoption is legal, whereas in other parts of the world, legislation has been introduced in an attempt to stop same-sex adoption. In Uruguay, for example, same-sex couples are legally permitted to jointly adopt a child, whereas in the United States, the legislation varies across states, with Arkansas having the most stringent laws in place to prevent LGBT adoption. Differing global and interstate adoption laws have led to numerous unresolved adoption cases. The highly publicized case of Baby Emma spotlights how differing state laws can determine legal parentage from varying perspectives. The biological parents of Baby Emma were unmarried at the time of her birth, and Emma was placed for adoption in Utah without the consent of her biological father. The case is one that places diverging state laws in conflict with each other and brings into question the rights of unwed fathers in gaining custody of their children. In this particular case, diverging state laws recognize different parties as having parental rights over the child, resulting in differing legal perspectives on who should rightfully raise Emma. Similarly, the Hansen case highlights the unresolved legalities surrounding international adoption. In the Hansen case, a Russian child was adopted by an American woman who later decided to return the child to Russia. The case caused a global furor regarding the binding rights and legal framework of both adoptive parents and adopted children. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Childlessness as Choice; Convention of the Rights of the Child; Foster Mothers; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Pregnancy. Further Readings Chemezie, A. “Transracial Adoption of Black Children.” Social Work, v.20 (1975). Hollingsworth, Leslie. “Symbolic Interactionism, African American Families, and the Transracial Adoption Controversy.” National Association of Social Workers, 1999. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6467/ is_5_44/ai_n28741272 (accessed June 2010). Madhavan, S. “Fosterage Patterns in the Age of AIDS: Continuity and Change.” Social Science and Medicine, v.58/7 (2004). Melosh, Barbara. Strangers and Kin: The American Way of Adoption. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Rayside, David M. Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions: Public Recognition of Sexual Diversity in Canada and the United States. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Susan de la Porte University of KwaZulu-Natal

Advertising, Aimed at Women The goal of advertising aimed at women is to generate women’s interest in and action on a particular product, service, or cause. In the 21st century, women have emerged as the major consumer market for advertisers in terms of size and importance. Advertising targets women according to their demographic characteristics and psychographics—their lifestyles and values. Evidence from research, knowledge about popular culture, and consumer typologies help marketers hone their message. Focus and communication strategies engage women consumers. More companies are tailoring the message to women without identifying the product as being for women. They use multiple strategies to reach women consumers, such as the Internet and other technologies, product placement, giveaways, and cause marketing. The average American is exposed to about 5,000 messages per day. Advertising is everywhere—in print and broadcast media, on billboards, shopping and luggage carts, on Websites, and on public transportation. Advertising works by first exposing women to the message, getting women to consider the message, and influencing women’s attitudes and opinions toward whatever is being sold. Advertising is big business. Marketers spent an estimated $280 billion in advertising in the United States in 2005, about 48 percent of the $581 billion spent globally. More and more advertising dollars are being spent targeting women. A Major Market In the 21st century, women have emerged as the major advertising target in terms of size and importance. Growth in women’s economic and spending power is driving advertisers’ increasing recognition



of women as consumers. Women earn more than half the combined household income in most U.S. households. As women’s educational attainment increases, so do their earnings. U.S. women’s mean income grew about 63 percent from 1970 to the early 2000s, while men’s income was stagnant. Growing numbers of women are out earning their husbands. The majority of women manage their family finances. U.S. women make about two-thirds of all household purchasing decisions, including big-ticket items such as home furnishings, cars, and trucks. Important Perceptual Differences Companies are using findings from research and knowledge about popular culture to guide advertising aimed at women. Research has revealed significant gender differences in terms of how women think, how they decide what to buy, and how they respond to advertising messages. Research shows that men and women perceive things differently. Men excel at honing in on an image, whereas women have superior peripheral vision. Women are more sensitive to loud sounds. Women’s sense of smell is more acute. The most dramatic gender differences pertain to women’s greater sensitivity to touch. Differences in how women process and retain information and respond to verbal and social cues combine to influence their attraction to and purchase of products and services. Brain research indicates women read more into advertising messages than men do and think more emotionally about the message. When women listen, they use both sides of the brain, making them more susceptible to advertising messages. Survey research shows most women perceive products and marketing more holistically than men do. Women are also better at picking up on nuances and details. Combining the results of brain research and biochemistry with social research about gender, generational, cultural, and communication differences allows advertisers to tailor their messages specifically for women and to segment the women’s market even further. Segmenting the Market Marketers target advertising aimed at women to various segments or audiences based on demographic and psychographic factors. Demographic factors include characteristics such as gender, generational member-

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ship, socioeconomic status, geographic location, and culture. Psychographic factors are values and beliefs held by women in the target audience. Marketers use typologies—classification systems based on demographic and psychographic factors— to guide their advertising. These typologies reflect gender stereotypes about women and their values, motivations, and interests at different life stages. They also reflect gender stereotypes about women within the major cultural categories across the globe. Gender stereotypes are generalizations about the roles, characteristics, and attitudes of women. Typologies based on gender stereotypes reflect societal and cultural assumptions about women. By creating and using typologies, marketers can hone their message to the stereotypical female consumer within each typology. Roper Starch Worldwide, using the results of thousands of interviews focused on fundamental values and motivators of consumers in 35 countries, created six basic categories representing the adult global consumer, and by extension, the global female consumer. Strivers (estimated at 23 percent of the world’s population) live mostly in developing and developed countries. Typically middle age, their values include wealth, power, and status. Devouts (22 percent) live mostly in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. They hold traditional values, such as faith, obedience, duty, and respect. Altruists (18 percent) are generally older and well educated. Their motivators stem from their interest in social causes and political issues. Altruists live primarily in Latin America and Russia. Intimates (15 percent) are motivated by interpersonal relationships and are media-oriented. They live primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Hungary. Fun Seekers (12 percent) are young and driven by adventure, excitement, and pleasure. They place value on appearance and spend their leisure time at clubs, bars, and restaurants. Creatives (10 percent) value knowledge and technology. They tend to be early adopters and avid consumers of media. Cultural and ethnic identity is another driver for segmenting the women’s market. Important cultural differences exist in terms of belief systems and values and brand loyalty and consumer tastes. Successful global campaigns aimed at women are aligned with the beliefs and values of women in the target country.

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The women’s market is segmented even further by generational values, life transitions and milestones, and culture. Marketers develop advertising approaches toward women in recognition of different core generational values. Women in Generation Y are sophisticated consumers skeptical of and skilled at ignoring traditional advertising content. They value collaboration and are open to trying new products and services. Generation X women value self-reliance and cynicism, and are hostile toward advertising hype. In contrast, baby boomer women value idealism, individualism, and empowerment. The conception of aging is changing in the 2000s, thanks to baby boomers who embrace technology, change brands, and love to consume goods and products. Advertisers are rethinking the upper age limits of the conventional adult consumer market of 18 to 49. The sheer number and purchasing power of baby boomer women will spur new advertising approaches to capture their dollars. Within generation segments, marketers hone in on the varied values and interests of working women, stay-at-home mothers, retired women, etc. The attitudes and behaviors of women within the same generation or socioeconomic background vary widely, thus marketers also targeting women in terms of social maturity. For example, marketers may segment the women’s market based on psychosocial stages of adult development. Women’s life transitions provide marketers with opportunities to establish new brand relationships. Further segmentation occurs based on product categories and consumer labels. Capturing Her Attention Research shows that women deliberate longer than men before making a purchase. Thus, marketers often create multiple opportunities for repeated messaging about a product or service. By cultivating the woman consumer, they win her loyalty and commitment. They focus on her values, such as community and connection, by using real-life stories and appealing to women’s sense of group affiliation. The reward is a consumer referral rate that is twice that of men’s. Advertising grabs women’s attention by focusing on important aspects of female gender culture, such as social values. By designing ads that focus on people rather than product, similarity rather than superiority, and community rather than competition, advertisers

capitalize on the importance most women place on community and connection. Advertising approaches focus on building a bond with the woman consumer by using actors that are attractive but not unrealistically so, and by portraying realistic situations that resonate with women. Advertising focuses on life and time factors, such as milestones, transitions, and women’s roles in the home and the workplace. Advertisers use focus strategies to convey the big picture about the product, using details to differentiate their brand or product. Communication strategies help to make the advertising message more personal and meaningful. Successful advertising strategies involve communications designed to motivate the consumer. Indulgence often serves as a marketing tool to motivate women to make purchases as rewards they’ve earned. Conveying the Message Approaches geared toward women consumers include visible marketing, transparent marketing, and hybrid campaigns. Visible marketing is designed for women only; the advertising message contains language and imagery that are unmistakably targeted toward women. Transparent marketing involves tailoring the message to the needs of the woman consumer, but not identifying the service or product as being for women. Hybrid campaigns involve visibly marketing certain products or aspects of products toward women within an overall transparent marketing campaign. The use of transparent marketing toward women is growing, and may represent the dominant approach in the future. Transparent marketing works best when the campaign has a narrow focus and reflects intimate understanding of the particular consumer group. Successful ads focus on the products context, define the brand, and are authentic. The growth and popularity of the Internet necessitated a shift from traditional print, television, and radio advertising. Companies use the Internet and other new technologies to get their message across to women and to tailor the message. Companies build brand loyalty by making sure their Website is easy to navigate. They make the Website appealing to women by emphasizing human images and stories. They give women choices in how they share and receive information. They place banners and spot ads on blogs



and Websites popular with women or the targeted segment of the women’s market. They use electronic marketing to observe the popularity of sites. Companies use self-discovery quizzes and polls, online advisory boards, and peer reviews as a way to connect to the customer and gain an edge in understanding the female consumer. Companies also create noncorporate Websites to create an international community of women. These Websites provide specific content geared to pique the interest of the target consumer, building brand loyalty in the process. Companies place targeted ads on online social networking sites such as Facebook and on portable devices, such as cell phone ringtones associated with products. As use of new technologies becomes widespread, advertisers create targeted messaging displayed on cell phones, iPods, and other mobile devices. Marketers also get their message to women through viral videos, which are funny, outrageous, or bizarre video clips that get broad exposure on the Internet by women who gladly share them with others through e-mail or instant messaging. Advertisers place short commercials on news and entertainment Websites, often requiring that the viewer watch the ad before accessing the desired content. Companies use new approaches to reach women, particularly younger women who have developed sophisticated marketing filters that screen out conventional advertising. They use more subtle approaches such as public relations campaigns, product placement and giveaways, and strategies to promote wordof-mouth referrals to reach advertising-savvy women. Companies get around negative perceptions of mass corporate brands by getting their products in the hands of pop culture icons who young women consider cool. They use product giveaways in bars and on city streets where young women congregate. Such word of mouth advertising works because women who are enthusiastic about new products will talk about them to others in their social networks. Companies target female early adopters through invitations to special events, discounts, samples, and coupons, all designed to create a buzz about the product. Cause marketing is a way for companies to promote their good deeds and enhance their image through advertising. Many companies partner with charitable causes that resonate with women to attract women consumers. Cause marketing grew 23 per-

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cent from 2005 to 2007, representing more than $1 billion. Breast cancer is a cause dear to women that many companies embrace. Research shows that older consumers appreciate socially responsible companies. Members of Generation Y, expecting companies to be socially responsible, often vote with their purchasing decisions. As research reveals new motivators for women consumers around the globe, and new technologies emerge to reach and engage the different segments of women’s market, advertising aimed at women will adapt and evolve. See Also: Advertising, Female Professionals in; Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Gender, Defined; Internet; Pink, Advertising and. Further Readings Barletta, Marti. Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment, 2nd ed. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2006. Gardner, Andrea. The 30 Second Seduction: How Advertisers Lure Women Through Flattery, Flirtation, and Manipulation. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2008. Johnson, Linda and Andrea Learned. Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy—and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market. New York: American Management Association, 2004. Witter, Lisa and Lisa Chen. The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World—and How to Reach Them. San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008. Keri L. Heitner University of Phoenix

Advertising, Female Professionals in When modern advertising developed in the United States in the late-19th century, the industry was open to a variety of enterprising individuals, including females. Since then, women have distinguished themselves in all facets of the business, creating original and profitable campaigns, and even heading important

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advertising agencies. By 2008, women comprised half of all employees in advertising and related professions. Nevertheless, agencies in the United States, England, and elsewhere remain bastions of gender inequality, particularly in creative departments, where men outnumber women more than two to one. Ironically, many of the females who have achieved career success in the field have done so through exploiting sexist stereotypes. Advertisements are among the most pervasive transmitters of cultural messages in modern societies, and limitations on women’s input into advertising may play a crucial role in perpetuating sexism. Social changes and repeated calls for industry reform may gradually bring equal opportunity to the field. Helen Woodward is emblematic of women’s early involvement in the field during advertising’s “progressive” era—moving up from stenographer at the Merill and Baker Agency around 1902 to becoming a copywriter, freelancer, and then in 1924, leaving the industry to write scathing critiques of it. Advertising Women of New York was founded in 1912 because advertising women at that time were barred from attending other ad clubs. The group has continuously supported the professional growth and advancement of women in communications, and, since 1997, have issued The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Awards to celebrate and embarrass advertisers’ depictions of women. By 1918, the J. Walter Thompson Agency had a separate department of female copywriters headed by Helen Landsdowne. Staffed predominantly by graduates of prestigious colleges, these women created ads for Pond’s, Crisco, and other women-oriented accounts that proved enormously profitable. Advertisers understood that females were making 85 percent of household purchasing decisions, and women creatives were able to communicate with this important audience. Ad women during this “progressive” period made use of stereotypes about feminine intuition to gain employment in creative positions. By exploiting this stereotype, women gained the freedom to escape the formulaic approaches that were prescribed to their male counterparts. Women early in the 20th century created new ad forms, including advertisements that imitated the look of editorial matter, and ads featuring endorsements by aristocrats and society women.

Even though significant agency revenue was attributed to women, they were often barred from positions of power such as deal-making or client contact roles. By the 1930s, many agencies limited top jobs to business school graduates, at a time when business programs excluded women. Women’s contributions were underplayed or even hidden from clients and the public. A pioneer, Landsdowne was rarely photographed, almost never gave speeches or wrote articles, and was generally kept out of the limelight until three years after her death, in 1970, when she was placed in the Advertising Hall of Fame. By the 1960s, some ad women were well known, including the glamorous Mary Wells, who entered the field as a fashion-advertising manager, worked as a copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach on the company’s breakthrough campaigns for Volkswagen and Avis Rent A Car, and went on to establish Wells Rich and Green in 1966, where she updated Braniff Airlines’ image. Wells, along with Mary Fillius, Jane Trahey, and Jo Foxworth helped bring the advertising industry into its golden age. Second Wave of Feminism Betty Friedan’s influential 1963 book The Feminine Mystique accused advertisers of promoting the role of women as servile and helpless to make them feel more dependent on advertised products. By the 1970s, a second wave of feminists attacked what they viewed as insulting depictions of women in American advertising. Many of them held sit-ins and threatened to boycott goods advertised in ways they saw as demeaning to women. Ironically, some of these campaigns had been created by women—such as the Clairol hair dye ads from Shirley Polykoff, which declared, “Only her hairdresser knows for sure,” and “If I have only one life to live, let me live it as a blonde.” The jury is still out on whether Polykoff ’s hugely successful hair dye ads empowered women to choose their hair color, or disempowered them by creating artificial beauty standards that linked women’s happiness to their attractiveness. This controversy is an example of advertising’s complex and intractable role in consumer culture. Polykoff ’s professional success did not conform to most feminist ideals, but it did open doors to more female creatives. When advertisers of the 1970s moderated their advertising approaches, it was partly



due to women within agencies working against both exploitive portrayals of females in ads and discrimination in hiring and promotion within the industry. Despite the industry’s claims to using scientific approaches to marketing, it has always depended on creative professionals’ subjective judgment to develop advertising concepts and to give form to these ideas. Then, as now, agency heads saw their businesses as largely subjective enterprises, and promoted associates whom they felt best about instinctively—men—rather than relying on objective criteria such as degrees or years of experience. Discrimination against women in advertising is consistent with a well-documented discriminatory culture in which racial minorities and workers over 40 years old are underemployed in copywriting and art directing. Creative departments are generally exempt from regular dress codes and business conduct, and a harddrinking “boys’ club” atmosphere is standard within top firms, where basketball hoops and foosball tablesare standard fare. Many female creatives find difficulty fitting into this culture, which is even more pervasive outside the United States. In top agencies, as few as one in 10 campaign proposals are chosen for presentation to clients. Female creatives cite intense competition as well as long hours, frequent night and weekend responsibilities, and lack of accommodation for childcare, as major impediments to promotion. Long-standing cultural prejudices against women as true creative geniuses—seen as egotistical, eccentric or petulant— may persist within advertising agencies. Agency heads also may be averse to promoting women into positions in which they routinely criticize and reject the work of male creatives. Some women have moved into creative director roles, though many of these have remained childless, or else raised families with help from fulltime nannies or stay-at-home husbands. Top roles for women have gradually expanded in advertising and other fields. By 1992, Charlotte Beers had become head of Olgilvy & Mather Worldwide. Beers became head of J. Walter Thompson by 1999, and then Under Secretary of State under George W. Bush. By 2000, women still had complaints about how few of them were promoted in creative departments in France, Brazil, and Hong Kong. Some women in the United States were bringing racial as well as gender diversity to the field, with African Americans Ann Fudge becoming head of Young and Rubicam in 2003,

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and Vida Cornelius moving from vice president and creative director at Doyle Dane Bernbach Chicago to become vice president and group creative director of GlobalHue in 2009. Nevertheless, inequities remain pronounced. So far, there is no concrete proof that the underrepresentation of women in creative departments is the main cause of sexual stereotyping and objectification in ads. However, this relationship is of great interest to feminists, media theorists, and psychologists. They continue to review recent findings on the effects of sexist advertising, which include damage to girls’ cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and to women’s healthy sexual development. Other causes of sexism in advertising include sexist ads, which gain reader attention even among readers who find the material offensive. Additionally, since the aim of most ads is to persuade people that they are powerless without the advertised product, there may be limitations on how empowering ads will ever be. Even though females have created many ad considered sexist, the hope remains that when women reach positions of power in significant numbers, the tenor of adverting will change. More and more women are distinguishing themselves within the field. Susan Credle of Leo Burnett, Kerry Keenan of Young & Rubicam, Karen Kaplan of Hill Holiday, and Kris Kiger of R/GA are just a few examples of advertising women who are proving that, despite discrimination, there is room for women at the top. See Also: Advertising: Aimed at Women; Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Business, Women in; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Glass Ceiling; Management, Women in; Management Styles, Gender Theories; Media Chief Executive Officers, Female; Professions by Gender; Representation of Women; Stereotypes of Women; Working Mothers. Further Readings Mallia, Karen. “Creativity Knows No Gender But Agency Creative Departments Sure Do.” Advertising Age (August 21, 2009). Nixon, Sean. Advertising Cultures: Gender, Commerce, Creativity. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage, 2003. Sivulka, Juliann. Ad Women: How They Impact What We Need, Want, and Buy. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2009.

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Sutton, Denise H. Globalizing Ideal Beauty: How Female Copywriters of the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency Redefined Beauty for the Twentieth Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Liz C. Throop Associate Professor, Georgia State University

Advertising, Portrayal of Women in The advertising industry can be viewed as a culture industry that engages a network of ideological and dominant institutions. This culture industry produces and reproduces mass culture, effectively homogenizing cultural products and audience identities. Advertisements are the material products of the advertising industry; more important, though, the advertising industry creates ideologies about gender, race, and class, thus reinforcing stereotypes about minority (or subordinate) groups in relation to the dominant social group. The messages in advertisements socialize people and mediate their reality; the advertising industry’s function thus carries economic, political, cultural, and social effects. Advertisements can be in many forms, such as print (in magazines or newspapers), television, radio, Internet pop-ups, and out of home (like billboards). The characterization of the advertising industry as a culture industry is reflected in its texts, whose central goal is to stimulate audience consumption of products and, thus, a capitalist lifestyle. The advertising industry produces and disseminates narrow ideals of femininity and gender roles, thereby communicating powerful messages about female behavior and appearance for members of Western culture. Use of Stereotypes Advertising employs stereotypes about individuals and groups so that its dominant ideas will be accepted as social norms by audiences. In her book Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising, feminist Judith Williamson discusses the social role played by advertisements that seek to identify audiences with the ideological position connoted in the advertisement. Advertising presents

signs that are invested with meaning, these include words, images, and sounds, among others. The goal of signs in advertisements, Williamson argues, is to create a perceived difference between one product and another. The structure of advertisements is ideological, as it aims to attach meaning (especially desire) to attainable objects. Contemporary advertisements code meanings about female gender identity and beauty through representations of the body. Beginning in the 1920s, advertisements presented enticing portrayals of modernity. Historian Roland Marchand called them “social tableaux advertisements.” He noted that advertisers, as observers of popular culture, believed that consumers would prefer to see advertisements that reflected a higher social status than their own. Thus, the social tableaux reflected people’s social aspirations—not realities—and

Beginning in the 1920s, advertisements depicted an idealized life that could distort consumers’ views of reality.



employed pictorial images in which individuals could insert themselves. The advertisements created a depiction of modern life that distorted consumers’ views of reality and their aspirations. The representation of women in these social tableaux in the 1920s and 1930s portrayed them as adapting to modernity in two ways: through their power to purchase goods and through their power to shape and dress their bodies. The exercise of these powers became entwined with the representation of the female American dream. As Marchand notes, however, modernity was an ambiguous concept that did not afford for women to subvert their subordinate roles. Advertisers acknowledged women in this time period as America’s primary consumers, and the social tableaux characterized women as the “family G.P.A.” (general purchasing agent) or “Mrs. Consumer.” Yet, despite showing socially valued male executive talents (such as decision making through purchasing choices), women were not accorded equal power in relationships with men or a changed social role. Thus, the female power granted by the woman’s positioning as a consumer did not alter her subordinate role to her husband. In Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture, historian William Leach offers a denigrating portrayal of the power of the modern woman in popular culture: the equation of a woman’s purchasing power with items purchased predominantly for the home (the archaic space of women), a portrayal that further reinforced the woman’s traditional role as a housewife. Focus on an Unattainable Appearance In addition, the social tableaux tied women’s leisure time to the modern pursuits of female self-expression (i.e., her appearance) that would make her an admirable partner for her modern husband. A modern lifestyle thus meant that her newfound time, courtesy of better home management, could be devoted to working on an appearance that would be valued by and cater to men. Along these lines, the advertisements prescribed the modern look, complete with advice on physical stance and fashion. They represented a female body that was distinct from the older, rounder generation of women. These bodies had fantastical and imposing proportions; more important, these physical depictions were associated with women of high social status. Although the modern female

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body originated in the realm of fantasy, the young, slim image signified that women were free in reality. However, this representation of a fashionably attired, young, and elongated body maintained the patriarchal relationship of domination-subordination. The post–World War II period was characterized by an economic boom. Women were no longer regarded by advertisers as the sole purchasing agent for the home, and market researchers identified that women’s buying decisions were motivated by their senses of smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing and by their personality traits such as intuition and irrationality. In Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of Consumer Culture, media historian Stuart Ewen describes the home during this time as a place of corporate control over Americans’ daily life. The home supported a homogenization of female identity, offering women promises of happiness through passive ideological and material consumption of messaging in advertisements. Arising out of this cultural context was the influential feminist text, The Feminine Mystique, in which activist Betty Friedan exposed the social conditions that plagued 1950s American women (particularly the housewife). Friedan argued that advertisers/the patriarchy equated the power of women with their purchasing power, and she linked women’s struggle for identity to a consumer culture whose advertisements of housewives presented an empty sense of self. Friedan argued that consumer culture used women’s affluence to trap them in a false, unsatisfying selfimage that rendered them passive and situated them as caretakers of their family and homes. Since the 1960s, feminist social theorist Jean Kilbourne has been creating awareness about the objectification of women in advertisements. In Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, she argues that the images of women’s bodies that circulate in popular culture shape women’s subjectivities and the way that women are viewed in society. She argues that the role of women in advertising texts is only in relation to, and thus subordinate to, the desires of men. This viewpoint aligns with the notion of the “male gaze,” a concept put forth by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey who suggests that the female role in media texts is negative and involuntary. Action is reserved for the owner of the gaze (who is inherently male), while inaction is reserved for the

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object of the gaze (who is inherently female). Along these lines, Kilbourne argues that the objectification of women in advertisements connects to the use of sexual imagery, and this representation of women adversely affects women’s attitudes toward pleasure and desire. As Kilbourne notes, such imagery trivializes sex and relationships and promotes narcissism and consumption. A result of increasingly damaging media images of women is that they negatively impact women’s identity development: women feel less safe in their bodies, and women may feel a sense of disconnection from oneself and others. Negative Impact on Female Self-Esteem The important work of feminist cultural theorist Susan Bordo focuses on the influence of advertising on women’s body images (see Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body and Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images From Plato to O.J.). She argues that contemporary culture is characterized by the power of advertising images or “cultural images.” For Bordo, the intention that underlies the construction of advertising images, reminiscent of the social tableaux, blends fantasy and reality—that is, the images produce desire in audiences for fantasy and the desire to achieve that fantasy in reality. For her, the problem inherent in contemporary advertising is that its images serve as a blueprint for young girls’ views of their bodies. Bordo contends that women have absorbed these cultural ideologies and learned how to monitor their bodies to achieve the dominant ideology of female beauty. Because these powerful images constitute a desirable cultural norm, Bordo theorizes they have influenced girls’ self-esteem and may be attributable to the cultural crisis of eating disorders and body-image issues. There are conflicting meanings of agency (generally acknowledged as individual resistance to structural ideologies) regarding women’s current engagement with advertising and media messages. In Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, journalist Ariel Levy characterized the recent “raunch culture” as women’s embrace of hypersexualized representations of women as well as women’s self-presentations of female sexuality. Levy contends that these alleged sites of empowerment paradoxically support the patriarchal conceptualization of women as subordinate to men. Feminist media scholar Rosalind Gill

further cautions about the dangers of this attitude of female empowerment and sexual self-display in media images and in everyday life and how the portrayals of women in advertising have gone beyond notions of objectification to subjectification. The representation of women as hypersexual and desiring objectification, images that circulate in mainstream popular culture, are similar to pornographic images of women. For over half a century, manufactured advertising images of an unattainable female body have negatively impact the self esteem of girls and women, which is reflected in a sense of inadequacy in fulfilling their gender role. These images present a female body that has been constructed in the realm of fantasy ( by the advertising industry), and implies that women can achieve these bodies in reality. Actively challenging and educating women about how these advertising images exploit insecurities about female imperfection and the promise of fulfillment through the consumption of products is an important feminist project. See Also: Advertising: Aimed at Women; Body Image; Eating Disorders; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Pink, Advertising and; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in; Representation of Women. Further Readings Bordo, Susan. Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images From Plato to O. J. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Ewen, Stuart. Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976. Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell Publishing, 1983. Gill, Rosalind C. “Empowerment/Sexism: Figuring Female Sexual Agency in Contemporary Advertising.” Feminism & Psychology, v.18/1 (2008). Gill, Rosalind C. Gender and the Media. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2007. Horkheimer, Max and Theodor Adorno. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” In Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity

Kilbourne, Jean. Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. New York: Touchstone, 1999. Leach, William. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York: Free Press, 2005. Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920–1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In Meenakshi G. Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. Williamson, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising. New York: Marion Boyars, 1984. Dara Persis Murray Rutgers University

Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity This entry outlines the history of affirmative action policy in the United States and discusses its current institutional design and enforcement, as well as its interaction with U.S. antidiscrimination policy. While some such policies have also been implemented in other countries, the United States has the earliest and most extensive version, particularly with regard to women as opposed to ethnic and racial minorities, and as such provides an important case study of how such policies might affect women’s relative standing to men. In the United States, equal opportunity implies equal treatment under a selection mechanism, and also implies attempts to equalize qualifications relevant to selection prior to entering the selection process. Thus, antidiscrimination policies can be seen as ways to ensure equal treatment. Affirmative action is a step beyond ensuring equal treatment through antidiscrimination policy measures. It is an activist approach to trying to increase the representation of historically underrepresented groups, whether in the workforce, in particular occu-

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pations, in higher paid, more prestigious positions, in the political system, or in higher education. As such, it is a more controversial policy than antidiscrimination policy, but it also holds the promise of enacting more radical change in society toward the ultimate goal of equalizing both opportunity and outcome for members of different groups. History Starting in June 1941 with Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802, a series of executive orders barred discrimination by federal contractors on the bases of race, creed, color, and national origin. In March 1961, John Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925 required federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” It specified further: “Such action shall include, but not be limited to, the following: employment, upgrading, demotion or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training, including apprenticeship.” It created the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and granted it the authority to impose sanctions, including contract termination, on noncompliers. This order is the foundation for affirmative action as we understand it through the present, and is also the origin of the term. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 established the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), which enforces the federal laws prohibiting job discrimination. These include the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 of September 1965 strengthened enforcement by outlining in greater detail the procedures for determining compliance, the sanctions for noncompliance, and by establishing that the Department of Labor and the EEOC would coordinate in sharing relevant data and in enforcement of these laws. Johnson’s Executive Order 11375 in 1967 took the key step of extending affirmative action on the basis of sex. However, effective regulations enforcing this expansion did not reach full stride until after the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which

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strengthened enforcement of Title VII, giving the EEOC authority to litigate, and expanded its reach to educational institutions and government bodies (federal, state, and local) as well as to employers with as few as 15 employees (before it had been 25). In October 1978, Jimmy Carter’s Executive Order 12086 consolidated into the Department of Labor all of the different federal agencies’ contract monitoring functions related to equal employment opportunity provision. This expanded the purview of the Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance, originally established by the Secretary of Labor following Executive Order 11246. The renamed Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) collects relevant data and enforces the order and subsequent related orders and legislation. As women’s participation in higher education and in the workforce expanded in the late 1970s, politicians began to take a broader view of women’s participation in employment and how it might be assisted by government actions. Carter’s 1979 Executive Order 12138 created a National Women’s Business Enterprise Policy, which required each executive branch department and agency to “take affirmative action in support of women’s business enterprise in appropriate programs and activities,” including but not limited to “management, technical, financial and procurement assistance . . . business-related education, training, counseling information dissemination,” and “procurement.” Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 called for establishment of a federal Glass Ceiling Commission, to study “the manner in which business fills management and decisionmaking positions” and to prepare recommendations concerning “eliminating artificial barriers to the advancement of women and minorities” and “increasing the opportunities and developmental experiences of women and minorities to foster advancement of women and minorities to management and decisionmaking positions in business.” In March 1995, Bill Clinton called for a review of affirmative action, which was completed by two of his aides by July 1995, at which point he reaffirmed his administration’s support for affirmative action. The Glass Ceiling Commission’s report appeared in November 1995, bringing more attention to the issue of women and minorities’ progress up corporate career ladders, but not leading to additional legislation.

One of the final proaffirmative action moves during the Clinton administration took place in 2000, when the Department of Labor began an Equal Opportunity Survey. Surveyed federal contractors were asked to report not only employment data, but also compensation data by gender and minority status. This data was meant to be used to improve the OFCCP’s compliance audit procedures (i.e., deciding which contractors to audit). However, under the George W. Bush administration, the department first reduced the number of surveys (from 50,000 down to 10,000) and then, in September 2006, eliminated the survey altogether. While the Bush administration did not dismantle affirmative action, it did not expand its mandate either. Current Institutional Design and Enforcement Commentators often refer to the whole set of antidiscrimination laws and executive orders mentioned above as affirmative action. Using that broad definition, almost all employers and employees, save for those in the smallest firms, would be subject to affirmative action. A narrower view of affirmative action’s coverage would be to consider only Executive Order 11246 (as amended) and the related parts of the 1972 Equal Opportunity Act as embodying affirmative action (as opposed to antidiscrimination), and thus to consider only federal employees and those employers monitored by the OFCCP, namely federal contractors, as subject to its requirements. However, this would be inappropriately narrow in thinking about which firms have stated that they are following affirmative action principles in their employment practices. Many organizations that are not required to have an affirmative action plan nonetheless have them, to varying degrees of formality. In addition, government employees, who make up a large percentage of the workforce, are covered by these principles. Also, some states, counties, and cities have affirmative action statutes, with which contractors with those governments’ agencies are required to comply. Thus, out of the total U.S. workforce, a sizable proportion (about 28 to 40 percent) is in workplaces that are covered by either a required or voluntary affirmative action plan. Even if only private sector employers under OFCCP’s jurisdiction are considered as being subject to affirmative action, this covers a large number of



employers and employees—over 20 percent of the civilian workforce (about 29 million workers). These contractors need to have a written affirmative action plan detailing the “good faith” efforts they are undertaking to recruit, retain, and provide advancement opportunities for the covered groups. They are supposed to collect applicant flow data, keep applicant files/applications for a two-year period, use recruiting services and pipelines that will given them access to the covered groups, keep copies of all job advertisements, and indicate in all such advertisements that they are an “equal employment opportunity employer.” The OFCCP selects federal contractors for audit, partly at random but also currently focusing enforcement on firms practicing what it calls “systemic” discrimination. This approach is conducive to supporting the affirmative action part of OFCCP’s purview, as the pattern could include underrepresentation of women and minorities in the firm’s workforce as well as apparent low promotion rates of these groups to higher levels in the firm. A rough guideline for firms to consider regarding compliancy is the “four-fifths rule,” where a selection rate for any race, sex, or ethnic group which is less than 80 percent of the rate for the group with the highest rate can be regarded by the federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact on that group of the firm’s employment procedures. The majority of audited firms are found to be noncompliant. In addition, private employers with 100 or more employees and all federal contractors with 50 or more employees are required to file an annual report with the EEOC. About 50,000 employers, representing more than 55 million employees, file this report. The EEOC can investigate employers for violations of Title VII and the other antidiscrimination laws. Thus the price of not following affirmative action is the threat of a company’s having to undergo a compliance review, and the costs, trouble, and potentially unpleasant publicity that this entails. There is also the possibility of additional financial penalty relating to patterns uncovered during the audit, including back pay awards to applicants denied hiring or promotion. Studies support the view that affirmative action has had positive effects in expanding employment for women and minorities. There is also a fair amount of evidence in support of the view that affirmative action has had positive effects on earnings for women and

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minorities. These gains appear to have come with little ill effect in terms of measurable drops in quality of output or other indicators that would suggest a loss of efficiency in the economy from implementing affirmative action. In part this may be because the extent of, and thus the effect of, affirmative action compliance has not been that high. Or it could be that affirmative action actually improves efficiency if it overrides discriminatory impulses that were efficiency reducing. But it indicates that any dire concerns about constraints on competitive behavior appear unfounded. Outlook Assuming that we would like to expand further the representation of women (and minorities) in the workforce and in the better-paying, more secure jobs, there are a number of reasons to be optimistic regarding the continued role of affirmative action as an agent in effecting change. The main way in which affirmative action plan violations are identified is through looking to see if a particular firm’s workforce is out of line with the supposed availability of workers in the relevant labor market. If a firm’s workforce is not in line with the expected proportion of, say, women, then the only way that the firm can make up for this is by increasing the proportion of women, whether through increased hiring or increased retention of women (which may often involve promoting them more rapidly than men). Thus the firm is forced to practice affirmative action in order to reach parity with the overall labor market. This implies that affirmative action has a natural limiting range in how long it can be generally applicable. If all firms had workforces that were in line with the overall market availability of women, it would no longer be necessary to practice affirmative action in hiring (except to the extent that women and men might have different turnover rates). Indeed, the U.S. legal system, with the relative ease by which plaintiffs can bring discrimination suits in which one basis is disparate impact and another is disparate treatment, supports affirmative action even in firms not directly subject to OFCCP or other regulations. Therefore the fear of discrimination suits, which often range widely in topic from pay differentials to hiring differences to promotion differences, support the relatively weak direct suasion that OFCCP

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can bring by making firms not only accountable to the EEOC as well, but to private suits that can be brought under Title VII. The conditions in the United States provide a strong basis for optimism. The more interesting question is how affirmative action/equal opportunity will be expanded in other parts of the world under vastly different legal systems and social structures. This will be a challenge for the current century. In particular, some countries have taken the more forceful approach of imposing strict quotas, particularly regarding candidates for political office. The tension between the use of quotas and the use of more flexible programs will be one of the most important issues for resolution as equal opportunity approaches spread to more countries and situations. See Also: Business, Women in; Equal Pay; Glass Ceiling; Representation of Women. Further Readings Bergmann, Barbara. “The Continuing Need for Affirmative Action.” Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, v.39/5 (1999). Holzer, Harry and David Neumark. “Affirmative Action: What Do We Know?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, v.25/2 (2006). Holzer, Harry and David Neumark. “Assessing Affirmative Action.” Journal of Economic Literature, v.38/3 (2000). Jacobsen, Joyce. The Economics of Gender, 3rd Ed. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell/Wiley, 2007. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. http://www.dol.gov/OFCCP (accessed May 2010). U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. http:// www.eeoc.gov (accessed May 2010). Joyce Jacobsen Wesleyan University

Afghanistan Afghanistan is currently home to 33 million inhabitants, 99 percent of whom are Muslim (approximately 80 percent are Sunni Muslim while 19 percent are Shi’a Muslim). It is an ethnically diverse

country; major ethnic groups are Pashtun and Tajik with smaller portions of the population comprised of Usbek, Hazara, and other groups. Located in southern Asia, Afghanistan is known as the crossroads of central Asia. It consists primarily of rugged mountain and hillside terrain with smaller portions comprised of arid and semiarid plains. Major sources of revenue include agriculture and opium production. Democratic elections were held in both 2004 and 2009, yet the political system of Afghanistan remains unstable. The reconstruction process has been painfully slow and, consequently, women and girls continue to face significant challenges in relation to security/violence, poverty alleviation, education, and healthcare. Recent History For the past three decades, Afghanistan has been ravaged by conflict and war. A 1978 military coup by a communist group known as the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan was followed in 1979 by Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Various opposition groups, known as mujahideens, combined forces to combat Soviet troops. After the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, in 1989, the mujahideen groups fought one another in a period of anarchy and civil war that lasted from 1989 to 1996. The most infamous mujahideen group, known as the Taliban (from the Pashto word for “student”), a devout group consisting of Sunni Pashtuns, emerged in 1994. By 1996, the Taliban took control of the country and instituted various restrictions that reflected a strict interpretation of Shari`a, (Islamic law). Although such restrictions affected all Afghanis, the Taliban was particularly harsh in its treatment of women. In 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the United States launched a military campaign in Afghanistan, helping to oust the Taliban from power. In 2004, Afghanistan held its first national democratic election and adopted a new constitution. Since then, the Taliban has regained control of many rural areas. Security/Violence Security remains elusive in Afghanistan and violence is part of daily life. Armed conflict is a constant threat, torture persists, the country is littered with landmines, and the opium trade perpetuates a system of corruption and crime. Dangerous conditions



have forced many to abandon their homes and flee to neighboring countries. Despite constitutional guarantees against gender discrimination, tribal custom continues to dictate the role of women in Afghan society. Females are typically restricted to the private sphere and their basic human rights continue to be denied. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are widespread and women may be attacked in their homes, communities, or even in institutions such as detention facilities. Furthermore, Afghan law allows marriages to take place without a woman’s consent. Thus, females may be handed over to resolve tribal or family disputes, a practice known as baad. Furthermore, women who are victims of rape and sexual assault may be prosecuted for the offense of zina (adultery) under the Penal code of 1976. Because family honor is so closely bound to

A woman who leaves the house without a male relative to supervise her may be punished under Afghan law.

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the conduct of female family members, a female who leaves the house without a male relative (mahram) to supervise her or otherwise disgraces the family may be punished. Poverty Facing enormous external debt and with more than 50 percent of its population currently living in poverty, Afghanistan is one of the poorest and most economically unstable countries in the world. Jobs are scarce and nearly two-thirds of the population suffers from food shortages. The economic situation has been exacerbated by the global recession. Furthermore, recent droughts and hard winters have negatively impacted agricultural production. Women are economically reliant upon men. Women are legally entitled to work for wages, yet custom often prohibits them from doing so, particularly in rural areas. Widows are especially vulnerable to poverty because of limited opportunities to earn income and support their children. Female children are often regarded as an economic burden. Thus, fewer family resources are invested in daughters than sons. Despite laws that prohibit child marriage, a daughter may be married off at a young age so her parents may receive a dowry payment and so the girl will no longer be their economic responsibility. Some families sell their daughters into the global sex trade (human trafficking) in order to pay debts and survive. Education Boys and girls are educated separately in Afghanistan. The constitution guarantees access to education for all Afghan citizens, but many families refuse to send their daughters to school for fear that they will be attacked or kidnapped. Literacy rates remain among the lowest in the world and less than 15 percent of Afghani women can read and write. Less than half of young girls are enrolled in primary school (compared to approximately 75 percent of boys) and the education gap increases as students move on to secondary school and again in tertiary school (university). Lacking adequate facilities, many classes take place outdoors. Lack of supplies, lack of funding, and lack of female teachers all remain as ongoing challenges, as does the destruction of girls’ schools by members of extremist groups. Providing education to refugee populations has proven particularly challenging.

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Healthcare The average life expectancy for women in Afghanistan is 44 years. Cultural restrictions on birth control contribute to a birth rate of 6.7 live births per woman, the highest in the region, and many pregnancies end in miscarriage. Health concerns are aggravated by malnutrition, lack of access to clean water, and poor sanitation. Many parts of the country—especially rural areas—do not have even basic healthcare services. At present, Afghanistan has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world; approximately 50 Afghani women die each day from pregnancy-related causes. Few women have access to prenatal care and most births take place at home. Access to emergency obstetric care is limited, particularly for women in rural regions who must often travel for days to reach a medical center, clinic, or hospital. Existing facilities are plagued by unsanitary conditions, lack of trained personnel, and inadequate supplies. Many women do not seek care because of social customs that prohibit women from being treated by a male physician. The number of licensed midwives in Afghanistan has tripled since 2001, but affordable, accessible, and effective healthcare remains elusive for most women and girls in Afghanistan. See Also: Contraception, Religious Approaches to; Educational Opportunities/Access; Infant Mortality; Islam; Maternal Mortality; Rape in Conflict Zones; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan; Taliban; Veil. Further Readings Ahmed-Gosh, Huma. “A History of Women in Afghanistan.” Journal of International Women’s Studies, v.4/3 (2003). Ayub, Fatima, Sari Kouvo, and Yasmin Sooka. Addressing Gender-Specific Violations in Afghanistan. New York: The International Center for Transitional Justice, 2009. http://www.ictj.org/static/Asia/Afghanistan/ICTJA yub_AFG_AdressingGenderSpecificViolations_pa2009 .pdf (accessed March 2010). Brodsky, Anne E. With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. New York: Routledge, 2004. Mojadidi, Sedika. Motherland Afghanistan. New York: Icarus Films, 2006. Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. http://www.rawa.org (accessed March 2010).

Skaine, Rosemarie. Women of Afghanistan in the PostTaliban Era: How Lives Have Changed and Where They Stand Today. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Silence Is Violence: End the Abuse of Women in Afghanistan. http://www.rawa.org/temp/ runews/2009/08/12/silence-is-violence-end-the -abuse-of-women-in-afghanistan.html (accessed March 2010). United Nations Development Fund for Women. “Afghanistan.” http://afghanistan.unifem.org (accessed March 2010). Jillian Duquaine-Watson University of Texas, Dallas

African American Muslims Estimates place African American Muslims within the range of 30 percent to 40 percent of American Muslims, with African Americans accounting for the vast majority of Islamic conversions within America. The American Muslim presence can be traced to the transatlantic slave trade; however, evidence suggests that many Muslim slaves eventually assimilated into Christianity. It was not until the 20th century that African Americans began affiliating with Islam in larger numbers. African Americans belonging to mainstream Sunni and Shia communities are accompanied by participants in an array of heterodox Muslim groups and also in Sufi orders. The first African American proto-Muslim organization is thought to be the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA), founded in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey, by Noble Drew Ali (1886–1929). Participants in the temple’s National Sisters Auxiliary, founded in 1928, commonly adopt a last name of Bey or El. The temple continues to attract participants, although in smaller numbers. In the 1920s, in Chicago, Illinois, a mission was established to preach Ahmadiyya theology, thought to be heretical by significant Muslim blocks. Ahmadiyyas forged alliances with urban African Americans around issues of racial oppression and poverty. Ahmadiyya Quran translations were widespread among African American Muslims; Ahmadiyya organizational



networks stressing worship, education, and service, became a model for other American Muslim groups. North America Ahmadiyyas remain linked to the organization’s transnational network, headquartered in Qadian, India. The Nation of Islam (NOI), founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1930 by W. D. Fard Muhammad (disappeared 1943), gradually became the largest of early African American Muslim institutions. Under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), the nation gained national visibility, in particular through publishing and contributions to civil rights discourse. In the 1940s, they began prison ministry. And through a paramilitary wing and rhetoric of black separatism, Nation leaders including Louis Farrakhan (1933– ) came under heavy public scrutiny. The nation also included the popular figures of Malcolm X (1925–65) and Muhammad Ali (1942– ). Before his assassination, the former contributed to pushing nation affiliates toward mainstream Sunni Islam. Within the transnational context of Islamic revivalism, and amidst an influx of Muslim immigrants to the United States, a fraction of the nation shifted orientation toward mainstream Muslim theology and practice. Following the 1975 death of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, nation leadership was taken over by Elijah’s son, the respected Warith (Wallace) Deen Mohammad, (1933–2008). Imam Warith D. Mohammad founded the World Community of Islam in the West (1976), bringing his followers fully into the fold of Sunni Islam. The organization later became the American Muslim Mission (1978) and finally the American Society of Muslims (2002). It is the largest predominately African American Muslim group in the United States, commonly referred to as the Community of Imam W.D. Muhammad. The NOI continues on a smaller scale under the leadership of Minister Farrakhan. Active in public relations for the nation are Tynetta Muhammad, widow of Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and Khadijah Farrakhan, wife of Minister Farrakhan. Recently, Ava Muhammad (1951– ) and Donna Farrakhan Muhammad became recognized leading nation ministers at a time when the majority of Muslim groups in America do not yet recognize the formal leadership of women in mixed-gender congregations. “Mother” Clara Muhammad (1898–1972), wife of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, was the brainchild of what is

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at present more than 30 Clara Muhammad Schools and affiliated programs nationwide that teach Islamic curriculum to youth. Offshoots of the Nation of Islam One of several NOI offshoots are the Five Percenters, also known as The Nation of Gods and Earths or Allah’s Nation. Originating in the 1960s in Harlem, New York, this loose association of individuals is represented by artists of notoriety within American hip-hop culture. This new generation is reminiscent of the handful of 20th-century prominent jazz musicians who affiliated with Islam. Also notable, Dar ul-Islam (House of Islam, founded in 1967), began as an African American offshoot of the Brooklyn, New York-based immigrant–run State Street Mosque and Islamic Mission of America. The original Dar ul-Islam, and others that followed, contributed to the spread of Sunni Islamic learning among African American Muslims. The Dar ul-Islam movement was disbanded in the 1980s, with many former members finding their way into Sufism, Shiism, and sectarian groups. African American Muslims have made vital contributions to the academic study of Islam. At present, scholars include Ihsan Bagby, Sherman Jackson, Aminah Beverly McCloud, and Amina Wadud. Prominent female community leaders include Aisha H. L. al-Adawiya, Salemah Abd al-Ghafur, al-Hajjah Khalilah Karim-Rushdan, Ayesha Mustapha, Margaret Sabir-Gillette, and Guendolyn Zohara Simmons. The first national Muslim-oriented sorority, Gamma Gamma Chi, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, was founded in 2005 by Althia Collins. In recent ethnographic accounts, Carolyn Moxley Rouse and Jamillah Karim note concerns for African American Muslim women, including feelings of estrangement from the larger Muslim community and from non-Muslim African Americans. Relations between the sexes are also discussed on levels ranging from the romantic to the theological. Anahita Rashidi and Shireen S. Rajaram together discuss African American Muslim women’s contemporary healthcare needs. Continuing to change American Muslim demographics are influxes of African immigrant Muslims from countries including Somalia, Senegal, and Ethiopia. See Also: Islam; Islam in America; United States; Wadud, Amina; Women in Religion.

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Further Readings Comez, Michael. Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. McCloud, Aminah Beverly. “African American Muslim Women.” In Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marie Cantlon, eds., The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. Mubashir Majeed, Debra. “Clara Evans Muhammad: Pioneering Social Activism in the Original Nation of Islam.” In Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marie Cantlon, eds., The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. Smith, Jane I. “Women’s Issues in American Islam.” In Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marie Cantlon, eds., The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. Celene Lizzio Harvard Divinity School

Aging, Attitudes Toward In 2005, the number of people over age 65 was 13 percent of the population of the United States. According to the Census Bureau, this number will soar to 72 million by 2030 and constitute 20 percent of the population. The U.S. Census Bureau also reports that worldwide the 65-and-older population is projected to triple by 2050 from 516 million in 2009 to 1.53 billion in 2050, constituting approximately 16 percent of the world’s population. Germany, Italy, Japan, and Monaco have the greatest percent of 65 and over in their populations. In these countries, this age cohort makes up 20 percent of the population and by 2050 it is likely that Europe will be the oldest region in the world with 29 percent over 65. In the United States, there were 78 million “boomers” born between 1946 and 1964 and similar to any other stage that this bubble has experienced they are profoundly affecting attitudes and actions toward aging not only in the United States but particularly around the world in developed and developing

nations as well. Boomers are on the run from aging, particularly trying to negate the blatant stereotypes that have haunted older men and women for more than 100 years in the United States. Because so many of the stereotypes still exist and because they are basically negative, the boomer cohort is conscientiously trying to deny that they are aging. Some of this denial works and some is a fantasy that camouflages the reality of getting older. Undeniably, though, there are changes in what mature people think of themselves, what they will need, and what services must be available. Stereotypes The entrenchment of ageism, particularly directed at women, has a long history in the United States. Ageism, a term originally defined by Robert Butler in 1975 is discrimination against older people merely because they are old, similar to racism because of skin color and sexism because of gender. Ageism is so pervasive in U.S. society that we hardly notice anymore the ridiculous way older men and specifically older women are portrayed in advertisements, greeting cards, and frequently on television and in the movies. Ageism also exists in nations that have experienced industrial and technological advances. Even in Asian cultures that have typically held older people in high regard, dramatic changes are occurring that marginalize older adults. As families become increasingly nuclear rather than extended, they become less supportive of the emotional and physical needs of their elders. In some instances, it is not due to a lack of respect for older people but rather an economic and structural framework (such as massive rural to urban population shifts or smaller family sizes) that negates focusing on the older individual and promotes the proliferation of negative stereotypes. The tainting of the image of older people already begins to appear in the United States in popular literature at the end of the 19th century creating and reinforcing the views that an older person should be portrayed as declining, feeble, and certainly not mentally alert. Adding further to the denigration of older people is the loosening of beliefs that the elderly are somehow more closely connected to the eternal. No longer do people fear some kind of retribution or revenge from their elders in the afterlife. Increasingly, developed societies depend more and more on



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Kingdom reports that older people are underrepresented on prime time television (particularly older women) and when older people are portrayed they are depicted by the use of negative stereotypes. Even in such formerly traditional cultures of Asia, it has become challenging to thwart negative stereotypes of the elderly and particularly the effects of poor selfimages adopted by the older population themselves. Repeatedly, older women are targeted as invisible, or “incapable of being seen.” To be invisible is to be either the recipient of a totally stereotypical view or actually not be seen at all. People, particularly men, frequently ignore older women because they are not young, not sex objects, and not capable of fulfilling their major function of reproducing. Often older women are invisible because women’s magazines deny their existence, airbrushing even mature women to make them look 15 to 20 years younger. In many instances, the older woman can only be visible if she is fulfilling a socially prescribed role as a grandmother.

As people live longer in cultures throughout the world, they will have a greater need for services, activities, and involvement.

science and technology and less and less on ancient beliefs channeled through the elderly. In Western countries, stereotypes of older people have continued unabated in print media and with the advent of movies and television. Even more pernicious views are promulgated. With such shows as Bewitched, All in the Family, Rhoda, and more recently Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and The Sopranos, older women, especially, are portrayed as interfering and usually burdensome and a nuisance. They live in the past and are old fashioned, always lamenting about how much better it used to be. They are often frail, vulnerable, and isolated. Because they appear as foolish and childish, they are risible characters rather than ones to be respected. Commonly, we see older women (and men) as metaphors for disease, worthlessness, and dissatisfaction. The United

Denial of Aging It is not surprising that the boomer cohort in the United States is trying desperately to deny that they are aging because not only don’t they want to internalize the largely negative stereotypes of getting older but research indicates that positive self-views enhance longevity. There is both good news and bad news about their tenacious efforts to remain young. Unquestionably, people are living longer than ever. Thirty years have been added to the average American life span since 1900. After 65, a man can now expect to live 16.5 years longer and a woman can expect 19.5 years. On average, men and women now have 14 disability-free years after 65. Life expectancy for females is even higher than the United States in Japan (86.1 years), Hong Kong (85.1), Switzerland (84.2), Spain (84.2), Australia (83.6), and Sweden (83.0). There are widely used medicines for cholesterol and high blood pressure that help to prevent heart attacks and strokes until later years. In developed nations, deaths from heart attacks and strokes are occurring more in people’s 80s than in their 60s or 70s. There are disease-modifying drugs for ailments such as osteoporosis and interventions for colon and lung cancer. Not only can people feel healthier longer but they also have more money than their parents did at the same age. In the United States, they are also more

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highly educated than the previous generation with 25 percent of boomers holding a college degree. However, along with the good news are some warning signs that may alter a person’s ability to remain young. One area of concern is the growing obesity problem in the United States, with onethird obese and two-thirds of the population overweight. Obesity is increasingly becoming a problem in nations that have adopted American food choices such as fast foods. All the diseases associated with obesity as well as greater hearing loss from Walkmans, iPods (one in six boomers), dementia, arthritis, and drug-resistant bacteria may work against the eternal search for youth. Because there is no real elixir of youth yet (a 60-year-old body is still 60 years old), people turn to the external possibilities to remain forever young. Numerous media stars such as Sharon Stone and Michelle Pfeiffer in the United States promulgate the notion that if you maintain the right regimen you can hide aging. Consequently, there are billion-dollar businesses in plastic surgery, skin treatments, and exercise techniques mainly directed toward women. It becomes the woman’s fault if she is unwilling to look youthful. Television is replete with advertisements giving advice about how to stay young and vigorous. Any problems of aging can be medicalized, such as by taking estrogen. Adventure travel organizations promote active seniors who are hiking and skiing. The Over the Hill Gang, an organization for age 55-and-older skiers in the United States, has as its motto, “When you’re over the hill you pick up speed.” In 2009, Elderhostel, an educational travel program for seniors, renamed itself Exploritas. Thus, the new paradigm for aging becomes never to be old or especially never to act old. And yet, women and men as they age do have less stamina. Or if they want to work and/or need to work they may not be able to find a job because they’re competing with the young who are much more technologically adept than they are. All the conflicting messages may make older people feel worse about themselves because they blame themselves for not transforming their bodies to stop the aging process. Positive Developments Despite all the complexities, though, aging is and will be different in the 21st century. Countries around

the world will have to cope with an aging population that is more urban based. What will be their needs, their contributions, and their issues? Society, at this point, doesn’t quite know what do with older people and what role they should play. As people live longer in cultures throughout the world and become a greater proportion of each country’s demographics, they will make more demands for services, activities, and involvement. In the United States, boomers want more stimulation and more involvement than their parents did and will be attaining this through programs such as Osher Institute in universities throughout the United States, catering to age 55 and older learners. Programs are developing that also require mature individuals to commit to community involvement such as Sherry Lansing’s PrimeTime, which links the Los Angeles Unified School District with seniors who can teach their expertise. Rosabeth Kanter has a new program at Harvard University for older people who develop theses to change the world. And President Barack Obama, as part of the Americorps Bill, has allotted $5.7 billion for education awards to seniors. There is no question countries will be experiencing transformative times due to the increase in their older populations. Undoubtedly, the attitudes toward mature adults will continue to change depending upon their demands on resources. Their sheer numbers will force policy adaptations around the world. See Also: Body Image; Cosmetic Surgery; Grandmothers; Representation of Women; Stereotypes of Women; Women’s Magazines. Further Readings Freedman, Marc. Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. New York: Public Affairs, 2007. Gullette, Margaret Morganroth. Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997. International Federation on Aging Conference. http:// www.ifa-fiv.org (accessed June 2010). Pearsall, Marilyn, ed. The Other Within Us: Feminist Explorations of Women and Aging. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997. Myrna A. Hant University of California, Los Angeles



Albania Formerly a member of the Soviet Union, the southeastern European nation of Albania has a long history of foreign alliances. Since becoming independent in the early 1990s, Albania has been plagued with high unemployment (12 percent), extensive corruption, organized crime, and outdated infrastructures. Albanians (95 percent) dominate ethnically, and those of Greek origin make up the largest minority group. Some diversity exists in religion, but 70 percent of the population are Muslim. Women’s Rights: An Uphill Struggle Albania remains a male-dominated society, and in northeastern Albania, many males endorse the traditional Kanun code, which mandates male superiority. Since the 1990s, there has been some progress in women’s rights, but major discrimination of Balkan Egyptians, Roma (gypsies), and homosexuals continues. Forced marriages are still an issue in Albania, and according to a 2004 United Nations report, 8 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are married, divorced, or widowed. Fathers are given custody of children in four out of every five divorce cases. According to inheritance laws, wives may inherit 50 percent of property, but male family members are usually granted ownership of family-owned land. As a result of religious and cultural dictates coupled with economic pressures, many women are reluctant to exercise their rights. However, nongovernmental organizations, including some international women’s rights groups, are proving to be a valuable resource for women needing assistance. Although women can seek divorces, some are forced to continue residing in their former husbands’ homes because they cannot afford to live on their own. Prostitution is illegal, but trafficking and abduction for sexual purposes was not against the law until 2001. Albania still leads southeastern Europe in female trafficking. Rape is now illegal, but it often goes unreported because of the perceived dishonor to victims’ families. In 2005, a survey conducted by the United States State Department revealed that 64 percent of respondents reported had been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused. The following year, under pressure from the Women’s Legal Rights Project, the government expanded laws against domestic violence. Abortions

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are free at public hospitals, and women now have the right to sue for sexual harassment on the job. Economic and Health Metrics In 2009, Albania’s per capita income was reported at $6,200. Although 47 percent of Albanians live in urban areas, 58 percent of the work force are still involved in agriculture, largely in near subsistence farming. Fifty-seven percent of rural residents are female, and 70 percent of women who work are employed in agriculture. In rural areas, four out of five people live in poverty. Women are also disproportionately affected by unemployment, and they generally earn 20 percent less than males. Only 18 percent of business managers are female. Albania ranks 107th in the world in infant mortality, with a rate of 18.62 deaths per 1,000 live births. Female infants (18.15) have an advantage over males (19.05). That survival rate widens in adulthood, and females have a life expectancy of 80.89 years as compared to 75.28 for males. The median age for females is 30.6 years. Albanian women have a fertility rate of 2.01 children. Males (99.2 percent) are more likely to be literate than females (98.3 percent), but all Albanians typically attend school for 11 years. However, educational levels are lower in rural areas. In 1999, the Albanian National Women’s Report stated that although gender discrimination was illegal in Albania, many women continued to face obstacles when seeking employment, business, credit, health, and social services. Despite ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and a promise to improve women’s lives, feminists insisted that not enough had been done to address gender inequities. Women’s political representation has declined since the 1970s, when females occupied 20 percent of national legislative seats. In 2008, women held only nine of 140 seats in the People’s Assembly, and two women sat on the Council of Ministers. Women are also poorly represented at local levels. The attention paid to women’s issues in the 1990s produced mixed results. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Divorce; Domestic Violence; Government, Women in; Marriages, Arranged; Property Rights; Rape, Legal Definitions of.

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Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “Albania.” The World Factbook. www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/al.html (accessed February 2010). Ciuli, Diana. “Women in Albania: Opportunities and Obstacles.” Mediterranean Review,. v.3/2 (1996). International Fund for Agricultural Development. “Albania Gender Profile.” www.ifad.org/english/gender /cen/profiles/alb.htm (accessed February 2010). Neft, Naomi and Ann D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status Of Women in 140 Countries. New York: Random House, 1997. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Albania.” Social Institutions and Gender Index. http://genderindex.org/country/albania (accessed February 2010). Post, Susan E. Pritchett. Women in Modern Albania: Firsthand Accounts of Culture and Conditions From Over 200 Interviews. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1998. United States Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Albania.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ hrrpt/2008/eur/119064.htm (accessed February 2010). Women’s World. “Albania: Gender and Women’s Human Rights Issues.” Women’s World, v.36/30 (2002).

practicing Episcopalian, she discovered in adulthood that she was of Jewish heritage and that many of her Jewish relatives had perished during the Holocaust. She lived in Belgrade, Switzerland, and London before her family moved to New York and then settled in Colorado. In 1959, she married Joseph Albright and they had three daughters. Twins Anna and Alice were born in 1961 and Katherine was born in 1967. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1982 and she continued to raise her daughters as a single mother. She earned a B.A. in political science from Wellesley College (1959). She went on to attend Columbia University and earned an M.A. (1968) and Ph.D. (1976) in public law and government. In 1976, Albright was a coordinator for Maine senator Edward Muskie’s unsuccessful presidential campaign. She became his chief legislative assistant after the campaign and was asked to be a legislative liaison for the National Security Council. Albright became a research professor of international affairs and the

Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Albright, Madeleine Madeleine Albright is best known for her service as United States secretary of state. She was the first woman to hold this position. This was the highest federal government rank held by a woman at the time. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, she became a crucial figure in international relations, representing the interests of the United States. In the early 21st century, she continues to be involved in politics, education, and global economics. Born May 15, 1937, as Marie Jana Körbelova, she was the first child of father Josef Körbel and mother Anna. Her father, a Czech diplomat, sought political asylum for his family in the United States in 1948. Albright became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1957. Raised as a Roman Catholic but now a

As the U.S. secretary of state, Albright began a peace mission in the Middle East and worked on Israeli–Palestinian relations.

al-Faiz, Norah



director of women students in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1982, where she taught both undergraduate and graduate courses and worked to create programs that would provide women more opportunities in international affairs. She became the president of the Center for National Policy in 1989. In 1992, Albright was presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s senior foreign policy advisor before serving as the 20th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997. President Clinton nominated her for secretary of state on December 5, 1996. The U.S. Senate unanimously voted to confirm the nomination. On January 23, 1997, she was sworn in as the 64th secretary of state and was the first female to hold this post. Her tenure as the U.S. secretary of state was held during the second Clinton cabinet from 1997 to 2001. As the secretary of state, Albright began a peace mission in the Middle East, including work on Israeli– Palestinian relations. She also supported the use of U.S. forces to prevent genocide in countries such as Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Rwanda, and supported the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. She was chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Women’s Ministerial Initiative until November 2007. In 2001, Albright created her own international consulting firm, Albright Group, LLC. She entered this venture in order to help establish a middle class in new markets and is involved in private fund management. Her expertise and international connections has allowed her to raise over $300 million to invest in emerging markets. During the Obama administration, Madeleine Albright would become a top informal advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and also a top advisor on national security for U.S. President Barack Obama. Albright would continue to serve on the Georgetown University faculty and on the board of several organizations, both educational and political. See Also: Economics, Women in; Government, Women in; Heads of State, Female; Representation of Women in Government, International; Representation of Women in Government, United States. Further Readings Albright, Madeleine. Madam Secretary: A Memoir. New York: Miramax Books, 2003.

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Albright, Madeleine. The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Albright, Madeleine. Read My Pins: Stories From a Diplomat’s Jewel Box. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Alishia Huntoon Oregon Institute of Technology

al-Faiz, Norah Norah al-Faiz is Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Women’s Education. She is the first woman to hold a cabinet ministry position in the country’s history. Her appointment was widely hailed as evidence of King Abdullah’s reformist goals, but some feminists, skeptical of how much power will actually be given to a woman, caution against seeing the appointment as the beginning of significant advances in women’s rights. al-Faiz also has been careful not to present herself as a challenger of Saudi conservatism. al-Faiz graduated from King Saud University in Riyadh in 1978 with a baccalaureate degree in sociology. She did graduate work in the United States, earning a master’s in education from Utah State University in 1982. She worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia before moving into school administration. al-Faiz served as head principal of the girls’ section at Prince Al Waleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Schools and as controller of education techniques at the Institute of Private Education under the Ministry of Education. Before her appointment to the new ministry position, al-Faiz was the director general of the women’s section at the Institute of Public Administration in Riyadh, a position she had held since 2001. al-Faiz is married and has five children, two daughters and three sons. Reformers welcomed the appointment of al-Faiz to the highest position ever achieved by a woman in Saudi Arabia, but Wajeha al-Huwaider, writer and activist, suggested that al-Faiz’s appointment was a small step. Banned from publishing because of her championship of women’s rights, al-Huwaider noted that Saudi Arabia still maintains a guardianship system that requires women to have the permission of a male relative to work, travel, study, marry, or gain access to healthcare and other public services. In

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2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council urged the Saudi government to allow women these basic rights and not have agencies secure male permission on their behalf. al-Faiz’s early pronouncements signal that she expects to accommodate to the existing system. It was not until 2002 that female education was placed under the administration of the Ministry of Education, a move that sparked considerable protest from Islamic fundamentalists. Although al-Faiz said her position as deputy minister is an achievement for all Saudi women and expects women to have access to her office, she also has announced that she will wear a veil, use video technology to meet with male colleagues, and appear on television only with her minister’s permission. She refused to have a photograph taken for Time magazine when the publication named her among 2009’s most influential people in the world. She has said that her concern is with women’s education, and even within the parameters of that field, al-Faiz has refused to support the call for sports in girls schools. She has reiterated her belief in gradual reform and her unease with hasty action. See Also: Representation of Women; Representation of Women in Government, International; Saudi Arabia. Further Readings Cheney, Liz. “Norah al-Faiz: The 2009 Time 100.” http:// www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article /0,28804,1894410_1893847_1893841,00.html (accessed March 2010). Haque, Dr. Mozammel. “Education and Women in Saudi Arabia.” Islamic Monitor. http://islamicmonitor. blogspot.com/2009/04/education-and-women-in -saudi-arabia.html (accessed March 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Algeria After winning independence from France in 1962, the north African nation of Algeria was led by the National Liberation Front for three decades. The election of

1991 led to an insurgency that lasted until 1998, causing the deaths of more than 100,000 people. Since then, the Algerian government has been plagued with extensive unemployment (12.4 percent), a housing shortage, unstable infrastructures, and widespread corruption. Some 65 percent of the population is urbanized, and the economy is heavily dependent on industry (62.5 percent). With a per capita income of $7,100, almost a fourth of the population lives in poverty. There is neither ethnic nor religious diversity—99 percent of the population is Arab-Berber, and the state religion is Sunni Muslim (99 percent). The Algerian constitution stipulates that women are minors who need male protection, and wives are forbidden to venture outside the home without permission, thus restricting women’s abilities to work and travel. Despite this, the number of working women continues to rise. Men can divorce their wives at will, evicting their wives and children from the family home while retaining control over their children’s lives. Inheritance laws grant women only half as much as that given to men; however, some families circumvent the law by giving daughters money outright. In addition to inherent gender discrimination, Algeria has a major problem with domestic violence and trafficking. In 2008, women held only 30 of 389 seats in the national assembly, and there were just three women in the cabinet. Women continued to be active in party politics, however; for example, the Workers Party was led by a woman. Although nongovernmental organizations are required to register by law, unlicensed women’s groups continue to openly lobby for women’s rights. Extremist militants who have aligned themselves with al-Qaida have conducted an ongoing campaign of kidnapping and bombings. In response to political changes, Islamic influence has been steadily increasing in Algeria, and women are still bound by the 1984 Family Code, which is derived from Shari`a law. Because they are treated as minors, women rights are subjugated to those of male guardians. Technically, men can have up to four wives, but polygamy has become rare in actual practice. In 2003, some progress was made when the government agreed to expand women’s rights under an amended Family Code and appointed a Ministry of Women’s Affairs. However, women still need the consent of male guardians to marry, and they are forbidden to marry non-Algerian men.

Ali, Laila



Algeria has an infant mortality rate of 27.73 deaths per 1,000 live births. Female infants (24.45) have an advantage over boys (30.86) that continues throughout life, resulting in a life expectancy of 75.77 years for women and 72.35 years for men. The median age for women is 26.8 years. Algerians have a fertility rate of 1.79 children. With literacy, the advantage shifts to men, who have a literacy rate of 79.8 compared with 60.1 for women. Officially, all Algerians attend school for 13 years, but women now outnumber men in urban colleges and universities. Neither domestic violence nor spousal rape is illegal, and women who become victims of domestic violence receive little help from officials. Most cases are not reported because of social pressures and the need to provide a medical certificate before charges can be filed. Counseling is provided only by nongovernmental organization. Prostitution is a growing problem, and many young women have been kidnapped by militants and kept as sex slaves; the government has refused to cooperate with United Nations officials who have tried to intervene. Some progress has been made in the area of sexual harassment, however, which is now punishable by both imprisonment and fines. See Also: Domestic Violence; Shari`a Law; Trafficking. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Algeria.” www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/ag.html (accessed February 2010). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions: Algeria.” http://genderindex .org/country/algeria (accessed February 2010). Tripp, Alili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. State Department. “2008 Human Rights Report: Algeria.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /nea/119112.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

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Ali, Laila Laila Ali is an accomplished and undefeated boxer who currently holds both the Women’s International Boxing Association and the International Women’s Boxing Federation belts. Aside from her accomplishments in the ring, 5-foot, 10-inch and 160-pound Ali is the youngest daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. As a tribute to her boxing icon father, Laila Ali is known as Laila “She Bee Stingin’” Ali. Ali is the most recognized female boxer nationally and internationally. Currently, she is the second boxer to hold the International Women’s Boxing Federal Super Middleweight title, the second to hold the Women in Boxing Association World Super Middleweight title, and the first woman to hold the World Boxing Council Female World Super Middle title. In addition to being a boxing champion, Ali is a humanitarian, reality television star, wife, and mother. Born on December 30, 1977, in Miami Beach, Florida, to her celebrated boxing dad, Ali grew up around boxing but was not always headed to the ring. It wasn’t until she was 18 that she saw a women’s boxing match on television and found her calling. Three years later, at 21, Ali made her boxing debut against April Fowler at the Turning Stone Casino Convention Center on the Oneida Indian Nation in Verona, New York. She won that fight, easily knocking out Fowler in the first round. After winning her next eight matches, Ali stepped out of her father’s shadow and proved to boxing fans and the general public that she was a boxer in her own right. She won her first International Boxing Association title after knocking out Suzette Taylor in 2002. That match also named her Fighter of the Month by Women Boxing Archive Network. One of the most anticipated matches in recent boxing history came with Ali’s fight against Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, daughter of the renowned fighter Joe Frazier, who was a fierce rival of Muhammed Ali. Many in the boxing world remembered the fierce rivalry of the two champions and viewed a match between their daughters as a grudge match between two great fighting families. In fact, the fight was called Ali vs. Frazier IV, a reference to the three boxing matches between their fathers. On June 8, 2001, Ali beat Frazier in an eight-round majority decision, firmly cementing the younger Ali in boxing history. The match was the first time in pay-per-view history that a women’s boxing

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fight was not only the main event but was shown to a sold-out crowd with more than 8,000 people in attendance. Ali remains undefeated, with a 24-match record, 21 of them as knockouts. Ali is about more than boxing. At 18, she was the owner and operator of a nail salon, and later attended Santa Monica College and earned a degree in business management before purchasing a shop selling balloons and Halloween masks. In addition, Ali uses her name and celebrity status to call attention to her charity work and fund-raising efforts. She is involved with the Women’s Sports Foundation, which encourages girls and women to actively participate in sports and physical activities. Ali has been active in helping to raise money for the organization and was named to their board of trustees. Further, Ali has partnered with Uncle Ben’s rice to coordinate the Fighting Childhood Hunger campaign. She’s also helped organize and cook for children of the Boys and Girls Club in the San Fernando Valley Kids Café. Ali publicly supports the American Diabetes Association in their efforts to curb childhood obesity and diabetes as well as ONE, a grassroots campaign of more than 2 million people committed to end poverty across the world. Ali is pursuing various other media opportunities spanning TV shows, commercials, video, and even a documentary. She is currently the host of the new American Gladiators TV and game show with famed wrestler Hulk Hogan, and she recently joined the cast of CBS The Early Show as a contributing correspondent. In 2007, Ali was on the wildly popular reality television show Dancing With the Stars where she made it to the finals and came in third. She was an early host of The N’s Student Body, a reality TV show featuring teenagers on their quest to live a healthy lifestyle, and appeared on an episode of the children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba. Ali has been featured in numerous commercials and advertising campaigns for such high-profile companies as the Got Milk? campaign, Adidas and Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion. As a fitness expert, Ali has appeared in many magazine articles relating her experiences and knowledge about health and fitness. In addition, Ali created a cardio workout video with another well-known boxer, Sugar Ray Leonard, that showcases her fitness skills. Most recently, Ali starred with her famous father in the documentary Daddy’s Girl.

In August 2000, Ali married her former manager, Johnny McClain. That marriage ended in divorce and she later married former NFL player Curtis Conway. She is a stepmother to three children and mother to a son, Curtis Muhammad Conway. See Also: Boxing; Reality Television; Sports,Women in. Further Readings Ali, Laila. Reach! Finding Strength, Spirit and Personal Power. New York: Hyperion Books, 2003. Montoya, Delilah. Women Boxers: The New Warriors. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 2006. Picket, Lynn Snowden. Looking for a Fight: A Memoir. New York: Dial Press, 2000. Leesha Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Alternative Education Alternative education is founded on feminist strategies among other theoretical models. In the 1970s, feminists challenged traditional education both for the gender inequalities practiced there and for its more masculine-oriented hierarchal structure. Since then, education has been critiqued from multiple perspectives, so alternative education takes many forms. Feminist pedagogy tends to challenge traditional teaching models and posits further that education should be used as a vehicle for empowering those who are oppressed by building community and developing leadership abilities. Gender Equality in Education In 1992, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) made a media splash when it published the report How Schools Shortchange Girls. The AAUW argued that conventional math and science curriculum, biased standardized tests and typical school environments do not account for girls’ special concerns and deprive them of equal access to education. A number of books released in the 1990s documented the psychological and educational neglect girls suffered in schools. They documented lower self-esteem among girls as well as higher depression



and they noted that teachers tend to call on girls less often in class and tend to give girls less and lower quality feedback. Nationwide, there is some indication that some early feminist concerns are more tolerated. Girls are being called on more and getting better quality and frequent feedback from teachers. There has not been much change in the structure of most mainstream educational institutions, however. Families interested in alternative education models still need to go elsewhere to find those alternatives. Nonetheless, since the mid-1990s, some writers have asserted that boys rather than girls are at a disadvantage in mainstream education as a result of the contemporary focus on girls. Christina Hoff Sommers’ best-selling 2000 book, The War Against Boys, laments that statistically boys are worse off than girls in a number of critical areas. Boys are behind girls in college enrollment; they are more likely to be suspended or expelled and drop out of school; they also are more likely to be designated for special education placement and diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. Sommers blames feminists for attributing pathological disorders associated with male behavior. Other books blame schools for not meeting boys’ needs; boys brains, they argue, are constructed differently than girls. These accusations are curious because little has changed in most educational institutions. In mainstream education, classes still tend to be teacher centered; students take exams and are assessed at the end of the term with grades; competition is used as a motivating force such that students compete for grades, in athletics, and for any distinction a given school might offer; and discipline and punishment are de rigueur— students need to ask if they can go to the bathroom, they are not permitted to leave the building without school passes and they are threatened with in- or outof-school suspensions or even expelled for committing school infractions. These types of hierarchal, competitive, and punitive practices are more often associated with masculine behaviors and values. Thus, George Lakoff ’s model of political metaphors provides a relevant framework for looking at mainstream and alternative education. Lakoff, a linguist, laid out a groundbreaking theory of the differences between conservative and liberal thought in the United States. Characterizing the state as a figurative “parent” and citizens as “children,”

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Lakoff argues that ideologies of the conservatives and liberals (mainstream and alternative, respectively) are founded on different models of morality as applied to raising families. He calls these approaches the “strict father” and the “nurturant parent.” The strict father model is based on the notion that children need to learn right from wrong by setting strict rules for their behavior and enforcing them through punishment. By contrast, the nurturant parent model is founded on cooperation and interdependence. Its values relating to caring and interaction are most closely associated with femininity. In keeping with a liberal framework, Lakoff adopted the genderneutral term nurturant parent for this model. Alternative Models Families interested in alternative education need still to look outside mainstream education for an “alternative” to the strict-father model of education prevalent in schools nationwide. Alternative education varies in emphasis but is often framed around values more commonly associated with being feminine including helping students bond with one another, fostering cooperation rather than competition, and creating community. Discipline tends to be less punishmentoriented—alternative schools more often prioritize social services and other counseling or creative conflict resolution programs. For instance, Bank Street College of Education in New York City, which is world renowned for training teachers in alternative models of education focuses on helping teachers and students work collaboratively. The Bank Street School for Children elementary school focuses on teaching students to read critically by introducing texts from social justice leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.; athletics are noncompetitive; and students work in small groups as they explore their own curiosities and interests while simultaneously connecting with other students, teachers, and the external urban environment. Exams and grades are deemphasized and discipline is generally handled informally. Punishment is relatively rare. Creating community and support among students, teachers, and parents are hallmarks of their program. Mainstream schools in Denmark tend to be deviate even more significantly from mainstream education in the United States than this country’s own alternative schools. Students there tend to stay with the same

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class and teacher for their first six grades to foster connections among students and with a particular teacher; they are not assessed by grades or exams; they work with one another collaboratively in groups; and punishment is not used to foster discipline. Instead the relationship between parents and the teacher and the teacher and the students address issues relating to assessment, achievement, and order. Analysis of Alternative Education Writers like Christina H. Sommers would likely consider these alternative environments antimale in that they do not support competition, authority, or conventional models of discipline. She, like similar writers concerned about the impact of contemporary education on males, believes there should be more competition not less in schools and that students should be forced to grapple with more stress. She criticized, for instance, circle games and other cooperative activities when she appeared on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in April 2005. Sommers also writes that the anti-bullying programs that try to create more empathic relationships among children are shielding them too much from the challenges they need to face to develop self-reliance. In fact however, most American schools rely more on the strict-father model to contend with bullying. Zero tolerance policies are ubiquitous in mainstream education whereby students are suspended for even minor infractions associated with violence. More community oriented alternative anti-bullying programs are more often found in European countries where Norway first unleashed the five-track method and later the Zero Programme at the turn of the century—both of which focus on helping all people involved in bullying incidents (bully, victim, bystanders, teachers, parents); programs across the Atlantic tend to work to create more supportive school environments overall. In contrast to Sommers’ perspective, other writers contend that boys and girls both are having difficulties in school precisely because of the more masculine-oriented expectations there. Michael Kimmel, for instance, writes that boys are gay-bashed or nerdbashed for achieving academically. Names associated with performing well in school—such as “geek” and “bookworm”—don’t tend to confer masculinity status, and this contributes to boys avoiding academic success in favor of demonstrating their burgeoning manhood. Girls often get the message in more tra-

ditional environments that being attractive to boys is more important than being academically sophisticated; and both boys and girls often underperform academically to improve their social status. Alternative education offers an alternative to the conventional social, academic, athletic, and learning environments found in conventional schools. Ideally, alternative education creates an environment that supports boys and girls alike and helps everyone collaboratively work together to build knowledge, critical thinking, authentic connections, healthy self-esteem, as well as a love and passion for learning. See Also: Children’s Rights; Denmark; Educational Opportunities/Access; Feminism, American; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural. Further Readings Gurian, M. Boys and Girls Learn Differently: A Guide for Teachers and Parents. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2002. Klein, J. “America Is From Mars, Europe Is From Venus: How the United States Can Learn From Europe’s Social Work Response to School Shootings.” School Social Work Journal, v.30/1 (2005). Lakoff, G. Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know That Liberals Don’t. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Pipher, M. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002. Sadker M. and Sadker, D. Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls. Princeton, NJ: Scribner, 1995. Sommers, C. H. The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men. Princeton, NJ: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Jessica Klein

Adelphi University

Amanpour, Christiane Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s former chief international correspondent and host of the news show Amanpour, is one of the highest-paid, most recognized women in television news worldwide, following her more than two decades at CNN, spent covering nearly every major conflict, disaster, and event of



global significance. She has produced many in-depth documentaries for CNN, including God’s Warriors, about the three largest monotheistic religions, and Where Have All the Parents Gone?, about children orphaned by AIDS. Amanpour also held a contract with CBS from 1996 to 2005, providing five stories each year to the news show 60 Minutes. Amanpour was born January 12, 1958, in London to a British, Catholic mother and a Muslim, Iranian father. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Tehran, where Amanpour’s father was an airline executive. Amanpour has said that she and her three younger sisters had a privileged childhood. She began attending Catholic boarding schools in England when she was 11 years old. Her worldview changed drastically, however, when in 1979, her family was forced to flee Iran and her uncle died during the Islamic Revolution. At the time, Amanpour had been struggling to choose a career path. Although she had hoped to become a physician, she did not have the grades. Her younger sister had withdrawn suddenly from a journalism program, and when the school refused to refund the tuition, Amanpour enrolled in her sister’s place. After completing the program, Amanpour moved to Providence to study journalism at the University of Rhode Island. During summer vacations in England, she worked for BBC Radio’s The World Tonight. In Providence, Amanpour held an internship, working as a reporter, anchor, and producer with WBRU-Radio and working briefly as an electronic graphics designer for NBC-affiliate WJAR-TV. Amanpour graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts from the University of Rhode Island in 1983 and applied for a job at an organization that was nearly as new to journalism as she was—CNN. She was hired as a desk assistant and arrived in Atlanta with a bicycle, about $100, and a plan to become a foreign correspondent. When Amanpour was told that she was not broadcast material—her hair was too dark, her name too hard to pronounce, and her accent too foreign—she replied, “Just you wait.” Today, she tells students and aspiring journalists to find their way around the many “nos” they are likely to encounter at the start of their own careers. In 1985, just two years after starting at CNN, Amanpour helped the network with its series, “Iran: In the Name of God,” which won CNN its first Dupont Award. In 1989, Amanpour applied for an

Amanpour, Christiane

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opening at CNN’s bureau in Frankfurt, Germany, where she began as an international correspondent before volunteering to cover the Persian Gulf War. Amanpour quickly became known for her willingness to take physical and professional risks, continually placing herself and her sources in uncomfortable situations. Former president Bill Clinton did not hide his anger after Amanpour asked him, on camera, how he could “flip-flop” on the situation in Bosnia, and former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hung up during a live interview after she asked him a pointed question about suicide bombings. In 1998, Amanpour married James Rubin, then spokesman for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and they had a son, Darius John Rubin, in 2000. In September 2009, Amanpour began hosting Amanpour, based in New York. The 30-minute show was produced for about 240 million households worldwide, each day,

Amanpour has earned many awards, including four Peabody Awards, nine Emmys, and an Edward R. Murrow Award.

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on CNN International. A compilation from the best of that week’s shows was broadcast as one 60-minute program to U.S. audiences, airing on Sundays. In 2010, she left CNN to join ABC. Amanpour’s work has earned many awards, including four Peabody Awards, nine Emmy awards, two Polk Awards, three DuPont-Columbia Awards, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. Forbes has named Amanpour one of its 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2009, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II named Amanpour a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Amanpour also has received honorary degrees from the American University of Paris, Georgetown University, New York University, Smith University, Emory University, and the University of Michigan. The city of Sarajevo named Amanpour an honorary citizen. See Also: Film Production, Women in; Iran; Journalists, Broadcast Media; United Kingdom; Working Mothers. Further Readings Ferrari, Michelle. Reporting America at War: An Oral History. New York: Hyperion, 2003. Gutgold, Nichola. Seen and Heard: The Women of Television News. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. Carolyn Edy University of North Carolina

AMBER Alert The AMBER Alert system is a method of informing the public about missing and abducted children used in the United States and Canada. The acronym AMBER stands for America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response. The more commonly recognized association is with Amber Hagerman, a 9-yearold girl who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas. The AMBER alert system began in the United States and spread to countries around the world where it’s known by other names, including Australia, France, Ireland, Malaysia, and the Netherlands. The system has been widely claimed to have saved lives, yet some believe that the information reporting the number of lives saved is skewed.

Children are taught to avoid strangers, but an abductor is often a relative or someone the child knows.

Amber Hagerman was riding her bike in a parking lot with her brother in Arlington, Texas, on January 13, 1996, when she was abducted. Eyewitness testimony reported seeing a man in a pickup truck drag Amber into his truck. The police were called and an investigation began immediately. The Arlington and neighboring communities searched for the missing girl for four days. Her body was found in a ditch, with her throat slit. Despite an arduous investigation and a $75,000 reward for information, Amber Hagerman’s abductor and killer has never been found. Her parents founded the People Against Sex Offenders organization (PASO) after their daughter’s death. The goal of PASO was to compel the Texas legislature into development tougher laws protecting children from sex offenders. The outcome of her parents’ efforts and congressional representation from their district was realized when then president Bill Clinton signed into law a bill the created the national sex offender registry list, which requires all sex offenders to register their address and give the community notice when sex offenders are moving into their area. Websites have also been developed to allow for a search by name, street, or within a particular zip code to locate registered sex offenders. An AMBER alert is essentially an electronic system that is activated when a child is believed to have been abducted. Pertinent information about the child and alleged abductor is distributed using various outlets. Examples of these



American Association of University Women

include LED billboards, highway and traffic condition signs, television and radio stations, satellite radio, and more recently e-mails and text messages on cell phones. There are also states that allow a display of the alert across the front of lottery terminals. To alleviate an abundance of false alarms, there have been activation criteria developed. The United States Department of Justice has established four conditions that should be met before issuing an AMBER alert. Those are that law enforcement officials have determined that abduction has occurred; the child in question should be under the age of 17; there should be risk of injury or death present; and there should be descriptive information of the alleged abductor and/ or their vehicle and the victim that would make it feasible that they could be located. While these guidelines have been put in place to maintain the integrity of the system, there remains some controversy over its actual effectiveness. Much of the controversy over the AMBER alert system stems from its reported success rate. Researchers have found that the alert system plays an insignificant role in the return of children. In fact, they claim that many of the cases where children were returned were usually a case of miscommunication between family members and custody disputes. Some claim that there can be no true statement of whether or not a life was actually saved in these cases as there is no way to know what might have happened. Proponents for a notification system for abducted children take issue with the number of false alarms or cases when the guidelines set forth by the U.S. Department of Justice were not adhered to. They are rightfully concerned that the public and surrounding community may become desensitized to the alerts if they are sent out too frequently, particularly via text and e-mail messages, thereby decreasing their effectiveness altogether. Still others worry that highway and street traffic boards may cause congestion and possibly vehicular accidents as drivers may become overly distracted. While some call for the AMBER alerts to be used sparingly, others believe that the guidelines are sometimes followed too strictly and may potentially lead to the death of a child. For instance, law enforcement officials not being able to confirm that the child is in immediate danger may result in those officials not issuing an AMBER alert, which may result in the injury or death to a minor.

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While there remains issues with the alert system that need to be addressed, there is evidence that the earlier law enforcement agencies and the community are aware of a missing child, the greater the likelihood that the child will be returned home and the less likely they will be hurt or murdered. This is but one tool of many to return abducted children home safely. See Also: Canada; Child Abuse, Victims of: Trafficking, Women and Children; United States. Further Readings Code Amber News Service. “The Web’s AMBER Alert System.” http://www.codeamber.org (accessed April 2010). Snow, Robert L. Child Abduction: Prevention, Investigation, and Recovery. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008. U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. “AMBER Alert. America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response.” http://www.amberalert.gov (accessed April 2010). Leesha Thrower Northern Kentucky University

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), a not-for-profit organization, operates at the national, state, and local levels, with 100,000 members,1,000 branches, and 500 college/university partners nationwide. AAUW was founded in 1881, initially incorporated as the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, and then was named AAUW in 1921. Since its early beginnings, AAUW has served as an influential lobbying body furthering gender equity causes. AAUW’s mission, “to advance equity for women and girls though advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research,” captures the organization’s overreaching purpose and its historical roots. AAUW’s origins can be traced to skepticism common in the 1880s among America’s founding colleges regarding women’s place in the academy. Women’s early 1880s collegiate clubs, working to debunk a myth that higher education harmed women’s health, served

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as a precursor to AAUW’s charting. Operationalized among a small group of women who defied the odds by earning college degrees, AAUW has since extended a strategic platform to secure women’s and girl’s academic and civic rights AAUW’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C., ground its political footprint and its educational outreach work. Early AAUW initiatives included promoting the appointment of women to foreign service and advocating for women’s reproductive freedoms. In 1938, AAUW issued The Living Wage for College Women, a seminal document exposing sex discrimination in higher education. AAUW continues to publish important research on gender equity concerns influential to educational policy. The 1992 AAUW report, “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” exposed how girls in grades K–12 receive an inferior education to boys. Although its methodology and findings were subsequently challenged, the report nonetheless advanced concrete strategies to overcome these alleged shortcomings. More recently, Where the Girls Are (published in 2008), scrutinizes 35 years of educational practices, indicating socioeconomic climate as fundamental to children’s school success. Globally, AAUW holds permanent observer status with the United Nations, partners with CARE in fighting worldwide poverty, and assists AAUW branches in advocating the ratification of CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. AAUW transitioned to 501c3 tax-exempt status in 2009, enabling it to function as a charitable and educational corporation. Under its current governance structure, AAUW oversees the Educational Fund, Legal Advocacy Fund, and Leadership and Training Institute. The Educational Fund administers fellowship, grant, and research projects and sponsors educational symposia and conferences; the Legal Advocacy Fund provides financial assistance to persons litigating sexual discrimination in higher education; and the Leadership and Training Institute promotes campus action projects and gender equity initiatives to support AAUW’s philanthropic and educational purposes. AAUW asks all branches to donate funds to build Educational Fund and Legal Advocacy Fund awards, which they do willingly. In 2009, the Educational Fund granted women over $3 million in support.

AAUW membership is open to college/university partners and college students/graduates at or beyond associate level. AAUW’s Website-linked Dialog Blog and Facebook page mark some of AAUW’s progression in championing women’s still-pressing gender equity goals. See Also: College and University Faculty; Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, College and University; Educational Opportunities/ Access; Equal Pay; Professions, by Gender; Science Education for Girls; Science, Women in; Title IX; Women’s Colleges; Women’s Studies. Further Readings American Association of University Women. http://www .aauw.org/ (accessed June 2010). Edward, H. Clark. Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for Girls. Boston, MA: James R. Osgood, 1874. Solomon, Barbara M. In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986. Barbara LeSavoy The College at Brockport, State University of New York

American Girl Dolls The first American Girl Dolls debuted in 1986 and are the creation of Pleasant T. Rowland and the Pleasant Company; 13 years later, the Pleasant Company was acquired by Mattel. Originally, there were three dolls, each representing a different historical period in American history; today, there are nine historical dolls, representing the mid-1700s and continuing through the 1970s. The dolls from the 1700s are colonial girls who struggle to reconcile ideas of American independence with loyalty to England during the Revolutionary War and a Nez Perce girl who learns about trustworthiness and loyalty from a hero in her culture. The 1800s, are represented by a New Mexican girl who preserves tradition after her mother dies, a pioneer girl living in a new land with a new language, and a girl who escapes slavery during the Civil War. The girls of the 1900s are one who lives through the Great Depression and

American Idol



sees her father lose his job, a girl whose father is fighting in World War II, and a girl from San Francisco in the 1970s who is moving to a new town. Each of these dolls is sold with a storybook that details the historical events of the time period and each story is told through the perspective of the 9-year-old heroine. Building upon the success of the historical characters, the American Girl company launched a new Girl of the Year series, in 2001, to represent issues that girls face today. Each of these dolls is available for a year and is sold with a storybook and accessories related to the issue the girl is facing. The issues have ranged from helping behaviors, family conflicts, personal responsibility and loyalty, to environmental preservation, ethnic diversity, and bullying. American Girl also has the Just Like You dolls and Bitty Baby dolls, both premiered in 1995. The Just Like You dolls allow girls to build an American Girl doll with features that are similar to their own. Girls can choose the hair, eye, and skin color of the doll, along with accessories, outfits, and pets to accompany the doll that they have created. The Bitty Baby dolls are designed for girls aged 3 and older. These dolls come with a variety of skin and hair colors along with a storybook that focuses on themes like dressing, eating, and play. The American Girl brand extends beyond just the dolls. The first American Girl Place store was opened in Chicago in 1998. This opening was followed by stores in New York and Los Angeles. American Girl Boutique and Bistro locations were opened beginning in 2007 in four cities—Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Natick, Massachusetts; and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The stores offer movies related to the American Girl dolls, restaurants, and even a hospital where American Girl dolls can go to be repaired. Additionally, American Girl magazine was launched in 1992 and in 2004 the first American Girl feature film was released and since this time four others have followed. See Also: Barbie Dolls; Bratz Dolls; Hello, Kitty; Toys, Gender-Stereotypic. Further Readings American Girl. “Company History.” http://www.american girl.com/corp/corporate.php?section=about&id=2 (accessed November 2009).

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Stone, Tanya Lee. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us. New York: Viking, 2010. Carrie L. Cokely Curry College

American Idol American Idol is a competition-reality television show created by Simon Fuller to discover the next musical talent in the United States. Inspired by the British series Pop Idol, American Idol debuted in June 2002 and entered its ninth season in January 2010. American Idol boasts a global following and remains one of the most popular reality television shows in the United States. Since its debut, the series has successfully launched the musical careers of a number of young women including season winners Kelly Clarkson (season one), Fantasia Barrino (season three), Carrie Underwood (season four), and Jordin Sparks (season six), as well as finalist Jennifer Hudson (season three). The American Idol program identifies the musical talent through a series of nationwide talent searches. Each year, up to 100,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 28 audition for a spot in the competition. Competitors are then narrowed down to 12 finalists who sing weekly for the votes of the U.S. public. Hosted by television personality Ryan Seacrest, American Idol showcases the contestants’ talent with weekly themed competitions intended to highlight musical ability, personality, and marketability within the music industry. Idol judges Paula Abdul (seasons one to eight), Simon Cowell (seasons one to nine), Ellen DeGeneres (season nine), Kara DioGuardi (seasons eight and nine), Steven Tyler (season ten addition), and Randy Jackson act as music industry experts and provide various critiques of the contestants’ performances. The final decision, however, as to who stays and leaves the competition is left to the viewership. At the conclusion of each show, viewers are provided a voting window of two hours where they have the opportunity to cast their votes via phone or text message. Results are revealed the following evening and the contestant with the lowest number of votes leaves the competition. The winner of American Idol

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receives a $1 million recording contract with a major record label and is managed by 19 Management. American Idol’s female contestants have enjoyed great success in the music and film industries. Clarkson won the first competition and continues to dominate the musical charts. She and Underwood remain the only two American Idol winners to sweep all three of the major music awards in one season, respectively the American Music, Billboard, and Grammy Awards. To date, Underwood is one of the best-selling contestants to emerge from the show. She has sold more than 9.6 million albums in the United States. Barrino, likewise, maintains a successful music, acting, and writing career. She recently published her memoirs titled Life Is Not a Fairy Tale, and after her lead role as Celie in the Broadway musical, The Color Purple, she was cast in the film adaptation of the play. Sparks’s debut album went platinum in 2007, selling 2 million copies in the United States and she received an American Music Award in 2008. Finalist Hudson won an Academy Award for her role as Effie White in the film Dreamgirls. She has also starred in the Sex and the City film and The Secret Life of Bees. American Idol forever transformed popular culture in its nationwide search for musical talent and neither the music industry nor reality television will ever be the same. See Also: DeGeneres, Ellen; Reality Television; Rock Music, Women in. Further Readings American Idol. http://www.americanidol.com (accessed June 2009). Barrino, Fantasia. Life Is Not a Fairy Tale. Forest City, NC: Fireside, 2005. Bednar, Chuck. Insights Into American Idol. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest, 2009. Emily Bent National University of Ireland

American Samoa American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the U.S. Office of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs, that includes

some of the islands in the Samoan chain in the South Pacific Ocean. The United States acquired possession of American Samoa in 1899 in a treaty with Germany. The total land mass of American Samoa (popularly called simply “Samoa”) is 199 square kilometers, slightly larger than Washington, D.C. Samoa has a high standard of living, due in part to support by the U.S. government, with life expectancy of 70.8 years for men and 76.8 years for women. Literacy is near-universal at 98 percent for men and 97 percent for women. Essentially, all births are attended by trained personnel, but the infant mortality rate is high at 10.18 per 1,000 live births, as compared to 6.22/1,000 in the United States, but nevertheless lower than in many Pacific nations.American Samoa conducts most of its commerce with the United States, with tuna fishing and processing providing most employment. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007 was $8,000 and unemployment is high at 29.8 percent, but efforts to diversify the economy are hampered by the islands’ distant location and the frequency of hurricanes. The population growth rate is 1.2 percent; a high fertility rate of 3.29 children per woman and birth rate of 23.31 births per 1,000 population (the adolescent birth rate is 36.3 per 1,000 women) is offset by a negative migration rate of minue 6.99 migrants per 1,000 population (among the highest in the world). Factors promoting outmigration include high unemployment and the fact that Samoans are American nationals and have the right of entry to the United States. Most of the population (90.6 percent) are Samoan, with minorities of Asians (2.8 percent), whites (1.1 percent), mixed races (4.2 percent), and other races (0.3 percent). Christianity is the predominant religion, with 50 percent Christian Congregationalist and 20 percent Roman Catholic; most of the remainder belong to other Protestant churches. Historically, American Samoa has been a maledominated society, but this is changing somewhat with urbanization, and now women constitute 41.7 percent of the nonagricultural labor force. Most positions of authority are still held by men, although some women own businesses and hold government posts: examples of the latter include Le’ala Elisara, Director of the Arts Council; Dr. Claire Poumele, Director of Education; Evelyn Vaitautolu-Langford, Director of Human Resources; and Dr. Leuga Turner, Director of Youth and Women’s Affairs. Samoa has never had a

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Amish women must wear plain and neat dresses, aprons, capes, and bonnets, as directed by the Ordnung. Women must keep their heads covered out of respect to God and to their husbands, and all Amish members are prohibited from posing for photographs.

female governor. Traditional Polynesian customs are still influential in home and family life, even in urban areas: a young married couple most often settles in the household of the parents of either the husband or wife, households tend to be large and include collateral relatives as well as the nuclear family, and economic and social activities are directed by a matai or family chief who is responsible for the welfare of the extended family. Theoretically, either men or women can be matai, but most are male. Domestic violence is outlawed but remains a problem. See Also: Christianity; Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Government, Women in. Further Readings American Samoa Government. “Executive Branch.” http:// americansamoa.gov(accessed April 2010). United Nations Statistics Division. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer. aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Amish The modern Amish culture descended from the Anabaptists of the 16th century, and their name comes from Jakob Ammann, an elder who separated from the Mennonite religion in 1693. The Amish arrived in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, with the largest populations settling in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, as well as Ontario, Canada. Women are expected to fulfill their traditional gender roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers and to exhibit domesticity, piety, and submission. Although some women work outside the home, change is slow and often not welcomed by the Amish. All Amish are expected to submit to the church’s authority through adherence to community rules known as the Ordnung or order, a choice made through voluntary adult baptism. Homemaking and childrearing are considered essential to Amish culture, as the home is the center of life and children ensure the culture’s continuation. The husband is the head of household, main breadwinner, and conduit with the church and the outside world. Women, however, may share in decision making and discipline within individual households.

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Women are excluded from becoming church officials and from community leadership roles, but they can participate in the church council. Women may not use artificial birth control or abortion. Women’s daily activities are shaped by their prescribed gender roles. Domestic tasks include food preparation and serving, dishwashing, laundry, ironing, canning fruits and vegetables, making jams and jellies, and sewing clothes. Women also help with farm chores, gardening, and family businesses as well as care for aging parents. There are increasing numbers of women working outside the home, most of them single or married with older children. A small but growing percentage also own small businesses, some of which are home based. When women work outside the home, common employment includes factory positions, domestic work, and food and crafts preparation such as quilting. Women’s daily lives also are shaped by Ordnung. Appearance should be plain and neat with genderspecific clothing. Women wear dresses and aprons, capes, and bonnets. The Ordnung mandates separation from the outside world and sets limits on the use of modern technology. Old Order Amish are stricter in this regard than New Order Amish, who allow the use of electricity, telephones, and tractors. Deviation brings criticism and may result in church probation. If reconciliation attempts fail, the individual faces excommunication and shunning. Contact with the shunned is regulated and many become estranged from their families. They may return to the church at any time by repenting and confessing their sins. Parents instruct their children in the Ordning as well as household, farming, and vocational skills, considering these more important to Amish daily life than a formal education. Children attend school only through the eighth grade. Courtship is limited and private within Amish society and couples may not live together before marriage. Adolescents experience the outside world in a coming-of-age ritual known as rumspringa. They hold jobs, date, attend parties, experiment with alcohol and smoking, and wear current fashions. Rumspringa ends when they decide whether or not to undergo adult baptism and permanently adopt the Amish lifestyle. Most adolescents choose to remain Amish. Those who leave often desire more options for their future while those who stay cite the benefits of

community belonging, low expenses, and the desire to raise their children within the Amish value system. See Also: Christianity; Crafting Industry; Homemaking; Religion, Women in; Rural Women. Further Readings Kraybill, Donald. The Riddle of Amish Culture. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Kraybill, D. B. and M. A. Olshan, eds. The Amish Struggle With Modernity. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1994. Olshan, M. A. and K. D. Schmidt. “Amish Women and the Feminist Conundrum.” In D. B. Kraybill and M. A. Olshan, eds.,The Amish Struggle With Modernity. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1994. Schmidt, Kimberly D. and Diane Zimmerman Umble. Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Andorra Andorra is a very small (468 square kilometers), mountainous, and highly urbanized country located between France and Spain in southwestern Europe. The primary industries are tourism (80 percent of gross domestic product [GDP]) and banking. Andorra is a prosperous country and in 2007 ranked 14th in the world with a per capita GDP of $42,500. Life expectancy in Andorra is among the highest in the world, at 80.3 years for men and 84.8 years for women. Male and female literacy are both reported as 100 percent, and about equal numbers of men and women enroll in tertiary education. Andorra’s high standard of living and lack of an income tax attract many immigrants and it has a high rate of net migration (6.89 migrants per 1,000 population, 13th highest in the world). This offsets Andorra’s low birth rate (10.35 per 1,000 population, 166th in the world) and total fertility rate (1.33 children/ woman, 205th in the world) and gave the country a moderate growth rate of 1.135 percent in 2009.

Anglican Communion



Andorra is a parliamentary democracy with universal suffrage at age 18; women gained the right to vote in 1970 and to serve in public office in 1973. Today, women hold 25 percent of seats in the national parliament. Since 1993, the constitution has guaranteed equal civil rights for women and many are employed: in 2007, women constituted 46.6 percent of employees in the nonagricultural sector. The predominant religion is Roman Catholic, with small populations of Protestants, Muslims, and Hindus. The influence of the Catholic Church may be seen in the fact that Andorra does not recognize divorce and that abortion is legal only to save the woman’s life. However, since 2005 Andorra has recognized civil unions between same-sex partners, although samesex marriage is not legal as of 2010. The legal age of marriage for both men and women is 16. Andorra has a high standard of healthcare, which is reflected in excellent maternal and child health. Childhood vaccination rates range from 84 percent for hepatitis B to 99 percent for DTP (a compound vaccine protecting against diphtheria, pertussis or whooping cough, and tetanus). The infant mortality rate is 3.68 per 1,000 live births, ranking 211th out of 225 reporting countries. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Civil Unions; Divorce; France; Government, Women in; Roman Catholic Church; Spain. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Andorra.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/theworld-factbook/geos/an.html (accessed February 2010). World Health Organization. “World Health Report Statistical Annex, Annexes by Country (a-f ).” http:// www.who.int/entity/whr/2005/annex/indicators_ country_a-f.pdf (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is an association of churches around the world that are in communion with the Church of England. The worldwide Angli-

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can Communion membership is approximately 77 million. Included within the communion are the Episcopal Church of the United States, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai ​( Japan), and more than 30 other ecclesiastical bodies. The late 20th century saw the communion’s greatest growth occur in Africa. Each of the “provinces,” as the national churches are called, is autonomous, determining such matters as who is eligible for ordination. The first decade of the 21st century was a time of increased tension within the communion, as schism was threatened over the ordination of openly gay clergy and the acceptance of women in the office of bishop. The Anglican Communion recognizes the ordination of deacons, priests, and bishops. Controversy has surrounded the ordination of women in each of these offices. In the 1960s, largely because of the effects of the feminist movement, women were ordained as deacons, although even this ordination created controversy. It was almost a decade later before the first female deacon was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral. In the 1970s, controversy centered on the ordination of women as priests: As early as 1971, the first women were ordained into the priesthood, but it was near the end of the decade before an official resolution advised churches that did not ordain women to do so. Some churches refused, and many believed female ordination would create a split within the communion. The debate next moved in the 1980s to the ordination of women as bishops. The worst fears of conservative members were realized in 1989, when the Anglican Church of New Zealand consecrated Penny Jamieson as the seventh Bishop of Dunedin. The ordination of Barbara Harris, an African American woman, as bishop by the Episcopal Church, USA, took place later the same year. Less than a decade later, more than 4,000 women priests and at least 10 women bishops were part of the communion. By the 1990s, with a majority of provinces ordaining women as priests and most accepting the ordination of women bishops in principle, if not in fact, the controversy seemed to have subsided. The storm broke again in 2003, however, when the election of a noncelibate gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire led four dioceses to break with the Episcopal Church and created dissension within the worldwide Anglican Communion. The 2006 election

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of Katharine Jefferts Schori as the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA—making her the only female primate in the communion—worsened tensions. Conservative bishops gathered in Jerusalem in June 2008 for the Global Anglican Future Conference, denying a break with the worldwide communion but calling for the formation of a new Anglican Church in North America and for relegating the Archbishop of Canterbury to history. Disaffected parishes in North America met the same month and formed the Anglican Church in North America. Two months later, Lambeth 2008, an assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was boycotted by approximately onethird of the bishops in the communion and ended with no resolutions and with growing fear of schism. The election of the Reverend Mary Glasspool, an openly lesbian priest, as a suffragan bishop in 2010 gave evidence that this fear was well grounded. Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, greeted the news that Reverend Glasspool would be consecrated by expressing regret and warning that the action carried implications for the place of the Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion. See Also: Christianity; Religion, Women in; Schori, Katharine Jefferts. Further Readings “Covenant Aims to Mediate Disputes Within Anglican Communion.” Christian Century, v.127/2 (2010). Craston, Colin. “Women Bishops and the Anglican Communion Process.” http://www.fulcrum-anglican .org.uk/news/2005/20050709craston.cfm?doc=62 (accessed March 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Angola Although it is a state rich in oil and diamonds— Angola has one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and the world—reconstruction and conciliation are yet to be achieved after a long period of war (which ended in 2002). Poverty remains widespread,

and Angolan women bear the burden of the struggle for survival in the countryside, where the majority of people are. Thus, live births are 6.75 children per woman (2009), infant mortality is 117 per 1,000 births (205 for children younger than 5 years of age; 2005–10), and life expectancy at birth is low (43.3 for girls, 40.1 for boys; 2005–10). Development and gender equality remain a challenge, and the literacy rate for adults is 54.2 percent for women and 82.9 percent for men (2005–10). In 2007, 61 percent of Angolan women older than 15 years were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive, which was the focus of much of female mobilization and political lobbying, in addition to opposition to violence against women. The Constitution of Angola (1992) grants equal rights for men and women in Article 18.1, and both penal and civil law offers provisions on gender equality (e.g., discrimination at work) and against domestic violence. In addition, the Código da Família (Family Law) is aimed at guaranteeing equality regarding marriage and offspring, as well as property ownership for both sexes. Angolan women have a relatively low level of legal protection in relation to family matters. The legal age of marriage is 18 years for both men and women; however, early marriage (age 15 years or younger for girls with parental consent) is prevalent, and young single motherhood is a relatively common occurrence—it is estimated that 36 percent of girls between 15 and 19 years of age are married, divorced, or widowed. Polygamy is banned, but such practice is widely accepted by society and seems to have increased considerably after 2002 as a result of almost three decades of war and the concurrent absence of men. Women’s workloads have increased enormously as a consequence, and so has violence against them. Several policies have been passed to protect family and children’s rights, to fight poverty and to grant gender equality as much as possible, such as the Plan of Action on Family Matters (2009), the Poverty Reduction National Strategy (2004 on), and the National Policy on Gender Equality (2002–05), among several others. As in many other African countries, women are granted equality before the law in many grounds; however, land distribution follows customary (traditional) law, which treats men more favorably. In addition, women’s rights to use land are more often than not overlooked, as in, for example,

Animal Rights



cases of displaced people being resettled, among many others. Women’s access to property other than land depends to a very large extent on their marriage status or regime. In a country in which more than 90 percent of farming is done at a family and subsistence level, and a majority of the population lives in rural areas, property access is quite relevant for women, as they are highly dependent on men and marriage to access land and to get job opportunities. The president and the Ministry of Family and Promotion of Women (Ministério da Família e Promoção da Mulher) have taken on the task of drafting the Law Against Domestic Violence, which had still to be passed in 2010. The draft of this law responds to local human rights and women’s organizations’ appeals, such as the Organization of Angolan Women. Although this organization has been a strong reference point in the women’s movement in Angola, many others have become quite visible in peace-building processes and gender equality lobbying in the 21st century. Some groups have been extremely important, such as Rede Mulher (Women’s Network), which is composed of more than 80 women’s associations and organizations working toward women in politics, education, and health. The initiative Mulheres Vivendo (Women Living) has created a platform of support for HIVpositive women and their families. At present, the Women’s Network also provides the Joint Gender Programme, promoted by the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Development Programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Family and Promotion of Women of Angola. See Also: Polygamy; Property Rights; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Ducados, Henda. “Angolan Women in the Aftermath of Conflict, Conciliation Resources.” http://www.c-r.org /our-work/accord/angola/women-conflict.php (accessed June 2010). Martin, James W. Historical Dictionary of Angola. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2004. Oyebade, Adebayo O. Culture and Customs of Angola. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. Soledad Vieitez-Cerdeño University of Granada

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Animal Rights The movement for animal rights is motivated by the belief that animals should be afforded the same rights as human beings. Historically, women have led the way on animal rights and they continue to be at the forefront of global movements for animal liberation. Early American feminists such as Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were connected to the animal-welfare movement and saw animal rights as the next step after women’s civil rights. When compared to men, rates indicate that women are more likely to be animal advocates. In congruence, more women are currently vegetarians and vegans than are men. Studies demonstrate that 68 to 80 percent of animal rights advocates are women. Animal rights encompass animal ethics, opposition to meat and dairy consumption, and opposition to animal use in the cosmetics, fashion, and science industries. Animal Ethics Alliances between advocates of feminism and animal rights have demonstrated the connection between sexism and speciesism or the belief that one’s own species is superior to other groups.They argue that to end violence against women, society must also end violence against animals. Ecofeminism, which is based on the belief that there is a relationship between the oppression of women and the domination of the environment, has demonstrated that women have historically been associated with animals. Society devalues animals and through a process of association women are devalued and treated as second-class citizens. Violence against animals has become normalized in society in the same way that violence against women is often ignored. Feminist animal rights activists also attack traditionally male social activities including hunting, fishing and grilling, arguing they rely on the subordination of animals and the glorification of violence against animals. Carol Adams and Ingrid Newkirk have led the way on animal rights activism. Newkirk cofounded the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in 1980 and now serves as the organization’s president. She also is an author who has written numerous books and articles exposing the violent treatment of animals in laboratories and homes. PETA is the largest global

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animal rights organization with more than 2 million members and supporters. It creates ad campaigns that oppose the use of fur and leather in the fashion industry, the consumption of meat and dairy, hunting, bull fighting, and animal testing. PETA chose actress, comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres as its Woman of the Year in 2009 for promoting her vegan lifestyle on her talk show and Website. Carol Adams has been at the forefront of feminist animal ethics. Her book, The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, called attention to the important interconnections between animals and women. Adams developed the notion of the “absent referent” to explain why humans consume meat. For Adams, the absent referent describes how people are detached from the actual animal they consume by conceiving of it as meat, which allows them to continue to support the slaughter of animals. Therefore, if humans were connected to the animals they consume they would reduce their consumption of meat. Adam’s book traces the historical connections between meat consumption and the promotion of masculine identity. Her conclusion argues that vegetarianism and feminism go hand in hand. Some feminists have criticized rational and utilitarian approaches to animal rights, calling for the emphasis on care, compassion, and emotional bonding with animals to avoid the emotional distancing employed in a rational rights approach. Adams has argued for a feminist “ethic of care” regarding animal rights, which assumes that the ethical responsibility animals owe to humans is derived from the interconnectedness between life forms. Other animal rights theorists working in the feminist care tradition include Grace Clement, Lori Gruen, Cathryn Bailey, Josephine Donovan, and Catharine MacKinnon. Animal Consumption While some activists oppose the consumption of meat and dairy in all of its forms, others focus primarily on the horrors committed against animals at factory farms. Factory farms are environments where a high density of livestock is raised in a confined space, easily spreading disease. Animals are treated as commodities under this industrial system, which attempts to produce the most products from the animals at the lowest possible cost. Animals are generally kept indoors and confined to cages under this system and

fed large amounts of antibiotics to keep them healthy and to prevent the spread of disease from animal to human. Feminists compare the treatment of animals in factory farms to the exploitation of female labor throughout the international system, especially sweat shops. Women are the highest risk group for these health concerns because illnesses from tainted meat can be passed on to unborn children during pregnancy or to nursing babies. Factory farms have been the target of environmental justice movements for the large amount of waste produced, which can pollute the soil, waterways and local communities living nearby. Women lead environmental movements opposing these farms because they see protecting the community and the planet as vital to women’s liberation. Dairy and egg production also is a woman’s issue because of the abuse animals suffer under the factory-farming model. Reproducing female animals are particularly targeted under this model. Milk made by cows and eggs hatched from chickens are only produced by female animals. Feminists draw a connection between the control over reproduction of female animals in farming practices and the control over female human reproduction in politics. The females of the species suffer the most extreme forms of violence. Feminists argue that an egalitarian society will come about once all species are free from gendered violence. In the factory environment, dairy cows, bread specifically for their milk producing ability, are given hormones to increase milk production and overall reproduction. Recombinant Bovine growth hormone (rBGH) is a genetically engineered growth hormone that is used to increase milk production in animals. Concerns have been raised that these hormones pass into the human body when consumed and cause health issues for women such as an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Commercial Uses While women have led animal rights crusade, they also have participated in the oppression of animals. Industries that primarily market their products to women, specifically the fashion and cosmetics industry, rely on an array of exploitive practices toward animals to develop their products. Many cosmetic companies test their products on animals during research and development. The most common testing is done for eye shadows and soaps. Rabbits and guinea pigs



are used most often to test allergic reactions, toxicity and irritation levels in products. This testing can cause bleeding problems, pain and death. Cosmetic companies kill millions of animals every year testing their products. Animal products are used as ingredients in cosmetics, including carmine, collagen, elastin, keratin, tallow, and stearic acid. PETA has published a list of animal ingredients and their alternatives to help inform consumers about the ingredients in their cosmetic products. The fashion industry utilizes animal products in many of its products including the use of fur, leather and feathers. Millions of animals are killed every year in the service of producing clothing for women consumers. Criticism The animal rights movement has been accused of participating in misogyny, and PETA has been attacked for using sexist imagery in its ad campaigns promoting such rights. Some of the PETA ads have included naked women who claim they’d rather “go naked than wear fur.” Defenders of the campaigns maintain that the women freely participate in the commercials and demonstrate their commitment to the cause by going naked for the animals. However, PETA is still said to be promoting animal rights at the expense of women’s rights in many of their ads. Animal rights advocates also are opposed to animal testing which undermines the ability of science to pursue important developments in women’s healthcare. For example, Herceptin, a drug that has been shown to prolong life in breast cancer patients, was attacked by PETA for being developed through animal testing. Scientists argue that without the ability to test drugs on animals, treatments for breast cancer would be delayed and even undiscovered. Since breast cancer is a major health concern for women, opposing animal testing can harm women’s health. See Also: Cosmetics Industry; Nutrition; Reproductive Rights; Vegetarian Feminism. Further Readings Adams, Carol. The Sexual Politics of Meat. New York: Continuum International Publishing, 2006. Donovan, Joesphine and Carol Adams. The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

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Newkirk, Ingrid. The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009. Nicole Richter Wright State University

Animal Trainers, Female In the 19th century, women were generally banned from circuses where most animal training took place, but by the turn of the 20th century, many women were engaged in training animals and pushing the gender boundaries of the day. Today, animal trainers are generally employed to teach riding, for security purposes, to entertain in public venues, teach animal obedience, or prepare animals to work with disabled individuals. In 2006, there were approximately 10,020 animal trainers working in the United States, and 70 percent of them were female. While some animal trainers may have only a high school diploma or an equivalency status, those who work with large animals are generally required to have bachelor’s degrees in fields such as biology, marine biology, or animal science. While the median average salary for trainers is $27,270, salaries run from $16,700 at the low end to $51,400 at the high end. One of the first female animal trainers was Mabel Stark, who joined the Al G. Barnes Circus in 1913 and began taming tigers. Over time, the notion that women could not handle animals dissipated, and women in clothing that was both scant and form-fitting graced circuses around the world. That practice continued into the 21st century, and females who train animals for entertainment often wear revealing clothing during performances. For instance, bikini-clad trainers regularly perform by swimming with baby tigers in a pool built specifically for that purpose at The Institute of Greatly Endangered Rare Species (TIGERS) in South Carolina. Job requirements are very different for females who work behind the scenes in jobs such as training zoo animals. Many of these women spend almost as much time educating the public as they do training animals. For instance, Cindy Hall, who is one of 14 women working for the Naples Zoo in Florida, spends her time training ocelots, feeding alligators, and conducting lectures and public education campaigns.

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Training animals is often a dangerous profession. In 2006, a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco Zoo reached through the bars of her cage and grabbed her experienced trainer after an afternoon feeding. The female trainer suffered major injuries to both arms. In 2010, a killer whale at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, made international news after killing his trainer, 40-year-old Dawn Brancheau. Officials suggested that the incident was the result of the trainer’s accidentally falling into the tank. A witness disagreed, stating that the whale intentionally jumped up and grabbed Brancheau before shaking her violently. She was then dragged into the water, where she drowned. One of the most successful female animal trainers in the United States in the early 21st century was Ameera Diamond, who became known as the first African American animal trainer in the world. Working with the UniverSoul Circus, Diamond regularly performs a three-hour show with eight partly Siberian white tigers weighing approximately 600 pounds each. Her days are spent working with the tigers and honing her performance skills. She has trained the tigers to jump over one another, jump through fire hoops, and complete a complicated zigzag walk known as the bottlewalk. Diamond even spends her vacations with the tigers. Domestic animal training is heavily dominated by females; and a number of women have won international acclaim for training dogs and horses. Babbette Haggerty-Brennan, for instance, was involved in training the first Australian shepherd used in guide dog work. Haggerty-Brennan, who is the author of Women’s Best Friend: Choosing the Dog That’s Right for You, also has also trained dogs for work on several daytime drama shows on TV. Many trainers insist that women are aptly suited for the work because animals perceive them as less threatening than males. In horse training, both Jenine Sahadi and Alexis Berba have held their own against male trainers. Sahadi, who is married to trainer Ben Ceil, maintains that she has been accused of receiving help from male trainers by people who believe females are incapable of succeeding in the field. Despite these claims, Sahadi became the first female trainer to win the Santa Anita Derby in 2000 when the horse The Deputy won. Sahadi is now the highest paid female horse trainer in the United States. Barba became the first female trainer to have a horse place in a Triple Crown race as a result of a fourth place finish by Make Music for Me at the

Kentucky Derby in 2009. Barba’s horse was considered a potential contender for the 2010 Belmont Stakes, but ultimately Make Music for Me placed 10th. Female animal trainers have forged paths to individual and collective victory. They have proven that they will not be restricted by gender or discouraged by sexism. See Also: Animal Rights; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Horse Racing, Women in; Science, Women in. Further Readings Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), 2010–11 Edition. www.bls.gov/oco/ ocos168.htm (accessed April 2010). CNN. “SeaWorld Trainer Killed by Killer Whale.” http:// www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/24/killer.whale.trainer .death/index.html (accessed April 2010). Davis, Janet M. “Bearded Ladies, Dainty Amazons, Hindoo Fakirs, and Lady Savages.” http://www.circus inamerica.org/docs/janetdavislecture_rev.pdf (accessed April 2010). Spinski, Tristan. “Girrrrrrl Power Helps Tame Wild Beasts at Naples Zoo.” http://www.naplesnews.com /news/2010/apr/12/girrrrrrl-power-helps-tame-wild -beasts-naples-zoo/?partner_RSS (accessed April 2010). Strickland, L. N’zinga. “Ameera the Great and Her Big Cats!” New York Amsterdam News, v.94 (June 2003). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Anime Anime (pronounced ah-knee-may) is the Japanese word for “animation” but can refer to filmed cartoons produced in any country that mirror styles typically labeled Japanese, including narrative structures, character design, and aesthetics. Both historically and in the present day, anime has substantial ties to printed comic books, called manga (mah-n-ga) in Japanese. Contrary to most American assumptions, neither anime nor manga are genres exclusively for children; unlike in the United States, in Japanese cultural contexts, these forms might be used to tell stories for children, but they also might represent

Antifeminism



adult themes such as violence, sexuality, social discrimination, or historical events. In recent decades, there has been an increase in both popular interest in anime released in the United States—either legally through production companies or as unauthorized fan-subs—and in academic attention to the topic. Anime is a topic of particular interest in analyses of popular culture, gender, media studies, transnationalism, and Japanese studies. Anime is a topic of interest in women’s or gender studies because the style and content of the genre can be read as either reinforcing gender norms or fundamentally challenging them. Like other popular cultural formats, such as romance novels or pornography, anime relies heavily on gender norms but recent work on the topic casts ambivalence on the totality of power and control constructed through these representations. Some scholars have argued that representations of femininity within anime tend to construct women as other, desirable but not entirely human, or less agentive than male protagonists. Other scholars find anime to provide space for creative exploration, substantial social critique, and agency. Stylistically, anime are likely to represent female characters as tall, thin, big-breasted, wideeyed figures who might or might not be innocent to their own power and desirability. Many female characters can be seen to become more desirable precisely because they appear unaware of their desirability or sexuality, as seen in Sailor Moon, for example. Anime, and related manga, can be categorized into many subgenres, including mecha (mechanical), apocalyptic, romantic, adventure or sports stories. Of these subgenres, in gender studies literature, the category of “ladies comics” has received attention because it deals so directly with gender, and gendered norms in society. Also labeled “boy’s love” or “yaoi” comics, these stories center on deep love between two male protagonists. Although the characters are in love with each other the labels “gay” or “queer” rarely appear, and the figures are usually drawn with delicate features, fine bones, and flowing hair. Despite the male central protagonists, these stories are marketed toward and popularly consumed mostly by women. Many scholars have constructed theories to explain this pattern, and suggest that some (straight) female fans find particular romantic possibilities available only in same-sex partnering.

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Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001) are examples of anime produced for children that became extremely popular in Japan and abroad. Akira (1988), a postapocalyptic story of genetic mutation and technology, remains one of the most popular manga and anime series. Evangelion (1997) and The Ghost in the Shell (1995) are more recent examples of the sub-genre. Representative examples of gender-bending in anime include The Rose of Versailles (1979), Fake (1996), and Loveless (2005). See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Hello Kitty; Japan; Manga. Further Readings Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2000. Napier, Susan. Anime From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave MacMillian, 2005. Allison Alexy Lafayette College

Antifeminism In the early part of the 21st century, there are three central elements of antifeminism. These elements consist of (1) the idea that the feminist movement is over and has achieved its goals; (2) the assumption that the United States is in a “postfeminist” era that emphasizes individualism, not collective action; and (3) a push toward traditional gender roles immediately after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. These three interrelated aspects of antifeminism make feminism as a political movement seem passé and irrelevant and make feminists appear to be out of touch and complaining. The expression of each of these elements, as well as their cultural and political implications, is discussed below. Feminist Victory First, there is in American culture an assumption of feminist victory. The goals of the second wave feminist movement, from the late 1960s through the 1970s,

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have largely been achieved. The claim of this argument is that there has been sufficient progress toward equality, for instance in women’s paid employment, the recognition of sexual harassment in the workplace, and Title IX for girls’ education. Christina Hoff Sommers is one of the main purveyors of this point of view. She valorizes first wave feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony but regards presentday feminists as chronic complainers. She argues that there is no need for modern feminism because discrimination against women is largely in the past. In fact, according to this view, the real victims of gender discrimination today are boys and men. One of Sommers’ targets is the supposed “war against boys.” The war-against-boys rhetoric says that feminism brought attention to girls’ and women’s needs in education but in doing so feminists subordinated boys’ needs to the point that girls and women got ahead of boys and men. These authors’ argument is essentially (1) that girls have no need for any special attention because resources have already been spent on them and feminism has done what it has set out to do; and (2) the real victims are not girls and women but boys and men who are victims of feminist critique. Because the goals of feminism have been met, this argument goes, those women who continue to call themselves feminists or insist on a feminist movement, are judged either as innocuously passé, or, more harshly, as trying to get ahead of men—and thus as anti-male. It is in this element of antifeminism where one finds allegations of feminist “man-hating.” Because there is nothing left for women to complain about, feminists must have it out for men. Only isolated cases of overt gender discrimination against women are recognized. Today’s feminists who talk about gender inequality as a system face allegations of man-hating. To find a pattern of discrimination, as a systemic analysis of inequality would do, is to express hatred of men. Some scholars distinguish the backlash against second wave feminism from the current backlash of the early 21st century. In the old backlash, feminism was vilified as a false ideology to which women sacrificed their personal happiness (in marriage and motherhood) for the sake of abstract ideals of independence. In the new backlash, women’s equality is treated as a fact that no sensible person would deny, but feminism is made to seem ridiculous and passé in its insistence

on still talking about gender discrimination. The new backlash compromises feminism’s ability to critique economic and other gender divisions that still disadvantage women, and it reduces political consciousness and gender questions to personal stories, refusing to acknowledge structural problems. Why is the feminist victory discourse troubling? First, the claim of feminist victory denies the reality of many women’s and girls’ lives. Second, this discourse encourages young women to believe that they were born into a free society, so if they experience discrimination, it is an individual, isolated problem that may even be their own fault. This belief prevents any solidarity between women that was a feature of the second wave feminist movement. Individualism Antiactivism The second element of antifeminism is postfeminism. Postfeminism marks the depoliticization of feminist goals and an opposition to collective feminist action. There is an emphasis on individualism and consumerism as sites for women’s empowerment. Thus empowerment in the marketplace and in lifestyle choice has replaced the earlier political and intellectual work of feminism. Postfeminism coincides with the discourse of neoliberal capitalism that encourages women to concentrate on their private lives and consumer capacities as means of self-expression and agency. Mass media play a key role in all three components of anti-feminism discussed here. In terms of the emphasis on individualism and antiactivism, media undermine feminist objectives by placing the focus of women’s empowerment on self-transformation rather than social transformation. Postfeminist rhetoric acknowledges feminism in that feminism has been incorporated into political and institutional life. Drawing on a vocabulary that includes words like “empowerment” and “choice,” these elements are then converted into an individualistic discourse, and they are deployed in a new guise, not only in media and popular culture, but also by agencies of the state, as a kind of substitute for feminism. What is absent from these presentations is an understanding of dominant-group privilege and the old feminist requirement that men be prepared to relinquish some of their privileges and advantages in work and in the home, in order to achieve equality in the domestic sphere. Popular films such as Bridget



Jones’s Diary (2001), and later, The Ugly Truth (2009) and The Proposal (2009), reflect this antifeminist trend. The backlash against 1970s feminism attempted to frighten women into accepting traditional gender roles and identifying such roles as the only source of personal happiness. These films reflect a new backlash that recognizes that it is unlikely that women en mass will be forced back into the home, yet still tries to distance women from feminism and convince them that their lives should be focused around the heterosexual family, even if greater independence and outside work are expected. Like the first element of antifeminism, feminist victory, this process also says feminism is no longer needed. As Angela McRobbie notes, popular culture dismisses much of the feminist past, while also retrieving and reinstating some palatable elements of women’s liberation, such as sexual freedom, the right to consume alcohol, and economic independence (think of the popular television series and film, Sex and the City). This trend is seen in the increased popularity of pole dancing among suburban middle-class women as exercise and at-home entertainment for their male partners. The popularity of the Pussycat Dolls in the United States, the franchise dance troupe with a rotating cast made up of young women with sexually explicit dance routines, reflects this diversion from the politics of feminism. Feminism is evoked and claimed regarding sexual freedom, but then is quickly dismissed with relief— thank goodness it is permissible to once again enjoy looking at the bodies of women. How is feminism undermined using this element of antifeminism? According to Angela McRobbie this process occurs on one level through active vilification and negation at the cultural level that makes feminism unpalatable and repellent. The abandonment of feminism by women is amply rewarded with the promise of freedom and independence, most apparent through wage earning capacity which functions symbolically as a mark of respectability, empowerment, and entitlement. There is a kind of exchange, and a process of displacement and substitution: The young woman is offered a nominal form of equality, concretized in education and employment, and through participation in consumer culture and civil society, in place of what a reinvented feminist politics might have to offer. Indeed, recent empirical work on attitudes about feminism mirrors this anticollectivist

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trend. Young adults are less likely than other generations to believe that collective action is necessary to improve women’s status in society. Also, young adults fail to identify with feminism due to a definition of feminists as individuals who are active in the feminist social movement. A key feature of the neoliberal discourse that underpins postfeminism is the implanting of market cultures across everyday life (e.g., healthcare, incarceration, education), and the encouragement of forms of consumer citizenship that are beneficial only to those who are already privileged. Undoing the antihierarchical struggles of social movements is also a priority within the discourses of neoliberalism. An attack on disadvantaged social groups is masked by the prevailing and ostensibly nonracist and nonsexist language of self-esteem, empowerment, and personal responsibility. Postfeminism abandons the structural analysis of patriarchal power. It denies any system or structural forces that continue to oppress women and therefore undercuts any strategic weight of politicized feminist activism. Post–September 11 Retreat to Traditional Values It is difficult to minimize the effect that the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, had on every aspect of American culture. Just as baby boomers recall where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated, the present generation will remember where they were when they heard of the September 11 attacks. The third element of current antifeminism comes in the form of a push to retreat to traditional gender roles in reaction to the September 11 attacks. Susan Faludi, a journalist who wrote about antifeminism in her 1992 best seller Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women, has also written about the effect of September 11 on the retrenchment of feminism. Her book, The Terror Dream: Myth and Misogyny in an Insecure America (2008) describes the many ways in which feminism was rolled back in the days, weeks, and months after September 11, 2001. For instance, shortly after the attacks, pundits, journalists, and celebrities who were critical of U.S. policies toward Arab and Muslim countries were shunned in the national press (recall the case of Bill Maher losing his television show Politically Incorrect). However, according to Faludi, a particular kind

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of fury was directed at women commentators such as writers Susan Sontag, Katha Pollitt, and Fran Lebowitz, who dared question U.S. policy. They were labeled traitorous, idiotic, and haughty. The presence of women op-ed writers and broadcast pundits decreased shortly after September 11. Women who did appear were conservative, antifeminist women such as Camille Paglia, Kate O’Beirne, Christina Hoff Sommers, and Peggy Noonan. The iconic images of September 11 provided by media were men as rescue workers, women as victims. Rescue workers who were women and victims who were men were missing from media images because they did not fit the traditional frame of male hero and damsel in distress. In the wake of the attacks New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and President George W. Bush were represented as toughguy superheroes as were New York firefighters. In the weeks and months after September 11, the media wrote about the return to traditional values, with articles about single women who had placed careers ahead of matrimony but now were said to be looking for husbands. The widows of September 11 were shown in the media, while widowed men were invisible. Those women directly affected by September 11 were celebrated as grieving wives and mothers but only as long as they adhered to that prescribed role. When a group of September 11 widows known as the Jersey Girls began to question the script—by asking questions critical of the Bush administration and its handling of the aftermath of the attacks— they were marginalized in the press in favor of more easily digestible traditional women. Likewise, the documentary Women of Ground Zero, about women rescue workers, was criticized as antiman and antiAmerican because it did not follow the script of men as rescuers, women as victims. Media reported on the post–September 11 “nesting” tendancy by which people stayed home and avoided travel. There was even a post–September 11 trend in American cooking: “comfort food”—traditional white middle-class food characteristic of the 1950s such as macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes. By the 2004 presidential campaign, “security moms,” women who identified as mothers concerned about the safety of their children and the country, were constructed as a serious contingent for presidential candidates to court.

These post–September 11 trends, according to Faludi, illustrate the quickness with which progress toward civil rights and equality reverts to traditional patriarchal patterns of men as breadwinners/saviors and women as homemakers/moms. It is almost as if in the amount of time it took the twin towers to fall, much of the progress from the second-wave women’s movement was pushed aside for “old-fashioned” patriarchal values. When the country is under siege, at war progressive politics and civil rights are rendered capricious luxuries that distract from the constructed core values of masculine protection and female victim. These three elements of antifeminism in the early 21st century attempt to silence and marginalize feminists, making feminism seem unpalatable, and any kind of feminism movement invisible and irrelevant. Consequently, the transfer of feminist power to younger activists coming into consciousness is discouraged. See Also: Feminism; American; Gender, Defined; Gender Dysphoria; Political Ideologies. Further Readings Anderson, K. J. Benign Bigotry: The Psychology of Subtle Prejudice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Anderson, K. J. and C. Accomando. “‘Real’ Boys? Manufacturing Masculinity and Erasing Privilege in Popular Books on Raising Boys.” Feminism & Psychology, v.12 (2002). Bloom, L. R. “A Feminist Reading of Men’s Health: Or, When Paglia Speaks, the Media Listens.” Journal of Medical Humanities, v.18 (1997). Digby, T. “Do Feminists Hate Men?: Feminism, Antifeminism, and Gender Oppositionality.” Journal of Social Philosophy, v.29 (1998). Faludi, S. The Terror Dream: Myth and Misogyny in an Insecure America. New York: Metropolitan, 2007. Genz, S. “Third Way/ve: The Politics of Postfeminism.” Feminist Theory, v.7 (2006). Houvouras, S. and S. Carter. “The F Word: College Students’ Definitions of a Feminist.” Sociological Forum, v.23 (2008). McRobbie. A. The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage, 2009. Sommers, C. H. Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women. New York: Touchstone, 1994.

Antigua and Barbuda

Stillion Southard, B. A. “Beyond the Backlash: Sex and the City and Three Feminist Struggles.” Communication Quarterly, v.56 (2008). Vint, S. “The New Backlash: Popular Culture’s ‘Marriage’ With Feminism, or Love Is All You Need.” Journal of Popular Film & Television, v.34 (2007). Kristin J. Anderson University of Houston

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is located in the eastern Caribbean. Most of the population resides on Antigua. Over 90 percent of the population are black, the predominant culture is Creole, and Christianity is the predominant religion. Both cultural tradition and modern economic circumstances leave many women socioeconomically dependent on men. The increased public and political roles of women were exemplified in the 2007 election of the nation’s first female head of state; however, problems such as violence against women and sex trafficking are common. Marriages are both legal and common law. Another common form is the visiting union, in which an exclusive couple live separately. The 2004 fertility rate was 2.27 births per woman. The infant mortality rate is 16.25 per 1,000 live births. Many children are born out of wedlock. The law recognizes such children and prevents discrimination against them. Traditional socialization emphasizes male power and virility and both genders become sexually active at a young age. Domestic violence is common and many women do not utilize the national anti-domestic violence legislation out of an unwillingness to testify against their husbands. Living Conditions Parents and other relatives care for children at equal rates due to family situations or finances. Fathers do not aid in care for children born out of wedlock. There is a general lack of reliable childcare. Primary and secondary education is compulsory for all children from age 5 to 16. Preschool is also available. The school system suffers from a shortage of adequate supplies, facilities, and qualified teachers. The literacy rate is

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high at 89 percent. Internationally renowned female author Jamaica Kincaid, who was born in Antigua and Barbuda but now resides in the United States, has produced acclaimed novels, essays, and short stories on the islands’ lifestyle and history. The class structure still reflects the historical legacy of a racial hierarchy with blacks predominating the middle and lower classes. The population is mostly rural, close to 40 percent living in urban areas. Antigua and Barbuda has a national system of social insurance. Most people have adequate living conditions despite an overall shortage of housing, but issues include poor sanitation, lack of clean drinking water, and a poor healthcare system. There are state institutions for the elderly and infirm, and the nation has one private hospital. Life expectancy is 76.81 for women and 72.81 for men. Social problems faced by women in the islands as well as the rest of the Caribbean include widespread sexual violence such as rape, the sex trafficking, and commercial sex industries, and rising rates of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) among both women and girls. Many females remain socioeconomically dependent on males, although there has been slow progress in developing programs to improve economic opportunities for women. Creole women have traditionally worked outside the home in limited roles and women make up approximately half of the nation’s workforce. Key employers include government and public service, agriculture, industry, tourism, and related services. Over 80 percent of the workforce are employed in the service sector. Urban women are generally more economically and politically active than their rural counterparts. Most women work in the tourist and service industries, which are seasonal and consist of mostly unskilled, low-wage jobs. Women also work as artisans producing pottery, woodcarvings, baskets, and hand-woven cloth. There are no legal restrictions on women’s rights. Universal suffrage has been in place since 1940. Louise Lake-Tack was the first woman to be elected Governor-General of Antigua and Barbuda in 2007. The state Directorate of Women’s Affairs was created to monitor the status of women. There is an increasing presence of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that advocate for improved social services and women’s rights.

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See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Heads of State, Female; HIV/AIDS: South America; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Hausman, R., L. D. Tyson, and S. Zahidi. The Global Gender Gap Report 2009. Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2009. www.weforum.org /en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20 Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010). Knight, F. W. and T. M. Vergne. Contemporary Caribbean Cultures and Societies in a Global Context. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Lewis, L. The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). Marcella Bush Trevino Independent Scholar

Anxiety Disorders Anxiety disorder is a blanket term used to describe states of irrational fear and/or dread. Although anxiety can be a normal reaction to stress, when an individual’s mood is impacted negatively affecting one physical and emotional being, an anxiety disorder is thought to exist. Anxiety is the result of the body’s fight-or-flight reaction, which is the automatic response from perceived harm or attack. Anxiety disorders are often comorbid with other mental or physical disorders and are subject to flare-ups with stress and are typically diagnosed after six months of being present. Clinical depression has been thought to occur with anxiety disorders 60 percent of the time. Anxiety disorders also are believed to have a genetic component, thus running in families. The various types of anxiety disorders are believed to be the most frequently occurring of mental disorders. Anxiety disorders are detrimental to a person’s emotional and physiological being. Emotional symp-

toms of anxiety can include irritability, feelings of catastrophe, trouble concentrating, apprehensiveness, and restlessness. Accompanying physical symptoms often include heart pounding, shortness of breath, insomnia, sweating, diarrhea, and muscle tension. Six types of anxiety disorders are generally recognized: generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobias, specific phobias, post traumatic stress disorder, and panic disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) classifies anxiety disorders somewhat differently, using the following categories: panic attack, panic disorder (with and without a history of agoraphobia)—fear of a situation or place where escape may be difficult— agoraphobia (with and without a history of panic disorder), specific phobia, social phobia, obsessivecompulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, anxiety disorder due to a general medical condition, substance induced anxiety disorder, and anxiety disorder not otherwise specified. Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is chronic anxiety (fear) that impacts a person’s ability to function as well as their happiness. This fear should be excessive—according to the patient—and should be disproportional to the actual danger or stress of the situation. GAD is a chronic disease. Symptoms may include nausea, worry, irritability, low energy, feelings of doom, sweating, and hypervigilance. GAD can be caused in part by genes, stress, and learned behaviors. It is slightly more common in women and tends to persist for many years. In fact, the DSM-IV-TR stipulates that at least six months of excessive anxiety and worry must elapse for diagnosis. Diagnosis usually includes a physical exam to rule out physical causes, such as hypothyroidism, heart disease, or menopause. A prescription review rules out pharmaceutical causes, called substanceinduced anxiety disorder by the DSM. Finally, a psychological exam must be conducted to determine pathology. This can be difficult because GAD often occurs with other psychological disorders. Treatment may include medications such as antidepressants, benzodiazepines and buspirone. Psychotherapy techniques such as behavioral cognitive therapy (BCT)

Anxiety Disorders may be used. Lifestyle changes also can prove effective. These may include exercise, nutrition, better sleep habits, and avoidance of alcohol.

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) consists of obsessions or compulsions, which reoccur and have a significant impact on an individual’s ability to function normally. Symptoms may include anxiety (fear), obsession (frequently repeated thoughts or feelings), and compulsion (desire to act inappropriately or without forethought). Sufferers may be observed repeating the same ritualistic behavior over and over, and they may report feelings of dread if they fail to continue the behavior. Little is known about the causes of OCD. Various scientists have postulated that OCD may be caused by head injury, genetics, learned behaviors, infections (specifically strep

throat). It is sometimes associated with Tourette’s syndrome or low serotonin levels. Diagnosis usually relies on psychological interviewing after physical and chemical causes have been ruled out. For diagnosis, the DSM-IV-TR requires presence of either obsession or compulsion, recognized as abnormal by the patient, which significantly impairs life function. Treatment usually includes therapy and medication. Common therapy will include cognitive behavioral therapy techniques such as exposure and response prevention, in which the patient gradually learns to respond appropriately to a triggering stimulus. Pharmaceutical treatment often includes one of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of antidepressants. Like other anxiety disorders, OCD may respond better if combined with support groups, meditation or relaxation techniques, and family support.

A phobia is defined as an inappropriate, intense and irrational fear of an object or situation that poses no actual danger.

Phobia Approximately 10 percent of all people suffer from phobia at some time in their lives. Phobia is defined as an inappropriate, intense, and irrational fear of an object or situation that poses no actual danger. It is important to differentiate between phobia and rational fear, which is an appropriate response to actual danger. Symptoms may include panic, sweating, shaking, racing heartbeat, and inability to focus. Scientists are undecided about whether phobias are caused by genetics, trauma, learned behavior, or some other source. Females are twice as likely to suffer from phobia as men, and onset occurs most commonly during the teenage years. Phobias are frequently associated with substance abuse, as the person tries to mitigate the fear through self-medication. As with other anxiety disorders, diagnosis begins with ruling out physical factors such as thyroid disease or the effects of drugs. A mental health examination is then used to determine if the patient meets the diagnosis criteria. There are no measurement instruments for phobias. Medical treatment may included beta-blockers, antidepressants or sedatives. Behavioral treatment protocols often involve repeated exposure to the stimulus to desensitize the patient. Many clinicians also report success with CBT. In some cases, irrational fears can be prevented or minimized during childhood. Phobias are usually categorized as either specific phobias or social phobias.

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A specific or simple phobia is an inappropriate, irrational fear of a specific object, place, or situation. This type of fear is usually focused on a single stimulus, such as flying, snakes, or cramped quarters. Simple phobias can be categorized as natural environment, animal, situational, blood/injection, or other. Social phobia or social anxiety disorder (SAD) is experienced by approximately 15 million Americans, and is characterized by extreme fear of social situations, such as public speaking, meeting people, or socializing. More than simple shyness, SAD patients expect to be ridiculed or embarrassed if they do or say the wrong thing, and fear of being judged by others in everyday social situations. The diagnosis requires that the fear is significant and irrational. The situation must provoke anxiety that interferes with daily functioning, and it must be recognized by the patient as excessive for the situation. For children, the symptoms must persist for at least six months. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be defined as an anxiety disorder that results from a stressful or traumatic event, witnessed or experienced, which involved either great fear or actual harm. Stress disorders are unique in that a stressful event is required for diagnosis. Lifetime morbidity—the chance of the disease occurring in one’s lifetime—for PTSD is 7 to 8 percent among Americans. The probability that an American has had PTSD in the last 12 months is 3.5 percent. Women are two to four times as likely as men to experience PTSD, which is caused by a varying mix of trauma (length, severity, frequency) and individual predisposition (genetics, resilience, support network). The National Institutte of Mental Health categorizes PTSD symptoms into three groups: re-experiencing or intrusive memories, avoidance or numbing, and hyper-arousal or anxiety. Re-experiencing symptoms may include flashbacks and nightmares. Avoidance symptoms can cause the sufferer to literally avoid places or events associated with the trauma, or may include blocking of memories, loss of interest and guilt. Hyper-arousal symptoms include tension, inability to sleep and irritability. Depression, substance abuse, and other anxiety disorders frequently co-occur with PTSD, as do several somatic illness, such as hypertension and chronic pain. Treatment often includes both medication and

psychotherapy. As with many other anxiety disorders, therapists frequently employ CBT techniques, such as cognitive restructuring, exposure therapy, and stress inoculation (prevention). Panic Disorders Panic disorders are a group of disorders whose central feature is the panic attack. The panic attack, which is an acute episode that usually lasts about 10 minutes, causes the patient to suffer intense horror, fear, and a sense of foreboding. Physical symptoms of a panic attack are very similar to symptoms for an individual in real danger. These may include increased heart rate or palpitations, profuse sweating, weakness, faintness, and dizziness. The prominent feature differentiating a panic attack from rational fear is the absence of actual danger. The American Psychological Association reports that one in 75 Americans or 6 million people experience panic attacks, usually during the late teens or early 20s. Often these attacks are associated with the stressful transitions common to this time of life. If a person experiences numerous attacks or extended periods of fear causing an attack, this person may have a panic disorder. The DSM divides these conditions based upon whether agoraphobia is present. Unlike phobias, panic disorders stem from the fear of another attack, not an object or situation. The sufferer may fear an object or situation but only because he or she believes that things may cause an attack. Panic disorders can have similar comorbidities to other anxiety disorders, such as substance abuse and depression, making them difficult to diagnose. Panic disorders also can also lead to phobias, making diagnosis even more complicated. Treatment often involves psychotherapy and medication. The behavioral component of the therapy may be similar to techniques used in other anxiety disorders, such as interoceptive (desensitizing) exposure, relaxation techniques, or group therapy. Medical therapy might include any class of antidepressants or possibly a sedative. Anxiety disorders are a very important class of mental illnesses that affect a significant portion of the population, and cause serious suffering and life disruption. Their diagnosis can be complex because of their many accompanying morbidities, so a patient approach to diagnosis is required. There are many

Arab Feminism



effective treatments available, and if properly applied, these therapies can markedly improve a patient’s life. See Also: Depression; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Health, Mental and Physical; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; PostTraumatic Stress Disorder in Female Military; Postpartum Depression; Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. Further Readings American Psychiatric Association. “Answers to Your Questions About Panic Disorders.” http://www.apa .org/topics/anxiety/panic-disorder.aspx (accessed June 2010). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed,. Text Revision. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association, American Psychiatric Publishing, 2000. The National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, National Institute for Mental Health. “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/ topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml (accessed June 2010). Jacqueline Parsons St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas

Arab Feminism Arab people are identified as such by their language, geography (Arab countries include Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, and Yemen), and/or cultural identity. The term feminist, for the purposes of this article, refers to women who do something to change expectations for women, their roles, and their responsibilities. A term connoting feminism first appeared in the Arab world in 1909 with the publication of Al-Nisaiyat, a book collection whose title signifies something by or about women. By the 1990s, niswiyya, an unequivocal word in Arabic for feminism, began to circulate.

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Connection to Western Feminism The distinction between the East and the West has traditionally forced Arab women to choose between a cultural identity and a feminist self. The Western media tend to portray Arab women as oppressed by Islamic religious doctrine, calling specific attention to the veil and the harem, and some feminists argue that feminism is an import to the Arab world from the West and is not relevant for Arab women. However, Arab feminists’ understanding of niswiyya suggests that Arab feminism is quite important for Arab women. The veil (hijab in Arabic) means anything that hides, separates, and makes forbidden. In strict Islamic countries, the veil is sanctioned for women, whereas in other countries, women wear the veil for various political and personal reasons. Western feminists oftentimes claim that Arab women who veil, especially when not sanctioned to do so, cannot claim a feminist orientation; however, a more nuanced understanding of the situation reveals that Arab feminists sometimes veil because of their feminist orientation. Similarly, the term harem (hareem in Arabic) means “women”—the word is derived from the word haraam, which connotes something that is sacred, forbidden, and holy. Traditionally, Arab women have been secluded (or have secluded themselves) by living in harems, surrounded by other women. Western feminists worry that this female seclusion is another example of oppression and do not recognize the harem as a potential source of women’s strength and community-building. Major Contributors, Organizations, and Outlets Qasim Amin wrote The Liberation of Women in 1899 and was seen as the “father of Arab feminism” because of his claim that women needed education and liberation for Egypt to educate itself and liberate itself from British colonialism. Amin’s book sparked a feminist revolution that lasted until Gamal Abdel Nasser’s 1952 coup in Egypt. Huda Sha’rawi (1879–1900) is seen as the pioneer of Egypt’s women’s movement because of her creation of that nation’s first public protest for women when, on her return from a women’s conference in Rome in 1923, she threw off her veil at a Cairo train station and other women joined in. Sha’rawi’s public display allowed for many middle-class women in the Arab world to discontinue veiling. Today’s most noted Arab feminist (in the West) is Nawal al-Saadawi,

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a medical doctor and founder of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association. Her vocal opposition to female genital mutilation made her a target of Islamic fundamentalists. The threat from fundamentalists reached its peak in 1993, when al-Saadawi was put on a “death list” and fled to the United States. A number of feminist organizations have been created in the Arab world. The Egyptian Feminist Union was formed in 1923 by Sha’rawi and was the first explicit identification of Arab women’s feminism. Soon after, the Arab Women’s Union was formed in 1928, and since the 1970s (which was the United Nations’ Decade for Women), independent and quasi-independent women’s groups have formed in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Kuwait. Egypt, in particular, boasts several leading women’s organizations, including the New Woman’s Group, Arab Women’s Publishing House, the Alliance of Arab Women, the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, Together, the Progressive Women’s Union, and the Society for the Daughter of the Earth. The 1980s and 1990s experienced a rapid increase in nongovernmental organizations in the Arab world. Women’s nongovernmental organizations addressed health, education, income generation, legal literacy, and gender-based violence. Feminist nongovernmental organizations have been lacking in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Between 1802 and 1940, Arab feminists produced and published poetry, fiction, nonfiction essays, and position papers that focused on women’s issues, women’s literature, and women’s rights. The Arabic press was a primary vehicle for discussing gender issues. In 1892, Hind Nawfal, a Syrian, created al-Fatat (“Young Girl”), and by 1940, more than 25 Arab feminist journals had been created, written, and owned by Arab women. These female-centered journals were produced in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, and even Baghdad. Feminist journalists later founded literary salons and women’s clubs to discuss issues important to them. In addition, the first pan-Arab television satellite station that targets Arab women audiences launched in 2002 to address women’s issues, and the numbers of women bloggers are increasing rapidly. There is little doubt that women’s effect on theater, music, dance, radio and television broadcasting, cinema, and blogs

have sparked new perceptions and understanding of Arab women throughout the world. Connection to Nationalism The connection between Arab feminism and Arab nationalism has been a recurring theme in Arab countries, including Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, and Palestine. In each of these countries, Arab women participated in the national independence struggle while also organizing feminist movements alongside the national movement. For example, Algerian women fought side by side with men against colonization before the independence struggle in 1954. Iranian feminists participated in the revolution of 1979 and in the Iran–Iraq war, which laid the foundation for the reformist movement and the 1997 election of President Khatami. Iranian feminists were perhaps most successful: Female reformists in the Iranian Parliament gained access to decision-making roles and promoted women’s activism. Similarly, in Iraq, women were able to legitimize their role in public life and demand education. Despite this connection between nationalism and feminism, in most Arab countries the priority was always on the liberation struggle. In many examples, after reformists gained independence, the nationalist discourse eliminated its “feminist” dimension. Pan-Arab Feminism In the Arab world, the 1860s to the 1920s was a period of “invisible feminism,” according to many scholars. When Arab women came together to help Palestinian women in their nationalist struggle, they began a significant form of pan-Arab feminism, although the roots of pan-Arab feminism date back to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq before 1938. In fact, the Egyptian Feminist Union played an important role in the institutionalization of pan-Arab feminism that was distinct from feminisms in individual countries. The 1980s centered on the heterogeneity of Arab women’s experiences and forced women to examine sexuality, socioeconomics, colonialism, and nationalism as important factors shaping Arab women’s lives. More recently, in 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development met in Cairo, where women discussed sexuality and female genital mutilation. Pan-Arab feminism remains an important agent of change for women throughout the Arab world.

Archery



Incumbent and Emerging Feminisms Egypt has maintained feminism for more than a century and has had a significant effect on pan-Arab feminism. Many early Egyptian feminists were middle- and upper-class women asserting their rights, but after the 1952 Egyptian revolution, all women gained the right to vote and receive an education. As Egyptian feminism increased throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the wearing of the veil steadily declined. Women started more sustained organizing in 1977 by creating small discussion groups that eventually became formal committees. In the early 1940s, the Palestinian women’s movement became more institutionalized, coordinated, and organized. The new woman construct was entirely class based, which helped a small, elite minority of Palestinian women but ignored the masses of peasant women, which was not uncommon. During the 1970s and beyond, Palestinian feminists formed classes to provide health education, home training, office skill development, and increasing literacy; they also formed work committees, organized marches, and established food cooperatives to produce food to ease the burden felt by the boycott on Israeli goods. Despite acceptance of Palestinian women by Palestinian men, the political representation of Palestinian women is behind their contributions to the national struggle for liberation. In Iraq, the first women’s organization, the Women’s Awakening Club, appeared after World War I and sought to expand and improve women’s education. The Iraqi Women’s Union was founded in 1945. In 1959, the Law of Personal Status was passed, which gave women uniform inheritance rights, equal divorce rights, and regulated child support. Iranian feminists were involved in the Iranian revolution, and 25 years after the Islamic Revolution, feminist readings and reinterpretations of sacred religious texts are now becoming popular, as are intellectual and cultural productions by women. There is a growing number of women’s organizations, institutes, and scholarship published in Iran, and these activities have helped to bridge the divide between Arab Islamic activists and Arab secular feminists. Although the reinstatement of the civil code based on the Islamic law limited women’s human rights following the Islamic revolution, women’s political rights remained intact. Not unlike other Arab countries, many women organizations in Iran are led by female kin of the ruling male

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elite, who are thus state connected and/or state controlled. Among the Gulf states, Kuwait has been the most successful in integrating women into public life, both through education and employment; however, women in Kuwait did not gain the right to vote and be elected until 2006. See Also: Egypt; Islam; Iran; Iraq; Kuwait; Lebanon; Palestine; Progressive Muslims (U.S.); Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan; Saudi Arabia; Syria; United Arab Emirates. Further Readings Badran, Margot and Miriam Cooke. Opening the Gates: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. Nouraie-Simone, Fereshteh. On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in the Global Era. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005. Jennifer Struve Towson University

Archery The first recorded association between women and archery concerns the Amazons. These symbolic images of strong women with bows and arrows cutting down their enemies can be traced to Greek mythology and to the historic chronicles of Herodotus (c. 495 b.c.e.–425 b.c.e.). One legend surrounding the Amazon warriors, which is particularly noteworthy, is that their archers would cut off their right breasts so that that would not interfere with the accuracy of their bow strings. They lived in all-female societies and spent their days in agriculture, hunting, and war making. In the mid-20th century, archaeologists uncovered what was viewed as proof of the existence of Amazons in the southern Ukraine through the discovery of female graves filled with swords, spears, daggers, arrowheads, and armor. The findings also indicated that these women had been habitual equestriennes and that many had been killed in battle. Since the late 20th century, American females have enjoyed archery and other sports due to the 1972 passage of Title IX of the Educational Amendments to

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the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title IX stipulates that federal funds would be withdrawn to any institution not granting female athletes opportunities commensurate with those of males. Archery became part of the Summer Olympic Games in 1900, and competitions continued to be held until 1920. Archery was reintroduced to the Olympics in 1972, and it was at that time that competitions were first held in the Women’s Individual category. The gold medal for that year was awarded to American Doreen Wilber. Team competitions were added in 1988. Unlike Amazonian archers, today’s female archers are well protected. They wear guards that protect their arms from abrasions and chest guards made of plastic or leather to prevent chest injury. American actress Geena Davis generated new interest in the sport in 1999 when she unsuccessfully attempted to win a berth on the 2000 U.S.Women’s Olympic team in Sydney, Australia. Of the 300 semifinalists, Davis came in 24th. Officials subsequently allowed Davis to participate as a wild-card entry in the Sydney International Arrow Competition, a move that continued to focus public attention on women’s archery. After losing 160-120 in the 18-arrow alternate shot, Davis stated that she looked upon her participation as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. South Korea dominated women’s archery in every Olympics in the first decade of the 21st century. In 2000 in Sydney, Australia, Yun Mi-Jin won the gold, Kim Nam-Soon the silver, and Kim Soo-Nyung the bronze in the Women’s Individual competition. South Korea also won the team competition due to the combined efforts of Kim Soo-Nyung, Kim Nam-Soon, and Yun Mi-Jin. Four years later, South Korea again won gold (Park Sung-Hyun) and silver (Lee Sung-Jin), but Alison Williams of Great Britain carried home the bronze. South Korea did win the Women’s Team competition again with a team comprised of Lee Sung-Jin, Park Sung-Hyun, and Yun Mi-Jin. In 2008 in Beijing, China, the gold medal for Women’s Individual was awarded to Zhang Juanjuan of China, but South Korea managed to snag the silver and bronze, with medals going to Park SungHyun and Yun Ok-Hee, respectively. The two South Koreans teamed with Joo Hyun-Jung to win the gold medal for the Women’s Team competition. While American women have not won Olympic medals in archery this century, they have done

extremely well in other competitions. The top-ranked American female archer is Jennifer Nichols, who competed at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, and won first place in the United States National Indoor Championships in both 2007 and 2008. Janet Dykman, who is ranked second among American female archers, is one of the oldest competitors. She was 42 years old when she competed in her first Olympics in 1996, and competed in 2000. The United States Olympic Committee named Dykman Athlete of the Year in Archery each year between 1995 and 1998. See Also: Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; South Korea; Ukraine. Further Readings Eldred, Sheila. “The Secrets of Sports Science.” New Moon Network, v.5. (February 28, 1998). Gavora, Jessica. “A Field of Nightmares.” The Women’s Quarterly, v.31 (Spring 2002). 2008 Olympic Committee. “Archery.” http://en.beijing 2008.cn/sports/archery (accessed April 2010). Wilson, James. “Amazons.” Transitions, v.19 (June 30, 1999). Elizabeth Purdy Independent Scholar

Architecture, Women in In most countries, women constitute a small proportion of architects. Even in the United States and the United Kingdom, where women entered the profession over a century ago, they are still much underrepresented, especially at the upper levels. In both the United States and United Kingdom, in 2008, less than a fifth of licensed architects were female. Women now form larger proportions of students in architecture schools, with around 40 percent of all enrollments being female. However, the ratio of women falls steadily through the stages in the profession, from internships to licensing, and progressing to firm leadership. Women who do attain leadership of their firm typically do so either in small firms or as a sole practitioner. One early-21st-century estimate of the year when women in the United Kingdom will attain



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differences, with boys exhibiting tendencies for building and outdoor activity and girls decorating interiors. Others, such as Robert Stern, dean of Yale University’s Architecture School, argue that it is the difficulty of combining motherhood with a career that entails long hours and, often, international travel. Whatever the reasons for women’s low profiles, they are being overcome, and the number of women entering and succeeding in the profession is growing.

The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, was Zaha Hadid’s first design project in the United States.

parity in the profession of architecture if current rates prevail was 3000. The reasons for the relative paucity of women in the architectural profession are debatable. However, as Doris Cole pointed out, among Native Americans of the Great Plains, architecture was considered women’s work—it was they who built the tipis in which families lived. It was in the ensuing centuries that architecture became man’s work, and most cities in all parts of the world reflect men’s ideas of aesthetics, functionality, and economy. Various authors have noted that we live in a man-made environment, with consequences for both sexes, but particularly for women. The most commonly advanced reason for this gender imbalance is cultural conditioning—that women have been discouraged from entering professions such as architecture, engineering, and construction by societal expectations. Some argue that gender differences in spatial ability—males may have greater innate spatial understanding—have inhibited the entry of women into the profession. It also has been noted that even today, children’s play often shows stereotypic gender

Advancing Female Architects Various organizations in several countries seek to advance the status of women in architecture. In the United States, the Association of Women in Architecture was established in 1922, growing from a small group formed by women enrolled at the School of Architecture at Washington University (St. Louis), who were excluded from the men’s fraternity. During the 1960s, the association split into regional chapters. There are active groups today in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and elsewhere. The associations provide educational programs, mentoring, mutual support, grants, and scholarships to women. A third of the associates of the American Institute of Architects are women, though only 14 percent of members of the American Institute of Architects who are licensed are female. In the United Kingdom, the Royal Institute of British Architects commissioned a study in 2002 to explore why women leave the profession. The report found working conditions that were not “family friendly,” paternalistic attitudes, tokenism, and difficulties in maintaining skills and professional networks during career breaks to be significant factors. The institute responded with various policy changes designed to support both women and men who have career breaks for family or recessionary reasons, for example. In 2009, the Royal Institute of British Architects elected its first female president, Ruth Reed. When asked whether she thought that her architecture was influenced by her gender she declined to agree, but she has noted that she had a private practice to facilitate childcare and would like to be seen as a role model for young female architects. Coincidentally, the same year, the Chartered Institute of Building (based in the United Kingdom, but working internationally) elected its first woman president, Li Shirong, who was educated partly in the United Kingdom but works in

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China. She felt that the implications of her appointment were more significant for reflecting China’s role in the global building industry than for her gender. Another ongoing controversy revolves around the question of whether buildings and cities would look different if designed by women rather than men. Some are convinced that there is such a thing as “male architecture,” with phallic towers and hard, block-like shapes, whereas “female architecture” tends toward flowing, rounded shapes and more decorative touches. Others dismiss these ideas, pointing to Frank Gehry’s “feminine” shapes and noting that award-winning female architects’ work is often indistinguishable from their male peers. Because most women architects have been trained in schools with a largely male professoriate and by male practitioners, however, it would perhaps be surprising if their designs were radically different from those of their male colleagues. The proportion of women in the faculty of architecture schools in the United States is currently around 25 percent, so this influence may change. It is, however, incontrovertible that in the early years of the profession, women architects were mainly confined to domestic designs, and it has been only relatively recently that major urban projects have been awarded to female architects. Efforts to increase the visibility of women in the profession date back more than a century. The Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 included an imposing Italian Renaissance Women’s Building designed by Sophie Hayden, who was trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This all-women project featured exhibits on women’s progress, including a library of 7,000 books written by women. The building was financed by Congress, and among the women who spoke during the exposition were Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone. Nearly a century later, a Women’s Building opened in Los Angeles to provide space for feminist artists, crafts, and theater. Among the artists working there was Judy Chicago. Renowned Women Architects Arguably the most renowned living woman architect is Zaha Hadid, who until 2010 was the only woman to have been awarded the Pritzker Prize—architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950 and studied architecture in London before joining the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, becoming a partner in 1977. She has taught at

various universities in the United States, Germany, and Austria, and her 250-person firm (Zaha Hadid Architects) is in London. Hadid has won a number of international competitions, although some designs were never built. Among her completed projects are art galleries in Michigan and Ohio, a train station in Italy, and a science center in Germany. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in leading museums including the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Architectural Association in London. Her designs exhibit tectonic fluidity and dynamism, and in recent years they have been influenced by digital methods. She has designed at scales ranging from the urban, to interiors, to consumer products. Despite the fact that her base is, and has been, in London, she has received few commissions for buildings in the United Kingdom—a fact she attributes to not being part of the “brotherhood,” or the male-dominated architect’s network. However, her design for an aquatics center was chosen for construction in London for the 2012 Olympics. Denise Scott Brown, born in 1931 in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), has been an active architect for over four decades. Similar to Hadid, she received architectural training at the Architectural Association School in London before moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, she studied at the University of Pennsylvania’s planning department and met and later married Robert Venturi, with whom she established the firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in Philadelphia. Their influential book on Las Vegas accepted the rampant commercialism of that city’s laissez-faire capitalism and the car-dependence landscape of suburbia as it celebrated the innovative landscapes thus produced. Scott Brown has taught at the University of California–Berkeley, Yale University, and Harvard University and has led various urban design projects, as well as architectural projects in London; Toulouse, France; and Japan. Her book Having Words includes essays about being female in a male-dominated profession. She notes, for example, the impossibility of personal experience or probable consumer feedback by men designing public restrooms for women and describes some of the indignities she suffered from male colleagues even after her professional reputation was well established.

Argentina



Among the more overtly feminist women in the profession is Susanna Torre, who was born in Argentina, taught at Columbia University, and curated an exhibition titled “Women in American Architecture” in the Brooklyn Museum in 1977. Her book based on the exhibit provided an historical and contemporary survey of women in architecture. She was also a founding member of a valuable archive, the International Archive of Women In Architecture, which is based at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University but is also largely available online. A women architect who recently achieved global recognition is Kazuyo Sejima, who in 2010 won the Pritzker Prize with her professional partner, Ryne Nishizawa. Their work includes the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Christian Dior building in Tokyo. Sejima studied at Japan Women’s University and bases her work in Japan, as well as at Princeton University in the United States. In 2010, she served as the first female director of the Venice Architecture Biennale. Maya Lin, today best known for her minimalist sculptures and monuments, achieved wide recognition when, at only 21 years old and a student at Yale University, she won the design contest for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1982. More recently, her designs have included the Museum of Chinese in America and a ground sculpture—Wavefield—at Storm King Art Center in New York. Sherry Ahrentzen, who has taught architecture at the universities of Wisconsin and Arizona, has focused much effort on including usually marginalized populations in design decisions, especially those related to housing. In 2009, she was given a career award by the Environmental Design Research Association for her lifetime achievements. She and other women architects are gradually changing both the profession of architecture and the appearance of the built environment. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Chicago, Judy; Landscape Architecture, Women in; Lin, Maya; Urban Planning, Women in. Further Readings Adams, Annemarie and Peta Tancred. “Designing Women”: Gender and the Architectural Profession. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.

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Cole, Doris. From Tipi to Skyscraper: A History of Women in Architecture. Boston: MIT Press, 1978. Scott Brown, Denise. Having Words. London: Architectural Association, 2009. Torre, Susanna. Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1977. Toy, Maggie, ed. The Architect: Women in Contemporary Architecture. New York: Images, 2001. Briavel Holcomb Rutgers University

Argentina Argentina is the second largest country in South America. The dominant population is of Spanish or Italian descent, and the dominant religion is Roman Catholic. There is also an indigenous presence. Women enjoy full equality under the law, are highly educated, and well represented in business and politics compared with the rest of Latin America. Women are negatively impacted by continued gaps in pay, limited representation at the highest levels of business and politics, and the impact of recent economic instability. Argentina was 24th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.3 births per woman. Skilled healthcare workers attend almost all births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 14 per 1,000 live births; the maternal mortality rate was 77 per 100,000 live births. Women receive 90 days of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages, paid from a state and employer-contributed family allowance fund. Of married women, 65 percent use contraceptives; divorce is legal and increasingly common, despite the Roman Catholic Church’s objection to both practices. Most families are small and nuclear, although extended family members offer assistance and meet regularly for lunches or special occasions. Parents now both have legal authority over their children, although this was not the case in the past. Women perform most household chores and childcare. The use of nannies, babysitters, and daycare centers are also com-

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mon. Many large companies and trade unions provide daycare services for workers. Domestic abuse is a serious problem; however, the Argentinian government offers self-help groups for battered women that offer medical, legal, and psychological assistance. The population tends to be highly educated, with a literacy rate at 98 percent for both genders. There are both public and private schools, and both follow the standard, government-set curriculum. Education is compulsory for ages 6 to 14, with free preschool and higher education available as well. Adult education programs are common, with females making up the majority of students. Female school enrollment rates in 2009 stood at 98 percent for the primary level, 82 percent at the secondary level, and 76 percent at the tertiary level. Approximately 90 percent of the population is urban. The economic crisis of the early 2000s and subsequent slow recovery meant that many formerly middle-class women found their families among the so-called “new poor.” There is good access to healthcare, with most people utilizing a blend of Western and traditional medicine. Problems include a lack of skilled jobs, and growing rates of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), poverty, crime, and corruption. An increased emphasis on physical appearance has led to rising rates of dieting, plastic surgery, and eating disorders in women. The 2009 life expectancy was age 68 for women and age 62 for men. More than half, or 57 percent, of women participated in the labor force in 2009, with women comprising 45 percent of the paid nonagricultural labor force and 54 percent of professional and technical workers. Women are more likely to work at unskilled and low-paying jobs than their male counterparts. Gender gaps remain in average estimated earned income, which stood at $8,595 for women and $15,485 for men, and unemployment, which stood at 11.63 percent for women and 7.79 percent for men. Women still face discrimination and sexual harassment. Child labor is a problem despite legislation. Women have the right to vote and are constitutionally guaranteed equality. Women held 40 percent of parliamentary seats and 23 percent of ministerial positions in 2009. Argentina elected its first female president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, in 2007. The National Council on Children and Families, as well

as nongovernmental organizations such as churches and trade unions, pursue women’s issues. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Government, Women in; Heads of State, Female; Machismo/ Marianismo. Further Readings Dore, Elizabeth and Maxine Molyneux, eds. Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999. Navarro, Marysa. “Argentina: The Long Road to Women’s Rights.” In Lynn Walter, ed., Women’s Rights: A Global View. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Armenia Armenia is a landlocked Eurasian country of almost 3 million people, sharing borders with Turkey, Iran, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. In the 4th century, Armenia became the first country to formally adopt Christianity, and today over 90 percent of the population identifies with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Women have played key roles in Armenian history; “Mother Armenia,” a statue symbolizing the Armenian people, occupies a place of honor in the capital city of Yerevan. The World Economic Forum rated Armenia relatively low in gender equality in 2009. On a scale from 0 (inequality) to 1 (perfect equality) Armenia got an overall score of 0.662 (90th of 134 countries). Armenia ranked 29th on educational attainment (0.999) and 56th on economic participation (0.671), but 123rd on political empowerment (0.044) and 133rd on health and survival (0.933). Armenia’s literacy rate is over 99 percent for both men and women, and more women than men attend tertiary education. Employment is common for women, who constitute almost half the nonagricultural work force. Armenia has low birth and fertility rates (12.65 per 1,000 population and 1.36 children per woman, respectively) and this, coupled with high outmigration (minus 4.56 migrants per 1,000 population),



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A 1915 photo of Armenian widows and orphans in Turkey, after the destruction of the Armenian population by the Ottoman Empire. Armenia had been under Ottoman rule since the early 16th century.

results in a slightly negative population growth rate (minus 0.03 percent in 2009). Life expectancy at birth is 69.06 years for men and 76.81 for women. Only 22 percent of women use modern methods of contraception, but abortion is available on demand. Under-five mortality has decreased since 1990, and in 2003 was 4 per 1,000 live births, while maternal mortality was 55 per 100,000 live births and stillbirths were 16 per 1,000 live births. Most births take place in health facilities and are attended by skilled personnel. Childhood immunization rates were over 90 percent for most childhood diseases, and polio has been eradicated in Armenia. Human trafficking is a serious problem in Armenia; the country is on the Tier 2 Watch List, which indicates lack of compliance with the Trafficking Victim’s Protection Act. This signifies lack of compliance with minimum standards to prevent human trafficking, and lack of progress in combating trafficking. Adults (both men and women)

are trafficked to Turkey and Russia for forced labor, while women and children are trafficked to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey for sexual purposes. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Orthodox Churches; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Armenia.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/am.html (accessed February 2010). Migliorino, Nicola. (Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books, 2007. Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

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Art Criticism: Gender Issues

Art Criticism: Gender Issues In the 1970s and 1980s several feminist art historians questioned the methodology of the traditional art criticism that constructed an art history composed exclusively of male artists. In her 1971 essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Linda Nochlin called for a reconsideration of the artwork analysis methods to discover women’s artistic creations. This kind of feminist intervention in art history continued in the 1980s. In their 1981 book, Old Mistresses, Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock argued that throughout history art sustained male privilege through a gendered discourse in which Western masculine creativity was regarded as high art while female creativity expressed in decorative art, such as embroidery, was dismissed as mere craft. In a later essay, Pollock pointed out that the changes in art history should go beyond adding forgotten or excluded women artists to the existing male canon. For Pollock, the art critic reproduces the male-dominated art criticism that has excluded women artists and dismissed female creativity. Influenced by Marxist theory, Pollock suggested that there has to be a radical redefinition of the production and consumption of art. Besides the artist and the quality of art objects, the art critic should study the totality of social relations that form the conditions of the production and consumption of objects designated in that process of art. In this approach, the art is no longer just an object but a practice that is informed by gender and sexual difference issues. The interventions of feminist art critics such as Nochlin, Parker, and Pollock in the 1980s and even as early as the 1970s led to the formation of art criticism that is informed primarily by gender issues concerning the art. According to author and professor Gill Perry, gender art criticism can focus on several questions when analyzing a piece of work. These include authorship, the representation of gender difference mainly in case of nonabstract works, the reception of the work, and the gendering of the representation process. A gender sensitive approach can raise the question of whether the artist’s gender influences the interpretation of the work. If the work of art pictures different genders or sexualities, the critic can analyze the modes of representation. Perry has suggested that the

representation processes should be investigated by questioning whether particular painting techniques are more masculine or feminine. This question, however, can be part of a larger investigation on how the language of art and art criticism is gendered. The art critic also could take into consideration how her own gender influences her viewing of the art. The changes that occurred in art criticism circles from the early 1970s cannot be separated from the emergence of strong feminist art practice. The theoretical shifts that occurred throughout the 1980s and 1990s with the emergence of postmodernism and an increasing interest in Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, and queer theory also shaped the language of art criticism. One of the first important feminist art projects was Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, which was exhibited for the first time in 1979 at the San Francisco Museum of Art. The installation consisted of a triangular table covered with embroidered cloth and set with 39 places. Each place was dedicated to one important woman and included needlework design and ceramics decorated with images suggesting female genitalia. Perry wrote that the reception of this feminist art project exemplifies the debates of feminist art criticism. The questions remain: how can decorative arts and feminine art practices be reconceptualized to produce important aesthetic objects; and how can female artists reclaim the female body and their sexuality without reproducing imagery of male fantasies? Sexuality and the accompanying shift in feminine and masculine definitions popular in the 1980s and in the 1990s began a shift in the emphasis from equal rights and social gender constructions to sexual difference and the fluidity and instability of those relations. See also: Body Art; Chicago, Judy; Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago); Feminism, American; Gender, Defined; Queer Theory. Further Readings Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 1997. Deepwell, Katy and Pauline Barrie, eds. New Feminist Art Criticism: Critical Strategies. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. Gornick, Vivian and Barbara K. Moran, eds. Woman in a Sexist Society, New York: Basic Books, 1971.

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Meskimmon, Marsha. Women Making Art: History, Subjectivity, Aesthetics. London: Routledge, 2003. Nochlin, Linda. “Why There Have Been No Great Women Artists?” In Women, Art and Power and Other Essays. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988. Perry, Gillian. Gender and Art. London: Open University Press, 1999. Pollock, Griselda. Vision and Difference: Feminism, Femininity and Histories of Art. London: Routledge, 2003. Pollock, Griselda and Victoria Turvey Sauron, eds. The Sacred and the Feminine: Imagination and Sexual Difference. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007. Zita Farkas Independent Scholar

Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview) In the current patriarchal system of hierarchies for capital gain, art by woman embodies their physical, social, political, environmental, psychological, and emotional state. The first decade of the 21st century for women artists is a culture of global interaction with much disparity among women’s circumstances. Some women artists assume a deliberate turn to selfdetermination, while others work to expose the economic, political, and social limits experienced in a particular time and place. War, poverty, illness, and the global warming have raged in the first decade in the new millennium. Globally, issues of significance to women visual artists include sexuality, domestic violence and rape, disenfranchisement, and poverty. Activist art by women in the 21st century take up these concerns and others. Cyberfeminist artists with a do-it-yourself (DIY) attitude use the participatory nature of Web applications to mobilize masses for social actions that disrupt business as usual. Contemporary examples include artist Coco Fusco, working with others in Operación Digna (2003), and the collective subRosa (1991–2010). Historically, social structures limiting women’s mobility, education, and networks with influential patrons, critics, and exclusion from influential exhibitions, events, and publications impeded women’s

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careers as visual artists. From the perspective of women visual artists, a niche opened since 2000 for their artwork, particularly if their art relates to women’s lives including sexuality, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, breast cancer, domestic violence/ abuse, rape, eating disorders, and aging. The feminist slogan, “The personal is political,” continues to be evident in visual art by women in their personal upclose views of their experiences. Examples of the personal politicized in artwork include Dánica Phelps’s 36 drawings of each step in taking a shower exhibited at the Zach Feuer Gallery in Chelsea in 2005. This series of drawings mock the male gaze epitomized in 20th-century paintings by men of women bathing that are exhibited at major museums. Another example is Hollis Sigler’s series of paintings in which her personal experiences are intended to raise political consciousness of breast cancer. She died of breast cancer in 2001, one month after receiving the distinguished artist award for lifetime achievement from the College Art Association. Today, art about gender aims to show the artificiality of hierarchical and binary constructions of man/woman (e.g., Catherine Opie’s photographs that disrupt conventional stereotypes in her 2003 series, Surfers; her 2004 series, Chicago; and her 2004–05 series, In and Around Home). Young women artists forging identities as artists in the 21st century confront conformity with a self-styling of femininity or participation in raunch culture (e.g., Nikki S. Lee’s photo/film projects of subcultures she enters, Amy Cutler’s narrative paintings of women working, Kate Gilmore’s video art, or the 2009 group show Goddess at the Under Minerva Gallery in Brooklyn). Artworks by women in the past decade often critique patriarchal political power structures from an intersectional perspective of gender, race, sexuality, and colonialism. For example, Sabba Saleem Syal’s mixed-media installation, A Contested Territory, continues the feminist strategy of the personal is political. Her work places her family’s history within the political history of Pakistan. Sight Unseen: Video From Afghanistan and Iran by Rahraw Omarzad and Seifollah Samadian, exhibited at the Asian Society Museum in Manhattan in 2009, explores spaces of contestation experienced in their lives. An art world tension between representation and abstraction is more conflated, or a confluence, rather

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than oppositional art world camps (e.g., Ingrid Calame’s tracings of stains and skid marks merge subjectivity of body movement and sensation as subject, process, and materiality). The confluence combines real-world experiences and the making of art with the world’s materials, technologies, and ideas. Sites of Women’s Art The Guerrilla Girls, a New York–based group of radical feminist artists, formed in 1985 in reaction to the art world’s exclusion of women artists from art history, major museum collections, influential exhibitions, and art careers. In 2000, some members formed Guerrilla Girls Broadband to use the Internet for feminist art activism. The Guerrilla Girls’ individual identity is protected through use of gorilla masks and pseudonyms of deceased women artists so they can raise awareness of inequitable practices in the art world without personal retaliation. Their 2005 book, The Guerrilla Girls’ Art Museum Activity Book, provides statistics that indicate that artworks by women continue to be underrepresented in museums. For example, 90 percent of solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art featured work by white male artists. Other New York museums have increased their inclusion of women artists such as the Whitney Museum of Art with 30 percent of its exhibitions featuring art by women. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), while still primarily a museum of art by men, has added art by women artists to its collections and programming, such as the 2006 midcareer retrospective of lesbian filmmaker Su Friedrich. The Guerrilla Girls were also invited to MoMA for the 2007 Feminist Future Symposium, which was sponsored as one of several of the Feminist Art Projects’ orchestration for a concerted presence of women artists in 2006 to 2007. Catherine Opie: American Photographer was a solo retrospective at the Guggenheim from September 26, 2008, to January 7, 2009, in the annex gallery rooms rather than along the spiral ramp, the exhibition space of featured artwork. Kitty Kraus (born 1976, Heidelberg, Germany) was invited to exhibit her experimental installations at the Guggenheim from October 9, 2009, to January 6, 2010. Kraus’s work visualizes entropy in that it literally shatters or dissolves during the exhibition. Jennifer Dalton’s 2006 installation, This Is Not News!, is a visualization with a room-sized bar graph

of lights of the ratio of men and women who have had solo gallery shows in Chelsea galleries in New York and in the Whitney Biennial in 2006. Clearly, the white lights, representing men, lit the room suggesting the continual gender disparity for women artists in receiving recognition in the most influential art world venues. In the 21st century, women artists are less disadvantaged than prior decades with entry-level recognition and inclusion in the cultural capital of art world politics, but the disparity in recognition is pronounced in the high-profile art world cultural capital exchange. Women artists have gained confidence in knowing their own success as artists regardless of adverse conditions for women in sustainable careers as artists, in part by creating sites for sharing their artwork outside influential art world gatekeepers. In 2002, Fusion Cuisine was an exhibition of international women artists at the Deste Center for Contemporary Art in Athens, Greece. Curator Rosa Martinez selected artworks representing a variety of strategies to radically reinvent the emotional, sexual, economical, and geopolitical distribution of power. The 2005 Venice Biennale was hailed as a feminist biennale. For the first time, since it began in 1895, two women, Mara de Corral and Rosa Martinez, were major curators directing the Venice Biennale that influences art and artists’ careers. They invited an unprecedented number of women artists who received more awards than the men who were invited to a venue that had been dominated by art and prizes by and for men. The Arsenale exhibition at the Biennale included art by Pilar Albarracin (Spain), Joana Vasconcelos (Portugal), Ghada Amer (Egypt), Louise Bourgeois (United States), Mona Hatoum (Lebanon), Semiha Berksoy (Turkey), Regina Jos Galindo (Guatemala), Emily Jacir (Palestine), Kimsooja (South Korea), Shazia Sikander (Pakistan), Paloma Varga Weisz (Germany), Valeska Scares (Brazil), and Mariko Mori (Japan). Other pavilions included art by Eya-Liisa Ahtila (Finland), Rebecca Belmore (Canada), Monica Bonvicini (Italy), Candice Breitz (Germany), Tania Bruguera (Cuba), Tacita Dean (United Kingdom), Marlene Dumas (Holland), Jenny Holzer (United States), Miyako Ishiuchi (Japan), Barbara Kruger (United States), Annette Messager (France), Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), Kiki Smith (United States), Jelena Tomasevic (Serbia), and Rachel Whiteread (United Kingdom).



Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview)

Digital Multimedia Art Since 2008, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1987, provides Clara, an interactive database of 18,000 women visual artists. The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, established in 2007 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, is an exhibition and education facility dedicated to feminist art. It includes an ever-expanding online digital multimedia archive of feminist artist profiles from the 1960s to the present. Begun in 2008, artfem.tv is a cyberfeminist action to emphasize women’s feminist art on the international stage of the Internet. Performance, video art, sound art, and documentaries linked on artfem.tv deconstruct sex and gender in patriarchal systems. The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) intervenes in the erasure of women artists by stimulating public attention to feminist art by promoting diverse feminist art events, education, and publications, and by facilitating regional and international networks and programs. Significant exhibitions, which are part of the TFAP, include in 2006 and 2007 How American Women Artists Invented Postmodernism 1970 to 1975, curated by Judith K. Brodskey and Ferris Olin at Rutgers University; Global Feminisms, curated by Linda Nochlin and Maura Reilly at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, curated by Connie Butler at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, One True Thing, curated by Dena Miller at A.I.R. Gallery in New York; From the Inside Out: Feminist Art Then and Now, curated by Claudia Sbrissa at the Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University in Queens; Re: Generation curated by Joan Synder and Molly Snyder-Fink shown at galleries in Brooklyn; and Women, Art, and Intellect, curated by Leslie King-Hammond at Ceres Gallery in New York. The Riot Grrrl feminist punk movement, which began in the 1990s, rejected ideals and sought to empower a DIY activist way of life and to hold an aggressively impassionate attitude toward self and others. Their self-published print-based zines of the 1990s and DIY activism is one of the forerunners of the issue-based DIY new media art by women that primarily uses the Internet as a medium, often as part of a collective, team, or group (e.g., Brainstormers, a New York City–based feminist collective, in their 2009 sound installation “May I Please

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Have a Sip of Your Power?,” which asks a repeating loop of questions in a computer-generated voice that address power inequities). Zines, and other print-based feminist publications and databases of women artists, have changed to online multimedia communications in the 21st century. For example, Visual Culture & Gender journal (Hyphen-UnPress) began in 2005, and M/E/A/N/I/N/G (Susan Bee and Mira Schor, editors) changed from print to online in 2000. Two international journals addressing the work of contemporary women artists and feminist theory were founded in the late 1990s: n.paradoxa, a biannual print-based journal founded in January 1998, and Feminist Art Journal, which was founded in December 1996. Using the Internet as art medium (i.e., Net art) has increased in the 21st century and is an area that women artists have contributed to in distinct ways from artistic roots in the 1970s women’s movement’s experiential installations and performance, a form of art in which the body is the medium. Net art involves new possibilities for participatory performance and co-creation of art (e.g., the 2003 cyberperformance Dress the Nation by Avatar Body Collision, a group of four women: Helen Varley Jamieson, Karla Ptacek, Vicki Smith, and Leena Saarinen). Net art has characteristics of intertextuality, nonlinearity, interactivity, and database aesthetics and is situated in communication and experience, not objects (e.g., Victoria Vesna’s Bodies INCorporated begun in 1996 and still continuing with people building virtual bodies). Careers in the visual arts include designers, filmmakers, cartoonists, animators, advertisers, architects, historians, curators, librarians, educators, therapists—and studio, fine, environmental, and craft artists. Some artists hold salaried jobs while others earn their livelihoods from selling art or from commissioned or sponsored art projects such as largescale environmental artworks (e.g., Lynne Hull’s 2008 Tres Artistas Ecoheroinas) or public artworks (e.g., Mary Beth Edelson, who creates small-scale public social spaces). Edelson collaboratively produced an International Artists Contract (Sweden, 2006) that can be downloaded from her Website and tailored as needed to provide equitable conditions for artists. Women are typically underrepresented and earn less than men in each of these visual art careers. For

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example, women cartoonists and animators are in fields dominated by men. Themes in Women’s Art in the 21st Century Since 2000, the themes that women are concerned with in their visual art are in part reflected in the titles of recent exhibitions. In 2009, A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art, curated by Martin Rosenberg and Susan Isaacs, includes 16 women artists whose work was organized into five themes: Image and Text (Superimpositions); Complex Geographies (Hybrids); the Female Body (Pushing the Boundaries); Childhood and Family (Relationships); and Accessories (Clothing and Related Objects). Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, has become an international hub for more than 5,000 professional artists. Open House: Working in Brooklyn, a 2004 exhibition of artworks by contemporary Brooklynbased artists include 87 women and 114 men artists from Aruba, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, Johannesburg, London, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Trinidad, United States, and Venezuela. The ratio gap of women to men artists who are recognized as artists has begun to close. The themes that emerged for the curators in their survey conducted to select artworks created since 2000 for Open House include Fable, which critiques everyday situations through new narratives; Quest for Identity; Fear and Desire; Domesticity, which concerns societal inscriptions; Digital Metamorphosis regarding transformative experiences beyond physicality, Structured Environment, and Nature and Landscape. The popular tags for artworks of online databases of contemporary women artists provide insight into significant themes and how society labels the themes in looking at 21st-century art by women and in reading their artist statements. In November 2009, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Feminist Art Base included the following as the most popular labels of women’s art: abstract, activism, aging, AIDS, anonymity, appearance, appropriation, autobiographical, beauty, breastfeeding, body, childhood, China, collage, colonialism, craft, cross dressing, death, decoration, desire, drawing, embroidery, emotions, erotic, fabric, family, female, figurative, France, gaze, gender, global feminisms, goddess, history, humor, identity, imperialism, installation, interior space, internal

organs, Islam, Japan, landscape, language, Latina, Lesbian, life cycles, love, Mali, man, Marilyn Monroe, marriage, masculinity, memory, mixed media, motherhood, narrative, nature, New York, nude, painting, performance, photography, pink, political, pornography, portraiture, postcolonialism, power, pregnancy, printmaking, public art, queer, race, realism, red, relationships, religion, resistance, sculpture, self portrait, sexuality, social activist, Spain, spiritual, sports, stereotypes, still life, stitch, stories, strength, subversive, Sweden, tattoo, text, textile, thread, torso, toys, transformation, transgender, vessel, video, voyeurism, vulnerability, women’s work, and youth. As art historian Linda Nochlin summarized in her review of the 2005 Venice Biennale, “There is no style, theme, iconography, craft, or medium that can be identified as art by women in the 21st century. Yet self-referential themes of the body and social conditioning are gender revealing while difference is apparent in women’s art in the 21st century.” See Also: Chicago, Judy; Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago); Ecofeminism; Guerrilla Girls; Holzer, Jenny; Lin, Maya; Manga; National Museum of Women in the Arts; Pink, Advertising and; Plumwood, Val; Studio Arts, Women in; Walker, Kara; Women in Black; Women Make Movies. Further Readings Butler, Cornelia and Lisa Gabrielle Mark. WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. Los Angeles: MOCA and MIT Press, 2007. Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society, 3rd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. Collins, Lisa Gail. The Art of History: African American Women Artists Engage the Past. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Fortnum, Rebecca. Contemporary British Women Artists: In Their Own Words. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2007. Ganz, Nicholas. Graffiti Women: Street Art From Five Continents. New York. Harry N. Abrams, 2006. Gómez-Quintero, A., E. Raysa, and M. Pérez Bustillo. The Female Body: Perspectives of Latin American Artists, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls’ Art Museum Activity Book. New York: Printed Matter, 2005. Hopper, Kippra D. and Laurie J. Churchill. Women Artists of West Texas: A Celebration. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2010.



Association for Women’s Rights in Development

Kotik, Charlotta and Tumelo Mosaka. Open House: Working in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 2004. Reilly, Maura and Linda Nochlin, eds. Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art. New York: Brooklyn Museum and Merrell Publishers, 2007. Sigler, Holly, Susan Love, and James Yood. Hollis Sigler’s Breast Cancer Journal. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1999. Wark, Jayne. Radical Gestures: Feminism and Performance Art. Quebec, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006. Yoshimoto, Midori. Into Performance: Japanese Women Artists in New York. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. Karen T. Keifer-Boyd Pennsylvania State University

Association for Women’s Rights in Development The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) is an international membership organization that aims to strengthen the effect and influence of women’s rights advocates, organizations, and movements internationally. AWID was founded in 1982. Its members include both men and women who are researchers, activists, students, academics, businesspeople, policy makers, development specialists, and more. AWID offers both individual and institutional memberships. The association is a multigenerational, creative, future-orientated feminist organization whose work aims to build knowledge and understanding of the trends and institutions undermining women’s rights and the appropriate strategies to address them; create capacity building measures for and with women’s rights advocates, organizations, and movements; build alliances across differences based on age, gender, sectors, social movements, regions, issues, and communities; and influence international institutions and actors to strengthen their approaches to advance the rights of women worldwide. AWID has divided its work into strategic programs and initiatives, including Challenging and

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Resisting Religious Fundamentalisms, Where Is the Money for Women’s Rights?, Building Feminist Movements and Organizations, Women’s Rights Information, Influencing Development Actors and Practice for Women’s Rights, the Young Feminist Activist Program, and the AWID Forum. The association is a global organization with offices in Toronto, Canada; Cape Town, South Africa; and Mexico City, Mexico. The staff and board of directors are international. Although its work is aimed at empowered women all over the world, the main efforts of AWID are targeted toward the rights of women in the global south and eastern and central Europe. AWID works are published in English, Spanish, and French, as well as Arabic to a lesser extent. Funding for AWID is provided by a number of foundations and government agencies, including ActionAID International, the Canadian International Development Agency, Cordaid, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Global Fund for Women, Hivos, Irish Aid, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Open Society Institute, Oxfam America, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Novib (Netherlands), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the United National Development Fund for Women. In the United States, AWID is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization and is classified as a public charity under section 509(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code. AWID produces an annual report. An electronic copy of the latest report is available on the association’s Website at http://www.awid.org. AWID also publishes and provides a wealth of information and resources regarding women’s rights on the site. Every three years, the association hosts an international forum at which women’s rights activists from around the world gather. The most recent forum—the association’s 11th—titled “The Power of Movements,” was held in Cape Town in 2008. See Also: Global Feminism; Mexico; Religious Fundamentalisms, Cross-Cultural Context of; Transnational Feminist Networks; South Africa. Further Readings Association for Women’s Rights in Development. “From WID to GAD to Women’s Rights: The First Twenty

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Years of AWID.” http://www.awid.org/eng/Issues-and -Analysis/Library/From-WID-to-GAD-to-Womens -Rights-The-First-Twenty-Years-of-AWID (accessed June 2010). Batliwala, Srilatha. Changing Their World: Concepts and Practices of Women’s Movements. Cape Town, South Africa: Association for Women’s Rights in Development, 2008. Wilson, Shamillah, et al. Defending Our Dreams: Global Feminist Voices for a New Generation. London: Zed Books, 2006. Danai S. Mupotsa Monash University

Astronauts, Female An astronaut is a person trained for spaceflight and may serve in a variety of technical positions as a pilot or crewmember. Most astronauts are trained in scientific or technical fields, through either military or civilian programs. Although several nations have space research organizations and agreements, only three countries have launched manned spaceflights: China, Russia (former Soviet Union), and the United States. Of these countries, only Russia and the United States have sent female astronauts into space, although both men and women from other nations (such as England, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea, Iran, and others) have flown on Russian and U.S. space flights. The Chinese space program is the newest (sending its first astronaut only in 2009), and it is expected to train its first female astronauts sometime in the next decade. International space programs began in the mid20th century when both the United States and Russia established government-run space agencies. Partially in response to Russia launching the Sputnik satellite in 1957, the United States moved forward with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. Russia won this part of the Cold War “space race” by sending the first person, Yuri Gagarin, into space in 1961. Two years later, in 1963, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space. The space race continued through the 1960s, and in 1969, the United States scored a victory when astronaut Neil Arm-

strong became the first person to walk on the moon. The Russian Mir space station was launched in 1986 and, in the post–Cold War era, many missions have focused on construction and operations at the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian female cosmonauts were therefore in space 20 years before the first (and most famous) U.S. female astronaut, Sally Ride, flew in 1983. Russia has since sent two more women into space: Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982 (also the first woman to walk in space in 1984) and Yelena Kondakova in 1994. Most of the first generation of U.S. male astronauts were trained as military jet pilots, an occupation from which U.S. women were generally excluded. In the 1960s, some women who had served as Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II petitioned for admittance into the astronaut program, but were denied by the U.S. Congress. It was not until the 1970s, when NASA began recruiting research scientists and engineers for the astronaut-training program that women finally entered training. The first class of six women chosen for NASA’s astronaut program were physician Anna Fisher, biochemist Shannon Lucid, electrical engineer Judith Resnik (who died in the Challenger shuttle explosion in 1986), physicist Sally Ride, physician Margaret Rhea Seddon, and geologist Kathryn Sullivan. Women in Space Many more women have been through the astronauttraining program than have had the opportunity to fly and been able to log significant numbers of hours in space. Although Shannon Lucid set a record in 1996 for the longest single spaceflight for any astronaut (male or female) with 188 days at the Mir space station, her record was later surpassed by U.S. engineer Sunita Williams who now holds the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman with 195 days spent at the ISS between December 2006 and June 2007. Other NASA female firsts include Eileen Collins as the first woman to pilot a space shuttle on a Discovery mission in 1995 and Peggy Whitson who, in 2007, became the first female commander of the ISS. Whitson also holds two space records as the woman astronaut with most overall hours in space, having logged more than 376 days in space total from her combined trips to the ISS, and as the woman with the most spacewalks, a total of six to date. In 2008, the United States sent



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was a matter of individual women being allowed the opportunity to prove themselves capable that paved the way for other women to enter the field. In astronautics, the presence of more women astronauts, but also more women as medical researchers and bioengineers, has led to more research on and comparison of the effects of space travel on female and male bodies. Scientists working with NASA and other space agencies are actively researching the effects of gravity, weightlessness, radiation, isolation, and deprivation on muscle response, bone health, immune response, fertility, mental health, and aging, all of which may affect women and men differently. See Also: Mathematics, Women in; Physics, Women in; Ride, Sally; Science, Women in.

Astronaut Nicole Stott in an Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit fit check at the Johnson Space Center.

its 50th woman into space, mechanical engineer and astronaut Karen Nyberg. Other non-U.S. and nonRussian women who have flown on international or cooperative space missions, as the first female or sometimes first astronaut from their nations, include British engineer Helen Patricia Sharman (1991), Canadian neurologist Roberta Lynn Bondar (1992), Japanese Chiaki Mukai (1994), French engineer and biologist Claudie (André-Deshays) Haigneré (1996), Canadian Julie Payette (1999), Iranian-born U.S. citizen Anousheh Ansari, the first private or civilian space explorer (2006), and Korean Yi So-yeon (2008). Women have worked within the space program as astronauts and as support researchers and engineers, as computer scientists, mathematicians, physicians, biologists, environmental scientists, physicists, and astronomers. Early opponents to women’s participation in astronaut programs often cited women’s physical limitations, as the training and space travel required grueling tests of strength and stamina. As in other physically demanding occupations, however, such as firefighting or military combat service, it

Further Readings American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. “STScI/CSWA Survey Results 1992–2003.” http://www.grammai.org/astro women/allstats.html (accessed November 2009). Kevles, Bettyann H. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: Basic Books, 2003. Nolen, S. Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race. New York: Avalon, 2002. Marilyn L. Grady University of Nebraska

Astronomy, Women in Women have historically been excluded from astronomy as a subject of study and a field of employment, and this remains partly the case today. Worldwide, it is estimated that women represent about a quarter of all professional astronomers. However, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the worldwide professional organization for astronomers, found that, in 2008, only 15 percent of its members were women, although this figure is rising. In many countries, such as the United States, the proportion of women in astronomy is higher than their proportion in physics overall, both among students and faculty. The proportion of women in astronomy depends to a large extent on the national context. The proportion

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of women among members of the IAU in 2008 varied from none to over a third, although it is worth mentioning that, in many countries, numbers were too small for statistics to be significant. In the European Union, the proportion of women among IAU members was higher than the 15 percent world average in Italy (25 percent), Bulgaria (25 percent), France (24 percent), Hungary (21 percent), and Ireland (20 percent). On the contrary, their proportion was below the world average in Germany (9 percent), Denmark (10 percent), and the United Kingdom (12 percent). In the United States, women represented 12 percent of IAU members and in Australia, 15 percent. The level of representation of women among professional astronomers also varies according to the seniority of the job, with the proportion of women in senior positions tending to be disproportionately small. In the United States, data from the American Astronomical Society’s Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy published in 2003 showed a sharp decrease as the level of seniority increases: women represented 30 percent of astronomy graduates, but only 22 percent of postdoctoral researchers, 20 percent of assistant professors, 21 percent of associate professors, and 9 percent of full professors. In a similar vein, the Astronomy Decadal Review Demographics Survey, published in 2005 and conducted by the Australian Academy of Science, showed that, in Australian astronomy, women represented 37 percent of postgraduates, but only 10 percent of tenured staff. Worldwide, it is also very unusual to find a woman at management level in research institutes of astronomy. In countries where such data is collected, the presence of women at that level is close to none. Women astronomers also tend to remain in the background and their works not acknowledged to the same extent as men’s works. Biographies of women astronomers have been produced to highlight their contribution to the field, although the likes of Hildegard von Bingen and Maria Cunitz are yet to become household names in an equivalent way to the likes of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler. The attribution in 1974 of the physics Nobel Prize to the supervisor of Jocelyn Bell for her discovery of the first radio pulsars when she was a postgraduate student is commonly used to illustrate the lack of acknowledgement faced by women astronomers (and women in science, more generally).

Important changes in the 1970s and the subsequent establishment of a more egalitarian gender contract in most of the Western world have meant that events such as the one experienced by Jocelyn Bell may have become more unlikely. Since the 1990s, “women in science” is on the agenda of many governments and international organizations, such as the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the European Commission. In astronomy in particular, the 1992 Baltimore Charter for Women in Astronomy and the 2003 Pasadena Recommendations for Gender Equality in Astronomy have raised issues of gender equality in astronomy, with the former recommending some major changes in organizational practices, endorsed in 2005 by the American Astronomical Society Committee. More recently, a resolution was passed at the 2009 IAU General Assembly, backing the need to support women astronomers at all levels of the career ladder (Resolution B4, On Supporting Women in Astronomy). As part of the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, the “She Is an Astronomer” cornerstone project, which has similar aims, was launched. Understanding Women’s Place in Astronomy There is a dearth of research on the barriers to women’s entry and progression specific to astronomy. However, the explanations given for women’s relative exclusion and marginalization in science in general also apply to astronomy. These explanations include the social construction of gender, with science, and especially the disciplines of physics, usually associated with masculinity. As a result of this, girls may be deterred from going into the branches of physics, for example because of stereotypical career advice, peer pressure, or teachers’ and parental expectations. Other explanations have focused on the marginalization of women within science and their difficulties in progressing through the ranks. Such approaches, which sometimes draw on a feminist theoretical framework, have explained the marginalization and exclusion patterns of women in astronomy as a matter of gender discrimination against women. This may be because of institutional policies and practices biased in favor of men, who may be given more access to support, mentoring and networks, or because organizational cultures ignore the fact that women are more likely than men to be the main carer

Attainment, College Degree



for dependents and do not consider their needs. As for scientific occupations in general, astronomy is a field that demands long working hours, regular attendance at conferences, and, for some particular areas of the subject, taking part in lengthy campaigns of observations, all of which may be difficult to balance with raising a family. Similarly, astronomy requires a high level of geographical and institutional mobility, with astronomers often taking several postdoctoral positions. As a result, astronomers often do not get a permanent position before being well in their thirties, that is in the usual child-breeding years. Career breaks are also problematic in terms of keeping up to date with scientific and technological developments in the field of expertise. With men, in most heterosexual partnerships, being perceived as the main breadwinner and women the main carer, all of these factors are more likely to have a negative impact on women’s careers. See Also: Mathematics, Women in; Physics, Women in; Science, Women in; STEM Coalition. Further Readings American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. “STScI/CSWA Survey Results 1992-2003.” http://www.grammai.org/astro women/allstats.html (accessed November 2009). Australian Academy of Science. “A Demographic Study of Australian Astronomy.” http://www.atnf.csiro.au/nca /WG1.1%20Report.pdf (accessed November 2009). International Astronomical Union. “Geographical Distribution of Individual Members.” http://www .iau.org/administration/membership/individual/ distribution (accessed November 2009). Marie-Pierre Moreau University of Bedfordshire Julien Malzac Université de Toulouse, CNRS

Attainment, College Degree In order to acheive full participation in the global knowledge-based economy of the present and future and to ensure development of prosperous world enterprise, all women must be positioned to obtain degrees

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in higher education. This article reviews past and recent findings regarding the status of international women in terms of college degree attainment. Some additional information relevant to the educational background and skills necessary for successful college preparation includes literacy rates and primary and secondary education completion rates, as these are vital indicators in the process that prepares women for attainment of higher education degrees. Modern economies in both advanced and developing countries must have a highly educated workforce of women in all leading areas of science and technology in order to prosper and grow in cutting-edge fields like bioinformatics, nanotechnology, neuroscience, neuromedicine, genetic engineering, behavioral economics, and many others. Having a college degree has been associated with higher lifetime income, more secure retirement, career flexibility, and the ability to achieve middle-class status or better. Robert Barro and Jhong-Wha Lee report that the wage differential in income of a college-educated individual compared to income of a person with only a primary (elementary education) is 240 percent. A recent U.S. Central Intelligence Agency publication, the CIA World Factbook, reports that countries with a higher percentage of population with college degrees have lower unemployment rates than those countries with less educational attainment. This suggests that a college degree may help reduce the risk of unemployment for women during a global economic downturn because those women prepared with a college education may represent a better match to everevolving technical, medical, scientifically advanced, and highly skilled jobs of the future. This, however, was not the case in Poland, where the economic downturn may have affected the population more broadly. It appears that there are exceptions to how well an advanced education can protect degree holders from the risk of unemployment. A possible drawback associated with college degree attainment for females relates to the tendency for many women to postpone childbirth until after degree attainment, which, in some cases, has been associated with reduced fertility patterns due to increased maternal age. Participation Rates In “Higher Education and Society,” a report written in 2000 by participants in an international conference

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sponsored by the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), it was reported that countries with higher per capita incomes had more participation in higher education overall; countries like Canada, the United States, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Finland showed the majority (over 50 percent) of their respective populations involved in obtaining some form of higher education. The lowest participation rates in higher education were in parts of Africa and the Middle East, Afghanistan, Soviet Georgia, and Pakistan. Historically, many countries have shown a pattern of men reaching more educational attainment, particularly at the college level, than women. This trend has balanced out or reversed direction in recent years throughout many countries. Males are now less likely to graduate than women from the most predictable pipeline to college—secondary education—in almost all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries with a few exceptions: Turkey, Korea, and Switzerland. Literacy Literacy is a first step and a vital one in preparing young women with the necessary skills for successful college degree attainment. According to OECD statistics from 2008, worldwide, the highest rates of literacy in females were in Finland, Georgia, Greenland, and Luxembourg, which were all tied for first place. The lowest literacy rates were in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Afghanistan, which all ranked near the bottom. Extensive research by Barro and Lee, who compiled and studied survey and census data reports from both OECD and non-OECD countries, suggests the greatest improvement in literacy rates has been in developed or advanced countries that now report an overall literacy rate of 92.9 percent for 15- to 24year-olds. Contrast this finding with the literacy rate of 52.9 percent for that same age group in those same countries back in 1950. This dramatically demonstrates the significant progress that has been made in this area over the past 60 years. Developing countries need to focus on literacy programs for their populations in order for women to be better positioned to pursue all levels of education in preparation for college degree attainment. Developed and advanced countries may be able to share

resources with developing countries to help promote literacy efforts in developing countries. International partnerships or exchange programs to develop literacy volunteer programs based on successful, established programs and resource sharing are among potential solutions that can help address this area. Gender Gap Continues Global rates of college participation of younger populations are increasing, which will help the younger generation’s prospects for participation in advancing fields that will lead the world economy. In 2003, a report by OECD showed that the proportion of 20-year-old students in higher education was highest for Greece at 56 percent, followed by Belgium at 46 percent, France at 42 percent, Spain and the United States at 38 percent, Canada at 37 percent, and Ireland at 35 percent. Population age demographics of some of these countries may account for some of the relative difference in trends. Barro and Lee’s 2010 report on education statistics in 146 countries shows that females continue to lag behind males in average years of education where the ratio of females to males in developed countries for average years of education is 85.9 percent. Their report also indicates that in developing countries, the female-to-male ratio for average years of education is lowest in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and south Asia, where it is only 70 percent. Recent Trends Women are now overrepresented in college participation and degree attainment in the United States, especially in the liberal arts and education areas. This is not the case in other degree fields in the United States or for women in other countries, especially those with lower female participation rates in higher education compared to males, such as the Middle East and subSaharan Africa and south Asia as mentioned above. For example, in countries where women are not allowed to regularly attend school at or beyond elementary levels, they fall out of the system for achievement of literacy, elementary education completion, and secondary education entrance and completion, all of which are necessary steps for successful early college preparation. Women in advanced countries, however, continue to remain underrepresented in several key highly skilled professional degree fields including science, engi-



neering, and computer science, which typically lead to traditionally higher paid occupations and higher lifetime earnings potential. New global women in the STEM (Science, Technology, and Engineering) program exchange efforts may represent one of the ways to address these deficits in participation in science and engineering by women and other underrepresented groups on an international level. Increased mentoring of young women by women established in these fields is essential to increase successful degree completion in the sciences, technology, and engineering fields. According to OECD statistics, beginning in 2000 and up to the present in 2010, the rate of graduation overall from college has been level in the United States, although there are gender differences noted in certain fields where women are underrepresented, including engineering and computer science. However, the college graduation rate has recently doubled in Austria, Finland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, and Switzerland. Moreover, over onethird of students in the two dozen countries tracked by OECD have completed a college education at the tertiary type A level. Tertiary type A–level education refers to theoretically based programs that require a minimum of three years of full-time-equivalent study. These programs of study are designed to prepare students to further their education in professional areas such as medicine, dentistry, and other advanced fields and/or for advanced study with a research focus. The U.S. equivalent of a tertiary type A degree would be a master’s degree. Value of Postsecondary Education A 2010 article by Anthony Carnevale, Nicole Smith, and Jeff Strohl showed the increasing value of postsecondary education for advancing upward mobility and higher lifetime earnings. Based on a method of comparative generations’ analysis in the United States, their study illustrated a trend that shows 26 percent of the middle class had a college education four decades ago. This is in contrast to the present in which 61 percent of the middle class now have college educations. The most recent international data has been reported by Barro and Lee in the previously mentioned report that involved an extensive census-/survey-based, global multiyear (1950 to 2010) study using a five-year interval, multicohort, cross-sectional com-

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parison of the educational attainment outcomes of the populations of 146 countries from age 15 and up. From this report, in relation to determining the value of progressive educational attainment, the estimated rate of return for each additional year of schooling ranges from 5 percent to 12 percent, and increases toward the high end of that range at the secondary and tertiary educational levels. Associated Benefits of College Degree Attainment Several researchers have reported information related to data supporting the finding that there are other benefits of educational attainment at advanced levels including reduced rates of mortality. It stands to reason that women with advanced degrees will be better positioned to obtain employment and be able to access healthcare more readily than those women without advanced degrees. Access to medical care and resources to pay for that care may potentially increase overall health status and longevity. With continually rising healthcare costs, it will take sufficient resources for women to be able to afford those expenses. Additional benefits for college degree attainment for women that are generally known but nonetheless are especially salient and should be noted relate to the fact that women tend to outlive men by a number of years (at least five in the United States for all nationalities as of 2004) according a 2007 report from the National Center for Health Statistics Health, United States. Once black or white women in the United States, of all nationalities, live to age 65, the report shows that they can expect to live another 19 to 20 years, making sufficient lifetime earnings necessary for a lengthy retirement period. Another important concern is related to the fact that many working women will lose varying periods of time for earnings accrual during pregnancy and childbirth and/or childrearing periods. Loss of earnings accrual can limit retirement resources significantly. These two realities make it more important for women to obtain college degrees and be able to obtain higher earnings to ensure greater lifetime earnings potential. Higher lifetime earnings potential made possible by a college degree can help address the fact that, in many countries, women may start out as the sole provider of their children. Additionally, many women will become single parents whether

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through divorce or widowhood and may also become the sole providers for their children’s emotional and economic needs. More Women With Degrees in Some Countries and Certain Disciplines In terms of educational attainment at the college level, several Western countries have reported growing rates of women obtaining their degrees. In the United States, by 2005, three out of 10 working women had college degrees according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The majority of those degrees are in liberal arts/social science areas. Sixty-eight percent of women in Canada, aged 25 to 44, had completed a postsecondary education in 2007. Prolonged education has one final advantage in terms of lower infant mortality according to a National Center for Health Statistics report from 2007. In the United States, for all nationalities, the percentage of live births was 26 percent for women of all nationalities for those with 16 years of education or more, and only 22 percent for women of all nationalities with less than 12 years of schooling. See Also: Attainment, Elementary School Completion; Attainment, Graduate Degree; Attainment, High School Completion; Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; STEM Coalition. Further Readings Barro, Robert J. and Jong-Wha Lee. “A New Data Set of Educational Attainment in the World, 1950–2010.” Working Paper 15902, National Bureau of Economic of Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w15902 (accessed June 2010). Carnevale, Anthony, Nicole Smith, and Jeff Strohl. “Helped Wanted: Projections of Job and Educational Requirements Through 2018.” A Report From the Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2010. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Education at a Glance, OECD Indicators. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2002. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Education at a Glance 2007, Population that Has Attained Tertiary Education. Paris: OECD Statistics, 2007.

Task Force on Higher Education and Society. Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise. Geneva: World Bank and UNESCO, 2000. Karen M. Wolford State University of New York, Oswego

Attainment, Elementary School Completion The numbers of children overall and girls in particular enrolled in and completing elementary or primary education have increased since the 1960s, although progress has remained uneven between countries and regions and gender inequities remain. Poverty was the most significant determinant of nonattainment in elementary school completion, followed by rural residence. Gender and membership in socially excluded groups were lower but were still significant determinants. Governmental and nongovernmental organization (NGO)–sponsored programs, such as the School Fee Abolition Initiative, continue to reduce barriers to female elementary and primary school completion worldwide. Gender parity in education is a crucial component to the elimination of gender inequities beyond the classroom. Elementary or primary school enrollment and completion have become key goals of many governments and NGOs worldwide. International statistics gathered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have revealed a rapid decline in the number of schoolage children not enrolled in primary or elementary schools since 2000, with the percentage of girls not attending down 24 percent between 1999 and 2004. These trends mark the continuation of a pattern of improvement that began in the 1960s. The biggest gains in numbers of children enrolling during this same period were found in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, with gains of 19 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Progress has been greatest at the elementary or primary level, with the largest educational gender gaps found at the secondary and higher levels. Gains in female enrollment are also found when just low-income countries are considered. In these countries, the percentage of girls enrolled at the pri-



Attainment, Elementary School Completion

mary level stood at 94 percent in 2004, up from 52 percent in the 1970s. In that same year, girls represented 48 percent of all elementary and primary school students, up from 38 percent in the 1970s. Statistics show that the countries with the highest rates of poverty have improved the primary level gender parity rate to 94 percent. Growth since the 1970s in Latin America and the Caribbean went from 82 to 99 percent, the Middle East and North Africa from 77 to 91 percent, south Asia from 62 to 80 percent, and subSaharan Africa from 51 to 60 percent. In certain parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, enrollment rates are actually higher for girls than boys. While overall elementary school enrollment rates have risen, uneven progress has left sizeable differences remaining among and within countries and between genders. The largest gender gaps were found in the regions of south Asia and north, west, and subSaharan Africa and countries such as Yemen, Iraq, India, and Benin. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, only 60 percent of girls were enrolled in school in 2004. Despite progress toward universal primary education, UNESCO estimated that there were still approximately 75 million children not enrolled in school worldwide in 2007, and girls still comprise just over half of these children. Hindrances to Enrollment and Completion Many girls in developing countries lack full access to elementary or primary school enrollment for a variety of reasons. Poverty is one of the largest single determinants of nonenrollment at the elementary and primary levels, with enrollment rates lower and gender inequities higher among the lowest income families. Many poor families cannot afford to pay school fees, or girls do not attend school due to the family’s financial need for children to work. The second largest and often related determinant is rural residency. Most schools are located in urban areas and rural children often must travel great distances to attend. Other hindrances to elementary school enrollment include rural residency and distance from schools, rising rates of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and the orphans it produces, endemic conflicts or natural disasters, and discrimination against socially disadvantaged groups based on class or caste, gender, religion, ethnicity, or physical disability. Those

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who belong to several disadvantaged groups experience even higher levels of nonenrollment. Many girls are not enrolled in school due to cultural or religious beliefs that women are less intelligent, should not be educated, or do not need an education to fulfill their traditional gender role. UNESCO 2007 figures showed that female members of socially excluded groups comprised close to 70 percent of all girls not attending school. Girls’ elementary and primary school completion rates have also improved, rising at a faster rate than boys’ completion rates. According to World Bank statistics, the universal primary education completion rate for girls stood at 70 percent in 2006, up from 57 percent in 1999. Female completion rates, however, are even lower than enrollment rates, as many girls who begin their education are forced to drop out before graduation. Many have to drop out if payment of school fees or distance becomes too great a burden on their families or the need to work arises. International Efforts Toward Universal Primary Education and Gender Equity Governments and NGOs have emphasized universal primary education, gender equity in education, and improved educational access and quality in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The United Nations (UN) established a series of Millennium Development Goals, including gender parity in primary education and primary school completion for all children, in recognition of the importance of education to other aspects of development. Although many developing countries did not meet the initial 2005 deadline for gender parity, programs such as school fee abolition have resulted in steadily rising female enrollment, attendance, and completion rates. Governments and NGOs, such as the Forum for African Women Educationalists, have implemented a variety of local, national, and international educational programs such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Bank’s School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI), and the United Nation’s Education for All (EFA). These programs have increased global female elementary or primary enrollments and completion rates and demand for female education, especially within developing countries. Research studies in a variety of countries have positively linked female educational attainment at all levels with a variety

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of economic and social benefits. These studies have demonstrated that female education is among the most cost-effective and highest-yielding development efforts. Programs to increase access to elementary or primary education have utilized such methods as abolishing the school fees that many poor parents cannot afford or offering scholarships, providing stipends, conditional cash transfers, or using other fiscal incentives for increased female enrollment. Kenya was one of the first countries to abolish school fees under the SFAI program. Although Kenya’s SFAI experience resulted in initial problems, as schools were unprepared and ill equipped to handle the experienced enrollment surges, they adapted and now serve as a role model for other countries that seek to implement the initiative. Programs have also addressed other non-genderspecific constraints, such as conflicts, distance to schools, and health-related issues such as HIV/AIDS in addition to the gender inequities that prevent many girls from enrolling in or completing elementary or primary schooling. These inequities include social constraints based on the low priority traditionally given to female educational attainment due to lowered beliefs in the need for female education, lowered expectations for female intelligence or success, and religious or cultural beliefs that do not support female education. Programs have also emphasized the need to improve student retention, the overall quality of educational standards, systems, and instruction, to increase the relevance and value given to education, and to reduce gender inequities within the classroom. Goals have included the recruitment of more female teachers, better teacher training, and the use of gender-sensitive materials and methods of instruction. Programs have also sought to tailor female education to local needs, cultures, and religious beliefs through the development of country specific agendas in an attempt to gain more local community support for their efforts. Advocates for universal primary education and gender parity note that educational inequities result in and reinforce greater societal inequities once students leave the classroom. Female primary school attendance and completion has been a key goal of many government and NGO programs because of female educational attainment’s

positive impact on other development goals at the individual, family, and community levels. On the economic level, female educational attainment correlates to increased economic productivity, higher wages, family incomes, and savings rates, reduced poverty levels, increased female financial independence and decision making. Female educational attainment also results in increased female access to the labor, land, credit, expert assistance, and new technology needed to establish the female-owned micro-businesses that are rapidly arising in many developing countries. Gender-related social benefits include the increased value of women’s roles, increased female political participation and family decision-making responsibilities, and lowered rates of violence against women. Health-related social benefits include lowered fertility and child and maternal mortality rates, improved nutrition and health practices, increased knowledge and rates of protection against HIV/AIDS, and lowered rates of female genital mutilation. These benefits result spur development, improve individual, family, and community wellbeing, and help end the cycle of poverty and limited education, as children of mothers who completed their elementary or primary educations are much more likely to complete their own educations. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Global Campaign for Education. Further Readings Biklen, Sari Knopp and Diane Pollard. Gender and Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Jejeebhoy, Shireen J. Women’s Education, Autonomy, and Reproductive Behavior: Experience From Developing Countries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. King, Elizabeth M. and M. Anne Hill. Women’s Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press (for the World Bank), 1993. Lewis, M. A. and M. E. Lockheed, eds. Exclusion, Gender and Education: Case Studies From the Developing World. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development, 2007. Lewis, M. A. and M. E. Lockheed. Inexcusable Absence: Why 60 Million Girls Still Aren’t in School and What to Do About It. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development, 2006.

Attainment, Graduate Degree

Tembon, Mercy and Lucia Fort. Girls’ Education in the 21st Century: Equality, Empowerment, and Growth. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Attainment, Graduate Degree In a majority of countries, a graduate degree is a program of study that continues past a bachelor’s program. An example of a graduate degree is a master’s degree and/or a doctoral degree, both of which can be considered terminal degrees. A terminal degree is usually, though not universally, considered the highest degree to be attained in a given field. Examples of less common degrees from the United States and other countries that may be considered terminal are Master of Fine Arts, Juris Doctor, habilitation, and higher doctorates. Although an increasing number of women are entering graduate institutions for terminal degrees, they continue to fight the “glass ceiling,” to complete their degrees and find employment. The glass ceiling refers to biases in the workforce or education that prevent women and minorities from achieving positions of responsibility. A number of reasons are theorized to explain the difference between the number of women who are accepted to graduate programs and those that complete graduate programs throughout the world. Though women in general continue to have difficulty completing graduate degrees, women of color in the United States and women outside the United States bear the greatest burden in their attempts to continue their education. History of Women in Education Women have and continue to work hard for equal consideration with men. Prior to the 1900s, women known to achieve graduate degrees are few in example. This time is highlighted by individual firsts for women. A number of women represent the first women to attain various graduate degrees in the United States. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first American woman to achieve a graduate degree in medicine

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in 1849. Fifteen years later, Rebecca Crumpler was the first black woman to achieve this same degree. Lucy Hobbs was the first female dentist. While Arabella Mansfield was the first woman to practice law in Iowa, Ada Kepley was the first to graduate from law school in 1869. While these examples of firsts for women are important, they did little at the time to create true change for women in the United States or the world. Real societal change for women, however, can be attributed to several key events of the 1900s: the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1921, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, World War II, and the equal rights movement. The Nineteenth Amendment gave women of the United States the right to vote. During the civil rights movement, minorities fought for the equality denied to them since the Civil War. World War II provided women with an opportunity to do their part in support of the war by going to work in jobs vacated by the soldiers and gave women the opportunity to see themselves in roles other than wife, mother, teacher, or nurse. The equal rights movement allowed women’s voices to be heard with regard to equal pay for equal work and also ensured that women were given equal opportunities for work as men. These events gave an increasing number of women an entrée into educational institutions and degree programs that were male dominated. While women in the United States were making some headway, it would be many years before women in many countries outside the United States began to make the same strides in their education goals as well as in employment. Recent Trends in Education The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that the number of women in graduate school has exceeded the number of men since 1984 for both full-time and part-time students. While NCES also reports increases in minority students since 1976, there are not clear demographics related to the numbers of female minorities attending graduate school. Additionally there is no cumulative international data that represent the number of women in graduate programs from countries outside the United States. However, a word search for women and graduate school in the academic databases Academic Search Premier, Psych Info, and ERIC find an increasing number of articles describing the role of women from interna-

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tional countries and their quest for academic equality with their male counterparts. Trends in many countries tell a story of women fighting for equality, much like the women of the late 1960s and early 1970s. For example, some countries continue to retain the traditional values regarding women remaining in the home. Prior to 1990, countries like Greece had few options for women continuing to live in their country of origin to obtain an advanced degree. However, with the recent incorporation of online learning graduate programs, women from countries with more traditional values for woman’s role are now able to consider working toward a graduate degree while in the home. While not a perfect solution, as the demands of online education can still be quite rigorous, it gives these women the flexibility to work on a degree while still maintaining their traditional lifestyle. Countries like Sweden are attempting to address the inequalities of women in graduate education. Here, equal opportunity legislation states that in areas where one sex is underrepresented, recruitment to address the issue will be implemented. While this represents the willingness of the dominant culture in Sweden to create change, this policy regarding change does not include the voices of the women it seeks to help. Problems With Graduate Degree Attainment A number of problems deter women from completing graduate work. Women traditionally lack the mentorship needed to complete graduate work. Many times, women are unable to find female mentors who understand the issues that female graduate students face. Female faculty find themselves in growing demand due to growing female student populations and larger student/faculty ratios. Women, regardless of color, face the same challenges that men face when deciding to pursue a graduate degree. Like men, they struggle with the challenges of paying for school, balancing the demands of school and family, and ultimately finding a professional job. Unlike men, women globally tend to be the main caregivers to children and/or aging parents along with managing the home and perhaps maintaining a job apart from graduate school as well as the home. Additionally, women in many countries experience problems attaining a job after graduation, or they are unable to find advancement after finding an entry-level position. Today, few women are represented as senior

faculty members or administrators in graduate institutions around the world. While the United States reports more women than men in educational institutions, these numbers are not the case outside the United States. The culture of many countries continues to value males over females. For example, parents of children in many African countries deprive the family of necessities in order to send their male children on to high school with the intention of these sons continuing school in order to have the possibility to attain a terminal degree. Few females in these same countries are given the opportunity to continue their schooling, despite their interest in doing so. Most often, the girls are encouraged to marry and have a family. Should these girls later decide to attend school, they must gain the support of their husbands to continue their educations. While they may have consent to attend school, this support does not generally lend itself to also providing physical support like helping with childcare or daily chores around the home. Women in graduate programs struggle with issues of confidence regarding their own abilities. Additionally, women are more likely than men to show the lack of confidence. Mary Belenky, Blythe Clinchy, Nancy Goldberger, and Jill Tarule explain that girls and women have more difficulty asserting their authority, considering themselves authorities, expressing themselves in public, gaining respect for their minds and ideas, and fully utilizing their talents. A possible reason attributed to this lack of confidence is related to many graduate institutions’ decisions to increase the enrollment of women and minorities by favoring enrollment of these populations, thereby providing a reason for the female graduate women to doubt herself. Women of color may struggle to identify with the majority group. Patricia Collins reports that these women have their own interpretation of oppression; they report different life experiences than the majority group and view their reality differently. This presents a problem when the graduate student of color attempts to find her way within the majority group paradigm. These women report not feeling heard by their peers or the teachers. While many may begin graduate school with the intent of creating a paradigm change, if the student is not heard, she may withdraw from the program. Students who are able to



bridge the gap find that while they may not overcome the views of their professors or peers, they have found that they have overcome the white myth that minorities are unable to excel in education. Ultimately, these issues can work against women and minorities in the completion of a graduate degree. One theory regarding the completion of graduation school compares women and minorities pouring into the educational system like water in a pipeline. When the pipeline works, these women and minorities, in theory, should begin their education in primary school, continue on to a secondary education, and then move into graduate work. If the system is working effectively, these women will complete the pipeline by gaining employment in their chosen field. Problems in the pipeline occur when the system has “leaks.” When the pipeline has a leak, then a growing number of women can enter the pipeline but this will not result in a growing number of women and minorities completing their graduate degrees. This same analogy also applies to women and minorities entering institutions of higher learning. While growing numbers may obtain entry-level positions, nontenured positions, or adjunct positions, few are able to break the educational glass ceiling of tenure and of positions of academic administration. Therefore, policy decisions in academics remain elusive concepts to many women and minorities. While there are problems that interfere with women and minorities attaining a graduate degree, the future remains hopeful. As long as the number of women entering graduate school continues to increase and these women grow in understanding regarding the issues that prevent them from completing their degree, this should translate into greater graduate degree attainment for women throughout the world. As these women grow in numbers, opportunities to replace older academicians will also increase. As these same women become emerging leaders in their academic institutions, they will ultimately make the policy decisions that can lead to true social change. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, College and University; Educational Opportunities/Access; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Mentoring; Women’s Colleges.

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Further Readings Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000. Maton, Kenneth I., et al. “Minority Students of Color and the Psychology Student Pipeline: Disquieting and Encouraging Trends 1989–2003.” American Psychologist (February/March 2006). Puljak, Livia, Sanja K. Kojundzic, and Damir Sapunar. “Gender and Academic Medicine: A Good Pipeline of Women Graduates Is Not Advancing.” Teaching and Learning in Medicine, v.20/3 (2008). Vryonides, Marios and Chryssi Vitsilikas. “Widening Participation in Postgraduate Studies in Greece: Mature Working Women Attending an E-Learning Programme.” Journal of Education Policy, v.23/3 (2008). Williams, Meca R., et al. “Learning to Read Each Other: Black Female Graduate Students Share Their Experiences at a White Research I Institution.” Urban Review, v.37/3 (2005). Xu, Yonghong J. “Gender Disparity in STEM Disciplines: A Study in Faculty Attrition and Turnover Intentions.” Research in Higher Education, v.49 (2008). Julie Anne Strentzsch St. Mary’s University

Attainment, High School Completion Successful attainment of education helps predict whether women around the world will have overall well-being, and it is a strong predictor of economic success, not only for women but for their countries as well. Educational attainment is defined as the highest level of education completed, and includes primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. High school completion is a necessary step on the road to educational attainment and resultant economic success and is itself dependent on primary school success and literacy. However, completing a high school education does not hold the same guarantees or opportunities that it used to, in terms of finding future employment. Having a high school diploma is the norm in some countries. In the United States, for example, 85 percent of

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the population overall have a high school diploma, with women having higher rates than men. In other countries, high school completion rates are varied. In Australia, for example, compulsory education had been required through age 15 and is now age 16 (upper secondary level). As of 2006, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) research shows that nearly 80 percent of the 25 to 34 age group have completed that level of educational attainment in Australia. In countries where high school completion attainment or equivalent vocational education has not been attained, there is a disadvantage in terms of being competitive in the labor market. This is most true in France, New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia (those without high school completion were 3.5 times more likely to be unemployed compared to those who had graduated from high school), whereas in Finland and Germany, there was no disadvantage, and in the United States, Spain, and Canada, unemployment was just as likely for those who had no high school degree as those who did. Statistics on High School Completion According to OECD statistics, the percentage of females who have completed at least upper secondary education in the 25-to-34-year-old age groups are Australia, 83 percent; Austria; 84 percent; Belgium, 83 percent; Canada, 93 percent; Czech Republic, 94 percent; Denmark, 86 percent; Finland, 92 percent; France, 84 percent; Germany, 84 percent; Greece, 80 percent; Hungary, 85 percent; Iceland, 72 percent; Ireland 87 percent; Italy, 72 percent; Korea, 98 percent; Luxembourg, 78 percent; Mexico, 38 percent; Netherlands, 84 percent; New Zealand, 82 percent; Norway, 86 percent; Poland, 93 percent; Portugal, 52 percent; Slovak Republic, 94 percent; Spain, 70 percent; Sweden, 92 percent; Switzerland, 88 percent; Turkey, 31 percent; United Kingdom, 75 percent; United States, 89 percent. The overall European Union (EU) female secondary education attainment rate was 83 percent compared to the OECD average, which was 80 percent for the 25-to-34-year-old age group. This trend is much higher than for the respective EU and OECD age group averages for women 55 to 64, whose grade 12 completion rates were 53 percent for EU and 52 percent for OECD countries. In the 25-to-34 age group,

educational attainment for females (grade 12 secondary completion rates) in partner countries was Brazil, 51 percent; Chile, 64 percent; Estonia, 90 percent; Israel, 88 percent; Russian Federation, 93 percent; and Slovenia, 94 percent. For the majority of these countries, public education provides the schools that are the primary place for women to obtain upper secondary education. The majority of women attend these schools full time. Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries believe that the right to education is important for women. For some countries, that education has been emphasized at the primary level, which has been said to be universal in this region. Educational quality can be a problem in terms of developing a competitive work force for the future. Gender gaps in secondary education are improving in terms of enrollment. Overall 2003 UNESCO statistics for the MENA region show the following: females in secondary enrollment are at 62 percent, and males are at 71 percent. For Jordan, females outnumber males in secondary enrollment at 89 percent, compared to 86 percent for males. The same is true in Palestine: females enrolled in secondary education are 86 percent, and males 80 percent; and in Qatar, the female rate is 92 percent, and 86 percent for males. In Iran, the rate is 75 percent for females, compared to 81 percent for females, and in Iraq, the female rate is 29 percent, and male rate is 47 percent. Countries that have invested in education more recently, such as Egypt, Jordan, and Algeria, have experienced improved economic development. The country with the lowest reported enrollment rate for women compared to men was Yemen, with 25 percent of women enrolled at the secondary level, and 69 percent of the men enrolled at this level. Actual educational attainment rates were difficult to find for this region, and may be higher than the 2003 data might suggest, as those statistics are now outdated. Access to education for females can still be deadly in some areas where more conservative elements reign. Competitive Job Market Just having a high school diploma may not be enough to succeed. Georgetown University estimated that by 2018, the number of jobs that will at least require two years of college will outpace supply. According to the report, “in 1970, for example, nearly 75 percent

Attorneys, Female



of those workers considered to be middle class had not gone beyond high school in their education; in 2007, that figure had dropped below 40 percent.” On the other hand, with the economic downturn, lower paying jobs due to the recession, women with degrees beyond high school may find themselves presently overqualified for some positions. This may not be true in countries like Australia, which has proven to be robust in the current recession, and has an overall unemployment rate of just over 5 percent. Having a high school education does help with first employment opportunities, but having only a high school degree may severely limit upward earning potential for most individuals. Women who have had to drop out of school for various reasons will go back and earn their GED or high school equivalent, which will allow them to go into a trade school or other nonprofessional jobs that require at least a high school education. With increasing international competition for jobs, and without at least some college education or a two-year college degree, women may find themselves in dead-end positions with limited employment prospects for the future. See Also: Attainment, College Degree; Attainment, Elementary School Completion; Attainment, Graduate Degree; Educational Opportunities/Access. Further Readings Steinberg, Jacques. “Employers Increasingly Expect Some Education After High School.” New York Times (June 15, 2010). http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/15 /job-requirement (accessed August 2010). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “Education at a Glance, 2009.” http:// www.oecd.org/dataoecd/41/25/43636332.pdf (accessed August 2010). Roudi-Fahimi, Farzaneh and Valentine M. Moghadam. “Empowering Women, Developing Society: Female Education in the Middle East and North Africa.” Population Reference Bureau (November 2003). http://www.prb.org/Publications/PolicyBriefs /EmpoweringWomenDevelopingSocietyFemale EducationintheMiddleEastandNorthAfrica.aspx (accessed August 2010). Karen Wolford State University of New York, Oswego

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Attorneys, Female In contrast to nursing, social work, librarianship, or teaching, all of which have traditionally been viewed as female occupations, the legal profession in the United States has been considered nearly exclusively a male domain. The early practice of excluding women from the male-dominated legal profession continued well into the early to mid-20th century. Achieving Equality for Women in Law The last state to allow a woman to practice law was Alaska, which admitted Mildred Herman in 1950. From these beginnings, the present day achievements of women attorneys make it evident that women lawyers have made significant progress. Women in the legal profession have experienced dramatic growth to an apparent full integration into the practice of law. Just the sheer numbers would support this view, as 50 percent of law students are women, and one third of practicing lawyers are female. But the numbers of female law students and attorneys alone do not tell the complete story about how they fare in the legal profession. Women lawyers are not yet close to achieving equality in all aspects of the profession. Since the 1990s, women have comprised half of all law students, yet only 15 percent are partners at law firms. This situation has been termed the 50–15–15 problem, as it is has been over 15 years that women comprise 50 percent of all law students, but only 15 percent of law firm partners. As a response to this phenomenon and other data showing unequal achievement in the law, and to better understand and improve gender fairness in the legal system and the profession, the American Bar Association (ABA), as well as many states and the federal courts, have since established commissions to study the status of women in the profession. Thus, the legal profession has turned its gaze inward to analyze women’s performance and the obstacles they face in the practice of law. The ABA created the Commission for Women in the Profession to “to assess the status of women in the legal profession, identify barriers to advancement, and recommend to the ABA actions to address problems identified.” This commission has examined the status of women practicing law and “found persistent gender discrimination throughout the legal profession.”

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Women Lawyers in the United States Overall, women comprise 47.1 percent of all law school graduates, and 45.7 percent of law firm associates. According to the ABA, women account for 31 percent of the 1,180,386 attorneys licensed to practice law in the United States This means that there are over 343,000 women in the legal profession in the United States, but the number of women aged 29 to 34 who are practicing law has decreased considerably in the last 20 years. Female attorneys comprise 15 percent of Fortune 500 company chief executive officers and general counsels. Nationwide, women comprise 20 percent of all law school deans and 19.2 percent of all law firm partners. As of 2010, 26 percent of U.S. state judges and 22 percent of federal judges are women. Twenty state supreme courts are headed by female chief judges. However, two states (Indiana and Idaho), have no women on their highest state courts. The evidence that has been emerging indicates that although women are entering the practice of law at high rates, they are failing to reach the higher levels within the profession, for example, law firm partnerships, judicial appointments, and law school deanships. In particular, the “glass ceiling” phenomenon has impeded women’s progress in the legal field. An example of such a glass ceiling is evidenced in the low numbers of female partners at large law firms. This greater presence of women in the profession has led to what is characterized as the “no problem problem”—that the situation of women in the legal profession is improving or already has improved on its own. The “no problem problem” is based on the concept that the status of women in the legal profession will improve over time within the profession with no additional action or efforts. The statistics compiled below show there has been some improvement, but and that further action is needed, as the number of women reaching the highest levels in the legal profession has remained stagnant. Female Attorneys Globally Globally, the experiences and progress of women lawyers still vary considerably. For example, in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas chief justice ordered Palestinian women lawyers to wear headscarves and dark clothes to court. Following resistance by the Gazan Bar Association, the order was rescinded.

In the case of Saudi Arabian women lawyers, they are currently not able to appear in court. According to the Saudi Ministry of Justice, the Saudi judicial system will eventually have female lawyers representing women in court. When this happens, female attorneys will be issued a restrictive type of license that will only give them access to some areas of the court. Allowing female lawyers in the courtroom responds to the fact that many Saudi women would-be litigants give up their rights because they do not feel comfortable giving details of their case to a male attorney. When female lawyers are able to represent women, they will not have any contact with men, and will be placed in separate courtrooms. It remains to be seen if female lawyers will be able to appear before Saudi judges when representing women clients. In Iran, 65 percent of all higher education students are women, and women account for 30 percent of the workforce. Iranian women are allowed to be lawyers, but not judges. The most notable female attorney in Iran is Shirin Ebadi. She was awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts for democracy and human rights, especially in the struggle for the rights of women and children. In other countries, such as Canada, the situation is similar to women lawyers in the United States. Historically, women were excluded from the legal profession and first won entry into the field in 1895. It was not until 1942 that all provinces removed the legal barriers that prevented women from practicing law. The contemporary patterns of inequality for Canadian women in the legal profession show that female attorneys make up between 22.9 to 36.4 percent of the labor force, depending on the province; and that they are underrepresented in the private practice of law. The barriers for female Canadian attorneys also include sexual discrimination and disadvantage in their applications for articles (apprenticeships) and initial jobs. Women lawyers also have decreased partnership prospects while in private law practice, and experience substantial gaps in salaries compared to their male counterparts. Finally, Canadian female lawyers report lack of accommodation in law practice for family matters, as well as lack of flexibility to obtain part time work and lack of adequate maternity leave arrangements. In the United Kingdom, women lawyers have progressed to increased representation in all areas of legal

Australia



practice, but there are still fields where women lawyers are underrepresented and marginalized. In particular, at all levels of the judiciary, there are very few women judges. However, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, created in October 2009, counts with one woman, Lady Brenda Hale, among its 12 members. Australian female lawyers still lag in their goal of higher status legal employment, even though women account for 50 percent of all law students. The proportion of female lawyers declines steeply when moving up the legal hierarchy from law clerk (63 percent female) to judges and magistrates (9 percent female) at the top. Similarly, in New Zealand, over half of all legal students (55 percent) are women, but they are very poorly represented in prestigious areas of law. Thus, they work more often as government employees that as attorneys in the private practice of law. Female attorney concerns such as work/life balance arise for German women lawyers, who if they are mothers, have to contend with derogatory terms such as rabenmutter. German female lawyers were expelled from all legal functions during the Nazi regime and while there has been improvement following educational reform in the 1970s, to the point that half the new entrants to the judiciary and civil service (including public prosecutors and advocates) are women, the German legal educational system is almost exclusively male. They comprise about a quarter of all practicing lawyers. The issues that affect female lawyers disproportionately include income differentials, lack of power and opportunities, the dual burdens of work and family. These issues as well as the question of whether the legal profession and legal education will change with the presence of women are still open questions that are being researched by scholars to this day. See Also: Glass Ceiling; Judges, Female; Law Enforcement, Women in; Management, Women in. Further Readings Berger Morello, Karen. The Invisible Bar: The Woman Lawyer in America: 1638 to the Present. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. Harrington, Mona. Women Lawyers: Rewriting the Rules. New York: Penguin, 1993. Mossman, Mary Jane. The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing, 2006.

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Schultz, Ulrike, and Gisela Shaw. Women in the World’s Legal Professions. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing, 2003. Stiller Rikleen, Lauren. Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Legalworks, 2006. María Pabón López Indiana University

Australia After centuries of habitation by Aboriginal settlers from southeast Asia, Australia, which lies between the Indian and South Pacific Oceans, was claimed by the British in 1770. The six states created over the following centuries formed the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. In the early 21st century, almost 90 percent of the population has become urbanized, and per capita income has reached $38,500. Three-fourths of the work force is engaged in service industries. Australia now ranks second in the world on the United Nations Development Programme’s list of countries with Very High Human Development. Ninety-two percent of Australia’s population is white, and 7 percent is Asian. One percent of the population is either Aborigine or belongs to another ethnic group. Most of the people are either Catholic or Protestant, but many religions are represented in Australia. Females in Australia experience a high rate of gender empowerment. Almost from the beginning of its history as a commonwealth, Australia granted the vote to white women. In the 1960s, suffrage was extended to Aboriginal women, along with Aboriginal men, through a constitutional amendment. In the 1980s, Australia began passing a series of legislative acts designed to improve the status of women, including the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 and the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act of 1999. The infant mortality rate is 4.75 deaths per 1,000 live births, and Australia ranks 196th in the world in this area. Female infants (4.4) have an advantage over male infants (5.08). Australia ranks sixth in the world in life expectancy (81.63 years); and in this area also, females (84.14 years) maintain an edge over males (79.25 years). The median age for Australian women is now 38.1 years.

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On the average, women currently produce 1.78 children each. In general, Australian women are eligible for one year of unpaid maternity leave. As Australia’s population growth rate has continued to decline, the government began debating the advisability of paid maternity leave, with an eye toward encouraging Australians to expand their families. Conservatives bewailed the fact that women were too often choosing careers over families, and Liberals argued that more should be done to support working mothers. Since 2001, Australia has provided a Baby Bonus, which applies to all children under the age of five, to all individuals who have children either by birth or adoption or who have legal responsibility for eligible children. This bonus is claimed each year when taxes are filed. Ninety-nine percent of the population over the age of 15 is literate, and there are no differences in male and female literacy. Between 1993 and 2003, the percentage of females obtaining undergraduate degrees rose from 55.9 to 57.3 percent, and the percentage of females pursuing postgraduate degrees rose from 50 to 51.5 percent. During that same period, female participation in the labor force also continued to climb. In the 1990s, women averaged an 18 percent participation rate in the Australian Parliament. By 2003, women comprised 26.5 percent of Australia’s parliament and a third of positions on Commonwealth government boards. Five years later, women held 67 seats in the 226-member Parliament, and four of 20 Cabinet ministers were female. One state premier was female, and two women sat on Australia’s High Court. The first female to hold the position of governor-general also took office in 2008. The previous year, an Aboriginal female had become the highest-ranking Aboriginal of either sex in the national government. Reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that one in three women has been the target of physical violence at some point in their lives, and one in five has been the victim of sexual violence. With a rate 40 times higher than that of whites, violence against women was particularly evident among Aboriginals. After declaring domestic violence an issue of national concern, Australian governments at all levels joined in the Partnerships against Domestic Violence initiative to combat crimes against women. The Indigenous Family Violent Grants Programme was established to deal with issues specific to the

Aboriginal community. Another element of the program dealt with an extensive media campaign to call public attention to the issue. In 2001, Australia established the National Initiative to Combat Sexual Assault. Three years later, the government announced its Action Plan to Eradicate Trafficking in Persons. Australian Women’s Issues Other Australian laws also deal with issues specific to women. Abortion is legal with some restrictions throughout Australia. Rape, including spousal rape is illegal, and rape laws are strictly enforced. Sexual harassment is illegal in Australia under the Sex Discrimination Act, and there has been a move in recent years to amend the act to protect nursing mothers from discrimination. On the other hand, prostitution is legal in some Australian states, and there are incidences of prostitution in other areas. Some states regularly dispatch healthcare workers to monitor the health and treatment of prostitutes. In addition to initiatives taken at the national level, various states and regions have also instituted programs and policies designed to promote gender equity. For instance, both the Office for Women in South Australia and the Women’s Policy Office in Western Australia are engaged in generating effective gender-inclusive policies. See Also: Domestic Violence; Government, Women in; Prostitution, Legal; Working Mothers. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Dever, Maryanne and Jennifer Curtin. “Bent Babies and Closed Borders: Paid Maternity Leave: Ideal Families and the Australian Population Project.” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, v.13/2 (2007). Government of South Australia, Office for Women. “Gender Analysis Project.” http://www.officefor women.sa.gov.au/index.php?section=1082 (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Australia.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eap/119033.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar



Australian Aboriginal Artists Contemporary Australian aboriginal art is derived from a long aboriginal tradition of using nature and culture to produce artistic works. Aboriginal artists employ rock art, bark painting, leaf painting, sand painting, sand sculpture, wood sculpture, wood carving, and body decoration to convey their messages and depict their unique culture. Aboriginal handcrafts also provide an avenue for combining creativity with profitability, and artistic skills are used to create uniquely aboriginal clothing and items such as boomerangs, weapons, and tools. Some early aboriginal artists were successful at producing works that employed Western art styles, but by the late 19th century, most aboriginal artists were intent on reflecting Australian aboriginal culture in their productions. Australian aboriginal women have added distinct contributions to interpreting both contemporary and traditional culture in 21st-century art. Some of the more successful female Australian aboriginal artists have been Melissa Craig Jingalu, Sally Morgan, Joanne Currie Nalingu, Liddy Napanangka Walker, Emily Pwerle, and Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty. One of the most celebrated female Australian aboriginal artists is Melissa Craig Jingalu, a member of the Bunjalung Yaagal tribe, who spent her early years fighting racism. Her first step toward realizing her dream of becoming an artist was taken when she worked as a manager’s assistant at Mullumbimby Art Gallery. She graduated from high school in 1990 at age 15 years. A year later, she was accepted into the Fine Arts Department at Cairnes College of Tafe for Aboriginals and Islanders. By 1995, she had become a semifinalist for young Australian of the year. Known for her vibrant watercolors that use gouache on paper, Jingalu’s fame soon reached international proportions. She is celebrated for works such as Dancing Dolphin, Ant Mountain, My Home, and Nights Moonglow. Sally Morgan is an Australian aboriginal artist and a writer. Born in 1951, Morgan grew up believing that she was from India; she learned in 1966 that she was actually an aborigine. In 1987, she published My Place, which chronicled her search for an identity. Her work as an artist has earned her international fame, and her productions, which include Outback, are exhibited around the world. In addition to her work promoting human rights, Morgan serves as the

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director of the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Indigenous History and Arts. Joanne Currie Nalingu, who hails from the Maranoa region of South West Queensland, never studied to be an artist. She began painting on her own in 1988 and soon developed the unique style that allows her to create brilliant landscapes depicting Australian rivers and deserts. One of her most outstanding contributions has been the creation of an enormous glass wall for Coolangatta Tafe College. Liddy Napanangka Walker, who was born in 1925, spent her early years in Australia’s bush camps. As a young adult, she took on various service jobs to support herself and did not start painting until the 1980s, when she joined the newly established Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association. Her works depict the traditional Australian aboriginal art

Traditional bark paintings are made by Australian Indigenous artists on flattened bark from trees like the stringybark tree.

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form of Dreaming, in which artists attempt to portray their connections to aboriginal history and culture through their art. Walker contends that she paints the Dreaming of her father and grandfather. Her works have been exhibited in the United States, France, Germany, South Korea, and India, as well as Australia. Born in 1922, Emily Pwerle grew up near Alice Springs. She also has been celebrated for her use of Dreaming symbols in her artwork. Her Paintings of Awelye are depictions of women engaged in the act of being women as they conduct business and participate in aboriginal rituals such as painting one another’s bodies with ochers, charcoal, and ash in symbolic designs. Men are always banned from Awelye ceremonies. Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty is an award-winning artist who was born at Tennant Creek in 1972. Although she trained to be a teacher at Deakin University, she also began pursuing her dream of becoming an artist. Her first exhibition was held in Sydney in 2006. The following year, Grandpa Harry’s Canoe garnered honors at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Tyalmuty’s paintings have sold for up to $200,000. From October 9, 2009, to January 10, 2010, the National Museum of Women in the Arts demonstrated American fascination with Australian aboriginal art through the Lands of Enchantment, Australian Aboriginal Painting exhibition in Washington, D.C. Aboriginal artists with works included in the exhibition were Dorothy Napangardi, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Abie Loy, and Regina Wilson. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Australia; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Kngwarreye, Emily. Further Readings “Aboriginal Art Online.” http://www.aboriginalartonline .com/art/urban.php (accessed April 2010). Evans, Mike, ed. Defining Moments in Art: Over a Century of the Artists, Exhibitions, People, and Events That Rocked the World. London: Cassell, 2008. Ioannides, Annabelle. “Jingalu: A Personal Journey.” Colorado Woman, v.11/8 (1996). National Museum of Women in the Arts. Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters. London. Scala, 2006 Elizabeth Purdy Independent Scholar

Austria Austria is a federal republic and member of the European Union (EU) situated in central Europe. In 2009, Austria had 8,355,260 inhabitants, 4,287,213 (51.3 percent) of which were women. As in other EU countries, gender equality is provided on a legal level, while on a social level, inequalities persist. This entry presents facts and statistics on the situation of women in Austria, including education attainment, employment, health, and forces affecting women’s status in society. Differences in education levels between men and women have decreased in the past three decades. In 2007, education levels in the population aged 25 to 64 were distributed as follows: 13 percent of men and 24 percent of women had compulsory school level only; 74 percent of men and 62 percent of women had secondary education level; 13 percent of men and 14 percent of women had tertiary education level. Regarding recently attained education levels, women have been catching up. For example, the majority of people achieving school-living exams (Matura) have been women for the past 20 years. Since 2000/2001, the same is true for students graduating from university. However, women’s share in academic careers decreases after graduation: currently, there are more men than women finishing doctoral studies. Proceeding to the level of university professors, women’s share diminishes further to 14 percent. The employment rate for women aged 15 to 64 was 66 percent in 2008 (men: 79 percent). The Austrian labor market is highly segregated. Women in work are strongly concentrated to a small number of occupations, and they are overrepresented in parttime employment and low-qualified jobs. In 2008, 42 percent of employed women were working part time (men: 8 percent). Seventy percent of employees doing unskilled labor in the private sector were women, as opposed to only 41 percent of employees with highly qualified jobs and only 27 percent of managerial employees. The gender pay gap (the average difference between men’s and women’s hourly earnings within the economy as a whole) in Austria is higher than the EU average. Women’s gross full-time earnings per year amount to 79 percent of men’s. If part-time work earnings are included, women’s gross yearly earnings amount to only 59 percent of men’s.



Women in Austria currently have a life expectancy of 83 years (men: 77.6 years; data of 2008). Life expectancy is thus higher than the EU average for both sexes. Seventy-three percent of women independently of age classify their health status as good or very good (men: 78 percent). In all age groups, more women than men complain about health problems. Health problems most often reported by women are spinal conditions, followed by migraine/headache, arthritis, and allergies. Main causes of death among women are cardiovascular diseases, followed by cancer and diseases of the respiratory tract. Since World War II, Austria has experienced many years of political coalition between the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ) and the Conservative People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei, ÖVP), which has strongly influenced Austria’s social policy. The interplay of these two forces led to many compromises between traditional and progressive approaches within the fields of women’s policy and family policy. Attitudes on women’s roles are also influenced by the Catholic tradition, with 74 percent of people in Austria (including the population without Austrian citizenship) being Roman Catholics, and several large political parties explicitly supporting Christian values. Recent changes affecting women’s status include the implementation of civil partnership registration for homosexual couples in 2010, and changes in parental leave regulations aiming at facilitating returning to the labor market and raising men’s utilization of parental leave. See Also: Education, Women in; Equal Pay; Health, Mental and Physical; Parental Leave; Part-Time Work; Professions by Gender; Same-Sex Marriage. Further Readings Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft, Familie und Jugend (Federal Ministry for Economy, Family and Youth). http://www.en.bmwfj.gv.at/EN/default.htm (accessed January 2010). Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. “LMF1.5: Gender Pay Gaps for Full-Time Workers and Earnings Differentials by Educational Attainment.” http://www.oecd.org/ dataoecd/29/63/38752746.pdf (accessed January 2010). Statistik Austria. “Frauen und Männer in Österreich. Statistische Analysen zu Geschlechtsspezifischen

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Unterschieden.” (Women and Men in Austria. Statistical Analyses on Gender-Specific Differences.) Vienna: Bundeskanzleramt-Bundesministerin für Frauen, 2007. Karin Sardadvar University of Vienna, Austria

Auto Racing, Formula One Formula One racing consists of a series of automobile races held from March through November. Historically, the season included mostly European sites, but in the 21st century, the races have become more fully international. The 2010 season includes races in Bahrain, Australia, Malaysia, and Brazil. A Formula One race is the elite among automobile races, featuring cars that cost multiple millions of dollars that are built according to a formula determined by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, which limits engine size and determines overall body design. From car design to driving, Formula One racing is a man’s world. The women who have infiltrated this world are few in number, and their recognition has been minimal. The first Formula One race was held in 1947. It was more than a decade later that Maria Teresa De Filippis became the first woman to compete in a Formula One Championship race, finishing tenth in the Belgian Grand Prix. She entered six more races and qualified for three that counted toward the championship title. Seventeen years after De Filippis, Lella Lombardi entered racing history as the first woman to score a World Championship point (literally half a point) in a Formula One race. British Olympic skier Divina Galica and Aurora Formula One champion Desire Wilson entered but failed to qualify in Formula One races, as did Giovanni Amati in 1992. Amati, the last woman to race in Formula One, complained about the all-male environment; from drivers to journalists, she found they belonged to a closed club. It has been 18 years since a woman has entered a Formula One championship race. Speculation was rife that Danica Patrick, the highest-qualifying and highest-finishing female in Indianapolis 500 history, would end the drought in 2010, but the speculators

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were wrong. German Touring Car star Susie Stoddart has expressed a desire to drive in a Formula One race. Sarah Fisher, the youngest woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, was also the first woman in the 21st century to drive a Formula One car, albeit in a test. Alice Powell, who at age 16 years was winning championships, has announced her ambition to be the first British woman to compete successfully for the Formula One title. The door may be closed, but a company of young women are poised to open it. Some women have earned a place in less public positions in the Formula One world. Diane Holl has been with the Ferrari Design and Development team since the 1980s. Other women in technical jobs include Elf technician Valerie Jorquera, Goodyear tire engineer Janet Melia, and electrical engineer Sharon Hopkins. However, women in technical positions are still the exception, and women in administrative positions are even rarer. Greater numbers of women can be found in Formula One jobs that are more traditionally female. Di Spires, who has worked in Formula One hospitality/catering since 1978, acknowledges that when she started, her field was the only way women could find a job in the rarified world. Public relations is another field in which Formula One employs women. Predictably the largest group of women involved with Formula One is composed of models. Some are employed by team sponsors to publicize the link between the racing team and the sponsor. Others, such as the “grid girls,” are merely decorations whose presence serves as a foil for Formula One’s masculine image. See Also: Patrick, Danica; Professions by Gender; Sports, Women in; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Formula 1. “FIA Establishes Women & Motor Sport Commission.” (April 2010). http://www.formula1 .com/news/headlines/2010/4/10703.html (accessed April 2010). Hobbs, Rebecca. “Women in Motorsport.” http://www .rh-pr.co.uk/34.html (accessed April 2010). Saward, Joe. “Girls in Formula 1.” http://www.grandprix .com/ft/ft00178.html (accessed April 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Auto Racing, NASCAR The emergence of women as an influential segment in sports can be found in all components of the sport industry. From a growing and influential portion of the fan base to top-level managerial positions in leading sport organizations, the impact of women is more evident than ever. Perhaps nowhere in the sport industry has the dramatic growth of a female presence been more evident than in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Although NASCAR is frequently viewed as a “male sport,” it has a lengthy history of openness and inclusion for women. As early as 1949, NASCAR recognized the potential benefits of including women, when legendary owner, the late Bill France, Sr., recruited Louise Smith as a driver. During her career, Smith won more than 38 NASCAR sponsored events and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. Following Smith’s breaking of the gender line, other females have participated as NASCAR drivers. Notable female drivers were Janet Guthrie during the late 1970s and Erin Crocker during the early part of the past decade. Today several women are competing to drive full time in NASCAR. In 2009, Indy-car sensation Danica Patrick signed a two-year contract with JR Sports and drove in NASCAR’s National Series beginning in 2010. Patrick teamed with NASCAR legends Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Rick Hendrick, whose cars won the NASCAR Cup Series title from 2006-2009, as well as champion drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson. Chrissy Wallace, niece of NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace, also signed a contract to drive in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series in 2010. The ramifications of Wallace and Patrick decision to drive in the NASCAR circuit will undoubtedly bring additional attention and potential sponsorships to the popular sport. NASCAR’s promotion of female involvement has not focused solely on the development of female drivers. Research estimates indicate that between 35 percent and 42 percent of all NASCAR fans are females. These figures, approximately 30 million fans, represent a higher female fan base than the National Football League or Major League Baseball. Financial projections indicate that female fans will spend in excess of $250 million dollars annually on NASCAR licensed products.

Aviation, Women in



NASCAR is also frequently acknowledged as having the largest number of females in high-profile, decision-making positions ranging from team owners to track presidents. For example, Lesa France Kennedy, CEO of International Speedway, was named “The Most Powerful Woman in Sports” by Forbes magazine in 2009. Kennedy was named President of ISC in 2003 and promoted to CEO in 2009, directing an organization that generates over $750 million annually. NASCAR offers women a multilayered, multifaceted avenue for involvement. From emerging female drivers to its growing female fan base to sport management, the face and makeup of NASCAR is rapidly evolving. For a sport that has been traditionally viewed as a men’s only sport, it is now evident that NASCAR is for everyone. See Also: Auto Racing, Formula One; Patrick, Danica; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Mulhern, Mike. “Women in NASCAR: A Second Look.” Lynchburg News & Advance (April 22, 2008). http:// www2.newsadvance.com/lna/sports/motor_sports /article/women_in_nascar_a_second_look/4132 (accessed October 2009) Murphy, Emily. “NASCAR Not Just for Boys Anymore. USA Today (July 2, 2004). http://www.usatoday.com /sports/motor/nascar/2004-07-02-women_x.htm (accessed October 2009). Durrett, R. “The Women of NASCAR.” Dallas Morning News (November 4, 2007). http://www.dallasnews. com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/110407dnsponas carwomen.3afdcab.html (accessed October 2009). Andy Gillentine University of Miami

Aviation, Women in Women began breaking gender barriers in flight in 1910, when Bessica Raiche became the first female aviator. Eighteen years later, Amelia Earhart became the first woman in history to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. During World War II, female air pilots came into their own by filling in for male pilots

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(who were allowed to fly in combat). Recognition of those female pilots’ contributions to the American role in World War II was delayed until 2010, when they finally received the Congressional Gold Medal. Female pilots were still breaking records in the 21st century, and in 2001, Polly Vacher of the United Kingdom became the first woman in the world to fly around the world in a small plane. In 2007, there were some 7,100 registered female commercial pilots, 800 of whom were captains. Unlike the female pilots of World War II, female pilots serving in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 21st century are actively involved in fighting the enemy. Although they are barred from ground combat, these women serve as bomber pilots, navigators, tanker pilots, weapons officers, and support crew. By 2004, 519 women were serving as U.S. Air Force pilots, making up 3.8 percent of the total. More than 4 percent of navigators were female, and more than 600 women worked as crew members. In 2006, Major Nicole Malachowski of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) became the first female on the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron, more commonly known as the Thunderbirds. In February 2009, a flight crew of four African American women made history as the first allblack female flight crew in American history. Flying an ASA flight from Atlanta to Nashville, the team included Captain Rachelle Jones and flight attendants Diana Galloway and Robin Rogers. The event, which took place during Black History Month, occurred entirely by coincidence. First officer Stephanie Grant stepped in when the individual initially assigned to the crew became ill. It was only when the four women met up onboard that they realized the historic import of the flight. Recognizing Women in the Field Each year, Women in Aviation International recognizes the contributions of women to the field. These pioneers in women’s aviation history continue to inspire one another, as well as young girls and women who desire to take flight. In 2010, Women in Aviation International recognized Alice du Pont Mills, Trish Beckman, Vice Admiral Vivien Crea, Suzanna DarcyHennemann, and Kathy Sullivan. These women, who are representative of the many women in aviation in the 21st century, are having a direct effect on public opinion concerning the capabilities of female

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airline pilots. Mills was honored for her service during World War II, in which she taught instrument flight to Navy airmen and female ferry pilots. Beckman, who served 28 years in the U.S. Navy, testified before the Senate to argue for the advisability of allowing women to fly combat missions. Her credentials include becoming the first woman to qualify as a crewmember in the F-15E program. She now flies commercial planes for Boeing. Vice Admiral Vivien Crea has made history throughout her aviation career. As a member of the U.S. Coast Guard, she became the first female to ever serve as a military aide to the president. She was also the first female to command a U.S. Coast Guard station, the first female executive assistant to the commandant of the Coast Guard, and the first woman to become a rear admiral and a vice admiral. In addition, she was the first woman in U.S. history to become the second in command of the military force. In 2008, she became the first woman to ever receive the Ancient Albatross—an honor reserved for members of the Coast Guard who have been on active duty for the longest period. Similar to Beckman, Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann now works for the Boeing Company. She serves as the company’s chief training pilot, teaching some 700 instructor pilots, and has six other female pilots in her employ. She has also broken important ground for women in the field of aviation. She was the first woman to ever captain a 747-400, the first woman to captain a 777, and the first female test pilot to work on both production and experimental flight testing. On November 10, 2005, Darcy-Hennemann and her crew broke the distance record in the 661,000-pound weight class by flying a 777-200LR from Hong Kong to London. Kathy Sullivan is both a pilot and an astronaut. A member of the first space shuttle class for astronauts, she became the first American female to walk in space and has flown on three other missions, spending more than 520 hours in space. She is a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve and has served as the chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is currently the director for the Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs of Ohio State University. See Also: Astronauts, Female; Military, Women in the; Professions by Gender.

Further Readings Douglas, Deborah G. American Women and Flight since 1940. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004. 11 Alive (Atlanta, Georgia). “First All-Black Female Flight Crew Flies to Nashville.” http://www.11alive.com/life /story.aspx?storyid=127470&catid=37 (accessed April 2010). Russo, Carolyn and Dorothy Cochrane. Women and Flight: Portraits of Contemporary Women Pilots. New York: Little, Brown, 1997. Women in Aviation International. “WAI Hall of Fame.” http://www.wai.org/resources/pioneers.cfm (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Azerbaijan Located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, Azerbaijan is bordered by the Caspian Sea, Russia, Georgia, and Armenia. It is one of the oldest oil-producing countries in the world. The majority of its 8.2 million residents are Turkic and Shi’ite Muslim. Azerbaijan was the first secular republic in the Muslim world, and the first Muslim nation to grant women suffrage. Separating from the Soviet Union in 1991, after 80 years of Russian and Soviet rule, Azerbaijan established a constitution with separation of powers and a presidential system. As have many former Soviet republics, the newly independent country has suffered from economic and political crisis. From 1988 to 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia were at war over territory. As a result, 300,000 women and 185,000 men were displaced from Armenia and became refugees in Azerbaijan. War and political instability created poverty rates as high as 80 percent. Even though the government has established an election process, human rights organizations do not consider the country free and democratic because of the authoritarian rule and human rights abuses of its president. About 95 percent of its residents are Muslim, and many cultural and family traditions are influenced by Islam. While there are no legal restrictions on women’s rights, and they have equal access to education, patriarchal culture has limited women’s public roles and economic opportunities.



Traditional culture has discriminated against women. In rural areas, women can face public ridicule if they appear in public unaccompanied, or even drive. The tradition of “family voting” allows men to cast votes on behalf of their wives or other female members of their households. Chauvinistic stereotypes still dominate the culture. The shame of divorce could lead a woman to commit suicide or even excuse a man from murdering his wife rather than permitting a divorce. Sexism also prevents women from holding high-level positions in government and corporations, and there are no laws against sexual harassment. Women earn an average of 70 percent of what men make for similar jobs. While there was a woman appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, women comprise less than 10 percent of parliament. Most women work outside the home, but have no protection for equal wages and little advancement. Refugee women experience an especially harsh existence. Those who live in camps face hunger, disease, and lack of maternal and child healthcare. Twenty percent of refugee children cannot attend school because of lack of funds. The United Nations targeted Azerbaijan’s domestic violence as the number one problem for Azeri women, reporting that abuse was a common experience for women. Because it is culturally taboo to talk about, few women are even aware of their rights not to be physically abused. The Women’s Rights Monitoring Group estimated that 35 percent of Azeri women have been beaten by a male relative. Women would face public ridicule if they reported such abuse, and often the police frowned upon it as well. Spousal rape is considered a private family matter. Women in rural communities often do not even have police to turn to, and have no recourse when they are sexually violated. Bridal kidnappings still occur in rural areas, often in conjunction with rape.

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Rape is illegal, but few women report rapes because their communities often cast blame on the female victims. Rape victims are considered soiled or dishonored, and some turn to suicide rather than face societal scorn. The government also has no programs, shelters or outreach for victims of rape. In the culture, rape is a taboo subject, so women get little emotional, psychological, or financial support. Women’s rights activists such as Novella Jafarova have started women’s organizations to help Azeri women and pressure the government to enact gender equity and domestic violence laws. In order to enforce any laws, however, Azeri women need to address the patriarchal social customs that restrict women’s lives. See Also: Divorce; Domestic Violence; Islam; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined; Suicide. Further Readings Griffin, Nicholas. Caucasus: A Journey to the Land Between Christianity and Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Nfa, Farideh H. Azeri Women in Transition: Women in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan. London: Routledge, 2002. Ro’i, Yaacov. Islam and the Soviet Union. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Swietochowski, Tadeusz. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. Tohidi, Nayereh Esfahlani. “Soviet in Public, Azeri in Private: Gender, Islam, and Nationality in Soviet and Post-Soviet Azerbaijan.” Women’s Studies International Forum, v.19/1,2 (1996). Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

B Bachelet, Michelle In January 2006, Michelle Bachelet (1951– ) was elected as the first woman president of Chile. Her leadership immediately reformulated what government would look like under her administration, as she appointed 10 women and 10 men to her cabinet. Her previous post was as the Defense Minister, the first woman to fill that position, not only in Chile but in any Latin American country. Hailed in 2008 by Time magazine as number 15 on its list of most influential people, Michelle Bachelet had long been active politically with the Socialist Party. She endured a period of exile to return home, serve in the democratically elected administration of President Ricardo Lagos, and to be democratically elected to the presidency herself. Bachelet’s education includes studies in medicine and military strategy. She graduated as a medical doctor, planning to use her skill to improve the deplorable medical conditions in Chile as a result of neglect by the Augusto Pinochet regime. Bachelet’s father, General Alberto Bachelet, served in President Salvador Allende’s administration and was captured following the bombing of the La Moneda Palace by the coup which brought Pinochet into power in September 1973. Her father was imprisoned and tortured; he died in March 1974 of a heart attack while still in jail. Active in the Socialist Party, Michelle Bachelet worked against the Pinochet regime, aiding those

who spoke against it. Eventually, she and her mother were kidnapped and tortured by the secret police in January 1975, then released into exile, where they fled first to Australia and then East Germany. In 1979, Bachelet returned to Chile, continued her medical studies, and graduated in 1982. The Pinochet regime was still in power, making her employment difficult. However, she did receive a scholarship enabling her to specialize in pediatrics and she found work in a medical facility that treated children who were victims of torture. When democracy was restored in Chile in 1990, she continued to work as a medical professional. She was eventually encouraged to run as a city–county council member in Santiago and to join the Socialist Party’s Central Committee. She worked on Lagos’s successful presidential campaign in 1999, and was appointed to head his administration’s Ministry of Health in 2000. Bachelet’s efforts as Minister of Health significantly restructured Chile’s healthcare system. Thanks to her organizational skill and input from businesses, patients, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders, she put forward the Rights and Responsibilities of all Persons in Healthcare bill, a National Commission on the Protection of the Rights of Mental Health Patients, a Friendly Hospital Plan, and new programs for women’s health issues, mental health issues, nutrition awareness, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients. She decreased 119

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The president of Chile, Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria, on Chile’s Independence Day: September 18, 2009.

wait time for appointments, increased access to healthcare, and created special facilities for children and seniors. In 2002, Bachelet was appointed as President Lagos’s Minister of Defense. Perhaps because of her success in modernizing healthcare, she was called upon to work with the military and police to similarly update those sectors. Her appointment surprised many, given that she was the first woman to lead a defense ministry in all of Latin America. She achieved success in strengthening the military. She developed equal opportunities for women. Her Ministry of Defense created relationships with other defense ministries throughout Latin America, and it worked on eliminating land mines and mine fields within Chile. Bachelet also worked to advance reconciliation efforts throughout the country, commemorating the 13th anniversary of the Pinochet ouster. In late 2004, Bachelet resigned her Defense Ministry post to run for president. In the first round of

elections, she received 46 percent of the vote, and stood for election in a second round with her nearest competitor. After the second round votes were counted, she received nearly 54 percent of the vote and was elected Chile’s first female president, who did not succeed her husband. Her term as president ran from March 11, 2006 to March 11, 2010. In the 2005 election, women in the lower house filled 15 percent of the seats, and 5 percent in the upper house. While Chile ranks in the lower half of all countries when it comes to women’s political representation, Bachelet’s leadership has done much to tip the balance, promising to lead Chile toward a more just, inclusive, and equitable future. As she declared in her victory speech: “Because I was the victim of hate, I’ve consecrated my life to turning hate into understanding, tolerance, and why not say it—love.” She explained the remark in an interview with Elizabeth Farnsworth on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: “It’s the idea of how we’re able to build bases in our society where tolerance, understanding of diversity, integration, and not discrimination will be the main policies . . . . I’m speaking not only of reconciliation—even I don’t use that word—I use another word in Spanish, that’s called reencuentro—it’s not reconciliation.” The word means more like “recoming” and it forms the basis of her leadership as she has reformed healthcare to increase access, restructured the military to re-emphasize partnerships, and reconfigured leadership to value the contributions of all people. See Also: Chile; Heads of State, Female; HIV/AIDS: South America; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings PBS. Interview With Michelle Bachelet. Elizabeth Farnsworth. Online NewsHour With Jim Lehrer (January 25, 2006). http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb /latin_america/jan-june06/chile_1-25.html (accessed November 2009). “The World’s Most Influential People.” Time (April 30, 2009). http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007 /article/0,28804,1733748_1733757_1735593,00.html (accessed November 2009). Kristina Horn Sheeler Indiana University, Purdue University

Bahrain



Bahamas The Bahamas is an island nation in the Atlantic Ocean, north of Cuba and southwest of Florida. This prosperous country earns major income through tourism, banking, and financial management and provides basic social and health services to all its population. In 2009, per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was estimated at $29,800, which is the second highest among Caribbean nations, and less than 10 percent of the population live below the poverty line. Most of the population (85 percent) is black, the remainder white (12 percent) and Asian or Hispanic (3 percent), and most Bahamians identify themselves as Christians. The World Economic Forum rated the Bahamas relatively high in gender equality in 2009. On a scale from 0 (inequality) to 1 (perfect equality), the Bahamas got an overall score of 0.718, ranking 28th among the 134 countries rated. The Bahamas ranked highly on educational attainment (1.000, 1st), health and survival (0.980, 1st), and economic participation and opportunity (0.826, 2nd) but lower on political empowerment (0.066, 109th). Literacy is approximately equal for men (94.7 percent) and women (96.5 percent). Women constitute almost half of the labor force and a higher percent of females age 15 and older (87.4 percent) are employed than men in that age group (81.6 percent). Women hold 12 percent of the seats in the lower house of the Bahamian Parliament and 53 percent of the upper house and women have served as both president of the Senate and speaker of the House of Assembly. In 2002, Dame Ivy Leona Dumont became the first female governor-general of the Bahamas, serving until 2005. Because of a high fertility rate (2 children per woman) and moderate death rate (1.16 per 1,000 population), the population growth rate is just under 1 percent annually. Although expectancy at birth is 67.5 years for men and 72.4 years for women, because of the high birth rate the country has a young age structure, with almost 26 percent of the population age 14 or younger. The Bahamian government has promoted birth control because of the high fertility rate and an estimated 60 percent of women age 15 to 44 use some form of contraception. Almost all births take place with the assistance of skilled personnel. The infant mortality rate is 14.84 per 1,000 live births

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and maternal mortality is 60 per 100,000 live births. Save the Children ranked the Bahamas 10th on its Mothers’ and Women’s indexes in 2009 and 9th on its Children’s Index among 75 Tier II or Less Developed Countries. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a serious problem in the Bahamas and an estimated 3 percent of adults are infected, the highest percentage in the Western Hemisphere. Women account for about one-quarter to one-half of the people infected with HIV, and in 2004, AIDS became the leading cause of death for Bahamians (male and female) age 20 to 44. See Also: Contraception Methods; HIV/AIDS: North America; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Heads of State, Female; Trinidad and Tobago. Further Readings Craton, Michael and Gail Saunders. Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People: Volume Two: From the Ending of Slavery to the Twenty-First Century. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.save thechildren.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp _hd_pub (accessed February 2009). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Bahrain As an island country in the Persian Gulf with 1 million residents, Bahrain has played an important role in Middle East trade since ancient times. Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy, and has a strong middle class and a fast growing economy due to its oil resources. A 2001 census reported that 81.2 percent of the population were Muslim (Shia and Sunni) and 9 percent were Christian, with the remaining 9.8 percent practicing other religions. In 2009, Bahrain’s per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was estimated at $38,800.

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The World Economic Forum rated Bahrain low in gender equality in 2010, ranking 110 out of 134 countries rated. Although human rights groups consider Bahrain a model for the region due to its civil rights, freedom of religion, press, and speech, as of 2008, the Kingdom of Bahrain did not have laws criminalizing violence against women, be it domestic violence, violence in the workplace, or in public places. In 2009, the government passed the Family Law, a national plan for advancing the status of women. While Bahrain already had comprehensive medical care, and Bahrain women have one of the highest life expectancies in the developing world at age 77, women had few opportunities outside the home. The Family Law seeks to increase the number of women in higher education and in the business world. Cultural traditions have been a big impediment to women’s progress, and the new plan also highlights the rights of women in the marriage contract. Bahrain has been impacted by the spread of fundamentalist Islam. In 1981, an Islamic group with ties to Iran staged a failed coup attempt. In 1994, a group called the Islamic Front organized an uprising, which included stoning female marathon runners for indecent attire. However, they were not able to gain control of the government and King Hamad was able to institute change that promoted women’s rights. Women’s groups in Bahrain continue to press for the advancement of women in politics, education, and employment opportunties. Women have become active in Bahrain politics. In 2002, women gained the right to vote and women entered high levels of government. In 2004, Dr. Nada Haffadh became the first female minister, as Minister of Health, and Lulwa Al Awadhi became head of the Supreme Council for Women. Bahrain’s Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa, a woman’s right advocate in her own country, became the first women to become president of the United Nation’s General Assembly. She was only the third woman in the world to serve in this capacity, and the first woman from the Middle East. Other wellknown feminists include Ghada Jamsheer, who continues to pressure the government for women’s rights. Women activists want changes in several areas to ensure women’s equal status and protection. Currently, decisions on divorce and child custody are made in religious courts by Shari`a judges. Women want Bahrain to establish family laws that protect women, rather than

leaving it up to local Shari`a judges. Women also are demanding changes to the nationality laws. If a Bahrain woman marries a foreign man, she cannot pass down citizenship to her children. Activists also insist reforms to provide social security for women. Several women’s rights organizations exist in Bahrain, most notably is the Women’s Petition Committee which is working on all of these issues. Women’s groups have also been responsible for focusing attention on education and economic empowerment. Nongovernmental agencies have developed literacy campaigns, with a focus on educated women so they can gain employment to be selfsufficient. Microfinance loans have enabled women to start their own businesses. Lack of access to childcare has also been an impediment to economic opportunities, and women’s groups have helped develop daycare centers. Women are playing an increasingly vocal and prominent role in Bahrain public life and politics and continue to fight for gender equity. See Also: Divorce; Financial Independence of Women; Islam; Shari`a Law. Further Readings Alsharekh, Alanoud. The Gulf Family: Kinship Policies and Modernity (SOAS Middle East Issues Series). London: Saqi Books, 2007. Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and John L. Esposito, eds. Islam, Gender, and Social Change. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1997. Lawson, Fred H. Bahrain: The Modernization of Autocracy (Nations of the Contemporary Middle East). New York: Westview Press, 1989. Zahlan, Rosemarie Said. The Making of the Modern Gulf States: Kuwait, Bahrain, Quatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 1999. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Bangladesh One of the most populated countries in the world, the subject of women in Bangladesh has been a longstanding and contested. Among the poorest Asian countries, Bangladesh is situated in the Indian sub-



Among millions of others in Bangladesh, Shavala lives on $1 a day, struggling to feed her two children.

continent in a riverine terrain that serves as the floodplains for the Himalayas. Traditionally, people in this country engaged in agriculture but urbanization and outmigration has increased rapidly over the past three decades. The population is primarily Muslim, an estimated 12 percent of communities are Hindu and 3 percent are Christians, Buddhists, and others. The ratio of males to females in Bangladesh is 105.6 males per 100 females, in 2008. This low proportion of women reflects various setbacks in the status of women throughout south Asia. In recent years, gender related statistics have shown substantial improvements for women, but the condition of women remains problematic in many domains. Rural female literacy was 20 percent, half of that of males at the turn of the millennium. By 2004, it rose to 46 percent, the primary gain being made by females aged 15 to 24 whose literacy has reached 71 percent

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in 2008. Very few women continue their education up to the tertiary level. As a result, their prospects for work are not very good. More than three-quarters of women work as unpaid family labor in agriculture. Less than a tenth are self-employed and few are contract workers. In urban areas, women are better represented in the labor force with half the women who work being paid employees. However, only two out of five women work in the formal sector, primarily in ready made garments, while most women work in the informal sector, as vendors selling food and clothes or hiring themselves out as domestic help. Occupational segregation remains high, women working in the occupations mentioned as well as in nursing, teaching, and self-employment financed through microcredit. Girls are vulnerable to trafficking and often work as child laborers, and even as child prostitutes. Indicators such as fertility and the male–female infant mortality gap have improved vastly over the last four decades. However, health expenditures per capita reflect the low incomes in the country, with women getting far less access to healthcare than men. Bangladesh is one of the few countries where female life expectancies are lower than men’s. Families feed the male members better and first. The child marriage rate is one of the highest in the world. Many girls are married by the age of 15, and their families must pay a dowry. Maternal mortality rates remain very high at 440 per 100,000, with trained attendants present at only one-third of births. Improvements in education or health indicators are attributed to the activities of development organizations in the country. Bangladesh has seen a large amount of socioeconomic development experimentation, with a web of donor funded nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) throughout the country. In addition, women’s issues have become part of the larger national discourse of development. In 1978, Bangladesh was one of the first developing countries to establish a Ministry of Women’s Affairs. The two policies that were used heavily to influence the status of women are NGO-based microcredit programs and the government’s education policy of providing incentives to families to send girls to school. Microcredit has been used for entrepreneurial activities ranging from raising livestock to textiles; much of this credit is also used to meet family cash needs for consumption or children’s marriage costs.

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Women’s Rights Participation in the political process is fairly low, even though women have increased access to political representation and there are strong advocates for women at the national level. In 1997, women were given reserved seats to be elected to local government. Very recently, women have run for elections and become elected over and beyond the reserved seats. Rural justice is meted out by an informal court system consisting of village elders; women are rarely represented in these, and stories abound of gender discriminatory verdicts even at the present time. Women generally do not own or manage property. Muslim and antiquated Hindu inheritance laws favoring sons are still prevalent and most property decisions are made for women by male relatives. Women’s grooms are selected by their families, typically by their fathers. Even when they work, women’s earnings are 21 percent less than men’s earnings. Violence against women is quite high and has changed from more private forms of domestic violence to harassment, acid throwing, and rape as women’s participation in the public realm has increased. Dowries were not prevalent in the 1960s but have become more of a norm over time, with a likelihood of violence against the bride occurring when monetary demands have not been adequately met. There are widespread social movements directed against female violence and dowry, but their efforts have been unable dispel these problems. Bangladesh’s rich fabric of NGOs draws on an even wealthier tradition of women’s movements. Feminists such as Begum Rokeya Sultana have long sought women’s self-determination and Muslim female leaders have joined hands with Hindu and tribal communities during the anticolonial struggles. That particular tradition remains alive and there are many strong women’s groups that are committed to and actively work for women’s rights at many levels. See Also: Domestic Violence; Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide. Further Readings Asian Development Bank. Women in Bangladesh. Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank, 2001. Feminist Theory. “Feminism in Bangladesh.” http://www .cddc.vt.edu/feminism/ban.html (accessed April 2010).

Women’s United Nations Report Network (WUNRN). “Bangladesh: Combating Impunity of Acid Attacks, Rape, Gender Violence.” http://www.wunrn.com /news/2008/02_08/02_04_08/020408_bangladesh.htm (accessed April 2010). Farida C. Khan University of Wisconsin, Parkside

Banks, Tyra Tyra Lynne Banks (1973– ) is an African American talk show host, actress, singer, writer, and former model. Banks was born in Inglewood, California. She began modeling at the age of 15, and soon she became an international supermodel. At a very young age, she started doing print and runway work for major brands in fashion, advertisement, and the food industry. Banks appeared on the covers of leading fashion and lifestyle magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, and Vogue. She was also the first African American model to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Banks started her acting career in the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1993. Later, she appeared in a number of television series, movies, and music videos. In 1998, Banks published Tyra’s Beauty, Inside and Out, a book to advise young women on beauty and style. Although she was already a popular media personality, Banks’s first major television project was America’s Next Top Model, a reality television show launched in 2003. Tyra Banks is the creator, host, head judge, and executive producer of the show in which a number of young women compete to start a career in the modeling industry. After the immense success of the show, Banks retired from modeling in 2005 to focus on her television career. That year she launched The Tyra Banks Show, a daytime talk show that she hosted and produced. In 2008, Banks won the Daytime Emmy Award for the show. As a young African American woman who has attained fame, wealth, and success and who supports other women, Banks become a role model for young girls in the United States and abroad. She is also popular among the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning) community, particularly gay

Barbados



men. In 2009, she was given Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s Excellence in Media Award for her strong commitment to creating public awareness about the lives of gay and transgender people on her talk show. Banks’s popularity is also related to the approachable and endearing personality she portrays on the show. There are also controversial issues about Banks and her work. Although Banks founded her TZONE (Tyra Zone) foundation in 1999 to help girls deal with their insecurities, particularly about their bodies, and she speaks out against eating disorders on her shows, America’s Next Top Model has been criticized for promoting an unhealthy body image and for subjecting the contestants to forms of violence in front of the camera. See Also: Celebrity Women; Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies; Film Actors, Female; Reality Television; Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition; Supermodels; Winfrey, Oprah. Further Readings Blackstock, Claire M. C. “Entertaining the Gods, Appeasing Ourselves: René Girard’s Theories of Sacrifice and Reality TV’s America’s Next Top Model.” The Journal of Religion and Theatre, v.6/2 (2007). Hill, Anne E. Tyra Banks: From Supermodel to Role Model. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 1992. Rudy, Jessica. “When Worlds Collide: Tyra Banks and Spheres of Performance.” http://www.allacademic.com /meta/p261273_index.html (accessed July 2009). Silverman, Stephen M. “Ellen DeGeneres, Tyra Banks Win Daytime Emmys.” http://www.people.com/people /article/0,,20208186,00.html (accessed July 2009). Rustern Ertug Altinay Independent Scholar

Barbados The island nation of Barbados, located northeast of Venezuela in the Atlantic Ocean, is one of the world’s most densely populated nations, with blacks forming a substantial majority of the population. Christianity is the predominant religion. Increasing educational and employment opportunities have left women less

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economically dependent on their husbands and adult children. The predominant Creole culture is a synthesis of British and West African traditions. Barbados ranked 21st of 134 countries according to the World Economic Forum’s “2009 Global Gender Gap Report.” Common relationship unions include visiting unions, in which a couple lives apart, as well as common law and legal marriages, with common law marriages predominant. Traditional socialization emphasizes male power and virility and both genders tend to be sexually active at a young age. Childbearing was traditionally a woman’s investment in her future, as she relied on her children for future support but improved educational and employment opportunities have lowered birth rates. The 2009 fertility rate was 1.50 births per woman with an infant mortality rate of 11 per 1,000 live births and a maternal mortality rate of 16 per 100,000 live births. Skilled healthcare practitioners are present at almost all births and the national insurance system provides 12 weeks of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of wages. Domestic violence is a growing problem despite the passage of a Domestic Violence Law in 1992. Families range from nuclear to extended households with family responsibilities traditionally divided by gender. Many women run households as men emigrate overseas for employment opportunities. Education is free and compulsory for all students from age 5 to 14. Female attendance rates at the primary and secondary levels are above 90 percent and 73 percent at the tertiary level. The literacy rate for both genders is equally high at 99 percent. Despite overpopulation and overcrowding, Barbadians have one of the Caribbean’s highest standards of living and life expectancy is relatively high at 68 for women and 63 for men. There is a free national social security and healthcare system, but the high ratio of people per doctor means that many rely on home remedies. Problems include widespread sexual violence and human trafficking, substance abuse, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and the difficulty of caring for an aging population. Gender Gaps Many women work outside the home and women constitute 49 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce in 2009. Key employment sectors include

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industry, education, tourism, and service, with women making up just over half of professional and technical workers. Gender gaps still exist in terms of estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which stands at $12,894 for women and $20,139 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 10.5 percent for women and 8.92 percent for men. Barbados has universal suffrage. Women hold 10 percent of parliamentary seats and 28 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. Nongovernmental organizations like the Caribbean Women’s Association monitor women’s rights. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Hausman, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum .org/en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and% 20Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010). Knight, F. W. and T. M. Vergne. Contemporary Caribbean Cultures and Societies in a Global Context. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Lewis, L. The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Barbie Dolls Prior to Barbie’s debut, most toy dolls were made to look like babies or young children. Reportedly, Ruth Handler was inspired to create a new kind of doll after watching her daughter, Barbara, and her friends, playing with paper dolls. The girls gave their dolls adult clothing and roles, inspiring Handler to create a threedimensional adult-figured dolls for preteens to play with. During a trip to Europe in the mid-1950s, Han-

dler found a Lilli doll, shaped as a curvaceous adult. The Lilli doll was based on a working-class comic strip character that was not above using her beauty to attract men for material wealth. Lilli was originally marketed to adults, although children played with her as well. Handler believed that there was an opportunity in the toy market to create a similar doll for children to play with in the United States. Handler convinced the directors of Mattel, a company she cofounded, along with her husband Elliot, that an adult doll for children to play with would be profitable. The directors were not initially enthused about the idea. Handler’s vision was realized when Barbie was unveiled at the Toy Fair in New York City in 1959. After years of development, Handler redesigned the doll with the help of an engineer, Jack Ryan, who worked on the shape and production of the doll. She hired Charlotte Buettenback Johnson, a fashion designer, to create the detailed, lifelike wardrobe for Barbie. The doll was marketed as a teenage fashion model; in this role Barbie was cast as having a fun, upscale and glamorous life without being overtly sexy. Although some parents were critical of the doll’s adult body, a careful marketing campaign devised by Mattel appealed to both children and parents alike, making Barbie a top-selling toy within a few years of her debut. Mattel used focus group marketing techniques to hone in on the tastes and preferences of the doll’s target audience, preteen girls and their mothers. Barbie dolls were one of the first toys to be mass marketed on television, a successful strategy by Mattel that was soon adopted by other companies. Mattel has resisted providing a lot of information about Barbie’s history. Instead Mattel prefers to leave her back-story open, allowing children and adults to engage in imaginative play with her. This trend continues today, as the doll’s packaging includes information about the character she is portraying or the profession she is designed to represent, but little else. Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, was introduced in the 1960s. The doll was named after the Handler’s son, Kenneth. Barbie and Ken have had a long relationship, but were never married. To keep Barbie’s image of a glamorous, carefree lifestyle part of the fantasy surrounding the doll, Mattel has not included marriage and children as part of her story. In 2004, Mattel announced at a press conference that Barbie and Ken had parted ways. Barbie celebrated her 50th anniversary in 2009



with great fanfare in the media and celebrations hosted by Mattel and devoted fans. Barbie remains one of the most popular toy items in the world, and can be purchased in over 150 countries. By the 1990s, Mattel estimated that three Barbie dolls were purchased every second somewhere in the world. Barbie and Popular Culture The Barbie doll has taken on a life of its own in popular culture. Since the doll’s introduction to consumers as a teenage fashion model, she has had more than 100 careers, ranging from a doctor, businesswoman, rock star, airline stewardess, fashion designer, nurse, race car driver and a solider. Mattel has created Barbie dolls commemorating characters from children’s fairy tales, television shows, cartoons, and films. Mattel also created an international collection, featuring dolls in native costumes from every corner of the world. Consumers can purchase pets, housing,

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furniture, cars, and of course clothes for every imaginable occasion for their Barbie dolls. Barbie’s franchise empire has expanded into licensed accessories and clothes for children to wear, and other toys, such as coloring books, films, novels, board games, and videos games. Academic studies of Barbie cross the boundaries of childhood and adult play, consumerism, beauty standards, sexual identity, and gender politics. Barbie presents an interesting case study in popular culture as one of the most beloved and demonized toy products ever created. The criticism extends to the fantasy play focused on materialism and appearance encouraged by Barbie products. Although Mattel has produced Barbie dolls dressed as doctors, astronauts, and even as the president of the United States, the most popular dolls and products revolve around shopping and fashion. Advocacy groups, parents, and scholars have criticized the doll for presenting

Barbie dolls are also marketed to adults who grew up playing with them. These 2005 Pink Label Collection Zodiac dolls were, according to Mattel, “inspired by the 12 astrological signs, representing the mystique and ongoing appeal of the zodiac.”

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an unrealistic body image for women and girls to imitate. Parents and critics bemoan the limited beauty standards represented by Barbie dolls. Although Mattel has created Barbie dolls to symbolize various ethnicities and nationalities, the doll’s shape, hair, and facial features remain virtually the same, although the skin tone, or rather tint of color in the plastic, change in the ethnically diverse models. The first black doll to be part of the Barbie doll line was Francie in 1966. Francie was replaced within a few years with Christie, who remained on the market until the mid-1980s. It was not until the 1980s that black dolls were named “Barbie.” These dolls were cast from the same pattern as the white Barbie doll. Mattel released the Shani dolls in 1991, with light, medium, and dark skin tones, designed to signify different shades of African American skin tone. Mattel has also been criticized for linking the Barbie doll with political and social trends for profit. For example, during the 1980s when sales of the doll were lagging, Mattel released a new advertising campaign for Barbie with the slogan “We Girls Can Do Anything.” The slogan provided a clear link to the newly won rights for women and girls from the second wave of the women’s movement, but packaged in a palatable manner for mainstream consumers, with Barbie as a spokesperson for women’s empowerment. Barbie fans are as devoted as critics are of the doll’s shortcomings. Collectors of Barbie dolls may spend thousands on a rare, mint-condition doll and accessories. Some Barbie devotees turn their admiration for the doll into reality by dressing like the dolls or undergoing cosmetic surgery to emulate her physical appearance. Barbie conventions are popular annual events across the world at which novice and seasoned collectors can purchase collectable items, preview new products, participate in fashion shows, and network with others. Barbie’s popularity can be seen in cyberspace. While Mattel’s holds the copyright to the official Barbie Website, fans have created hundreds of YouTube channels and Facebook pages dedicated to the doll. Although U.S. sales have either declined or rose moderately in the early 21st century, global sales rose 12 percent from 2009 to 2010. Barbie continues to be one of the most sought-after toys, coveted by young girls due to the open-ended, fantasy play allowed by the doll and her interchange-

able wardrobe. Although other dolls relatively new to the toy market, such as American Girl dolls and the Bratz Dolls have risen in popularity, for many, Barbie continues to be the queen of the toy aisle. See Also: American Girl Dolls; Body Image; Bratz Dolls; Toys, Gender-Stereotypic. Further Readings Bell, Mebbie. “There’s Something About Barbie.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, v.20/2 (2004). duCille, A. “Black Barbie and the Deep Play of Difference.” In Morag Shiach, ed., Feminism and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pearson, Marlys and Paul R. Mullins. “Domesticating Barbie: An Archaeology of Barbie Material Culture and Domestic Ideology.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology, v.3/4 (1999). Rand, Erica. Barbie’s Queer Accessories. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995. Rogers, Mary. Barbie Culture. London: Sage, 1999. Marcia Hernandez University of the Pacific

Bariatric Surgery Bariatric surgery or weight loss surgery is one solution to obesity. This approach recognizes the limitations of diets and traditional weight loss programs. While the early use of bariatric surgery in the United States dates back to the 1950s, at that time, the surgery often resulted in complications. The procedure became more common in the 1970s with the development of gastroplastry (stomach stapling). Complications of this procedure also became known as it was used more frequently, and it was replaced by gastric bypass procedures and banding procedures as the two most common types of weight loss surgery today. Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is the most commonly used surgical procedure to treat morbid obesity in Europe, Australia, and South America To undergo this surgery, the patient must be substantially overweight, often defined by a prospective patient’s body mass index (BMI), a measure that takes into account both height and weight. The BMI must



be above 40 for the surgery to be recommended if the patient does not have serious medical conditions that would be helped by the surgery. If the BMI of the patient is between 35 and 39 with associated severe medical problems such as diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol, surgery is also appropriate. Many health insurance plans also require proof of failed prior attempts at other weight loss approaches before they will pay for the surgery. Bypass procedures are designed to reduce food intake and are complex procedures generally performed under general anesthesia. There are two main types practiced today: Roux-en-Y-gastric bypass (traditional and laparoscopic) and biliopancreatic diversion bypass. Roux-en-Y is the more commonly performed procedure, with around 140,000 procedures completed in the United States in 2005. In both techniques, a small stomach pouch is created to curb food intake, by closing off a portion of the stomach. A part of the small intestine is attached to the stomach pouch so that food can bypass the duodenum. Most patients spend two to three days in the hospital for the main surgical procedure, and one to two for the laparoscopic procedure. Both bypass procedures restrict food intake and reduce hunger to promote healthy weight loss. Generally, two to five weeks of recovery are required. Most weight loss occurs within the first year. Gastric banding is a newer procedure and promotes weight loss through restriction in food uptake. A small silicone band filled with saline solution is placed around the upper portion of the stomach pouch, and stapled into place, reducing the capacity of the stomach. Surgery generally takes only an hour, and often requires either no hospital stay or a single night. Recovery is short, and often as little as a week of restriction from normal activies is required, with minimal discomfort from the surgery itself. As the band and stomach adjust, refills of saline solution become necessary for the band to maintain its effectiveness, resulting in frequent doctor office visits. While this procedure generally has a faster recovery time and is less expensive, it does not lead to the most rapid weight loss of the procedures, and is generally more successful in patients who have less weight to lose to obtain an ideal weight (such as 50 pounds), whereas gastric bypass surgery is more successful in patients who need to lose 100 pounds or more.

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A third, newer procedure is gastric sleeve restriction. This approach is recommended for people who are too overweight to have banding surgery and too overweight or sick to safely undergo gastric bypass surgery, since sleeve restriction is a faster, less invasive approach. A surgeon removes about 60 percent of the stomach, generally with a laparoscopic procedure. Gastric bypass surgery may then be performed after a patient has lost a determined amount of weight. All of these procedures require that a patient also be motivated to lose weight, because the patient is ultimately in control of his or her food intake and must follow a restricted diet. Exercise and nutrition counseling are required by most practices. While the surgery is successful for most patients, there are side effects. If patients do not monitor their food intake and take proper vitamin supplements, malnourishment is a possible concern. If patients eat too much or too rapidly, or eat the wrong types of foods, patients may become ill, with what is known as a “dumping” syndrome, in which patients may have to vomit, or become ill or shaky after eating. The rate of morbid obesity is higher in women than in men (7 percent versus 3 percent), and women are more likely to undergo bariatric surgery. Almost 80 percent of bariatric surgery patients are female, and 35 percent are under the age of 40. Currently, the surgery is more common among Caucasions. While appearance may be a motivating factor for some patients, quality of life is also important for many. Obesity can limit physical mobility, which would likely improve with weight loss. For others, chronic health problems such as hypertension and diabetes may improve to the point that medication for these problems may no longer be required. These health improvements have contributed to the fact that more health insurance companies are beginning to pay for weight loss surgery. In the United States, Medicare will now cover the surgery, as will Medicaid in some states. See Also: Body Image; Cosmetic Surgery; Health, Mental and Physical; Health Insurance Issues. Further Readings Meana, M. and L. Ricciardi. Obesity Surgery: Stories of Altered Lives. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2008. Miller, F. P., et al. Bariatric Surgery. Beau Bassin, Mauritius: Alphascript Publishing, 2009.

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Schauer, Phillip R., Bruce D. Schirmer, and Stacy Brethauer Minimally Invasive Bariatric Surgery. New York: Springer, 2007. Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld Arizona State University

Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist, head of the Retroviral Infection Control Unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and a Nobel laureate. She, along with her colleague Luc Montagnier and the German researcher Harald zur Hausen, received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their part in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Some experts believe that Barré-Sinoussi’s role in the discovery of HIV, which is responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), has been obscured by the controversy surrounding the competing claims of the better-known Montagnier and American virologist Robert C. Gallo. However, Barré-Sinoussi was the first scientist in the world to isolate the HIV virus, and her work continues to focus on the virology of HIV. Born on July 30, 1947, in Paris, France, to Roger and Jeanine (Fau) Sinoussi, young Françoise developed an interest in plants and animals from an early age. Once she began school, it was clear that the biological sciences were the subjects she found most compelling. Although no one in her family worked in medicine or research, she had determined by the time she entered university that she would pursue either science or medicine as a career. The death of a young cousin from leukemia awakened a particular interest in cancer research in her, and while still a student, she worked at the laboratory of Jean-Claude Chermann, researching the role of retroviruses in cancer. After earning a master’s degree in biochemistry from Paris’s University of Sciences in 1971 and a doctorate from the Pasteur Institute in 1975, she became a fellow of the National Science Foundation and performed research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where she worked on the genetic restriction of mouse retroviruses. She returned to the Pasteur Institute in the late 1970s, accepting a series of teaching and research posi-

tions. During the 1980s, she began collaborating with Montagnier, working to isolate a cause for AIDS. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized AIDS in 1981, but it was Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier and their team who discovered the virus responsible for the disease. Barré-Sinoussi was the first author of the publication that reported the discovery of the retrovirus, later named HIV. The discovery was fundamental to all the advances that followed in diagnosing, treating, and preventing the spread of AIDS. The Nobel Committee recognized this pivotal contribution when they awarded the Nobel Prize to Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier in 2008, citing the role of their discovery in both the prevention and treatment of AIDS, the substantial decrease in the spread of the disease, and the increased life expectancy among patients with access to treatment. Barré-Sinoussi speaks with pride of the advances made in preventing mother-to-child transmission of AIDS, and her commitment to providing treatment access to people living with HIV in low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia remains strong. She has coauthored over 200 scientific publications and participated in over 250 international conferences on AIDS. She has also worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Her work has been recognized by countless awards within her own country, including the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1996. International recognition, in addition to the Nobel Prize, includes the King Faisal International Prize of Medicine (Saudi Arabia) in 1993 and election to the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2007. See Also: France; HIV/AIDS: Europe; Science, Women in. Further Readings Pincock, Stephen. “Françoise Barré-Sinoussi Shares Nobel Prize for Discovery of HIV.” Lancet, v.372/9647 (2008). WITI Hall of Fame. “Francoise Barre-Sinoussi.” http:// www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/2006 /fbarre-sinoussi.php (accessed March 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University



Basketball, College Women’s collegiate basketball has grown from its humble beginnings in the gymnasiums and physical education programs at women’s colleges to become the most visible and popular college team sport for women in the United States. With a rich history and vibrant future, it continues to inspire considerable spectator and participation interest. Although women’s college basketball was riding a wave of increased popularity as the 1990s ended and a new century began, similar battles continue to be fought in athletic departments. Prior to Title IX, nearly 90 percent of women’s collegiate teams were coached by women. Although the legislation was a boom for female participation, female coaches of women’s collegiate basketball teams steadily have been replaced by men. In 1990, 72.2 percent of women’s collegiate basketball teams at the Division I level were coached by women. A decade later, the number has dropped to 69 percent. In 2010, the number of female coaches dips to 47.5 percent at the Division II level and 54.8 percent in Division III basketball. Overall in college sports, only 42.6 percent of women’s programs are led by a female. Concerning salary, the average salary for a Division I men’s basketball coach was $409,600, more than double the $187,300 salary average for women’s basketball coaches. Regarding budget and scholarship money devoted to women’s sports, the numbers still lag behind their male counterparts. Overall, women athletes receive only 45 percent of scholarship dollars, nearly $166 million less than male athletes. This is compounded by the inequitable amount of resources dedicated to athlete recruitment, because only 33 percent of recruitment budgets are earmarked for women’s sports. Overall, women receive only 36 percent of athletic operating resources, a figure that amounts to $1.5 billion less than money spent on men’s athletics. While women athletes fight for visibility, media coverage still remains scarce on major networks. Studies have shown that major newspapers devote 11 percent of sports coverage to women’s sports. On ESPN’s premiere show, SportsCenter, in 1999 and 2004, only 2 percent of telecast time was devoted to women’s sports. In their 2003 “NCAA College Hoops Preview,” ESPN magazine featured 65 men’s teams and only eight women’s squads.

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A Decade to Remember At the end of the 20th century, women’s basketball was flying high. Guard Sue Bird led the University of Connecticut’s (UConn’s) Huskies as they ran through the regular season with only one loss on their way to a national championship. The 2000–01 season was dominated by the performance of Jackie Stiles of Southwest Missouri State. While her team lost in the semifinals to Purdue University, she ended her career with 3,393 points, becoming the all-time leading scorer in women’s college hoops. The University Notre Dame finished the season 34–2 on the way to the program’s first championship. On the heels of increased viewership following the championship tournament, the NCAA and ESPN brokered a new agreement to broadcast women’s college basketball beginning in 2003. The 11-year deal registered at $160 million including broadcast rights to other sports. UConn Rolls From 2002 to 2004, the center of the women’s basketball world was UConn, and its star was Diana Taurasi. The Huskies dominated to the tune of three straight titles, winning 139 games during Taurasi’s college career. The 2002 NCAA Championship game was a watershed moment for women’s college basketball. The clash between UConn and Oklahoma University was watched by 5.6 million viewers, at the time garnering the largest viewership for a college basketball game—men’s or women’s—in ESPN history. The 29,619 spectators in attendance also marked the largest crowd ever to watch a collegiate women’s game. The following year, UConn continued its dominance, becoming the only team to win a national championship without a senior on the roster. UConn’s clash with Tennessee in the 2003 final would be repeated the following year, with the Huskies once again beating the Lady Vols for their third straight title. The 2004 title game earned the highest ratings for any basketball game in ESPN history. New Stars Emerge as Records Fall The 2005 tournament saw the end to UConn’s three consecutive titles, as Baylor University edged Michigan State University (MSU) 84–62. Kim Mulkey-Robertson became the first women to win a championship as a player (Louisiana Tech, 1982) and as a head coach.

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The 2005–06 season saw Tennessee coach Pat Summitt pick up her 900th win, making her the first college basketball coach, male or female, to reach that milestone. The NCAA tournament began with much hype as the Oklahoma University freshman became the first college player, male or female, to record more than 700 points, 500 rebounds, and 100 blocks in a season, leading Oklahoma to a number two seed in the tournament. Later that year, she would be the first freshman named to the Associated Press All-American First Team. The 2006 tournament would be the first since 1999 without UConn or Tennessee reaching the Final Four. In a dramatic overtime game, University of Maryland captured the program’s first championship in a thrilling win over Duke University. Senior Seimone Augustus made history winning back-to-back Wade Trophies as the leader of Louisiana State University (LSU). Maggie Dixon: Triumph and Tragedy One story line that grabbed significant attention during the tournament was Army’s new head coach, Maggie Dixon. Hired just 11 days before the start of the 2005 season, Dixon guided the program to a 20–11 record, capturing the Patriot League championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Sadly, the story of Maggie Dixon would take a tragic turn. Less than a month after Army was eliminated from the tournament, Dixon collapsed and died of a heart condition at the age of 28. Conflict and Controversy The 2006-2007 season saw Tennessee return to its championship ways, claiming their first title in a decade with a 34–3 season. Candace Parker was named the tournament’s outstanding player, as the Lady Vols beat Rutgers 59–46. However, the biggest story of the season did not originate on the court. That year, Don Imus garnered condemnation for his comments concerning the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Labeling the women “nappy-headed hos,” Imus was fired and the comments brought to light the issues surrounding the challenges of African American women and athletes. The story transcended the sports page, becoming headline news across the United States. Moreover, LSU coach Pokey Chapman resigned after it was alleged that she had an inappropriate

relationship with a player. Chapman had led LSU to three consecutive Final Four appearances. Allegations became public as LSU was preparing for their championship run. While it must have been a distraction, the Tigers returned to the 2007 Final Four despite the controversy. As the decade drew to a close, the continual battle between the Lady Vols and UConn Huskies continued to play out. The 2008 Final Four saw Candice Wiggins lead Stanford University to an upset of Connecticut and a meeting with the Lady Vols. Tennessee ended Stanford’s season, cruising to a 63–48 victory in the tournament final. A year later, UConn would return to the Final Four following an undefeated 39–0 record on their way to their fifth championship of the decade. The Huskies won all 39 games by double digits, including the NCAA final against Louisville, 76–54. See Also: Coaches, Female; Sports, Women in; Women’s National Basketball Association. Further Readings Drape, Joe. “College Basketball: A More Grounded Women’s Game Is Gaining.” New York Times (March 18, 2004). Grundy, P. and S. Shackelford. Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Lannin, Joanne. A History of Basketball for Girls and Women: From Bloomers to Big Leagues. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing, 2000. Steen, Sandra and Susan Steen. Take It to the Hoop. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Press, 2003. Women’s Basketball Online. “Timeline.” http://womens basketballonline.com/history/wbbtimeline.html (accessed November 2009). Annemarie Farrell Ithaca College

Bat Shalom Bat Shalom (Daughter of Peace), the Jerusalem Women’s Action Center, is a grassroots Israeli feminist peace organization dedicated to social justice, equal-



ity, and sustainable peace. Bat Shalom was founded as part of the Jerusalem Link and functions within Israeli society to foster fundamental societal changes. Israeli and Palestinian women actively participated in a process of sociopolitical change within the context of peace, which brought about a transformation of the power structure regarding gender roles. These significant changes led to organizational efforts that culminated in dialogue at the first International Women’s Peace Conference, held in Brussels in 1989. Out of this conference evolved the concept for the Jerusalem Link, which was registered as a nongovernmental organization in 1993 and launched in 1994. The Jerusalem Link is composed of two women’s organizations, Bat Shalom on the Israeli side, and the Jerusalem Center for Women (JCW) on the Palestinian side. Bat Shalom is located in West Jerusalem, and the JCW in East Jerusalem. Bat Shalom also has a branch in the northern city of Afula. The Jerusalem Link is a centralized organization established as a peace link between Israeli and Palestinian women and not as a protest movement. As part of the Jerusalem Link, the organizations share a set of political principles and work together to carry out joint programs geared toward just and sustainable peace and human rights in the region, as well as the resolution of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. The Jerusalem Link serves as a base for cooperation, coordination, and mutual support, while independently, each center maintains its organizational and executive integrity. Each center strives for the advancement of women within their respective societies. The Jerusalem Link was established at a time when peace activism was connected to governmental policies and the women’s movement had already become part of national agenda. This phenomenon was a result of the efforts led by Women in Black and the Coalition of Women for Peace. Bat Shalom is composed of a wide gamut of women, ranging from activists to Knesset members, and works in coalition with more than 100 women’s peace and antioccupation initiatives around the world. Initially, all of Bat Shalom’s projects dealt with creating connections between Israeli and Palestinian women, promoting coexistence and equality. Recently, however, Bat Shalom has opposed Jewish settlements and called for their dismantling, has launched several appeals for international intervention, advocated a

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two-state solution, and together with the JCW, presented various joint declarations. See Also: Israel; Judaism; Palestine; Peace Movement; Women in Black. Further Readings Bat Shalom: Women With a Vision for a Just Peace. http:// www.batshalom.org (accessed December 2009). Cockburn, C. From Where We Stand: War, Women’s Activism and Feminist Analysis. London: Zed Books, 2007. Fay Cashman, G. “Women Forge the Links for Peace at Pre/ Post Oslo Dialogue.” Jerusalem Post (January 13, 1995). Golan, Daphna. “Peace Is a Feminist Issue.” California: Stanford’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender Newsletter, v.23/2 (1998). Greenblatt, T. “Women Peace and the United Nations:” Speech at the UN Security Council on May 7, 2002. http://www.fire.or.cr/mayo02/batshalomeng.htm (accessed December 2009) Kamal, Z. “Give Peace a Chance: Women Speak Out.” Archives of the CCLJ. Brussels, Belgium. September 18–21, 1992. Paulette Schuster Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Beach Volleyball/Volleyball In 1895, American William G. Morgan, the physical director of the Holyoke, Massachusetts Y.M.C.A. invented the game of volleyball. By blending the elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball, he sought to create a game for predominantly middleaged male business executives who desired to play a sport with less physical contact than basketball. Until the mid-1900s, volleyball was an activity primarily enjoyed by and reserved for males. During the 1920s, families in Santa Monica, California, participated in a modified version of volleyball while at the beach. Beach volleyball celebrated the “beach-surf lifestyle” as male surfers from Waikiki beaches in Hawaii played beach volleyball when surfing conditions were not optimal. The sex appeal and youthful image associated with beach volley-

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ball emerged in the 1960s when U.S. President John F. Kennedy and even the Beatles took notice and watched beach volleyball games in Los Angeles. By the 1970s, men’s and women’s professional volleyball leagues began to form. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) recognized beach volleyball as an official discipline in 1986. A year later, the first men’s world championships were held in Rio de Janeiro, and six years later in 1993, the first women’s championships occurred. Women beach volleyball athletes faced significantly more struggles than males in order for their sport to be viewed worthy of international play. Olympic Debut The popularity of beach volleyball increased when it appeared at the Olympics in Atlanta 1996 for the first time. The event remains one of the most popular spectacles at the Summer Olympics and epitomizes celebrating beach-centric culture. Olympic beach volleyball matches involve loud contemporary music and dancing female cheerleaders in bikinis to keep the spectators’ interest during breaks in match play. Prior to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, controversy arose over the uniform regulations for women athletes mandated by the FIVB and the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. The rules stated that women players were required to wear bikini bottoms (or a full piece high-cut bathing suit), while male players were required to wear knee length slightly baggy shorts. The president of the FIVB, Ruben Acosta, defended the bikini bottom decision as an attempt to make the game more appealing to spectators. Feminist scholars have questioned the rationality of such a uniform regulation and have argued that the rule perpetuates sexual objectification of elite women athletes. Because of the uniform regulations, women beach volleyball players are often photographed in mainstream media images in highly sexualized positions. Additionally, research indicates that many elite beach volleyball players have suffered injuries from overtraining their abdominal muscles and others have even had breast enhancements to ensure that they look appealing in their uniforms. Beach volleyball culture seems to be surrounded by sexualization, for instance, the Xbox video game—Extreme Beach. Players choose from a pool

Female beach volleyball athletes struggle with the perception that their sport is not worthy of international play.

of characters, all of whom sport bikinis; furthermore, gamers can enter a secret code in order to maneuver the characters to strip down and play naked. Despite these controversies, beach volleyball remains very popular at the Summer Olympics. See Also: Coaches, Female; Sports, Women in; Olympics, Summer; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Brooks, Christine. “Using Sex Appeal as a Sport Promotion Strategy.” Women Sport and Physical Activity Journal, v.10 (2001). Couvillon, Arthur R. Sands of Time: The History of Beach Volleyball. Hermosa Beach, CA: Information Guidelines, 2002.

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Fédération Internationale de Volleyball. “Athens 2004 Olympic Games Beach Volleyball Specific Competition Regulations.” http://www.fivb.org/EN:42 (accessed October 2009). Charlene Weaving St. Francis Xavier University

Beauty Pageants Beauty pageants or beauty contests are competitions where female contestants are judged primarily on their physical appearance. Although some pageants assess nonphysical characteristics such as personality, intelligence, and talent, the main criterion is physical attractiveness. A panel of judges typically selects the pageant winner who is then crowned as a “beauty queen.” The first American beauty pageant was held in 1854 by P. T. Barnum, an entertainer and circus founder. However, the pageant was likened to a side show and it quickly closed down due to public protest. In the late 19th century, newspapers began hosting photo-based beauty contests. Soon after, the first “bathing beauty pageants” took place and ultimately became a regular part of summer beach life in an effort to draw tourists to beaches across the country. Miss America, which continues to run today, was borne of these earlier beach-centered pageants. First held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1921, Miss America incorporated both physical and mental judging criteria and included both an evening gown showcase and a talent show. It was not until World War II, when beauty queens were recruited to sell bonds and to entertain troops, that mainstream America began to warm to the idea of beauty pageants. These changing sentiments led to the emergence of a number of smaller U.S. pageants in the 1950s. Contests flourished as a means of promoting local events and products. During this same time period, beauty pageants became popular on college campuses. In 1926, the first international beauty pageant was held in Galveston, Texas. The contest, known as the International Pageant of Pulchritude, attracted contestants from all over the world. The winner, crowned “Miss Universe,” earned publicity along with a $2,500 cash prize. The pageant was discontinued in 1932,

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largely due to the financial strain of the Great Depression, but also because several religious and women’s groups pressured organizers to stop the pageant because they considered it distasteful to women. Today, international competitions are held regularly including the Miss World competition (founded in 1951), Miss Universe (founded in 1952), Miss International (founded in 1960), and Miss Earth (founded in 2001). Estimates indicate that nearly 700,000 pageants occur globally each year. The newest form of beauty pageant is strikingly similar to the newspaper photo-based contests of the 19th century. Albeit Web-based, these new pageants allow a vast number of contestants to enter who are then judged by Website visitors who directly select winners. These modern beauty pageants permit nontraditional contestants to compete, including men, transgendered individuals, people with disabilities, and plus-size women. Controversies and Critiques Despite controversies surrounding beauty contests, beauty pageants have received minimal scholarly attention. Some feminists argue that beauty pageants objectify women, reinforce the idea that women should be valued primarily for their appearance, and perpetuate unrealistic and culturally specific notions of beauty. Modern critics contend that beauty pageants reinforce the idea that women should be valued primarily for their physical appearance. In pageants, women’s bodies are paraded as sex objects and their physical bodies are judged and assigned a numerical value in a variety of categories such as “swimsuit” and “evening gown.” Even when some pageants include measures not based entirely on appearance, unattractive contestants are very unlikely to win regardless of how intelligent, prepared, talented, or charismatic they are. As such, some feminists oppose beauty pageants on the grounds that they objectify women’s bodies and treat women’s bodies like commodities, primarily for heterosexual male viewing pleasure. Pageants also create and reinforce hegemonic beauty norms. As critical “race scholars” argue, cultural ideals utilized for judging are white middleclass standards of beauty that exclude racial or ethnic minorities. Beauty queens still largely fit Western ideals of beauty by conforming to narrow beauty scripts. Pageants perpetuate a thin white ideal and

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put tremendous pressure on women to pursue an unattainable “beauty myth” by spending immense amounts of time and money on fashion, cosmetics, hair styling, and other aesthetic enhancements. Some women even succumb to eating disorders or voluntarily undergo risky cosmetic surgeries in an effort to achieve this beauty ideal. In this way, beauty queens become symbols and tools of female oppression because, as feminist Jo Freeman had wrote, “All women were made to believe they were inferior because they couldn’t measure up to Miss America beauty standards.” Thus, not surprisingly, some of the more visible pageants have been accompanied by protest and controversy. Perhaps the most well-known protest occurred at the 1968 Miss America pageant. Because of its wide publicity, this protest is often credited with putting the feminist movement on the map and marking the visible beginning of second wave feminism. The protest was organized by New York Radical Women, a women’s liberation group, and included hundreds of feminists from all over the country. These feminists came together to show how all women are hurt by pageants, arguing that the contests promoted the idea that the most important thing about a woman is how she looks. Protesters asserted that the pageant espoused male chauvinism, commercialization of beauty, racism, and the widespread oppression of women. They engaged in a wide variety of activities and demonstrations including crowning a live sheep Miss America, tossing objects of female oppression (such as highheeled shoes, bras, and curlers) into the garbage, releasing stink bombs, displaying large banners, and making noise with songs, shouts, and chants including “Ain’t she sweet? Making profits off her meat!” There have been other controversies. In fact, two women’s organizations threatened to send suicide squads to the 1996 Miss World contest in Bangalore, India and the 2002 Miss World competition was moved at the last minute from Nigeria to England due to anti-pageant rioting that killed hundreds. Opportunities, Choice, and Empowerment Some pragmatic feminists, however, support beauty pageants, noting that they provide some women with a means of livelihood, an opportunity for advancement, and an avenue of empowerment. (The Miss American pageant is the largest provider of college

scholarships for women in the world today.) These feminists downplay the objectification of women, arguing instead that pageants showcase women as men’s intellectual equals, capable of independent rational thought and independent moral deliberation. The Miss Earth pageant best lives up to these claims, selecting a winner based primarily on her ability to be an effective ambassador of the earth, her attitude, and her natural beauty. Notably, this contest excludes women who have undergone cosmetic surgery. Other feminists do not take issue with pageants because they claim that there is nothing wrong with a woman who wants to display her beauty. These feminists argue that beauty and femininity are assets, rather than liabilities, and claim that beauty contestants are proud women who are unafraid of the world and their own femininity. Additionally, some feminists denounce the general feminist critique of beauty pageants and their contestants. They point out that feminism should ideally promote equality and free choice. Subsequently, women should not be criticized or condemned for the choices they make, including the choice to participate in beauty pageants. Furthermore, there have been instances where beauty pageants have been beneficial to entire groups of women. For instance, one researcher profiled a group of black female garment workers in South Africa who transformed a seemingly banal beauty pageant into a cultural event for self-empowerment, solidarity, and trade union democratization. Despite disagreements among feminists about both the real and symbolic meanings of these pageants, many feminists view these contests as one small part of a larger system of oppression that emphasizes physical attractiveness. Cultural and social structures pressure women to conform to beauty norms, commodify women and their femininity, reinforce race and class divisions, and privilege Western ideals of beauty—all of which marginalize nonconforming bodies. See Also: Beauty Pageants (Babies/Young Children); Beauty Standards, Cross Cultural; Body Image; Diet and Weight Control; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Stereotypes of Women; Supermodels. Further Readings Alegi, Peter. “Rewriting Patriarchal Scripts: Women, Labor, and Popular Culture in South African Clothing

Beauty Pageants (Babies/Young Children)



Industry Beauty Contests, 1970s–2005.” Journal of Social History, v.42/1 (2008). Ballerino, Colleen, Richard Wilk and Beverly Steltie, eds. Beauty Queens on the Global Stage: Gender, Contests, and Power. London: Routledge, 1996. Craig, Maxine Leeds. Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Freeman, Jo. “No More Miss America!: 1968–1969.” http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/MissAm1969.html (accessed April 2010). Merino, Noel, ed. Beauty Pageants. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press. 2010. Tice, Karen W. “Queens of Academe: Campus Pageantry and Student Life.” Feminist Studies, v.31/2 (2005). Watson, Elwood and Darcy Martin. “The Miss America Pageant: Pluralism, Femininity, and Cinderella All in One.” Journal of Popular Culture, v.34 (2004). Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Samantha Kwan Jennifer L. Fackler University of Houston

Beauty Pageants (Babies/ Young Children) In order to explain the effects of these contests, the history of beauty pageants will be addressed to give a cultural and social context. Second, the history of beauty pageants for babies and children will be discussed. Finally, some of the negative influences of these contests on younger children will be discussed using social learning and construction of reality theories. The History of Beauty Pageants The history of beauty pageants can be traced to 1920s, although some scholars believe they began in the 1850s, and some even argue that beauty pageants originated in ancient Greece. On a surface level, pageants were designed to celebrate women’s beauty and their place in society, they clearly objectified women’s bodies and created stereotypes about accepted beauty ideals. Including Miss America, Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, and Miss Earth, there

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are thousands of beauty pageants around the world. Although most of these pageants involve women, pageants judging male beauty, such as Mr. Universe, Mr. World, and Manhunt International have existed since the 1990s. It is important to recognize that these pageants are considered cultural and media events and are sponsored by dozens of organizations or commercial companies. Therefore, they occupy an important role in the entertainment industry (both socially and economically). It can also be argued that these pageants not only objectify human bodies, but capitalize on them by putting them on display. Pageants for Babies and Children Pageants for babies, toddlers, and children were created in the 1960s. Unlike other beauty pageants that are known internationally, baby or child beauty pageants are more common in the United States and the United Kingdom (UK); therefore, this new growing phenomenon remains limited to American or Anglo cultures. According to an article published by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), the American phenomenon of children’s beauty pageant has spread to the UK. The visibility or invisibility of these pageants elsewhere perhaps suggests the level of commoditization of youth or children cultures in other countries. Most of these pageants consist of a program of modeling swimwear, casual wear and other costumes, and a talent portion. More than 100,000 contestants between the ages of 2 and 12 participate in these contests each year. Most of these pageants are focused on female children, although boys and young men do compete as well. Typically, the children are judged based on their overall appearance, including hair styling, makeup, and attire, their capability in completing the regimented steps and methods of presenting themselves onstage, their talent in dance, singing, gymnastics, or other skills, and their poise and confidence. These are often referred as “the complete package” by the judges. There are no rules or regulations that prescribe how the pageants must be run; therefore, the rules are set by each contest promoter. It is important to address that these beauty pageants are exempt from U.S. federal child labor laws. Even though children are expected to “work” (learning their choreograpy, practicing their dance routines, and rehearsing for

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the show can be considered work), the organizers do not address these chores as work. Although, in traditional sense, these children do not receive any income from these pageants, they are often awarded prizes and gifts.Important questions arise concerning these pageants, including why they are so important to the parents (mainly mothers), what pageant involvement teaches children, and what type of realities are constructed through these pageants. Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen (2001) is a documentary on child beauty pageants that attempts to answer some of these questions. The documentary focuses on the lives of beauty pageant participants by showing the powerful and sometimes destructive web of ambitious mothers, determined and clueless children, and beauty pageant organizers. Obviously, parents play a paramount role in their children’s participation in these contests, however, they are not the only ones to blame for any negative consequences. Media outlets and pageant organizers share equal responsibility when it comes to constructing a reality to American children about beauty ideals and gender roles. One of the mothers filmed in the documentary believes that her 5-year-old daughter has what it takes to be a winner. She claims that she will do what it takes, including working three different jobs, to have enough money to enter her daughter into pageants across the country. She is by far not the only mother to share this belief. Because most of these pageants are focused on female children, it is often thought that they objectify their bodies by prematurely dressing them in sometimes sexualized clothing, teaching them sometimes suggestive and inappropriate routines, having them wear hairstyles, wigs, prosthetic teeth, and makeup that would be worn by women, and by putting them on display. It should be noted that mothers are willingly participating in the process of objectifying their children. Impacts of Pageants The murder of 6-year-old U.S. pageant participant Jon Benet Ramsey in 1996 brought children’s beauty pageants into a harsh spotlight. Jon Benet’s body was found in the basement of the family home after being taken from her bed on Christmas Eve. Reports from the time described the child as “a painted baby, a sexualized toddler beauty queen,” and implied that her

participation in these pageants had led to her murder. Suspects included her parents and friends of the family. The Ramsey family was cleared from suspicion in 2008, and the case has yet to be solved. Social learning theory suggests that children learn about who they are, their gendered identities, and their cultural practices by observing their parents and their immediate surroundings. By imitating what is around them, they start learning what to do, how to be, and what is acceptable. Therefore, the children who participate in these pageants learn to value beauty and the value of certain beauty ideals, embody these ideals, and perform assigned gender roles to make their families happy. Therefore, from an early age, children are brought up to value certain ideals, practice certain beliefs, and perform certain roles. By imitating others, female children often construct a sense of identity and reality about what it means to be a woman or young female in their culture. It can be argued that beauty pageants for children and babies contributes greatly to the construction of this reality, which gives a false, delusional, or distorted idea about the potential meanings, representations, and performances of gender identities and female sexualities. By encouraging their children to take part in these pageants, parents also negatively contribute to the construction of gender roles and performances of femininity. Therefore, the role and impact of these pageants and the role of parents in this process should be carefully examined to understand how young children construct a reality about themselves. The power of these experiences often leave long-lasting and irreparable damage on children. See Also: Beauty Pageants; Gender, Defined; Little League. Further Readings Anderson, Susan, Robert Greene, and Simon Doonan. High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants. Brooklyn, NY: powerHouse Books, 2009. British Broadcasting Corporation. “Baby Beauty Queens.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lvf60 (accessed September 2009). Cookson, Shari. Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen. HBO, DVD. May 13, 2001. Nusbaum, Kareen. “Children and Beauty Pageants.” http://www.minorcon.org/pageants.html (accessed September 2009).

Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural

Wood, Julia T. Gendered Lives. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Press, 2010. Ahmet Atay University of Louisville

Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural Cross-cultural beauty standards, mainly applied to women, and societal perspectives and behaviors attendant to women in today’s world affect gender equality along the important dimension of physical appearance. Members of a society are greatly influenced by social dictates, or social influences. Women (and sometimes men) are denied or afforded social opportunities, primarily economic opportunities, based on their physical appearance. Employment, marriage-ability, educational achievement, and social networks (such as club memberships) are dependent upon adhering to current beauty standards. Crossculturally, we are subject to the coercion of socially imposed beauty standards and these standards may be unachievable due to our native cultural makeup. This is not to say that nonwhites, for example, Africans, African Americans, or Asians cannot be successful (well-employed and well-connected) members of society. It is to say that if people are subjected to evaluation on their appearance for social opportunities, they are far better off if they have features that are not “too ethnic” or too visibly astray from the ideal westernized Caucasian appearance. So, there is cultural coercion to assimilate, or to deny “otherness.” The focus is as much on cultural issues as it is on gender. Men are subject to social appearance directives, but usually not as often or with the same degree of pressure. As one illustration, women, cross-culturally, engage in more numerous and more drastic attempts at appearance alteration, including surgery. Pressure on Women to Be Beautiful Women are exponentially more pressured than men to appear a certain way. This “certain way” means beautiful, of course and, globally, there is a lot of consensus on what constitutes “beauty” and what features define being beautiful. Subjectivity is much over-

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rated when discussing beauty standards. It has long been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; if so, then beholders agree on beauty. Cross-culturally, we favor small, narrow noses versus flat, wide noses; wide, open, and large eyes versus small eyes; high prominent cheekbones but not “big faces” (as they are known in Asia) with large, wide jaws; full but not too-full lips; long, thin limbs; tallness; northern European coloration (light hair, blue eyes, etc.); and full breasts perched atop a thin body. Almost universally, women are expected to have narrow hips and smallish, round buttocks rather than wide, fleshy hips and buttocks. And all women everywhere are subject to standards of youth versus agedness, healthful appearance (clear skin, abundant hair, white and plentiful and straight teeth) versus evidence of disability, old age, and weakness. These standards are standards regardless of genetic, national, socioeconomic, or ethnic traits. On the whole, symmetry of facial and bodily features and a healthy appearance are universal signs of physical attractiveness. One evolutionary reason for healthy and young looks being favored in women has to do with fecundity. This argument rests upon the ability of the woman to be sexually active and to produce viable offspring, presumably traits that would be appealing to men. However, this argument doesn’t hold up in present times so much as in less-advanced times since surgery and other medical practices can correct appearance problems (indicators of poor health and postfecundity). However, having a youthful, healthy, and “beautiful” appearance does prevail as a primary door opener to social opportunities in all societies. Moreover, cross-culturally, all women, regardless of genetic makeup, are somehow supposed to appear white. The lengths to which we go to achieve crosscultural beauty standards are surprising perhaps, and certainly dangerous and expensive. Culture Influences Beauty Ideals While there is a great deal of consensus on what constitutes female beauty, it is also true that there are cultural variances on the definition of beauty. In other words, the dominant culture in any society determines what good looks are and are not. Some cultures elongate the woman’s neck by encircling it with brass rings, insert lip plates, and paint the woman’s teeth as signs of beauty. Other cultures seek out women for

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Skin color is often used as a means of identifying us racially and is a significant part of how some people determine attractiveness, but skin color is a poor method of categorizing people by race.

features that those in the Western world would denigrate, such as droopy breasts. There are few but notable exceptions to the rule that thin is always preferable. Odd as it may seem since Brazil is the home to many supermodels, Brazilian culture has long (at least internally) valued a guitar-shaped woman’s body. Traditionally, the idealized feminine form in Brazil was a woman’s body with a slender bust and waist and ample buttocks. Women were and are encouraged to be fleshy. But Brazilian women who once valued (because Brazilian men and Brazilian culture broadly valued) large hips and buttocks are now reducing, naturally or not, their sizes, thus reflecting the mostly worldwide adoration of thin bodies for women. Other cultures have not followed the mostly global trend toward at least fretting about being fat, and these cultures instead revere fatness. In South Africa, a trim figure is regarded as a sign of illness, with women,

especially, who are encouraged to be fat. Many indeed are fat and are not in the least bit worried about it. A hefty girth has long been a sign of well-being among black South Africans, where a slim woman is the subject of unpleasant gossip. In South Africa, “a big woman is good and a bigger woman is better.” In a study of the aesthetic appeal of female fatness among the Islamic Azawagh Arabs of Niger, fatness is considered such a beautiful and desirable trait in women that young girls (age 5 and 6) are forcibly fattened by an appointed female authority figure in the family. Fatness in this Islamic culture is closely associated with womanliness. In becoming fat, Azawagh Arab women cultivate an aesthetic of softness, stillness, and seatedness, which is in direct opposition to the aesthetic of men that valorizes hardness, uprightness, and mobility. Female fatness among these Islamic Arabs, in total opposition to what most cultures think, provides women with power; their fat-



ness proves that they are in command of their own lives. An alternative interpretation is that because these women are fat, they are less mobile, with immobility being seen as a good thing in this culture. The woman will stay put if she is fat, and that may be the true reason why this male-dominated culture values fatness in women. Men of Greek, Italian, Eastern European, and African descent, influenced by their distinctive cultural heritages, may be more likely to find female voluptuousness appealing. If we look more globally and historically, many cultures have admired expansive women’s bodies and appetites. However, increasingly since the 1980s, the universality of slender ideals is equated with beauty and success, signaling a decline in cultural and sociopersonal aesthetic diversity. Globalization of Beauty Ideals The agreement about attractiveness has increased as time progressed, with the probable best explanation for this consensus being the globalization of visual images. Through television, movies, magazines, billboards, and other visual media, our (the world’s) standards of acceptable and unacceptable looks are homogenized because we, internationally, are presented with a restricted image of what is beautiful. Northern European standards of attractiveness apply across all societies, including African and Asian ones, such that tall, slender, white, blonde, light-eyed, and flowing hair features are the standards against which we are all judged. Consider the example of department store mannequins. It may be surprising to the untraveled reader to see white mannequins with Caucasian features in a Ginza (Tokyo) department store. There are very few whites in Japan, on the whole, or in department stores in particular, but Japanese standards for beauty are white northern European standards. It is not possible for Japanese women to “live up to” these unreachable expectations: no amount of skin whitening or eye rounding (the number one cosmetic surgery in Japan) will make them appear Caucasian. Yet Japanese women are encouraged to be white. As the world becomes smaller through globalization, we are not a global community with diverse standards. We remain a collection of highly distinct cultures but with a limited range of acceptable appearance standards. Our strictures on acceptable/

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unacceptable looks, perhaps always narrow and strict, have narrowed and become stricter. Those who are not or do not appear to be white, northern European are defined as the “Other,” and they are pressured to do all that they can to appear homogeneous and assimilated into a culture that is not naturally theirs. Cultural Markers of “Otherness” Skin color is one of the most obvious ways that people vary. It is also a false but primary way of classifying people into genetically distinct “races.” Skin color is a very poor method of categorizing people by race because skin pigmentation is environmentally adaptive to solar conditions and a product of evolution by natural selection. That is, skin color tells us about the past environments in which our ancestors lived, but skin color tells us nothing about racial identity. Nonetheless, skin color is used popularly as a means of identifying us racially, and it is also a significant part of what determines attractiveness. Blondes are preferred not necessarily because of their hair color but because of their light skin, which often corresponds to having blond hair. Light-skinned women are preferred universally by men in African, Japanese, and other societies. Light skin, for women, grants privileges, both romantically and professionally. Due to global marketing, the social desirability of white or lighter skin is being promulgated throughout more and poorer countries. This is an unhealthy trend because it includes people living in equatorial regions, where dark pigmentation provides important protection against high levels of ultraviolet radiation. Not only is skin lightening destructive healthwise, it is societally destructive because, in multicultural countries, aggressive marketing of skin-lightening products has also promoted the spread of colorism by promoting the ideal of lightness. Stratification by skin color, or “colorism,” is a longstanding legacy in European cultures. The preference for light-skinned people has existed among the peoples of Africa and Melanesia (generally dark-skinned people) long before contact with light-skinned Europeans. From this, we know that even without experience with white people, the equation of whites with social status was already present. Stratification by skin color has been evident as a predictor of educational attainment, occupational status, and income with this pattern of colorism occurring among dark-

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skinned people such as Mexicans, South Americans, and Asians as well as African Americans. In Latin American societies, for instance, Eurocentric favoritism is extended toward people of mixed indigenous Latin and European blood (mestizos) who, as expected, have a lighter complexion. Darker complexioned Mexican Americans with more indigenous First Nation (Native Indian) features are more socially disadvantaged. They earn less pay and attain less education. The same is true for Asian Indians. The preference for light skin within the African American community did not end with the civil rights movement and the “Black is Beautiful” sentiment, as they took place in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Skin tone among African Americans continues to effect social stratification. There was an interesting reversal taking place at the time, though, and it persists to a small degree contemporarily: during the U.S. racial awakening was a greater acceptance of, and even preference for, darker complexions among nonwhites. During the 1960s and 1970s, dark skin coloring served to unify nonwhite races, with some African Americans exhibiting intraracial colorism such that darker skin, as evidence of unmixed racial heritage was considered superior and light-skinned co-ethnics were considered inferior because of their mixed ancestry. As with interracial colorism, intraracial colorism is a form of discrimination. And the present though limited existence of intraracial colorism does little to explain the prominent practice of skin bleaching by African Americans and by Africans. The phenomenon of intraracial and interracial colorism is puzzling and complex. We can be too black or not black enough. We can be too Chicano or not Chicano enough. Colorism, in other words, proves the antithesis of the simplistic appearance-relevant arguments such as white skin is better than dark skin. Skin color is not the only dimension along which we are stratified. Other racially charged appearance features include hair texture, eye shape, lip thickness, eye color, nose shapes, and other phenotypical features. African Americans with straight or “good” hair, for instance, for centuries have placed higher in the social hierarchy than those African Americans with nappy, kinky, or “bad” hair. Among Asians, there is prejudice across the several cultures (Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese, for example) and this prejudice is often made visible by

judgments about physical appearance. The Japanese have long manifested an entrenched and hateful bias against the Chinese and Koreans and, judging from visual depictions of these despised groups as found in graphic novels, the Chinese and Koreans are not only unintelligent, depraved, and without substantial culture, they are physically far less attractive than the Japanese, who are phenotypically indistinguishable from Chinese and Koreans. The cartoon drawings of Japanese by Japanese are drawn to appear more Caucasian than they, in reality, appear. Globalization and Cross-Cultural Alterations Globalization has forced a homogenized sameness in beauty standards, such that we find Iranian women in large numbers getting Anglicized noses, and Asian women undergoing eyelid surgery to gain a more open and “American” look to their eyes. We are becoming more alike in terms of skin color, with the advent of skin lightening. These trends toward homogeneous beauty are worrisome due to the doubts that they bring up regarding identity and other sociopolitical issues. Nevertheless, health risks and economic issues also play a large role in cross-cultural physical appearance and neither are necessarily aimed at enhancing beauty. Instead, there is a trend toward global homogeneity but away from adhering to beauty standards, in an attempt to advance financial profits. To explain, the United States is exporting high-fat and obesityinducing foods to other cultures, many of them with the “thrifty gene” that disallows metabolizing highfat foods. The trend, then, is toward non-Americans becoming fat like Americans. This is a special problem for Mexicans, Asian Indians, Malaysians, and other Pacific Islanders who are exposed to U.S. highfat food exports. Usually, the intersection between economics and beauty go in the direction of advancing both economic stability and homogenized beauty. The desire on the part of Asians living in the United States to appear more Caucasian is directly shaped by the notion of fitting into a niche of an acceptable “American” physiognomy. Eyelid surgery on the epicanthal fold among Asians was and is performed for economic reasons, per the intersection between racial ideology and capitalist consumer culture. Indeed, economic conditions greatly affect appearance-changing



behaviors. In the People’s Republic of China (PRC), after the death of Mao Tse-tung and the commensurate social liberalization, there was a vast increase in cosmetic surgery, largely a consequence of the increased affluence of the Chinese population. In the 1990s in the PRC, eyelid surgery was and remains the most popular cosmetic surgery performed. We find that the major reason for westernizing surgery is the pursuit of power: economic power (the ability to increase one’s income) and social network power (for example, marriage-ability). In other homogenizing trends, cookie-cutter plastic surgery has made us look alike, with the same high cheekbones, full lips, open eyes, etc., that constitute “beauty.” With money and surgery, it seems, beauty is possible even as we become indistinguishable from each other. Regardless of the palette with which we begin, through surgery, cosmetics use, and other alterations, we are cross-culturally beginning to look more alike. Ethnic Surgery Ethnic surgery is not new. Since the turn of the 20th century, people in the United States and Europe have used cosmetic surgery to minimize or eradicate physical signs that they believe mark them as the “Other.” In the 19th century in central Europe, the “Other” was the Jew. At the end of the 19th century in the United States, cosmetic surgery became a widespread practice resulting from large-scale immigration. The Irish immigrants had their “pug noses” reshaped. Jews, Italians, and others of Mediterranean and eastern European descent likewise underwent rhinoplasty. After World War II, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, and Asian Americans have had their eyelids altered to appear more Caucasian. In Rio de Janeiro, women had their pendulous breasts reduced because large breasts were associated with the lower classes, with lower class associated with being black. At the end of the 19th century, altering the African American nose became a chief concern of U.S. cosmetic surgeons, occurring along with other race-denying procedures such as hair straightening and lip thinning, as took place at the beginning of the 20th century. In Saudi Arabia, plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures have in recent years become prominent in a culture where religion covers every facet of life— even those body parts covered from head to toe. The

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Islamic religion, which usually forbids alterations to “God’s creation,” has not proved a barrier. Liposuction, breast implants, and rhinoplasty are the most popular procedures requested by women; men also want rhinoplasty and secondly hair implants. Both genders want noses that look less Arab, often hoping to emulate celebrities. An immediate question is why traditional Arab women would want these cosmetic changes when they are almost completely covered. Answers to this question are they travel outside their culture and want to look good, uncovered; they want to look good among women and at women’s gatherings; and they want to look good to their husbands. Leg-lengthening surgery, such as Chinese women (mostly) and men undergo, adds a few inches of height at the risk of permanently crippling the patient, and at a cost of about $6,000–$7,000. The procedure involves breaking the long bones in the legs, the legs are then places in braces, and the patient is required to turn plastic dials on the contraptions four times per day to winch their broken bones apart with the idea being that the bones will knit in an elongated form. It takes 15 days to grow one centimeter, or less than half an inch, of new bone. The legs and feet can become horribly warped and twisted, and the weakened bones can break. The purpose of this gruesome procedure, according to those who undergo it, is to get better jobs and to attract better marriage partners, since China, like much of the world, values height. In sum, if white northern European features are the standard against which we are all compared, regardless of our natural appearance, it is hardly surprising that individuals with features that mark them as the “Other” (nonwhite or non-northern European) would want to hide the visible clues that stigmatize them. Cosmetic changes permit us to become “ethnically anonymous.” According to one perspective, plastic surgery is undertaken by women and nonwhites as a means of equalization: it is not just a matter of vanity, even if the surgery is purely aesthetic rather than corrective. Instead, minorities who undergo plastic surgery are engaging in equality discourse, which celebrates individuality leading, presumably, to a kind of equality. That is, we may undergo plastic surgery in order to be socially acceptable, and this purpose (to be socially acceptable) is nothing to be ashamed of and has nothing to

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do with the frivolities usually associated with cosmetic surgery. If women and nonwhites are to gain or retain social power, surgery is a tool by which to do that, in the same manner that obtaining extra training and education is a tool for advancement. On the other hand, cosmetic surgery can also represent a capitulation to the cultural norms that victimize women and ethnics in the name of beauty. Social Resistance and Appearance Diversity There is the occasional, culturally and politically meaningful, backlash. We saw it in the Black is Beautiful movement. We saw it in the Vietnamese reaction to U.S. occupation during the Vietnam War, when assimilation was the order of the day, followed by backlash upon U.S. withdrawal. After 1975, following the U.S. removal from Vietnam, westernizing plastic surgery declined markedly, notably eyelid epicanthal fold surgery and breast augmentations, which were prominent procedures during the Vietnam War. Now, in contemporary Vietnam, the pendulum has swung again and plastic surgery is back to westernizing noses (increasing the size of noses to make them more European-looking), breast augmentations, and eye-rounding surgeries. How the future woman will deal with imposed beauty standards is unknown. Without a grand leap forward in social progress, there is no indication that women will be better able to resist socially imposed beauty standards. In everyday mainstream news, we read that women in all cultures continue to be subject to appearance bias in order to get or retain employment, such as has been the case with Chinese women who are subject to beauty-pageant ordeals hoping to gain jobs as flight attendants and teachers. We see signs in our everyday existence, such as visual advertisements messaging that tall, thin, northern Europeans are the ideal to which we must aspire. The barriers are understood (whole industries devoted to appearance competition as represented by fashion, cosmetics, weight-loss, surgery, and other looks-altering industries), but it has not been determined as to how we halt the bias against people based on their appearance. As long as we are punished and rewarded for possessing certain features, we will (most of us) do all in our power to respond to cross-cultural demands to be “beautiful” according to biased cross-cultural standards.

See Also: Breast Reduction/Enlargement Surgery; Body Image; Cosmetic Surgery; Cosmetics Industry; Diet and Weight Control. Further Readings Berry, Bonnie. Beauty Bias: Discrimination and Social Power. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Blum, Virginia L. Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Davis, Kathy. Dubious Equalities and Embodied Differences. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Etcoff, Nancy. Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty. New York: Anchor Books, 1999. Gilman, Sander L. Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Herring, Cedric, Verna M. Keith, and Hayward Derrick Horton, eds. Skin/Deep: How Race and Complexion Matter in the “Color-Blind” Era. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004 Jablonski, Nina G. Skin: A Natural History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Bonnie Berry Independent Scholar

Belarus Even after Belarus gained independence as a result of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it maintained close political and social ties to Russia. Since 1994, Belarusians have lived under a strict authoritarian government that limits civil liberties. The Belarusian economy is described as “market socialism.” The per capita income is $11,600, and more than half of all workers are employed in services. According to official reports, 64 percent of all the unemployed are female. Because of this and the persistent wage gap, females are disproportionately represented in the 21 percent of the population that lives in poverty. Nearly threefourths of the population is urbanized. Ethnically, 81.2

Belgium



percent of the population is Belarusian, and 11.4 percent is Russian. There is little religious diversity, and 80 percent of Belarusians are Eastern Orthodox. According to their constitution, the Marriage and Family and Civil Codes of 1999, the Labor Code of 2000, and the Criminal Code of 2001, women have equal rights in Belarusian society. In reality, many women struggle for recognition economically, socially, and politically. Belarus ranks 177 in the world in infant mortality (6.43 deaths per 1,000 live births). Female infants (5.36) have a considerable advantage over males (7.45). This advantage continues throughout life, and women have a life expectancy of 76.67 years, compared to 65.95 years for males. The median age for women is 41.6 years. Women have a fertility rate of 1.24 children. Officially, males (99.8 percent) are slightly more literate than females (99.4 percent), but in fact rates of female illiteracy are high in some areas. Belarus ranks 39th in the world in educational spending, and the people are generally well educated, with females outranking males in pursuing higher education. However, the area does experience a problem of girls dropping out of school. The government signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and created the National Council on Gender Policy in 2000. However, women’s rights groups believe that subsequent legal forms have not adequately addressed gender inequities. They express concern about declines in the status of women’s health because of limited access to health services, the use of abortion rather than family planning, teenage pregnancies, declining maternal health, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including the human immunodefficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Belarusian women may marry at 18 years of age, although pregnant females as young as 15 may also marry. A 2004 report issued by the United Nations stated that 6 percent of females between the ages of 15 and 19 were married, divorced, or widowed. Despite laws against violence against women, rape, sexually motivated murder, sexual harassment, and trafficking remain major problems. In a 2002 CEDAWconducted survey, one-third of all Belarusian women admitted to having been victimized by domestic violence. Most rapes still go unreported because of fear of reprisals and social stigmatism. A National Action

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Plan adopted early in the 21st century created programs designed to assist victims of violence, and a number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provide similar services. Belarus’s Marriage Code gives parents equal rights and responsibilities in relation to children, and females have equal access to property and inheritance. Prostitution is considered an administrative rather than a criminal offense, and evidence suggests that prostitution rings operate in government-owned hotels. The number of women in politics has increased, in part because of a quota system used for representation in the National Assembly. In 2008, there were 35 women in the 110-member Chamber of Representatives, and 19 women on the 56-member Council of the Republic. Among the 39-member Council of Ministers, only one was female. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Domestic Violence; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Belarus.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/bo.html (accessed February 2010). NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women. http:// www.niew.gov.my/niew/index.php?option=com_doc man&task=cat_view&gid=151&Itemid=60&lang=en (accessed February 2010). Neft, Naomi and Ann D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Stats of Women in 140 Countries. New York: Random House, 1997. Social Institutions & Gender Index (SIGI). “Gender Equality and Social Institutions: Belarus.” http:// genderindex.org/country/belarus (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Belgium Belgium is a technologically advanced country of over 10 million people in northern Europe. Belgian citizens enjoy a high standard of living, with a per capita Gross

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Domestic Product (GDP) of $36,900, and low inequality Gini index of 28, 120th among 134 countries reporting. Belgium is a secular country, although historically the Roman Catholic Church has been influential in Belgian society, and today about 75 percent of Belgians identify themselves as Roman Catholic. The World Economic Forum rated Belgium relatively high in gender equality in 2009. On a scale of 0 (inequality) to 1 (perfect equality), Belgium got an overall score of 0.717, 33rd among the 134 countries rated. Belgium ranked highly on political empowerment (0.243, 29th) but lower on health and survival (0.979, 55th), economic participation and opportunity (0.653, 64th) and educational attainment (0.991, 71st). Literacy is almost universal, at 99 percent for both men and women.Women constitute more than half of students enrolled in tertiary education. Women constituted over 45 percent of the nonagricultural work force in 2005. Great differences in employment exist according to a woman’s age: 57.8 percent of women aged 15 to 64 were employed in 2006, but only 29.2 percent in the 15 to 24 age category, versus 81.4 percent for ages 25 to 34 and 73.8 percent for ages 35 to 54. Mothers are entitled to 15 weeks of maternity leave, and receive 82 percent of their salary for the first 30 days, dropping to 75 percent after that. Fathers are entitled to 10 days of paternity leave. As of 2009, the retirement age for both men and women was 65 (it was previously 60 for women, and 65 for men). Suffrage is universal and compulsory at age 18. Women hold about 35 percent of the seats in parliament and 23 percent of ministerial positions. Abortion is available on demand in Belgium, and in 2003, the abortion rate was 7.5 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years. Over three-quarters of Belgian women aged 15 to 49 report using contraceptives. The birth rate (10.15 per 1,000 population) and fertility rates (1.65 children per woman) are typical for technologically advanced countries, and Belgium has a relative high net migration rate of 1.22 migrants per 1,000 population, giving it a slightly positive population growth. Belgian citizens enjoy a high standard of healthcare and social services. Life expectancy at birth is 75 for men and 82 for women. Childcare is subsidized and regulated, and accredited early education services are provided to over 80 percent of 4-year-olds. Child poverty is under 10 percent, and most children aged 3 to

4 years are enrolled in preschool. Nearly all births are attended by skilled personnel, and both the under-5 mortality and maternal mortality rates are low, at 2 per 1,000 live births and 10 per 100,000 live births respectively. In 2009, the international organization Save the Children ranked Belgium 13th on its Children’s Index, 17th on its Mother’s Index, and 22 on its Women’s Index. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Childcare; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Arblaster, Paul. A History of the Low Countries (Palgrave Essential Histories). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Belgium.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/be.html (accessed July 2010). Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years“ http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Belize Belize is located on the Yucatán Peninsula and its residents are mainly of the Hispanic, Creole, Maya, and Garifuna cultures. Christianity is the predominant religion. Belize ranked 88th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Women enjoy legal equality but suffer from limited educational and employment opportunities and high rates of violence against women. Many also endure poverty and inadequate living conditions. Society places a high value on church marriages. Fertility rates are high and infant mortality rates have been declining, resulting in large family sizes. The 2009 fertility rate was 3 births per woman with an infant mortality rate of 14 per 1,000 live births and a



maternal mortality rate of 52 per 100,000 live births. Illegitimate births are not uncommon and high adolescent fertility rates are a concern. Women receive 12 weeks of paid maternity leave at 80 percent of their wages through either the state social security system or their employer. About 56 percent of married women use contraceptives. There are strict divorce requirements. Common family types include nuclear families, extended families, and single-parent families, with most of the latter being female-headed and urban. It is common for women to defer to their husbands. Domestic violence is a problem. Although education is compulsory through age 14, many children do not attend school beyond the primary grades. Female attendance rates are 98 percent at the primary level, 70 percent at the secondary level, and 4 percent at the tertiary level. The 2009 literacy rate stood at 77 percent for both genders. Life expectancy is 62 years for women and 58 years for men.

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Women in the Workforce Women’s lifestyles depend on their socioeconomic class. The population is approximately half urban and half rural. Class stratification in urban areas is based largely on skin color while class stratification in rural areas is based largely on ethnic group membership. Common problems include poor sanitary conditions, malnutrition, limited access to healthcare, cardiovascular disease, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, high urban crime and unemployment rates, and violence and discrimination against women. There is a social assistance program for women over age 65. Women constitute 38 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 50 percent of professional and technical workers. Women represent a large percentage of teachers at all levels of education. Other key employers include service, agriculture, and industry. Gender gaps still exist in terms of estimated earned

Pageant leaders at the Punta Gorda, Belize Garafuna Day celebration. Although education is compulsory in Belize through age 14, many children do not attend school beyond the primary grades.

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income in U.S. dollars, which stood at $3,817 for women and $9,476 for men, and unemployment rates, which stood at 18.6 percent for women and 8.4 percent for men. Minimum wage is not high enough to maintain an adequate standard of living. Women as well as men have emigrated in search of better employment opportunities. Although there are no legal barriers preventing gender equality, women in Belize are underrepresented in most spheres of public life, including politics and religion, and face discrimination. Women have the right to vote. Women hold no parliamentary seats and 18 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. Government programs support women’s educational and economic empowerment. There is a Women’s Bureau of the Ministry of Labor and Social Services as well as a United Democratic Party National Organization of Women (UPNOW). See Also: Domestic Violence; Educational Opportunities/ Access; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; HIV/AIDS: South America; Poverty; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. McClaurin, Irma. Women of Belize: Gender and Change in Central America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996. World Health Organization, “World Health Report Statistical Annex, Annexes by Country (A-F).” http:// www.who.int/entity/whr/2005/annex/indicators _country_a-f.pdf (accessed February 2010). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Benin Benin is one of the smaller countries in West Africa and also one of the world’s poorest countries, qualifying for debt relief in 2000. Through its high dependency on agricultural export products and falling world market prices, Benin has difficulties escaping the poverty trap. Life in Benin remains mostly rural,

and traditions prevail. Many different ethnic groups live in the country, where they settled at different times and migrated from neighboring countries. With a population of almost 8,500,000 inhabitants, the growth in real output of around 5 percent in the past seven years has been offset by rapid population growth of around 3 percent per year. The economy of Benin remains underdeveloped and dependent on subsistence agriculture, cotton production, and regional trade. Extreme poverty remains endemic and continues to be concentrated in rural areas. On average, each woman gives birth to more than six children; Benin has one of the highest death rates for children younger than 5 years—estimated by the United Nations Human Development Report to be 98 deaths per 1,000 live births. Although the constitution provides for equality for women in the political, economic, and social spheres, women experience extensive societal discrimination, especially in rural areas, where they occupy a subordinate role and are responsible for much of the hard labor on subsistence farms. In urban areas, women dominate the trading sector in the open-air markets. Violence and abuse of women are considered a family matter, even though the government has put some measures into place to protect women against violence through legal sanctions and amendments to the penal code. There is also a great disparity between boys’ and girls’ school enrolment rates. One prominent reason is the custom of vidomegon, whereby poor, often rural families place a child, primarily daughters, in the home of a more wealthy family in the cities; in exchange, the child typically works for the family. Although the practice is ostensibly intended to give an education to the child, the situation frequently degenerates to forced servitude. Vidomegon children may be subjected to poor working and living conditions, may be denied education, and are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, including trafficking. Toda,y the practice is one of the major reasons why only one in four school-age girls in Benin ever attends school. Nor is enrollment the whole story, because of the persistent challenge of girls dropping out of school. Another obstacle to girls’ education is early marriage: If girls do get to attend primary school, they are often withdrawn before they finish to work as unpaid laborers for their extended family, to be married off, or to have children.

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Girls are the most vulnerable segment of society and the most affected by gender-based violence. The global economic downturn will have particularly damaging consequences for girls worldwide because it will have a significant effect on the trade of domestic workers with neighboring countries, where thousands of young girls will face exploitation and abuse. See Also: Child Labor; Domestic Violence; Nigeria. Further Readings United Nations Development Programme. “Human Development Report 2009.” http://hdr.undp.org/en /media/HDR_2009_EN_Complete.pdf (accessed June 2010). United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. “Fifteen-Year Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in Africa.” http://www .uneca.org/acgd/beijingplus15/documents /implementation-BPOA.pdf (accessed June 2010). United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and African Union and African Development Bank Group. “Assessing Progress in Africa Toward the Millennium Development Goals, 2009.” http://www.uneca.org/acgd /Publications/MDGR2009.pdf (accessed June 2010). G. Fornengo University of Turin

Bhutan Bhutan is a small, Buddhist-majority country in the Eastern Himalayas which transitioned to being a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy in 2008, and whose leaders and thinkers have pioneered the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as an alternative indicator of development. In 2006, 37.7 percent of the labor force was female, and the life expectancy of women at birth was 66.85 years. Women are almost half the population of under a million people. Most people live in rural areas, engaged in agriculture and related activities, with women participating equally. However, the significant trend of rural–urban migration has resulted in a more traditional gendered division of labor in the cities. Women in urban areas (as opposed to rural women) have

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higher levels of literacy and better health facilities but own less property. Compared to other countries in the region, women in Bhutan present a contrast: they don’t take their father’s name on birth or husband’s name upon marriage, they own and run businesses, rural land is often registered in women’s names, the inheritance systems are matrilineal (a man may have to work in the household of the prospective wife), and there is no dowry. There is some prevalence of polyandry, alongside the more common polygamy, but there is little social stigma associated with divorce and women have a significant degree of sexual freedom, a rarity in south Asia. No legal discrimination exists against women; there are some customary practices (such as wearing of the national dress—kira for women and gho for men—to government offices) which affect men and women equally. Nonetheless, there are traditional gender hierarchies that associate men and women with different social activities and reward them differently, for example, female weavers and male archers. Patriarchal norms controlling women are stronger in the south of the country due to the Hindu religious ethos there, while problems compounded by alcoholism and poverty are more predominant in the east. In the formal political arena, women are a minority, although addressing this issue is gaining momentum with ongoing discussions in the media (e.g., about the benefits of quotas for women in parliament). Also, debates over the Constitution resulted in amendments to use a gender-neutral language (he/she). In 2008, about 30 percent of 19,516 civil servants were women. There are no women ministers in the current government cabinet, four of 47 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the National Assembly (the lower house) are women, all belonging to the ruling party (DPT or Druk Phuensum Tshogpa). In the politically unaffiliated National Council (the upper house), the candidate (Pema Lhamo) who won with the largest vote margin was a woman. Bhutan is a signatory to two United Nations’ programmes, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). International Women’s Day is marked every year. Women play an active role in media, constitutional bodies, and civil society organizations: for example, novelist in English (Kunzang Choden), Managing Director of the national Bhutan Broadcasting

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Service (Pema Choden), head of the Anti-Corruption Commission (Neten Zangmo). There is a National Commission for Women and Children (NCWC). The royalty of Bhutan (such as wives and sisters of the monarchs) have been pro-active in social welfare organizations, including those concerned with women’s rights and empowerment, like the National Women’s Association of Bhutan (NWAB), set up in 1981, or Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women (RENEW), set up in 2004. This latter organization focuses on sexual assault and domestic violence victims, who may otherwise suffer in silence. 233 domestic violence cases were recorded in Thimphu hospital in 2007. Raising consciousness on gender issues is often linked to development partners (such as UN agencies) and there is a enlightened domestic trend of progressive change in direction and scope of laws. A wider collection of gender-segregated statistics is called for to enable more targeted policy on women’s issues. See Also: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; Domestic Violence; Government, Women in. Further Readings National Portal of Bhutan. http://www.bhutan.gov.bt/ government (accessed April 2010). Royal Government of Bhutan. “Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC).” http://www.gnhc.gov.bt (accessed April 2010). United Nations. “Bhutan Harmonizes Spectrum of Domestic Laws With Women’s Anti-Discrimination Convention. Creates First Ever Scheme for Gender Equality. Expert Body Hears.” http://www.un.org /News/Press/docs/2009/wom1741.doc.htm bt (accessed April 2010). Nitasha Kaul University of Westminster

Bhutto, Benazir Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007) was a Pakistani politician and the country’s first female prime minister. She served as prime minister twice, between 1988 and 1990, and 1993 and 1996.

Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, speaks to the press during a 1989 state visit to the United States.

Bhutto was born into a wealthy landowning family and was the daughter of Pakistan’s first democratically elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. After attaining her primary education in Pakistan, she achieved a Bachelor of Arts from Radcliffe College at Harvard University. Thereafter she went on to study at Oxford University. In 1986, she married Asif Ali Zardari, with whom she had three children. After completing her education abroad, Bhutto returned to Pakistan in summer 1977 to gain experience working for her father’s government. Following the turbulence caused by the elections that year, in July, General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and put him under house arrest. The former prime minister was charged for murder of a political opponent and during the years of the trial, Bhutto and her brothers became involved in the opposition movement. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in April 1979 and after years in and out of house arrest and prison, in 1984, Bhutto went into exile in London. While living in exile Bhutto was sworn in as chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in 1984. She was chosen as a leader by the senior party staff,



as they considered her an appropriate symbol, who would lay no claims to power. In reality she proved to be a strong and ambitious leader campaigning zealously for the elections in 1988, while being pregnant with her first child. In these elections, which followed the accidental death of General Zia-ul-Haq, Bhutto’s PPP managed to win through coalition making and compromising with the military. In order to keep her hold of the power, Bhutto had to negotiate with the military leadership and the president. Another major obstacle resulting from the election was the opposition provincial government in Punjab, the most populous and wealthy province. The largest party in the province and its leader, Nawaz Sharif, challenged the government on all issues. Bhutto, on her part, endeavored to undermine and destabilize the opposition, as well as the president, a strategy which proved ill-fated for her future support. In October 1989, the government managed to defeat a motion of nonconfidence. This highlighted the problems the Bhutto administration faced internally, and which escalated during the subsequent year up to her dismissal on August 6, 1990. New elections were carried out and Nawaz Sharif took over as prime minister. During Sharif ’s government, Bhutto affiliated herself both with the president and the prime minister in order to destabilize the government. A power struggle between the president and Sharif resulted in the dismissal of both in 1993 and in October 1993 Bhutto was elected prime minister. This period in government was immersed in agitation and conflicts. The Bhutto family was split when Benazir Bhutto’s brother, Murtaza, returned from exile and proclaimed being the true heir of their father. Their mother, Nusrat Bhutto, supported him and thus both of them were expelled from the party. Also Sharif initiated a campaign to undermine the government; the government, on its side, reciprocated by harassing the opposition. In addition, sectarian violence blossomed around country. Consequently, many PPP workers turned disillusioned and withdrew their support. The Bhutto government was accused for corruption, misrule, and nepotism, which resulted in its dismissal; to avoid trials on corruption Bhutto went into exile abroad. The charges of corruption and money laundering against Bhutto and, her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, were initiated by the Sharif government after Bhutto’s first term in office and the couple remained under scru-

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tiny after Bhutto’s second term. Bhutto and Zardari claimed it was a political setup and, even though Zardari has spent several years in prison, none of them had been proven guilty. In autumn 2007, President General Pervez Musharraf and Bhutto agreed that all charges against Bhutto and Zardari would be dropped as long as Bhutto would return from exile, participate in the national elections and support Musharraf’s cooperation with the U.S. government in the “war on terror.” Musharraf, then, would resign as army chief but remain as civilian president. Only a couple of months after her return to Pakistan, on December 27, 2007, she was assassinated at a PPP rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto stirred up fervent emotions inside and outside of Pakistan. Her supporters viewed her as a tormented and castigated daughter of a martyr. She was believed to bring hope and justice after a dark era of dictatorship. Others perceived her as power hungry and arrogant, especially considering the violent history of her family. At the time at her appointment in 1988 there were some grumbles about having a woman ruling an Islamic country. Just before the elections a Saudi sheikh had issued a fatwa announcing that a state with a female leader would not prosper. Moreover the Jurisprudence Committee of the Islamic Conference was planning to discuss whether it was compatible with Islamic law to have a woman leading an Islamic country. The Bhutto establishment, however, managed to avert this obstacle. Bhutto herself endeavored to project a pious Islamic image through wearing the headscarf and emphasizing her arranged marriage with Zardari. Internationally, she was often regarded favorably, mainly due to her vocal defense of democracy, human rights, and gender equality. Disregarding the questionable nature of Bhutto’s achievements in these areas while in power, many will remember her courage and persistence. See Also: Government, Women in; Islam; Pakistan. Further Readings Ahmed, Mushtaq. Benazir: Politics of Power. Karachi, Pakistan: Royal Book Company, 2005. Akhund, Iqbal. Trial and Error: The Advent and Eclipse of Benazir Bhutto. Dhaka, Bangladesh: The University Press, 2000. Bhutto, Benazir. Daughter of the East: An Autobiography. London: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

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Bhutto, Benazir. Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Emma Brännlund National University of Ireland, Galway

Biology, Women in The sciences, in general, are male-dominated fields, and biology is no exception. In 2002, only 34 percent of American students who earned undergraduate degrees in science were women. The percentage was even lower for women graduating with a doctorate in science: 22 percent. Over the years, women have struggled to be allowed to study and research in the biological sciences, and their efforts have met with occasional successes, often followed by years of frustration and exclusion. The history of women in biology is similar to the histories of women in many other fields. However, in biology, one particular woman’s talents were recognized as early as the 12th century. Biology’s Female Pioneers The first female biologist recognized in print was Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179). Von Bingen was an expert on the healing powers of plants, animals, trees, and stones. She also wrote extensively about natural history. Her prominence in the historical record is not just an indication of the significance of her contributions; women who achieved early fame were usually famous due to factors other than their scientific skills. Conversely, there must have been many brilliant women in earlier centuries whose work went completely unrecognized, often to be ascribed to a male scientist. Unfortunately, there is no record of another significant female biologist until the 14th century. Alessandra Giliani lived in Bologna, Italy, in the 14th century and helped pioneer anatomy sciences. She assisted Mondino de Luzzi, often credited with being the father of anatomy, in preparing dissections for study and writing the definitive anatomy text of the time. Giliani is credited with inventing the technique of injecting various liquids into the vessels of the body to reveal their structures, a technique that is still used in biology labs currently.

Two prominent women biologists were born in the late 1700s: Jeanne Villepreux in France, and Anna Atkins of Great Britain. Villepreux is recognized as the inventor of the aquarium, which she used for definitive studies of mollusks. Atkins, similarly, applied a new technology to the study of biology. She used photography, at that time little more than impressions on light-sensitive paper, to illustrate her exhaustive books on natural history. The 19th century saw a significant increase in the prominence of female biologists. Mary Lua Adelia Davis Treat (1830–1923) wrote 76 scientific articles and five books. She discovered numerous new insect and plant species, and collaborated with Charles Darwin in researching carnivorous plants. Julia Barlow Platt (1857–1935) of Vermont, United States, was a pioneering embryologist and neurobiologist. She received a master’s degree from Harvard University, then was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in biology in Germany, in 1899. Nettie Marie Stevens (1861–1912), another Vermont native, received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr in 1903, and became one of the leading geneticists of her time. Agnes Robertson Arber (1879–1960) was a famous British botanist, and was the first woman botanist elected as a fellow of the Royal Society. And finally, Roger Arliner Young (1899–1964) was the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in zoology. Young not only juggled research and teaching responsibilities, she also had the responsibility of caring for her mother, who had significant special needs. She received her master's in biology from the University of Chicago in 1926, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940. She taught at several universities, and served several times as substitute chair of the Department of Biology at Howard University. Nobel Prizes The rise to prominence of female biologists in the 20th century can be fairly well described by examining the history of the Nobel Prize. Forty women have won the Nobel Prize since its inception in 1901, and 10 of those have won in Physiology or Medicine. Unfortunately, although Marie Curie had won her second Nobel by 1911, a woman biologist did not win the prize until 1947, when Gerti Cori (1896–1957) won the prize for her work in glycolysis. Then another



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A Centers for Disease Control microbiologist inserting a rack of boxes containing biological stocks into a liquid nitrogen freezer for storage to aid the study of highly infectious viruses, many of them causing hemorrhagic manifestations in humans.

30 years passed before four women won the prize over an 11-year period. In 1977, Rosalyn Yalow won for her work in radio-immunoassays. Then in 1983, Barbara McClintock won for her work with mobile genetic elements. McClintock's story is a classic; her work went unrecognized for decades, and when it was finally corroborated, she received the prize at age 82 for work she had done many years earlier. Similarly, the 1986 winner, Rita Montalcini, received the award at age 77, six years after her retirement. Gertrude Elion received the award at age 70, five years after her retirement; her pioneering work on cancer drugs was an astonishing achievement. In 1995, the Nobel went to Christiane NüssleinVolhard, a German woman working at the Max Planck Institute. Nüsslein-Volhard and her team were recognized for their pioneering work on the genetic control of early embryos. The 2004 Nobel

went to Linda Buck for her discovery of olfactory receptors, the basic units of the sense of smell. In 2008 the Nobel Prize–winning team included Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, and made an astounding discovery, the human immunodeficiency virus. The next year, 2009, may have represented an even higher pinnacle for women and the Nobel; the prize was awarded to two women, Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider. Interestingly, Blackburn, Buck, and Barré-Sinoussi were born within a year of each other, in 1947–48. Another premier researcher on the HIV virus (although not a Nobel winner) was Flossie Wong-Staal, the first scientist to clone the virus. She was also born in 1947. Clearly, the recognition (if not necessarily the actuality) of women's accomplishments has followed an ever-steepening curve, as evidenced by the chronology of the Nobel. Looking beyond the Nobel,

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the first half of the 20th century can probably best be represented by one woman; Rachel Carson, the universally recognized inventor of the modern-day science of ecology. It is hard to believe that Carson died in 1962; her work still carries a heavy influence. Carson's greatest gifts were her many books and articles, which brought numerous environmental issues to the forefront of public discussion. During the last half century, women have emerged to be leaders in biological research, writing, and teaching. Perhaps the woman who best exemplifies the successes for the last 50 years is Mary Leakey, who made her first major discovery in 1948 and continued to contribute to science until her death in 1996. Although she can be considered to be a paleontologist, Leakey has clearly made major contributions to our understanding of evolutionary biology, with her discoveries of the proto-human species Australopithecus, Homo Habilus, and others. Female Biology Studied Louann Brizendine, M.D., is a groundbreaking female neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the founder of the world's first Women's Mood and Hormonal Clinic and author of the book The Female Brain, published in 2006. In her book, Dr. Brizendine discusses how the female brain is wired differently than a male's brain and how hormones significantly impact the human female through her life span, from pregnancy to menopause. Dr. Brizendine has discussed how female biology was virtually ignored in laboratory research studies until recent years. Apparently, because females have significant fluctuation of hormones throughout the menstrual cycle, this was interfering with traditional scientific research. Dr. Brizendine has given equal time to both genders in her writings; she published The Male Brain in 2010. Barriers Remain in the Biological Sciences Despite the high-profile successes of many women in all the sciences, prejudices and barriers remain. In a 2010 study sponsored by the American Association of University Women, it was asserted that in order for a female academician to receive the same recognition as a man, she must publish on average three more papers in major journals, or up to 20 more papers in minor publications, than the

man. Currently, female college professors are 3 to 5 percent less likely to obtain tenure than their male counterparts, according to a National Science Foundation study in 2004. And finally, a 2010 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that exit rates for women from science and engineering fields are up to 60 percent higher than the loss rates for men. The study cites lower pay and fewer promotion opportunities as the primary reasons given by exiting women. Society continues to cheat itself out of a priceless resource as long as society fails to encourage women and girls to enter and stay in scientific fields. One can only imagine what discoveries or breakthroughs have already been missed when a woman decided not to enter science or left early because of discrimination. Hopefully, the stories of pioneering women of the past and present will serve as inspiration for tomorrow's girls, and they will refuse to give up on a scientific career. See Also: Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise; Education, Women in; Feminism on College Campuses; Medical Research, Gender Issues in; Physicians, Female; Professional Education; Professions by Gender; STEM Coalition. Further Readings Brizendine, Louanne. The Female Brain. New York: Broadway Publishers, 2007. Forsburg, S. L. Women in Biology Internet Launch Pages. 1997–2007. http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~forsburg/bio .html (accessed July 2010). Matyas, Marsha Lakes and Ann Haley-Oliphan. Women Life Scientists: Past, Present, and Future, Connecting Role Models to the Classroom Curriculum. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society, 1997. McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries. New York: Citadel Press, 1998. Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey. Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988. Rosser, Sue V. Women, Science, and Myth: Gender Beliefs From Antiquity to the Present. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Jacqueline Parsons St. Mary's University



Birth Defects, Environmental Factors and

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It is important to understand the connection between the environment and the creation of life, which is key to a healthy population.

Birth defects affect everyone. Having a healthy baby is the reality for many parents while others face parenthood with a child born with a defect. According to the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program (CBDMP) one in 33 babies are born with birth defects. Some of the causes are linked to the mother’s actions (i.e., drinking, smoking), while others are caused by environmental factors unrelated to a mother’s behavior or habits. The role of environmental factors on birth defects has many implications for policy development, implementation, women’s rights, and advocacy—for more than just reproductive justice measures. This issue is important to help ensure the safety and security of life and birth of a child. Understanding the causes of birth defects will help women take care of their bodies and help them to deliver healthy babies. The March of Dimes reported that 120,000 children are born with birth defects each year. There are two types of birth defects: structural, which is related to the physical and salient defects like a missing body part or an altered limb; and functional, which means either the defect is sensory, degenerative, metabolic, or related to the nervous system, which includes brain issues.

Environmental Factors An environmental factor is defined as a contributor to a child being born with a birth defect. This contributing force could be a hazardous waste area existing located close to home, a partner who smokes, the inhalation of paint fumes, exposure to too much carbon dioxide, or the lack of access to clean air and water. The CBDMP conducted a study on environmental factors and birth defects. The study highlighted four air pollutants linked to ventricle septal defects, heart and pulmonary defects, and chromosome abnormalities. The pollutants are carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter. Carbon dioxide comes out of cigarettes and car exhausts; ozone is a product of a variety of pollutants that have a chemical reaction to sun exposure; and nitrogen dioxide becomes a problem when emissions from automobiles and industrial areas combined with the air, which affects the lungs. Generally, chemicals and solvents are not thought of environmental factors or potential birth defects. The CBDMP has reported that pregnant women should be cautious about exposure to certain chemicals. Solvents can be found in gasoline, spray paint, nail polish remover, and cleaning products, while colorants can be found in metallic and organic dyes. Exposure also can occur during cosmetology, fabric dyeing, or painting. The Safe Drinking Water Act was passed in 1974 by Congress to help prevent health conditions linked to contaminated water sources. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that there were 170,000 public water systems distributing clean water in the United States. The CBDMP reported that nitrates in the drinking water can affect the health of the fetus and the mother. For example, the CBDMP Website said that “women whose drinking water contained nitrate levels below Maximum Contaminant Levels or MCL had a higher risk for anencephaly”—the absence of a large part of the brain and skull. There are a number of communities around the country that are categorized as superfund sites. The superfund is a government program dedicated to

Importance of the Topic The successful birth of a child weighs heavily on the health, social, and environmental conditions the mother is exposed to before and during her pregnancy. Environmental factors could include air pollution, exposure to chemicals and solvents, drinking water, and proximity to hazardous waste sites as well as social and economic factors, among others. Overall, people are not fully aware of the consequences of their actions, disregarding the impact of the rising world population, war regions, extreme poverty—as defined by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals—and lack of education and awareness about environmental effects on health. Not to be overlooked is the direct impact of environmental issues on mothers that cause birth defects. This issue is at the heart of many debates, most notably reproductive justice, food justice, and environmental protection movements.

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cleaning up abandoned waste sites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response implement the superfund and the cleaning of the sites. The CBDMP interviewed 2,000 mothers who lived near hazardous sites to determine the range of consequences that could occur from exposure. Their study found that women who resided near the superfund site during the first trimester of the pregnancy had a greater risk for birth defects, including heart abnormalities, neural tube defects, and cleft lip or palate. Neural tube defects alter the development of the brain and spine, which are commonly associated with spina bifida and anencephaly. In addition to physical and environmental factors, social and economic issues also can contribute to birth defects. Reproductive justice advocates argue that individuals from low-income backgrounds as well as women of color are at greater risk of birth defects because of their social conditions. For example, The Women’s Foundation of California reported in November 2009 that regulators failed to protect Californian’s from pesticides linked to cancer, reproductive harm and other illnesses in the central valley. In West Oakland, juvenile asthma has been associated with the area’s large port in Oakland as well as to the community’s proximity to industrial and manufacturing industries.

due to environmental factors will decrease only with increased community-based education targeted to atrisk populations—which will have the added benefit of increasing the number of healthy children.

Affecting Change In March 2010, Harvard University hosted a panel discussion that focused on the environmental consequences regarding maternal health. The panelists included Lani Blechman, operations assistant of Civil Liberties and Public Policy at Hampshire College, and Trina Jackson of Roxbury, Massachusetts– based Alternatives for Community and Environment. They stressed the importance of low-income groups speaking out and participating in community decisions about the construction of power plants in their neighborhoods. Low-income women and their families are disproportionately exposed to toxins in the environment due to their proximity to polluting industries located in their communities. Overall, women face health challenges during pregnancy and birth; and for women of color and residents of lowincome communities, the challenges are greater than they are for their wealthy counterparts. Birth defects

Crystallee Crain California Institute of Integral Studies

See Also: Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Health, Mental and Physical; Infant Mortality; Pregnancy; Water, as Women’s Issue. Further Readings California Department of Public Health. “California Birth Defects Monitoring Program.” http://www.cdph.ca.gov /programs/cbdmp/Pages/default.aspx (accessed April 2010). Cook, K. “Environmental Justice: Woman Is the First Environment. Reproductive Justice Briefing Book: A Primer on Reproductive Justice and Social Change.” http://www.sistersong.net/documents (accessed April 2010). Kassuba, Sherree. “Environmental Causes of Birth Defects.” http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum /units/1982/7/82.07.07.x.html. (accessed April 2010). Underwood, A. “Panel Discusses Link Between Maternal Health and Environment.” The Harvard Crimson (March 11, 2010). http://www.thecrimson.com/article /2010/3/11/health-toxins-jackson-reproductive (accessed April 2010).

Bisexuality In a provocative New York Times article, published July 5, 2005, Benedict Carey reported on the results of a study disputing whether “true bisexuality exists” as a “distinct and stable sexual orientation.” Bisexuality, an identity constituted by sexual attraction to both sexes, has long been one of the most difficult to define sexual identities. In a binary system of sexual orientations, individuals can—in some ways—be defined as either homosexual or heterosexual, according to the person with whom they are currently in a relationship. Because bisexuality implies an individual’s sexuality is malleable and contingent, the category has been mar-



ginalized in both heterosexual and homosexual communities, often labeled by both groups as a phase. In the same Times article, the author describes some gay men as stating, “You’re either gay, straight, or lying.” Defining bisexuality and positioning it in a historical context demonstrates the crucial role that this sexual identity category has played—and continues to play—in conjunction with women in today’s world. Issues surrounding bisexual history and activism, bisexuality’s relationship to other sexual identity categories, the related problems of bi-phobia and bisexual erasure, and the relatively recent emergence of bisexual representations in popular culture demonstrate that bisexuality is tied to many issues surrounding women’s sexual, social, and ideological lives. Definition Like other marginalized sexualities, bisexuality is difficult to define and depends—in many ways—on broader issues surrounding the definitions of gender, sex, and sexuality, but on a most basic level, the term refers to sexual behavior and/or attraction to both sexes. Bisexuality has historically been thought of as a natural state that people repress because of heterosexism. Kate Millett famously stated that “Homosexuality was invented by a straight world dealing with its own bisexuality.” The etymology of bisexuality indeed proves Millett’s point. Since its entry into discourse in 1859 in Robert B. Todd’s The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, bisexuality has been invoked to describe something that is liminal and untenable: not a sexual orientation or a body with a particular anatomical structure but rather something that is both and neither at once, always already contingent to and reliant on fixities of the binary sex-gender system. In 1892, C. G. Chaddock first used bisexuality to designate sexual orientation, noting: “Careful investigation of the so-called acquired cases makes it probably that the predisposition also present here consists of a latent homosexuality, or, at least, bisexuality.” John Bancroft has more recently suggested a “weakening of the polarization of homo- and heterosexuality” that should mark bisexuality as “more a part of the human experience.” The word bisexual initially pointed to biological and anatomical structures. In 1824, Samuel Taylor Coleridge suggested that the “original man” was “bi-sexual,” a label that hearkens more toward what we now classify as an intersexed

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body than a bisexual identity. By 1914, bisexual had become a classificatory term for sexuality and sexual orientation. The American Medical Journal explains, “By nature all human beings are psychically bisexual, capable of loving a person of either sex.” This definition draws an explicit connection between psychic state, essentialism, and love that has typically been at the center of some of the controversy surrounding the definition of bisexuality as a sexual identity. Jennifer Baumgardner has drawn attention to the complexity and potential faultiness of current definitions of bisexuality, primarily on a practical level. She notes that “sexuality is not who you sleep with, it’s who you are. It doesn’t change according to who is standing next to you”. Bisexuality has been situated in the framework of a hetero/homo system of sexual orientations, in which bisexuality is always something that is slippery and changeable rather than fixed or clearly identifiable. Moreover, as Baumgardner implies, critics tend to think that sexuality ends when one picks a partner, suggesting that being in a relationship with either a man or a woman makes bisexuality, in effect, transform into either a heterosexual or homosexual bond. Of course, gender identities and sexual orientation that further vex the gay/straight dichotomy—such as genderqueer, genderfuck, asexuality, and gender fluidity—draw attention to the theoretical gaps between gender, sex, and sexuality, and the concept of sexual fluidity has in some ways shifted gender theory away from bisexuality, which does depend upon the acceptance of stable genders, sexes, and sexualities; however, bisexuality forms a major category of sexual identity. Alfred Kinsey’s surveys of sexuality in the 1940s and 1950s revealed that about 46 percent of the men and 12 percent of the women interviewed described sexual experiences with both sexes. More recently, a 2002 survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found that 1.8 percent of men and 2.8 percent of women ages 18 to 44 identify as bisexual. The difference between these numbers suggests a clear distinction between experience and identity. That is, people might have sexual relationships with both sexes but still identify as straight or gay. History Behavioral scientists began noting bisexual attraction and considering the role that this attraction plays in

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the development of sexual identity during the 19th century. Research during the 19th and 20th centuries tended to suggest either that bisexuality does not exist or that everyone is truly bisexual. Enfolded in these contradictory descriptions is a shared—and central— problem in analyses of bisexuality, which is that bisexuality’s existence or lack thereof depends upon physical, psychological, moral, and ideological assumptions based on the heterosexist structures that regulate discourse about sexual orientation. Three major theorists of bisexuality whose work remains influential are Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and Fritz Klein. With his Three Essays on Sexuality (1910), Freud introduced the concept of innate bisexuality. He argued that humans are born bisexual but develop monosexual identities through the complicated interweaving of external and internal factors that engender psychological development and push bisexuality into latency. Based in large part on the fallacy that human beings all go through an intersexed period in the early stage of development, Freud’s theory suggests an anatomical predisposition to bisexuality that his radically countered by a push toward monosexuality. Despite many of the problems in Freud’s work caused by his now out-of-date information about anatomy as well as by his ideological context, he notably offers a version of sexuality in which bisexuality is identified as a normal part of sexual development—not as something that should be criminalized. Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) reported that 46 percent of men engaged in both heterosexual and homosexual activity. Using the Kinsey Scale, he developed ways of describing individuals’ sexual histories or episodes in an individual’s sexual life at a specific time. This scale ranges from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual), with the variable “x” representing asexuality. Kinsey disliked the use of the term bisexual as a marker of sexual identity and typically used the word to note mixed-sex anatomies because the word implied a biological origin of bisexuality rather than a psychic one: “Until it is demonstrated [that] taste in a sexual relation is dependent upon the individual containing within his anatomy both male and female structures, or male and female physiological capacities, it is unfortunate to call such individuals bisexual.” Kinsey went further in his analysis to suggest that “Males do not represent two discrete populations,

heterosexual and homosexual.” As a publicly heteronormative man who engaged in sexual relationships with other men, Kinsey in some ways offered a new and visible model for bisexuality—but again, as Baumgardner’s comments above indicate, a tension existed for Kinsey in sexual self-presentation or identity and sexual practices. Fritz Klein contributed the pivotal study The Bisexual Option (1978) to sexuality studies, and he created the Bisexual Forum in New York; he founded the Bisexual Forum in San Diego in 1982, and later started and became the editor of The Journal of Bisexuality. In 1998, Klein founded the American Institute of Bisexuality (AIB) to support research and education on bisexuality. Klein’s multidimensional Klein Sexual Orientation Grid measures the complex fluidity of sexual orientation by expanding on Kinsey’s zero to six scale. Included on the grid are not only overt sexual experiences but also attractions, fantasies, emotional preferences, lifestyle, and identification in an individual’s past, present, and hypothetical ideal future. The scale drew crucial attention to the ways in which all of these interlocking variables can change over time for individuals and for groups. He drew the conclusion that sexuality defies rigid, well-defined categories; still, he worked throughout his life as a bisexual activist. Activism Klein’s presence in and support of bisexual activism proved a crucial part of bisexual inclusion in larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) activist movements. Notoriously problematic as a term of mobilization (see the issues surrounding bi-phobia and bisexual erasure below), bisexuality has been recognized as a significant component of LGBTQ activism for many years. In this brief overview of bisexual activism (and also, below, of bisexuality in the popular media), female bisexuality is foregrounded, despite the obvious importance of male bisexuals from Kinsey and Klein to Jonathan Ames, Patrick (formerly Pat) Califia, Michael Chabon, Andy Dick, and Stephen Donaldson. Robyn Ochs founded the Boston Bisexual Network in 1983 and the Bisexual Resource Center in 1985. She currently edits the Bisexual Resource Guide, and she edited an anthology Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World. Ochs specializes in coalition



building. Frequently headlining academic conferences but also appearing in the popular media on television shows like Donahue and in magazines including Seventeen and Newsweek, Ochs received the Susan J. Hyde Activism Award for Longevity in the Movement from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Sex educator and activist Loraine Hutchins coedited the anthology Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (1991), which brought together the voices of 76 bisexuals. Hutchins cofounded BiNet USA and the Alliance of Multicultural Bisexuals. She has published articles on sexuality in essay collections and journals, including Beth Firestein’s Becoming Visible: Counseling Bisexuals Throughout the Lifespan (2008). Firestein, a psychologist who focuses on bisexual and transgender issues, has offered seminal research on the ways that bisexuals internalize social prohibitions and tension related to their choice of sexual partners. Her research suggests that many bisexuals force themselves to fit into either heterosexual or homosexual labels—an internal tension that replicates the external problems connected to bisexual identity (for example, issues of visibility, labeling, group inclusion/exclusion, biphobia, and bisexual erasure). Her research has engendered new therapy methods that address the unique issues bisexuals encounter. Noted as a “Third Wave” feminist activist and coauthor of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future (2000) and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism (2005), Jennifer Baumgardner drew attention to the intersections between bisexuality and feminism with her book Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics. Baumgardner, a former editor of Ms. magazine, created the I Had an Abortion project. Her prominence as a Third Wave feminist has been key to her activism about sexuality; Look Both Ways reconciles—and draws attention to tensions among—feminism and bisexuality as personal and political identities. Relationship to Other Sexual Identity Categories Because bisexuality simultaneously depends upon and disrupts the hetero/homosexual binary, its relationship to other groups interested in LGBTQ activism and to categories of gender and sexual identity more broadly is often complex. Because it originally denoted mixed-sex anatomy, the word bisexual has

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retained for some a confusing proximity to what is now referred to as intersexuality (formerly hermaphroditism). This association between mixed-sex anatomy and bisexual desire led to some of Freud’s theories, mentioned above, and also engendered Kinsey’s reluctance to embrace the term bisexuality. But bisexuality now marks a sexual orientation that is separate from biological anatomy. Bisexuality is often used interchangeably with ambisexuality, a term that demarcates a somewhat wider set of associations (clothing may be ambisexual, for example, but the term also denotes sexual attraction by or attractiveness to both sexes). The relatively recent introduction of the terms genderqueer, intergender, and genderfuck to demarcate gender identities that fall outside the gender binary problematize easy correlations between sex, gender, and sexuality, making a label of bisexuality much less tenable than it is for two persons who clearly identify as male or female. The concept of sexual fluidity, a trend in which women move freely from homosexual to heterosexual relationships, both allows for and complicates bisexuality as a sexual identity. Lisa M. Diamond’s book Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire (2008) addressed the possibility that love and desire do not correspond to heterosexuality or homosexuality. Instead, desire is often gender blind; sexual orientation is not fixed or stable. Although the concept of sexual fluidity suggests that many women have bisexual desires, the concept also unworks the idea of a stable sexual identity in such a way that makes identification as a bisexual tricky. Bi-Phobia and Bisexual Erasure The term bi-phobia serves as an indicator of the fear, distrust, and aversion projected on bisexuality and bisexuals. Bi-phobia can target individuals or social groups. Bi-phobia is often the result of negative stereotypes that adhere to bisexuality and also to the related problem of bisexual erasure. Two of the most common negative stereotypes about bisexuality are (1) that it does not exist; and (2) that bisexuality implies and is even inseparable from promiscuity. The first of these stereotypes relates to the issue of bisexual erasure, a tendency to omit bisexuality from history, the media, and other discourses. Bisexual erasure can, in its extreme, manifest

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as a denial of the actual existence of bisexuality. For example, a historical description of a bisexual’s life might refute or challenge the individual’s bisexuality by arguing that the individual really loved either men or women (i.e., recuperating someone as either a gay or straight individual, not acknowledging the complexity and range of a subject’s sexuality but instead locating “true” sexuality at one point, in one relationship, or in one phase of the subject’s life). The problem of linking bisexuality with promiscuity directly correlates with popular culture. In pornography as well as in popular culture, bisexuals are frequently represented as sexually insatiable; their desire to have sex with men and women is implied to be the result of such insatiability. On an even more pragmatic level, because sexual orientation is (for many people) thought of as being defined by the person or people one sleeps with, bisexuality often wrongly implies promiscuity and defiance of monogamy. People assume that to be bisexual, one is always sleeping with both men and women—and if one is not, one has “chosen” either a heterosexual or homosexual life (hence the relationship between bi-phobia, stereotypes, and bisexual erasure). Bisexuals are also stereotyped as being sexually confused, incapable of settling on one person, and (for female bisexuals) really being either lesbian or straight. These stereotypes and tensions emerge in the relationship between bisexuality and straight culture, but bisexuals also occupy a liminal spot in relation to LGBTQ culture and to political movements like feminism. For example, Naomi Weisstein suggests that the early years of the women’s liberation movement, 98 percent of WLMers “were bi, at least in the sense that we all started out with the usual exclusively het behaviors. Only after 1970 did most of us ‘go gay.’ One’s former relationships with men continued in a whole lot of cases.” Individuals who might otherwise self-define as bisexual can feel compelled to take on a posture of homosexuality because it corresponds more directly to a larger set of political imperatives. Bisexuality in Popular Culture Despite the issues of bi-phobia and bisexual erasure, many authors, actors, and other celebrities have identified (or have been identified) as bisexual. Some include Billy Joe Armstrong, Josephine Baker, Djuna Barnes, Drew Barrymore, Sandra Bernhard, Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Marlon Brando, Nell Carter,

Margaret Cho, Joan Crawford, Kurt Cobain, Marlene Dietrich, Ani DiFranco, Eve Ensler, Greta Garbo, Alec Guinness, Marilyn Hacker, Lorraine Hansberry, H. D., Anne Heche, Angelina Jolie, Janis Joplin, June Jordan, Frida Kahlo, Florence King, Christian Lacroix, Courtney Love, Margaret Mead, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Anaïs Nin, Cynthia Nixon, Joan Osborne, Camille Paglia, Edith Piaf, Cole Porter, Carol Queen, Ma Rainey, Lou Reed, Barbara Stanwyck, Michael Stipe, Gore Vidal, Alice Walker, and Rebecca Walker. The popular media most often succumbs to the stereotypes surrounding bisexuality, especially in terms of the myth of bisexual promiscuity. Films like Basic Instinct (1992) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) highlight a character’s bisexuality largely to suggest mental instability and a tendency to use sexuality rather than to develop healthy romantic relationships. However, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, television shows such as Friends, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sex in the City, and The O. C. have helped to normalize bisexuality and to represent it as a healthy option for sexual orientation and identity. The musician Ani DiFranco has been a beacon for bisexual women in particular: she has boldly and publicly described the difficulties of having her sexual identification theorized and judged. Singers like Jill Sobule and Katy Perry have, more playfully, suggested what is often termed bi-curiousness in their songs, both titled, I Kissed a Girl. Here as elsewhere in discourses of bisexuality, it remains clear that sexuality as a political stance is uncomfortably bound up—for bisexuals—in a context that also necessitates changeability, fluidity, and playfulness. Practical Aspects Homosexuality has become more socially acceptable in many countries, but bisexual individuals continue to be classified as unstable individuals who are unwilling to admit to their true social orientations. A 2008 Australian study of 60 bisexuals, 40 women and 20 men ranging in age from 21 to 66, revealed that many of them felt isolated from their communities, causing them to remain silent about their real sexual preferences. Many respondents felt that they had been rendered invisible because neither the heterosexual nor the homosexual community truly accepted them. They were often accused of being afraid to own up to their actual sexual orientations. Female bisexu-



als stated that assumptions about their sexual preferences were often situational. Heterosexuality was mistakenly assumed whenever they campaigned for women’s rights, but they were mislabeled as lesbians when they campaigned for gay and lesbian rights. A number of respondents felt pressured by lesbians to admit to their homosexuality, and they were accused of betraying their lesbian sisters if they chose to have sexual intercourse with the opposite sex. When reporting on the Australian Study of Health and Relationships, researchers concluded that bisexuals were more likely than heterosexual, lesbian, or gay respondents to suffer from depression and to admit to feeling suicidal. Studies involving bisexuals in the United Kingdom and the United States have also revealed that many bisexuals are faced with mental health problems because of this lack of social acceptance. Facing Discrimination Bisexuals in some countries continue to describe widespread incidences of official discrimination. For instance, in summer 2010, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on an unofficial LGBT street picket that took place in St. Petersburg, Russia. Both female and male participants carried LGBT flags and signs proclaiming such statements as “Peter the Great was bisexual.” The activists insisted their picket was the result of ingrained homophobia in Russia. Officials responded by arresting the picketers, charging five of them with staging an unsanctioned event and the rest with hooliganism. That same month, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) Europe announced that Russia and the Ukraine were at the bottom of their “Rainbow Europe Country Index.” Other nations receiving low rankings included Armenia, Belarus, Cyprus, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, and Turkey. At the other end of the spectrum, Sweden was named as the European country that best demonstrated inclusiveness and respect for lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals by passing laws banning discrimination, hate crimes, and hate speech and enacting laws that recognized equal ages of consent and same-sex partnerships and parenting rights. The other top-ranked countries were Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain. Discrimination against bisexuals may become lifethreatening in intolerant countries. However, some LGBT scholars, including Sean Rehaag, argue that

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many bisexuals seeking refugee status are met with rejection because officials fail to classify them as political refugees. According to international law, refugees eligible for political asylum include those who are in fear of being persecuted because of their religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinions. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees states in its “Guidelines on Gender Related Protection” that “political opinions” may include those concerning acceptable gender roles. Courts around the world have used Ward v. Canada (2 SCR 689, 1993) to determine the construction of “a particular social group.” In this Canadian Supreme Court decision, Justice Gérard La Forest held that such groups were defined according to their innate characteristics, participation in voluntary associations chosen for reasons fundamental to each individual’s basic human dignity, and the historical existence of said groups. La Forest specifically stated that groups defined according to particular sexual orientations were included in his classification of eligible groups. In 2000, a Mexican bisexual successfully sought asylum in Canada because of repeated beatings by the police. Studies have revealed that female bisexuals continue to be more successful than males in obtaining refugee status in Canada. In 2006, for instance, more than half of all of female bisexual applicants were successful, but only a third of male bisexuals obtained entry. Few refugee claims in the United States have involved bisexuals, but in Hernandez-Montiel v. Immigration and Naturalization Service (225 F.3d 1084, 2000) the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit posited that defining sexual minority refugee law only on the basis of heterosexuality and homosexuality was possibly too restrictive. In the United States in 2010, a cadre of strange bedfellows expressed their support for passage of the Uniting American Families Act, which is designed to reform immigration laws to pave the way for families to remain united, irrespective of such characteristics as sexual orientation. In addition to representatives of LGBT groups, supporters of the act included the Episcopal Church, the Family Equality Council, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, Union for Reform Judaism, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Unlike the

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United States and Canada, Australia has a history of considering bisexuals eligible for political asylum, going back to a 1997 decision by the High Court of Australia. However, few bisexual claims have been filed in Australia. Because of society’s inability to transcend the belief that all individuals must be either exclusively heterosexual or homosexual, bisexuals continue to be mislabeled, misunderstood, and mistrusted. See Also: Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Gender, Defined; Heterosexism; Homophobia; Lesbians; LGBTQ; Sexual Orientation; Sexual Orientation: Scientific Theories of Causation; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States. Further Readings Baumgardner, Jennifer. Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Carey, Benedict. “Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited.” New York Times (July 5, 2005). http://www .nytimes.com/2005/07/05/health/05sex.html?_r=2& pagewanted=1(accessed August 2009). Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Translated by James Strachey. New York: Basic, 2000. Kinsey, Alfred. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1948. McLean, Kirsten. “Silences and Stereotypes: The Impact of (Mis) Constructions of Bisexuality on Australian Bisexual Men and Women.” Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review, v.4/3 (2008). Pitts, M. and M. Couch. “Bisexuality and Health Psychology—Strange Bedfellows?” Health Psychology Update, v.14/2 (2005). Rehaag, Sean. “Bisexuals Need Not Apply: A Comparative Appraisal of Refugee Law and Policy in Canada, the United States, and Australia.” International Journal of Human Rights, 13/2,3 (2009). Wockner, Rex. “Group: Sweden Is Europe’s Gay-Friendliest Country.” Between the Lines News, v.1822 (June 3, 2010). Emily Bowles Lawrence University

Black Churches The term black church refers to that which gave shape to the religious experiences of many blacks in America, originally combining African religious heritage with European Christianity. In the 18th century, many blacks converted to Christianity and developed their own style of “slave religion” Christian theology. As blacks have received political freedom, they have also formed a unique Christian identity of faith in God’s deliverance from oppression. As the black church engages social justice issues today, these theological foundations continue to shape the black church identity. History The black church, originating from the religious, cultural, and social past of blacks, gave structure and identity to millions of enslaved Africans in America. As 17th-century slave codes prohibited blacks from church membership, they incorporated their African religious heritage into European Christianity to create a slave religion. Based on several commonalities between slave religion and the Great Awakening, black conversion to Christianity skyrocketed, and blacks influenced mainstream Christianity through revival-style music, preaching, and total immersion baptism. Revivalists preached spiritual equality and fostered integration of churches. Methodist and Baptist missionaries heavily evangelized southern plantations. Slave owners feared that converted slaves would demand their freedom, so many white ministers preached the “Curse of Ham,” that whites were ordained as authorities over blacks. (The “Curse of Ham” refers to the story of Noah after the flood, in the book of Genesis, wherein Noah cursed his son Ham, and all of Ham’s lineage thus, “. . . a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”) Many slaves created an “invisible institution,” a secret black church that emphasized God’s deliverance and Christian freedom. Southern slaves resonated with the Baptist denomination because of its reduced requirements for ministry leadership, decentralized church government, and emphasis on individual conscience. Methodism attracted blacks nationwide, and its centralized structure widely promoted spiritual equality. Itinerant Methodist evangelists mobilized black men and women as preachers and preached Christian abolitionism.



In Philadelphia in 1794, Richard Allen formed the first independent black church, Bethel Church, and the first black denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). The more progressive African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ) split from the AME; both denominations flourished throughout the north. During the Second Great Awakening, black churches functioned as community centers providing education, meeting space, opportunities for benevolence and activism, and basic material needs. Since Emancipation, the black church refers to any primarily African American church or any church belonging to a black denomination (AME, AMEZ, Christian Methodist Episcopal, National Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention of America, National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Church of God in Christ, or Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellow-

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ship). Black churches have created unique worship and preaching styles. During the Great Migration to northern urban cities in the early 20th century, the Church helped millions of black migrants as they sought economic opportunity in the industrial boom. The black church has grown the most in the 20th century through the Holiness and Pentecostal Movement. Holiness churches believe in Spirit-anointed sanctification faith, which emotionally reaffirmed congregants of God’s grace. The Pentecostal Movement began in 1906 with the Los Angeles Azusa Street Revivals and grew rapidly and interracially. The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), founded by two Baptist-turned-Pentecostal black preachers, is currently the leading Pentecostal denomination, in part because of its rejection of social engagement. COGIC promotes biblical literalism, revival-style worship, sanctification, and speaking in tongues. The Holiness

Churches In black neighborhoods often create a sense of social belonging and unity. Black churches in the New York neighborhood of Harlem have renovated abandoned buildings to create housing for residents and have opened their own schools.

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and Pentecostal Movement is the only interracial black church movement. Civil Rights The black church provided an important emotional support for the dehumanizing effects of slavery and racial oppression. In the early 20th century, most black church pastors preached middle-class values and moral uplift, the idea that black moral excellence would achieve social equality, rather than condemnation of racism because of fear that such preaching would incite black retaliation against whites. However, some radical preachers boldly preached rebellion against white supremacy. AME Bishop Henry McNeal Turner condemned American imperialism and preached in support of women’s suffrage, women’s ordination, and the Back-to-Africa movement. The civil rights movement (1954–1968), largely led by black pastors, advocated for full equality and opportunity for blacks. After the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) U.S. Supreme Court decision, blacks began a massive nonviolent resistance campaign for desegregation. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to national prominence when he led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Improvement Association, primarily made of black church members, launched a more than one year boycott of city buses, resulting in a Supreme Court decision against segregated buses. King created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 to mobilize black churches to support a nonviolent civil rights movement. SCLC orchestrated several marches and standoffs in segregated cities, the most famous of which occurred in Albany, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; and Selma, Alabama. In the early 1960s, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), primarily college students, staged sit-ins and voter registration drives. The SCLC mentored SNCC in its nonviolent approach, and in 1963, the SCLC and SNCC co-organized the March on Washington, in which King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Black ministers provided local and national leadership throughout the civil rights movements. These religious leaders voiced the experiences of blacks and led black church members to join their campaign for equality and justice. The charismatic style of black preaching proved a powerful medium for gaining support for the movement among blacks and whites.

These ministers mobilized hundreds of lay leaders and solidified racial equality as a central teaching of the black church. Black Liberation Theology and Megachurches Many black church leaders have condemned white churches for complacency in opposing racial injustice. Beginning in the late 1960s, James Cone expressed this religious discontent as Black Liberation Theology, which focused on specific passages of scripture, namely the Exodus narratives and the life of Jesus, to advocate black liberation from social, political, economic, and religious bondage. Cone compared America to Egypt and claimed that God was working for black liberation and was black. Jeremiah Wright has recently received intense criticism for preaching black liberation. In the late 20th century, black megachurches emerged, most of which are conservative, evangelical, and preach prosperity gospel, including T. D. Jakes’s The Potter’s House, and Tony Evans’ Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, and Creflo Dollar’s World Changers Church in Atlanta. Other black megachurches are famously progressive, including Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and Cecil Williams’s Glide United Methodist Church in San Francisco. While both types of black megachurches share a wide spectrum of ministries, emphasize spiritual fellowship, are largely suburbanized, and have an authoritative preaching and church administration, they are becoming increasingly divided between social justice theology and the prosperity gospel. Women in the Church African American women have played a critical role in the ministry and survival of the black church, yet the black church has been historically sexist. Richard Allen hesitantly supported the ministry of preacher Jarena Lee, though the AMEZ embraced women in ordained ministry beginning with Julia Foote in 1894. Baptists have likewise suppressed the ministry of women, though Nannie Helen Burroughs valiantly created Women’s Day, in which women lead the entire worship service. Women also pioneered much of today’s missions movement following the Second Great Awakening. Men have since assumed leadership of these women-driven institutions and have used them to raise capital rather than affirm the ministry of women.



During the civil rights movement, black church emphases on freedom, justice, and equality empowered women to find places of leadership in their churches and communities. Church auxiliaries, largely founded and operated by women, ministered to the poor, conducted public speaking, and managed their own money. Women networked with each other, and these auxiliaries nurtured women’s leadership abilities. The civil rights movement associated Christian practice with confronting social injustice, and this precedent paved the way for black women to move for their own freedom. Moreover, the movement inspired an entire generation to interpret the scriptures’ mandates to care for others as a call to activism for social justice. Civil rights workers Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer were two of many women whose leadership influenced such changes in the black church. A black branch of feminism, womanism, opposes the extreme prejudice against black women posed by racism, sexism, and classism both within the black church and within American society. Womanism promotes self-determination and community activism for social justice transcending race, gender, and economic class. Many black denominations continue to deny women ordination or the right to preach. However, in 2000, Vashti Murphy McKenzie was named a bishop of the AME Church. Many women pastors, including Renita Weems, Cheryl J. Sanders, and Suzan Johnson Cook, continue to press for women’s equality within the black church. See Also: Christian Identity; Christianity; Evangelical Protestantism; Ministry, Protestant; Religion, Women in; Womanism; Womanist Theology. Further Readings Floyd-Thomas, Stacey, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Carol B. Duncan, Stephen G. Ray, Jr., and Nancy Lynne Westfield. Black Church Studies: An Introduction. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2007. Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. Lincoln, C. Eric and Lawrence H. Mamiya. The Black Church in the African-American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990.

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Raboteau, A. J. Canaan Land: A Religious History of African-Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Courtney Lyons Baylor University

Blogs and the Blogosphere By 2000, the availability of blog host sites like Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, and LiveJournal, made keeping a blog, short for weblog or web log—an online journal with dated entries—easy for people who do not possess Web coding skills. Women create and produce content with blogging tools, and many advance beyond online diaries to self-publish their platform to a broad audience as well as create communities. Women’s blogs range from the personal to the political. In 2003, there were 4.12 million blogs. Over 90 percent were maintained by people under the age of 30, with women having a slight edge over men in the practice. The highest rated blogs are male-dominated, yet scholars agree that there are more women bloggers overall. Ideally the blogosphere (the world of blogs and blogging) provides a positive democratic space, a public sphere, where everyone expresses themselves. Bloggers participate in communities and create conversations by commenting on posts and cross-linking or creating blogrolls. Gendered behavior online falls into traditional forms. Equality has not occurred in the blogosphere and a neutral space where women’s voices would have as much authority as men’s is an unrealized ideal. Differences in communication styles contribute to the inability of men and women to communicate well online and gender segregation is the norm. The absence of strong women’s voices in the blogosphere comes down to the perception that men write about politics and women write about the personal. The problem is that both arenas are defined too narrowly. Many political blog are filters and provide links to what the blogger found and do not contain original content. The majority of blogs are personal journals expressing the writer’s thoughts and daily activities. Fifty percent of journal bloggers are female. They offer greater levels of self-revelation than do men. Additionally,

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they tend to mix genres while male bloggers stick to one topic exclusively. The Blog as a Social Platform Several of the earliest women bloggers worked in information technology and were responsible for establishing blogging platforms, as well as advancing standards and guidelines in the burgeoning space. Meg Hourihan is a cofounder of Pyra Labs, the company that produced Blogger. She blogged on Megnut. com from 1999 until taking a hiatus when her son was born. The subject matter of her blog was general and then focused on food for many years. Upon her return to blogging, in 2009, her content returned to its original broadness with coverage of several lifestyle topics. Mena Benjamin Trott developed Moveable Type for her personal blogging while she was unemployed in 2001. Rebecca Blood’s blog, Rebecca’s Pocket covers “media literacy, sustainability, web culture, and domestic life.” She wrote one of the first books about weblogs, The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog (2002) and parlayed her blogging into publishing and speaking about blogs. “The first single-editor libraryoriented weblog” was created by Jessamyn West in 1999 and is regularly updated today. Other early bloggers are Mimi Smartypants, a quirky hypochondriac who displays great wit; Meredith L. Patterson; Virginia Postrel; and Listen Missy. The oldest blog directory on the Web was compiled and managed by Brigette Eaton. The events of September 11, 2001 spurred the creation of a vast number of blogs. It also marked the profusion of media and political sites which added to the diaries, techie tips, and news already in existence. The definition of weblog changed, too. Previously it meant a list of links that the blogger visited over the course of a day. After 9/11 the blog’s identity evolved into a Web journal commenting on news and current events that criticizes the media, politicians, etc. Megan McArdle started recording her thoughts in her blog Asymmetrical Information as a result of her location a few blocks from the World Trade Center. She was hired by the Economist to write for their print magazine and three years later became the magazine’s writer for its blog Free Exchange. Heather Armstrong coined a term for when blogging about your company gets you fired, “dooced.”

Dooce started in February 2001 and about a year later she was fired from her job because she included stories on her blog about people with whom she worked. Like other women bloggers, the focus of her blog changed as she aged and changed careers, married, and became a mother. The success of her blog supports her family and became a full-time job for Armstrong and her husband in 2005 when the ads she ran on her blog allowed him to quit his job. The blogosphere allows women to create projects around their interests. For example, in August 2002 Julie Powell embarked on the Julie/Julia Project, a weblog in which she cooked all the recipes in Julia Child’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. After the blog gained a large audience, Powell wrote a book based on her blog which was adapted into a movie Julie and Julia (2009) starring Meryl Streep. Maud Newton started blogging about books, culture, and politics in November 2002. Her eponymous blog garnered mention across major media like the New York Times, the Guardian, and the New Yorker. Jessa Crispin founded a litblog, Bookslut in 2002. Its eventual success let her support herself by writing and editing content at the site. Jeralyn Merritt, a criminal defense attorney, founded her blog TalkLeft the same year and her commentary provided criticism of the Bush administration during election years. In December 2002, Elizabeth Spiers founded Gawker.com a New York media gossip weblog. Blogging Topics In 2003, bloggers delved into topics like fashion, mothering, the gentle arts, but much attention focused on the role of sex and money in politics in Washington, D.C. Wonkette, founded by Ana Marie Cox commented on Capital Hill politics and policy matters but gained notoriety when she outed Jessica Cutler as “Washingtonienne,” a Washington, D.C., staffer who accepted money for sexual favors from Bush administration officials. She reportedly earned $250,000 for her satirical novel Dog Days, based on life in Washington, D.C. Cox also served as the token woman political blogger among predominantly male bloggers covering the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Meanwhile, Cutler sold a novel based on her blog and life, Washingtonienne: A Novel for a reported $300,000. Sexual innuendo plays an important role as



a topic for women bloggers. Cox’s Wonkettee was notable for it and Bitch Ph.D. uses sexual situations in her explorations of marriage, gender, and power. Craft, knitting, mommybloggers, and foodies joined the blogosphere in 2003. These topics represent the communities in which the majority of women post blogs and create communities. Food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier grew popular her writing about all things food-related in Chocolate and Zucchini. Pim Techamuanvivit quit her day job in the San Francisco Bay area to pursue a career in travel and food writing after Chez Pim gathered a large audience that launched her into writing for the New York Times, Food & Wine magazine, and Bon Appétit, as well as a stint as a judge on Iron Chef America. The Budget Fashionista, a fashion blog, earned Finney six figures, a lifestyle book about fashion, and media appearances on NBC and CNN. Another fashion and entertainment blog, Go Fug Yourself, was established by Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks. Other women who have gained prominence over the years in the blogosphere who started in 2003 are Ellen Simonetti, Jen Chung, and Aliza Sherman. Blogging grew more mainstream by 2004. Research showing that people high in openness to new experiences and/ or high in neuroticism were likely to blog, as well as adopters of new technology. That year women accounted for 4 percent of political blogs. The Presidential election brought the power of blogging to national attention and politicians, political consultants, candidates, and news media explored ways to use these tools for outreach and to affect public opinion. Political entrée to the practice lent blogging authority as part of the news media. Ann Althous, a law professor, blogged about in intersections of law, politics, and popular culture. Feminists like Susie Bright and Jessica Valenti, the founder of Feministing, joined the fray. In 2005, BlogHer was founded by a group of women who wanted to establish a conference for women who blog. Its mission grew to include creating opportunities for the more than 15 million women it reaches to “pursue exposure, education, community, and economic empowerment.” Clearly, blogging was recognized as a viable alternative to traditional career paths for women. The ability to run a business from home granted expanded opportunities to stay at home mothers and disabled women.

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Leslie Morgan Steiner wrote On Balance, a Washingtonpost.com blog about work–family balance between 2006 and 2008. Over two years time and 500 columns she grew into one of the most popular mommybloggers online. Parents, especially mothers, used blogs to connect with family and friends scattered across the nation. Grandparents at a geographic distance from their grandchildren had better insight into the daily life and milestones that they missed out on. Recognizing the need for contemporary topics written about, by, and for women, Slate.com launched XX Factor in fall 2007. Despite the increased numbers of women bloggers, the blogosphere can be unsafe. Kathy Sierra, who wrote the blog Head Rush, was insulted and criticized by readers. Those threats grew into promises of sexual and other kinds of violence. She stopped blogging as a result. A culture of abuse exists online targeting women journalists and bloggers. Sierra’s experience brought the issue to national attention, which spurred development of a Bloggers Code of Conduct. Time magazine inaugurated its Best Blogs list in 2008. Only three of 25 were created by women: The Huffington Post (1), Gawker (12), and Reverse Cowgirl (25). The Huffington Post was ranked the 28th most popular news site in 2008. Ironically, Arianna Huffington’s blog bylines are only 33 percent written by women. Women’s voices were historically silenced by corporate media, but there is hope that the blogosphere will open more opportunities for women, though tensions between old media and new bloggers ran high by 2009 when bloggers were blamed for the decline and precarious state of newspapers across the United States. See Also: Crafting Industry; Cyber-Stalking and Internet Harassment; Entrepreneurs; Fashion Industry; Huffington, Arianna; Internet, Nontraditional Careers, U.S.; Stay-at-Home Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Blood, Rebecca. The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Kline, David and Dan Burnstein. Blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution Is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture. New York: CDS Books, 2005.

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Rosenberg, Scott. Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What it’s Becoming, and Why It Matters. New York: Crown Publishers, 2009. Rebecca Tolley-Stokes East Tennessee State University

Body Art To conform to norms of femininity, the female body has been adored, beautified, and customized to the ideal shape and look. Reclaiming the body from these oppressive regulatory methods was one of the most important agendas of feminism in the 1960s and the 1970s. Women started to use certain types of body art as a form of self-expression through which they could reclaim their bodies. Other body arts, however, are ways of adorning the body to conform to Western beauty ideas. Body art incorporates a versatile field of personal adornment procedures and modifications such as body painting, makeup, tattooing, scarification, branding, piercing, body sculpting, and gender transformation. These forms of body art can be divided into two groups: normative beauty expectations that eroticize the female body for the male gaze such as body painting, certain kinds of tattoos and piercing; and rebellion against social norms that includes such procedures as earlobe stretching, scarification, and branding. Normative Body Art Techniques The most used body painting method is makeup. The primary purpose of makeup is to make women feel that they look attractive by accentuating and shaping the lips, eyes, and cheekbones. However, when used by transvestites, gay men, male punks, New Romantics, and Goths, makeup no longer expresses social conformity but rather constructs a nonnormative sexual identity or an expression of rebellion. Body painting also can be used to paint pictures or whole paintings on the body. In this case, the skin is a surface for projecting fantasy. When applied to women’s bodies, the paintings eroticize certain body parts. If the work covers the whole body, the painting becomes a second skin. Lasting longer than regular body paint-

ing, mehndi design consists of a variety of symbols. Traditionally practiced in north Africa, southeast Asia and the Middle East, mehndi has been practiced in Western countries mostly for decorative purposes. Mehndi consists of symbolical designs and inscribes the body with meaning and offers the opportunity to embed the body with spirituality. Once considered to be outrageous, tattoos and piercings have been incorporated into the mainstream culture. Previously shocking, today tattoos have gained larger acceptance and become mere accessories. Some women use tattoos of butterflies, flowers, stars, or other beautiful drawings on their ankles, shoulders, or lower backs to boost their erotic side. Similar to tattooing, piercings of the eyebrow, navel, and the nose also have become acceptable techniques of self-adornment. These tattoos and piercings

Applying henna designs, known as Mehndi, is an ancient form of body art in the Asian subcontinent.



have gained sexual connotations conforming to heterosexual norms. Politicized Body Arts Certain types of tattoos and piercing still have a shocking effect on onlookers. Bodies covered with tattoos and radical piercings, such as of the nipple and genital areas, present bodies that express subcultural identities including homosexuality, cyberpunk, or sadomasochism (SM). Besides extreme forms of tattooing and piercing, scarification, earlobe stretching, branding, and subdermal implants are ways to altering one’s body. Many of these body alterations are rooted in indigenous cultures where they have symbolic meanings and are part of different rituals. For example, scarification is a practice used in Africa. It involves the cutting of the skin with a sharp tool to produce keloiding in different forms. In the case of branding, the design is created by burning the skin with a heated metal. Body modifiers also make use of the latest technologies as in subdermal implants in which a material is placed under the skin to create a three-dimensional effect. Body modifiers consider the alterations they produce in and on their bodies as symbolic acts through which they reclaim their own body. The body is freed from the Western regulatory beauty and sexual norms and it becomes a limitless field of experimentation and exploration. Besides its connections to indigenous rituals, body modification as a body art movement has its roots in the political activities of subcultural groups of the 1970s and the 1980s such as queer activism, punk, New Age spiritualism, pro-sex feminism, and performance art. These groups combated Western social and cultural norms. For example, queer activism made visible alternative sexualities while pro-sex feminism promulgated the idea that women should explore and take control of their sexualities. Punks expressed their disregard of society by their hairstyle, leather boots and jackets, and use of makeup. All considered the body a field of battleground and a tool through which they could express their personal values and approaches to life. Feminist performance artists such as Carolee Schnee­mann, Hannah Wilke, Yayoi Kusama, and Annie Sprinkle exposed the sexuality of the female body in obscene and vulgar ways, upsetting and thus undermining the sexualizing male gaze. Others

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reclaimed the body by exploring the symbolic power of body alterations such as smearing, burning, and skin cutting. These performances resembled rituals of passage in which the woman’s body was freed from oppressive social norms. With body art, the physical body becomes a source of self-definition and selfexploration through which a new self is created. Self-Actualization The body politics involved in body modifications is well summarized by Cordelia, who appears in Ted Polhemus’s 1996 book, The Customized Body, illustrated by Housk Randall. For Cordelia, piercing was not a fashion accessory. For her it represents a symbolic act through which she regains ownership of her body. According to Cordelia, “My body wasn’t mine until I claimed it through piercing. I didn’t do it for fashion.” The character enjoys experimenting with her body: “I like modifying and re-creating my body in many ways; this is exciting.” Cordelia uses these experimentations to define herself as “somewhere between a man and a woman.” The same desire to own one’s body is expressed by the women interviewed by author Victoria Pitts-Taylor in 2003. The women who underwent the painful ritual of scarification claimed that through these rituals they asserted their authority over their own bodies. These rituals, often performed among supportive friends, are regarded as a rite of passage. Before the body modifications, their body was an object of abuse. After inscribing particularly those body parts that were abused such as breast, genitals, and lower abdomen, the self-body relationship is transformed. The body is returned to its rightful owner. One of the women, Elaine, described her body modification as a process through which she was “brought back” to her body. Some of the women interviewed by Pitts-Taylor were members of lesbian SM communities. Spectacular body marks are part of the practices used by several sexual subcultures, such as radical gays and lesbians, trans gender individuals and leather people. Queering the body is an exploration of erotic and sexual expression. At the same time, it “reflects a politicized aesthetics of deviance, where overt bodily display is seen as a powerful affront to essentializing norms,” wrote Pitts-Taylor. Body art incorporates diverse methods of presenting and marking the body. For women, some of the body

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arts are ways of accessorizing their physical selves by making their bodies desirable objects for men to appreciate. For others, such body arts as radical tattooing, piercing, scarification, and branding have strong personal and highly political meanings that allow women to reclaim control of their bodies and at the same time rebel against the patriarchal rules of society. For these women, body art is a vehicle for self-expression that also builds different subcultural communities. Body art is defined on a personal level by the individual who chooses to undergo the modifications, and is viewed by society in a larger context as either a conforming, fashionable accessory or a rebellion against social norms. See Also: Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural; Body Image; Feminism, American; Queer Theory. Further Readings Clinton, Sanders and Angus D. Vail. Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008. Fabius, Carine. Mehndi: Art of Henna Body Painting. New York: Random House. 1998. Groning, K. and F. Anton. Decorated Skin: A World Survey of Body Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Hewitt, Kim. Mutilating the Body: Identity in Blood and Ink. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997. Hudson, Karen L., ed. Chink Ink: 40 Stories of Tattoos and the Women Who Wear Them. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2007. Jones, Amelia. Body Art: Performing the Subject. London: University of Minnesota Press, 1998. Mifflin, Margot. Bodies of Subversion: The Secret History of Women and Tattoo. New York: Juno Publishing, 2001. Osterud, Amelia Klem. The Tattooed Lady: A History. Golden, CO: Speck Press, 2009. Pitts-Taylor, V. In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Polhemus, Ted. Hot Bodies, Cool Styles: New Techniques in Self-Adornment. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. Polhemus, Ted and Housk Randall. The Customized Body. London: Serpent’s Tail, 1996. Vergine, Lea. Body Art: The Body as Language. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000. Zita Farkas Independent Scholar

Body Image The term body image refers to how people think and feel about their bodies. It can be healthy or unhealthy and will probably change a few times over the course of one’s life. Body image develops as a result of various influences, including personal experience, how individuals physically perceive themelves, and feedback one receives from their environment. Responses from the environment include how people are treated by others as well as socialization from the multiple cultures that influence every person such as family, ethnicity, religion, and social class. General societal influences like the media also impact how people perceive themselves. There have been varying images of the “ideal body” throughout history and across cultures. A healthy body image is marked by a realistic perception and acceptance of one’s size and shape. This type of person is comfortable with what she sees in the mirror, has a sound sense of self-worth, and generally likes herself. This also is a reflection of congruence between how one thinks of their body and sociocultural expectations about how one should look. An unhealthy body image typically includes shame and/or anxiety about how one looks. There may be comparison with others, or with the idealized cultural norm regarding how women should look. This person may or may not have a realistic understanding of her body size and shape. It is important to point out that one’s body image does not necessarily reflect how closely a person mirrors the idealized norm for size and appearance. Just because there are enormous pressures on women to look a certain way or face social rejection does not mean she sees herself as others do. Women who are considered physically attractive by others may still have an unhealthy and negative body image. This is a reflection of the complex relationship between cultural expectations, socialization, physical attributes, and personal experience in the formation of one’s body image. Origins of Body Image Ideals Throughout the world, women are socialized to believe in a cultural definition of female attributes. From the time a girl is born, she is told which clothes are appropriate for her to wear, what kind of hairstyle is fitting for a female; which toys to play with or



activities to undertake; how much to help the family with household duties and responsibilities; and many other specifically female messages. If the girl is privileged enough to be educated, she is expected to focus on certain types of studies rather than others. When the female enters the workforce, regardless of her age or education level, she is relegated to certain types of work and expected to engage in certain behaviors, but not others, while doing that work. Thus, women worldwide are considered subservient to men, expected to care for others throughout their lives, and when allowed to work outside of the home, tend to be relegated to professions that help others. The overarching force behind these phenomena is colonialism, which tends to bring with it patriarchy, heteronormativity and classism. Colonialism has affected most, if not all, of the world and, even though there are sometimes shifts in global powers, the idea that select, very rich and powerful nations control the rest of the world seems to stay the same. Colonialism has historically favored rich, heterosexual men with light skin. There are complex historical processes at work in each culture that has experienced colonization, but the fact remains that rich, light-skinned, presumably heterosexual men have been dominating the public and personal spaces of almost every culture around the world for hundreds of years. Patriarchy requires that men are separate from women so that privileged men may maintain control over everyone else (i.e., women and unprivileged males). Heteronormativity, or the assumption that everyone is or should be heterosexual, helps maintain patriarchy such that there are two distinct sexes, man and woman, and every woman needs to be paired with a man. The end result is that men with privilege remain powerful while women tend to be considered subservient to them and feel pressure to conform to societal standards to be accepted by men, affiliate with at least one male, and thereby acquire some measure of power in a system that would otherwise render a woman invisible. Almost universally around the world, women’s bodies are treated with less respect than a man’s. Whether the discussion is on pregnancy, contraception, abortion, or childbirth; rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, or sexual terrorism; how much women are paid relative to men for the same work; or even if women are allowed to work outside the home, vote, or hold

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office, the fact remains that women are objectified in patriarchal systems that reign worldwide. Some cultures want women to be unseen, so they must cover all or most of their body when in public. Other cultures think a woman should put her body on display for men, so skimpy and revealing clothes are considered attractive. Some cultures dictate women to have long hair while others demand that women have no body hair. Regardless of the details, for all of these socialization processes, women are forced into rigid, stereotypical categories and only considered socially acceptable if they conform. The Idealized Image The idealized image of a woman in the Western world is someone who is light-skinned, able-bodied, young, extremely thin, and presumably heterosexual. In the transgender community, where a person’s gender identity does not “match” the identity typically associated with their biological anatomy, there are still stereotypical rules about what kind of appearance and behavior can “pass” as female. In these circles, wearing wigs and makeup, as well as taking hormones to raise one’s voice or developing larger breasts are preferred; and Facial Feminization Surgery or Gender Reassignment Surgery are all options to help someone live and “pass” as a woman. Historically, each culture has their own idealized image of what a women is but the homogenizing force of colonialism has replaced local standards with Western preferences of beauty in almost every country worldwide. This is occurring in different ways around the world. In Asia, it means women should have larger breasts, thinner legs, and wider eyes. In Africa and Latin America, it means a thinner body with fewer curves and lighter skin. In the United States, Western Europe, and Australia, there is a continued focus on being thin with “white” skin. In all of these countries, a woman must be heterosexual and able-bodied to be fully accepted in society. The consequence of not living up to this image varies but usually includes some form of social rejection, from inability to make friends, form romantic partnerships or even find employment. Overall, the idealized image of how a woman should look remains untouched across age, social class, educational level, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and even nationality, no matter who is enacting these roles.

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Perpetrators of Body Image Ideals It used to be that the ideal body varied across culture around the world. Today, colonialism and globalization have resulted in the imposition of the colonizer’s preferences. Western images of the ideal woman, delivered worldwide through colonization, the Internet, and other types of media, has infiltrated most of the socalled industrialized world. This affects each country differently, but the fact remains that all women are told consistently and incessantly by the media and other socializing influences how to look if they want to be considered socially acceptable. In fact, there seems to be a direct relationship between the presence of Western media and a woman’s body image. In general, greater exposure to Western media leads to greater dissatisfaction with one’s body. This is happening worldwide as women try to look more Western. The medical community, including cosmetic surgery specialists and the diet-weight loss industry all contribute to the conforming pressures of Western culture. Constructs such as height-weight charts arbitrarily impose standards that the research community has consistently determined are incorrect because they do not account for muscle mass, bone structure or other important factors related to a person’s body shape. Still, they are widely used and health professionals often tell patients to change their behavior to conform to the chart’s numbers. Many people who are overweight experience discrimination by medical professionals, who spend less time with them overall and often assume they are unhealthy because of their weight or appearance. The diet and exercise industry is a multibillion dollar business in the United States alone that sells the idea that one should look a certain way to be healthy and happy. What they do not say is that most diet fads do not lead to increased health, and that one may lose weight but it may be muscle instead of body fat. Again, what ends up being sold to the consumer is the idea that their body needs to be changed in some way to be socially acceptable. Cosmetic surgery sells a similar message but with the added promise of a “quick fix” to physical imperfections. This industry continues to grow exponentially each year in many countries around the world. Body image may seem like a superficial phenomenon but it is consistently related to one’s sense of selfworth. From infancy, data show that people who are considered attractive get more positive attention from

their parents and other people in their environment. This means that they are interacted with more as children and are more likely to be considered intelligent, capable and successful academically and vocationally. As adolescents and adults, attractive people generally have more friends, engage in more dating and peer interactions, and tend to be hired more quickly, even in a job that is not based on one’s appearance. When one understands this, it is not hard to see why some people are willing to engage in risky or unhealthy behaviors in an attempt to be considered more attractive or socially acceptable. Consequences of an Unhealthy Body Image Dissatisfaction with one’s body is found among the majority of women in the West. It also is spreading around the globe as women are increasingly compared to the Western image of beauty and blame themselves if they don’t measure up. This is more pronounced in affluent areas where people live a more Western lifestyle (i.e., consumerist, individualistic). Affluent Asian females living in westernized areas like Hong Kong or Tokyo have the highest levels of body dissatisfaction in the world. Women in the United States and Australia are a close second followed by western Europe. Women in Latin and South American countries have body images in the mid-range, except for Argentina, which has a greater European influence. Women in the Middle East and Africa have the lowest dissatisfaction with their bodies but this is changing in nations like Israel and South Africa, as they adopt a more Western lifestyle. Results of Poor Body Image There are many consequences to dissatisfied body image. The almost universal consequence is a lowered sense of self-worth, which can negatively impact the pursuit of one’s goals, general sense of happiness in life, belief that they deserve to be treated well by others, and more. Many people do not feel worthy of attempting to make friend with others, which can lead to social isolation, depression, and decreased opportunities for realizing their academic, career or life goals. Others are so dissatisfied with their bodies that they are willing to go to extreme measures to achieve the so-called “ideal” body. Poor body image is the number one predictor of who develops an eating disorder. The growing num-



bers of eating disturbance seem to point to women who are unhappy with their bodies. Some women binge and purge (i.e., eat normal or large amounts of food and then get rid of the food by throwing up, using laxatives, or other means); others starve themselves; and a number engage in a combination of the two. Some women over exercise, causing physical harm to their bodies by overly taxing their system. Many women use substances, both legal or illegal, to affect their weight, either by curbing hunger, helping remove food from their bodies, or furnishing them with the energy to exercise without eating very much food. These behaviors are unhealthy and they can lead to nutritional deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances, physical problems, and even death. Eating disorders were once characterized as a Western problem that affected higher class, white females. Now it is a problem found in women of all classes across the world. In fact, Medellin, Colombia, is considered the world capital of eating disorders. While the United States still holds the record for annual number of deaths due to eating disorders, Japan currently is in second place with various European, Asian, and Latin American countries following. Both South Africa and Israel continue to record increases in eating disorders. While specific symptoms vary by culture, the entire world has seen a sharp increase in the number of people suffering from eating disorders in an attempt to conform to the Western image of beauty. The only areas that seem to be spared from this sweeping body image movement are Middle Eastern countries that do not allow Western influences into the culture. There also has been an increase in cosmetic surgery worldwide among women with the means to afford the procedures. A steadily increasing number of people choose to undergo cosmetic surgery to change their appearance so that they look more like a thin, light-skinned woman with long, thin legs, a long nose, and a curvaceous bust line. This suggests that many women are dissatisfied with their bodies; these facts also point to how much physical appearance is tied to a sense of self-satisfaction. The procedures requested tend to vary by nation. In Asian countries, where many women are already thin, the most common requests are eyelid restructuring and leg slimming procedures to look more Western. In the United States, Latin America, and Africa, women tend to

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request procedures that will make their breasts larger or firmer, and their skin look younger and thinner. Brazil is considered the cosmetic surgery capital of the world, though Thailand is the world leader in male-to-female sex changes. The United States has long been a leader in cosmetic surgery, but other countries that have historically denounced cosmetic surgery, such as Japan, China, and Korea, are quickly coming on board. The high price tag associated with these procedures leads many people to travel to other parts of the world where it is cheaper. This has led to an exponential increase in cosmetic surgery in places like South Africa, New Zealand, India, and Turkey, among other nations. It may be unfair to argue that increasing rates of eating disturbance, excessive dieting and exercise, drug use, and plastic surgery are directly tied to poor body image. Women have been altering their bodies throughout time to conform to the local standard of beauty. Chinese women bound their feet, Victorian ladies wore corsets, women removed ribs to have smaller waistlines, and other practices around the world demonstrate the impact of social expectations on women over the centuries, if not millennia. What seems to be increasing is the reach of colonialism and influence of a globalized media. With a global economy comes the transmission of idealized images. Society should consider this: what needs to happen for women to be accepted for who they are, rather than how well they fulfill the fantasies of men in power? Various feminist theories and, more recently, Queer Theory, have already started this discussion. What is clear is that if people have social support from people who care about and accept them for who they are, their body image is more likely to be healthy and there are decreased risks of developing negative consequences related to poor body image. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Bariatric Surgery; Breast Reduction/Enlargement Surgery; Cosmetic Surgery; Diet Industry; Eating Disorders; Gender Reassignment Surgery. Further Readings Atkins, Dawn, ed. Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Communities. London: Haworth, 1998.

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Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Grogan, Sarah. Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2008. Martin, Courtney E. Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body. New York: Free Press, 2007. Savacool, Julia. The World Has Curves: The Global Quest for the Perfect Body. New York: Rodale, 2009. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Geneva Reynaga-Abiko University of California, Merced

Bolivia Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America that shares borders with Peru, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil and shares control of Lake Titicaca with Peru. The population is split among two indigenous groups, Chechua (30 percent) and Aymara (25 percent); mestizo or mixed ancestry 30 percent; and white (15 percent). Over 90 percent of the population identify themselves as Roman Catholic, most of the remainder as Protestant. Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, due in part to a history of political unrest. In 2009, the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $4,600 put Bolivia in the middle third of reporting countries, but inequality is extreme: Bolivia’s Gini Index of 59.2 is the 7th highest in the world and an estimated 60 percent of the population live below the poverty line. Bolivia is the world’s third-largest cultivator of coca (used to create cocaine and heroin) and is also a transit country for illegal drugs. In 2009, the population of Bolivia was almost 10 million. Despite a negative net migration index, a high birth rate (25.8 per 1,000 population) and fertility rate (3.2 children per woman) gave the country a growth rate of 1.8 percent. The population structure is typical of a developing country, with a low median age (21.9 years in 2009) and over 35 percent of the

population age 14 or younger. Life expectancy at birth is 64.2 years for males and 69.7 years for females. Status of Women Literacy is lower for women (80.7 percent) than for men (93.1 percent). Although an even number of boys and girls enroll in primary school, about 6 percent more boys attend secondary school. In 2007, women held about 17 percent of the seats in Bolivia’s lower house of parliament and 4 percent in the upper house. Almost 60 percent of Bolivian women age 15 and older are employed, as compared with over 80 percent of Bolivian men age 15 and older. Overall, the male/female ratio is almost even, but men and women are not distributed equally throughout the country. In 2001, there were 91.9 females for every 100 males in rural areas versus 106 females per 100 males in urban areas. Abortion is legal only to save a woman’s life or to preserve her mental and physical health. In 2004, almost 60 percent of Bolivian women reported using contraception, but only 34.9 percent used modern methods of birth control. Many people in Bolivia have limited access to healthcare, which is reflected in poor maternal and child health outcomes. For instance, in 2000 the maternal mortality rate was 420 per 100,000 live births and the infant mortality rate was 51 per 1,000 live births for females and 60 per 1,000 live births for males. The international organization Save the Children ranks Bolivia 44th among 75 Tier II or less developed countries on its Women’s Index, 44th on its Mothers’ Index, and 50th on its Children’s Index. See Also: Drug Trade; Educational Opportunities/ Access; Indigenous Women’s Rights, Bolivia; Poverty; Roman Catholic Church; Wars of National Liberation, Women in. Further Readings Dore, Elizabeth and Maxine Molyneux. Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Hepburn, S. and R. J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.save thechildren.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109 _hp_hd_pub (accessed February 2009).

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United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). World Health Organization. “World Health Report Statistical Annex, Annexes by Country (A-F).” http:// www.who.int/entity/whr/2005/annex/indicators _country_a-f.pdf (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Bollywood Generally agreed to have entered popular usage in the mid-1970s and often attributed to filmmaker Amit Khanna, the term Bollywood combines Hollywood with Bombay, the anglicized name for the western Indian city now known as Mumbai. Despite the protests of critics who prefer the term Indian film industry, Bollywood remains a popular term because it evokes the cultural particularities for which Hindi cinema is best known, including the Mumbai-based film industry, which features Indian actresses who have set the standards of beauty throughout south Asia for the past 50 years; the three-hour-length melodrama format, often featuring tales of forbidden love, and at least four music and dance interludes; and a visual aesthetic characterized by bright colors, elaborate costumes, idealized gender stereotypes of passive women and heroic men, and stylized gestures with roots in ancient south Asian styles of performance. Bollywood film production is dominated by men, but its actresses have a degree of fame and wealth far exceeding the vast majority of women in south Asia. Bollywood films draw many of these characteristics from nautanki—traveling shows that circulated throughout north India before the advent of cinema and television technologies. Based on reenactments of Hindu epic literature, particularly the Ramayana and Mahabharata, this style of performance featured many of the elements common to Bollywood films today, particularly in terms of highly stratified gender roles, themes of duty and obligation to family members, and, above all, the conversion of disorder into order through the almost-inevitable happy ending.

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Contemporary Bollywood films have their roots in the introduction of cinema technology to India during the British colonial period (c. 1858–1947). Regular showings of English-language films took place in Mumbai from the late 1890s, and by 1900, Parsi entrepreneurs F. B. Thanalwala and R. G. Phalke were among the first to begin making films with Indian content, including the first film about the city, Splendid New Views of Bombay (1900). India’s first story film, Pundalik (1912), followed the nautanki tradition of narrating the life of a Hindu religious figure as a form of secular entertainment, which remains a popular film format today. Movie theaters and film censors emerged in 1918 with the passage of the Indian Cinematograph Act, although the film industry continued to be a site of stigma for women because it involved public appearances in front of men outside the family. Early actresses often came from tawaif (hereditary courtesan) families who could no longer support themselves through patronage from wealthy families. Other actresses came from families that were from communities that were not Hindu or Muslim. For instance, the first major Hindi film production, Shakuntala (1919), told the story of a female heroine from the epic Mahabharata and starred American actress Dorothy Kingdom. Many other actresses were Anglo-Indian (of mixed English/Indian heritage) or Jewish, such as Sulochana, whose real name was Ruby Mayers. Sulochana starred in a number of films throughout the 1920s that dealt with the difficulties women faced in the workplace, such as Telephone Girl (1926), Typist Girl (1926), and Wild Cat of Bombay (1927). There were numerous other actresses like her, all of whom were either foreign or came from marginalized groups in India, such as Fearless Nadia, an Australian woman known for her stunt performances. By the early 1930s, several Hindi film production companies were vying with one another, and the Bollywood genre began to take more concrete shape. Films such as Daulat ka Nasha (Money Is a Drug, 1931) and Kisan Kanya (Village Maiden, 1937) set the precedent for numerous future films of a genre that superficially purported to “expose” an unfortunate (and usually sexualized) social condition, such as the plight of widows or low-caste women, while titillating their predominantly male audiences in the process.

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Bollywood films ranked as the eighth-highest earner among all Indian industries, employing over 40,000 people, with 1,496 theaters, including 500 touring cinemas by 1940. This burgeoning industry became institutionalized in the 1950s with the emergence of actors and performers who remain iconic figures today, such as Raj Kapoor, Nargis, and Lata Mangeshkar. Indian cinema first gained international acclaim with the release of Bengali-language filmmaker Satjajit Ray’s Pathar Panchali (The Song of the Road, 1955), which won six European film awards. By this time, the Indian film industry had largely become self-sufficient, with its own technicians, producers, and performers. One of the greatest markers in the history of Hindi cinema is the release of Mughal-e-Azam (The Emperor of the Mughals, 1960), which was 15 years in production and cost over $1 million to make. The film was the well-known story of Anarkali, a Mughal courtesan sentenced to death by entombment for flirtatiously glancing at the son of her patron. It combined poetry and history on an extravagant scale with an all-star cast and remains a classic and much-beloved film. A number of films produced throughout the 1960s used Mumbai itself as a central theme, and the city and its most famous industry remain inseparable for many south Asians. Examples of such films include Shahar aur Sapna (City and Dream, 1963), in which a poor young couple unsuccessfully searches for a home of their own, and Gumrah (Lost, 1964), in which Bombay is depicted as an immoral place where married women are led astray. Several rather selfreflective films also emerged in this period, including Satyajit Ray’s Nayak (Hero, 1966), which commented on the personal dilemmas created by fame, with reallife Bengali icon Uttam Kumar cast in the lead role. Many films in the late 1960s and early 1970s began to feature song-and-dance sequences set in prominent locations throughout western Europe. Although completely unrelated to the plot, these musical interludes added a sense of exotic glamour to familiar dilemmas that were by this point very familiar to Indian viewers, such as suitability for marriage and moral dilemmas surrounding courtship. A vibrant print media chronicled the lives of well-known Hindi film performers from the late 1960s onward in meticulous detail. Magazines such as Filmfare and Stardust emerged during this period and continue to be popular with south Asians and those in the diaspora.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, almost 800 Hindi films were being made each year in Mumbai, although the south Asian diaspora became an increasingly popular topic by the end of the decade. This stems in part from the vast socioeconomic changes India underwent beginning in 1991, when a balance-of-payments crisis spurred the implementation of the International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustment policies that privileged foreign investment, and thus opened an enormous range of new consumer and lifestyle choices for urban Indians. By the late 1990s, Hindi films began to diversify substantially, catering to different markets with unique tastes and desires; this trend is likely to continue. Female filmmakers remain a small minority, yet many young women still highly covet roles as actresses in films and aspire to the adulation film stars receive in the world’s second most populous nation. See Also: Celebrity Women; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Gandhi, Sonia; Hindu Female Gurus and Living Saints; India; International Monetary Fund; Pakistan. Further Readings Dwyer, R. Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Ganti, Tejaswini. Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Indian Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004. Susan Dewey Indiana University, Bloomington

Bosnia and Herzegovina The statistical data for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is not reliable because there was no census after 1991. Nevertheless, the relevant United Nations agencies have some projected data. According to these data, there are approximately 3.8 million people living in BiH, half of which are women, out of which 35 percent are employed. Even though there are a greater number of educated women than educated men (20 percent of women compared to 17 percent men have attended higher educational institutions), they earn 20 to 50 percent less than men. In addition to these data, the situation of women in BiH can be best illustrated with the fact that women

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are disproportionately affected by at least two transitions that BiH has entered. The first transition started in the late 1980s and is understood as the political and economic transition (from the socialist system). The second transition is the transition from the war into the post–war society that started with the signing of Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995. These transitions have affected women in such way that previously secured social and economic rights and support systems were lost (health, pension, social security, and childcare systems are barely functional). The war between 1992 and 1995 enormously victimized women. Women who survived genocide may have lost their male family members or were survivors of sexual violence. In many places elderly, displaced, or refugee women were the only ones that returned to their empty villages. The post–war period marked a significant increase in trafficking of women. In respect to the legal framework, the Constitution of BiH prohibits gender discrimination; the Gender Equality Law was adopted in 2003 and as a consequence gender mechanisms were established (state Gender Equality Agency and two of this entity’s Gender Centers). Most of the forms of the violence against women, including domestic violence, have been criminalized, but this has not yet resulted in a decrease in violence against women. The political representation of women is very low. In 2010, in the Parliament of BiH only 5 women (11.9 percent) are delegates in the House of Representatives, while 13 percent of women are delegates in the House of Peoples. The Council of Ministers has no female ministers and only two women are deputy ministers. Women are trying to make their voices heard through their participation in nongovernmental organizations. Significant numbers of women activists are working in the academia and in the fields of cultural production trying to articulate the sociological, cultural and theoretical frameworks for gender equality in BiH. See Also: Domestic Violence; Rape in Conflict Zones; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Arsenijevi´c, Damir, et al. “Women Writing in Red Ink: Women’s Writing and Socio-Political Change in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.” In Elisaveta Blagojevi´c, et al., eds., Gender and Identity: Theories

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From and/or on Southeast Europe. Belgrade, Serbia: Women’s Studies and Gender Research Center, 2006. Dzumhur, Jasminka. “Bejining +15 Regional Review Meeting. Geneva, November 2009. UNDP Panel Discussion on Enhancing Women’s Political Participation.” http://europeandcis.undp.org/uploads /public1/files/Dzumhur.doc (accessed June 2010). Husanovic, Jasmina. “The Politics of Gender, Witnessing, Postcoloniality and Trauma: Bosnian Feminist Trajectories.” Feminist Theory, v.10/1 (2009). G. Mlinarevic University of Sarajevo

Botox Botox is a brand name for botulinum toxin type A (botulinum), a neurotoxic protein. The substance is commonly used for the reduction of facial wrinkles. In the United States, in 2008, botulinum was administered more than 5 million times—a quadrupling since 2000. Botulinum injections made up about half of the 10.4 million “minimally invasive” cosmetic surgery procedures reported by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in 2008. Worldwide, across various demographics and ethnicities, it is the most common cosmetic surgery treatment; women make up approximately 91 percent of its users. This entry traces the history of botulinum, its administration, side effects, and cultural implications. Botulinum toxin is a naturally occurring poison found in decomposing meat. While the contraction of botulism from contaminated food can be fatal, when highly diluted and purified the toxin has therapeutic uses. British scientist Arnold Burgen discovered in 1949 that botulinum blocks neuromuscular transmission and can be injected directly into muscles to cause temporary paralysis. He undertook experiments to test the substance’s efficacy in treating tics, spasms and other neuromuscular disorders. Botulinum was approved for therapeutic use in the United States or conditions of the eye, such as uncontrollable blinking, in 1984. It was later noted that the wrinkles of patients were lessened; in 2002 the drug was approved for use in treatment of facial lines. It has since been aggressively

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marketed as a wrinkle treatment by its U.S. manufacturer, Allergan Pharmaceuticals, under the trade name Botox. Botox has become a household name and is one of the most widely recognized prescription medicines in the world. Hence, botulinum is often conflated with Botox, although the product is also produced by other companies under the labels BTXA, Botutox, Estetox-A, Refinex, Novotox, Canitox, QuickStar, Linurase, Dysport, and Neuronox. Botulinum is part of a suite of nonsurgical cosmetic surgery procedures and is administered, usually without anesthetic, via a very fine needle into multiple points on the face. It takes about four days for the effects to be seen. Side effects can include temporary flu-like symptoms, headaches, hematoma, bruising, drooping eyelids, and double vision. Some scientists maintain that botulinum has not been used long enough to accurately determine its carcinogenic or long-term effects. Botulinum injections diminish the appearance of wrinkles on the face, especially those around the eyes, on the forehead and between the eyebrows. As with other cosmetic surgery, it is most often used by women aged 40 to 54. However, it is also marketed to the public as a means of avoiding the development of wrinkles in a preemptive manner. The product can cause a “frozen” or “plastic-” looking face, and is often criticized for the way it diminishes the range of facial expressions available, especially to actors. Botulinum’s effects last about 120 days. It is dispensed in glass vials that each hold enough liquid for several injections. In 2008, the average cost of a botulinum treatment in the United States was $500. The substance has a four-hour life once a vial is opened but not all recipients need an entire vial. To address this discrepancy some patients and surgeons host “Botox parties,” where the cost is shared between multiple recipients. These gatherings, held in clinics or in private homes, have become part of the popular mythology around Botox. A Botox party, for instance, was featured in the pilot of the Nip/Tuck television series. Botox parties are indication of how cosmetic surgery, once kept secret and hidden, is, in the early 21st century, far more acceptable: even a status symbol. The parties are controversial in part because of the likelihood of alcohol being imbibed while undergoing a medical procedure. In 2008, they were banned by the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council.

Botulinum’s effects are evident on the faces of many high-profile women, especially celebrities. However, as with other cosmetic surgery, it is still rare to publicly admit using the product. Along with all cosmetic surgery, botulinum is changing perceptions of how ageing is managed and of “acceptable” standards of femininity and beauty. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Body Image; Cosmetic Surgery; Cosmetics Industry; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Our Bodies, Ourselves; Representation of Women. Further Readings Carruthers, A. and J. Carruthers. “BOTOX Treatment for Expressive Facial Lines and Wrinkles.” Current Opinion Otolaryngol Head Neck Surgery, v.8 (2000). Cooke, Grayson. “Effacing the Face: Botox and the Anarchivic Archive.” Body & Society, v.14 (2008). Gilman, Sander. Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Haiken, Elizabeth. Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Jones, Meredith. Skintight: A Cultural Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2008. Misra, Peter. “The Changed Image of Botulinum Toxin.” British Medical Journal, v.325 (2002). Meredith Jones University of Technology, Sydney

Botswana The Republic of Botswana is often described as a flourishing multiparty democracy with a growing economy. However, women are still inadequately represented in high political and decision-making positions. In addition, despite the country’s economic growth, there has also been an increase in poverty and social inequality. The relatively small population of 1.84 million has both a high per capita income, estimated at $13,300 in 2008, and one of the world’s highest human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection rates. The national prevalence rate among adults

Botswana aged 15 to 29 years is 24 percent. Women have an increased risk for HIV infection, and men aged 15 to 24 years experience an HIV prevalence rate of 5.7 percent, whereas women of the same age group experience prevalence rates of 15.3 percent. Botswana has had a developed institutional framework to advance gender equality since the 1980s and has ratified several international and regional instruments regarding women’s civil, political, socioeconomic, and cultural rights; for example, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. Although the Constitution entitles men and women to equal fundamental rights and freedoms, accessing those rights depends on the application of common or customary law. The state reserves the right to confine rights on the basis of sex on “reasonable grounds,” often meaning that customary laws that discriminate against women continue to be reinforced.

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The 2004 Abolition of Marital Power Act, which abolished the common-law principle of marital power, reducing women to minor status, is one measure that has been implemented to address gender inequality. However, this act, too, has its flaws. The act does not define marriage, and therefore lacks universal application, as it only applies to civil marriages. Most women are married customarily, effectively meaning that marital power still applies. Since the 1980s, Botswana has been the world’s principal producer of diamonds, and mining is its most important industry. Tourism is also significant to the economy, although agriculture provides a livelihood for the majority of people. Because the country has a dual legal system, women have limited ownership rights in relation to access to land and property, compromising women’s rights and economic opportunities. Social attitudes and legislative structures are conservative regarding nonheteronormative sexual practice. For instance, in 1998 the penal code further criminalized same-sex sexual activity by extending the law to criminalize same-sex activities between women. In 2002, Gender Links and the Media Institute of Southern Africa reported that women only accounted for 16 percent of known news sources. Bessie Head, one of Africa’s most prominent writers, moved to Botswana in 1964 as a refugee and was given citizenship in 1979. She died in Botswana in 1986. Her three major novels, When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power were written during her time in Botswana. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Marriage; Property Rights; Sexual Orientation-Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States.

Botswana confines rights based upon “reasonable grounds,” so that laws that discriminate against sex are still reinforced.

Further Readings Alexander, Elsie. Beyond Inequalities 2005: Women in Botswana. Harare, Zimbabwe/Gaborone, Botswana: Southern African Research and Documentation Centre, 2005. Griffiths, Anne. “Women’s Worlds, Siblings in Dispute Over Inheritance: A View From Botswana.” Africa Today, v.49/1 (2002). Leslie, Agnes Ngoma. Social Movements and Democracy in Africa: The Impact of Women’s Struggle for Equal Rights in Botswana. London: Routledge, 2006.

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Upton, Rebecca, L. “‘Women Have No Tribe’: Connecting Carework, Gender, and Migration in an Era of HIV/ AIDS in Botswana.” Gender and Society, v.17/2 (2003). Danai S. Mupotsa Monash University

Bowers, Marci Dr. Marci Bowers emerged in the first years of the 21st century as one of the premier surgeons performing sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) in the United States and the world. She performs SRS at Mount San Rafael Hospital in Trinidad, Colorado, continuing the practice in sex-change surgery begun there by Dr. Stanley Biber in 1969. Their work has made Trinidad a mecca for those men and women seeking to transition, that is, to align through surgery their sex and their gender identity. Born Mark Bowers in 1958, Dr. Marci Bowers had known from her childhood that her male genitalia did not align with her gender identity as a woman. She began transitioning about 1996. In 2003, at the invitation of Dr. Biber, she joined him in Trinidad and began working with him on sex reassignment surgeries. By the summer, she had succeeded him in the practice, becoming the first American transsexual surgeon to perform SRS in the United States. A Wisconsin native, Marci Bowers attended the University of Wisconsin before going on to receive her medical training at the University of Minnesota where she completed her studies in 1986. She did her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington in Seattle where she initially practiced at The Polyclinic and, since 2002, at Seattle Reproductive Healthcare. Dr. Bowers worked solely in obstetrics and gynecology in Seattle until she joined Dr. Biber in Trinidad, Colorado. Since then, she has divided her career between her practices in Washington and Colorado. Dr. Biber was among the first surgeons, along with physicians at both the Johns Hopkins and Stanford university medical centers, to perform SRS in the United States. Using the penile inversion techniques originally developed by the French gynecologist, George Burou, at his clinic in Casablanca during the

1960s and 1970s, Biber passed his techniques on to Dr. Bowers who has continued to make innovations in the complex surgery of converting penis and scrotum into vagina and labia, in particular the use of the glans in clitoral construction. Dr. Bowers also performs her surgeries in line with the Standards of Care set forth by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin Institute, of which she is a member. In 2009, Dr. Bowers began using her SRS expertise to perform innovative reparative gynoplasty for African and Middle Eastern women who have been subject to female circumcision, a severe mutilation of female genitalia. She began working in this area in France with Dr. Pierre Foldes, a urologist, supported by the Clitoraid Foundation. She brought her work back to the United States where she has initiated reparative gynoplasty in her clinic in Trinidad. In particular, she has worked to rebuild not only labia but the clitoris as well, restoring feelings of “wholeness” to women and the potential for sexual pleasure. The recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Bowers is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology. She is also on the board of the Ingersoll Gender Center and the advisory board for the Midwives’ Association of Washington State as well as a member of WPATH, the European Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. See Also: Female Genital Surgery; Gender, Defined; Gender Dysphoria; Gender Reassignment Surgery; Medical Research, Gender Issues; Physicians, Female; Transgender; Women’s Health Clinics. Further Readings Conant, Eve. “The Kindest Cut.” Newsweek (October 20, 2009). http://www.newsweek.com/id/218692 (accessed June 2010). Jackson, Chris. “The ‘Transational’ Dr. Marci Bowers.” Lavender Magazine: Minnesota’s GLBT Magazine. http://www.lavendermagazine.com/archives/issue-340 /the-%E2%80%9Ctransational%E2%80%9D-dr-marci -bowers (accessed October 2009). Marci L. Bowers, M.D. http://marcibowers.com (accessed September 2009). Mark Reger Limestone College



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Boxing Referred to as the “sweet science,” evidence suggests that the sport of boxing has existed since early civilization. Boxing was a sporting competition in the ancient Olympic games and continues to have a strong sport presence in modern times. Boxing is a dichotomous sport, as it has various facets of appeal and disdain. In its malign, the sport has been identified as being an excessively brutal activity with controversial connections to gambling and organized crime. Boxing displays gender differences and inequalities that have shaped its development in our culture. The sport has been directly linked with gender ideology, as scholars have denoted the intrinsically masculine nature of the activity. Boxing is an exciting and captivating sport. Along with the associated excitement, there are various trepidations associated with boxing; primary concerns include the inherent risk of injury or death. With such serious apprehensions, one may wonder why individuals, both participants and spectators, would choose to partake in a sport that has been described as “blood thirsty” and “barbaric.” Boxing is an anomaly in regard to socially accepted forms of athletic participation in the United States. The sport gained mainstream appeal when the U.S. government endorsed boxing as a means to develop self-discipline and to prepare soldiers for combat during the early 20th century. Throughout the course of modern history, however, the sport experienced various controversies and criticism that damaged its appeal and acceptance as a reputable form of competition. Inherently tied to masculinity and brutality, questions can be raised as to why women would want to participate in such a brutal, violent sport. Ironically, it was the threat of violence that motivated women to participate in boxing during the latter half of the 20th century. Boxing became a sport women could learn to protect themselves from the threat of male predators or abusive spouses. Furthermore, the women’s liberation movement and Title IX of the Educational Amendments allowed greater access to the sport of boxing. Following a series of lawsuits, the United States Amateur Boxing Federation and USA Boxing began sanctioning women’s matches in 1993. In 1997, USA Boxing hosted the first official Women’s National Championship, followed by the inaugural World Championships in 2001.

Boxing displays gender differences and inequalities that have shaped its development in modern society.

Boxing and Mainstream Culture The sport of boxing has made household names of noted pugilists such as Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield, and Oscar De La Hoya. Although boxing has been a sport predominated by males, female boxing participation has grown in popularity in recent times. Women boxers have also found their way into mainstream media. Laila Ali has been the most recognizable face of professional women’s boxing over the past decade. She initially was known for being the daughter of legendary fighter and cultural icon Muhammad Ali. She went on to become a trailblazer in the ring who has brought the sport of women’s boxing to unprecedented heights. Ali has also managed to be a crossover star. In addition to boxing, Laila has been featured on Dancing With the Stars and hosting American Gladiators, which demonstrate her versatility as an entertainer and celebrity. Although Ali has been the sports brightest star, she has not had a professional fight since 2007. While she has taken time off from boxing to start a family and pursue other public ventures, her absence has left a major void in the women’s professional boxing scene. Other female boxers have been celebrated in the media for reasons related to their sporting skill. For example, Lucia Rijker gained notoriety due to her role

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as the final counterpart of Hillary Swank’s character, Maggie Fitzgerald, in the film Million Dollar Baby. Mia St. John, a successful boxer, is commonly referred to as the “Boxing Bunny” for her appearance in Playboy magazine. Christie Martin, another prominent boxer, became the first woman pugilist to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Million Dollar Baby One of the most visible portrayals of professional women’s boxing came in the form of the 2004 Academy Award–winning film Million Dollar Baby. This film starring Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hilary Swank offered a spotlight to the world of women’s boxing; as well as some of the issues and challenges associated with the sport. In the film, the primary antagonist Maggie Fitzgerald (played by Swank) seeks to pursue a career in professional boxing. She seeks the tutelage of crotchety gym owner Frankie Dunn (played by Eastwood) who provides training for some promising young fighters. The film chronicles the relationship between the “old school” guiding force that reluctantly allows “a girl” to train in his gym. Ultimately, Maggie defies the odds to be the best female fighter in the world. Current Status In addition to the loss of the visibility and star power that Laila Ali’s presence brought the sport, women’s boxing has continued to be impacted by other impediments. The sport of boxing in general has had to contend with the emergence of mixed martial arts (MMA). The arrival of MMA has splintered viewer interest and taken away from the visibility of boxing and its revenue sources such as pay-per-view (PPV) dollars. MMA has also experienced the growth in female participation. In particular, in regard to women’s MMA involvement, the emergence of Gina Corano has positioned her with a well-built degree of celebrity, making her the face of the sport. Despite recent setbacks, women’s boxing shows signs of maturing as a legitimate sport. Throughout the world, approximately 120 countries sponsor women’s boxing programs. It is estimated that 3,000 women are registered boxers with USA Boxing annually and in August 2009, the International Olympic Committee announced women’s boxing would be included in the 2012 Summer Games. Approximately

2,500 U.S. women boxers are expected to compete for a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team. See Also: Ali, Laila; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; Stereotyping Women; Xtreme Sports. Further Readings Fields, Sarah K. Female Gladiators: Gender, Law, and Contact Sports in America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Laila Ali. “History.” http://www.lailaali.com/history (accessed July 2010). USA Today. “Women Boxers Hope to Send Message to IOC.” http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/ summer/2009-08-11-womenbox_N.htm (accessed July 2010). USABoxing.org. “The Evolution of Women’s Boxing.” http://usaboxing.org/pages/1033 (accessed July 2010). Women Boxing Archive Network. “Chronological Events that Occurred in Women’s Boxing.” http://www.women boxing.com/historic.htm (accessed July 2010). Woodward, Keith. Boxing, Masculinity and Identity: The ‘I’ of the Tiger. London: Routledge, 2007. Jason W. Lee University of North Florida Elizabeth A. Gregg Jacksonville University

Brady, Sarah In March 1981, White House press secretary James S. Brady was seriously injured in the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. In the wake of her husband’s injury, Sarah Brady became a leading advocate of gun control in the United States and a fierce opponent of the powerful National Rifle Association. In 1985, she joined Handgun Control, Inc., the largest gun control lobbying organization in the United States. Four years later, she became chair of the group, lobbying members of Congress and campaigning actively for political candidates who supported gun control legislation, regardless of their political affiliation. In 1991, Brady took on the additional role of chair of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, an organization committed to reducing gun violence

Bratz Dolls



through education, research, and legal advocacy. Her years of activism culminated in President Bill Clinton’s signing into law the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which required a five-day waiting period and background check upon the purchase of a handgun. In her determination to see more sweeping changes to the way guns are bought and sold in the United States, Sarah Brady has continued her advocacy. Not even a bout with lung cancer and semi-retirement have weakened her commitment to the cause of gun control. Born Sarah Jane Kemp on February 6, 1942, in Missouri, Brady grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, the daughter of a homemaker and an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After her graduation from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1964, Sarah taught school for four years but then left the classroom to work as an assistant to the campaign director of the National Republican Congressional Committee. While she was employed by the committee, she met James Brady, whom she married in 1973. Sarah Brady served as a congressional aide before accepting a position as director of administration and coordinator of field services for the Republican National Committee. By the time her husband was named Ronald Reagan’s White House press secretary, Sarah Brady had resigned from her work with the Republican National Committee to care for the couple’s only son, James Scott Brady Jr., who was born in 1979. Gun Control Advocate The Bradys were enjoying life among the Washington elite, but a bullet from a .22 caliber revolver in the hands of John W. Hinckley Jr. changed their lives forever. James Brady was left paralyzed. Sarah Brady encouraged her husband through his struggles to adapt to life in a wheelchair. The advocacy that made her the name the public most associated with gun control began three years after her husband was wounded when Congress was debating the repeal of provisions to the Gun Control Act of 1968. When she contacted Handgun Control Inc. to ask how she could help, she was given the task of writing letters to members of Congress. Later, she began lobbying on Capitol Hill and eventually became the organization’s most prominent speaker. It took seven hard-fought years from the time the Brady Bill was introduced to the 100th Congress in

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1987 until President Clinton signed the bill into law on November 30, 1993, in a ceremony attended by James and Sarah Brady. The battle made a political Independent of Sarah Brady for whom the issue of gun control had become far greater than partisan loyalties. She spoke at the National Democratic Convention in 1996, and she and her husband endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign. In December 2000, the boards of trustees for Handgun Control and the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence renamed these organizations the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in tribute to James and Sarah Brady. Earlier that same year, Sarah Brady, a smoker for much of her life, had been diagnosed with stage III lung cancer. Her chances of surviving for five years were less than 30 percent. In her memoir, A Good Fight (2002), she recounts her battles to care for her husband, to reform the nation’s gun laws, and to beat the odds in her own fight against cancer. Brady, who still serves as chair of the Brady Campaign and the Brady Center as well as on the board of trustees, continues her fight on all three fronts. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Gun Control; Million Mom March; Political Ideologies. Further Readings Brady, Sarah with Merrill McLoughlin. A Good Fight. New York: Public Affairs, 2002. Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “Biographies: Sarah Brady.” http://www.bradycenter.org/about/bio /sarah (accessed March 2010). Nisbet, Lee. The Gun Control Debate. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Press, 1991. Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Bratz Dolls MGA Entertainment, Inc. introduced the Bratz dolls in 1991. Initially the sales for the Bratz dolls were low, and parents were reportedly reluctant to purchase the dolls due to their provocative clothing and streetwise demeanor. However, within a couple years of

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their debut, Bratz were gaining popularity as Barbie sales slightly declined. Bratz gained popularity among 7- to 10-year-old girls quickly; although Barbie sales remained strong, this age group was once the mainstay of Barbie’s market. Departing from the sales model set by Mattel’s Barbie with one doll serving as the leading product, the original line of the Bratz consisted of four dolls, Chloe, Jade, Sasha, and Yasmin. Each was given equal status in the marketing campaigns. MGA Entertainment designed the Bratz dolls as multicultural and multiethnic friends, which proved to be a sound decision to market the doll to a wide range of groups. Like their counterparts in the toy market, the Bratz dolls have been scrutinized and analyzed by scholars, parents, and child advocate groups for being too mature and sexual. The dolls have large heads, long hair, with heavily made-up eyes and lips. Bratz dolls are clothed in tight fitting shirts, short skirts often with fishnet stockings and high heels. Some scholars have noted the sexualized look of the multiethnic and multicultural dolls as a dangerous way to sell diversity to young children. Compared to the relative wholesome look of Barbie and the American Girls dolls, Bratz dolls have been described as “hooker chic.” The Bratz share some similarities with their rivals in the toy market, including a wide variety of merchandise available for purchase such as clothing, pets and housing for the dolls. Bratz brand clothing is also available for children to wear. The merchandise for the dolls revolves around fashion and shopping prompting concerns that Bratz dolls promote the message of empowerment through consumerism to girls. A liveaction film inspired by the dolls, Bratz: The Movie, was released in 2007 to unfavorable reviews and poor box office sales; however, the popularity of the dolls remained high. With the rise in popularity of Bratz dolls and products, sales of other dolls, most notably Barbie, once the undisputed favorite among young girls and preteens, dropped. Mattel filed a lawsuit against MGA Entertainment, Inc. in 2004 citing copyright infringement and breach of contract. Mattel claimed that the Bratz doll sketches by Carter Bryant were developed while Bryant worked at Mattel, and therefore all Bratz products belonged to the company. The trial took several years, with Mattel ultimately winning a $100 million settlement for breach of contract and copyright infringement. A judge also

ordered MGA Entertainment to cease production of the Bratz dolls. The court battle continued after the jury’s verdict and judge’s decision as MGAEntertainment’s lawyers stated the other Bratz dolls developed after the original four should not be included in the court’s decision. The Bratz line continues to be produced by MGA, and the line has expanded to over 30 different models, including babies and boy dolls. Despite the legal battles and the criticism of the dolls as highly sexualized, Bratz dolls continue to be a favorite of young girls and preteens. See Also: American Girl Dolls; Barbie Dolls; Body Image; Toys, Gender-Stereotypic. Further Readings American Psychological Association. “Report on the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls,” http://www .apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx (accessed November 2009). Associated Press. “Barbie Beats Bratz Dolls in Legal Battle.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/04/ national/main4647827.shtml?source=RSSattr=World _4647827 (accessed November 2009). Duncum, Paul. “Aesthetics, Popular Visual Culture, and Designer Capitalism.” International Journal of Art & Design Education, v.26/3 (2007). MGA Entertainment, Inc. Website, http://www.mgae .com/default.asp (accessed November 2009). Marcia Hernandez University of the Pacific

Brazil The lives of women in Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world, have been marked by intersections of social class, ethnicity, geography, and gender. Added interplay between conservative and liberal forces enacting economic, political, social, and cultural changes has created a diversity of Brazilian women’s conditions and identities that demonstrates the rising power of the female against sexism and domination. The Portuguese first arrived in Brazil in the 1500s, with the intent of exploiting the country’s natural



resources. By mid-16th century, colonizers in Brazil had established the practice of trading in African slaves to supply labor to increasingly profitable industries such as sugar cane. Through three and a half centuries of slavery, those African women who survived worked in the fields; as marketers in the towns and cities; in domestic work as servants, nannies, cooks, cleaners, and washerwomen; and as sex workers and cheap providers of biological reproduction of the enslaved labor force. Widespread intercourse between European men and native women (and later African women) came to be perceived as sexual libertinage and a threat to the constitution of proper families to settle in the colony. A Jesuit priest wrote to the king of Portugal requesting that white women—orphans and even prostitutes and criminals—be sent to Brazil. The court complied. European women were regarded as valuable consorts of men of similar backgrounds and helped settle the country. White women in the casa grande (mansion) and African women in the senzala (slave quarters) both were subject to the rulings and desires of the patriarchs, often with the blessing and meddling of local priests. Such women developed strong connections and deep rivalries—often of a sexual nature—which made for a troubled mistress–slave relationship. In addition to members of the white/black caste system, nonpropertied whites and mestizos of all types, born from mixing between groups—mulatto (white and black), cafuzo (black and native), and caboclo (native and white)—made up Brazil’s growing population. Indigenous people—barely recognized as human—escaped by refusing assimilation or inhabiting inaccessible hinterlands. Until the 20th century, they were not integrated into the nation. Immigration and Health The increasingly economically inefficient slavery system was abolished in 1888 with the help of King Pedro II’s oldest daughter, Princess Isabel. In 1889, the Portuguese–Brazilian monarchy, which had been in power since Brazil’s independence in 1822, fell. The Empire of Brazil became the Republic of the United States of Brazil—a country in need of workers. From the mid-19th century through the 1920s, women and men immigrated from Europe (Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland, and most other countries);

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from the United States, as groups of disgruntled Southerners reopened for business in São Paulo State after the Civil War; from Asia (Japan, China); and from the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine). The Jews who had lived in Brazil from the start, fleeing persecution under the Spanish Inquisition, continued to immigrate in waves. From the nation’s beginning, peoples from many nations have never stopped seeking to establish themselves in Brazil. Immigration has changed the composition of Brazil’s population and its women, with continued interethnic intercourse and assimilation seen against the backdrop of the steady transformation of the capitalist economy from primarily agrarian to commercial, industrial, and service-based. In 2000, there were 86.2 million women, representing approximately 51 percent of the population. About 80 percent lived in urban areas. Almost 40 percent were girls and teenagers younger than 19 years, and 32 percent were aged between 20 and 40 years, for a total of 72 percent of women of child-bearing age, representing the nation’s youthful population. Almost 46 percent of Brazilian women consists of women of color—extrapolating from general population indicators, almost 54 percent considered themselves to be white, 39 percent pardas (brown), 6 percent black, and .5 percent yellow (Asian descent) or indigenous. Being of African descent puts a woman’s health at risk in a variety of ways. Discrimination affects her body image, self-concept, and self-esteem. She is subject to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and sickle-cell anemia, which affects pregnancy and delivery adversely. She is six times more likely to develop toxemia at delivery. As a result of poverty, she is likely to suffer from nutritional deficiencies and live in polluted environments. Her life expectancy is 66 years compared with a white woman’s 71 years. Women of means in Brazil have access to world-class doctors and facilities, but most Brazilian women have to do with poor clinics, where available. Despite these conditions, infant mortality has decreased from 47 to 19 per 1,000 from 1990 to 2007 as the Ministry of Health continues to address startling differences in services by social class and ethnic background in the different regions. Demographic, economic, and regional factors also affect women’s life conditions and cannot be ignored. There are fewer women (48 percent) than men in the northern region, Amazonia, which is scarcely

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populated and occupies almost half of Brazilian territory; it is a frontier of economic exploration. The stillpoorer northeast region has exported workers, mostly men; the 23 million women living here represent 53 percent of the population—the highest sex ratio imbalance (and the highest rate of infant mortality). The central-western region has slightly 2 percent more women, including the Federal District, where women make up a large share of public service workers in the capital, Brasília. In the more developed southeastern and southern areas, the sex ratio is balanced. Employment One of the most significant phenomena in Brazil at the turn of the 21st century has been the increased participation of women in the labor force, following a jump from 29 percent of the economically active population in 1976 to 43 percent in 2002. In 2007, the rate of employment is about the same, but the unemployment index for women was 12 percent—four points greater than that for men. Women’s greater activity rate does not mean an increase in formal employment (understood as jobs regulated by contracts that afford benefits such as social security and retirement). Most Brazilian women work in service occupations. The majority of service workers—between 82 percent (in the Federal District) to 94 percent (in Piaui State), and an average of 87 percent for Brazil as a whole—are employed in domestic service, often informally, under conditions not too far removed from slavery, despite regulation. Almost 60 percent of domestic workers are black or brown women from low-socioeconomic strata. In the southeast region, 38 percent of economically active women hold formal jobs—the highest percentage in Brazil. Of formally employed women, only 37 percent are black, with women of Asian descent and white women holding better jobs. This shows the familiar pattern of double discrimination by gender and ethnicity. The oppression triples when low-socioeconomic background is taken into account. In terms of compensation, Brazilian workers generally receive nonliving wages with regional variations. Brazilian women receive less still, commanding about 71 percent of men’s pay across all occupations. Only 18 percent of employed women make more than 10 times the minimum salary compared with 42 percent of men who do so.

Education Although work and pay are dismal for Brazilian women, and still worse for women of color, the conditions in education look brighter. Women have continually achieved higher levels of education than men. In 2002, women obtained 58 percent of high school and 63 percent of college degrees, though they concentrate more in social studies (education, arts and humanities, social services, and health) and less in the scientific fields (mathematics, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Higher levels of education for women have yet to be translated into employment and pay gains; less-schooled men may still get the job and better pay. In addition, the glass ceiling also limits women’s advancement to corporate and government higher-level management positions. Politics Women’s difficulties a primed to decrease in light of recent expansions in political power. In 2009, 10 of 81 Brazilian senators are women. Of 531 state representatives in the Chamber of Deputies, 46 are women from different parties, including five elected through the Brazilian Communist Party, which called its first national conference on the woman question in 2007. In the administration of the Worker’s Party President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma V. Rousseff holds the highest-ranking cabinet office as Chief of the Casa Civil. Women also head two ministries, Environment and Tourism and Special Secretaries, Promotion of Policies for Racial Equality and Women’s Policies. The latter oversees the National Council for Women’s Rights, serves as clearinghouse for research on women, and implements the National Plan for Women’s Policies and programs: Pro-Equity for Women; Women Against STDs and AIDS; Gender and Diversity in Schools; Women Building Autonomy in Civil Construction; and Work, Crafts, Tourism and Women’s Autonomy. The Special Secretary for Women’s Policies and state and local governments present issues that women in government are addressing, including improving living conditions, combating violence against women and children, and trafficking of women. On October 31, 2010, Brazilians elected their first female head of government, Dilma Rousseff from the ruling Workers’ Party. Rousseff has been a guerrilla, a torture victim, an economist, an energy minister, and the president’s chief of staff.

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See Also: Equal Pay; HIV/AIDS: South America; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Barman, Roderick J. Princess Isabel of Brazil: Gender and Power in the Nineteenth Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Fundação Carlos Chagas. “Mulher. Séries Historicas.” http://www.fcc.org.br/mulher/series_historicas/ghgm .html (accessed January 2010) Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, “Página Inicial.” http://www.ibge.gov.br/english (accessed January 2010). Kellog, Susan. Weaving the Past: A History of Latin America’s Indigenous Women From Prehispanic Period to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Saffioti, Heleieth. Women in Class Society. New York: Monthly Review, 1980. Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres. “Página Inicial.” http://www.presidencia.gov.br/estrutura _presidencia/sepm/ (accessed January 2010). Simões, Solange and Marlise Matos. “Modern Ideas, Traditional Behaviors, and the Persistence of Gender Inequality in Brazil.” International Journal of Sociology, v.384 (2008). Wolf, Joel. Working Women, Working Men: São Paulo and the Rise of Brasil’s Industrial Working Class 1900–1955. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993. Tania Ramalho State University of New York at Oswego

Breast Cancer Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Survival rates are not uniform and vary by geographic location. The greatest number of breast cancer patients are in North America, northern and western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and in the South American countries of Uruguay and Argentina. Incidence rates in most southern and eastern European countries are low to intermediate, and throughout Africa, Asia, and most of Central and South America they are relatively low by comparison. Despite the lower incidence rates within low- and middle-income

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countries relative to their high-income counterparts, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that nearly 70 percent of all breast cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Incidence rates have been rising steadily around the globe in recent decades, increasing the cancer burden worldwide. The geographic distribution of breast cancer incidence and mortality illustrates important patterns related to wealth, culture and health infrastructures among developed and developing countries. High incidence rates strategically illustrate the importance of breast cancer as a women’s health epidemic and the need for public, scientific, and financial investment in the illness. As breast cancer has become more public, especially in the United States since the early 1990s, some statistics—particularly those that generate fear—have dominated the public imagination and furthered the common sense message that early detection vis-à-vis mammography screening saves lives. Incidence, Morality, and Risk Trends in breast cancer incidence and mortality reveal crucial geographic variations as well as an overall increase in breast cancer. Similar patterns exist, for example, in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In the United States, breast cancer rates have increased about 1 percent per year since the 1940s, and by more than 40 percent from 1973 to 1998. Similarly, Canadian incidence rates rose nearly 30 percent from 1969 to 1999. Annual increases of 1 to 3 percent were recorded in Finland and the Netherlands, and between 1971 and 1987 six former regions of the Soviet Union charted gains from 2 to 4 percent. In New South Wales, the incident rate for breast cancer rose steadily in the early to mid-1980s, and in 1995 were nearly 50 percent higher than they were in 1983. Mortality also increased in these regions from the 1950s through the 1980s but leveled off in several northern European countries, Australia, New Zealand and for white women in the United States and Canada. In general, women under age 50 saw greater declines in mortality than did older women. Although breast cancer has been relatively rare in many Asian countries, Japan has seen rising incidence rates and, to a lesser degree, growing mortality rates since the mid-1980s. Numerous studies point to increased

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risks associated with a Western lifestyle, although environmental exposures are increasingly linked to breast cancer. In general, there is considerably less cancer data in many developing countries. The data that is available shows lesser but increasing degrees of incidence and mortality. Most Latin American countries have intermediate rates of breast cancer and mortality, though these rates have been increasing at a pace double that of such nations as Cali, Colombia, and Puerto Rico from the 1970s to the 1990s. Mortality has risen substantially in Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. Although incidence and mortality rates are low in most developing Asian countries, between 1968 and 1992 higher rates were recorded in India particularly among the Chinese in Singapore, with average increases of 3.6 percent per year. Mortality rates increased in China from 1987 to 1999 and nearly doubled in Taiwan and Hong Kong from the 1960s to the 1990s. For all of Africa, breast cancer ranks second to cervical cancer, but remains the most common cancer in North Africa and in urban sub-Saharan regions such as Abidjan. This also was the case in Zimbabwe until recently overtaken by the heightened health burden of AIDS. Incidence rates also doubled in Nigeria and Uganda from the 1960s to the 1990s. The differences in breast cancer incidence between developed and developing countries can be explained in part by exposure to lifestyle related risk factors, such as postmenopausal obesity from the Western diet coupled with limited exercise, alcohol consumption, and reproductive factors that prolong women’s exposure to naturally occurring estrogens. These reproductive factors contribute to the early onset of menstruation, late menopause, late age at first childbirth, and shorter breastfeeding schedules. As developing countries adopt these more Western behaviors, the risk of developing breast cancer may increase. In addition to these risk factors age, inherited genetic mutations, use of hormone replacement therapy, and a previous history of cancer of the endometrium, ovary, or colon may increase a woman’s overall risk for developing breast cancer. However, the known risk factors account for only 30 percent of breast cancer cases. Modifiable factors such as body mass, physical inactivity and alcohol consumption only explain a small fraction of breast cancer incidences. Similarly, only 5 to 10 percent of

women diagnosed with breast cancer have inherited a mutation in the known breast cancer genes. Seventy percent of breast cancer cases are not attributable to the known risk factors, few interventions reduce risk and none prevent breast cancer. New research focuses on the likelihood of environmental links to breast cancer to explain the majority of cases. While lifestyle factors may explain some of the increases in breast cancer in the developing world, the death toll in low- to middle-income countries is clearly attributable to a lack of healthcare infrastructure, the high costs of diagnosis and treatment, and the fact that many women do not know they have breast cancer until later stages of the disease when symptoms are visible. The WHO promotes cancer containment in terms of national programs that focus on a comprehensive system of prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. However, the organization does recognize limitations to prevention through modifiable health behaviors as well as barriers to early detection through widespread mammography screening of populations. Several scientific controversies must be taken into account to reduce the cancer burden. Data from the United States provide context to current debates about disease classification, mammography screening and the threat of over diagnosis and over treatment. The Disease Classification Controversy The term carcinoma refers to cancer, that is, malignant tumor. Cancer, broadly defined, is a disease of abnormal cell growth, which occurs in some organs or tissues of the body at different rates, and may either be contained in a single mass (tumor) or may spread to other locations in the body (malignancy). It is the combination of abnormal cell growth and the ability to spread (metastasis) that makes cancer dangerous. The assessment of just how dangerous a particular cancer may be is based on a disease classification system. There are critical differences in the classification of breast cancer based on whether abnormal cells appear in the ducts (tubes that carry milk to the nipple) or the lobules (glands that make milk), and more importantly, whether these abnormal cells have the capacity to metastasize. The specific constellation of these features helps to categorize nine different breast conditions, some of which are referred to as carcinomas or cancers. Because metastasis is what makes cancers



life-threatening, abnormal cells that lack the capacity to spread are not really cancers at all. This important distinction has caused confusion and controversy about how to diagnose and treat the collection of conditions commonly referred to as breast cancer. The most important characteristic among breast cancer types is whether they are “in situ” or “invasive.” The term in situ means “in place” and specifies a tumor that is confined to the immediate area where it began. If a cluster of abnormal cells is restricted to the ducts, it is called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). If the abnormal cells are restricted to the lobules, they are called lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS). Both conditions are asymptomatic and are nearly always nonpalpable (cannot be felt by hand). The abnormal cells do not invade surrounding breast tissue or spread to other parts of the body. About 23 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses among U.S. women are categorized as the in situ types. Of the 250,230 new cases of breast cancer in 2008, the National Cancer Institute estimated 67,770 in situ cases. Invasive or infiltrating breast cancer signifies abnormal cells that originate in the lining of the ducts and invade nearby breast tissue and are known as Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. The cancer that starts in the lobules and breaks into nearby breast tissue are Invasive Lobular Carcinoma and they have the capacity to invade blood and lymph vessels and spread to other parts of the body. These are the breast cancers that

A physician performs a needle biopsy to determine whether a breast lump is a fluid-filled cyst or a solid tumor.

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are life threatening. For at least one-third of women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, the disease does eventually spread. While 75 percent of recurrences happen within five years, 25 percent occur after the five-year period. The invasive types represent the majority of breast cancers in the United States (77 percent), totaling about 182,460 cases in 2008. After disease classification, “staging” is used to determine cancer’s level of threat. Stages are based on the size of the original tumor, the amount of lymph node involvement, and whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. On average, 61 percent of invasive breast cancers are diagnosed as stage 1 (localized to the primary site); 31 percent are diagnosed at stage 2 or 3 (when the cancer has spread beyond the primary site or to regional lymph nodes, but not to other organs); and 6 percent are diagnosed as stage 4 (when the cancer has spread beyond the primary site to regional lymph nodes or to other organs of the body such as the lungs, liver, bones, or brain). The later the stage, the more life-threatening is the cancer. Only about 35 percent of patients who are metastatic at diagnosis (stage 3 or 4) tend to live five years or longer. The in situ cancers, however, are always classified at stage zero and have a five-year survival rate of about 100 percent. By definition, they are contained to the primary site, do not spread, and do not tend to become cancer. For the in situ types, the term carcinoma is a misnomer. There is strong consensus that LCIS is neither a cancer nor a pre-cancer. More accurately, it is referred to as lobular neoplasia, a collection of abnormal cells in the milk-producing lobules of the breast. It is a “marker” of increased risk. About 25 percent of patients diagnosed with LCIS develop breast cancer sometime in their lifetime. Since it is unknown which of these women may develop breast cancer, and which ones may not, the treatment for LCIS focuses on how to reduce future risk. This typically includes dietary changes, drug treatments such as hormone therapy, and/or increased medical surveillance for the duration of the person’s lifetime. Because LCIS is a marker of increased risk, the extreme measure of surgically removing both breasts may be considered a reasonable treatment option for some women. DCIS is not a cancer either, but it may be a precursor to breast cancer or a risk factor for developing breast cancer sometime in the future. The National

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Breast Cancer Coalition, an umbrella of more than 600 organizations in the United States, recommended changing the name to atypical hyperplasia to more accurately reflect this distinction. Studies suggest that only 20 to 25 percent of women with untreated DCIS would ever go on to develop breast cancer within the next 25 years. That is, 75 to 80 percent of women with DCIS would not. While DCIS does increase breast cancer risk, the risk is quite low—about the same as a woman without breast cancer who had a late first pregnancy. As with LCIS, it is unknown which women with the condition will ever get breast cancer. Even though DCIS is not a life-threatening cancer, most people diagnosed with DCIS tend to receive the same treatment as those diagnosed with early-stage invasive breast cancer— surgery, radiation, and mastectomy. Age, Mammography Screening, and Mortality Reduction The inaccurate disease classification of the in situ breast cancers has fueled controversy about how to diagnose and treat breast cancer in general. Specifically, the stage-zero “cancers” have furthered the commonsense idea that finding breast cancer early is crucial for reducing mortality. This would make sense if the stage zero in situ types actually had the capacity to become a later stage breast cancer. But, this is not the case. Finding stage zero breast cancers has not translated to a reduction in late-stage disease. Instead, the rise in stage zero diagnoses has obfuscated critical evidence about the benefits of mammography screening. Breast cancer incidence in women age 40 and above has been increasing at a faster rate since 1982, yet the majority (80 percent) of diagnoses occur in women over age 50. Only 15 percent of cases occur in women age 40 to 50, and just 5 percent occur in women under age 40. Although they are not in the high-risk category (only 1.5 per every 1,000 women in their 40s) the American Cancer Society, many medical professionals, and most public service campaigns have been, since the 1970s, recommending annual mammograms for women beginning at age 40 (sometimes as early as age 35). The idea is that screening women who are younger would lead to early diagnosis when breast cancer is more treatable, thereby reducing mortality.

For decades, reports in medical journals have identified major problems with mammography screening, such as insufficient data about accuracy, benefit and long-term effects of radiation exposure. Though contested, these screening recommendations have become standard protocol. Interventions such as mammography have been studied in randomized controlled trials, which assess the benefits and risks of screening for specific groups of people. In randomized controlled trials, participants are randomly assigned to groups. The experimental groups receive a screening procedure with a predetermined frequency. The outcomes of the experimental groups are then compared to those of control groups that did not receive the procedure. Seven clinical trials conducted between 1963 and 1982 have analyzed the impact of screening mammography on mortality reduction. To evaluate the quality of the trials and the evidence they produced, there have been several systematic reviews (meta-analyses) of these trials, all of which have shown that reductions in mortality resulting from mammography screening are quite variable, and fairly modest. The Cochrane Review, first published in the Lancet in 2000 by Gøtzsche and Olsen, analyzed seven major randomized controlled trials on mammography screening that involved more than 500,000 women. After assessing the quality of the studies for agreed-upon standards for well-conducted and reliable research, the researchers concluded that there was no reliable evidence to justify mass screening. In fact, the two trials, which were used the most sound methods, did not find a reduction in breast cancer mortality compared to the poor-quality trials that did—25 percent mortality reduction after 13 years. In 2006, Gøtzsche and Nielsen updated the Cochrane analysis. Similar to the earlier findings, the trials that had the soundest methods provided no statistically significant reduction in breast cancer mortality; the trials that exhibited flawed methods showed a mortality reduction of 35 to 40 percent. The researchers concluded that screening, at best, decreased the risk of death by about 15 percent for women ages 50 to 69, while increasing the risk of over diagnosis and over treatment by about 30 percent. Corroborating the Cochrane conclusions, in 2002 the Humphrey Review concluded that the absolute benefit of mammography screening on mortality was



only 16 percent (similar to Gøtzsche and Nielson’s 15 percent). It also concluded that biases in the trial design could statistically eliminate or even produce that reduction, calling into question the reliability of the findings. In 2006, the Armstrong Review included 117 studies in addition to the original trials, and focused on the effects of screening for women ages 40 to 49. The researchers found a wide range of estimated mortality reduction, from 7 to 23 percent. They also determined that false positives (positive mammograms which, upon biopsy, did not show the presence of cancer) were 20 to 56 percent, leading to subsequent increases in unnecessary procedures. Given the uncertainty of mammography’s benefit in reducing breast cancer mortality, the risks associated with screening were an important consideration. Mammograms frequently provide insufficient information to reach clear conclusions about the presence of tumors, and suspicious areas on a mammogram may or may not indicate cancer. The risk of having a false positive during routine yearly screening is about 10 percent. By the time a woman has had 10 mammograms, she will have a 50 percent chance of being told her results are abnormal. The high rate of false positives means that the biopsies were not necessary for the majority of women who had them. In addition, mammograms miss 25 to 40 percent of tumors that actually are cancerous. These are called “false negatives.” Mammograms can be inaccurate for many reasons including the ability of the X-ray to clearly capture the image, uncertainty about how to interpret suspicious areas on the image, differences in the ability of radiologists to assess the images accurately, and the rate of tumor growth. Mammograms are better able to “see” through fatty tissue than through dense tissue. Since premenopausal women generally have denser breasts, mammograms are less accurate for these women than for postmenopausal women. This is why mammograms are far less accurate for women under age 50. On the other hand, mammograms are very good at seeing calcium deposits even in dense breasts. Calcium deposits (microcalcifications) are common in women, especially as they age; they are common in benign breast conditions, and also may form around dead cells in the stage zero breast cancers (DCIS and LCIS). Thus, the increase in mammography screening

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has led to a parallel increase in the diagnosis of in situ breast conditions. Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment The detection of abnormal tissue that will never become symptomatic (e.g., DCIS and LCIS) is referred to as “overdiagnosis.” The rates of DCIS have increased from 1 to 2 percent of all breast cancers 20 years ago to 17 percent in 1997, and 23 percent in 2005. The more than 23,000 cases diagnosed in 1992 were 200 percent higher than would be expected based on trends from 1973 to 1983. By 2008, that number more than doubled again to more than 57,000 cases. Until the 1980s, when mammography use expanded widely, DCIS was rarely found (because it is nonsymptomatic and nonpalpable). Screening mammography is largely responsible for the ever-increasing diagnoses of the stage zero breast cancers, the types that are not technically breast cancers at all. Overdiagnosis leads to overtreatment. Seventy percent of DCIS remains harmless for a lifetime, and the long-term survival rate is nearly 100 percent regardless of treatment. Yet, DCIS is diagnosed more frequently and treated more aggressively in the United States than anywhere else in the world. In 2002, 26 percent of DCIS patients were treated with mastectomy. Other treatments included lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormone therapy such as Tamoxifen. Because DCIS does not cause symptoms and is not likely to progress to invasive cancer, then the risks associated with surgery, radiation damage, anxiety about risk, side effects of systemic therapy, and increased medical costs, may outweigh the benefits of treatment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledges the lifetime risk of developing cancer increases with radiation exposure from X-rays. A person who undergoes more X-ray exams has an accumulated radiation risk. A person who received X-rays at a younger age has a greater risk than those who are older. And women are at a higher lifetime risk than men for developing cancer from radiation after receiving the same exposures at the same ages. According to the FDA, a mammogram is comparable to three months of exposure to natural background radiation. An 80-year-old woman who had a mammogram every two years from the age of 40 will have been exposed to an additional five years of radiation in her lifetime.

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The environmental breast cancer movement has been instrumental in questioning why women are exposed to overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and increased radiation from mammography when the evidence of mortality reduction due to screening is sorely lacking. In November 2009, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force of the Department of Health and Human Services recommended against routine screening mammography in women 40 to 49 years, and biennial (instead of annual) screening mammography for women 50 to 74 years. It remains to be seen whether professional and advocacy groups, as well as the medical system will take the evidence-based protocol into account. See Also: Cancer, Environmental Factors; Cancer, Women and; Medical Research, Gender Issues; Pink, Advertising and. Further Readings American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2008. Atlanta, GA: American Cancer Society, 2008. Bray, Freddie, Peter McCarron, and Maxwell D. Parkin. “The Changing Global Patterns of Female Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality.” Breast Cancer Research, v.6/6 (2004). Gray, Janet, ed. State of the Evidence 2008: The Connection Between Breast Cancer and the Environment. Breast Cancer Fund and Breast Cancer Action. San Francisco, CA: Cooperative Printing, 2008. Ley, Barbara. From Pink to Green: Disease Prevention and the Environmental Breast Cancer Movement. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009. Love, Susan M. Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2005. National Breast Cancer Coalition. “Fact Sheets.” http:// www.stopbreastcancer.org/index.php?option=com _content&task=blogcategory&id=38&Itemid=178 (cited November 2009). Sulik, Gayle. Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Welch, H. G. Should I Be Tested for Cancer?: Maybe Not and Here’s Why. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Gayle Sulik Independent Scholar

Breast Reduction/ Enlargement Surgery Breast enlargement and reduction surgeries are classified under the general category of mammoplasty within the field of cosmetic surgery. Breast enlargement surgery (more commonly referred to as breast augmentation) involves the insertion of an implant between the breast tissue and the chest muscles, or underneath the chest muscles, for the purposes of increasing the size of the breast. Breast reduction surgery (less commonly referred to as reduction mammoplasty) involves the removal of breast tissue and skin for the purposes of decreasing the size of the breast. Breast enlargement and reduction surgeries raise two significant issues within the field of cosmetic surgery concerning informed consent and the often arbitrary distinction between “cosmetic” surgeries and “reconstructive” surgeries. While breast enlargement and reduction surgeries are performed worldwide, statistical information about the prevalence of both is lacking about areas outside of North America (and the United States more specifically). This is primarily because surgeons who perform breast surgeries might not be plastic or cosmetic surgeons, and thus may not belong to a national cosmetic surgery association (or, alternatively, there may be no national cosmetic surgery association). Breast Enlargement Surgery Breast enlargement surgeries are very popular in North America, and in the United States, breast augmentation is currently the most commonly performed cosmetic surgery. Although the number of breast augmentations performed in the United States declined by 12 percent between 2007 and 2008 (due to an economic recession), the overall increase in breast augmentation procedures between 2000 and 2008 was 45 percent. Women choose to undergo breast enlargement surgeries for a variety of reasons, including dissatisfaction with breast shape and size, occupational purposes, loss of one or both breasts due to mastectomy, and sex reassignment surgery. Because there are no laws in North America that limit who can claim the title of plastic surgeon, and thus any person holding a medical degree can operate a plastic surgery practice, there are a range of economic options for women seeking breast



augmentation depending on the individual surgeon’s qualifications, prestige, and geographical location. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Western doctors unsuccessfully experimented with fat and liquid paraffin injections to augment body parts, including women’s breasts, although this was not a commercially viable project at that historical moment. Countless other substances have been unsuccessfully implanted in the breast to make it larger during the early to mid-20th century, from wool to ivory to glass and also several synthetic substances (most popularly Silastic rubber implants and liquid silicone). It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that surgeons began to experiment with saline and silicone implants, and that breast augmentation gained a wider public acknowledgment, although not acceptance. The implants that women receive today are most commonly silicone envelopes filled with either saline or silicone gel, and can be circular, teardrop-shaped, or shaped to fill in areas hollowed out by a lumpectomy. A recent breakthrough in silicone implant technology is the cohesive gel implant, or “gummy bear implant,” which is a solid but malleable piece of silicone that will not rupture. Surgeons make an incision most commonly in the fold underneath the breast, but sometimes in the armpit or around the nipple, and very rarely in the navel (this is a new technique that is not commonly performed), and insert the implant into a pocket created by the surgeon either above or underneath the chest wall. Silicone implants are manufactured pre-filled, and so they require a larger incision than saline implants, which are filled with sterile saline after they are inserted into the body. Potential risks and side effects of breast augmentation include severe reactions to general anesthesia and pain medication, excessive bleeding, loss of sensation in the breasts and nipples, formation of hard painful scar tissue around the implant that must be manually broken down (encapsulation), the rupture or migration of the implant, and excessive scarring. Silicone implants are particularly controversial due to their perceived effect on women’s body image in breast-obsessed American culture and their potential risks. Silicone implants are considered to look and feel more natural than saline implants, and are thus desired by many women considering breast implants. In 1992, the Food and Drug Administra-

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tion and Health Canada severely restricted the use of silicone implants due to a lack of information about their potential long-term risks and rising anecdotal accounts of systemic illness. Many of these women launched lawsuits against surgeons and manufacturers of silicone implants alleging that they were misled about the risks of silicone implants and did not give their full informed consent as a result. However, after conducting clinical trials that could not establish a link between silicone implants and systemic illness, in 2006 Allergan and Mentor were granted licenses in Canada and the United States to market their silicone implants. Breast Reduction Surgery Breast reduction surgeries are less popular than breast enlargement surgeries in North America, although the number of breast reduction procedures has increased by 5 percent in the United States between 2000 and 2008, and breast reduction surgery is the third most common reconstructive plastic surgery according to the American Society for Plastic Surgeons. Women undergo breast reduction surgery due to dissatisfaction with the size and appearance of their breasts, and pain in the neck, shoulders, and back. Because breast reduction surgery is commonly classified as a “reconstructive,” and thus medically necessary surgery, women are often able to receive some medical insurance coverage for this surgery. This means that in countries with public health insurance especially, breast reduction surgeries can be popular. Men obtain breast reduction surgery as well for gynecomastia as well as sex reassignment surgery, although men are more likely to receive medical insurance coverage for the former and self-finance the latter. Breast reduction surgeries were performed as early as the 16th century in Europe, but they were not a common part of surgical practice until the late 19th century. Techniques for breast reduction surgery have been relatively consistent in the 20th century. While surgeons occasionally perform liposuction to reduce breast size, most commonly they create a vertical or keyhole-shaped incision from the fold underneath the breast to the nipple. Surgeons remove the nipple to reposition it in a higher location on the breast, and also remove breast tissue and a small amount of skin from the lower breast, creating a lifting effect in addition to the reduction. Risks and side effects of breast

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reduction surgery include severe reactions from general anesthesia and pain medication, excessive bleeding and scarring, severe pain, and loss of sensation and ability to breastfeed. Furthermore, as women’s breast development can continue into their mid-20s, when younger women undergo breast reduction surgeries their breasts often return to their original size several years after their operation. Breast reduction surgeries are considered more socially acceptable than breast augmentation, as they are understood to be medically necessary and reconstructive, rather than cosmetic. However, there is evidence to suggest that many women strategically emphasize neck, back, and shoulder pain in their surgical consultations to obtain insurance coverage for the procedure. Interestingly, one of the most frequent comments women make about their breast reduction surgeries is that they are excited about purchasing clothing and lingerie that fits properly. While it is likely that there are some women who experience pain because of large breasts, the pain explanation supports the argument that breast reduction is reconstructive and thus entitled to insurance coverage. See Also: Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural; Body Image; Cosmetic Surgery; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in. Further Readings American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “2008 Quick Facts.” http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Media/stats/2008-quick -facts-cosmetic-surgery-minimally-invasive-statistics .pdf (accessed December 2009). American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “Cosmetic and Reconstructive Procedure Trends.” http://www.plastic surgery.org/Media/stats/2008-cosmetic-reconstructive -plastic-surgery-minimally-invasive-statistics.pdf (accessed December 2009). Gilman, Sander. Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Haiken, E. Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Jones, Meredith. Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery. New York: Berg Publishers, 2008. Rachel Hurst St. Francis Xavier University

“Bridezillas” The term bridezilla is a combination of “bride” and Godzilla, describing a bride whose pursuit of a perfect wedding has no bounds. Bridezillas are commonly described as selfish, greedy, obnoxious, spoiled, and prone to spontaneous fits of rage. The Website Bridezilla.com’s definition, however, opts for words like “attractive,” “confident,” and “not mediocre,” suggesting that bridezillas simply demand nothing less than excellence. The first-known citation of the term was in the Boston Globe in 1995. Numerous stories on the subject have since been featured in various media. Television shows, including WEtv’s Bridezillas, portray what can happen to a woman somewhere between “will you marry me” and “I do.” According to their portrayal, bridezillas exhibit three typical qualities: having high standards and expectations, wanting to be a princess for the day, and being a “bitch.” As a concept, the term bridezilla allows women to perform multiple identities, pursuing traditional gender roles and expectations while simultaneously experiencing a status of power and control. Some argue that in showing little regard for the actual marriage and focusing instead on a single day, the bridezilla’s pursuit of perfection is meant to compensate women for a lifetime of potential boredom, misery, and neglect. The concept holds serious implications regarding the portrayal of women today. For instance, the pursuit of a perfect wedding day draws women into the enormous bridal industry. This has led to the view of bridezillas as possessing a “false consciousness”: they are obsessed with preoccupations of female beauty and romance, wishing to have them at any cost. The concept also appears to transcend class and financial status, although it must be noted that one’s ability to achieve wedding perfection is determined by their degree of agency as a consumer. Some perspectives suggest that bridezillas are in fact self-possessed and rational consumers and are not victims of their weddings. These perspectives view the consumer practices of brides as agentive, and even productive. Others pay attention to the hegemony of the media industry in constructing weddings as the ultimate life goal for women. This fantasy extols the images of the bride as a physical object, and a wedding as a venue

Brockovich, Erin



in which women are expected to display their femininity to others and are granted the temporary status of a celebrity. As women are also expected to take on the major responsibilities of overseeing their weddings, they have to become “superbrides” to make all the necessary financial arrangements, run errands, and ensure that every detail is accounted for. This point highlights the split in labor, as the same expectations are not stereotypically placed on grooms. Grooms who do participate usually do so in a secondary capacity. Furthermore, although the wedding day lasts a day, its production takes months—a timeframe that highlights the ephemeral nature of women’s work in general. The bridezilla can therefore be viewed as the result of the social expectations of modern brides to play two contradictory roles: that of both a rational project manager and an emotional fantasizer. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Marriage; Wedding Industry.

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While working as a file clerk for the law firm Masry & Vititoe, and with no previous legal experience, Brockovich found medical records that led to an investigation that eventually established that the health of numerous individuals who lived in the Hinkley area of California in the 1960s to 1980s had been severely compromised by exposure to the toxic chemical chromium 6, which had leaked into the groundwater and poisoned the local water supply. The case was centered on the Hinkley Compressor Station, which was part of a natural gas pipeline connecting the San Francisco Bay area, constructed in 1952. Between 1952 and 1966, the company used chromium 6 in the cooling tower, which led to some of the wastewater seeping into the groundwater, affecting a large area near the plant. Brockovich co-led the case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and in 1996, $333 million in damages to more than 600 residents of the Hinkley area was paid by the utility company—the largest toxic injury settlement in U.S. history. Brockovich

Further Readings Adrian, Bonnie. “Bridezilla Consciousness.” Journal of Women’s History, v.18/4 (2006). Engstrom, Erika. “Creation of a New ‘Empowered’ Female Identity in WEtv’s Bridezilla.” Media Report to Women, v.37/1 (2009). Otnes, Cele C. and Elizabeth H. Pleck. Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Spaemme, N. and J. Hamilton. Bridezilla: True Tales From Etiquette Hell. Salado, TX: Salado Press, 2002. Danai S. Mupotsa Monash University

Brockovich, Erin Erin Brockovich (born June 22, 1960) is an environmental activist and public speaker who was instrumental in constructing a groundbreaking legal case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California in 1993. Acclaimed Hollywood director Steven Soderbergh directed the film version of Brockovich’s story, Erin Brockovich, in 2000.

Erin Brockovich has received numerous awards and honors for her work in protecting the environment.

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continued her legal work and went on to participate in other antipollution cases, including a lawsuit that listed 1,200 plaintiffs and alleged contamination near Pacific Gas and Electric’s Kettleman Hills Compressor Station in Kings County, California, along the same pipeline as the Hinkley site. The Kettleman Hills suit settled the case in 2006 for $335 million. In 2000, Steven Soderbergh directed the film version of Brockovich’s legal battle with the Pacific Gas and Electrical Company, Erin Brockovich, which highlighted both Brockovich’s legal triumph and her personal challenges. Released in March 2000 by Universal Studios, the movie starred Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and Aaron Eckhart. The release of the film, to great critical and commercial success, led to numerous awards and nominations, including five Academy Award nominations and one win for Roberts in the Best Actress category. Roberts also won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for best actress for her portrayal of Brockovich. Soderbergh was nominated for an Academy Award for best director. The film’s central concern and the majority of discussion surrounding Brockovich and the Hinckley case was focused on the portrayal of Brockovich as a strong, independent, and feminine woman and single mother who, despite a lack of formal legal training, managed to succeed in winning such a groundbreaking case. The film also examines issues of class, gender, and the environment situated within the larger framework of Brockovich’s story. Since the release of the film, Brockovich became an initially reluctant public figure who has since hosted her own television shows including Challenge America With Erin Brockovich on ABC and Final Justice on Lifetime. In 2001, she published “Take It From Me!: Life’s a Struggle but You Can Win,” which became a best seller. In the book, ostensibly a self-help book, Brockovich provides readers with motivational strategies and tips that led her to discover certain aspects of her own personality that have allowed her to face both personal and professional challenges. Brockovich continues to work on environmental cases and assisted in the filing of a lawsuit against Prime Tanning Corporation of St. Joseph, Missouri, in April 2009. The lawsuit claims that waste from the production of leather, containing high levels of hexavalent chromium, was distributed to farmers in northwest Missouri to use as fertilizer on their fields.

The chemical is believed to be a potential cause of an abnormally high number of brain tumors around the town of Cameron, Missouri. Brockovich is the president of Brockovich Research & Consulting and is currently working as a consultant for the New York law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which has a focus on personal injury claims for asbestos exposure. Brockovich is in demand for her lectures and talks across the United States and internationally. Erin Brockovich has received a number of awards and honors for her work with the environment. See Also: Attorneys, Female; Celebrity Women; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Environmental Justice. Further Readings Brockovich, Erin and Marc Eliot. Take It From Me!: Life’s a Struggle but You Can Win. New York: McGrawHill, 2001. Brueckner, Martin, Dyann Ross, and Erin Brockovich. Under Corporate Skies: A Struggle Between People, Place, and Profit. North Fremantle, Australia: Fremantle Press, 2010. Zager, Norma. Erin Brockovich and the Beverly Hills: Greenscam. New York: Pelican, 2010. Kirsty Fairclough University of Salford

Brundtland, Gro Harlem Gro Harlem Brundtland is one of the former prime ministers of Norway, and has had a long career as a leader on public health and environmental issues. Brundtland began her career in medicine, earning a medical degree from the University of Oslo in 1963 and a Master’s of Public Health from Harvard University in 1965. After working as a public health physician in Norway, she went on to a position in Oslo’s Board of Health, where she focused on children’s issues, and then served as director of health services for the Norwegian public school system. She served as minister for environmental affairs for five years and, in 1981, was elected Norway’s first female prime minister (and its youngest, taking office at the age of 41).



Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway, and director-general of the World Health Organization until 2003.

Brundtland served as prime minister for more than 10 years, first during a brief term in 1981 and then returning for two subsequent terms from 1986 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1996. As prime minister, she upheld Norway’s Act on Gender Equality and had one of the highest percentages of female cabinet members during her tenure. Brundtland’s background in medicine and her years of work in Norway on the connections between public health and the environment led to an invitation in 1983 for her to chair the newly formed United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. The Brundtland Commission, as it became known, focused on the role of the international political community in promoting sustainable development and published its report, Our Common Future, in 1987. The environmental issues raised by the report informed the later United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (or Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In May 1998, Brundtland was named director-general of the World Health Organization—a position she

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held until 2003. During her tenure at the organization, she focused on a broad platform of global public health issues, including violence, economic issues, natural disaster relief, tobacco addiction, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and maternal and infant health and mortality worldwide. She was recognized by Scientific American as the 2003 Policy Leader of the Year for her response to the sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak. Brundtland has also been a recognized leader in global human and women’s rights, and in 1995 she attended and gave an address at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China. Brundtland is a member of several international leadership organizations focused on development, the environment, global politics, and human rights, including the Council of Women World Leaders, the Club of Madrid (an independent organization of political leaders and former leaders of democratic nations, founded in 2001), and the Elders (a group founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and others that focuses on peace and human rights issues). Since 2007, Brundtland also has served as a special envoy for climate change for the United Nations. Brundtland has been the recipient of numerous international awards for her environmental leadership, including the Third World Prize (1988), Indira Gandhi Prize (1988), Onassis Foundation’s Delphi Prize (1992), Charlemagne Prize (1994), World Ecology Award (2001), Albert Medal of the Royal Society (2005), Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal (2008), and the very first Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto Award (2010). See Also: Heads of State, Female; Norway; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Brundtland, G. H. Madam Prime Minister: A Life in Power and Politics. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. Smith, M. H., et al. Foreword by G. H. Brundtland. Cents and Sustainability: Making Sense of How to Grow Economies, Build Communities and Revive the Environment in Our Lifetime. London: Earthscan, 2010. Tiffany K. Wayne Independent Scholar

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Brunei Darussalam The constitutional sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, which has been ruled over by the same family for six centuries, is located in southeast Asia along the South China Sea. After a period of regional influence between the 15th and 17th centuries, the country’s status in the area declined in response to infighting, European imperialism, and piracy. Between 1888 and 1984, Brunei was a British protectorate. After achieving independence, Brunei continued to amass wealth from petroleum and natural gas deposits and from extensive overseas interests. By 2009, per capita income reached an estimated $50,100, making Brunei the ninth richest country in the world. Brunei ranks 30th among the United Nation’s Development Programme’s list of countries with very high human development. Today, three-fourths of Bruneians live in urban areas. The majority ethnic group is Malay (66.3 percent), but 11.2 percent of Bruneians are Chinese. Brunei’s official religion is Muslim (67 percent), but Buddhists (13 percent) and Christians (10 percent) are also represented. In the highly traditional society of Brunei where divorce is generally unacceptable, women have historically had few rights. Under Qur’anic law, they lack rights of inheritance and child custody. According to the country’s Nationality Act, women are also denied rights of citizenship. Because Brunei is an absolute monarchy, neither males nor females have the right to vote except in village elections. While voting in village elections is required for males, it is optional for females. In the 21st century, many women continue to wear the tudong, the traditional Islamic head covering. The median age for females is 27.8 years. Despite its wealth, Brunei ranks 144th in the world in infant mortality, with a rate of 12.27 deaths per 1,000 live births. Female infants (9.75) have a considerable advantage over male infants (14.68). This health advantage continues throughout life, and female life expectancy is 78.07 years as compared to 73.52 for males. Overall, Bruneian women have a fertility rate of 1.91 children per woman. The fertility rate of females aged 15 to 19 is approximately 28 percent. The country ranks 145th in the world in fertility. More than 99 percent of all births are attended by skilled health professionals.

Brunei ranks 59th in the world in educational expenditures. Although males and females have an equal school life expectancy of 14 years, female literacy rates are lower (90.2 percent) than those of males (95.2 percent). Despite this, the number of women pursuing higher education is steadily growing. Bruneian women began to assert themselves in the late 20th century. In 1997, Princess Masna, the sister of the Sultan, became the second-ranking official in the Ministry of Affairs, and two other females were appointed to the Ministries of Education and Culture, Youth, and Sports. Between 1999 and 2005, 26 percent of legislators, senior officials, and managers and 44 percent of professional and technical workers were female. Although large numbers of women have entered the workforce, their salaries continue to lag far behind those of males. In 2005, for instance, estimated earned income for females was only $15,658 as compared to $37,506 for males. Many Bruneian women serve in noncombat positions in the military. Women have repeatedly been victims of minor domestic assault in Brunei, and the government has identified assault against female domestics as an area of major concern. The penalty for this offense is a jail term of one to two weeks. If the offense results in a serious injury, punishment may also include caning. However, female domestics, particularly foreigners are often reluctant to report abuse, which may also include being forbidden to leave their employers’ homes on their days off. A wife who is beaten by her husband may now use that action as grounds for divorce. See Also: Divorce; Domestic Violence; Military, Women in the; Pregnancy. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Brunei.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/bx.html (accessed February 2010). NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women. “Brunei.” http://www.niew.gov.my/niew/index .php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid =145&Itemid=60&lang=en (accessed February 2010). “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997; Brunei.” WIN News, v.24/2 (Spring 1998).

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World Economic Forum. “Brunei.” http://www.weforum .org/pdf/gendergap/ggg08_brunei_darussalam.pdf (accessed June 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Buddhism From its Indian context, Buddhism spread worldwide for over 2,500 years through trade, royal patronage, migration, scholarly study, and travel. Currently, about 350 million people or 6 percent of the world’s population identify themselves as Buddhist, with Mahayana the largest tradition. Besides Mahayana Buddhism, the other main schools are Theravada and Vajrayana. However, Vajrayana also is regarded as a form of Mahayana Buddhism and is said to provide a faster path to Buddhahood or enlightenment. In addition, there are organizations or individuals who identify themselves as nonsectarian Buddhists. While Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions each have their distinctive features the traditions also share commonalities such as the acceptance of the Four Noble Truths. These state that life is unsatisfactory, that suffering is due to desire and attachment, that there is a solution to this state, and that following the Noble Eightfold Path includes having the right understanding, action, and mindfulness that suffering can end. Buddhism also coexists with other local religious traditions. The monastic institution is an important feature in Buddhism, but it is marked by gender bias as the ecclesiastical authority in the Theravada and Vajrayana tradition is yet to recognize women’s ordination as bhikkhuni (the female counterpart of bhikkhu or monk). In contrast, there is a strong bhikkhuni presence in the monastic order in Mahayana Buddhism even as male dominance still exists. Schools of Buddhism and Local Culture Theravada is the main Buddhist tradition in southeast Asian countries of Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka. However, Mahayana is dominant in east Asia and Vajrayana in the Himalayas. The various schools of Buddhism also are found

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in the West. In Australia, the Mahayana tradition has the most Buddhist followers. Distinctively, Theravada means the Teaching of the Elders and is regarded by its adherents as being the pristine form of Buddhism. Its Pali Canon, “Tipitaka” (Three Baskets), is organized into three sections: Vinaya (monastic discipline), Sutta (discourses of the Buddha), and Abhidhamma (special teachings). The goal of a Theravada Buddhism is to be “arahat” or enlightened. The quickest way to achieve this state is by being a bhikkhu, who keeps 227 precepts or Buddhist ethical conduct. He also dedicates his life to Buddhist teachings. In Thailand, however, people generally aspire to make as much “merit” as possible so they can achieve a better rebirth. Merit can be gained by listening to the Buddha’s teachings and by making offerings to monks. The most meritorious gesture one can make is to become an ordained monk, which will ensure his parents’ rebirth in heaven. In Buddhist doctrine, the highest stage is not to be reborn or to achieve enlightenment. The practice of Buddhism in Thailand co-exists with the belief in animism. In the compound of Thai houses and monastery, spirit houses exist to protect its inhabitants. Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes the “bodhisattapath,” or the way to attain perfect Buddhahood or full enlightenment for one’s self and for countless beings. In addition to Maitreya or future Buddha—that is accepted by Theravada Buddhists as a bodhisattva or buddha—there are other bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism, for example, Avalokitesvara, Tara, Manjusri, and Ksitigarbha. In Buddhist history, the most venerated and popular bodhisatta is Avalokitesvara, which embodies compassion. In China, it is known as Kuan-yin and referred to as “Goddess of Mercy.” Women pray to Kuan-yin for children. From its initial representation in the male figure, the iconography of Kuan-yin gradually takes on the female form. Scholars have attributed one of the possible reasons due to the influence of the existence of female deities in Chinese folk religion and Taoism that have fused into the Kuan-yin bodhisatta. Together with Buddhism and Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese folk religion form Chinese religion. As a subset of Mahayana Buddhism, the Vajrayana tradition also venerates bodhisattas. However, Vajrayana presents the quickest path to enlightenment with its more powerful methods. The Vajrayana tradition

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also is referred to as Tantric Buddhism and is based on texts known as Tantras. It incorporates meditative practices, rituals, and mantras. The most well-known mantra is “Om mani padme hum,” or “O the Jewel in the Lotus,” which associated with Avalokitesvara. A mantra is chanted to aid in the visualization practice of a particular Buddha or bodhisatta to cultivate the spiritual qualities embodied by the figure. In this tradition, the spiritual master plays a very important role to initiate a disciple, provide guidance in the practices and to pass secret teachings. There are several ordination lineages with the Gelugpa being the most famous. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is from this order. The order also is known as Yellow Hat, derived from the hats worn by its members. Another order is the Karma-pa, which is divided into Red Hat Karma-pa and Black Hat Karma-pa. Similar to Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, the monastery is an important institution in Vajrayana Buddhism. In Asia, it is part of the cultural tradition to support monasticism. In the West, outside of the Asian community, the culture to support the monastic community does not exist. Consequently, these monastics will have to find a way to support their livelihood in addition to dedicating themselves full time to the spiritual path.

Women enter a temple in a traditional Buddhist ceremony in South Korea. There are about 350 million Buddhists worldwide.

Buddhism and Gender According to the Buddha, gender is irrelevant to gain enlightenment, as both women and men have the possibility to reach this state. In practice, gender discrimination exists in Buddhist institutions and countries. In Thailand, the Buddhist ecclesiastical authority does not recognize ordination of women from the lowest level as “samaneri” or novice to the highest as bhikkhuni. Nonetheless, since bhikkhuni ordination was restored in Sri Lanka in the late 20th century, Bhikkhuni Dhammananda, previously Chatsumarn Kabilsingh—an associate professor of philosophy and religion in Thammasat University—became the pioneering Thai woman to travel there for novice and full ordination early in this century. Another milestone was achieved in 2009 as temporary ordination for women was conducted for the first time in Thailand at Bhikkhuni Dhammananda’s monastery. Ordination for women challenges the social construction of “femininity” as only receivers of merit can reconstruct it to include fields or sources of merit. Mothers do not have to wait for their sons to get ordained to ensure their rebirth in heaven; daughters have this avenue open to them, too. This has the possibility of neutralizing the emphasis on the status of sons in the family because they can be ordained and their sisters cannot. Furthermore, in Thailand there is the belief that being born a female is a lower birth status due to an inadequate store of merit compared to natural position of being born a male. Because of this discrepancy, women diligently make offerings to monks to increase their store of merit. However, this notion is not accepted by all Thais and is challenged for having no basis in Buddhist teaching. Efforts to enable bhikkhuni ordination are ongoing in the Vajrayana tradition as well. Organizationally, the international Buddhist women’s association, Sakyaditha or “Daughters of the Buddha,” tirelessly persevere to restore or establish bhikkhuni ordination in tradition and in countries where it is not yet recognized. As advocates for gender equity in Buddhism, Sakyaditha’s work is similar to that of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which campaigns for women’s ordination as priests and bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. Similar efforts have effected change in Judaism’s reform movement that pioneered the ordination of female rabbis. Members

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of Sakyaditha cut across the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions and are from both Asia and the West. Their latest initiative is to hold the 12th Sakyaditha Conference in Singapore in June 2011, which will promote networking, cooperation, and empowerment among Buddhist women as well as highlight issues of concern. As for the Mahayana female monastic order, it continues to thrive. In Taiwan, the numbers of female monastic significantly outnumber men; they are well-educated with tertiary education as well as showing remarkable leadership as abbess of a monastery. Nonetheless, in her research on Taiwanese bhikkhunis, Wei-Yi Cheng noted that gender bias is still observable, for example, during public functions where male monastic sit in front and female monastic sit in the back. Furthermore, the extent to which a bhikkhuni would kneel to pay respect to a bhikkhu in observance of the first of the Eight Special Rules differs. For most it is only observed in temples and for some bhikkhuni it is only practiced in the Buddha Hall. This diversity in Buddhist practice is not exclusive to Taiwan because in Thailand, not all Thai consider women of inferior birth; also, everyone is not against the restoration of bhikkhuni ordination. See Also: Chinese Religions; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Rabbis, Female; Religion, Women in; Women’s Ordination Conference. Further Readings Buddhist Studies. “Number of Buddhist Worldwide.” http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/bud _statwrld.htm (accessed April 2010). Cheng, Wei-Yi. Buddhist Nuns in Taiwan and Sri Lanka. London: Routledge, 2007. Ito, Tomomi. “Ordained Women in Yellow Robes: An Unfamiliar ‘Tradition’ in Contemporary Thailand.” In Karma Lekshe Tsomo, ed., Out of the Shadows: Socially Engaged Buddhist Women. Delhi, India: Sri Satguru Publications, 2006. Tsomo, K. L. “Introduction.” In K. L. Tsomo, ed., Bridging World’s: Buddhist Women’s Voices Across Generations. Taipei, Taiwan: Yuan Chuan Press, 2004. Suat Yan Lai University of Malaya

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Bulgaria The nation of Bulgaria is situated in the southeastern part of Europe. It is a former Communist country and now a member state of European Union, since 2007. Bulgaria has a population of about 7.3 million, 71 percent of which live in urban areas. The average life expectancy for women is 76 years, and literacy rate is 98 percent. The realities that Bulgarian women have to face at the beginning of the 21st century are common to most of the women of the postcommunist countries which undertook the transition from a totalitarian regime and central planning to democracy and market economy. The entire political and economic setting of Bulgaria was shaken by these political and economic changes and as a result the roles and positions of women, both in the public and the private sphere, were challenged. Equal rights for men and women are guaranteed by national legislation. These legal provisions are reinforced by the compulsory compliance to the equality mechanisms of the European Union. The number of legal cases of gender discrimination had been small, but these had increased from 2008 through 2010 as a result of a growing awareness of women of their individual rights. A telling example in this sense is the suit against the Defense Ministry initiated by two women on the grounds that women have no right to serve in the National Guards. The healthcare system in Bulgaria is a mix of public and private funding, with a mandatory health insurance. The state expenditure on healthcare is about 7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Prophylactic health screenings for diseases that affect women are mandatory. Abortion is legal and the percentage of abortions per number of pregnancies has decreased from 45 percent in 2000 to 34 percent by 2006. The transition to a market economy has raised a critical issue of “feminization of poverty” all across the central and eastern European countries. This problem is still far from being solved in Bulgaria. Even if the pay gap has closed to the European Union average—of about 15 percent—the wages are still among the lowest in the European Union. There is a 10 percent employment gap between men and women and about 60 percent of those who seek a job are women. The sectors of the economy

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where women are mostly concentrated are textiles and clothing, leather and fur products, education, healthcare and social work, financial intermediation, and hotels and restaurants. Traditionally, Bulgarian women perpetuate the role of housekeeper carrying out housework on behalf of the entire family. This situation remained virtually unchanged during the 60 years of the Communist period. At present, women still face the double burden of the labor market and the unpaid family work, as policies for work–life balance are still to be implemented. The average age when women marry is 24 years, versus that of 28 years for men. There are low numbers of women in the upper layers of bureaucracy and the number of women in politics is far from being balanced. Still, in comparison with other countries of the region, Bulgaria has a relatively higher political mobilization of women’s interests and has a high number of visible women. It is worth noting that the Party of Bulgarian Women had an important electoral success in the 2001 elections. This party has ruled in a government coalition and contributed toward increasing descriptive representation of women in politics. Then two Bulgarian women were appointed as national representatives in the European Union Commission, in 2007 and in 2009. Not least, after a period of 130 years, Sofia, the capital city, has a women mayor again. See Also: Equal Pay; Health, Mental and Physical; Representation of Women in Government, International; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Daskalova, Nadezhda. “Women’s Participation in Labour Market Remains Unequal.” Institute for Social and Trade Union Research, 2002. http://www.eurofound .europa.eu/ewco/2008/05/BG0805049I.htm (accessed December 2009). United Nations Women Watch. http://www.un.org /womenwatch/directory/statistics_and_indicators _60&PageNo=2.htm (accessed December 2009). Yachkova, Mirolyuba. The Family in Bulgaria at the Turn of the Century: Prerequisites, Analyses and Forecasts. Sofia, Bulgaria: ASSA-M, 2002. Angela Movileanu University of Siena

Bullying in the Workplace Bullying behaviors in the workplace pose a significant threat to both individual livelihood and corporate profits. According to one study, each incident of bullying can cost an employer approximately $14,600. This cost is a direct result of absenteeism—up to 87 percent of victims miss workdays due to both illness and a presumed effort to avoid their tormentors. In addition to missing work, the victims of workplace bullying report greater incidence of a wide range of health complaints. Above and beyond the loss in productivity, employers face potential legal costs if the victims file formal complaints. This entry reviews research on the context and consequences of workplace bullying, and on effective strategies for reducing these behaviors. Harassment in the Workplace Bullying is typically defined as prolonged, repeated harassment directed against a less powerful target. In the workplace, these behaviors may include threats to professional status (e.g., public criticism), threats to personal status (e.g., physical threats), isolation (e.g., withholding information), work overload, excessive monitoring, or removing responsibilities. In some cases, bullying in the workplace can take the form of sexual harassment or even physical violence. According to one large-scale study, incidence rates of workplace bullying over a five-year period ranged from 17 percent in the hotel industry to 36 percent in the teaching industry. This variation between different industries suggests that bullying is heavily influenced by the work environment. In fact, researchers have argued persuasively that the power dynamics of “corporate culture” are largely to blame for the current epidemic of workplace bullying. This connection between power and bullying is also supported by studies examining the characteristics of workplace bullies. Males are more likely to bully their coworkers than women, and bullies tend to be older than their victims. However, both males and older employees tend to be higher up the office hierarchy, so these associations with bullying are likely to be artifacts of status differences. The evidence is mixed as to whether men or women are more likely to be the targets of bullying. One study found no gender difference in reports of bullying over a six-month period, but more reports of bullying by



women over a five-year period. This apparent contradiction might reflect a gender difference in the tendency to notice, remember, or report incidents of victimization. Taken as a whole, this literature suggests that power differences, rather than gender, best predict the targets of bullying. Workplace bullying appears to be a worldwide phenomenon. According to one review, prevalence rates appear to range from 2 percent among union members in Norway to 53 percent among part-time students in the United Kingdom. However, in practice, it is difficult to draw real conclusions from these differences in prevalence rates, because they usually reflect variations in methodology. While some researchers make use of the strict definition presented above, others allow for a broader—and thus more inclusive—definition of bullying. Likewise, researchers often differ in the time frames they present to their participants. In fact, the 2 percent prevalence rate in Norway reflects those bullied “weekly,” and the 53 percent prevalence in the United Kingdom reflects those “ever subjected to acts of bullying.” At the present time, more research is needed before comparisons can be drawn between countries. Lifelong Pattern of Victimization Although workplace bullying is a relatively new area of study, a large body of research has documented the consequences of being bullied during adolescence. These consequences suggest disruptions in stress and emotional processing, including increased depression, anxiety, suicide risk, and conduct disorders. Although bullying tends to decrease with age, research suggests that there is a subset of people who are chronically victimized throughout school and into college and adulthood. In fact, one study by Peter Smith and colleagues suggests that the victims of workplace bullying were also the targets of bullies during adolescence. Workplace bullying can add an additional layer to the stress of bullying, because it threatens both social connections and an individual’s source of livelihood. Research has linked workplace bullying to a range of both physical and psychological health problems, including cardiovascular disease, sleep problems, chronic fatigue, stomach problems, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and suicidal thoughts. The common thread behind all of

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these problems is that all are commonly seen in individuals exposed to chronic stress. Some studies have reported that women experience more severe consequences as a result of workplace bullying. This may reflect differences in the work environments of men and women, and/or differences in the reporting of health complaints. In any case, it is also worth noting that this gender difference runs counter to the school bullying literature, which typically finds similar consequences in male and female victims. Options to Reduce Workplace Bullying Given the cost of workplace bullying to both individuals and organizations, it is natural to think about ways to reduce or eliminate the phenomenon. A recent book offers suggestions for both individuals and organizations. Individual targets should be aware that there is a range of options for dealing with the problem such as confronting the bully directly, filling complaints, or leaving the organization entirely. The choice of one strategy over another seems to depend on a mix of a target’s goals and his or her perception of procedural efficacy—as in, why bother filing a complaint if nothing will change? At the organizational level, the key is to implement policies that change the workplace climate. The guiding principles for organizations echo recommendations for reducing school bullying. First, organizational leaders must actively disapprove of bullying and actively support victims. This attitude helps to send the message that bullying is not tolerated. Second, leaders must send the message that supervisors are aware, watching, and ready to intervene, which also helps to create a climate of zero tolerance. See Also: Business, Women in; Health, Mental and Physical; Midlife Career Change; Professions by Gender; Sexual Harassment; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Griffin, R. S. and A. M. Gross. “Childhood Bullying: Current Empirical Findings and Future Directions for Research.” Aggression and Violent Behavior, v.9/4 (2004). Olweus, D. Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1993. Rayner, C., H. Hoel, and C. L. Cooper. Workplace Bullying: What We Know, Who Is to Blame, and What Can We Do? London: Taylor & Francis, 2002.

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Salin, D. Explaining Workplace Bullying: A Review of Enabling, Motivating, and Triggering Factors in the Work Environment. Helsinki. Finland: Meddelanden Working Papers, 1999. Smith, P. K., M. Singer, and H. Hoel. “Bullying in the School and the Workplace: Are There Any Links?” British Journal of Psychology, v.94/2 (2003). Matthew L. Newman Arizona State University

Burkina Faso The landlocked, Sahelian country of Burkina Faso, with a population of 15.8 million, is one of the most densely populated countries in West Africa and one of the poorest in the world. A 2009 United Nations Human Development Report places Burkina Faso 177th of 182 countries ranked. The major religions are Islam, indigenous beliefs, and Christianity (approximately 50 percent, 40 percent, and 10 percent, respectively). Burkina Faso’s accession to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women came into effect in 1987. Since then, much of the country’s national legislation has been harmonized with that of the convention and other international agreements relating to the rights of women, and a wide range of legal instruments and bodies have been implemented to improve the position of women, including the Individual and Family Code and the Ministry for the Advancement of Women. The former espouses the principle of nondiscrimination and equal rights for men and women. However, positive changes in the institutional and legislative arena regarding the promotion and protection of women’s rights has generally not been followed by a similar positive change in popular attitudes. Particularly in rural areas, there is a large gap between legislation and the day-to-day lives of women in Burkina Faso. Most women are not aware of their rights, and the largely patriarchal dictates of traditional societies are the accepted morality for both men and women. For example, in matters of inheritance, although Burkinabe law stipulates that the surviving spouse is the absolute heir, in reality the widow’s inheritance right is usually ignored by

the deceased husband’s relatives, who may refuse to grant her legal custody of the children and access to the estate. Although overall literacy rates are very low in Burkina Faso, women’s disadvantaged status in society is further reflected in the extremely high rate of illiteracy among women (only 12.5 percent of adult women are literate compared with 29.4 percent of men) and in the perpetuation of many traditional practices harmful to women’s health and well-being. These include underage and forced marriage, levirate (the practice whereby a widow is obliged to marry a relative of her deceased husband), tolerance of domestic violence, and female genital surgery (FGS), a traditional practice involving the alteration or removal of the external female genitalia. Despite the 1996 ban on FGS and the establishment of a national committee to address the practice, the rate of FGS in Burkina Faso still stands at 73 percent. Women’s participation in public life and access to the labor market is hampered by the difficulties they face in gaining access to land, credit, and basic social services. Although there are a number of women’s associations working with the support of the state and development partners to develop income-generating activities for women (e.g., petty commerce and livestock farming), socioeconomic and cultural factors continue to result in a restriction of opportunities for Burkinabe women. See Also: Convention to End Discrimination Against Women; Domestic Violence; Female Genital Surgery, Types of. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Burkina Faso.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/uv.html (accessed June 2010). Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Combined Fourth and Fifth Reports of States Parties.” CEDAW. Burkina Faso, CEDAW /C/BFA/4-5, 2004. Máire Ní Mhórdha University of St Andrews



Burundi Burundi is a landlocked African country that is bordered by Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Burundi has been ruled by kings since the 16th century, even while under control by different European empires. Burundi officially declared its independence in July 1962 and established a constitutional monarchy. However, the nation also has been plagued by political and ethnic strife similar to its neighbor Rwanda. Insurgency and civil war have erupted since the nation’s founding, and although the new nation tried to balance rule between the rival ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsis, they never achieved a peaceful balance. In the 1960s, in response to the Hutu insurgency in Rwanda that killed many Tutsi, Burundi Tutsi seized control of the military and police. In 1972, Burundi experienced a genocide: In

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the city of Bururi, most of the civilian and military Tutsi were killed. When Tutsi gained control of the government, they killed 200,000 to 300,000 Hutu. In the 1990s, Burundi was deeply enmeshed in a civil war; the Rwanda genocide in 1994 added fire to the Burundi Hutu–Tutsi conflict. The decade of civil war that followed displaced over 50,000 people, and killed about 300,000. United Nations peacekeepers have had a presence in Burundi and negotiated a new transitional government and constitution. The generation of instability has greatly affected the status of women, who live in a culture of violence and fear. Women participated in the United Nations peace process, and the nation’s new constitution guarantees that 30 percent of Parliament be women, as well as 7 of the 20 ministers. However, having such political voice has not yet helped women’s status. The culture of war has created a violent society that uses rape as a form of

A woman in Burundi carries her baby on her back in the traditional African method. Burundi was involved in a decade long civil war, which greatly affected the status of women, who still live in a culture of violence and fear.

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intimidation and tool of combat. The threat of violence and rape has kept women from working in agriculture, which would help them rise out of poverty. Because of the nation’s civil unrest, 80 percent of households own firearms, and armed rape is common—women report that armed robberies often involve rape as well. Adding to the problem, it is culturally taboo for women to talk about rape, so little is done to keep women safe. As a result, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has become a significant problem in Burundi. Many families are headed by widows because of the country’s constant warfare. Because women cannot inherit property, most of these families live in extreme poverty, with few economic opportunities. Women have turned to prostitution to survive. Their daughters frequently drop out or never begin to attend school to help support their families. Because of the constant threat of sexual violence, many women think prostitution is safer than being on their own, where they are more vulnerable to rape. Mass rapes over the last several decades also have crippled many women, who now live in a constant state of fear. Warfare has also created a culture of violence in which men feel they have the right to beat their wives. There are many nongovernmental organizations attempting to address the status of women in Burundi, through education, economic opportunities, and AIDS awareness. Burundi women need protection and stability to lift themselves out of poverty and violence. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rape, Incidence of; Rape in Conflict Zones. Further Readings Farr, Vanessa. “The Importance of a Gender Perspective to Successful Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Processes.” http://www.unidir.org/pdf /Gender/5 percent20Farr.pdf (accessed June 2010). Farr, Vanessa, et al. “Gender Perspectives on Small Arms and Light Weapons: Regional and International Concerns.” http://www.bicc.de/publications/briefs /brief24/content.php (accessed June 2010). Krueger, Robert, et al. From Bloodshed to Hope in Burundi: Our Embassy Years During Genocide. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007. Lemarchand, Rene. Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Uvin, Peter. Life After Violence: A People’s Story of Burundi. London: Zed Books, 2009. Monica Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Business, Women in In furtherance of all human rights of women and the achievement of sustainable economic development, the importance of empowering women is recognized. L. Mayoux defines empowerment as a process of change in power relations that is both multidimensional and interlinked. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) defines women’s (economic, social, and political) empowerment through five components: women’s sense of self-worth; their right to have and determine choices; their right to have access to opportunities and resources; their right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; their ability to influence the direction of social change. These five components are particularly applicable in work, where women’s economic empowerment can be achieved by targeting initiatives to expand women’s economic opportunity; strengthen their legal status and rights; and ensure their voice, inclusion, and participation in economic decision making. Expanding women’s economic opportunities means more and better jobs for women across a wider range of sectors; a business climate that supports women in starting and growing businesses and building their management and entrepreneurial skills; a financial sector in which commercial banks and microfinance institutions provide women with effective access to a range of financial services and products tailored to their needs including especially credit and savings instruments; in times of high food and fuel prices, greater livelihood security for women, especially in rural areas and vulnerable environments. Micro and small enterprise (MSE) development for women is promoted as a key intervention for women’s economic empowerment by governments and by international and European development agencies since the 1990s. Although women take part in medium and large businesses,



MSEs mainly represent women entrepreneurs’ productive activities. Entrepreneurship development for women is also among the measures proposed in the Beijing Declaration, Beijing Platform for Action 1995, the Program of Action of the World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen in 1995, at the Millennium Summit held in 2000 (Millenium Development Goals), the 2005 World Summit (Resolution 60/1), and in Resolution 1558 (2007) on Feminization of Poverty by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of 1979 obliges signatories to undertake actions to ensure gender equality in both the private and public spheres and to eliminate traditional stereotyped ideas on the roles of the sexes. In the United States, European Union (EU) member countries, and the developing world, governments and the private sector have been actively promoting a greater role for women entrepreneurs in business and economic growth. The EU provides female entrepreneurs with specialized training and support through the European Social Fund. The EU Women’s Entrepreneurship Portal encourages Europe-wide networking among female entrepreneurs. As part of its ongoing strategy to increase the number of female entrepreneurs in the EU, the commission launched the European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors in 2009. Members will share experiences, compare notes, and serve as role models to inspire women to become entrepreneurs across the 27-member EU. International organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), International Trade Center (ITC, Geneva), UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); financial institutions such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC); and donors such as Development Cooperation Ireland (DCI) are also paying significant attention to women’s entrepreneurship development. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the ILO’s International Training Center (ITC-ILO) in Turin, Italy, have been involved in promoting and assisting businesswomen for many years.

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A team dedicated to working on issues related to Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE) was created within the ILO’s Small Enterprise Development Program (SEED) in 2001. It has been working closely with ITC-ILO on a number of training initiatives. Statistics on Women in Business There has been rapid expansion of women’s entrepreneurship since the 1980s. Statistics should be treated with caution, and the expansion of women-owned businesses or self-employment in itself says very little about the conditions of entrepreneurship, the reasons why it is occurring, and the benefits or costs for women. Most studies only consider women-owned businesses and do not include women co-entrepreneurs or women’s participation in family enterprise management. Many of the studies are undifferentiated by class and background apart from female-headed households, particularly the studies in Europe and the United States. There are few comparative studies of female and male businesses, and little information exists on business operation and levels of success over time. Also, women entrepreneurs are found in the informal or marginalized sector that is very active in developing and transitional economies. Informal economic activities and their related incomes and outlays often escape statistical reporting. In some countries, such as the United States, the growth in the number of women-owned businesses is far outpacing the overall growth of new businesses. The most recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that between 1997 and 2006, businesses that are fully owned by women or in which women own a majority interest grew at nearly two times the rate of all U.S. firms. During this same time period, employment among women-owned firms grew 0.4 percent. In 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that womenowned (or majority-owned) firms consisted of an estimated 10.4 million privately held firms, which accounted for 40.2 percent of all businesses in the country. Furthermore, industry growth for womenowned businesses between 1997 and 2006 in the retail sector was 130 percent (1.1 million firms). On average, women make up 30 percent of the entrepreneurs in the EU. The entrepreneurial activities of women vary considerably across sectors. According to the overall summary of replies received,

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the large majority (87.4 percent) of women entrepreneurs across Europe have micro enterprises, with 1–9 employees; 10.1 percent have small companies (10–49 employees), 2 percent have medium-sized companies (50–249 employees), and 0.5 percent have large companies (over 250 employees). Female entrepreneurs are generally more represented in services than in manufacturing and construction. However, the European indicators on female entrepreneurs, divided by sector, sometimes rely on nonharmonized national data and must be interpreted carefully. Starting from a low base, the Arab region has witnessed a faster increase in women’s share of economic activity than all other regions of the world between 1990 and 2003—by 19 percent as opposed to 3 percent worldwide. It is estimated that women make up onequarter to one-third of the total business population worldwide. However, their presence in international markets is weak. In the agricultural sector, however, approximately 41 percent of women and 57 percent of men are self-employed. Diversification Among Women in Business Women entrepreneurs constitute a growing share of micro and small enterprise owners. They are, however, not a homogenous group. Women in business are often self-employed—full time or part time—with or without employees or are the partner/shareholder of a business. Self-employment—with a few employees or without employees— and micro and small businesses can be home based. Women’s self-employment has often been promoted and is often preferred by women themselves because of the possibility of working from home and thus combining income-earning activities with unpaid domestic work. For many women, particularly in south Asia, waged work outside the home in agricultural production has not been an option because of social status concerns. This situation does not apply to higher-status professional work or work in factories. The possibilities of telecommuting in Northern industrialized countries—made possible by advances in technology—is often the preferred work pattern. However, where working at home is forced on women because of mobility restrictions rather than part of a conscious lifestyle choice, incomes are likely to be very low. In Europe, the increasing focus on socially responsible growth, including a commitment to the welfare

state and the promotion of social forms of enterprise, promises to open up new opportunities for women entrepreneurs. Policies to stimulate micro and small enterprises, combined with equal opportunities policies, have helped to create a more favorable environment for women’s entrepreneurial development. In the United States and Europe, active women’s organizations and organized gender lobbies within the administration are able to ensure attention to at least the concerns of some women entrepreneurs, particularly at the level of legislation. The majority of women, particularly poor women in the South, begin their enterprises to cope with costs of household subsistence and inadequate male contributions to family survival. These women are locked into low-investment, low-growth, and lowprofit activities, not only because of limited markets and enterprise opportunities in poor economies, but also due to gender inequalities in accessing resources, skills, markets, and labor. These in turn are a result of gender discrimination in macro-level policies and institutions that reflect and reinforce gender inequalities in power at the household level. In the South, existing studies indicate that, particularly for poor women, constraints have been exacerbated rather than alleviated by neoliberal policies promoting export-led growth. What little social services and welfare provisions previously existed have been reduced. The benefits of micro and small enterprise development for women themselves in terms of economic empowerment, wellbeing, or social and political empowerment cannot be assumed. Obstacles to Women in Business Although gender inequality is extremely variable— both between and within cultures—women entrepreneurs face gender-based barriers to starting and growing their businesses including discriminatory property, matrimonial, and inheritance laws and/ or cultural practices, limited mobility, representation, and an unequal share of family and household responsibilities. These factors, combined with social exclusion based on gender, mean that women entrepreneurs are in a less favorable position compared to men when it comes to accessing, for example, commercial credit from formal financial service providers, more lucrative markets (rather than the tradi-



tional local markets), technology, and information to establish and grow their businesses. The importance of access to credit is identified as a major barrier to entry into self-employment throughout the world. Women setting up businesses encounter varying degrees of difficulty in obtaining capital, collateral, and fair lending terms. Microfinancing One of the most popular forms of economic empowerment for women is microfinance, which provides credit for impoverished women who are usually excluded from formal credit institutions. Mayoux highlights the three recognized models of microfinance programs: 1. Financial self-sustainability: This is the most popular model and used by donor agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, and the United Nations. It provides microfinance services to a large number of poor women, specifically targeting small entrepreneurs, by setting interest rates to cover costs, enabling separate accounting from other interventions, expanding programs to obtain economies of scale, and decreasing costs of delivery through the use of groups. 2. Poverty alleviation: This model focuses on small savings and loan provisions to aid consumption and production. 3. Feminist empowerment: This model is based on examples of some of the earliest microfinance programs in Bangladesh and India, focusing on gender equality and women’s human rights through microfinance, and empowering women economically and socially. Offering women a source of credit has been found to be a very successful strategy for alleviating poverty because it enhances the productivity of one’s own small enterprise and the income-generating activities in which one invests. The most successful of these schemes—the Grameen Bank, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India—have served as models for other programs worldwide.

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But recently, many academics argue that these programs are not effective in fully empowering women. They believe that there is a lack of substantial training and support services and a need to provide women with greater ownership and control in the programs. Critics contend that microfinance programs only marginally increase access to income and that they have a limited impact on household decision making. They argue that many of these programs have not been able to move women into profitable nontraditional forms of entrepreneurship and that most of the women involved in credit savings programs remain in low-value traditional work in the informal sector; thus they have limited involvement in more profitable commercial markets. It is suggested that microfinance projects tend to equate women’s poverty with income, not sufficiently emphasizing the inequality in relationships and institutions. This is underscored in the study conducted by Malhotra et al., which highlights the historical and developmental context of a woman’s place in society and the importance of “fundamental structural matters involving family, social and economic organization.” Thus, critics have drawn attention to the need to focus on the structural factors that perpetuate the economic marginalization of the poor. M. Khan stresses the importance of wage employment over credit for women. His findings show that wage employment helps to promote economic and social empowerment, providing women with more stability, a collective workplace, and more control over their income. He also emphasizes its ability to assist in expanding a woman’s mobility by providing her with different life experiences beyond her home environment so that she is able to gain bargaining power, meet her practical needs, improve the quality of her life, and address her long-term goals. On the other hand, there is now universal agreement, at least in official policy statements, that legal reforms of access and control over property and incomes are a central part of an enabling environment for women in the economy and these inequalities need specific treatment in regulatory frameworks for micro and small enterprises and financial institutions. Legal change also needs to be accompanied by publicity to raise awareness and appropriate support for women wishing to assert their rights through changes in legal institutions and support for

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women’s movements and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Women’s Business Associations The expansion of female entrepreneurship, coupled with women’s increasing gender awareness and the increasing influence of women’s movements, has led to the formation of women’s business associations of various types in Africa and south Asia as well as the United States. These have increased the visibility of women in economic decision making, although their influence is still far from equal to that of men. Les Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales (FCEM) is an international women’s business organization created in France in 1946. The FCEM has NGO status with the UN and consultative status with the EU and the ILO. It has 35 member countries. The International Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (IFWE), established in 1994 as an offshoot of the World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME). IFWE represents women business owners in more than 20 countries and also has NGO status with the UN and consultative status with the ILO. The International Business and Professional Women’s Association (BPWA) aims to bring together women in business to help them achieve their business goals. Can-Asian Business Women’s Network is a CIDAfunded project operating in Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The Women Leaders’ Network is a group of high-profile women academics and representatives of the private sector and women’s unions and associations in 18 APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) countries. See Also: Entreprenuers; Financial Independence of Women; Grameen Bank of Bangladesh; Property Rights; Self-Employed Women’s Association of India. Further Readings Cheston, S. and L. Kuhn. “Empowering Women Through Microfinance” (2002). http://www.micro creditsummit.org/papers/+5cheston_kuhn.pdf (accessed June 2010).

Eurochambers Women Network. “Women in Business and Decision Making: A Survey on Women Entrepreneurs” (2004). http://www.eurochambres.be /women/index.htm (accessed June 2010). Franco, A. and K. Winqvist. “Statistics in Focus. The Entrepreneurial Gap Between Women and Men.” Eurostat (2002). http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/cache /ITY_OFFPUB/KS-NK-02-011/EN/KS-NK-02-011 -EN.PDF (accessed June 2010). Goetz, A. and R. Sen Gupta. “Who Takes the Credit? Gender, Power and Control Over Loan Use in Rural Credit Programs in Bangladesh.” World Development, v.24/1 (1996). Gonzalez, K. “Women-Owned Businesses Change How Business Is Done.” Burkisa (July 2, 2009). http://www .bukisa.com/articles/116025_women-owned-businesses -change-how-business-is-done(accessed June 2010). Jalbert, S. E. “Women Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy” (2000). http://www.cipe.org/programs /women/pdf/jalbert.pdf (accessed June 2010). Khan, M. “Microfinance, Wage Employment and Housework: A Gender Analysis.” Development in Practice, v.9/4 (1999). Malhotra, A, S. Schuler, and C. Boender. Measuring Women’s Empowerment as a Variable in International Development. Geneva: International Center for Research on Women and the Gender and Development Group of the World Bank, 2002. Mayoux, L. “Microfinance and the Empowerment of Women: A Review of the Key Issues.” Social Finance Unit Working Paper 23. Geneva: ILO, 2000. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for the Advancement of Women. “2009 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development Women’s Control Over Economic Resources and Access to Financial Resources, Including Microfinance.” New York: United Nations, 2009. United Nations Population Information Network, UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “Guidelines on Women’s Empowerment.” http://www.un.org/popin/unfpa/taskforce/guide /iatfwemp.gdl.html (accessed June 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

C Caesarean Section, Rates of A caesarean section, also known as a c-section, is considered a major surgery. It is an abdominal surgery used to deliver an infant through an incision in both a birthing woman’s abdomen and uterus. This procedure is currently being used at a high rate during the childbirth process and is therefore a relevant issue for women today. There has been a recent increase in the rate of caesarean sections and several possible explanations exist for this increase. The procedure also has multiple effects upon women. While caesarean rates fell between 1989 and 1996, they have increased dramatically in the United States within the last 10 years, with an increase of over 50 percent. Currently, between one in four and one in three childbirths in the United States occurs via a caesarean section, representing an increase of 400 percent in the last 15 years. In 2007, the caesarean section rate increased by 2 percent to approximately 31.8 percent of all childbirths. Factors Playing Roles in Increase of Procedure According to the World Health Organization (WHO), caesarean section rates have increased beyond the recommended level of 15 percent in many countries, almost doubling in the last decade, particularly in developed nations such as Australia, France, Germany, Italy, North America, and the United States. The WHO also reported a c-section rate increase in less wealthy

countries, such as Brazil, China, and India. This was the 11th consecutive year where an increase is indicated. Medical factors play a role in the increase of caesarean sections. Side effects of commonly used labor interventions have been found to be associated with an increase in the likelihood of the use of a caesarean section. For instance, labor induction among first-time mothers increases the risk of a caesarean. The use of continuous fetal monitoring has also been linked to higher rates. It has been found that women with certain medical circumstances, such as a fetus in a breech position, or a history of a previous caesarean section, are not being offered the option of a vaginal birth by their doctors. Several nonmedical, social factors are also linked to the increase in the rate of caesarean sections. The philosophy of individual doctors and the type of training doctors and nurses receive play a role. A growth in the desire for a pregnancy to be convenient for the doctor and the patient has influenced the rates. A small amount of women are scheduling planned caesarean sections often for reasons of convenience. A rise in the fear of litigation among doctors also serves to increase the caesarean section rate. The increased financial gain associated with performing a caesarean compared to a vaginal birth may also be influencing the rate. In 2005 the average rate charged for a caesarean section without complications was $12,544, whereas the average fee for a vaginal birth without complications performed in a hospital was $6,973. Peer pressure from a 211

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culture that condones the use of caesarean sections is also a factor. Furthermore, limited knowledge about the potential negative side effects of a caesarean section serves to trivialize the procedure. While the U.S. rate of caesarean sections has increased for all age groups, rates vary among populations of women. Rates are higher for women who have private medical insurance, are older, have higher levels of education, and are in a higher socioeconomic position. Among various racial and ethnic groups in the United States, in 2006 the rate of caesarean section was highest for non-Hispanic blacks, followed by non-Hispanic whites, and then by Hispanic women. Positive and Negative Outcomes A caesarean section can be a lifesaving procedure for the birthing woman and/or the baby. However, several negative outcomes are associated with the procedure. Psychological effects, such as guilt, fear, anger, and postpartum depression are common consequences. Complications have been shown to increase with the use of a caesarean section. One-half of all women who have the procedure suffer complications. Some of the associated risks include blood loss and hemorrhage, heart and lung complications, incisional endometriosis, complications from using anesthesia, blood transfusions, hysterectomy, a reduced rate of establishment of breastfeeding, and chronic complications associated with scar tissue, such as pain during sexual intercourse, pelvic pain, and bowel problems. Other long-term negative effects are associated, including an increase in the odds of infertility, miscarriage, and ectopic pregnancy. The maternal mortality rate is approximately two to four times that of women with vaginal births. See Also: Abortion Methods; Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital; Childbirth, Medication in. Further Readings Jukelevics, Nicette. Understanding the Dangers of Cesarean Birth: Making Informed Decisions. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008. Wagner, M. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Jessica Sippy Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Cambodia The Kingdom of Cambodia is located in mainland southeast Asia. Its ethnic population groups include the majority Khmer as well as Vietnamese, Cham, and Chinese. Buddhism is the predominant religion, but there are also Christians and Muslims. There is a strong emphasis on kinship, marriage, and family. Women enjoy full legal and political equality, but their access to the highest political and economic positions is restricted by traditional views. Many also suffer from violence, poverty, and inadequate living conditions. Cambodia ranked 104 of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Marriage and family are the social norm. Arranged marriages are common, but children are not obligated to accept their chosen partners. Society is hierarchical and one’s status plays a significant role in one’s choice. The practice of paying bride wealth is also still common. Polygamy was legally outlawed in 1993, but mistresses or additional wives remain common and socially acceptable. The 2009 fertility rate was 3.2 births per woman. Forty percent of married women use contraceptives. A skilled healthcare practitioner is present at less than half of all births. The 2009 infant mortality rate stood at 65 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate stood at 540 per 100,000 live births. Employers provide 90 days’ paid maternity leave at 50 percent of wages. Most families are nuclear but other family arrangements are common as well. Husbands and wives jointly make most major household decisions, although deference to males is still evident in practices such as the preparation and serving of meals. Family subsistence farming predominates in rural areas. Both genders participate in family subsistence farming with tasks traditionally divided by gender. Women’s household and farming responsibilities include transplanting, laundry, mending, housecleaning, marketing, and overseeing family finances. Such labor divisions are not always strictly followed. Domestic violence rates are high and rural village women have little legal protection. Divorce is possible but socially carries a stigma. Most girls receive a primary-level education but few receive additional education. Female school attendance rates are 87 percent at the primary level,

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ers often work in poor conditions for low wages. A gender gap still exists in terms of average estimated earned income, which stands at $1,392 for women and $1,858 for men. Women have the right to vote and are slowly expanding their small role in the political arena. They hold 16 percent of parliamentary seats and 7 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. Women are also excluded from religious leadership. Some nongovernmental organizations that operate in Cambodia have worked to improve women’s status. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Marriages, Arranged; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children.

A meeting in a village commons in the Takeo province of Cambodia. Women are slowly expanding their role in politics.

Further Readings Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Wagner, C. Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia. Berkeley, CA: Creative Arts, 2002. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

32 percent at the secondary level, and 4 percent at the tertiary level. As a result, a gender gap exists between literacy rates, with females attaining only a 67 percent rate, compared to 86 percent for men. Cambodian culture places great emphasis on social etiquette that dictates personal interactions based on status, familiarity, and gender. Traditional codes govern behavior and those for women are strict. Public physical contact between genders is largely taboo. Trafficking in women and children for the sex trade is a problem. Most live in poverty and life expectancy is low—age 49 for women and age 46 for men. Seventy-seven percent of women participate in the labor force. Women comprise 44 percent of paid the nonagricultural workforce and 33 percent of professional and technical workers. Key employers are wet rice agriculture, tourism, artisan crafts, and a small, undeveloped industrial sector. Women teach at all educational levels, but most are at the primary level. Foreign-owned garment factories that produce clothing for export are increasingly common and employ a mostly female workforce. Garment work-

Cameroon The West African country of Cameroon was formed in 1961 by the merging of two former colonies, French Cameroon and part of British Cameroon. Cameroon is a mid-range country in terms of income and development, but Cameroonian women lag behind men in access to education, healthcare, and employment, as well as legal protection. The Gross Domestic Product in Cameroon in 2009 was estimated at $2,300, ranking the nation 180th in the world but in the mid-ranks of sub-Saharan African countries. However, this income is unevenly distributed, and almost half the population is estimated to live below the poverty level. Cameroon’s population was almost 19 million in 2009 and has the very young age structure typical of developing countries, with a median age of 19.2 years and almost 41 percent of the population aged 14 years or younger. The fertility rate is high, at 4.33 children per woman, as is the birth rate,

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at 34.1 births per 1,000 population—both numbers are in the top quintile of reporting countries. Cameroon’s population is over 99 percent African. About 40 percent of the population is Christian, another 40 percent follow indigenous beliefs, and 20 percent are Muslim. Many rural areas are ruled by the customary law of the ethnic group residing there, some of which allow polygamy or consider women the legal property of their husbands. Women’s rights advocates argue that domestic violence is common but is rarely prosecuted. Rape also appears to be common, with 20 percent of women in a 2009 survey reporting having been raped; a separate study revealed that few reported cases are prosecuted, and almost none result in conviction. Male literacy is estimated at 77 percent and female literacy at 59.8 percent. As of 2005, girls made up about 45 percent of enrollment in primary school, 44 percent of those enrolled in secondary school, and 39 percent of those enrolled in tertiary education. However women were far less likely to be employed, and in 2001 they made up just 22.2 percent of the nonagricultural employment sector. Women hold about 10 percent of seats in the National Assembly and cabinet posts. Abortion is legal in Cameroon only in cases of rape or incest, or if necessary to preserve the woman’s life or mental and physical health. Just over a quarter of women aged 15–44 years in Cameroon reported using contraceptives in 2004, but only half of those reported using modern methods (e.g., the birth control pill). Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS) is a major problem in Cameroon, with an estimated 5.1 percent of adults infected—the 15th highest percentage in the world. Risk of other infectious diseases is high as well, and Cameroon has low life expectancy for both men (52.89 years) and women (54.52 years). Maternal and child health is generally poor, and Save the Children ranks Cameroon 71st among 75 less developed countries on its Mothers’ Index, and 69th on its Children’s Index. Human trafficking is a major problem in Cameroon, with women and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation both within Cameroon and from and to other nations. Cameroon is on the Tier 2 Watch List for human trafficking, indicating not only lack of compliance with minimum standards

to prevent human trafficking but also failure to prosecute traffickers, monitor the number of victims, or increase efforts to combat trafficking. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rural Women; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “Cameroon.” http://www .state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61558.htm (accessed March 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Campaign for Female Education Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) is a global organization that focuses on the education of young women to eradicate poverty in Africa. Begun in 1993 by Ann Cotton, with a pilot project in Moyo, Zimbabwe, CAMFED has now extended its work to rural Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, and Tanzania. In 2006, it contributed to the education of more than 309,000 children. CAMFED’S major premise is that the education of girls will lead to the increased production of wealth in Africa, as educated women are able to earn up to 25 percent more than their uneducated peers. It also believes that the education of women will lead to sustainability, as educated women marry later, have fewer children, and are three times less likely to become human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive. CAMFED’S funding structure is set up to see girls’ education through primary school to secondary school, and also to assist them to become economically independent on reaching adulthood. As a consequence, the organization’s investment in women’s education spans from elementary education through

Canada



adolescence to adulthood. At the elementary level, CAMFED provides a “safety net fund” for primary schools, which allows schools to provide essential needs for impoverished students to attend classes, such as school uniforms, shoes, and medical funds. At the secondary school level, an overwhelming number of female students drop out when the fees become too expensive for their families, or when the schools are too far away to walk to. Boys are traditionally favored at the secondary school level, as they are perceived to have more potential to earn good wages later on and because they are able to travel farther without the same amount of personal risk. To amend this, for the young girls that CAMFED sponsors, the organization provides fees and all school supplies needed. If the school is too far away, CAMFED also sponsors costs for boarding and provides a CAMFED-trained mentor for the young girl. Once the young girl graduates secondary school, CAMFED provides the structures that encourage the young woman’s economic independence. Young graduates from CAMFED are given microcredit, training, and peer support to run their own enterprises. They are given nonreturnable grants to begin their own businesses and are encouraged to start by addressing the needs of the local community, such as poultry rearing, building telephone booths, and market gardening. The graduates of CAMFED also become part of the alumnae network Cama, the members of which provide mentoring for their younger peers. CAMFED’S success can be measured by a 2007 study in Zimbabwe that shows that the CAMFED alumnae are marrying at an average age of 21.8 years—much later than the rural norm. In addition, these young women are marrying men of their own choice, rather than out of need. Since CAMFED began, the organization has branched out in a number of ways. A branch of filmmaking, the Samfya Women Filmmakers, has developed to get African women to visually represent their own lives. In 2008, CAMFED also began the 10,000 Women program with Goldman Sachs, which supported partnerships with universities around the world to create flexible business and management programs to educate women around the world in business. See Also: Educational Opportunities/Access; “GirlFriendly” Schools; Poverty; Poverty, “Feminization” of.

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Further Readings Cotton, Ann and Richard Synge, eds. Cutting the Gordian Knot: Benefits of Girls’ Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge, MA: CamFed, 1998. Kristof, Nicholas D. and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Vintage, 2010. Sutherland-addy, Esi. Gender Equity in Junior and Senior Secondary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2008. Adeline Koh Independent Scholar

Canada Canada consistently ranks in the top five of the nearly 200 countries evaluated by the United Nations Development Index and Gender Development Index. As of 2001, one in five Canadian women was born abroad; 58 percent of new arrivals come from Asia and the Middle East. Most Canadian women (82 percent) claim French or English, the country’s official languages, as their native tongue. The next most popular language is Chinese (3 percent). As in other developed countries, birth rates have plummeted since the 1950s, divorce rates have gone up, and substantially more women are likely to have a university degree. Today, women make up 57 percent of full-time university students—up 20 percent since the 1970s. Compared with men, however, women are still less likely to be elected to public office, and their average employment earnings are about 70 percent less. Economic and Social Factors One of the most significant social trends in Canada is the rise of women in the paid workforce. Women make up 47 percent of the total workforce, and 70 percent of women with children younger than 5 years work outside the home (compared to 37 percent in 1976). Women are more likely to live on a low income than men, and they make up nearly all the heads of low-income single-parent families. Senior women are the least likely to live on a low income, although their incidence of poverty has dropped sharply since the early 1980s.

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Since the 1990s, men have been increasingly involved in unpaid household labor; today, they shoulder about 40 percent of the burden. Marriage rates have fallen significantly in the last decades. One notable change is the rise in common-law marriages. Today, 20 percent of women aged 25–29 years are in common-law partnerships, and 37 percent are married legally. Aboriginal and Visible Minority Women Aboriginal women are 3 percent of the total female population and live mainly in the prairies and the territories. Aboriginal women are more likely to live in poverty and are four times more likely to be violently assaulted than other Canadian women. Native women’s groups have drawn attention to this imbalance and have argued that laws such as Bill C-31 (1985 Amendment to the Indian Act), created by male-controlled band councils and the federal government, perpetuate legislation that discriminates against Native women. Yet aboriginal women also lead their communities as band chiefs and educators. A notable native politician is Nellie Cournoyea, who was the first aboriginal woman premier when she was elected premier of the Northwest Territories in 1991. Aboriginal women, such as actress Tantoo Cardinal and singers Susan Aglukark and Buffy Sainte-Marie, are known throughout Canada. In 2006, the federal government dedicated Women’s History Month to aboriginal women. Fourteen percent of Canadian women identify as members of a visible minority, of whom 62 percent live in either Vancouver or Toronto. The largest blocks of minority women are Chinese (26 percent), south Asian (22 percent), and black (17 percent). Women in visible minorities are well educated. In 2001, 21 percent of visible minority woman had a university degree compared with 14 percent of other women. They are, however, slightly less likely to be employed outside of the home. Women in Politics Canada has strong antidiscrimination laws regarding gender, most notably in the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A government organization, the Status of Women in Canada, works to ensure that gender dimensions are taken into account in the development of policies and programs. Canadian women have not, however, been well represented in political positions of power. Only 21 percent of elected Members of Parliament are women. Canada has had one

female prime minister, Kim Campbell, for a short, 9-month term in 1991. Symbolically, however, Canada’s head of state is female (Queen Elizabeth II), and the queen’s representative (appointed by the prime minister) is Haitian-born Canadian Michaelle Jean. In the Supreme Court, three of nine justices are currently women, and Beverley McLachlin has held the post of chief justice since 2000. Women of Note Canadian women’s organizations across a broad political spectrum have been funded federally since 1973, although this support decreased in the 1990s. Canadian feminists underline that federal funding does not mean they support government policy but does give groups legitimacy and guarantees them a voice in policy deliberations. Women’s organizations have focused on “equal rights” (rather than special privilege to obtain equality of outcome), primarily as related to economic issues. Canadian feminists generally see their movement as a “success story” (particularly in comparison with the United States) because they have succeeded in passing substantial equal rights legislation and in keeping women’s issues in the public eye. Women’s feminist history in Canada is normally divided into a “first wave” (c. 1890–1925) and a “second wave” (post-1965). The standard historical narrative has Anglo women heading early developments, followed by Francophones (e.g., the vote was granted to Anglo women in 1918, but Quebec withheld this right until 1940). Some Quebec feminists now dispute this “lateness” narrative, arguing that their history must be seen in its own context. Since 1965, Quebec has become a leader in Canada in terms of women’s rights and public involvement. In 1986, the Multicultural History Society of Ontario published the pioneering Looking Into My Sister’s Eyes about the role of minority women as part of the Canadian “mosaic.” Since that time, Anglo-Canadian scholarship has become more aware of the role of racism and exclusion in its own history. Yet “Two Solitudes” persist in the Franco/Anglo divide: Quebecois feminists have criticized Anglo women for refusing to accept Quebec as a nation of equal importance to Canada, and Anglo feminists have accused their Quebec counterparts of privileging their nationalist agenda over the women’s movement. Many Canadian women are renowned entertainers including ballerina Evelyn Hart, singer Shania Twain,

Cancer, Environmental Factors and



actresses Pamela Anderson and Sandra Oh, and comedian Catherine O’Hara. Internationally respected authors include Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood, and books written by Canadian women such as Gabrielle Roy (Bonheur d’occasion) and Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) continue to sell copies worldwide. Perhaps the most famous living Canadian woman is Celine Dion, a Quebecois singer who is one of the world’s top-selling female vocalists. In Canada, Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman in space, also holds an important place of honor. Holidays Canadians celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May, and Women’s History Month in October. The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women is December 6. This date is particularly significant for Canadians because it marks the remembrance of the 1989 École Polytechnique Massacre in Montreal, when a gunman murdered 14 women. It is marked by vigils, discussions, and reflections on violence against women. See Also: Global Feminism; Government, Women in; Household Division of Labor. Further Readings Cook, Sharon A., et al., eds. Framing Our Past: Canadian Women’s History in the Twentieth Century. Kingston, Canada: McGill-Queens University Press, 2001. Epp, Marlene, et al., eds. Sisters or Strangers? Immigrant, Ethnic and Racialized Women in Canadian History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Hamilton, Roberta. Gendering the Vertical Mosaic: Feminist Perspectives on Canadian Society, 2nd ed. Toronto: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2005. Sauve, Roger. “Men and Women in Canada 2005— National and Provincial Trends.” http://peoplepatterns consulting.com (accessed June 1020). Statistics Canada. “Women in Canada: A Gender-Based Statistical Report,” 5th ed. Ottawa, Canada: Statistics Canada, 2006. Strong-Boaz, V. and A. Clair Fellman, eds. Rethinking Canada. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999. Hillary Kaell Harvard University

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Cancer, Environmental Factors and There are different opinions on what factors actually cause cancer: genes, lifestyle choices, or the environment. When considering environmental factors of cancer, pollutants and toxins come into play. Toxins, in particular, contribute to an individual’s cancer risk. Cancer also may be the result of a combination of all three factors. Women are affected by a variety of cancer types, especially those specific to women: breast, cervical, endometrial, ovarian, uterine, vaginal, vulvar, and gestational trophoblastic tumors, quick-growing growths that occur in a woman’s womb. Women’s health activists and cancer researchers are not onlyinterested in understanding what causes cancer but also what makes some types of cancer more common in women. All cancers have highly debated causal factors. In other words, it remains unclear why some people exposed to the same environment will develop cancer when others will not. The environment as a cause of cancer has been difficult to determine. It is more commonly believed, researched, and proved that genes and lifestyle or behavioral choices are the main factors in a person’s cancer risk. Therefore, when trying to understand the causes of women’s cancer, a woman’s choices are examined. Lifestyle Lifestyle choices are associated with cancer-causing factors and commonly advocated by government agencies like the National Cancer Institute and private organizations such as the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Lifestyle and behavior are individual choices women can make that may affect their risk of cancer. For example, a woman’s choice to delay pregnancy until later in life may increase her chances of getting cancer. Other lifestyle choices that may affect a woman’s cancer risk include diet, alcohol consumption, exercise, breastfeeding, and use of hormonal birth control. Feminist health advocates have critiqued this perspective for focusing too much on women’s individual choice, which inadvertently blames women for their cancer. In addition, by focusing on individual women’s choices as cancer contributors, debate and research is deflected away from societal causes like

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the environment. Moreover, there is not a clear scientific consensus that all of these lifestyle choices truly affect women’s risk of cancer in significant ways. For example, the notion that lifestyle choices such as diet can reduce a woman’s risk of cancer has less evidence. Heredity Another way of understanding what causes cancer is understanding a person’s family history and genetic makeup. Genetic predisposition for cancer is gaining popularity, and breast cancer, in particular, has been thought to have links to a breast cancer gene. Genetic tests known as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 are tests women can choose to get to find out if they hold a mutated form of the BRCA1 gene. The test helps determine the probability that a woman may develop cancer. The knowledge gained from such a test can allow her to make a more informed decision regarding possible preventive measures such as mastectomy or more frequent screenings. Genetic testing such as this is only recommended for women who have a considerable family history of breast and ovarian cancer. Environmental toxins are the primary causes of genetic mutations that can be detected by the BRCA tests. The test for genetic predisposition to cancer cannot disprove the influence a woman’s environment has on her risk of getting cancer. Environmental Contributors For discussion purposes, the word environment means conditions outside the body and their contributions to cancer. For example, tobacco use is a cause of lung cancer. This example demonstrates the common medical knowledge that some aspects of the environment contribute to cancer. A person’s exposure to toxins also may contribute to women’s cancer risk. For example, exposure to asbestos can increase the risk of cancer. The government reports that exposure to more than 200 substances may cause cancer, including pesticides, solvents found in paint thinners, dioxins produced from waste incineration, and vinyl chloride that is often found in factories producing plastics. An individual’s workplace and home can often increase their risk of being exposed to the just identified environmental factors that cause cancer. Where a woman works and lives in relation to environmental pollution can affect her likelihood of getting cancer, too. In the United States, particular communities have higher

incident rates of women with cancer and corresponding higher mortality rates. This has been true in the Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Long Island, New York; and the San Francisco Bay area of California. There are studies that have shown links between increased organochlorines (industrial chemicals) and higher rates of breast cancer. Corporations have little financial incentive to reduce their contribution to environmental degradation. Moreover, weak domestic and international laws make it unlikely that corporations will engage in practices that reduce the number of chemicals that negatively affect the environment and increase women’s risk of cancer. There are some states attempting to regulate the environmental toxins found in products commonly used by women, such as cosmetics and beauty products, which may be linked to cancer. States such as California are legally requiring cosmetic companies to report the ingredients used in their products, especially if some may cause cancer. This practice encourages transparency so that researchers may investigate personal beauty products as possibly increasing women’s risk of cancer. Unfortunately, environmental causes of cancer have received a lot of criticism and have been difficult to prove. Environmental pollutants suspected of causing cancer have been highly controversial and largely absent from the mainstream breast cancer movements like the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Avon Foundation for Women, as well as the National Cancer Institute. These organizations, which are responsible for the majority of funding for cancer research, do contribute in part to the research agenda. As a result, most research on women’s cancer focuses mainly on individual physiological causes of cancer. While breast cancer research has focused less on behavioral and environmental causes, research exists on these factors. However, much of the research that focuses on the environmental causes of cancer has been a result of women’s activism in communities with higher rates of breast cancer, such as Cape Cod, the San Francisco Bay area, and Long Island. Women living on Cape Cod have higher rates of breast cancer than in other areas of Massachusetts. Organizations such as the Silent Spring Institute is researching the possible environmental causes of this including contaminated drinking water, use of pesticides, and land use. These



communities have articulated the view that higher rates of cancer exist because of environmental toxins and polluted water supplies. Many studies that have tried to prove the link between environment and cancer have been inconclusive. Determining a causal relationship between the environment and cancer is difficult to prove scientifically because there are so many possible variables. In addition, many studies only are able to focus on particular chemicals. In addition, studying the environment’s role in cancer requires long periods of time to understand exposure, and many studies are unable to do this. Moreover, various studies have yielded contradictory results. Some studies conclude that the environment is a factor whereas others do not and this makes reaching a scientific consensus very difficult. Hazardous waste sites are examples of how environment can affect a community’s air and water and in turn a woman’s concer risk. Hazardous waste sites often contaminate the community’s drinking water. The link between living near a hazardous waste site and or chemical plant and cancer have been most pronounced in the Long Island and New Jersey areas. Activists on Long Island are responsible for convincing the government to investigate the relationship between environment and breast cancer to explain the unusually high numbers of women with cancer in this suburban New York community. The Long Island study investigated two possible environmental causes of cancer: hydrocarbons and organochlorines. The Long Island study proved no significant link between organochlorines and breast cancer and a very minimal relationship between hydrocarbons and cancer. The Long Island study was unable to prove that environment is a factor in cancer risk. Despite the results of the Long Island study, women across the United States remain convinced that the environment does play a part in causing cancer. Cancer Prevention and Detection Women are encouraged to visit their obstetrician/ gynecologist regularly for pap smears and checkups to increase the chances of early detection. In addiction, vaccines for human papillomavirus such as Gardasil have been developed to reduce women’s risk of cervical cancer. Women are urged to do self-screening exams, get mammograms and to make positive lifestyle choices to reduce their risk of breast cancer.

Cancer, Environmental Factors and

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Early detection through self-screening exams is one of the most important ways women can catch cancer early in its development, treat it, and fight the disease. Cancer is treated primarily through drugs, surgery, and chemotherapy. There is a great deal of medical research that focuses on cancer treatment. However, cancer prevention is equally as important. By focusing on the environmental causes of cancer, the focus turns to disease prevention. Activism In addition to research studies, women with cancer are writing about the possible links between environment and cancer. Significant works include Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Sandra Steingraber’s Living Downstream. These books explore the theory held by many women with cancer that environment plays a role in their disease. Specifically these two books have been very influential in the women’s health activist community. Women’s health–based activism has been prominent in the United States for some time and focused on reproductive health and access to better healthcare, as well as increased knowledge and awareness of women’s bodies. The women’s health movement has advocated on behalf of women to improve women’s lives. Specific activism is associated with breast cancer and has largely been focused on increasing funding, research, and awareness of the causes of breast cancer. The mainstream breast cancer movement has focused on raising money through “pink” campaigns where a portion of a product’s proceeds go to breast cancer organizations and funding. In addition, the breast cancer movement has organized walks such as the Relay for Life and the Walk/Run for the Cure. In addition to this mainstream activism, women are organizing to raise awareness of environmental factors attributed to breast cancer risk. Environmentalbased cancer activism has been more pronounced in some regions of the U.S. especially in the San Francisco area, and other regions such as Cape Cod and Long Island have seen a great deal of activism geared toward understanding environmental factors of cancer. Organizations such as the Silent Spring Institute, Breast Cancer Action and Toxic Links Coalition have organized around the premise that the environment affects women’s risk of cancer. These organizations focus on corporate responsibility for polluting the

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environment and thereby contributing to the incidence rates of women’s cancer. These activists also focus on shaping the research agenda to include the study of environmental causes of cancer. See Also: Breast Cancer; Cancer, Women and; Health, Mental and Physical; Health Insurance Issues; Pink, Advertising and; Reproductive Cancers. Further Readings Brown, Phil. Toxic Exposures. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Carlson, Rachel. Silent Spring, with an introduction by Al Gore. Boston: Houghton, 1994. Eisenstein, Zillah. Manmade Breast Cancer. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001. Klawiter, Maren. The Biopolitics of Breast Cancer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Potts, Laura. “Mapping Citizen Expertise About Environmental Risk of Breast Cancer.” Critical Social Policy, v.24/4 (2004.) Steinberg, Sandra. Living Down Stream. Reading, MA: Wesley Publishing, 1997. Kristen Abatsis McHenry University of Massachusetts, Boston

Cancer, Women and Cancer, defined as a range of diseases characterized by the proliferation of abnormal cells that spread beyond their usual boundaries, is the third largest killer of women after heart attacks and strokes. The change in one single cell that may initiate a cancer may stem from inherited genetic factors, external agents, or some combination of both. Cancer cells may also metastasize, that is to say, invade adjoining parts of the body and spread to other organs. Metastases are the major cause of death from cancer. Global Burden of Cancer Estimates show that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) including cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, mental disorders, conditions related to injuries and violence, and cancer will account for nearly 80 percent of the global

burden of disease by 2020. Such trends will manifest globally, particularly in large countries facing rapid aging of their populations. It is estimated by the World Health Organization that cancer killed 7.6 million people in 2005, and 75 percent of those deaths occurred in low- and middleincome countries. That number is expected to rise to 9 million by 2015 and is projected to rise to 11.5 million by 2030. Changing consumption patterns, the result of globalized marketing and trade of many consumer goods, as well as rising disposable incomes in countries in the global south has led to increased consumption of tobacco and alcohol, to the replacement of vegetables and fruits with high-fat/low-fiber foods, and reduced physical activity. The effects of these changes have already become visible in terms of rising levels of lung and other tobacco-related cancers. An estimated 60 percent of cancer patients live in developing countries and deaths from cancers such as lung cancer occur at comparatively earlier ages on average in the countries of the global south than in those in the global north because effective treatment is generally not widely available and prevention has often not been prioritized. In areas such as the Western Pacific region, an estimated 90 percent of the 3.5 million new cancer cases that occur each year are found in the socalled developing countries of the region. Cancer Rates Among Men and Women Rates of cancer are estimated to be 30 percent to 50 percent higher among men than among women, a difference largely attributable to the higher rates of lung cancer among men. While lung (1.3 million deaths/year), stomach (803,000 deaths), liver (610,000 deaths), colorectal (639,000 deaths), and breast cancer (519,000 deaths) cause the most cancer deaths each year worldwide, rates differ greatly when it comes to the most frequent types of cancers found in men and women. Among men, global deaths from lung, stomach, liver, colorectal, esophagus, and prostate cancer are the most frequent; breast, lung, stomach, colorectal, and cervical cancers predominate among women. Although cancer rates may be higher among men than women, the disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost by women are 1.22 times those for men. Furthermore, in terms of reproductive cancers alone, women lose seven times more DALYs than men.

Cancer, Women and

Table 1: Age-Adjusted and Nonweighted 2002 DALYs by Sex Cause Breast Cancer

Males

Females

M/F Ratio

F/M Ratio

44,483

11,733,351

5,840,667

5,399,893

1.08

0.92

702,842

607,265

1.16

0.86

Pancreatic cancer

2,112,858

1,782,346

1.19

0.84

Stomach cancer

9,576,685

6,171,105

1.55

0.64

Esophagus cancer

5,266,748

3,049,496

1.73

0.58

Bladder cancer

1,913,556

964,949

1.98

0.50

Liver cancer

9,409,480

4,208,880

2.24

0.45

Trachea, bronchus, lung cancers

15,232,399

6,687,840

2.28

0.44

Mouth and oropharynx cancers

4,751,823

1,991,476

2.39

0.42

Colon and rectum cancers Melanoma and other skin cancers

0.00 263.77

Source: adapted from Gita Sen, Piroska Östlin, and Asha George. Unequal, Unfair, Ineffective and Inefficient Gender Inequity in Health: Why It Exists and How We Can Change It. Final Report to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, September 2007.

Health Disparities: Global North Versus Global South In recent years, a great deal of the epidemiological and public health literature has focused on health disparities among world populations. Generally speaking, disease burdens have been found to be higher among groups of people who have historically been deprived of resources, power, and status. With respect to health disparities, the research has found that such populations bear a higher proportion of disease burdens due to lower levels of education, higher levels of exposures to environmental hazards, a general lack of access to healthcare, and the lower quality of services available to those populations when they are actually able to access such services. The double burden of women who live in the economically poorer regions of the world is evident when we look at statistics such as the incidence of the most common cancers among women (Table 2). As we can see from Table 2, wom-

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en’s rates of cervical cancer in the global south account for the overwhelming majority of cases found around the world. As we will see from our discussion below of the cancers that occur most frequently in women, women’s lack of access to services such as mass cytological screening in the poorer regions of the world due to their prohibitive cost contributes to lower survival rates among women with cervical cancer in those areas because the disease is usually detected only at the more advanced stages. In recognition of these constraints, alternative methods based on visual examination of the cervix such as visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) are currently being investigated. Usually performed by nurses or other paramedical health workers, VIA consists of naked-eye examination of the 3 to 5 percent acetic acid–swabbed uterine cervix without any magnification, with illumination provided by a bright source of light. Recent evidence suggests that VIA has similar sensitivity to cervical cytology, albeit with lower specificity. Since the outcome of the VIA test is immediately available, it reduces the amount of time women must devote to screening procedures. It has also been found to be cost effective because it decreases the direct medical cost of screening for both health systems and their patients.

Table 2: Incidence of Most Common Cancers Among Females for 1990 (in thousands) 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0

LESS DEVELOPED

WORLD Breast

Cervix

Colon/Rectum

Stomach

Lung

Source: “Women and the Rapid Rise of Noncommunicable Diseases.” NMH Reader, No. 1, January 2002.

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Globally, important gains have been made in expanding services for breast cancer, especially in higher-income countries. As mentioned earlier, however, survival rates among those with the disease are generally much higher in women possessing higher socioeconomic status due to greater opportunities for early detection and better access to care. In a study of late-stage diagnosis of breast cancer among patients in the Philippines, for example, economic factors were identified as a significant determinant of late diagnosis. Echoing the results of this research, a breast cancer study in two urban hospitals in Malaysia found that women presenting at the hospital that served lower socioeconomic populations were more likely to present with larger tumors at a later stage (with 50 to 60 percent of newly diagnosed breast cancers found to be at stage three or stage four) than did women at a hospital serving a more affluent area (where only 30 to 40 percent of cases were found to be at stage three or four). Lung cancer ranks first for men and women in high-income countries, overtaking breast cancer in

Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Ninety percent of lung cancer is generally attributed to smoking, making it one of the most preventable forms of cancer. Additionally, as the cancer with the highest mortality rate, it contributes considerably to many of the deaths that could be avoided by preventive strategies. Although many women do not smoke as much as men do, differences in the biology of male and female lungs may be implicated in the convergence of lung cancer rates because women are more vulnerable to the effects of cigarette smoke. Specifically, women develop lung cancer with lower levels of smoking compared to men, and growing evidence suggests that the health consequences of smoking may be worse for women than for men. For instance, women develop lung cancer earlier than men despite the fact that they often start to smoke later and smoke less. Furthermore, women are at greater risk of developing the more aggressive small cell lung cancer, of which adenocarcinoma is more common. Estimates suggest that women who smoke three to five ciga-

Lifestyle and behavior, such as smoking, are individual choices women can make that may affect their risk of cancer. Studies show that although overall women do not smoke as much as men do, they are more vulnerable to the negative effects of cigarettes.



rettes per day might double their risk of lung cancer, while men must smoke six to nine cigarettes per day to double their risk. These results, however, are still a matter for debate. Other efforts to explain women’s greater vulnerability to the effects of smoking have focused on women’s greater tendency to smoke low-tar cigarettes and to inhale deeper and smoke faster than men. Biology, specifically women’s sex hormones and reproductive status, also might play an important role. At the same time, however, researchers say that increases in smoking among women still account for the majority of this convergence in rates. As smoking rates in women continue to rise quickly in most parts of the world, it is becoming apparent that cancer of the lung may be the most common cancer in women worldwide in 20 to 30 years, unless effective action is taken. Another important source of the high rates of lung cancer among women in the global south is their frequent exposure to indoor air pollution. In China, for example, two-thirds of women diagnosed with lung cancer are nonsmokers, suggesting other possible causes. Supporting such a link is a study by N. Bruce, R. Perez-Padilla, and R. Albalak that found a link between exposure to coal smoke at home and higher rates of lung cancer among women in that country. Stomach Cancer. Once the second most common cancer worldwide, stomach cancer has dropped to fourth place, after cancers of the lung, breast, and colon and rectum. Tremendous geographic variation exists in the incidence of this disease around the world. The highest death rates are recorded in Chile, Japan, South America, and the former Soviet Union. Rates of the disease are highest in Asia and parts of South America and lowest in North America. In the United States, the American Cancer Society estimates that 21,130 cases of gastric cancer will be diagnosed in 2009 (12,820 in men, 8,310 in women) and that 10,620 persons will die of the disease. Among different ethnic groups, Asian American women have the highest rates for new cases of stomach cancer compared to women of all other groups, with rates of stomach cancer almost three times higher than those in women categorized as white. Colorectal Cancer. Colorectal cancer is the fourthmost-common form of cancer occurring worldwide, with an estimated 783,000 new cases diagnosed in

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1990. Worldwide, this cancer affects men and women almost equally, representing 9.4 percent of all incident cancer in men and 10.1 percent in women, with about 401,000 new cases in men annually and 381,000 in women. The number of new cases of colorectal cancer worldwide has been increasing rapidly since 1975 (when it was 500,000). A recent study by Rebecca Siegel et al. (2009) analyzed data in 13 surveillance, epidemiology, and end results cancer registries to report on colorectal cancer incidence trends from 1992 through 2005 in the United States. Although a recent, accelerated decline in colorectal cancer incidence rates has been attributed to the increase in screening rates among adults 50 years and older, Siegel et al. found that incidence rates of colorectal cancer per 100,000 young individuals (ages 20–49 years) increased 1.5 percent per year in men and 1.6 percent per year in women during this time interval. Among non-Latina/o whites, for example, rates increased for both men and women in each 10-year age grouping (20–29, 30–39, and 40–49 years) for every stage of diagnosis. The increase in incidence among non-Latina/o whites was predominantly driven by rectal cancer, for which there was an average increase of 3.5 percent per year in men and 2.9 percent per year in women over a 13-year study interval. Cervical Cancer. Cervical cancer remains the second most common cancer among women worldwide with about 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths every year. Approximately 500,000 cervical cancers are diagnosed yearly, particularly among poor and women who have borne more than one child in developing countries. More than 200,000 women die each year from the disease. As mentioned earlier, cervical cancer now accounts for more new cases of cancer in developing countries than any other type of cancer. An estimated 80 percent of deaths from cervical cancer occur in developing countries. Among women in low- and middle-income countries, the majority of cervical cancer cases are caused by infection with a subtype of human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that infects cells and can lead to precancerous lesions and invasive cancer. Consequently, important efforts are being devoted to the development of safe and effective HPV vaccines to prevent and treat cervical neoplasia. Elsewhere, in places such as South Africa, where cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer for mortality for women, increases in

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precancerous lesions in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive women have also been reported. In countries such as India, the prevalence of cervical cancer has been found to be higher among poor and rural women than among those who are better-off and live in urban areas. In a recent study of women in India, where cervical cancer is the leading malignancy in women with about 90,000 new cases reported annually, and where in more than 90 percent of these cases, the lesions are in an advanced stage by the time the patient seeks medical care. Cancers in these late stages are disfiguring and painful. Additionally, the treatment required is often mutilating and survival rates are low. In the aforementioned study, a new type of elongated magnifying glass that illuminates and magnifies the cervix was used to detect 77 percent of cases of confirmed early cervical cancer, offering a valid method of screening for cervical cancer in countries that cannot afford cytological screening. See Also: Birth Defects, Environmental Factors and; Breast Cancer; Cancer, Environmental Factors and; Health, Mental and Physical; Infertility, Incidence of; Our Bodies, Ourselves; Pink, Advertising and; Poverty; Reproductive Cancers; World Health Organization. Further Readings Anglin, Mary K. “Whose Health? Whose Justice?: Examining Quality of Care and Forms of Advocacy for Women Diagnosed With Breast Cancer.” In Amy J. Schulz and Leith Mullings, eds., Gender, Race, Class, and Health: Intersectional Approaches. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006. Arredondo, Gabriela F. “Of Breasts and Baldness: My Life With Cancer.” In Angie Chabram-Dernersesian and Adela de la Torre, eds., Speaking From the Body: Latinas on Health and Culture. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2008. Bradley, Patricia K. “Breast Cancer in African American Women.” In Catherine Fisher Collins, ed., African American Women’s Health and Social Issues. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Bruce N., R. Perez-Padilla, and R. Albalak. “Indoor Air Pollution in Developing Countries: A Major Environmental Health and Public Health Challenge.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, v.78/9 (2000). Fredericks, Carrie, ed. Breast Cancer. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press/Gale Cengage Learning, 2009.

Jacobs, Miriam and Barbara Dinham, eds. Silent Invaders: Pesticides, Livelihoods, and Women’s Health. London; New York: Zed Books in association with Pesticide Action Network UK, 2003. Klawiter, Maren. “Chemicals, Cancer, and Prevention: The Synergy of Synthetic Social Movements.” In Monica J. Casper, ed., Synthetic Planet: Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Life. New York: Routledge, 2003. National Cancer Institute. “Methods for Measuring Cancer Disparities: A Review Using Data Relevant to Healthy People 2010 Cancer-Related Objectives.” http://seer .cancer.gov/publications/disparities/measuring _disparities.pdf (accessed July 2010). Siegel, Rebecca L., Ahmedin Jemal, and Elizabeth M. Ward. “Increase in Incidence of Colorectal Cancer Among Young Men and Women in the United States.” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention Online, v.18/6 (2009). http://cebp.aacrjournals.org (accessed July 2010). Turkington, Carol and Mitchell Edelson. The Encyclopedia of Women’s Reproductive Cancer. New York: Facts on File, 2005. “Women and the Rapid Rise of Noncommunicable Diseases.” NMH Reader, No. 1 (January 2002). http:// whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_NMH_02.01.pdf (accessed July 2010). Danielle Roth-Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Candomblé Candomblé is an indigenous Afro-Brazilian religion with a strong matriarchal focus that is passed down from mother to daughter, having originated among African slaves brought to Brazil by the Portuguese during the transatlantic slave trade from the 1530s onward. The earliest forms of kandombele, a Kikongo word meaning “prayer,” were unwittingly aided in the mid-1700s when the pope declared that Africans had souls. This strengthened the process of syncretism in which slaves converted to Catholicism but preserved African religion by embedding it within Christian practices. This accounts for the important association of African orishas, or deities, with Catholic saints. Because Candomblé allowed slaves to imag-

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ine autonomous identities distinct from their existence as chattel, it subverted the dominance of the slaveholding class by constantly reasserting African culture. Candomblé became the historical backbone of Afro-Brazilian cultura, and its political and social dimensions continue to influence Brazilian society and popular culture; it generated samba, and is a primary influence on Brazilian food, arts, and dance. During slavery the majority of Africans taken to Brazil were from Igbo, Yoruba, Dogon-Peuhl, EweFon, Kongo, and Bantu ethnic groups, mainly from Mozambique, Mali, Nigeria, Congo, and Angola. Although deliberately separated from family, kinship, and language communities as a means of limiting possibilities for rebellion, similarities of faith enabled Africans to build new cultural literacies on the foundations of previous knowledge. New World Africans shared belief in an inspirited universe, privileged the remembrance of ancestors, and adapted the practices of their traditions, including music, drumming, song, dance, ceremony, food preparation, healing, herbalism, midwifery, and systems of extended family. As Candomblé coalesced, it anchored the social organization of the slave community, allowing slaves to imagine a resilient African subjectivity despite being brutally objectified as mere property. As a defiant underground practice that survived European efforts to suppress all vestiges of black social groups, Candomblé supported a libratory politics of preserving African cultural in order to resist slavery and colonialism. Candomblé was the foundation of Brazil’s maroon outposts and quilombos, remote villages where escaped slaves, freedmen, Natives, and sympathetic whites organized militant resistance to slavery. Women priestesses and devotees of Candomblé were prominent in such resistance movements. Women as Spiritual Leaders Women were crucial to the formation and survival of Candomblé. Iyalorishas (“mothers of the mysteries”) or female priestesses also known as mães de santo (“mothers of the saints/gods”) are central figures in Candomblé, as are female devotees and primary orixás such as the goddesses Yemonja, OyaYansa, and Oxum. The mães de santo govern, teach, and advise in matters both sacred and secular, serving as leadership in the terreiros, or “houses,” that are the primary places of meeting and worship for

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each distinct congregation of practitioners within the larger Candomblé community. Casa Branca, founded in 1830 in Salvador de Bahia is regarded as the first formal terreiro, the “headquarters” and historic heart of Candomblé. Many of the founders were originally members of the Sisterhood of Our Lady of the Good Death of the Catholic Church of Barroquinha. In addition to roles as healers and spiritual advisors, women in Candomblé also became community activists, leading efforts to end persecution and police repression through the 1970s when the religion was fully legalized. Candomblé is now practiced worldwide including the United States, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Asia. See Also: Brazil; Portugal; Religion, Women in; Santería. Further Readings Cohen, Emma. The Mind Possessed: The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Brazilian Religious Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Harding, Rachel. A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. Stam, Robert. Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Veloso, Caetano. Tropical Truth: A Story of Music & Revolution in Brazil. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002. Voeks, Robert. Sacred Leaves of Candomblé: African Magic, Medicine, and Religion in Brazil. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. Valorie Thomas Pomona College

Cape Verde The Republic of Cape Verde is a country archipelago made up of 10 islands located in the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the population (78 percent mixed of African and European blood) can be found concentrated in Santiago. In African countries such as Cape Verde, national poverty reduction programs have been key entry points to address women’s economic needs. Thus, the United Nations Development Fund for

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Women in Cape Verde have fought for their rights through advocacy, lobbying, and action.

Women partnered with the government in Cape Verde (as well as Burundi, Liberia, and Rwanda) to integrate a gender perspective into the national strategy in 2008. Women of Cape Verde have fought for their rights through advocacy, lobbying, and action, especially after several legal changes propitiated by the international and the African political arena. In fact, the Cape Verdean government has ratified the Banjul Protocol (1987), the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (2003), and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality (2004) of the African Union or the Maputo Protocol (2007), aimed at promoting gender equality in African countries. The constitution of Cape Verde (1992) grants equal rights to men and women, and the penal law (Código Penal) has classified physical abuse since 1997. A posterior revision of the Código Penal (2007) added psychological abuse and cruelty as crimes against women. Cape Verde has advanced gender in public policies since 2001, such as Plano Nacional para a Igualdade e Equidade de Género (PNIEG) I (2001– 05), PNIEG II (2005–09), and PNIEG III (2009–11). PNIEG II and III outline the lines on gender equality promotion and advocate for effective and visible participation of women in all grounds of the coun-

try’s development. Those programs also contemplate research in poverty, violence based on gender, education, health, and so on, which is particularly important to the Instituto Cabo-verdiano para a Igualdade e a Equidade de Género (ICIEG) or Institute for Gender Equity, as well as other women’s organizations and associations. Women’s empowerment is at the center of all public policies, including the increase of opportunities for women in professional education, women’s literacy, women’s entrepreneurship, or integration of the female informal sector into the market. Violence based on gender is one of the main challenges to women in Cape Verde. A recent governmental report (2005) showed that 21 percent of Cape Verdean women are victims of violence. The ICIEG, which is the main national mechanism for equality, together with the Network of Female Parliamentarians, has drafted both the Equality Law (Lei de Paridade) and the Law of Violence Based on Gender in coordination with the Ministry of Equality of Spain. The ICIEG is the most important governmental organ to promote women and their rights in the absence of a specific ministry, and was founded in 1994. The most important thing about ICIEG is that belongs to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister and the Administration of the State and coordinates actions with women’s networks such as Rede de Mulheres Parlamentares, Rede de Mulheres Economistas, and Associação Cabo-Verdiana de Mulheres Juristas, along with international agencies (the United Nations Development Fund for Women, for instance), and with several nongovernmental organizations and other women’s associations and organization. See Also: Burundi; Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Liberia; Rwanda; Spain; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Carter, Katherine and Judy Aulette. Cape Verdean Women and Globalization: The Politics of Culture, Gender, and Resistance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. ICIEG. Mulheres e Homens en Cabo Verde, Factos e Números. Praia, Cape Verde: Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Cabo Verde and United Nations, 2008. Soledad Vieitez-Cerdeño University of Granada



Cartoonists, Female The worlds of the cartoon, comic book, and the graphic novel have historically been dominated by straight, white men. The representational misogyny of the contemporary superhero comic genre has historically created little room for female authors and artists, eventually helping to create a girls’ market in comics, still mostly drawn by men, in the 1950s. However, since the rise of the underground comics movement in the 1960s, cartoons, comics, and graphic novels have created more space for women to become involved not just as readers, but also as artists and authors. These shifts in representation continue today. Diversity, Representation, and Authorship As more women became cartoonists, artists, and authors, women in comics transitioned from being represented as sexualized objects to taking on more diverse, realistic, and heterogeneous representations in the genre. Women cartoonists subsequently began to engage with more diverse story lines by drawing and representing their own and other women’s experiences in semiautobiographical and autobiographical story lines. Many of these have focused on femininity and the diversity female experience, identity, and sexuality. Jennifer Camper, whose portrayal of women’s diverse experience has appeared in a wide range of queer comics, but comes to the fore in Juicy Mother (2005; 2007), her anthology which includes a variety of queer comic authors, representing a range of masculinities, femininities, and sexualities as an alternative to the straight world of comics writ large. Among the artists featured is Alison Bechdel, American author of the long-running, Dykes to Watch Out For since 1983, and author of award-winning graphic novel, Fun Home (2006). Bechdel’s work is noteworthy for both form and content innovations: her comic series and subsequent published collections are some of the most comprehensive, long-running, and diverse representations of lesbians in the comic book world. This series, and her graphic novel, both address the diverse experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual women from comedic and semiautobiographical, historical, and political vantage points. Lynda Barry, whose work won the Eisner Award in 2009, is an artist, cartoonist, and author whose work

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represents not only abstract personal experience but also a diverse range of women’s and especially young girls’ and adolescents’ identities and experiences in the contemporary U.S. context. Her work in comics, notably Ernie Pook’s Comeek, and her popular and award-winning graphic novels, What It Is and One! Hundred! Demons! are decidedly outside the mainstream—her belief in the power of the image, and her idiosyncratic writing/drawing/creating method connect her representation of emotional and personal experiences with the page in ways more associated with the studio arts than the comic book or graphic novel genres. What It Is is primarily an exploration of her technique, which hinges on bigger philosophical questions as well as image-making and representational techniques that have been credited with expanding the genre. Like Barry, Carol Tyler, author of Late Bloomer (2005), not only helped define the early underground women’s involvement in comics but went on to anthologize women’s contributions as authors and artists in comics. Her work on the power of autobiography, story and women’s life trajectories and the place of creativity in women’s identities can be seen as an outgrowth of Barry’s forays into narrative style and the primacy of personal experience. These artists and others laid the foundations that allowed for Marjane Satrapi’s mainstream success with the Persepolis series, whose autobiographical, candid tone and stark black-and-white design mark a radical departure from the brightly colored, hyperaction-oriented superhero cartoons that began to define the genre in the 1950s. Similarly, Barry, Tyler, and others created conditions to facilitate women’s work in alternatives to black and white, sequential frames. Women working in a range of media have blurred the boundaries between cartoons as sequential art and the world of the picture book and other forms of visual media. Many women work within the recognizable conventions of the political or editorial cartoon, like Roz Chast’s familiar work as seen in the New Yorker, and Lauren Weinstein’s homage to the archetypal comic book and its attendant conventions. Still others have transformed the comic utterly by incorporating nonsequential page structures, paint, ink, and even collage, as seen in recent work from cartoonists like Genevieve Castree, Anke Feuchtenberger, and Jenni Rope.

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Future Directions for Women Cartoonists Despite the increasing numbers and influence of female cartoonists, visibility remains an issue: women are still drastically underrepresented as authors and overrepresented as essentialized, usually scantily clad objects in comics. Just as the Guerrilla Girls 2004 assessment of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art revealed 5 percent of the artists were female, while 85 percent of the nudes depicted in the museums holdings were female, the same trend has been historically true in women’s participation as editorial or political cartoonists. Jen Sorenson of Slowpoke Comics recently found that in a commentary on recent controversial New Yorker cover art, reporters from the Columbia Journalism Review talked to 10 well-known editorial and political cartoonists, none of whom were women. Despite the large numbers of female cartoonists, visibility is still an issue. The underground/emerging world of comics has been propelled to greater visibility with the advent of Web comics. Similarly, online organizations like Friends of Lulu work to increase women’s readership, authorship and general participation in cartoon culture and production through networking, mentoring and continuing education. Dedicated Webzines, such as SequentialTart, serve to increase women’s visibility in comics and other spheres by featuring articles, interviews, comic art, and other work created by women artists and authors. See Also: Anime; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Gender Defined; Manga. Further Readings Madrid, Mike. The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy and the History of Comic Book Heroines. San Francisco: Exterminating Angel Press, 2009. Robbins, Trina. From Girls to Grrlz: A History of Women’s Comics From Teens to Zines. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999. Robbins, Trina. Great Women Cartoonists. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2001. Robinson, Lilia. Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes. London: Routledge, 2004. Sally Campbell Galman University of Massachusetts

Casaro Nascimento, Adir An education professor at Don Bosco Catholic University, Adir Casaro Nascimento received her doctorate in education from State University Paulista Julio de Mesquita Fiho in 2000. Her thesis addressed the issue of indigenous education in Brazil, where, according to the Brazilian National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), there are some 460,000 aboriginal Indians spread across 225 communities designated for their inhabitance and another 100,000 to 190,000 living in other areas of Brazil. Dr. Casaro Nascimento, who began working with Brazilian aboriginals in the 1980s, has been particularly interested in the experiences of these indigenous students as they interact with intercultural environments. In 2004, she published Indian School: Stage of the Differences, which has been influential in changing the ways in which aboriginal students are taught. Educational Programs for Indigenous Peoples of Brazil She has also been involved in a number of projects relating to general issues of indigenous education and ethics in research and has served on various committees; however, she is most often recognized for designing and implementing the Guarani courses on aboriginal education to educate teachers about working with aboriginal students. She sees this work as a way to empower women while improving educational experiences for aboriginal students and allowing them to continue to embrace their own cultures after entering greater society. Because agricultural classes are regularly taught in secondary schools in Brazil, she has also promoted the practice of teaching students agricultural methods that serve to protect the environment. Since 2006, agroecology has been taught at the secondary level with the intention of encouraging students to share their newly acquired knowledge with others and promote the concept of food security in Brazil, thus providing many aboriginals with the tools for ending the cycle of dependence on government handouts that have supported them for generations. More than 50 percent of Brazilian aboriginals live in poverty. Their homelands have often been taken over to provide agricultural, mining, and development resources for the majority population. As a result, the aboriginal people often lack access to basic

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necessities such as healthcare and educational opportunities. Aboriginal leaders blame the government for failing to fulfill its promise of providing aboriginal children with intercultural and bilingual education as stipulated under the Directives for a National Policy of Indigenous Scholastic Education. Under pressure from Adir Casaro Nascimento and other reformers, the government agreed in 2008 to add facilities to educate an additional 19,000 aboriginal students to supplement the 2,332 schools for 165,000 students now in existence. As part of the Guarani curriculum developed by Adir Casaro Nascimento, for the first two years, students are taught entirely in Guarani. The switch to being taught entirely in Portuguese, Brazil’s official language, is made gradually. The curriculum also provides for discussions on regional geography in which aboriginal students interact with community elders. In 2006 at Don Bosco Catholic University, Adir Casaro Nascimento introduced Teko Arandú, which means “Living in Wisdom.” It is a five-year training course designed to provide technical assistance to the predominately female student body. As a result of the efforts of Adir Casaro Nascimento and other reformers, the number of aboriginal students in Brazilian schools has increased dramatically. See Also: Brazil; Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Indigenous Women’s Issues. Further Readings Drogus, Carol Ann. Activist Faith: Grassroots Women in Democratic Brazil and Chile. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007. Osava, Mario. “Brazil: Guarani Education Empowers Women Leaders.” http://ipsnews.net/news.asp? idnews=41352 (accessed April 2010). Osava, Mario. “Lack of Land Rights Is Killing Indigenous Children, Say Activists.” http://ipsnews.net/interna .asp?idnews=27858 (accessed June 2010). United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009-Brazil.” http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic ,463af2212,49749a152,4a66d9be41,0.html (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

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Catholics for Choice Founded in 1973, Catholics for Choice or CFC (originally called Catholics for a Free Choice) is a nongovernmental organization that promotes reproductive rights, reproductive healthcare, and sexual well-being for all. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., CFC’s mission and goals are based on a unique combination of progressive Catholicism, feminist ideology, and a social justice agenda. CFC’s agenda addresses a broad range of issues that fall under the dual umbrellas of reproductive rights/health and sexual rights/health. It asserts that public policy regarding reproduction and sexuality should not be based on religious ideology but, instead, on democratic ideals. Consequently, CFC stands in stark opposition to the Vatican on a variety of issues. With numerous education campaigns and partnerships across the globe, CFC endeavors to promote a diverse, dynamic, democratic public discourse on matters of reproduction and sexual health. Through international partnerships, it also seeks to increase awareness of the ways in which the rights of marginalized groups (including women, those living in poverty, and homosexuals) are systematically denied under official church policies. Issues that are central to CFC’s agenda include abortion, contraception, reproductive health technologies, public policy, gender equality, homosexuality, and access to reproductive healthcare, among others. Through education campaigns, research, and activism that centers on active engagement in public discourses and debates, the organization forwards a liberal religious ideology that centers on the concept of conscience. In essence, CFC argues that individuals must follow their own conscience or internal moral compass, even when their conscience does not coincide with official church doctrine. Thus, although the Vatican forbids abortion and the use of condoms and all other forms of contraception, CFC believes that since various Catholic teachings stipulate that individuals are to follow their own conscience in regard to such matters, contraception should not be forbidden. In addition, the group argues that doctors, pharmacists, hospitals, and other health providers that fail to provide a full range of reproductive and sexual health options to patients are, in fact, denying such patients the opportunity to exercise their conscience.

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Patriarchal Establishment Despite its grounding in Catholic tradition, the organization is quite critical of the Catholic Church. It regards the Vatican as a patriarchal establishment that perpetuates hegemonic public policy. CFC is particularly critical of what it regards as the Vatican’s fundamentalist stance on reproductive choice and how that stance denies women control over their own reproductive lives. The organization believes that the church has transformed from a spiritual entity into a primarily political one, citing parental consent laws, mandatory waiting periods, pro-life demonstrations, and efforts to ban sex education in schools as evidence of this transformation. Furthermore, Catholics for Choice asserts that Vatican policy on such issues does not coincide with the values of most contemporary Catholics or with the reality of their lives. Current Contributions and Campaigns At present, CFC maintains several active campaigns. The first, “Prevention Not Prohibition,” aims to educate the public about diverse views on contraception and high rates of contraceptive use among Catholic populations. It also promotes access to safe, reliable, affordable contraceptives for all. The second campaign, “Condoms4Life,” targets both heterosexual and homosexual populations and promotes responsible sexuality through the use of condoms in order to reduce the risks associated with HIV/AIDS. Next, the “See Change” campaign seeks to change the status of the Holy See in the United Nations and assign it the same nonvoting status assigned to other religious entities and nongovernmental organizations. Finally, through “Catholics in Public Life,” CFC provides resources to public officials to help them stay informed about comprehensive reproductive and sexual healthcare and encourage politicians to promote these in the political sphere. CFC collaborates with religious and political organizations throughout the world. It is a member of the Women-Church Convergence, an alliance of feministminded, progressive Catholic organizations in the United States that combat sexism and racism within the church. It also partners with organizations in Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Latin America. CFC publishes a biannual magazine, Conscience. It also regularly publishes reports on reproductive/sexual health issues and issues frequent “action alerts” to inform pro-choice Catholics about these issues.

See Also: Abortion, Access to; Nuns, Roman Catholic; Priesthood, Roman Catholic; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Banerjee, Neela. “Backing Abortion Rights While Keeping the Faith.” New York Times, http://www .nytimes.com/2007/02/27/us/27choice.html ?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22Backing%20 Abortion%20 Rights%20While%20Keeping%20the%20 Faith%22&st=cse (accessed May 2010). Belden Russonello and Stewart Research and Communications. “Catholic Attitudes on Condoms in the Prevention of HIV and AIDS.” Washington, DC: Catholics for Choice, 2007. Catholics for Choice. “In Good Conscience: Respecting the Beliefs of Health-Care Providers and the Needs of Patients.” Washington, DC: Catholics for Choice, 2008. Catholics for Choice. “Truth and Consequence: A Look Behind the Vatican’s Ban on Contraception.” Washington, DC: Catholics for Choice, 2008. Hunt, Mary E. “Women-Church: Feminist Concept, Religious Commitment, Women’s Movement.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, v.25/1 (2009). Pope Paul VI. “Humanae Vitae: Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Pope Paul VI.” http://www.vatican.va/holy _father/paul_vi/encyclicals (accessed May 2010). Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

Celebrity Women Since the mid-1960s, scholars from history, media and cultural studies, and sociology have converged around the study of celebrity. The landmark 1961 book by historian Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, defined celebrity as a “human pseudo-event,” and later academics placed their discussions of celebrity culture within this context. Interest in the topic of celebrity emerged slowly, having its roots in literature that theorized about the Hollywood star system. Books on celebrity began to emerge in the 1990s, perhaps attributable to work in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies where scholars were examining the relationship between audience use (or subversion) of commodities and the shaping of



cultural ideologies. Two of the most frequently cited books include sociologist Joshua Gamson’s Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America in 1994 and media theorist P. David Marshall’s Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture in 1997. At the turn of the 21st century, two books emerged that offer elucidating analyses on the power of celebrity in culture and its production by the news media: sociologist Chris Rojek’s 2001 Celebrity and historian Charles L. Ponce de Leon’s 2002 Self-Exposure: Human-Interest Journalism and the Emergence of Celebrity in America, 1890–1940. In different ways, scholarship deals with the phenomenon of celebrity as an aspect of our self-identity and collective identity. Celebrity women as a subset of the study of celebrity engage issues of woman achieving social status (and social power), financial independence, and serving as role models for appearance and behavior for female audiences. More important, celebrity women are also media constructed commodities that serve as sites for audience identification. Along these lines, stereotypes about gender, race, and class are often reinforced in the representation of celebrity women. The current media landscape that is rife with reality television programs emphasize that the everyday woman can— and should desire to—become a celebrity woman. This goal may create conflict for women in the shaping of their personal and social identities. Ancient Roman and Greek Traditions Scholarship on celebrity generally agrees that it is a construct with roots in ancient Greece and Rome. At that time, famous people were associated with greatness approaching mythological proportions. They were perceived as directly descended from the gods. Rojek’s analysis of the etymology of the term celebrity suggests that modernity shifted the meaning from fama to celebritas, signaling the move from an authoritarian to a democratic government and from a religious to a secular society. These terms also reflect a difference in the meaning of the individual who is labeled famous or a celebrity: fama was associated with being “godlike,” while the term celebrity actually derives from the “fall of the gods.” Braudy offers an analysis of the early nature of the relationship between the individual and fame, arguing that the famous mirror is constantly shifting

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the meaning of the individual within society. People who become famous symbolize the social, political, and economic values of their time and the famous person must be different enough to be unique but not so different as to pose a challenge to the values he or she signifies. To be famous, then, means to have a conflict between being an individual and being a representation of the current cultural values. The attempt to find a balance between identity as an individual and as a member of society is faced by both the ordinary citizen and the famous person. Audience members who consumes representations of celebrity therefore shape themselves with personal and social identities that they can aspire to or transgress society’s values with. For female audiences, the knot formed by identity and celebrity is intensely tangled. As research in feminist studies (particularly feminist media studies, cultural studies, and psychology) has shown, the consumption of celebrity, especially by women and girls regarding their body image, relates to one’s sense of self. Shallow media representations of the female celebrity, whose ultra-thin body expresses her identity and desirability as a woman, have established a role model for the body that girls and women aspire to have in order to be. Their struggle manifests in the loss of self-esteem; on the severe end, they fall victim to the epidemic of sometimes fatal eating disorders. In Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, feminist cultural theorist Susan Bordo paints a compelling portrait of the relationship between female audiences and celebrity women, whereby the bodies of celebrity women serve as role models for women to emulate. In current celebrity culture, the overall images of celebrity women—as powerful social symbols—reflect a desirable position that connotes empowerment as financially successful women who are not bound by the home or by traditional notions of gender roles. Two very financially successful celebrity women are Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey, who have developed lifestyle brands and are considered to be media moguls with immense cultural power. Identity and Celebrity Historically, identity and celebrity are bound with issues of individualism and power. Braudy targets significant social, economic, and political shifts in the

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17th century as the turning point for a fresh notion of the individual. The rise of printing, literacy, and other technological advances resulted in the knowledge that kings, or those in power, could be overthrown. Individuals thus realized that no one possessed an intrinsic superiority or authority; anyone with the desire and ability could gain control of social power. The achievement of social power by the everywoman, then, is communicated as attainable via the position of the celebrity woman. A noteworthy example of a celebrity woman with a rags-to-riches story is pop star Britney Spears. Through her determination, hard work, and talent, Spears escaped her rural southern roots and has become one of the most successful female celebrity women in recent history. In addition, her financial success affords her to support her parents and she has been able to purchase them homes in more affluent areas. Spears’s social power is also reflected in her ongoing popularity; emerging on the popular culture stage in the 1990s, audiences have followed her—and supported her as a commodity by purchasing Spears-branded goods—for more than a decade through her ups and downs. After media documented psychological and personal problems, Spears rebounded as one of the best-selling acts of the late 2000s, and has continued to achieve top album sales and sold-out tours. She has maintained incredible cultural relevance by being on the cover of celebrity magazines like Us Weekly, women’s fashion magazines like Elle, and discussed on celebritycentered television programs like The Insider and Entertainment Tonight. Journalistic Devices on Celebrity In 1961, Boorstin conceived of the celebrity as a “human pseudo-event,” that is, “a person who is known for his well-knownness.” The human pseudoevent epitomizes an “ambiguous truth” that is coded with entertainment value and whose authentic meaning (and person) is difficult to decipher. That is, he viewed the celebrity as a media construction that was separate from the authenticity of an individual identity but rather a public image that served the function of stimulating fantasies for audience consumption. In fact, around the turn of the 20th century, savvy individuals (often politicians) and journalists were able to create an identification of the public with their stories

through innovative journalistic techniques and strategies. This type of communication about public figures was generally characterized by emotional narratives constructed for self-promotion. Devices such as intimate photographs and interviews helped to portray human-interest subjects as similar to their audience. The subtext communicated that if members of the audience had talent, luck, or personality, they, too, might become celebrities. Journalistic techniques and strategies permitted the audience to transgress the privacy of the famous and to pursue the fulfillment of their thirst to know more. These journalistic techniques are still reflected in popular mass media celebrity magazines, such as People and Us Weekly. In addition, celebrity women are dissected by individuals who create their own celebrity gossip blogs. There are many blogs that are dedicated specifically to covering celebrity women. These include blogs that focus on the appearance of celebrity women (the fashion of and the weight of celebrity women) and on following celebrity mothers. In addition, social networking sites such as Twitter allow celebrities to communicate, seemingly directly, with their fans, and keep their fans up to date on the details of the celebrity woman’s life. Pop singer and actress Miley Cyrus had been a frequent Twitter user; however, upon deciding to delete her account, Cyrus’s fans rallied online for her return to the site. Media technology has created a new sort of interaction whereby female audiences can feel more involved in the lives of celebrity women than ever before. Before technology and the subsequent media culture, mythological heroes served as role models for ordinary citizens and were perceived as the embodiment of greatness. By the mid-20th century, new values had displaced the mythological archetype of the hero as a role model. Occasional stories of greatness were reported, but the 1959 publication of Celebrity Register signaled that greatness has taken on a nonheroic meaning. The mass media was creating a situation in which coverage of personalities was favored over coverage of achievement. As a result, people who deserved fame for heroic acts were juxtaposed with those who were rewarded for their name recognition, thus denigrating accomplishments and people with substance. One notable example of this type of celebrity is Paris Hilton, a socialite and hotel heiress who initially



garnered immense media attention for simply being in the public eye (rather than by promoting a project, such as a movie or a music album), assuming the role of a media personality. Hilton achieved her entry into mainstream popular culture through the release of a sex tape featuring her ex-boyfriend. Although Hilton subsequently developed and promoted projects, such as reality television shows, books, movies, and perfumes, she has often been discussed in the media more for her after-hours partying at clubs and for her romantic relationships. The media has documented her legal troubles, such as multiple instances of driving under the influence of alcohol and time in jail. Hilton was been the topic of a documentary, Paris, Not France, that aired on MTV in 2009. This text examined Paris as a contemporary icon, and also touched on the conflicted meanings of being a celebrity woman in contemporary media culture. Role of Media The media, with the complicity of public relations and a willing public, thus stripped the qualities of greatness from its celebrities. This process produced a “synthetic” image, a human pseudo-event lacking genuineness that would please the public. The celebrity was “fabricated on purpose to satisfy our exaggerated expectations of human greatness. . . . His relation to morality and even to reality is highly ambiguous.” This idea of celebrity and the representation of the “real” currently takes on a new level of meaning regarding both media production and audience consumption. Today’s media culture is rife with reality television programs and Internet sites (like YouTube) that further blur the boundaries between public and private spaces. It gives any person with technological savvy immediate visibility and the ability to create his or her own celebrity. This environment makes Boorstin’s prescient statement that “anyone can become a celebrity, if only he can get into the news and stay there” even more incisive. Reality television starlets pose a unique challenge to women’s sense of self- and collective identity. By merging “real” people with celebrity, a new synthetic image of women was born. The celebrity women who compose the cast of the MTV reality program The Hills may serve as an example. These young women—who audiences met as teenagers and have followed into their early 20s—are presented as everyday people who have

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had the fantastic opportunity to be documented on television. Their “real” identities before the program reflect a desirable social status for many people, as they lived in the upper-middle-class area of Laguna Beach, California. These women, pre-celebrity, had financial access to seemingly any expensive good that they desired. Postcelebrity, these women have access to seemingly all social events (read: Hollywood hot spots) that they desired. More, their appearance—which upholds the dominant ideal of female beauty as thin, young, and generally blonde—is reported on in glossy celebrity magazines alongside celebrity women like Madonna who have achieved their status through their projects. These woman also achieve financial power; it has been documented in celebrity journalism that some members of the cast of The Hills make over a million dollars per year as a salary for being on the program. Many of the cast members use the program as a springboard for their own projects. Lauren Conrad, the lead character of The Hills for five seasons, launched a fashion line that appeared in Mercedes Benz L.A. Fashion Week in March 2008. However, Conrad appears on the program as a fashion student, not as someone who has her own fashion line. This example shows how a “real” celebrity woman’s identity is not fully presented in media texts, and complicates audience perception of celebrity women who are presented, particularly in reality television, as open about every aspect of their lives. Scholarship on celebrity also examines the experience of celebrity by the audience. Celebrity is sustainable because it is a cultural sign through which audiences actively negotiate the relationship between media representations and the self. People invite celebrity into their lives because they fulfill some aspect of their wishes and desires. Audiences may therefore experience a fulfillment of their self- or collective identity through celebrity, as the celebrity holds the power “to represent the active construction of identity in the social world” and helps the “audience-subject” to comprehend the meaning of that world. For many, the desired experience of the individual living in contemporary celebrity culture is to live, even vicariously, in the limelight. There is currently, then, a strong desire in many individuals to become a celebrity woman. Many of these women seek to be on reality television programs; such programs include America’s Next Top Model (produced and hosted by former supermodel

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Tyra Banks) and Bridezillas. For women and girls who are not selected on a reality television program, some achieve somewhat of a celebrity status through a role as a “camgirl.” These individuals use Web cameras as a vehicle of self-expression. While some women use the Internet for therapeutic self-expression, others use it as an opportunity to self-display. Girls’ use of media technology and their self-construction as a celebrity woman also raises questions about their role in fashioning themselves as desiring subjects versus choosing their own subjectification. In addition, while achieving this celebrity status may be a positive role for some girls, it may also lead to personal struggles around identity, particularly in cases where one’s self-representation online is different from her identity offline. The role of the celebrity has been interpreted as a highly mediated construction, blending the desire by the celebrity and the media to present a particular public persona and the wish by the audience and the media to reveal the celebrity’s private self. So, if individuals seek to become a celebrity, it may mean a disconnection from her authentic sense of self, as a celebrity is viewed by many scholars as a media construction for the empowerment of others, not oneself. The lure of celebrity underscores the commodification of the girls themselves, as a celebrity’s central role in media culture is as a commodity. The notion of celebrity, then, suggests a complicated interaction of individual and social power, and brings up questions of agency in regards to celebrity culture and media messages. Celebrity is a profound part of the capitalist structure, a billboard for consumerism. And while audiences may understand that celebrity is manufactured and functions as cultural capital, that does not prohibit them from experiencing pleasure (alone or socially) from its products. However, the power of the celebrity industry relies on its ability to reveal and conceal the machinery of celebrity production, simultaneously allowing for audience commentary and exclusion. The celebrity is a site of meaningful discussion about our social, economic, and political values. The role of the celebrity woman in society is complex for both the individual who achieves the status of celebrity and for audiences. The current media landscape that is full of reality television programs seemingly offers a democratization of celebrity—that is, the achievement of social status through mass audience recognition. Reality television programs present people of varying race, gender,

and class positions, furthering opening up an apparent level playing field for anyone to become a celebrity. However, the reinforcing of stereotypes and the construction of celebrity identities that may differ from the “real” person raise questions about this sort of “democracy” as a way for female equality. For feminist theorists and writers, discussions about and critiques of the representations and roles of celebrity women, as well as notions of democracy and gender, are valuable to understand individual and social identity development in contemporary celebrity culture. See Also: Banks, Tyra; Body Image; “Bridezillas”; Internet; Madonna; MTV; Reality Television; Stereotypes of Women; Stewart, Martha; Winfrey, Oprah. Further Readings Boorstin, Daniel J. The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America. New York: Atheneum, 1972. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Braudy, Leo. The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Gamson, Joshua. Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Marshall, P. David. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Ponce de Leon, Charles L. Self-Exposure: Human-Interest Journalism and the Emergence of Celebrity in America, 1890–1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Rojek, Chris. Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books, 2001. Dara Persis Murray Rutgers University

Censorship Gender-based censorship remains a major problem around the world, even in the 21st century. Censorship targeted specifically toward women includes regulation concerning advertisements for female



products, laws about how females may dress, and regulating pornography and various artistic mediums like literature, painting, and film. While everyone can be subject to censorship, typically censorship affecting women only serves as a means of controlling them and provides them with little voice, whether personal, political, or social. Censoring Advertising One of the most common ways women suffer from censorship concerns the female form and advertising. Advertisements often targeted by censors focus on women’s undergarments and menstrual products. The Middle East remains one of the strictest environments for women, as demonstrated in numerous examples of censorship. One of the most conservative examples of censorship regarding female undergarments recently occurred in the Gaza Strip, when the Hamas Islamic movement instituted a strict set of regulations concerning female underwear, which has been banned from shop windows. Mannequins baring lingerie have also been outlawed from storefronts. The United States remains much more lax about advertising lingerie, but still encounters problems with censorship. Though advertisements for the lingerie chain Victoria’s Secret run freely on many channels, in 2010, executives from the FOX and ABC networks censored a commercial from the plus-size clothing chain Lane Bryant. Censors claimed that the large women in the commercial showed too much cleavage; running advertisements by Victoria’s Secret in which models had smaller breasts (and therefore less cleavage) did not suffer from censorship. These examples of censorship prevent women from celebrating their sexuality. A related subject concerns recent advertisements in the United States by Kotex. Network censors forbid scriptwriters to include the word vagina in their series of commercials for the U by Kotex campaign. As Megan Lustig reports in “Women’s Wednesday: Censoring the V-Word,” instead of using the anatomical terminology for female genitalia, Kotex had an actress in their commercial use the phrase down there to refer to the vagina. Even so, several networks also refused to air that commercial. This example of censorship perpetuates mystifying female anatomy. When appropriate terms cannot be used to refer to body parts openly, censors encourage women to feel embarrassed and ashamed of their bodies and womanhood.

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Censorship and Pornography The most controversial issue involving women, their bodies, and censorship is pornography. Many assume that all women favor censoring pornography because the industry capitalizes on objectifying women. Many pieces of pornography also celebrate violence against women, degrading women, and placing in women in subservient roles. While many women do campaign for censoring pornography much more strictly, certain factions of women, like those in the Feminists Against Censorship Organization, argue that pornography should not be censored further than it already is. Women against censoring pornography believe that sexual freedom is an important right for all women, no matter how they choose to express that freedom. Denying sexual freedom or awareness (like in the U by Kotex ad campaign) promotes women who are uneducated and unfulfilled in topics about sex. Furthermore, women against censoring pornography also value women executives and filmmakers in the industry because they provide viewers with a woman’s perspective in an industry dominated by males in power. Regulating Women’s Attire In contrast to acts of censorship stemming from women wearing too little clothing, women have also been censored by being required to wear certain items of clothing. While explicit laws in Saudi Arabia require women to remain completely covered with veils, shawls, and other garments, many other Muslim countries still implicitly require that women dress modestly, by means of garments including a head covering (known as a hijab), a face covering or veil (known as a niqab), and a burka (a garment that cover a woman’s entire body). The censorship of women via these pieces of clothing has stirred controversy in recent years, prompting discussions about whether the Qur’an requires women to cover themselves or if laws about clothing simply remain in place to censor women’s appearance and freedom. Censorship and Music Women have also been censored for their involvement in the arts. For instance, female music artists have also been common targets for censorship, mainly in countries in the Middle East and Africa. In some Middle Eastern countries, women are forbidden from

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Censorship of women remains a 21st-century issue worldwide, and can target everything from advertising, laws regarding women’s appearance and clothing, and regulating artistic works such as literature, fine art, and filmmaking.

becoming music artists, and in Africa, one woman in particular has been censored for her desire to question the political practices of her country in her lyrics. The Website Freemuse: Freedom of Musical Expression reports incidents of musical artists who have been censored for their choices. Many of the reports on the site concern Middle Eastern countries. In early 2010 in Herat, Afghanistan, the Morality and Knowledge Association fought to ban all women from the airwaves. Supporters say that hearing women speak and sing on the air leads to societal corruption. Similarly, third-place finalist Lima Sahar of Afghan Idol also was forced into a life of exile after receiving countless death threats for choosing to pursue her dreams of being a famous singer. Women are also banned from singing and playing music in public in Iran, where, in February 2010, a concert by Iranian singer Homayoun Shajarian was banned because several members of his band were women. In Africa, the female Zimbabwean musician Viomak has

seen her music censored because her work often protests contemporary government practices and advocates for social justice. The censorship of women in music deserves special attention since women are literally and figuratively silenced; their needs are ignored and, instead, male voices dominate already-patriarchal cultural institutions and movements. Censorship and Fine Art A recent case of censorship and art involves Dorota Nieznalska, a Polish woman. Nieznalska’s work Pasja (2002) included a large cross with male genitalia at its center; behind the cross a video of a man lifting weights played. Pasja represents Nieznalska’s views of Christ’s passion, and emphasizes the role of men and their pain. Officials leveled criminal charges against Nieznalska for the work, which they considered blasphemous. Several of her forthcoming exhibits were canceled as the case went to trial and into a series of multiple appeals. Nieznalska was finally acquitted



in 2009. The censorship of her work represents the conservative mind-set that often stifles female artists who explore masculinity in daring ways. Censorsing Authors Female authors have also suffered attacks since the start of the 21st century. J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, for instance, was one of the most attacked and banned books of 2000 and in the years immediately following. Rowling’s books, which focus on the experiences of a boy in a world of wizards and magic, have unsettled some readers, who believe the series promotes witchcraft. Thousands of copies of Harry Potter books have been burned and shredded, and critics call Rowling a witch; some of her opponents even claim that Rowling wrote the novels to recruit Satan followers. While Rowling simply shrugs off these attacks, other female writers who dare to write their stories face much harsher consequences. Rajaa Alsanea, the Saudi Arabian author of Girls of Riyadh (2005), still receives death threats (even after moving to America). Her novel explores the life of a young woman in Saudi Arabia, a country in which women are often censored into silence. Another Saudi Arabian author, Badriya Al-Bishr, has seen her work banned, but she recognizes that the steps she takes— and the challenges she must overcome—make writing for future female authors more acceptable, common, and respected (see Sabria Jawhar’s “The Real Abuse of Saudi Women” for more of Al-Bishr’s reflections on writing). Some women writers are censored because the fictional worlds they create are discordant with reality; other women are censored for defying cultural expectations and creating awareness of major problems plaguing women in their respective countries. Censoring in the Film Industry Another artistic arena in which women have been censored includes the film industry. As Ibrahim Al-Marashi notes in “Feminism and Censorship in an Islamic Republic: Women Filmmakers in Iran,” an essay in Valentine Moghadam’s collection From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women’s Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, some of the most censored female filmmakers share common roots: they are Iranian. Women like Marziyeh Meshkini, Samira Makhmalbaf, and Tahmineh Milani have all seen their

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work censored by heavily patriarchal governing institutions. Meshkini’s film, The Day I Became aWoman (2000), chronicles the stories of three Iranian females at different stages in their lives (one a child, another a woman, and the other, an elderly woman) and their struggles in battling conservative stereotypes for women in their country. The film was banned for raising questions about the strict expectations for women in Iran. Samira Makhmalbaf, another female Iranian filmmaker, has also had her work banned. In the documentary Joy of Madness (2003) about her making of the 2003 film At Five in the Afternoon, which asks questions about the status of women in a post-Taliban era, In the film, Makhmalbaf wore a headscarf that did not appropriately cover her. She told Nicole Mowbray of the New Statesman in an interview that she did not wear an “insufficiently modest” scarf on purpose but that she did not feel remorse for her actions because after one woman breaks a traditional expectation for females, it becomes much easier for others to do so as well. Tahmineh Milani, the most prolific of Iranian feminist filmmakers, has faced some of the worst ramifications from her work. Several of her movies have been censored and banned, including her film The Hidden Half (2001), in which Milani analyzed and criticized fundamentalist political groups. In an interview with Richard Phillips of the World Socialist Website, Milani revealed she knew the possible consequences of making a film about Iranian politics—which are always fluctuating—but she felt she needed to make the film to honor all those who had been exiled or even killed while raising awareness about the same issue. Though the government initially approved The Hidden Half for release, Milani was jailed shortly after its release; Milani’s film was accused of supporting subversive groups. Milani was eventually released, but her imprisonment remains a reminder of the way in which women who hope to create awareness about significant cultural problems and issues face censorship of their work, and sometimes even harsher consequences. More often than not, censorship is used to suppress women. In very strict cultures, like Saudi Arabia, censors operate under the guise that extreme acts of censorship concerning women preserve their culture from immorality, and even protect women from danger. Censors know that awareness leads to growth and change, so continually masking major problem-

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atic issues related to women typically relegates them to situations and conditions that cannot be changed. Without exposing the truth, women’s lives and their status cannot be changed for the better. See Also: Afghanistan; Antifeminism; Arab Feminism; Iran; Iranian Feminism; Iraq; Islam; Islamic Feminisms; Poland; Political Ideologies; Religion, Women in; Religious Fundamentalisms, Cross-Cultural Context; Saudi Arabia; Taliban; Veil. Further Readings Byrd, Cathy and Susan Richmond. Potentially Harmful: The Art of American Censorship. Atlanta: Georgia State University Press, 2006. Freemuse: Freedom of Musical Expression. http://www .freemuse.org/sw305.asp (accessed August 2010). Jawhar, Sabria. “The Real Abuse of Saudi Women.” http:// www.arabisto.com/article/Blogs/Sabria_Jawhar/The _real_abuse_of_Saudi_women/64694 (accessed August 2010). Lustig, Megan. “Women’s Wednesday: Censoring the V-Word.” www.spectrumscience.com/blog/2010/03/31 /womens-wednesday-censoring-the-v-word (accessed July 24 2010). McClellan, S. “Lane Bryant Says TV Networks Censored Saucy Spot.” Brandweek www.brandweek.com/bw/ content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i406 2457efae56fa38ef10807894cc53d (accessed July 2010). Moghadam, Valentine M., ed. From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women’s Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007. Mowbray, Nicole. “Samira Makhmalbaf.” New Statesman (October 17, 2005). http://www.newstatesman.com /200510170014 (accessed July 2010). Petley, Julian. Censorship: A Beginner’s Guide. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2009. Phillips, R. “Iranian Director Tahmineh Milani Speaks With WSWS.” World Socialist Web Site (September 29, 2006). http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/sep2006 /mila-s29.shtml (accessed July 2010). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Pornography and Censorship.” http://plato.stanford.edu/entries /pornography-censorship/#2.2.3 (accessed July 2010). Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR), which achieved its independency from France on August 13, 1960, has had a very unstable history, evidenced by several coups and internal disputes. Progress has been observed only in the last few years, with significant improvements in its governance and human rights record. The government’s commitment to human rights was also reflected in the adoption of a national policy on the promotion of equality in 2005. A family code designed to strengthen women’s rights had been in place since May 1998, but several conflicting customary laws prevail. The CAR is one of the world’s least developed countries, with approximately 4.3 million inhabitants. A landlocked country, the nation is overwhelmingly agrarian, with more than half of the population, and the vast majority of women, living from subsistence farming. Female land laborers face added difficulties accessing loans due to a lack of financial guarantees and access to land titles, which also affect their capacity to initiate agricultural activities and generate income. The 2004 Constitution recognized that all Central Africans, without regard to sex and other considerations, are equal in economic, political, and social spheres; however, in practice, women are treated as inferior to men both economically and socially and significant discrimination persists. As is the case in other countries in Africa, there is a significant difference in the conditions of women’s lives in cities— namely Bangui—and women who live in rural areas. Some discriminatory habits and traditions have proved to be more resilient in rural and remote communities, despite improvements in the urban areas. Such is the case with female genital mutilation, which despite being banned in the country in 1996, is still performed in certain rural areas. Polygamy is legal, although this practice faces growing resistance among educated women. There is a 20 to 25 percent difference between the registration of boys and girls in primary school, and in literacy rates between men and women in the 15-to-24 age bracket. At the university level, men outnumber women at a ratio of 1:3 or 1:4. This gap is much wider in rural areas. In regards to health, women face higher rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and are more prone to the risk of other infectious diseases.

Chabad Movement



According to some sources, the CAR has one of the highest rates of maternal deaths in the world, and a significant number of them are linked to unsafe abortion, which is prohibited by law. The CAR leaves much room for improvement in terms of the unmet need for prenatal care and access to contraception. Significant underreporting and inadequate data collection methods mean it is impossible to estimate the rate of violence against women. Finally, the gender gap is overwhelming in state institutions: only 11 out of 105 members of Parliament and four out of 22 ministers are women. At the local government level, there are only six female mayors as compared to 66 male ones. Similarly low ratios are found in judiciary and other high-level civil servants, such as registrars and notaries. See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Polygamy, Cross-Culturally Considered. Further Readings Development Partner Consultation for the Central African Republic. “Central African Republic: Development Partner Consultation.” http://www .scribd.com/doc/269638/Gender-inequality-in-the -Central-African-Republic (accessed July 2010). United Nations Development Group. “MDGs Report Card: Central African Republic.” http://www.undg .org/docs/8865/2007-CAR--MDG-report.pdf (accessed July 2010). José-Miguel Bello y Villarino Independent Scholar

Chabad Movement The Chabad movement is a Hasidic movement among Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Known collectively as the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, members follow the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who was the leader of the movement in its most recent incarnation in the United States from 1940 until his death in 1994. Although the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the Rebbe’s teaching are complex, the fundamental

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mission of “Chabadniks,” as members are known, is to bring non-Orthodox Jews back to more Orthodox religious observance through gentleness, kindness, and the emphasis of the beauty of religious life. By reigniting the spiritual spark within individual Jewish souls, Chabadniks hope to make a holier world, and thereby encourage the coming of Moshiach, or the Jewish messiah. The term Chabad, which stands for wisdom, comprehension, and knowledge (from the Hebrew words Chochmah, Binah, and Da’at, the consonant initials of which spell out Chabad), provides outreach to Jews all over the world in the form of synagogues, schools, summer camps, soup kitchens, foster homes, and other relief, rehabilitation, and community centers in over 900 cities worldwide. The Chabad emissaries, or Schluchim, who do the everyday work of running this far-reaching network, are typically young, married couples who are sent out into the world to Chabad centers worldwide, many of which are in challenging locations with very few Jews. In addition to responsibilities in the community, couples are encouraged to have large families, as per the biblical injunction to “be fruitful and multiply.” With these large families, most averaging between five and 10 children, come concerns of financial difficulty and the necessity of parental self-sacrifice. However, Chabad teachings emphasize that every child is a blessing, and that the joy of raising a child to Torah-observant, productive adulthood more than outweighs the potential difficulties inherent in bearing, raising, and providing for large numbers of children. Women’s Participation Chabad is unique in that women Chabadniks occupy positions of relative public prominence. The Rebbe explicitly encouraged wives to accompany their husbands as Chabad emissaries and to work beside them as codirectors in outreach. However, there are boundaries to women’s participation; for example, they are typically expected to attend only to those outreach concerns located specifically within the feminine realm. However, unlike fiscally and workplace-oriented mainstream culture, the domestic realm is relatively privileged in the Chabad movement. Women might offer women’s discussion and support circles, instruct on how to keep a kosher kitchen and home, give advice

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on childrearing, or teach about women’s responsibilities in following the laws of family purity. Meanwhile, women are not expected, nor are they permitted in many cases, to attend to other religious matters. These may include leading religious services, performing rabbinical or ritual tasks, or reading from and praying before the Torah. Most Ultra-Orthodox women are protective and proud of their sacred gender-specific roles in family and religious life and have no interest in fulfilling men’s commandments. In fact, much of Orthodox teaching emphasizes that women, as creators of life, are already close to the divine and are not, therefore, required to pray and study. Men, meanwhile, must labor to achieve what women do naturally, and therefore have much more stringent religious requirements set before them. However, critics suggest that Chabad’s mission to encourage religious observance would be more successful if women and men alike could choose the type of observance—be it reading from and handling the Torah or keeping a kosher kitchen—irrespective of their sex. Chabad encourages active engagement from women and men, but with its definitive boundaries between the sexes (both literally and figuratively), it makes no claims about being egalitarian in a modern sense. For women and men who are interested in a nongendered religious participation, Chabad may be a poor fit, and from a feminist perspective, interpreting the restrictions and/or boundaries imposed on women’s religious participation remains a source of tension and debate both inside and outside Chabad communities. Family Life Although some feminist critics take issue with women’s restricted participation, others focus primarily on the laws of family purity, which are often misinterpreted to suggest that women are unclean and that their monthly visit to the mikveh, or ritual bath, is an archaic ritual rooted in misogynist beliefs about menstruation and the female body. According to many Ultra-Orthodox women, the mikveh and connected laws of family purity exist as a way for women to have a sacred space of their own, time to themselves to reflect, and a way to connect more authentically with their husbands and families. Family life, and by extension the role of the wife and mother, is of great importance in the Chabad move-

ment. Mothers are responsible for teaching their children to live Torah-observant lives and to encourage prayer and reflection at home. According to Chabadniks, the laws of modesty, or tznius, are designed to emphasize and protect the inherent respect for and the sacredness of women by dictating the covering of married women’s hair and encouraging modest standards of dress for girls and women alike. Again, some critics interpret the relative stringency of tznius as a masculinist mechanism to restrict and control women, but as is the case of many Muslim women who wear hijab, most women in Chabad affirm the practice of hair-covering and modest dress as a part of the complex ecology of identity and observance that privileges the feminine, not a restriction imposed by husbands, fathers, or other male authority figures. See Also: Judaism; Progressive Muslims; Religion, Women in; Veil. Further Readings Bronner, L.L. “From Veil to Wig: Jewish Women’s Hair Coverings.” Judaism, v.42/4 (1993). Drake, C. “A Faith Grows in Brooklyn.” National Geographic, v. 209/2 (2006). Fishkoff, S. The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of ChabadLubavitch. New York: Random House, 2003. Greenberg, B. How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983. Greenberg, B. “Orthodox, Feminist and Proud of It.” In E. Kurzweil, ed., Best of Jewish Writing. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003. Ravitz, J. “An Orthodox Feminist Revolutionary.” Moment, v.34/1 (2009). Sally Campbell Galman University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Chad Chad, a former French colony in central Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. The country’s development has been hampered by a series of civil wars since independence in 1960, as well as by internal corruption and the spillover of warfare from neighboring countries. Islam is the most common

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religion (53.1 percent), followed by Catholicism (20.1 percent), Protestantism (14.2 percent), and animist religions (7.3 percent). Chad’s 2009 per capita gross domestic product was estimated to be $1,500; 80 percent of the population is estimated to live below the poverty level. Most people live on subsistence agriculture and raising livestock—processes disrupted because internal warfare forced them to become internally displaced persons. Chad also harbors many refugees from the conflicts in the neighboring Darfur region of Sudan and from conflicts in the Central African Republic. Life expectancy in Chad is quite low, at 44 years for men and 47 years for women. Basic health and social services are not available to many people—a fact reflected in low rates of literacy (40.8 percent for men, 12.8 percent for women) and poor health outcomes, including one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, at 98.7 deaths per 1,000 live births. The international organization Save the Children ranks Chad near the bottom of all countries on its Mothers’ Index, Children’s Index, and Women’s Index, indicating the country does a poor job delivering basic health and social services even in comparison with other impoverished, developing countries. Chad’s fertility rate is among the highest in the world at 5.31 children per woman, resulting in a population growth rate of 2.1 percent despite low life expectancy resulting from high outmigration plus high rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (3.5 percent of adults), lack of basic healthcare, and ongoing civil warfare. The combination of poverty, corruption, and lack of a stable government creates conditions that favor the abuse of women. Local customs often allow practices such as polygamy, forced marriage, child marriage, and female genital mutilation. In addition, although the Chadian Constitution prohibits discrimination against women and provides stiff penalties (up to a life sentence at hard labor) for rape, such laws are seldom enforced. Women are often reluctant to report abuse, including rape because of the extreme stigma associated with being a victim of this act—a married woman may be abandoned by her husband, and a young girl may find it difficult to get married if it is known that she has been a rape victim. A 2009 report by Amnesty International reports that refugee women in Chad face a constant threat of

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rape and other violence. Threat of sexual assault prevents many young women from attending school in the camps, and individuals who commit rape or other violence against women enjoy nearly total impunity not only because of the difficulty of providing security in refugee camps (and even more so when women leave the camps to gather firewood, a traditional female role) but also because of the extreme stigma rape carries for the victim and the disinterest of officials in carrying out an investigation. Chad is on the Tier 2 Watch List of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons of the U.S. Department of State and is a site of child trafficking for forced labor, involuntary servitude, and sexual exploitation. See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of; Islam; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Amnesty International. “No Place for Us Here: Violence Against Refugee Women in Eastern Chad.” London: Amnesty International, 2009. http://www.amnesty .org/en/library/asset/AFR20/008/2009/en/a6cc4610 -016f-439b-987d-4cb128679751/afr200082009eng.pdf (accessed June 2010). U.S. Department of State. “Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.” http://www.state.gov/g/tip (accessed June 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Chase, Cheryl Cheryl Chase is the pen name of Bo Laurent. Laurent was born on August 14, 1956, in Manville, New Jersey. She is known for being an American intersex activist. In 1993, she founded the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) using the name Cheryl Chase. ISNA was focused primarily on medical reform of care for children, but also served as a support group for adults. In 1997, she produced Hermaphrodites Speak!, the first documentary film featuring individuals with intersex conditions speaking openly about their personal experiences.

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In 1998, Laurent wrote an amicus curiae brief (a “friend of the court” brief ) for the Colombian constitutional court, which was then considering a ruling on surgery for a 6-year-old boy. In 2000, ISNA was honored with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s Felipa de Souza Human Rights Award, which honors human rights activists and organizations. Laurent has written a number of published articles, primarily under the name Cheryl Chase, on the subject of intersexuality Laurent was one of two adults with intersex conditions who participated in creating the 2006 Consensus Statement on intersex standard-of-care concepts for best clinical management of disorder(s) of sex development (DSD). This group of 50 international experts and patient advocates developed a new standard of care for people diagnosed with “intersex” conditions. Not only did the consensus focus on quality of life, a patient-centered model, and an interdisciplinary team approach to healthcare, but it also proposed a change in terminology. The statement introduced the term disorders of sex development, or DSD. Laurent argues that there were a number of reasons for this change. First, while the term intersex has worked to unify many individuals in terms of political rights and action, it has also been viewed as too politically charged by many parents and healthcare professionals alike. Some of these individuals further view the term intersex as stigmatizing. Second, there was often little agreement by healthcare workers on which conditions fell under the label intersex, which distracted from more important issues. Finally, while only a small percentage of all patients with a DSD are assigned to the wrong sex, the word intersex is often construed in the media in precisely this sensationalized way. DSD is also more obviously a medical term, which was seen as the easiest way to communicate about medical care. DSD also labeled the condition rather than the person. ISNA began to use the term disorder of sex development alongside the term intersex. Although the statement set up patient-oriented care, these standards were not necessarily being implemented in hospitals. In 2007, the ISNA, headed by Laurent, sponsored and convened a national group of healthcare and advocacy professionals to establish a nonprofit organization charged with making sure the new standards for appropriate care were known

and implemented. In March 2008, Laurent helped form Accord Alliance to promote comprehensive and integrated approaches to care that enhance the health and well-being of people and families affected by disorders of sex development. In 2008, ISNA closed its doors and Laurent became a patient representative on Accord Alliance’s Advisory Board. In August 2008, Laurent received her Master’s in Organization Development from Sonoma State University. Her work at Alliance currently focuses on organizational effectiveness consulting. See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Intersex; Social Justice Activism. Further Readings Chase, Cheryl. “‘Cultural Practice’ or ‘Reconstructive Surgery’? US Genital Cutting, the Intersex Movement, and Medical Double Standards.” In N. Ehrenreich, ed., Reproductive Rights: A Critical Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Chase, Cheryl. “Hermaphrodites With Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Activism.” In M. Himley and A. Fitzsimmons, eds. Making Critical Space: A Reader. Syracuse, NY: Longman Publishing, 2007. Hegarty, Peter and Cheryl Chase. “Intersex Activism, Feminism and Psychology.” In I. Morland and A. Willox, eds., Queer Theory. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Laurent, Bo. “Intersexuality–A Plea for Honesty and Emotional Support.” In W. L. Williams and Y. Retter, eds., Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States: A Documentary History (Primary Documents in American History and Contemporary Issues). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. Stacy Weida Indiana University

Chastity Pledges The chastity pledge or virginity pledge is an influential aspect of American culture with significant impacts on the lives of adolescent girls and young women today. An estimated 2.5 million teens and



young adults have taken the chastity pledge and committed to sexual abstinence until marriage, including pop culture stars Miley Cyrus, Jordin Sparks, and the Jonas Brothers. Yet despite the popularity of chastity pledges, the program continues to spark debate and controversy among critics and supporters of abstinence-only education, particularly with regards to their effectiveness in preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) contraction, or sexually transmitted infection (STI) contraction. Current research on chastity pledges offers contradictory results at best. The first chastity pledge program emerged in 1993 from a Southern Baptist Church and was aptly titled, True Love Waits (TLW). This particular chastity program sought to challenge teens and young adults to remain sexually abstinent with the public signing of commitment cards, but the program also utilized religion, faith, and morality to motivate abstinence. The national and international success of the TLW program sparked the establishment of similar virginity initiatives such as the Silver Ring Thing (SRT). SRT uses rock-style concerts and events to appeal to teens, while simultaneously adhering to the Christian faith-based abstinence message. At the conclusion of SRT events, teens publicly commit to abstinence and then adorn a silver “purity” ring on the ring finger of their left hand. The ring symbolically represents their pledge to sexual abstinence, but it also acts as an identifiable cultural symbol, which marks them as part of the chastity pledge movement. Further cultural markers include bracelets and necklaces, as well as attendance at any number of chastity events such as purity balls (or dances), summer camps, and concerts. Teens also participate in Internet-based community chats and make online virtual pledges. Popularity, Support, and Criticism The popularity of chastity pledges among teens and young adults is reflected in American popular culture. Popular discourses around sexuality and virginity are constantly in flux; however, the public endorsement and support of chastity pledges by teen celebrities like Cyrus, Sparks, and the Jonas Brothers acts to shift discussions of virginity and make it “cool” to say no. The effectiveness of chastity pledges in preventing teen pregnancy and STD contraction continues to

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be debated by critics and supporters of abstinenceonly education. This debate is further challenged by the often-contradictory research results on chastity pledges as an exclusive prevention method. Supporters of chastity pledges argue that sex education gives teens the wrong message about sex and assumes that all teens are sexually active. Abstinence-only supporters stress adhering to moral systems that justify saying “no” to sex and advocate the belief that sex belongs within marriage. They contend that pledges assist teens (especially girls) in developing self-esteem and self-respect. Furthermore, by encouraging teens to remain sexually abstinent, they argue that pregnancy and STD contraction rates are reduced because teens wait until marriage to engage in sexual activity. Critics of chastity pledges argue that it sets unrealistic standards for adolescents, particularly with regards to the normative assumption that sex only occurs within a marriage and is only for married individuals. They critique the reliance on images of romantic and heterosexual love and its associated traditional gender roles for girls and boys. Without adequate sex education, critics contend that pregnancy and STD rates will increase because teens do not have access to prevention information if and when they become sexually active. Moreover, chastity pledges may lead to unrealistic relationship standards, early marriages and subsequently higher divorce rates. Critics argue that teens need to be given information on how to protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs, in addition to discussing the positive impacts of abstinence. Current research supports many of the claims made by both chastity pledge supporters and critics. Research confirms that pledges delay first sexual activity by an average of 18 months; however, it provides that most teens break their abstinence commitment before marriage and are also more likely to practice unsafe sex. Similarly, STD contraction rates remain equal between pledging and nonpledging teens, which researchers argue is a result of unsafe sexual practices by pledging teens, including oral and anal sex. Yet studies further maintain that the pledge culture does offer teens a unique support system and an identifying community, associated with positive self-esteem. However, they caution that the increasing popularity of chastity pledges actually counteracts their effectiveness and meaning to

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teens. Overall, chastity pledges appear most effective with religiously minded younger teenagers. See Also: Contraception, Religious Approaches; Purity Balls; Sex Education, Abstinence-Only; Sex Education, Comprehensive; Teen Pregnancy. Further Readings Bersamin, M. M., et al. “Promising to Wait: Virginity Pledges and Adolescent Sexual Behavior.” Journal of Adolescent Health, v.36/5 (2005). Brückner, Hannah and Peter Bearman. “Promising the Future: Virginity Pledges and First Intercourse.” American Journal of Sociology, v.106/4 (2001). Lifeway: True Love Waits. http://www.lifeway.com/tlw (accessed October 2009). Silver Ring Thing. http://www.silverringthing.com (accessed October 2009). Emily Bent National University of Ireland, Galway

Chatrooms A chatroom is an Internet-supported forum that allows users to interact with each other in real time. Although chatrooms primarily use words to enact dialogue, Web cameras or graphics can sometimes enhance chat experiences to set moods or create atmospheres. Women who use chatrooms most frequently employ them to maintain existing relationships (especially from a long distance), meet romantic partners, engage in role-playing games, or seek support for problems they may not be able to engage others about face-to-face. While females and males tend to interact in chatrooms in a communicatively similar manner, women particularly use emoticons such as smiley faces to express themselves. Despite the advantages of chatrooms for women, media sources often scrutinize or represent them as highly sexualized and filled with male predators. It is common for friends, family, and lovers to talk with each other while at work, home, or traveling through the use of chatrooms or instant messenger features (sometimes called chatters). In addition, women and men both seek new connections, usu-

ally romantic- or hobby-based, through chatrooms or other online real-time forums. Women seeking a dating or sexual partner often initially meet through online dating sites, but then move the conversation to chatters as a way of screening individuals for potential face-to-face meetings. Female Online Presence Is Growing Although it is impossible to tally how many women use online chatting features, social media scholars believe that men use interactive Web technologies slightly more than women. Women are increasingly engaging in traditionally male chat outlets such as online gaming and role-playing. They continue to use already-female-dominated chatrooms that discuss personal issues such as pregnancy, rape, breast cancer, or lesbianism—noting that online interaction about such issues is less intense, minimizes embarrassment, allows them to feel more open to themselves and others, and also provides access to new acquaintances who have faced similar experiences. Chatrooms also allow women opportunities for sharing workplace experiences or to voice political opinions that may otherwise be muted because of gender bias. Despite the advantages online chatrooms provide women, stigma continues to surround both the mechanisms and those who use them. Television programs such as To Catch a Predator paint a world where men are waiting to take sexual advantage of young women, and a variety of television programs or movies depict women who use chatrooms as victims of cyber-stalkers or mentally unbalanced individuals who cannot cope in their physical worlds. Research also indicates that while individuals feel it is okay for them personally to meet others online for dating and friendship, they continue to judge others who may take the same actions. Studies show, however, that relationships initiated through chatrooms can be as healthy as face-toface initiated relationships and that chatrooms, overall, pose no additional risk to individual well-being. See Also: Computer Games; Cyber-Stalking and Internet Harassment; Health, Mental and Physical; Internet; Internet Dating. Further Readings Baym, Nancy K. Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010.

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Whitty, Monica T. “Liar, Liar! An Examination of How Open, Supportive, and Honest People Are in Chat Rooms.” Computers in Human Behavior, v.18/4 (2002). Witmer, Diane F. and Sandra Lee Katzman. “Online Smiles: Does Gender Make a Difference in the Use of Graphic Accents?” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, v.2/4 (1997). Wolak, Janice, et al. “Online ‘Predators’ and Their Victims: Myths, Realities and Implications for Prevention and Treatment.” American Psychologist, v.63/2 (2008). Jimmie Manning Northern Kentucky University

Chemistry, Women in Women remain a minority in chemistry as in other male-dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, despite the achievement of gender parity in participation and achievement in the sciences at elementary and secondary education levels. This gender gap increases as females ascend the educational and career ladder, in what researchers often term the “shrinking” or “leaky pipeline.” Causes include gender stereotyping and lowered expectations for female success, family responsibilities, and limited mentoring and networking opportunities. A number of organizations have arisen to attract more women to the field and improve working conditions. Women in Chemistry Studies Significant progress has been made in increasing the number of female students enrolled in science courses at the secondary school level. The participation and achievement of girls in sciences at the elementary and secondary levels have achieved parity with boys in most industrialized countries, but lags further behind in many low-income and developing countries. Gendered expectations as well as gender differences in student attitudes toward and interest in the sciences, however, begin to emerge even among young girls. Gains at the earlier educational levels largely have not translated to significant enrollment increases at the higher education level. The disparities are even greater for the physical sciences, as most women

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pursue majors in the life sciences. The percentage of female chemistry majors and chemistry degree recipients has increased since the late 20th century, but a substantial gender gap remains. The gender gap among chemistry majors and degree earners remains among the highest in all disciplines at the college and university level and widens even further at the graduate level. Pioneering women in chemistry in academia, such as Marie Daly, Mary Lyon, and Emma Perry Carr, helped modernize chemistry teaching in higher education and attract female students to the discipline, but gender parity remains elusive. U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) research found that in 2005 in the United States, women earned 43 percent of bachelor’s degrees in the physical sciences but only 27 percent of doctorates. At the Ph.D. level in chemistry, the percentage of women degree earners rose from 20 percent in 1985 to 34 percent in 2005. In Europe, women comprise 56 percent of all higher education graduates, but are a minority of graduates in the sciences and other male-dominated fields. Educational researchers have found that girls and women in chemistry and other traditionally maledominated courses often have different classroom experiences, expectations, and treatment than their male counterparts, whether conscious and overt or unconscious and subtle. On the other hand, Asian women may experience cultural expectations and stereotypes expecting them to be more adept in science and mathematics. At the graduate and postdoctoral levels, women may either be unwilling to commit to or drop out of lengthy and time consuming programs due to family considerations or are negatively impacted by the belief that this will occur. Women in Chemistry Professions Career opportunities in chemistry within academia include faculty and research positions at all educational levels, as well as museum positions. The gender gap appears, however, once reaches higher education. According to the NSF, women in the United States comprise the majority of teachers at the elementary and secondary levels as well as those at twoyear and junior colleges. Women chemistry faculty members are a minority, and are disproportionately represented in nontenure-track positions such as adjunct professors.

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The gender gap among chemistry majors and degree earners is among the highest in all disciplines of higher education.

In the United States, women comprised approximately 12 percent of all tenured and tenure-track chemistry professors at leading doctoral and research universities in 2003. In 2006, women represented 31.7 percent of all faculty, 20.6 percent of all full professors, 32.9 percent of all associate professors, and 39.4 percent of all assistant professors. In Europe, women account for only 14 percent of all full professors. The percentages are even smaller for minority women. Career opportunities in chemistry outside of academia include a variety of industry and government occupations, with governments employing larger percentages of women. Many women chemists chose industry over academia due to the perception that it is more family friendly. Women have increased their numbers in industry, but a large gender gap remains here as well. Women comprised 26 percent of nonacademic science and engineering positions in 2005, more

than doubling their percentages in 20 years. Eurostat figures showed that women comprised only 29 percent of European scientists and engineers in 2004. According to NSF statistics, women in the United States comprise 27 percent of all those employed in science and engineering careers, 21 percent of all those employed in business and industry careers, and 27 percent of all those employed through the federal government. Chemical & Engineering News reported that women held only just over 8 percent of all executive titles and comprised just over 12 percent of all directors of 42 publicly traded chemical companies surveyed. Ellen Kullman, chief executive officer (CEO) of DuPont, was the first female CEO of a major chemical company. Many researchers feel that female students are less likely to enter chemistry and other science fields because of the lack of female role models in either academia or industry, or because of traditional gender stereotyping that views the sciences as male fields, even if social pressure has become subtler. Women in academia struggle with the difficulty of maintaining a work–life balance, as taking extended time off for maternity leave or family reasons can jeopardize ongoing research or other projects. They may also bear more duties or scrutiny due to their minority status and have fewer mentoring or networking opportunities. In both academia and industry, women chemists tend to hold lower salaried or prestige positions which affect their lifetime earnings and advancement opportunities. Women in chemistry have formed a variety of organizations dedicated to closing the gender gap by attracting more women to the field and by aiding those women already in the field at all levels. U.S.based organizations include the Committee on the Advancement of Women in Chemistry (COACh), the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) of the American Chemical Socety (ACS), Iota Sigma Pi, the national honor society for women in chemistry, and various Women in Chemistry university groups, as well as the Association for Women in Science, Graduate Women in Science, and National Research Council Committee on Women in Science and Engineering, International organizations include Women in Global Science and Technology, the European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS), the Helsinki Group on women and science, and the EU Women in Science and Technology group.

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Goals of these groups include eliminating gender inequities, increasing the representation of women at all levels of chemistry, and advising women in the field, as well as at universities, institutions, and organizations. Programs and services include socialization, networking, and mentoring opportunities along with workshops, conferences, and other professional development opportunities. Broader organizations, such as the American Association of University Women, also pursue many of the same issues. See Also: College and University Faculty; Education, Women in; Physics, Women in; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls; STEM Coalition. Further Readings Adamuti-Trache, Maria and Lesley Andres. “Embarking on and Persisting in Scientific Fields of Study: Cultural Capital, Gender, and Curriculum along the Science Pipeline.” International Journal of Science Education, v.30/12 (2008). American Association of University Women. “Under the Microscope: A Decade of Gender Equity Projects in the Sciences.” http://www.aauw.org/learn/research /all.cfm (accessed July 2010). Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development (CAWMSET). “Land of Plenty: Diversity as America’s Competitive Edge in Science, Engineering and Technology: Report of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development.” Arlington, VA: CAWMSET, National Science Foundation, 2000. DeWandre, N. “Women in Science: European Strategies for Promoting Women in Science.” Science, v.295 (2002). Domush, Hilary. “Women in Chemistry.” Center for Contemporary History and Policy. http://thecenter .chemheritage.org/?p=91 (accessed July 2010). Etzkowitz, H., et al. Athena Unbound: The Advancement of Women in Science and Technology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Gabel, Dorothy. Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning. New York: Macmillan, 1994. Grinstein, Louise S., Rose K. Rose, and Miriam H. Rafailovich, eds.Women in Chemistry and Physics: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.

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Hall, Linley Erin. Who’s Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in Science and Technology. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2007. Hinkle, Amber S. and Jody A. Kocsis, eds. Successful Women in Chemistry: Corporate America’s Contribution to Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. James, Abigail Norfleet. Teaching the Female Brain: How Girls Learn Math and Science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2009. Monosson, Emily. Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. Morse, Mary. Women Changing Science: Voices From a Field in Transition. New York: Insight Books, 1995. Sheffield, Suzanne Le-May. Women and Science: Social Impact and Interaction. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Wilson, Robin. “The Chemistry Between Women and Science.” Chronicle of Higher Education (May 26, 2006). http://chronicle.com/article/The-Chemistry-Between -Women-/33155 (accessed July 2010). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Chicago, Judy Judy Chicago is an American artist originally from Chicago, Illinois. Her most significant artworks are The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage, The Birth Project, Resolutions: A Stitch in Time, and The Holocaust Project. She is also a feminist educator and intellectual. Judy Chicago was born Judy Sylvia Cohen on July 20, 1939. By 1970, Chicago had changed her name from Judy Gerowitz (her married name) to Judy Chicago; she advertised her new name in the magazine Artforum, with a picture of her posing as a boxer. Her parents, Arthur Melvin Cohen and May Levinson, were of Jewish immigrant origins, but they embraced secular idealism. Arthur Cohen’s idealistic Communist principles were an inspiration to Chicago, and she was devastated at the death of her father in 1953 when she was only 13 years old. Her father’s championing of sexual equality would later inspire her feminist projects. Inspired by early success at the Chicago Art Institute’s high school division, Chicago studied at the

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University of California–Los Angeles from 1960 to 1964. During this period, Chicago met and married Jerry Gerowitz, but he committed suicide in 1963. She would later marry twice more. Her second husband was the sculptor Lloyd Hamrol, whom she married in 1969. They separated by 1976. Her present husband is the photographer Donald Woodman. Important Works Chicago’s most famous work is The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage (1974–79), which traces a symbolic history of women in Western civilization. The artwork features a triangular banquet table laid with dinner places, each designated for an eminent woman in history. The embroidered place mats and ceramic plates take on vulvar forms. The Dinner Party is often referred to in discussions about female iconographies in art. Inspired by 1970s feminism, in this piece Chicago employs the universal language of the goddess to create abstract and stylized representations of female bodies, especially female genitalia. The Dinner Party is significant in its use of vaginal forms, or what Chicago terms central core imagery, which offers an alternative to the phallus. Following from the embroidered place mats in The Dinner Party, needlework has played a significant role in Chicago’s work. In her needlework projects, Chicago draws on the traditional image of sewing as a woman’s art form, but she also creates a community of empowered women by employing female needleworkers to decorate her feminist motifs. For The Birth Project (1980–85), Chicago designed images of childbirth inspired by the testimony of mothers. Later, these images were embellished by needleworkers from the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Resolutions: A Stitch in Time (1994–2004) again drew on a community of skilled women stitchers, but needlework was used here to embellish Chicago’s paintings. The overall aim of this piece was to reframe English proverbs because, according to Chicago, they usually offer only a narrow, white, male, Eurocentric perspective. In recent collaborations, Chicago has turned to issues that are beyond the specificity of gender, although they are still related to the abuse of women. One such collaboration was The Holocaust Project (1985–93), in which Chicago turned to the question of her own Jewishness, combining her paintings with Donald Woodman’s photography. Chicago and

Judy Chicago’s art has been exhibited in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Woodman treat the Holocaust as the apex for issues surrounding the human condition, the idea being that the artists are “carriers of empathy.” Chicago also wanted to address the interaction between sexism and racism in the Holocaust. Feminist Art Education Although she is primarily a practitioner of art, Chicago is also a renowned educator. During the 1970s, she set up a female art class at Fresno State College, California, and it was here that she coined the term feminist art education. Chicago brought her feminist art program to a greater audience when collaborating with the American painter Miriam Shapiro at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. Team teaching with Shapiro, Chicago helped to coordinate the installation Womanhouse (1972) in a Los Angeles mansion, and in 1973 she set up a pioneering feminist studio workshop in Los Angeles. In developing these educational programs, Chicago sought to undermine the assumption at the time that it was impossible to be a woman and

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an artist—her pedagogy was gendered. More recently, however, Chicago’s mentoring has been made available to both women and men, with her priority being to create artwork that reworks personal experience, with a particular focus on the content. Part of being an educator, for Chicago, is bringing understanding to why women’s art is significant and finding an audience that can see beyond the high, male-centered art that is the focus of art classes and journals. As a consequence, Chicago has written extensively about her life and struggles as an artist in numerous publications, such as her autobiography, Beyond the Flower. Altogether, Chicago might be described not only as a feminist artist but also as a feminist intellectual. See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Body Art; Body Image; Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago); Education, Women in. Further Readings Chicago, Judy. Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1982. Keifer-Boyd, Karen. “From Content to Form: Judy Chicago’s Pedagogy With Reflections by Judy Chicago.” Studies in Art Education, v. 48/2 (2007). Levin, Gail. Becoming Judy Chicago: A Biography of the Artist. New York: Harmony Books, 2007. Lucie-Smith, Edward. Judy Chicago: An American Vision. New York: Watson Guptill, 2000. Rizvi, Urma Z. and Murtaza Vali. “The Fertile Goddess at the Brooklyn Museum of Art: Excavating the Western Feminist Art Movement and Recontextualizing New Heritages.” New Eastern Archaeology, v.72/3 (2009). Through the Flower. http://www.throughtheflower.org (accessed April 2010). Zoë Brigley Thompson University of Northampton

Chicana Feminism Feminism may be defined as an ideology that critiques and resists patriarchy—the institutionalized, social subordination of women by men. Although ideological differences exist among women who identify as

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feminists, challenging sex inequality and the systematic oppression of women remains a common struggle for most feminists. In general, the term Chicana refers to a U.S.-born woman of Mexican descent who possesses a sociopolitical consciousness of her status as a nonwhite, historically working-class woman living within the U.S. dominant culture. As with feminist women, Chicanas encompass diverse ideologies, and some Chicanas choose not to identify themselves as feminists. Other labels often used for Chicana women, such as Latina and Hispanic, may also be challenged and vehemently resisted by some Chicanas. Early Chicana Feminism Historical evidence has been documented to reveal women’s participation in revolutionary and political movements throughout Latin America even before the 20th century. What is known as Chicana feminism emerged out of several sociopolitical struggles in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, called the Chicano Movement, or El Movimiento. In response to social inequalities faced by Chicanos in the United States, ranging from inadequate funding of urban schools that served predominantly Chicanos, to what was viewed by the Chicano community as a disproportionate number of Chicano men being drafted and killed in the Vietnam War, to the struggles of Mexican farmworkers, led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, Chicana activism in these protest movements is evident. However, as Chicana activists in the Chicano Movement articulated in their emerging feminist consciousness, women’s lack of visibility and secondary leadership roles became a source of conflict among Chicano men and Chicana women within the movement. Early Chicana feminist thought within the movement largely critiqued the sexism of Chicano activists. While male Chicano activists protested both the racial and economic subordination of Chicano people, many Chicanos did not place gender as another mode of oppression that occurred alongside racial and economic oppression. Chicanas within the movement thus began to frame early components of Chicana feminism—a critique of what they viewed as an inherent contradiction of movement politics, which challenged racial and economic oppression yet reinforced traditional, unequal gender roles between women and men. This contradiction resulted in feelings of

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disillusionment and discontent with the Chicano Movement, leading some Chicana feminist activists to create gender-specific publications in the form of journals, magazines, and newsletters to provide an outlet for Chicana feminist discussions. Journals such as Regeneración and El Grito Del Norte featured writings by now well-known early Chicana feminists Anna Nieto-Gómez, Marta Cotera, and Enriqueta Longeaux y Vásquez, among others. However, even among early Chicana feminists, some crucial, ideological differences existed. For example, Anna Nieto-Gómez used labels such as “Loyalists” and “Feminists” to define what she saw as two strands of women activists in the movement. For Nieto-Gómez, a Loyalist was described as a Chicana who did not challenge the sexism of her male activist counterparts because of her belief that fighting sexism would distract or otherwise threaten the main purpose of the movement: racial and economic equality. Nieto-Gómez defined feminists as Chicanas like herself who believed that Chicana feminist thought could only strengthen the Chicano Movement and that fighting sexism faced by Chicanas both in the dominant culture and in Chicano culture was necessary in the liberation of all Chicano people. Another significant ideological difference began to resonate during the emergence of Chicana feminism— that of whether Chicanas should actively participate in the Women’s Movement, which advocated for an end to patriarchal oppression of women. Although some Chicana feminists believed that Chicanas could strengthen the Women’s Movement because of their unique experiences and backgrounds, many Chicana feminists resisted participation, choosing instead to align themselves with other women of color activists such as African American women and Native American women who were active in their own respective civil rights and protest movements. A major point of conflict for Chicana feminists and Women’s Movement feminists was the criticism made by many Chicanas that the Women’s Movement largely was dominated by college-educated, middle-class, Anglo women, and thus that this feminist discourse reflected narrow views held by this group of women. In addition, Chicana feminists such as Marta Cotera accused leaders of the Women’s Movement of being racist and classist and

ignoring the needs of women of color who faced other forms of oppression alongside gender oppression. Another early prominent Chicana feminist, Enriqueta Longeaux y Vásquez, declared in one writing that she was a “Chicana primero” (“Chicana first”), articulating a sentiment shared by some Chicana activists that their ethnic identity and loyalty took precedence over gender identity. Contemporary Challenges Chicana women’s critiques of the Women’s Movement, coupled with their discontent with the Chicano Movement, are fundamental components of Chicana feminism that are still practiced and theorized today. On the one hand, contemporary Chicana feminists challenge the universality of the term woman, which implies that all women are inherently the same, while simultaneously openly critiquing sexism or machismo within their own family units and culture. Chicana feminist thought emphasizes the impossibility of separating gender from social class, sexuality, and race. Chicana lesbian feminists have further challenged homophobic, heterosexist undertones of early Chicana feminists and contemporary feminists who frame a Chicana feminist discourse that marginalizes lesbians and the unique issues that affect them. The late Gloria Anzaldúa’s 1987 publication, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, is considered by most Chicana feminists and scholars to be a landmark in the field of Chicana Studies and contemporary feminist theory. This publication chronicles a historical, Chicana feminist account of “The New Mestiza,” a contemporary descendant of Mexican indigenous peoples and the Spanish conquistadores, who succeeded in conquering and colonizing most of present-day Latin America, including parts of the southwestern United States. Borderlands is written from Anzaldúa’s perspective as a Chicana, Tejana, feminist, lesbian woman who, according to the author, navigates on a daily basis the literal and symbolic borders constructed by the Mexican and dominant cultures. For Anzaldúa, the New Mestiza is a master at crossing and challenging these social borders by the very fact of her mestizaje, or mixed-culture heritage. A main component of the New Mestiza’s task, according to Anzaldúa, is her need to eradicate binaries of race, sexuality, and gender that perpetually imprison Chicana lesbians and other women of color.



Contemporary Chicana feminist writers such as Cherrie Moraga and Ana Castillo continue in Anzaldúa’s feminist tradition by constructing a Chicana feminist agenda that calls for resistance to and critique of the simultaneous modes of oppression that Chicanas face; namely, homophobia, racism, sexism, and classism. For Chicana feminism to be useful for contemporary Chicana women, according to feminists such as Moraga, Castillo, and others, there must be a fundamental understanding that there is no single, unified Chicana experience, but rather, feminism must acknowledge the diversity of women even within a single ethnic group such as Chicanas. In addition, the contemporary Chicana feminist writers Anzaldúa, Moraga, and Castillo have used the three maternal figures of the Mexican/Chicano culture, La Virgen de Guadalupe, Malintzin/ La Malinche, and La Llorona as focal points of revision. La Virgen de Guadalupe is considered to be the patron saint of Mexico and its descendants as a result of her appearance to a converted Mexican Indian in the 16th century on Tepeyac, just outside presentday Mexico City. La Malinche, as she is known today, was the indigenous translator and guide to Hernán Cortés and mother of his child—often regarded as the first mestizo child. La Llorona (“The Weeping Woman”) is the Mexican folkloric figure who, according to legend, drowned her children in a river and is thus heard and seen wandering near bodies of water, weeping and calling for her dead children. According to Chicana feminist writers, these three well-known cultural, historical, and mythic figures have been used by Mexican patriarchy to define women’s sexual and maternal behavior along the binary of good/bad, with La Virgen symbolizing a seemingly “perfect,” unattainable image, and La Malinche and La Llorona symbolizing the “bad,” traitorous, overly sexualized mothers. However, these maternal figures function for Chicana feminist writers as symbols of strength and survival—preeminent symbols of Chicana feminism. Rather than reinforce patriarchal interpretations of these three figures, contemporary Chicana feminists such as Anzaldúa, Moraga, Castillo, and others trace the pre-Columbian heritage of La Virgen and construct La Malinche and La Llorona as feminist mothers. Contemporary Chicana feminists have also theorized feminismo transfrontera (transnational femi-

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nism), defined by literary scholar Sonia Saldívar-Hull as a feminist consciousness that recognizes sociopolitical connections to women in Latin America. This feminist ideology uses examples of political, feminist movements led by Latin American women to demonstrate common struggles faced by Chicana and other Latina women living in the United States. See Also: Critical Race Feminism; Feminism, American; Working Mothers. Further Readings Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987. García, Alma M., ed. Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. New York: Routledge, 1997. Saldívar-Hull, Sonia. Feminism on the Border: Chicana Gender Politics and Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Cristina Herrera California State Universite, Fresno

Chief Executive Officers, Female The 2000s have been an exciting time for women, as they have seen remarkable progress in a number of fields, professions, and jobs. The early years of the 21st century have seen an increase of women senators and governors, and women in other leadership positions in politics. Although many glass ceilings remain in place, others have begun to crumble, and this is certainly true in the corporate world. Compared with the beginning of the 1990s, when treating women differently than men was more acceptable, women began to close the wage gap. In one area of business in particular—that of the chief executive officer—women have made great strides, taking the helm of more major corporations than at any other time in American history. Much has changed since Katherine Graham of the Washington Post and Marion Sandler of Golden West Financial, in 1972 and 1973, respectively, broke the glass ceiling in the corporate world. At the end of 2009, there were a dozen large corporations that

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boasted a female chief executive officer. These women led many corporations such as Xerox, Pepsi, Western Union, Sara Lee, Kraft Foods, Avon, and Pearsons. Moreover, women have become a much more integral part of big business as globalization has rewritten the rules of American business. Historical Perspective Historically, women engaged in commerce have been relegated to domestic work, childrearing, and small, entrepreneurial enterprises. This was in step with then-current notions of “appropriate spheres” for men and women. The domestic arena was a woman’s domain, and men were supposed to handle the public sphere, including earning a paycheck, engaging in commerce, participating in politics, and anything else deemed to fall under this purview. There have been some notable exceptions to this exclusionary view: Estée Lauder, Madam C. J. Walker, and Martha Stewart are some of the most well-known businesswomen of the past 100 years. Their successes, however, tended to revolve around women’s issues. Despite the exclusion of women in all facets of business, using their wits and creativity, women have found ways to affect both business and politics. Toward the end of the 19th century, women, using the domestic sphere as a gateway into public affairs, began to exercise their political savvy in response to the inequality of the Gilded Age. Joining forces with liberal men in the Progressive Era, women such as Ida B. Wells, Margaret Sanger, and others agitated for prohibition, contraception, education, suffrage, and inclusion in the nation’s business community. Part of their concern was that, given the large numbers of Americans moving from rural communities to big metropolitan areas, women were being exploited. An ever-transforming America demanded that women take a more proactive role in the workplace. As young boys and men were drafted, or volunteered, for service in World War I, American industry was deprived of an adequate workforce. In response, women eagerly joined the war effort by leaving the home and entering the traditionally male-centered domain of wage labor. Once the war ended, women were expected by and large to return to the home, if possible, so the returning men could resume their “rightful” place as the wage earners and primary providers for the family. This continued into the World War II years. However,

this second war would forever change the dynamics of gender politics in the workplace. World War II brought hundreds of thousands of women into the workplace. The Allied powers’ fight against the Axis nations inspired not only the civil rights movement but the fight for women’s rights as well. Women were not all eager to return to domestic bliss following the war’s conclusion—indeed, the massive transformation of the American economy prompted women to reconsider their options. The daughters of these women—baby boomers—moved aggressively to seek full citizenship rights, and this second wave of feminism led countless women to enter the workforce. In addition, those women would not only aspire to become wage earners but also sought to climb the corporate ladder. By the 1960s, women entered American colleges and graduate and professionals schools in greater numbers than ever before. The civil rights movement, and the modern feminist movement’s imitation of it, spurred women not only to agitate for relief from sexism and second-class citizenship but also to seek an education and entrance into the corporate world. By adopting many of the tactics from the civil rights movement, by the end of the 1970s women were no longer relegated to positions such as clerical workers or domestic laborers or low-level wage earners. They were, rapidly, becoming doctors, lawyers, politicians, bankers, and businesswomen. Critical changes in both state and federal law encouraged these developments. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade sex discrimination, and 8 years later, in 1972, Title IX prohibited discrimination not only in the funding of women’s athletics but also in educational funding as a whole. Despite the backlash against women, and minorities in general, originating out of the rise of conservatism during the Reagan era, economic forces, personal need, and changing social norms provided for more opportunities for women to become a vital ingredient in the business world. Despite women’s growing importance, gender politics stymied efforts for equality in the workplace. Sexual harassment, disparities in pay—sometimes gross disparities—and resistance to full equality were among a few injustices women experienced in the workplace during the 1990s. In addition, legitimate social science research has shown that during the 1990s and the 2000s, although some aspects



of life have improved, women have to contend with more than workplace issues. Domestic issues, such as doing the majority of the household chores and the lion’s share of the parental responsibility, are often ascribed to the challenges facing women in the workforce. Staggering difficulties within both the workplace and the larger society have continued to create obstacles for women in the first decade of the 21st century. Nonetheless, there were notable differences and improved opportunities that provided hope for greater equality and success. The 2000s In 2000, women occupied the position of chief executive officer at three Fortune 500 companies, and nearly 100 Fortune 500 companies had no women with in their corporate ranks. In the years 2000 to 2010, the number of women heading major corporations reached a record high at 15 (in 2010). This level of progress was encouraging, but it helped obscure deeper problems associated with career advancement. For instance, some networking opportunities, which are critical to professional development and opportunity, often remained off-limits to women. Old habits and coarse behaviors, such as visiting strip clubs and trips to golf courses, often deprived women of opportunities to further professional ambitions by enforcing a male-oriented environment. Sexism is a factor that has continued to relegate women to the lower rungs of the corporate structure, and those who did succeed in reaching the highest ranks in the business world all too often did so while leaping over immense obstacles. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, as of 2008, women aged 16 years and older made up more than 72 million workers or persons searching for work. Further, although women made up nearly 48 percent of the workforce—a number projected to reach more than 50 percent by the end of the second decade of the 21st century—the most prominent occupations for women continue to be secretaries and administrative assistants; registered nurses; elementary and middle school teachers; cashiers; retail salespersons; nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides; first-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers; waiters and waitresses; receptionists and information clerks; and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, according to statistics from the Labor Department. At the same time, however, the Labor Department’s

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statistics demonstrate that women “accounted for 51 percent of all workers in the high-paying management, professional, and related occupations.” This was encouraging news, as if women were not assuming the highest positions in the corporate world, they were at least making serious headway in tearing down the glass ceilings that had historically held them back. Several women have been able to achieve stunning success in the world of business. Martha Stewart turned her popular ideas into a multimedia empire during the 2000s. Although she had been a household name as far back as the late 1980s, her professional interests greatly accelerated during the early 2000s. A former stockbroker, Stewart was able to parlay a small catering business that she started in 1972 into a huge conglomerate comprising television programs, publishing, a magazine, the Internet, merchandising, and public relations. Her company, Martha Stewart Living Omni media, went public in 1999 to great fanfare. Another woman who has enjoyed even greater success is the undisputed leader of daytime television, Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey has dominated her field for more than 25 years. Similar to Stewart, Winfrey has created an entertainment and media empire that includes her iconic television show, a magazine, multiple business investments, a presence on the Internet, a production company, and a plethora of other interests. She is arguably the most powerful and wealthiest woman in the history of the United States. So great is her influence that Winfrey was able to provide a major boost to presidential candidate Barack Obama in his then seemingly quixotic run for the White House. As an African American woman in business, where there are few contemporaries or equals, Winfrey has transcended both race and class in a way few others can. Other female chief executive officers have also built incredible careers through hard work, luck, and tenacity. One noteworthy example is Carly Fiorina, formerly the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard. During her reign she proved that women can be just as tough, smart, and successful as any man. Fiorina began her career in 1980 with AT&T, then moving to Lucent, becoming a rising star. As a result of her efforts, Hewlett-Packard hired her to become its chief executive officer and chairman in 1999. Her tenure was tumultuous because of declining share prices and internal disagreements with key figures over the

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direction of the company, but her six years at the helm of Hewlett-Packard demonstrated the importance of increasing the number of female chief executive officers at other companies that had been long considered male-centric. In 2009, America had its first African American female Fortune 500 chief executive officer when Ursula Burns was named chief executive officer of Xerox. In fact, she had been preceded by another woman, Anne Mulcahy, who had retired the same year. Although white and Asian women have had greater success in climbing the corporate ladder, black women and other women of color have had greater difficulty in reaching the highest rungs of the corporate world. Racism, sexism, and lack of opportunity have conspired to limit the potential of these women. Burns’s rise was a major breakthrough for women of color. After 30 years with Xerox, Burns is considered a success, and Xerox appears to be thriving heading into the next decade. Conclusion These profiles are of just a few of the most prominent women in business. Despite changing social norms, greater enforcement of the laws and acceptable rules of behavior, and more opportunities, women remain woefully behind their male counterparts in reaching the pinnacle of corporate power and influence. Too often many women are relegated to “women’s work,” excluded from networking and business opportunities, and subjected to a double standard in the workplace that criticizes them both for being unfeminine if they are tough and overly emotional if they are not stoic. It has been for many women a catch-22 situation. Although there is considerable room for growth, the first decade of the 21st century has delivered a glimmer of hope for the cause of gender parity in the corporate world. See Also: Glass Ceiling; Politics, Gender; Women in the Workplace. Further Readings Fortune. “Fortune 500 Women CEOs.” Fortune (April 7, 2010). http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010 /fortune/1004/gallery.fortune500_women_ceos .fortune/index.htmll (accessed April 2010). Gunelius, Susan. “New U.S. Women in Business Statistics Released by Catalyst.” October 27, 2009. http://www

.womenonbusiness.com/new-us-women-in-business -statistics-released-by-catalyst (accessed April 2010). U.S. Department of Labor. “Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2008.” Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Government Printing Office, 2009. Daryl A. Carter East Tennessee State University

Child Abuse, Perpetrators of Child abuse is a relational disorder. Physical abuse and neglect most often occur during childhood transitional periods, such as the postnatal period, early childhood and early adolescence, which are often marked by family instability. The dynamic influence of stress related to social and economic deprivation also affects the risk for child abuse. Sexual abuse is influenced by family factors and stress. However, unlike physical abuse and neglect, sexual abuse is premeditated. General Characteristics of Perpetrators Intergenerational transmission of child abuse is common but not inevitable. Though estimates vary, approximately 30 percent of parents who were abused and neglected in childhood will victimize their own children, with the likelihood of abuse increasing with the severity of the parents’ own maltreatment in childhood. There tends to be a type-to-type correspondence for transmission of child abuse to the next generation; that is, the physically abused are more likely to physically abuse, and parents who were neglected as children are more likely to neglect. Parents who abuse alcohol and other drugs are nearly three times as likely to abuse their children and more than four times as likely to neglect their children than other parents. Parents who abuse drugs and alcohol often grew up in homes where their parents abused alcohol and drugs. The effects of alcohol and drug use in contributing to child abuse are intensified by the parent’s underlying personality traits. People who become drug abusers tend to share a range of similar personality traits, some that contribute to their likelihood of addiction. Such traits include low frustration tolerance, impulsive behav-



ior, self-centeredness, emotional isolation, feelings of inadequacy and emotional deprivation, as well as depression. These traits can negatively affect parenting capacities. Substance-abusing caregivers tend to spend relatively little time engaged with and supervising their children, and they are prone to feeling dissatisfied as parents. When they do interact, drugabusing mothers are likely to engage with their children less sensitively, showing a lack of empathy or reflection. Substance-abusing parents are particularly difficult to engage in treatment, which results in a higher instance of child abuse. Less than a tenth of parents who abuse their children suffer from a severe psychiatric disorder (e.g., paranoid schizophrenia). However, perpetrators are more likely to suffer from personality disorders or depression, and to have a history of learning difficulties or mild mental disability that interferes with their caregiving abilities. Biological children of parents with heritable psychiatric disorders may have an elevated genetic vulnerability for developing mental illness and therefore may be particularly susceptible to the effects of abusive or neglectful parenting. When a psychiatric illness is present, better insight into one’s psychiatric condition is associated with more sensitive mothering behavior and lower risk for child abuse. Clear insight into a psychiatric disorder can lead to a better recognition of signs of relapse, better acceptance of treatment and overall improved outcome. In contrast, mothers with major mental illness who have unrealistic expectations of maternal caregiving relationships are at greater risk for child abuse. This is especially true when children are expected to provide a parent with support and comfort. Though not a common mental disorder, Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a condition where the relationship between parent psychopathology and child maltreatment is perhaps the most obvious. This is a form of child abuse in which a parent, usually the mother, fabricates the existence of illness in her child (usually under the age of 6) by either inducing the actual illness or exaggerating existing symptoms. There is a 30 to 60 percent overlap between child abuse and domestic violence in families. More physical abuse and domestic violence is reported in families where fathers abuse drugs or alcohol and where fathers have been arrested or convicted of offenses related

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to nondomestic violence than in families where this is not the case. Child neglect and domestic violence occurs more in single-parent households than in families where parents are unmarried in families where fathers are not biologically related to all children, and in families where mothers have a history of drug and alcohol abuse and/or mental health problems. Most research focuses on the male as the perpetrator of violence against women and children, which is a typical pattern. However, some research suggests that female victims of domestic violence are sometimes the perpetrators of child abuse. Women who are victims of domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their children physically than women who are not abused. It has been suggested that since mothers of domestic violence are fearful of their partners, they redirect their anger toward their children by overdisciplining them in an effort to control behavior and protect them from what they perceive as greater abuse from their partner. There is also evidence that children in families of domestic violence are more likely to be neglected, perhaps because mothers give all their attention to the abusive partner to appease and control the level of violence. It’s interesting to note that in families where severe domestic violence occurs, more mothers show a lack of responsibility for the supervision of children, and fathers physically abuse their children less often since the father’s focus for violence was directed toward the mother. Specific Characteristics of Physically Abusive Parents Parents are the primary perpetrators of most physical child abuse. Physical abusers of very young children are more likely to be mothers, while abusers of older children are predominately, though not exclusively, thought to be fathers. Single parents are more likely to physically abuse, although it is possible that this statistic is not a function of raising children alone but rather a function of the high rates of poverty and stress in such families. Typically, physically abusive parents have difficulty controlling their anger, demonstrate hostility and rigidity, have a lack of tolerance with frustration, exhibit low self-esteem, rarely show empathy, and engage in substance abuse. They also have unrealistic expectations for and negative perceptions of their

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children. They view parenting as stressful and dissatisfying and exhibit a number of deficits in child management skills. Physical abusers are more likely to live in dangerous interpersonal, family, and community environments. For example, the probability that a mother will physically abuse her children is associated with three predictors of decreasing importance: being assaulted by her own mother as a child, living with an abusive partner, and having previously lived with an abusive partner. Perpetrators of physical abuse on children tend to be physiologically hyper-responsive to childrelated stimuli. For example, comparisons reveal that although both abusive and nonabusive mothers respond to a crying infant with increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure and skin conductance, abusive mothers display greater increases in heart rate. In addition, only abusive mothers showed the same increased physiological reaction in response to a smiling infant, suggesting that abusive parents may view their children as stressful and aversive, regardless of how the children behave. It may be that the heightened physiological reaction influences the way the parent cognitively processes or perceives the child’s behavior or the way a parent subsequently reacts to a child. Specific Characteristics of Neglectful Parents Parents are the primary perpetrators of child neglect, with mothers significantly more likely than fathers. However, it is not uncommon in two-parent families for only mothers to be labeled neglectful. These results may reflect the general social attitude that mothers, more so than fathers, are seen as responsible for meeting the needs of their children. Single-parent homes and homes where mothers have a greater number of children during their teen years are considerably higher for neglect. Severe developmental delays of parents also have been thought to contribute to child neglect. Parents who are physically neglectful tend to be socially isolated, suffer from pervasive emotional numbness, feelings of hopelessness, and a sense of futility and apathy. This invariably leads to a caregiving environment that is characterized by both material and emotional poverty. Indeed, neglectful mothers report greater depressive symptoms, impulsive behav-

ior, low self-esteem, little empathy, and parental stress at higher levels than do non-neglectful mothers. Neglectful parents are typically unresponsive to the child’s needs or distress and they lack emotional involvement with their child. These parents generally interact less with their children; when they do interact, their interactions are less positive. They engage in less verbal instruction, show less nonverbal affection and empathy, and exhibit little warmth with their children. There also is evidence that neglectful parents behave negatively with their children, issuing commands and engaging in verbal aggression. Specific Characteristics of Sexual Abusers The age of perpetrators of sexual abuse varies widely, although most develop deviant interests prior to 18 years of age. The majority of perpetrators are male, and they represent all ethnic, racial and socioeconomic groups. Most child sex offenders know their victims, whether inside or outside of the family. Perpetrators may have experienced abuse in their lives, observed or been aware of abuse of other family members. In addition, perpetrators of sexual abuse often lack the social skills and interpersonal intimacy required for the development of empathy, possibly contributing to sexually abusive behavior. As a group, these offenders are more likely to have significant social and relationship problems, including social isolation; difficulty forming close, trusting relationships; low self-esteem; and emotional immaturity. Sexual predators typically suffer from various personality disorders related to immaturity and interpersonal adjustment. Sexual offenders of children usually meet the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for pedophilia, defined as sexual activity or sexually arousing fantasies involving a prepubescent child (generally 13 years of age or younger) by someone who is at least 16 years old and a minimum of five years older than the child. Some pedophiles are sexually attracted only to children (exclusive type); and others are also attracted to adults (nonexclusive type). Persons who commit pedophilia may limit their activities to incest involving their own children, stepchildren or other relatives, or they may victimize children outside their families. Sexual offenders seldom resort to violence nor do they force a child’s compliance; rather, they are attentive to the child’s needs and strive to gain the child’s



affection and loyalty, reducing the chances that the victim will report the sexual advances. Sexual activity typically only takes place after a period of “grooming,” with a gradual indoctrination. This behavior highlights that sexual offenders of children are sophisticated and calculating. Although a minority of women have been identified as perpetrators, this phenomenon may be more common than data suggests due to lack of reporting. Only recently has research been directed toward women who sexually abuse children; in the past, it was not believed that women would behave in this way toward children. This view is reflected in the low rates of sexual abuse by women in official statistics. Female abusers commit all types of sexual offenses, including noncontact and exploitive acts, against children of all ages. There may be parallels between the age of her victims and the age at which the offender was abused. Females appear most likely to abuse a child known to them, often from their immediate family. There is some evidence that suggests mothers commit sexual abuse toward girls less often than toward boys. Other types of child abuse, particularly physical abuse or neglect, coexist when females sexually abuse, especially if the abuser is in a major caregiving role. When mothers engage in sexual abuse with their children, they may be able to disguise abusive acts as childcare, as it is likely to be subtle and difficult to distinguish from routine caregiving practices. For example, mothers are more likely to engage in acts that are less likely to be reported, such as fondling, sleeping with the child, caressing him or her in a sexual way and, in the case of incest between mothers and sons, exposing her own body and keeping the child tied to her emotionally with implied promises of sexual payoff. Women may be more likely to sexually offend with a male. Some of these women are coerced by men into sexually abusing children and may be victims themselves. However, the extent of male coercion of female offenders is unclear, as women also abuse in the absence of a male offender. Some women may seek out men with whom they can sexually abuse children. There is a very small number of women who sexually abuse children while in a psychotic or disassociated state, typically those diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

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See Also: Domestic Violence; Pedophilia Online; Sex Offenders, Female; Sex Offenders, Male. Further Readings Banks, Heather and Steve Boehm. “Substance Abuse and Child Abuse.” Child Welfare League of America: Children’s Voice Article (September 2001). Corby, Brian. Child Abuse: Towards a Knowledge Base, 3rd ed. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 2006. Ford, Hanna. Women Who Sexually Abuse Children. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2006. Hartley, Carolyn Copps. “The Co-Occurrence of Child Maltreatment and Domestic Violence: Examining Both Neglect and Child Physical Abuse.” Child Maltreatment, v.7/4 (2002). Hartley, Carolyn Copps. “Severe Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment: Considering Child Physical Abuse, Neglect and Failure to Protect.” Child and Youth Services Review, v.26 (2004). Howe, David. Child Abuse and Neglect: Attachment, Development, and Intervention. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Jimseok, Tim. “Type Specific Intergenerational Transmission of Neglectful and Physically Abusive Parenting Behaviours Among Young Parents.” Child and Youth Services Review, v.31/7 (2009). Saradjian, Jacqueli and Helga Hanks. Women Who Sexually Abuse Children: From Research to Clinical Practice, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 1996. Denise Vallance York University

Child Abuse, Victims of The term battered child syndrome was first used in the 1960s to describe physical child abuse. At that time, it was believed that this phenomenon applied to a minor portion of the population. In 2006, substantiated child abuse victims ranged from 9.7 to 12.1 in North America. Child neglect accounts for almost two-thirds (65 percent) of all documented cases of child abuse in the United States followed by physical abuse (16 percent) and sexual abuse (9 percent). Psychological abuse is not looked at individually as it is central to all child abuse.

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General Characteristics of Victims of Child Abuse Children living below the poverty line are at the greatest risk for child abuse. Physical is 12 times more common in poor families, while neglect is up to 18 times more common in poor families. In contrast, the incidence of sexual abuse occurs among all strata of society. Incidents of abuse related to racial differences are believed to be a function of the disproportionate impact of poverty, stress and disadvantaged minority children and their families. Indeed, children of African American, American Indian, and Alaskan Native descent, as well as children of multiple races have the highest rates of victimization compared to children from Caucasian and Hispanic families. Family structure also plays a role in child abuse. Children from single-parent families are twice as likely to be abused compared to children who live with two parents. Children living with only a father are more at risk for physical abuse than those living with only a mother. Children of reconstituted families also are at a higher risk for abuse. Vulnerable children also may be at greater risk for abuse. An association has been found between maltreatment and birth complications, such as low birth rate and premature birth. As well, children who are chronically ill, behaviorally and/or emotionally disordered, or who have physical or developmental disabilities (or multiple disabilities) also are at greater risk. Children with disabilities pose higher emotional, physical, economic, and social demands on their families, which may increase the risk of abuse by caregivers with limited, social or community support. Children with disabilities are considered easy targets because their impaired communication skills may prevent them from disclosing abuse. Studies to date have been unable to assess the extent or rate of abuse among children with disabilities or to determine whether disabilities were present before the abuse or were the direct result of maltreatment. While children of all ages can be victims of abuse, younger children are the most common victims of physical abuse and neglect. Nearly half of all physically abused children are under the age of 8. Half of reported child neglect victims are under 5 years of age, the majority being under just 1 year of age. Children in these age ranges appear to be the most vulnerable and suffer the most significant consequences, such as

“failure to thrive,” which is a condition characterized by a cessation in growth. Serious injuries and fatalities from neglect also are more common for younger children than for older children. In North America, roughly, a one-third of neglected children eventually die from neglect. Sexual abuse is more common among older age groups (over the age of 12). Overall, the rate of victimization declines with increasing age except for sexual abuse. In most forms of child abuse, boys and girls are almost equally affected. With sexual abuse, though, girls account for the majority of reported victims. Experts believe, however, that boys may be abused more often than data indicates because boys appear to be less likely to report sexual abuse. Boys and girls are both more likely to be abused by someone they know and trust than by a stranger. Short-Term Outcomes for Victims of Child Abuse Children who experience abuse are more likely than their nonabused peers to exhibit myriad of physical, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional problems during childhood, which puts them at risk for continued challenges in adolescence and adulthood. The increased severity and duration of abuse as well as the exposure to multiple forms of abuse increases the likelihood of a more negative outcome for children from the time of abuse to adulthood. The persistence of childhood difficulties into adulthood may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of abusive behavior. In the last 20 years, evidence in the area of neuroscience has revealed how the emotional trauma associated with child abuse can negatively impact brain growth and development, which can result in enduring delays in all aspects of child development. Children who experience the stress of physical or sexual abuse focus their brains’ resources on survival and on responding to threats in their environment. Children who endure the chronic stress of neglect (e.g., remaining hungry, cold, scared, or in pain) will divert their brains’ resources to survival mode. Chronic activation of certain parts of the brain involved in the fear response, such as the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis, means that other regions of the brain, such as those involved in complex thought, cannot be activated and become unavailable to



the child for learning, which impedes the development of cognitive and social skills. Chronic activation of the HPA axis also can affect a child’s general functioning and health since it regulates metabolism, immunity, and memory. Early experiences of trauma can interfere with the development of the subcortical and limbic systems, which can result in extreme anxiety, depression, and difficulty forming relationships with other people. There are a number of adaptive mental and physical responses to trauma, most notably physiological hyperarousal and dissociation. When a child is exposed to chronic traumatic stress, his or her brain creates physiological, emotional, and behavioral patterns of the fear response where the response becomes almost automatic. This reaction takes the form of hyperarousal or dissociation. When the brain has adapted to a world that is unpredictable and dangerous, in response, the child may become hyperaroused and focused on threatening nonverbal cues or the child may tune out and withdraw into a dissociative shell. While this adaptation may be necessary for survival in a hostile world, it can become a behavioral pattern that is difficult to change even if the environment improves. Hyperarousal response is associated with symptoms of hyperactivity, anxiety, impulsive acts, and sleep problems, while dissociative response is associated with inattention, anxiety and depression. Hyperarousal is most common in older children and in males, and forms of dissociation are more common among younger children and females. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common short-term symptom of trauma related to child abuse. With this condition, the victim experiences intense emotion and helplessness due to confrontation with events that involved the threat of death to self or others. Recently, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) was recognized by the psychiatric community as a condition that results from chronic exposure to extremes of social and/or personal trauma, such as cases of long-term child abuse. Specifically, C-PTSD is thought to arise from a prolonged state of victimization where the person is held in a state of captivity, either physically or emotionally, with no means for escape. While PTSD may be temporary, symptoms of C-PTSD may continue for years. Most children with C-PTSD may meet the criteria for an array of childhood psychiatric disorders.

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Each disorder reflects a limited aspect of the traumatized child’s complex self-regulation and interpersonal impairments. Long-Term Outcomes for Victims of Child Abuse Problems related to C-PTSD (behavioral, physiological, and neuroendocrinological) may extend from childhood through adolescence into adulthood. Complex trauma exposure results in a loss of the core capacities of self-regulation and interpersonal relatedness leading to lifelong problems, specifically, those that place them at risk for further trauma exposure and other physical and psychological issues. These issues can include relationship problems, revictimization, sexual adjustment, health issues, criminal activity, addictive behaviors, chronic mental illness, and suicide. Both childhood physical abuse and neglect negatively affect the ability of females and males to establish and maintain healthy intimate relationships in adulthood, and both genders report higher rates of cohabitation versus marriage, abandonment, and divorce rates compared to those who have not suffered abuse. Abused and neglected females are also less likely than other females to have positive perceptions of current romantic partners and to be sexually faithful. In general terms, adolescents and adults with a history of physical abuse and exposure to domestic violence between parents are at increased risk of developing interpersonal problems related to their own acts of aggression and violence. Childhood victimization leads to increased vulnerability for subsequent revictimization in adolescence and adulthood. Abused and neglected individuals report a higher number of traumas and victimization experiences than nonabused individuals and are at increased risk for lifetime revictimization. Childhood victimization specifically increases risk of physical and sexual assault/abuse, kidnapping/stalking, and having a family friend murdered or commit suicide. Adult survivors of sexual abuse may be unable to recognize potentially dangerous situations and persons or to know how to respond to unwanted sexual or physical attention. Consequently, both boys and girls who are sexually abused are more likely to fall victim to further trauma and violence, such as rape and domestic violence, during adulthood.

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Women with histories of childhood sexual abuse are more likely to experience difficulties related to sexual adjustment, such as low sexual arousal, intrusive flashbacks, confusion about their sexuality, disturbing sensations and feelings of guilt, anxiety and low self-esteem, as well as dissociation. Distorted views about the body and sexuality, which are common among women who have been sexually abused, can put them at risk for rape, eating disorders, poor physical healthcare, and physically self-destructive behaviors. While sexualized behaviors are more common in younger abused children (under 12 years of age), they can emerge during adolescence or young adulthood in the form of promiscuity, prostitution, sexual aggression, and victimization of others. Child abuse victims are more likely to suffer from physical illnesses in adulthood, such as irritable bowl syndrome, arthritis, immune deficiency disorders, heart disease, and cancer. This was seen when other risk factors, such as drinking, smoking, inactivity, and poor social economic status, as well as childhood stressors such as divorce and early poverty, were ruled out as potential causes. It has been suggested that abused children are prone to abnormal levels of cortisone, a fight-or-flight hormone that helps the body deal with stressful situations, which can impact a person’s overall health. History of child abuse also is related to criminal activity in adolescence and adulthood. People who have experienced any type of child abuse (i.e., physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect) are more likely to be arrested as juveniles compared to their nonabused peers. The same pattern continues into adulthood. Individuals with histories of physical abuse and neglect are more likely to commit a violent crime, significantly more so for women—this relationship was barely significant for men. When examining the risk for sex crimes in particular, after all rates of abuse and neglect were combined, the odds of committing a sex crime were two times greater for abused victims than for nonvictims. However, when looking at each type of abusive background, only those who suffered physical abuse and neglect exhibited an increase in sex crime behavior, while those with sexual abuse backgrounds did not. This finding was consistent across both genders. As many as two-thirds of patients in treatment for drug abuse report that they were repeatedly physi-

cally or sexually abused during childhood. When women are victims of both types of abuse, they are twice as likely to abuse drugs as individuals who experienced only one type of abuse. Female drug users, in particular, show much higher rates of PTSD related to childhood abuse than do males who abuse drugs. Women who were raped, especially before the age of 17, are dramatically more likely to abuse drugs than are women who are not victims. These women are significantly more likely to have used “hard core” drugs such as cocaine and heroin. There is a significant association of reported child abuse and the later diagnosis of a range of psychiatric disorders (anxiety disorder, depression); and personality disorders (borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder); as well as disorders including psychosis (schizophrenia). Finally, both individuals reporting childhood physical abuse and/or childhood sexual abuse showed an increased number of lifetime suicide attempts while taking into account such factors as age, gender, psychiatric history, and family psychiatric disorder. See Also: Child Abuse, Perpetrators of; Domestic Violence; Health, Mental and Physical; Poverty; Suicide Rates. Further Readings Colman, Rebecca and Cathy Widom. “Childhood Abuse and Neglect and Adult Intimate Relationships: A Perspective Study.” Child Abuse and Neglect, v.28/11(2004). Corby, Brian. Child Abuse: Towards a Knowledge Base, 3rd ed. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 2006. Draper, B., et al. “Long-Term Effects of Childhood Abuse on the Quality of Life and Health of Older People: Results From the Depression and Early Prevention of Suicide in General Practice Project.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, v.56/2 (2008). Herman, Judith Lewis. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Howe, David. Child Abuse and Neglect: Attachment, Development, and Intervention. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Miller-Perrin, Cindy and Robin Perrin, eds. Child Maltreatment: An Introduction, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007.

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Widon, Cathy. “Victimization and Lifetime ReVictimization.” Child Abuse and Neglect, v.32/8 (2008). Denise Vallance York University

Child Labor Child labor is notoriously difficult to define. Largely, the term child labor differs from the term child work. The first term encompasses harmful work, and the second, work done without damaging consequences upon children. The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) defines work in terms of “economic activity.” It covers all market production (paid work) and certain types of nonmarket production (unpaid work), including production of goods for ones own use. Inside this larger concept of “economically active children,” the ������������ United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) defined distinctions among “child work” (light work), “child labor,” and “worst forms of child labor.” The first category, “child work” or “light work,” is considered to be “children’s participation in economic activity that does not negatively affect their health and development or interfere with education, and which can be positive.” This category acknowledges that not all work is detrimental to children, and that, to a certain extent, work can be regarded as “a right” not to be denied to children. The International Labour Organization (ILO) permits light work from the age of 13. The second category used by UNICEF is “child labor,” which refers to “all children below 12 years of age working in any economic activities, those aged 12 to 14 years engaged in harmful work, and all children engaged in the worst forms of child labor.” The third category, “worst forms of child labor,” refers to children being enslaved, forcibly recruited, prostituted, trafficked, forced into illegal activities, and exposed to hazardous work. The major international documents regulating child labor are the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the ILO Convention No. 138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and Work (1973), and the ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor (1999).

A young girl works a loom in Morocco. Girls make up 46 percent of child laborers worldwide.

The highest prevalence of child labor is in subSaharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America. Child labor has largely been eradicated in the developed world, although isolated evidence shows that there is no country free of child labor. In the most industrialized countries, migrant children are at increased risk of early entry into work that is concealed from public scrutiny. Limitations of the Official Definitions Different measures have been created to measure the degree of harm produced by various types of work. The ILO has been at the forefront in proposing standards to account for the duration of work, the physical and social circumstances of a working environment, age, presence of parental consent, and so forth. Arguably, many of these criteria are not completely transferable to the circumstances children work in. This situation has lead G. K. Lieten, a leading figure in the social research of child labor, to argue that it is not the form of the labor relation, nor the type of

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activity that defines child labor, but rather “the effect the activity has on the child.” The above distinctions are also difficult to apply universally because societies define detrimental consequences in different ways, and one cannot draw a clear line between “beneficial” and “harmful” consequences without attracting cultural and methodological criticism. According to Ben White, there is a continuum between light work and work that is harmful. Standardized delimitations have been charged for endorsing a Western cultural model of childhood that disregard the variety of living circumstances across the globe. The IPEC classification typically excludes activities that are not based on market production as noneconomic. This situation contributes to poor documentation of the domestic work undertaken by girls. Gender Disaggregated Statistical Estimates In 2004, there were 317 million economically active children aged 5 to 17, of whom 218 million were child laborers. Of the latter, 126 million were engaged in hazardous work. The number of child laborers globally fell by 11 percent since 2002. The steepest decline was within the 5 to 14 age group and in the worst forms of child labor. Geographically, Latin America and the Caribbean are the regions with the highest decreases. Sub-Saharan Africa is at the other extreme, according to ILO statistics. The ILO also estimates that girls make up 46 percent of all child laborers in the world, with more than 100 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 being child laborers. The majority are between 5 and 11 years old, and outnumber male counterparts in this specific age group. The proportion changes in older age groups, when girls become more involved in less visible domestic work. Worldwide, girls make up 42 percent of all children in hazardous work. About 53 million girls are in the worst forms of child labor; an equal number of boys and girls (20 millions) between 5 to 11 years old are exposed to work that threatens their health. Limitations of Data Collection There are several gender distortions in the very way the data is collected and in the way the concept of work is defined. The definition of employment used by the ILO does not include household chores, and thus, statistical

data on girls’ work are severely underestimated. When working inside their households, girls’ work is difficult to measure, even with more refined instruments. It does not fit particular time lines, it may be combined with leisure and other activities and not perceived as work, or it may be undertaken in the company of other family members who may receive the credit for it. The household chores themselves may be viewed as anything but work (e.g., as gender socialization or play). When working in households other than their own, female domestic workers may remain unaccounted for because of their ambivalent status as neither family members nor employees. From a feminist perspective, girls’ domestic work replicates the devaluation of female work. Reliable data on girls doing the worst forms of child labor are difficult to gather. The ILO admits that the typical method of data collection using household surveys is unable to capture the apparently large proportion of girls exploited in commercial sex, forced labor, trafficking, armed conflict, and illicit activities. Rapid assessment methods are currently used to study hard to reach populations. What Types of Work Do Girls Do? Despite the international attention toward children’s work in factories and workshops, most children, boys and girls, work in agriculture: cultivating their family’s land, or for other owners, including corporate farms. From the ages of 5 to 14, there are 10 percent fewer girls than boys working in agriculture. Yet, girls are more likely to work in the informal sector as domestic workers and in trade. Domestic work for an employer is considered a worst form of child labor, as it exposes girls to major risks. These may include psychological and sexual abuse, food and sleep deprivation, work with hazardous chemicals and tools, economic exploitation, deprivation of the right to education, family life, and leisure. The psychological consequences of domestic work remain underestimated and difficult to evaluate longitudinally. They may include poor self-image and burnout that may later hinder girls’ capacity to raise their own families. Isolation from family, debt and bondage, class differences, and lack of alternatives increase girls’ risks of exploitation and abuse. In many circumstances, giving up domestic work means entry into prostitution. Because of their physical and social isolation and of the socially accept-



ability of domestic work, girls are difficult to reach during interventions. Rrecent interest in child soldiers ignored the fact that many girls were also taking part in armed conflicts: not only as “wives” or sexual slaves of adult combatants, but also as fighters, intelligence officers, spies, porters, medics, and slave laborers. According to 2005 UNICEF research, girls were a part of various armed opposition forces in 55 countries; government, and were actively involved in armed conflict in 38 of those countries between 1990 and 2003. They may become targets for abduction during armed conflict, be given into armed service by their parents as “tax payment” (Colombia or Cambodia) or “choose” to become part of an armed group in order to protect their family or because of the severe risks they are exposed to outside the military services. Psychological traumas, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and stigmatization because of mothering “war babies” following rape are several underestimated consequences. Risk Factors of Early Entry Into Work There are several economic and sociological theories explaining children’s early entry into work. This may occur because of the low income of otherwise altruist parents, the dysfunctional credit markets, and the lower payoffs of going to school for girls (especially those belonging to a marginalized race, ethnicity, or caste). Birth order has also been considered a risk factor. Recent research shows that the importance of poverty has been overestimated, when in fact, factors like capability deprivation and low quality of schooling are also important. Poverty may be responsible for sustaining discriminatory cultural practices such as bonded child labor and early marriage. Child labor is maintained and legitimized by the subsistence nature of agriculture and the (deliberate) use of undeveloped technologies, or the“nimble fingers” theory. Girls have poor bargaining power, and parents perceive the economic returns of their education as being low. School may be part of the risk side of the child labor problem when it is situated at a distance, overcrowded and insecure for girls, not free, and when it excludes, discriminates, or abuses some groups. Nevertheless, many children combine schooling with work, an aspect often ignored in pol-

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icy research. Lower penalties and poor chances of being detected if involved in criminal activities are also responsible for the continuation of child labor. Consequences of Child Labor Child labor may interfere with the rights to education and leisure, and may affect physical and social development. In the long run, working children are more likely to be poor, socially excluded, to undertake physical and poorly paid jobs, and to have child laborers themselves. The ���������������������� World Health Organization (WHO) has documented the immediate and long-term health consequences of child labor, such as injuries, skin infections, burns, poisoning, chronic lung disease, cancers, or skeletal deformities. The psychological consequences of girls’ work are rarely studied. Besides, even existing evidence is rarely based on longitudinal surveys from developing countries, but is deduced either from surveys carried out within adult population or with children from developed countries. Interventions Addressing Child Labor In developed societies, fair-trade policies and campaigns targeting public’s moral complicity in purchasing products made with child labor are increasingly visible. In developing countries, poverty reduction strategies via public services and pro-poor policies are proposed. Additionally, there are several school attendance incentive schemes: “food for school programmes” in Kenya, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, Bolsa Escola in Brazil, Progressa or Oportunidades in Mexico, and PETI in Brazil and Portugal. Cash transfer programs may consider the gender discrepancies in education and may provide higher monthly allowances for girls’ attendance. Flexible schooling programs and remedial schooling schemes (e.g., residential bridge camps in India) are local interventions based on nonformal education principles. Yet, schooling and fair-trade policies are questionably a panacea, especially when structural economic conditions are not met. Recent Debates on Child Labor “Child labor” has been blamed for being adultocratic and an expression of “Western ethnocentricity,” imposing a bourgeois vision of childhood on other cultures. It is under these circumstances that ideas on children’s

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right to work have been advanced, according to Manfred Liebel. Beyond this, children-led social movements and trade unions have begun to articulate their need to be protected both during and away from work. See Also: Domestic Workers; Fair Trade; Microcredit; Sex Workers; Unpaid Labor. Further Readings Emerson, P. and A. P. Souza. “Birth Order, Child Labor, and School Attendance in Brazil.” World Development, v.36/9 (2008). Hindman, H. D., ed. The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2009. International Labour Organization (ILO). “Assessing The Gender Gap: Evidence From SIMPOC Surveys.” Geneva: ILO, 2009. International Labour Organization (ILO). “The End of Child Labor: Within Reach. Global Report Under the Follow-Up to the International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.” Geneva: ILO, 2006. Liebel, M. A Will of Their Own. Cross Cultural Perspectives on Working Children. London: Zed Books, 2004. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “The State of the World’s Children 2005. Childhood Under Threat.” Geneva: UNICEF, 2005. Maria-Carmen Pantea Babeş Bolyai University

Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital Wherever both home birth and hospital birth are possible, the decision of which to choose is limited by various physical, psychological, social, and economic factors. Around the world, most women give birth at home or in other nonhospital settings, preserving generational knowledge and family responsibility. Better nutrition, hygiene, and disease control over the last century have improved overall birth outcomes for mother and baby. In the developed world, home birth is increasingly common but not the norm. In deciding to elect a home birth, the risk of possible complica-

tions is typically offset by trust in the woman’s ability to give birth and her intuition, confidence in the attending midwife or homebirth practitioner, physical and intellectual preparation, and confidence in a supportive partner. Some of the reasons women may seek to give birth outside of a hospital include the ability to birth naturally (often with faster labors and recoveries), desire for freedom of movement, comfort of the home, control of their bodies and environment, family support, partner/spouse support and presence, relationship with a homebirth practitioner who has given birth herself and understands birth from a woman’s perspective, continuity of care, and being with and caring for other children as required. For healthy women at low risk for complications, home birth with a skilled birth attendant is safe. Rates of resuscitation, infection, and respiratory distress in infants are higher for hospital births. Interventions, including induction of labor, anesthesia, forceps deliveries, and caesarean (C-) section are less frequent in women who chose a home birth and problems such as vaginal tearing or hemorrhaging are less likely. Studies comparing planned home birth (regardless of where a birth actually occurs) with planned hospital birth show that planned home births require fewer interventions such as episiotomies and C-sections, and there are comparable perinatal mortality rates with less serious morbidity for both women and infants. Homebirth care is costeffective. Worldwide, the average uncomplicated vaginal birth costs less in a home than in a hospital. Still, challenges remain, particularly for low-income women and families because many insurance companies and government-supported healthcare programs do not cover or provide only limited coverage for homebirth. Homebirth practitioners include naturopaths, family practitioners, nurses, physician’s assistants, chiropractors, and midwives. Practitioners generally acknowledge that childbirth may have complications requiring hospital transport. However, an emphasis is placed on the holistic nature of birth as a physical, psychological, spiritual, and social experience. In addition to providing continuity of care, homebirth practitioners are dedicated to full labor participation and do not have the burden of competing responsibilities as do hospital obstetrics staff who must also attend to postoperative patient care, waiting surgeries, and other hospital duties.



The transition from home birth to hospital birth took place in the early 20th century for most of the developed world’s middle class (low-income communities take longer to make this transition because of poverty, racism, and lack of access to hospitals). Reasons expectant mothers may wish to have a hospital birth include the presence of medical conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes, a previous C-section, pregnancy complications such as multiples, a baby in breech position at 37 weeks, premature labor, or preeclampsia. Medicalization Although a natural process with over 90 percent of people worldwide born at home, childbirth today is increasingly medicalized. Over the past 25 years, maternal mortality rates have continued to rise with increasing medicalization. Currently, 99 percent of births in the United States and Australia, and 97 percent in the United Kingdom occur in hospitals, and over 80 percent of women accept significant medical intervention in their birthing experience even though many routine interventions are unnecessary. Both the medical profession and society at large in the developed world today view a hospital birth as the norm. Interventions can include intravenous fluids, electronic fetal heart monitors, restricted movement, restricted food and water, forceps, fetal scalp electrodes, painkillers, and anesthetic drugs. The United States has the highest obstetrical intervention rates in the world and yet ranks 33rd on the United Nations World Population Prospects report ranking of countries’ infant mortality rate (a measure often used to gauge a country’s health). Proponents of nonmedicalized births note that medicalization also has financial benefits for hospitals and doctors. Additionally, they note that the widespread view of birth being a medical event, one controlled by medical professionals and not the birthing woman, can often lead to unpleasant and disempowering childbirth experiences. Women often feel less in control of their childbirth, less involved, and even alienated from the total birth experience because of medicalization. Dr. Marsden Wagner, former European Director of the World Health Organization, has warned that hospital births endanger the health and lives of mothers and babies primarily because of impersonal procedures and medicalization.

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Caesarean Sections The C-section is a surgical method of birth whereby cuts are made in a woman’s abdomen and uterus (as opposed to a vaginal birth). It is the most common major surgical procedure currently performed in the United States at 30 percent of all births—over 1 million each year or one in every four births. Approximately half of these are elective; that is, women request a C-section without medical issues necessitating such a procedure. A C-section may be a lifesaving procedure when the baby or mother is at risk; however, up to half are unnecessary, and morbidity rates for both mother and child are higher in elective C-section than with vaginal birth. Additional research is required to determine the nature of a woman’s decision to have an elective caesarean, including whether or not she was coerced by medical professionals because of malpractice fears, profitability reasons, or simply because of outdated medical information. A woman undergoing an elective caesarean is between two and eight times more likely to die from the procedure. She is also more likely to experience adverse psychological aftereffects including decreased self-esteem, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Other potential problems include difficulty with subsequent pregnancies, a greater risk of stillbirth, and neonatal morbidity. Many factors likely contribute to C-section births, including medical, legal, financial, and cultural concerns. Psychosocial factors that affect expectant women’s birth decisions have not been thoroughly examined; however, a fear of childbirth and emotional stressors may play a role in elective caesareans. Many women also consider religious or spiritual beliefs in their decision making. Constraints of work, convenience, and physician preference are other reasons given for C-section births. Some women may even opt for an elective caesarean because a particular birthday is deemed auspicious for their child. Institutionalized control and pathologizing of women’s reproductive functions may also contribute to the high C-section rate. Experts agree that the rise of C-section births in every developed country in the world is a cause of global concern. Determining who is responsible for the increase in the C-section rate over the last 30 years is currently the focus of a polarizing debate within the healthcare industry.

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Childbirth is a central theme in the lives of women and the use of medication or lack thereof in the birthing process is a political, economic, medical, and personal issue for women. There are various kinds of medications used during the birthing process. Research has revealed that the use of medication in childbirth has both positive and negative effects on both the birthing woman and the unborn child. Women have adopted multiple behaviors and practices to avoid or lessen the use of medication during the childbirth process. Philosophies about the use of medication in the birthing process vary among individuals.

only one part of the body. Medications administered through epidurals fall into a group of drugs known as local anesthetics. Commonly used anesthetics are chloroprocaine, bupivacaine, and lidocaine. Typically, a narcotic or opioid such as fentanyl and sufentanil is also used to lessen the amount of local anesthetic that is needed. An epidural is administered through a flexible narrow tube that is inserted in the epidural space of the spine. Essentially continuous pain relief is delivered to the lower part of the body while the individual giving birth remains fully conscious and mentally aware. Epidural anesthesia is the most popular form of pain relief used during childbirth in the United States. Over 50 percent of women who have hospital births use an epidural. The use of the epidural may provide women with a method of dealing with fatigue and exhaustion so that they can be more active participants during the stage of delivery where pushing is required. One side effect of the epidural is that depending on the amount of medication given, the legs may become numb and the ability to stand may be temporarily lost. Another main effect is that an epidural may slow labor, which increases the likelihood that another drug named Pitocin would be used. Pitocin serves to speed the labor. The use of the epidural also tends to lengthen the amount of time that a birthing mother must spend during the pushing stage of labor. This is due to the weakening of the bearingdown reflex caused by the lack of sensation in the lower extremities. The use of the epidural has been linked to increases in the use of forceps deliveries and vacuum extractions, which increase the risk of lacerations for the baby, and is also linked to an increase in the rate of caesarean sections. Medication used in the epidural may also temporarily slow the birth mother’s blood pressure, thereby reducing the flow of blood to the baby, which, in turn, lowers the baby’s heart rate. The use of a catheter is often needed because of the decrease in the ability to feel the need to urinate that is associated with an epidural. Other noted side effects include itchiness of the skin and nausea.

The Epidural There are different classes of medications used during childbirth. One class is anesthetics, which act directly on the body’s nerves. The epidural, also known as epidural anesthesia, is a regional anesthesia, so it affects

Narcotic Analgesics Narcotic analgesics are another class of medication used during childbirth. Drugs such as Stadol, morphine, Demerol, and Nubain are examples of narcotic analgesics. Narcotic analgesics, unlike an epidural,

See Also: Childbirth, Medication in; Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural; Midwifery. Further Readings Arms, S. Immaculate Deception II: A Fresh Look at Childbirth. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1994. Gaskin, I. M. Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. New York: Bantam Books, 2003. Martin, E. The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. Boston: Beacon Press, 1987. McElvaine, R. S. Eve’s Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001. Northrup, C. Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. Raphael-Leff, J. Pregnancy: The Inside Story. London: Karnac Books, 1993. Stern, D. N. and N. Bruschweiler-Stern. The Birth of a Mother: How the Motherhood Experience Changes You Forever. New York: Basic Books, 1998. Wagner, M. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Chandra Alexandre Institute of Transpersonal Psychology

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Medication is not only used during childbirth to ease pain but is increasingly being used to induce labor. The rate of labor induction in the United States has more than doubled since 1990. Above, a physician performs a C-section on a patient.

act on the entire body as well as on the unborn baby. They do not act directly on the nerves as does an epidural. Another characteristic of narcotic analgesics is that along with easing pain they blunt cognitive perception. Medication is not only used during childbirth to ease pain but is increasingly being used to induce labor. The rate of labor induction in the United States has more than doubled since 1990. Social reasons account for some of this rise in the rate. Increasingly, doctors will schedule an induction to avoid delivering a baby on a holiday. Also, women are scheduling inductions to control when the baby is born, to ensure that the doctor they desire to assist with the birth is available, or for convenience, among other reasons. The drug most commonly used to induce labor is Pitocin. Inducing for social, rather than for medical, reasons has been described by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as a poor obstetrical practice.

Natural Childbirth Often, attempts are made by the expectant woman and those involved in her childbirth to avoid the use of medication during the process. Giving birth without the use of medication is commonly called natural childbirth or unintervened childbirth. Some practices that are employed by women in an attempt to avoid the use of medication and/or decrease the likelihood of undergoing a caesarean section include the Lamaze technique, the Bradley method, HypnoBirthing, which is also known as the Mongan method, and prenatal yoga. Less well-known practices also include the Alexander technique, Birthing for Within, and BirthWorks. Creating and sharing with the medical provider a well-written birth plan that spells out the birthing woman’s desires for how she would like the birth to unfold is another method women use to minimize or

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eliminate the use of medication. The use of a birthing doula, who typically provides prenatal, childbirth, and postpartum support, is another practice often used for the same purpose. Last, women may choose to use the midwifery model of care in part to lessen the likelihood that medication will be used during childbirth. The rates of use and types of medication used during childbirth vary greatly when examined globally. Despite this variation some patterns exist. The use of medication in the birthing process is typically highest within high-income countries and lowest within low-income countries. Within the Western world, the use of medication during childbirth has increased rapidly over the past 20 years. Epidural use is notably high in the United States, Turkey, and New Zealand. Variance within countries is dependent on several factors, including the status of women within the society, access to and beliefs about technology, cultural values, ideas held about both pain and choice, and the role litigation plays in the birthing process, among others. See Also: Abortion Methods; Caesarean Section, Rates of; Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital; Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural. Further Readings Brodsky, Phyllis L. The Control of Childbirth: Women Versus Medicine Through the Ages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Cassidy, Tina. Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born. New York: Publishers Group West, 2006. Gaskin, I. M. Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. New York: Bantam Books, 2003. Wagner, M. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Jessica Sippy Southern Illinois University

Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural Childbirth is simultaneously a natural, social, culturally bound, and political event. Evolutionary biologists know that the pelvis of the female human is different

than the pelvis of the female primate; the human’s pelvis is flatter, causing a more challenging birth for women than primates. Because of the pain that accompanies childbirth, most females around the world have always desired to have social support during labor and delivery. Across cultures, very few communities encourage women to be alone during labor and delivery. As a result, a human birth is a social enterprise, influenced by community values, norms, and ideologies. Childbirth is an event that influences and is influenced by the communities in which it occurs. Until approximately 300 years ago, childbirth practices were surprisingly similar across cultural communities. In most localities, the laboring woman guided the process. She determined what position she wanted to be in while laboring as well as the foods she wanted to eat and with whom to share the birth experience. Often, babies were delivered in homes with the assistance of family members or a midwife. It was a personal, intense, and intimate experience. For the most part, men were not present, making the birthing area a female-dominated space—one in which the women present were assumed to bear the knowledge necessary to successfully deliver the baby. And for thousands of years, they did just that. The Technocratic Model of Childbirth Birthing methods began to change globally when the industrial revolution changed the economic and cultural landscape in Europe. In France, males began to take on tasks previously relegated to midwives, inventing tools such as the birthing forceps that allowed them to intervene when they believed a baby was not moving adequately through the birth canal. By the 19th century, most births in Europe were managed by male physicians. Trained physicians as well as expectant women now placed high value on standardization of childbirth procedures. University-educated male physicians, certainly not uneducated women, were considered the authorities on childbirth. Considering that the traditional model of childbirth was dominant for thousands of years, the medical model rapidly displaced it in Europe and, eventually, in many parts of the world. Assumed to be uncivilized and unsafe, the traditional birthing model was replaced by the technocratic model, which grew out of the Enlightenment—a period during which the scientific method was glorified.



The ancient methods of delivering babies were no longer trusted; they were not grounded in science and did not utilize modern technologies. An illustration of this shift in trust is the movement of births from the home to the hospital. The widespread belief was that delivering a baby in a hospital was safer for mother and child—despite the prevalence of deadly germs. When it was discovered that women and infants were dying due to the spread of disease within hospitals, sterilization procedures were developed, but they proved ineffective at first. Maternal morbidity did not decrease at all in many parts of Europe after the industrial revolution. In 1898, maternal death was higher among the middle and upper classes in London than the lower class. The primary difference between these two sets of expectant women was that the middle- and upper-class women delivered in hospitals while the lower-class women delivered their babies in homes under the care of a midwife. The Impact of Caesarean Sections Childbirth has become increasingly more invasive in the last four decades, as the growing number of routine caesarean sections illustrate. Common reasons for doing a caesarean section—major surgery during which an incision is made in the woman’s abdomen to extract the infant, placenta, and membranes—include the inability of a large infant to move easily through the birth canal, labor is too slow, and the baby is not moving head-first through the birth canal, among others. Caesarean sections are sometimes absolutely necessary to protect the life of the mother or infant. The World Health Organization asserts that 10 to 15 percent of births involve problems severe enough to demand this surgical procedure. In 2007, one-third of all babies born in the United States were born via caesarean section. In Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom (UK), caesarean deliveries have doubled, and in China, 46 percent of pregnant women now have caesareans. The rates of caesarean section are increasing in high-income areas of the world despite the increasing risk for mother and infant. Women who have caesareans are more likely to develop complications forcing lengthier hospitalizations. Maternal mortality is 10 to 20 times higher for women who have caesarean sections than for women who deliver vaginally. Because women are more likely to have difficul-

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ties breathing, infants born via caesarean section are more likely to spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit. The financial costs of a caesarean birth are much greater than for a vaginal delivery. In 2005, the average cost of an uncomplicated vaginal delivery in a U.S. hospital was approximately $7,000 compared to $12,000 for an uncomplicated caesarean section (excluding costs of anesthesia). Higher rates of cesearean sections throughout the world are attributed to an increase in women’s comfort with surgical procedures as well as the lack of intensive one-on-one support and assistance for the mother. Asian obstetricians claim that some of their patients request caesarean sections to ensure the baby is born on a lucky day. Vietnamese obstetricians report an increase in cesearean section rates is due to women with small frames having larger babies. In China, a caesarean delivery is a sign of status in a country where poor women still deliver at home with little assistance. China’s initiative to manage population through its Planned Birth Policy reflects a cultural value on control; caesarean sections are in harmony with this core value. Also, hospitals can benefit from cesearean sections, especially those that are planned. They demand less time of the physican than a vaginal delivery and are more profitable for hospitals in all parts of the world. Some argue that U.S. physicians prefer caesarean sections because they are less likely to face malpractice lawsuits if they utilize high-tech delivery methods. The lowest rates of caesarean section births are in developing countries where there is a relative absence of both high-tech interventions and skilled surgeons. These are countries where the support for pregnant women, either traditional or high-tech support, is inadequate. As a result, maternal death is the highest in resource-poor countries such as Afghanistan, Rwanda, Chad, and Nigeria, to name a few. Primary reasons for maternal death are severe postpartum bleeding and infections, hypertensive disorders such as eclampsia, and obstructed labor. Because pregnancy can worsen some diseases, women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are more likely to die during pregnancy. In all, 536,000 women died in 2005 in pregnancy, childbirth, or as a result of postpartum issues. There are international efforts to radically reduce the number of maternal deaths and some progress is evident in Egypt, China, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

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The technocratic model has influenced childbirth around the globe. In some cases, the high degree of respect women assign to this mode of care leads to the overuse of costly technological interventions and a corresponding marginalization of women in their own childbirth experiences. Some worry that unquestioned acceptance of technocratic procedures results in the invalidation of traditional methods that honor women. Because efforts to control maternal and infant death often involve various types of intervention, some believe these efforts function to increase the power of the technocratic model and diminish the practice of traditional childbirth methods in some parts of the world. Certainly, the medical model that emerged from the industrial revolution is the backdrop for other childbirth methods around the world. Due to its global hegemony, it is the technocratic model to which all other models are compared. Diverging From the Technocratic Model While the technocratic model has gained strength and worldwide support, there have been pockets of people, if not entire communities, around the world that have not embraced the new order. Time-honored childbirth methods continue despite pressures to change. In resource-poor areas where there could be a desire to shift to high-tech childbirth methods, the means to do so are not available. Women in these areas have no choice but to deliver babies the oldfashioned way. In wealthier areas where the technocratic model is solidly ingrained, there are groups who advocate and practice traditional childbirth methods for personal, economic, or political reasons. Finally, there is a growing number of practioners and women who advocate the integration of indigenous and modern approaches. Common to almost all traditional birthing methods is the presence of a midwife which means, “with woman” in English and ”earth mother” in Danish. Hindu texts, the Bible, and Greek and Roman documents refer to midwives, confirming their use throughout history. The philosophy that grounds midwifery differs from the principals that supports the technocratic model. Midwives understand pregnancy as a normal occurrence that will naturally run its course in most cases. Their goal is to assist the woman throughout the pregnancy and delivery. Midwives care for the mother’s physical and emotional

well-being. They spend a great deal of time with the expectant mother while she is pregnant and during delivery. During labor and delivery, midwives encourage women to move around and eat as they wish. In resource-rich areas, midwives are much less likely than obstetricians to turn to medical technology prior to or during labor; this includes the use of painrelieving or labor-inducing medicines. The midwife’s consistent support is believed to reduce maternal stress, making for a more positive childbirth experience and decreasing the likelihood of postpartum depression. Many midwives acknowledge a spiritual component to childbirth and believe the traditional childbirth transforms and empowers women, resulting in the mother’s deep connection with and love for the newborn. In the 1950s, a minority of women in the United States who disliked managed childbirths in hospitals opted for home births and initiated a small homebirth movement. At that time, midwives usually had no training in recognized educational institutions. Women learned from each other through mentorship. In the 1970s, the number of home births doubled, although it was still a small number in comparison to hospital births. In 2006, approximately 38,500 women had home births, which is still a small number compared to the number of women who deliver their babies in hospitals. However, the percentage of women delivering at home increased from 1 to 3 percent, the majority of them occurring in rural rather than urban areas. For women with low-risk pregnancies who have home births, the likelihood of having a safe vaginal delivery under the watch of a midwife is very high. Ida May Gaskin, founder of Tennessee’s Farm Midwifery Center, delivered about 2,400 babies at the center or in homes from 1970 to 2007. Only 2 percent of these resulted in caesarean sections. In India, 65 percent of births occur in both rural and urban homes. In Indian homes, a number of people may share the tasks that a single midwife may be responsible for in Europe or in the United States. However, there is a recent government initiative to increase the number of women delivering in hospitals to combat the high number of infant and maternal deaths during home births. Some question the government’s claim about death rates, voicing concern that this policy will work to eradicate traditional home births. In China, where almost half of all women get caesarean sec-



tions, traditional midwives are present at some home births; but midwife attendance comes with the stigma of having a lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, women who deliver at home are often perceived as not conforming to China’s efforts to be a modern society. Consequently, rural women often choose to travel long distances to get to a rural clinic even though the quality of care in the clinic is usually no better than what they would receive in their own home. In Japan, few midwives remain due to a drastic reduction in requests for their services. Yet, many Japanese women share values with midwives, particularly the value of a natural birth and avoidance of medication to reduce pain. In fact, Japanese women who deliver an infant without pain medication are socially valued for their ability to handle an arduous experience. The United Kingdom has recorded a noticeable increase in the number of home births, particularly in Wales. These rising numbers are due to a concerted effort by the Welsh Assembly to redefine birth as a natural event rather than a medical procedure. The Welsh government hopes to increase the number of home births to 10 percent of all births. In the United States, nurse-midwives meet the demand of some women who want a midwife to deliver their baby in a hospital. Some expectant mothers value the philosophy and methods of midwifery but are not ready to fully abandon the technocratic model. Because midwives are present in hospitals, midwifery has changed hospital practices. The technocratic model has lost some of its power as aspects of the natural model have been sanctioned in labor and delivery wards. Practices long used by midwives are now available in some hospitals; examples include the use of water tubs to reduce pain, allowing women to give birth in an upright position, and letting the laboring woman eat and drink as she pleases. The nurse-midwife embodies the integration of the two models; she has learned about and is not totally resistant to the medical model of childbirth. However, she often prefers the less-invasive methods of childbirth. Pure or radical midwives such as the lay midwives have not always appreciated the nurse-midwives because the latter have not wholly discarded the technocratic model. All species bear offspring. While many animals give birth in solitide, the human skeletal structure and desire for an interpersonal connection necessitate that childbirth occur in the company of others.

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As a result, childbirth is a product of culture. Human values, preferences and ideologies influence childbirth expectations and practices. Class and economy play the most critical role in childbirth around the world. A woman in Atlanta, Georgia, could have a childbirth experience that is akin to that of a woman in Beijing, China, because they have similar socioeconomic positions, reside in resource-rich areas, and have comparable levels of trust in modern medicine and the technocratic model of childbirth. The hegemony of the technocratic model results in the overuse of its associated methods in some areas, the pressure to convert to its use in some others, and the resistance to its philosophy in still other areas. Childbirth is a politically charged event that happens thousands of times each day around the world. The infant, new to the world, enters it as a product of that environment and is already marked in some way as a member of a particular community. See Also: Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital; Childbirth, Medication in; Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality. Further Readings Childbirth Connection. “Cesarean Section: Why Does the National U.S. Cesarean Section Rate Keep Going Up?” http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article .asp?ck=10456 (accessed April 2010). Davis-Floyd, Robbie. E. “The Technocratic Model of Birth.” In S.T. Hollis, L. Pershing, and M.J. Young, eds., Feminist Theory in the Study of Folklore. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Louden, Irving. “Obstetric Care, Social Class, and Maternal Mortality.” British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition), v.293 (September 6, 1986). Martin, Emily. The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. Mesure, Susie. “Huge Rise in Number of Home Births.” The Independent (March 16, 2008). The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health. http://www.who.int/pmnch (accessed April 2010). Selin, Helaine and Pamela K. Stone, eds. Childbirth Across Cultures: Ideas and Practices of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Postpartum. New York: Springer, 2009. Lori A. Walters-Kramer Independent Scholar

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Childcare

Childcare The overwhelming majority of childcare worldwide is provided by parents. In many cultural contexts worldwide, childcare is a family endeavor: when parents must work, children may be cared for by extended family members or other close relatives and friends within a formal or informal kinship network. In many industrialized nations, the economic necessity of two-parent income and the increasing isolation of the nuclear family creates a necessity for external, professional childcare. In the United States, for example, parents and guardians may choose between in-home childcare, such as a nanny or babysitter, or formal childcare in either a home or center-based care setting. The latter are often subject to licensure and review by the state, whereas the former is much more informal. The National Network for Childcare (NNCC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) have established guidelines for best practices in childcare. These include establishing strong connections with children’s families and communities, using developmentally appropriate practices, providing a safe, engaging, nurturing, and emotionally and culturally responsive environment, and encouraging learning through play and interaction with caregivers and peers. Family Childcare In-home childcare, where a nanny, babysitter, au pair, grandparent, or other family or nonfamily individual comes to the child’s home to care for the child in his or her own environment, can be convenient for families. It also allows families to choose caregivers whose beliefs about children and care are similar to their own. While expensive, and largely unregulated, this type of care is popular with families who feel strongly about keeping their child in his or her own home. Some caregivers live in the home with the family; this is typical for an au pair, who is usually a foreign national hired to work in the home as a caregiver for the family’s children with the promise of cultural exchange and the opportunity to work and live in another context. Different national governments have different polices about the employment and treatment of au pairs. Nannies and babysitters, meanwhile, typically do not live in the home and may come and go at the beginning and end of each workday.

Family childcare is the most prevalent form of childcare. This has the advantage of caring for smaller numbers of children than center-based care, in a homelike rather than school-like setting that still has a social, multichild environment and some structure while also offering the opportunity to mirror the rhythms of family life. Disadvantages include the often small spaces and limited play choices afforded for the children and, while most states monitor family care settings, they vary in quality. In the United States, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accredits family childcare providers at the national level. Childcare Centers Center-based childcare is the most school-like of the three options, with many children enjoying planned activities, meals, naps, and care together, often with an early education focus. Children in center-based care are typically grouped by chronological age with teachers who focus on developmentally appropriate activities for the group. While centers care for higher numbers of children than either in-home babysitters or family childcare providers, this disadvantage is potentially offset by the high reliability and more rigid structure of center-based care: they do not call in sick, have regular hours of operation, and a schedule parents can rely upon to be consistent. Other advantages include the varied activities, games, and social interactions possible in larger settings. Disadvantages include the relatively inflexible scheduling, less relaxed institutional setting, and higher teacher-to-child ratio. Centers must also be accredited, inspected, and licensed by the state so that children are guaranteed a safe, developmentally appropriate environment. It is also important to note that parents and others may have reasons for enrolling their child in a form of childcare beyond the necessity to pursue paid employment; some parents believe care settings enhance children’s social and emotional development, while others choose academically oriented childcare to enhance school readiness. Research suggests that parents are more likely to make choices prioritizing the nurturing qualities of a center when the child in question is very young, with the focus moving steadily toward an educational focus as the child gets older. Additionally, it has been suggested that fami-



lies who believe that it is inappropriate for mothers to work outside of the home, but whose economic situation demands that the mother do so, are more likely to choose a family care setting. Meanwhile, families who support a mother’s career orientation and work outside the home regardless of economic necessity are more likely to choose a center-based care option. Childcare: Contemporary Issues and Debates Because of the demand for childcare resources in some industrialized nations, large, profit-oriented corporate childcare operations have come to the fore. However, research supports that children receive higher quality care in smaller, not-for-profit independent care centers as these may benefit from being locally run and controlled, and therefore responsive to the local community and the unique needs of the children enrolled. Critics of the large corporate childcare centers suggest that the profit orientation and the need to answer to corporate shareholders deemphasizes a focus on developmentally appropriate care practices. Still others suggest that the discourse of cost effectiveness has no place in early education and care. The difference in care between nonprofit independent centers and for-profit home-based care environments is unclear at this point. Research on the impact of daycare on children’s health, welfare, and school readiness perpetually paints a dismal picture, especially of center-based care, suggesting that children who are in childcare may be more likely to have intellectual, behavioral, or health problems in later childhood or adulthood. While additional scrutiny of such studies has revealed that, in fact, the outcomes for the vast majority of children in childcare are no worse and may in fact be intellectually, socially, emotionally, and otherwise advantageous compared with children cared for in the home by a stay-at-home parent, the language of daycare panic remains. This may be in part due to the pervasive belief in most industrialized nations, like the United States and Britain, that it is preferable that one parent, especially the mother, can stay at home with the children. This is often a marker of economic status for primary earners in a family setting, and working women in the U.S. culture typically feel enormous pressure to opt out of careers once they start families. Finally, finding and securing high-quality childcare represents an affordability challenge for many working families, who must balance the costs with quality,

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often making sacrifices on either end of the bargain. The Childcare Law Center and Institute for Women’s Policy Research have both addressed the fact that poor and working families in the United States often face heightened barriers to accessing childcare solutions through restrictive welfare and subsidy policies, and middle-class families have experienced a secondary recessional effect placing them in similar circumstances. These families must rely upon inconsistent publicly subsidized and government childcare, and may worry about the effects of lower quality childcare environments on their children. While research found that high-quality daycare had a positive effect on children, few studies addressed the same question in the context of poor families. Subsequent inquiries have shown that children benefit, to some degree, in a wide variety of childcare settings, and that policy makers and others interested in increasing economic growth should look to supporting early education and care, especially for children in high-need environments. These may be sites for potential development of dynamic learners in schools and eventually the workplace, and may make significant strides toward economic and social justice for the children, and by extension, their mothers. Childcare and Women’s Economic Independence The National Women’s Law Center frames childcare as a key element of improving the quality of life for women and their families in the United States, and focuses on the twin issues of cost and availability/ accessibility. In the midst of the global recession, women’s need for quality childcare that is either subsidized or accessible through economic recovery funds is particularly important. For example, in Japan, where state daycare has been unavailable through a shortage of enrollments slots combined with the growth of young families in urban centers, women’s return to the workplace after male partners’ layoffs has compounded the problem further. Meanwhile, private care remains costly and prohibitive to most families waiting for openings in state care. The situation is similar in many European contexts, where state childcare is available, though often inaccessible, and private options remain expensive. Fundamentally, the affordability and quality of childcare options for working mothers speak to the

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larger issue of women, children, and poverty. In the United States, as is the case worldwide, the overwhelming majority of people living in poverty are women and children. With current estimates of childcare costs in the United States exceeding some public university tuition rates, the need for higher quality, higher accessibly, and more affordable childcare for all children regardless of socioeconomic status a necessity for moving mothers out of poverty and into successful economic participation and independence. Until working poor mothers can have better and more choices for quality childcare, equity issues will loom large both economically and socially. Finally, it is important to understand that the majority of all childcare providers are women. They may become in-home, family, or center-based childcare providers and in this way be able to provide economically for their own families. For those working in their own homes, they may be able to do this work while simultaneously caring for their own children. Despite the increasing costliness of childcare, providers across all childcare contexts are among the lowest-paid, lowest-status workers. While this creates an environment where workers cannot reasonably be expected to have had extensive (or often, even barely adequate) preprofessional education or training, it also suggests that childcare may be a cultural and economic afterthought, reflecting the general low status of mothers, children, and the work of caring for them. See Also: Economics, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Nannies; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Belsky, Jay, et al., and the NICHD Early Childcare Research Network. “Are There Long-Term Effects of Early Childcare?” Child Development, v.78 (2007). Burchinal, Margaret R., et al. “Relating Quality of CenterBased Childcare to Early Cognitive and Language Development Longitudinally.” Child Development, v.71/2 (2000). Connelly, R., D. S. DeGraff, and R. A. Wills. Kids at Work: The Value of Employer-Sponsored, On-Site Childcare Centers. Kalamazoo, MI: UpJohn Institute, 2004. Fuller, Bruce, et al. “Childcare Quality: Centers and Home Settings That Serve Poor Families.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, v.19 (2004).

Institute for Women’s Policy Research. http://www.iwpr .org/index.cfm (accessed June 2010). Kato, Mariko. “Government Day Care Falling Short: More Working Mothers Make Already Difficult Situation Worse.” The Japan Times (May 8, 2009). McNamara, Melissa P. “Research on Day Care Finds Few Timeouts.” New York Times. http://www.nytimes .com/2004/02/10/health/research-on-day-care-finds -few-timeouts.html (accessed June 2010). Mooney, Ann and June Statham, eds. Family Day Care: International Perspectives on Policy, Practice and Quality. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2003. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “Does Amount of Time Spent in Childcare Predict Socioemotional Adjustment During the Transition to Kindergarten?” Child Development, v.74/4 (2003). Sally Campbell Galman University of Massachusetts

Childlessness as Choice The effort to control reproduction is as old as human history, yet it was not until the late 20th century that a sexually active heterosexual person had the ability to choose childlessness. Worldwide, the number of people who are childless by choice is on the rise. Women and men offer both similar and different reasons for their choice to remain childless. Found among people of all races and socioeconomic statuses, people who are childless by choice report that they are satisfied with their lives; nonetheless, others often attribute negative stereotypes to this group. People who are childless by choice have founded organizations to advocate for their interests and to offer opportunities for social networking. Today, both scholars and activists continue to debate ways to promote equality between parents and people who are childless by choice. Role of Contraception Childlessness as choice was made possible through the advent and wider accessibility of reliable contraceptives, and in some countries, the availability of legal abortion. That women and men have embraced this newfound ability is evidenced by population trends.



Worldwide, the average fertility rate has declined from 2.8 children per woman in 2000 to 2.09 children per woman in 2007. In part, this decline reflects some people’s choice to have fewer children; however, it also reflects a growing number of people who are choosing to remain childless. According to the U.S. Census, in 2006, 20 percent of women age 40 to 44 were childless; this is twice the number of childless women 30 years prior. In Italy, 15 percent of women in their 40s have not borne children; in Great Britain, 20 percent of women born in 1959 are without child; and in Germany, the proportion of childless women is 30 percent. The reasons people provide for remaining childless are complex and varied. Some childless people are driven by lifestyle concerns, telling researchers that remaining childless has provided the time, energy, and financial freedom they need to pursue both personal and professional interests. Other people report that their decision reflects a lack of maternal or paternal instinct. Men are more likely than women to point to financial issues when they explain their choice to remain childless. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to offer altruistic reasons for not having children, expressing concerns about overpopulation and environmental stress. Career Goal Considerations Also more so than men, childless women are more likely to believe that becoming a parent will conflict with career goals. Employment numbers seem to support their beliefs. In corporate America, 49 percent of high-achieving women are childless; this compares with 19 percent of their male peers. Similarly, 43 percent of academic women do not have children; this compares with a female childlessness rate of about 18 percent in the general population. Some of these women report that their childlessness stems from their belief that they could not fulfill both their professional responsibilities and the responsibilities associated with motherhood. This grows out of two contradictory cultural trends. Over the past 40 years professional opportunities for women, and especially for economically and socially privileged women, have increased significantly. However, regardless of socioeconomic status, women continue to assume primary responsibility for caretaking and household work. Childless people can be found among all races and all socioeconomic statuses; nonetheless, the major-

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ity of people who are childless are better educated, wealthier, less religious, and less traditional than their peers with children. Childless women are more likely to work in male-dominated professions than are mothers. Couples without children tend to have more egalitarian relationships and are less likely to follow traditional gendered patterns of behavior. Childless couples report being happier than parents; research indicates that the childless have better marriages, better finances, and less stress than parents do. Childless people are no more likely to be unhappy or lonely in their old age than are people with children. Although their numbers are growing and selfreports indicate that they are satisfied with their lives, people who are childless by choice face social censure. Numerous studies have reported that purposefully childless people are perceived more negatively than parents or people who are unable to have children. Childless couples often are assumed to be maladjusted and characteristics attributed to childless people include selfishness, irresponsibility, and hedonism. Motherhood continues to be a defining aspect of femininity in many cultures; fatherhood is less central to the male gender role. As such, childless women bear the brunt of these negative stereotypes. Childless women are frequently perceived as cold, unnatural, and unwomanly. Advocacy Organizations Organizations designed to advocate for the interests of childless people have been formed. Some of these organizations are purely social, such as No Kidding!. Founded in 1984 by Jerry Steinberg in Vancouver, Canada, No Kidding! is an international social club for childfree singles and couples with over 40 chapters in 5 countries. Other groups have combined social networking with political activism. In 1992, Leslie Lafayette formed the Childfree Network and among the issues this California-based organization addressed were workplace and tax policies that discriminate against people without children. As the name of Lafayette’s organization suggests, many advocates for people who choose not to reproduce prefer the term childfree to childless, suggesting that it avoids connotations of loss or lack associated with being childless. Other advocates for the childless avoid the term childfree, suggesting it implies a negative attitude toward parents and children that they do not embrace.

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Over the last several years, both academics and public intellectuals have addressed whether childless people are discriminated against through workplace and public policies designed to support parents. In 2000, Elinor Burkett published The Baby Boon: How Childfree America Cheats the Childless; this book has been embraced by advocates for the childfree. More recently, Bonnie Dow and Julia Wood have explored informal workplace norms that lead to discrimination against childless people and Dow has offered a proposal for “colleague-friendly parenting” in response. Similarly, Sara Hayden argues that the debate between advocates for parents and advocates for the childfree can be attributed to the different ethical systems on which each side bases its claims and she offers suggestions for resolving this debate. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, International; Contraception Methods; Household Division of Labor; Parental Leave Act; “Singletons”/Single by Choice; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Agrillo, Chrisian and Cristian Nelini. “Childfree by Choice: A Review.” Journal of Cultural Geography, v.25 (2008). Burkett, Elinor. The Baby Boon: How Childfree America Cheats the Childless. New York: Free Press, 2000. Dow, Bonnie. “Does It Take a Department to Raise a Child?” Women’s Studies in Communication, v.31 (2008). Hayden, Sara. “Lessons From the Baby Boon: FamilyFriendly Policies and the Ethics of Justice and Care.” Women’s Studies in Communication, v.33/2 (2010). Leibowivic, Lori, ed. Maybe Baby: 28 Writers Tell the Truth About Skepticism, Infertility, Baby Lust, Childlessness, Ambivalence, and How They Made the Biggest Decision of Their Lives. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Tyler May, Elaine. Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. Wood, J. and B. Dow. “The Invisible Politics of ‘Choice’ in the Workplace: Naming the Informal Parenting Support System.” In S. Hayden and L. Obrien Hallstein, Contemplating Maternity in the Era of Choice. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2010. Sara Hayden University of Montana

Children’s Rights Children’s rights encompass civil and political as well as cultural, social, and economic terrain. Activism and research in the arena of children’s rights puts forward key questions about children, childhood, and the state, and how we should think about children as not just recipients but also producers of culture. For example, should children’s rights be about keeping children safe, or about ensuring their autonomy? Similarly, most documents addressing the rights of the child assume a certain philosophical position regarding the child; these include the assertion that the child is a full and complete person, but a potentially vulnerable one whose personhood is special and entitled to special protections. Many organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the United Nations Children’s Fund, recognize children’s full personhood but must also acknowledge the vulnerability claim, as children are uniquely at risk in a world where child prostitution, child labor, physical and emotional child abuse, child neglect, and mistreatment of child refugees and orphans are commonplace. Children’s rights are also tied inextricably to women’s rights, as empowered women have been shown to contribute greatly to the health and welfare of children and, through them, successful communities. Thoughts on Children’s Rights Aid and advocacy groups address contemporary children’s rights to both safety and empowerment in four central arenas. First, children have a right to be protected from exploitation. Children as young as 6 years old are compelled and coerced, through kidnapping or other forms of violence, to participate as armed combatants in military conflicts. Orphans or survivors of natural disaster are “adopted” into guerrilla training camps for indoctrination and combat training, or kidnapped from displaced persons camps and fragmented postconflict or disaster communities. Amnesty International and other human rights groups and some state governments actively oppose these practices by implementing nonassistance policies against nations that use child soldiers in conflicts, and encourage other states to do so. Still others have suggested that children in the contemporary context are entitled



to environmental rights—that they have a right to inherit a safe, livable natural environment and that it is the responsibility of adults to make sure that appropriate environmental action takes place to ensure the quality of this inheritance. Second, children have a right to education. This speaks to making sure girls and young women have access to free, equal, and empowering educational experiences; that elementary education be free and compulsory; and that schools be protected from becoming targets for political or military aggression. In addition, it is important that schools work to make human rights part of the curriculum. In this way, children can be informed about their basic rights and responsibilities and will see and understand the necessity for protecting the rights of others. Third, children have a right to special legal consideration. International law forbids the use of capital punishment on offenders who committed their crime when they were younger than 21 years. Finally, children have a right to safety and security, both physical and emotional. Children should be the first to receive aid and accommodation, including nutritional, emotional, and material considerations. According to Human Rights Watch, children living with human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) are at risk for exploitation and death through severely limited access to healthcare, as well as other practices that contribute to their and other children’s initial exposure to HIV. Although Kenya, notably, made antiretroviral treatments available for all affected citizens free of charge, as of 2009 Kenyan children had disproportionately lower levels of access to these medications. Children’s rights proponents would suggest that these children should be given first and most complete access to lifesaving treatment. In addition, gender-based violence is particularly offensive, as female genital mutilation, child prostitution, child marriages, honor killings, and female infanticide are part of the daily lives of thousands of girls. Similarly, certain groups of children, such as those living with HIV/AIDS or those with migrant status, should be entitled to special protections. According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, migrant children’s right to safety and security are at risk both in transit zones and detention cen-

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ters and in displaced persons camps, where children are routinely abused, exploited, and even recruited/ abducted/conscripted as child soldiers. In the United States, children’s rights advocates suggest that practices of remote detention, in which illegal immigrants are sent to remote locations for detention following their discovery and arrest, unfairly punishes the U.S.born children of detained parents, who often return home from school to find that their parents have been detained and sent far away. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights was adopted in 1948. A central statement in this declaration was that motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. Discussion of the particular rights of the child followed quickly thereafter. Eventually, in 1989, the United Nations General Assembly put forward the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child. The declaration was adopted as a legally binding treaty for member states in 1990 and is currently the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. As of today, all United Nations member nations have ratified this treaty, except for Somalia and the United States. By signing, but not ratifying, the declaration, neither of these nations has recognized the content of the declaration as a legal obligation. Notably, as of November 23, 2009, Somalia had announced its plans to ratify the convention, which would leave the United States as the only nonratifying member nation. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes the following: • Children and childhood are special conditions and warrant special care and assistance. • Every child, regardless of race, ethnic group, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, and birth or other status, whether of himself/herself or of his/her family, is entitled to all rights set out in the declaration. • All children are entitled to a birth name and nationality. • All children have a right to adequate care, including nutrition, housing, medical treatment, and recreation.

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• A child who has special needs will be cared for and given the required special treatment and education. • A child is entitled to affection and understanding and moral and material security. A very young child should not be, except under extreme circumstances, be separated from his or her mother. • All children are entitled to a free, compulsory elementary education and shall have full opportunities for safe play and recreation. • The child shall, in all circumstances, be among the first to receive protection and relief. • The child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty, and exploitation. She or he shall not be the subject of traffic, in any form, nor shall he or she be a victim of child labor. • The child shall be protected from practices that may foster racial, religious, and any other form of discrimination so that she or her might grow up to do good for others. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child The landscape of children’s lives in Africa is unique: Children there are much more likely to be involved as child soldiers in armed conflict, and rates of child labor are the highest in the world. The African Charter focuses on the child’s privileged place in African society and emphasizes that African children are entitled to special treatment and care. In particular, the authors of the charter suggest that the United Nations document does not adequately address the unique nature of childhood in Africa, affected as it is by cultural and social practices inherent in both traditional and contemporary African values. These special areas of concern include child marriage and betrothal practices, girls’ education, access to and empowerment in schools, addressing the aftermath of apartheid and similar discriminatory systems, the prominent role of extended families and matrilineal kinship structures in child care and education, high rates of poverty and concomitant starvation for children whose parents do not receive state support, and the status of orphaned and refugee children and children of mothers who are imprisoned. Differing substantially from the United Nations document, the African Charter also emphasizes pro-

tecting the expectant mother in a variety of contexts and providing specific direction for children seeking protection. The African Charter went into effect in 1999, with ratifying African Union member states agreeing that the charter has primacy over local, traditional, or other policies in addressing children’s rights and welfare. Nonsigners/nonratifiers include Sudan, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some children’s rights advocates see the U.S.based parents’ rights movement as oppositional to that nation’s ratification of the United Nations treaty. U.S. parent’s rights groups advocate for unquestionable parental authority to determine the treatment of their own children without oversight from any governmental body. Other opponents of the current thinking in children’s rights and the United Nations and African Charter documents cite the necessity for idealized childhood to be protected from corrupt visions of adult life, implicit in children’s understanding of their own rights. Similarly, in the United States, conservative “family values” ideologies have opposed children’s rights discourses, as they interpret these as undermining the primacy of the family. Other opponents argue that enforcing children’s rights would mean undermining state sovereignty, that the United States already practices the included policies, and that signing the document would have no effect, or that it is too difficult to enforce. Meanwhile, supporters of children’s rights suggest that the United States has not ratified the treaty because of its unique history of unusual ambivalence to the rights of the child, stemming in part from its brutal history of involvement in the African slave trade and subsequent crimes against African children and their families and its economic and social foundations on indentured servitude and violent forms of apprenticeship. Contemporary accounts suggest that the need for the United States in particular to ratify the treaty is pressing: accusations of child labor in the United States, large numbers of children serving life sentences in U.S. prisons, the disproportionately high incidence of corporal punishment for children with disabilities in U.S. schools, and the declaration’s congruence with the U.S. Bill of Rights are cited as reasons for its hasty adoption.

Chile



Relationship Between Children’s Rights and Women’s Rights There is a relationship between the well-being of women and children in any given society. Although both the United Nations declaration and the African Charter emphasize the integrity of the family as an emotional and material support structure, the United Nations Children’s Fund 2007 Report on the State of the World’s Children suggests a tighter coupling between women’s and children’s rights, indicating the following: • Gender equality is positively correlated with children's well-being. • Healthy, educated, and empowered women have healthy, educated, and empowered children. • Educated, empowered women are more likely to overcome poverty and create better conditions for their children. • Women who enjoy equal rights are able to make better decisions at home, in the workplace, and in the political sphere that can benefit her children. • Gender equality is necessary for human rights and sustainable development. • Violence against women and girls often results from the same practices, cultural patterns, or criminal acts, which also affect boys directly or indirectly. These include but are not limited to female genital mutilation, the use of rape as a weapon of war, child marriage, and refusing or interrupting access to girls' and women's schooling. The United Nations declaration is clear that young children shall not be separated from their mothers. One reason for this is that the declaration emphasizes that children be afforded the best possible opportunity to reach their fullest emotional, social, and intellectual potential, and being with the mother, except in extreme circumstances, is aligned with this goal. Mothers' rights have long been an agenda for the World Health Organization and the United Nations, which have emphasized encouraging breastfeeding and public support for breastfeeding, paid maternity leave, and other measures aimed at reducing infant and maternal mortality and increasing positive interaction and bonds between mother and child.

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See Also: Child Abuse, Child Labor; Victims of; Conflict Zones; United Nations Conventions. Further Readings Beah, Ismael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. Foley, Stephen. “U.S. Blueberry Farms Accused of Using Children as Pickers: Supermarkets Blacklist Firm After Children Exploited for Small Hands.” The Independent (November 2, 2009). Human Rights Watch and the ACLU. “Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Children With Disabilities in U.S. Public Schools.” http://www.aclu .org/human-rights/impairing-education-corporal -punishment-students-disabilities-us-public-schools (accessed November 2009). Jolly, M. “Womens Rights, Human Rights and Domestic Violence in Vanuatu.” Feminist Review, v.52 (1996). Krisberg, Barry. Juvenile Justice: Redeeming Our Children. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004. Rosen, David M. “Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law and the Globalization of Childhood.” American Anthropologist, v.109/2 (2007). “Somalia to Join Child Rights Pact.” Reuters Africa (November 23, 2009). United Nations Children’s Fund. “The State of the World’s Children, 2007: Women and Children, The Double Dividend of Gender Equality.” http://www.unicef.org /sowc07 (accessed November 2009). Sally Campbell Galman University of Massachusetts

Chile Chile is a country of 16.6 million inhabitants that is located along the western coast of South America. The people of Chile are primarily Roman Catholic, and the country has a reputation for being socially conservative among its Latin American peers. Chile experienced stable democratic rule during much of the 20th century until Augusto Pinochet led a military coup in 1973 to end the Marxist, democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. Pinochet was right wing in his approach to economics and politics, so he championed the traditional

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role of women as wives and mothers in the home. After democracy returned to Chile in 1990, a centerleft coalition governed during the 1990s and 2000s allowing women’s roles in society to evolve. In 2004, a centuries-old marital code was dismissed to allow Chileans to legally divorce. Although the Catholic Church fought against this reform, many Chilean women championed it because previously they had been unable to end abusive marital relationships. Women in Politics Chilean women have experienced notable successes in the political realm. Michelle Bachelet’s presidency (2006–10) alone was an achievement for women. Moreover, her administration advanced policies favoring women and she appointed a cabinet with an equal number of male and female ministers. However, Chile lags other Latin American countries in terms of women in its national legislature. Whereas Argentina boasts 41.6 percent women in the lower house of its legislature, women in Chile’s lower house constitute a mere 15 percent. Gender quotas and electoral systems explain the low political representation of Chilean women. Argentine law mandates that women must be 30 percent of each political party’s candidates, whereas Chile has no law and only certain parties set voluntary quotas for themselves. Chile’s electoral system is binomial, meaning two candidates are elected per district, and like majoritarian electoral systems it contributes to far fewer women being elected than in proportional representation systems. Women’s Rights Women in Chile have a long life expectancy and high rates of literacy. Women live on average 80.8 years, and 95.6 percent of women (and 95.8 percent of men) are literate. Chilean women are now choosing less traditional lifestyles. Younger women often choose cohabitation over marriage and they have fewer children. In 2002, urban women had a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman. Rural women have more children, at 2.9 children per woman, but they too have fewer children than in the 1990s. Chilean women are not as active in the labor force as their Latin American counterparts. Women between the ages of 25 and 34 are more likely to be employed than older women, yet only approximately 41 percent of Chilean women are in the workforce

compared with 53 percent of all Latin American women. Although 47.5 percent of university students are women, many university graduates choose to be homemakers instead of seeking employment. As a result, women activists in Chile pressed presidential candidates in 2009 to pursue reforms that help women to enter the workforce, including job training, maternity leave options, and flexible working schedules. Activists applaud former president Bachelet for advancing women’s issues. Chilean women benefit from her administration’s pension reform, childcare initiatives, and breastfeeding law. Centers providing free childcare are now four times as numerous and housewives can apply for government pensions. Mothers of infants have the right to nurse during the workday. Reproductive rights remain on the agenda of activists because Chile has among the most conservative abortion laws in the world. Therapeutic abortion is illegal under all circumstances, even when a woman’s life is in danger. It is estimated, unofficially, that between 120,000 and 160,000 women have illegal abortions each year, although in 2002 over half of Chileans supported legalizing abortion in cases in which the mother’s health is in danger (65.6 percent) and the pregnancy is a result of rape (58.3 percent). See Also: Abortion, Access to; Bachelet, Michelle; Childcare; Gender Quotas in Government; Gender Roles, Cross Cultural. Further Readings Blofield, Merike. The Politics of Moral Sin: Abortion and Divorce in Spain, Chile and Argentina. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006. Estrada, Daniela. “Chile: Activists Quiz Candidates on Women’s Rights Stance.” Global Information Network (September 30, 2009). Estrada, Daniela. “Chile: Press Prints Names of Women With Abortion Complications.” Global Information Network (August 8, 2009). Servicio Nacional de la Mujer. “Servicio Nacional de la Mujer, Estadísticas.” http://www.sernam.cl/cedocvi /web/fus_index.php?sec=2 (accessed January 2010). Candice D. Ortbals Pepperdine University



China One of the most enduring stereotypes of Chinese women is that of the submissive woman with bound feet obedient to her family or husband and treated like property with no rights. This stereotype denies the reality of women in China today and the full variety of women’s lives. Today, by law, women have equality in education, marriage, rights, and freedom. While women’s roles have improved overall, there are still some laws that are ignored or underenforced, and women have yet to attain equality in society. Some women have been able to attain higher education and high-paying jobs, yet many others work in low-paying factory jobs as unskilled laborers. The largest disparity is between women in urban areas and those who live in rural regions. Overall, the picture of women in China is a complex one that defies reduction into a simple stereotype. One of the key laws established by the newly formed People’s Republic of China in 1950 was the Marriage Law that promoted the idea of equality of men and

Women make up the majority of the workforce in the exportoriented Special Economic Zones of southern China.

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women within the marriage and family. Women were not to be mere housekeepers, but were encouraged to be workers for the common good of the society. In 1954 the 96th article of the Constitution gave women equal rights with men in all aspects of life, including social, political, cultural, and social arenas. In 1968 Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (Mao Zedong) famously stated, “Women can hold up half the sky.” Since then, a variety of legislative acts have been enacted with explicit provisions that protect the rights and interests of women. Enforcement of these laws is not always uniform, however, and women are continuing to struggle to gain equity with men. While this gender disparity still exists in China, women are able, like never before, to obtain a higher education, work in a white-collar profession, and acquire a divorce. They also are ensured rights to inherit property, protection from domestic violence, and hold political office at both local and national levels. Women’s Political Rights In the political arena, women have equal political rights with men such as the right to vote. Women are allowed to hold local and national office; to ensure women’s participation in the governmental processes, the election law stipulates the percentage of female deputies in the national and local National People’s Congress committees, and encourages a steady growth of women to participate. At the 2009 annual session of the National People’s Congress, 635 women were elected lawmakers, 21.9 percent of the total number of deputies. During that session, women deputies proposed legislation that focused on women such as cervical and breast cancer screening in rural areas, rural property rights and subsidization for companies with women in top positions. Women also are represented in regional and county government positions. Women are working in record numbers in China. According to United Nations statistics, in 2008 45 percent of the Chinese workforce was comprised of women. Rural women comprise 41 percent of the agricultural workforce. Young women workers compose a large portion of the factory workers in the Special Economic Zones, and women with higher education have moved into managerial and corporate positions. Legally, women and men have equal rights to employment as ensured under China’s Constitution,

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the Employment Promotion Law, Labor Contracting Law, and the Law on Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. Under these regulations, women are guaranteed equal pay as men in the same positions, equality in hiring and promotion, and protection from termination due to pregnancy. In addition, women may take up to 90 days of maternity leave. Although the edicts are in place to help women in the workplace, in many instances, inequality exists. A 2009 research project from the Center for Women’s Law and Legal Services of Peking University demonstrates sexual discrimination still exists. Approximately 4 percent of women interviewed reported having to sign a contract stating that they would not get married or pregnant within a set amount of time (often from one to three years after hiring) as a condition of employment. Twenty-eight percent stated they believed there were different hiring standards for men and women.Women were required to have more education, experience, or ability than their male counterparts to get hired. The perception of inequality continued after hiring with 35 percent of women interviewed believing it was easier for male peers to get promoted than female coworkers. Young women working in white-collar jobs feel a great pressure to conform to a standard of beauty for the sake of getting a job or promotion. In urban areas there are many plastic surgery clinics that help women become as beautiful as they can be. The current global economic downturn has had an effect on women in China. Thousands of export-oriented factories in southern China have closed leaving thousands of women out of work. As companies across China either cut back on their workforce or slow their hiring, young women who are about to graduate from universities face more competition from men in a job market that is tougher than ever. Education and Family China’s Education Law, Compulsory Education Law, and Vocational Education Law are intended to protect equal education for boys and girls. On the whole, these laws have been quite effective. According to government figures, 98.97 percent of boys and 98.93 percent of girls of primary school age were enrolled in school. It is at the junior high and high school levels that the number of females to males lags, especially in the rural areas, where girls attain an average of seven

years of education. Fewer women than men enter and complete college and university degrees. The statistics of school completion, for both boys and girls, drips for students living in the rural areas due to a shortage of teachers in impoverished communities. In addition, children are often needed to work in the fields. In rural areas, girls are much more likely to be illiterate than boys, and both sexes are more apt to be illiterate than children in the cities. To combat this and to raise literacy rates, the government has started new programs to pay for rural children’s books, tuition, and for hiring teachers. China’s Family Planning Law of 1978 and the OneChild Policy of 1981 limited the number of children a couple could have to one, or in some rural areas, two. The results of this policy are various: in addition to lowering the birth rate, it caused a sexual imbalance as historical preference for male children continued. Currently, there are an estimated 120 boys born to every 100 girls. Technology has exacerbated the inequality, as couples are able to discover the sex of their baby in time for an abortion. This is not legal in China but it does occur. Another aspect of the laws is that as people have grown used to and more importantly, grown up with the laws, legislation has become internalized. The younger generation is beginning to prefer small families, and one-child families with a girl have devoted more resources to the education and career of their daughters, especially in urban areas. Human trafficking in women and children is recognized as a problem in China. Women and children are trafficked for sexual exploitation within China and to other Asian countries and the West. Rapid economic development on the eastern coast of China has led to the abduction of women to work in the factories. China also is a destination country for human trafficking. In 2009, the China National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children was released. The goal of this special campaign is to prevent abuses, find and prosecute violators and rescue women and children who have been abducted. Enforcement problems exist, as there is a lack of funds to support the effort. Working Women In the past 10 years, the rural to urban migration in China has grown exponentially. It is estimated that nearly half of the Chinese population now resides



in urban areas, as opposed with the 26.7 percent in 1990. The figure is confused by the many internal migrants to cities who are not registered within those areas. Many people are leaving the rural regions to find higher-paying jobs in the urban areas, especially to places like Guandong Province, which has many factories. Chinese citizens who are not registered to live and work within the urban areas are assigned to informal sector jobs that are lower paying and do not follow employment protection laws. Although with much less frequency than men, women comprise a large portion of the migrant population and make up the majority of the workforce in the export-oriented Special Economic Zones of southern China. Factory life for women consists of living in dormitories at the factories, long hours, and often lower pay than promised. Still, these jobs allow women to make financial contributions to their families and earn some money for themselves. Anecdotal stories abound in Chinese newspapers and magazines with stories about young women who, traveling alone from rural areas, are raped, kidnapped, or otherwise assaulted during their journeys to work in the factories of southern China. These stories likely hold some truth, but the extent of these incidences has not been studied and, therefore, is not known. The government of China has worked hard in the last 60 years to change hundreds of years of traditions that put women in a submissive position to men. The policies set out ensure equality under the law, but society has been slower to adapt. Problems with enforcement of the laws, especially in rural areas, have led to a continuance of gender discrimination. The Chinese government is proactive in working to pass legislation to protect the rights of women. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Chinese Religions; Contraception Methods; Sterilization, Voluntary. Further Readings Brownell, Susan and Jeffery N. Wassertrom, eds. Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Chang, Leslie T. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2008. Fong, Vanessa L. Only Hope: Coming of Age Under China’s One-Child Policy. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.

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Rofel, Lisa. Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture (Perverse Modernities). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008. Jocelyn H. DeHaas Eastern Washington University

Chinese Religions The conventional view is that Chinese religions, which place an emphasis on filial piety and female submissiveness, are uniformly patriarchal. This interpretation ignores important variations within these traditions that often provide religious roles that empower women. Any account of religion in China must also consider the consequences of Communist rule on religious belief and practice. There is a long-standing academic debate as to whether there are any Chinese religions. Belief in a High God is largely absent from Asian religious cultures, and Confucianism is a state ideology relating to social order and respect for authority. Similarly, Buddhism may be thought of as “the Righteous Way,” or the dharma, which develops meditation practices to regulate desire. Daoism is typically a set of beliefs and practices promoting health and longevity through various exercises such as breathing techniques (qigong). Syncretism is also a notable characteristic of religion in China, especially between Buddhism and Daoism, and hence these traditions overlap with each other. There was some cultural division of labor in China, in which Confucianism was important in family concerns, Buddhism for death and funeral services, and Daoism for psychological and health matters. These religious traditions share in common ancestor worship, filial piety, and the absence of any sacerdotal priesthood and congregational organizations. It is also important to distinguish between the literary “official religion” and their religions’ constitutive texts—such as The Analects of Confucius or the Pali Canon of Buddhism—and popular or folk religion, with its pantheon of deities, spirits, sacred persons, cultural heroes, and the ubiquitous Chinese Dragon. Finally, although they are not Chinese religions as such, Christianity, which first entered China in the

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7th century, was important in creating educational institutions and in opposing footbinding, and Muslims, who came along trade routes as early as the 7th century, migrated in large numbers to China during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368). Because Chinese religions do not have congregations or membership, it is difficult to calculate their relative size and influence, and estimates of religious adherence vary greatly. In addition, all religions were suppressed under Communist rule, and during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), churches, temples, and ancestral shrines were destroyed, while Mao Zedong’s atheism was rigorously enforced by the Red Guards. Three Dominant Religions Following economic and cultural liberalization under Deng Xiaoping in 1978, there has been a significant revival of religious life in modern China. Buddhism is the largest religion, with 660 million adherents or 50 to 80 percent of the population, and Daoism represents some 400 million people, or 30 percent of the population. However, it is quite likely that these figures simply refer to the widespread presence of some folk religious practice. Islam has between 20 and 30 million adherents, or 1.5 to 2.0 percent of the population, and Christianity has 40 million followers, or 3 percent of the population. Many new religious movements have also emerged such as Falun Gong, which now has a substantial organizational membership in China. In assessing the effect of these religious traditions on gender identity and relations, it is important to draw a distinction between south, east, and southeast Asia. Although east Asia (comprising China, Japan, and Korea) has been unambiguously patriarchal, women have enjoyed much greater equality in southeast Asia, which was matrilocal and where gender was seen to be fluid and derivative. The conventional view of the three dominant religions in China is that they are patriarchal and have not developed values or institutions that promote women as equal members of society. The widespread belief in yin (female) and yang (male) sustained an ideology in which men and women had ontologically separate beings. Although in early Confucianism yin and yang were complementary, when Confucianism became the dominant official state ideology of the Han dynasty (206 b.c.e.–220 c.e.), they were hierarchically organized: Women were defined as weak, cold, and

passive and were associated with the moon, and men were associated with warmth, strength, and the sun. Unsurprisingly, feminist criticism has been directed in the main against Confucianism, which is associated with foot-binding and the cult of chastity that were common in the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644– 1911) dynasties. In the Classic of Filial Piety, Confucius established norms of respect for elders but also defined the virtuous wife as submissive and respectful. Widows were to remain chaste and dedicated to their parents-in-law and to the memory of their husbands. These norms affirmed the authority of the husband and gave a distinctive preference for male offspring. It is often argued that Daoism and Buddhism were attractive as a refuge from Confucianism because their religious practices and values were less harsh and rigid. The Daoist classical texts (Daodejing) of Laozi are said to give expression to feminine virtues. Dao, the mystical source of being, entailed the idea of wu wei, or nonaction, in which people can become free from desire. The teachings of Laozi were a source of opposition against authoritarian rule, and in medieval Daoist monasteries, women often enjoyed equal status with men. The relationship between Buddhism and women is much disputed. There is nothing in Buddhism’s canonical texts to support or justify discrimination against women, and yet in both China and India Buddhism has been in practice patriarchal. It was generally believed that a woman could not achieve nirvana until she had changed into a man. However, Buddhism, unlike the Confucian emphasis on the importance of marriage for young women and chastity for widows, developed nunneries for women who chose not to marry or who were widows. Throughout Asia, Mahayana Buddhism created a pantheon of deities or celestial beings such as bodhisattvas who are the compassionate manifestation of the Buddha. The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, or “the lord who looks down,” was especially important. In China, Avalokeshvara evolved into the female bodhisattva Guanyin or Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion, who became associated with Mount Putuo in Zhejiang, where pilgrims from all over China seek her blessing. In popular religion, the female goddesses of both Daoism and Buddhism are sought after by the downtrodden and impoverished, rather than male figures such as the Buddha or the Jade Emperor.



For some 2000 years, Confucianism served the basic pillar of Chinese society, and women were taught to be obedient and submissive. This familial system was challenged by the Nationalist Revolution in 1911, by the militarization of Chinese society in the warlord period (1927–49), and by the Communist Revolution, when Mao Zedong’s regime sought to undermine the “Four Olds” of Confucian teaching: old ideas, old habits, old customs, and old culture. In particular, the Communists attempted to destroy the legacy of filial piety and lineage organizations. The Marriage Law of 1950 outlawed dowries, concubinage, and arranged marriages. In 1982, the one-child policy was announced, and the State Planning Commission introduced such practices as compulsory insertion of intrauterine contraception and sterilization. These policies had traumatic consequences for gender relations and resulted in widespread female infanticide and the abandonment of female children. The resulting demographic transition to low fertility rates, coupled with greater life expectancy, is beginning to change the status of women, and they are leaving the countryside to take up employment in the coastal economic zones. As the traditional system of filial piety breaks down, religion is also changing. There are two aspects of the new relationship between religion and state in the period of contemporary liberalization. The first is that the state constantly intervenes to manage religions in the interests of state security, but it also attempts to maintain some semblance of freedom of religious worship. It has, of course, a tense relationship with the tantric Buddhist traditions of Tibet and with the Muslim uiyghurs and Hui. The second aspect is that the state often promotes religion, but only as a commercialized leisure activity. There is support for Daoist and Buddhist temples as tourist sites for pilgrims; for example, the Daoist temple complex at Wudang Mountain in Hubei Province has been reopened as a heritage site, attracting visitors not only from mainland China but also from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The commodification of religion is in tune with the development of Chinese capitalism, globalization, and the gradual expansion of religious and sexual freedom in contemporary China. In the emerging gender pluralism of the major cities, there is greater fluidity in the definition of gender roles, in which both men and women experience more opportunities for sexual experimenta-

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tion. Although there is a revival of religions in China, they are subject to extensive state surveillance, especially in the case of Falun Gong and Islam. In this evolving secular framework, there is little prospect that the rigid gender roles and values of traditional Confucian China will survive. See Also: Buddhism; China; Christianity; Islam; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Berlie, Jean A. Islam in China. Hui and Uyghurs Between Modernization and Sinicization, Bangkok, Thailand: White Lotus, 2004. Chan, Sin Yee. “The Confucian Conception of Gender in the Twenty-First Century.” In Daniel A. Bell and Hahm Chaibong, eds., Confucianism for the Modern World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Despeux, Catherine and Livia Kohn. Women in Daoism, Cambridge, MA: Three Pines, 2003. Ikels, Charlotte, ed. Filial Piety. Practice and Discourses in Contemporary East Asia. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004. Palmer, Martin and Jay Ramsay (with Man-Ho Kwok). Kuan Yin, Myths and Prophecies of the Chinese Goddess of Compassion. London: Thorsons, 1995. Paul, Diana Y. Women in Buddhism. Images of the Feminine in the Mahayana Tradition, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. Bryan S. Turner The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Cho, Margaret Margaret Cho has distinguished herself as an important feminist, antiracist, queer comedian whose work has developed consistently as she moved from a 16-year-old stand-up to sitcom star to a multimedia political provocateur. Cho first achieved national recognition as the star of the first sitcom starring an Asian American family, All-American Girl, in 1994. The series was short-lived, lasting less than a season, and Cho achieved far more significant political impact talking about her oppressive experience making the show in her 1999 one-

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woman show, I’m the One That I Want. Starting as a live performance, this show was filmed and shown in movie theaters and then got wide distribution on DVD, establishing Cho as a potent political voice who spoke not only for those marginalized by race, gender, and sexuality, but also as one who could expose some of the many ways this marginalization is produced from within the entertainment industry. Notorious C.H.O. (2001), Revolution (2003), Assassin (2005), and Beautiful (2008) are all films that have grown out of her live performances—all of which take on both structural political issues around race and sexuality particularly, and topical issues at the same time. Multimedia Communication Cho’s cultural influence is made possible through her ability to communicate through so many media. I’m the One That I Want was also made into a book (2002), and was followed by I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight (2005). She contributed an essay to the book Open My Eyes, Open My Soul: Exploring Our Common Humanity (2003), and the foreword to BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism From the Pages of Bitch Magazine (2006). Cho also made a CD, Drunk With Power (2003), and appears in films, like Phone Sex (2005), and documentaries like American Experience: Miss America Pageant (2006) and Underbelly (2008). She also wrote, directed, and starred in her own full-length film, Bam Bam and Celeste, in 2005. Cho is featured in the Lifetime series, Drop Dead Diva, in 2009. She is also an active blogger on her Website. As of early 2010, she was at work on a musical comedy CD titled Guitarded. In 2008, Cho starred in her own reality television show, The Cho Show, that followed her and her faux-entourage, along with her parents, but did not include her husband, Al Ridenour. This choice was interesting in light of her queer identity. Cho has publicly discussed her own sexual relationships with both men and women, has a very large and visible gay male following, identifies herself as queer, and has campaigned for gay marriage rights, in part because she said that she has experienced being married herself as very positive, and so wants to ensure that everyone has the right to the possibility. Her public queer identity is maintained and cultivated with these unconventional and unpredictable relational and political stances.

Cho is one of the very few comics working today who actively challenges all forms of Othering in all of her work. She is exemplary in her creation of a career that manages to get laughs, and get seen, without sacrificing her personal and political vision. See Also: Celebrities, Women; Comedians, Female; Entrepreneurs; Marriage. Further Readings Lee, Rachel C. “‘Where’s My Parade?’: Margaret Cho and the Asian American Body in Space.” TDR: The Drama Review, v.48/2 (Summer 2004). Margaret Cho. http://margaretcho.com (accessed May 2010). Pearson, Kyra. “‘Words Should Do the Work of Bombs’: Margaret Cho as Symbolic Assassin.” Women and Language Journal, v.32/1 (Spring 2009). Jennifer Reed California State University Long Beach

Christian Identity Christian Identity is a conservative religious movement based primarily on race and bloodline. Proponents of the movement believe firmly in the notion of racial purity. The movement gets its name from the members’ belief that they have discovered their identities as the true descendants of the lost white tribes of Israel. The movement is known for its fanatical racism and homophobia and serves as a continuous threat to peace and tolerance (since many Christian Identity members are violent and because of the racist ideology they champion). Their views relegate women to subservient positions, and members also expect women to behave in accordance with strictly defined gender stereotypes. As Chester Quarles notes in Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion, groups that follow the tenets of the Christian Identity belief system include the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads, Posse Comitatus, and the Covenant, Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA); other extremist white right-wing groups believe in the Christian Identity movement as well. Quarles examines the way in which their beliefs dif-

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fer from those of other conservative Christians. Christian Identity beliefs often assign responsibility to women for crises that occurred in Christian theology. For instance, Christian Identity movement members believe that Satan seduced Eve and that she later bore his child, Cain. As Quarles notes, most conservative Christians believe that both Adam and Eve disobeyed God and that Adam fathered Cain. Christian Identity beliefs hold Eve solely to blame and relieve Adam of any responsibility for events Christians believe brought wickedness and violence into the world (including the fall of humankind and the birth of Cain, who murdered his brother Abel). These views about women have extended from the inception of the movement into the 21st century. The Christian Identity movement perpetuates ideology that women should be highly feminine and subservient. Advertisements and newsletters on various Christian Identity Websites demonstrate this ideology. For instance, the Kingdom Identity Ministries Website hosts a link labeled “White Christian Ladies Only.” The link leads to a posting for a secretarial position, where applicants must have “genuine sweet, gentle, feminine mannerisms and be easy to get along with.” The Christian Identity Ministries Website provides links to copies of newsletters in which advice on the roles of women abounds. For example, a concerned brother wrote to the newsletter column for teens called “What’s Up With That?” He shared his worry over his sister, who wanted to grow up and become a doctor instead of getting married early and having children. The advice he received urged him to remind his sister that a girl’s first priority is to be a wife and have a family. The columnist also encouraged the brother to remind his sister that when God gave Adam and Eve orders, God did not tell Eve to get a career. Another newsletter advertises a series of tapes for rent called God’s Plan for Finding a Mate. The advertisement says that men must win their lady’s heart and that, with the help of God-given authority figures, they will find marriage as God intended. This advertisement implies that women play a passive role in finding a partner, and that those in power in the movement—men— determine who and when they should marry. Soldiers of God Members of the Christian Identity movement refer to themselves as Soldiers of God, and believe their task

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is to begin a religious war with the U.S. government. They hold a “God of Tolerance” responsible for the problems of the world, and believe they are the chosen people. Though members believe that they will all experience salvation, women remain consigned to subservient roles in which men expect them to marry and have families, rather than pursue their own interests and ambitions. See Also: Christianity; Ku Klux Klan; Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of. Further Readings Christian Identity Ministries. “God’s Plan for Finding a Mate.” www.christianidentityministries.com/244.pdf (accessed July 2010). Christian Identity Ministries. “What’s Up With That?” http://www.christianidentityministries.com/184.pdf (accessed July 2010). Kingdom Identity Ministries. “White Christian Ladies Only.” http://www.kingidentity.com/cla-kim.html (accessed July 2010). Quarles, C. L. Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004. Roberts, Charles H. Race Over Grace: The Racialist Religion of the Christian Identity Movement. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2003. Walters, Jerome. One Aryan Nation Under God: Exposing the New Racial Extremists. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2000. Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Christianity Christianity today is found in a plethora of denominations, perhaps as many as 30,000 worldwide. While those denominations share core beliefs in God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, they vary widely in further expressions of that belief and its implications. Even doctrines that Christ is both fully human and fully divine and that God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—which are central for most Christians—are disavowed by some individuals and groups who identify themselves as Christian.

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While the percentage of the world’s population that espouses Christianity is dwindling, statistical sources still suggest that it is somewhere around 30 percent. Moreover, Christianity’s influence, especially on Western culture, makes it a major factor in the experience and attitudes of a large number of the world’s women and men. This article focuses on women’s work to shape their world by influencing Christian thought and practice worldwide. Women’s Roles in Christian Churches Today, women exercise formal leadership as ordained ministers, preachers, teachers, and even bishops in almost every Christian denomination. But that is quite a recent development. While Quakers allowed women to preach as early as the 17th century, most Christian groups did not allow women to study theology, to

preach, to lead prayer, or to vote in church assemblies until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exclusions were grounded in the churches’ understanding of certain biblical passages that enjoined women not to speak in church and on the idea that leadership in the early church was exercised almost exclusively by men. In the 19th century, a surge of religious fervor, at least in the Western world, and a rising movement for women’s suffrage both contributed to the rise of women’s missionary movements. Women began to organize around providing food, housing, education, and other social services for the poor in their own home countries as well as in such mission fields as China, India, and Africa. Believing that women could do more than serve as quiet helpers to the men in the field, they also established educational programs to prepare women for the work of the missions.

Christianity today is found in a multitude of denominations—as many as 30,000 worldwide. While Christian denominations share the core belief of Jesus Christ being the son of God, they vary widely in further expressions of that belief and its implications.



At the same time, women began to seek an official voice in the churches. In the United States, Antoinette Brown Blackwell completed the theological seminary at Oberlin College in 1850. Although at first she was neither granted a degree nor ordained, she held a pastorate in the Congregational Church and was ordained in 1853. In November 1919, the International Association of Women Ministers, still an active group, gathered for the first time in St. Louis, Missouri. The Methodist General Conference declared women eligible to be licensed preachers in 1920, and in 1947, stated that women ministers should be accorded equal status with their male colleagues. Lutheran churches saw a movement in the 19th century to ordain women as deacons, but it was not until the 1970s that the Lutheran Church of America and the American Lutheran Church voted to ordain women as pastors. During the 1980s, the worldwide Anglican Communion carried on a lengthy discernment regarding the ordination of women. The Anglican Communion agreed in 1992 that ordination of women was approved but left an opening for individual dioceses to limit ordination to men, and at the time of this writing some Anglican and Episcopal dioceses still do so. A few denominations such as the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox still reserve ordination to men alone, although other administrative and teaching roles are open to women. Christian women do not believe that gaining access to ordination and other official roles in the churches means that women have achieved full equality. Ordained women still find themselves in smaller or more remote parishes or in assistant roles in larger places. Moreover, they find that Christian churches still need to pay more attention to women’s voices as they develop Christian doctrine, morality, history, and spirituality. Doing Theology Women were the first to announce that Jesus was risen from the dead. Women served as deaconesses in the first centuries of Christianity, lived as virgins and widows dedicated to lives of holiness as that lifestyle developed among those seeking to give themselves fully to Christ, and continued to reflect and write on the meaning of Christian faith and lifestyle throughout the Middle Ages. The 20th century, however, saw tremendous growth in the number of women engag-

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ing in professional theology, earning doctorates, teaching at the college and university level, and publishing theological works. Christian women’s theology is far from monolithic. Coming from different denominational and experiential perspectives, women theologians disagree with one another even on some fundamental questions. Interpretation of Scripture One of the major theological tasks undertaken by Christian women has been to address the interpretation of scripture and what it says to and about women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in the second half of the 19th century, undertook to publish the Women’s Bible, consisting of selected passages and commentary pointing out the patriarchal biases found both within the texts and in the church’s traditional uses of the texts. In the 20th century, women utilized the variety of scholarly tools now available to demonstrate that the inspired message of scripture can be distinguished from language, underlying assumptions, and customs that are reflected in but are not essential to the meaning of biblical passages. They also work to retrieve and reemphasize biblical messages that uphold the dignity of women and show their importance both in the history of Israel as God’s people and in the early Christian community. In the last decade of the 20th century, Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza edited a history and an anthology of feminist commentary on scripture dedicated to the work of Cady Stanton and her colleagues. God Language One of the questions for women examining the Christian tradition has to do with the way in which Christians name and describe God. The importance of that question include the fact that human persons are said to be made in God’s own image. That being the case, does an overwhelmingly male image of God suggest that men are, in some way, more fully human than women? While most women acknowledge the special status of the name Father found throughout both Old and New Testaments and overwhelmingly in the teachings of Jesus, they point out that scripture also contains God-images that draw on motherhood as well as on the force and beauty of nature. They further point out that God is ultimately incomprehensible and cannot therefore be captured by a single name or image.

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Many women find the doctrine of the Trinity a rich source for feminine spirituality. Elizabeth Johnson and Catherine Mowry LaCugna point out that according to the tradition of Trinitarian Faith, God exists in eternal interpersonal relationship marked by mutuality and reciprocity. Thus, a Christian understanding of God bears witness against any human relationships or structures marked by domination or oppression. Another key subject for women is the significance of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, the revelation of God and savior of all, was a male person. Women theologians vary in their approach to this issue. Some suggest that the humanity rather than the gender of Jesus is the significant factor. Others search the accounts of Jesus’s work to find examples of his equal regard for women and men. Some women like Mary Daly, who was a pioneer in Christian feminist theology, ultimately abandoned Christianity, concluding that with a Father God and a male savior, its message is inherently and irredeemably patriarchal. Moral Issues Women have taken a particular interest in certain moral issues including violence in all forms as well as questions regarding relationships, healthcare, and respect for the all creation. In the 19th century, Quaker and other Christian women were among the first to raise their voices against the practice of slavery. In the 20th and 21st centuries, women continue to take leading roles in articulating Christian opposition to war, to exploitive labor practices, and to anthropocentrism, and in insisting on allocation of resources to provide healthcare and education as basic human rights. They point out that unjust economic policies and the proliferation of violence at all levels have overwhelmingly affected women and children, leaving them without basic human needs. Many women identify dualism—the unjustified categorization of reality into opposing and mutually exclusive pairs such as spirit/matter, male/female, good/evil, we/they—as the root of all disordered relationships. Dialogue and Difference Today, Christian women, like feminist groups in general, are especially sensitive to issues of difference. Women recognize not a univocal “feminist” perspective but attend to the vital contributions of woman-

ist, mujerista, black, Latina, Asian, and many other styles of women’s theology. While differences in their experiences of Christianity and of the world in general lead women to different positions or approaches to theological issues, they have also demonstrated a commitment to dialogue across those differences. They are also engaged in dialogue with women of other faith traditions. They have established local and international organizations committed to that dialogue. Among them are the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women’s Caucus Christians for Biblical Equality, the Ecclesia of Women in Asia, the Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women, the Circle of Concerned African Woman Theologians, and women’s groups within the American Academy of Religion and the World Council of Churches. Work of the World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) , the largest and best-organized ecumenical group of Christian leaders worldwide, declared 1988–98 an “Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity With Women.” While the assembly did not reach a unified stand on all issues due to diverse convictions and even interpretations of language, the assembly did agree on a strong statement on the sinfulness of violence against women. Further, members united around a call for recognition of the effects of economic trends on the lives of women and children and for commitments to education and equal dignity for women in society. Likewise, the WCC study on Theological Anthropology insists on gender equality in its assertions on creation in God’s image and on issues calling for Christian commitment grounded in our common understanding of what it means to be human. See Also: Black Churches; Ecofeminism; Evangelical Protestantism; Feminist Theology; Fundamentalist Christianity; Mujerista Theology; Roman Catholic Church; Women’s Ordination Conference. Further Readings Bendroth, Margaret Lamberts and Virginia Brereton, eds. Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Daly, Mary. The Church and the Second Sex With the Feminist Post Christian Introduction and New Archaic Afterwords, 3rd ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.

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James, Janet Wilson, ed. Women in American Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980. MacHaffie, Barbara J. Readings in Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1992. Malone, Mary T. Women and Christianity, 3 vols. New York: Orbis Books, 2001–03. Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth, ed. Searching the Scriptures. 2 vols. New York: Crossroad, 1993–94. World Council of Churches. Christian Perspectives on Theological Anthropology: A Faith and Order Study Document. Faith and Order paper No. 199. Geneva:WCC Publications, 2005. World Council of Churches. “Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Harare, Zimbabwe, December 3–14, 1998.” http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc /assembly.index-e.html (accessed June 2010). Young, Pamela Dickey. “Women in Christianity.” In Leona M. Anderson and Pamela Dickey Young, eds., Women and Religious Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. M. Corinne Winter St. Ambrose University

Civil Unions A civil union is a legally and socially recognized union between partners of the same sex. As a sociolegal institution, civil unions were created to provide same-sex couples with many of the rights, benefits, and privileges typically associated with oppositesex civil marriage. Civil unions are distinguished by the fact that they provide all of the state-recognized rights and benefits of marriage, without being the equivalent of marriage. The term civil union was first adopted in the American context and, therefore, has a unique cultural, political, and historical trajectory. Given their particular development, it is important to distinguish civil unions from American-style domestic partnerships, European-style registered partnerships, and civil marriage. Throughout the 1990s, but especially after the Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision in Baehr v. Lewin (1993), relationship recognition for same-sex cou-

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ples became a major topic of political debate. Various municipalities across the country began creating domestic partnership registries, providing a basic legal structure for the official recognition of samesex relationships. The rights and benefits available through these domestic partnerships vary significantly, but typically involve the ability to visit one’s partner in a hospital, and various contractual agreements regarding property ownership and mutual support. While domestic partnerships provide a set of basic rights to same-sex couples, they have often been criticized for providing only minimal protections, and this criticism represented the early stages of the movement for same-sex marriage. Court Battles and Decisions In 1999, three same-sex couples sued the state of Vermont for the right to marry. In a landmark decision called Baker v. State, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled unanimously that denying the statutory benefits and protections of marriage to same-sex couples violated the Common Benefits Clause of the Vermont Constitution. In an opinion authored by Chief Justice Amestoy, the court held that the state was “constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law.” However, the court left it to the Vermont legislature to remedy the violation by either incorporating same-sex couples into existing marriage laws, or by creating a statutory alternative that provided same-sex couples the full “benefit, protection, and security of the law.” The court’s decision proved controversial and the Vermont legislature engaged in extensive committee hearings and public debate to find a legally acceptable solution. Once it became clear that the majority of legislators preferred the creation of an alternative statutory arrangement, rather than the integration of samesex couples into civil marriage, much of the discussion focused on what such an arrangement should be called. Members of the Vermont legislature considered several terms including domestic partnership, civil accord, and civil domestic partnership; however, members of the gay and lesbian community were dissatisfied with the term domestic partnership as were many of the legislators. Legal scholar William Eskridge notes that the term civil union first became part of the Vermont legislative record when Representative Cathy Voyer urged

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that the provision of equal benefits and responsibilities ought to be made in a “civil union package.” The term civil union gained the favor of Representative Thomas Little, the chair of Vermont’s House Judiciary Committee, and the term was eventually adopted by the full legislature when it passed Act 91—An Act Relating to Civil Unions. Vermont’s Act 91 created what legal scholars have referred to as “a parallel system” for the recognition of same-sex relationships. Vermont’s creation of civil unions was seen by many as a political compromise that conformed to the legal mandate to provide samesex couples all of the rights and benefits associated with marriage, while at the same time reserving the title “marriage” for opposite-sex relationships. As debates over same-sex marriage continued in the 2000s, civil unions became an attractive option for courts and legislatures struggling with how to ensure the equal rights of same-sex couples. The civil union approach was eventually adopted by the states of Connecticut (2005), New Jersey (2007), and New Hampshire (2008). Separate but Equal System More recently, civil unions have been criticized as a novel legal institution that fails to provide full equality for same-sex couples. Echoing the U.S. Supreme Court’s reasoning in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), many have argued that civil unions are an attempt to create a “separate but equal” system of familial recognition that explicitly distinguishes same-sex couples from opposite-sex couples. In 2008, Connecticut became the first state with civil unions to address this legal problem. In Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a right to civil marriage, and that Connecticut’s civil union law did not provide full equality to its citizens. In recent years, several states have expanded their domestic partnership laws to provide all, or nearly all, of the rights and responsibilities of marriage, therefore rendering them equivalent to civil unions while at the same time retaining the term domestic partnership. For example, the states of California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington have comprehensive domestic partnership laws that are equivalent to civil unions. Several other states including Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, and Wisconsin provide more limited forms of domestic partnership. In 2009, Vermont and New

Hampshire became the first states with civil unions to legislatively adopt same-sex marriage. As prescribed by these laws, civil unions in both states will be converted to civil marriages. Forms of relationship recognition similar to American-style civil unions have been adopted in other parts of the world, particularly in Europe. Denmark became the first country in the world to provide samesex couples almost all of the rights of marriage when it adopted the Registered Partnership Act in 1989. Since then, other countries have adopted various forms of relationship recognition for same-sex couples. Similar to the diversity among American states, some of these countries provide a minimal set of rights while others provide more comprehensive recognition for same-sex couples. For example, in 2004, the United Kingdom passed the Civil Partnership Act, which, like American-style civil unions, provides same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities of marriage, but without the title of marriage. Because of the various ways different states and countries have dealt with relationship recognition for same-sex couples, there is a patchwork of legal arrangements that are often not recognized outside their jurisdiction of origin. Many of these legal arrangements are similar in the kinds of rights and benefits they provide to same-sex couples, yet different in terms of their historical development and their cultural meaning. Civil unions emerged at the turn of the 21st century as the result of particular legal and political conditions. As a form of relationship recognition for samesex couples designed to be the substantive equivalent of civil marriage, civil unions are distinguished by the particular bundle of legal and social rights they provide, as well as the cultural meanings they convey. Civil unions, and their counterparts in other societies, are certain to remain an important and evolving feature of civil society for the foreseeable future. See Also: Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Marriage; Same-Sex Marriage. Further Readings Baker v. State of Vermont. 744 A.2d 864 (Vt. 1999). Chauncey, George. Why Marriage?: The History Shaping Today’s Debate Over Gay Equality. New York: Basic Books, 2004.

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Eskridge, William N. Jr. Equality Practice: Civil Unions and the Future of Gay Rights. New York: Routledge, 2002. Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health. 289 Conn. 135 (2008). Mello, Michael. Legalizing Gay Marriage. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. Merin, Yuval. Equality for Same-Sex Couples: The Legal Recognition of Gay Partnerships in Europe and the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Strasser, Mark. On Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and the Rule of Law: Constitutional Interpretation at the Crossroads. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002. Vermont Act 91, An Act Relating to Civil Unions. Approved April 26, 2000. Jason J. Hopkins Independent Scholar

Classical Music, Women in Although women have been active participants in all aspects of musical life since antiquity, their accomplishments have typically been eclipsed by those of male musicians. Historically, classical music (Western art music) has generally been viewed as an elite domain—the realm of the highly trained “professional,” and thus deemed largely off-limits for female musicians, who usually lacked equal access to formal musical training. Women have been performing and composing music for centuries, but often their efforts were unknown, unpublished, or considered amateur accomplishments. Since the “second wave” feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, women’s work in classical music has begun to be explored by scholars in greater depth. Research has led to new insights about important female performers and ensembles of previous eras. Music by female composers has been recovered and discovered, adding an astonishing number of new pieces to the classical repertoire. Many of the works of these previously forgotten female composers are now being performed, published, and recorded for the first time. In many ways, women’s struggles in music have paralleled their struggles to redefine their roles in society.

Even highly successful female classical musicians face many professional barriers in the 21st century.

The hard-won social and political gains for women in the 19th and 20th centuries were also reflected in the classical music world, as increasing numbers of women began to pursue professional careers as performers and composers. Performers Female instrumentalists and singers broke down barriers regarding professional performance careers during the 19th century, as more and more women fought against prevailing ideas about the “proper” lady. Music was typically considered a hobby or “feminine” accomplishment for well-to-do women: Long-held views about “feminine” music making dictated that middleand upper-class women should perform as amateurs in domestic settings. As 19th-century women argued against entrenched notions of the “proper lady,” many women also sought to widen their musical sphere by publishing their music or attending conservatories. By the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, more and more women began to expand their musical activities, not only by learning instruments previously considered “unfeminine” (such as the violin or

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wind and brass instruments) but also through newfound professional opportunities. At the turn of the 20th century, women’s ensembles such as the Boston Fadette Lady Orchestra provided female instrumentalists a way to earn money as performing musicians, as women were still largely barred from playing in professional groups, which typically comprised only men. During the 20th century, larger numbers of women began to gain membership in professional symphony orchestras. World War II also offered increased opportunities for women, who were hired to replace male orchestral musicians who had been called overseas. Changes in audition procedures—particularly the switch to “blind” auditions (in which musicians play behind a screen, hiding their appearance from the hiring committee)—also have helped to prevent discrimination in orchestra auditions. At the close of the 20th century, a number of women such as Cecilia Bartoli, Evelyn Glennie, Jessye Norman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Mitsuko Uchida, and many others enjoyed lucrative performance careers and worldwide acclaim. However, female performers still face professional barriers in the 21st century. The Vienna Philharmonic did not hire female musicians until the 1980s and did not allow women to become full-time members until 1997. In 2010, Albena Danailova made headlines when she became the first female violinist to be appointed concertmaster of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (the ensemble from which the Vienna Philharmonic draws its performers). Successful female performers also face a different sort of pressure from the recording industry. A startling number of albums by female classical musicians have cover art and photography that emphasizes the physical attractiveness of the performer, often using risqué images and graphics. Crossover groups such as the “OperaBabes” (whose 2001 album sold more than 1 million copies) include highly sensual visual content on their albums, Website, and videos. Even accomplished and highly successful classical musicians such as the Eroica Trio, Anna Netrebko, and Lara St. John have used suggestive photography on their Websites and album cover art. Composers Historically, classical composition is a realm that has been dominated by men. As women’s access to educational opportunities improved, more women

began pursuing careers as composers. However, critics often dismissed women’s compositional efforts. In 1880, George Upton claimed that women’s inherent incapacity for intricate, logical reasoning meant that they would never create musical works equal to those of male composers. Even as late as 1940, Carl E. Seashore argued that the lack of “great” women composers could be explained by women’s “fundamental urge,” which he claimed was to be loved and adored (and not to seek a professional career). However, significant numbers of women endeavored to have careers as professional composers in the 20th century. These women garnered a number of important “firsts” for female composers. In 1933, Florence Price became the first African American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra. In 1983, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music—the first woman to receive this important honor. Since 2000, female composers have continued to make impressive strides. In 2010, Columbia University awarded Pauline Oliveros the prestigious William Schuman award; Oliveros is the first woman to receive this prize. The same year, Jennifer Higdon won the Pulitzer Prize in music, making her the fourth woman to earn the award for composition. Yet female composers still face many barriers. As Gascia Ouzounian has noted, male composers still significantly outnumber female composers as university faculty members, and many major institutions (such as McGill University, the Juilliard School, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Yale University, to name just a few) currently employ only one or even zero women on their permanent composition faculties. Other Areas In recent years, female conductors have made especially noteworthy accomplishments. Although a few women (such as Ethel Leginska and Antonia Brico) worked as guest conductors in the early decades of the 20th century, it was not until the mid-1980s that a woman (Catherine Comet) was finally appointed to a permanent position as an associate conductor. In 1998, JoAnn Falleta (who is also the first American woman to lead a regional orchestra) became the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic—an acclaimed second-tier orchestra—and in 2007, Marin Alsop was appointed music director of the Baltimore Symphony,



making her the first female music director of a major American orchestra. Music scholarship by and about women has flourished since the “second wave” feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. However, the integration of gender studies into music scholarship has occurred more slowly than in other disciplines, perhaps because men have traditionally outnumbered women in the subdisciplines of musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory. Although in recent years the professional organizations for musicologists (the American Musicological Society) and ethnomusicologists (the Society for Ethnomusicology) have reported that their percentages of male and female members are now roughly equal, a 2008 study by the Society for Music Theory’s Committee on the Status of Women revealed that female music theorists were still significantly outnumbered by male music theorists. In 2001, only 31 percent of the Society for Music Theory’s members were female; by 2008, the percentage of women in the society had fallen to just 27 percent. Although progress remains to be made, women’s status in classical music has significantly improved during the last two centuries. The 21st century marks an exciting era in which female musicians and scholars have unprecedented opportunities to pursue professional careers in music. In addition, technological advances (such as the World Wide Web) provide new ways for female musicians to communicate, organize, and share their work with audiences around the world. Today’s women in classical music will continue to blaze the way for future generations of female musicians and scholars. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Arts, Women in (21st Century Overview); Zaimont, Judith Lang. Further Readings Bernstein, J., ed. Women’s Voices Across Musical Worlds. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2004. Briscoe, James R. New Historical Anthology of Music by Women. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. Citron, Marcia. Gender and the Musical Canon. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993. The Committee on the Status of Women (in the Society for Music Theory). “CSW Report on Gender Imbalance” and “Gender in SMT.” Presented at the 2008 Society for Music Theory meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. http://

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societymusictheory.org/administration/committees /women (accessed April 2010). International Alliance for Women in Music. http://www .iawm.com (accessed June, 2010). Sadie, J. and R. Samuel, eds. The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994. Seashore, Carl E. “Why No Great Women Composers?” Reprinted in Carol Neuls-Bates, ed., Women in Music: An Anthology of Source Readings From the Middle Ages to the Present, rev. ed. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 1996. Tick, J., et al. “Women in Music,” in Grove Music Online/ Oxford Music Online. http://www.oxfordmusiconline .com/subscriber/article/grove/music/52554pg2 (accessed April 2010). Upton, George. Excerpts From Woman in Music (1880), Reprinted in Carol Neuls-Bates, ed., Women in Music: An Anthology of Source Readings From the Middle Ages to the Present, rev. ed. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 1996. Rachel Lumsden City University of New York

Clergy Abuse/Pedophilia For several decades, the Catholic Church has found itself rocked by scandal; hundreds of members of the clergy have sexually abused their parishioners. Though victims have reported incidents of sexual abuse around the world, most cases have occured in the United States and Europe. Critics have attacked the Church relentlessly because many members of the Church’s upper echelon were aware of clergy members’ sexually abusing members of their flock. For instance, Pope Benedict XVI, while serving in the capacity of head of the archdiocese of Munich and Freising in Germany, allowed a priest who molested children to seek therapy and then be reinstated. Through the end of the 20th century, most publicized cases of sexual abuse involving clergy concerned young males. Since 2000, however, scores of women (including nuns) have come forward and revealed that they, too, suffered sexual abuse by members of the clergy. In 2006, Colm O’Gorman’s BBC documentary Sex Crimes and the Vatican focused on young boys

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sexually abused by clergy members. Gorman’s work emphasized the Church’s scandal in detail, which many members of the public consider a “homosexual issue” because the sexual abuse involves two males. In a world still plagued by homophobic attitudes, cases of boys sexually abused by priests receive a wealth of attention. Hundreds of women have also been sexually abused by the clergy, but these women remain the underrepresented population of sexual abuse victims. In fact, Sacha Pfeiffer of the Boston Globe and author of “Women Face Stigma of Clergy Abuse” argues that though more preadolescent victims of clergy abuse are male, once parishioners reach the age of late adolescence or adulthood, females account for 80 percent of clergy sexual abuse victims. Continuing Pattern of Abuse Critics of female abuse victims question why these women did not reveal the abuse they suffered earlier, especially when male victims have been creating awareness about abuse patterns for decades. Scholars and abuse victims alike agree that the scare tactics used by priests abusing young women caused them to remain terrified and silent for much longer than their male counterparts. While male abuse victims suffer as much pain and humiliation as female victims, the Church’s traditional views of the female sex make women ripe for exploitation. The Catholic Church remains an institution in which traditional Church fathers (stemming back to St. Augustine) hold women responsible for humankind’s fall from grace. Priests who sexually abused young women commonly played on the traditional Catholic belief that women are wrongdoers, temptresses, and ultimately responsible for seducing men into behaving inappropriately. Both female and male victims say that priests often encouraged them to remain quiet about the abuse because no one would take the abuser’s word over that of a trusted and respected priest. Consider the case of Mary Ryan who, once she revealed that a priest had abused her, was nicknamed “Priest Lover” and was made to feel responsible for the abuse inflicted on her, simply because she is female. Since 2000, hundreds of cases concerning sexual crimes committed by the clergy against women have been exposed. Some of the most shocking cases include Massachusetts reverend Robert Kelly, who recently

claimed to have sexually abused between 50 and 100 young women, and the case of a Canadian woman named Cecelia McLauchlin, who may be the youngest girl on record to have been sexually abused by a priest. As Mary Ormsby reports in “Church Scandal’s Next Wave: Abused Girls,” McLauchlin, at the age of only 5, was taken to the gynecologist for vaginal infections caused by her priest, Father Charles Sylvestre, who abused her. The Website SNAP (Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests) aims to educate readers about the stories of abuse victims. Barbara Blaine, a woman raped for years by her priest Chet Warren, founded the Website, which includes and emphasizes the stories of female victims from around the world who were sexually abused by clergy members. Some recent cases of sexual abuse in the Church involved nuns—both as targets of abuse and as perpetrators. In the article “Nuns as Sexual Victims Get Little Notice,” Bill Smith argues that over 40 percent of nuns report being sexual abuse victims; many of those victims say their abusers were members of the clergy with whom they work so closely. Conversely, sexual abuse victims have also targeted nuns as perpetrators. These scandals receive far less attention than those involving the clergy, however, because much of the Church’s resources remain devoted to addressing the more wellknown patterns of abuse created by its male members. In 2006, several Minnesota women made headlines by suing nuns who abused them as young girls. Mary Dunford weathered abuse while attending the Villa Maria boarding school. A nun came into her room after curfew to molest her. Christina Bertrand, Patricia Swartz, and Karen Britten of Rochester, Minnesota, experienced sexual abuse during private piano lessons with a nun. They later sued the Sisters of Saint Francis in Rochester. In Europe, Petra Jorissen, a Dutch woman, exposed her terrifying story of abuse by nuns at the Roman Catholic Hospital of Our Dear Lady Mother (located in Eindhoven in the Netherlands). Jorissen’s story, coupled with those of other abuse victims in the Netherlands, confronted the Dutch assumption that clergy in the Netherlands were uninvolved with the international sexual abuse scandal. Just as the pattern of priests abusing young men has been classified a “homosexual issue,” so has the pattern of nuns who abuse young women. This blanket generalization seeks to provide a rationale for why nuns, usually viewed as loving and peaceful, would



abuse young women: they must be lesbians and seek intimacy from other females. Several scholars agree, however, that nuns who abuse young girls are not lesbians, but simply women who—relegated to secondary positions in the institutions to which they devote themselves—enjoy having power over someone. Other scholars, like psychologist Gary Schoener (as interviewed by Pamela Miller in “Complaints of Sex Abuse by Nuns Begin to Emerge”) claim that some nuns who sexually abuse children do not understand the inappropriateness of their actions. Many nuns, Schoener claims, enter a convent immediately after completing high school and know very little of the world—including what constitutes sexual abuse. Long-Term Consequences Female victims, just like male victims, suffer tremendous consequences from the abuse endured. Some victims do not reveal their painful pasts and thus live under a burden of pain created by events in their youth. Others who expose the crimes committed against them require therapy. Whether or not the victim reveals the abuse, consequences for female victims of sexual abuse by religious leaders fall into two major categories: the females either suffer attacks from people who refuse to believe their stories or the abuse victims question (and sometimes even lose) their faith. For instance, Mary Ryan (the woman nicknamed the “Priest Lover” after revealing the abuse she endured) says she no longer believes in God but only in justice. Organizations like SNAP offer assistance and healing to victims and educate the public about the problem of sexual abuse and pedophilia within the Church and the dire consequences for its victims. Female victims face a particular set of consequences not typically present for male victims—that is, being held responsible for the sexual encounter—and have understandably been less willing to report incidents of abuse. But, as evidenced in recent years, the number of female victims who amass the strength and courage to reveal stories of sexual abuse by members of the Church will continue to grow. See Also: Child Abuse, Perpetrators of; Child Abuse, Victims of; Nuns, Roman Catholic; Priesthood, Roman Catholic; Rape Trauma Syndrome; Roman Catholic Church.

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Further Readings Berry, Jason. Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children. New York: Doubleday, 2000. Dohmen, Joep. “Catholic Nuns Also Abused Children.” NRC Handelsblad. http://www.nrc.nl/international /article2530647.ece/Catholic_nuns_also_abused _children (accessed June 2010). Doyle, Thomas, et al. Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church’s 2,000-Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse. Santa Monica, CA: Bonus Books, 2005. Miller, Pamela. “Complaints of Sex Abuse by Nuns Begin to Emerge.” Star and Tribune. http://www.bishop -accountability.org/news2006/05_06/2006_06_24 _Miller_ComplaintsOf.htm (accessed June 2010). Ormsby, Mary. “Church Scandal’s Next Wave: Abused Girls.” The Star (April 2010). Pfeiffer, Sacha. “Women Face Stigma of Clergy Abuse.” Boston Globe. http://www.snapnetwork.org/female _victims/women_face_stigma.htm (accessed June 2010). Plante, Thomas, ed. Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned: Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Committed by Roman Catholic Priests. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999. Smith, Bill. “Nuns as Sexual Victims Get Little Notice.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://www.snapnetwork.org /female_victims/nuns_as_victims.htm (accessed June 2010). SNAP: The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. http://www.snapnetwork.org/female_victims /female_victims_index.htm (accessed June 2010). Van Wormer, Katherine. “Priest Abuse: Male Compared to Female Victimization Impact.” Psychology Today. http:// www.psychologytoday.com/blog/crimes-violence /201005/priest-abuse-male-compared-female-victim ization-impact (accessed June 2010). Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Climate Change as a Women’s Issue Climate change poses a threat to women all over the world, and particularly those women who live in developing nations and women in low-income communities in developed nations. The effect of climate change

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on women in developing nations is particularly severe because of women’s unequal access to resources such as credit and property ownership; dependency on local natural resources; responsibility for supplying their households with water, energy for cooking and heating, and food; and increased vulnerability in natural disasters because of limited mobility. Gendered cultural norms also compound these threats. For example, in some cultures women are not taught to swim, thus limiting their chances of survival in a natural disaster such as a tsunami. In addition, although their perspectives on effective local strategies would be invaluable to decision making, women are seldom included in climate change policy discussions and decisions. Women in developed nations, particularly those in low-income communities, are also affected by climate change, as shown by Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005. Women’s perspectives and participation are vitally needed in informing policy discussion about climate change and enacting effective adaption and mitigation strategies in their communities. Causes and Effects of Climate Change The term climate change refers to significant and long-lasting (a decade or more) changes in the composition of the global atmosphere that, either directly or indirectly, are attributed to human activity. Global warming, an increase in global mean temperature, is one example of climate change. Additional examples include severe heat and drought, extreme rain and wind, and changing behavior in plants and animals. These combined changes threaten ecosystems, water availability, food production, and public health across the globe. In addition, rising sea levels pose a significant threat to the approximately 40 percent of the world’s population that lives in or near coastal areas. Climate change is attributed to the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The primary sources for these emissions are industrialized nations, which use energy for heating, lighting, transportation, and manufacturing. The least-developed countries are responsible for only 0.4 percent of the total emissions of all greenhouse gases, yet they stand to be most affected by climate changes and are the least prepared to cope with the effects. Effects of climate change include changes to environmental, economic, and social development. The risk of political unrest

and conflict rises as natural resources become scarce in a region, creating famine, drought, and relocation of populations. Adaptation and mitigation strategies are both needed to address the threats posed by climate change. Adaptation strategies are aimed at preparing for climate change disruptions and include strategies such as early-warning systems, such as those that are in place for droughts in Africa and cyclones in Bangladesh; preparing for an influx of refugees in the event of a natural disaster; and relocating at-risk populations before a disruptive event occurs. Mitigation strategies are aimed at slowing climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and include reducing the use of fossil fuels, reforestation, and developing sustainable alternatives for production and consumption practices. Effects on Women Women in developing nations are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change because they make up the world’s majority of subsistence farmers and are directly influenced by changes in water and land resources. Two broad factors influence the vulnerability of women to climate change in developing nations: traditional power structures and ecological degradation. Traditional power structures that perpetuate gender inequalities include limited access to resources such as credit; limited mobility; underrepresentation in decision making; poverty; not learning basic survival skills such as swimming and climbing trees; responsibility for household food, energy, and water; and the fact that women typically are the ones who stay behind in the event of a natural disaster, to care for the elderly and immobile. For example, it is estimated that up to two-thirds of those who died in the 2004 tsunami in Asia were women. The second factor that influences the vulnerability of women to climate change in developing countries is ecological degradation. Because women constitute the majority of the world’s subsistence farmers, they are directly affected by ecological degradation such as deforestation and desertification. For example, the conflicts that began in Darfur, Sudan, in 2003 and have left an estimated 500,000 people dead are linked to drought and the desertification of the region. In addition to conflict, such ecological changes place more of a burden on women, who must travel longer distances to find water



and firewood for fuel. In addition, mothers may take their daughters out of school to help them manage the household tasks, thus depriving the girls of education and perpetuating a cycle of social inequality. Although women in developing nations are most vulnerable to climate change, women in developed nations are also at risk, particularly those in lowincome communities. For example, in 2005, Gulf Coast regions of the United States were severely affected by flooding related to Hurricane Katrina. Similar to women in developing countries, the effect of the storm on women in these regions was compounded by their economic status, restricted mobility, and care-giving responsibilities. In addition to the devastation of communities and loss of life caused by the storm, women in affected regions faced poststorm challenges such as lack of affordable and safe housing, which resulted in increased domestic violence and sexual assault. In addition, representation of women in the workforce in these regions decreased with lack of job opportunities, lower wages, and the closure of childcare facilities. Climate Change Policy The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was agreed on in 1992 and went into effect in 1994, with federal governments agreeing to reduce their overall emissions. With a few exceptions, the majority of the world’s nations signed on to the convention. Negotiated in 1997 and adopted in 2005, the Kyoto Protocol set specific targets and timelines for achieving emissions reduction. The Kyoto Protocol was not adopted by the United States or Australia, as well as parts of Africa and eastern Europe. However, many local governments voluntarily adopted the Kyoto Protocol. Cities for Climate Protection was established in 1993 and includes more than 1,000 participating local and city governments in 33 countries that have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions. In the United States, the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement was established in 2005, and in 2009 it had 1,016 mayors signed on across the United States agreeing to reduce their carbon emissions below the 1990 level in accordance with Kyoto Protocol recommendations. None of the above initiatives include gender as an area of focus, however. Although women in developing countries and lowincome communities are the most vulnerable to the

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problems posed by climate change, they may also be the most knowledgeable in identifying effective local solutions, and thus, their inclusion and participation in environmental decision making is necessary. In particular, women can positively influence mitigation and adaptation strategies with their localized knowledge and expertise. Women’s grassroots environmental groups such as the Green Belt Movement, a nonprofit nongovernmental women’s civil society organization based in Kenya, are working to address the gender gap in discussions about climate change policy. Started in 1977 by Dr. Wangari Maathai, the first African woman and the first environmentalist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Green Belt Movement began as a grassroots tree-planting program intended to address the challenges of deforestation, soil erosion, and lack of water. Since the program began, more than 40 million trees have been planted across Africa, resulting in reduction of soil erosion in critical watersheds, restoration and protection of forests, and empowerment of women. Established in 1990 by former U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug and feminist activist and journalist Mim Kelber, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) organizes international conferences and actions that involve women in environmental decision making. In 1992, WEDO organized the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet, bringing together more than 1,500 women from 83 countries to work jointly on a strategy for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. WEDO’s Climate Change & Gender Mobilization Project involves partnerships with civil society organizations and governments in developing countries to examine the effects of climate change on women’s lives through gender and climate change assessments conducted in Ghana, Nepal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Senegal. Efforts at both the government and the grassroots levels are needed to help incorporate gender perspectives on climate change discussions, policy, and strategies; address and reduce women’s increased risk of susceptibility to harm caused by climate change; and identify best practices, challenges, and gaps. See Also: Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Famine; Financial Independence of Women; Green Belt Movement;

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Maathai, Wangari; Poverty; Property Rights; United Nations Development Fund for Women; Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Further Readings Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “Women in the Wake of the Storm: Examining the Post-Katrina Realities of the Women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.” http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/D481.pdf (accessed June 2010). Sontheimer, Sally, ed. Women and the Environment: A Reader. Crisis and Development in the Third World. New York: Monthly Review, 1991. United Nations Population Fund and Women’s Environment and Development Organization. “Climate Change Connections.” http://www.wedo.org/wp-con tent/uploads/climateconnections_1_overview.pdf (accessed June 2010). Deborah R. Bassett University of Washington

Clinton, Hillary Rodham Hillary Rodham Clinton was born on October 27, 1947, in Chicago to Dorothy and Hugh Rodham. She attended Wellesley, graduating in 1969, and then continued her education at Yale Law School, graduating with honors in 1973. It was at Yale that she first met Bill Clinton. Upon completing law school, Hillary Rodham completed an additional year of study on children and medicine at the Yale Child Study Center. In August 1974, after serving as a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff during the Watergate scandal, Rodham served as a faculty member at the University of Arkansas Law School. Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton were married on October 11, 1975, and welcomed their first and only child, Chelsea, on February 27, 1980. Hillary Clinton has held many prominent positions at both the state and federal levels. She served as First Lady of Arkansas (1979–1981 and 1983–1992), First Lady of the United States (1993–2000), and U.S. senator from the State of New York (2001–2009). In 2008, Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for president of the United States, losing the nomination to then U.S. senator Barack Obama. Following Obama’s election as presi-

dent, he tapped Senator Clinton to serve as secretary of state, and she began her tenure in this role in 2009, resigning her position in the U.S. Senate. Throughout both her law and political careers, Clinton has attempted and accomplished much and is regarded by many as a pioneer and strong advocate for women and children. First Lady of Arkansas Prior to serving as First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Rodham Clinton was a member of the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. She was made a full partner in the firm in 1979, as she began her tenure as First Lady, and was named twice to the list of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.” She also founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a nonprofit organization designed to research and advocate for issues impacting children and families. As First Lady of Arkansas, Clinton was appointed by her husband as the chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee where she worked to bring healthcare to the rural poor. Additionally, she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee. In this position she advocated for teacher raises, competency tests for new and current teachers, and statewide curriculum standards. Clinton also endorsed Arkansas’s Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth which sent teachers into the homes of underprivileged preschool children to train the parents in literacy and school preparedness. This program has since been adapted as a model in many other states. While serving as First Lady of Arkansas, Clinton also served on the boards of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Legal Services, the Children’s Defense Fund, TCBY, Walmart, and Lafarge. She also chaired the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession. First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton was appointed as chair of the President’s Task Force Health Care Reform in 1993 by her husband, President Bill Clinton. While this taskforce took on reforming the healthcare system in the United States, its plan was often criticized as a form of socialized healthcare and was abandoned a year later. This, however, did not deter Hillary Clinton from raising awareness about the underinsured and uninsured in America. In 1997,



she helped initiate the Children’s Health Insurance Program to provide state assistance to children who were not covered by health insurance. Additionally, Clinton worked to put into place the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, which improves the safety of children waiting to be adopted, promotes adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, and supports families throughout the process. Hillary Rodham Clinton also supported efforts to encourage reading to children, to immunize children against a range of childhood illnesses, and to stress the importance of mammography in the detection of breast cancer. She also began the Save America’s Treasures program in an effort to secure funding from federal and private sources to restore and preserve American icons and historical sites. She joined with then secretary of state Madeleine Albright to launch a government initiative called the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative to train and organize women leaders worldwide.

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U.S. Senator From New York As her time as First Lady of the United States drew to a close, Hillary Rodham Clinton organized an exploratory committee to investigate the possibility of her run for U.S. Senate. Clinton entered the senatorial race and was the first woman elected statewide in New York in 2000. She was sworn in as the U.S. Senator from New York on January 1, 2001, and served for 20 days as a senator who was also married to a current sitting president. During her time as a senator, Clinton served on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the Senate Special Committee on Aging. She also sponsored 363 bills, 11 of which were enacted, and many that focused on healthcare, the nation’s military, healthcare for veterans, and rebuilding New York after the September 11 attacks. Clinton won reelection to the Senate in 2006 and shortly thereafter began her campaign for president of the United States. Presidential Campaign Throughout the presidential primaries, Clinton’s main competitor was Barack Obama. She was able to win primaries in New Hampshire, California, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and South Dakota. Unable to secure enough delegates to win the nomination of the Democratic Party, Clinton ended her presidential run on June 7, 2008, and began campaigning for Barack Obama.

Throughout her career, Clinton has accomplished much and is regarded as a strong advocate for women and children.

Secretary of State Following Barack Obama’s win in the 2008 presidential election, he nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton to serve as secretary of state. She was sworn in on January 21, 2009, resigning her seat in the U.S. Senate. In her welcoming remarks to the State Department employees, Clinton said, “President Obama set the tone with his inaugural address. And the work of the Obama-Biden administration is committed to advancing America’s national security, furthering America’s interests, and respecting and exemplifying America’s values around the world.” To accomplish this end, Hillary Rodham Clinton has advocated for the use of smart power, engagement, and diplomacy in interactions with countries around the world and

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has traveled extensively since beginning her tenure to begin building relationships with the leadership of countries in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. See also: Albright, Madeleine; National Women’s Political Caucus; Obama, Michelle; Pelosi, Nancy; Representation of Women in Government, U.S. Further Readings Clinton, Hillary Rodham. It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Living History. New York: Scribner, 2004. U.S. Department of State. “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.” http://www.state.gov/secretary /index.htm (accessed December 2009). The White House. “The First Ladies.” http://www.white house.gov/about/first-ladies/hillaryclinton (accessed December 2009). Carrie L. Cokely Curry College

Coaches, Female Large increases in participation opportunities at all levels of sport for girls and women have opened up more job opportunities for coaches and athletic administrators. The number of girls participating in high school sports has risen from 294,015 in 1971 to an all-time high of 3,114,091 in 2008–09. Similarly, women’s participation in intercollegiate sports has also increased to all-time highs. In 1968, there were 16,000 female college athletes; there were 180,000 in 2008. In addition, there are now two professional sport leagues for women: the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Women’s Professional Soccer league. Despite these dramatic increases in female athletic participation, since 1972 the percentage of females coaching women’s intercollegiate athletic teams has steadily decreased every year. For example, in 1972, 90 percent of women’s intercollegiate teams had female head coaches; today, only 43 percent of women’s teams are led by women. At this time, there

are 3,874 female and almost 5,200 male head coaches of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division I, II, and III women’s sports teams. In addition, only 57.5 percent of assistant coaches of all women’s NCAA teams are female—this percentage has remained consistent for the last 15 years. Similar data regarding the gender of coaches at the interscholastic level are not available because unlike colleges and universities, high schools are currently not required to publicly report this information. However, the NCAA percentages are mirrored in data collected from the WNBA. During the 2009 season, 46 percent of WNBA head coaches and 55 percent of assistant coaches were women. In 1998, the WNBA’s first season, 70 percent of head coaches in the WNBA and 50 percent of assistant coaches were women. There are a number of different reasons for this decrease in the number of women entering and staying in the coaching profession. In a 2008 report on gender equity in intercollegiate coaching and administration published by the NCAA, female studentathletes cited salary concerns, concerns over the time requirements of coaching, and preference for a 9-to5 workday as perceived reasons for not choosing a career in athletics. Further, these female student-athletes identified time requirements, salary, and gender discrimination as perceived reasons why women leave the coaching profession. Ninety-seven percent of the 8,900 female student athletes who responded to this survey were satisfied with their participation in athletics, yet only 10 percent of these respondents indicated that they were interested in working in college athletics. Support for Female Coaching Recognizing these trends and the need to provide additional training and support to current female coaches, the NCAA has partnered with several organizations, such as the Women’s Sports Foundation, to research and address these issues. In addition, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics established the Women Coaches Academy in 2002. The purpose of the academy is to enhance the management, leadership, communication, and networking skills of female coaches through training and mentoring. Key goals of the academy are to provide support for women who want to enter the coaching profession and the retention of females who are currently coaching.



Although many female student-athletes appear to be interested in careers other than coaching—business, the social sciences, and education were the most frequently cited majors by these female athletes— there are several successful female coaches who continue to have an effect on women’s sport. Perhaps the most well-known female coach is Pat Summitt, the head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of Tennessee. Summitt was a basketball player for the University of Tennessee at Martin and the co-captain of the United States women’s national basketball team in the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The team won a silver medal in the first women’s basketball tournament in Olympic history. In 1974, Summitt was a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee and was subsequently named the head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball program. She is still coaching at the University of Tennessee today, where she has accumulated a long list of awards, titles, and accomplishments in her name. One key accomplishment for Summitt occurred on February 5, 2009, when she became the first NCAA Division I coach—female or male—to reach 1,000 wins as a head coach. She is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, and in 2000 she was named the Naismith Coach of the Century. She also has the most national championships (eight) in women’s basketball. On March 22, 2005, after clinching her 880th career win, the University of Tennessee basketball court was named “The Summitt” in her honor. She was part of the first class that was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (1999) and was also inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame (2000). One of her proudest accomplishments is that 100 percent of the student–athletes who have completed their eligibility at the University of Tennessee have graduated. Also noteworthy is the fact that 45 of her former players have gone on to become basketball coaches. Notable Female Coaches Other notable female coaches include intercollegiate basketball coaches C. Vivian Stringer, Tara VanDerveer, and Kim Mulkey and U.S. Women’s National Team soccer coach Pia Sundhage. Stringer is currently the head coach of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, where she has been coaching since 1995. She has been a head coach since 1972 and has the distinction of being the first coach

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in NCAA basketball history to lead three different teams to the NCAA Final Four: Cheyney State College (1982), the University of Iowa (1992), and Rutgers (2000 and 2007). She is the third winningest coach in women’s basketball history, and on February 27, 2008, she clinched her 800th career coaching win. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2001) and the Basketball Hall of Fame (2009). Tara VanDerveer has been the head coach of the Stanford University women’s basketball team since 1996. Following her playing career at Indiana University, she has been the head women’s basketball coach at two other universities (University of Idaho and Ohio State University). In addition, VanDerveer was the head coach of the gold medal–winning U.S. Olympic Women’s Team during the 1996 Olympic Games. She has over 750 career wins as a NCAA Division I coach and has coached the Stanford women’s basketball team to two NCAA National Championships (1990 and 1992). VanDerveer was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. Kim Mulkey became the head coach of the Baylor University women’s basketball team in 2000 after serving as an assistant and then associate head coach at Louisiana Tech for five years. Mulkey was an AllAmerican player at Louisiana Tech (1980–84), where she played point guard on two national championship teams (1981 and 1982). She was also a member of the U.S. women’s basketball national team that won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. In 2005, the Baylor University women’s basketball team won the NCAA National Championship. Mulkey became the first person in NCAA basketball history to win a national championship as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. Pia Sundhage became coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2008 after a long and illustrious international career as a soccer player and coach. Sundhage was a member of the Swedish Women’s National Team for the first time in 1974 and continued playing until 1996. Named the head coach of the Boston Breakers of the Women’s United Soccer Association in 2003, Sundhage’s team won the league title and she was named the Women’s United Soccer Association Coach of the Year that same year. During the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Sundhage was an assistant coach for China’s Women’s National Team. Later that year, Sundhage became the seventh U.S. Women’s National

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Soccer Team head coach and the third female coach in team history. Sundhage led the national team to a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Gender Barriers Less than 3 percent of men’s intercollegiate athletic teams are coached by women, and at this time there are no women coaching men’s professional teams. That fact will change with the start of the men’s professional 2010 National Basketball Association Development League season. Nancy Lieberman, former collegiate and professional basketball player, Olympian, WNBA coach and general manager, member of both the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Basketball Hall of Fame, and ESPN basketball analyst, was named head coach of the Texas Legends. Lieberman will be the first female to coach a men’s professional team. Another gender barrier in coaching was broken when Natalie Randolph was named head coach of the Calvin Coolidge Senior High School boys’ football team in Washington, D.C., for the 2010 season. Randolph was a track athlete at the University of Virginia and more recently a wide receiver for a professional women’s football team. She was previously employed as an assistant coach for the H. D. Woodson High School boys’ football team. Although these are groundbreaking opportunities for Lieberman and Randolph, many women are still faced with significant barriers to pursuing a career in coaching and athletics. The NCAA, Women’s Sports Foundation, coaching associations, and other women’s sport organizations are actively taking steps to reverse an almost-40-year decline in the number of females coaches at all levels of athletics. See Also: Basketball, College; Olympics, Summer; Olypmics, Winter; Sports, Women in; Women’s National Basketball Association. Further Readings Acosta, R. Vivian and Linda Jean Carpenter. “Women in Intercollegiate Sport: A Longitudinal Study ThirtyThree Year Update,” Women in Sport/Title IX. http:// www.acostacarpenter.org/ (accessed March 2010). Lapchick, R. “The 2009 Women’s National Basketball Association Race and Gender Report Card.” Tide Sport. http://www.tidesport.org/RGRC/2009/2009_WNBA _RGRC_PR.pdf (accessed March 2010).

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). “Gender Equity in College Coaching and Administration: Perceived Barriers Report.” Indianapolis, IN: NCAA, 2009. WinStar Foundation. “NCAA Women Coaches Academy.” http://www.coachesacademy.org/ncaa .php (accessed April 2010). Women’s Sports Foundation. Special Issues for Coaches of Women’s Sports. East Meadow, NY: Women’s Sports Foundation, 2009. Corinne M. Daprano University of Dayton

Coaches of Women’s Teams Job opportunities in women’s coaching and administration increased dramatically after the passage of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. This increase is the result of increases in participation opportunities for female athletes. Today more girls begin playing sports at younger ages, and there has been an increase in the number of school, recreational, and club sports programs for girls and women. For example, there are currently 9,087 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s intercollegiate athletic teams and two professional sport leagues for women—the Women’s National Basketball Association and Women’s Professional Soccer league. In addition, there are several organizations dedicated to promoting girls and women’s participation in different sports, as well as the interests of coaches who coach women’s teams. These include the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, National Golf Coaches Association, Collegiate Coaches Rowing Association, National Fastpitch Coaches Association, and National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association is one of the largest of these organizations and represents female and male coaches of women’s basketball teams at all levels of play, including high school, recreational, Amateur Athletic Union, junior college, community college, collegiate (NCAA and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), and professional. The organization was founded in 1981 and currently has over 4,000 members.

CODEPINK



There are still few women coaching men’s teams: less than 3 percent of men’s intercollegiate athletic teams have female head coaches, and approximately 57 percent of women’s teams are coached by males. In addition, almost 42 percent of assistant coaches for women’s teams are women. Before 1972 and the enactment of Title IX, 90 percent of women’s intercollegiate athletic teams and about 2 percent of men’s teams had female head coaches. Researchers have found that the most important reasons for the decline in the number of women coaches after Title IX’s enactment are gender discrimination, workload issues, and lack of family/work balance in the workplace. Further, in an NCAA gender equity survey that was administered, in part, to NCAA female studentathletes, 52 percent of the 8,900 athlete respondents reported that they preferred their coach to be male. Resources and Support Women’s and girls’ teams generally receive fewer resources and do not have the same long-standing history and community support as their male counterparts. In addition, the coaches of women’s teams are often paid considerably less than those who coach men’s teams. Pat Summitt, head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of Tennessee, recently became the first coach of a women’s team to sign a million-dollar coaching contract. Despite these disparities, there are many highly skilled coaches who have long-tenured coaching careers. Some of the most tenured and successful coaches of women’s teams include Pat Summitt, C. Vivian Stringer, Tara VanDerveer, Geno Auriemma, and Anson Dorrance. Pat Summitt has had a 36-year coaching career with the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team. She has the most NCAA National Championship wins (eight) in women’s basketball, as well as the most career wins for any coach—male or female—in NCAA history. With a career spanning 38 years, C. Vivian Stringer has coached three different teams to the NCAA Final Four, including her current team, the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. Tara VanDerveer is also a long-tenured coach (32 years) who has spent the last 24 years coaching the Stanford University women’s basketball team to two NCAA National Championships. Geno Auriemma has coached the University of Connecticut women’s bas-

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ketball team for 25 years and is second only to Summitt in terms of NCAA National Championship wins, with seven wins to her name. Anson Dorrance has coached the University of North Carolina women’s soccer team since its inception in 1979. During his tenure, the team has won 20 of 28 NCAA Women’s Soccer Championships. These female and male collegiate coaches, as well as coaches at other levels of play, continue to serve as advocates for their female athletes and teams and for girls’ and women’s continued involvement in sport. See Also: Basketball, College; Coaches, Female; Sports, Women in; Women’s National Basketball Association. Further Readings Acosta, R. Vivian and Linda Jean Carpenter. “Women in Intercollegiate Sport: A Longitudinal Study ThirtyThree Year Update.” Women in Sport/Title IX. http:// www.acostacarpenter.org (accessed March 2010). Drago, Robert, et al. CAGE: The Coaching and Gender Equity Project. CAGE Final Report. University Park: Pennsylvannia State University, 2005. Fazioli, Jennifer K. The Advancement of Female Coaches in Intercollegiate Athletics. University Park: Pennsylvannia State University, 2004. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). “Gender Equity in College Coaching and Administration: Perceived Barriers Report.” Indianapolis, IN: NCAA, 2009. Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. http://www .wbca.org (accessed March 2010). Corinne M. Daprano University of Dayton

CODEPINK This woman-centered activist organization promotes peace and social justice. The group was founded in the United States by longtime activists including Media Benjamin, Jodie Evans, Diane Wilson, and Starhawk on November 17, 2002, in response to the Bush administration’s policies toward Iraq. Combining humorous, performance-based activism that relies heavily on traditional feminine symbols—spe-

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cifically the color pink and emphasis on women’s mothering and caretaking roles—with astute Internet and media savvy, CODEPINK has emerged as a leader in the contemporary peace movement. Although it currently targets politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, the group’s initial aim was to stop the Bush administration from going to war in Iraq. In subsequent years, however, it has expanded its political agenda to include other social justice issues including, for example, electoral fraud and Hurricane Katrina. Membership has also expanded dramatically since the organization’s inception. What began as a group of approximately 100 women in Washington, D.C., has grown to include over 300 autonomous local and campus chapters worldwide. In addition, approximately 200,000 individuals receive weekly e-mail updates about CODEPINK activities; the group uses the Internet as a primary communication, networking, and recruitment tool. As its name indicates, the color pink is central to CODEPINK. Members wear bright pink clothing and accessories and bring pink signs to protests and other events. The color is also emphasized throughout the organization’s Website and print materials. Use of this particular color enables members to draw attention to their femininity and make themselves easily visible at protests, demonstrations, and other events. Adopting the color pink has also been a way for the group to poke fun at the color-coded terrorism alert system that was implemented in the wake of the September 11 tragedy. CODEPINK contends that while the terrorist alert system served to instill fear in American citizens, their use of the color pink calls upon women and men throughout the world to promote and demand peace. CODEPINK utilizes a variety of protest methods and has garnered considerable media attention. They are perhaps best known for their use of pink lingerie (aka “pink slips”) to symbolically “fire” elected officials. Although protests are planned in advance, group members encourage observers to participate. The organization has collaborated with numerous social justice organizations both in the United States and internationally, including those that promote peace (such as United for Peace and Action) as well as those that focus on gender-related issues (including the National Organization for Women). In 2009, CODEPINK was named a Most Valuable Progressive (MVP) organization by The Nation.

See Also: Guerrilla Girls; Internet; National Organization for Women; Peace Movement. Further Readings Benjamin, Medea and Jodie Evans, eds. Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism. Maui, HI: Inner Ocean Publishing, 2005. CODEPINK: Women for Peace. http://www.code pink4peace.org (accessed July 2009). Milazzo, Linda. “Code Pink: The 21st Century Mothers of Invention.” Development, v.48/2 (2005). Nichols, John. “Most Valuable Progressives: Code Pink’s Transition.” The Nation (blog). http://www.thenation .com/blogs/thebeat/398667/most_valuable_ prog ressives_code_pink_s_transition (accessed July 2009). Simone, Maria. “CODEPINK Alert: Mediated Citizenship in the Public Sphere.” Social Semiotics, v.16/2 (2006). Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

College and University Faculty Women have continued to increase their presence as members of the faculty at institutions of higher education over the past few decades. Based on the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates, the 2001–02 academic year marked the first time that more women received doctoral degrees than men. In addition, the U.S. Digest of Education Studies reported that 63 percent of graduate students in 2007 were women. Despite such progress, female faculty members continue to be clustered in lower ranks, work at less prestigious universities, and earn less than their male colleagues. A variety of explanations have been offered through numerous studies in recent years in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the disparities. Institution Type Although the number of female faculty members has increased over the years, there is evidence that women are more likely to be employed at less prestigious universities and are less likely to work in tenure-track positions, regardless of institution type. The major-



ity of faculty positions at elite universities continue to be filled by male faculty members. In the 2001–02 academic year, male faculty members represented 60 percent of the assistant professor positions at the top research universities. Similarly, a report issued by the American Association of University Professors revealed that in the 2003–04 academic year, male faculty members at doctoral institutions outnumbered women by two to one. In comparison, full-time faculty positions at community colleges were more likely to be held by women. During the 2005–06 academic year, 26 percent of women occupied tenured positions at doctoral institutions, 35 percent were tenured at master’s institutions, 36 percent were tenured at baccalaureate institutions, and 47 percent held tenure at associate institutions. One plausible explanation for the difference in numbers of female faculty members across institution types is that disparities are the result of one’s field of study—that men are more likely to earn degrees in science and engineering and top research universities are more likely to hire within those fields. However, this is not always the case, as demonstrated by recent data indicating that although 45 percent of doctoral degrees in biology were awarded to women, only 30 percent of assistant professors among the 50 top research institutions were women. Rank Women are more likely to hold the ranks of instructor, lecturer, and assistant professor and are less likely to move up through the ranks than male faculty members. Sixty percent of male faculty members held tenured positions in 1998 compared with 42 percent of female faculty members. The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession reveals that in 2004, 26 percent of full professors were women compared with 74 percent of male full professors. According to the 2009 Almanac of the Chronicle of Higher Education, sex comparisons for the rank of full professor remained unchanged in 2007. In comparison, women represented 40 percent of associate professors, 47 percent of assistant professors, 54 percent of instructor positions, and 53 percent of lecturer positions. The pipeline argument, that women are in the pipeline and will eventually advance at a rate equivalent to their male counterparts, has been used to explain discrepancies and rank and tenure. Neverthe-

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less, despite the fact that women represent half of the doctoral population, women have not been promoted up the academic ranks at the same rate as men, and attrition is higher for women at the assistant professor level. There is also evidence that in recent years, tenure has declined, particularly for women. A report by Robin Wilson in The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that tenure offers to women at Harvard have decreased since 2001. In addition, recent studies have also revealed that it takes longer for women to reach the status of full professor, particularly at doctoral institutions. Rank has also been used as an explanation for pay disparities between male and female professors; however, in some instances, disparities exist even when credentials, discipline, publications, and teaching experience are taken into consideration: Women faculty earn 81 percent of what their male colleagues are paid. According to the American Association of University Professors, there were gaps in pay between men and women at all ranks in 2007–08. The gap was 8.6 percent for lecturers, 2.9 percent for instructors, 6.8 percent for assistant professors, 6.8 percent for associates, and 12.1 percent for full professors, with women earning $93,349 and men earning $106,195 as full professors. Parental Status Female faculty members often discover that their biological clock and tenure clock tick simultaneously, as they transition from graduate school into teaching positions. There is evidence that parental status has an effect on one’s academic career, and a different effect for women than for men. The Survey of Doctorate Recipients indicates that men with children younger than 6 years old were twice as likely to enter tenure-track positions as women with young children. Similarly, a study conducted by Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden found that male faculty members with a child born in the household within five years after receiving a doctoral degree were 38 percent more likely to receive tenure than female faculty members who gave birth within five years after receiving their doctoral degree. In comparison, women who did not have children and women who had children 5 or more years old after receiving their doctoral degrees were also more likely to earn tenure than women who started their families earlier.

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Institutional Policies on Work–Life Balance One study of junior faculty at various research universities found that nearly half of those tenure-track faculty were dissatisfied with the balance between personal and professional time. Similarly, the 2009 Almanac of the Chronicle of Higher Education demonstrates that faculty reported lack of personal time (74 percent) and managing household chores (73 percent) as major sources of stress during the past two years. Cognizant of the need to improve work–life balance, some colleges and universities have designed a variety of initiatives to assist faculty members. Such initiatives include parental leave beyond the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), tenure clock stop, modified duties, and childcare assistance. Colleges and universities have traditionally negotiated leave beyond FMLA on a case-by-case basis for faculty members requesting extended leave. More recently, however, institutions of higher education have developed policies to extend unpaid leave. The Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor reported that 44 percent of colleges and universities within their sample provided unpaid leave beyond FMLA. Dependent leave policies apply to men as well as women, as long as one can demonstrate the role of primary caregiver. In contrast, colleges and universities are less likely to provide extended paid leave for dependent care or personal illness beyond FMLA and any combination of sick leave or short-term disability policy that a faculty member may hold. A few notable exceptions include Duke University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at which male or female faculty members who can demonstrate that they are the primary caregiver following the birth or adoption of a child are entitled to a semester of paid leave. The American Association of University Professors includes the tenure clock stop within the statement of principles on family responsibilities and academic work, and in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of colleges and universities that offer a tenure clock stop. A tenure clock stop is typically defined as a pause in the tenure clock for a faculty member to address extenuating circumstances, particularly the birth or adoption of a child or a major medical illness that interferes with a faculty member’s productivity. Universities with tenure clock stops often provide one to two years off the tenure clock.

Furthermore, true tenure clock stops do not require the faculty member to be on leave. Princeton, in 1970, was one of the first universities to develop one-year tenure extensions for female faculty. The policy was expanded in 1991 to cover male faculty. Research universities are also twice as likely to offer tenure clock extensions as other types of institutions. The Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor found that 92 percent of research universities had a tenure clock stop compared with 50 percent of liberal arts colleges. The American Association of University Professors also advocates active service–modified duties (ASMD) policies to promote work–life balance. ASMD policies provide reduced teaching loads for a specified time period with minimal to no pay cuts for faculty members who are primary caregivers for newborns or an adopted child younger than 5 years old. Only a small percentage of institutions have a formal policy on ASMD; however, many colleges and universities may negotiate with faculty members on an ad hoc basis. Among the notable exceptions of universities with formal ASMD policies, Duke University provides modified duties for up to three years. The University of California, Berkeley offers ASMD for three months before and one year after the birth or adoption. Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and Princeton also offer flexible options for ASMD. Campus-based childcare centers provide a variety of childcare arrangements and services to students, faculty, and staff. Funding for services is typically provided through childcare fees paid directly by the parents. In 2001, there were 2,500 campus-based childcare centers. For example, the State University of New York system provides on-site childcare to students, faculty, and staff across the state. Nevertheless, the demand for services is always greater than the amount of childcare slots available at centers on campus. As a result, many universities have also partnered with outside service providers. For example, Rutgers provides on-site childcare, and the university also contracts with outside providers in the region. Harvard provides care through affiliated centers that are independently owned and operated. Duke also partners with childcare service providers in the region.

Colombia

See Also: American Association of University Women; Attainment, Graduate Degree; Faculty, Adjunct and Contingent; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Bradburn, Ellen M., et al. “Gender and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Salary and Other Characteristics of Postsecondary Faculty.” U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2002. The Chronicle of Higher Education. “Almanac Issue.” v.56/1 (2009). The Chronicle of Higher Education. “What Professors Earn.” v.54/32 (2008). Curtis, John W. “Faculty Salary and Faculty Distribution Fact Sheet.” http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres /research/2003-04factsheet.htm (accessed March 2009). Frasch, Karie, et al. “Creating a Family Friendly Department: Chairs and Deans Toolkit.” UC Faculty Family Friendly Edge. http://ucfamilyedge.berkeley.edu (accessed December 2008). June, Audrey Williams. “Not Moving Up: Why Women Get Stuck at Associate Professor.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 2009). Touchton, Judy, et al. A Measure of Equity: Women’s Progress in Higher Education. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2008. Heather Wyatt-Nichol University of Baltimore

Colombia The Republic of Colombia is located in South America and features a diversity of regional cultures. Most of the population is mestizo or mulatto. The predominant culture is Hispanic and the predominant religion is Roman Catholic. Gender roles in Colombia are largely shaped by the traditional Hispanic cultural emphasis on male dominance while physical appearance and socioeconomic status are also important. Recent urbanization as well as increased educational and employment opportunities are slowly changing traditional gender roles. Although women enjoy civil equality, gender discrimination is still common, particularly in urban areas. Colombia was ranked 56th

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of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Quality-of-Life Issues Social and cultural tradition dictates that a woman’s primary role is that of wife and mother. The average age of marriage is the early 20s. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.2 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend 96 percent of births. The infant mortality rate is 17 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate is 130 per 100,000 live births. The state social security system provides women with 12 weeks of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages. The Hispanic cultural practice of machismo shapes gender roles, although it is becoming less prevalent in urban as opposed to rural areas. Men are expected to provide the family’s main financial support and make household decisions. Women are expected to place their husband’s wishes above their own. Women perform most of the domestic chores and childrearing responsibilities, although men often serve as the disciplinarian. Female school attendance rates stand at 87 percent at the primary level, 71 percent at the secondary level, and 33 percent at the tertiary level. Many children drop out of school to work. Women who receive a higher education are mainly from the upper and middle classes. The 2009 literacy rate for both genders stands at 92 percent. More than half of the population lived below the poverty line in 2001. Although public health standards have been improving, the lack of adequate safe drinking water supplies and sanitation remain problems. Rates of diseases such as malaria also remain high. Other problems include violence against women, trafficking in women and children for the sex trade, kidnappings, narcotics trafficking, instability and conflicts with paramilitary and guerrilla organizations, and human rights violations. Colombia has rapidly urbanized, leading to problems overcrowding and a lack of housing. The average life expectancy is age 66 for women and age 58 for men. A woman’s socioeconomic class also largely determines her public role, especially in urban areas. The upper class is mainly composed of whites, the middle class is mainly comprised of mestizo and mulatto, and the lower class is mainly black and indigenous. Many urban upper- and middle-class women avoid working outside the home because to do so would damage the family’s honor and social status. These women do play

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prominent roles in public institutions such as social groups and churches. Gender Gap Most lower-class women must seek outside employment out of financial necessity. Approximately 69 percent of women participate in the labor force. Women make up 49 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce but only 4 percent of professional and technical workers. Key employers include agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing. Women represent the bulk of primary school teachers and large but diminished percentages at the secondary and tertiary levels. There is a gender gap in terms of the average estimated earned income, which stands at $4,898 for women and $7,902 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 13.82 percent for women and 8.69 percent for men. Sexual harassment is pervasive. Although more women are represented in highpaying employment, giving them increased social influence, many women still remain economically dependent on men. Women have the right to vote and middle- and upper-class women are often politically active in terms of social issues. Women hold 8 percent of parliamentary seats and 23 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. Nongovernmental organizations that operate in Colombia have provided some support in terms of financing female micro-enterprises. See Also: Conflict Zones; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Machismo/Marianismo; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Dore, Elizabeth and Maxine Molyneux. Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.save thechildren.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp _hd_pub (accessed February 2009). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Combat, Women in The phrase women in combat relates to any deployment (whether in air, in navy, or on the ground) of military women in direct combat. This is a controversial issue both for military and defense policy makers and for feminists. While the biggest debates have been held around exclusion policies of women from direct combat roles in the U.S. military (i.e., ground combat exclusion), especially in the wake of the 1990–91 Gulf War, this debate has been present globally. Historical Review Historically, women have played an active part in military forces during wars and battles. Many historians, anthropologists, and researchers, both feminist and nonfeminist, have in recent years dedicated their time to trying to establish the extent of women’s involvement in wars and combat. While many of the stories about women warriors tended to be interpreted as fictional myths, some of the findings differ. Using the archaeological evidence from the excavation site for Iron Age in the Eurasian steppes and analyzing remains of female warriors and their association with weaponry in graves, Davis-Kimball corroborated Herodotus’s accounts of the existence of female warriors among Eurasian nomadic tribes and the myth of the Amazon. The second documented site concerning women warriors relates to the historical sources pointing to professional women soldiers of the Kingdom of Dahomey in Benin, West Africa, who became the elite force of Dahomey’s professional standing army during the 18th and 19th centuries. Furthermore, the documents show that in 19th-century China during the Taiping Rebellion, women served and fought in the rebels’ Taiping Heavenly Army. Also reported are all-women fighting units that protected the kings in ancient Persia, India, and several south Asian countries and that fought in the Danish army against Spain in the 16th century and in the Congolese army in the 17th century. Moreover, throughout history, women joined armies as individual fighters. The most known women individual fighters are women military leaders such as Joan of Arc, who in the 15th century led the French army into several significant victories against English; the Vietnamese Trung sisters, who led the first national uprising against the Chinese in 40 c.e.; and African warrior queen Nzinga of Matamba, who ruled Angola



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Women were excluded from combat and prevented from voluntarily handling lethal weapons in the Western militaries for a significant part of the 20th century.

in the 17th century and led the male army in the wars against the Portuguese. Also, women joined the battles, often disguised as men. As pointed out by Goldstein, while the history books only document women whose gender was discovered, this number is significant and indicates that this occurrence was not so rare. Thanks to Disney’s film adaptation in 1998, probably the bestknown story about the woman who disguised herself as man to join the battle is the Chinese story of Mulan. Moreover, historical documents from the U.S. Civil War list a significant number of women who fought disguised as men. In more recent history women, were excluded from combat and prevented from voluntarily handling lethal weapons in the Western militaries for a significant part of the 20th century (i.e., in the British army in World War II, women were allowed to join the Home Guard or Auxiliary Territorial Services but were not allowed to learn how to fire weapons or anti-aircraft

guns). However, women have participated in combat in armies in other parts of the world. In World War I in Russia, the “Battalion of Death” composed of several hundred women was led by Maria Botchkareva against the Germans. In Poland, on the eastern front, the Women’s Volunteer League engaged in combat after receiving official approval by the high command of the Polish military desperate for army personnel. During the Spanish Civil War, women were actively engaged in resistance against Franco. In World War II, the Soviet Union started recruiting women in 1942 when it faced manpower shortages. However, women participated mainly as medical staff in anti-aircraft units and air forces and were engaged in ground combat only when they were caught in the fire. During World War II, the partisan formations of many countries included women in their units, and in some, women participated in combat, primarily in Italy, France, and Greece. Probably the most represented

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among women partisans were women in the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, a country where tradition allowed women some fighting roles. While many were involved in combat support, especially as medical staff, a significant number engaged in direct combat. Also, in China, women fought in the 1930s and 1940s against the Japanese army in the Sino-Japanese War and in both nationalist and communist formations during the Chinese Civil War. During the latter half of 20th century, many guerrilla and national liberation movements allowed women to engage in combat in some form in countries such as Vietnam, South Africa, Argentina, Cyprus, Iran, Lebanon, and Nicaragua. However, once the conflicts were resolved and women were not needed as replacements for insufficient manpower, they were excluded and in different ways removed/prohibited from entering the official military formations. The trend of inclusion of women in guerrilla warfare has continued in 21st century and women have been allowed or even forced to participate in combat in the People’s Liberation Army of Nepal, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, the Naxalites in India, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, and others. Current Developments Currently, in most militaries of the global North, women are allowed to participate in the combat to a certain extent. Under Equal Opportunity Acts, many countries have been changing the policies in respect to deployment of women in combat, especially in cases of voluntary army service and in the context of employment opportunities within the army. In the Australian Defense Forces, women are excluded from categories of deployment that are classified as “direct combat duties” such as clearance diving teams, infantry, armor, artillery, and combat engineers and airfield defense guards and ground defense officers. The Canadian Armed Forces opened all occupations, including combat roles, to women in 1989 and allowed women on submarines in 2000. Under the European Union’s (EU’s) Equality Directives, Germany’s constitutional prohibition of women in the military had to be changed and the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) Ministry of Defence has been requested to review its policy prohibiting women from close combat. EU countries opened military positions for women and in many of those countries, women are now serving in direct ground combat forces. In the U.S.

military, women may serve on combat planes and ships (with the exception of submarines), in ground combat support units, but not in ground combat units. In 2007, New Zealand withdrew its reservation to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in respect to deployment of women in armed combat. In most of the countries that have recently witnessed armed conflicts, women were not excluded from direct combat but not many participated (i.e., Bosnia, Timor-Leste). Also, in the case of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), one of the few armies in which both men and women are subject to military conscription, women are excluded from combat roles. Women are mainly channeled into traditionally feminized military jobs, and if in combat units, they are only allowed to do administrative jobs. In the context of the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century’s global security discussions, where the main discussants are powerful North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members (primarily the EU and the United Stataes), the entry of women into the military and into combat posts has been marked with the increase in deployment in peacekeeping operations. Kier argues that the European militaries that have been perceived as “feminized” have been seen as more inclined toward contributing to peacekeeping and reconstruction. Within the European countries themselves, in Germany for example, the arguments put forward in debates about entrance of women into military posts are that women would be uniquely suited to peacekeeping tasks (this is resonated in UN Resolution 1325). Debates Surrounding Exclusion of Women From Combat Roles Traditional arguments provided by the militaries for exclusion of women from combat positions have been constructed primarily around military effectiveness and physical and emotional deficiencies of the average woman. They also point out that societies could not accept the fact that women, mothers, wives, and daughters are ordered to kill. Furthermore, their view is that women should be protected from harm and that they should not be hurt or killed in combat. Other popular arguments used to justify the exclusion of women from combat are pregnancy and childrearing, potential negative influence on group cohesion, potential for sexual harassment and assaults, and the



assumption that if combat units are opened to women, they would have to be drafted. Also in the context of discussions about using peacekeeping tasks for opening military posts to women, opponents argue that feminization of militaries, women, and peacekeeping undermine combat capabilities and that soldiers cannot be both warriors and peacekeepers. In respect to feminist scholarship, there is no single position on the issue. Debates are usually divided between equal rights/liberal feminists and feminist antimilitarists, proponents of politics based on gender difference. Both critique the privileged status of masculinity throughout society and the role of militarization in supporting patriarchy but differ in the approaches to addressing the issue. Both also recognize that military roles are not only gendered but that they are also race and class based, as poor and working-class women from minority groups are disproportionately recruited and rarely promoted. Gender Constrictions Liberal feminists argue that qualified women should have the same access to military positions as men. They claim that exclusion policies are not only about women’s capacities but more so about defending constructions of gender that associate masculinity with combat competencies in defense of the feminine. Furthermore, they stress that active citizenship and citizens’ rights are achieved through obligations to military service. Additionally, women with military experience claim that enlistment is not enough but that combat duties are the condition for first-class citizenship. Only by actively participating in combat would women gain first-class citizenship and along with that, greater political power. The access of women to combat posts also avails them for promotions in the military. The liberal feminist argument is that the greater number of women in the military can change this institution for the better and consequently, the entire society. On the other side, antimilitarist feminists argue that the military is a sexist institution in its essence and that women should not join it. They argue that it is more likely that the military changes women who enter than the opposite. Most of the women who enter the military assume male characteristics, disguising their female identity, or else they would be entirely powerless. As a result, they are unable to articulate the needs of women. The involvement of women in

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combat means that women will assume the norms of masculinity rather than influence men to accept any values connected to femininity. Consequently, women’s participation in combat cannot reduce gender differences in society. Given the nature of the current warfare—in the sense that it is hard to divide rear or forward lines of troops and that there is no classical front line anymore—it is also argued that “women in combat” is no longer an issue at all since women (both military and civilian) are involved in fighting anyway. See Also: Conflict Zones; Military, Women in the; Military Leadership, Women in; Pacifism, Female; Prisoners of War, Female. Further Readings Alpern, Stanley B. Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey. London: C. Hurst, 1998. Cooke, Miriam. “War, Gender, and Military Studies: Review Essay.” NESA Journal, v.13/3 (2001). Davis-Kimball, Jeannine and Mona Behan. Warrior Women: An Archaeologist’s Search for History’s Hidden Heroines. New York: Warner Books, 2002. Dombrowksi, Nicole Ann. Women and War in the Twentieth Century: Enlisted With or Without Consent. New York: Garland, 1999. Enloe, Cynthia. Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives. Berkeley: California University Press, 2000. Feinman, Ilene Rose. Citizenship Rites: Feminist Soldiers and Feminist Antimilitarists. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Goldstein, Joshua S. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Jacobs, Susie M., et al. States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance. London: Zed Books, 2000. Kier, E. “Uniform Justice: Assessing Women in Combat: Review Essay.” Perspectives on Politics, v.1/2 (2003). Rustum Shehadeh, Lamia. Women and War in Lebanon. Gainesville: Florida University Press, 1999. Summerfield, Penny. “Gender and War in the Twentieth Century.” International History Review, v.19/1 (1997). Wagner Decew, Judith. “The Combat Exclusion and the Role of Women in the Military.” Hypatia, v.10/1 (1995). Gorana Mlinarevic University of Sarajevo

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Comedians, Female The feminist movement has unquestionably changed the face of American comedy since the mid-1960s. There are more women comedians, and they have increasingly taken up more cultural space. Still, the field of comedy is overwhelmingly male, both in terms of numbers and perspective of the entertainment. Certainly, not all women comedians are feminist, but arguably funny women who perform or write constitute feminist acts. A woman being funny already transgresses a basic rule of womanhood. To be funny is to take control of a social situation through language. It is to directly frame reality and shape how people see things. If comedy is successful, it evokes a physical reaction while offering a nonobvious perspective that helps the audience see the story or joke in a different way. Even if the humor itself does not point to the absurdities of a male-dominated society, for a woman to command that much linguistic power encroaches on male privilege. There are many ways that female comedians occupy the comedy space: Some play to the male gaze and/or the dominant ideological narrative based on the naturalization of male dominance; others are much more politicized and challenge the assumed subject/object relationship between men and women directly. Most female comedians navigate the complex terrain of gender cultural to both maintain an audience and to create humor consistent with their own vision. This usually means that comedians who work in mainstream venues stay within current accepted expectations for women in most ways, even while they push at some of the limits. Stand-Ups Perhaps the most well-known and easily recognizable comedians are stand-up comics. In the 1970s and early 1980s, stand-up comedy enjoyed a rise in cultural stature that lifted its level of legitimacy and visibility to a revered art form, especially among people who valued cultural and political dissent. During that era, women comedians were virtually absent from the comedy clubs and cable television. They were, however, doing stand-up routines, and they positioned themselves as cultural critics of the social and political scene. Of the few women stand-up comics who commanded a national audience—Phyllis Diller, Totie

Fields, and Joan Rivers—none was generally recognized as politically or culturally important. Most scholars argue that the successful female comedians of that time were relegated to making mostly selfdenigrating jokes. After stand-up comedy peaked in terms of its cultural and political importance, women broke onto the general comedy scene. By the 1990s, female comics composed about a third of all stand-ups in clubs and on cable comedy shows, but have actually dipped in numbers early this century to about one-quarter. Roseanne Barr, Joy Behar, Elayne Boosler, Brett Butler, Ellen Cleghorne, Ellen DeGeneres, Kathy Griffin, Rosie O’Donnell, Paula Poundstone, Rita Rudner, Wanda Sykes, and Judy Tenuta are some of the women who started as stand-up comedians in mainstream venues in the late 1980s. In one sense, many are descendants of earlier stand-up women comics, as they replicate a structural primacy of the male experience. This generation of stand-up women was shaped by the female comics who preceded them, and from the feminist movement. Even when their viewpoints were not specifically feminist, their comedy engaged the ongoing changes between men and women. Many of the comedians can be seen as postfeminist comics, They did not politicize gender to any great degree and they dropped men as the reference point altogether. Griffin, Poundstone, O’Donnell, DeGeneres, and Sykes create comedy that eschews the battle of the sexes as a topic. The increase in the numbers and kinds of venues they perform in means that there is a wider variety of politics and subject matter available to them and other female entertainers. Most of them have gone on to do their comedy in different contexts as well: as actors on sitcoms or in films, hosting their own talk shows, or in Kathy Griffin’s case, as the star of her own reality show, My Life on the D-List. Similarly, women who got their start a bit later, in the mid-1990s, also started in stand-up and have gone on to combine that with other endeavors. Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler are two comics who achieved success on cable stations in their own shows, and who play very well to young, postfeminist sensibilities. They push at boundaries even as the parameters are still being defined. Their comedy is a product of a culture that sees itself as postracial as well as postsexual so that irony is turned back on itself and the political meaning of their work is often up for grabs.



Sandra Bernhard, although from the chronological generation before Silverman and Handler, shares a postpolitical perspective in much of her stand-up work. These women present the most controversial of mass-mediated comedy because their work is often quite open ended. This makes their comedy compelling and at times offensive to some. The sheer edginess of their humor is one more way Bernhard, Silverman, and Handler push at gender boundaries. Margaret Cho and Janeane Garofalo, on the other hand, are part of that mid-1990s generation; they work in a comedic tradition committed to political challenge of the intersecting power structures that oppress marginalized people. Cho created her career based on antiracist, queer-affirming political humor. Garofalo became more of a humorous political commentator than a stand-up. Roseanne Barr, one of the few standup women of her generation to directly challenge gender ideologies, went to on to create a wildly successful TV sitcom, Roseanne (1988–97), in which she broke the rules of femininity through her performance of excess wit and weight, consistently politicized class, and broke numerous sexuality taboos. Ellen DeGeneres, not known for her political humor as a stand-up, broke a significant sexual barrier in 1997 when she came out as a lesbian, as an actor, and as a character on her sitcom Ellen. DeGeneres has since created a place for herself as the host of a talk show, as have a disproportionate number of other lesbian comics. Rosie O’Donnell was not out when she hosted her own daytime show, but was openly gay when she hosted The View. Wanda Sykes is a lesbian with her own talk show, offering audiences another view of a successful gay comedian. DeGeneres, O’Donnell, and Sykes all came out after they were famous. There is a large group of lesbian comics who were openly lesbians in the early 1980s and played almost exclusively to lesbian and gay audiences, including Kate Clinton, Lea Delaria, Marga Gomez, and Lynda Montgomery. In addition, Monica Palacios, Robin Tyler, Suzanne Westenhoefer, and Karen Williams are nationally recognized lesbian comics who have not been part of mainstream comedy and have never had the national exposure enjoyed by comedians who came out after receiving notoriety. Lesbian comics also tended to be much more openly political regarding sexuality, and other matters in their work. This is a separation that may not be necessary anymore

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as lesbian identity is less threatening to mainstream audiences. However, overt politics challenges to heteronormativity is still not quite ready for prime time. Character Comedy As a category, this can encompass any development of a character not assumed to be the comic persona herself, whether in a one-woman show or part of a sketch comedy. Most of the characters are a satire of current social conditions and personalities. Lily Tomlin, is perhaps the standard bearer working in this genre. Since 1969, Tomlin has been a nationally known comedian creating a wide variety of characters lampooning all varieties of cultural hypocrisy, beginning on the hit 1960s television show Laugh-In, and progressing to her own television specials and onewoman stage productions. Tomlin has distinguished herself as critically and popularly acclaimed, and has been able to maintain both a satirical edge and mainstream success. Whoopi Goldberg, who also has worked in a number of genres, has achieved her most important comic work in her one-woman Broadway show, Whoopi, in which she played characters that skewered racism, sexism, and other oppressive forces. Tracy Ullman has developed a long career creating characters that satirize contemporary culture, mostly on Fox, HBO, and Showtime. Audiences see the influence of these comedians in the work of Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy in their work as Kathy and Mo, Julie Goldberg on The Big Gay Sketch Show, and in the sketch work of women on Saturday Night Live like Molly Shannon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Rachel Dratch. In more alternative venues, like the WOW café in New York, an all-women collective has produced comedic artists like Holly Hughes, Lisa Kron, Peggy Shaw, and Lois Weaver, whose character work uses camp and other subversive means to undercut dominant systems of oppression and has made it to mass media. Writers Even though more women than men make up the audience for comedy on television, females are vastly underrepresented as writers. There are notable names like Carol Leifer, the late Marjorie Gross, Tina Fey, and Heather McDonald, who writes for Chelsea Lately, and Lizz Winestead, who created The Daily Show, among them. Still, females comedic writers are

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exceptional in a field that is still overrun with men. Similarly, the comedic women writers who work primarily in media other than television, like Sarah Vowell and Amy Sedaris, for example, are egregiously outnumbered by men. This imbalance is indicative of one of the significant ways in which contemporary society continues to be defined by men’s sensibilities. See Also: Celebrity Women; Cho, Margaret; Coming Out; DeGeneres, Ellen; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Lesbians. Further Readings Gilbert, Joanne R. Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender, and Cultural Critique. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University, 2004. Landay, Lori. Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in American Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Lavin, Suzanne. Women and Comedy in Solo Performance: Phyllis Diller, Lily Tomlin and Roseanne. New York: Routledge, 2004. Walker, Nancy. A Very Serious Thing: Women’s Humor and American Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988. Jennifer Reed California State University, Long Beach

Coming Out “Coming out” is a popular term for the acceptance of a certain belief about oneself or, more commonly, the communication of this self-belief to others. In early usage, coming out referred to a social event introducing an affluent young woman of marrying age to society. Currently, it usually refers to an individual’s acknowledgment of his or her sexual orientation and/ or disclosure of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity to others—for example, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTI). It may also refer to disclosure of other types of personal information, especially that which is concealable and potentially stigmatizing, such as learning disabilities, health conditions, mental illness, drug/alcohol use, or criminal history. When applied to the disclosure of contextually devalued attributes, the phrase is sometimes length-

ened to “coming out of the closet.” The decision not to come out is sometimes referred to as “passing,” as in “passing for heterosexual.” Individuals who decide to pass may be referred to as “in the closet.” The decisions that people make about disclosing personal information can have important personal and societal implications. For instance, women who publicly disclose personal information such as their religious beliefs or their sexual orientation have a profound impact on the role of women in today’s society. Some personal information such as race, gender, or height is generally directly observable to others. However, much personal information, such as health background, education level, or aesthetic preference, is not directly observable. Information of this type requires communication in order to be known. Thus, individuals must determine when and to whom they disclose this information. In some cases, they may decide to vary their levels of disclosure by context. For example, a woman could disclose information regarding a recent abortion, or a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy to her close friends but determine to keep that information private at work. In this way, she can manage how others perceive her in different contexts. When an individual decides whether to come out in a certain context, he or she must weigh the costs and benefits associated with disclosure. This is especially true when the information is potentially stigmatizing and disclosure could expose an individual to discrimination, harassment, or even physical abuse. Depending on the context, however, coming out may help resolve potential confusion between one’s personal, social, and occupational identities. It may increase access to social support, reduce the anxiety associated with trying to keep a part of one’s identity concealed, and improve self-esteem. Coming out may also help change stereotypes regarding the disclosed subject matter and may even change attitudes (if applicable) toward a minority group as a whole. Appropriate Versus Inappropriate Communication There are cultural, contextual, and even legal standards governing the communication of some types of personal information, as well as perceived or actual public attitudes and stereotypes regarding the disclosed subject matter. The interplay between these various standards and attitudes can add complexity to the dis-



closure decision. For example, it may be deemed inappropriate for a woman to discuss or display the sexual activities of her marital relationship even when the activities themselves are socially accepted (as is the implicit communication that these activities are going on, perhaps by a wedding band). In the case of potentially stigmatizing information, it may be unclear how or if such standards apply. Thus, members of marginalized groups may attempt to establish acceptable modes of communication. For instance, a lesbian teacher may disclose by using a nonverbal symbol such as a gay pride rainbow bumper sticker or displaying a photograph on her desk of her romantic partner. Social Conventions and Coming Out Social conceptions of sexuality and the gender roles commonly attributed to women differ in various regions of the world and within different cultures. For example, in some societies coming out as a lesbian is conceptualized as normal identity development, with supportive organizations and laws. In 2008, the United Nations declaration to decriminalize homosexuality and to end discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity was signed by 66 countries; in 2009, the United States became the 67th signatory. In other cultures, however, homosexuality remains illegal and can be punishable with jail time or even death. In societies where homosexuality is not illegal, homosexual identifications may conflict with traditional gender norms and familial duties. For women around the world, coming out has acted as an important impetus for personal, social, and political change. In the United States, for instance, disclosure has been an indispensable tool in creating a society that reflects the cultural diversity of its individual inhabitants. Early American female preachers, abolitionists, and suffrage activists challenged the gender roles of their time period by publicly expressing their political and religious opinions. By coming out publicly about a range of beliefs, behaviors, and identifications women around the world are challenging narrow conceptions of femininity, sometimes through multiple group identifications. Current examples include women coming out about various political identifications, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, faith, disabilities, career aspirations, contraceptive use, physical abuse, or health backgrounds, such as surviving breast cancer.

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See Also: DeGeneres, Ellen; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Gender Dysphoria; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Global Feminism; Homophobia; Intersex; LGBTQ; Queer Theory; Sexual Orientation; Stereotypes of Women; Third Wave; Vagina Monologues, The. Further Readings Garnets, L. and D. Kimmel. Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Experiences. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. http://ilga.org (accessed May 2010). Quinn, D. M. “Concealable Versus Conspicuous Stigmatized Identities.” In S. Levin and C. van Laar, eds., Stigma and Group Inequality: Social Psychological Approaches. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2006. Bridget D. Hilarides Kathryn C. Oleson Reed College

Community Colleges Women are represented in all echelons of the community college—they are students, faculty members, and support staff, as well as administrators and trustees. There are more women in community colleges than in four-year universities. Since the 1970s, women have dominated higher education enrollments and are even better represented in community college enrollments. The percentage of senior-level administrators (academic officers, student affairs officers, chief financial officers) and full-time women faculty has also significantly increased during this time. However, although there have been marked shifts illustrating the greater parity women have achieved with men in the community college, they remain underrepresented in professional leadership executive positions and overrepresented in nonprofessional support service positions. In addition, issues related to work/ school and family balance have received more attention over the past three decades and have been met with greater efforts to address these issues. Overall, women have a greater presence and higher completion rates in community colleges. They enroll in

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community colleges at greater rates (59 percent) than in four-year public universities (54 percent). Women students in community colleges tend to be nontraditional in that they are older, more ethnically diverse, and face a host of challenges (financial constraints, low academic skills, family conflicts, psychological distress) not typical of women at traditional four-year universities. Despite these challenges, women persist more than men in the community college and have higher completion rates for associates degrees and certificates. They take longer periods of time to finish these degrees and certificates, but they nonetheless complete them at greater rates than their male counterparts. In 2001–02, women had greater associate’s degree (62 percent) and certificate (53 percent) completion rates than their male counterparts across all racial and ethnic groups. The number of women faculty members in community colleges has achieved parity with men, even at the tenured level. In 2003, 49 percent of full-time faculty were women, and in 2006 their representation increased to 50.8 percent. This level of representation is unmatched in any other higher educational institution. Women faculty members in community colleges are also tenured (62 percent) at greater rates when compared with their four-year university female counterparts (38 percent). However, despite their increasing approach to parity with men, women are tenured at lower rates (62 percent) than men in community colleges (68 percent) and earn, on average, between 4 and 7 percent less than their male counterparts. However, this disparity is less stark when compared with the salary discrepancy found at four-year universities, where women make 11 to 12 percent less than their male counterparts. Although the number of women in professional positions in community colleges has increased over the past three decades, they still remain the least represented in this sector. Scholars in higher education argue that the amount of power people have is defined by the position they hold within an organization. Hence, in community colleges, college presidents and vice presidents have more structural power than faculty, who have more power than students. That women have achieved parity with men in faculty rankings and are overrepresented in student enrollments demonstrates their increasing access and presence in the community college. However, this parity with men tends to be in less powerful positions. Indeed, in

2001, women remained overrepresented in positions such as clerical/secretarial (85.8 percent), technical/ paraprofessional (61.6 percent), and support services (63.4 percent) positions. In contrast, women constituted 51 percent of the new hires in executive/administrative/managerial position and 52 percent of faculty new hires in community colleges. This indicates that efforts (even if marginal) are being made to hire women in more professional positions and to increase their representation. As well as these advances, however, women constituted the majority of new hires in support services (74.6 percent), technical/paraprofessional positions (61.2 percent), and clerical/secretarial positions (88.5 percent) during this time. Family–Work/School Balance The 21st-century discussions on gender relations represent a surge of scholarship calling for a greater balance in life for faculty and staff. Women faculty in higher education stated that they viewed the community college atmosphere as an option more conducive to combining a career and a family, in contrast to other higher education institutions. The four-year university climate of “publish and perish” gave them the perception that they would not be able to meet the demands of a research university while maintaining a fulfilling family life. Colleges generally are asked to facilitate childrearing by creating spaces where women can pump breast milk and by providing childcare on campus for both students and college employees. Such efforts would demonstrate a college’s openness to accommodate to the needs of women faculty, students, staff, and administration. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, College and University; Educational Opportunities/Access. Further Readings Lester, Jaime. “Gendered Perspectives on Community College.” New Directions for Community Colleges, v.142/1 (2008). Townsend, Barbara. “Gender and Power in the Community College.” New Directions for Community Colleges, v.89/1 (1995). Christine Cerven University of California, San Diego



Community Defense/ Resistance The idea of community defense is linked to the notion of nonviolent community resistance where some connections are made between the grassroots orientation to social defense and strands within community development. In order to pursue possible connections with community-level action, a community relies on popular action in a variety of forms, including petitions, rallies, strikes, boycotts, sit-ins, fasts, and alternative institutions. Community defense is also known as nonviolent defense, civilian defense, and civilian-based defense. For example, the processes of invasion, conquest, genocide, slavery, and colonization have profoundly shaped indigenous women’s lives in North America, and consequently, women have developed complex and diverse strategies for challenging oppression by organizing community-level actions. Another example of women community defense and resistance can be seen in the Women in Black organization. Its most common tactic consists of standing together in various public places, usually in complete silence. Responding to what they considered serious violations of human rights by Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territories, vigils in many countries were started in solidarity with the Israeli group, but then embraced other social and political issues. Especially notable were the Women in Black groups in former Yugoslavia, which confronted rampant nationalism, hatred, and bloodshed in the 1990s, often meeting with violence from nationalists and persecution by police. There is also the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace which is an umbrella organization of women’s groups in Israel, established in November 2000, and committed to political, social, economic, and gender justice. They call on the Israeli government to end the occupation of Palestinian territories. Other examples of women community defense are CODEPINK: Women for Peace, an antiwar group with regional offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, D.C., a grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect government resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities; and Women for Israel’s Tomorrow, which

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is a right-wing political women’s group in Israel, commonly known as Women in Green. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is another well-known example of women community resistance. They are a unique organization of Argentine women who have become human rights activists in order to fight for the right to reunite with their children who were abducted by agents of the Argentine government during the years known as the Dirty War (1976–83), when many were then tortured and killed. The central assumption underlying community defense is that rule by any government depends on widespread cooperation or at least acquiescence by most of the population. Many activist groups see community defense as something to be brought about through people’s struggles, rather than implemented by governments on the basis of rational arguments. For example, women’s resistance in Northern Ireland have become increasingly politicized and organized in their resistance to repeated incursions into the home by the security forces which have ruptured traditional boundaries around relations of motherhood, homemaker, and sexual privacy. Grassroots Links There are a number of links between the various grassroots orientation to community defense and community development. For example, women have attributed the problem of war to the system of nation-states, to capitalism, and to patriarchy, or more generally to systems of unequal power and wealth experienced by many women. Although there may be links between community defense and community development at the level of the causes of the problems they address, the more obvious links lie in the methods used to deal with these problems together with a definition of violence. Some women activists, in both the peace and welfare fields, prefer a definition of violence that extends beyond physical violence to include social violence, namely poverty, exploitation, and disempowerment. Physical and social violence reinforce each other in a cycle that feeds upon itself until the cycle is broken, and therefore, they would argue, nonviolent methods are required to break this cycle as violent means of struggle merely propagate further violence. See Also: Peace Movement; Poverty; Self-Defense, Armed; Social Justice Activism.

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Further Readings Boserup, A. and A. Mack. War Without Weapons: NonViolence in National Defense. London: Pinter, 1974. Galtung, J. Peace, War and Defense: Essays in Peace Research, vol. 2. Copenhagen, Denmark: Christian Ejlers, 1976. Kantowsky, D. Sarvodaya: The Other Development. New Delhi, India: Vikas, 1980. Martin, B. “Social Defense: Elite Reform or Grassroots Initiative?” Social Alternatives, v.6 (April 1987). Roberts, A., ed. The Strategy of Civilian Defense: NonViolent Resistance to Aggression, London: Faber and Faber, 1967. Sharp, G. Making Europe Unconquerable: The Potential of Civilian-Based Deterrence and Defense. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1985. Nicoletta Policek University of Lincoln

Comoros After achieving independence from France in 1975, the Southern African nation of the Union of Comoros was plagued by a long series of coups. Following a bloodless coup in 1999, the three islands that make up Comoros have shared power through a sometimesunstable federal system. Many Comorans are engaged in subsistence agriculture, and only 28 percent of the population has been urbanized. Ethnic groups include Antalote, Cafre, Makoa, Oimatsaha, and Sakalava. Ninety-eight percent of Comorans are Sunni Muslim. Located off the southeastern coast of Africa, Comoros is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income of only $1,000 and a poverty rate of 60 percent. One-fifth of the workforce is unemployed. The country is heavily dependent on foreign aid and remittances from Comorans who work abroad. As a result of political instability and widespread poverty, the women of Comoros lead difficult lives. The Constitution grants them equality, but in practice, gender discrimination is widespread. Women who live in rural areas are particularly vulnerable to discrimination, and violence against women, child abuse, and limited access to health services and education are all major problems.

Unwritten Restrictions In practice, Comoran society is heavily patriarchal, but women maintain property and inheritance rights in large part because of matriarchal traditions that govern family life. Although women officially have freedom of dress, religious customs require them to wear head coverings. Few women have gotten past unwritten restrictions that ban them from politics. Only 3 percent of the national legislature is made up of women, and women hold only 10 percent of government posts. Comoros has an infant mortality of 66.57 deaths per 1,000 live births—the 30th highest in the world— and has a maternal mortality rate of 400 deaths per 100,000 live births. Female infants (58.4 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a considerable advantage over male infants (74.5 deaths per 1,000 live births). The gender gap narrows in adulthood, and women have a life expectancy of 65.94 years compared with 61.07 years for men. The median age for women is only 19.1 years. Comorans, particularly those who live below the poverty line, frequently lack access to adequate healthcare. This lack is largely responsible for the high infant and mortality rates. With a rate of 4.84 children per woman, Comoros ranks 32nd in the world in fertility. Less than half (49.3 percent) of Comoran women are literate compared with 63.6 percent of males. Neither men nor women are well educated, but men (9 years) tend to be better educated than females (7 years). In addition to limited educational opportunities, many schools are ill equipped, and teachers frequently lack sufficient training. Rape laws are not effectively enforced, and Comoran law makes no special provisions for dealing with spousal rape. Although domestic violence is illegal, the government does little to combat the issue or to support victims. Most often, domestic violence is dealt with by village elders. Although prostitution is illegal, arrests are rare. In contrast, sexual harassment carries a prison term of up to 10 years. See Also: Domestic Violence; Poverty; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Comoros.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/cn.html (accessed February 2010).

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Ewelukwa, Uché U. “Centuries of Globalization; Centuries of Exclusion: African Women, Human Rights, and the ‘New’ International Trade Regime.” Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law, and Justice, v. 20 (2005). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Tripp, Alili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Comoros.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/118994.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Computer Games Although relatively brief, the history of women and the evolving computer gaming industry is a reflection of a number of other older and ongoing struggles for participatory and representative equality, as well as a new arena where the long-standing debates about sexism and misogyny persist. Because the ways in which women interact with the computer game industry are quite complex, making any generalizations about the relationship of women to an entire industry would be an oversimplification at best. However, there are two sets of issues: (1) the involvement of women in game development, design, and marketing, and (2) the level of interest and participation of women in the use of computer games. The presence and influence of sexist attitudes and practices will be considered here as constitutive of the kinds of problems and challenges women face as creators and users of computer games. Finally, it is important to note that most observations about women and computer games made here apply overwhelmingly to women within the developed nations of North America, Europe, and Asia. Game Design and Marketing Currently, less than 10 percent of game designers and developers are women (although this number has been slowly climbing). The majority of women who are employed in the computer game industry are engaged in marketing, managerial, public relations,

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and other administrative roles. This apparent lack of female visibility among game creators and designers tends to have the circular effect of discouraging women from joining their ranks, and makes it difficult to recruit young women into these nontraditional positions. More recently, as a part of its focus on diversity, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a nonprofit membership organization serving those involved in the computer game industry, has been expanded into the IGDA Women in Games (WIG) Special Interest Group (SIG), offering women within (or wishing to enter) the industry support, resources, and encouragement to strengthen women’s influence on game design, development, and use. Some of the organization’s goals include increasing the visibility and influence of women within the game industry, and to make possible the kind of talent development that would bring greater balance to the ranks of game designers, developers, and players. More important, a part of the IGDA WIG agenda includes the introduction of the element of mentorship of young women who are interested in entering the computer game industry as a way to address both the explicit and implicit sexism that both causes and perpetuates gender-based exclusion. A small, yet growing, number of women have also begun to advance in the world of design, notably Jane McGonigal, a designer and researcher specializing in alternative reality gaming. The difficulty in analyzing the relationship of women to the video game industry lies partially in the fact that the industry itself is so varied: Games are not only created for different platforms but also with different audiences in mind, thus any general claims are bound to be met with some criticism. However, based on existing evidence, a convincing argument can be made that game design and marketing, with some notable exceptions, are deeply grounded in sexist images, story lines, and ideas. In fact, the lack of women within the computer gaming industry and the way games are designed are intimately related and indeed mutually dependent on each other: The gender disparity within computer game companies leads to games that very often are essentially constructions of a particular kind of aggressive, violent masculinity, such as Clint Eastwood–like Master Chief from the Halo series, the gritty Max Payne,

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or the ruthless commando Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell. Subsequently, games are designed and/or marketed for a younger male audience, with (until fairly recently) little or no awareness of how such games appeal (or do not appeal) to women. Particularly within the adventure, fighting, and shooter genres of games, although the majority of central characters are male, those that happen to be female tend to be the physically exaggerated, large-breasted, and scantily dressed fantasy figures such as Lara Croft of Tomb Raider, and, more recently, the female characters in the game Dead or Alive. Aside from the sexualized heroine image, women within popular games can be portrayed as victims or playthings, with a more extreme example found in the option of killing prostitutes in the Grand Theft Auto series. The resulting game reward structure, formed around sexualized violence, not only emphasizes particular images of women within the game itself, but as has been noted, reinforces attitudes of social acceptance toward such violence in the nonvirtual world. In addition to emphasizing certain female images, video games tend to contribute to what Karen E. Dill and Kathryn P. Thill have called “gender socialization,” which tends to enforce a number of gender-specific stereotypes that are especially widespread among younger gamers, including the more objectified, scantily clad females, and the more aggressive and nonsexualized males. Given the popularity of these games, especially among younger males, serious concern exists about the proliferation of these stereotypes beyond gameplay in ways that will only serve to exacerbate the existing sexist social attitudes, thereby worsening the numerous oppressions already experienced by women. Women’s Level of Interest and Participation in Gameplay However, whenever the adventure, cooperative, or other nonsexualizing elements of a game are emphasized, the percentage of women players increases, and in fact has been increasing—especially in the area of online or multiplayer gaming. Despite the dearth of women in the computer game industry and the often sexist design and marketing of the games themselves, the number, and the median age, of female players has been increasing. According to the Entertainment Software Association’s 2009 Sales, Demographic, and

Usage Data report, 40 percent of all game players and 43 percent of online game players are women, as are 48 percent of game purchasers. In some developed nations, such as South Korea, as many as 65.9 percent of women play some kind of video games. Interest among more casual female players tends to favor more casual games, such as Sudoku, Zuma, JewelQuest, crosswords, and so on. The introduction of a greater number of more casual games, as well as user-friendly game consoles like the Wii, has also contributed to the growth of both women’s interest and participation in computer gaming. What is more, studies have suggested that some games tend to attract some very serious female players who spend more time playing than their male counterparts. See Also: Chatrooms; Computer Science, Women in; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Science, Women in. Further Readings Bryce, Jo and Jason Rutter. “Killing Like a Girl: Gendered Gaming and Girl Gamers’ Visibility.” Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings. Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press, 2002. Bulik, Beth Snyder. “Video Games Unveil Feminine Side.” Advertising Age, v.77/44 (2006). Carr, Diane. “Games and Gender” In Diane Carr, et al., eds., Computer Games: Text, Narrative, and Play. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2006. Cassell, Justine and Jenkins, Henry. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Dill, Karen E. and Kathryn P. Thill. “Video Game Characters and the Socialization of Gender Roles: Young People’s Perceptions Mirror Sexist Media Depictions.” Sex Roles v.57/11–12 (2007). Entertainment Software Association. “2009 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry.” http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2009.pdf (accessed July 2010). Guy, Hannah. “Women Video Gamers: Not Just Solitaire.” PC World Canada. http://www.pcworld.ca/news/col umn/a7fe9b8a0a010408019ac931643ebf2c/pg0.htm (accessed July 2010). Hermida, Alfred. “Call for Radical Rethink of Games.” BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology /4561771.stm (accessed July 2010).

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he IGDA Women in Games Special Interest Group. http:// archives.igda.org/women (accessed July 2010). The International Game Developers Association (IGDA). http://www.igda.org (accessed July 2010). TKirkland, E. “Masculinity in Video Games: The Gendered Gameplay of Silent Hill.” Camera Obscura, v.24/2 (2009). Raessens, Joost and Jeffrey Goldstein, eds. Handbook of Computer Game Studies Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. Schleiner, Anne-Marie. “Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games.” Leonardo, v.34/3 (2001). Williams, Dmitri, Mia Consalvo, Scott Caplan, and Nick Yee. “Looking for Gender: Gender Roles and Behaviors Among Online Gamers.” Journal of Communication, v.59/4 (2009). Wolf, Mark, J. P. Wolf, and Bernard Perron. The Video Game Theory Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003. Woudhuysen, J. “Computer Games and Sex Difference.” http://www.woudhuysen.com/documents/Computer GamesSexDifference.pdf (accessed July 2010). Anna Gotlib State University of New York, Binghamton

Computer Science, Women in The overriding issue for women in computer science has been determining why women are not entering and remaining in this field. Women have been largely invisible in computer science. Reports on the history of computer science usually ignore women who have made substantial contributions, while educational programs in computer science have few women enrolling. Not only does the computer job force have few women available to hire but those women hired are more likely than men to be dissatisfied and to leave the computer science workforce. In the field of computer science, women can be divided into the areas of creators and users. Users include office workers, designers, artists, musicians, and most professionals who rely on computer applications to perform their professional and office responsibilities. However, this entry deals with the creators of computer science, which are the programmers, sys-

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tems analysts, database designers, and other computer professionals who create the canon that others use. Because men predominantly create the tools of computer science, there is fear that male domination of the field will be self-perpetuating, as male-created tools will be embedded with male values that may discourage their use by women. At the surface, this has not been shown to be true because women secretaries and office workers are avid computer users. Looking deeper into the many levels of software and hardware below the applications this claim gains more credence. History of Women in Computer Science The history of women in computer science in the United States is long and active. Despite this history, women are rarely mentioned in computer science textbooks and when they are usually only Admiral Grace Murray Hopper and Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace are noted. Hopper, an admiral in the U.S. Navy was the developer of the first programming language used in business. Lovelace, daughter of noted poet Lord Byron, was a collaborator with Charles Babbage who was the inventor of the thinking machine, or first conceptual computer. While these women are certainly noteworthy, other women should also be remembered. Almost all the early programmers were women. However, they did not achieve supervisory rolls in companies until World War II decimated the ranks of male workers. ENIAC, the first general-purpose computer, was programmed by Kathleen McNulty, Frances Bilas, Elizabeth Jean Jennings, Frances Elizabeth Snyder, Ruth Lichterman, and Marlyn Wescoff under the supervision of Adele Goldstine, Mary Mauchly, and Mildred Kramer. UNIVAC followed ENIAC as the next general computer and again many women including Francis E. Holbertson, Jean Bartik, Frances Morello, and Lillian Jay were hired to program it under the supervision of Admiral Hopper. At this time, Hopper was developing programming languages that used English words rather than symbols to program and were thus accessible to businesses. After World War II, the number of women in computer science declined at about the same time U.S. universities were developing their first departments of computer science. Judy Clapp was notable as a programmer of Whirlwind, the first real-time computer. Thelma Estrin was one of two electrical engineers who worked on the design of the Whirlwind computer. Sister Mary

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The history of women in computer science is long and active. Two women wiring the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the first operational electronic digital computer developed for the U.S. Army.

Kenneth Keller was one of the first women to receive a Ph.D. in computer science in the United States and went on to establish a department of computer science at Clarke University that included a master’s degree in Computers in Education. She promoted the idea that women should be information specialists as a field in computer science. In more recent history, Meg Whitman is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the online auction site, eBay. Carly Fiorina was CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005. Shafi Goldwasser, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has twice received the prestigious Gödel Prize for her innovative work in complexity theory and cryptography. Anita Borg founded the Institute for Women and Technology, which is active in bringing women into the field as

designers. Eva Tardos, a professor and chair at Cornell University, won the Fulkerson Prize for her work on complex algorithms. Education in Computer Science The percentage of women majoring in computer science reached a peak of 38 percent in 1985 but was declining so steadily that in 2003 women constituted 17 percent of computer science majors. Many reasons have been given for the lack of women in the major, including an assumption of math phobia in women, lack of female role models and teachers in the field, lack of encouragement in high school, fear of job availability, a heavy workload, highly competitive weed-out courses, less exposure to computers, and the lack of connection to people. In one contradictory case, Carn-



egie Mellon University has increased the women in it computer science program from 8 percent to 40 percent and has maintained that level for several years. Providing mentors, women-only clubs, female computer science dorms, study groups, and summer or longer internships in interesting fields have all been shown to help keep women in the major. Women who drop the major cite the high workload, “geekiness” of the field, lack of a social life, emphasis on programming, spending so much time with a machine rather than with people, and the decreasing number of jobs for computer scientists. Some computer science departments have responded with less emphasis on programming, more support in the programming courses, group programming projects, and applied programming projects in fields that women are thought to enjoy. The college years can be made more acceptable to women when they have other women to study with, group projects, and education in the large array of computer science careers that await them, both theoretical and applied. Last, they must be encouraged to apply for computer science careers after graduation. In computer science programs in the United States, there is a significant difference between national and international women successfully graduating from the major where international women are more successful and then more commonly seek employment as computer science professionals. Explanation for this difference relies on greater motivation to succeed even if the going is tough. This difference persists even when international women have less previous experience in the field as in fewer high school programming courses and experiences with computers. There are two distinct issues in graduating female computer scientists. One is attracting women to enter the major and the other is encouraging them to complete the major, which are referred to as “pipeline” issues. Starting in middle and high school, women must be encouraged to take math and computer science courses learning how to program and be comfortable with abstract reasoning. Then there is the transition to college where women must be encouraged to declare as computer science majors early in their schooling because the major generally has many requirements. In the college years, women must be kept in the major as even very bright and successful women drop out of computer science. In their senior year, women must be encouraged to apply for com-

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puter science jobs because many women fail to do this even after completing the major. Finally, women must be kept interested in staying in the field and pursuing graduate degrees in computer science so that they may go on to become mentors and role models for the next generations of female computer science students. Careers in Computer Science Careers in computer science are varied and range from the extremely applied to the extremely theoretical. Women have been more likely to be employed in applied fields such as human computer interaction, Web design, medical informatics, customer support, communications, and sales. Unfortunately, the women’s tracks usually involve lower status, less power, and lower pay than the men’s tracks. Still, women are increasingly breaking through barriers to become professors, department heads, supervisors, and upper-level administrators of high-tech firms. In most places where women work as computer science professionals, they are in the minority and complain of loneliness and lack of support. In addition, women complain about long work hours in the higher status jobs and the incompatibility with family life. Women also have to deal with pregnancies as any time off from fast-moving fields may leave them behind in their skills. There is a big difference here between U.S. and Canadian women and women from other countries. Women in India and Malaysia form a large percentage of the computer science workforce. In Europe, there is an increasing interest of women in computer design issues where listservs, such as “faces-l.net,” promote feminism and multimedia Web design. This is definitely the “softer” side of computer science, and although highly interesting, does not promote the inclusion of women into the “harder” side of computer science. Great Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand report similar pipeline problems as the United States and Canada. South Africa reports increasing numbers of women in computer science but not yet the 50 percent levels desired and as yet few women are teaching computer science in South African universities. Stereotype of Computer Scientists Unfortunately, the stereotype of computer scientists as asocial geeks who do nothing but communicate

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with computers all day is still accepted as factual by many middle school and high school girls. Like many stereotypes, there are some nuggets of truth that make the stereotype hard to dispel. Why do we care about low numbers of women in computer science and negative stereotypes? Reasons are social justice, the international need for highly skilled computer scientists, the need for the creativity of women, and breaking the cycle of domination of computer science by men as women design hardware and software with women’s needs in mind. See Also: Mathematics, Women in; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls; STEM Coalition; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Grossman. Lisa. “Stereotypes Steer Women Away From Computer Science.” Science News (December 15, 2009). http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50804/ title/Stereotypes_steer_women_away_from_computer _science (accessed January 2010). Margolis, Jane, Allan Fisher, and Faye Miller. “Failure Is Not an Option: International Women in Computer Science.” http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~gendergap (accessed January 2010). University of Bristol. “Famous Women in Computer Science.” http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/admissions/what_is _cs/FamousWomen.html (accessed January 2010). Rebecca K. Scheckler Radford University

Conflict Zones For centuries women have lived in the midst of conflict zones. Women have acted as soldiers, suicide bombers, and freedom fighters. Women have been victims of violent conflict; raped, abused, and murdered; and sold as slaves. Women have mobilized in peace movements, protesting against wars. Hence, conflict affects women’s lives on all levels. It is important to note that within every society women’s positions vary and are constantly contested; thus, women are active participants, beneficiaries and victims of conflicts.

Traditional Conflict Zones In many societies and cultures women hold symbolic and discursive positions as bearers of tradition and markers of nation. In wars, and specifically in ethnic and religious conflicts, these discourses become intensified and women’s bodies are turned into battlefields. In traditional Western discourses, women have been portrayed as the “beautiful soul” that must be saved. These have been reiterated in current times, when discourses around saving Afghan women from Taliban oppression were used to legitimize the invasion in 2001 by United States and its coalition. Also, women fighters often turn into mythical figures. In Sri Lanka, Tamil women who joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) adhered to stereotypical yet changing images; first conflating the traditional glorification of women as mothers with the female fighter, thus creating a “warrior mother”; then adding stereotypically masculine attributes, such as short hair and muscles, on to customary female qualities of virginity and chastity, resulting in a “masculinized virgin fighter.” Raping or sexually assaulting women of the enemy often serves as denigration, as women’s bodies are considered the property and reputation of the community. Military Conflict Zones In many conflicts women take up arms to fight sideby-side with men. Military forces in many countries have opened up to female participation since the 1980s and women are allowed to serve at most positions, which has involved increased numbers of women in the armed forces. Nevertheless, rarely more than 15 percent of army staff is comprised of women. During the 20th century, many women took part in liberation movements against colonial rule, as in Algeria, Vietnam, and Kenya. This was mainly a fight against the colonial power, and less a struggle for female emancipation. Yet, at times women sensed a connection between liberation from colonial rule and freedom from patriarchal oppression, thus initiating a feminist movement. For others though, and more commonly, the end of the war involved being reinserted back into, or voluntarily returning to, the domestic sphere. In many Latin American countries, for instance in Nicaragua, Chiapas in Mexico, and El Salvador, at times 30 percent of the members of guerrilla groups were female, a fact often ignored in public discourse Also, during the



civil war in Sri Lanka, many Tamil women engaged in the war against the Sri Lankan army. Female fighters often experience gender-specific violence such as rape, which, due to social stigma, is often ignored. During the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe, thousands of women freedom fighters were raped by their fellow combatants, a fact that was silenced in order to maintain unity in the newly independent nation. Gender and Violence Conflict Zones Civilian women experience life in a conflict zone differently. Intersectional inequalities, such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, religion and age, impact the level of vulnerability women experience. Women living in conflict zones experience a continuum of violence, which extends from massacre, murder, and other forms of killing, to rape, sexual violence and structural and economic violence. Gender-based violence and specifically sexual violence is prevalent among the majority of the world’s conflict zones and women are most commonly victims. Although, to a lesser extent, men and boys have also been subjected to sexual violence or gender-based mass killings, for instance in Srebrenica in 1995. In Darfur, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bangladesh, as well as in many other conflicts and civil wars, rape has been used as a tactic of genocide. In many areas, including Colombia, Kashmir, and Pakistan, rapes and sexual abuses of women and girls have been perpetrated by both the army and militants. Women have also been used as sex slaves for commanders. In Darfur the majority of rapes occur while women perform their daily household duties, often under threats of extreme violence. There is also evidence that during war there is an increase in the prevalence of domestic violence. Afghanistan, for instance, has a long history of impunity against domestic violence offenders and since 2001 domestic violence has increased significantly. Conflicts destroy social, economic, and legal infrastructure, as well as technical structures such as water supplies, roads, and buildings. For the civilian population this is detrimental, as fundamental facilities such as healthcare, education, clean water, and electricity are essential for livelihood. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), waterborne diseases, malaria, and maternal mortality are a few examples of conditions that affect women living in conflict zones.

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In some conflict zones, such as Darfur, the infrastructure is destroyed entirely; in others, such as Northern Ireland, they function rather well. As women often are responsible for the needs of the family, the absence of working infrastructures can be damaging. In Timor Leste, women’s access to healthcare, in specific reproductive health, has been clearly limited by the conflict, which has resulted in high maternal mortality rates, as well as a fast-growing population. Stay-at-Home Conflict Zones Despite the fact that women are active participants in conflicts, many women stay at home while their husbands, fathers, and sons join the armed forces. The loss of a breadwinner can have serious implications on the economic situation for the family and forces the woman to enter the formal or informal market in order to earn a living. For some women this can prove emancipating and empowering, while for others, social, cultural, or religious restrictions make it impossible for women to work. The loss of a husband and becoming a widow has extreme consequences for the family. Clearly, the trauma of death has in itself mental implications. In addition, in many societies, widows are met with hostility in fear; in Sri Lanka, there is a widespread stigmatization and resentment toward widowhood, and widows also experience threats to their financial and personal safety. In Kashmir many men have simply disappeared—in reality often killed, abducted, or imprisoned—and thus leaving their wives as “half widows.” This label makes it difficult for the woman to remarry and, as in Sri Lanka, thus inhibits her capacity to earn a living. Displacement Conflict Zones Displacement and forced migration present disruption and trauma in people’s lives. In Pakistan, there are 3 million internally displaced persons who have fled sectarian violence, terrorism, or clashes between the army and militants. Limited health and sanitary facilities in refugee camps increase the vulnerability to diseases and women are not able to access basic healthcare on a regular basis. Food is often limited, thus malnutrition is prevalent and pregnant women are especially at increased risk. Also, the civil conflict in Angola has resulted in a large internally displaced population, which, in connection with poverty and human rights abuses, has had an extensive impact on women’s lives.

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Peace and Activism Conflict Zones There has also been extensive work done by women in peace movements and peace building. Women are often linked to life-giving in their capacities as mothers, and thus some women’s peace groups have emphasized this role. Yet, as many women experience conflict as civilians, it has been argued that they have a different perspective to bring to peace building. Women’s peace initiatives tend to deconstruct the personal/public divide and are influenced by the daily struggles experiences by women therefore their work focuses on education, health, and food security. There has also been attempts to initiate contact with the “enemy” and locate common issues that the women living in the conflict zone experience, for instance domestic violence, militarism, and fundamentalism. As women often have been excluded from formal politics, such as in Northern Ireland, women have had little representation in official peace negotiations. While women were active in civil society and peace movements, it has been argued that this was not acknowledged in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 (the Belfast Agreement). These gendered implications of peace initiatives have been accounted for in the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, which highlights women’s exceptional position during conflicts and purports that gender must be accounted for in all peace making, peace building and peace keeping missions. UNSCR 1325 therefore accentuates the impact of conflict on women and girls’ lives and calls for a gender perspective among all actors negotiating and implementing peace. See Also: Afghanistan; Colombia; Combat, Women in; Terrorists, Female; Wars of National Liberation, Women in. Further Readings De Alwis, Malathi. “The Changing Role of Women in Sri Lankan Society.” Social Research, v.69/3 (2002). Jacobs, Susan, Ruth Jacobson, and Jennifer Marchbank, eds. States of Conflict : Gender, Violence, and Resistance. London: Zed Books, 2000. Lorentzen, Lois A. and Jennifer E. Turpin, eds. The Women and War Reader. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Pankhurst, Donna, ed. Gendered Peace: Women’s Struggles for Post-War Justice and Reconciliation. London: Routledge, 2008.

Shepherd, Laura J. Gender, Violence and Security: Discourse as Practice. London: Zed Books, 2008. Emma Brännlund National University of Ireland, Galway

Congo The Republic of Congo (henceforth Congo), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, is a small country located in central Africa. Over the past two decades, Congo has had several bouts of civil war and unrest, but it is often overshadowed by its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo, because of its ongoing civil war. With a population of approximately 3.8 million people, Congo suffers from a 70-percent poverty rate that greatly affects the lives of Congolese women. The 1990s proved to be a turbulent decade for Congo, which suffered from civil war, political instability, and economic downturn. As a result, the number of social issues facing the nation dramatically increased. It has been estimated that approximately 60,000 women aged 12 through 15 years were raped and forced into conscription during the civil war, causing physiological and physical problems for a large number of young women. Victims of rape face increased chances of sexually transmitted diseases and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), which was very problematic considering the lack of reproductive healthcare available. Since 2002, Congo has been working hard to rebuild its economy, education system, and healthcare system, with a special focus on women’s issues. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the most prominent social issues that women are faced within Congo. Seven percent of women in the Congo are HIV-positive. In response to the climbing HIV/AIDS rates, the Congolese government has initiated several programs to combat the disease, such as subsidized healthcare and antiviral drugs. It is also working to improve AIDS education programs in rural areas. Women play a large role in the agricultural economy of the country, which makes up 11 percent of Congo’s Gross Domestic Product. Women and children are generally responsible for planting, cultivating, and selling agricultural products, but agricultural

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work is lower paying, causing women to continue to live in poverty. Compared with other central and subSaharan African countries, Congo, at 80 percent, has a high literacy rate. Although the literacy rate is high, more men than women are literate. Women are granted equal protection under Congolese law, but they often face gender-based discrimination in education, healthcare, and land ownership. The Congolese government is currently working to address the needs of women and improve social, economic, and political opportunities within the country. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is responsible for incorporating the promotion of women and opportunities for women throughout the country. See Also: Domestic Violence; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rape in Conflict Zones; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Afoaku, O. G. Explaining the Failure of Democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Autocracy and Dissent in an Ambivalent World. Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen, 2005. African Development Bank/African Development Fund. “Republic of Congo Country Strategy Paper.” http:// www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents /Project-and-Operations/ADB-BD-WP-2006-01-EN-R -CONGO-CSP-2005-07.PDF (accessed June 2010). Clark, John Frank. The Failure of Democracy in the Republic of Congo. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008. Martin, Phyllis. Catholic Women of Congo-Brazzaville: Mothers and Sisters in Troubled Times. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. Meggan A. Houlihan Ball State University

Congo, Democratic Republic of the Although the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), formally known as Zaire, has immense mineral wealth and an abundance of natural resources, the country continually ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world. Since 1996, the country has been ravaged by civil war and unrest, which has depleted the infrastructure of the country, causing

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a wealth of problems for its citizens. Women in DR Congo face issues relating to healthcare, education, and basic necessities. The civil war in DR Congo has had devastating effects on the country’s population of 64 million people; since 1998, over 5.4 million people have died as an indirect result of the civil war, and over 2 million people have been displaced. Securing the basic necessities of survival such as clean water, shelter, clothing, and medical care has become increasingly difficult, and women have been subjected to an increase in sexual violence. Before the outbreak of civil war in DR Congo, women were viewed as subordinates to men, which can be seen in Congolese law and social norms. Under the Congolese Family Law, women are forced to obey their husbands and are not allowed to take legal action unless their husband agrees. Men, unlike women, are allowed to have extramarital affairs, and although polygamy is illegal, it is overlooked throughout the country. Women do not have the legal authority to force their husbands to wear condoms; therefore, married women are subjected to increased risks for sexually transmitted diseases and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Women in DR Congo have traditionally played a large role in the agricultural economy of the country because it is their responsibility to plant and harvest crops. Many women also make their living from making charcoal and trading at markets; 90 percent of market traders are women. Access to reproductive healthcare has and will continue to be one the largest issues facing women in DR Congo. Before the civil war, DR Congo had little in the form of reproductive healthcare for women, and the services that were available were often expensive. The surge in sexual violence as a means of war has meant women have gone untreated after suffering brutal physical and psychological attacks. Armed forces from all sides of the war have kidnapped, raped, and forced women into sexual slavery. An increase in the number of sexually violent attacks has also meant an increased number of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and pregnancies. Young women also often face physical injuries, such as fistulas and internal bleeding, as a result of rape. The high cost of medical care combined with the social stigmas associated with rape have prevented

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thousands of women from receiving proper medical treatment and caused many to remain silent. Many communities and families will ostracize a woman after she has been raped; as a result, many women remain silent to try and carry on with their lives. Churches, local nongovernmental organizations, and other organizations have organized treatment centers for women to seek physical and psychological help, as well as improve their quality of life. Women receive educational training as well as skill development and training, which prepares them for future employment. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rape and HIV; Rape in Conflict Zones; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Clark, John Frank. The Failure of Democracy in the Republic of Congo. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008. Csete, Joanne, and Juliane Kippenberg. The War Within the War: Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Eastern Congo. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002. Kippenberg, Juliane. Soldiers Who Rape, Commanders Who Condone: Sexual Violence and Military Reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2009. Prunier, Gerard. Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009. Meggan A. Houlihan Ball State University

Contraception, Religious Approaches to Contraception is the use of a variety of technologies and practices to prevent the fertilization of female egg by male sperm cells. Typical forms of contraception include barrier methods (such as the male or female condom, diaphragm, contraceptive sponge, or cervical cap), hormonal methods (birth control pills containing progesterone, estrogen, or both; patches or insertable objects that release hormones; intramuscular injectables; implants inserted beneath the skin); and chemical methods (spermicides). Finally,

fertility awareness methods such as Natural Family Planning, calendar-based and body-awareness methods (including charting ovulation, basal body temperature, and other signs of body changes indicative of ovulation and/or impending menstruation), lactational amenorrhea, surgical sterilization, abstinence, and the practice of coitus interruptus are considered forms of barrier method contraception. Although the term contraception is used to describe most forms of birth control, other methods of birth control may not be considered contraceptives but are, rather, contragestives. This is because these methods do not prevent fertilization but instead prevent or interrupt the implantation of the fertilized egg or otherwise interrupt gestational processes. Contragestives include hormonal methods (the “morning after” pill), intrauterine devices (commonly known as IUDs), and abortion. Effectiveness varies widely between and across forms of contraceptive and contragestive birth control. Contraception and Religion Although popular press typically portrays religious discourse about birth control as a battle in which religion and modernity are pitted against one another, it is actually a varied and nuanced debate. Religious groups have different levels of acceptance and even active endorsement of different forms of contraceptive practice, and the theological basis for these stances may vary widely. The vast majority of wholesale religious rejection of contraception hinges on the belief that sexual activity should be connected with procreation. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, endorses Natural Family Planning and abstinence but does not permit adherents to engage in any other form of contraception or contragestation. In addition, within Natural Family Planning, the Roman Catholic Church further stipulates that it should only be used within specific parameters and that there should be periods of abstinence if spacing between children is desired. The Roman Catholic Church goes further to suggest that use of contraceptive practices and devices of any kind may lead to the degradation of women, who should be seen as long-term partners in marital love rather than temporary outlets for sexual impulses. However, there is much dissent among practicing Catholics around the church’s official statement on



contraception, and some sources suggest that as many as 70 percent of all Catholics would support a move from the Church to allow some forms of birth control for family planning use. Although the Qur’an clearly prohibits infanticide, nowhere in the Qur’an verses are Muslims prohibited from preventing conception. However, the verses that refer specifically to infanticide are often used to forbid contraceptive practices, although Muslim historians continue to disagree on these and other early (and, increasingly, contemporary) interpretations of Qur’an verses and other texts. Some suggest that abortion, for example, is always forbidden, whereas others assert that early Muslim scholars argue an acceptable time frame for the practice. Islamic teachings have historically been progressive by contemporary standards in the realm of family planning and contraception, typically putting the welfare of existing children, mothers, and families ahead of any specific edicts about the nature and permissibility of birth control of any kind. Although certainly not true of all women in all Islamic centers, many Muslim women attribute their empowerment to the free and unrestricted access to information about contraception. Protestant Christian denominations, without heavy centralization such as found in the Roman Catholic Church, vary in their treatment of contraception. Most Protestant denominations endorse the use of birth control within marriage and treat this issue, similar to others, as allowable under the tenets of free will and the freedom of conscience. Still, significantly fewer denominations support contragestive methods, especially abortion. Most frame these personal choices as between an individual and his or her conscience but emphasize that every couple has a responsibility to limit the number of children they have to ensure that mothers are able to maintain their health and that every child is born healthy and can be adequately provided for in material and emotional ways. Meanwhile, more-evangelical and more-fundamentalist denominations are also more likely to reject contraception of any kind. For many of these congregations, the issue is not necessarily about how married couples plan the number and frequency of children but, instead, that access to and free use of contraceptives may encourage individuals to engage in extramarital sexual relations.

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Contemporary Thought Some denominations, including contemporary fundamentalist schurches, encourage extremely large families in a literal interpretation of the Christian Bible. They assert that it is not the place of human beings to plan the size of their families but that, instead, it is a spiritual matter best decided by God. As such, all forms of family planning—including Natural Family Planning—are forbidden. The health of a mother who is expected to bear as many children as God sends her is not typically a subject of public discourse, though it may figure into more private discussions. Similar to Protestant Christianity, Judaism is also a decentralized, highly varied religion. Historically, Judaic teaching emphasizes the preservation of life—especially that of the mother—and its teachings about birth control and any exceptions stem from that central emphasis: The health and welfare of mothers are major considerations. In contemporary interpretations, Haredi and Hasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform/Reconstructionist Judaism vary in attitudes toward contraception and family planning. Although many Hasidic and Haredi groups encourage very large families, some measures of family planning—provided contraceptive methods do not spill semen from its established route (per a literal interpretation of the biblical story of Onan)—are acceptable. Less conservative branches of Judaism endorse the use of contraceptives for family planning, and Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist groups in the United States have formally supported a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion, especially when the mother’s life is in danger or when the pregnancy has been the result of violence of any kind. Hindu teaching emphasizes an individual’s responsibility to family life and procreation; however, the use of contraception has never been a contentious issue on the scale of Western religious debate. India is unique among nations in that it was among the very first countries to actively endorse and encourage the use of contraception for family planning as a means to regulate population and its environmental impact. Similarly, Taoist, Shinto, Buddhist, and other faiths have minimal engagement with the birth control question, and access to contraceptive and other birth control methods is relatively unfettered in many of the centers of those religions.

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Women, Religion, and Autonomy For many women, theology dictates their birth control practices. However, for others, this is not a matter of conscience and individual decision but, rather, about public access. In many religious centers, especially where state and religious interests are not separated, theological barriers make obtaining reliable, accurate information about and access to contraception impossible. Many women’s experiences affirm that family planning is crucial to maternal health, women’s empowerment, and the desperate need to address population-driven environmental conditions worldwide, and research continues to support the connection between women’s access to birth control and women’s relative financial and personal autonomy. See Also: Abortion; Christian Identity; Christianity. Further Readings Dharmalingam, A. and S. P. Morgan. “Women’s Work, Autonomy, and Birth Control: Evidence From Two South Indian Villages.” Population Studies, v.50/2 (1996). Maquire, Daniel C., ed. Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Scarnecchia, Brian D. Bioethics, Law, and Human Life Issues: A Catholic Perspective on Marriage, Family, Contraception, Abortion, Reproductive Technology, and Death and Dying. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2010. Sally Campbell Galman University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Contraception Methods Contraception allows women to choose the number and spacing of their children. Female sterilization and intrauterine devices (IUDs) account for almost 40 percent in less developed countries, and combined oral contraceptive pills (COC), IUDs, and condoms for the same proportion in more developed countries. Contraception remains one of the most cost-effective public health measures to reduce rates of maternal and infant mortality. In 2008, modern contraception prevented about 188 million unintended pregnancies, 1.2 million new-

born deaths, and 230,000 pregnancy related deaths. An unmet need for family planning of an estimated 215 million women of reproductive age who want to avoid or postpone childbearing still exists because they are not using effective contraceptive methods. There are several reasons for this, including lack of knowledge about the risk of becoming pregnant, fear of side effects of contraceptives, influence from partners and community leaders, religious beliefs, and lack of access or finances to use family planning services. A large number of unintended pregnancies occur due to lack of knowledge and myths regarding contraception and the failure or discontinuation of use of short-term hormonal contraception. Effectiveness of a contraceptive method depends on compliance and correct use of that method. It is thus essential that proper information and counseling on contraception choices for both women and men should be advocated. Health practitioners should be able to discuss all eligible contraceptive methods locally available. Essential topics should include effectiveness, risks and side effects, and advantages and disadvantages. Choosing a Method The World Health Organization (WHO) produced guidelines to aid in contraceptive choice. The WHO Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (WHO MEC) provides evidence-based recommendations to help the healthcare provider to safely select the most appropriate method of contraception. A WHO also provides information on contraception effectiveness to assists in decision making. Table I provides classifications of the four categories used. Women must realize that popular methods, such as COCs and barrier contraception, that rely on daily or coital administration have “typical” use failure rates (user and method failures) that are higher than the “perfect” use rates (method failures). Their effectiveness is dependent on compliance and correct use. This has resulted in the promotion of “longacting reversible contraception” (LARC). A LARC is a method that requires administration less than once per cycle or month. These methods include copper IUDs, levonorgestrel-intrauterine systems (LNGIUS), progestogen-only injectable contraceptives (POIC), progestogen-only subdermal implants, and combined hormonal vaginal rings. LARC methods combine reversibility with high effectiveness.

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Table I: World Health Organization Contraceptive Use Classification Classification of Category Ratings 1

No restriction for use

Use method under any circumstance

2

Advantages of using method generally outweigh theoretical Generally use the method or proven risks

3

Theoretical or proven risks usually outweigh advantages of using method

Use not usually recommended unless other more appropriate methods are not available or not acceptable (requires expert clinical judgment and/or referral to a specialist contraceptive provider)

4

Represents an unacceptable health risk if the contraceptive method is used

Do not use the method

Source: World Health Organization. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, 4th Ed., 2009.

Natural Methods Natural family planning methods are practiced in most countries and include fertility-based methods (FAM) and withdrawal. These methods are safe, have no side effects, are inexpensive to practice, and may be easily discontinued. Disadvantages include meticulous recordkeeping of fertility cycles, involve intensive training, and are dependent on a partner’s willingness to abstain from intercourse during the fertile period. Other factors, such as irregular menstrual cycles, medicine that may affect body temperature or cervical mucus, women who are breastfeeding or ill, as well as cervical surgery may influence effectiveness. Withdrawal Method. The withdrawal method, or coitus interruptus (CI), is one of the oldest-known methods of contraception. It involves pulling the penis out and away from the vagina before ejaculation. Great self-control, and experience are required by men, and the woman must trust her partner. More reliable methods of contraception are preferred nowadays. Both FAM and CI does not protect against sexually transmitted infection. Lactational Amenorrhea Method. Women who are breast-feeding suppress ovulation because of high prolactin levels. In the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM), all three of the following prerequisites must be met for this method to be effective: complete absence of a menstrual period after cessation of the lochia postpartum vaginal discharge (blood, mucus, and placental tissue that can continue for four to six weeks after childbirth), exclusively breastfeeding the

child, and only when the baby is under 6 months of age. The risk of conception in the first six months is 2 percent with this method. If the baby is not fully breastfed, additional contraception must be started at the end of the third week. Barrier Methods Chemical Methods or Spermicides. These agents consist of a carrier substance (e.g., foam, jelly, cream, soluble film, suppository, or tablet) and a chemical agent with spermicidal properties (acidic compound, microbicidal agent, or a detergent). The product is placed high up in the vagina, as close as possible to the cervix. Depending on the product used, women should wait a few minutes for the product to be dissolved in the upper vagina. The agents should not be removed within the next two to six hours, depending on the method used. Some of these detergent agents (i.e., nonoxynol-9) increase the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Ongoing research explores agents that will provide protection against STIs. Spermicidal agents, when used alone, carry a high failure rate, and are therefore not recommended without an additional method. Male Condoms. Male latex condoms are one of the most commonly used methods of contraception. Apart from preventing conception, the condom is the only proven method to prevent STDs, including HIV. This advantage, as well as the ease of use and minimal side effects, render this a popular method.

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The use of an additional and more reliable contraceptive with condom use should also be promoted. It is important to adhere to guidelines to insure correct use. Short condoms, which cover the glans of the penis only, are not recommended, and oil-based lubricants should never be used as they can damage condoms made from latex. Polyurethane condoms could be a useful alternative for patients with a latex allergy or for those who find latex condoms unacceptable. The polyurethane condom has a larger diameter and is a better conductor of body heat and sensation. Female Condoms. Female condoms are manufactured from polyurethane. It consists of a pouch with a wide ring that fits over the vaginal orifice, and a loose inner ring that fits over the cervix. This device is less likely to rupture, can be inserted up to eight hours before sexual intercourse, and can be used without the male having a full erection. Diaphragms. Diaphragms are available in different sizes, and consist of a central dome of latex, which is attached to a firm outer ring. A healthcare worker should determine the size to be used, and the client is then taught how to use the device. The use of spermicidal jelly is recommended to enhance the efficacy of this method. The diaphragm should not be removed until eight hours after intercourse. Use of the diaphragm is associated with very few adverse effects, but cannot be inserted in a patient with a prolapsed pelvic or during the first six months postpartum. The size needs to be adjusted after a change in weight of more than 10 pounds. Intrauterine Devices (IUDs). Modern intrauterine devices (IUDs) contain either levonorgestrel (LNG) or copper, and are extremely safe, highly effective, long lasting, and reversible. Women and health professionals still have widespread misconceptions about IUDs, such as that it cause ectopic pregnancy, infertility, pelvic infection, should not be used in teenagers and nulliparae, and should not be used in women with HIV. The principal mechanism of action of a coppercontaining IUD is due to the effects of copper on sperm motility, preventing fertilization. In addition, the copper IUD prevents implantation due to its inflammatory reaction on the endometrium. The main side effects are pain, spotting, light bleeding, or amenorrhoea (abnormally heavy or long menstrual periods) that occur in the first three to six months

and usually decrease with time. The risk of uterine perforation with IUD use is less than two in 1,000, and expulsion occurs in 5 percent of women, usually within the first three months after insertion. The LNG intrauterine system is T-shaped and has a reservoir containing levonorgestrel, which is released slowly for five years. Irregular bleeding and spotting are common within the first six months, but at one year, 65 percent of women experience light bleeding or amenorrhea. There are many noncontraceptive benefits in using this method, which include treating heavy menstrual bleeding, dysmenorrhea, and pain associated with endometriosis. It can also be used in women with endometrial hyperplasia and as endometrial protection for those on oestrogen therapy. Hormonal Methods There are several hormonal contraceptives available in several formulations, including the most well-known form of birth control pills. The minimum requirements before commencing a combined estrogen– progestogen product are to provide a personal and family history of deep vein thrombosis, and to have your blood pressure measured at baseline and followup. Combined agents are best avoided by women over 35 years who smoke. Certain drugs may interfere with the metabolism of combination oral contraception, which can lower the efficacy. There are also several beneficial effects of the combined oral contraceptives. Progestogen-only methods can be started in healthy nonpregnant women without screening procedures. See Also: Contraception, Religious Approaches to; Fertility; Health, Mental and Physical; Pregnancy. Further Readings Gebbie, Ailsa and Katharine O’Connell White. Fast Facts: Contraception. Albuquerque, NM: Health Press, 2009. Gramont, K. E. and N. De Bender. Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, & Abortion. San Francisco: MacAdam/ Cage, 2007. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2010. Jütte, Robert. Contraception: A History. Queensland, Australia: Polity Press, 2008.



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Riddle, John M. Contraception and Abortion From the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Shoupe, Donna. The Handbook of Contraception: A Guide for Practical Management (Current Clinical Practice). New York: Humana Press, 2006. Petrus Steyn Stellenbosch University

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted on December 18, 1979, by the United Nations General Assembly and entered into force on September 3, 1981, after the 20th member state had ratified it. To date, 186 states have ratified the convention, and in doing that, they have committed themselves to fight against discrimination against women. In 1982, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women was established with the aim of monitoring the enforcement of women’s rights in those states that were parties to the convention. The Division for the Advancement of Women, established in 1946, contributed to the implementation of the CEDAW. In the last two decades, the history of the convention has come across relevant developments in the enhancement of global human rights, especially within the framework of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and its follow-up. Historical Background Equality between women and men is a basic principle of the United Nations and has been since the signing of the foundational treaty of the United Nations (the Charter of the United Nations) in 1945. The principle of equality was then strengthened and extended by a plethora of United Nations’ international documents, such as the International Bill of Human Rights (comprising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Cove-

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nant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of 1966). Thanks to the work of the Commission on the Status of Women, originally set up in 1946 as a subcommission of the Commission on Human Rights, many documents entirely dedicated to the enhancement of the human rights of women are coming into force, such as the Convention on the Political Rights of Women (adopted by the General Assembly in 1952); the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (adopted by the General Assembly in 1957); the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages (adopted in 1962); and so forth. The protection provided by these conventions was fragmented and confined to very specific and sensitive women’s rights; other women’s rights were intended to be protected by the United Nations’ general human rights system. In the 1960s, many feminist movements and nongovernmental organizations around the world started raising awareness of gender-based discrimination and advocated for a holistic legal instrument to tackle all forms of discrimination against women. In particular, the World Conference of the International Women’s Year, convened in Mexico City in 1975 and applauded by the United Nations General Assembly for stepping forward for the advancement of women rights, encouraged the Commission on the Status of Women to draft the CEDAW in 1976. The draft was then scrutinized by the Third Committee of the General Assembly during the next three years, from 1977 to 1979, and the CEDAW was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979. On October 6, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which entered into force on December 22, 2000, after the 10th ratification—intended to provide victims of discrimination with a complaints procedure. To date, 99 countries have ratified the Optional Protocol. Structure and Effect of the Convention The CEDAW consists of a preamble and 30 articles. In the preamble, the convention recognizes that, despite the general human rights instruments in existence, discrimination against women continues to exist and can be exacerbated in situations of poverty, which makes women even more vulnerable. In addition, the CEDAW points out that phenomena such as

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racial discrimination, colonialism, injustice, and foreign domination prevent both men and women from the full enjoyment of their rights. It then calls attention to the contribution of women to the family and society, stressing for the first time in an international convention the importance of women’s reproductive rights by stating that “the role of women in procreation should not be a basis for discrimination.” The convention adopts a substantive equality approach, aiming at women’s equality in practice. Therefore, moving beyond the Aristotelian principle of formal equality, states should remove obstacles and promote action to ensure that women’s equality is real and effective. The convention defines “discrimination against women” as “any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field” (Article 1). The following articles cover very sensitive areas of women’s lives. A number of them prescribe actions to the states and implement adequate measures for achieving the thorough and effective protection of women in their full enjoyment of civil, economic, social, and cultural rights; for fostering women’s access to education, employment, and social and economic activities; and for granting women freedom by tackling human trafficking. Moreover, the convention focuses on three fundamental topics: women’s legal status, asking states to ensure that the legal status of women does not depend on the nationality of their husbands at the moment of the marriage or during it; women’s reproductive rights, stressing the social function of maternity and, among other items, affirming women’s rights to reproductive choice; and the role played by culture and tradition in restricting women’s enjoyment of their fundamental rights, challenging historical, cultural, and other kinds of grounds that gave rise to and further developed gender-based discrimination. The convention is legally binding under international law for all states that have ratified it, which are bound to implement it and to submit national reports on the actions taken to improve women’s rights and on the progress of women’s rights within their region

to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on a regular basis (within one year of ratification or accession, and thereafter every four years). The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women is an international expert body consisting of 23 experts on women’s issues. To date, more than 100 experts have served as members of the committee since its establishment in 1982. These experts are elected by the states’ parties according to the standards set by the convention, which require experts’ geographical distribution and the representation of different legal systems and cultures. The experts’ mandate lasts four years, with half of the committee experts replaced each election to ensure the consistency of the committee’s work. The specific mandate of the committee is to monitor the implementation of the CEDAW by states’ parties. For this purpose, the committee is entitled to review national reports sent by the parties. The review procedure is centered on a joint auditing by committee experts of the reports with national government representatives, who have the chance to be asked questions and to offer clarifications on their national antidiscrimination policies. The committee wishes this exchange to take the form of a constructive dialogue, the purpose of which is the enhancement of women’ s rights in the reporting state. The committee can make recommendations to states’ parties on women issues and invites specialized agencies of the United Nations’ system to cooperate on the full implementation of the convention at a national level. It also encourages representatives of national and international nongovernmental organizations to provide country-specific information on states’ parties. Beijing and Its Follow-Up The CEDAW is often connected with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—two international documents that uphold the convention in the protection of women’s human rights. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action were adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, organized by the Commission on the Status of Women and held in Beijing, China, in September



Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

1995. While reaffirming the commitment to enforce women’s rights enshrined, among other documents, in the CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration opens a new era in the protection of women’ s rights; in fact, not only does it aim to provide guidance to governments and the international community with regard to the promotion of women’s equality, empowerment, and advancement, but it also ensures mainstream acceptance of the gender perspective in all policies and programs in the implementation of the Platform for Action and openly draws attention to so-called multiple discrimination against women (i.e., “multiple barriers to their empowerment and advancement because of such factors as their race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, or disability, or because they are indigenous people” [Article 32]). The commitment to tackle multiple discrimination has also strengthened cooperation between the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is the United Nations body entitled to consider the progress made in the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, signed on December 21, 1965, and entered into force on January 4, 1969. As far as the Platform for Action is concerned, it is an agenda for women’s empowerment through the principle of shared power and responsibility between women and men in all spheres of society. The platform identifies 12 critical areas of concern in which governments and society at large are called on to take strategic action, among which are included the increasing feminization of poverty; unequal access to education, to healthcare, and to decision-making power; the situation of women during armed conflicts; the stereotypes perpetrated by the mass media; and the gender inequalities found in the safeguarding of environment. The Commission on the Status of Women has regularly reviewed the progress of the implementation of women’s rights in these critical areas of concern, and the General Assembly reviews the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action every five years. Three reviews of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action have taken place, one in June 2000, one in February to March 2005, and in March 2010. To promote the goals of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a publication series titled

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“Women2000 and Beyond” has been published by the Division for the Advancement of Women since 2002. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Representation of Women in Government, International; United Nations Conferences on Women. Further Readings Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. http://www.un.org /womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm (Full text of the Additional Protocol) http://daccess-dds -ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/774/73/PDF /N9977473.pdf?OpenElement (accessed April 2010). Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. “Progress Achieved in the Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: Report by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.” http://www.un.org /documents/ga/conf177/aconf177-7en.htm (accessed April 2010). Merry, Sally Engle. Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law Into Local Justice. Chicago Series in Law and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/pdf /Beijing%20full%20report%20E.pdf (accessed April 2010). United Nations. “Directory of UN Resources on Gender and Women’s Issues.” http://www.un.org/womenwatch /directory (accessed April 2010). United Nations. “Women 2000 and Beyond.” http://www .un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/W2000andBeyond .html (accessed April 2010). United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). Eliminating Violence Against Women: Forms, Strategies and Tools. Turin, Italy: UNICRI, 2008. http://www.unicri.it/wwk/publications /books/docs/eliminating_violence.pdf (accessed April 2010). Vandehole, Wouter. Discrimination and Equality in the View of the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies. Antwerp, Belgium: Intersentia, 2005. Barbara Giovanna Bello University of Milano

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Convention on the Rights of the Child

Convention on the Rights of the Child Adopted on November 20, 1989, by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is comprised of 54 articles and two Optional Protocols. This document, grounded in broader discourses of human rights, was prompted by an understanding of the vulnerable position of children in most societies and the desire to ensure that the social, cultural, political, economic, and legal rights of individuals under the age of 18 are both recognized and respected. The CRC went into effect on September 2, 1990, after receiving the required number of ratifications. At present, 194 countries have ratified the convention including all member countries of the United Nations except the United States and Somalia. The CRC is significant because it is a unique, nonnegotiable, legally binding agreement that sets forth children’s rights and establishes the responsibilities that governments, communities, and individuals (including parents) have toward children. Central Components of the CRC The convention is based on four principles that the UN regards as equal and interdependent. First, it maintains that children should be free from all forms of discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ability, wealth, origins, beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, or other identity traits. Next, it holds that the best interests of children must be a central consideration in all matters that affect them. Third, it establishes that all children have the right to life, survival, and development and asserts that governments have a responsibility to promote these rights and protect children from individuals and forces that may infringe upon their rights through such means as child abuse, neglect, or exploitation. Finally, the convention affirms that children have a right to participate—to degrees that are age-appropriate—in making decisions that affect their lives and wellbeing. On May 25, 2000, the UN added two optional protocols to the convention. The first sets 18 as the minimum age for participation in the military and armed conflict. The second prohibits the sale of children, child pornography, and child prostitution.

While the CRC aims to promote the health, safety, welfare, and development of all children, it includes special attention to the needs of children who are separated from their parents, children who are in conflict with the law, and children with disabilities. Countries that sign and ratify the convention must regularly provide information concerning their adherence to and implementation of the principles and optional protocols of the CRC to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, a group of 18 individuals with expertise in the field of human rights and who are elected to four-year terms. The committee meets three times annually and makes regular reports and recommendations to the UN General Assembly via the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. After completing its formal review process for a particular country, the committee makes specific recommendations concerning how that country can further promote the CRC. The CRC has helped raise global awareness regarding children’s human rights. In addition, it has set standards for the treatment and welfare of children. It also has prompted an increase in research and reporting concerning the status of children in countries around the world. It has been particularly useful as a planning tool and has helped governments alter existing legislation as well as implement new programs and services in order to promote children’s development and well-being. Despite this, widespread human rights violations continue to hamper the welfare and rights of children. Globally, discrimination persists and, as feminist scholars and activists have argued, there is a particular need to effectively address the consequences of gender-based discrimination as well as the ideologies that give rise to sexism in the first place. Indeed, girl children continue to face widespread challenges regarding their overall status in society, full and equal participation in social and political life, and access to healthcare and education/training. They also face numerous forms of gender-based violence including sexual harassment, sexual assault, trafficking, forced and child marriage, and rape. These challenges, coupled with and exacerbated by those related to armed conflict, are some of the most pertinent and pervasive global issues facing children in the 21st century. As some commentators have observed, practitioners and politicians will need to continue to use the CRC as a

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This Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the vulnerable position of children in most societies and the desire to ensure that the social, cultural, political, economic, and legal rights of individuals under the age of 18 are recognized and respected.

tool for promoting legislation and creating programs that not only promote children’s human rights but also find ways to hold accountable those individuals that infringe upon or deny such rights. Only then, it seems, can the convention serve as a foundation for creating tangible, enduring, and positive change in the lives of children around the world. See Also: Adolescence; Child Abuse, Perpetrators of; Child Abuse, Victims of; Child Labor; Children’s Rights; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Girl Scouts; Girls Inc.; Rape in Conflict Zones. Further Readings Berman, Helene and Yasmin Jiwani, eds. In the Best Interests of the Girl Child: Phase II Report. http://www .unbf.ca/arts/CFVR/documents/Girl_Child_E.pdf (accessed December 2009).

Connors, Jane, Jean Zermatten, and Anastasia Panayotidis, eds. 18 Candles: The Convention on the Rights of the Child Reaches Majority. Sion, Switzerland: Institut International des Droits de l’Enfants, 2009. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/crc18 .pdf (accessed December 2009). Hadju, Christina, ed. Child Rights in the Commonwealth: 20 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Convention on the Rights of the Child.” http://www.unicef.org/crc (accessed December 2009). United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Protecting the World’s Children: Impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Diverse Legal Systems. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Jillian Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

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Coppola, Sofia Sofia Coppola, daughter of renowned filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, has established her place in American cinema as a successful director and screenwriter. She has completed three feature films, won an Academy Award, and has challenged the gender barrier in Hollywood filmmaking, proving that she is more than a Hollywood scion. Born in 1971 in New York City and raised in Napa Valley, California, Coppola is the youngest child of Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, director of Apocalypse Now and the Godfather trilogy. Sofia Coppola’s extended family includes Nicholas Cage and Talia Shire. She was married to filmmaker Spike Jonze from 1999 to 2003, and in 2006 gave birth to a daughter, Romy, with musician Thomas Mars. Coppola attended Mills College and the California Institute of the Arts. Career Development Coppola began her career as an actress, appearing in many of her father’s films, including the Godfather trilogy, Rumble Fish, and The Outsiders. She hosted a popular culture show, Hi Octane, on the Comedy Channel with Zoe Cassavetes. In the 1990s, Coppola transitioned from acting to fashion, photography, and filmmaking. She interned at Chanel, modeled for Marc Jacobs, and developed a fashion label, Milk Fed, with Stephanie Hayman. Her photography has appeared in books and fashion magazines. Coppola’s films primarily focus on young women at pivotal stages in their lives. Coppola’s black-and-white short film Lick the Star (1998) portrays a clique of girls inspired by the sinister teen cult novel, V. C. Andrew’s Flowers in the Attic, to poison the boys in their high school. She subsequently wrote and directed three feature films and is completing a fourth. Told from the perspective of infatuated neighborhood boys, Coppola’s film The Virgin Suicides (1999) is a dark, suburban coming-of-age story that portrays the suicides of the sheltered, idealized, adolescent Lisbon sisters. Lost in Translation (2003) is a pensive dramatic comedy that captures the brief relationship between two geographically and socially dislocated individuals, a 20-something newlywed and a middle-aged actor in Tokyo, struggling with melancholy and the frustration of ill-fated marriages. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won the Oscar for best

screenplay, making Coppola only the third woman and the first American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for directing. Her next film, Marie Antoinette (2006), recounts Marie Antoinette’s transition from a sheltered, decadent teenager to the queen of France. Coppola’s recent film, Somewhere, focuses on male development by portraying a hard-partying Hollywood actor forced to reevaluate his life when his 11-year-old daughter unexpectedly visits. Recently, Coppola began directing television commercials and music videos. While her films have received mixed reviews, critics recognize Coppola as a formidable member of the predominantly male American New Wave. See Also: Celebrity Women; Film Directors, Female; Film Directors, Female: United States; Film Production, Women in. Further Readings Cook, P. “Portrait of a Lady Sofia Coppola.” Sight & Sound, v.16/11(2006). Hill, D. Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers: An Excursion Into the American New Wave. London: Oldcastle, 2008. Lee, N. “Pretty Vacant: The Radical Frivolity of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.” Film Comment, v.42/5 (2006). McGowan, T. “There Is Nothing Lost in Translation.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video, v.24/1 (2007). Judith R. Halasz State University of New York, New Paltz

Cornum, Rhonda Ironically, United States Army Brigadier General (Dr.) Rhonda Cornum’s iconoclastic military legacy as a surviving 20th-century American female prisoner of war (POW) has proven to be the definitive fulcrum feminists, military historians, and politicians use to weigh in on the winning side of the long standing debate regarding military servicewomen’s ability to successfully undergo the physical, mental, and emotional dangers of modern warfare and serve bravely in combat.



Educational and Military History Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1954, Rhonda Cornum grew up in East Aurora, New York, near Buffalo. Cornum earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and nutrition at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She joined the Army in 1978 where she worked at an Army research facility in San Francisco, California. In 1982, Cornum attended the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (military school in Bethesda, Maryland) and became a military doctor in 1986. She completed a General Surgery Internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. In 1987, Cornum, an accomplished military aviator (who has flown almost every type of military aircraft), applied for and became a finalist for candidacy in the United States Astronaut program but was not ultimately selected. Instead, that year as Chief of Aviation Medicine she honed her professional skills as a flight surgeon for Army Aero Medical Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Four years later, flight surgeon Cornum went to the Persian Gulf with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division during Operation Desert Shield/Storm. During an ill-fated rescue attempt of an injured United States Air Force pilot who had crashed in enemy territory, Iraqi combatants shot down the Black Hawk helicopter carrying Cornum and seven crew members. Incredibly, she and two crew members survived a devastating crash that had the aircraft falling from the sky and careening toward the ground at 140 miles per hour. Cornum was severely injured with a bullet lodged in her shoulder, two broken arms and significant damage to the ligaments in her knees. She could not walk, so her captors roughly removed her from the wreckage, threw her in a vehicle and took her to a prison in Basra, Iraq. She was held as a prisoner of war for eight days and released March 5, 1991. During her imprisonment, she was interrogated and sexually assaulted by one captor, crucial facts she revealed one year later in She Went to War, her POW story named by the New York Times as one of the most notable books of 1992. She was one of two American servicewomen taken prisoner by the Iraqis during this military conflict. After the Persian Gulf War, Cornum did what most prisoners of war don’t—she remained on active duty and trained in urology surgery. Cornum did not avoid service in war zones. In 2000, she became the Medical Task Force Commander to Bosnia. By the time the

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second Iraq War began in 2003, she had become the commander of the Army’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC). The Landstuhl military hospital in Germany is the largest military hospital outside the United States. She helped treat and care for 26,000 military members, including those who were severely wounded during battles in Afghanistan and Iraq. She is one of three female medical doctors in the Army on active duty. General Cornum is the Army’s Director of Comprehensive Soldier’s Fitness, a program designed to help soldiers to become stronger, more resilient, and less likely to succumb to post-traumatic stress disorder. This new Army psychological training regimen will help to individually and collectively bolster emotional, spiritual, and mental health so that servicemen and servicewomen can better deal with the traumas of war and deployments, and other types of crises. See Also: Military, Women in the; Military Leadership, Women in, Prisoners of War, Female. Further Readings Cornum, R. (with P. Copeland). She Went to War: The Rhonda Cornum Story. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1992. Schmidt, Katherine A. “U.S. Patient Load Surges at Military Hospital in Germany.” USA Today (November 15, 2004). http://www.usatoday.com/news/world /iraq/2004-11-13-injured-germany_x.htm (accessed April 2010). “A Woman’s Burden.” Time (March 28, 2003). http://www .time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,438760,00.html (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth Frances Desnoyers-Colas Armstrong Atlantic State University

Cosmetic Surgery Cosmetic surgery refers to any surgical or medical intervention to the body for aesthetic purposes, and is interchangeably referred to as cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, and aesthetic surgery. While cosmetic surgery used to describe solely surgical interventions, it now refers to a range of procedures that include surgery, injectables, and laser and chemical treatments. The goals of cosmetic surgery are also varied. While

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some patients seek cosmetic surgery to improve their already-normative appearance, others aim to achieve a normative appearance through cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is a controversial medical practice that is highly gendered and racialized. The majority of cosmetic surgery patients are women and cosmetic surgeons are men, and several surgeries have been developed to render a patient’s features to more closely approximate Caucasian features. While cosmetic surgery is still expensive, in the past 20 years it has become more accessible and affordable due to the availability of credit cards to finance cosmetic surgery and other payment plans, less invasive procedures that do not require overnight stays, and a greater selection of practicing cosmetic surgeons with varying credentials. The acceptability of cosmetic surgery has also increased with its popularity, and this has been facilitated in North America by a greater awareness of cosmetic surgery procedures in popular culture. Types of Cosmetic Surgery A wide range of procedures are encompassed by cosmetic surgery including surgical procedures for the face and body. Some common facial cosmetic surgeries include rhytidectomy (face, brow, forehead, chin, or cheek lifts), rhinoplasty (nose reshaping), blepharoplasty (reshaping of the eyelids, frequently to create a double eyelid fold), chin and cheek augmentation (insertion of an implant into the chin or cheek), and liposuction (removal of fat). Cosmetic surgery procedures include mammoplasty (breast implants, reductions, and lifts), abdominoplasty (removal of fat and skin from the abdomen), liposuction (removal of fat), labiaplasty and vaginoplasty (reshaping and augmentation of the labia and vagina), and implants (such as buttock and calf augmentation). In the 2000s, the market for less invasive cosmetic procedures burgeoned in North America, and the definition of cosmetic surgery widened in response. These procedures are commonly performed with no or local anesthetic in cosmetic surgery clinics, dermatology practices, spas and salons, and comprise chemical and laser treatments, as well as injectables. Chemical peels involve the application of acid to the skin, which causes the dead skin to eventually peel off and reveal smoother skin underneath. Chemical peels are often used to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, acne scars, age spots, and photodamage.

Laser procedures use concentrated laser beams to kill bacteria that causes acne breakouts, to reduce cellulite, to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and saggy skin (called a laser facelift), and to remove hair. Injectables include “fillers” such as collagen and fat to reduce the appearance of wrinkles or augment small areas of the face such as the lips, fillers such as hyaluronic acid (brand name Restylane) to fill in wrinkles, and botulinum toxin (brand name Botox) to paralyze and relax the facial muscles, which smooths out wrinkles. Cosmetic surgery is a highly controversial topic worldwide, and as a result, cosmetic surgeons are often required to justify performing cosmetic surgery. The practice of cosmetic surgery is commonly viewed as oppositional to the practice of medicine because doctors operate on bodies that are healthy and do not require surgery in order to restore or improve function. Two interrelated solutions exist to address this view of cosmetic surgery. The first solution is to classify some surgeries as “reconstructive,” a term which suggests that the surgery will restore the affected body parts to an original or normal state. The boundary separating cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries changes depending on the historical and cultural milieu. For example, the implantation of fat or silicone implants after a mastectomy is currently considered and labelled “breast reconstruction.” However, many women are unable to breastfeed and frequently lose sensation in the breast and nipple, so the reconstructed breast does not restore function. The second solution to oppose views of cosmetic surgery as medically unnecessary is to understand cosmetic surgery as a procedure that improves psychological well-being. Returning to the example of breast implants after mastectomy, it is widely assumed that the loss of a breast is psychologically traumatic for women. Therefore, a breast implant is a solution that addresses women’s psychological needs after a mastectomy. While women employ other means to recover from a mastectomy, such as breast prostheses, specialty bras, or tattooing over scars, breast augmentation is becoming increasingly popular due to these strategies of naming the surgery as reconstructive and considering it as psychologically beneficial (as opposed to medically unnecessary and potentially harmful). Presently, the majority of cosmetic surgeries are justified because they will improve a patient’s



psychological health, primarily by reducing self-consciousness and improving self-confidence. Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Cosmetic Surgery Compared with other medical specialties, cosmetic surgery is a highly gendered practice. While it is true that more men are seeking out cosmetic surgery, and that the range of cosmetic surgical procedures tailored toward men has increased in the 2000s, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are women and cosmetic surgeons are predominantly men. In 2008, 91 percent of U.S. cosmetic surgery patients were women and in 2000, 85 percent of cosmetic surgeons were men. Cosmetic surgery exists within a range of body modification practices for women to more closely approximate cultural ideals, such as wearing makeup, dieting, foundation garments, and exercising. Cosmetic surgery is also identified within popular media as a source of unrealistic body expectations for women and girls, in addition to the manipulation of photographic images and valorization of anorectic body types. Because cosmetic surgery is a medical procedure that is elective and usually financed by the patient (rather than state or private insurance), it is the patient who holds the authority to diagnose the problem that the surgeon will address, which is contrary to most other medical and surgical procedures. In response to this tipping of power, discourses of cosmetic surgery in the West often adhere to strict sexist and heterosexist codes of behavior, where the patient is conceived as an undisciplined female body who submits to the help of the skilled and valiant male surgeon. This is evidenced most strongly in anecdotal accounts of cosmetic surgery, where women patients report that their surgeries were more painful than they expected, the side effects of their surgeries were downplayed by surgeons, and that the results of the surgeries did not meet their expectations. For example, breast implants can be very painful and can cause significant trauma to the tissues around the implant, which can be a surprise to patients who expect a routine surgery with a quick recovery time. Common side effects of breast implants include loss of sensation in the nipple, as well as encapsulation (formation of thick, hard scar tissue around the implant that must be manually broken down), which is again surprising to patients.

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Less common but very serious side effects of breast implants that are downplayed by surgeons include reactions to anesthesia, rupture and migration of implants, thick scarring, and loss of ability to breastfeed. Usually these side effects and the perception of the appearance of breast implants as “unnatural” lead patients to be unsatisfied with the results of their surgeries. Women’s stories of breast implants often demonstrate their vulnerability to their male surgeons, which can be reinforced by sexism. Cosmetic surgery is also a racialized practice, and the practice of cosmetic surgery often affirms white femininity as the ideal of beauty. In 2008, while the number of procedures performed on African American, Hispanic, and Asian cosmetic surgery patients increased in the United States, the number of white patients decreased. Surgeons frequently justify their surgical techniques and styles through recourse to classical aesthetics, which in terms of the physical body is based on white western European features. These justifications are presented as neutral and objective, rather than racist. Two surgeries in particular are targeted toward specific ethnic communities. The oldest cosmetic surgical procedure within this category is rhinoplasty for Jewish women, which relies on the stereotype of a distinctively Jewish nose structure. As Sander Gilman has argued in his work on aesthetic surgery, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, western European and American cultures were obsessed with stereotypes and caricatures of distinguishably Jewish, African, and Irish noses. Surgical modification of the nose promised an easier assimilation through passing as “white.” The practice of rhinoplasty for Jewish girls and women has been normalized through repetition as well as popular culture. Another more recent cosmetic surgical procedure that is explicitly racialized is blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, for people of Asian descent. This surgery can create a double eyelid fold and widen the eyes, physical traits that are assumed to belong to those of Caucasian descent. As cosmetic surgery tourism expanded in the 2000s, White patients traveled to countries in the global south (in particular South Africa, Thailand, and Brazil) to obtain cheaper surgeries and a vacation for surgical recovery. Cosmetic surgery vacations contribute to the often exploitative tourism industries in the global south as well as the diversion of medical resources toward white tourists.

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Cosmetic Surgery and Popular Culture The increased visibility of cosmetic surgery in popular culture has been a boon to the cosmetic surgery industry. While cosmetic surgery was considered a relatively private and secretive event in an individual’s life from the 1940s to the 1980s, in the 1990s it became a popular topic in women’s magazines, and by the 2000s cosmetic surgery was a subject for several reality and dramatic television shows. Media coverage of cosmetic surgery began as speculative reports of celebrity cosmetic surgeries in tabloid magazines, as well as anecdotal accounts in women’s magazines that were commonly cautionary tales advising women to be very careful about obtaining cosmetic surgeries. In the 1990s, there was a sharp increase in magazine and talk show stories of cosmetic surgeries that celebrities and “ordinary” people underwent, which contributed to the normalization of cosmetic surgery and an expansion in the cosmetic surgery industry. Episodes of the Learning Channel’s medical documentary show The Operation focused on cosmetic surgical procedures in the late 1990s, paving the way for several television depictions of cosmetic surgery. The 2000s saw many reality television shows about cosmetic surgery, including Extreme Makeover (ABC), I Want a Famous Face (MTV), The Swan (Fox), and Dr. 90210 (E!), as well as the dramatic television show Nip/Tuck (FX). These shows have been critiqued within popular culture, feminist studies, and the cosmetic surgery industry as trivializing the risks of cosmetic surgery, giving patients unrealistic expectations of cosmetic surgery and surgeons, and promoting cosmetic surgery as a means to attain unrealistic beauty ideals. At the same time, these shows (in tandem with the proliferation of Internet resources and images) have also offered patients a knowledge base and range of outcomes that was previously unavailable to them. As a result, cosmetic surgery is significantly more acceptable and accessible at the end of the 2000s than it was at the beginning of the decade. Challenges in Cosmetic Surgery Research Cosmetic surgery is described often as “American,” and certainly American surgeons and patients push the boundaries of cosmetic surgical procedures and techniques. A significant challenge to feminist research on cosmetic surgery worldwide is the lack of

accessible statistical information on cosmetic surgery outside of the United States and Canada. This happens primarily for a variety of reasons: the national professional organization of cosmetic surgeons leaves it to individual surgeons to collect statistical information; there are either no national professional organizations or more than one professional organization; and finally, a wide range of surgeons perform cosmetic surgeries who are not cosmetic surgeons. Researchers are currently studying cosmetic surgery phenomena that have global implications, such as the burgeoning practice of cosmetic surgery tourism, and the impacts of neoliberal globalization on the manufacturing of implants and training of surgeons. See Also: Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Aging, Attitudes Toward; Bariatric Surgery; Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural; Body Image; Botox; Breast Reduction/ Enlargement Surgery; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in. Further Readings American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “2008 Quick Facts.” http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Media/stats/2008 -quick-facts-cosmetic-surgery-minimally-invasive -statistics.pdf (accessed December 2009). Blum, Virginia. Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Davis, Kathy. Dubious Equalities and Embodied Differences: Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Davis, Kathy. Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemma of Cosmetic Surgery. London: Routledge, 1995. Gilman, Sander. Creating Beauty to Cure the Soul: Race and Psychology in the Shaping of Aesthetic Surgery. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998. Gilman, Sander. Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Haiken, Elizabeth. Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Heyes, Cressida and Meredith Jones. Cosmetic Surgery: A Feminist Primer. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2009. Rachel Hurst St. Francis Xavier University

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Women in Poland examine their options in the cosmetic department. According to research, beauty and personal care in Poland were resistant to the economic slowdown with total sales showing a growth in 2009.

Cosmetics Industry The cosmetics industry sells products designed to temporarily change a person’s appearance. A growing segment of the industry, “cosmeceuticals” (a blend of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals), promise longer-lasting changes. Whether fleeting or more enduring, the changes the industry promises tend to correspond to prevailing standards of beauty, that is, youthful, thin, and quite often white. Cosmetics are a multibilliondollar industry in the United States and worth $45 billion globally. Women around the world are marketed a wide array of cosmetic products and remain the largest consumer group, although in recent years an increasing number of cosmetic products have been marketed to and consumed by men. Feminism has long been associated with a critical view of the cosmetics industry. Today, there are a range of feminist perspectives on cosmetics, and many contemporary feminists call

attention to the relationship between cosmetics and identity. Indeed, the cosmetics industry is important because whether or not women identify as feminists, for those with access to cosmetics, the use, manner of use, or nonuse of cosmetics is a statement. There are several issues related to the global cosmetics industry: first, the vast scope of products sold to women and men; second, the mass marketing of cosmetics and critiques of “hucksterism” (the claiming that a product will evoke changes that it could not possibly accomplish) that persistently dog the industry; and finally, critiques of racism in that products are often designed to make the consumer more closely resemble a white or European ideal. The industry’s response to the various critiques will also be examined. Cosmetic and “Cosmeceutical” Products Today, there is a vast scope of cosmetic products sold to women and men around the world. Cosmetic products sold to women include those associated

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with skin (such as creams, lotions and skin lightening products), hair (shampoos, conditioners, mousse, hair spray, hair dyes, permanent wave solutions, and hair straightening products), nails (nail polish and artificial nails), bathing (bath oils and bubble baths), in addition to the variety of face paints and powders known as “makeup” (lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, concealer, foundation, face powder, blush, and eye shadow). Cosmetic products sold to men (which also have women’s versions) have until recently been limited to hair products, fragrances, deodorants, shaving products, mouthwashes, and sunscreens. However, with changing conceptions of masculinity in the 2000s (such as the rise of the “metrosexual” man in urban North America and Europe who takes great care with his appearance) products sold to men today include eye gel, exfoliating facial scrubs, and even face paints and powders such as brow and eyelash gel, eye shadow, eyeliner, lip gloss, and concealer. To avoid unduly blurring prevailing conceptions of gender difference (and the reduced appeal to many male consumers such blurring might entail), these products are usually marketed as “skin care” or “grooming products” rather than cosmetics or makeup. Although some of the above products for women and men are used for bodily cleanliness, soap itself is not considered a cosmetic. In addition to selling more products to men, the cosmetics industry has expanded in recent years by offering an increasingly wide scope of products dubbed “cosmeceuticals.” Cosmeceuticals as a marketing term, along with most cosmeceutical products, first appeared in the United States in the 1990s. Today, cosmeceuticals are sold in an increasing number of countries. Some products that would today be classified as cosmeceuticals predate the 1990s, such as baldness treatments for men and skin-lightening products for women. Cosmeceuticals contain biologically active ingredients that claim to evoke longer-lasting changes to “problems” (for example, wrinkles, stretch marks, cellulite, acne, mild scarring, and uneven pigmentation) that cosmetics only temporarily conceal. In a similar manner to cosmetics more generally, cosmeceuticals in the 2000s are not only sold to women but increasingly to men as well. Such products include antiwrinkle and other “antiaging” creams, microdermabrasion products (which contain an abrasive substance to “sand down” the outer layer of the skin), and mild chemical peels

(chemical solutions that cause dead skin to fall or peel off are mixed into facial washes and creams). The latter two products involve processes more commonly done by doctors and aestheticians; however, weaker forms of microdermabrasion and chemical peels are increasingly available for home use. Although cosmetic and cosmeceutical products continue to be produced and sold by small local manufacturers and merchants, the expansion of the global cosmetics industry in the 21st century has much to do with the large multinational corporations spending vast amounts of money on marketing to reach both mass and specialized markets. Marketing and Critiques of Hucksterism The use of cosmetics has a long history, and with advent of mass marketing, a set of diverse cultural practices became a global industry. The history of the use of cosmetics dates back 40,000 years, that is, for as long as people have adorned their faces and bodies. Many cultures around the world have made extensive use of cosmetics. Some cosmetics have contained dangerous ingredients, such as lead, which the ancient Romans, ancient Egyptians, and Elizabethan English slathered on their faces. Cosmetics became common among the European upper classes by the 18th century. The greatest expansion of cosmetics use (to include more than the wealthy) occurred in the 20th century with the development of modern marketing techniques. By the 1920s, marketing techniques for cosmetics were developed that continue to be used today: namely, appealing to women’s feelings of insecurity (about their bodies, financial situation and relationship or marital status), utilizing popular actresses to sell products, and equating cosmetics with women’s liberation (originally through the image of the liberated flapper). Advertising cosmetic products, including skin-lightening cream, as a form of female empowerment is done more often than not today. Critics would understand such marketing as serving to diffuse well-known feminist critiques of the beauty industry, such as that of the author Naomi Wolf. The industry contends marketers are merely keeping up with the changing roles of women in contemporary society. The use of cosmeceuticals has a short history that does not predate the marketers of modern multinational corporations. The development and marketing of products that obscure the differences between cosmetics and pharmaceuticals are a result of merg-



ers and acquisitions across the previously separate biotechnology, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. Before the advent of cosmeceuticals, cosmetic products were understood to involve temporary changes to one’s appearance (such as covering liver spots on the skin), while more permanent changes (such as removing these spots entirely) would be classified as a drug. Cosmeceuticals create regulatory difficulties for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and similar government agencies in other countries because it is unclear whether cosmeceuticals are cosmetics or drugs. Although, the term cosmeceuticals was invented by marketers in the industry, they continue to insist that cosmeceuticals are cosmetics, as cosmetics are subject to less strenuous testing and regulation than pharmaceuticals. The cosmetics industry has a vested interest in keeping cosmeceuticals subject to less regulation. Today, the global market for thigh creams alone, the effectiveness of which is questionable, is worth $90 million. The cosmetics industry is often associated with hucksterism. In her history of cosmetics, Teresa Riordan notes that this is not a new phenomenon. For example, a variety of breast creams were sold in the late 19th century with the claim that regular use would increase size. The cosmetics industry has been associated with hucksterism not only because of promises not kept, but because they have proven harmful to women. Women have died for beauty, and much more recently than those who spread lead and mercury on their faces in preindustrial Europe. For example, the United States Congress only began to regulate the cosmetics industry in 1938 after several cases of deaths, disfigurations,and blindness that were directly attributed to cosmetics. Today, most cosmetics are fairly safe for people without allergies (with some exceptions, including skin-lightening creams containing mercury). Most cosmetics have far too little biologically active ingredients to be harmful, but at the same time, many have far too little to be effective. “Angel dusting” is a common contemporary form of hucksterism. This practice involves including a tiny amount of an active ingredient so the cosmetic can be marketed as containing that ingredient; however, the amount is insufficient to cause any measurable impact. Products are marketed using scientific-sounding language and images that suggest long-lasting results. However, the language is rarely definite: products are

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marketed as changing the “appearance of” or “look of” “imperfections” such as wrinkles. Marketers are careful to avoid stating that the product actually contains enough of the active ingredient to produce such results; that is to be assumed by the purchaser. Products for Women of Color and Critiques of Racism Racist constructions of beauty that privilege whiteness and “European” facial features date back to European colonialism, and continue to be profitable for the cosmetics industry today. British colonialists in India believed there to be different “races” of Indians and thought those with lighter-colored skin were evolutionarily superior and more beautiful. Similarly, American cartoons during and after slavery portrayed exaggerated characteristics of African Americans to promote white supremacy. The impact of colonialism can be seen in cosmetic products designed to help women of color strive for a white European ideal. These products include skin bleaching and lightening products and hair straightening products. For example, in the United States from the late 1900s to the 1950s, skin bleaching and hair straighteners were advertised with names such as No Kink, Imperial Whitener, Mme. Turner’s Mystic Face Bleach, and Black Skin Remover. Although these products have been severely criticized, they are not a thing of the past in the United States or elsewhere (including Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Mali, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, the Philippines, Japan, China, and Korea). The global market for skin-lightening products has exploded in the 21st century, and constitutes a multibillion-dollar industry. Although, some of these products are sold by smaller regional corporations, most are sold by multinational corporations. As such, skin-lightening products are not only a legacy of colonialism but also a consequence of the expansion of multinational corporations and Western consumer culture. In a similar manner to the white face paints of the ancients and the early modern Europeans, many modern skin-lightening products contain toxic ingredients including mercury. Many of the products containing mercury sold in Africa are manufactured in the European Union, with the most production happening in Ireland and Italy. It is legal to produce such products as long as they are not sold in the European

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Union (although many African shops in Dublin and other European cities carry them). Similarly, Mexican-manufactured products containing mercury have caused outbreaks of mercury poisoning in American states (where mercury products are illegal) including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The cosmetics industry offers two responses to critiques of racism. First, they point to the many cosmetic products made for women of color are not designed to lighten skin or straighten hair. In fact, African American beauty products have provided opportunities for African American entrepreneurs, many of whom are women, and many of whom have refused to sell these products. Second, those in the industry that do sell these products tend to use the language of choice and aesthetic preference. Whether or not such language obscures the issue that what women do with their bodies is highly informed by a culture that values youth and the slender body and devalues bodies of color continues to be a matter of debate. See Also: Advertising Aimed at Women; Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Beauty Standards, CrossCultural; Body Image; Cosmetic Surgery; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Feminism; Representation of Women; Stereotypes of Women; Women’s Magazines. Further Readings Berry, Bonnie. Beauty Bias: Discrimination and Social Power. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Glenn, E. N. “Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners.” Gender & Society, v.22/3 (2008). Riordan, Teresa. Inventing Beauty. New York: Broadway Books, 2004. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. New York: Vintage, 1997. Julie E. Dowsett York University

Costa Rica Costa Rica is a central American country, located between Nicaragua and Panama, whose 4.3 million inhabitants enjoys a relatively high standard of living based on agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing.

Women participate in all aspects of life in Costa Rica, including government. About 35 percent of the seats in Costa Rica’s legislative assembly are held by women and in 2010 Costa Ricans elected their first woman president, Laura Chinchilla. Overall, the World Economic Forum ranks Costa Rica 27th out of 134 countries on the Global Gender Gap Report, an index of equality between men and women (the United States ranked 31st). On a scale from 0 (inequality) to 1 (perfect equality), Costa Rica achieved an overall score of 0.718 and subscale scores of 0.9796 on health and survival (highest in the world), 0.9954 on educational attainment (48th highest, because many countries achieved a score of 1.0), 0.6136 on economic participation and opportunity (84th highest), and 0.2833 on political empowerment (20 highest). Save the Children ranks Costa Rica 9th on its Mothers’ Index and 11th on its Women’s and Children’s Index out of 75 less developed countries, reflecting a high standard of healthcare and services for women and children. Literacy is about 95 percent for both men and women and women are more likely than men to be enrolled in tertiary education. The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 was $11,300, second only to Panama among central American countries. Because of its stable political climate, Costa Rica leads central America in attracting foreign investment. However, income is not distributed equally and an estimated 16 percent of Costa Ricans live below the poverty line. A strong social safety net helped reduce the ill effects of poverty, although it has frayed somewhat with the global recession. Change in Social Climate Although the culture of Costa Rica has been traditionally informed by the Roman Catholic Church and the country’s Spanish heritage, the social climate for women has changed rapidly in the past few decades. Discrimination against women in employment and salary is illegal although in reality women constitute about 40 percent of the nonagricultural labor force but almost 60 percent of the part-time labor force, and earn about 65 percent of what men earn for similar work. Although most Costa Ricans are Roman Catholic (76.3 percent) the stigma of divorce is lessening, particularly among young urban women. The social sector with the highest percent of divorced women is the urban 40 to 59 age group (18.6 percent) while the

Côte d’Ivoire



lowest is rural females age 60 and over (9.0 percent). Abortion is legal only to save the mother’s life or preserve her mental or physical health. Birth control use is widespread with 80 percent of women age 15 to 44 reporting using some method of contraception and over 70 percent using modern methods. See Also: Gender Quotas in Government; Gender Roles, Cross Cultural; Representation of Women in Government, International; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Hausman, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org/en /Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20Gender %20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010). Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Côte d’Ivoire Since achieving independence in 1960, Côte d’Ivoire has maintained close ties with France. This alliance has contributed, along with cocoa, coffee, and palm oil production, to making Côte d’Ivoire economically healthy in comparison with other West African countries. Since a military coup in 1999, however, the country has experienced major political unrest, which has divided the country and resulted in both France and the United Nations dispatching peacekeeping troops. Although they have the legal right to equality, Ivoirian women live in a male-dominated society in which they are considered to be of little worth. Widows may be forced to marry the brothers of their dead husbands, and young girls are forced to undergo female genital

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mutilation (FGM). Girls as young as 7 years old are forced into marriage with men old enough to be their grandfathers. Violence against women is epidemic, and many women have limited access to education, healthcare, and employment. Ivoirian activists have been heavily involved in pressuring the government to enforce new laws banning forced marriages. They stepped up those efforts after a 12-year-old girl killed her husband who had beaten and raped her. Activists are also determined to improve the situations of young girls who are faced with poverty, illiteracy, and FGM, which is correlated with the country’s high human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) rate (3.9 percent)—the 17th highest in the world. Less than half the population is urbanized, and 68 percent of the workforce is dependent on agriculture. Côte d’Ivoire has a per capita income of only $1,700, and 42 percent of the population live in poverty. As a result of the civil war, from 40 to 50 percent of the workforce may be unemployed. Ethnic groups include Akan (42.1 percent), Voltaiques or Gur (17.6 percent), Northern Mandes (16.5 percent), Krous (11 percent), and Southern Mandes (10 percent). Ivoirians are religiously diverse, with most people identifying themselves as either Muslim (38.6 percent) or Christian (32.8 percent). Approximately 12 percent of the population has adopted indigenous religions. French is still the official language, but more than 60 native dialects are also spoken. Ivoirians have an infant mortality rate of 68.06 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is the 27th highest in the world. Female infants (60.73 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a distinct advantage over male infants (75.17 deaths per 1,000 live births). With a life expectancy of 56.28 years, adult women also have a higher survival rate than men (54.64 years). However, unlike most countries of the world, the median age for women (19.1 years) is lower than that of men (19.4 years), in part because of rampant violence and the fact that FGM makes them more susceptible to HIV/AIDS. Ivoirian females have a fertility rate of 4.12 children each. All Ivoirians also have a very high risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, yellow fever, schistosomiasis, and rabies. A highly pathogenic form of avian flu has also been identified.

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Women are discriminated against in all elements of society. Some 60.8 percent of men are literate, but only 38.6 percent of females older than 15 years are able to read and write. Less than half of men and less than a third of women receive a complete education. In 2005, the estimated earned income for women was $795 compared with $2,472 for males. The country’s political turmoil has spilled over to elections, but in 2001, women won 19 of 225 seats in the National Assembly, four of 33 ministerial posts, and four of 41 Supreme Court seats. Subsequent elections were suspended because of political unrest. Ivoirian women are vulnerable to rape from their husbands, the police, bandits, and opposition military personnel. Although rape is illegal, laws are not well enforced, except in the case of child or gang rape. Child brides are not protected from spousal rape. Although domestic violence continues to be a major problem, victims receive little help from the police. The Ministry of Family and Social Affairs has opened counseling centers, and in some cases they have actively stepped in to mediate or remove abused domestics from the scene. Families often pressure victims to seek amicable resolution. The National Committee to Fight Violence Against Women and Children has become the chief resource for victims of domestic violence and for girls who wish to escape forced marriage or FGM. In 2008, the government held seminars to train judges and security personnel about sexual violence. Prostitution is legal, but it is unlawful to solicit or pander. Women frequently face sexual harassment, but laws are not always enforced. See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Marriages, Arranged. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “Côte d’Ivoire.” https://www .cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos /iv.html (accessed February 2010). Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. “Female Genital Mutilation: Côte d’Ivoire; FGM Law and Protection for Women Hard to Enforce.” WIN News, v.25/3 (1999). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008.

Tripp, Aili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

“Cougars” The term cougar is used to refer to an older woman (usually 35 or 40 years and above) who sleeps with younger men (usually in their 20s). The term gained popularity in American culture in the late 1990s to early 2000s and has both positive and negative cultural representations and meanings for women. Like her feline counterpart, the cougar is known as a predator, using her years of experience in the dating realm to stalk and hunt her human prey. Once she has captured her man, the cougar may additionally use her money and financial assets to keep him cared for, her knowledge and life experience to keep him interested, and her matured sexuality to keep him satisfied; or she may choose to be more fickle in her tastes and return to the bar or club, which is generally recognized as her primary hunting ground, to entice more younger men to her bed. Cougar is a slang term that originated in Canada. Early uses of the term include the creation of the Website www.cougardate.com in 1999 and the book Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men in 2001 by Canadian author Valerie Gibson, both intended to assist women in being successful cougars. Some sources credit Canadian hockey players for creating the term prior to 1999 in reference to female fans but this is not documented. Recent cultural representations of cougars include the 2007 reality show Age of Love, characters Gabrielle on Desperate Housewives and Samantha on Sex and the City, the 2009 television series Cougar Town, and the 2009 film Chéri. Famous celebrity cougars include Demi Moore, Halle Berry, Kim Cattrall, and Madonna. Social Connotations Social connotations for cougars vary depending on context and community. At its conception, the term was primarily a negative one; it has since shifted cul-

Council of Women World Leaders



turally and is now often used without any negative connotation. Cougars can be seen positively represented by straight men as “MILFs” (sexually attractive “mother’s I’d like to fuck”), or in some feminist communities as women who are choosing to take charge of their sexual experience—who know what they want and do whatever it takes to get it. Cougars are also still frequently represented negatively, as desperate women who are past their prime, have failed in other relationships or been rejected by men their own age, and over-use tanning and plastic surgery to get a younger man as part of an attempt to recapture their lost youth. The presence of the cougar in popular culture challenges heterosexual relationship norms by offering women an avenue with which they may take on the dominant role in a sexual or romantic relationship with a man by being the older, richer, and perhaps wiser of the two partners; however it may in many cases merely provide another term with which to negatively categorize women. Context is key and is continually changing. See Also: Celebrity Women; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Madonna. Further Readings CougarDate. http://www.cougardate.com (accessed May 2010). Gibson, Valerie. Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men. Toronto: Key Porter Books Limited, 2001. Katy N. Kreitler University of San Francisco

Council of Women World Leaders The Council of Women World Leaders is a network of current and former women prime ministers and presidents with a mission to mobilize the highestlevel women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women. Established in 1996 by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, president of Iceland (1980–96) and the first woman to be

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democratically elected president, and Laura Liswood, former managing director and current senior adviser to Goldman Sachs, the council aims to promote good governance and gender equality and to enhance the experience of democracy globally by increasing the number, effectiveness, and visibility of women who lead their countries. The council’s secretariat moved from Harvard University to be housed at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., in 2004. In May 2008, the council became a policy program of the Aspen Institute. The council is currently chaired by President Tarja Halonen of Finland and has 37 members, comprising almost all of the current and former women heads of state and government. A complete list of council members can be found on the organization’s Website. In 2009, 10 of its members were named to the Forbes’s annual list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” The inaugural summit of the council was held at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1998, where nine council members and an audience of nearly 800 discussed how to rebuild trust in government and explore the challenges of global leadership. Since then, the council has expanded to establish ministerial initiatives, launch the Albright Women’s Voices Series, and develop graduate fellowship programs. The ministerial initiative, chaired by the Honorable Margot Wallström, vice president of the European Commission, seeks to promote ministerial-level exchange on global issues, identify and address the particular challenges facing women in ministerial leadership positions, and increase their visibility both nationally and internationally. The initiative is organized into different portfolios by ministry. Through this initiative, the council secretariat has convened numerous meetings for women ministers within a variety of portfolios such as health, education, environment, finance, economy and development, affairs, and culture. These meetings have created a unique space for ministers to share best practices from developing and developed country experiences and form a united, influential force for policy change with a gender perspective. In addition, the council is partner to Ministerial Leadership Initiative (MLI), a four-year program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Founda-

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tion. The primary mandate of the council under MLI is to create, coordinate, and manage the Ministerial Consultative Process, representing the provision of input through its Ministerial Initiative for Health to the first-ever World Health Organization report on women’s health globally. Women’s Voices, the council’s roundtable program, was expanded and named the Madeleine K. Albright Women’s Voices in fall 2007 in honor of the first female U.S. secretary of state and founding chair of the Council’s Ministerial Initiative. The series invites internationally acclaimed experts to discuss the progress that women have achieved worldwide, the challenges that lie ahead in key areas of leadership, and the actions required for change. The series is held in conjunction with the Aspen Institute. The Council’s Graduate Fellowship Program allows students to work directly with global leaders, ministers, prime ministers, presidents, and international organizations on important global issues. The program is currently open to graduate students from the Harvard Kennedy School, where it is funded by the school’s Women’s Leadership Board, and Columbia University, where it is funded by the Office of the President. To date, over 80 women and one man have served as fellows in 24 offices worldwide. In 2009, the council added the Public Health Graduate Fellowship Program, which places students from top-tier graduate schools of public health in the ministries of members of the council’s Ministerial Initiative for Health, as well as in international organizations, and the council also plans to launch an Environmental Policy Graduate Fellowship Program in 2010. Other activities of the council include member engagements and policy dialogues, which are highlevel summits that allow members to discuss and bring to international attention the policy positions and issues that are of importance to women. In 2009, council members convened in Monrovia, Liberia, for a colloquium on women’s empowerment, leadership development, international peace, and security, at which members and council guests cosponsored a petition to the government of Sudan, the African Union Commission, and the United Nations to reinstate the licenses of humanitarian agencies providing critical humanitarian assistance to individuals displaced by the war in Darfur.

The council partners with a variety of public and private entities as well as governments for its programs and initiatives. See Also: Albright, Madeleine; Gender Quotas in Government; Government, Women in. Further Readings The Aspen Institute. “Policy Program Council of Women World Leaders.” http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy -work/women-world-leaders (accessed April 2010). Council of Women World Leaders. http://www.cwwl.org /index.html (accessed April 2010). Shenila S. Khoja-Moolji Harvard Divinity School

Country and Western Music, Women in Women have been a part of country music from its beginnings. They have served in most all capacities including writers, producers, performers (both vocalists and instrumentalists), managers, and company executives. Early in the development of country music in the United States, women were more likely to be working behind the scenes rather than on the stages; even in these early times, there were a few women who earned audience favor and fame. However, it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that women as “star” performers began to increase in numbers. Today, the Country Music Association Awards and the Country Record Charts abound with women both visible and lauded in all aspects of the music business. In its earliest form, country music was a derivation of centuries-old folk tunes that came to the United States from the British Isles. The beginnings of country music itself are indistinct and blended with such music genres as blues, gospel, folk music, and ballads. Early on, women were active in the music business but rarely seen or heard. However, within religious communities, vaudeville performances, and the various itinerant tent shows traveling through rural areas, women not only had places in these performances but some also had fame as performers.



First Women of Country Music As a point to begin the discussion of women in country music, the Carter family’s entrance on the music scene will be used. The Carter family in its original form consisted of A. P. and Sara Carter and A. P.’s sister-in-law, Maybelle Carter. The Carter family made their first recording in 1927 and were significantly influential in the country music scene until well into the 1940s. The two women had distinctive sounds that endured over extended periods and were copied by many. They were among the first artists to play country music professionally, followed by other family groups such as the Monroe Brothers, who sang of sin, redemption, and other topics reflecting the hard lives of rural Americans. Country music, as a whole, remained somewhat localized until the advent of radio. A variety of live performance programs such as Midwestern Hayride, The Grand Ole Opry, Ozark Jubilee, and the Louisiana Hayride were also heard by many as radio broadcasts. These and other programs like them provided support for country music generally, but women in country music specifically. Without question, however, the greatest promoter of country music’s popularity was World War II. The American GIs and other military personnel took the music they loved wherever they were sent in the world. Country music became a popular offering on the Armed Forces Network radio station. The popularity of country music continued after World War II and the advent of television in the 1950s merely added to the speed and breadth of its growth. Popular male vocalists such as Porter Wagoner, Jimmy Dean, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, and Glenn Campbell provided a forum for the music genre and within this forum, opportunities for performances by women. Wells and Cline Make Their Mark During this same time in the 1950s, two women, Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline, paved the way for women in country and western (C&W) music. Both Wells and Cline asserted themselves in the Nashville music scene and changed it forever. In 1952, Kitty Wells was the first woman to perform seriously and to compete for the mostly male C&W audience. Wells became the first woman to top the C&W charts with her single, “It Wasn’t God

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Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” This song was an answer to Hank Thompson’s “The Wild Side of Life.” Wells was born Muriel Deason, in Nashville, Tennessee. Deason was given the name Kitty Wells for her stage persona by her husband, Johnny Wright. Kitty regularly sang with Johnny Wright, Jack Anglin, and the Tennessee Mountain Boys. Although she had performed for many years prior, it was not until her recording of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” that her career came into its own. The recording was on Billboard’s country chart for six weeks, which was the first song by a woman to ever attain this recognition. In 1961, Wells had another number one record. She presented an image of “wholesomeness and domesticity” through her dress and manner. Although, Wells’s music garnered the public’s attention, her husband negotiated and spoke for her in the professional arena. Wells inspired Kentucky native Loretta Lynn who left home at age 13 and began coloring her own twangy singing with a feisty attitude in songs like “Your Squaw Is on the Warpath.” Patsy Cline is considered one of the greatest singers of all time in the history of country music. Her brief career produced the number one jukebox hit of all time, “Crazy.” Other nationally recognized hits included “I Fall to Pieces” and “Walking After Midnight.” She was called “the most popular female country singer in recording history” by the Country Music Hall of Fame. She broke down doors by busting stereotypes. Early on, she dressed in cowgirl attire and attempted to make yodeling a part of all of her records. As her career matured, she favored gowns and cocktail dresses instead of the standard cowgirl wardrobe. And she was a feisty type who wasn’t afraid to lock horns with record executives, which was unheard of for women of that era. Ironically, it was never Patsy’s desire to be the crossover queen. She hated the idea of being made into a pop star and held on to her country upbringing. She was always proud of her hometown, and claimed it as her hometown at the beginning of every concert. She died in a plane crash on March 6, 1963. Although, her career was short, she increased the audience for country music and moved women country singers away from the older style of Molly O’Day, Rose Maddox, Jean Shepard, and Kitty Wells to more of a popmainstream genre.

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Today’s Women in Country Music Once the trailblazing efforts of Wells, Cline, and others took hold, the gates for women in country music were wide open. With increasing frequency over the last 50 years, women have become an accepted, even lauded element of the country music scene. Dolly Parton, Lynn, and Tammy Wynette all came on the scene in the 1960s. The talents of Parton, Lynn, Wynette, June Carter, and Tanya Tucker expanded the listening audience in country music to include women. They dramatically altered the male bias of country and western music by boldly presenting new lyrics and philosophies that reflected a female perspective. Singers like Barbara Mandrell, Anne Murray, and Emmylou Harris made their names during the 1970s. The 1980s saw the arrival of acts such as K. T. Oslin, and Reba McEntire. Shania Twain, Faith Hill, and Martina McBride all had their first hits in the 1990s. Canadian k.d. lang broke ground in women’s country music with her adrogynous look, and when she came out as a lesbian in a 1992 article of The Advocate. In 2002, Country Music Television (CMT) hosted a three-hour special program to honor the 40 Greatest Women of Country Music. Both Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline were on the list of performers honored. Not surprising, the list included Parton, Hill, and Twain. Women artists from the 1920s such as “Mother” Maybelle Carter, of the Carter family fame were on the list. A CMT executive was reported as saying, “It is amazing when you look at these women and realize what it took to be a success, especially in country music. This wasn’t rock ’n’ roll, where being rebellious was always rewarded. This was country music, where tradition was king. A lot of the women voted onto this list really stepped out of tradition and said, ‘This is who I am, and I’m just as country as the people who came before me.’ They’re brave.” See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Celebrity Women; MTV; National Museum of Women in the Arts; Parton, Dolly. Further Readings Bufwack, M. A. and R. K. Oermann. Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music, 1800–2000. Nashville, TN: The Country Music Foundation Press & Vanderbilt University Press, 2003.

Lewis, G. H. “The Creation of Popular Music: A Comparison of the Art Worlds of American Country Music and British Punk.” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, v.19/1 (1988). Mansfield, B. “CMT Saluting Country Women.”USA Today. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct =true&db=a9h&AN=J0E387689941302&site=ehost -live. (accessed July 2010). Anita M. Pankake University of Texas, Pan American

Couric, Katie Katherine “Katie” Anne Couric, anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, is a successful and highly compensated woman on American television. In addition to her work on the Evening News, Couric has also contributed to the iconic 60 Minutes news magazine. Known for her provocative interviews, she has interviewed both presidents and celebrities. Previously, she served as the host of the popular NBC Today Show for 15 years. She also worked for ABC and CNN during the 1980s before joining CBS in 2006. Education and Career Highlights Couric was born on January 7, 1957, in Arlington, Virginia, to homemaker Elinor and public marketing executive and news editor John Couric Jr. While her mother was Jewish, she was raised Presbyterian. She is a product of Virginia public schools and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s in English from the University of Virginia. Afterward, Couric pursued a career in journalism with an entry-level position as a desk assistant at ABC. Soon after, however, Couric joined CNN and served for four years in a variety of positions, including producer, editor, and correspondent. Following her successful stint with America’s first cable news network, she left to take a position as a reporter at WTVJ-TV in Miami from 1984 to 1986. In 1987, Couric moved to Washington, D.C., to assume a similar position with WRC-TV. She impressed viewers and those in the industry with her professionalism, personality, and work ethic. Landing a job as defense correspondent for NBC

Cowboy Action Shooting



News in 1989, she also periodically filled in as cohost with Bryant Gumbel on the popular morning program, The Today Show. Following Deborah Norville’s departure, Couric was elevated to the permanent slot of cohost in 1991. She spent the next 15 years becoming one of the most respected and well-known news personalities in television. Since 2000, Katie Couric has solidified her position as one of the most popular, successful, and distinguished journalists in America. On September 5, 2006, Couric took the reins of the venerable network news program, the CBS Evening News. She has interviewed every American president from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama. Over the past several years, she has also sat with major Middle East leaders Ariel Sharon, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, and Benjamin Netanyahu. Couric, however, has not only made news with prominent and serious politicians and world leaders. She interviewed the late John F. Kennedy Jr., Bill Gates, and the Central Park Jogger. Beyond being an interviewer, Couric has covered the major stories of our time, such as the 2000, 2004, and 2008 elections, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Virginia Tech shootings, the Gulf War, the Columbine shootings, and the Timothy McVeigh trial and execution. Critics aside, Couric has proved that intelligence and beauty are not incompatible qualities. Moreover, she has been active in cancer research; often lending her name and prestige to worthy efforts to eradicate the deadly disease. Katie Couric was married to the late Jay Monahan from 1989 until his death in 1998 of colon cancer. She has two daughters from this union: Elinor and Carolina. See Also: Financial Independence of Women; Journalists, Broadcast Media; Walters, Barbara. Further Readings Klein, Edward. Katie: The Real Story. New York: Thomson-Gale, 2007. Koestler-Grack, Rachel. Katie Couric: Groundbreaking TV Journalist. New York: Gareth Stevens, 2009. Paprocki, Sherry Beck. Katie Couric. New York: Chelsea House, 2001. Daryl A. Carter East Tennessee State University

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Cowboy Action Shooting Developed in 1981 by Southern Californian Harper Creigh with the help of two friends, Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) uses the myths and legends of the American West as a catalyst for a sport that combines the skill of tactical shooting with the thrill of fantasy role-playing, but with live firearms. Competitors are required to pick an alias and don an outfit suggestive of a famous 19th-century western individual or profession, or a character from a western film or television show. Equipped with two single-action revolvers, a rifle, and a shotgun, the designs of which predate 1899, shooters compete in a demanding sport that requires strong eye/hand coordination and mental focus. From its inception, CAS was promoted as a family activity, with women and girls competing equally with men and boys. In 1987, the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) was formed as the governing body for all CAS events. Today, there are over 500 clubs in the United States, and interest has spread to 18 other countries, including Canada, Italy, Germany, France, New Zealand, and Australia. The overarching themes of SASS are the celebration of manifest destiny, reverence for the iconic cowboy of myth and legend, and active support of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Cowboy aliases tend to be humorous; female names may be gendered (Sage Chick, Honey B. Graceful, Bama Belle) or sexually suggestive (Mist Chance, Leggs Balou). They may imply toughness (Kitty Carbine, Lady Justice) or badness (Holy Terror, Dew R. Dye). Costume contests are a big part of the festivities, and categories for women include Best Shooting Costume, as well as the sexually charged awards for best Soiled Doves and Parlor House Madams. Participants range from urban professionals to blue-collar workers, many of them not raised in the so-called gun culture. They are united by their appreciation for what SASS calls “The Code of the West.” The sport offers weekend, regional, and national events, culminating in the End of Trail Wild West Jubilee and Cowboy Action Shooting World Championships (EOT), hosted at SASS’s Founders Ranch in New Mexico. Seventeen shooting bays are temporarily outfitted to resemble western movies sets, each with a different tactical challenge—be it to shoot evildoers or hunt down food for the family.

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The 480-acre spread also includes permanent buildings reminiscent of a Hollywood western town. With dozens of competitions offered, including a few on horseback using blank ammunition, there is a challenge for every level of shooter, including Overall Ladies World Champion, Ladies Senior, Junior Girl, and Cowgirls First Time. According to SASS, women typically make up 20 percent of EOT shooters, and top female competitors consistently place high in mixed events. For example, at the 2009 Main Match, Holy Terror came in second of 419 participants; and in Cowboy Mounted Shooting, Star of July-Dakota was second in a group of 45 shooters. There are no monetary awards in SASS-run events; instead, winners receive a trophy or buckle. In addition, although four firearms alone can cost over $2,000, most members treat their sport like an expensive hobby—they simply enjoy being in an environment with like-minded individuals. SASS does offer educational scholarships to members; however, shooting skill is not a factor. Rather, applicants are judged on their essay, grade point average, and involvement in community service. In 2009, girls and women received more than half of the 26 awards. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender Defined; Gun Control; Shooting Sports, Women in. Further Readings Hall, R. Performing the American Frontier, 1870–1906. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Kohn, A. A. Shooters: Myths and Realities of America’s Gun Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Single Action Shooting Society. http://www.sassnet.com (accessed June 2010). Slotkin, R. Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Atheneum, 1992. Nancy Floyd Georgia State University

Cowgirls While women in a number of countries in North and South America and in places like Australia and New Zealand compete in rodeos, the competition or dis-

play of lassoing, bronco-riding, calf-roping, and steerwrangling is most closely associated with the United States and the American West. Male riders, called cowboys, and female riders, called cowgirls, compete in the rodeo, but cowgirls are not just relegated to this world. The term cowgirl encompasses women in the rodeo, wild west shows, commercial portrayals, women of the frontier, and pioneering women in the more general sense. Cowgirls are associated primarily with the rodeo, and that is where female riders first received their name. Supposedly, President Theodore Roosevelt bestowed the cowgirl name on Lucille Mulhall, one of the best-known rodeo competitors in the early 20th century. Since then, the term has been used to describe any number of women, but most often for women in ranching and rodeo. As working cowgirls on ranches, women rarely held official positions like the male cowboys. However, female relatives of ranch owners and employees often worked alongside their male relatives. The ranching cowgirls may not have been paid, but they often completed the same tasks as their male counterparts. As ranching led to the formation of rodeos in the late 19th century, women moved from the ranching world to the rodeo arena. Until the 1930s, rodeo cowgirls competed almost equally with male riders and at times even competed directly against them. Following a restriction in the events available to them, women formed their own professional organization in the late 1940s and since then, have worked to regain more equal footing and recognition as rodeo cowgirls. In addition to competing in rodeos, women also appeared as cowgirls in the many wild west shows that were popular in the 1910s and 1920s, the most famous of which was the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, which toured the United States, Australia, Europe, and South America. Some of the cowgirls rode horses and performed riding and roping tricks, but others like Annie Oakley were sharpshooters or other types of performers. With the popularity of cowgirls in rodeos and wild west shows, television and movies soon commercialized the cowgirl image. Women like Gail Davis, who played Annie Oakley on a television show from 1954 to 1957, and Dale Evans, who married and performed with Roy Rogers in more than 20 films, popularized the genre of the western.



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The term cowgirl encompasses women in the rodeo, wild west shows, commercial portrayals, women of the frontier, and pioneering women, as well as modern women working on ranches and farms.

Although not considered to be cowgirls in the traditional sense because they do not ride horses, work on ranches, or compete in rodeos, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame includes “trailblazers” of the American West like Sandra Day O’Connor, who grew up in Arizona and was the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, and female artists in and of the west, like Willa Cather, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of O Pioneers. Even as ranching and the origins of cowgirls have faded in the 21st century, this updated definition of a cowgirl allows the traditional image to live well beyond the borders of ranching and rodeos. See Also: Cowboy Action Shooting; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender Defined; O’Connor, Sandra Day; Professions by Gender; Rodeo; Shooting Sports, Women in; Sports,Women in.

Further Readings Jordan, Teresa. Cowgirls: Women of the American West. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1982. LeCompte, Mary Lou. Cowgirls of the Rodeo: Pioneer Professional Athletes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. McGinnis, Vera. Rodeo Road: My Life as a Pioneer Cowgirl. New York: Hastings House, 1974. Reddin, Paul. Wild West Shows. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Roach, Joyce Gibson. The Cowgirls, 2nd ed. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1990. Stansbury, Kathryn. Lucille Mulhall: Her Family, Her Life, Her Times, 2nd ed. Mulhall, OK: Homestead Heirlooms, 1992. Elyssa Ford Arizona State University

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Crafting Industry Traditionally defined as a skilled practice of a practical occupation, a craft is often seen to exist in counterpoint to an art which is innately impractical and creatively significant. Crafts and women’s involvement in crafting practices are common to every community across sociocultural and political economic contexts. Spanning the globe, in country markets in France and Burma as well as urban farmer’s bazaars in the Congo and Peru, one can find women’s artifacts for sale. Whether a basket of vegetables and fruits, a patchwork quilt, a jar of honey, a string of sausages, a braided rug, a package of cheese, a knitted hat, or bouquet of flowers, the presence of handmade products is ubiquitous, and women’s centrality in the production of the homemade and locally grown is evidenced throughout the world and has been this way for centuries. Women’s involvement in the crafting industry predates the industrial era. What is unique to crafting practices in the early 21st century is the emergence of the Internet and the creation of online socioeconomic networks related to women’s crafting practices. These networks, whether they are embedded within a friendship framework, such as Facebook or Myspace, situated within a craftspecific environment, such as Ravelry or Etsy, or independent personal sites, have facilitated the merging of craft and art, the personal and the public, as well as the marketable and the unsalable simultaneously. Gendered crafting practices, including but not limited to, sewing, knitting, crocheting, embroidering, decorating, weaving, quilting, bookmaking, and cooking, are now written about and photographed fastidiously in ways that have created a new and vibrant social world. Through its innately democratizing nature, the Internet allows any and every women with access to the Internet, whether in her home, the public library, or a cybercafé, to create her own space for self-expression and documentation of her personal habits and hobbies, especially crafting. A variation on the 1880s and 1960s “back to the land” movements with an emphasis on the organic, the homegrown, and the natural, today’s female crafters use their blogs to inspire and delight, but they also sell a range of products, including patterns, books, music, yarn, and fabric. The Website Etsy.com was started in 2005 by a team of computer science engi-

neers, public relation specialists, and investors who posited that a substantial income could be generated by facilitating community connection between crafters and crafting aficionados. As of late 2009, Etsy.com generated between $10 and $13 million in sales per month. Its popularity has increased in the global economic depression, buyers continue to seek the inexpensive and the uniquely sentimental, and sellers continue to use Etsy.com as an online marketplace because of its outspoken commitment to the homemade community. As a member of the Etsy.com community, one can own a “shop,” participate in community forums and workshops on a variety themes and practices, and define oneself in relation to specific subcommunities of sellers. Women’s involvement in the crafting industry continues to evolve as does the definition of craft itself. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Business, Women in; Fair Trade; Fiber Arts, Women in; Part-Time Work. Further Readings Kinkade, K. A Walden Two Experiment. New York: Morrow, 1973. Miller, Kerry. “Etsy: A Site for Artisans Takes Off.” BusinessWeek (June 12, 2007). http://www.business week.com/smallbiz/content/jun2007/sb20070611 _488723.htm (accessed June 2010). Schofield, Jack. “Arts and Crafts for the Space Age.” The Guardian (February 18, 2008). http://www.guardian .co.uk/technology/2008/feb/18/etsy.crafts (accessed June 2010). Slatalla, Michelle. “Rooting Around Grandma’s Basement in Cyberspace.” New York Times (January 18, 2007). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/ fashion/18Online.html?ex=157680000&en=8b334fa53f 7dd9da&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permal ink (accessed June 2010). Ulrich, L. The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories In the Creation of an American Myth. New York: Knopf, 2001. Walker, Rob. “Craft Capitalism: Just Do It Yourself.” International Herald Tribune (November 15, 1997). http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/14/business /wbcraft.php (accessed June 2010). Alpha S. DeLap University of Washington



Creation Care Movement (Evangelical)

Creation Care Movement (Evangelical)

to live out stewardship for all creation, “pro-life ecofeminists” protect all vulnerable living things, often advocating for oppressed women, animal life (through vegetarianism), biospheres, and unborn human life.

The Creation Care movement is an increased environmental focus among Evangelical Christians who recognize good stewardship of God’s creation, the Earth, as a biblical mandate. Distinct from Earth-focused “ecology,” the term creation care focuses on biblical commands to take responsible stewardship of God’s creation and care for those in need. Creation Care advocates recognize climate change’s serious effects on those in poverty, particularly women, but it is not generally considered a “women’s issue.” In 2006, Jim Ball organized the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a petition for Congress to limit carbon dioxide emissions. Other Creation Care projects include the 2008 Green Bible, which prints references to the Earth in green text; the Evangelical Environmental Network and its magazine Creation Care; programs for churches, including Flourish and EcoCongregation; conferences such as the 2008 Reform Conference, which seek biblical solutions to environmental issues, poverty, and injustice; and the studyabroad Creation Care Study Program. Related work includes the Mennonite Creation Care Network and missions organizations such as Care of Creation. The 2006 Evangelical Youth Climate Initiative reflects the significant increases in “creation care” at many Christian colleges, including “green” initiatives and chapters of Peter Illyn’s environmental stewardship group Restoring Eden. In 2008, student leaders coordinated by Anna Jane Joyner launched “Renewal: Students Caring for Creation”; the Sierra Club’s Melanie Griffin is an adviser. Women’s Issues As with Evangelical Christianity as a whole, women’s issues are rarely mentioned in Creation Care discussions. Nonetheless, many within the movement recognize the inseparability of environmental issues and poverty: disasters such as increased drought and flooding disproportionately affect the world’s poor, especially those women without political or economic power. Creation Care advocates see this as a social justice issue and a chance to care for “the least of these.” A few also see Creation Care as inseparable from ecofeminism and a holistic pro-life mind set. Seeking

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Women Writers A few of the Creation Care movement’s prominent voices are women, including Nancy Sleeth, the author of Go Green, Save Green: A Simple Guide to Saving Time, Money, and God’s Green Earth (2009). At age 15 years, Emma Sleeth wrote It’s Easy Being Green: One Student’s Guide to Serving God and Saving the Planet (2008), highlighting her generation’s environmental responsibility. For the Beauty of the Earth: Women, Faith, and Creation Care (2009) is a curriculum guide for women’s study groups written by Patty Friesen. The Green Bible’s introductory essays include “Creation Theology: A Jewish Perspective” by Ellen Bernstein, “Knowing Our Place on Earth: Learning Environmental Responsibility From the Old Testament” by Ellen F. Davis, and “The Dominion of Love” by Barbara Brown Taylor. Anne M. Clifford wrote “From Ecological Lament to a Sustainable Oikos,” a chapter in God’s Stewards: The Role of Christians in Creation Care (2002). Contributors to Creation Care magazine include managing editor Kendra Langdon Juskus, Dorothy Boorse, Tricia O’Connor Elisara, Margie Haack, Marah Hardt, and Rachel Stone. See Also: Climate Change as a Women’s Issue; Ecofeminism; Environmental Issues, Women and; Evangelical Protestantism. Further Readings Bouma-Prediger, Steven. For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision of Creation Care. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001. Evangelical Environmental Network. http://www.creation care.org (accessed June 2010). The Green Bible. New Revised Standard Version. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008. Hodgdon, Sarah. “‘Creation Care’—A Growing Movement.” Treehugger.com http://www.treehugger .com/files/2008/07/creation-care-faith-action.php (accessed June 2010). Vanessa Baker Bowling Green State University

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Crime Victims, Female Women are victims of all forms of crime, but domestic violence—including sexual and physical violence—is responsible for about one-quarter of all incidents. Both women and men can be victims of domestic violence, but the most common scenario involves violence by men against a female partner or ex-partner. In addition, the crimes that are committed against women in public are often related to a female’s perceived sexualized identity as “other,” or as lesser beings than men. Criminal justice systems (e.g., the police and the courts) do not always respond appropriately to crimes against women. Grassroots groups and feminist academics have challenged the responses to crimes against women not just from the criminal justice system but also from the media and criminologists. The challenge is in determining how sex and gender interplay with other social variables as well as figuring out the relationship between crimes against women and the objectification of women’s bodies. Despite all of this, it is important to remember that women are not always passive and do not necessarily define themselves as victims. The Scale of the Issue Violent crimes against women in the domestic arena and in wider society appear to be on the increase even though statistics and surveys suggest that crime in general is on the decline in many countries. The Women’s Aid Federation England (WAFE), which is a national charity working to end domestic violence against women and children, supports a network of more than 500 domestic and sexual violence services across the United Kingdom (UK). It defines domestic violence as “. . . a range of abusive behavior, not all of which are, in themselves, inherently violent. Violence can mean, among other things: threats, intimidation, manipulation, isolation, keeping a woman without money, locked in, deprived of food, or using (and abusing) her children in various ways to frighten her or enforce compliance.” WAFE also identifies abuse as including “systematic criticism and belittling comments,” wildly fluctuating behavior of the abuser, and the offering of rewards if certain conditions are met, all to convince the partner that the abuse will never happen again. Such abuse can happen at any time within a relationship or after an association has ended, although

there is evidence to suggest that there are some occasions when women are even more vulnerable. Pregnancy appears to be a time when violence within a relationship often begins. When a woman does not fulfill the wishes of her family, she may be subject to emotional, physical, and/or sexual violence from her partner and possibly other family members. In some communities, honor killing (the murder of one family member by other family members) takes place when it is believed that a woman has brought dishonor on her family and/or community. Many women live in potential danger of ill health, even death, as the result of men’s emotional, psychological, sexual, and physical violence. Sex crimes— defined broadly to include soliciting, violence against sex workers, rape in war, and Internet grooming—is often considered to be less important, both legally and academically, than other crimes and criminal justice concerns. Sex crimes could be labeled as hate crimes because they identify an individual by a particular group such as race, religion, or sexuality. The risks of some groups, like sex workers, are particularly denied, ignored and even ridiculed in the media as well as within the criminal justice system. In both the domestic sphere and in wider society, millions of women and children every year are the victims of murder, rape, and child sexual abuse. Such crimes are gendered in that women are more likely than men to be the victims and men rather than women are likely to be the perpetrators. Estimates of the scale of these crimes differ within countries and around the world, and violence does happen in female (and male) same-sex relationships, but violent crimes against women by men is a significant issue worldwide. Studies that focus on the perpetrators’ motivation suggest that men’s violent behavior toward women is usually characterized as “losing control” or flying into a “blind rage.” However, all the evidence suggests that both abused women and the men who abuse them give the same reasons for the abuse: that men’s violent behavior is used as a means of control. Thus, violence against women happens in normal relationships and is undertaken by normal men. There are many myths surrounding violent crimes against women, including the belief that women enjoy being controlled and/or that they “bring it on themselves” through inappropriate behavior such as dressing pro-



vocatively, not fulfilling the expectations of others or being too demanding. When men are the victims of such crimes the perpetrators are likely to be other men. Women are more likely to be attacked by someone they know, and men are more likely to be attacked by someone unknown to them. When men are the victims of sexual violence the aggression is often an attempt to subordinate or feminize them. Sex crimes in both the private and public spheres are underreported; when the crimes are reported they are often not taken seriously, not prosecuted or end in the aquittal of the perpetrator. The experience of living in a violent relationship/ being subject to violent crime can affect a woman’s psychological as well as her physical health. Women who experience violence on a regular basis often have a high frequency of psychosexual dysfunction, major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Responses to Crimes Against Women One response to crimes against women could be to give increased attention to highlighting danger. However, in the past much of the focus on danger has been on external factors that women face outside of the home—often referred to as stranger danger. This theory denies the fact that women are more likely to be at risk from husbands, boyfriends, partners, and fathers; and while it helps to keep women away from external danger, they then are left unprotected and at risk at home. Additionally, when there have been real external threats to women’s safety, the criminal justice system strongly encourages them to behave in ways to minimize the threat, for example, not to travel alone and to be home before dark. This further supports the view that it is women’s own fault when such crime occurs. The Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust (ZTCT) is an organization that promotes innovative policy and practice that tackles the root causes of male violence against women and children. Since 1992, the ZTCT has launched a number of campaigns that focus on the prevention of male violence against women and children, but the old attitudes of blaming the woman for the crime committed against her still exists. For example, ZTCT researched young people’s attitudes toward gender-based abuse and found that half of

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boys and a third of girls thought that there were some circumstances when it was okay to hit a woman or force her to have sex; more than one-third of the boys (36 percent) thought that they might personally hit a woman or force a woman to have sex; more than half the young people interviewed knew someone who had been hit by their male partner, and exactly half knew someone who had been sexually abused. The response of the ZTCT is to encourage youth ambassadors to represent their philosophy throughout communities, schools, and universities and to offer training and training packs for teachers and youth workers. The rise of feminism in both the 19th and 20th centuries also led to crimes against women, with sex crimse receiving the most attention. Feminists challenged lay understandings of, criminal justice responses to, and academic and media discourse on crimes against women. The discipline of criminology and related fields such as the sociology of deviance were originally dominated by male academics who were concerned with male crime. Their focus was mainly on men as offenders and victims. The result of this narrow and gender-biased approach to crime and deviance meant that many issues were overlooked. Criminology, like many other academic disciplines, historically focused on the public sphere—where history is made at the expense of the personal and the private. This is one explanation for the lack of attention given to crimes against women. In addition, feminists argued that crimes against women have historically been ignored because all societies have accepted the exploitation of women. Thus, feminism, both within the academy and at the grassroots level, promotes new ways of thinking about crime, criminality, and the responses to it. Since the 1970s, grassroots organizations have been instrumental in developing support groups, many of which now have a virtual as well as a physical presence. There also have been changes in the laws of various countries, which aim to target sexual and physical crimes against the person, including crimes against women. Along with developments in criminology and in wider society, there have been changes in the way the media reports such crimes. Today, domestic violence and rape and other crimes against women are increasingly reported. They also have been given greater significance and a deeper understanding by society.

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The Significance of the “Gaze” There is still the tendency for some publications to report sex crimes and violence against women in misleading, sensationalized, and sometimes titallating ways. This can be seen as part of a broader sexual exploitation and objectification of women. This objectification—the positioning of women as objects rather than as people or as sexualized bodies—is thought to encourage a “male gaze.” This term defines the way men are encouraged to look at women’s bodies, that is, from a narrow, sexualized perspective. The justification for men’s use of pornography relates to the sexual double standard that suggests that men have a stronger sex drive than women and a “natural” need for regular sexual gratification. For women, “natural” is translated as being more passive sexually. Women who openly display an interest in sex are seen as unnatural, aggressive, and “loose.” Many feminists argue that pornography is objectifying and dehumanizing, reinforcing women’s subordinate status in society, and is both an extreme example of the male gaze and the foundation of male dominance. Some feminists also argue that there is a key link between pornography and sexual violence, and others see pornography as one aspect of sexual abuse, as another crime against women. Survivors Not Victims Female crime victims do not necessarily assume the permanent role of victim. In addition to practical and emotional support from professionals, these women often note that the support of other women who had the same experience helped them to move from victim to survivor. Many previous victims go on to offer support to others. See Also: Domestic Violence; Domestic Violence Centers; Drug Trade; Hate Crimes; Honor Killings; Rape, Incidences of; Sex Workers. Further Readings Abrahams, Hilary. Rebuilding Lives After Domestic Violence. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2010. Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. Flowers, R. Barri. Sex Crimes, Perpetrators, Predators, Prostitutes and Victims, 2nd ed. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 2006.

Heidensohn, Francis. Sexual Politics and Social Control. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, 2009. Heidensohn, Francis. Women and Crime. London: Macmillan, 1985. Gayle Letherby University of Plymouth

Crisis Pregnancy Centers Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) were first established in the United States in the years before Roe v. Wade (1973), when individual states began liberalizing their abortion laws. They were a response to this liberalization by those holding pro-life sentiments; they offered pregnancy options counseling that excluded abortion. While some CPCs were and are open about their politics, many CPCs were or still are not. More recently, and especially during the Bush administration, CPCs began to take on a more medicalized persona presenting themselves as healthcare clinics that offer free medical services like pregnancy tests and ultrasounds. As explained below, this newer manifestation confuses some women who believe they are patronizing legitimate medical clinics, which is further complicated by the evidence that these women are given false and misleading information and subjected to a variety of hurtful tactics. CPCs are concerning because of their deceptive nature and how that impacts women’s reproductive health and rights. Many CPCs portray themselves as being neutral on the abortion issue in order to attract pregnant women to use their services. Yet, CPCs do not help women access abortion; rather, most present inaccurate information to clients. In 2006, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform found that 20 out of 23 CPCs contacted provided false and misleading health information to patients, especially in relation to the alleged links between abortion and breast cancer, abortion and future infertility, and the mental health effects of abortion. Moreover, the persons performing the free ultrasounds have limited training, and no training in detecting fetal abnormalities belying the medical nature of CPCs.



Objectional Tactics In addition to medical misinformation, the CPCs engage in a range of objectionable tactics when trying to persuade women to continue pregnancies. They have been known to use emotional pleas such as references to “your baby” and giving women knitted booties. They have also been known to use coercive and offensive tactics such as showing women graphic photos and videos, and equating abortion with “murder” or “killing.” An equal, though less frequently raised, concern is the role CPCs play in adoption. Several recent exposés, like those in The Nation and Time magazine, reveal the coercive nature of some CPCs in this respect. Not only are there examples of CPCs persuading women not to have abortions, but there are also reports of incidents where women are pushed into rushed and closed adoptions in which the pregnant women are isolated from their families and not properly informed of their rights as biological parents. The above concerns are exacerbated by the reach and power of CPCs. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that there are between 2,500 and 4,000 CPCs across the United States. Most of these have an affiliation with Christian charities or organizations. Under the Bush administration, many of these CPCs were awarded federal funding under abstinence-only education program guidelines. In 2006, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform reported that between 2001 and 2005, more than 50 CPCs received over $30 million in federal funding. The number and affiliation of these well-funded groups acquire further significance when one considers that approximately half of the pregnancies occurring yearly in the United States are unintended and that 40 percent of those will end in abortion. Moreover, unplanned pregnancies have increased almost 30 percent among poor women over the last decade. These are the same women for whom free ultrasounds and pregnancy tests would be appealing. Under the Obama administration, there have been budget cuts for abstinence-only education programs, which covers CPCs, and the Senate defeated a bill that would have seen CPCs directly eligible for federal funding. Yet, CPCs continue to operate and benefit from the resources accrued under the Bush administration.

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See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Abortion Laws, United States; NARAL; Planned Parenthood; Pro-Life Movement. Further Readings Gibbs, Nancy. “The Grassroots Abortion War.” Time (February 26, 2007). http://www.time.com/time /magazine/article/0,9171,1590444,00.html (accessed December 2009). Joyce, Katheryn. “Shotgun Adoption.” The Nation (August 26, 2009). http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090914 /joyce (accessed December 2009). Lin, Victoria and Cynthia Dailard. “Crisis Pregnancy Centers Seek to Increase Political Clout, Secure Government Subsidy.” The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy (2002). http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs /tgr/05/2/gr050204.html (accessed December 2009). National Abortion Federation. “Crisis Pregnancy Centers: An Affront to Choice.” http://www.prochoice.org /pubs_research/publications/downloads/public_policy /cpc_report.pdf (accessed December 2009). United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, False and Misleading Health Information Provided by Federally Funded Pregnancy Resource Centers (2006). http://reform.democrats .house.gov/Documents/20060717101140-30092.pdf (accessed December 2009). Shannon Stettner York University

Critical Race Feminism Critical race feminism (CRF) is a term coined within the U.S. legal academy in the 1990s to characterize an emphasis on the legal status of women of color. These women include U.S. minority group members, such as African Americans, Latinas, Asians, Native Americans, and Arabs. On a global level, the women include those living as minorities in predominantly white countries such as Canada or in Europe. In addition, women in the developing world are also part of the focus. What binds the plight of these diverse women together is that wherever they are based, as a group, they are generally on the bottom rungs of society within a nation or region. They

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usually face customary and religious patriarchal practices that limit their ability de jure and de facto to achieve their full human potential. The term critical race feminism highlights the intellectual strands from which CRF draws. “Critical” illustrates linkages to critical theory in general, including the progressive thought represented in critical legal studies, a jurisprudential movement dating back to the 1970s and influenced by European postmodern deconstructionists such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. “Race” indicates the connection to critical race theory (CRT), which emphasizes race and ethnic identity from a progressive perspective. Related trends with similar emphases include critical Latino theory, Asian crit, critical white studies, and some scholarship that might be characterized as Indian crit. The term feminism highlights CRF’s resonance with feminist jurisprudence. Thus, CRF interjects feminist analysis into CRT and related movements, and a race/ethnicity analysis into traditional feminism. CRF also links to “womanist” thought developed by women of color outside the legal academy, such as Alice Walker. CRF can overlap with QueerCrit and QueerRaceCrit scholarship as well. One of the key contributions of CRF to legal theory is the notion of intersectionality, as best articulated by University of California, Los Angeles/Columbia law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. The focal point of CRF is thus on the intersection of the women’s race and gender, rather than race or gender. Other scholars have used terms such as “multidimensionality” to characterize this analytic approach. Adrien Wing has used “multiplicative identity” to address the need to discuss not only race/ethnicity and gender simultaneously but also identities such as nationality, color, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, minority status, parental status, language identity, class, and others. CRF is antiessentialist as well, as pointed out by University of California, Berkeley law professor Angela Harris and others, noting that not all women are white and middle class, and not all people of color are male. CRF is also concerned with praxis as well as theory. There is the need to go beyond theory and find legal and nonlegal solutions to the problems encountered. For example, solving the high rates of domestic violence in minority communities may mean not only changing the laws but also providing education to male and female children, as well as their parents, on the

unacceptability of physical and mental violence against family members. CRF writers, like CRT authors, may use a narrative methodology that interweaves stories into the discussion. In addition, they may incorporate other disciplines including history, sociology, political science, anthropology, and economics. CRF authors address a full range of topics including, for example, employment (antidiscrimination/antisubordination, affirmative action, sexual harassment), criminality (domestic violence, drug use, rape, war crimes, genocide, honor killings), immigration (asylum), healthcare (abortion, HIV, female genital surgeries), education (studying and professing), mothering (adoption, surrogacy, female infanticide, working), marriage (dowry, child brides, polygamy, divorce, tax codes), religious attire, and Internet identity shifting. See Also: African American Muslims; Arab Feminism; Chicana Feminism. Further Readings Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum, Issues: Volume 1989: Feminism in the Law: Theory, Practice and Criticism (1989). Wing, Adrien Katherine, ed. Critical Race Feminism: A Reader, 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Wing, Adrien Katherine, ed. Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Adrien Katherine Wing University of Iowa College of Law

Croatia Croatia is a country in southern Europe of about 4.5 million people, with a large coastline on the Adriatic Sea; it shares borders with Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro. It was part of Yugoslavia (1918–91), and was the site of brutal fighting during the Croatian War of Independence of 1991–95 that resulted in high degrees of internal



The bell tower of the Cathedral of St. Duje. The church is the Catholic cathedral of Split, the largest Dalmatian city in Croatia.

displacement. Croatia was also involved in the Balkan War of 1992–95, during which many women, including Croatians, were victims of rape. Almost 90 percent of the population identify themselves as Croatians, and most people (87.8 percent) are Roman Catholic. Literacy is almost universal among both men (99.3 percent) and women (97.1 percent). Croatia is one of the wealthiest of the former Yugoslav republics; although its economy was badly damaged during the 1991–95 war and more recently from the global recession, it had a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $17,600 in 2009. Income distribution is among the most even in the world, with a Gini Index of 29.0 and only 11 percent of the population living below the poverty line. The World Economic Forum places Croatia in the middle third of countries with regard to gender equality, ranking 54th out of 134 countries. On a scale of 1 (perfect equality) to 0 (inequality), in 2009 Croatia was awarded an overall score of 0.6944, with scores

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of 0.6458 for economic participation and opportunity, 0.9946 for educational attainment, 0.9791 for health and survival, and 0.2300 for political empowerment. Croatia’s gender gap has increased over the past several years: it was 0.721 in 2007 and 0.0697 in 2009. Save the Children ranks Croatia 26th among 43 developed countries on its Women’s Index, 29th on its Mothers’ Index, and 35th on its Children’s Index among 43 more developed countries. Croatian women are more likely than men to be enrolled in tertiary education and to be professional and technical workers. However, men constitute a majority (59 percent) of the faculty in tertiary education. Women are also less likely to be in the labor force, more likely to be unemployed, and earn about two-thirds of what a man earns for comparable work. Women hold 21 percent of the seats in Parliament and 24 percent of ministerial positions. Croatia provides maternity leave; full salary is provided for 45 days before delivery and one year after. All births are attended by skilled personnel, and both the infant mortality and maternal rates are low at 5 out of 1,000 live births and 7 out of 100,000 live births respectively. Perhaps due in part to the male/female ratio of 0.93 (reflecting the recent wars), Croatian women tend to marry late and have small families; the mean age of marriage is 26 years and the fertility rate is 1.30 children per woman. See Also: Government, Women in; Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality; Rape in Conflict Zones; Roman Catholic Church; Wars of National Liberation, Women in. Further Readings Bellamy, Alex J. The Formation of Croatian National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream? Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2004. Ramet, S. P. and D. Matic. Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education, and Media. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). Tanner, Marcus. Croatia: A Nation Forged in War, 3rd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

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Cuba Cuba, a close geographic neighbor to the United States, is located in the Caribbean Sea and contains 11.5 million inhabitants. The country’s history includes Spanish colonialism, U.S. interventionism, and then the Cuban Revolution of 1959 led by Fidel Castro. The revolution by most accounts improved the status of women. In the 1990s, Cuba lost subsidies from the Soviet Union and trade relations with the Soviet bloc, leading to economic hardships and stunted progress for women. Although the economy has since improved, the U.S. embargo against Cuba continues to obstruct the Cuban economy. Cuba’s per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was estimated at $9,500 in 2008. Nevertheless, literacy rates in Cuba match those of the advanced industrial world, at 99.8 percent for women and men. This rate exceeds countries of comparable economic standing. Cuba shares a similar GDP per capita with Colombia and South Africa, yet their literacy rates are, respectively, 90.4 percent and 86.4 percent. Moreover, the life expectancy of Cuban women is nearly 80 years, about the same as it is in the United States. The status of women has improved because of the Cuban Revolution’s emphasis on social equality. Women were only 15 percent of the workforce before 1959. However, the government provides women with free education. Now more than 50 percent of university graduates are women, and women now hold positions in all professions; for example, women are medical doctors, government employees, agricultural engineers, and scientists. The Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) is an important government institution for women. Established in 1960, it was created more than a decade before the United Nations recommended that all countries should create national bureaucratic machineries to improve the lives of women. The FMC has held literacy campaigns, promotes shared responsibility of domestic tasks between women and men, and mobilizes campaigns for women’s health. Cuban women also have access to legal abortion, maternity leave, and free childcare from the state, although additional daycare centers are necessary because 20 percent of Cuban women lack access to centers. Meeting their families’ needs poses another challenge for Cuban women. During the 1990s, Cuban

women struggled to acquire food, clothing, and other basic necessities. Goods were rationed at that time and energy shortages complicated the everyday tasks of cooking and housekeeping. With low monthly salaries, working-class and professional women alike were unable to pay for rent, food, and electricity. The U.S. embargo further limits the availability of household supplies and hinders professional women (and men) such as scientists from obtaining the equipment necessary for their research. Despite economic growth in the 2000s, Cubans rely on remittances from their relatives living abroad to supplement incomes. Remittances are less likely to aid Afro-Cubans who have fewer relatives living abroad; thus, Afro-Cuban women may struggle more acutely with economic hardship and household maintenance than their white or mestizo counterparts. The Cuban sex trade generates a controversial debate. Before the revolution, tourism boosted the Cuban economy and prostitution was common. The revolution sought to eradicate prostitution, so much so that the government “re-educated” prostitutes. In order to revive its economy in the 1990s, Cuba again emphasized international tourism and a thriving sex trade followed. Sex work appeals to women who cannot obtain sufficient goods for their families or women who want items such as special shampoos or shoes. Women make significantly more money engaging in sex work than in professional employment. As one woman explained, “It takes four months to make what you can make in one night with a foreigner.” See Also: Childcare; Gender Roles, Cross Cultural; Machismo/Marianismo; Sex Workers. Further Readings Jennissen, Therese and Colleen Lundy. “Women in Cuba and the Move to a Private Market.” Women’s Studies International Forum, v.24/2 (2001). Shayne, Julie D. The Revolution Question: Feminisms in El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Stout, Noelle M. “Feminists, Queers and Critics: Debating the Cuban Sex Trade.” Journal of Latin American Studies, v.40/4 (2008). Candice D. Ortbals Pepperdine University



Cyber-Stalking and Internet Harassment Across the world, more than 2 million women are stalked annually—and many more are harassed via Internet platforms. Conservative statistics estimate 1 in 12 women will be stalked at some point in their lives. Although the proliferation of Internet and social networking Websites or platforms has not impacted the number of stalking cases, digital technologies make it easier than ever to have quick access to a person’s private information or location. While the Internet makes stalking easier, it also allows women greater access to laws, organizations, and information that will help them if stalked. As digital technologies continue to change, so do stalking and other harassing behaviors. Colloquial, Academic, and Legal Definitions of Cyber-Stalking Because of the newness of the technology that allows its existence, cyber-stalking is difficult to define— especially as colloquial, academic, and legal uses of the word continue to compete for meaning. Colloquial definitions are usually driven by fictive and news media representations where women meet someone online—usually a man with a romantic interest—and later are terrorized or murdered. The term is also used interpersonally to describe what happens when an acquaintance, ranging from someone barely known to an ex-lover, continues to follow someone via the Internet. Other everyday perceptions of cyber-stalking typically include child predators preying on young women in chatrooms, remote access to personal Webcams, or following the victim’s friends online to gain information. While academic definitions of the terms often include the above situations, they often examine other instances as well. Many Internet scholars point out that most people engage stalker-like behavior at times, and that this behavior can be normal and healthy. People stalk, or keep tabs on others, for non-nefarious reasons. For instance, it is not uncommon for someone to meet another person and want to know more about them. Women, in particular, might Google a potential romantic interest, work colleague, or babysitter. Even though no harmful intent is being enacted, this Googling of another person is technically stalking

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because it is harvesting information about him or her without consent or approval. Because of the benign nature of many stalking situations, researchers often distinguish between lesser forms of stalking and more severe forms such as obsessive relational intrusion, or the willful and harmful intrusion upon someone’s life. Most cases of severe stalking usually occur with the stalker’s hope of forming some kind of relationship with the person being stalked. In cases of unwanted stalking, legal definitions of the terms become important. Courts and lawmakers continue to struggle with how to adjust laws to protect those who may be stalked or harassed because of the continuously evolving nature of digital technologies and how liberties regarding information seeking can conflict with the rights of individuals’ privacy and well-being. It is also difficult for law enforcement agencies to enforce cyber-stalking or Internet harassment laws. Prior to the emergence of interactive digital technologies, calls could be traced with relative ease and distance restraints could be placed on stalkers. In comparison, it is difficult to monitor Website use by an individual; and stalkers can abandon one Web identity to create another with ease. Internet Harassment While cyber-stalking typically encroaches upon an individual’s relational space, Internet harassment encroaches upon other aspects of an individual’s life and is common for both men and women. Forms of Internet harassment include identity theft, public embarrassment through digital platforms, spam or unsolicited e-mails, breaking into online accounts (such as social networking sites, e-mail, or banking), and rude online behavior (trolling or flaming). Usually Internet harassment is proliferated by the mismanagement of personal information by an account holder, although some forms (particularly online embarrassment, such as someone posting a false rumor or indecent picture to an Internet Web page) can happen with little to no personal information being surrendered by an individual. For instance, identity theft can be facilitated through online credit reporting bureaus. Gaining access to a credit record usually involves knowing a person’s name, social security number, and prior addresses. Where credit reports once required a wait period as they were requested through postal

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systems, hand processed, and then returned to a verifiable address, now they can be obtained in minutes. To date, no country has laws to protect information being distributed online by credit agencies or other information databases. Sometimes individuals unwittingly give others information that will allow access to personal records through phishing scams. For instance, a scammer will send a letter that appears to be from someone’s bank requesting account information. The person, often scared that their account will be closed if the information is not supplied, will provide access information. Then the account is used by the perpetrator. Women as Stalkers While those who are stalked are stereotypically women and those who stalk are stereotypically men, along with the emergence of the Internet one of these stereotypes has become false. Women of all ages receive a significant amount of stalking, but the most stalked individuals around the world are females age 20 to 29. When it comes to stalkers, however, things have changed since the arrival of interactive digital technologies. Where men used to account for almost 90 percent of stalkers, they now account for about half. Over 45 percent of stalkers are now women—although it is near impossible to know how much an influence the Internet has upon this growth in the number of female stalkers. Statistics regarding Internet harassment suggest both men and women are targeted about the same, but the sex of perpetrators is still largely unknown due to their often not being caught. See Also: Chatrooms; Internet; Internet Dating; Sexting; Sexual Harassment. Further Readings Baym, Nancy K. Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010. Bocij, Paul. Cyberstalking: Harassment in the Internet Age and How to Protect Your Family. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Spitzberg, Brian H. and William R. Cupach. The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007. Survivors in Action. “Programs.” survivorsinaction.com /site/index.php?option=com_content&view=category &id=10&Itemid=32 (accessed December 2009).

Wolak, Janice, et al. “Online ‘Predators’ and Their Victims:  Myths, Realities and Implications for Prevention and Treatment.” American Psychologist, v. 63/2 (2008). Jimmie Manning Northern Kentucky University

Cyprus A Middle Eastern island located in the Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus has long been the scene of conflicting cultures, and such conflicts have taken a toll on the status of women. Within three years of attaining independence from Great Britain in 1960, Cyprus became embroiled in open conflict between the Greek majority and the Turkish minority. The United Nations dispatched peacekeeping forces, but was unable to prevent Turkish intervention and the establishment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Occupying more than a third of the island, TRNC is recognized only by Turkey. Cyprus was admitted to the European Union in 2004, and a tentative peace was negotiated four years later. By the early 21st century, 70 percent of the population had become urbanized, with four-fifths of the workforce engaged in service occupations, particularly in tourism, financial services, and real estate. With a per capita income of $21,200, Cyprus is the 58th richest country in the world. Greeks (77 percent) constitute the majority, but the Turkish minority (18 percent) maintains control in the north. Most Cypriots are Greek Orthodox faith (78 percent), but 18 percent of the population are Muslim. While Greek is the official language, English is also widely spoken. Cultural norms have often relegated women to stereotypical roles, confining them to nurturing activities, and limiting opportunities in education and employment. Increasing incidences of domestic violence are of major concern to women’s rights activists, as are economic disparities in the workplace and the limited role of women in decision making. Workplace disparities are greatest among blue-collar females who may earn 25 to 30 percent less than males working in similar positions. Sexual harassment also continues to be a major problem in the workplace. Due to criminal restrictions on abortion,



women have limited reproductive choices. There is considerable concern about the rights of Turkish women living in the occupied section of the island and about the rights of women of the Roma minority. Efforts have been made to eradicate gender stereotypes by improving the image of women as portrayed by the Cypriot media and by increasing female participation in television, radio, and advertising. Cypriots have a life expectancy of 77.66 years, with women (80.57 years) having an advantage over males (77.66 years). This advantage continues throughout life, resulting in a life expectancy of 80.57 years for women and 74.88 years for males. Thus, the median age of Cypriot women is 33.6 years as compared to 33.2 years for males. Cypriot women give birth at a rate of 1.45 children per woman, and Cyprus has an infant mortality rate of 9.57 deaths per 1,000 live births. Males (98.9 percent) have the advantage over females (96.3 percent) when it comes to literacy, but women spend an average of 14 years in school as compared to 13 years for males. Opportunities and Education Cyprus became a participant of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1985. In 1994, the Council of Ministers agreed to establish the National Machinery for Women’s Rights (NMWR). Operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order, representatives from major women’s organizations, trade unions, and the government come together under the NMWR umbrella to increase the voice of women in national decision making. Working with nongovernmental organiztions (NGOs), the organization supports and subsidizes women’s rights groups, while maintaining its focus on ending all forms of legal discrimination against women. The greatest gains have been in field of family law and labor legislation. Efforts have been directed at increasing access to childcare and improving the quality of existing facilities. Women’s and children’s health issues have also been addressed, and both maternal and infant mortality rates have declined. Educational opportunities have been expanded to include vocational training. In the political realm, women continue to be in the minority at all levels. In 2009, women held only eight of 56 seats in the House of Representatives, and only and two of 11 ministers were female.

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Domestic violence continues to be of major concern, and legislation exists to make it a criminal offense. However, few cases are reported due to lack of witnesses and the unwillingness of victims to testify against their attackers. Official assistance to victims of violence includes counseling services and support for NGOs who have established crises centers. Marital rape is also considered a crime. While rape carries a possible sentence of life in prison, few perpetrators actually receive this sentence. Prostitution is not illegal, but human trafficking is against the law. In either case, those who exploit women may be arrested because it is illegal to procure women for sexual purposes. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Domestic Violence; Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Cyprus.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/cy.html (accessed July 2010). Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). “Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Concluding Observations: Cyprus.” http://www1.umn.edu/human rts/cedaw/cedaw-cyprus.htm (accessed July 2010). Keddie, Nikki R. Women in the Middle East: Past and Present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Cyprus.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eur/119074.htm (accessed July 2010). Ahmet Atay University of Louisville

Czech Republic The Czech Republic (CZ) represents an established parliamentary democracy of the central European region with a population of 10.5 million. Prague is the nation’s capital. CZ was created in 1918 as Czechoslovakia, and women’s suffrage was enacted in 1920. After World War II, the country became a part of the communist bloc. As the women’s movement was subject to control by the Communist Party, the second wave of

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feminism never took place. Transition to democracy occurred in 1989 under the leadership of Václav Havel. In 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech and the Slovak Republics, respectively. In 2004, the CZ joined the European Union (EU). The current Czech women’s movement is divided, represented mainly by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and two university departments of gender studies, in addition to partial representation in a governmental committee for equal opportunities. Women’s rights have a high standard that is required for all EU members by the common EU law. In 2009, the Discrimination Act was enacted, forbidding both direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnic origin, nationality, gender, sexuality, age, disability, religion, and worldview. However, instances of discrimination still occur, mainly due to gender, age, and ethnicity (i.e., the Roma minority of 150,000–300,000 people). Czech households traditionally depend on incomes of both partners. The social system allows parents to receive welfare benefits until a child is 4 years of age. Childcare is still perceived as an exclusive domain of women. The percentage of women who are employed is high, and the difference between male and female unemployment has been at 2 to 3 percent for the last five years. However, 26.4 percent of women with three or more children are unemployed. The gender pay gap is at 23.6 percent with the EU average being 17.5 percent. The Czech labor market is characterized by its limited job variety and scarcity of parttime positions. In 2008, only 8.5 percent of women and 2.2 percent of men had part-time jobs, compared to the EU average of 31.1 percent for women, 7.9 percent for men. Even though the numbers of qualified men and women workers is comparable, there is an absence of women in executive and decision-making posts

in both the public and the corporate sectors. Today, women represent 17 percent of all the members of the CZ Parliament and occupy 28.6 percent of all executive posts. However, in 75 percent of all Czech corporations, not a single woman occupies a top management post. Political discussion regarding the implementation of mandatory quotas for women on ballots is slowly starting to develop. Until recently, 38 percent of all Czech women have encountered some form of domestic violence. There is a network of support groups operating NGOs throughout the country. The basics of legal protection of victims are in place (i.e., possibility to evict the offender from a common household). Throughout the 20-year period of 1970–90 the Communist regime took a systematic approach to the sterilization of Roma women. From 1990 to 2001, the phenomenon became rare and usually concerned cases when uninformed women signed an approval for the sterilization procedure without being aware of the consequences of their decision. Last year, the Czech government publicly apologized for these acts. See Also: Fertility; Part-Time Work; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Roma “Gypsy” Women. Further Readings Czech Statistical Office. “Focus on Women and Men 2009.” http://www.czso.cz/csu/2009edicniplan.nsf /engp/1413-09 (accessed July 2010). Feinberg, M. Elusive Equality: Gender, Citizenship, and the Limits of Democracy in Czechoslovakia 1918–1950. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. Heimann, M. Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. Petra Zářecká Masaryk University

D Da Vinci Code, The The Da Vinci Code is a best-selling novel by the American author Dan Brown published in 2003. The novel, which takes its title from a famous manuscript by the legendary artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, is a thriller that draws on a number of conspiracy theories about the Catholic Church and Mary Magdalene in particular. Several successful novels and popular Hollywood movies, such Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the Last Temptation of Christ, had already dealt with most of the pseudohistorical documents or legendary themes referred to by Brown, such as the Holy Grail story, the vicissitudes of the Templar Order, the Priory of Sion—a well-known modern hoax—and Jesus’ possible marriage. The novel proposes an alternate reading of Western history by imagining that Jesus of Nazareth was married to Mary Magdalene, and had a daughter, whose descendants gave origin to the French dynasty of the Merovingian kings. Later, the Merovingians went into hiding because the Roman Catholic Church, which in the novel is cast in the role of the great villain, persecuted them. According to Brown’s novel, the Roman Catholic Church was trying to cover up the fact that Jesus was just a man, and not the son of God. While most critics have focused on the lack of literary qualities in Brown’s novel, author and scholar J. Madison Davis has noted that the book is part of a line of works whose forefather is identified as writer,

linguist, and philosopher Umberto Eco. Davis also noted that The Da Vinci Code exploits the reader’s fascination with arcane knowledge. Christian writers have criticized the novel for various reasons. Roman Catholic critics, such as Sandra Miesel and Carl Olson, have noted both historical and factual errors in the novel, pointing out that Brown’s knowledge of Christian history is as superficial and as inaccurate as his reconstruction of European medieval history. They have criticized Brown’s choice of sources, which span from Elaine Pagels’s feminist writings to popular literature. A further problem noted by religious historians is that the wild inaccuracies in Brown’s treatment of Mary Magdalene obscure evidence of the real, and substantial, role she did play in the early Christian community. Some readers interpret Brown’s book as feminist work, and why it has been criticized by the American Christian Right as well as by fundamentalist Christian groups, who found offensive Brown’s apparent celebration of the feminine. Some scholars, such as Kristy Maddux, have highlighted how Brown’s work draws on radical or cultural feminism. She has argued that the novel reinforces patriarchy and points out how Brown has drawn on radical feminism. She maintains that his work celebrates women, and that he has a persistent recourse to the private sphere. Maddux also accuses Brown of reducing women to their biology and that he ends up reinstating old antifeminist stereotypes. 371

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The book has also faced controversy over allegations of plagiarism, which has called attention to Lewis Perdue, author of two novels on a supposed daughter of Jesus; and by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, authors of a book on the Holy Grail that was published in the 1980s. The film version of The Da Vinci Code was directed by Ron Howard and released to movie theaters worldwide in 2006. See Also: Feminist Theology; Mary Magdalene; Pagels, Elaine; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Goodstein, Laurie. “Defenders of Christianity Rush to Debunk ‘The Da Vinci Code.’” New York Times (April 27, 2004). http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/books /27CODE.html?pagewanted=1 (accessed April 2010). Maddux, Kristy. “The Da Vinci Code and the Regressive Gender Politics of Celebrating Women,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, v.25/3 (2008). Madison Davis, J. “The Mysterious Popularity of the Arcane.” World Literature Today, v.80/3 (2006). Miller, Laura. “I Couldn’t Have Put It Better Myself.” New York Times (July 13, 2003). http://www.nytimes .com/2003/07/13/books/the-last-word-i-couldn-t-have -put-it-better-myself.html?pagewanted=1 (accessed April 2010). Miller, Laura. “The Last Word; The Da Vinci Con.” New York Times (February 22, 2004). http://www.nytimes .com/2004/02/22/books/the-last-word-the-da-vinci -con.html?pagewanted=1 (accessed April 2010). Olson, Carl and Sandra Miesel. The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code. Fort Collins, CO: Ignatius Press, 2004. Maria Beatrice Bittarello Independent Scholar

Dance, Women in Most scholars would agree that the term dance refers to a wide variety of expressive and functional “movings” enjoyed at local, private, or community social affairs as well as formal state-of-the-art professional performances that range from subtle, gestural, inti-

mate, and improvised movement to large, prescribed, choreographed actions. Many dances feature a combination of these styles; dancers, and people who are involved with dance, participate in more than one of these options. Art Dance Around the globe, the word dance conjures up images of art-dance. By definition, dance is a Western term and its actions promote Western cultural values, even when the dances occur in non-Western locations. Ballet is the most well-regarded Western dance form, reflecting through both its management and its choreographies, the place of women in the Western culture. Ballet poses questions of elitism, control, power, authority, and ownership, which also are part of the dance world’s politics. Western art dance has been a feminized culture since the mid-19th century, with economic, institutional, and artistic power held primarily by men. However, a gradual shift is occurring as some women are integrating into the power élite as artistic directors (e.g., Paris Opera, Royal Ballet, the Alvin Ailey Company, and a few mid-level U.S. ballet companies). They’re also penetrating the ranks of executive directors (e.g., American Ballet Theatre) and as the directors of major training academies. Few women have been successful as choreographers in the ballet tradition, but many are artistic directors and choreographers in modern and contemporary companies and in regional ballet organizations. It is notable that the male-led companies tend to be far more successful financially than those led by women. In recent years, dance practices have been exposed and encouraged across creative and cultural lines. Thus, pioneers from Dawn Stoppiello (Troika Ranch) to Trisha Brown have been wowing audiences with dance invention. While there is a cultural bias toward men in technology fields—one that is supported by high-profile men like Ed Roberts, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs—that bias doesn’t translate to dance, dance technology, and other creative arts. There has been an exchange between and among local and global practices in art-dance. The availability of new technologies supports Internet and new media studies. Recent technology has made available and affordable both travel to other cultures and recording devices such as flip videos in ways that were not imagined 50 years ago. Thus, a 30-year-old American



dance artist can visit Indonesia for four months and incorporate appropriate Balinese kecak dance movement into her personal movement vocabulary. This form of cultural assimilation, transmission, migration, or contamination (depending on one’s point of view), is sometimes labeled fusion, and is both welcomed and resisted by different artists and audiences. Technological availability also has exposed the methods women choreographers are using to create new ideas (e.g., X-ray machines, projectors, videos, movies clips, live technology experience), and has resulted in new digital choreographies, as evidenced in the work of Norah Zuniga Shaw. Women have flourished in the professions of dance education. Two main factors have influenced the burgeoning of artist/educators: the increase in consciousness around bodily-kinesthetic activities in general and the decrease in funding for “art-dance” outside of education. While there are earlier success stories, such as Margaret H’Doubler, dance entered the U.S. college and university setting en masse in the late 1960s and early 1970s at the height of social protest movements (including the women’s rights movement), and refined its idea of “research” to align with other university studies. This move has given rise to a category called artist-educators, predominantly female dance professors who dance and teach. This change gave the artist-educators a voice, location and income for their art work. Ironically, since both dance and education have been highly populated by women, the smaller number of men who value dance education as a professional choice are often hired more readily than women, helping to gender-balance department faculty. Commercial Dance Musical theater is another dance form that is sometimes called “Broadway dance,” and is considered by many to be “entertainment” rather than “art,” although the boundary between the two is quite blurred. In general, records for commercial dance were not consistently kept nor recorded until Bye Bye Birdie in 1960 added a byline for the choreographer. In the late 20th century, many of the well-known choreographers were men, such as Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, and Michael Kidd. The women choreographers who preceded them—Helen Tamiris of Touch and Go (1950), Hanya Holm of My Fair Lady (1957), Agnes deMille of Goldilocks (1959), and Lee Theodore of The Apple

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Tree (1967)—had gone unnoticed and almost unpaid. More recently, Joan Brickhill, Graciela Daniele, and Susan Stroman were joined by Kathleen Marshall, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Twyla Tharp, and Karole Armitage as Tony winners. These women have proved that women are making in roads into the power positions of entertainment dance. Dance programs on Western-produced television programs have had a huge, if not unfortunate, impact on dance worldwide. Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, and their international counterparts have influenced what is seen and done in dance studios and academies. This is particularly true in private for-profit studios. As a result, female dancers are scripted as sexualized beings and dressed in revealing outfits that suggest desire, and they tend to be “handled” by male partners in ways that display the female’s sexual value. Films from Hollywood to Bollywood follow this same role modeling. In these arenas, the roles occupied by women often reinforce an objectified, dominate-subordinate, power imbalance between men and women. Community-Based Dance The term community dance refers to dances that have long histories and/or traditions in which large numbers and a variety of people participate at once or over time with relatively little specialized training. In community dances, there are no single choreographers, although occasionally someone’s name is attached to a “craze,” for example, with Chubby Checker and “the Twist.” In many cultures, women have a clear and defined role in community dance. For example, Cook Island women dance alongside the men but execute different movements. Moroccan men and women often present single-sex dances, rarely dancing together, reflecting their religious beliefs. In Orthodox Islamic practices, women often dance freely but only in front of other women to avoid stimulating unwary men. In the United States, discos and other locations were designed for social dancing and men and women perform the same movements. They usually dance alone in the midst of many, however. In large part, the pressure to shift from not dancing in public and not needing a specific partner while dancing has come from educated women, beginning, loosely, in the last quarter of the 20th century. About one-third of all university teachers in the Arab world are female, and those women have taken dance as a symbol of personal liberation.

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Somatics and Health Dance also has been the arena in which inner-knowledge and physical health considerations have grown up and developed. Perhaps because women have been assumed to be aware of their bodies-in-use, they have been able to develop a consciousness of how small controlled changes develop into large differences. Somatic studies takes as its focus subjective learning, and places a first-person narrative at the center of knowledge. It has at its forefront researcher/practitioners like Bonnie Bainridge Cohen, Emilie Conrad, Ida Rolf, Joan Skinner, and Elaine Sommers. In this field, women have had as much inventor/leader voice as men, and a majority of members in the professional organizations are female. While this leadership role may be a sign of women edging toward equality, the member numbers may simply reinforce the stereotype that women are more prone to nurturing and helping professions. Dance Organizations Several support organizations have contributed to the advancement of dance as a field, and in all cases these groups were created, developed, and sustained primarily by women. During the second half of the 20th in the United States, numerous dance organizations formed, including American Dance Guild, Body-Mind Centering Association, The Congress on Research in Dance, The American Dance Therapy Association, Dance Critics Association, Dance Film Association, Dance Notation Bureau, Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies, and the Society of Dance History Scholars. The work of collaborating, organizing, sustaining, and devoting countless unpaid hours has furthered the “legitimatization of education, scholarship, and therapeutic practice in the evolving filed of dance as an academic discipline,” according to artist Susan Lee. In the 21st century, a great proportion of this work continues to be done disproportionately by women, and it is often done online, through Websites, and listservs. In 2010, the creators of the listservs for movement research, body-mind centering association, dance history scholars, and movement analysts are all women. Because of countless hours of volunteer work and the technology now available, organizations have been able to grow into truly international concerns. For example, the nongovernmental

organization Conseil International de la Danse or International Dance Council, has more than 4,000 members from 148 countries. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Hip Hop; Pilates. Further Readings Adair, Christy. Women and Dance: Sylphs and Sirens. New York: New York University Press, 1992. Banes, Sally. Dancing Women: Female Bodies in Stage. New York: Routledge, 1998. Burns, James. Female Voices From an Ewe DanceDrumming Community in Ghana. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009. Desmond, J., ed. Meaning in Motion: New Cultural Studies of Dance. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996. Garafola, Lynn. Rethinking the Sylph: New Perspectives on Romantic Ballet. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997. Jonas, Gerald. Dancing! The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement. New York: Abrams, 1998. Thomas, Helen. Dance, Gender, and Culture. New York: St. Martin’s, 1995. Gill Wright Miller Denison University

Dating Violence Since the late 1960s, violence in intimate relationships has been drawing more attention as an important social problem. Recently, violence has attracted attention as a source of growing concern among married, nonmarried, dating, and cohabiting couples. Early research indicates that 25 percent of nonmarried couples have experienced violence in their relationship. More recent research suggests that as many as 74 percent of men and women in relationships fall victim to their dating partners. Dating is a difficult concept to define. The term dating can refer to a wide range of relationships between men and women. It includes boys’ and girls’ “hanging out,” “seeing each other,” or “hooking up with one another” within the context of a large, mixed-gender group, as well as monogamous committed sexual



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Risk factors linked with dating violence include poor communication, problem-solving, and assertiveness skills. Violent partners, versus nonviolent couples, exhibit lower levels of verbal skills overall.

relationships. A study conducted with suburban high school students indicated that students started dating at about 12 years old. Nearly half of high school students reported being involved with a partner at the time of data collection. In another study conducted at inner-city middle schools, more than two-thirds of the students said that they were “going out” with someone at the time of the study. These students also reported having boyfriends and girlfriends as early as 9 years old. Overall, 25 to 33 percent of the surveyed students reported wanting to get married with their current dating partner. Defining dating violence is a difficult task often associated with heated debates. There are numerous conceptualizations of violence that have been used in literature. Therefore, the prevalence rate for dating aggression is highly variable since it depends on how researchers define violence.

Defining Violence Violence in intimate relationships can occur in physical or nonphysical ways. Acts such as hitting, kicking, and choking are among physical forms of violence, while emotional abuse includes dominance, isolation, ridicule, use of intimate knowledge for degradation, or threats of violence. Sexual violence, on the other hand, can be described as any sexual act that is forced against someone’s will. Sexual violence can be physical, verbal, or psychological. Based on a broader definition of violence that includes its physical and nonphysical forms, researchers started finding that dating violence is a more serious problem than originally thought. In general, rates of dating violence tend rise when threats of physical violence, aggression toward an object such as throwing or breaking something, and psychologically aggressive behaviors are included. Today, the Centers for Disease and Control

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and Prevention defines dating violence as an actual or threatened physical or sexual violence, psychological or emotional abuse that is directed toward a current or former dating partner. Prevalence of Violence Dating aggression rates are similar to those of adult domestic violence; both have high levels and cross all racial, religious, economic, and social groups. In general, statistics demonstrate that physical violence takes place in every one of three dating relationships among teenagers. Studies conducted at high schools revealed that young women reported inflicting violence on their partner at higher rates than their male counterparts. On the other hand, high school girls reported higher rates of sexual victimization than high school boys. Violence among college-aged dating couples indicated similar results to those reported by high school students. Between 20 and 60 percent of college-aged dating couples reported both physical and verbal aggression with their intimate partner. Another study found that 66 percent of college-aged dating couples noted at least one incident of physical, sexual, and verbal aggression. A more recent study found that intimate partner violence continues to be highly prevalent with both male and female college students in dating relationships, with 86 percent of respondents reporting psychological, physical, and/or sexual victimization. Results also showed that female college students are more likely to engage in psychological and verbal aggression than are males of the same general age. However, consequences of dating aggression such as injuries and negative emotional harm are more severe for females in this age bracket. Violence affects adult dating couples at similar rates to college students. One study using a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States reported that violence occurs in 45 percent of same-sex partners, 34 percent of female victim– male perpetration couples, and 23 percent for male victim–female perpetration partners. In this study, participants’ current, as well as former dating partners, were considered. Understanding Dating Violence In literature, there are numerous conceptualizations of how and why violence happens. Social learning is

the one most often cited. According to this perspective, individuals learn from their environment and then they consider what is and is not appropriate by observing or imitating behavior. Consequently, social learning theory suggests that individuals learn violence in the context of socialization in the family. It was proposed that when children or youth observe violence between parents, they learn that it is an acceptable or effective means of resolving conflicts with partners. Ultimately, family context becomes the training ground for individuals; it is where they learn that hitting the people they love is an appropriate tactic for getting what they want in their relationships. On the other hand, feminist frameworks conceptualize violence against women as a manifestation of male dominance. According to feminist perspectives, gender inequality in patriarchal social systems ensures that men have more resources available to them compared to women. Many feminists perceive the patriarchal social system as justifying and condoning physical violence against women. Research findings using feminist frameworks have indicated that traditional gender roles and imbalance of economic resources could underlie the use of violence. Dating Violence Victimization and Gender Traditionally, only women have been considered to be victims of dating violence, perpetrated by abusive male partners. However, more recent research suggests that men are equally as likely to be victims of dating violence. There is research to suggest that men actually may experience more victimization than women. A study specifically conducted with adolescents found that dating violence perpetrated by men and women are alike, while in adult relationships violence is more likely to be perpetrated by men toward their female partners. Violence committed by men is generally more severe and women are approximately 10 times more likely to be injured or killed by their male partners. The U.S. Department of Justice presented evidence that females are more likely to describe their violent behavior as self-defense, whereas males describe their aggression as motivated by needs to intimidate, control or coerce. Statistics on male victimization may be unreliable due to the stigma associated with men admitting they have fallen prey to a woman.



Same-Sex Relationships and Violence Although much of the discussion on dating violence involves heterosexual couples, some recent studies include same-sex pairs. One study found that samesex partners reported higher levels of violence than heterosexual couples. This is particularly true among teen bisexual and same-sex couples who are in covert relationships. For these teens, much of the physical and emotional abuse occurs during revealing one’s sexual preferences to others. In another study, female victims of same sex-dating violence reported higher percentages of verbal and sexual abuse than male victims of opposite-sex dating pairs. The study of violence in same-sex relationships is challenging in terms of assessing the sexual orientation of participants. In particular, many studies use behaviorally deduced measures of sexual orientation rather than participants’ report of sexual identity. Due to the delicacy of this process, which relies on self reported measures, there is the potential for underreporting and selection biases. Correlates of Dating Violence Research indicates that there are many risk factors associated with dating violence. For example, as compared to nonviolent people, violent individuals are more likely to have been physically and emotionally abused. Other risk factors linked with dating violence include poor communication, problem-solving, and assertiveness skills. Violent partners, versus nonviolent couples, exhibit lower levels of verbal skills. Likewise, physically aggressive men were found to have less competent problem-solving strategies than nonviolent men. In these studies, violent partners appear not to have the essential skills to communicate their level of anger directly and assertively. An individual’s attitudes and beliefs about the acceptability of aggression in dating relationships is found to be a strong predictor of dating violence by young men. Adolescents’ jealousy and controlling behaviors are also shown to be associated with use of physical aggression. Often, verbal aggression, jealousy, and attempts to control one’s partner happen before physical aggression is used. Social pressures that create stress and coping difficulties are also among the risk factors for dating violence. Contributors include cultural values that overlook violence, personality pathologies such as poor impulse control, and drug and alcohol addiction.

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Another layer of research pertained to the justification of dating violence resulting from sexual betrayal. Findings indicated that sexual betrayal or betrayal of sensitive information is linked with violent retaliation such as hitting, getting even, or being angry. Consequences of Dating Violence Dating violence contributes substantially to mental health problems, physical injuries, relationship instability, divorce, and homelessness. A consequence of dating violence is its influence on the victim’s mental health. Previous research findings consistently indicated that dating violence victimization is negatively associated with mental health. While mental health problems encompass a variety of symptoms, most commonly reported ones include depression, anxiety, and somatic health effects. Research has indicated that victims of dating violence are four times more likely to report depression as individuals who are not victims of violence. Similarly, victims of dating violence were consistently more likely to report higher levels of anxiety than nonvictims. Furthermore, victims of dating violence were more likely to suffer from somatic mental health symptoms such as changes in weight, upset stomach, headaches, nervousness, and dizziness. Dating violence is also significantly related to traumatic stress reactions. More severe and frequent exposure to physical violence, including threats against life, use of weapons, sexual violence, and psychological abuse have been shown to be related to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. See Also: Domestic Violence; Domestic Violence Centers; Honor Killings; Rape Crisis Centers. Further Readings Blosnich, John R. “Comparisons of Intimate Partner Violence Among Partners in Same-Sex and Opposite Sex Relationships in the United States.” American Journal of Public Health, v.99 (2009). Bradbury, T. N. and E. Lawrence. “Physical Aggression and the Longitudinal Course of Newlywed Marriage.” In X. Arriaga and S. Oskamp, eds., Violence in Intimate Relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999. Kaura, S. A. and B. J. Lohman. “Dating Violence Victimization, Relationship Satisfaction, Mental Health Problems, and Acceptability of Violence:

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A Comparison of Men and Women.” Journal of Family Violence, v.22 (2007). Marquart, B. S., D. K. Nannini, R. W. Edwards, L. R. Stanley, and J. C. Wayman. “Prevelance of Dating Violence and Victimization: Regional and Gender Differences.” Adolescence, v.42 (2007). O’Leary, K. D. “Physical Aggression Between Spouses: A Social Learning Theory Perspective.” In V. B. Van Hasselt, et al., eds. Handbook of Family Violence. New York: Plenum, 1988. White, J. W. A. “Gendered Approach to Adolescent Dating Violence: Conceptual and Methodological Issues.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, v.33 (2009). Yllo, K. “Through a Feminist Lens: Gender, Power and Violence.” In R. J. Gelles and D. R. Loseke, eds., Current Controversies on Family Violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1993. Gunnur Karakurt Texas Tech University

DeGeneres, Ellen Popular stand-up comedian and television star Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian in 1997, making her a cultural icon and also engendering tremendous backlash and the cancellation of her popular television show. Coming out, first on The Oprah Winfrey Show and then on her sitcom Ellen, made DeGeneres a pioneering spokeswoman for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues. Subsequently, her relationships, her gender identity, and her sexual orientation have provided many women and men with an accessible, friendly, and down-to-earth model for lesbianism. Her public struggles with homophobia and bad relationships have drawn compassion from many viewers and have highlighted the continued marginalization of lesbian and bisexual women in Hollywood and by the media. DeGeneres was born in Louisiana in 1958, where her parents Betty and Elliott DeGeneres raised her as a Christian Scientist until they separated in 1973. Her mother remarried after the divorce; she and DeGeneres moved from Louisiana to Texas. DeGeneres later returned to New Orleans for college but completed only a semester of school before leaving to

work at a law firm with her cousin. She held a range of odd jobs during this period as she began to pursue stand-up comedy as her profession. Heavily influenced by Woody Allen and Steve Martin, DeGeneres quickly became the emcee at Clyde’s Comedy Club in New Orleans in 1981. After touring with her comedy routine, she was named Showtime’s “Funniest Person in America” in 1982. She achieved substantial success in the 1980s, most notably becoming the first female comedian that Johnny Carson invited over for an onscreen chat after her performance on the Tonight Show in 1986. DeGeneres transformed her stand-up comedy into the sitcom Ellen (originally called These Friends of Mine), which ran from 1994 until 1998. She would not return to serial television until 2001, when The Ellen Show began airing on CBS. In 2003, she turned her attention to a daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. DeGeneres has appeared in several supporting roles in films including Coneheads (1993), Mr. Wrong (1996), and Goodbye Lover (1998). She also garnered rave reviews for her voice work as Dori in the Pixar film Finding Nemo (2003). She has written two books—My Point—And I Do Have One (1995) and The Funny Thing Is . . . (2003). After she came out as a lesbian on The Oprah Winfrey Show, DeGeneres became a pioneering figure for LGBT rights. As Jennifer Baumgardner has suggested in Look Both Ways, DeGeneres “brought a familiar and loved visage to the scary debate” surrounding AIDS and LGBT sexuality during the 1990s. DeGeneres’s relationship with Anne Heche—a relationship in which Heche publicly called DeGeneres her wife but that ended when Heche left DeGeneres for a man—highlighted some of the continuing tensions within LGBT culture between lesbians and bisexuals, and also in media representations of sexual choices. DeGeneres dated Alexandra Hedison from 2001 to 2004, with whom she appeared on the cover of The Advocate; she left Hedison for the Australian actress Portia de Rossi, star of the television shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development. After California overturned the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, DeGeneres and de Rossi married. In a commencement speech that she delivered at Tulane University on May 16, 2009, DeGeneres urged students to “follow your passion, stay true to yourself.” As a groundbreaking female comic, an out lesbian

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in Hollywood, and an advocate for LGBTQ rights, DeGeneres has founded her career on this wisdom, thereby providing a model of resilience, humor, and passion in Hollywood. See Also: American Idol; Celebrity Women; Comedians, Female; Coming Out; Lesbians; LGBTQ; Reality Television; Winfrey, Oprah. Further Readings Baumgardner, Jennifer. Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 DeGeneres, Ellen. The Funny Thing Is . . . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. DeGeneres, Ellen. My Point—And I Do Have One. New York: Bantam, 1995. Jordan, Julie. “Ellen and Portia Get Married.” People (August 17, 2008). http://www.people.com/people /article/0,,20219790,00.html (accessed August 2009). Emily Bowles Lawrence University

Denmark Denmark has juridical gender equality; however, women in Denmark are disadvantaged by gender gaps in economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and in healthcare. Due to women’s comparatively high levels of education and participation rates in gainful employment, Denmark ranks globally among the top 10 countries with the lowest average gender gap in 2009, but shows the widest gender gap among the five Nordic nations. The Danish labor market is gender segregated. In 2006, a total of 60 percent of the workforce was employed in jobs dominated almost exclusively by one sex. Women more frequently hold part-time jobs and spend less time on transportation to and from work than men. In 2005, women accounted for 37 percent of the private workforce, 77 percent of employees in local and regional authorities, and 45 percent of those employed by the state. In 2009, 4.04 percent of the female and 3.23 percent of the male adult workforce were unemployed. Employment of women of Danish origin was considerably higher than that of women

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immigrants from non-Western countries. Between 1998 and 2008, the proportion of women in top management remained unchanged at 4 percent. Globally, Denmark ranks number 69 with regard to women’s participation in management. The laws on wage equality and equal treatment of women and men were directly applied to the national juridical system under the authority of the European Commission Treaty. The average gap between women’s and men’s hourly earnings in the Danish economy is 17.7 percent and below the European Union average. In 2007, an average monthly salary for a female employee was 30.974,50 DKK, as compared to a 39.471,82 DKK for male employees. Women Ph.D.s in the private sector earn an average share of 87 percent of the male income, while the share in the public sector is 94 percent. The female–male wage ratio is lowest for legislators, senior officials, and managers. Denmark is a constitutional monarchy with a reigning queen and a parliamentary system of government. Women gained the right to vote in 1915. In 2007–08, women held 36.9 percent of the seats in Parliament. As of 2009, Denmark had not yet had a female head of state. Since 1999, Denmark had a Ministry of Gender Equality, which since 2002 develops action plans to bridge the gender gaps. In 2001, 37.7 percent of the graduates awarded advanced research qualifications in science were women, while there was fewer than one woman for every 10 men in the top grade of university staff. In 2003, 41 percent of the Ph.D. degrees were awarded to women. In 2004, women held 38 percent of the assistant professorships, 24 percent of the associate professorships, and 11 percent of the full professorships. Twenty-nine percent of the women of working age and Danish origin had only completed only primary and lower secondary school, while 6 percent had a higher educational degree. In 2009, maternal mortality per 100,000 live births was three. In 2002, breast cancer ranked among the top 10 causes of death in the Danish population. Thirty-nine percent of the women were overweight, while 7.1 percent were heavily overweight. Twentyfour percent of Danish women smoked daily. Women born in 2004 had a life expectancy of 80 years, and women also had a higher documented rate of stress. Mothers have the right of up to 14 weeks of postpartum parental leave, and fathers can take two

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weeks off. After that, the parents can freely share the joint right to 32 weeks of leave per child. In 2007, mothers took an average of 275 days of leave, as compared to fathers’ 24 days. Public childcare facilities are available. Maintaining a work–life balance for families in general and women in particular is a problem. While the amount of time spent on work and homework is increasing, its gender distribution is still not equal. See Also: Equal Pay; Management, Women in; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings The Danish Ministry for Equality. “Statistik.” http://www .lige.dk/statistik.asp (accessed June 2010). European Commission. “Gender Pay Gap.” http:// ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=681&langId=en (accessed June 2010). European Commission, Directorate General for Research. “Women in Science. Statistics and Indicators. She Figures 2003.” http://ec.europa.eu/research/science -society/pdf/she_figures_2003.pdf (accessed June 2010). World Economic Forum. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap /report2009.pdf (accessed June 2010). World Health Organization. “Denmark.” http://www.who .int/countries/dnk/en (accessed June 2010). Iris Rittenhofer Aarhus University

Depression Depression is a psychological disorder defined by persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness, and hopelessness. At current estimates, approximately one in five people will have an episode of depression in their lifetime; however, this varies by gender with a ratio of one in four women and one in eight men. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM IV), there are three main categories of depression: major depressive disorder (MDD), dysthymia, and bipolar disorder. Additionally, there are a number of seasonal and onset specifiers, pro-

ducing subcategories of depression including seasonal affective disorder, postpartum depression, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Depression rates are increasing worldwide with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that by 2020, depression will be the second largest contributor to the global burden of disease in the developed world and the largest contributor in developing nations. Already, depression is the most significant health problem worldwide for people aged 15 to 44 years old. Depression rates have been rising steadily in both rich and poor countries, although controversy remains regarding the rates of diagnosis and the efficacy of treatment. Diagnostic Classification and Symptoms Depression is a whole-body illness that adversely affects both the body and mind of sufferers, including their thought patterns, eating, sleeping, and social interactions. Symptoms include persistent sadness and crying; rumination; feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness; loss of interest in pleasurable activities, including sex; irritability, pessimism, and self-criticism; difficulty concentrating, remembering and making decisions; insomnia or hypersomnia (oversleeping); excessive eating with weight gain or restricted eating with weight loss; withdrawal from social life, including school, work, and leisure activities; persistent aches and pains that are not responsive to treatment; fatigue, loss of energy and motivation; and thoughts of suicide and possible suicide attempts. According to the DSM IV, MDD is diagnosed when some or all of these symptoms are present from at least two weeks to several months or more. Dysthymia, in contrast, is a chronic condition with milder symptoms lasting for at least two years. People with dysthymia may suffer comorbid disorders including episodes of MDD. Bipolar disorder, or “manic depression,” is characterized by disruptive cycles of depressive symptoms alternating with euphoria. There is an increase of risk-taking behaviors such as spending sprees and/or risky sexual escapades during the manic phase of the illness. Bipolar disorder is far less common than MDD and dysthymia. Recent research in developing countries shows that the Western biomedical model of depression fails to capture culture-specific terminology and symptoms. People typically present with multiple somatic com-



plaints such as headaches and fatigue, rather than depression. On closer inspection, however, these problems were not exclusively somatic disorders; further questioning elicited psychological information warranting diagnoses of depression. As such, more refined instruments are required to measure the true incidence of depression in developing countries. New symptom questionnaires such as the 14-item Shona Symptom Questionnaire (SSQ) in Zimbabwe, the Primary Care Psychiatric Questionnaire in India, and the Chinese Health Questionnaire were developed in conjunction with local languages, idioms, and categories of illness to more carefully screen for depression. Moreover, research data from developing countries also show that depression and anxiety are strongly associated, calling into question the validity of discrete diagnoses as outlined in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10). Similarly, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression have high rates of comorbidity Etiology of Depression The causes of depression are both genetic and environmental. Genetic factors predisposing individuals to particular personality traits such as shyness and low mood may contribute to the development of depression. Similarly, particular cognitive styles such as the propensity to ruminate on problems, being a perfectionist, as well as sensitive to criticism make one prone to depression. However, these dispositions are only possibilities that are given shape in social context. One’s life experiences have been shown to have a major impact on the etiology, or study of the causes, of depression. For example, depression in most people is preceded by a significant adverse life event such as death of a spouse, divorce, or job loss. On their own, however, such experiences do not satisfactorily explain the occurrence of depression because many people who experience these events do not become depressed. The presence of long-term problems helps explain the vulnerability to depression. These include childhood abuse or neglect, ruptured attachments, living with an abusive or uncaring spouse, long-term unemployment, poverty or economic insecurity, and/ or a history of physical or sexual abuse. The intersection of genetic disposition, long-term problems, and a recent adversity typically culminate in a major depressive episode. Individuals who have had one episode

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of depression become more vulnerable to succeeding depressive events, which may intersect with severe life trials to produce second and subsequent incidents. Recent research on the “psychosocial model” further suggests that vulnerable individuals may produce adverse events through their interactional style that trigger further depressive episodes. In addition, long-term substance abuse, while often taken to ease depressive symptoms, typically perpetuates depression and creates additional problems. In both the developing and developed world, structural factors loom large in the etiology of depression with demographic data indicating much higher rates in the lower classes and in women. In developing countries, the confluence of absolute poverty, poor healthcare services, gender inequality, and chronic daily stress can produce a vicious cycle of poverty, depression and disability. Nonetheless, severe life events such as the death or loss of a spouse and childhood adversities like separation from loved ones like parents, prove remarkably constant triggers for depression worldwide. Women and Depression MDD and dysthymia affect twice as many women as men. This finding is consistent across racial, cultural, national, and socioeconomic groups. Among the suggested reasons for this include role strain and contradiction, socioeconomic status, higher rates of sexual abuse and victimization, domestic violence, reproductive events and hormonal fluctuations, as well as psychological and personality factors. Gender differences in depression rates begin in adolescence when boys and girls undergo significant social, emotional, and physical changes. Research in the West points to the damage done to girls’ self-esteem through ubiquitous sexually objectifying media images, and the pervasive devaluation of females in the culture. In addition, poverty, poor education and childhood sexual abuse are factors in adolescent girls’ higher rates of depression. Given that girls are more likely to internalize their problems and blame themselves for almost everything that goes wrong, are more susceptible to depression. In contrast, troubled boys tend to act out through substance abuse and aggression. Adult women’s higher rates of depression have been linked to greater incidences of stress associated

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with their combined work and family roles. In addition, working women who are responsible for housework, childcare, and aging parents can experience prolonged stress. Socioeconomic factors are also relevant. Women and children comprise three-quarters of all people living under the poverty line. Poverty is now considered by some researchers as one of the key “pathways to depression.” Having a supportive partner can offset the deleterious effects of poverty; however, many women living under the poverty line are lone parents or older women without partners. Low socioeconomic status brings a host of problems including social exclusion, lack of a support network, and a higher incidence of stressful events. In developing countries where poverty is endemic, stressful life events have been linked to depression in women. Case studies from India, Brazil, and Chile show that low income and education coupled with poor relationships are key determinants of depression. Cognitive Behavior and Depression Incidence Particular cognitive styles also have also been considered relevant in women’s higher rates of depression, including the tendency to ruminate on problems, pessimistic thinking, and the perception of having no control. Some researchers suggest that the socialization of girls and women predispose them to adopt a more internalizing, self-blaming stance than a critical or challenging one. Such tendencies may exacerbate the effects of a stressful event and inhibit the ability to recover. Alternatively, it may be that women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression given their propensity to identify problems and seek therapy. In contrast, men tend not to seek help or to talk about their problems. They also have higher rates of alcoholism and physical violence, which can mask symptoms of depression. Additionally, abuse and victimization are significant background factors in the development of depression. Women are almost twice as likely to be sexually molested and/or assaulted as children. Similarly, adult women are more likely to experience sexual assault and sexual harassment than adult men. In addition, domestic violence affects between one-quarter and one-half of women worldwide and is associated with the development of depression.

Many women living under the poverty line—one of the key pathways to depression—are older women without partners.

Reproductive events in the life cycle of women including menstruation, pregnancy, the postpartum period, and menopause also create hormonal fluctuations that have an impact on emotions and mood. In addition, medical or social infertility can cause deep sadness and possible depression given the centrality of motherhood in normative accounts of adult womanhood. While it is not known how hormones are involved in depression, clinicians recognize that they affect brain chemistry. In some women, hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle are associated with mood swings, sadness, crying spells, irritability, and feeling bloated and tired during the luteal phase, or week prior to menstruation. When these symptoms occur over several menstrual periods, it is known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS). A minority of women experience a severe form of PMS known as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) that interferes with their normal functioning. These women do not necessarily have unusual hormonal changes; rather, they have amplified responses to these changes.



Women who suffer from PMDD tend to have a history of other mood disorders that make them more sensitive to hormone -elated changes. Women are more vulnerable to depression when they are new mothers. This is due to the profound emotional and physical changes of pregnancy and childbirth and the demands of caring for an infant. Postpartum depression can range from transient “baby blues” a few days after birth that affect most women, to severe incapacitating psychoses that are very rare. Women who experience postpartum depression are more likely to have had previous depressive episodes. Maternal mental health has an impact on infant development. For example, infants of depressed mothers are more likely to experience disorganized attachment and delayed cognitive development. In the developing world, maternal depression has been linked to low birth weight and child malnutrition. Treatments Depression is responsive to psychotherapy and medication, alone or together. Most episodes of depression can be treated with psychotherapy with the preferred evidence based treatment being cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Psychiatrist Aaron Beck developed cognitive therapy, arguing that negative thoughts precede and cause depression rather than the other way around. Typically, the depressed person has what he has termed a negative cognitive triad, generating a “depressed worldview” concerning the self, the world, and the future. Behavioral therapy emerged from the work of psychologist Albert Ellis and focuses on behavioral modification. CBT combines both models and consists of challenging the depressed person’s cognitive schemas and in making behavioral adjustments commensurate with a more positive outlook. For example, if a depressed individual insists they are a failure, a cognitive behavioral therapist will challenge this belief with examples of competence. Additionally, s/he may be encouraged to engage in behavior change that enhances social connections and self-esteem. This form of therapy has proven effective in numerous clinical trials. The healthcare trend of evidence-based treatment has favored CBT over other approaches such as psychodynamic therapy given existing research support. However, treatment is often standardized, with a technique-driven, time-limited approach. This has

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generated criticism among psychodynamic therapists and others concerned that CBT represents a quick-fix solution to deeper problems. Psychodynamic therapy derives from Freudian psychoanalysis but is less orthodox in practice. Therapy is likely to be once weekly facing the therapist for in-depth discussion. Following Sigmund Freud’s classic paper “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917), the depressed person is understood to have suffered a loss, real or symbolic, in childhood and been unable to accept this loss and mourn properly. The child identifies with the lost object, person, or thing and, as a result, turns his/her anger inward. In this view, the feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and worthlessness characteristic of depression relate to the unconscious attack on the lost object now introjected into the self. More recently, the psychoanalyst Sidney Blatt has distinguished between introjective and anaclitic depression. Anaclitic depression is characterized by feelings of helplessness, weakness, and depletion as well as a desperate need to stay close to need-gratifying objects, including persons, things, and places. In contrast, introjective depression is associated with feelings of worthlessness, guilt, and a sense of having failed to live up to expectations. Although Blatt acknowledges the role of genetic and neurochemical factors in the etiology of depression, early parent– infant interactions are identified as central, producing a baseline vulnerability against which life stressors are subsequently experienced. Here the cognitive and psychodynamic theories overlap because Beck also distinguishes between sociotropic or dependent, and autonomous or internal, depression. Again, with the former, sufferers are concerned with real or imagined interpersonal loss and the latter are concerned with feelings of failure. Women are seen to suffer more from anaclitic/sociotropic depression and men from introjective/autonomous depression. Unlike CBT, psychodynamic therapy consists of “talk therapy.” With talk therapy, the patient discloses his or her feelings, life history, dreams, fantasies, thoughts, and fears. Early childhood and significant attachment figures are central to the reconstruction of a personal narrative. Psychodynamic therapists are interested in the origins of symptoms and in their present meaning. The therapist listens and interprets, looking for unconscious conflict and repression with

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a view toward gaining greater awareness. From the basis of insight, the patient can begin the process of behavior change, if necessary or desirable, and realistic assessment of his or her situation, including the need to mourn loss. The relationship with the therapist is paramount because it is believed that the patient’s fears and beliefs about self and others will manifest in the therapeutic encounter or “transference relationship.” There is an increasing evidence base for psychodynamic treatment of depression. In addition to psychotherapy, psychotropic medication is successful in treating depression, particularly major depression, although many experts criticize both the use and effects of medication. Depression has been linked to chemical imbalances in the brain with regard to the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Many scientists and physicians believe that modern antidepressant medications are effective, given their ability to alter the balance of neurochemicals and neurochemical receptors at the synapse level within the brain. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as the antidepressants known as Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft as well as the newer antidepressants, the serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), are considered first-choice medication for MDD treatment. Other medications, including the older tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are used as second choices. Most people suffering from depression do not seek treatment for a variety of reasons including, inadequate awareness and access to service , treatment costs, stigma, and logistical problems such as a lack of transportation and childcare, in addition to the inability to take time off work. The WHO has reported that fewer than one in four people affected by depression have access to effective treatment. Nonetheless, over the past 30 years, treatment for depression in high-income countries has greatly expanded with access to psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy increasing significantly for individuals in middle- and higher-income brackets. In the developing world, where resources are sorely lacking, treatment for depression—and mental health problems more generally—ranks low on the scale of priorities. Stigma is a significant barrier to treatment as well as a lack of mental health services and workers. Compared to developed nations,

there are far fewer psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers per person. In addition, in developing nations, up to 20 percent of patients who present themselves at primary care facilities with symptoms of depression and anxiety are misdiagnosed. Thus, while cost-effective interventions are available, they have not been assumed or effectively utilized. Recent intervention research shows that “collaborative care” models that use local knowledge and care systems with locally trained personnel, create more sustainable treatment programs. Psychoeducation and culturally sensitive terminology have also been shown to destigmatize depression. Controversies There are two main controversies regarding diagnosis and treatment of depression: evidence base, medicalization of sadness and related sense. Evidence base is attributed to CBT therapy at the expense of other therapies, in particular psychodynamic therapy. This evidence is challenged on two fronts: first, it is argued that standardized brief therapy treatments do not address the deeper causes and consequences of depression, and psychodynamic therapies are less standardized in generating a methodological disadvantage when it comes to large-scale research. However, an emerging body of scholarship is now providing an evidence base for psychodynamic therapy. Sociologists and some therapists have raised concerns about the medicalization of sadness associated with the high diagnosis rates of depression. Sociologist Allan Horwitz, in particular, has lamented the loss of the old distinction between reactive or socially produced depression and endogenous or internal depression, leading to what he contends is a pervasive treatment of normal sadness. In this view, the widespread use of antidepressant medication is seen as an especially insidious form of collusion between psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries. This critique is linked to a broader social constructionist view, particularly strong in feminist writing on depression, on the social antecedents of depression. Here social, political, and economic solutions are sought rather than diagnoses and drugs for individuals who are having normal reactions to abnormal circumstances such as abuse, poverty, sexual abuse, excessive caregiving responsibilities, and so on.

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There are concerns and controversies regarding the safety and effectiveness of antidepressant drugs. Psychiatrist David Healy has conducted research demonstrating a link between the SSRI Prozac and suicide ideation. He has also argued that there is a great deal of ghost writing in scientific journals funded by pharmaceutical companies. These assertions are strongly contested. Given the rising rates of depression, not surprisingly there are now a variety of culture wars regarding the efficacy of diagnosis and treatment. See Also: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of; Dysthymia in Minority Population; Health, Mental and Physical; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Illness, Biases in Diagnosis; Premenstrual Syndrome; Postpartum Depression. Further Readings Beck, Aaron T. and Brad A. Alford. Depression: Causes and Treatment, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Blatt, Sidney J. Experiences of Depression: Theoretical, Clinical, and Research Perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2004. Horwitz, Allan V. and Jerome C. Wakefield. The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into a Depressive Disorder. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007. Leader, Darian. The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2008. National Institute of Mental Health. “Women and Depression: Discovering Hope.” http://www.nimh.nih .gov/health/publications/women-and-depression -discovering-hope/index.shtml (accessed June 2010). Patel, Vikram, Melanie Abas, Jeremy Broadhead, Charles Todd, and Anthony Reeler. “Depression in Developing Countries: Lessons From Zimbabwe.” British Medical Journal, v.322 (2001). Stoppard, Janet M. and Linda M. McMullen, eds. Situating Sadness: Women and Depression in Social Context. New York: New York University Press, 2003. World Health Organization. “Mental Health: Depression.” http://www.who.int/mental_health/management /depression/definition/en (accessed February, 2010). Petra Bueskens University of Melbourne

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Diabetes There are three types of diabetes mellitus: type 1, type 2, and gestational. All are caused by insufficient production of insulin, the hormone that enables glucose (sugar) to be transformed into energy, or by the ineffective use of insulin within the body. Globally, the number of people with diabetes is increasing rapidly due to aging populations and increased rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. Lifestyle changes, such as maintaining a healthy body weight and diet, regular exercise, and avoiding smoking are the best ways to reduce the risk of developing the disease. Although diabetes affects men and women, the disease appears to be more prevalent among men. Diabetes poses unique challenges for women at various stages in her life, including pregnancy—which can affect both the mother and her child—and during menopause. Among diabetic women, coronary heart disease is now the biggest cause of death, and a woman’s chance of surviving a heart attack are lower than they are among diabetic men. The Pancreas and Insulin Glucose is a type of sugar that is stored within the cells of the body and turned into energy. In individuals without diabetes, glucose levels in the blood stream are kept within narrow boundaries by a hormone produced in the pancreas called insulin. In diabetics, this hormone is either not produced at a sufficient amount or is not effectively used within the body. The result is that glucose builds up in the blood stream causing a number of complications. Type 1 diabetes, previously referred to as insulindependent, child, or juvenile onset diabetes, occurs when the pancreas is unable to produce sufficient amounts of insulin because the cells that produce it have been attacked and destroyed by the immune system. Approximately 10 percent of all cases of diabetes are type 1. Type 2 diabetes, also called non-insulin-dependent or adult onset diabetes, is caused by either the pancreas not producing enough insulin or the body becoming resistant to the hormone. Unlike type 1 diabetes, the symptoms of type 2 may be less severe. Often, type 2 diabetes goes undiagnosed for years and a large proportion of people with the disease are unaware of they have the condition. Type 2 diabetes

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comprises the largest group of diabetics, approximately 90 percent of all cases. Gestational diabetes occurs when a pregnant woman’s pancreas produces insufficient amounts of insulin to meet the new needs of her body. The condition is often only temporary and disappears around the time that the baby is born. For some women, their gestational diabetes may actually be preexisting type 2 diabetes. If this is the case, their diabetes is unlikely to disappear when their baby is born. Risk factors for gestational diabetes include a family history of the condition, being overweight or obese, polycystic ovary syndrome, and having previously given birth to a large baby. It is estimated that among all pregnancies, as many as 14 percent of women will develop gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes increases the risk of a woman experiencing complications during pregnancy, such as premature birth and high blood pressure caused by preeclampsia. It also increases the risk of a number of complications for the baby, such as increased birth weight and jaundice. For the health of the mother and her unborn baby, it is essential that women with pre-existing or gestational diabetes have their pregnancy regularly monitored. It is also important for pregnant women with diabetes to monitor their blood sugar levels and to see their doctor regularly. Because the pregnancy hormones within a woman’s body can alter blood sugar levels, diabetic women are at a higher risk of complications. There is evidence that the children of diabetic women are at a greater risk of birth defects and of being overweight or obese as children. This, in turn, increases their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Prior to pregnancy, women with diabetes should talk to their doctor about appropriate contraceptives, as some oral birth control medications may increase blood sugar levels that might aggravate their diabetes. Menopause can cause blood sugar levels to rise and fall more sharply than in a woman’s younger years, and diabetic women are at an increased risk of experiencing early menopause. In addition, women with diabetes may experience recurrent yeast infections as the increased sugar in their blood encourages the growth of these types of infections. The World Health Organization estimates that about 5 percent of the global population have diabetes, with the prevalence of the disease predicted to double every generation. This equates to around

300 million people living with diabetes. India, China, United States, Russia, and Brazil are thought to be the countries with the largest numbers of diabetics. Causes and Symptoms Overall, the increase in diabetes may be caused by the aging population and increasing numbers of obese or physically inactive individuals. Because women tend to live longer than men, clinicians expect that as the population ages the prevalence of the disease among older women will soon be higher than it is among men. More than 60 percent of diabetes cases can be prevented if everyone maintained a healthy body mass index (BMI). Until recently, type 2 diabetes was found only among the adult population, but with rising rates of obesity, the disease also is being diagnosed in children. Higher rates of type 2 diabetes are found in individuals with a family history of the condition and in particular ethnic communities such as Asians, Africans, and Hispanics. The symptoms of diabetes are similar in all forms of the disease, but they are often more severe, and occur more rapidly, among individuals with type 1 diabetes. These include the following: • Increase in frequency and changes in urination, called polyuria thirst or polydipsia • Increased hunger • Increased fatigue • Increased body weight, or rapid weight loss in type 1 • Vision changes • Infections, such as thrush and itchiness around the genitals • Increased risk of damage to blood vessels, kidneys, eyes, nerves, and the heart • Damage to blood vessels, which can result in foot ulcers and eventual limb amputation • Kidney disease and failure occur at increased rates among individuals with diabetes (Diabetes UK estimates that 10 to 20 percent of individuals will die as a result of kidney failure) People who have lived with diabetes for a long time have an increased risk of blindness because the disease can damage to the blood vessels in the eye. The onset of neuropathy, which is a condition that damages the nerves and can result in symptoms such as weakness, numbness, or pain in the feet and hands.



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Up to 50 percent of individuals with diabetes could have nerve damage. An estimated 50 to 80 percent of people with diabetes will die of some form of coronary heart disease. Among women, the link between diabetes and coronary heart disease is particularly strong; heart disease is the leading cause of death among women with diabetes. Diabetic women have similar rates of heart disease to similarly afflicted men, but women are more likely to die of their first heart attack. The American Diabetes Association found that women with diabetes were twice as likely to have a second heart attack and had four times the chance of having heart failure compared to women who did not have diabetes. Women with diabetes are twice as likely to develop sexual dysfunction than nondiabetic women; this may be due to tiredness and depression caused by diabetes, or by other complications of the disease such as vaginal dryness, or as a consequence of the diabetes medication. Diabetics don’t live as long as people without the disease. The life expectancy of type 1 diabetes is reduced by 20 years, while those with the type 2 variety live 10 years less than individuals without the disease. Overall, about one in 20 deaths can be attributed to the disease. In total, around 3 million people die of diabetes globally each year. Individuals with untreated diabetes may experience drowsiness, unconsciousness, and in severe cases, coma and death. Evidence suggests that women with poorly controlled diabetes are 50 percent more likely to experience a diabetic coma compared to men with disease. For type 1 diabetics, there is a range of drugs that can be administered either through injection, an insulin pen or a pump. For those with type 2 diabetes, lifestyle changes may be enough to control the disease; in other instances, oral drugs and/or insulin injections may be required. Diabetes can be confirmed through a blood or urine test undertaken by a doctor. As nothing can prevent aging, and preventing disease is better than treating it. To reduce their risk of developing the disease, women can do the following: 1. Maintain a healthy body weight, which not only helps to reduce the risk of diabetes but also a number of diseases, such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Maintaining a healthy body weight is also an important factor in reducing a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.

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2. Exercise regularly. As little as 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five days a week can improve health. This can be achieved with shorter bouts of at least 10 minutes at a time. 3. Eating five servings of fruit and vegetables every day coupled with a reduced intake of sugar and saturated fats. 4. Avoid smoking. In the United States, approximately 12 percent of type 2 diabetes cases are attributable to smoking. Smoking also impacts an individual’s risk of developing other diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. 5. Among those with diabetes, managing the disease and lifestyle changes, such as moderating alcohol consumption, can reduce the risk of complications. See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Heart Disease; Women’s Health Clinics. Further Readings American Diabetes Association. http://www.diabetes.org (accessed June 2010). Diabetes UK. http://www.diabetes.org.uk (accessed June 2010). Mindell, J. and P. Zaninotto. “Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes.” Health Survey for England 2004. London: Joint Health Survey Unit NatCen and UCL, 2006. Wild, S., et al. “Global Prevalence of Diabetes.” Diabetes Care, v. 27/5 (May 2004). World Health Organization. “Diabetes Program.” http:// www.who.int/diabetes/en (accessed June 2010). Vanessa Lani Gordon-Dseagu University College London

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard assessment handbook used by mental health clinicians in the United States and in many other countries to classify and diagnose mental disorders. It is also used in education, research, and other purposes by government agencies, health insurance

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and pharmaceutical companies, and universities. The DSM is published by the American Psychiatric Association, and has developed alongside other classification systems of mental disorders, such as sections of the World Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). The DSM was first published in 1952 and has undergone several revisions since then: DSM-II in 1968; DSM-III in 1980 and 1987; and DSM-IV in 1994 and 2000. The earliest versions were small and limited, with minimal consideration of women’s mental health, but each consecutive edition gradually paid more attention to the topic. Notably, DSMIII, published in the 1980s, furnished information about the prevalence and prognosis of disorders among men and women, as well as several diagnoses specific to women, mostly in the section on Psychosexual Disorders. The latest edition, DSM-IV (2000), is much more informative and based on a comprehensive review of research literature at that time. It lists data about sex differences in prevalence, symptoms, and course of disorders under a section titled, “Specific Culture, Age, and Gender Features,” and provides some commentary on possible causal mechanisms. In addition, DSM-IV recognizes a number of disorders that are unique or have specific diagnostic criteria to women, particularly relating to childbearing, under the section “Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders.” An example is the inclusion of “Postpartum Onset” in DSM-IV to describe major depression experienced within four weeks of childbirth. A controversial change in DSM-IV was the reclassification of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which was previously known as late luteal phase dysphoric disorder. PMDD is characterized by severe psychological and emotional symptoms associated with the latter phase of the menstrual cycle. DSM III labeled the condition as an “Unspecified Mental Disorder”; it was reclassified in DSM-IV as a “disorder requiring further study.” This change was largely in response to objections by some psychiatrists and women’s groups which were concerned that labeling PMDD as a psychiatric disorder may stigmatize women. In their view, menstruation is a normal body process and, therefore, any associated psychological changes also should be interpreted as normal. In

contrast to this feminist response, some psychologists and psychiatrists, including women, have argued that PMDD should now be classified as a separate disorder in the DSM, based on considerable research supporting its existence and burden. Similarly, during the development of the DSM, feminist practitioners have objected to inclusion of other disorders such as paraphilic rapism and masochistic personality disorder. These efforts by the women’s movement exemplify the important influence they have on the mental health profession, and also highlight their underlying concerns, particularly the social construction of mental illness. Criticism of the DSM The DSM also has also been criticized for limited coverage of women-only disorders and differences in mental health between women and men. In particular, there has been a call for more focus on mental health related to reproduction, such as during menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, etc. For instance, although the DSM currently acknowledges Postpartum Onset, it does not acknowledge major depression, which occurs at other times after childbirth or during pregnancy. Other topics poorly covered in the DSM include mental illness across the menstrual cycle; childbirthrelated post-traumatic stress disorder; disorders of mother–baby attachment; bereavement of miscarriage or stillbirth; and histories of sexual or physical abuse. Another criticism is that the DSM follows the biomedical model of health, reducing mental health to a biological basis, overlooking psychosocial and other factors. Yet, gender—socially constructed behaviors and roles considered appropriate for men and women— is important. Beliefs of illness, willingness to accept problems, expression and interpretation of symptoms, treatment-seeking behavior, men and women’s treatment differentials, as well as the myriad of social factors influenced by gender—such as living conditions, money, resources, and power—influence mental health and prevalence of disorders. Women’s mental health is afforded a more prominent position in the latest version of the DSM. However the DSM, and the mental health profession generally, need to be more responsive to society’s notions of gender and mental illness, which will lead



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to improved diagnosis and treatment. This has been a topical issue leading up to the reformulation of the fifth edition (DSM-V), to be published in 2013. See Also: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of; Post-Partum Depression; Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of; Psychology/Psychiatry, Women in. Further Readings American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IVTR, 4th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2000. Beutler, Larry and Mary Malik. Rethinking the DSM: A Psychological Perspective. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2002. Karasic, Dan and Jack Drescher. Sexual and Gender Diagnoses of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: A Re-Evaluation. London: Routledge, 2006. Gareth Davey Hong Kong Shue Yan University

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association and highly influential in the organization, administration, and assessment of research and treatment in mental health in the United States and internationally, has been and continues to be the subject of diverse critiques and controversies. Gender and sexuality have been central to several such debates. Critiques may address the DSM broadly or present or proposed elements specifically, and may address content, creation, organization, and use. Critiques of the DSM centrally concerned with scientific method question its construct validity and reliability. Critics may argue that inclusion in the DSM pathologizes and medicalizes patterns of feelings or behaviors which are or could be normal, expected, benign, or

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even healthy, that inclusion may minimize personal responsibility, or that inclusion may situate within the domains of mental illness and psychiatry conditions better addressed elsewhere. Critics and contributors have paid growing attention to the relevance of the DSM to diverse populations, including cross-culturally, and to children and adolescents. The inclusion of a condition in the DSM may help bring attention and resources to research and treatment; health insurers, for instance, may require DSM codes to reimburse for care. In some cases critics may argue such attention is actually detrimental. The roles of pharmaceutical companies, and the risks of overmedicating or medicating inappropriately, are common concerns. The DSM has evolved significantly since its first edition in 1952. Its length and its number of diagnostic categories included have greatly increased. Its authors have sought to meet stronger evidential standards. Individual categories have been redefined, divided, merged, and dropped. Conditions may be included in less than a full-fledged way, such as described in an appendix with the provision that they require further study, and this may represent compromise in the face of debate. Individual elements of the DSM can be subject to intense and thorough debate and discussion within psychiatry and mental health, not least by the participants in each revision themselves. A landmark controversy for the DSM concerned its inclusion, from DSM-I in 1952, of homosexuality as a mental disorder. Scholars and social activists argued there was no empirical basis to consider it such, and that its inclusion stigmatized gay men and lesbians and subjected them to sometimes harsh attempts at “conversion.” In 1973, the trustees of the American Psychiatric Association voted unanimously to remove homosexuality from subsequent printings of DSM-II. Proposals to include self-defeating personality disorder (SDPD) won initial support, and such a condition was described in an appendix to DSM-III-R in 1987. Criticism spread, and by 1992, the relevant working group recommended its removal. Critics believed the criteria for SDPD pathologized attributes such as self-sacrifice and deference that were often in fact socially reinforced, especially for women and minorities. They further believed that in some

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cases its criteria represented entirely understandable reactions to abuse, and that rather than identify abuse or abusers as pathological or problematic, the diagnosis of self-defeating personality disorder would shift blame to their victims. The inclusion of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) has long elicited controversy. Among criticisms of its present place, listed as requiring further study, is that there is no clear counterpart for a hormone-related psychiatric disorder for men, or gender neutrally. Issues of gender and sexuality and their biopsychosocial interaction recur in discussion of categories identified as sexual disorders, including paraphilias, dyspareunia and vaginismus, female orgasmic disorder (FOD), female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD), and hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). Considerable attention and debate are currently attached to the diagnostic category of gender identity disorder (GID). The availability of this or some successor DSM diagnosis may help some individual transgender people secure support for treatment, including hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery. Critics charge that inclusion as a mental disorder still stigmatizes transgender or gender variant people, and suggest other approaches could better support access to transgender care. A close counterpart and alternative to the DSM is relevant coverage in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), published by the World Health Organization. Critiques of the DSM may reflect diverse, competing and interacting schools and currents in mental health. The DSM’s authors have generally sought a sort of theory neutrality, while tending over time to shift away from psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches and toward biological and biopsychosocial ones. Critiques of the DSM may also come in hand with broader challenges to theories and practices in psychiatry and mental health. Social movements putting forward such critiques include the antipsychiatry movement, the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement, and the neurodiversity movement. See Also: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Gender Dysphoria; Medical Research, Gender Issues; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder.

Further Readings Beutler, Larry F. and Mary L. Malik, eds. Rethinking the DSM: A Psychological Perspective. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2002. Caplan, Paula J. They Say You’re Crazy: How the World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995. Jonathan J. Whatley Independent Scholar

Diet and Weight Control Social science researchers are intrigued by the fact that dieting or monitoring food consumption with the goal of controlling weight is done mostly by women. This article identifies the social, cultural, and economic reasons that made dieting popular in the life of the modern Western woman; the health problems women face as they diet to control their weight; and recent trends in dieting, especially the growth of dieting institutions in other parts of the world. History of Diet and Weight Control in Women Even before dieting became a popular social practice among Western women in the mid-20th century, the term diet was used to describe the regulation of an activity or behavior. Diet comes from the Greek word diata, which means “a regulated mode of life” and the Latin word dies, which means “day.” Put together, the word diet meant regulation of either an individual or a political body, although with the passage of time diet gained parlance as a term that describes regulated eating patterns. Even though as early as the 16th century, diseases and illnesses in the general population were attributed to a lack of regulated diet, it was only with industrialization that principles of eating less and eating in a manner to promote health were laid down. In 1740, British physicians warned wealthy men of diseases such as “English Melancholy,” which they linked to indulgent eating practices, and introduced the term Diaetetick Management to better manage one’s eating. Although these beliefs about the links among health, body, and food persisted, it was not until after World War II that a dieting industry

Diet and Weight Control emerged and found its most ardent supporter in the modern woman. The cultural and structural changes within Western societies in the 1900s that changed the societal status of women were responsible for fostering the intimate relationship that the modern women would develop with dieting and weight control. As religious institutions and extended family arrangements weakened, so did their dicta of female propriety. Similar to most people encountering modernity, the new woman—now relatively free of religious and familial constraints—turned to the body and fashion as sites for carving out their modern selves. When a couturier culture flourished in the West, the production of clothes and accessories was industrialized and democratized, making fashionable clothes affordable to all women—not just a few rich one. As a consequence, dressmakers started making clothes for abstract and standardized bodies, using the slim body as the starting point. The standard sizing of

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clothes made women in their dressing rooms aware of their bodies’ shapes and sizes, and the inability to fit into these new styles of clothes resulted in regret, shame, and guilt over one’s body. For women, it was the beginning of experiencing a new kind of guilt surrounding their body, or what in contemporary times is referred to as “body image dissatisfaction.” This guilt and ill feeling women were developing about the body was not rooted in abiding religious scriptures or protecting family honor, however, but in a piece of clothing that did not fit their form. Thus, the practice of eating less to control one’s weight—which we today commonly refer to as dieting—became increasingly popular among women. Parallel to the developments in the garment industry was another powerful movement that led to women becoming conscious of their bodies. The practice of monitoring and controlling one’s body and food consumption was also the result of the contact women had with the new sciences of food, eating,

Young men gaze at nude women that today would not be considered desirable in this Peter Paul Rubens painting, c.1632. The term Rubenesque is currently used to describe a woman with a rounded, full figure.

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and the body. The home health guides of the 1920s routinely issued medical warnings against being overweight and promoted the notion that weight control and good health went hand in hand. This health belief was a reflection of the beliefs and practices of the larger medical community, which used data provided by insurance companies to make the claim that body weight was a key predictor of good health. At home, as the caretakers of their families, women were compelled to practice “scientific feeding” for themselves and their families, which involved mastering quantitative techniques of measuring, counting, and tabulating what to cook, and how to feed and eat correctly. The fashion stylists of that time also honed in on the scientific language of food and eating, particularly in their promotion of the calorie count as a method to regulate body weight and fit into clothes. Lulu Hunt Peters, in her best-selling book, Diet and Health: With a Key to the Calories, published in 1981, made counting calories a household term as she vilified fat as aesthetically displeasing. Failure to control weight, for a modern woman, represented lack of commitment to good health, lack of determination, and inability to keep up with changing times. The modern woman’s body was a thin body, and as women joined in large numbers to banish fat from their food and bodies, the term diet came to mean eating less to control or lessen one’s body weight. Dieting and the Pathology of Eating If dieting has given the modern woman as a free agent a tangible medium of exercising self-control and restraint over her body and food, dieting would also become her biggest scourge. Dieting to eat less and alter the shape of the body can prove to be a difficult practice, as it goes against the basic human instinct of hunger and, for some, their genetically preordained body shape. Research has repeatedly shown that weight loss incurred through dieting is short lived, and most women who diet tend to gain their weight back—which makes dieting a frustrating experience. Most important, dieting to lose weight is symptomatic of the body image dissatisfaction that women might experience when they aspire to be a smaller body size. In fact, the increase in the number of women suffering from eating-centered psychological disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, in the 20th century coincided with the growth of the

dieting industry. Although there has been evidence in the past of individuals expressing severe loss of appetite after experiencing emotional trauma or distress, it was not until the 1960s and the 1970s that a large number of women cited “fear of fat” as a motive for their sparse or nonexistent eating. The result for women has been widespread health problems and, occasionally and in extreme cases, the loss of life. Some forms of eating disorders have a long history, but the modern disorders of anorexia nervosa and bulimia are distinct in several ways: Not only do they primarily affect women, but it is especially the young women of the middle and upper classes that are affected. Even today, “fear of fat” assails mostly young women from affluent families, and they account for the majority of women suffering from eating issues. Many argue that the high rate of eating disorders in the modern world is a result of modern women’s slavish obsession with a media-generated beauty norm that celebrates excessive thinness, but feminist scholars believe that the emergence of complications centered in body, food, and eating are symptomatic of a deeper psychological battle that modern women are fighting in today’s male-dominated societies. Women’s problematic relationships with body and food stem from ambiguities and contradictions that characterize women’s identities in modern, patriarchal societies. Free but denied fundamental control over their own lives, women started managing their appetites and bodies, making them their personal domains of control. The anorexic felt a definite sense of achievement in controlling how little they ate, and underlying the “fear of fat” was the fear of losing control over hunger. As early as 1873, Charles Lasegue, the French physician who identified (and named) “anorexia nervosa” as a mental health condition, correctly diagnosed that food refusal in young women was a reflection of intrafamilial conflict between a maturing girl and her bourgeoisie parents. He shifted the focus from the psychology of the patient to the gendered practice of restricting movements of young women by adult members of the family as the key factor that triggered eating problems in women. Thus, the emergence of eating problems in women is highly correlated to women’s changing social status in modern society; in short, women developed pathological eating habits when they could not control their larger environment and turned to food and body as their



locus of control. At the microlevel, we see this process unfold in women who, after having experienced years of sexual abuse or racial and sexual discrimination, resort to food and eating (or noneating) as a way of coping with their trauma and regaining control over their lives. This is not to suggest that women who diet to control their weight always suffer from eating disorders but, instead, that dieting can set women on a treacherous trajectory as food and their bodies become mediums of expressing unresolved anxieties, frustrations, or resentments that stem from women’s subordinate status in larger society. The consensus in the field is that eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa are “multidimensional disorders,” with familial, perceptive, cognitive, and possibly biological factors interacting in varying combinations to produce a “final common pathway,” but the fact that mostly women contract eating disorders encourages examination of the culturally specific roles, statuses, and aspirations of women. In other words, eating issues reflect women’s difficulties in reconciling their new-won freedom with persistent gendered expectations that keep them focused on bodily appearance. Women Continue to Diet In spite of the mental and physical risks involved in excessive dieting and controlling one’s body weight through sparse eating, the dieting phenomenon has flourished. With an estimated worth of $50 billion in the United States, the weight-loss industry is one of the most lucrative business ventures in the country. There are currently 17,000 different diet plans and products in the market, and weight-loss companies such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig tend to spend millions of dollars on their advertisements. They also make hefty profits; for example, Weight Watchers reported a net income of $174 million in a single year. Surveys repeatedly show that the numbers of women who worry about their weight and diet, particularly young women, is growing by the year. If, a decade back, only 34 percent of high school–age girls believed they were overweight, now 90 percent of them believe they are fat. This trend of worrying about one’s body weight follows young women to their college years, when eating issues become a major problem. In fact, those with rigid dieting routines show

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behavioral symptoms associated with eating disorders even if they do not exhibit the psychological trauma (maturity fears, interpersonal distrust, and perfectionism) that afflicts the anorexic. For instance, similar to anorexics, these women engage in extreme behaviors, such as incessantly obsessing about their weight and body image, dieting, binging, and in some cases using laxatives and diuretics to control their weight. As a result, the symptomatic difference between clinically diagnosed anorexic women and a culturally induced eating disorder in otherwise psychologically normal woman is getting blurred. Some have described this trapped consciousness of millions of women who constantly worry about their body weight, count calories, and think of ways of losing weight as belonging to a “cult of thinness.” The consolidation of the beauty industry (popular media, magazines, movies, fashion), which had started in the early 1900s, as the final authority on what should be considered a beautiful body has further harmed the relationship women have with their own bodies. Over the years, the fashion industries have floated and glamorized an ultrathin body ideal by shrinking the size of women’s clothes. By doing so, they have economically flourished on the failed attempts of women trying to attain a biologically unattainable body. Thin bodies are now touted as not only aesthetically pleasing bodies but successful bodies as well, as can be seen in the ways work clothes for women have changed in the last couple of decades. The cultural fixation of a society on thinness cannot be blamed only on profit motives of the beauty industry, however. It is also the consequence of a backlash women have experienced as they have entered maledominated public institutions of education, health, economy, and law and enforcement agencies. The myth that women have to be thin to be successful and accepted in larger society acts as a constant reminder that her self-worth lies in her appearance and not in her other achievements. It also guarantees her obedience to a bodily norm that has been set up by society. In addition, as research shows that fat women are considered unattractive by men and are less likely to be married or have partners, women are under immense social, as well as professional, pressure to be thin. Therefore, although there is some scholarship indicating that the accomplishment of ultrathin bodies as personal projects of exercising mastery and

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control can be a fulfilling experience for women, the majority of studies indicate that thin bodies bear the anxiety and frustrations women experience as free agents of modern society as they continue to have a subordinate status in larger society. When Caroline Knapp, a best-selling author who fought an eating disorder her entire life, called her personal battle with anorexia a “misunderstood hunger,” she was speaking of women in her own generation and those who were to come later who would starve, binge, or purge in search of solutions to their identity troubles. The two social groups thought to be immune to the thinness ideal and dieting were men and women who belong to minority ethnic groups, but that could be changing as well. In the United States, although being curvy and having a well-rounded body acted as an “alternative beauty aesthetic” among African American and Latina women, this cultural armor is lost when these women climb the social class ladder and get acclimatized to the beauty standards of mainstream society and start dieting and controlling their weight. Contemporary research indicates that men have also started dieting and controlling weight to look good, thereby mimicking a feminine behavior. There have even been some cases of eating disorders among men. Social researchers use the same logic that they had provided for women dieting and controlling their weight—that is, when economic and political opportunities become scarce and physical looks attain a social value, it similarly creates a group of dependent and insecure men who develop eating problems. Dieting in Non-Western Societies Women’s anguish, frustration, and guilt over their bodies are now spreading to non-Western societies, especially those exposed to the Western media, and the “thinness as beauty hypothesis” has become the dominant diagnostic tool used to detect dieting and eating issues in non-Western societies. For example, only three years after American television was introduced in Fiji, where previously the culturally accepted body was of the “robust form,” three of four young girls reported “feeling too fat,” and almost as many said they dieted. It is findings like these that have nourished the fear of non-Western women succumbing to eating problems—just like their Western counterparts. In psychiatric research, the consensus is that the global emergence of eating pathology is linked

to the spread of Western cultural norms that designate particular body shapes as preferable. However, it is important not to overgeneralize the prevalence of dieting and eating issues in women in non-Western societies. For instance, eating disorders in which women express “fear of fat” are rare in countries like Malaysia and India but are so common in Japan that their rates are comparable to the West. Moreover, in the non-Western world, eating issues linked to body image dissatisfaction tend to be concentrated in urban areas, whereas rural women are distinctly less affected. Although such findings support the argument that contact with Western culture through global media and information technology exposes women to the thinness ideal, it also validates the feminist stance that eating issues and body dissatisfaction are a result of women disturbing the status quo in these societies. Therefore, in countries like Japan and urban areas of India, where women are actively involved in the economical, political, and educational institutions of society, there is a concomitant growth of the dieting industry and eating issues. What we see unfold is a repetition of Western women’s experience at the beginning of the 20th century. If modernization has opened up opportunities for women and brought to light her achievements, dieting to attain a slim body has become an important medium to express these women’s new selves. Yet at the same time, as men do not have to satisfy this thinness norm with their own bodies and also play a role in imposing the expectation of a thin body on women, dieting might just be a reflection of inequality of statuses in men and women. See Also: Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural; Body Image; Diet Industry; Eating Disorders; Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies. Further Readings Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988. Chernin, Kim. The Hungry Self: Women, Eating and Identity. New York: Harper Perennial, 1985. Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy. The Cult of Thinness. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Martin, Courtney. Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters. New York: Free Press, 2007.

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Seid, Roberta. Pollack. Never Too Thin: Why Woman Are at War With Their Bodies. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991. Jaita Talukdar Loyola University

Diet Industry Contemporary Western cultures celebrate the slender female body and a muscular male physique. While prevalent today, these ideals have not always been in vogue. For example, by today’s standards, the voluptuous female nudes painted by 17th-century painter Peter Paul Rubens or the 1950s cultural icon Marilyn Monroe would be labeled “overweight.” Today, these hegemonic beauty ideals work hand-in-hand with health discourses to promote weight loss. Cultural ideals dictate that it is unattractive to be “fat” and health discourses label “overweight” and “obesity” unhealthy medical risks. Given these seemingly ubiquitous ideals about beauty and health, it is not surprising that weight-loss practices are prevalent. On a global scale, the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern that more than 1 billion adults are overweight, with at least 300 million of them obese. The WHO acknowledges multiple ways to address these conditions, including weight loss. In the United States, similar concerns have been expressed by federal, state, and local governments about growing waistlines. Indeed, governmental mandates for weight loss encourage dieting. The belief that weight loss is possible partly fuels high rates of dieting. In Western cultures, an ideology of individualism suggests that many things can be accomplished, including weight loss, simply with determination and a strong work ethic. The body is seen as a product of the psyche and those who are unable to lose weight are deemed morally wanting, lazy, and lacking in willpower. To help individuals lose weight, the diet industry proffers an array of products and services that are widely available on a growing international weight loss and diet management market that is predicted to worth about $586 billion by 2014. These include various weight-loss drugs, diet programs, and related

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products. Estimates indicate that Americans spend over $50 billion a year on dieting. In recent years, there has even been an explosion of dieting submarkets targeting specific niche populations. For example, a growing Christian diet industry provides followers with programs fittingly referred to as Bod4God, the Maker’s Diet, and the Weigh Down Diet. In general, the industry has been subject to criticism about the safety and efficacy of its products and services, and these critiques have given birth to an antidieting ethos stressing physiological and psychological health for individuals of all sizes. Weight-Loss Drugs, Programs, and Other Products Weight-loss drugs have been available to consumers since the 1960s, but have only recently been embraced by the medical community. The U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates only some of these drugs. FDA-regulated prescription weight-loss drugs can be prescribed by a doctor for individuals with a body mass index (BMI) above 30 (what the medical community deems “obese”) or a BMI above 27 (“overweight”) if an individual suffers from ailments such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or sleep apnea. The two most common prescription weight-loss drugs are Sibutramine (Meridia) and Orlistat (Xenical). Sibutramine presumably works by increasing norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine activity in the brain thus enhancing satiety. Orlistat presumably works by preventing the body from absorbing fats. Physicians can also prescribe drugs for short-term use such as phentermine (Adipex-P) that purportedly produces weight loss through appetite suppression. Also available to consumers, both legally and illegally, are numerous nonprescription herbal or dietary supplements. These include ephedra (an appetite suppressant), bitter orange (considered an ephedra substitute that increases the number of calories burned), and chitosan (an off-the-counter drug that blocks the absorption of dietary fat). The FDA-approved Alli, a nonprescription and reduced-strength version of Orlistat. The European Medicines Agency, similar in function to the FDA, has also approved Orlistat without a prescription, providing access to this drug in member countries. While there are many different diet plans consumers can turn to in their quest to shed pounds, the

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Mayo Clinic—an internationally acclaimed not-forprofit medical organization—identifies six common diet plans used by consumers. Low-fat diets come in many forms and involve reducing the consumption of fatty foods that are thought to increase blood cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease. Low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet presumably cause weight loss by lowering blood sugar and insulin levels thereby causing the body to burn stored fat. The South Beach diet is an example of a low glycemic-index diet. Some low glycemic-index foods are purportedly more nutrient-rich, less refined, and richer in fiber. The body absorbs these foods more slowly, thus enhancing satiation and preventing overeating. Popular meal-replacement diets such as Slim-Fast provide consumers with meals that are nutritionally complete but contain fewer calories in comparison to regular meals. Meal-provider diets such as NutriSystem vary in weight-loss philosophies and approaches. However, they all offer consumers prepared meals that they then eat on a regular, long-term basis. Last, group approaches such as Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anonymous provide support groups to clients, along with other related diet products (e.g., meal plans, worksheets, or books) that help clients make lifestyles changes. Many of these approaches have an international dimension. For example, Weight Watchers has a presence in over 25 countries. Finally, a large and diverse array of diet food products and books exist on this multibillion-dollar-a-year global market. While some diet plans offer their own foods, many manufacturers provide consumers with diet versions of regular products. From sugar-free cookies to low-fat cheeses to zero-calorie sodas, these products all profess to help consumers lose weight and pursue a healthy lifestyle. Diet books make up a large portion of the trade book market, with such books as the South-Beach Diet, the Mediterranean Diet, and the Abs Diet topping best-seller lists. There are also myriad weight-loss gadgets and devices, ranging from juicing machines to cooking devices, marketed to consumers as tools to help reduce fat intake. Critiques: Health Risks and Ineffectiveness Despite widespread use of these products and services, consumer advocates have questioned both their effectiveness and safety. In 1997, industry leaders came together at a conference sponsored by the

Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission and other branches of the federal government. The conference, titled “Commercial Weight Loss Products and Programs: What Consumers Stand to Gain and Lose, A Public Conference on the Information Consumers Need to Evaluate Weight Loss Products and Programs,” explored perspectives of consumers, providers, scientists, and the government. A major concern expressed at this conference was that many commercial weight-loss programs often withhold information, fail to collect data, or make only partial disclosures about their products. Without this information, consumers are unable to make sound decisions about the long-term and short-term safety and efficacy of these products. For example, in the 1990s, the FDA approved appetite suppressants such as fenfluramine and phentermine. An estimated 10 million Americans used “fen/phen” (the two drugs in combination) to treat overweight or obesity. However, fenfluramine was eventually linked to a serious cardiac-valvular disease. In 1997, the FDA asked manufacturers to withdraw voluntarily both fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine from the market. They complied but not after fen/phen sufferers filed a tort claim against key manufacturer Wyeth. Meridia and Xenical, the two common longterm prescription weight-loss drugs, have many side effects ranging from increased blood pressure, constipation, insomnia, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Recent reports indicate that Xenical may also cause serious liver injury including liver failure. Short-term prescription drugs like Phentermine also have side effects including nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. Now banned by the FDA, off-the-counter weight-loss drug ephedra was tied to increased blood pressure, heart rate irregularities, seizures, strokes, and even death. In general, the long-term effects of many prescription and nonprescription weight-loss drugs are unknown. Because they are not subject to the same rigorous standards as prescription medications, advocacy groups warn consumers to be especially cautious when taking off-the-counter weight-loss aids. In fact, the law on dietary supplements gives the FDA jurisdiction to spot-check products only after they are on the market and put on store shelves. In sum, critics have accused the diet industry of deceiving consumers by exaggerating the efficacy and healthfulness of products. Even diet or light foods that



are marketed as healthier alternatives are chemically laden and provide minimal health benefits over standard counterparts. Also, critics note that despite the myriad offerings of the diet industry, dieting simply does not work. For example, Meridia and Xenical have been shown to have only modest weight-loss effects. Research studies repeatedly show that the majority of dieters, even after losing weight will regain it, plus some. Specifically, researchers find that in the first six months of a diet, dieters will lose about 5 to 10 percent of their starting weight. However, within four or five years, one-third to two-thirds of theses dieters will regain more weight than they actually lost. Some argue that this may be due in part to the body’s natural gravitation toward a set weight range. Dieting to lose weight is thus often futile and can be especially dangerous because of weight and blood pressure fluctuations. New Paradigm Given the gendered impact of cultural ideals of thinness, feminist scholars and activists have voiced concern about the dieting industry and particularly women’s and girls’ preoccupation with weight loss. They argue that the dieting industry has waged a war against fat, using fear and fat phobia in such a way as to promote the discrimination, bias, and negative treatment of fat individuals. Critics hope for a new culture of body diversity where individuals are free from dieting oppression. For example, the National Organization for Women (NOW) organizes a Love Your Body Campaign that encourages body acceptance. An annual Love Your Body Day critiques the “fake images” of the fashion, beauty, and diet industries; demands images of real, diverse, and strong women; and encourages women and girls to embrace their own definitions of beauty. Internationally, May 6 is No Diet Day, organized to encourage body acceptance and body diversity. A fat acceptance movement that emerged in the 1970s also encourages both women and men to live healthy and active lives regardless of size. For example, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) discourages weight-loss practices and debunks myths about fat individuals, including the myths that an individual cannot be fat and healthy and that weight loss is always possible. Promoting metabolic fitness, NAAFA encourages individuals to focus not on weight and dieting, but instead on main-

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taining a healthy lifestyle by participating in physical activity and consuming healthy foods. On a global level, the International Size Acceptance Association’s mission is to promote size acceptance and fight size discrimination throughout the world by means of advocacy and visible, lawful actions. See Also: Advertising Aimed at Women; Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Bariatric Surgery; Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural; Body Image; Celebrity Women; Diet and Weight Control; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Fitness; Health, Mental and Physical; Nutrition; Our Bodies, Ourselves; Supermodels. Further Readings Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission. “Commercial Weight Loss Products and Programs: What Consumers Stand to Gain and Lose, A Public Conference on the Information Consumers Need to Evaluate Weight Loss Products and Programs, Report of the Presiding Panel.” http://www.ftc.gov/os/1998/03 /weightlo.rpt.htm#Executive%20Summary (accessed June 2010). Campos, Paul. The Obesity Myth. New York: Gotham Books, 2004. Fraser, L. Losing It: America’s Obsession With Weight and the Industry That Feeds on It. New York: Dutton, 1994. Gaesser, G. A. Big Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health. Carlsbad, CA: Gürze Books, 2002. Kratina, Karin, Nancy King, and Dayle Hayes. Moving Away From Diets: Healing Eating Problems and Exercise Resistance. Lake Dallas, TX: Helm Publishing, 1996. Mann, Traci A., et al. “Medicare’s Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer.” American Psychologist, v.62/3 (2007). Ogden, Jane. Fat Chance! The Myth of Dieting Explained. New York: Routledge, 1992. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity.” Rockville, MD: Office of the Surgeon General, 2001. Samantha Kwan University of Houston

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Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago)

Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago) The Dinner Party (DP), created between 1974 and 1979 by American artist Judy Chicago, is one of the most popular and controversial feminist artworks ever to be exhibited. It gave feminist art an unparalleled visibility, but its critical assessment has changed over the years. Chicago’s project is the result of the increasing interest felt during the 1970s in the oppression and discrimination experienced by women under a patriarchal society and, more specifically, in the problems faced by the woman artist in a sexist art system. Before creating DP, Chicago had been involved in the creation of the first Feminist Art Program, in Fresno, California, in 1970. Together with Miriam Schapiro, Faith Wilding, and students from the Feminist Art Program,

Chicago organized Womanhouse (1972)—one of the first feminist art exhibitions in the country. DP consisted of 39 plates representing the same number of women from history and legend. The plates were then set in an equilateral-triangular table, where for each plate an embroidered runner and a chalice were also displayed. In addition, the names of another 999 women were inscribed in the marble floor. The most controversial part of the work concerned the central raised motives in the plates, which were designed to celebrate the honored women and resembled female genitalia. Through DP, Chicago tried to save women and their work from oblivion, reviving a female history that has run parallel to the masculine and dominant one, and to acknowledge women’s social and cultural contribution. With DP, Chicago also sought to draw attention to art forms traditionally linked to a private, domestic, and feminine sphere, such as ceramics and

Judy Chicago pictured with her work, The Dinner Party. The piece consisted of 39 plates, runners, and chalices representing 39 women from history and legend, set at a triangular table. The names of 999 more women were inscribed in the marble floor.

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needlework, giving them the institutional attention that other media, such as painting and sculpture, had hitherto been given. DP thus aimed to inscribe art traditionally made by women in the public domain of high art, and even in the sacred, as Chicago’s installation also evokes Christ’s last supper. All the previously mentioned aspects justify the effect DP had in the 1970s, both in the art context and in social and political terms, having contributed decisively to the development of the feminist movement in the United States. In Europe, where it arrived in 1984, Chicago’s work enjoyed huge popularity, but it was also heavily criticized, particularly by British feminists. In fact, in the 1970s there was already some ambivalence among feminist critics regarding the nature and gender implications of Chicago’s work. If some hailed DP for promoting an antipatriarchal, alternative culture and celebrating female body and experience, others criticized Chicago for reinforcing a heterosexist and racist view of history (of the 39 women depicted in DP, all but one were white). They also accused the artist of subscribing to the modernist model of art creation, as although the making of DP depended on the participation of over a hundred women, Chicago ran the project in ways that reproduced the ideology of the great master in his studio, and the collaborative dimension of the work was ultimately shadowed by Chicago’s persona. Even more important for its detractors, DP, and more specifically the central core, vaginal imagery employed by Chicago in the plates, suggested a biological and deterministic reading of a woman’s body and a universal female identity. In the 1980s, as a result of a poststructuralist, Marxist and psychoanalytical turn in theory, feminist criticism emphasized the impossibility of a universal feminine experience and stressed the notion of feminine identity as a social construction. Moreover, art critics and historians insisted on discussing the logic of representation that framed the female body. Because of this theoretical background, Chicago’s DP was further accused of essentializing the female body and being a restrictive attempt to redefine femaleness, as well as of not taking into consideration the dynamics of visual representation. At this point, Chicago and her work came to represent the naïveté of 1970s feminism, and ultimately the failure of this feminism to radically change the art establishment.

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In the 1990s, a second wave of feminist art practice refocused attention on the body. That brought a reappraisal of the strategies employed by feminist activists and artists in the 1970s and a rejuvenated interest in Judy Chicago’s work and DP. Such interest emphasized the obstacles women artists had to face and the aggressive audacity of much of the feminist-oriented work of the period. It also linked the political activism of those women, the focus on shared experiences, and the suggestion of universal female characteristics with their need to find and positively affirm a female identity. Finally, it recognized the importance of artists such as Chicago in establishing a relationship between the visual image and female embodiment, a body politic now perceived not so much essentialist as strategic. Eventually, DP was seen as a fundamental part of feminist history. First exhibited in 1979 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the installation spent most of the next 28 years warehoused until 2007, when it opened as a permanent exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Chicago, Judy; Feminism, American; Studio Arts, Women in. Further Readings Chicago, Judy. The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation. London: Merrell, 2007. Chicago, Judy. Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist. New York: Doubleday, 1975. Jones, Amelia, ed. Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party in Feminist Art History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Reckitt, Helena and Peggy Phelan, eds. Art and Feminism. London: Phaidon, 2003. Maria Luisa Coelho University of Minho

Direct Sales Direct sales is a U.S. method of selling consumer products person-to-person. It differs from retail sales in that direct selling occurs away from a retail space. This type of marketing allows sales to be completed

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in numerous ways; for example, selling products door to door. In the United States, the most popular method of direct selling is through the home product demonstration party. The “party plan,” as it is called, is completed by a sales consultant or an independent distributor for the parent company. In this way, direct sales relies on those with entrepreneurial thinking to thrive. In the late 19th century, the New Thought Movement sparked positive thinking through writings about the power of thoughts on the human condition. This movement coincided with the rise of consumer culture created through the industrial revolution. Some families and women, for the first time, had access to surplus money. Women used some of these surplus funds for the purpose of “making up,” using cosmetics. This gender-specific compulsion eventually became a standard beauty practice for women. In fact, several compulsory behaviors specific to the feminine gender support a number of the very industries that have done so well through a direct selling marketing plan, such as Tupperware and Mary Kay cosmetics. Female Authority and Woman-to-Woman One of the first direct sales companies created was the California Perfume Company, today known as Avon. David Hall McConnell started the California Perfume Company in 1886, when he discovered women were buying books from him to get free perfume samples. Once women began to ask about these perfume samples, McConnell realized that he held something powerful. Mrs. P. F. Albee became McConnell’s first seller/agent when McConnell hired her with the assumption that women would be more likely to buy from a woman they knew and trusted. It was 1928 before the company would begin selling products under the Avon name; the company name officially changed in 1939. The company became known as “The Company for Women,” and by 1954 more than two-thirds of Avon’s employees were indeed women. Today, Avon Products, Inc., is an international, multi­ billion-dollar company. The door-to-door demonstration model, turned party plan, was a modern-day replica of the sewing circle and the quilting bee, used by women in earlier days to create a product and to maintain social relationships. The party plan also used the method

of information sharing so popular among women in the advertising industry. In this way, the party plan turned what was commonly viewed as gossip into a lucrative form of commerce. It was not until 1902, when Annie Turnbo Malone used the demonstration style of door-to-door sales to sell haircare products, that women not only sold the products but also fashioned the product for sale. Malone trademarked her haircare products for African American women as Poro, which is a West African word indicating spiritual and physical growth. Later, Madam C. J. Walker, a student of Malone, also began a haircare product company for African American women and sold her products in a similar fashion. Tupperware, Mary Kay, and Passion Parties The party plan demonstration form of direct sales boomed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Women had been in the workplace in large numbers during World War II but were pushed out once men came home from the war. Earl Tupper’s conception was one of the first in which large numbers of women would be able to work for themselves without the hassle of creating their own business identity. Tupper crafted the “wonderbowl” when DuPont gave polyethylene to its employees in a search for product ideas that would successfully sell during peaceful times. Tupper patented his bowl and began to sell it in retail locations. The bowls, however, did not sell as well as he had hoped. A woman from Florida named Brownie Wise began selling the bowls through home demonstrations and won the notice of Tupper when he realized she was selling far more of his product than any other retailer. The patented bowl needed demonstration, as Wise explained, because to work properly, it had to be “burped.” Tupper teamed with Wise, and the two decided to market the product only through home party demonstrations. Wise, a single mother, knew how to motivate the women she recruited. Women came to work for the company part time, and Wise offered praise for their work as no one else had. Wise would eventually lose her position as vice president with the company when Tupper grew jealous of the media attention and credit given to her for the success of the company. In 1963, Mary Kay Ash began the multibillion-dollar international company bearing her name. Mary Kay cosmetics claims to enrich women’s lives while

Dirie, Waris



simultaneously opening the doors of opportunity for them. Ash began the company with the help of her son after she watched the men she trained get promotions she deserved. Ash was named the greatest female entrepreneur in 2003—ahead of Oprah Winfrey. The company’s foundation is built on the premise of the golden rule and making a positive difference in people’s lives. Fortune magazine named Mary Kay one of the 100 best companies to work for and one of the 10 best companies for women. Passion Parties is one of the most popular direct sales party plan companies today. Sex toys distributed by a company whose tag line reads “The Ultimate Girls Night In,” are sold in the comfort of women’s homes. Consultants peddle adult toys for the company, which has won the endorsement of media personalities such as Denise Richards and talk shows like The Doctors. Pat Davis, president and chief executive officer, is commonly known as a “relationship expert” and has garnered a vast number of celebrity endorsements of Passion Party products. Empowering and Committed to Social Responsibility Many of these companies, supported by women’s consumer habits and women’s entrepreneurship, are committed to social responsibility, research for and about women’s health, and empowering women economically, socially, and spiritually. Through Annie Malone and Madam Walker, financial empowerment became connected to social responsibility. Malone began Poro College to serve as a cosmetology training college and social space for African Americans in St. Louis. Malone’s philanthropic work included donating money to such organizations as the Tuskegee Institute, Howard University, and the YWCA, among others. Walker also contributed to the YWCA and the antilynching work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Today, almost every successful direct sales party plan company has a foundation account attached to it, including Avon and Mary Kay. Millions of dollars are contributed every year to everything from breast cancer research and domestic violence to healthy global environments. Because women made up over 86 percent of direct sellers in the United States in 2008, the related philanthropic work is focused on issues women face daily. Women come to these com-

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panies with limited capital, poor access to credit, and a lack of professional training and credentials, and yet they thrive through direct sales—and because of the women, the companies thrive as well. See Also: Business, Women in; Cosmetics Industry; Financial Independence of Women. Further Readings Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center. “About Annie Malone.” http://www.anniemalone.com /about-annie-malone.html (accessed June 2010). Ash, Mary Kay. Miracles Happen: The Life and Timeless Principles of the Founder of Mary Kay, 3rd ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Avon Company. “Avon at a Glance: The Avon Story Unfolds.” http://www.avoncompany.com/about/history .html (accessed June 2010). Clarke, Allison J. Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999. Davis, Pat. The Passion Parties Guide to Great Sex: Secrets and Techniques to Keep Your Relationship Red Hot. New York: Broadway, 2007. Direct Selling Association. http://www.dsa.org (accessed June 2010). Direct Selling Women’s Alliance. http://www.dswa.org (accessed June 2010). Peiss, Kathy. Hope In a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998. Public Broadcasting System. American Experience. “Tupperware!” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex /tupperware (accessed June 2010). K. C. Gott East Tennessee State University

Dirie, Waris Waris Dirie is a former supermodel, internationally known author, human rights activist, and actress. She works to raise awareness and eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation of young girls around the world. Her books have sold over 11 million copies worldwide. She has received critical acclaim for her film, Desert Flower; is the founder of several human

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rights organizations; and has received numerous appointments and awards. Born in a nomadic tribe in Gaalkacyo, Somalia, Dirie can only guess her age, as her clan in Somalia keeps track of seasons—not years. At a young age, Dirie was taken by her mother and sister to become a woman, which meant undergoing female genital mutilation. She was infibulated and later stitched together with thorns, recuperating for weeks alone in a hut, bound from her ankles to her hips. When she was a young adolescent, Dirie’s father arranged for her to marry a much older elderly man. She chose to escape and, during the night, began a painful nine-day journey that would take her from her home in Somalia to Mogadishu. She lived for a time with her older sister and her family, working as a bricklayer. She eventually left with her uncle and his family and moved to London, England, where she worked in her uncle’s home. After her family’s departure from London, Dirie remained and got a job at McDonald’s, attending classes in the evening to learn the English language. She was discovered by a photographer, which began her international modeling career. The first modeling job Dirie received was on the cover of the Pirelli calendar in 1987. That job catapulted her into fashion modeling. She became the face of Chanel, Levi’s, L’Oréal, and Revlon, and she has modeled for high-profile fashion magazines, including Elle, Glamour, Vogue, and Marie Claire. Her successes in those areas led to her walking the catwalks in the fashion industries of the world. She also appeared in The Living Daylights, a James Bond movie, in 1987. During the height of her popularity, Dirie spoke of her painful experience of undergoing female genital mutilation as a child. That interview led to her appointment as a United Nations ambassador to abolish female circumcision around the globe. Dirie wrote her first book, Desert Flower, in 1998. This was followed by Desert Dawn, Letter to My Mother, and Desert Children. Eventually, a movie based on her life experiences was produced in 2009. Being a humanitarian has garnered Dirie numerous awards, including being named Woman of the Year by Glamour and receiving the Women’s World Award from former president of Russia Mikhail Gorbachev, among others. She founded the Waris Dirie Foundation to raise worldwide awareness of female genital mutilation and the Desert Dawn Foundation

to raise money for health and education in Somalia. She also cofounded the Foundation for Women’s Dignity and Rights. See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of; Islam; Somalia; Supermodels. Further Readings Dirie, W. Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Korn, F. Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2006. Leesha Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Disability Definitions Definitions of disability are mediated by individual and collective human perception and interpretation, and vary historically and culturally. Disability definitions, then, are socially constructed rather than inherent in nature. Definitions of disability are found widely in discourses including personal, sociopolitical, medical–therapeutic, legal, educational, and academic. Predominantly, disability has been defined in contrast to what is considered to be “normal,” “healthy,” and “fit.” Most commonly, disability is understood as deficiency, defect, deviance, or injury, and the person with the disability as lacking substantial ability for full participation in society. Typically, disability is seen as an individual’s problem requiring a solution and necessitating eradication, control, repair, or therapy. Because of variation in definition and identification, it is difficult to determine how many women, worldwide, are considered or consider themselves to be disabled. However, it is possible that the incidence of disability for women exceeds the incidence for men. Because gender is a social determinant of health, and because women are at a disadvantage in terms of access to recourses worldwide, women experience higher rates of illness and disease. Furthermore, globally, maternal conditions are leading causes of disability for women.



Despite progress made in the 20th century, disability was and is still defined in contrast to what is considered “normal.”

While categorized variously, disabilities can be understood as developmental, learning, physical, including motor, chronic illness and disease, sensory, psychiatric, and mental health. Disabilities are defined as visible or invisible, and short term or permanent. In most discourses, disability is distinguished from impairment, impairment being loss or abnormality in structure or function, and disability being the restriction or limitation to perform within what is considered a normal range. How disability is defined and by whom has significant personal, social, and political consequences for disabled persons. Dominant definitions of disability have served to exclude and “other” persons who are characterized as deviating from socially constructed norms. Although definitions of disability vary by time, place, and discourse, one might be required to, or choose to self identify as “disabled” so as to become eligible for various types of supports and equitable accommodations that are understood to “level the playing field” in social, political, legal, medical, and educational arenas. However, as Marcia Rioux has noted, for disabled persons, human rights are more

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likely to be treated as charitable privileges than legal entitlements. Unfortunately, regardless of what definition of disability one uses, human rights violations are daily occurrences for disabled persons. Prior to the Enlightenment and the rise of science, disability was viewed as mythical, as a message from an otherworldly reality. In ancient Greece, a visible disability was seen as a message from the gods, and infants born with visible disabilities were often returned to the gods, as offerings, by being left in the elements to die. Ancient Hebrews understood disability as a sign of imperfection that was not compatible with the sacred. Christianity has long been ambivalent about disabled persons, understanding disabled persons as being in need of charity and the disability as a punishment for sin. By the 1800s, in the developed world, people labeled as having intellectual deficiencies or social differences were considered “lunatics,” “idiots,” “morons,” and “imbeciles,” and were housed on poor farms and asylums with others considered to be social deviants requiring exclusion from “normal” society. It was not uncommon, for example, to institutionalize women labeled as “mad” because they did not follow expected social roles or their husband’s rules. By the early 20th century, the rise of science gave way to eugenic theory, which became justification for breeding for a “better,” more “fit” nation, and for sterilization of “defectives” without their consent, as it was feared that individuals understood as inferior would reproduce and become a liability to “normal” society. In the 1950s, medical-therapeutic discourse prevailed, and the field of rehabilitation opened up as it began to be recognized that disabled persons had potential that should be developed. In keeping with this discourse, specially trained teachers, teaching in segregated classes, developed new pedagogical methods for disabled students. Following this in the 1970s, large group homes and sheltered workshops became common, and with this a group of helping professions emerged, and disabled persons were beginning to be referred to as “clients” rather than as “patients.” However, despite reference to being a “client,” professionals maintained authority over disabled persons. Also in the 1970s and early 1980s, following other social movements, the disability rights movement gathered momentum. The United Nations declared 1981 to be the International Year of Disabled Persons, after which, in 1982, Canada’s Charter of Rights and

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Freedoms, for the first time in history, and becoming an international model, referred to disability rights as human rights. It was in the United Kingdom, in the 1990s, that academia took on the interdisciplinary study of disability. With the convergence of the disability rights movement and the academic study of disability came a redefinition of disability, at least in these two circles. Together, disability rights advocacy and academia have worked to shift definitions of disability away from individual medical, pathology, or deviance models wherein disability is seen as an unhealthy state and a personal tragedy and disabled persons as being in need of cure, control, pity, and charity. Also within that model, disabled persons are considered responsible for working toward coming as close as possible to a socially sanctioned state of normalcy. Disability rights advocacy and critical disability studies have redefined disability within a social–political model, through a critique of normalcy, and by shifting responsibility to collective efforts to remove disabling barriers. In this social–political model, it is understood that societies are organized in a hierarchical manner such that an unequal distribution of resources and uneven relations of power operate to oppress some groups, here disabled persons, and favor others, here nondisabled persons. Through this social justice lens, similar to antiracist and feminist social critiques, the concept of disablism is used to recognize a wide range of interpersonal, systemic and institutional, cultural and societal oppressive and exclusionary policies and practices. Thus, the focus within the social–political model is on the barriers in societies that serve to disable individuals and prevent their full social inclusion. These disabling barriers are found in physical and social environments. Definitions of disability understood within a social–political model have been criticized, however, for not sufficiently recognizing individually lived experiences of disability, including the intersection of disability with other forms of identity and oppression. Thus, another shift is occurring to accommodate even greater awareness of the experience of disability. And while some progress has been made in terms of understanding and defining disability, contention remains over the use of language. “Persons first” language, supported by many governments and organizations, promotes reference to a “person with a disability,” to

recognize the person before the disability. In contrast, some disability advocates and disability scholars prefer using “disabled person” to highlight that disability is something done to the person through disabling physical, social, and political barriers. Furthermore, the way individuals define disability and identify as disabled is fluid and subject to change across one’s life course. While the way disability is defined in discourse has shifted considerably in some circles since the latter half of the 20th century, despite some progress toward understanding disabled persons in terms of barriers rather than through individual pathology, disability was and is still defined predominantly in contrast to what is considered “normal,” and therefore is tainted in deviance. Within an individual or medical model, still most prevalent in understanding and defining disability in wider circles, disability remains pathologized and is believed to require individual adaptation and attempts by disabled persons to assimilate and become as “normal” as possible. The wider social and political implications of disability are still not adequately understood or addressed in most disability discourses. What disability advocates are working toward are definitions of disability grounded in autonomy and dignity, lived experience, social inclusion, equity and human rights; the maxim being, “Nothing about us without us.” See Also: Anxiety Disorders; Birth Defects; Health, Mental and Physical; Infanticide; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Female Military; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of; Social Justice Activism; Social Justice Theory; World Health Organization. Further Readings Davis, Lennard J., ed. The Disability Studies Reader, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006. Gabel, Susan. “Depressed and Disabled: Some Discursive Problems With Mental Illness.” In Marian Corker and Sally French, eds., Disability Discourse. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999. Kristiansen, Kristjana, et al. Arguing About Disability: Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2009. Oliver, Michael. Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Rioux, Marcia. “Disability, Citizenship and Rights in a Changing World.” In Colin Barnes, Michael Oliver, and

Disc Jockeys

Len Barton, eds., Disability Studies Today. Queensland, Australia: Polity Press, 2002. Swain, John, Sally French, and Colin Cameron. “What’s in a Name?” In Controversial Issues in a Disabling Society. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2003. Titchkosky, Tanya and Rod Michalko, eds. Rethinking Normalcy: A Disability Studies Reader. Toronto: Scholars’ Press, 2009. Deborah Davidson Nancy La Monica York University

Disc Jockeys Becoming a shock jock was a natural progression for many women radio personalities, moving from morning sidekick in the 1990s to center stage in 2000. The shock format, to date, is no longer viewed as frontline defense for sagging ratings. Station owners and companies have grown weary of costly Federal Communication Commission fines and negative publicity that often accompany offensive speech. At the turn of the 21st century, shock radio strongly influenced a new generation of women disc jockeys that competed with male counterparts. Comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg, who was hired in 2006 as a morning radio personality for Clear Channel Communications, publically stated that she would refrain from shock radio gimmicks. The show was nationally syndicated from New York City, and cancelled in 2008 for unspecified reasons. Many women shock disc jockeys dominated the airwaves during the first decade of the new century. 21st-Century Shockettes Karin Begin (aka Darian O’Toole) set her sights on Howard Stern’s throne. She became known in the press as America’s First Shockette during the height of her U.S. radio career in the 1990s. She was born in 1967 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and worked on-air initially in Canada before establishing her persona as a female Stern. O’Toole became a trailblazer for the next generation of female radio broadcasters, but she was fired several times and eventually faded from the airwaves. She died at age 40 in 2008.

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Liz Wilde became the new WMMS-FM morning drive personality around the turn of the 21st century. The addition of Wilde to the Cleveland, Ohio, station was undertaken to help WMMS-FM reclaim its rock-n-roll heritage by revamping its image. With her afternoon show making its debut on more than 20 stations in the United States, she became spokeswoman for Generation X. Like Stern, she spent much of her airtime talking about sex and had been fired in the past for describing a lesbian sex act. New York City’s Leslie Gold, known as Radio Chick, became notorious for on-air controversial pranks and hot talk. Gold made the move to satellite radio, and in 2009, she launched her show as a series of podcasts, or “chickcasts,” as she referred to them. One of the powerhouse personalities in the New York City market is Wendy Williams, the first African American shockette. With lots of self-promotion, including a series of books and television appearances, she is becoming a national icon of shock radio, gossip talk and pop culture. She broadcasts afternoons on New York City’s legendary WBLS-FM in a show called The Wendy Williams Experience. Queer Radio At the start of the new millennium, mainstream radio led the cultural war of words across talk airwaves. Talk radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s antigay commentary caught the attention of press and activists, causing her television show to fall flat before it aired. During this time, lesbian radio deejays and talk hosts began reaching out online to queer audiences through commercial programming. Windy City Queer Cast, originally named Lesbigay Radio, has regularly aired online as part of the Windy City Media Group’s (WCMG) Internet radio offerings. Queer Cast is hosted by Amy Matheny, known as Chicago radio’s lesbian voice. Matheny has brought some major corporate sponsors to her program. In the 21st century, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) audience demanded relevant commercial programming targeted to its needs and interests, and the Internet has helped spur a variety of online and terrestrial radio opportunities. The British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC’s) radio special Out on Air provided an overview of LGBT influences and setbacks on mainstream airwaves, making evident women’s historical limited opportunities.

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Virtual Radio Station owner Marjorie Dibou’s sultry voice can be heard online introducing an assortment of neo-soul and rhythm & blues artists and her station boasts a weekday lineup of on-air personalities. The station sounds and looks professional, but the personalities are avatars. Dibou is an African American woman disc jockey represented as an avatar. Her outlet, Blacksoulrhythms.com, is a popular stream that broadcasts inside the virtual world of Second Life (SL). Female radio personalities Trinity Serpentine and Nala Galatea, as partners online and offline, became popular virtual disc jockeys on an SL show that ran for five years. Their show, called TriNala, ended in August 2009. Galatea and Serpentine have been compared, respectively, to Stern and his female African American sidekick, Robin Quivers. SL has tapped into a virtual audience that transitions in and out of the real world, and the future of radio is moving women online to unique creative communication forums. See Also: Representation of Women; Rock Music, Women in; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Associated Press. “‘Radiochick’ Gains Satellite Following: From Breasts to Right-to-Life Issues, No Topic Off Limits for Gold.” (July 20, 2005). http://www.msnbc .msn.com/id/8642310/ (accessed January 2010). Berton, J. “Darian O’Toole S.F. Disc Jockey Dies at 40.” SF Gate (April 5, 2008). http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-04 -05/bay-area/17144998_1_disc-jockey-simpson-trial -ms-o-toole (accessed January 2010). Gaywired.com. “BBC Program Explores the Rise and Fall of ‘Gay Radio.’” (February 10, 2007). http://www.conne xion.org/newsstory.cfm?id=8311&returnurl=news .cfm2007/01/22/daily7.html?jst=b_ln_hl (accessed January 2010). Halper, D. Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001. Stern, Howard. Private Parts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Williams, Wendy. Wendy’s Got the Heat. New York: Atria Books, 2003. Phylis Johnson Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Divorce Divorce, like all family topics, is fundamentally intertwined with gender. The causes and consequences of divorce are gendered in various ways because the family itself is historically a gendered institution. Divorce laws, especially in Western societies, have generally moved from laws based on an explicitly gendered marriage contract to more liberalized laws that are gender neutral. However, gender-neutral laws can still have gendered consequences; this is particularly noticeable in the economic consequences of divorce, with women more likely than men to suffer a decline in economic well-being. The causes of increased divorce rates are also gendered, with changes in the expectations of marriage playing a role along with changing employment opportunities for men and women. An individual’s reason for divorcing also varies by gender, with women more likely than men to cite problems with the relationship itself. The consequences of divorce for women vary. In the long term, most divorced women experience levels of well-being similar to that during their marriage. Some women, however, experience a significant decline in well-being while others experience enhanced well-being. Factors that influence the “quality” of the divorce include the quality of the marriage itself, the degree of social support available, the degree to which economic decline is experienced, and the degree to which the woman is able to adapt to her new situation. Finally, there is considerable variation in attitudes toward and laws about divorce both within and across countries. History The two broad types of divorce law are fault-based divorce and no-fault divorce. Although the specifics vary from country to country, the general trend in the 20th and into the 21st century has been the liberalization of divorce laws and increasing divorce rates. This trend is most visible in economically developed countries where Protestantism is the dominant religion and where women have a high level of economic independence. However, divorce rates have increased across the globe, in countries as diverse as Argentina, China, and South Korea. The United States has the highest divorce rates in the world, although the rates has been declining in recent decades.



In Western societies, divorce laws in the 18th and 19th centuries enforced a marriage contract between a man, a woman, and the state. This contract included expectations of monogamy, the husband’s financial support of his wife, and the wife’s domestic service to her husband. This contract was reflected in the faultbased approach; the breaking of the marriage contract was punishable by the state through divorce. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, the marriage contract and normative expectations of marriage shifted toward a model emphasizing romantic love, intimacy, and companionship. The grounds for divorce expanded in turn. As a part of the Women’s Movement, feminists called for increased access to divorce as a way for women to escape bad marriages. An anti-divorce movement also arose that linked divorce to social disorder. These basic debates continue today. By the late 20th century in Western societies, divorce laws increasingly included no-fault grounds, which allowed couples to divorce for reasons like incompatibility and irreconcilable differences. However, the link between divorce laws and divorce rates is tenuous. Cross-national studies have not found a direct relationship between no-fault divorce laws and rates of divorce. In the United States, the increase in divorce rates began prior to the liberalization of divorce laws, also indicating a more complex causal explanation. Causes of Divorce At the societal level, there are several causes of rising (or high) divorce rates. Since the Enlightenment era, marriage in Western societies has increasingly emphasized romantic love and self-fulfillment, in line with a broader trend toward individualism. In contrast to a marriage model that stresses duty and commitment, this individualistic marriage model is more fragile and subject to dissolution. These types of changes have begun to occur in countries with traditionally low rates of divorce—such as Japan, Indian, and Korea—as well. Some commentators emphasize the personal liberation aspect of a “divorce culture,” while others decry the same as reflecting a lack of commitment to marriage. Employment trends also play a role in divorce rates. Theoretically, women’s employment could increase the likelihood of divorce by increasing women’s alter-

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natives for economic support outside of marriage, but alternatively, women’s employment could reduce the likelihood of divorce by raising the standard of living and reducing marital stress. When the cultural norm is a specialized model in which men are workers and women are housewives, the first explanation is supported. This helps to explain rising divorce rates during periods of increasing gender equality. Where there is a gender-specialized model of marriage, women’s employment can be experienced as a destabilizing force in marriage, at the same time contributing to marital conflict and providing an alternative to marriage for women. However, when dual-earner households are the norm, the latter explanation is supported. This may help to explain the stabilization of divorce rates in the United States since the 1980s. Where there is a more gender-egalitarian marriage model, women’s employment can be a stabilizing force for marriage because of the provision of a higher standard of living. At the individual level in the United States, women’s employment has been found to increase the risk of divorce in unhappy marriages but does not appear to destabilize happy marriages. While expectations of women in families have expanded to include breadwinning, expectations of men’s breadwinning have remained constant. Thus, declines in men’s employment opportunities are linked in increasing divorce rates because men’s unemployment or underemployment tends to be a destabilizing force in marriage. While divorce at the individual level reflects such societal trends, the experience and reasons for divorce are expressed differently. Women are more likely than men to cite relationship problems as the reason for divorce—including lack of communication, lack of shared interests, and an unfair division of household labor. Women often cite financial reasons for divorce as well; in marriages with a specialized gender division of labor, this can be a particularly destabilizing force if wives begin to provide a substantial share of the household income. Physical violence is also cited by women as a reason for divorce. Consequences of Divorce for Women The primary consequences of divorce for women can be divided into emotional, financial, and parental impacts. While there is a tendency to talk about

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average responses to divorce, the story of divorce consequences is one of variation. The majority of people—men, women, and children—adjust to divorce reasonably well in the long run, but there is a significant subset experiencing a long-term decline in wellbeing and another experiencing enhanced well-being. Cross-national research indicates that, on average, divorced people have lower levels of psychological well-being than married people. Research is inconclusive as to whether the psychological consequences of divorce differ by gender. The first year after divorce tends to be the most difficult and emotionally unstable. A crisis period is common as household routines are disrupted and the demands, especially for single parents (who are likely to be women), increase. Because women often have more social support than men, the emotional difficulties in the first year may be buffered by social relationships. The ensuing years after divorce tend to be calmer emotionally as people adjust to their new situations and develop new routines. Factors that increase the likelihood of more serious and/or long-term problems include having either sole parenting responsibility or loss of custody of children, losing supporting social networks, continuing conflict with and/or attachment to the ex-spouse, and suffering an economic decline. Factors that tend to moderate the psychological consequences of divorce include an internal locus of control, a higher level of social maturity, higher education, employment, religiosity, social support networks, and the development of a new intimate relationship. On average, a woman’s standard of living tends to drop after a divorce. In the United States, for instance, laws about spousal support, child support, and property distribution have become more gender neutral. However, gender-neutral laws can have unequal impacts when there is broader gender inequality. For instance, spousal support laws often assume that both men and women will be able to support themselves in the labor market following a divorce. However, women experiencing divorce are more likely than their ex-husbands to have forgone work experience for family responsibilities, and are therefore likely to command lower wages in the labor market. Additional factors contributing to women’s lower standard of living after a divorce include gender discrimination in the labor market and custody decisions that favor the mother, especially where the children are

very young. Child support can theoretically make up the financial gender divide after a divorce but child support awards are often unpaid or underpaid. The likelihood of full payment increases with the age and educational attainment of the father. Prior to the 19th century, men typically received custody of children after a divorce; English common law, for instance, assumed that men were the natural guardians of children. Over the course of the 19th century, custody decisions began to be based on the best interests of the children and women began to receive custody more often. By the beginning of the 20th century, women were increasingly understood as the natural caretakers of children and custody decisions typically favored the mother. There are three general types of custodial arrangements—maternal, paternal, and joint—including different combinations of physical and legal custody. In the United States, maternal custody remains the most common although there have been increases in joint legal and physical custody. In general, the trend in custody and visitation has been to encourage children to spend time with both parents; in the United States, the proportion of fathers completely disengaged from their children’s lives has declined significantly. Where women have sole physical custody of children after a divorce, the crisis period in the year following the divorce tends to intensify, especially in situations of economic hardship. Household routines become more chaotic and unpredictable. Mothers, more than fathers in the same situation, tend to feel a sense of guilt over these parental difficulties, which can compound any psychological difficulties in adjustment to the divorce. However, for most families, routines tend to be reestablished by the second or third year after divorce. Consequences of Divorce for Children Because many women experiencing divorce are mothers, it is important to discuss how children respond to divorce. As is the case for adults, children tend to go through a crisis period in the first year after a divorce but tend to stabilize during the ensuing years. On average, children of divorce have lower well-being— including academic success, psychological adjustment, and long-term health—than children of intact families, although the differences tend to be small and are often partially explained by pre-divorce factors.

Djibouti



Again, the story here is one of variation. Most children of divorce develop within the normal range, but a significant minority of children experience more serious and longer-term problems. For example, children of divorce are more likely to drop out of high school and/or experience a teenage birth compared with children from intact families. Negative consequences of divorce for children tend to be more serious where there are one or more of the following factors: decline in parental support and control, disengagement with one parent, continuing conflict between the parents, and significant economic decline. See Also: Domestic Violence; Fatherlessness; Marriage; Poverty; Single Mothers. Further Readings Amato, Paul R. “The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, v.62/4 (2000). Coltrane, Scott and Michele Adams. Gender and Families, 2nd ed. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Greenstein, Theodore N. and Shannon N. Davis. “CrossNational Variation in Divorce: Effects of Women’s Power, Prestige, and Dependence.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, v.37/2 (2006). Hetherington, Mavis E. and John Kelly. For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. Schoen, Robert, Nan Marie Astone, Kendra Rothert, Nicola J. Standish, and Young J. Kim. “Women’s Employment, Marital Happiness, and Divorce.” Social Forces, v.81/2 (2002). Brenda Wilhelm Mesa State College

Djibouti The country that began its history as the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became Djibouti in 1977. Following two decades of authoritarian rule, civil war broke out but was ended by a peace accord in 2001. Although France maintains a military presence in this eastern African nation, which borders the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, Djibouti also has strong ties

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to the United States and is home to the only American military base in sub-Saharan Africa. Djibouti is considered a strategic point in the battle against global terrorism. Some 87 percent of the population is now urbanized, and two-thirds of the population live in the capital city. Many rural Djiboutians still follow a nomadic lifestyle. With a per capita income of $2,800 and an unemployment rate of almost 60 percent in urban areas and 83 percent in rural areas, 42 percent of the population lives in poverty. Djibouti is heavily dependent on foreign assistance. With a population made up of Somalis (60 percent) and Afars (35 percent), Djibouti is ethnically homogeneous. Ninety-four percent of the population is Muslim, but Djiboutians have adopted Islamic rules to their own customs. Although women hold legal rights to equality, in practice they are held back by religious and cultural practices derived from Shari`a law. Inheritance laws favor males by giving them a larger share than females. Women are also limited in their ability to divorce and travel. After the 2008 elections, the number of women in the Djibouti Parliament rose to nine of 65 seats. Two women sat in the cabinet, and a woman was the president of the Supreme Court. Major problems in Djibouti include the devaluation of women, violence against women, and female gender mutilation. Djibouti has the 41st highest infant mortality in the world (58.33 deaths per 1,000 live births). Female infants (50.01) have a higher survival rate than males (66.41), and the advantage continues into adulthood, resulting in a life expectancy of 62.79 years for women and 57.93 for men. At 17.8 years for women and 18.5 years for men, median ages are extremely low. Women give birth to an average of 2.92 children each. Statistically, there is one physician for every 5,000 persons in Djibouti, and health issues are of major concern. Djibouti has an human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevalence rate of 3.1 percent. The people of Djibouti also have a high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, and malaria. Although avian flu has been identified, it is not considered a major issue. Both male (78 percent) and female (58.4 percent) literacy is low. Widespread illiteracy is related to abysmally low educational levels for both men (5 years) and women (4 years).

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Historically, women have not been valued in Djiboutian society, and girls between the ages of 7 and 10 years, particularly those who live in rural areas, undergo female genital mutilation. According to a report issued early in the 21st century, by the age of 7 years, 98 percent of girls have been subjected to female genital mutilation. A campaign to end this practice, which was launched by the Union of Djiboutian Women in 1988, has had only limited success. A 1995 law banning the practice is not enforced. Violence against women does occur, but few women report it. Because of societal pressures, most cases are dealt with by families or clans. The Union of Djiboutian Women worked with the First Lady to create a counseling center for victims of domestic violence. Overall, the government is more concerned with rape, which carries a prison term of up to 20 years since revisions to the penal code in 1995. However, there are no laws specifically dealing with spousal rape. Prostitution flourishes, and there have been numerous reports of police officers battering and raping prostitutes. There are no laws against sexual harassment. See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Islam; Rape, Incidence of; Rape in Conflict Zones. Further Readings Afrol News. “Djibouti.” http://www.afrol.com/Categories /Women/profiles/djibouti_women.htm (accessed February 2010). Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Djibouti.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/dj.html (accessed July 2010). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Tripp, Alili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998; Djibouti.” WIN News, v.25/2 (1999). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Indepedent Scholar

Domestic Violence Domestic violence (DV) occurs in nearly all countries, ethnocultural and socioeconomic groups, and across all ages. Female victims are more likely than men to die at the hands of loved ones. Gender-based violence serves as a reminder that the fight against DV continues, but more women and children are being assisted. There are more services available to assist victims than when the plight of abused women was identified and taken up as a rights issue during the women’s movement of the 1960s. In addition, studies continue to look at how masculine and feminine roles contribute to DV. Statistics gathering continues on an international level but there is a lack of surveillance systems in place to provide accurate estimates of the incidence and prevalence of abuse in more underdeveloped nations. Reliance on studies using shelter populations provides only a partial understanding of the nature and scope of DV. The shame associated with being a victim hinders self-reporting, which is still significant for research. Reported rates of DV vary among countries and within nations, with certain subpopulations, notably aboriginal women reporting disproportionately more DV. There are serious health consequences of DV for women and their children who witness the violence. Services are much more widespread in developed nations and include refined protocols in many sectors. The health sector however, has not advanced much with respect to prevention, however. Terminology DV is widely understood to refer to violence committed against an intimate partner. Numerous other terms are used including wife abuse, woman abuse, spouse abuse, interpersonal violence (IPV), and more recently, interpersonal violence and control (IPVC). DV is widely understood to include more than acts of physical aggression such as pushing, shoving, punching, and hitting; it may be psychological aggression like name calling and demeaning talk. It also may include sexual aggression such as rape, forced pornographic reenactments; economic aggression (e.g., withholding money for essentials); spiritual aggression (e.g., forbidding spiritual practices); or social aggression (e.g., breaking friendships and social ties). It still remains important to be critical of the termi-



nology chosen for any given study or program, or at least to give the definition of one’s term, as domestic violence also can be seen to include any violence that occurs between people who share the domestic or private setting. Partners, parents, children, the elderly, siblings, and others, are named as target groups of the violence. Each of these has generated a different base of academic literature, research traditions, underlying theories and frameworks, and recommendations for treatment or prevention. There are disciplinary differences in how the topics are approached and recommendations for action on policies presented. Thus, one cannot assume that expertise in the area of elder abuse will overlap with expertise in domestic violence against an intimate partner or spouse. From this point on, DV is meant to refer to violence between partners who live together in an intimate relationship. Gender-Based Violence DV is understood by many to be gender based. Sex is a socially constructed binary category of female and male, based on biological characteristics, and is usually assigned at birth. Gender is understood to include the social constructions that shape behaviors, norms and social practices that are believed to distinguish males and females. Gender also may be thought of as a social institution that interacts with other social institutions, such as culture, religion or family. One issue around gender is whether the focus of DV research and activism should be on female victims. One reason for this emphasis is the history of DV. Today’s social movement against DV began with the women’s movement in the 1960s. Although other activists in history had explored the violence that women experienced at the hands of their husbands, before the women’s movement, there was a much greater emphasis on the “appropriate” victim. A sober woman who fulfilled the duties of wife and mother was not appropriate; any other wife may have been seen as at least partially deserving of violence administered by her husband. Feminists understood that debates about appropriate victims were highly gendered; thus, gender was seen as a major explanatory variable in feminist DV theories. The women’s movement linked the violence that females experienced as children, in war, in the workplace, and on the streets to what they experienced in the home. As women’s centers developed—usu-

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ally started by local volunteers to change the status of women in society—calls from desperate women increased and mechanisms were put in place to help victims escape from violent marriages. Although shelters vary in number of beds, length of stay, staffing, and other policies, they generally offer safety and some form of care to women and their children. As the centers proliferated, they became instruments for recording the horrific stories of abuse and for documenting what DV looked like in each community. By the end of the 1990s, a movement began that included many service providers and people not associated with the women’s movement or with feminism. By 2000, networks of shelters and other services existed in most developed countries, but this was not the case in many developing nations. Another area of gender-based controversy is rooted in the underlying theories of violence and whether abuse against women is gender based and linked to patriarchal power at the institutional level. There are many feminist theories regarding DV, but there is generally agreement that DV against women is so extensive and harmful that it is linked to systemic discrimination and the control of females, even if the control is reduced to the individual relationship. Theories from psychology and psychiatry contend that DV is a psychological problem originating in poor impulse control, anger management challenges, or other psychological deficits, including the victim‘s own shortcomings. Others contend that the problem is one of sociobiology and the genetic predispositions of males and females. Still others contend that DV is at least as prevalent in cases where males are the victim and females the perpetrators. Some even contend that a feminist plot exists to hide this fact. As of 2009, the roles of masculine and feminine in generating DV are not well understood and deserve more research. The role of gender in DV is much clearer in some countries where laws do not yet protect women from spousal assault. International Statistics Few countries have surveillance systems that routinely track incidence and prevalence of DV and its consequences. The needed statistics are collected by shelters, including the number of women turned away because beds were unavailable. Other estimates are collected from police and court records. All of these

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provide partial accounts, as many DV women do not use the services available that would fully track victims and incorporate them into the statistics. DV occurs in all socioeconomic groups. There is evidence that women in lower socioeconomic groups are more likely to use shelters and the police, and it is surmised that women in higher socioeconomic groups choose other alternatives to shelters, such as hotels, and use private divorce lawyers without disclosing abuse. Service providers and researchers still report that women feel a sense of shame and embarrassment about their experience. Further hindering accurate estimates is the necessary reliance on self-reporting. These reports are necessary because there are no gold standard assessment tools that determine whether a woman has experienced DV today or in the last year. There also are no

Domestic violence occurs in nearly all countries, and females are more likely than men to die at the hands of loved ones.

set time frames for the abuse that may be relevant in a particular study, without her answering some direct questions. Self-report is impacted both by the shame and reluctance to self-identify. Also, women who have been physically beaten may not attribute the term abuse or violence to that experience. DV rates vary within and between countries, states, provinces, and territories. What is clear, however, is that large numbers of women in every country experience DV. In developed countries, estimates are one in 10 women experience DV in their adult life. In less developed nations, the incidence of DV increases to one in three. Research has found that Aboriginal, First Nations, and American Indian women report much higher rates of DV than other women. This is linked to the experiences of colonialism and disruption of traditional norms and values. Some research indicates that women who immigrate to another country may experience higher rates than nonimmigrants, but this is still inconclusive due to methodological issues. DV is more prevalent in women’s lives than breast cancer, heart disease or traffic deaths. The incidence rate for DV for lesbians and gay men is much lower than it is for couples outside this group, but it is recognized as a problem that does occur and which is complicated by the social discrimination that gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people experience. Research that is not homophobic and is culturally safe has increased, but there is a need for more data and to link theoretical perspectives for improved understanding of DV overall. DV and Health DV has many forms—physical, psychological, spiritual, and social—and ranges in severity. There is a growing tendency to measure the severity in medical terms of observable outcomes, such as, physical injuries such as bruises and broken bones, and psychiatric diagnoses like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Increasingly, research is finding that a history of DV is associated with higher rates of chronic diseases, such as arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, greater rates of illness, and more hospitalizations than among those who do not report abuse. Biological plausibility exists because of the stress hypothesis that the endocrine system is compromised by chronic stress. Many studies in specialty health clinics are finding that a large number



of female patients report experiences of DV, but the etiological role of DV in the disease or in treatment outcomes for the disease is not well understood. Longitudinal studies do not exist that have taken physical measures over time and linked these to the actual experiences of DV; these would be expensive and ethically difficult to conduct. Pregnancy appears to be an especially vulnerable time for women, although readers are cautioned that there is some debate remaining around this topic. It appears that for some victims, DV may begin during pregnancy or that it may worsen at that time. Therefore, pregnant women in particular should be counseled about DV. In some cases, the violence is directed at both the fetus and the woman. DV during pregnancy can have serious consequences for the woman’s physical and mental health and may also result in miscarriage, preterm birth, or low birth weight. DV and Children Recent research has focused on the effects of DV on children who witness the violence. In Canada and the United States, 30 to 40 percent of mothers estimate that their children were present during an event. In countries where homes and habitation norms are much different, there are few if any estimates. While there is still a concern that witnessing DV may indicate that the child has been victimized, the focus has shifted to the psychological consequences for the child both in the short and long term. Problems such as depression and hyperactivity as well as PTSD have been found to be higher in children who witness DV. Such problems are linked to poor school performance, trouble with the law, and other social issues. In the long term, it also is feared that male witnesses will become perpetrators of DV and females will become victims. Research regarding the impact on children remains controversial. However, this has not stopped many jurisdictions from implementing child protection legislation and procedures to protect children who have witness DV. The protection of child witnesses may result in what victims characterize as further victimization by the systems in place to help them. If government agents remove the child from the mother, for instance, she may experience this as punishment for reporting the violence or for being a “bad mother.” In fact, in some places she will be treated overtly as a bad mother.

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Recent research indicates that the systems designed to protect the children often fail to take into consideration the additional risk of violence that the mother experiences from the father when child protection authorities become involved. Furthermore, the child may receive exceptional parenting from the mother (and in some cases the father) and may in fact suffer from the removal and placement in a strange setting. In addition, research has largely ignored the issue of child resiliency and agency across developmental stages. Services In first world countries, shelter services exist in large numbers with more than one shelter available in big urban areas. Still, the reports of long waiting lists persist, and women and children continue to be turned away due to lack of room. Services known as secondand third-stage shelters have been developed, and the shelters providing first point of service have become known as primary stage centers. The suggested length of stay in primary stage will range from a few days to a month or more, though most centers limit the stay to a crisis period of about six weeks. The objective of second stage facilities is to provide a longer period for healing and time for reestablishing a life and a home for the woman and her children. Second-stage centers offer safe havens from a few months to a year or more. Third-stage facilities provide more assisted living programs for longer periods of time than secondstage centers. While the origin of shelters was in the women’s movement and self-help services, shelters in developed countries are no longer established on feminist models of care or understandings of DV. The overall situation of shelters in the third world nations is much the same and varies by the degree of oppression that women experience in the society. Shelters in Afghanistan, for instance, struggle for external financial support and also require armed guards for everyone’s safety, including the staff. Many places around the world have special police units and DV courts designed to make it easier for women to report DV, and to have charges laid against and find protection from their perpetrator. Widespread criticism about the effectiveness of the justice system led to these developments, and research has indicated significant improvements in outcomes for women have resulted. This is not always the case, however. Negative outcomes for the victim, unexpected

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during the policy development stage, may include the victim being jointly charged with abuse of her perpetrator; obstruction, if she allows him to return to the home against court orders; and apprehension of her children. In places where equality rights of women are still in dispute, contacting the police can still result in harassment and more harm for the woman. The health sector continues to be marginally involved in the prevention of DV. Because DV does not fit the same epidemiological model as diseases in terms of clear diagnosis and treatments, some experts have recommended that health professionals not be involved in screening patients for DV. Others argue that the health impacts of DV warrant a role by the health systems that touch so many lives. From a clinical perspective, health professionals should know if DV is causing, complicating, or inhibiting recovery from the conditions they normally treat. Some research shows that victims may not immediately disclose the abuse to a health professional even when asked directly. From a population health perspective, health professionals should play a role in making DV a public issue as opposed to a private one, acknowledging that it has serious health consequences, and providing help and protection when asked. Methodological Issues Accurate numbers on the prevalence of DV depend on a clear and succinct definition of the issue. It is legitimate to study any one of the forms of aggression, or all together. It becomes challenging, however, to develop a basis for comparison; for example, exposure levels may vary: a woman who experiences one instance of psychological abuse may be considered a victim of DV, but so is a woman who has had the same experience reoccurring over several years. The outcomes are unlikely to be the same for these two women, but experts cannot be certain because outcomes also may vary for women based on their resilience and social support. Few longitudinal studies of women who have experienced DV have been conducted but some are presently underway and will appear in future literature. The issue of exposure levels also is important regarding the impact on the children who witness DV. Developmental stages of childhood, the types of abuse observed, the length of time the child was exposed, reactions of the immediate family or of

friends and neighbors, and the type of parenting and relationships experienced should be considered. Ethical issues that may not exist in other research but are raised by ethics review boards in DV research include the safety of the researcher and participant when contact is made; the possibility of disclosure of child abuse that must then be reported to authorities; and perceptions that DV victims are more vulnerable to mental or physical distress that may be precipitated by research and will require professional intervention. The issue of risk for participants who are caught by the perpetrator making disclosures to a researcher is real, as many women have made accounts in shelters of physical violence experienced when she spoke to someone about the abuse. The nature and extent of these risks are obviously impossible to assess experimentally. National surveys, both face-to-face and by telephone, have been developed and implemented meet these concerns. See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Dating Violence; Domestic Violence Centers; Elder Abuse; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Lesbians; Marriage; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Perpetrators, Female; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined; Trafficking, Women and Children; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Ahmad, Farah, et al. “Computer-Assisted Screening for Intimate Partner Violence and Control: A Randomized Trial.” Annals of Internal Medicine, v.151 (2009). Logan, T. K., et al. “Combining Ethical Considerations With Recruitment and Follow-Up Strategies for Partner Violence Victimization Research.” Violence Against Women, v.14/11 (2008). Statistics Canada. “Measuring Violence Against Women: Statistical Trends 2006.” http://www.statcan.ca/english /research/85-570-XIE/85-570-XIE2006001.pdf (accessed November 2009). Tutty, Leslie, et al. “I Built My House of Hope: Best Practices to Safely House Abused and Homeless Women.” Final report to the Homelessness Knowledge Development Program, Homeless Partnering Secretariat, Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Calgary, Canada: RESOLVE Alberta, 2009. World Health Organization. “Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against

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Women.” http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who _multicountry_study/en/index.html (accessed March 2007). Wilfreda E. Thurston University of Calgary

Domestic Violence Centers Domestic violence centers in the United States, specifically domestic violence shelters, are a result of the process of organizing for social change to address the problem of domestic violence. Shelters provide safety and refuge for women, as well as basic needs such as housing and food. In addition, domestic violence centers offer continuing support for victims of violence through casework, advocacy, counseling, and other services. The pervasiveness of domestic violence in the United States is widely documented and is often referred to as intimate partner violence (IPV). Thus, IPV is violence perpetrated by a person’s partner, such as a boyfriend, a spouse, a former intimate partner, or other individual intimate known to the victim. Overall, 25.5 percent of U.S. women are victims of intimate partner violence in their lifetime. IPV is also inclusive of many types of violence. Physical abuse includes physical acts of aggression ranging from slapping to assault with a deadly weapon. Approximately 20-25 percent of adult women in the United States have been physically abused by a male intimate partner in their lifetime. Sexual violence perpetrated by an intimate partner is similarly rampant. In a random sample of 8,000 women from the 50 states and Washington, D.C., 7.7 percent of women reported rape by an intimate partner during their lives. Psychological/emotional violence is any behavior in a relationship that undermines or manipulates a person’s self-esteem, sense of control, or safety, including actions meant to destroy a person’s inner self, imply harm, and undermine a person’s competence. The U.S. Department of Justice defines psychological/emotional violence as actions causing fear by intimidation; threatening physical harm to self, partner, children, or partner’s family or friends; destruction of pets and property; and/or forcing isolation from family, friends, or school or work.

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History In the 1960s and 1970s, as feminist social movements continued to gain momentum in the United States and throughout the world, different organizations chose to focus on eradicating different aspects of inequality. One path led to the domestic violence social movement. Feminist social movement ideologies influenced the missions, activism, and organizational structure of domestic violence programs and organizations. Activism in the domestic violence social movement was rooted in the notion that women’s equality is essential to preserve independence. Activities such as Take Back the Night rallies demonstrate the need for women’s voices and concerns to be recognized and respected in the public eye. In terms of organizational structure, the feminist ideology stressed the democratic, participatory, and interactional forces of a collective group working to achieve a common goal. By the 1970s, women’s organizations were seeking to broaden their scope to redress violence against women. Feminist organizations argued that the U.S. legal system did not provide adequate support for women who were victims of rape or sexual assault, and they responded to this deficiency by lobbying for changes in the law, organizing self-defense training for women, and establishing hotline and medical advocacy services to support victims of sexual assault. In addition, the antiviolence against women movement also had to redefine rape as a “social problem” that warranted the public’s attention. In later years, sexual assault organizations expanded their scope to include advocacy services for victim survivors. Shortly after establishing organizations to respond to sexual assault, domestic violence centers began to emerge. Early in the domestic violence social movement, emergency shelters engaged in consciousnessraising about the systemic roots of male violence and often victim survivors worked as advocates. The first shelter opened in England in 1971 as an advice center for women about their marriages and soon the center focused on the issue of spouse abuse. In 1973, Women’s Advocates in St. Paul, Minnesota, opened a women’s shelter that grew out of a consciousness-raising group focused on violence and abuse against women and girls. Considered the first formal women’s shelter in the United States, it began as an apartment that doubled as staff offices. By 1974, Women’s Advocates

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raised enough money to open a five-bedroom women’s shelter. That same year, a Latina-run organization in Boston, Massachusetts, opened Casa Myma Vasquez to provide women’s shelter services to Latina women affected by violence against women. At the national level, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) formed in 1978 with the goal of uniting women working with women’s shelters. By 1979, over 250 shelters were operating in the United States. Throughout the early 1980s, organizing and advocacy for victims of domestic violence continued to surge. In 1980, the NCADV organized its first conference, which was attended by 600 women from 49 states. In 1981, nearly 500 battered women’s shelters were operating in the United States. In California, Everywomen’s Shelter was opened by a Filipina domestic violence survivor, establishing the first shelter for Asian women in the United States. The NCADV held its second national conference in 1982, where the Battered/Formerly Battered Women’s Task Force and the Child Advocacy Task Force were established. By 1983, over 700 domestic violence shelter programs were operating in the United States, reporting that 91,000 women and 131,000 children received services each year. Themes and Debates The antiviolence against women movement has emerged in a variety of forms across the globe. In the late 1990s, the framing of the domestic violence social movement broadened to include a diverse array of social practices that qualify as violence against women—from wife beating to female genital mutilation. Although the antiviolence against women movement is diverse, common ground includes the notion that women’s rights (to safety, from abuse, from sexual assault, etc.) are human rights and that violence against women is a public health issue. Thus, domestic violence centers respond to a variety of forms of violence against women as defined by different societies across the globe. Notably, the antiviolence against women movement in developing nations was originally funded by foundations and organizations in the first world. This pattern has led to a number of scholarly critiques that argue this practice contributes to the co-optation of women’s issues in the so-called third world by people and organizations operating from the first world. The

tension between the first world and third world has given rise to debates within feminist and women’s studies, and more important for domestic violence centers, this forces frontline workers to broaden their perspective of violence against women and seek to empower and advocate for women within their social context and environment. Furthermore, while the problem of domestic violence or violence against women continues today, it is exacerbated by contemporary problems and trends that are causing domestic violence organizations to shift their practices. For example, in the 1970s, domestic violence organizations started turning to outside sponsors for support of services and programs after historically providing support through individuals. Government and sponsor expectations of professional service provision and the demands of ensuring sustainability forced many organizations to shift their structure. The result was that formerly freestanding domestic violence centers joined with other social services agencies, such as local Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) centers, hospitals, and district attorney’s offices. This caused domestic violence organizations to change or adapt their missions and ideologies in a way that may have departed from the original vision of early antiviolence against women activists. Some feminist scholars associate the collision of domestic violence centers and mother agencies with the demand for increased professionalization and accountability to donors, which is criticized as stalling the movement to end violence against women. Women’s Centers Today Mounting national attention to the issue of domestic violence and the quantity of services supported lobbyists’ efforts to rally for national legislation to support funding for domestic violence programs. In 1984, Congress passed the Family Violence Prevention Services Act to provide funds designated for programs serving domestic violence victims and their children. Increases in service provision nationwide continued to increase, with over 310,000 women and children receiving advocacy services in 1986. In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as part of the federal Crime Bill. VAWA funds services for domestic violence and rape victims and for training police and court officials about domestic violence. Finally, VAWA funding allowed President Bill Clinton

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to announce a new national 24-hour toll-free hotline in 1996. The momentum continues to build, and in 2008, 2,031 domestic violence shelter programs were listed by NCADV as operating in the United States. See Also: Domestic Violence; Global Feminism; Rape Crisis Centers; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Edleson, Jeffrey L., et al., eds. Sourcebook on Violence Against Women. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000. Ferree, Myra Marx and Beth B. Hess. Controversy and Coalition: The New Feminist Movement Across Four Decades of Change. New York: Routledge, 2000. Hemment, Julie. “Global Civil Society and the Local Costs of Belonging: Defining Violence Against Women in Russia.” Signs, v.29/3 (2004). Schechter, Susan. Women and Male Violence: The Visions and Struggles of the Battered Women’s Movement. Boston: South End Press, 1982. Tjaden, Patricia and Nancy Thoennes. Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence: Research Report. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000. Jennifer R. Wies Xavier University

Domestic Workers Domestic work has been a constant part of millions of women’s lives around the world. This is especially true for low-status females. Female subjugation, slavery, colonialism, and other forms of servitude, have always been features of this work. In contemporary society, care work at home is vital for the wider economy. Expanding economies during the last 20 years created an increase in demand for care work. The use of women in the labor force, aging of societies, and the failure of public policy and legal frameworks to ensure a harmony between family life and work reinforces societal need for domestic workers. Domestic work is carried out within the family, by family members or by other people outside of relatives. Although there is no fundamental distinction

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between work in and outside the home, and no simple definition of public–private, home–workplace and employer–employee, family members, including children are not regarded as domestic workers/employees. Their labor has not been recognized as “real work” by lawmakers and society at large. However, someone who is outside of the employer’s immediate family and paid for his/her work is a domestic worker. A domestic worker is defined as any person working under an employment contract to provide a variety of household services within the employer’s home for wages. A domestic worker’s employment contract embraces the elements of work, wage and dependence on an employer personally and economically. A contract of employment is often assumed to be a clear sign of a formalized relationship and taken for granted in labor legislation. However, in many countries, the ability to establish an employment relationship is deemed sufficient and the employment contract might be in writing or verbal. A written employment contract is an important vehicle to overcome challenges to the existence of an employment relationship and its agreed terms. Written contracts are often required when domestic workers cross national borders to work. Article 5 of Annex I and Article 6 of Annex II of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), provide that an employment contract is one of the documents that should be given to migrant workers prior to their departure. Domestics may live at their own home or employer’s house as live-in workers. They can work full time or part time and work regularly or occasionally according to an agreed schedule, which might be hourly, half day, full day, weekly, or monthly. Some of the specific occupational categories of domestic workers are cook, childminder/nanny/ governess/child’s nurse, gardener, laundry personnel, washerwoman, ironing personnel, driver/chauffeur of vehicle for private use, household employee/ housekeeper/house-servant/maid/“boy,” elder caregiver, caregiver to the disabled or infirmed. Also on this list are night attendants, porters, valets, rural domestic workers/farm workers, “au pairs” apprentices, and student babysitters, including occasional/ casual/short-term babysitters/caregivers. Domestic work illustrates the roles of gender, class and ethnicity in placing domestic service at

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the bottom of the employment ladder. The literature reviewed points to the fact that domestic service has remained an activity performed by disadvantaged social groups of society. Since globalization has brought changes in the migration process, which is no longer male dominated, as women in large numbers from developing countries are migrating to developed countries in search of work, the domestic work industry is now dominated by immigrant women. On the other hand, child domestic workers are a familiar sight in most developing countries. This class of worker is defined as people under the age of 18 who work in households of people other than their closest family. Ninety percent of child domestic workers are girls. They comprise the largest population of migrant working children, and they often work in conditions that can be considered among the worst forms of child labor under the ILO’s Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention 1999 (No.182). Today, domestic workers comprise a large portion of the workforce, especially in developing countries, and their number has also been increasing in the industrialized world. Data on the number of domestic workers throughout the world are hard to collect. Therefore, the number of domestic workers worldwide is not known. However, it is estimated that in many countries, domestic workers form a major part of the informal workforce and up to 10 percent of the total workforce. Working Conditions of Domestic Workers Domestic workers are isolated and invisible to regulators, which results in the failure of regulations to protect them. Domestic workers are forced to negotiate conditions one-on-one with employers. They have no control over living or working conditions. Domestic work is not recognized as regular employment protected by the general labor law framework. As a result, domestic work is not specifically included in governmental legislation. Where domestic work is legislated, enforcement is often problematic, thus rendering domestic workers vulnerable to unequal, unfair and often abusive treatment. Domestic workers, especially live-ins, work long hours. They do not have adequate rest periods. Working hours of domestics, especially live-in workers, is the subject of considerable debate and analysis. For example, Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC of the

European Parliament and the Council of the European Union now permits a derogation for “family workers . . . in respect of periods of daily rest, breaks, weekly rest, maximum weekly working time, annual leave and aspects of night work, shift work and patterns of work . . . when, on account of the specific characteristics of the activity concerned, the duration of the working time is not measured and/or predetermined or can be determined by the workers themselves.” Due account is taken “of the principles of the ILO with regard to the organization of working time, including those relating to night work [and of ] . . . the general principles of the protection of the safety and health of workers.” However, the European Court of Justice has paid close attention to the qualitative difference between expecting a worker to be permanently accessible but not necessarily present” (i.e., on standby) and being available at a place determined by the employer for the entire period of on-call duty, to ensure that the weaker party in the contractual relationship is guaranteed predictable and adequate rest. Domestic workers are subjected to low wages and irregular salary compensation. They are forced to accept payment in kind, to eat low quality of food and to live in poor accommodation. They work within an environment of multiple discrimination with poor work conditions, sexual, physical, and psychological harassment. They have inadequate or no social or job security, and rely on exploitive employment agencies. They are not covered by occupational safety and health legislation. Domestic workers have limited access to the kind of measures and protection that could ensure them safe and healthy pregnancies and births, a replacement income when they are on maternity leave and the right to return to their jobs. Despite legal and contractual entitlements to maternity protection in many countries, pregnancies often cause the dismissal of the worker. International migrant domestic workers also are vulnerable to extreme forms of abuse such as forced labor, slavery and slave-like conditions, and human trafficking. The European Court of Human Rights in its landmark decision, Siliadin v. France, identified a violation of the forced labor and servitude provisions of Article 4 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and concluded that there is a positive obligation on the part of



the state to ensure that criminal legislation exists providing domestic workers with practical and effective protection within the criminal and civil justice system. The Council of Europe also has issued two recent recommendations. Recommendation 1523 (2001) on domestic slavery advocates giving accurate information about the risks of working abroad to domestic workers and others when permits are requested, such as at embassies, and avoiding all gender discrimination in the issuing of work permits to domestic workers. Recommendation 1663 (2004) on domestic slavery servitude, au pairs and “mail-order brides” calls, inter alia, for the urgent drafting of a charter of rights for domestic workers; the right for migrants to an immigration status independent of any employer; and the right of recognition of qualifications, training and experience obtained in the host country. It also recommends an accreditation system for agencies placing domestic workers. When many domestic workers lose their employment, they also lose resident status under the labor migration schemes of many countries. The ILO’s Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143), addresses this situation by providing that migrant workers, who are lawfully residing in the territory for employment and who may lose their job prematurely, should not be considered to be in an irregular situation. This means that their residence permit should not be revoked at the time of the loss of their employment. On the other hand, child domestic work involves exploitation and hazardous working conditions. Many child domestics are found in very exploitive, slave-like conditions. Not only are these children forced to work long, hard hours, they are at increased risk of sexual abuse and being trafficked within and across borders. They are deprived of education and play and often see their basic health and nutrition needs ignored. Their well-being is entirely dependent on the whims of their employers. Trade Unions and Domestic Workers Freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively are fundamental workers’ rights, which are guaranteed under the ILO’s Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98). Around the

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world, domestic workers demonstrate their awareness of their status as employees and claim these fundamental rights by organizing collectively to improve their working conditions and to earn respect. Despite obstacles to unionization and collective bargaining, unions in various parts of the world have created information centers for migrant workers, including domestic workers. Domestic workers have become a political concern of the international and European trade union movement, including the International Trade Union Confederation, the International Union of Food Workers, the European Trade Union Confederation, and many national trade unions. This increases the possibility of cooperation with domestic workers organizations. Trade unions have played an important role in developing domestic workers’ rights. ILO and a Legislative Framework for Domestic Workers Improving the conditions of domestic workers has been an ILO concern since its early days. As early as 1948, the ILO adopted a resolution concerning the conditions of employment of domestic workers. In 1965, it adopted a resolution calling for normative action in this area, while in 1970 the first survey ever published on the status of domestic workers across the world made its appearance. Resolution concerning the conditions of employment of domestic workers of 1965 recognizes the “urgent need” to establish minimum living standards “compatible with the self-respect and human dignity, which are essential to social justice” for domestic workers in both developed and developing countries. At its 301st Session the ILO Governing Body, which met in Geneva March 6–20, 2008, it was decided that domestic workers should be placed on the agenda of the 99th Session of the International Labour Conference in 2010 with a view to developing an ILO Convention and Recommendation. Therefore, during 2010, the ILO was working on the process of adopting a new minimum labor standard for domestic workers that could possibly lead to a new specific Domestic Workers Convention. See Also: Child Labor; Homemakers and Social Security; Migrant Workers; Sexual Harassment; Trafficking, Women and Children.

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Further Readings Chamoux, A. Fauve, ed. Domestic Service and the Formation of European Identity: Understanding the Globalization of Domestic Work, 16th–21st Centuries. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2004. Cullen, H. “Siliadin v France: Positive Obligations Under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.” Human Rights Law Review, v.6/3 (2006). December 18.net. “Human Rights for Domestic Workers,” http://www.december18.net/article/human-rights -domestic-workers (accessed January 2010). International Labour Conference. Decent Work for Domestic Workers, 99th Session, 2010, Report IV(1). Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, 2010. International Labour Organization. “The Employment and Conditions of Domestic Workers in Private Households: An ILO Survey.” International Labour Review, (October 1970). International Labour Organization. Migrant Workers. Report III (Part 1B) (General Survey), ILC, 87th Session. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, 1999. Momsen, J. Henshall, ed. Gender, Migration and Domestic Service. London: Routledge, 1999. K. Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Dominica Dominica is a small (751 square kilometer) island nation in the Caribbean Sea, which became independent of France in 1978. The population of 72,660 (estimated as of July 2009) is primarily black (86.8 percent) with the largest minorities being mixed-race persons (8.9 percent) and Carib Indians (2.9 percent). Roman Catholicism is the most common religion (61.4 percent) with several other Christian sects (about 29 percent total) represented as well as Rastafarian (1.3 percent). Dominicans enjoy long life expectancies of 76 years for women and 71 years for men. Literacy is equal for men and woman at 94 percent. Agriculture was traditionally the mainstay of the economy although recently the tourism industry has played an important role. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was $10,200 in 2009 and 30 percent of the population live below the poverty line. Women constitute

about 40 percent of the nonagricultural work force and 64.6 percent of the part-time labor force. Maternal and child healthcare has been steadily improving in Dominica, as evidence by a drop of over 8 percent in under age 5 mortality between 1990 and 2003. Childhood immunization rates are high and 100 percent of births are attended by skilled healthcare personnel and 100 percent of women receive at least four prenatal care visits. The total fertility is 1.8 children per woman. Abortion is legal in Dominica only to save the mother’s life, but contraceptive use is legal and almost 50 percent of women report using modern methods of contraception. Women in Politics and the Arts Women have played important roles in Dominican politics since the mid-20th century. Phyllis Shand Allfrey served as government minister from 1958 to 1962 when Dominica was part of the Federation of West Indies. Mabel Moir James was the first woman minister in Dominica after the federation dissolved, serving as Minister of Home Affairs from 1967 to 1970. Dame Mary Eugenia Charles became prime minister in 1980 and held that position for 15 years; she was the second female prime minister in the Caribbean and the first to serve a full term. As of 2007, women held 13 percent of seats in the national parliament. A Women’s Bureau was established in 1979 (originally called the Women’s Desk) to report on matters of gender equality, domestic violence (a major concern at the time), and the like. The novelist Jean Rhys was born in Dominica and many of her novels including the award-winning Wide Sargasso Sea recall her Caribbean childhood while also dealing with political themes including inequality and assimilation. The folklorist Mabel Alice Caudeiron was a leader of Creole nationalism (the elite of Dominica looked down on the language). She organized National Day celebrations in Dominica while the country was still a French colony, composed Creole songs, and helped spark a revival of interest in Dominican music and traditional dress. See Also: Domestic Violence; Novelists, Female; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Allport, Ruth. “Presentation of the Commonwealth of Dominica, United Nations Committee on the

Dominican Republic

Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.” http:// www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/statement /DominicaStat_43.pdf (accessed February 2010). Honeychurch, Lennox. “A to Z of Dominica Heritage.” http://www.lennoxhonychurch.com/heritage.cfm (accessed February 2010). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is located with Haiti on Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean, and has a population of 9.76 million and an annual growth of 1.5 percent. Almost half of the population

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live in rural areas and many are landholders; however, increasing shifts in migration because of the development of tourism and industrial free-trade zones patterns has resulted in many moving to urban areas. There are 3.896 million people working mainly in agriculture (17 percent), industry (24.3 percent), and service (58.7 percent). The unemployment rate is 17 percent. The lives of women are affected by social, cultural, and political traditions, and sex roles are clearly defined, ����������������������������������������� promoting patriarchy at work and matriarchy in the home. Fathers are the head of families and women are responsible for the home and childbearing. Social practices are deep rooted in a conservative Roman Catholic religious heritage and this affects women’s ability to make autonomous decisions about their lives. For example, women are expected to remain in the household until marriage. There has been an increase in the number of working women in the past 20 years and they now represent 40.86 percent of the economically active population

A woman and her granddaughter wait in a remodeled hospital waiting room in Ramón Santana, Dominican Republic. Fourteen Dominican hospitals received assistance from USAID, which included updated their record-keeping systems and training their staff.

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with approximately 42 percent of households having a woman working in market production. However, inequalities still affect them; for example, while women represent 51 percent of professional and technical workers, they earn 30 percent less than men. Lack of Educational Opportunities, Prostitution, and Domestic Violence Three main issues affecting the lives of women are lack of access to education, prostitution, and domestic violence. Women have been disproportionately absent from education and this problem can be traced to childhood. From a young age, girls are expected to help with household chores and this at times means they attend school sporadically or not at all; others become economically active as early as 10 to 14 years old. As a result, many women enter the informal economy, with no prospect of educational attainment and remain with limited financial independence throughout their lives. This situation is closely linked with prostitution, which has developed as a side activity linked to tourism. Prostitution is legal in the country and statistics suggest that the sex trade is not only an increasing activity within the country but the Dominican Republic is the fourth largest exporter of female sex workers in the world after Thailand, Brazil, and the Philippines. The country is a source for trafficked women and to a lesser extent for young girls. Domestic violence against women is also a major problem, particularly attacks of a sexual nature; police records show that on average there are 20 sexual attacks every 24 hours, most of which are against women and in 80 percent of cases are against children. Legislation and support networks for Dominican women are insufficient and their physical integrity is not protected. Institutions have been created to deal with different issues, yet the lack of institutionalisation and the conflicting role of social institutions and culture perpetuate women’s subordination. For example, the Catholic Church has successfully advocated against legalizing any form of abortion, which continues to put the lives of girls and women at risk. Nongovernmental organizations and women’s groups play a fundamental role in advocating for social and political change. See Also: Domestic Violence; Educational Opportunities/Access; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children.

Further Readings Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: Dominican Republic.” New York: CEDAW, 2003. Liberato, A. S. Q. and D. Fennell. “Gender and Well-Being in the Dominican Republic: The Impact of Free Trade Zone Employment and Female Headship.” World Development, v.35/3 (2007). Morgan, J., R. Espinal, and J. Hartlyn. “Gender Politics in the Dominican Republic: Advances for Women, Ambivalence From Men.” Politics & Gender, v.4 (2008). Jenny K. Rodriguez University of Strathclyde

Dora the Explorer Dora the Explorer is an American animated television series for preschoolers. The series is the top-rated preschool program on commercial television in the United States. The pilot episode for Dora the Explorer aired in 1999; it became regular programming in August 2000 on Nick Jr., and was simultaneously released in 22 Latin American countries. The main character of the 30-minute show is the 7-year-old Latina Dora Marquez, accompanied by her sidekick, Boots the Monkey. In each episode, Dora solves puzzles and problems with the help of Map and Backpack in a magical world of jungles, beaches, and rainforests. The setting has vaguely Latin American features. Most episodes follow a similar pattern. They begin with Dora greeting the audience in Spanish or English. The protagonists then encounter a task to be accomplished or a problem to be solved. With the help of Map, they find their way, and with the help of Backpack they obtain the necessary objects to complete the task or solve the problem. During their quests, Dora and Boots encounter animal characters, including the antagonist Swiper the Fox, who is the only character who does not speak any Spanish. Dora the Explorer claims to teach children basic Spanish words and phrases, as well as mathematics, music skills, and physical coordination, and to

Doulas



develop their analytical thinking and problem-solving skills. According to the show’s creators, the use of Spanish on the show introduces non-Spanish speaking children to a foreign language at a critical period for language learning. The languages used on the show change from one country to another. In the Serbian version, the bilingualism also involves Spanish, but in most versions, including Dutch, German, French, Korean, Japanese, and Swedish, the bilingualism is with English. In some versions, such as the Turkish one, there is trilinguism with English and Spanish. Although the educational and multicultural aspects of the series, created with the help of panels of educators, researchers, and cultural consultants, are often highly praised, there have also been criticisms. The show has been criticized for presenting a generic Latino type with a visual and linguistic representation that glosses over differences of national origin, class, and race among U.S. Latinos and Latin Americans. It has also been argued that the show teaches Spanish to young viewers in a purely instrumental manner, without linking it to ideas about any Latino culture. A study by S. Calvert et al. indicates that girls and white children are more likely to self-identify with Dora than boys and Hispanic children, respectively. This may support the view that the bicultural elements on the show are not strong. The show has been an international marketing success. Dora the Explorer merchandise, including toys such as action figures, plush dolls, board games and play sets, books, DVDs, video games, stationery, and apparel, are distributed globally and enjoy high marketing rates. In 2009, Mattel announced that Dora would undergo a makeover, and they were going to introduce a tween Dora. The news caused a stir among parents and child development experts, who perceived Dora the Explorer as a positive role model for girls and worried that the character might lose these qualities. What was introduced in the end was the Dora Links Website, featuring games, e-books, online shopping, and an online interactive doll that do not conflict with the Dora image. See Also: Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Anime, Toys, Gender-Stereotypic. Further Readings Berggreen, Shu-Ling C. and Katalin Lustyik. “Lilo vs. Dora: Interculturalism Through the Lens of Disney

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and Nickelodeon.” Second Global Conference of Interculturalism: Exploring Critical Issues, December 2–4, 2004, Vienna, Austria. Calvert, Sandra L., et al. “Interaction and Participation for Young Hispanic and Caucasian Girls’ and Boys’ Learning of Media Content.” Media Psychology, v.9/2 (2010). Casanova, Erynn Masi de. “Spanish Language and Latino Ethnicity in Children’s Television Programs.” Biculturalism, Self Identity and Societal Transformation Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, v.15 (2008). Rustem Ertug Altinay New York University

Doulas Traditionally, a doula was a woman who assisted in childbirth and aftercare. Doula, a term coined in 1976 by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael, originally referred to an experienced mother who assisted new mothers, particularly with breastfeeding and newborn care. Today, doulas, who may or may not have given birth, provide nonclinical, nonmedical physical, emotional, and informational support and advocacy for women before, during, and after childbirth, at home and in hospital. This care work is often referred to as “mothering the mother.” Women have always participated in childbirth; however, when hospital birth, presided over by male physicians with the assistance of female nurses, became the standard practice, lay support during childbirth was not allowed or welcomed. The work of doulas is growing internationally. Childbirth International, an organization that trains doulas in 68 countries, reports that the work of the doula in areas new to doula care includes informing local caregivers and pregnant women about the doula role as well as about less interventionist, more natural childbirth practices. Trainers are required to provide a culturally informed perspective in their training of doulas and in their advocacy for increasing doula participation in these areas. Within a social model of childbirth, prior to maledominated obstetrics, women gave birth at home with the assistance of female family members and friends, as well as from midwives. After birth, these women offered continued support to the new mother. This

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is still the case in locations where medical assistance for childbirth is inaccessible. In the early 20th century, with a growing dominance by medicine, a medical model of childbirth, managed by male physicians, replaced the female-assisted social model of childbirth. As a reaction to the intensification of medical technology and intervention, and depersonalization during pregnancy and childbirth, in the 1980s, childbearing women began seeking out other women for social and emotional support. Also around that time, midwifery became increasingly regulated and medicalized, further contributing to the demand for lay support from other women in and around the time of childbirth. Techniques and Practices Doulas, whether formally trained or not, use a variety of techniques, such as massage, acupressure, position changes, movement, patterned breathing, imagery, and encouragement to soothe and relax the birthing woman. Such techniques have been shown to have positive benefits for mother and baby, including shorter labor, reduced rates of intervention and caesarean births, fewer complications, higher birth scores for newborns, improved mother–child bonding, and more successful breastfeeding. Doulas also interpret medical terminology into lay terms for women and their partners. If a woman’s partner is present during the labor and delivery, the doula encourages verbal and tactile communication between the woman and her partner. As well, the doula may relieve the partner for respite by providing the woman with continuous presence and care. If no partner or other support person is present during labor and birth, the doula acts as the general birth coach. Some doulas are engaged throughout the pregnancy and through the newborn period, some act as lactation consultants only, while others participate only at birth. While doulas may be laywomen without certification, the birthing woman may hire professionally trained doulas. The work of doulas has been shown to be so beneficial that some hospitals now employ certified birth doulas so women who do not have other support or who cannot afford to hire a doula can take advantage of their support. The carework of doulas has also extended from birth to death. Death doulas, or companions in dying, provide comfort and support through that transition.

See Also: Caesarean Section, Rates of; Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural; Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital; Childbirth, Medication in; Postpartum Depression; Reproductive Rights. Further Readings Davis-Floyd, Robbie. Birth Models That Work. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. DONA International. http://www.dona.org (accessed November 2009). Klaus, Marshall H. The Doula Book. New York: Perseus Books, 2002. Deborah Davidson York University

Drag Kings A drag king is an individual who is female-bodied yet dresses and acts in manners that are traditionally associated with males, generally for the purpose of entertainment. Performance is a key component. Drag kings differ from cross dressers in that the male persona and clothing are generally adopted as part of an act, and are not used as fetishes. Less wide spread than drag queen acts, drag kings have recently become more popular, and there are now drag king contests in a number of countries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term drag king first appeared in print in 1972, meaning a “woman masquerading as a man.” Since then, however, the term has generally been reserved for women performing as men, rather than living as one. Although women who performed in this manner would not have self-identified as drag kings in the past, the phenomenon must be placed in historical context. English Restoration (post 1660 c.e.) theater performances often featured “roaring girls,” female actors dressed in breeches who played male parts. This practice continued into the 19th century in both Britain and the United States. Later, this style would be adopted by some of the early-20th-century blues singers, such as Gladys Bentley, who performed in tuxedoes, and would extend to the impersonation performances in Hollywood and New York, such as the Jewel Box Revue.



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constructed through society and interpersonal interactions. Transgender individuals claim these women demonstrate that shifting gender identities have existed throughout time.

Fudgie Frottage, San Francisco performer and producer of the world’s longest-running drag king contest.

Aside from actors, other artists also performed masculinity. One such artist was the writer George Sand, who created a male persona for her writing, but lived life more generally as a woman. On the other hand, the painter Rosa Bonheur adopted male clothing and lived with women, but still maintained a female identity. Although not drag kings per se, women such as these contribute to the rich history of the tradition of male impersonation. Some infamous women chose to live life entirely as men, though history recognizes them as biologically female. These individuals include Dr. James Barry, a contemporary of Florence Nightingale, and the pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read, who sailed the Caribbean. Theorists debate what these historical performances mean. Many believe they present proof that gender roles are not inborn or essential, but rather are

Today’s Drag Kings Regardless of sexuality, drag kings are women who perform as men, which is different than the lesbian “butch” performance where a woman dresses in masculine clothes. Drag kings, like drag queens, understand that they are performing a parody of the opposite biological sex. Drag kings lack the immediately identifiable models that drag queens enjoy. Marilyn Monroe, Cher, and Liza Minnelli all provide instant connections for many drag queens; there are no similar male counterparts for drag kings to emulate. Many choose wellknown performers such as Wayne Newton or Elvis Presley, yet many choose simply to create a unique male persona. Whomever they imitate, however, many drag king performances have certain features in common. Most bind their breasts to achieve a masculine torso, “stuff ” the front of their trousers, and apply some sort of facial hair. Just as drag queens emphasize breasts, legs, and makeup in exaggerate and highlight femininity, the drag kings focus on the most identifiable portions of male anatomy to achieve their masquerade. Drag kings have grown in popularity since the 1990s, and some, such as Mildred Gerestant, are now widely recognized. Some have been broadly lauded, as drag kings shows are often racially integrated and can provide important social commentary. For instance, in the early 2000s, some drag kings took on the issues of domestic violence and aggressive masculinity to teach women about men. The largest yearly performance is the International Drag King Community Extravaganza (IDKE), which is hosted by a different city each year, and features performers from the United States, Canada, and Europe. The largest drag king contest takes place in San Francisco each year. See Also: Body Image; Dykes on Bikes; “Femininity,” Social Construction of. Further Readings Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety. New York: HarperPerennial, 1992.

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Halberstam, Judith and Del LaGrace. The Drag King Book. London: Serpent’s Tail, 1999. Pauliny, Tara. “Erotic Arguments and Persuasive Acts: Discourses of Desire and the Rhetoric of Female-to -Male Drag.” Journal of Homosexuality, v.43 (2002). Toone, Anderson. “The Drag King Timeline.” http:// andersontoone.com/timeline/dktimeline.html (accessed December 2009) Michelle M. Sauer University of North Dakota

Drif-Bitat, Zohra Zohra Drif-Bitat is a retired lawyer and long-time member of the Algerian senate, but she is best known for her participation in the armed wing of the Islamic Algerian nationalist movement of the 1950s. Although many, particularly the French far right, still view her as a terrorist, it is a label she rejects. She is unapologetic for the role she and her companions played in the so-called Café Wars, insisting that the National Liberation Front (FLN) was an organization of freedom fighters determined to deliver Algeria from French tyranny. In the 1950s, young Zohra Drif, the daughter of a respected Islamic judge, was living with her family in Algiers, the capital city of what was then French-occupied Algeria. Nationalism had been on the increase in Algeria since the post–World War I era, and by 1954, the FLN had emerged as the strongest of the native Islamic Algerian nationalist parties. As a high school student, Drif had learned of the massacre of Algerian demonstrators in Sétif at the end of World War II, when an estimated 45,000 deaths/injuries occurred— an incident that many historians consider a main cause of the Algerian war of independence. By the time she was a first-year law student at Algiers University, the guillotining of Ahmed Zabane and Abelkader Ferradj, two FNL members, in Barberousse Prison had radicalized her. Drif joined the FLN’s underground network in 1955. She says that she made a conscious choice of violence in 1956 because political response to French violence had proved ineffective. The FLN, whose activities had been mostly guerrilla tactics in the countryside, decided in 1956 to

extend the conflict to urban areas and to call a nationwide general strike timed to coincide with the United Nations’ consideration of the Algerian situation. The opening attack in the new campaign was to be the Battle of Algiers, which would begin with three women placing bombs at three carefully selected sites, including the downtown office of Air France. One of the three women was Zohra Drif. The 20-year-old Drif was not only beautiful, but also possessed European features—a fact that meant she could blend undetected among the French residents of Algeria. On September 30, 1956, Drif and the other two women involved in the attack removed their veils, dyed and cut their hair, and disguised themselves in the summer dresses worn by European women. The disguises allowed them to pass through military checkpoints to complete their mission. Drif entered the Milk Bar, a popular gathering spot for Europeans returning from a day at the beach. On this Sunday, it was filled with mothers with their children. Drif pushed her bomb-laden beach bag under a chair, paid her check, and left. Within minutes, the scene literally shattered, with shards from the heavy glass walls proving lethal. Three people were dead and more than 50 were injured—a dozen of them with amputated limbs. The bombing captured international media attention and called the world’s attention to the war in Algeria, fulfilling the FLN goal of internationalizing their struggle. Over the next months, the FLN continued its campaign. Authorities were determined to crush those they deemed terrorists, and one act of terror was countered with another. The FLN proved they could strike targets even in the French stronghold of Algiers, Moreover, their appeal to urban Muslims was demonstrably strengthening, and the brutality and torture used by the army was creating doubts in France itself about the French role in Algiers. The following year, in early October, Saadi Yacef, the undisputed leader of the FLN’s armed wing, was captured. With him was his girlfriend, Zohra Drif. Their arrest marked the end of the Battle of Algiers. Drif was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor, to be followed by execution at the hands of the military tribunal of Algiers. During her time in Barberousse Prison, the site of the Zabane-Ferradj guillotining that had served as the catalyst for her revolutionary activities, Drif wrote a 20-page treatise, “The Death

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of My Brothers.” She served five years of her sentence before she was pardoned by French president Charles de Gaulle upon Algeria’s receiving its independence. Still a young woman when she was pardoned, Drif completed law school and began a law practice. In 1962, she married Rabah Bitat, one of the cofounders of the FLN. The couple, who had three children, became important figures in political circles, both serving in the Algerian legislative body. Rabah Bitat died in 2000. Zohra Drif-Bitat continued to serve as a senator and to define her past as the necessary actions of a resistance fighter. She is said to be a close friend of Algeria’s president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was elected to a third term in 2009. See Also: Algeria; Islam; Terrorists, Female. Further Readings Horne, Alistair. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954– 1962. New York: New York Review Books, 2006. Minne, Danièle Djamila Amrane. “Women at War.” Interventions: The International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, v. 9/3 (2007). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Drought Drought is a condition characterized by a lack of precipitation, leading to a shortage of available water for extended periods of time. Although it is an environmental condition, drought has considerable social significance, as human communities rely on consistent access to water for life. Ecological, political, and social factors contribute to droughts and to climate change, which is widely expected to contribute to a rise in droughts in certain regions. Drought may contribute to environmental degradation, political conflicts, and social inequality, affecting environmental quality, political stability, economic livelihoods, food security, and health, and in extreme cases, causing famine. The intensity and breadth of the social consequences of drought are experienced differently based on class and gender, among other social factors. For example, drought may compound poverty and exac-

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erbate existing inequalities, such as gender inequality. Drought is a women’s issue, as the cumulative effect of poverty and gender inequality make women vulnerable to the social consequences of drought. Consequences can include increased burdens on women’s time to locate sources of water, decreased access to financial and other resources that before increasingly scarce within households if water is inadequate or must be purchased (food, clothing, etc.), and pressure to obtain financial and other resources through strategies that may be risky or insecure, such as migrating for work or prostitution. Two major recent and ongoing droughts have occurred, one in southern Africa and one in East Africa. Similar to other natural and social disasters, drought intersects with social relations and may contribute to conflict over resources and exacerbate inequalities, such as gender inequality. Women are more likely to live in poverty, and female-headed households are especially at risk of impoverishment. In some estimates, women make up 70 percent of the world’s poor population. Gender inequality often contributes to women having less access to decision-making positions in society and fewer economic, political, and social resources. Although women are often the primary farmers, they are less likely to be the legal owners of land and, in many countries, have been historically excluded from land ownership. Gender discrimination and patriarchy render women—particularly poor women—vulnerable to increased poverty, food insecurity, and greater inequality, especially in times of drought. Periods of drought can increase household workloads as women search for replacement water or food sources and alternative economic strategies to supplement agriculture or livestock management. These labor burdens are differentially absorbed across households and within households. Poorer families are less able to absorb the burdens of declining economic conditions and increased household labor demands. Within households, women and girls are more likely to work harder to maintain their households during periods of drought. In many parts of the world, women and girls are responsible for household maintenance, including collecting water for their family and responsibilities that rely on water such as cooking, laundry, cleaning, and childcare. When water is locally unavailable or scarce, women and girls often

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absorb the additional labor of seeking out sources of water or accessing the limited available water. Drought negatively affects agricultural productivity, which can affect women in multiple ways. In lessdeveloped countries, women are the primary farmers and food producers in communities relying on smallscale agriculture. In times of drought, women may be responsible for farming under difficult conditions, working harder to produce food for their families or crops for sale. Extended declines in agricultural production or livestock management may lead to malnutrition or nutritional deficiencies. When yields are limited, women may have decreased access to foodstuffs within households (intrahousehold food insecurity), rendering them more nutritionally at risk. Drought also contributes to increased economic uncertainty for households. Food prices may rise during periods of drought, causing increased financial pressure on households, and particularly the poor, who may not be able to access the same quantity or quality of food. When families or households do not have access to replacement resources for lost agricultural yields, or if food prices are prohibitively high, those affected may be more reliant on cash and pressured to access available income opportunities regardless of working conditions. Drought may push people, particularly men, to migrate to cities looking for work or, particularly women, to engage in risky strategies for economic survival, such as sex work. In the recent drought in Kenya, for example, women and children reportedly turned to prostitution in greater numbers as a strategy to survive the economic and social consequences of drought. These strategies come with great personal risks, including potential exposure to sexually transmitted infections, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and violence. Southern Africa has been experiencing drought since 2002, and fluctuating periods of drought have existed throughout East Africa over the last decade. The southern drought has devastated agricultural communities and economies, leading to emergency food shortages in many affected nations, such as Lesotho. In East Africa, the ongoing and spreading drought has left millions of people hungry and has devastated livestock populations, agriculture, and tourism. Tourism largely relies on safari tourists, but game animals are struggling to survive in increasingly

worse drought conditions. Fear of widespread food insecurity and potential famine have led to international aid relief by such organizations as the World Food Programme and the United Nations, but their efforts have been seen as insufficiently supported by the international community. Food aid, such as in East Africa, is often a tool used when drought has become extended and severe. Depending on the particular conditions and contributing causes of a drought, other strategies such as irrigation, water delivery infrastructure, water harvesting, water conservation, and crop rotation can mitigate drought’s consequences. See Also: Climate Change as a Women’s Issue; Environmental Issues, Women and; Famine; Kenya; Lesotho; Poverty; Rural Women; Water, as Women’s Issue. Further Readings Arku, F. and C. Arku. “‘I Cannot Drink Water on an Empty Stomach’: A Gender Perspective on Living With Drought.” Gender & Development, v.18/1 (2010). Tichagwa, W. “The Effects of Drought on the Condition of Women.” Gender & Development, v.2/1 (1994). Yvonne A. Braun University of Oregon

Drug Trade Women are present wherever illegal drugs are grown, processed, sold, stored, trafficked, bought, and consumed. However, research has found that women participate to a lesser extent than men and they occupy the most marginal positions in the drug trade. Over the last decade, the number of women imprisoned for drug offenses has risen at a faster rate than it has for men. Many women imprisoned for drug violations are foreign nationals who were “drug mules.” These are people who carry illegal drugs—usually cocaine and heroin—which have been paid for by someone else, across international borders. This includes all methods of concealment, such as swallowing drugs in capsules, strapping the drugs to the body and concealing them in the luggage. The most common method of concealment is in luggage. Drug



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mules are sometimes referred to as couriers. When caught, they face particular difficulties as a result of being imprisoned far from home. The drug trade is difficult to research. The market relies on secrecy for its success. Also, international markets span continents and may not have any fixed geographic base, making reliable information patchy at best. Furthermore, since research has focused primarily on men, less is known about women. Since the 1990s, research has examined the prevalence and role of women in the international drug trade. Research is clustered into two opposing positions outlined by Lisa Maher in Sexed Work: Gender, Race and Resistance in a Brooklyn Drug Market. From one perspective, women in the drug trade are powerless victims driven by poverty and drug addiction. On the other, women are active actors driven by ambition for money and independence, much like their male counterparts. In her book, Maher points out that both of these explanations are overly simplistic. Her research set the agenda for the future. Through in-depth, ethnographic research she showed how multiple inequalities such as gender, ethnicity and class are reproduced in the drug trade. She also demonstrated that women’s presence in drug markets should not be interpreted as participation, much less equal participation.

roles but are important as vendors and consumers. As consumers, young women are less likely to take drugs than their male counterparts, although this disparity is less pronounced in adulthood. These differences vary internationally. Although females from all social groups may take drugs, prostitutes and homeless women are more likely to be consumers. The relationship between prostitution and drug use is complex rather than causal: women may get involved in prostitution to fund a drug habit, but women also may take drugs to enable them to work as a prostitute. Female vendors are present in diverse markets including cocaine, heroin, and cannabis. Women’s entry into street-level markets has been attributed to structural and cultural changes in the market; their ability to call on family networks to build trust and run their business; and the play on gendered expectations to avoid arrest. Maher’s research found that women occupied marginal positions, offering little financial reward in return for considerable risk. Among the risks are selling injecting equipment and offering sexual services. Other research on women in crack cocaine markets in the United States found that, as the head of the household, they stashed drugs, weapons and money and rented out their apartment as places to process the drugs.

Drug Production and Processing In Latin America, especially Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia, female peasants are the majority of those employed to pick coca leaves. Children of both genders also are involved in cultivation. In Bolivia, women are the majority of coca leaf vendors in the markets where there exists a traditional and legal trade. Women also play an important role in cultivating and harvesting opium poppies in Afghanistan. Little research has investigated drug processing worldwide. Anecdotal evidence suggests that drug laboratories in cocaine and heroin are male dominated. Women have been arrested following raids on amphetamine and crack cocaine laboratories in the United States. It is not clear whether they were involved or merely present.

International Drug Trafficking Women are present in diverse aspects of the international drug market, but most are involved as drug mules. The stereotype of the female mule has been popularized in the media, although the 2004 Oscarnominated movie Maria Full of Grace from HBO Films and Fine Line Features offered an even-handed account of a young Colombian woman working as a drug mule. Although it is widely assumed that the majority of drug mules are women, 60 to 70 percent of individuals arrested with drugs at international borders are men. Similarly, 70 percent of drug mules who seek medical attention following problems resulting from swallowing capsules of cocaine or heroin are also men. Research on mules from Latin America and the Caribbean found that many were single parents who became involved because of debts. Researcher Julia Sudbury attributes women’s participation in drug trafficking to neoliberal geopolitics that have particularly affected women through the feminization of poverty.

Street-Level Markets Women’s roles in and around street-level drug markets are well researched, especially in the United States and Australia. Women mainly occupy marginal

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Nonetheless, drug mules are not a homogenous group. People carrying drugs they have bought themselves are referred to as entrepreneurs, solo, or independent traffickers. Very little research has been done on this group but it appears to be dominated by men. Women may be involved in the drug trade at a high level. Research from Argentina and Mexico suggests that women exercise power at a high level indirectly as wives, sisters, and mothers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women may hold the top positions in some Mexican cartels. Females also can be found in a number of auxiliary roles including recruiting and “babysitting” mules while they travel; training and advising mules; hiding money, drugs, and weapons; keeping accounts; receiving packages; serving as brokers; and accompanying men as “covers.” Evidence from arrests suggests that women work in apparently legitimate organizations where money is laundered. Girlfriends and wives also may be arrested as accomplices. Criminal Justice Issues Until the 19th century, the trade in narcotic, hallucinogenic, and psychotropic substances was largely unregulated. In 1961, the United Nations’ Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs replaced previous legislation and international treaties. It is currently the central model for drug prohibition, which is adhered to by almost all nations. The objectives of this treaty were to limit the possession, use, distribution, and international traffic in illegal substances such as heroin, opium, cocaine, and cannabis. Although there is some national diversity in legal status across nations—that is, some countries permit possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use, notably Portugal and the Netherlands— the sale of drugs is a criminal offense. Drug trafficking offenses attract very high sentences worldwide. In the United States, drug trafficking carries mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years to life. Thirty-three countries institute the death penalty for drug traffickers, including Thailand, China, and the United States The number of women imprisoned for drug crimes has risen at a faster rate than it has for men over the last 30 years. While this reflects the rising number of women in the drug trade, punitive sentencing policies also have driven up the number of women imprisoned worldwide. In England and Wales, drug offenders comprise 27 percent of female prisoners, compared to 16 percent of male inmates. This is also

the case in prisons across Latin America, the United States, Australia, and Europe, particularly Spain. The large number of women drug offenders contributes to the massive increase in the female prison population worldwide. Black and ethnic minority women are overrepresented in prison numbers, but especially for drug offenses. The disproportionate population of minorities has led commentators, such as Sudbury, to claim that the “war on drugs” is a war on women, and specifically on women of color. In England and Wales, 20 percent of female inmates are foreign nationals, of which the majority are drug mules. In comparison, only 13 percent of men are foreign nationals. This reality has significant implications for criminal justice systems. Research on foreign nationals in prison has found that if foreign nationals do not speak the language they may not understand the legal procedures. Language barriers can prevent these prisoners from participating in work, rehabilitation, and education programs. As prisoners, foreign nationals often feel extremely isolated and lonely. They have high rates of mental illness, self-harm, and suicide. Many women are single parents who leave children and family behind with no one to care for them. See Also: Bolivia; Colombia; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Prisoners, Female (U.S.). Further Readings Anderson, T. L. “Dimensions of Women’s Power in the Illicit Drug Economy.” Theoretical Criminology, v.9/4 (2005). Maher, L. Sexed Work: Gender, Race, and Resistance in a Brooklyn Drug Market. Oxford, UK, Clarendon Press, 1997. Sudbury, J., ed. Global Lockdown : Race, Gender, and the Prison-Industrial Complex. New York: Routledge, 2005. Jennifer Fleetwood University of Kent

Duckworth, Tammy Ladda Tammy Duckworth became Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in April 2009. Her responsibilities in this position include departmental



communications and overseeing programs relating to intergovernmental relations, homeless veterans, consumer affairs, and national rehabilitative special event programs. An Iraq War veteran, Duckworth achieved the rank of Major in the Illinois National Guard, and is a former Army Aviator whose Black Hawk helicopter was hit by an Iraqi rocket propelled grenade in 2004. As a result of that insurgent attack, she is a double amputee who lost both legs and sustained severe injury to her right arm. Duckworth was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1968. She comes from a military family. Her father was a U.S. Marine who fought in Vietnam. Her spouse Army National Guard Major Bryan Bowlsbey is a signal officer and an Iraq War veteran. During her formative years, Duckworth’s father’s career at the United Nations and in international companies meant a series of family moves including a move to Hawaii when Duckworth was 16. After high school, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawaii and a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University. Duckworth was working on a Ph.D. in political science at Northern Illinois University when she was deployed to Iraq in 2004. After a yearlong recovery from her war injuries in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and acclimation to prosthetic limbs, Duckworth continued her life of public service. In 2006, she ran for an open U.S. House of Representatives seat in the 6th District of Illinois. Her issue positions included support for healthcare reform, immigration reform, gun control, and abortion rights. She expressed opposition to the entry and conduct of the Iraq War, and was critical of the No Child Left Behind Act. After winning a competitive Democratic primary and a wide range of endorsements, Duckworth lost a close general election race to her Republican opponent, Peter Roskam. In 2006, Duckworth was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs. In that position, she spearheaded development of state programs granting tax credits to private employers who hire veterans, and increased state grants to service organizations. Among her awards and commendations, Duckworth is a recipient of the Purple Heart, an Air Medal, an Army Commendation Medal, and a 2007 Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award. She was also named the 2008 Disabled Veteran of the Year by the Disabled

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American Veterans, and selected as an American Veterans Silver Helmet award recipient in 2009. Duckworth, who is now fully mobile, skis, swims, scuba dives, cycles, and flies. In fall 2008, she completed the Chicago Marathon in two hours and 26 minutes on a specially equipped bicycle. She declined a medical retirement from the Illinois National Guard and continues her service to this day. See Also: Disability Definitions; Iraq; Military, Women in the; Military Stationed in Muslim Countries; Representation of Women in Government, U.S. Further Readings Holmstedt, Kirsten. Foreword by Major L. Tammy Duckworth. Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. 2007. L. Tammy Duckworth. http://www.duckworthforcongress .com (accessed April 2010). Sue Thomas Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Duffy, Carol Ann Carol Ann Duffy was named poet laureate of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in May 2009. Duffy was the first poet laureate chosen in the 21st century. More important, Duffy was the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly bisexual person to hold the prestigious, crownappointed position. Duffy is known for writing in a variety of genres, but each of her works whether song, drama, children’s fiction, or poem explores controversial themes, including violence, sexuality, education, gender, and more. Despite the complex subject matter of her work, Duffy is known for her fluid and accessible style that, in recent years, has made her work popular in both public schools and university classrooms. Although Duffy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1955, she was raised in Stafford, England. Duffy’s first recognition as a poet came when she was just 16, when a teacher sent her work off to a publisher of pamphlets. From age 16, Duffy lived with famous British poet and painter, Adrian Henri. She attended Liverpool University, where she has admitted she

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applied, simply to be close to Henri. She graduated in 1977 with a degree in philosophy. Duffy and Henri split in 1982. Duffy worked for The Guardian from 1988–89 as a poetry critic, and she later served as an editor for Ambit, a poetry magazine. In 1996, Duffy was appointed to a lecturer position in poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and later was named the creative director of the university’s school of writing. Critical Claim and Awards It was widely assumed that Duffy would be named poet laureate in 1999, after the death of Ted Hughes. It is likely that Duffy’s public, lesbian affair with fellow Scottish poet and novelist Jackie Kay made the appointment politically impossible, and, ultimately, Duffy lost to Andrew Motion. Since 1999, Duffy has claimed that she, and her young daughter, would not have welcomed the public attention, and that she

would have declined the position even if it had been offered. In that same year, Duffy’s work The World’s Wife was published to critical acclaim. This collection of narrative, short poetry was written in the voices of the “wives”—both real and fictional—of history’s most famous men and was the first to earn her mass appeal both in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1995, Duffy was awarded an Order of the British Empire, and in 2002, she was awarded Commander of the British Empire. In 2005, she published a collection of intimate poems, Rapture, in which she charts the course of a long love affair in poetic form. This collection earned her the T. S. Eliot Prize and £10,000. Duffy’s first poem as poet laureate solidified her position as a “new voice” for the United Kingdom; this 14-line sonnet explored the political scandal surrounding the allowances and expenses claimed by Members of Parliament.

Carol Anne Duffy (right) speaking at the Hay Festival with Gillian Clarke. Duffy was the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly bisexual person to be named poet laureate of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Bisexuality; College and University Faculty; Government, Women in; Poets, Female; Novelists, Female; United Kingdom. Further Readings Allen Randolph, Jody. “Remembering Life Before Thatcher: Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy.” Women’s Review of Books, v.12/8 (May 1995). Edemariam, Aida. “Carol Ann Duffy: I Don’t Have Ambassadorial Talents.” The Guardian (May 26, 2009). Michelis, Angelica and Antony Rowland, eds. The Poetry of Carol Ann Duffy: Choosing Tough Words. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2003. Donna McKinney Souder Colorado State University, Pueblo

Dykes on Bikes Dykes on Bikes is an international coalition of women’s motorcycle groups that includes both lesbian and nonlesbian riders and supporters. These groups are known best for their participation in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and women’s rights parades and marches but are also active in community service projects as well as other nonpolitical riding ventures. Dykes on Bikes has been in the press for their annual riding in the San Francisco Pride Parade—a procession that they lead—and for their legal battle to trademark their controversial name, which ended in 2007. The primary goals of this group are to create community between women motorcyclists, to empower women and lesbians, to participate in philanthropic and political ventures relating to LGBT and women’s issues, and to share a love of motorcycling among women. Women have ridden motorcycles throughout the 1900s. In World War II, as women mobilized to assist in the war effort at home and the boundaries of what it meant to be feminine were pushed as women took on a number of roles and responsibilities previously assigned to men, women began to operate motor vehicles, including motorcycles, in record numbers. Dykes on Bikes is the largest and most well-known community of women riders in history. In 1976, Dykes on Bikes made its first official appearance as a group in

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the San Francisco Pride Parade. Because of some of the motorcycles’ engines overheating as they attempted to move at the slow speed of the parade, the group, now known as the San Francisco Women’s Motorcycle Contingent, was soon moved to the front of the parade, where they have stayed visible for more than 30 years. During this time, chapters of Dykes on Bikes have emerged across the United States and in several other countries worldwide; these chapters continue to be active in their respective local communities. Although women continue to ride alongside, and apart from, men, biking is still largely considered a masculine undertaking, and women riders are often labeled as manly, or as “dykes”—a historically negative term for lesbians. Dykes on Bikes includes the term in its name as a way of reclaiming this term by the communities of women whom it was initially used to offend. Thus, use of the term is an act of resistance against discrimination. In February 2004, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused the group’s request to trademark the name “Dykes on Bikes,” as it was said to violate section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which will not register a trademark that includes terms that disparage or disrepute a group of people. With the help of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and representation from the Brooke Oliver Law Group, Dykes on Bikes fought this decision, which was eventually overturned in 2007 by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Dykes on Bikes continues to be met with mixed reviews by the public, including feminist and lesbian communities. Some see the group as a strong example of cultural resistance, whereas others believe that the group confirms negative stereotypes about lesbians. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Feminism, American; Lesbians. Further Readings OutHistory.org. “The History of Dykes on Bikes San Francisco, CA 1976–2010.” http://www.outhistory.org /wiki/Dykes_on_Bikes:_San_Francisco,_CA_1976-2010 (accessed June 2010). San Francisco Dykes on Bikes Women’s Motorcycle Contingent. http://www.dykesonbikes.org/index.php (accessed June 2010). Katy N. Kreitler University of San Francisco

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Dysthymia in Minority Population Dysthymic disorder, also called dysthymia, is a less severe but chronic form of depression and is characterized by depressive symptoms that prevent one from functioning normally for at least two years. Depressive disorders in women often coexist with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, and anxiety disorders such as panic disorders, social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Substance abuse can also cooccur with dysthymia, although this is more common among men than women. Studies have shown that both women and men who have depression and a serious medical illness, such as heart disease and diabetes, tend to have more severe symptoms of both illnesses. This entry will examine dysthemia incidence and treatment in the United States. Approximately 3 percent of the U.S. population has dysthymia, and a disproportionate number of those are women. Thought to be caused partly by genetics, as studies are beginning to show that depressive disorders are more likely to occur in women with family histories of depression, researchers suggest that chemicals and hormones also play a significant role. Obtaining more accurate rates of the disorder is difficult for several reasons, especially misdiagnosis, because the symptoms of dysthymia are often confused with normal life stressors or major depression. A historical bias against minorities has also resulted in over diagnosis of mental disorders in minority populations. In addition, studies find that minorities are more likely to experience chronic environmental and social stressors like poverty and crime and thus may not recognize dysthymic symptoms. Literature on rates of dysthymia and depression by race/ethnicity has not illustrated a consistent relationship between the two, partly because cultures express emotions differently. For example, some nonWestern groups, such as some Asian cultures, do not have the same concrete definition of mental illness that Western mental health professionals base diagnoses upon, which results in lower numbers of diagnosed persons in some populations. Other reasons for poor estimates of dysthymia in minority populations are barriers to effective care, such as a lack of transportation to a medical facility, lack of childcare, lack of insurance to cover office visits,

medication, and/or a specialist, lack of time off from work to visit a doctor and/or obtain medication, language barriers, stigma associated with having a mental illness, mistrust of the medical establishment, and physical health taking priority over mental health. Nevertheless, the implications of untreated dysthymia can be serious. Persons with dysthymia can experience one or more periods of major depression in their lives, and approximately 10 percent later develop major depression. One study of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–positive individuals found that minority women with dysthymia were less likely to receive the most effective treatment therapy available than both minority women without dysthymia and men. Treatment for dysthymic disorders often includes both antidepressant medication and psychotherapy. Women often find medication to be easier and less time consuming than therapy. The effectiveness of various treatment plans for minorities is contingent upon the recognition of the heterogenity of minorities, and culturally specific treatment is needed. Evidence-based practices and programs have typically been created and evaluated based on whites and persons with higher social and economic status (SES), which is problematic because abundant literature show the necessity of culturally specific treatment programs for minorities, who also tend to have lower SES. Further, some minority populations utilize more informal mental health services which must be acknowledged and supported by healthcare providers to provide the best treatment possible. See Also: Depression; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of. Further Readings Akiskal, H. and G. Cassano. Dysthymia and the Spectrum of Chronic Depressions. New York: Guilford Press, 1997. Bell, Janet L. Chronic Physical Illness & Depression Among Ethnic Minority Elderly. London: Routledge, 1992. National Institute of Mental Health. “Women and Depression: Discovering Hope.” http://www.nimh.nih .gov/health/publications/women-and-depression -discovering-hope/complete-index.shtml#pub2 (accessed June 2010). Valerie R. Stackman Howard University

E Eagle Forum The Eagle Forum is a national conservative organization that promotes grassroots involvement in policymaking. Phyllis Schlafly (1924– ) founded the Eagle Forum in 1972 and continues to serve as its president. The organization was formed to defeat legislation called the Equal Rights Amendment, primarily because Schlafly believed that it would result in taxfunded abortions and same-sex marriage. After a 10-year battle, Schlafly and her followers succeeded in blocking the amendment’s ratification, and the organization gained prominence as a political force to mobilize the Christian Right. At this time, the Eagle Forum reports that it has 80,000 members in 45 branches. It has offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and in Alton, Illinois. Born to a Catholic family in St. Louis, Missouri, Schlafly earned a master’s degree in government from Radcliffe (Harvard) in 1945 and a law degree at Washington University in 1978. In 1949, she married the late Fred Schlafly, a Catholic lawyer from Alton, Illinois, who was a conservative anti-Communist. The couple raised six children. Schlafly’s political involvement began in 1946, when she worked as a campaign manager for a Republican congressional bid. She has attended every Republican National Convention since 1952 and wrote a best-selling book about her experience called Choice Not an Echo (1964), which was influ-

ential in promoting Barry Goldwater’s candidacy. After Schlafly lost a 1967 bid for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women, she began publishing a monthly newsletter to unite her conservative supporters, called the Phyllis Schlafly Report. She rose to prominence in the early 1970s, when she started her fight against what she calls “the radical feminist movement.” Schlafly has appeared regularly on television and radio and, since 1989, has produced a weekly radio show called Eagle Forum Live. She has authored or edited 20 books that offer a conservative perspective on subjects ranging from home schooling to nuclear strategy. Schlafly also developed a phonics system to fight illiteracy. Major Political Causes and Controversies The Eagle Forum’s slogan is “Leading the pro-family movement since 1972.” Schlafly promotes traditionalist Christian values, drawing together a broad coalition of grassroots conservatives. Although Schlafly is Catholic, her main constituency is right-wing evangelicals and fundamentalists. Some of the Eagle Forum’s causes include promoting English as the country’s sole official language, opposing “encroachments” on the United States (e.g., United Nations treaties), promoting tax reductions, and opposing antigun legislation. Schlafly’s key campaigns are protecting female homemaker’s rights and opposing abortion. In 1990, she founded the Republican National Coalition for Life. 435

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Schlafly is strongly against same-sex marriage, weathering a 1992 media storm when it came out that her eldest son is gay. At this time, Schlafly is focused on curbing “activist judges,” who she believes will extend marriage to same-sex couples and threaten prayer in schools. Her latest book is The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It (2004). Over her 60-year career, Schlafly has received numerous awards, including an honorary doctorate from Washington University (2008). The Ladies’ Home Journal named her one of the 100 most influential women of the 20th century, and Ann Coulter has called Schlafly her political hero. See Also: Antifeminism; Equal Rights Amendment; Evangelical Protestantism; Fundamentalist Christianity; Religion, Women in; Religious Fundamentalism, CrossCultural Context of. Further Readings Bellafante, Ginia. “A Feminine Mystique All Her Own.” New York Times (March 30, 2006). http://www .nytimes.com/2006/03/30/garden/30phyllis .html?sq=&pagewanted=all (accessed June 2010). Critchlow, Donald T. Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. Felsenthal, Carol. The Biography of Phyllis Schlafly: The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority. New York: Doubleday, 1981. Kolbert, E. “Firebrand: Phyllis Schlafly and the Conservative Revolution.” The New Yorker (November 7, 2005). Hillary Kaell Harvard University

Earth Science, Women in Earth science, like most of the other sciences, remains a male-dominated field. The percentage of women in the earth or geosciences steadily decreases from elementary to secondary to higher education levels and into the career level, a phenomenon researchers term the “leaky” or “shrinking pipeline.” Reasons for gender inequities in the field include gender stereotypes, gendered educational experiences, lack of mentors and

role models, and work–family responsibilities that mirror those found in the other sciences. A number of organizations have arisen to attract more women to the field and improve working conditions. Women in Earth Sciences Studies Increasing numbers of female students enroll in science courses at the secondary school level, but many of these gains have not translated to significant enrollment increases at the college or university level. One reason posited is that differences in attitudes toward and interest in traditionally gendered subjects as the sciences begin to emerge even in very young girls. Another reason posited is the gendered expectations that women students in nontraditional fields such as the earth science encounter, including a so-called “chilly” classroom environment that discourages female participation and lowered expectations for female achievement. Asian girls, on the other hand, may experience increased expectations and pressures to succeed. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the percentage of women degree earners in the earth sciences has been rising steadily since the late 20th century, standing at 43 percent in 2009. This figure is approximately double that from 20 years ago. The percentage of female earth sciences students in the United Kingdom has risen to approximately 25 to 30 percent by the beginning of 21st century. Across Europe, women comprise 56 percent of all college and university degree recipients, but represent only a minority of graduates in nontraditional fields such as science. There is also a larger gap in the earth sciences when compared to other science fields such as chemistry and the life sciences, although the percentage of women in the earth sciences is higher than that of physics. There are also differences within the earth sciences themselves. There are a variety of subspecialty fields within the earth sciences, such as geology, oceanography, paleontology, climatology, volcanology, and sedimentology. More women pursue such subspecialties as geology and oceanography, while fewer women pursue such subspecialties as atmospheric science or climatology. U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) statistics show, however, that the gender gap widens considerably at the graduate level. In the physical sciences as a whole in the United States, women comprised 43



percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2005, but only 27 percent of all doctorates awarded that same year. In Germany, the percentages of female students in the earth sciences dropped from 30 percent of firstyear students to a low of only 15 percent of awarded doctorates. Women’s rates of postdoctoral participation are even lower. Women at the graduate level faced increased difficulties balancing work and family responsibilities due to the length of study and workintensive nature of such programs. Women in Earth Sciences Careers A significant gender gap also exists in terms of women who pursue academic careers in the earth sciences after graduation. Career opportunities in the earth sciences within academia include faculty and research positions at all educational levels, as well as museum positions; however, most women are clustered at the lower educational levels. According to the NSF, women in the United States comprise the majority of teachers at the elementary and secondary levels as well as those at two-year and junior colleges. NSF statistics for the year 2006 show that women comprised 31.7 percent of all science faculty, 20.6 percent of all full professors, 32.9 percent of all associate professors, and 39.4 percent of all assistant professors in the United States. 1994 figures for Germany showed that women comprised only 1 percent of all geology professors. According to research conducted by the European Union research organization the Helsinki Group, women comprised a minority of research scientists in the physical sciences, ranging from a high of 48 percent in Portugal to a low of 8 percent in the Netherlands. Women comprise only 14 percent of all full professors in European colleges and universities. Career opportunities in the earth sciences outside of academia include a variety of industry and government occupations, with most female earth scientists employed in the government sector. Although more women earth sciences degree earners pursue nonacademic careers, the workforce percentages remain low for women who pursue earth sciences careers in industry. NSF statistics show that women in the United States comprise 27 percent of all those employed in science and engineering careers, 21 percent of all those employed in business and industry careers, and 27 percent of all those employed through the federal government. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,

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the percentage of women in earth sciences occupations has remained at 30 percent or below since 2003. Eurostat figures showed that women comprised only 29 percent of European scientists and engineers in 2004. The earth sciences comprise only a small portion of all degree earners at the higher education level. In the United States, an average of 4,000 bachelor’s degrees and 800 doctorates in the earth sciences are awarded annually. Attracting women and minorities to earth science and other scientific fields has become increasingly important to the growth of such departments in countries such as the United States, where women comprise a majority of all college students and degree earners at the bachelor’s level and where the economic recession of the early 21st century has reduced funding levels in higher education. The lack of women in the earth sciences can hurt female enrollment and pursuit of careers in the field as they find few role models and mentors. Women in earth sciences careers face a number of gender-related challenges. Women tend to hold less prestigious positions and to have to demonstrate higher achievement levels than their male counterparts to receive similar performance appraisals. A gender pay gap and more limited advancement opportunities still exist at both the academic and industry levels, as is the case for many other fields. Women’s minority status in the field provides less mentoring and networking opportunities and can increase workload demands or marginalization in the laboratory. Many women also face the challenges of balancing work and family responsibilities or the perception that they may be less dedicated to their work. Women in the earth sciences have formed a variety of organizations dedicated to closing the gender gap by attracting more women to the field and by aiding those women already in the field at all levels. Prominent U.S.-based organizations include the Earth Science Women’s Network (ESWN), the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG), the Association for Women in Science, Graduate Women in Science, and the National Research Council Committee on Women in Science and Engineering as well various committees with specialty organizations. International organizations include Women in Global Science and Technology, the European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS), the Helsinki Group on women and science, and the EU Women in Science and Technology group.

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These organizations collaborate with other institutions, governments, organizations, and industries to increase women’s presence in the earth sciences. They also aid both students and professionals in the field through mentoring, networking, and professional development opportunities and assistance with gender-related and other issues. Broader organizations, such as the American Association of University Women, also pursue many of the same issues. See Also: College and University Faculty; Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls. Further Readings Adamuti-Trache, M., et al. “Embarking on and Persisting in Scientific Fields of Study: Cultural Capital, Gender, and Curriculum Along the Science Pipeline.” International Journal of Science Education, v.30/12 (2008). Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development. “Land of Plenty: Diversity as America’s Competitive Edge in Science, Engineering and Technology.” Arlington, VA: U.S. National Science Foundation, 2000. DeWandre, N. “Women in Science: European Strategies for Promoting Women in Science.” Science, v.295 (2002). Etzkowitz, H., et al. Athena Unbound: The Advancement of Women in Science and Technology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Gabel, Dorothy. Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning. New York: Macmillan, 1994. Hall, Linley Erin. Who’s Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in Science and Technology. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2007. James, A. N. Teaching the Female Brain: How Girls Learn Math and Science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2009. Monosson, Emily. Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. Morse, Mary. Women Changing Science: Voices From a Field in Transition. New York: Insight Books, 1995. Sheffield, Suzanne Le-May. Women and Science: Social Impact and Interaction. Santa Barbara, CA: ABCCLIO, 2004. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

East Timor East Timor (Timor-Leste) became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002, after 25 years of Indonesian occupation. Population estimates range from 800,000 to 1.1 million people as of July 2009. The key issues concerning women include challenges in accessing justice, sexual and other forms of violence, and the impact of traditional values. In 2002, the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) helped establish a Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation (CAVR) to investigate human rights violations committed between during Indonesian occupation, with specific attention given to women. However, access to justice for victims of sexual and other forms of violence and for those who were displaced by the conflict remains a challenge. A number of cultural norms continue to impact the lives of women, including forced and early marriage, polygamy, bride price, and barriers to inheritance and property ownership. Violence against women is prevalent and frequently resolved through traditional methods including mediation. In March 2009, East Timor enacted a penal code which criminalizes most sexual crimes. There have been delays in enacting a law addressing domestic violence. The enrollment rate of girls in secondary and higher education is low. Traditional attitudes, early pregnancy and marriage, abuse and harassment by teachers and sexual harassment and violence while traveling to school are among the causes of high drop out rates for girls. High wage gaps and occupational segregation persist, with a concentration of women in the informal sector. East Timor had a maternal mortality rate of 380 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2005. Women face inadequate access to pre- and postnatal care, particularly in rural areas, with many women giving birth at home. East Timor is one of two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in the Asia region, the other being the Philippines, which has contributed to restrictions imposed on access to abortion. High rates of unsafe abortion have been documented. Despite the establishment of a Secretary of the State for the Promotion of Equality, in 2008, women continue to be underrepresented in decision-making positions. A large number of organizations are work-

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ing to strengthen protections for women’s human rights including the Alola Foundation and Fokupers. See Also: Conflict Zones; Domestic Violence; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Babo-Soares, Dionisio. “Nahe Biti: The Philosophy and Process of Grassroots Reconciliation (and Justice) in East Timor.” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, v.5/1 (2004). Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). “Concluding Observations: TimorLeste.” CEDAW/C/TLS/CO/1 (August 7, 2009). Kingsbury, Damien and Leach, M, eds. East Timor: Beyong Independence. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University Press, 2007. Ramona Vijeyarasa University of New South Wales

Eating Disorders Large numbers of women around the world manifest emotional distress in a variety of disordered eating patterns. For years, eating disorders associated with body image dissatisfaction were confined primarily to Western, developed countries. Evidence from around the world indicates that this is no longer the case. The globalization of Western ideals of beauty, which glorify thinness, has begun to have a profound affect on women everywhere. For example, work by Anne Becker and her colleagues documented the impact television, new to the Fiji islands, had on adolescent girls. This work, which was publicized extensively in the Western media, demonstrated that within three years of access to television, disordered eating and a preoccupation with dieting, virtually unheard of in Fiji prior to the introduction of television, had emerged among a substantial percentage of the young women studied. Many subsequent investigations of this same issue have indicated that access to Western ideals of beauty quickly counteract traditional aesthetic values, which have tended to embrace a more curvaceous and plump woman’s body as the ideal. In many cultures, especially

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within those where food is often scarce, women of larger size have traditionally been seen as especially beautiful and desirable because their higher weight is presumed to indicate greater health, wealth, sexual pleasure, and the ability to produce viable children. While differences regarding feminine beauty persist, women in the higher socioeconomic classes who live in urban areas with the greatest access to Western ideals of beauty through magazines, films, television, Internet, and beauty pageants, demonstrate the most significant changes in the concept of beauty. With these changes comes the desire to perfect the body through dieting, self-induced vomiting and excessive exercise, the hallmarks of disordered eating and distorted body image. Eating Disorders Most Common in Females The prevalence of eating disorders varies depending on the type of problematic eating. The evidence from all sources is clear: disordered eating is much more commonly found in women than in men, with between 85 and 95 percent of all diagnosed cases occurring in women. In the United States, for example, one in five women will struggle with a diagnosable eating disorder within her lifetime. The forms of eating disorders discussed most often include a pattern of self-starvation referred to as anorexia nervosa and a variety of binge–purge patterns called bulimia nervosa. While self-starvation and other forms of restricted eating have been seen throughout the centuries among women, from mystics striving for complete control of all bodily needs to rebellious and unhappy adolescents diagnosed with hysteria during the Victorian period, current Western approaches to understanding eating disorders began in earnest in the late 1960s. At that time, the prevailing images of female beauty in developed countries began to change from full-bodied women, symbolic of feminine sexuality and fecundity, to child-like, androgynous bodies epitomized by the iconic British model of that time period, Twiggy. Her long limbs, soulful eyes, 5’ 7” frame weighing in at 98 pounds, came to represent perfection in the eyes of many in the developed world. Not long after Twiggy captured great attention, Hilde Bruch’s important work, Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Person Within was published in 1973 for a professional audience, followed closely in 1978 with The Golden Cage: The Enigma of Anorexia Nervosa, for all readers interested in the growing problem of self-starvation.

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Psychological Diagnoses of Disordered Eating As disordered eating became a more commonly described pattern of psychological disturbance, formal descriptions of the criteria required for clinical diagnosis were put forth in the official guide to psychological disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. The current version of this text, called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-TR (fourth edition, text revision), provides the category scheme for psychiatric disorders accepted by mental health workers across the United States and other industrialized nations of the West. In this manual, eating disorders are currently divided into three main categories, namely anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and what the manual calls eating disorders, not otherwise specified. The draft proposal for the next revision of this manual, the DSM-V, due out in 2013, indicates some modification to this structure and includes binge-eating disorder as a separate diagnosable entity. According to the DSM-IV-TR, anorexia nervosa is diagnosed when a person’s body weight is only 85 percent of what is expected for an individual with a given height, age, and frame size; and, in women, when the menstrual period has been lost for at least three consecutive cycles if this loss cannot be explained by other factors. Two additional important diagnostic criteria include an expressed abhorrence for body fat, and a persistent fear of gaining weight even when a very low weight is maintained. Individuals with anorexia nervosa also manifest the strong belief that weight and body shape are central to self-worth. Often in anorexia nervosa excessive exercise is observed, along with a distorted perception of the body, causing the sufferer, who is generally a woman, to experience herself as much heavier than she is. Often, the self-starvation seen in anorexia nervosa results in bodily discomfort such as constipation, dry and itchy skin, and an inability to keep warm; it also can result in serious physical harm, including brittle bones, anemia, and heart muscle damage. In 1983, when Karen Carpenter, a popular performer of the time, collapsed and died from cardiac arrest following her prolonged struggle with anorexia, the disorder became widely appreciated. Anorexia Nervosa One of the more difficult aspects in treating anorexia nervosa is that until the disorder becomes severe,

In the United States one in five women will struggle with a diagnosable eating disorder within her lifetime.

many women gain substantial self-esteem from the weight loss they have achieved, and they feel elated with the self-discipline inherent in their behavior. Women, who are losing weight, exercising often, and finding success in other areas of their lives due to the rigid control and perfectionist standards they have been able to apply to themselves, are often met with praise by other women who also have been influenced by the culture to believe that being thin is the ultimate good. As thinness is embraced worldwide as the standard of beauty and the preeminent symbol of entry into the “modern world,” the peer support for excessive dieting and purging of food is evidenced globally. This affirmation, in turn, contributes to the resistance to treatment expressed by many in the early phases of anorexia. While it is certainly true that an anorexic woman, who has been able to transform her body



through discipline, self-denial, and hours of exercise often feels proud of her accomplishment, this pride is difficult for her to sustain because each day requires this same control and restriction; and each hour calls out for continued perfection. Any minor deviation from the standards she set for herself is experienced as a painful failure. Bulimia Nervosa Bulimia nervosa shares some characteristics with anorexia, including an excessive preoccupation with weight and body shape as crucial to self-worth, but it has unique features as well. According the DSM-IVTR, bulimia nervosa is diagnosed when an individual engages in binge eating, namely the consumption of especially large quantities of food in a relatively short period of time, at least twice a week for three months and who uses a variety of methods, such as self-induced vomiting, overuse of laxatives, fasting, or excessive exercise, to rid the body of the food consumed during a binge. Unlike individuals diagnosed with anorexia, individuals struggling with bulimia often feel out of control, weak willed, and ashamed. Binging and purging are often done in secret and the woman often feels deeply discouraged by her repeated failure to meet her weight loss goals. Most women diagnosed with bulimia are of average weight so they do not receive the admiration of a culture obsessed with thinness, and often their deep distress is not known to those who might offer support. Like anorexics, bulimics often restrict their food intake and plan ambitious exercise regimens, but because they are less successful with self-discipline, the hunger and feelings of deprivation associated with fasting or food restriction often trigger additional binge–purge cycles. The self-induced vomiting, excessive laxative use, enemas, and diuretics employed to purge unwanted calories are especially problematic as they can result in serious medical problems such as electrolyte imbalances, swollen salivary glands, damaged tooth enamel, irritated throat tissue, and gag reflex difficulties. The emotional dimensions and the physical toll taken on an individual diagnosed with bulimia nervosa became better understood when Diana, Princess of Wales, disclosed her eating problems and the functions they served for her during her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles.

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Binge-Eating Disorder In addition to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, the DSM-IV-TR includes within its section, Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified, the term bingeeating disorder. This disorder applies to individuals who binge regularly but who do not engage in purging or other inappropriate ways of riding the body of food. Recent evidence suggests that this form of disordered eating is even more common than either anorexia or bulimia. Beyond eating patterns the DSM-IV-TR includes in its formal listing, some within psychology suggest that obesity and chronic dieting also qualify as forms of problematic eating because they share with the formally diagnosed eating disorders concerns about body image, depression, and an intense preoccupation with food. It is also the case that chronic dieting is a frequent precursor for anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. If obesity and chronic dieting are included as eating disorders, the extent of women’s highly troubled relationship with food—the substance necessary to sustain life—is clearly revealed. Large numbers of women in industrialized countries and urban areas of developing nations diet during significant portions of their lives. They fear obesity, and frequently express deep dissatisfaction about their weight and shape. The fact that many women believe—and the media promotes—the idea that eating is an activity to be associated with guilt and shame provide additional evidence of the extent to which women’s relationship to food has been distorted. Conforming to Societal Norms In attempting to explain the prevalence of eating disorders among women within the modern, globalized world, a variety of concepts have been put forth amid a good deal of controversy and conflict. Some of the early approaches to these disorders, especially anorexia, derived from psychoanalytic thinking. It argued that women engaged in self-starvation to terminate menstruation, avoid taking on secondary sex characteristics, and to symbolically reject sexual maturity. As a consequence of this analysis, women showing the symptoms of anorexia were often seen as acting like recalcitrant children, refusing to accept the responsibilities of womanhood and motherhood. The treatment techniques derived from this view were geared to fostering the transition to and confor-

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mity with traditional definitions of femininity. Sadly, in circumstances where such techniques failed, hospitalization, force feeding, and the monitoring of all aspects of a woman’s life, including her trips to the bathroom, were seen as necessary to get her to eat and accept the prescribed definitions of womanhood. Feminist theorists partially agreed with the analysis that disordered eating reflected problems in a woman’s ability to conform to the expectations of femininity, but asserted that the problem was not to be found within the woman herself, but rather within a cultural prescription of womanhood that is too narrow and oppressive. Some argue that in many ways anorexic women are actually complying fully with the mandates for femininity by agreeing to take up as little space in the world as possible, by concerning themselves with the feeding and nurturance of others instead of themselves, and by working to control all elements of the body fully to avoid the sense of “messiness” often attributed to women’s bodies. Their writings suggest that the observed control of body needs, to the point of seeming to overcome its need for food, is emblematic of efforts to suppress, as required by the culture, all emotional needs as well. The anorectic adjustment, however, can be seen as paradoxical as well because in taking the cultural prescriptions for womanhood to their extremes, the destructiveness of these expectations for women’s well being is brought into sharp focus. Others have added to the analysis of eating disorders by focusing on the cultural requirement to achieve beauty, which includes thinness. While modern women in developed countries have succeeded in legally freeing themselves from second-class citizenship, they have remained imprisoned by accepting confining images of beauty and by participating in the cultural myth that a transformation of the physical body will replace internal discontent with self-assurance and happiness. Developed societies have a huge stake in this action as the cosmetics, fashion and diet industries are multibillion-dollar endeavors that ignore the devastating emotional consequences of promoting beauty images that are impossible for most women to achieve. Understanding why some women develop eating disorders of great severity while others, exposed to the same pressures for thinness, do not remains unclear. Evidence suggests that women with low selfesteem, which predates the onset of the disorder, who

grow up in families requiring perfection from their daughters, or who have suffered trauma that undermines their feelings of self-worth, are particularly vulnerable. Those with anorexia find ways to achieve the coveted prize of extreme thinness, while those who binge struggle daily with their failure to do so. While it is especially difficult to treat eating disorders within a cultural context that glorifies thinness, many effective treatments and supportive services are available within mental health settings. See Also: Diet and Weight Control; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of; Health, Mental and Physical; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of. Further Readings American Psychiatric Association (APA). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., text rev. Washington, DC: APA, 2000. Bruch, Hilde. Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Person Within. New York: Basic Books, 1973. Bruch, Hilde. Golden Cage: The Enigma of Anorexia Nervosa. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. Fallon, Patricia, Melanie A. Katzman, and Susan C. Wooley, eds. Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders. New York: Guilford Press, 1994. Nasser, Mervat, Melanie A. Katzman, and Richard A. Gordon, eds. Eating Disorders and Cultures in Transition. New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2001. Orbach, Susie. Hunger Strike: The Anorectic’s Struggle as a Metaphor for Our Age. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986. Regina Edmonds Assumption College

Ebadi, Shirin Shirin Ebadi is a lawyer, human rights activist, and author. In 2003, she became the first Iranian as well as the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Ebadi has received numerous awards for her humanitarian work with women’s and children’s rights, been bestowed with honorary doctoral degrees



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Nobel Peace Prize award winner Shirin Ebadi in Paris at the nongovernmental organization, International Federation for Human Rights. Ebadi cofounded the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child, and the Human Rights Defense Center.

from colleges and universities, is an internationally known speaker, and has cofounded several nonprofit organizations to aid women and children in Iran. Born in Hamadan, Iran, on June 21, 1947, Ebadi and her family moved to Tehran in 1948. Upon graduation from school, she attended the University of Tehran in 1965, completed her law degree in 1969 and later obtained her master’s degree in law in 1971. She became a judge, and was the first woman in Iran to head a legislative court. During the 1979 revolution, Iran’s clerics deemed that the laws of Islam prohibited women from being judges, and demoted all female judges, including Ebadi, to clerks. The women protested this decision and later received a new classification, that of legal experts. Unhappy and frustrated with the situation, Ebadi resigned. She did not practice law again until 1993. Ebadi spent many years working toward democracy in Iran and fighting for the rights of women and

children. She has spent her life as a well-known and polarizing figure in Iran. She is celebrated for taking on legal cases of individuals and families that have fallen out of favor with the country’s governing body due to their political convictions. She has been an outspoken critic on the influence of the Western world, believing that Iran should become democratic without interference from outsiders. She brought a lawsuit against the United States Treasury Department for refusing to allow her to publish her memoir because of the United States’s trade with Iran. United States trade laws prohibit writers from embargoed countries from being published here. Ebadi was successful in the lawuit, and her book was published in 2006. In 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the 11th woman to receive that honor. She was criticized by conservatives in Iran for not covering her head when she received her award. Because

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Ebadi is an outspoken proponent of democracy in Iran, she has received numerous death threats. Her family has been imprisoned and harassed in an effort to silence her. In 2009, Ebadi claimed that the Iranian government had broken into her safe deposit box and stolen her Nobel Peace Prize medal. The government has denied all claims of wrongdoing. Ebadi fled to the United Kingdom in 2009 and lives in exile there, away from the increasing persecution of individuals critical of the ruling Iranian government. Ebadi is the founder and/or cofounder of several groups, including the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child, the Association for Support of Children’s Rights and the Human Rights Defense Center. She continues to represent persecuted people and those who have been murdered for political beliefs against the Iranian government. See Also: Iran; Iranian Feminism; Islam; Islamic Feminism. Further Readings Ebadi, S. and A. Moaveni. Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. New York: Random House, 2006. Ebadi, Shirin and A. Moaveni. Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country. New York: Random House, 2007. Hubbard-Brown, J. and Shirin Ebadi: Modern Peacemakers. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2007. Leesha Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Ecofeminism Ecofeminism, a relatively new version of ecological ethics, is a set of environmental philosophies and movements rooted at the intersection of feminist and ecological theories. The first known usage of the term ecofeminism can be found in Françoise d’Eaubonne’s 1974 book Le Féminisme ou la Mort (Feminism or Death). In this work, she declared that a direct link can be drawn between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature; consequently, understanding the nature of these connections is essential to any real understanding of both the oppression of women and of nature. Thus,

for d’Eaubonne, all feminist theory and praxis must include an environmental perspective. Conversely, any solutions to environmental problems must, of necessity, incorporate a feminist perspective. Although all ecofeminists generally agree that many important parallels can be drawn between how both women and nature are unjustly dominated under the patriarchal/androcentric systems that tend to prevail around the world, there are disagreements about the nature of these comparisons and whether they are potentially liberatory or simply reinforce harmful stereotypes about women. In her work Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters (2002), philosopher Karen J. Warren identifies 10 categories of what she terms “women-other human Others-nature interconnections” that tend to appear in the literature concerning ecofeminism. This article makes use of those conceptual categories in this brief overview of ecofeminist thought. Historical/Causal Interconnections In light of the historical ubiquity of patriarchal domination over women and nature, some ecofeminists have expressed the idea that androcentrism is the root cause of environmental destruction. Among these writers, however, there is a difference of opinion as to when such destructive attitudes took root and became predominant. One such thinker representative of this school of thought is Riane Eisler. In her book The Chalice and the Blade, for example, she traces the origins of this domination and destruction back to the invasion of Indo-European societies by nomadic tribes from Eurasia between the 6th and 3rd millennia b.c.e. Others such as Carolyn Merchant in The Death of Nature, however, locate the historical turning point in the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe. Disagreeing with both Eisler and Merchant, on the other hand, is philosopher Val Plumwood, who argues that the roots of this domination of nature can be traced back to classical Greek philosophy and the rationalist tradition, which elevates humans over nonhuman animals and nature due to the superior reasoning abilities of humans. Conceptual and Empirical Interconnections According to Karen J. Warren, conceptual interconnections are at the heart of ecofeminist philosophy. In her discussion concerning conceptual interconnec-



tions, she refers to Val Plumwood again since Plumwood locates the conceptual basis of structures of domination in value dualisms that are hierarchically organized (for example, reason ranks over emotion, as does culture over nature, human over nature, and man over woman). Other intellectuals such as ecofeminist sociologist Ariel Salleh, though, tend to focus on sex-gender differences, arguing that female bodily experiences such as childbearing and childrearing as social constructs place women in a very different relationship with nonhuman nature than it does men. From these sex-gender differences arise variances in female and male “ways of knowing” and interacting with the natural world. Given that certain groups of humans such as women, people of color, the underclass, and children have often been found in scientific studies to suffer disproportionately from the impacts of low-level radiation, pesticides, toxins, and other pollutants, the works of many ecofeminists focus on furnishing scientific and empirical evidence to document and validate such claims. Prominent among such writers are scientists Theo Colborn and Sandra Steingraber. In her coauthored book Our Stolen Future (1997), for example, Colborn, a zoologist, offers an examination of the ways that certain synthetic chemicals interfere with hormonal messages involved in the control of growth and development, especially in the fetus. Similarly, Steingraber, a plant ecologist and cancer survivor, has written many works that examine the links between human rights and the environment, with a particular focus on chemical contamination. Socioeconomic Interconnections While the thinkers in this group rely extensively upon the use of scientific and empirical data in their works, they also infuse their analyses with a historical materialist approach in their critiques of capitalist patriarchy. A renowned representative of this school of thought is Vandana Shiva, a physicist by training and a celebrated global activist. Shiva’s many writings focus primarily on socioeconomic structures and phenomena that construct and contribute to the exploitation of women, their bodies, and their labor as well as to the exploitation of nature. Arguing that the Western concept of development, where all work that does not produce profits and/or capital is defined as unproductive work, is in reality “maldevelopment,” she believes

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that markets need to respect and care for the environment and the people that sustain it or all of humanity will suffer. Similarly, Maria Mies and Mary Mellor reason that patriarchy is not simply a cultural form of domination but also a material/economic one. Linguistic, Symbolic, and Literary Interconnections Many ecofeminists maintain that language plays an essential role in reinforcing sexist, racist, and naturist views of women, people of color, and nonhuman nature. A prominent example of this line of thinking can be found in Carol Adams’s The Sexual Politics of Meat. In this work, she argues that the roots of the domination of women and nature (more particularly, nonhuman animals) can be located in language that feminizes nature and naturalizes women. For example, women are frequently referred to by animal terms that are meant to be pejorative: alternatively, they have been called chicks, dogs, pussies, cows, and sows, among many other denigrating words. Thus, this linguistic process of animalizing women in a patriarchal culture is a powerful way of reinforcing and validating women’s subaltern status. In recent years, some thinkers have attempted to incorporate ecofeminist thinking into the wider arena of academic discourse to demonstrate the utility of ecofeminism as a practical movement for practical social activism. An excellent example of such work can be found in Greta Gaard and Patrick D. Murphy’s edited volume Ecofeminist Literary Criticism. In the work, the writers look at how ecofeminist theory can strengthen literary criticism and argue for activist applications of academic theory in an attempt to have more of an impact on those in the nonacademic world. Spiritual/Religious Interconnections One of the major concerns of thinkers often included under this rubric are speculations about the ability of patriarchal religions to reform themselves from the inside in order to eliminate their traditional biases against women and nature, since both are usually placed at the bottom of spiritual pyramids of dominance and status. Prominent writers in this tradition include Elizabeth Dodson Gray (Green Paradise Lost), Mary Daly (GynEcology and Amazon Grace), Starhawk (Truth or Dare), and Rosemary Radford Ruether

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(Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions). Echoing Ruether’s call for a look at ecofeminism through the eyes of women from the global South, Mary Judith Ress’s book Ecofeminism in Latin America (2005) explores the emergence of a postpatriarchal, ecofeminist theology in Latin America.

cerning humans and the environment. Theorists such as Chris Cuomo and Ynestra King are typical representatives of such work. In particular, King’s work is notable because she is one of the first North American theorists to actively support an ecofeminist ethic that draws upon socialist feminism.

Epistemological Interconnections Given that epistemology is a field of study preoccupied with the nature of knowledge (for example, how does one come to know what one knows?), many ecofeminists have focused a lot of their work on deconstructing some of the following prototypical Western views about knowledge: (1) the notion that knowledge is objective; (2) that the “knower” is an objective, detached, independent, and rational observer; and (3) nonhuman nature simply exists as a passive object of knowledge. To buttress their arguments, many such thinkers turn to the works of feminist philosopher of science Sandra Harding, arguing that in order to find a solution to current environmental crises, we need to consider the perspective of those at the bottom of the social ladder. Prominent representatives of such lines of reasoning can be found in the works of Lori Gruen and Donna Haraway.

Critiques of Ecofeminism Given that there are so many variants of ecofeminism, it is rather difficult to offer a comprehensive discussion of critiques of such a wide-ranging body of literature in this brief overview. At the most general level, however, it may be said that some frequently cited criticisms include the charge that ecofeminists err in reducing women to the sum of their bodies or that women’s potential and abilities are limited to characteristics traditionally associated with their purported “caring nature.” Others have criticized spiritual ecofeminists for focusing too much on religion instead of on politics. A work representative of some of these critiques can be found in Noël Sturgeon’s Ecofeminist Natures: Race, Gender, Feminist Theory, and Political Action.

Political and Ethical Interconnections As a grassroots movement concerned with practical solutions to urgent problems such as women’s health and environmental health, the treatment of animals, and the prudent use of science and technology, most ecofeminist analyses are concerned with the development of theories that can guide praxis in the construction of more viable social and political structures that will allow humans to coexist harmoniously with nature. The works of thinkers and activists such as Winona LaDuke, Cynthia Hamilton, Sherilyn MacGregor, and Joni Seager are representative of concerns among ecofeminists about pivotal connections between politics and the environment. A major focus of ecofeminist philosophers has always been upon environmental ethics because they believe that thinking about the conceptualization and treatment of women, other oppressed humans, animals, and the rest of nature calls for a feminist ethical analysis and response. As such, their main goal is to develop theories and practices that are not male biased and that can serve as a guide to action con-

See Also: Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Justice; Gibbs, Lois; Green Belt Movement; LaDuke, Winona; Maathai, Wangari; Navdanya; Shiva, Vandana; Social Justice Activism; Social Justice Theory. Further Readings Gaard, Greta and Patrick D. Murphy, eds. Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. Mellor, Mary. Feminism and Ecology. New York: New York University Press, 1997. Salleh, Ariel. Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx, and the Postmodern. New York: St. Martin’s, 1997. Sandilands, Catriona. The Good-Natured Feminist: Ecofeminism and the Quest for Democracy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Sturgeon, Noël. Ecofeminist Natures: Race, Gender, Feminist Theory, and Political Action. New York: Routledge, 1997. Warren, Karen J. Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Danielle Roth-Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas



Economics, Women in Because economics is concerned with analyzing and describing the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth, certain demands are made on individuals who choose to study this social science. Mathematical skills, which have long been considered the province of males, are needed even at the basic level. Since the 1960s, intensive efforts have been made in the United States and in other nations to close the gender gap in science and math that allowed males to outperform females in both fields. Recent studies, such as a 2008 study by Janet Hyde and a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, indicate that there are currently no statistical differences between the performances of girls and boys on standardized tests in these subjects. Despite this, there is considerable evidence to indicate that females continue to be greatly underrepresented in the field of economics. In 1997, for instance, approximately 80 percent of all Ph.D.s in economics were male. While the existence of the gender gap is generally acknowledged, the reasons for it are not clearly understood. In the past, a lack of interest on the part of females and the failure to grasp complex mathematical concepts were frequently given as explanations, but more recent research, particularly that produced by female scholars, gives credence to the theory that a lack of mentoring and a scarcity of positive role models for female economic students may be at the root of the problem. Another possible explanation is that females are more likely to pursue economic-related fields such as applied economics, business, public policy, and environmental economics because these fields are more concerned than pure economics with issues that are important to women. Some scholars, particularly Kevin Rask and Jill Tiefenthaler, argue that the imbalance is a result of too many males in the profession, rather than too few females. In order to promote the presence of women in economics, feminist economists are now creating both domestic and international partnerships with businesses to enhance the potential of female economic students. Sweden, for instance, has partnered with American Express to provide an annual scholarship to the top Female Economist of the Year at Stockholm School of Economics. Female graduate students in economics may also receive fellowships from organi-

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zations such as the Instute of International Education. However, the most positive step in attracting women to the field is the success of those women who are already practicing economists. Female Students The choice of whether or not to pursue a career in economics generally begins in the college classroom. Many of those decisions are made in introductory classes where students form their first impressions of economics professors and the field of economics. Contradicting some of the earlier literature on why there are so few women in the field of economics, Elizabeth Jensen and Ann Owen found in a multischool study that many female students were more likely to continue in the field if they began their studies under a female professor and if they felt involved in the class through high grades, group projects, and class interaction. They were less likely to experience this feeling of involvement in classes where male students dominated. Their overall conclusion was that women choose career paths for different reasons than men because of their distinct interests and aspirations, and females exhibit less interest in careers in economics because their performance in economics classes is generally lower than that of males. Numerous studies have dealt with the disinclination of females toward economics as a career path. Christopher Bollinger et al. argue, for example, that women are able to perform as well as men in economics classes, but they are unlikely to do so because they enter introductory classes with negative attitudes that become stronger as their exposure to economics continues. Cynthia Bansak and Martha Starr support this thesis, but they also suggest that female attitudes are shaped in large part by an ingrained belief that economics is heavily dependent on mathematical skills and that it is solidly based in the business world. Bollinger et al. suggest that if economics professors played up the importance of ecnomics as a tool in social welfare analysis, the field would attract and retain more women. Career Paths A large number of individuals choosing economics as a career enter the field of academicia, but female economists tend to move up the academic ladder at a slower pace than do their male cohorts. According

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to a report of the American Economics Association Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, only 6 percent of tenured professors of economics are women. Peter Bell, executive director of the New York Council on Economic Education, offered two possible reasons for that showing: what’s being taught and who’s teaching it. Bell points to the fact that on average, only one to two pages in economics textbooks deal with gender and minority issues. Second, he suggests that the predominance of male economics professors results in a lack of role models for female students. According to the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates, between 1974 and 2000, the number of women earning doctorates in economics more than trebled, rising from 8.7 to 26.9. However, that growth has now leveled out and is expected to regress in the future. A 2004 study undertaken by Donna Ginther and Shulamit Kahn provided new insights into the academic careers of those new female economists, reporting that in their first appointments, women in economics were less likely than women in other fields to obtain tenure and that those who did achieve tenure tended to take longer to do so than their cohorts in other disciplines. While acknowledging the fact that women tend to progress more slowly than men in their careers because of giving birth and shouldering the lion’s share of family responsibilities, Ginther and Kahn believe that their study identifies several other reasons for the wide gap in the career paths of male and female economists, contending that female economists are hindered by the fact that they have fewer publications to their credit—possibly because they are more likely than males to be in nontenuretrack positions that are free of the “publish or perish” mandate or because more female academicians devote the majority of their time to teaching or administration. Other possible reasons for the gender gap include the well-documented lack of mentors and exclusion from academic networks. Similar findings have been reported in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. The average female salary remains lower than the corresponding male salary at each level of the academic career. Even in the same economics department, male professors are often paid more than females with the corresponding years of experience. One important explanation could be the impact of outside job offers, as there is some evidence that men

receive more outside offers than women positioned at a comparable level. They also gain higher pay increases in response to those offers. The rise of the women’s movement in the 1970s began focusing attention on these economic differences. Two decades later, the establishment of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) and the launching of the Journal of Feminist Economics (1994) provided female economists with a forum for calling public attention to gender differences in the economics profession. The American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP), established in 1971, has also played a significant role in enhancing the status of women economists. Like CSEWP, the Royal Economic Society’s Committee for Women in Economics is comprised of members drawn from academia, business, and the civil service in the United Kingdom. Both committees seek to reverse the underrepresentation of women in economics and establish networks to promote the careers of female economists, particularly those at entry level. In Australia, the Committee for Women in Economics operates in a similar fashion, monitoring and promoting the presence of females in the field of economics and providing them with a network for advancing their careers. Significant Contributors It is generally believed that women have made few contributions to the history of economic thought, and the significance of the works of women such as American Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935), the feminist author of Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution (1898), might have been ignored if feminists had not resurrected them. Joan Robinson’s (1903–83) career as an English economist was similar to that of other women around the world. Although she became a full University of Cambridge lecturer in 1937, it was not until 1965 that she achieved the status of full professor of Girton College. Robinson did not reach the pinnacle of her success until 1979 when she became the first female fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. By the 21st century, female economists had begun to receive more recognition for their contributions to the field. In 2007, Harvard economist Susan Carleton Athey, who specializes in microeconomic theory,



industrial organization, and econometrics, became the first female economist in history to win the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, which is awarded to economists under the age of 40 who have made significant contributions to economic thought and knowledge. Three years later, Esther Duflo became the second female to win this award. Duflo, who directs the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, is heavily involved in the economic issues of politics, gender, and education, with a focus on India. She has also conducted research in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, and Kenya. Another wellknown American economist, Claudia Goldin, who is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard and the director of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Development of the American Economy program, focuses her attention on economics of both the past and the present. Much of her work, including Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (1990) deals with the impact of economics on women’s lives. In 2009, Elinor Olstrom became the first women to win the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences since the award was established in 1968. Olstrom, who is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and the codirector of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in Bloomington as well as the founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University, was recognized for her “analysis of economic governance, especially the commons” in response to her studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins in India, Nepal, and Kenya. She concluded that common property may safely be left to the management of individuals rather than governments or businesses. Her award was particularly significant for female economists because it acknowledged the significance of work outside the scope of mainstream economics. Around the world, in addition to academia, female economists are taking their place in government, business, and international organizations. In 2010. two female economists headed the list of candidates for Finance Minister. The position was open because Sri Mulyani Indrawati, a technocrat reformer intent on eradicating graft within the government, resigned amid great controversy. She accepted a new position with the World Bank. Although a male was ultimately

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chosen as the Indonesian finance minister, Anny Ratnawati, the Director of General Budgeting, and Salsiah Alisjahbana, the head of the National Development Planning Board, are excellent examples of female economists who have battered down gender barriers to achieve prominence in the field. Another example is Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, who began serving as the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan in 2005. She was the first female to ever hold that position. Dr. Akhtar had honed her skills by working with the Asian Development Bank. Despite the fact that economics continues to be a male-dominated field, in large part because of the discipline’s inability to attract and retain female students, the women who make up the field are redefining economics in a number of significant ways. As they participate in the professional world, these women are battering down obstacles to their advancement and paving the way for other women who follow in their footsteps. See Also: Business, Women in; Chief Executive Officers, Female; Equal Pay; Glass Ceiling; Management, Women in; Professions by Gender; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Bansak, C. and M. Starr. “Gender Differences in Predispositions Towards Economics.” (May 2006). http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract _id=908899 (accessed July 2010). Bollinger, C. R., et al. “Chicks Don’t Dig It: Gender Attitude and Performance in Principles of Economics Classes.” (September 2006). http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers .cfm?abstract_id=931670 (accessed July 2010). Booth, A. and J. Burton, with K. Mumford. “The Position of Women in UK Academic Economics." The Economic Journal, v.110/464 (June 2000). Cobb, K. “Where Are the Women Ph.D.s In Economics?” http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications _papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3556 (accessed July 2010). Dynan, K. E. and C. E. Rause. “The Under Representation of Women in Economics. A Study of Undergraduate Economic Students.” Journal of Economic Education, v.28/4 (Fall 1997). Ginther, D. K. and S. Kahn. “Women in Economics: Moving Up or Falling Off the Academic Career Ladder?” Journal of Economic Perspectives, v.18/3 (Summer 2004).

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Goldin, C. “The Quite Revolution That Transformed Women Employment Education and Family.” American Economic Review (May 2008). Jensen, E. J. and A. L. Owen. “Pedagogy, Gender, and Interest in Economics.” Journal of Economic Education, v.32/4 (Fall 2001). Jonung, C. and A. C. Stahlberg. “Reaching the Top. On Gender Balance in the Economic Professions,” Econ Journal Watch, v.5/2 (May 2008). Rask, K. and J. Tiefenthaler. “Too Few Women?—Or Too Many Men? The Gender Imbalance in Undergraduate Economics.” (August 2004). http://papers.ssrn.com /sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=595222 (accessed July 2010). Graziella Fornengo University of Turin

Ecuador The Republic of Ecuador is a multicultural country located in the western portion of South America and is the second smallest country in South America. Most of the population is of mixed descent and is known as mestizaje. The predominant culture is Hispanic and the predominant religion is Roman Catholic. Ecuador has one of the largest indigenous populations in South America. Traditional maledominated gender roles remain even though women have civic and legal equality. Ecuador ranked 23rd of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Gender Gap Report. Domestic arrangements vary by region and ethnicity. There is a strong emphasis on family life, with both nuclear and extended family arrangements common. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.6 births per woman. Although 73 percent of married women use contraceptives, the Catholic Church does not condone the practice. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 21 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate was 210 per 100,000 live births. Domestic violence remains a problem despite national laws. Many houses feature separate areas for male and female family members. Hispanic culture generally emphasizes the father’s role as financial supporter and disciplinarian and the mother’s role as house-

In Ecuador, a woman harvests Amazonian cacao beans that will be processed into chocolate and sold worldwide.

keeper and childcare provider. Middle- and upperclass households tend to follow a European lifestyle. The state education system is both bilingual and multicultural. Female school attendance rates stand at 97 percent at the primary level, 60 percent at the secondary level, and 39 percent at the tertiary level. The 2009 female literacy rate was only slightly less than that of males, at 91 percent and 94 percent, respectively. Ecuadorian society is highly stratified, with a small white elite, a mestizaje middle class, and a lower class of mestizaje, blacks, and indigenous peoples. A strong historical emphasis on skin color and racial and ethnic discrimination remain. National welfare programs include social security and healthcare, although pro-

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grams often lack the financing needed to make them effective. Western-style medicine is largely limited to urban areas and most Ecuadorians view hospitals as places of last resort. There is a strong belief in traditional medicine. Life expectancy rates are age 64 for females and age 60 for men. With 50 percent of the population living in poverty, 54 percent of women work outside the home, many because of financial necessity. Women constitute 37 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 49 percent of professional and technical workers. Women workers are most represented in the banking and finance industry, higher education, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Women represent the majority of teachers at the primary level, half of the teachers at the secondary level, and close to 30 percent at the tertiary level. A gender gap still exists in terms of average estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which is $5,189 for women and $9,075 for men, and unemployment rates, which are 10.84 percent for women and 5.79 percent for men. Women have the right to vote. Women have played a prominent role in some political issues, including indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian rights movements. Women hold 32 percent of parliamentary seats and 35 percent of ministerial positions as well as high judicial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. An increasing number of NGOs and the Ecuadorian Women’s Permanent National Forum advocate women’s issues. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Machismo/Marianismo. Further Readings Dore, Elizabeth and Maxine Molyneux. Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Save the Children, “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

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Education, Women in Women’s access to formal education remains a relatively recent and still unevenly accessible phenomenon. In poorer countries, many girls and women are excluded from education altogether. In richer nations where there is equal access to education, inequality persists within girls and women’s educational experiences and choices. These gender differences have provoked a variety of explanations and activism. The Historical Context In the northern states of the United States, there is a long tradition of educating women from the upper classes, through home tutoring. However, it was only from the mid-19th century that working-class and middle-class women gained access to free, basic education. Even then, their right to education remained restricted. First, they stayed in the education system for short periods of time and were largely confined to elementary schooling, as secondary and college education remained a male preserve. They had access to a more restricted and less prestigious curriculum in which home economics was prominent, while men dedicated time to the study of classics and sciences. During the 19th and 20th centuries, access to basic education became increasingly available to girls, as it prepared them for their responsibilities as wives and mothers; advanced studies were perceived as dangerous to their mental and physical health. More generally, women’s access to advanced education was seen as a threat to family structures and to the foundations of society. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women started entering secondary and, later, higher education on a wider scale. The provision of education became less gender differentiated and the formal barriers that stopped women from accessing the same curricular provision broke down. The aftermath of the 1960s and 1970s civil rights movement in which women and black and minority ethnic groups demanded the same rights as white men, brought the implementation in many countries of equal opportunities legislation. This legislation meant that “equivalent,” rather than equal, educational provisions became illegal, and often brought an end to gender-differentiated curricular routes. In 1967, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural

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Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution that stressed access to the same education (i.e., the same provision, curriculum, and standards) for all. In 1972, in the United States Title IX was passed to eliminate discrimination based on sex within federally funded educational programs. The Educational Achievement and Participation of Girls and Women These days, in most of the developed world, women’s participation and achievement in education has become increasingly similar to men’s. In some countries, women’s have attained higher educational achievements than men. In the United States, the numbers of women enrolled in colleges caught up with and began to overtake men in 1980. However, they remain slightly underrepresented among doctoral students. In 2006, women comprised 49 percent of all Ph.D. graduates in the United States and 45 percent in nations of the European Union (EU). Similarly, in many countries, women’s performance in external examinations often equals, and sometimes exceeds, that of men. In Anglo-Saxon countries (especially in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia), this has led to the emergence of what is known as the “boys’ underachievement debate.” According to some experts, schools and universities have become increasingly feminized, both in the composition of the teaching workforce and of institutional values. As a result, it is argued that girls are now at an advantage educationally. Such views have been challenged, especially by feminist academics, who have highlighted theoretical problems and a lack of empirical evidence to support the claims. In particular, the gender achievement gap has been described as small, often not significant, limited to particular subjects and tiny compared to gaps by social class and ethnicity. Further girls’ higher educational achievements do not convert to better opportunities in the labor market where the gender pay differential continues to favor men and where women remain under-represented in high-ranking positions. The emergence of the boys’ underachievement debate has been linked to a broader backlash against feminism and to the current standards agenda in education, which prioritizes test results and is typified by the United States’s No Child Left Behind policy.

Despite women’s participation rates and achievement becoming increasingly similar to men’s, a number of issues remain. In the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, millions of girls’ lack access to even the most basic levels of education. One of the Millennium Development Goal targets of the United Nations is to “Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.” This target has been missed. A major rationale behind policy intervention in developing nations is that women’s access to education will bring economic development, improved health, social change, and gender equality. More broadly, a large proportion of women are concentrated in a small number of subjects, generally the ones attracting less prestige and returns in the labor market. In particular, women are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, which together are known as STEM. As noted previously, accomplishments in these subjects by boys and girls, as in other educational areas, has become increasingly similar. This is true in many countries, including the United States. Yet, decisions to pursue STEM subjects once they cease being compulsory remain highly gendered. For example, in the United States in 2006, women represented only 21 percent of Ph.D. graduates in engineering, manufacturing, and construction, and 38 percent in science, mathematics, and computing. In EU nations, these figures were 25 percent and 41 percent, respectively. In other broad fields of study, women equaled or outnumbered men. Further, even within these disciplines, important variations remain by narrow field of study. There are national variations as well. For example, in engineering, manufacturing, and construction, women constitute only 11 percent of Ph.D. holders in Japan, but 59 percent in Estonia. In many industrialized nations, “women in STEM” or “women in science” have been targeted for policy intervention, as these work concentrations are viewed as hindering women’s talent. This interference can carry with it social justice and economic implications. The Educational Experiences of Girls and Women The educational experiences that girls and women have as students and teachers are a key to gender dis-



crimination. Research has established that despite the increased perception that schools and universities are feminized spaces, they remain male-dominated institutions. There are multiple reasons for this. These include a lack of women in powerful positions; widespread gender stereotyping in textbooks, the mass media and in the views of parents, teachers and peers; the domination of boys on school lessons, classroom space, resources (particularly technological equipment), interactions and teacher time, as well as on the playground; sexual harassment in schools from sexist language to physically threatening behavior toward female staff and students; and the social devaluation of subjects in which females excel. Research shows that these factors can strongly influence students’ educational, and ultimately career, choices. Schoolrelated factors are embedded in wider societal patterns. For example, some have argued that the wider societal association between masculinity and STEM can deter women from these subjects. Historically, teaching has been seen as an appropriate occupation for women, which has provided them with employment opportunities. However, there is also evidence that female teachers’ experiences are characterized by gender discrimination. Over time, female teachers have received less pay than their male colleagues and in some countries have had to leave teaching once they were married—known as the “marriage bar.” Although such overt discrimination has now become illegal in many countries, female teachers continue to face a number of barriers to career progression. In most countries, women are disproportionately over represented in the teaching of young children, in line with a view of women as naturally caring. As a result, teaching younger age groups is often perceived as a low status activity with limited progression opportunities. These teachers are disproportionately underrepresented in the highest ranks of the profession, particularly among head teachers, as they are less likely to be promoted. Women dominate in low-status occupations in schools, such as teaching assistants and other support staff occupations. Theoretical Perspectives on the Education of Girls and Women Mainstream theories of education have largely ignored women as a category. This has been characteristic of research on students and teachers. Increas-

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ingly, though, women’s position in education and their differences with men—in relation to attainment, participation, subject choice, or, more generally, to experiences of education—have become legitimate topics of investigation. Explanations for gender differences can be crudely but usefully categorized as biological or social constructionist. Biological approaches may explain educational disparities between men and women—by locating attainment differences within the brain. This viewpoint, which dates back to antiquity, still finds some resonance today. In January 2005, Harvard University president Lawrence Summers suggested in a speech that the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering in U.S. elite universities was related to their intrinsic aptitudes. Biological theories have been criticized for being essentialist in nature, considering gender as fixed and for failing to explain historical, cultural and national variations in gender differences in attainment. They also have been criticized for ignoring the effects of structural barriers to women’s education and how the brain is affected by social factors. Social constructionists explain gender differences in education through the influence of social factors. Social constructionism encompasses a wide range of theoretical positions. One particularly influential strand has looked to gender socialization processes to explain why girls disproportionately study “female subjects,” or why women teachers are reluctant to access particular disciplines and roles. Here gender socialization processes refer to the ways girls and boys learn their sex roles, including from parents, teachers, peers, and the mass media. Socialization and sex role theories remain widespread. Among social constructionists, poststructuralists occupy a distinct position. Within socialization theory there is a distinction between gender, the social aspects of being female or male, and sex, the biological aspects of being female or male. However, within poststructuralism, this distinction is seen as problematic, for biological sex itself is socially constructed and produced by social processes. Poststructuralist theorists have highlighted the capacity of individuals to resist the dominant norms, something largely absent from socialization theory, drawing on ideas of power as relational. In this perspective, educational experiences, choices, and achievement are related to gender identity and are explained in terms of negotiating par-

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ticular positions. Poststructuralists have stressed that identities are multiple and that gender intersects with social class, race, sexuality, disability, and so on. Wellknown poststructuralist education theorists include Bronwyn Davies and Valerie Walkerdine. Poststructuralist work now dominates research on gender and education generally and feminist work specifically. This has led to a focus on the meanings of education and gender and of their effects, and to increased work on how gender interacts with other aspects of identity in educational settings. Activism in the Education of Women and Girls Many activists in the education of girls and women have drawn on feminist theoretical perspectives. There are many feminist positions. They share a social constructionist approach to gender and a conception of gender as a power relation, differentiated and hierarchical. A common distinction in early second-wave feminist activism in the 1970s and 1980s is between liberal and radical approaches, although in practice there was considerable overlap between these factions. Liberal feminist approaches emphasized the need to bring more girls and women into male-dominated structures. These have been criticized for wanting to include women without changing the structure and educational organization. In contrast, radical feminist perspectives emphasized the need to challenge educational structures and definitions of knowledge. In addition to ensuring equal rights for women in all areas of social life, including in education, the women’s movement endeavored to establish alternative forms of education. Since the 1960s, this has led to the establishment of continuing education and community programs, as well as the creation of academic programs. The ambition behind these courses is to address the invisibility of women in mainstream education—a liberal approach known as “add women and stir”—and/or to include a female perspective to education. This was a radical approach to transforming curricular content as well as the pedagogical tools for its delivery. Many universities now include undergraduate and/or postgraduate courses or programs in women’s or gender studies. However, recently, some of these programs have faced closure, due to a lack of institutional support during challenging economic times. In some countries, such as the United States, Australia, some parts of the United Kingdom, and the Middle East, there are

a significant numbers of girls and women who attend single-sex schools and women’s colleges. Although single-sex education is tied to various concerns, including religious ones, some feminists have supported their development as a way of increasing girls’ educational attainment and self-esteem. These programs also offer fewer gender-stereotyped subject choices. The benefits of single-sex schooling remain unclear as there is conflicting research evidence. In recent history, women’s educational experiences have changed considerably. Once excluded from formal education, girls and women now participate and achieve very similarly to boys and men. Yet, some issues remain. In the less developed nations, girls’ access to even the most basic forms of education remain a concern. In developed nations, formal barriers have been broken, yet women continue to be underrepresented at the higher levels of education and within key high status subjects. They also remain more likely to experience discrimination and sexual harassment. See Also: “Girl-Friendly” Schools; High School Teachers; No Child Left Behind; Science, Women in; Single-Sex Education; STEM Coalition; Women’s Colleges. Further Readings Davies, B. Frogs and Snails and Feminist Tales: Preschool Children and Gender. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1989. European Commission. She Figures 2009: Statistics and Indicators on Gender Equality in Science. Brussels: European Commission, 2009. Francis, B., C. Skelton, and L. Smulyan, eds. Sage Handbook on Gender and Education. London: Sage, 2006. Martin, J. and J. Goodman. Women and Education 1800– 1980. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Spender, D. and E. Sarah, eds. Learning to Lose: Sexism and Education. London: The Women’s Press, 1980. Unterhalter, E. Gender, Schooling and Global Social Justice. London: Routledge, 2006. Walkerdine, V. The Mastery of Reason: Cognitive Development and the Production of Rationality. London: Routledge, 1988. Marie-Pierre Moreau University of Bedfordshire Heather Mendick Goldsmiths, University of London



Educational Administrators, College and University

Educational Administrators, College and University Women’s presence in educational administration at the college and university level increased in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but the higher education administration remains a male-dominated field. Women administrators also face a gender gap in salary, gender segregation in terms of types and levels of positions held, and more limited opportunities for advancement. Women are clustered in lower level and less visible positions, and while promotion rates have increased with gender equity legislation, many they are often limited to certain career tracks. Women administrators also face the challenges of having few role models and of gendered expectations and management styles. Women in higher administration work in a variety of positions and administrative units, such as academic, student, business, or external affairs. The percentage of women educational administrators at the college and university level has steadily increased in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but a significant gender gap still exists, even as women’s increased presence in higher education overall have made them the majority of college students in some countries, such as the United States. Gender Gap The gender gap in higher education administration is lowest in entry-level administrative positions and at small, public, and two-year colleges, and increases at the higher administrative levels and at doctoral degree–granting and research universities. There are more qualified women than female higher education administrators, and those stuck in administrative positions often have equivalent education and greater experience than their male counterparts. Researchers have posited a variety of reasons for the gender gap in higher education administration, reaching little consensus as to the causes. Women in higher education are disproportionately represented in entry-level administrative staff positions, while in 2003 they held only 27 percent of deanships and15 percent of provost positions. An American Council on Education study found that 45 percent of senior administrators and 38 percent of chief aca-

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demic officers were women. Figures (2010) from the Chronicle of Higher Education place the percentage of female college and university presidents at 23 percent. The percentages are much lower for minority men and women. Women are also disproportionately represented in positions that some researchers feel are earmarked for women, such as positions that were previously held by a woman, work with women or minority students, or were specifically created to meet equal opportunity or affirmative action legislation, such as those that passed in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Such legislation has had both positive and potentially negative impacts. While these placements have increased women’s employment and advancement opportunities within higher education administration, many of these positions do not have the advancement potential to the highest administrative levels. Similar figures hold for women college and university faculty, where they are clustered in adjunct and other nontenure-track positions with little chance of advancing into the administrative ranks through department chairmanships or other avenues. Perceptions of Female Administrators Women in higher education administration also face challenges to their achievement of further career success through promotions and increased responsibilities. When women began entering the workforce in greater numbers in the second half of the 20th century, it was common to speak of a “glass ceiling” in higher education administration as well as other fields that prevented women from advancing to the highest levels of the field. Women’s overrepresentation in lower level and peripheral jobs not viewed as part of the career ladder to the highest administrative positions often results in lower salaries, responsibilities, visibility, and expectations than their male counterparts. Many women administrators face gender stereotypes and gendered expectations in their careers. Traditionally, many societies held lower expectations for female success or leadership capabilities. Women often bear more family and childcare responsibilities at home, making it harder for them to achieve a balance between career and family and adding to the perception that women administrators have less time

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to devote to their careers, or the opposite perception that hardworking women administrators are neglecting their traditional family responsibilities. Although heightened awareness and antidiscrimination laws have greatly reduced overt gender discrimination and provided legal avenues for recourse in many countries, these subtle, less detectable forms of gender discrimination remain. They can affect women’s ability to obtain or advance in higher education administrative positions as employers evaluate more subjective job qualifications, such as communicative and leadership abilities. They can also affect women administrators’ job evaluations if she is perceived as violating such expectations through the exhibition of a nonfeminine management style. Differences in women’s and men’s leadership and communication styles also affect female administrators. Traditional gender stereotypes can lead to positive perceptions of strong, assertive male administrators who work long hours, and negative perceptions of the equivalent female administrators. Women administrators may also be stereotyped as too emotional, unable to handle complicated budget information and financial decisions, and unable to fight for scarce resources. The fact that there are fewer women administrators can increase such perceptions by placing their performance under more scrutiny. Women administrators may also face difficulties working or socializing with mostly male counterparts, or fitting into the traditional “old boys network” of the academic culture. Several organizations dedicated to women in higher education administration, such as the American Association of University Women and the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS), were created to help women overcome these challenges and further increase their presence in higher education administration. Such organizations provide women administrators with leadership and management development opportunities, as well as providing the collaboration and mentoring networks that pioneering women administrators lacked. HERS also maintains an international component, running an annual academy for women in higher education in Africa. See Also: American Association of University Women; College and University Faculty; Community Colleges; Management, Women in; Management Styles, Gendered.

Further Readings Chliwniak, Luba. Higher Education Leadership: Analyzing the Gender Gap. Washington, DC: Graduate School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University, 1997. Eggins, Heather. Women as Leaders and Managers in Higher Education. Philadelphia: Society for Research Into Higher Education, Open University Press, 1997. Johnsrud, Linda K. and Ronald H. Heck. “Administrative Promotion Within a University: The Cumulative Impact of Gender.” Journal of Higher Education, v.65/1 (1994). Mitchell, Patricia Turner. Cracking the Wall: Women in Higher Education Administration. Knoxville, TN: College & University Personnel Association, 1994. Nidiffer, Jana and Carolyn Terry Bashaw. Women Administrators in Higher Education: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Sagaria, Mary Ann Danowitz. Women, Universities, and Change: Gender Equality in the European Union and the United States. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Shakeshaft, Charol. Women in Educational Administration. London: Corwin, 1989. Tinsley, A. and C. Secor. Women in Higher Education Administration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984. Welch, Lynne Brodie. Women in Higher Education: Changes and Challenges. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1990. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Educational Administrators, Elementary and High School Educational administration is a field of study that trains educators to lead school districts and individual schools. Elementary, middle/junior, and high schools are usually led by administrators referred to as principals or head teachers. Although the teaching ranks consist mostly of women, school administrators have historically been men. However, in the last two decades, the principal ranks have grown to include increasing numbers of women. Although many scholars and practitioners praise modern trends and consequent changes in the cadre



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of school administrators, they are also quick to point out the need for continued transformation within the educational administration profession. Because principals and head teachers are usually chosen from the teaching ranks, it is important to examine the makeup of and attitudes about the teaching profession. In addition, it is vital to study the higher education programs that prepare male and female teachers to become state-certified school administrators. The Gendering of Teachers and Leaders Since the 1800s, teaching has been viewed as women’s work because of the supposed inherent female qualities that engendered women as the appropriate people to work with children. Even today, teaching— especially in the field of early childhood—is viewed by some as an extension of women’s natural parenting roles. Conversely, school administration has been viewed by many as men’s work because our culture has historically viewed men as natural leaders. Thus, a paradox emerged and has continued for over 200 years: Most teachers are women, and most principals, who are recruited from the teaching ranks, are men. As a consequence, the ratio of female to male school leaders has been severely imbalanced for most of education’s history. During modern times, American schools have increased in size and become more complex. Likewise, school district governance structures have also grown in size and complexity. Since 2000, educational administration researchers such as Catherine Marshall, Linda Skrla, and Michelle Young have documented numerous accounts of sexual harassment and discrimination against women in educational administration. The difficulties women face in the educational administration field increase in severity in parallel with each level that is examined within the hierarchy of school district governance. For example, women in the education ranks represent four-fifths of teachers, one-half of elementary school principals, one-quarter of secondary school principals, and onetenth of school district superintendents. Educational Leadership Preparation Programs Researchers examined the educational leadership preparation programs in universities and colleges and found that at least one-half of all educational administration students are women. In turn, this means

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most school districts have relatively equal numbers of women and men from which to choose principals, superintendents, and other management positions within the school district hierarchy. At the same time, the current political environment is sated with accounts of the disappearing principal and the fact that we just don’t have enough principal candidates to take their places. Some researchers argue that discussions about the principal shortage ignore gender discrimination as a related issue. The belief is that there are suitable female candidates to choose from among the teaching ranks: If school district hierarchy were more open to hiring women as leaders of adults—rather than just teachers of children—the principal shortage might be alleviated to a considerable degree.

In the last two decades, ranks of elementary school principals have grown to include increasing numbers of women.

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Women’s Ways of Leading Schools Similar to the “women’s ways of knowing” that Mary Belenky and colleagues brought to the debate, there are differing opinions among educational administration researchers whether or not women and men lead schools differently. For some, focusing on the differences between female and male leaders is not politically expedient. Rather, to increase the numbers of women in leadership positions, one must convince society that women are as good as men—which is often communicated and interpreted as saying they are alike. For others, studying difference is positive politically because it is believed that by doing so, society is introduced to a broader, richer interpretation of how good leaders look and act. For example, two leaders of differing races, genders, and class backgrounds might lead differently, yet be equally effective, with varying strengths and weaknesses. Charol Shakeshaft is one of the first educational administration researchers to focus on women who have broken the “glass ceiling” in educational administration and explore the differences between the ways men and women lead schools, and specifically, how the work environment, leadership styles, communication abilities, conflict-resolution skills, and decision-making techniques differ between male and female school leaders. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, College and University; Management, Women in; Management Styles, Gendered. Further Readings Belenky, Mary, et al. Women’s Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Blount, Jackie, M. Destined to Rule the Schools: Women and the Superintendency, 1873–1995. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. Marshall, Catherine. “Imagining Leadership.” Educational Administration Quarterly, v.31/3 (1995). Rusch, Edith. A. “Gender and Race in Leadership Preparation: A Constrained Discourse.” Educational Administration Quarterly, v.40/1 (2004). Shakeshaft, Charol. Women in Educational Administration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1989. Skrla, Linda. “The Social Construction of Gender in the Superintendency.” Journal of Education Policy, v.15/3 (2000).

Young, Michelle D. “Shifting Away From Women’s Issues in Educational Leadership in the U.S.: Evidence of a Backlash?” International Studies in Educational Administration, v.33/2 (2005). Young, Michelle D. and Linda Skrla, eds. Reconsidering Feminist Research in Educational Administration. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003. Katherine Cumings Mansfield University of Texas at Austin

Educational Attainment, Effect of Unpaid Labor on Most children in developing countries combine education with paid or unpaid labor. There are significant gender differences in the types and location of this labor, but research indicates that heavy work burdens for children reduce school attendance rates and academic achievement. Worldwide, girls are significantly more likely than boys to be involved in unpaid household labor (commonly called “chores”), and boys are slightly more likely than girls to be employed outside the household. Unpaid household labor may include caring for siblings, fetching water, cooking, or other similar activities but does not include income-generating agricultural work on a family’s land. Data from a household survey conducted in the 2000s in 16 developing countries provide a profile of work activities. Although there is significant crosscountry variation, on average, 21 percent of boys and 15 percent of girls aged 5 to 14 years were employed outside the home during the past decade. Boys worked an average of 20.2 hours per week and girls an average of 19.2 hours. However, when unpaid household labor is considered, both the participation rates and hours worked are higher for girls. More than 70 percent of girls in this age group performed unpaid household services (for an average of 11.12 hours per week), whereas just over half of boys worked in the home (for 8.5 hours per week). A combined measure of work that includes both economic and household activities shows that there are more girls working than boys for all of the survey regions.



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School attendance rates are lower for girls than for boys in most developing countries. The Millennium Development Goals include targets for universal primary school education and gender parity in education access by 2015. Enrollment in primary education has improved significantly over the past decade, reaching a high of 88 percent of children in 2007. However, of the 72 million children out of school in 2007, half had never been inside a classroom. Although gender disparities have been reduced, there are still only 94 girls for every 100 boys enrolled in secondary schools in developing countries, with significantly greater disparities in Africa and south Asia. Family income is a major predictor of school enrollment: only 31 percent of girls (and 41 percent of boys) from the poorest income quintile enroll in secondary school. Most girls who do not attend school are members of excluded groups (e.g., ethnic or tribal minorities). Furthermore, children who live in rural areas are significantly less likely to attend school than children in urban areas. Evidence on the Effect of Unpaid Household Labor on Education Work, whether inside or outside the home, can compete directly with the time a child spends attending school and studying. Long hours or difficult work may result in exhaustion that reduces school achievement. However, a child’s work also may provide essential income for a family (or free an adult to work in the labor market), supplying the money needed to pay school fees. Cross-country data reveal a strong negative relationship between child market work and school attendance rates. Chores also have a negative effect on school attendance, but the effect is smaller than that of paid labor. Many children combine paid work with education (and even more combine household chores with education). For children involved solely in unpaid household labor (and not paid market work), over 84 percent of boys and 81 percent of girls are enrolled in school. However, only 65 percent of boys and 61 percent of girls who work for pay are enrolled in school. Because most children do combine paid or unpaid work with school, the most relevant question is whether there is some maximum number of hours of work that children can perform before school atten-

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dance or learning suffers. Evidence seems to point to a threshold of 14 to 20 hours of work per week of paid market work or somewhat more hours of unpaid household work; work hours beyond this threshold are associated with significantly lower school attendance rates. In other words, children can combine some work with schooling, and household chores are not quite as detrimental to school attendance as paid market work, all other things held constant. Work hours also affect other important measures of educational attainment. Research clearly shows that children who combine school with work are more likely to lag behind their expected school grade levels than children who do not work. Grade repetition is likely to result in early dropout from school. In addition, nonworking children significantly outperform working children on academic tests. Both paid market work and unpaid household work reduce test scores, although again, paid market work has a stronger negative effect. Household chores may present a lower barrier to education than paid market work because chore hours may be more flexible. Survey data suggest that the need to generate income for one’s family is a more frequent explanation for school nonattendance than the need to perform household chores. Other factors influencing family decisions about their children’s educations include the inability to pay school fees, the low quality of many developing country schools, and low rates of return to schooling, particularly for girls. Health problems may also interfere with school attendance or performance. See Also: Child Labor; Children’s Rights; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Global Campaign for Education; Unpaid Labor. Further Readings Blanco Allais, Federico. Assessing the Gender Gap: Evidence From SIMPOC Surveys. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2009. Dorman, Peter. Child Labor, Education and Health: A Review of the Literature. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2008. Lewis, Maureen A. and Marlaine E. Lockheed. Inexcusable Absence. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development, 2006.

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United Nations. “The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009.” http://mdgs.un.org (accessed April 2010). Amy McCormick Diduch Mary Baldwin College

Educational Opportunities/ Access For most of coeducational schooling’s history, the public school was thought to be gender-, class-, and race-blind or neutral. It is often assumed that students are given equal access to educational materials and a similar quality of teachers and have identical opportunities to succeed in comparable facilities. However, during the past few decades, numerous researchers concur that characteristics such as socioeconomic class, race, and gender significantly influence educational opportunities and access. A person’s level of access and achievement differs not only according to their gender, age, and wealth but also in their ability to convert resources into valued outcomes. Socioeconomic Status Socioeconomic status or class is an important concern when examining educational access and achievement. Chances are that if a student lives in an economically depressed area, he or she will also attend inferior schooling resulting from a school finance arrangement that creates an educational caste system. School boards with sufficient funding have ensuing control over level of teacher pay, classroom size, and whether libraries are stocked with encyclopedias and computers. However, when school boards do not have sufficient funding, they have only what Jonathon Kozol referred to as “negative control,” or choices over which of the children’s needs go unfulfilled. In fact, poor children in high-poverty schools perform worse than similarly poor children who attend schools without a high poverty rate. Likewise, children who are not poor perform less well in schools of concentrated poverty. In addition to facing inequalities when they go through their local schools, poor children enter classrooms with appreciably lower cognitive skills

than their peers with more advantages. In addition to a poor diet, families living in racially and economically isolated areas also suffer from the effects of severe pollution and other health complexities. Lack of healthcare facilities, affordable housing, and grocery stores, accompanied by a lack of private and public transportation avenues, magnify poor families’ attempts to ameliorate their situation. In addition, families who differ from the white, middle-class norm of most public school personnel face additional difficulties negotiating relationships and policies in schools. Race Race, which is closely tied with socioeconomic status, is another chief consideration when probing educational access and achievement. Poverty is a direct cause of social segregation, but it is nearly impossible to separate poverty from race, especially when one considers the consequences of racial discrimination in housing. The neighborhoods in which racial minorities settle have important consequences. Racial segregation results in lack of contact with middleclass white Americans, which in turn affects students’ exposure to mainstream English usage and valuable networks that lead to desirable jobs and high-quality schooling. Concentrated poverty and racial isolation have devastating effects on all students, but the increased likelihood of teenage pregnancy especially affects girls, who consequently drop out of school. In addition to importunate racism in the housing market, schools have historically segregated students according to race, mostly by using separate educational tracks. It is well known that black and Hispanic students are disproportionately underrepresented in gifted and advanced placement programs, while conversely being disproportionately overrepresented in special education programs. Blacks and Hispanics are also disciplined more often and more harshly and drop out of school at disproportionately higher rates than white or Asian students. Some researchers have found that race, socioeconomic status, and gender are closely tied. For example, most poor, female, minorities performed higher than their male counterparts, but when both boys and girls of poor, racial minority status were placed in college-bound tracks, there was a leveling effect, or an erasure of gender differences in achievement. In addition, when it comes to learning

Educational Opportunities/Access computer science, studies indicate that in addition to gender, race is a factor in access and achievement. Gender Considering gender as a variable while studying educational opportunity and access is precarious because socioeconomic status and race complicate the relationship between gender and achievement. The educational experiences of girls and boys are profoundly influenced by their contradictory material and cultural circumstances that are directly related to the additional identity markers of race and class. Although those most vulnerable to school failure are poor, racial minority boys, female students, as a gendered class, experience more difficulties than boys as a group. Eighty percent of school-age girls have experienced some form of sexual harassment, with 20 percent

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experiencing an escalation of the harassment to physical or sexual abuse. In addition to safety concerns, there are also health issues to consider when discussing the state of female students. For example, girls participate in physical education and other vigorous exercise half as much as boys do. Moreover, girls are more often than not the ones who bear most of the hardships of pregnancy and parenthood if students become parents during their teen years. Although most educators acknowledge that boys repeat grades more often and drop out at a higher rate than girls, girls who repeat a grade are more likely to drop out than male grade repeaters. In addition to racial segregation, gifted education programs can also have segregative effects when it comes to gender. For example, equal numbers of boys and girls are usually identified for gifted programs in elementary school. However,

Afghan girls participate in an accelerated learning class in 2007. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, there were virtually no girls being educated. In 2010, a reported 2.5 million girls attended school.

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during the early teenage years, girls begin dropping out of gifted programs. Moreover, when it comes to math and science gifted programs, girls are scarce. Many researchers admit that blatant barriers women and girls experienced in past decades have diminished significantly, but girls and women still lag behind men in participation in science, technological, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields. Although cause-and-effect relationships are difficult to ascertain, some contend that girls still face a culture in schools that indicates they do not belong in STEM fields. Other researchers point to the cumulative effect of how girls are socialized to refrain from interest, achievement, and careers in STEM. See Also: Computer Science, Women in; Education, Women in; Engineering, Women in; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Science Education for Girls; Single-Sex Education; STEM Coalition; Title IX. Further Readings Datnow, Amanda and Lea Hubbard. Gender in Policy and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2002. Dickert-Conlin, Stacy and Ross Rubenstein. Economic Inequality and Higher Education. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. Lareau, Annette. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Lee, Valerie E. and David T. Burkam. Inequality at the Starting Gate. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute, 2002. Marshall, Catherine and Maricela Oliva, eds. Leadership for Social Justice: Making Revolutions in Education, 2nd ed. New York: Allyn & Bacon, 2009. Mickelson, Roslyn A. “Gender, Bourdieu, and the Anomaly of Women’s Achievement Redux.” Sociology of Education, v.76/4 (2003). Oakes, Jeannie. Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality, 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005. Southworth, Stephanie and Roslyn A. Mickelson. “The Interactive Effects of Race, Gender and School Composition on College Track Placement.” Social Forces, v.86/2 (2007). Katherine Cumings Mansfield University of Texas at Austin

Egypt Home to one of the world’s oldest ongoing civilizations, Egypt lies along the shores of both the Mediterranean and Red seas in northeast Africa. The Nile River continues to be of utmost importance to the Egyptian economy. Almost a third of the workforce is employed in the agricultural sector, but 43 percent of Egyptians now live in urban areas. Egypt’s resources are overtaxed by having the largest population in the Arab world, and global economic woes have affected the economy, resulting in a per capita income of $6,000 and an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent. A fifth of the population now lives in poverty. Culturally and religiously, Egypt has more in common with the Middle East than with Africa. More than 99 percent of the population are Egyptian, and 90 percent are Muslim. The majority of Egyptians are Sunni, but there is also a Coptic Christian minority. The mores that govern women’s lives are heavily dependent on geographical location, social class, religious background, and political orientation. Although women have legal rights to equality, in practice they are discriminated against in both the public and private spheres. Violence against women and the virtually universal practice of female genital mutilation are major concerns. Although the National Council for Women was established in 2000, nongovernmental organizations bear the brunt of promoting and protecting women’s rights. Egyptian law is based on Islamic Shari`a law, and women are encouraged to remain in their homes and subjugate themselves. Females younger than 21 years need the permission of a male guardian to obtain a passport or travel. Male relatives can perform “honor killings” in cases of perceived female immorality, and if convicted, they receive only light punishment. In rural areas, arranged marriages for young girls are still common. A female’s inheritance rights are half those of male heirs, and if the only child is a daughter, the remaining half is distributed among male relatives. Non-Muslim widows have no inheritance rights at all. From 70 to 80 percent of Egyptian women wear the veil in public, either as a means of avoiding male attention or as a religious statement. While at school, primary schoolgirls are banned from wearing the veil. Secondary and preparatory schoolgirls need parental permission to do so.



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Seven-year-old Do’a Ali (center) has a favorite place in the new Hamata School in Egypt: the library. She is just learning to read, but she has already looked through all of the books, and her goal is to read every one.

There have been a number of reforms that have improved women’s lives, but the ability to exercise those rights is dependent on the social factors that control women’s lives. Women are now employed in government, medicine, law, academia, and the arts, but their presence is still somewhat limited in business, and they are still restricted in their ability to own land and obtain bank loans. Equal pay is now mandated by law, and women can now divorce without spousal consent, but they may be left without financial resources. Mothers who marry non-Muslim males can now confer citizenship on their children. However, mothers have no legal rights over children except for physical custody of children younger than 15 years. In 2008, women held nine of 454 seats in the People’s Assembly and 21 of 264 seats in the Shura Council. Two of 32 cabinet ministers were female.

Egypt ranks 81st in the world in infant mortality (27.26 deaths per 1,000 live births), with female infants (25.51 deaths per 1,000 live births) having a slight advantage over males (28.93 deaths per 1,000 live births). With a life expectancy of 74.81 years, adult women also have an advantage over men (69.56 years). The median age of 25.2 for women is slightly higher than that of men (24.4 years). Egyptian women have a fertility rate of 3.05 children—the 71st highest in the world. Egyptians have an intermediate risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, Rift Valley fever, and schistosomiasis. Avian flu has also been identified. Access to education is limited for women, who have a literacy rate of only 59.4 percent compared with 83 percent for males. Feminists argue that illiteracy and lack of education have been used to discriminate against women.

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Various reports suggest that from 86 to 97 percent of girls undergo female genital mutilation between the ages of 7 and 10 years. Although the law prohibits the practice of infibulation, the most dangerous form of female genital mutilation, it is still used in parts of southern Egypt. The government has used the media to inform parents about health hazards associated with female genital mutilation. Violence against women is of major concern, but few official data exist. In most cases, family members and neighbors tend to limit the scope of violence. Eyewitnesses are required to prove that domestic violence occurred. Nongovernmental organizations have taken the responsibility for providing support for victims of abuse. Rapists may be sentenced to prison terms up to 25 years, but most cases are never reported. There are no laws against spousal rape. Although prostitution is illegal, it is a problem in large cities, and many street children are forced into prostitution. As such, sexual harassment is not illegal, but it has been prosecuted under morals statutes. One 2009 report revealed that 83 percent of Egyptians and 98 percent of foreign women had been sexually harassed. See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Honor Killings. Further Readings Abu-Lughod, Lila. “The Active Social Life of ‘Muslim Women’s Rights’: A Plea for Ethnography, Not Polemic, With Cases From Egypt and Palestine.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, v.6/1 (2010). Afrol News. “Egypt.” http://www.afrol.com/Categories /Women/profiles/egypt_women.htm (accessed February 2010). Baron, Beth. Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Egypt.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/eg.html (accessed February 2010). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Egypt.” http://genderindex

.org/country/egypt-arab-rephttp://genderindex.org /country/egypt-arab-rep (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Ehrenreich, Barbara Barbara Ehrenreich is an American social critic and women’s advocate. Since the late 1960s, Ehrenreich has authored over 20 social critiques addressing the effects of capitalism on American society, the status of women’s health, American foreign policy, and the evolving concept of the American dream. In addition to her scholarship, Ehrenreich is active in local and national-level labor disputes. Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, in 1941 and raised in a blue-collar family. During her childhood, her father worked as a miner, but was later able to move his family up the economic ladder after attending the Butte School of Mines. After earning a doctorate in cell biology, Ehrenreich went to work for a small nonprofit organization in New York City that advocated better healthcare for the city’s poor. She writes: “One of the things we did was put out a monthly bulletin and I found myself enjoying doing investigative stories for it. There was no decision to become a writer; that was just something I started doing.” Following the birth of her first child in 1970, she coauthored her first social critique, a small pamphlet, which recounted her firsthand experiences with sexism in the medical field during the birthing process. Ehrenreich went on to accept a teaching job at the State University of New York Old Westbury while working on freelance writing projects. She later published on a range of American social issues and has written for magazines including The Nation, Time, and The Progressive. In one of her first widely read nonfiction pieces, Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class (1990), Ehrenreich argues that middle-class Americans have lost their class consciousness and no longer demonstrate solidarity with working-class Americans on the issue of economic equality. Her best-selling critique Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (2001) chronicles her

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personal struggle to survive while working minimumwage jobs across America. In researching the book, Ehrenreich purposely took jobs such as Walmart clerk, waitress, maid, and nursing home assistant. Nickel and Dimed describes how despite her level of education, broad life experience, and intellect, she found it difficult to earn a living wage working minimum-wage jobs. Nickel and Dimed has been criticized by some conservatives, who argue that the book advocates socialism and is anti-American, but Ehrenreich’s work has been generally well received by mainstream commentators and has frequently been used by colleges and universities as required reading for freshman students. Her newest book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (2009), critiques the American cultural tendency toward optimism. Ehrenreich wrote the book as a response to social pressure she felt to adopt a positive attitude after a recent breast cancer diagnosis. Ehrenreich is also a socially active culture critic and regularly participates in protests, rallies, and speaking engagements on behalf of marginalized workers. In 2006, she founded the nonprofit group United Professionals, which aims to “reach out to all unemployed, underemployed and anxiously employed workers—people who bought the American dream that education and credentials could lead to a secure middle class life, but now find their lives disrupted by forced beyond their control.” Ehrenreich says, “I cannot imagine doing anything other than what I do. Sure, I could have more stability and financial security if I’d stuck to science or teaching. But I chose adventure and I’ve never for a moment regretted it.”

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El Salvador

See Also: Journalists, Print Media; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Social Justice Activism; Unions.

The Republic of El Salvador is one of the most densely populated countries in central America. With 97 percent of the population mestizo, the dominant culture is Hispanic with indigenous influences and the dominant religion is Roman Catholic. Women who took leadership roles in the struggle against social inequalities have also questioned gender inequalities. Traditional expectations of male dominance continue to limit women’s economic, political, and social advances. El Salvador ranked 54th out of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Marriage and extended families are emphasized. Both church and common-law marriages are common and legally recognized. Many celebrate church marriages after the birth of children. The average age of marriage is in the early 20s. The 2009 fertility rate is 2.7 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend 69 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 22 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate was 170 per 100,000 live births. The state social security system and employers provide women with 12 weeks of paid maternity leave at 75 percent of their wages. Despite the Catholic Church’s policy against birth control, 67 percent of married women use contraceptives. Men are legally required to support any children born out of wedlock. Domestic violence is common. Common-law marriages are easily dissolved, but there is strong religious pressure against divorce.

Further Readings Barbara Ehrenreich. http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com /index.htm (accessed November 2009). Ehrenreich, Barbara. Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009. Ehrenreich, Barbara. Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class. New York: Perennial, 1990.

Education and Employment Women are responsible for both housework and childcare. The children of most lower-class women accompany them as they work or perform domestic chores while the children of many middle- and upper-class women are left in the care of nannies. Education is compulsory through age 13, but many lower-class children do not attend school. Women

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have less educational access than men. Female school attendance rates stand at 92 percent at the primary level, 56 percent at the secondary level, and 24 percent at the tertiary level. There is a slight gender gap in the literacy rate, which is 81 percent for women and 87 percent for men. Problems include lack of clean drinking water, urban crime, and a large gap between the wealthy landowners and the marginalized poor. Western-style clinics and hospitals exist in urban areas while rural residents rely on traveling health promoters, midwives, and traditional healers known as curanderos. Life expectancy is age 62 for women and age 57 for men. Approximately half of all El Salvadoran families live in poverty; many of these are single-parent households headed by women. Many women and children work outside the home for low wages and remain dependent on their husbands for economic support. About 50 percent of women participate in the labor force. Women represent 49 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 48 percent of professional and technical workers. Many women and children have informal employment, for example working as street food vendors. Women are the majority of garment workers in foreign-owned textile factories known as maquilas, where they work in poor conditions for low wages. Women are the majority of primary school teachers, half of secondary school teachers, and one-third of tertiary level teachers. Many families also receive remittances from family members working abroad. A gender gap remains in terms of average estimated earned income of $3,670 for women and $7,343 for men, and unemployment rates, of 3.89 percent for women and 8.45 percent for men. Women have the right to vote but are underrepresented in politics. Women hold 19 percent of parliamentary seats and 39 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Machismo/Marianismo; Maquiladores. Further Readings Boland, Roy. Culture and Customs of El Salvador. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006.

White, Christopher M. The History of El Salvador. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 2008. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Elder Abuse Elder abuse refers to the mistreatment of an older individual by a known individual. Unlike in a common crime where the perpetrator is typically unknown to the victim, elder abuse occurs when the assailant is familiar. An additional form of elder abuse is self-neglect, which occurs when an older person fails to properly care for themselves. Corresponding with the increased number of aging Americans, reports of elder abuse in the United States are becoming increasingly common. Elder abuse is a serious, multifaceted problem in the United States; the crime of elder abuse takes multiple forms. The most common type of elder abuse is neglect, when an older person’s needs are not being met. An elder may need assistance with daily tasks, such as bathing, toileting, or food preparation. They may also need assistance getting to medical appointments or being transported to other places. Elders may also have needs and desires regarding social interaction, especially if they are living alone and have little mobility. Neglect is a form of elder abuse that can take both passive and active forms. With passive neglect, an elderly person’s needs are not addressed. In this circumstance, the maltreatment of the older person is unintentional. The caregiver may be unaware of the elder’s inability to care for himself or herself. The caregiver may also be preoccupied with other tasks, may be exhausted from caretaking, or may not be aware of how to appropriately care for an older person. In contrast, active neglect occurs when the caregiver is aware of the older person’s needs and purposefully fails to meet those needs. Approximately 50 percent of elder abuse is neglect. Financial Abuse Financial abuse is another common form of elder abuse. In this type of abuse, a perpetrator takes advantage of an older person’s material wealth. They may seek financial favors from the older person, such as



pocket money or small financial sums. Abusers may attempt to live with older people and provide them with a semblance of companionship in return for household goods or living expenses. In more extreme cases, perpetrators may take control of an older person’s finances. They may deny the elder access to his or her own money, while siphoning off the funds for themselves. Such financial misappropriation may be especially easy for a family member to perpetrate if the elder had previously asked the family member to be in charge of his or her finances. A final form of financial abuse may occur if the elder is nefariously persuaded to change his or her will or trust to benefit the abuse perpetrator. Twelve percent of abuse cases are related to financial exploitation. Physical and Sexual Abuse Physical abuse is an additional form of elder abuse. Physical abuse can include hitting, slapping, or otherwise hurting an elderly person. Physical abuse can also include purposefully restraining an older person in order to cause pain. A key criterion for physical abuse is that the pain is intentionally inflicted upon the older person. Fifteen percent of elderly abuse is physical abuse. Psychological and emotional abuse is seen when an older person is berated by a caregiver. The elder may be yelled at, insulted, threatened, or demeaned. A central aspect of psychological abuse is that the perpetrator intentionally inflicts mental harm upon the victim. Approximately 8 percent of elder abuse cases are related to psychological abuse. Sexual abuse of elderly people can also occur. This includes rape, molestation, exhibitionism, and other types of coerced sexual activity. Sexual abuse of older people constitutes less than 1 percent of reported elder abuse cases. Gender Differences There are significant gender differences in elder abuse cases. Most victims of elder abuse are women. In 1996, 67 percent of abused elders were women and 33 percent of abused elders were men. This statistic indicates that women are more likely to suffer abuse than men. This statistic may also be a reflection of genderbased life expectancies, where females routinely live longer than their male counterparts. An additional form of elder abuse is self-neglect. With self-neglect, the elder individual gradually stops

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caring for his or her own physical, psychological, and social needs. They may begin to live in increasingly shoddy circumstances, stop eating nutritious foods, and may fail to seek the care that they need. This type of elder abuse is frequently overlooked, as older people who neglect themselves are often unseen. Self-neglect in older age may be related to a lifelong pattern of selfneglect. In contrast, self-neglect may begin in older age as a person develops a mental or physical condition that impedes the ability to care for themselves, such as depression, cancer, or dementia. There are numerous types of people who abuse the elderly. Abusers include spouses and other romantic partners, adult children and grandchildren, siblings, and other family members. Adult children are the most frequent abusers of the elderly; adult children comprise 36 percent of abusers. In contrast, spouses comprise 12 percent of abusers and grandchildren comprise 7 percent of abuse perpetrators. These statistics likely reflect the preponderance of older individuals who receive care from their adult children. As older individuals age, younger relatives frequently take over some of their routine daily tasks, including banking, medication management, shopping, and driving. Abuse perpetrators may take advantage of an older individual’s declining level of autonomy. Non-relatives, including paid or unpaid caregivers, friends, neighbors, and other community members can also be abusers of elderly people. Often, these abusers will gain the trust of the older individual before beginning to misuse them. Elderly people are more likely to be victimized by acquaintances, friends, and community members than younger people for a number of reasons. Older people are more likely to be isolated in their homes and they may be dependent on others to provide for them. Older people may feel uncomfortable with technology or other now-common tasks, and they may allow younger friends and acquaintances to have access to their private information. Caretakers in nursing homes and assisted living facilities can also be perpetrators of elder abuse. Once older individuals go to live in these types of facilities, they frequently lose much of their ability to control their lives. Many times, elders in care facilities do not have control over their finances and may not be aware of caregivers who are taking advantage of their finances. These elders are additionally dependent upon caretakers for tasks such as assisting them

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to the toilet, bathing, eating, and mobility. Nursing home staff may perpetuate elder abuse by failing to promptly care for residents. Women and men are equally likely to be abusers of the elderly, 50 percent of elder abuse is perpetuated by women and 50 percent by men. The lack of gender difference initially indicates that gender does not shape individuals’ propensity to abuse elders. However, women are more likely to care for older people than men are. Given women’s disproportionately high rates of caretaking, men are more likely to abuse the elderly than women are. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Child Abuse, Perpetrators; Child Abuse, Victims; Elder Care. Further Readings Anetzberger, G. “Elder Abuse Identification and Referral: The Importance of Screening Tools and Referral Protocols.” Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, v.13/2 (2001). Hudson, M. and J. Carlson. “Elder Abuse: Expert and Public Perceptions on Tts Meaning.” Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, v.9/4 (1998). Lachs, M., et al. “Risk Factors for Reported Elder Abuse and Neglect: A Nine Year Observational Cohort Study.” The Gerontologist, v.37/4 (1997). National Center on Elder Abuse. “Trends in Elder Abuse in Domestic Settings.” http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/ NCEAroot/Main_Site/pdf/basics/fact2.pdf (accessed November 2009). Patricia Drew California State University

Elder Care Elder care can be defined as meeting the specific needs of elderly people in their everyday life. These specific needs, including medical treatment, everyday care, psychological help, and human attention, are required by more and more people all over the world. According to the United Nations, people older than 60 years account for 11 percent of the world population, and this percentage will double by 2050. The process of population aging is most significant in developed countries.

In Europe, charity for the elderly poor has existed since the medieval ages. At that time, public concern about the elderly was limited to securing their minimal needs for physical existence. In fact, being old was a sort of social deviation—more a social problem than a social phenomenon. It was not until after World War II that the state and the public started paying attention to the quality of life of the older generation. Today, scholars agree that the process of aging is highly individual and that in each case, particular requirements need to be satisfied. Taking care of an elderly person is a specific care task. Scholars, politicians, and caregivers see the main aim of elder care as the preservation of personal autonomy and the ability to thrive. These goals are often seen as related. Elder care can be provided by an institution as well as close relatives. In Europe, two-thirds of elder care is accomplished by family, with the level of family care often compensating the lack of public care. Studies in different countries show that if family members took care of an elderly relative before he or she moved to a nursing home, they will go on giving care once the person is there. Importantly, relatives and friends are the only people able to perform some specific tasks that can be referred to as “caring about someone.” If an elderly person is to be washed, fed, and cured in a nursing home, the staff members have little time to talk to him or her about his or her concerns or life in general. Lack of information about the previous life of the residents and the difficulty of the elderly in creating new relationships are also obstacles to close relations with nursing home staff. So for most elderly people, even for those living in a care facility, family and friends remain a privileged source of nonmaterial care. In modern society, elder care is usually women’s business. This is, first of all, because most elderly people are women, as a woman’s life expectancy is generally several years longer than that of a man. In addition, as some studies show, women tend to have poorer health than men of the same age, and so need more care. Second, most professional and informal caregivers are women. Women and Elder Care: Controversies and Critiques The main controversy concerning elder care in modern society is the one between the burden of care-



An elderly woman in a small village in Romania. In Europe, charity for the elderly has existed since medieval times.

giving tasks and the lack of social recognition for those who do them. The professions that provide childcare and nursing and elder care are low paid and have low social status. Professional caregivers tend to be recruited between socially disadvantaged, poorly educated women, often coming from immigrant groups. The people who care for their elder relatives sacrifice their work, their hobbies, and their social life to these physically and morally exhausting tasks. Some scholars analyze informal caregiving as a “secondary dependence” construction, as a woman providing care often becomes materially dependent on a third party. The main question about elder care is why it is always women who find themselves in the role of caregivers. Feminist researchers have formulated two explanations for the relationship between gender and caregiving. Their interpretation of the fact that women are

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almost exclusive caregivers derives from their point of view on gender and sex relationships. The first explanation, presented by the essentialist feminists, claims that gender is the same thing as sex. Proponents of this explanation see no difference between an individual’s biological sex and its social reflection. Gender and gender roles are conceived as something naturally given to a person, with caregiving being an important part of the feminine identity. The first person to express this point of view was psychologist Carol Gilligan, who studied differences between children of the two sexes while solving moral problems. Boys made their decision relative to social norms and looked for an instrumental solution of the problem. Girls, in contrast, tended to resolve problems referring to human relations. From this result, it can be extrapolated that the disposition to provide care is seen as an inborn feminine trait, which suggests that if an elderly man needs care, his wife would be the first one to take care of him; if he has no wife, his daughter would assume this task; if he has neither a wife nor a daughter, his daughterin-law or his granddaughter will carry the burden. In fact, according to different studies, this caregiving configuration is the most frequent. However, as international statistics show, male caregivers, though rare, do exist. Other feminists—ones who reject the essentialist vision of gender—tend to underline the social effect in elaboration of gender roles. In opposition to the essentialist trend, they suppose that gender is not biologically determined but is socially constructed. According to this feminist movement, no gender identity, disposition, or role is natural: All of them are acquired by a person during the socialization process. The feminine disposition toward providing care to others is also interpreted as a socially constructed trait taught to women from childhood via socially approved female values, games, and behavior patterns. Prospective and Empowerment Scholars discussing the future of elder care emphasize three main and contradictory trends: first, population aging; second, general deficit of public means; and third, the necessity of ensuring the well-being of cared-for elderly people. Some nonfeminist scholars propose to reduce the public cost of elder care by reducing public investment

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in it, thus transferring elder care activity mostly to families. Their critics emphasize that, in this case, the tendency of the growing proportion of dependant persons and longer period of needed care risks reducing female employment and reinforcing gender inequality. In all modern welfare regimes, the main obstacle to quality in elder care is seen as the lack of social and economic recognition for caregiving work. All feminist scholars agree that care is a labor—an occupation that consumes time and physical and psychological effort. There is a general consensus that deprived and poor people have difficulty in providing high-quality care for the elderly. As a result, most feminists see care-valuing as the only way to increase the caregivers’ social status and reward, and thus attract wider social groups to care work. Most specialists agree that gender diversification of caregivers would contribute to better elder care. Another way to ensure high-quality care for the growing number of the elderly may be seen in a creation of a “care fair”—a market of caregiving services. Scholars who defend this idea believe that the economic attraction of caregiving jobs would reduce gender inequalities and increase the quality of elder care. In contrast, feminist authors, even those who consider paid services to be caregiving, find this idea undermining to the basic principle of caring and to its relational and affective aspects. As for the empowerment of informal caregivers, most feminists agree that the only solution is the recognition of the services they provide. The right means for this recognition are, however, difficult to find. A salary paid by social services to a relative who gives up his or her career to care for an elderly person might be a possible option. However, as the French experience shows, this measure can instead lead to a diminution of the caregiver’s perceived status and a reduction of the quality of the care provided. For this reason, the recognition of caregiving may require more profound social changes. Some feminists of the nonessentialist trend pledge for a “caring society”—a society in which care is recognized as a form of labor, in which those who need care are perceived as full members of the society, and in which caregiving is valued and duly rewarded. The best means to achieve this goal is placing caregiving in the center of social citizenship rights and making it a value important to both sexes.

See Also: Attitudes Toward Aging; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Welfare. Further Readings Feder Kittay, Eva and Ellen K. Feder, eds. The Subject of Care: Feminist Perspectives on Dependency. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Ginn, Jay and Sarah Arber, eds. Connecting Gender and Ageing. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, 1995. Held, Virginia. The Ethics of Care. Personal, Political, and Global. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Tronto, Joan C. Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. New York: Routledge, 1993. Veronika Duprat-Kushtanina Ecole des Hauts Etudes en Sciences Sociales

Elders, Joycelyn Joycelyn Elders is a physician and health administrator who serving in the Clinton administration as the first African American and second woman Surgeon General of the United States. She was trained as a pediatrician, and became a faculty member at the University of Arkansas Medical Center (UAMC) in 1967. As Surgeon General, she was best known for her discussions of sensitive issues like drug legalization, teenage sexuality, and distribution of contraception in schools. Elders was born Minnie Lee Jones in Schaal, Arkansas, and later changed her name to Minnie Joycelyn Lee. She grew up in a poor family; her father worked as a sharecropper. Elders received her B.S. degree in Biology from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1952. She then worked as a nurse’s aide in a Veteran’s Administration hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before joining the U.S. Army in May 1953. In the Army, Elders trained as a physical therapist. After her tour of duty, she attended the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), and in 1960 earned her medical degree. She completed an internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital, followed by a residency in pediatrics at the UAMS. She also earned an M.S. degree in Biochemistry. As a UAMC faculty member, Elders advanced from assistant professor to professor by 1976. She received a National Institutes of



Health career development award, and in 1978 gained certification as a pediatric endocrinologist. Elders’s political and administrative career began in 1987 when then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton appointed her Director of the Arkansas Department of Health. Among her proudest achievements during that time included a tenfold increase in the number of annual early childhood screenings, and the near doubling of the immunization rates of 2-year-old children. Elders pushed aggressively to reduce teen pregnancy in Arkansas by making birth control and sex education more readily available. She also endorsed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and counseling. Elders was elected president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers in 1992. In January 1993, President Clinton tapped Elders to become the U.S. Surgeon General. She was a strong supporter of his health plan, and became a controversial nominee whose appointment was not confirmed until September of that year. She was a strong, outspo-

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ken advocate for many health-related causes, including the distribution of contraceptives in school, the exploration of drug legalization, and abortion rights. In 1994, at a speech at the United Nations, Elders said schools should consider teaching masturbation to students as a means to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. This statement was attacked by right-wing activists, and the ensuing controversy led President Bill Clinton to remove her from office in December 1994. Elders returned to the UAMC and became a regular on the lecture circuit, speaking on issues related to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and teen pregnancy. Semi-retired, Elders lives in Little Rock, and is a professor emeritus at UAMC. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Pregnancy; Sex Education, Comprehensive; Sexually Transmitted Infections. Further Readings Elders, Joycelyn. Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper’s Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America. New York: Harper Perennial, 1997. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. “Changing the Face of Medicine: Dr. Joycelyn Elders.” http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceof medicine/physicians/biography_98.html (accessed June 2010). “Then & Now: Joycelyn Elders.” 2005. CNN. http://www .cnn.com/2005/US/07/18/cnn25.tan.elders/index.html (accessed June 2010). Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld Arizona State University

Elementary Educators

Elders’s political career began when President Bill Clinton appointed her Director of the Arkansas Department of Health.

Elementary educators typically teach children between the ages of 5 and 12 years, or from the end of preschool until the children are ready for secondary school education. Similar to early-childhood educators, childcare workers, and others whose work centers around caring for and nurturing children, elementary educators are typically among the lower-paid, lower-status professionals in industrialized nations. The majority of elementary educators are also women, with the percentage of women in

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that field increasingly dramatically in recent years in some Western contexts. This increase is known as the “feminization” of teaching. Although this phenomenon varies in both intensity and scope across contexts, elementary education has been, and continues to be, gendered work. Beginnings and Professional Preparation Research has suggested a variety of reasons for individuals choosing to become teachers. These may include having a teacher in the family, having had positive experiences in school, identifying strongly with a favorite teacher, or seeing the work and nature of teachers’ schedules as compatible with family and other life choices. Dan Lortie’s landmark study of U.S. teachers and the social environment of the school focused on career discernment as a product of various life experiences, especially the relationship that the prospective teacher had with his or her teachers and in his or her own schooling. These decisions are also influenced by the media images and status associated with teachers and teaching in the prospective teacher’s cultural milieu. In most industrialized nations, elementary teachers are required to complete an undergraduate college or university degree in a relevant area of study, as well as earn a teaching license or credential reflecting their understanding of pedagogical as well as content knowledge for the elementary grades. Some states in the United States require that teachers obtain or actively pursue a graduate degree, or have licensure only available at the graduate level. In several countries worldwide, there are also movements to create alternative routes to licensure that enable teacher candidates to complete their licensure requirements while working. These are especially encouraged in areas where a teacher shortage has made the fulfillment of compulsory elementary education difficult. In the United States, elementary teachers who have training and can teach in bilingual/English-as-a-second-language and math- and science-focused classrooms are particularly in demand and can be granted alternative licensure structures. Teacher preparation has changed radically in the last quarter century, in part as a result of the increasing demands being placed on teachers and the widening parameters of teachers’ work, but also as a function of the now nearly universal national poli-

cies around compulsory elementary education. With more and more children in school, and government pressure to find ways to support schooling for all children, the needs for preparing teachers both competitively and quickly create special dilemmas worldwide. This means that organizations that prepare, and in some cases license, teachers must balance efficiency with quality in unique ways. One contemporary means of addressing this tension lies in the standardization of teacher education at the elementary level. Organizations such as the Association for Childhood Education International offer standards that define a quality elementary teacher as a candidate who • has studied and understands the curricular content at the elementary level; • has an excellent understanding of child development and what constitutes developmentally appropriate practice in planning, implementing, and assessing instruction; and • is prepared to teach diverse learners and communicate with families and communities through multiple fieldwork opportunities in which the candidate may practice his or her growing professional skills. Elementary Educators’ Work Elementary educators typically work in classrooms with children grouped by age into grades or loose grade/ability groups. The educators then guide their students through the basics of reading, writing, mathematics, social studies, science, health, and the arts. Unlike in the secondary or postbaccalaureate contexts, the elementary teacher does not specialize—his or her classroom is the site for integrated learning across content areas. In systems in which elementary education is compulsory, the elementary educator is often charged with promoting cultural ideals, such as democratic citizenship and participation, in addition to ensuring that all pupils have the academic skills necessary for full citizenship later on. Adding to this, elementary educators must often fulfill diverse roles for their student that build on and extend the work of the teacher: they must be teacher, but also mother, father, social worker, nurse, friend, and behavioral specialist, to name a few. This can create a work environment that is exciting and dynamic,



but it can also contribute to stress, exhaustion, and early workplace fatigue and attrition without proper support. Given the stress placed on teachers in an era of compulsory elementary-level high-stakes testing, such as has been in place in the United States for the past 10 years, finding ways to complete all of the different facets of the work while also finding time to build relationships with the children in one’s care creates a difficult task for any elementary educator. Some research, notably that of Harvard-based scholars Susan Moore Johnson and Sarah Birkeland, suggests that reduced stress and increased feelings of professionalism and competency are more common for teachers working in schools where there is a formal, organized support structure, including explicit activities, to encourage professional growth. Teaching is considered professional work in most cultural contexts worldwide. However, in some industrialized nations, elementary teachers are actually considered low-status workers. Amitai Etzioni’s research on work suggests that elementary educators hold semiprofessional status, meaning that they have less autonomy than other professionals. For example, as Margaret LeCompte and Kathleen Bennet DeMarrais have found, elementary educators typically work in bureaucracies and are heavily surveilled in their daily work and in their entry to the profession, and although they may have professional status and solidarity, their training and certification are in the hands of nonteachers—people outside of their work set the standards for professional status and promotion. However, despite these image difficulties, being an elementary educator in the United States has been a professionalizing and economic step up for many who pursue it, including those who were barred from participating in other labor markets, such as people of color and women. Feminization of Teaching Despite contemporary appearances, most elementary educators have, historically, been men. The shift to women’s entry into the profession has been interpreted as concomitant with the move to compulsory elementary schooling in the United States and the resulting teacher shortage, as well as girls’ increasingly commonplace formal schooling. Contemporary teaching at the elementary level has been constructed as feminized in complex cultural, political, and historical ways. As Regina Cortina and Sonsoles San

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Román point out in their work on women in teaching, feminization in English-speaking North American and United Kingdom contexts is framed as a function of women’s persistence after the departure of men from the profession. Meanwhile, they suggest, historically Roman Catholic and other contexts began in a feminized stance as a function of the cultural, social, and religious encouragement for women to do caring, nurturing work, such as teaching children. This in part ensured that there would always be an adequate supply of elementary educators, but it also served to perpetuate rigid gender roles for male and female students and to keep women out of administrative positions in schools and school districts. Implicit in the discourse of feminization is a panic over boys’ underachievement at the elementary level, particularly in the United States. This panic ranges from claims that boys are being disadvantaged because their elementary teachers are women to worries that they are being feminized and emasculated by a feminized environment and disproportionately punished by a cabal of women teachers bent on their academic destruction. Despite research suggesting that boys and girls do equally well socially, emotionally, and academically, regardless of the gender of their teacher, the Boy Panic continues, and schools and school districts in the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted to address this panic by adding more men to the elementary classroom, with varied success. Interestingly, there has been no correlated panic over how female students fare when their college professors are overwhelmingly male, especially in the mathematics and sciences, as is the case in the contemporary United States. Many scholars have also suggested that the feminization of schools is not the problem it is made out to be, despite contemporary panics. Instead, it has been suggested that the dominant belief structures that pervade a given culture and define what constitutes appropriate masculinity and femininity in that culture are the real source of the problem. For example, it has been suggested that fewer men become elementary educators because men are not taught in overt or tacit ways that masculinity is compatible with caring and nurturing children. In their work on men and teaching, Sheelagh Drudy writes that the belief systems at work here operate at the national priority level as well: caring for and teaching children is not emphasized as

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important work in remunerative terms, which may result in teaching at the elementary level (and caring and nurturing in general) being constructed as less important, lower-status work. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Working Mothers. Further Readings Carrington, B. and A. McPhee. “Boys’ ‘Underachievement’ and the Feminization of Teaching.” Journal of Education for Teaching, v.342 (2008). Cortina, Regina and Sonsoles San Román. Women and Teaching: Global Perspectives on the Feminization of a Profession. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. DeMarrais, K. B. and M. D. LeCompte. The Way Schools Work: A Sociological Analysis of Education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1996. Drudy, S., et al. Men and the Classroom: Gender Imbalances and Teaching. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005. Johnson, Susan Moore and Sarah E. Birkeland. “Pursuing a ‘Sense of Success’: New Teachers Explain Their Career Decisions.” American Educational Research Journal, v.40/3 (2003). Lortie, Dan. Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979. Noddings, Nel. Caring, a Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Okopny, C. “Why Jimmy Isn’t Failing: The Myth of the Boy Crisis.” Feminist Teacher, v.18/3 (2008). Ringrose, J. “Successful Girls? Complicating PostFeminist, Neoliberal Discourses of Educational Achievement and Gender Equality.” Gender and Education, v.19/4 (2007). Simpson, R. L. and I. H. Simpson. “Women and Bureaucracy in the Semi-Professions.” In A. Etzioni, ed., The Semi-Professions and Their Organization: Teachers, Nurses and Social Workers. New York: The Free Press, 1969. Skelton, C. “Primary Boys and Hegemonic Masculinities.” British Journal of Sociology of Education, v.18/3 (1997). Trotman, Janina. Girls Becoming Teachers: An Historical Analysis of Western Australian Women Teachers, 1911– 1940. Amherst, NY: Cambria, 2008. Sally Campbell Galman University of Massachusetts, Amherst

EMILY’S List Early Money Is Like Yeast, otherwise known as EMILY’s List, was founded in 1985 by Ellen Malcolm to fund pro-choice Democratic women candidates for office. Organized as a political action committee (PAC), EMILY’s List’s primary goal is early funding of women candidates. From the 1990 election cycle to the 1992 election cycle, contributions grew from $770,000 to $6 million, helping support and elect EMILY’s List candidates in the 1992 “Year of the Woman.” In 2008, the PAC distributed $35 million to women candidates. Although EMILY’s List’s activities remain focused on PAC funding, it also engages in other interest group activities that include increasing the number of women interested in pursuing public office and mobilizing women voters. The “Year of the Woman” represented significant progress for female representation, with 24 Congresswomen and five Senators elected. In this election cycle, favorable conditions led to EMILY’s List’s membership growing from 3,500 to 24,000 members and also led to the group receiving contributions of over $6 million. EMILY’s List was the largest PAC during the 1992 campaign, contributing $4.6 million to 55 candidates. The PAC’s support in 1992 helped elect Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro, who was then executive director of EMILY’s List and future pay equity advocate. EMILY’s List engages in a variety of activities aside from distributing funds to candidates. The group’s Political Opportunity Program focuses on training potential candidates and their staffs in the most effective campaign strategies. To explore different campaign strategies, EMILY’s List uses its own Women’s Monitor surveys and conducts its own research. Through its Campaign Corps training programs it encourages recent female college graduates to run for political office. Further, EMILY’s List focuses on mobilizing the women’s vote and keeping women informed through its WOMEN VOTE! Program. The Democratic Party recognized the influence of the PAC in mobilizing women voters in 1996, when the two organizations teamed up to research the gender gap. The main focus for EMILY’s List remains its role as a PAC. The PAC funds candidates using “bundling” and traditional straight donations. Bundling involves individual donors writing checks to specific candidates,



which EMILY’s List collects and distributes. The group also raises funds through general donations to the EMILY’s List PAC. EMILY’s List fought against limitations on donations to nonprofit PACs citing regulations, citing them as limiting free speech. In September 2009, EMILY’s List’s free speech appeal was successful—the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in EMILY’s List v. FEC, struck down the $5,000 limitation on contributions to nonprofit PACs. In 2009, EMILY’s List entered new territory when it, for the first time, became extensively involved in the presidential race by endorsing Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton. Leading up to the Iowa Caucus, EMILY’s List made $500,000 in independent expenditures to support the campaign. EMILY's List’s actions have not always been seen positively—the PAC has been criticized for not supporting both male and female candidates who support a woman’s right to choose. The model produced by Ellen Malcolm and EMILY’s List has been exported throughout the world. Groups like EMILY’s List Australia aim to get women elected to higher office, believing that women’s representation in Parliament is critical to increasing the civil rights of women internationally. Similar to EMILY’s List in the United States, the group also tries to support pro-choice candidates. These groups are emerging not only in Australia but also in other countries like the United Kingdom. See Also: Clinton, Hilary; Government, Women in; League of Women Voters; National Organization of Women; National Women’s Political Caucus; Representation of Women in Government, U.S.; Social Justice Activism. Further Readings Darcy, R., et al. Women, Elections, and Representations. Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. Day, Christine L. and Charles D. Hadley. “Feminist Diversity: The Policy Preferences of Women’s PAC Contributors.” Political Research Quarterly, v.54/3 (September 2001). Day, Christine L., et al. “Gender, Feminism, and Partisanship Among Women’s PAC Contributors.” Social Science Quarterly, v.82/4 (2001). Franke-Ruta, Garance. “EMILY’s List Hissed.” http://www .prospect.org/cs/articles?article=emilys_list_hissed (accessed June 2010).

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Pimlott, Jamie Pamelia. “This Isn’t Your Mother’s Tupperware Party: How EMILY’s List Changed the American Political Landscape.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, 2007. Angela L. Bos Alexander Lans College of Wooster

Engineering, Women in Engineering is traditionally perceived to be a male occupation, which reflects the historically close relationship between masculinity and technology. The proportion of women in engineering remains low despite women’s greater access to higher education and to the workplace, and initiatives aimed at tackling women’s entry into engineering. The lack of women in engineering and some of the obstacles women face in the sector are part of wider societal perceptions that identify engineering occupations as men’s domains. There are a series of aspects to understanding women’s nonparticipation in engineering including gaining the right qualifications, translating qualifications into employment, and retention of women and career progression. There has been a lot of emphasis on getting women onto engineering courses, but less focus on their experiences there. Evidence suggests that increasing the numbers of women in engineering occupations on its own is an inadequate strategy. Thus, it is important to note how engineering education and engineering organizations interact with a more diverse student and professional engineering population. Women in Engineering Education In most Western countries, women now make up over 50 percent of the higher education student population, but make up a much smaller proportion in engineering education. For example, in 2008, women made up only 18 percent of engineering students in the United Kingdom even though they represent over 55 percent of the higher education student body. Despite the apparent inequality of access, women as a percentage of engineering students has been steadily increasing over the last four decades, which for some

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has been seen as a mark of progress. However, some emphasize that gender differentiation by discipline remains despite women’s access to higher education and that the increase in the percentage of women in engineering is better understood as relating to the general increase of women at university and a decline in the interest in engineering by males, rather than an increase in the interest of women in engineering. Taking into consideration women’s increase in access to higher education, we can see that women’s interest in taking up engineering at university has not increased over the last four decades, remaining around 2 to 4 percent since the 1970s in the United Kingdom (UK). A closer look at participation rates in subdisciplines of engineering shows that women are more likely to choose subjects like architecture or chemical engineering than mechanical engineering or electrical and electronic engineering. The reasons are complex. It may be that women choose subjects that more closely align with so-called feminine interests, or that women who have the skills and interests for engineering education are drawn to subdisciplines in which women are already participating in greater numbers. It has also been suggested than innovative curriculum is more likely to attract and retain women students than a more traditional curriculum. Interdisciplinary engineering education is seen to make engineering more socially relevant and better reflects the reality of working as an engineer, which also emphasizes a broader range of skills (such as communication and teamwork). However, while there have been moves toward adopting multidisciplinary approaches and more innovative teaching methods, these are not usually developed with gender mainstreaming in mind. Instead, these innovations are about making engineering more relevant to industry and to students themselves (as paying customers). Thus, it is also essential to point out that developments in engineering education are closely linked to the changing needs of industry. Women in Engineering Professions The proportion of women in the engineering professions is generally lower than the proportion of women in engineering education, which suggests that women who have the interests and skills for a career in engineering are not remaining in the profession. Data on women professionals by discipline

in engineering reflect trends identified in the student statistics—for example, that women are participating more as architects, than as professionals in other types of engineering. Theoretical Approaches Conceptualizations of gender are complex and sometimes confusing, particularly for those who do not accept biological determinist accounts while also wishing to speak for, to, or about women as group. We can see that the abandoning of essential notions of gender makes questions about gender and identity more complex. Here we can understand the idea that gender is not given, but produced in social and cultural interactions. These kinds of conceptions are a move away from essentialist ideas about what it means to be a man or woman, but how does this help the equality project when we all live in cultures where biological deterministic ideology is dominant? Also, there are difficulties in speaking about women as a homogenized group because doing so can overemphasize the differences between men and women and overlook differences among men and among women. Conversely, there may be some commonality in women’s experiences of being the “other” in workplaces dominated by men. Clearly, there are issues about how far gender research itself reinforces the gender binary of female/male and whether it can speak of women as a group. Policy For more than 20 years, numerous initiatives have attempted to redress the underrepresentation of women in engineering, but their impact has been limited. In 1984, for example, the Women Into Science and Engineering (WISE) campaign was established, with the support of the Equal Opportunities Commission and Engineering Council, and more recently the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET (Science, Engineering, and Technology). Contracted to 2008, the aim of the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET was to increase the participation and position of women in SET. Its mission was to establish a center that provides accessible, high-quality information and advisory services to industry, academia, professional institutes, education, and research councils within the SET, and build environment professions, while supporting women entering, returning, and progressing in SET careers.



An increase in government commissioned reports shows a change in attitudes and the need for cultural change, rather than an onus on women to fit into existing cultures. Policy is also moving in the right direction. For example, the Gender Equality Duty (GED) came into force in April 2007, which means that all public authorities in England, Wales, and Scotland must demonstrate that they are promoting equality for women and men and that they are eliminating sexual harassment and discrimination. GED is particularly significant because public authorities have to be proactive in eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment, rather than reacting to individuals taking cases against them, and promoting equality of opportunity, not just avoiding discrimination. Academic Research on Women in Engineering The experiences of women in the engineering have been well researched over the last two decades and, despite some advances and progress, the literature suggests that women’s experiences have changed little over this period. Academic research has sought to explore the critical and empirical knowledge base to establish how the cultures of the engineering professions shape both horizontal and vertical occupational segregation within them. The competitive nature of industry often means that arguments for increasing women’s entry to engineering have been based solely on business needs rather than a move toward inclusive cultures. For women to progress they have to make accommodations, which many find unpalatable. Some of the key ways in which engineering cultures are seen to favor men are summarized below: • Competitive workplace cultures mean that employers value economic efficiency more than employee well-being. • Women are viewed in a biologically determinist way, which means they are visible by their sex (they are in a minority) and invisible as engineers. • Work–life balance and flexible working opportunities are viewed as rhetorical and as a women’s issue, despite their availability to men, as a result their take-up is perceived to have negative consequences on careers. • Success is measured by traditionally masculine notions such as total commitment—family and

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personal commitments are thus interpreted as a distraction. • Perceived dualisms between masculinity and technology that exist both within engineering and society in general mean that women are often sidelined. • Women are often assimilated into the dominant masculine culture, which can mean that they fail to recognize the impact of their gender and reinforce the traditionally masculine norms. • Women are often excluded from formal and informal networks, which has important consequences for career success. At the same time, there have been some positive changes for women in engineering. In terms of actual workplace culture, there have been a number of gender inclusive dynamics developing within engineering workplace cultures, including respectful interactions between male and female engineers, wide-ranging and inclusive topics of conversation and humor, mixed-sex socializing and close friendships, and care taken to avoid or challenge potentially offensive jokes and language. See Also: Chemistry, Women in; Physics, Women in; Science, Women in; STEM Coalition. Further Readings Bagilhole, B. Women in Non-Traditional Occupations: Challenging Men. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Bagilhole, B., A. Powell, S. Barnard, and A. Dainty. Researching Cultures in Science, Engineering and Technology: An Analysis of Current and Past Literature. Bradford, UK: Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2007. Carter, R. and G. Kirkup. Women in Engineering: A Good Place to Be? Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1990. Evetts, J. Gender and Career in Science and Engineering. London: Taylor & Francis, 1996. Faulkner, W. “Genders in/of Engineering: A Research Report.” University of Edinburgh, UK. http://extra.shu .ac.uk/nrc/section_2/publications/reports/Faulkner _Genders_in_Engineering_Report.pdf (accessed January 2007). Phipps, A. Women in Science, Engineering and Technology: Three Decades of UK Initiatives. Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham Books, 2008.

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Powell, A., et al. “How Women Engineers Do and Undo Gender: Consequences for Gender Equality.” Gender, Work and Organization, v.16/4 (2009). Sarah Barnard Barbara Bagilhole Loughborough University

England, Lynndie Lynndie England was catapulted onto the international stage as the face of prisoner abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal during the United States’ Iraqi occupation. Pictures surfaced of England in a series of humiliating and degrading poses with detainees at the Baghdad prison. The incident has since come to be known as the “prisoner abuse scandal.” Although England insisted that she was following orders, she was sentenced to three years in prison and received a dishonorable discharge from the United States military. Born in Ashland, Kentucky, England moved to Fort Ashby, West Virginia at the age of 2. In her junior year of high school, England joined the United States Army Reserve. She married young and was soon divorced. In 2003, she was deployed to Iraq, and served as a Specialist in the 372nd Military Police Company. In April 2004, pictures depicting abuse of detainees surfaced worldwide. In the photos, England was seen posing with naked prisoners. The most infamous include her holding a leash tied around a prisoner’s neck; standing with another soldier giving the thumbs up sign in front of naked men in a pyramid formation; and pointing at prisoners forced to masturbate with a cigarette dangling from her lips. Although England was not the only soldier implicated in this scandal, nor the only female soldier involved, she became the public face of military torture. During the time of the scandal, England was romantically involved with fellow soldier Charles Graner, who was seen in some of the incriminating photos. He was later sentenced in the case. In October 2004, England gave birth to a son fathered by Graner. The pair eventually separated and Graner married Megan Ambuhl, another soldier involved in the abuse scandal. In May 2005, England went to court to plead guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, and multiple counts

of mistreating prisoners. The judge did not accept her plea bargain, however, after Graner testified that his actions signaled to England a command from a superior to participate in the abuse. At her retrial in September, England was convicted of conspiracy, four counts of abusing prisoners, and one count of performing an indecent act. She was sentenced to three years in prison and served almost half of her sentence. She was released in March 2007. England’s case continues to be debated. She is viewed by some as villainous for her role in the Abu Ghraib abuse case, while others believe she was a scapegoat for the military. Still others suggest England is a heroic soldier who participated in military interrogation tactics. Currently, England lives in her hometown with her young son, unable to find employment due to her public notoriety. England continues to insist that she had no physical contact with the prisoners and merely followed orders. In July 2009, an autobiography of her experiences in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was published. See Also: Abu Ghraib; Iraq; Military, Women in; Prison Guards, Female (U.S.). Further Readings Danner, Mark. Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror. New York: The New York Review of Books, 2004. McKelvey, Tara, ed. One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers. Jackson, TN: Seal Press, 2007. Winkler, Gary. Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World. Keyser, WV: Bad Apple Books, 2009. Leesha M. Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Ensler, Eve Eve Ensler (born May 25, 1953) is an American feminist, dramatist, journalist, filmmaker, actor, and activist who is best known as the author of The Vagina Monologues and founder of V-Day, a global movement that campaigns to prevent violence against girls and women. Her other plays include Conviction, Nec-



essary Targets, Lemonade, and The Depot. She also has authored and edited several books about issues facing the lives of girls and women, such as The Good Body (2004), A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer (2007), and I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World (2010). Ensler has a written for the magazines Glamour and Marie Claire, as well as contributing to The Guardian, Huffington Post, and Utne Reader. She also contributes a regular column to O Magazine. Ensler grew up in Scarsdale, New York. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father was a company executive. Ensler has recounted that she was sexually and physically abused by her father during her childhood and that this abuse triggered her to selfmedicate with alcohol throughout her teens and early twenties. Despite these issues, she attended Middlebury College, where she studied poetry and drama. Ensler graduated in 1975. Three years later, she married Richard McDermott and adopted his teenage son, Dylan. Although Ensler’s marriage ended in 1988, she sustained a mutually supportive relationship with her adopted son, who is now a successful actor. Ensler began work on The Vagina Monologues in 1996 after interviewing over 200 women about their experiences of sex, relationships, and violence. These interviews inspired her to focus on the complex ways in which women relate to their bodies. The Vagina Monologues explores this theme through a collection of monologues that touch on the subjects of sex, menstruation, birth, masturbation, rape, and body image. The play opened at the HERE Arts Center in New York, with Ensler performing all the monologues herself, before transferring to the off-Broadway Westside Theatre. It has since been translated into 45 languages and been performed in over 130 countries. The extensive roll-call of actors who have performed in The Vagina Monologues includes Cynthia Nixon, Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Whoopi Goldberg, Winona Ryder, Salma Hayek, Jane Fonda, and Sandra Oh. In 1998, Ensler launched the V-Day campaign, promoting creative events—including performances of The Vagina Monologues—as catalysts to generate awareness of violence against girls and women and to raise money on behalf of antiviolence organizations. Causes highlighted by V-Day activism include campaigns against female genital mutilation, rape, and sexual trafficking. In 2003, a V-Day delegation visited

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Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan. The V-Day documentary film Until the Violence Stops premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. In 2008, V-Day marked its 10-year anniversary with over 4,000 benefits around the world, as well as a special “V to the Tenth” celebration at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome, which was attended by more than 30,000 people. In its first decade of activism, V-Day has raised a total of more than $70 million in funding. The “V” in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina. Ensler’s creative and campaigning work has been recognized with numerous honors and awards, including honorary doctorates from Manhattanville College, Simmons College, and her alma mater, Middlebury College. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting in 1999, the Elliot Norton prize for Outstanding Solo Performance in 2001, and a Sundance Freedom of Expression award for What I Want My Words to Do to You in 2003. Her work through V-Day has been recognized by organizations including Amnesty International, Planned Parenthood, and The Women’s Prison Association, as well as being awarded a City of New York Proclamation in 2006. She continues to actively oversee the V-Day organization, as well as pursuing her literary career. See Also: Body Image; Censorship; Fonda, Jane; Vagina Monologues, The. Further Readings Ensler, Eve. The Vagina Monologues. London: Virago, 2001. Kattwinkel, Susan. “Spreading American Feminism: The Vagina Monologues and Cultural Identity.” In Marc Maufort and Caroline De Wagter, eds., Signatures of the Past: Cultural Memory in Contemporary Anglophone North American Theatre. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang, 2008. Reger, Jo and Lacey Story. “Talking About My Vagina: Two College Campuses and The Vagina Monologues.” In Jo Reger, ed., Different Wavelengths: Studies of the Contemporary Women’s Movement. London: Routledge, 2005. V-Day: A Global Movement to End Violence Against Women and Girls. http://www.vday.org (accessed June 2010). Siân Harris Newcastle University

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Entrepreneurs Women’s entrepreneurial activities have changed the landscape of the business world. While womenowned businesses are found across all industrial sectors, women entrepreneurs are most likely to run businesses that provide a service to consumers. Their enterprises are smaller, have fewer employees and lower revenues.These enterprises also grow at a slower pace than businesses owned by men. Women’s businesses charting the highest rates of early stage and established entrepreneurial activity are in low/ middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed similar economic profiles within Europe and Asia. Micro-entrepreneurship benefits women, their families and the national economy of their countries. Female entrepreneurs are motivated by necessity, opportunity, autonomy, and personal satisfaction. Additional motivators include intellectual growth, flexibility, income, and prestige. Socioeconomic factors also influence the decision to start a business. Limited funding and family responsibilities often combine to limit the size of women’s business enterprises. Women entrepreneurs define success beyond the bottom line. Major Contributors Women own more than 10 million U.S. firms, comprising about 40 percent of all privately held companies in the country. These businesses have more than 13 million employees and generated almost $2 trillion in sales in 2008. Women are majority owners (51 percent or more) of about 75 percent of these firms or 7.2 million companies. The growth rate of privately held, women-owned businesses from 1997 to 2004 was twice that of all other U.S. firms. Women own 20 percent of U.S. companies with revenues of $1 million or more. Women of color are majority owners of almost 2 million firms in the United States, employing more than 1 million people and generating annual revenues of $165 billion. In 2004, Latina women owned almost 39 percent of all American firms owned by women of color. While women-owned businesses are found across all industrial sectors, women entrepreneurs are most likely to run businesses that provide a service to consumers. Women’s ventures are more likely than men’s to be in the service sector for both early stage and

established entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs in Latin American and Caribbean low- to middleincome countries have the highest participation in service industries (74.3 percent), whereas women in high-income countries have greater participation rates in extractive, transforming, and business services sectors (52.1 percent). Increasing numbers of women are starting up and running high-growth industries such as financial services, biotechnology, and software. Women entrepreneurs exist across a wide range of countries and circumstances. Women’s entrepreneurial ventures make an important contribution to the economy in diverse countries across the globe; their input may be critical to the economic growth of low- and middle-income countries, such as those found in the Caribbean and Latin America. Globally, the size, scope, and setup of womenowned businesses are very different from those owned by men in terms of size, number of employees and revenues. Women-owned enterprises are smaller, typically employ fewer persons, generate lower revenues, and are less growth oriented. Women-owned companies are more resilient than men-owned businesses, and ventures owned by women of color are more likely to remain in business. Micro- and small businesses comprise 90 percent of all enterprises in countries with the lowest level of development as well as in developing countries. Women have a large share of these micro-enterprises. Women involved in micro-entrepreneurship typically conduct activities that are traditionally female. Micro-Entrepreneurs A micro-enterprise is a company with 10 or fewer employees, including family workers, and operates as an informal business. Micro-entrepreneurship provides a means for low-income women to escape from poverty and provide in their families. Women microentrepreneurs create a safety net for their families and their communities while making a large contribution to their country’s economy. In 2002, two-thirds of the 3.7 micro-entrepreneurs who received U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding were women. In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 80 percent of businesses are micro-enterprises. Latin American and Caribbean women own and operate between 30 and 60 percent of micro-enterprises in their countries.



Throughout Latin America, female entrepreneurs own up to half of all rural micro-enterprises. Women micro entrepreneurs work as street vendors, caterers, farmers, haircutters, and craftswomen. Rural women often work in retail trade and marketing. Asian women typically sell vegetables and other foodstuffs. Balinese women create and sell handicrafts to U.S. importers. Many rural women raise small livestock that they can sell to generate income. In the Republic of Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, the Women’s Micro-Enterprise Development Activity initiative has supported in-kind equipment grants and technical assistance to 75 young women. Technical assistance and in-kind equipment grants help the women to start new businesses and income-generation activities. Country Comparisons Across the globe, women are much less likely than men to be involved in a new business venture or own a business, although their rates vary greatly by country. Data from 2007 showed Japan and Peru were the only two countries in which women were more active than men in entrepreneurial activities. Significant gender gaps exist in high-income countries and lowto middle-income nations, with the gender gap the widest in high-income country groups. The highest rates of female early-stage entrepreneurial activity and established business ownership are in low- to middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by European and Asian low- to middle-income countries. The rate of women’s early stage entrepreneurial activity is four times higher in Latin American and Caribbean low- to middle-income countries and two times higher in European and Asian low- to middle-income countries countries than in high-income countries. High-income nations also had the lowest rates of female-established business ownership. Women in high-income countries are half as likely as men to own a business in the early or established phase. Exceptions include Japan, Thailand, Peru, and Brazil, where women’s early entrepreneurial activity equals or exceeds men’s. Recent reports suggest that the proportion of self-employed women is highest in Canada. One of the contributing factors to the gender gap in early- and established-stage entrepreneurial activity includes limited access to education and training. Women in developing countries face few business and

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management programs that are readily accessible. Other barriers include local market restrictions, legal and property rights, and access to capital. Women earn less than men across country lines, making it harder for them to have cash on hand to begin a new business. Women generally have less access to loans and venture capital. Motivation and Characteristics Necessity entrepreneurs start a business because they either have few other options for work or the limited options are not satisfactory. In contrast, opportunity entrepreneurs start a business in response to a perceived business prospect. In general, the likelihood of a woman starting a business out of necessity increases with the poverty level of her country. Although a gender gap exists in opportunity entrepreneurship, no gender gap exists in necessity entrepreneurship. While most early-stage women entrepreneurs respond to a perceived business opportunity, significant differences exist in terms of the ratio of opportunity to necessity entrepreneurship between high-income countries and low- to middle-income nations. Women who are at the early stages of entrepreneurship in higher-income countries are more likely to have opportunity as their motivation than women early-stage entrepreneurs in low- to middleincome countries. Besides opportunity and necessity, additional motivators for women entrepreneurs include personal satisfaction and growth, independence and autonomy, intellectual enrichment, flexibility, income, and prestige. Several socioeconomic factors influence the decision to start a business. These factors include age, employment status, education, income, social connections, and values or perceptions. Employment may be a more important factor than education in contributing to women’s involvement in entrepreneurship. Women who work outside the home are three to four times more likely than nonworking and retired women, or female students to be entrepreneurs. Women in low- to middle-income countries are most likely to be involved in early-stage entrepreneurship from age 25 to 34, and become established from age 35 to 44. In contrast, women in high-income countries are most likely to be involved in early-stage entrepreneurship from age 25 to 44, and established from age 35 to 54.

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Regardless of the country’s income level, women who are established business owners do not have higher educational attainment than women at the early stages of entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurs in high-income countries have greater average educational attainment than women entrepreneurs in low-income countries. Women entrepreneurs are more confident than women without such enterprising activity, and are less fearful. They are more likely to be acquainted with other entrepreneurs, and are more oriented toward untapped opportunities. Women entrepreneurs are willing to take large risks to achieve independence. Values are at the core of how women run their businesses. Women entrepreneurs create organizational cultures that reflect their basic beliefs about fairness, growth, and community. They promote equity, achievement, and camaraderie among their employees and a strong sense of community, extending the culture of their companies to their customers. They lead by orchestration rather than micro-management. Barriers and Successes Limited funding and family responsibilities often combine to limit the size of women’s business enterprises. Women entrepreneurs often face barriers in obtaining the funding needed to start and grow their businesses. Women receive a very small percentage of venture capital investments. Women entrepreneurs may also face exclusion from formal and informal networks. Juggling the demands of a family and a business also poses a challenge for many women entrepreneurs. Despite expanded career opportunities, many women still bear primary responsibility for family and home. Family responsibilities may limit the time available to women entrepreneurs to dedicate to their businesses. Women and men differ in how they define business success. Although men-owned businesses outperform their female counterparts in pure growth, women entrepreneurs define success more broadly. Success indicators for women entrepreneurs include quality, customer satisfaction, meaningful community involvement, and sustainable business practices. Successful entrepreneurship also means being able to combine a business that generates sufficient income while leading a fulfilling life that extends beyond the business.

Entrepreneurship takes many forms around the globe. The following women represent the different faces of women entrepreneurs and their endeavors: • Farah Khan Kunder, one of India’s most successful film directors and choreographers, was named Asia Pacific Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008. Her films have received international acclaim. • Guler Sabanci of Turkey, chair of the industrial conglomerate Sabanci Holding, is the country’s most celebrated woman entrepreneur. She also heads the philanthropy side of the business, the Sabanci Foundation. • Margaret Manning is the chief executive officer of Reading Room Ltd., of London. Reading Room is a digital communications agency that works with businesses, and cultural and governmental institutions to create quality digital dialogues with their target audiences. Manning won the 2009 Stevie Award for Best Entrepreneur in Europe, Middle East and Africa. • Marta Arango is the founder of the International Center for Education and Human Development (CINDE) in Colombia. CINDE’s comprehensive approach to development and education of children under the age of 6 has been implemented in 27 countries. • Wangari Maathai began Kenya’s Green Belt Movement with a small tree nursery in her own backyard. Her goal was to replace cut-down trees to protect Kenyans land for future generations. Today, African women in more than a dozen countries plant and sell seedlings to make a living from the land. Wangari also helped to found the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, which advocates for women’s equality in global policy. • Oprah Winfrey overcame poverty and considerable hardship in her youth to run her own production company, which produces her internationally syndicated talk show. Winfrey also is an actress, literary critic, and magazine publisher, and is considered one of the most influential women in the world. See Also: Business, Women in; Direct Sales; Financial Independence of Women; Winfrey, Oprah.

Environmental Activism, Grassroots

Further Readings Allen, Elaine I., Amanda Elam, Nan Langowitz, and Monica Dean. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2007 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship. Boston: Babson College: The Center on Women’s Leadership, 2008. Brush, Candida G., Nancy M. Carter, Elizabeth J. Gatewood, Patricia G. Greene, and Myra M. Hart. Clearing the Hurdles: Women Building High-Growth Business. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2004. Brush, Candida G., Nancy N. Carter, Elizabeth J. Gatewood, Patricia G. Greene, and Myra M. Hart, eds. Growth-Oriented Women Entrepreneurs and Their Businesses: A Global Research Perspective. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2006. Heffernan, Margaret. How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business Success. New York: Viking, 2007. Keri L. Heitner University of Phoenix School of Advanced Studies

Environmental Activism, Grassroots Women’s participation in grassroots environmental movements is well documented worldwide. In 1974, author Françoise d’Eaubonne used the term dcofeminism for the first time in her book “Le féminisme ou la Mort!” In it, she called attention to a specific relationship women have with nature and their potential to foster an ecological revolution. After she established the concept of ecofeminism, it became the name of a theoretical branch of feminist theory that defends the existence of a female-specific concern for the environment. Ecofeminism puts emphasis on the role women play in protecting nature and the environment via grassroots movements worldwide. The role of women in grassroots activism has been an issue of debate in ecofeminism circles. Essentialist interpretations consider women’s capacity to produce and maintain life as the root of their environmental concern. On the contrary, ecofeminists who emphasize social and political perspectives think women show specific responsibilities, concerns, and interests for nature because of their gendered roles and socialization.

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Differences between women’s environmental activism in developing and developed countries are related to specific environmental, social, and economic contexts, as well as to the diversity of women’s social roles and everyday responsibilities. In developing nations, women fight against the degradation or loss of natural resources that put the community’s survival at risk. In these countries, health concerns plus security and landscape conservation are the main reasons women are called to action. Women’s capacity to influence environmentrelated political agendas is biased by their power inside grassroots organizations. In the case of gendermixed grassroots groups, there is an unequal distribution of roles and power positions between men and women. By contrast, grassroots organizations dominated by female activists have linked feminist and ecological interests, bringing forth alternative analysis. In this way, women’s perspectives on nature and the environment have influenced political agendas at local and international levels. Environmental Concerns In developing countries, women are more likely to be affected by the environment’s deterioration and suffer the result of diminished resources due to their disadvantaged social roles and economic positions. In poor countries, women used to have little control of land and natural resources; they also have limited access to training and technologies, despite shouldering the bulk of agricultural work. These are the primary reasons behind the growth of women’s environmental activism. The Chipko or “Embrace the Tree” movement took place in the Garhwal Himalaya area of India in the early 1970s and spread to most of the country. A group of peasants embraced the trees with their bodies and reclaimed their traditional forest rights. Although the initial claims pointed to a fair redistribution of resources, it soon evolved into an ecological movement. The Chipko movement was led by men, but the strong presence and support of women made it of interest to ecofeminist politics. Indian physician and feminist leader Vandana Shiva analyzed the Chipko movement in a number of articles and was primarily responsible for its diffusion worldwide. The Green Belt movement was possible thanks to the work of biologist and feminist Wangari

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Maathai, who encouraged rural women to plant trees as part of a soil conservation effort to avert desertification of their land. The project started in Kenya and expanded to other African countries. The role of women in protecting the environment also has been documented for industrialized countries. During the 1980s, emblematic cases of female activism, like the Greenham peace movement, included European women’s protests against Chernobyl, and the mobilization started by the young Niagara Falls, New York, housewife Lois Gibbs against a toxic waste dump under the Love Canal community. Women’s concern for health and security drove the high level of participation in grassroots organizations during the 1980s and 1990s, particularly against toxic waste disposal operations. More recently, gender tendencies in grassroots activism have been observed in environmental conflicts related to landscape and resources conservation. Women tend to focus on basic issues: the impact on future generations, quality of life, and sense of belonging. Women’s Roles and Power in Grassroots Groups While women’s presence in political parties and ecological organizations is rather low, they are more likely to participate on the grassroots level because they are attracted to local issues. Also, the groups present low hierarchical structures. Therefore, environment-related grassroots movements are relevant to women’s political empowerment because they are the arenas that influence political decision making. Analysis of female participation at a grassroots level points to the sexual distribution of roles. Men used to be the leaders while women took up mainly supporting activities. Currently, women are assuming leading or active roles in grassroots organizations. Women apply gendered strategies when engaging in resistance activities, such as combining the grassroots’ actions with reproductive tasks and engaging their children in the daily needs of the movements. In this way, female activists challenge traditional androcentric divisions of space and social organization, such as private/personal/home and public/ impersonal/political. Female environmental activists have developed specific organizations in which feminist and ecological claims are linked. The connections

between environmental politics and issues related to daily life, home, and community have been seen as specific characteristics of feminist environmental politics. In this sense, women’s consumption in the private sphere is used as a powerful mechanism to lobby the industry and government regarding environmental issues. Women’s groups have developed campaigns to empower females and to press for environmental policies regarding production and waste management. A well-known case is the English female-oriented organization Women’s Environment Network (WEN). It lobbies the industry against the negative effects on the environment as well as the impact on women and children’s health. Examples of successful campaigns include the request to reduce chlorine in sanitary protection and diapers, the claim on excess packaging in supermarkets’ products, and the work in raising awareness about the environmental impact of disposable diapers, among others. Female environmental organizations also protest against women’s exclusion from business and political decisions concerning production, and they have denounced industry for manipulating female consumers. Women need a high level of knowledge to make environmentally and socially friendly decisions about consumption. In addition, a responsible consumption also is limited by the economic and time constraints of many women. Global Environmental Politics One of the most relevant contributions of women’s environmental activists for sustainable development has been the lobby of international politics on the environment. In 1972, the Environmental Liaison Center International (ELCI) organized a seminar titled, “Women and the Environmental Crisis.” Women’s attention to environmental issues only took on a global dimension in the 1985 United Nations Third World Congress on Women in Nairobi, Kenya. For the first time, women brought to an official symposium their concern about the global deterioration of the environment and how it was negatively affecting women’s everyday lives worldwide. The Nairobi’s conference was an assessment of 1976–85 and resulted in the adoption of Nairobi’s Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women (NFLS).



In 1991, the Women’s International Policy Action Committee (IPAC) and Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) organized the First Women’s World Congress for a Healthy Planet that took place in Miami, Florida. A main objective of the congress was to join women’s opinions on the environmental crisis. The result of the consultation and discussion process was the Women’s Action Agenda 21 that was presented to the Earth Summit one year later. In 1992, during the Earth Summit, women’s lobbying helped to highlight the relevance of gender equity for sustainable development. As a result, women’s key role in the management of the environment was included in Principle 20 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. In addition, women’s issues were considered main topics dealt by the program of action of Agenda 21, in addition to one chapter entirely dedicated to gender titled, “Global Action for Women Towards Sustainable and Equitable Development.” The environment was again a topic of discussion at the United Nations (UN) Fourth World Congress on Women that took place in 1995 in Beijing, China. Also in 2000, the UN Millennium Summit focused attention on gender and the environment. In 2002, the Johannesburg Rio+10 took place, which had the purpose of assessing the progress made since the 1992 Earth Summit. Women’s groups started to work two years in advance under the umbrella of the Women’s Caucus, which flourished after the Rio Summit and with the leading role of WEDO. Compromises claimed in the Women’s Action Agenda 21 were updated, with the resulting document titled, Women’s Action Agenda for a Peaceful and Healthy Planet 2015. The new women’s agenda listed critical arguments and proposals on the environmental crisis according to five chapters: peace and human rights, globalization and sustainability, access and control to resources, environmental security and health, and governance for sustainable development. The assessment of the general increment of militarism and armed conflicts during the previous decade led women to advocate peace and respect for human rights to ensure sustainable development. A particular attention was also paid to the gender bias of governance. Women denounced the concentration of power in the hands of males

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from Western countries, and the low female participation in policy-making bodies all over the world. See Also: Ecofeminism; Environmental Issues, Women and; Environmental Justice; Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Further Readings Agarwal, B. "Conceptualising Environmental Collective Action: Why Gender Matters." Cambridge Journal of Economics, no. 24 (2000). Brú-Bistuer, J. et al. “A Gendered Politics of the Environment.” In Lynn A. Staeheli, et al., eds. Mapping Women, Making Politics: Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography. New York: Routledge, 2004. Caiazza, A. and A. Barret. Engaging Women in Environmental Activism: Recommendations for Rachel’s Network. Washington, DC: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2003. Littig, B. Feminist Perspectives on Environment and Society. London: Pearson Education, 2001. Rocheleau, D., B. Thomas-Slayter, and E. Wangari, ed. Feminist Political Ecology. London: Routledge, 1996. Sachs, C. E., ed. Women Working in the Environment. Oxfordshire, UK: Taylor & Francis, 1997. M. Agüera University of Girona

Environmental Issues, Women and Since the beginning of human history, women have had to contend with the impact of the natural environment on the health and well-being of their communities in concrete and pragmatic ways to ensure their continued collective survival. For example, in many societies around the world today, women remain primarily responsible for the collection of firewood for cooking and heating. In the absence of infrastructure to deliver water, they are also often called upon to transport this precious resource back to their communities or to find new sources. When the historical record is examined, women are in the forefront of activism, teaching, and research about environmental issues.

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Women and the History of Environmentalism Although the most recent Chipko movement— which means “stick it” in Hindi—was led primarily by female peasants in India in the early 1970s to stop deforestation through nonviolent resistance. The first recorded Chipko event took place in 1730 when Amrita Devi and her followers sacrificed their lives by hugging the trees to protect them. For these women, the removal of the trees represented an end to their survival because, for them, food production began with the forest. In addition to providing them with fuel, food, and fodder, the forest also provided them with building materials, medicinal herbs, and raw materials for local crafts. Thus, a major environmental issue for women around the world has long been one of sustainability. A little over a century after Amrita Devi’s death, Ellen Swallow’s concern about water quality in the United States and its impacts on public health inspired her to become the first woman to seek admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a chemistry student. Although many disapproved of her ambition at first, her exemplary academic performance and analytical skills in the laboratory soon gained her the attention and respect of her professors. Convinced that access to clean drinking water was a basic human right—a key belief of most female environmentalists today—Swallow quickly became an internationally recognized expert in water analysis through her pioneering study of the sewage and water supply throughout Massachusetts. Swallow has been referred to as the “First Lady of Environmental Science” due to her efforts to introduce environmental science courses into universities and schools, as well as her work to convince cities to clean up their air and improve the handling of waste and establish sewage treatment systems. Five decades later, marine biologist, naturalist, and writer Rachel Carson warned the general public in the book Silent Spring that unless humanity began to take better care of its environment, the very resources upon which life and the future depends would be destroyed or radically changed. Scrupulously researched, this pioneering work discussed both the short- and long-term dangers of the indiscriminate use of synthetic chemical pesticides on living beings and the ecosystem.

Following the publication of Silent Spring in 1962, an increasing number of female scientists and lay activists begin to echo with increasing intensity Carson’s concerns about the deleterious health effects of environmental toxins on humans and other living beings. After the poisoning of thousands of villagers from the dumping of industrial wastes such as methyl mercury into the nearby bay of Minamata, Japan, Michiko Ishimuri (a local housewife and mother who became a poet and writer) chronicled the impact the devastation had on the families. She chronicled her findings of the environmental disaster in her best-selling book, Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow, published in 1969. Similarly, in the past few decades, American women such as Lois Gibbs, Alexis Jetter, Patsy Ruth Oliver, and Dollie Burwell became environmental activists. They were called to action after experiencing and witnessing firsthand the health issues associated with the dumping of environmental toxins in their neighborhoods. During this same period, other women such as Karen Silkwood and Erin Brockovich raised questions about environmental accountability and responsibility in the workplace when they blew the whistle on what they believed to be violations of health regulations. Silkwood is credited with making the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) aware of safety conditions at the Kerr-McGee plutonium processing plant at which she worked in Oklahoma. Brockovich is known for her exhaustive research into Pacific Gas & Electric’s leaking of hexavalent chromium into the ground water in Hinkley, California. In both cases, the environmental activism of these two women was chronicled, respectively, in the feature-length films Silkwood (1983) and Erin Brockovich (2000). In more recent years, a number of well-respected female scientists, physicians, and academics have written many works that offer ample evidence to support lay activists’ fears about the extensive and harmful health effects of environmental pollution. Prominent among them are such writers as Theo Colborn, whose work focuses on the health effects of endocrine disruption due to synthetic chemicals, and Sandra Steingraber, a plant ecologist who has written extensively about environmental links to cancer. Involved in the antinuclear movement since the early 1970s, Helen Caldicott, an Australian physician, continues her campaign to educate people about the health dangers of nuclear technologies.



Ecofeminism Another important concern expressed by many has been that the oppression of women cannot be separated from the assault on nature. In Françoise d’Eaubonne’s 1974 work, Le Féminisme ou la Mort (Feminism or Death), for example, the first appearance of the term ecofeminism appears. It is a concept that articulates a direct connection between women’s liberation and the state of the natural environment. According to ecofeminist thinkers, solutions to environmental problems must include a feminist perspective if they are to be successful. Conversely, the same thinkers also believe that both feminist theory and established skill need to include environmental perspectives if the issue of women’s oppression can be properly tackled. A transformative ecofeminism, as articulated by philosopher Karen J. Warren, would encompass six major features. It would make the interconnections between all systems of oppression explicit; stress the diversity of women’s experience; reject the logic of domination; attempt to determine whether “consciousness” and reason are truly attributes that position humans as “better” than nonhumans; be based on an ethic that stresses virtues traditionally designated as “feminine” through a nonhierarchically structured society with more of a collective and cooperative spirit; and endorse the use of science and technology only so long as such discoveries don’t harm the environment. Women, Government, and the Environment Although most women environmentalists would probably agree that adherence to the tenets of a transformative ecofeminism is a necessary condition for the survival of humanity and all the other species on earth, there often is a difference of opinion about the most effective strategies for the concrete realization of such ideals in society. Some women believe that activists should maintain an independent stance from mainstream environmental groups and government agencies to hold political officials accountable for the passage and actual enforcement of environmental laws. Others, however, contend that real change will only occur when people espousing these ideas manage to gain access to the reins of power in large organizations and government agencies. As a result, many women have viewed election to political office

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or appointment to governmental bodies as a way of accomplishing such goals. Prominent among women in this group are figures such as Carol Browner, the first female appointed as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1992; Gro Harlem Brundtland, a Norwegian minister of the environment who eventually became Norway’s first woman prime minister, serving from 1981 until 1996; and Petra Kelly, cofounder of the German Green Party, founded in 1980. Environmental Justice In the 1980s, a new environmental justice movement emerged that based its approach on a civil rights and social justice perspectives. It was propelled by the mounting concern expressed by people within indigenous, African American, and Latina/o communities in the United States about the hazardous and polluting industries that had been sited primarily in their neighborhoods. Because most mainstream environmental organizations at that time had not incorporated environmental justice goals into their programs in any meaningful way, many people from the traditionally underrepresented groups began to form their own grassroots organizations around the country to address environmental issues in their local communities. One such woman-led organization, Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), was founded in response to proposals to locate an environmentally unsound incinerator and a chemical plant in their neighborhood. Today, there are grassroots initiatives in place to ensure that environmental justice remains at the forefront of the world’s consciousness. Among the groups are MELA; HOME (Healing Our Mother Earth, founded to educate the public about nuclear issues); the Shundahai Network, formed at the Nevada Test Site in 1994 at the request of Corbin Harney, a Western Shoshone spiritual leader, to abolish nuclear weapons and end nuclear testing; and the Great Louisiana Toxics March, organized to bring attention to the high levels of illness and pollution in the state’s industrial corridor, a region characterized by high levels of unemployment, poverty, and illiteracy. In the vanguard of such movements, both laywomen and women with scientific expertise, are forming coalitions to effect both social and environmental change in their respective communities.

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Environmental Issues in Postsocialist States Shortly before the official dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the concept of glasnost, a policy to encourage greater openness and transparency in governmental affairs. In the wake of this change in philosophy, many Russians began to talk to each other more openly about the impact of rampant pollution on the health of the country’s citizens as a way to compel changes in the nation’s industrial and environmental policy. One such activist was chemist Tatyana Artyomkina, one of the leaders of the Ryazan Green Movement. Convinced that people struggling for social change have to be empowered economically as well as politically, she has endeavored to provide funding to local scientists to help them develop environmental engineering solutions to the daunting problems faced by the postsocialist Russian state. Because waterways and air know no political boundaries, she, along with many other women environmentalists, believes that people must think beyond the borders of their own particular nation-states if they wish to find a solution to the earth’s current ecological crisis. She also thinks that an end to wars and the practical adoption of sustainable development principles must be realized before global ecological problems can be resolved. Other women in the postsocialist states of Russia and Poland have focused their energies on spotlighting the consequences of environmental degradation on human health. Because children represent the future of all nations, Maria Cherkasova, a Russian ecologist and journalist, has focused her attentions on the impact of pollution on children’s health. As a scientist who specializes in studying rare and endangered animals, she has concluded that in some areas of the country such as the southern Urals, the human population is experiencing what she has termed genocide by ecocide. Before her death in 1998, Polish physician Maria Gumińska acted upon her belief that everyone has a moral obligation to protect earth’s resources through her leadership of the Polish Ecological Club (PKE), the first independent environmental nongovernmental organization in Poland. Gumińska also popularized environmental issues within the general public and scientific community through her many publications on such expansive issues as fluoride poisoning and other environmental health problems.

Global South Versus Global North: Differing Perspectives on Environmental Issues Much of recent activism has been in the “global north” or the “two-thirds world,” as feminist theorist Chandra Mohanty refers to it. Mohanty has estimated that this segment of the world contains one-third of the world’s population, but consumes two-thirds of its resources, and that the postsocialist states have centered on the long-term effects of industrialization and hazardous wastes on human health and the ecosystem. In the “global south” or Mohanty’s “one-third world,” the portion of the globe containing two-thirds of the population, consumes just one-third of its resources. However, people have had to contend with increasing pressures from multinational corporations and institutions in the global north to “develop” their economies along the lines of those in the postindustrial North. Hence, many women environmentalists in the global south have responded to such calls for changes in the existing economic and social structures as simply a new form of colonialism that further encourages environmental degradation and robs people of the resources they have traditionally managed collectively to sustain themselves and their communities. A prominent critic of this type of development discourse is Vandana Shiva, an Indian scientist and ecofeminist, who argues that the global north has become rich at the expense of the global south through “biopiracy,” a term she uses to describe the monopolization—usually through patents—of genetic resources and traditional knowledge originally taken freely from people in the global south. Through such a process, the people who supplied the original resources, which used to be freely available, are legally deprived of the right to use them, unless they pay a fee to the entity or corporation that has patented it. In her book, Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit, Shiva analyzes how corporate attempts to privatize water around the world are depriving people in the global south, in particular, of a precious resource that she believes should be freely available to all. In China, Shiva’s concerns about water issues have been reflected in the struggles journalist and engineer Dai Qing has encountered and protested against, including the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. In other parts of the global south, women such as Wangari Maathai are challenging the notion that only

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“experts” possess the requisite skills to reverse environmental degradation around the world. Through her Green Belt Movement in Kenya—for which she received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004—Maathai, a scientist, proved that a broad-based grassroots organization could effectively reduce poverty and conserve the environment through tree planting in areas that had previously been devastated by deforestation. See Also: Birth Defects, Environmental Factors and; Brockovich, Erin; Cancer, Environmental Factors and; Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Justice; Green Belt Movement; Maathai, Wangari; Shiva, Vandana; Water, as Women’s Issue; Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Further Readings Boswell-Penc, Maia. Tainted Milk: Breastmilk, Feminisms and the Politics of Environmental Degradation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. Caldicott, Helen. Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer. New York: The New Press, 2007. Colborn, Theo, et al. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival? New York: Dutton, 1996. Hofrichter, Richard, ed. Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Justice. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2002. Maathai, Wangari. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. New York: Lantern Books, 2003. Shiva, Vandana. Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2002. Warren, Karen J. Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Danielle Roth-Johnson Kimberly Sanford University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Environmental Justice Environmental justice refers to the movements aimed at ensuring that people of color, low-income individuals, women, and indigenous communities are not dis-

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proportionately harmed by environmental risks and harm. Environmental justice has many historic roots but is seen as culminating in the 1980s and 1990s. Movements include the struggle of working-class communities and communities of color against environmental hazards from toxins and pollution, indigenous mobilization against the exploitation and commoditization of natural resources, farm workers organizing against pesticide exposure, and international struggles against the exporting of hazardous materials, rapid overindustrialization, and climate change, among others. Because of cultural inequities, women can face heightened risk and harm, but they also often take a lead in environmental justice struggles. Environmental justice movements differ from the environmental movement in many ways. The environment is understood not as nature per se, but as where people live, work, and play. The movements are often grassroots, responding to incidences of environmental injustice as they occur. The law is often regarded as suspect because of its historic abuse in upholding inequality, and litigation is seen as only one strategy in a broader array of tactics including direct action, community mobilization, and political participation in local decision-making processes. Environmental justice issues are a result, and therefore an extension, of social inequalities. During the Civil Rights Movement, activists noted the prevalence of waste and toxic chemicals near communities of color and saw such environmental pollution as a civil rights violation. In 1987, the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice researched the issue and issued a report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, which found that toxic waste facilities were disproportionately placed in minority communities. Later studies found both race and income to be strong predictors in the siting of locally unwanted land uses, such as landfills, incinerators, and abandoned toxic waste dumps. Race has also been correlated to disproportionately higher levels of air pollution, contaminated local food, and child lead poisoning. Such discriminatory risk—or environmental racism—has its roots in the history of residential segregation, redlining, zoning practices, discriminatory access in local planning decisions, as well as unequal regulatory enforcement. Environmental justice was given another boost by the growth of the antitoxins movement set off by the

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Love Canal incident of the late 1970s. A neighborhood in New York, the primarily white, working-class Love Canal community unknowingly had toxic waste buried beneath their local school. After an investigation by resident Lois Gibbs, whose son suffered multiple illnesses, awareness grew of the hazard and attention was drawn to the slow response of government agencies, as well as the prevalence and danger of abandoned toxic waste sites throughout the country. In 1980, Congress passed the Superfund Act, which holds polluters accountable for cleaning up such sites, although the program has since suffered from a lack of funding. The struggles of farm workers and Native Americans have also been identified as incidences of environmental injustice. As part of their organizing efforts in the late 1960s, activists such as César Chávez of the United Farm Workers began organizing for stronger work contracts, including the right not to use and be habitually exposed to certain pesticides such as DDT. Native Americans are sometimes referred to as early environmental justice activists, having long fought against overdevelopment and continuing to struggle against hazardous resource extraction and toxins in their communities, as well as for equal access to natural resources. As these movements culminated under the term environmental justice, activists and social scientists met with the Environmental Protection Agency and created the Office of Environmental Equity (later Justice) in 1992. In 1994, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order requiring that each federal agency develop an environmental justice strategy. Such legislation has provided environmental justice movements with greater legal protection in battling continuing incidences of disproportionate risk. However, the struggle continues, as can be seen with the inadequate government response to Hurricane Katrina, the policing of local communities afterward, and the use of postdisaster funds for gentrification projects instead of community rebuilding. International Struggles Environmental justice can also be seen in broader international struggles. Scholars and activists have argued that widespread poverty and thirst are environmental justice issues, resulting from not natural causes but the unequal distribution of resources. Globalization has been linked to heightened environmen-

tal risks, encouraging rapid industrialization through the growth of factories such as maquiladoras and coal plants. In addition, the desire of the first world to avoid exposure to hazardous and toxic substances can lead to the exporting of such material, such as banned pesticides, used batteries, toxic waste, and old electronics, to the third world for use, recycling, or dumping. Environmental justice is also manifesting with climate change. The growing effects from climate change, such as increases in disease, water and food shortages, extreme weather events, and incidences of migration and dislocation, are most prevalent in rural and poor populations. The reasons overlap with the causes of environmental injustice: greater dependence on natural resources and lack of social resources such as insurance, reliable healthcare, stable housing, emergency supplies, political representation, and government assistance. Regardless, such communities rarely have a voice in international climate change treaties. This has led to a growing climate justice movement. See Also: Bolivia; Cancer, Environmental Factors; Ecofeminism; Environmental Issues, Women and; Indigenous Women’s Rights; Love Canal; Toxic Waste, as Women’s Issue. Further Readings Bullard, Robert D. Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices From the Grassroots. Cambridge, MA: South End, 1993. Bullard, Robert D., ed. The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 2005. Cole, Luke and Sheila Foster. From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Christine Shearer University of California, Santa Barbara

Equal Pay Equal pay refers to remuneration parity for men and women who do equivalent work. It is one aspect of gender equality in the labor market. The principle of



equal pay is legally recognized and enforced by most modern states. The rationale to support equal pay rests in the neoliberal formulation of equal rights, according to which nothing should exclude women from the general rights and obligations of citizenship. The pay gap between men and women is closely linked with and depends upon other aspects of labor market inequalities like horizontal and vertical segregation of occupations. The vertical segregation refers to the specialization of women in certain professions, which are associated with “feminine” skills derived from caretaking and nurturing. These occupations pay less than jobs traditionally associated with men’s work, and are considered less valuable and prestigious. Occupations like education, health, secretarial work, and administrative assistance are paid less than technology, engineering, architecture, or finance jobs where men are usually dominant. Does it mean that the pay gap decreases when women enter male-dominated occupations? Evidence shows that as women entered some of the formerly male-dominated occupations en masse, the pay rates declined because of the increase in work force supply. Occupational segregation, and the pay gap, is closely linked to the division of labor in households where women are traditionally ascribed domestic and caretaking duties. The burden of family care determines why women more often than men take parttime jobs that provide them with a lower income, but which also leaves them more time to perform unpaid housework. At the same time, the gender pay gap corresponds to horizontal segregation, characterized by the “glass ceiling.” This barrier to advancement is why the better paid, leadership positions in companies are occupied predominantly by white men. Women tend to fill positions with lower hierarchical leverage and income. However, the pay gap is lower in places with a tradition of collective bargaining and powerful trade unions. Pay scales are also more likely to be lower in public sectors than in the private ones, and in situations where job classification systems are used for determining salary minimums. Who Is Paid Less? It is essential to state that the differences in pay between the two genders are corroborated by variations within groups of women, including by age, edu-

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cation, civil status, work experience, priorities, and life choices. The most evident differences appear when comparing cohorts of women. It is evident that the older a woman, the lower her wages, when compared to younger women. This indicates that the gender pay gap is narrowing and that welfare policies have produced expected results by progressively integrating women into the labor market. At the same time, marriage and motherhood require women to spend more time in the household, negatively impacting the wages from paid labor. Education level is a predictor of the gender gap: more educated women have better possibilities of higher wages. It is interesting to note that the pay among racial or ethnic minorities and majority is even higher than the inert-gender pay gap. Consequently, if taking into account the two gaps, it is evident that minority women are the ones who carry the heavier burdens of a pay gap. Equal Pay: Indicators and Trends The research on wages and equal pay uses primarily quantitative econometric methods measurement tools. Banks of data are gathered and indicators are developed by governmental and international organizations concerned with the monitoring inequalities within labor markets. Data on average earnings usually derive from payroll sources supplied by countrylevel census and statistics or various establishments. Labor force surveys and administrative sources, including social insurance and tax records, are also weighed. Micro-surveys offer an additional look at the individual-level factors that describe and explain individual wages. Possible data sources for country comparisons may be found at the International Labour Organization, Eurostat, Household Panel for European Union Member States, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The methodology used in the calculation of pay gap indicators considers the ratio of female to male wages, expressed in percentages. Equal pay indicators are computed by wage sector and then generalized. A main assumption for this is “ceteris paribus” or more commonly known as “all other things being equal”: the men–women comparison is done only when all the contextual and individual conditions are the same with regard to workers’ education, experiences, labor skills, and so on.

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World Trends, Comparison, and Expectations The general statistics of current data and trends show that in recent years the pay gap has been narrowing since the beginning of the 1950s, at the dawn of the movement for gender equality in the labor market. The early statistics registered that women in the United States and throughout Europe earned a low 50 to 55 percent of a man’s salary. The current available data show that the average pay gap runs from a low 13 percent to a high of 26 percent across the world. Or, looked at another way, women now earn on average 74 to 87 percent of men’s income. Still, the research is incomplete. It does not include the income women earn in the informal economy, and information is not available for some African and Asian states. The pay–work equation is not different in the former communist countries. The dominance of state property assured women wages that were rather close to those of men. At the same time, because the state was the main employer, it was virtually impossible for women to complain about eventual pay disparities. The transition period negatively impacted women’s employment and increased the degree of unequal treatment between the sexes with identical productivity characteristics. According to a recent World Bank report, women with the highest productivity potential are the ones who faced the highest level of unequal treatment during transition. Still, the overall gender pay gap has remained relatively narrow in most transitional economies when compared to the rest of the world. Solutions to Ensure Equal Pay A primary cause for the gender pay gap relates to women as latecomers in a labor market progressively embedded by gendered patterns of occupational and educational choices, as well as to persistent social stereotypes. Solutions to reduce the pay gap must tackle individual and structural factors. Specific legal provisions that enforce the principle of equal pay, welfare policies envisaged to reduce gender discrimination in employment, and mainstreaming gender equality in specific policies are among the solutions modern states are taking to assure equal pay. The legal regulation of employment and wages is the solution most preferred by governments and feminist activists. Internationally, there is a variation in equal pay traditions and institutional applications. Generally, these pieces of law are written in various degrees of abstraction, which result

in different levels of interpretation and application. The adoption the provision, Convention 100 Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value, by the International Labour Organization in 1951 represents the main international starting point for the right to equal pay for work of equal value in nation-state legislation. This convention was ratified by more than 160 countries, but its implementation is far from complete. At the European Union level, it is the Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome that forms the basis of equal pay legislation and policy provisions. However, it was only with the involvement of the European Court of Justice that this article started to be applied by individuals to protect their rights. By 1975, the European Economic Community (EEC) reinforced this article with a binding and directly applicable Directive 117, that restated “the principle of equal pay for men and women outlined in Article 119 . . . [as], for the same work or for work to which equal value is attributed, the elimination of all discrimination on grounds of sex with regard to all aspects and conditions of remuneration.” The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is the United States’ legal provision regulating the equal pay of men and women and states: “for equal work on jobs[,] the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to a seniority system; a merit system; a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or a differential based on any other factor other than sex.” At the beginning of 2009, another law reinforced the equal pay principle by granting it greater applicability. In Australia, the equal pay principle was adopted in the 1970s with a second entitlement addressing equal remuneration, was introduced into the Federal Labour Law in 1993. As in other countries, in just one case these legislative provisions have advanced arbitration and no equal remuneration orders have been issued. Mainstreaming and Welfare Policies Along with the legal provisions for equal pay, specific national policies are adopted by governments to enhance the integration of women in the labor market. These are policies designed to help working women reconcile public and private spheres. So-called “work–life balance” policies include childcare facilities, economic

Equal Rights Amendment



help to single mothers, paternity leave, and more. The mechanism of mainstreaming gender equality is a process of re-examining policy areas using a gender lens, assessing implications of all policies for women and men. Some moves would ease the entrance of women in male-dominated occupations and increase the value of the skills considered essentially female. The main critique of state intervention on gender equality has been raised by the neoliberalists who call for a totally free market where such conditions as free trade, absence of regulation, and legal structure would spring the market competition and eliminate the discriminatory behavior. In this view, the absence of regulation and the freedom to exchange goods and services are essential features of market orientation. As a result, open discrimination against women would become less possible and women would have more favorable conditions to compete with men. See Also: Domestic Workers; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Part-Time Work; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Blau, F. D. and L. M. Kahn. “Understanding International Differences in the Gender Pay Gap.” Journal of Labor Economics, v.21/1 (2003). Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Women in the Labor Force: A Databook.” (2009). http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-data book2009.htm (accessed June 2010). Chicha, M. T. “Promoting Equity: Gender-Neutral Job Evaluation for Equal Pay. A Step-by-Step Guide.” Brussels, Belgium: International Labour Organization, 2009. http://www.ilo.org/declaration/info/publications /lang--en/docName--WCMS_101325/index.htm (accessed June 2010). Chubb, C., et al. International Trade Union Confederation Reports, The Global Gender Pay Gap. Brussels, Belgium: International Labor Organization, 2008. Dey, J. G. and C. Hill. Behind the Pay Gap. Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 2007. Rubery, J. and F. Grimshaw. “How to Close the Gender Pay Gap in Europe: Towards Gender Mainstreaming of Pay Policy.” Industrial Relations Journal, v.36/3 (2005). Angela Movileanu University of Siena

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Equal Rights Amendment In 1972, the U.S. Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which stated that federal and state law would not discriminate against anyone based on sex. From 1972 to 1982, 35 U.S. states ratified the ERA, a number that fell three short of the necessary total. During the ratification period, the amendment became the subject of controversy and served as a divisive issue among women in the United States. Since 1982, the Equal Rights Amendment has been introduced into every session of U.S. Congress, but Congress has not passed the amendment again. U.S. suffragist Alice Paul authored the ERA, and from 1923 to 1972, the ERA was introduced into every session of Congress. In 1946, the Senate voted on the ERA, but the amendment failed. During the 1950s, the Senate had two different, successful votes on the ERA. Each time, the ERA was sent to the House to be voted upon, but the House did not act before the session ended. One reason the ERA enjoyed Senate support during the 1950s was the attachment of the Hayden Rider, safeguarding women’s existing legal benefits. Proponents of the ERA saw the Hayden Rider as problematic. Due to the efforts of the National Organization for Women, from 1970 to 1972, the Senate and the House held hearings on the ERA. On March 23, 1972, Congress passed the ERA, and gave the ERA’s ratification a time limit of seven years—until 1979. Support was initially swift and strong. Hawaii ratified the ERA within hours, and a total of 30 states ratified the ERA by the end of the amendment’s first calendar year. However, soon after this, the number of ratifications decreased sharply; in 1977, Indiana became the 35th and last state to ratify. Supporters of the ERA persuaded Congress to extend the amendment’s deadline to 1982. Meanwhile, five states’ legislatures had rescinded, or taken back, their ratifications of the ERA. Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Tennessee justified rescission by stating that they had ratified too hastily and did not appreciate the possible deleterious effects of the ERA on women and the family. South Dakota rescinded as a protest against the amendment’s deadline extension. These rescissions were of questionable legality and caused controversy.

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E. G. Miller, Democratic National committeewoman, and Senator Edward Burke, author of the Burke Constitutional Amendment for Equal Rights for Women. Miller stated that women have “felt the ruinious effects of discriminatory and so-called protective legislation.”

The arguments in support of the ERA focused on the principle of equality. The ERA would guarantee that women had the same constitutional rights that men had. Proponents claimed that this would apply to the government and the law, but would have no impact on private actions and private relationships. They also observed that a constitutional amendment would be a fast, consistent, and relatively permanent path to sexual equality, preferable to piecemeal legal reform. In the 1970s, pro-ERA organizations included the National Organization for Women, the National Federation of Business and Professional Women, and the League of Women Voters. Until 1973, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) opposed the ERA due to the threat ERA posed to protective labor laws; in 1973, the AFL-CIO changed its position to

one of support for the ERA. This shift was due to the growing legal trend of rendering labor laws equal by including male workers in protective legislation. The arguments against the ERA were varied. Opponents believed the ERA would lead to changes that the majority of American women did not want and that Congress had not intended. One of the opposition’s most damaging arguments was that the ERA would cause women to be conscripted for military service and combat duty. Proponents of the ERA agreed that this was possible, but countered that the federal government already had the power to conscript women in wartime. Some proponents also suggested that conscription and combat duty were necessary if women were ever to achieve equal opportunity in military careers. The fact that proponents agreed with opponents regarding conscription



and combat duty was widely used by opponents in their anti-ERA campaigns. Opponents contended that the Supreme Court would unpredictably interpret the ERA, leading to outcomes that Congress had not intended, such as unisex public toilets and prisons, the invalidation of rape laws, homosexual marriage, and homosexual couples adopting children. After the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, opponents insisted the ERA would require the federal government to fund abortions on demand for poor women. Pointing to section two of the ERA, which granted Congress the right to pass laws to enforce the amendment, opponents asserted that the ERA would erode states’ rights in favor of a more powerful federal government. Many opponents maintained that the ERA would harm women, the traditional family, and society in general. They warned that women would be required to place their children in daycare and would be forced to work to earn 50 percent of the family income, or that women would not be entitled to alimony in the case of divorce. Still others held that the ERA was superfluous due to the equal protection afforded by the Fourteenth Amendment. Some declared that a constitutional amendment was not necessary because the Equal Pay Act and other laws already provided women with all the legal recourse they needed if faced with sexual discrimination. Conservative activist and lawyer Phyllis Schlafly is the most well known anti-ERA leader of the 1970s. Through her organizations, the Eagle Forum and StopERA, she mobilized a grassroots campaign of previously apolitical housewives to oppose the amendment. The Mormon Church was also widely known for its organized opposition to the ERA. Currently, there is a three-state strategy to include the ERA in the U.S. Constitution. According to the strategy’s supporters, the deadline for ratification was not part of the text of the amendment, so it should not prevent three more states from ratifying now. This strategy gained greater credibility in the aftermath of the ratification of the Madison Amendment in 1992—over 200 years after Congress passed it. Recent analyses of the ERA battle of 1972 to 1982 suggest that, although ERA opponents won in the short term, they lost in the long term. These studies

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contend that despite the ERA’s failure, proponents have achieved their goals through the use of the courts and the passage of more laws targeting sex discrimination. In addition, some have argued that when Congress reconsidered the ERA in 1983–84, the debates surrounding the amendment caused feminist activists to refine the goals of the women’s movement. According to this view, legal feminism from then on focused less on an abstract principle of equality and more on actual equality in circumstances. As a result, feminist activists would challenge laws that appeared to be equal but which in practice had a disproportionately negative impact on women. See Also: Antifeminism; Combat, Women in; Eagle Forum; Feminism, American; Military, Women in; Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; National Organization for Women. Further Readings Becker, Susan D. The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment: American Feminism Between the Wars. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. Berry, Mary Frances. Why ERA Failed: Politics, Women’s Rights, and the Amending Process of the Constitution. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986. Boles, Janet K. The Politics of the Equal Rights Amendment: Conflict and the Decision Process. New York: Longman, 1979. Critchlow, Donald T. Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman’s Crusade. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. Held, Allison L., Sheryl L. Herndon, and Danielle M. Stager. “The Equal Rights Amendment: Why the ERA Remains Legally Viable and Properly Before the States.” William and Mary Law Journal, v.3 (1997). Mansbridge, Jane J. Why We Lost the ERA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Mathews, Donald G. and Jane Sherron De Hart. Sex, Gender, and the Politics of ERA: A State and a Nation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1990. Mayeri, Serena. “A New E.R.A. or a New Era? Amendment Advocacy and the Reconstitution of Feminism.” Northwestern University Law Review, v.103/3 (2009). Nancy E. Baker Sam Houston State University

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Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea Located in western Africa, Equatorial Guinea gained its independence from Spain in 1968. The country now has a per capita income of $36,100, but the standard of living has improved only minimally since the discovery of oil reserves propelled Equatorial Guinea into position as the third largest oil exporter in subSaharan Africa. Some 39 percent of the population is now urbanized, but many families are still engaged in subsistence farming. More than 85 percent of agricultural workers are women. The overall unemployment rate is 30 percent. Although the majority ethnic group is Fang (85.7 percent), there are also small groups of Bubi (6.5 percent), Mdowe (3.6 percent), Annobon (1.6 percent), and Bujeba (1.1 percent). Spanish and French are the official languages, but each ethnic group also speaks its own dialect. Most Equatoguineans are nominally Roman Catholic, but many also participate in indigenous practices. International institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have suspended aid to the country because of corruption and mismanagement. Because it has the poorest human rights record in Africa, Equatorial Guinea, where women are treated as property, is often a hostile environment for women and girls, and women’s rights nongovernmental organizations have a difficult time because the government refuses to register them. Gender inequities and domestic violence are major problems, and reports suggest that human trafficking may also be an issue. Although the constitution grants equality to both men and women, cultural practices demand their subservience. Polygamy is widespread within the Fang culture. Early marriages are also common, and a 2004 United Nations Report indicated that 26 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years were married, divorced, or widowed. Although women hold equal legal rights to inheritance and property, in practice men take precedence. In line with the perception of women as property, a divorced woman must return a marriage dowry paid to her family, and those who cannot repay the dowry may be imprisoned. Husbands maintain custody of children, but customary law grants women responsibility for caring for children until the age of 7 years. In the late 1990s, there were two women in the 42-member cabinet and five in the 80-member

legislature. By 2008, five women sat in the 100-seat Parliament, and one woman was in the cabinet. As a result of extreme poverty, 65 percent of the population have no reliable access to healthcare. Equatorial Guinea has the 16th highest infant mortality rate (81.58 deaths per 1,000 live births) in the world, and a maternal mortality rate of 820 deaths per 100,000 live births. Female infants (80.46 deaths per 1,000 live births) fare better than male infants (82.68 deaths per 1,000 live births), as do adult women, who have a life expectancy of 62.54 years compared with 60.71 years for men. The median age for women (19.6 years) is also higher than that of men (18.3 years). Ranking 25th in the world in fertility, women give birth to an average of 5.08 children. Equatorial Guinea ranks 20th in the world in human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) (3.4 percent) prevalence. Equatoguineans also have a very high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, yellow fever, and rabies. Spending only 0.6 percent of its budget on education, the government has not made education a priority. Women (80.5 percent) lag behind men (93.4 percent) in literacy. Officially, women (9 years) average 1 year less education than men (10 years), but in practice, it is estimated that girls reach only one-fifth of male educational attainment. It is illegal for a man to beat his wife in public, but the government turns a blind eye when violence occurs inside the home, even thought that is also illegal. Rape laws are rarely enforced because of the perceived shame attached to the victim. No law specifically bans spousal rape. The government has engaged in a public campaign designed to combat violence against women. Although common, both prostitution and sexual harassment are illegal. See Also: Domestic Violence; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Property Rights. Further Readings Afrol News. “Equatorial Guinea.” http://www.afrol.com /Categories/Women/profiles/equatorialguinea _women.htm (accessed February 2010). Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Equatorial Guinea.” https://www.cia.gov/library /publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ek.html (accessed February 2010).

Eritrea

Helms, Jesse, et al. “Women and Human Rights.” WIN News, v.23/2 (1997). Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Equatorial Guinea.” http:// genderindex.org/country/equatorial-guinea (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Equatorial Guinea.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls /hrrpt/2008/af/118999.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Eritrea Situated in East Africa along the shores of the Red Sea, Eritrea was involved in a 30-year struggle before winning independence in 1991 in response to a rebel victory over Ethiopian forces. As members of the National Service, women, including some who were pregnant, fought alongside men. Seven years later, the two countries were at war again over a contested border, but international brokering of the conflict has been unsuccessful. In the 21st century, less than a fourth of the population is urbanized. Ethnically, Eritreans tend to be either Tigrinya (50 percent) or Tigre and Kunama (40 percent). There is more diversity in religion, as Eritreans identify as Muslim, Coptic Christian, Roman Catholic, or Protestant. Although the government of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front is committed to granting more equality to women through enforcement of constitutional and legal stipulations, Eritrea is still basically a patriarchal society, and women are discriminated against in both private and public spheres. During the years of Ethiopian domination, Eritrean women were expected to marry early and remain subservient— wives could not even eat in the presence of husbands. The status of women is steadily improving, partly in response to the efforts of women’s rights groups, such as the National Union of Eritrean Women, who have pressured women to participate in society rather than remain secluded in their homes. Arranged marriages are outlawed, and women gained the right of divorce and equitable property settlements. The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front has also instituted efforts to

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equalize land ownership, and women now run businesses. However, female genital mutilation is almost universal in Eritrea, and there are major problems with violence against women. Girls continue to marry at a young age, and the United Nations reports that 38 percent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years are married, divorced, or widowed. Polygamy is now legal, and men may take up to four wives. Mothers have equal rights with fathers over children, but fathers usually gain custody of children in divorce cases. Women generally inherit only half of what male heirs inherit. By the beginning of the 21st century, both the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Labor and Human Welfare were women. Women held 22 seats in Parliament, 11.1 percent of ambassadorships, and 16 percent of judicial positions. In 2008, the ministers of Justice, Labor and Human Welfare, and Tourism were women, and a number of women served as mayors and regional administrators. Eritrea ranks 64th in the world in infant mortality (43.33 deaths per 1,000 live births) and has a maternal mortality rate of 1,400 per 100,000 live births. Females (37.51 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a considerable advantage over males (48.97 deaths per 1,000 live births) that continues throughout life, resulting in a life expectancy of 63.9 years for women and 59.71 for men. Median ages for both men (18 years) and women (18.8 years) are low. Eritrea ranks 34th in the world in fertility, and women give birth to an average of 4.72 children. Similar to many African countries, Eritrea has a problem with human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) (1.3 percent) prevalence. Eritreans also have a high risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and malaria. Female literacy (47.6 percent) is considerably lower than that of men (69.9 percent). Educational levels are also low for both men (6 years) and women (4 years). At the highest end of the social scale, many Eritreans are educated in the United States or Europe. Wife beating is extensive, and according to a 2001 report, more than 65 percent of women who live in the Asmara area have been abused. Although violence against women is illegal, domestic violence is not specifically against the law, and although rape is illegal, there are no specific laws dealing with spousal rape.

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Women who are raped are often encouraged to marry their attackers, but women who have intercourse with foreigners are subject to arrest. Prostitution is a major problem. Sexual harassment is illegal, but incidences are rarely reported. See Also: Domestic Violence; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Property Rights. Further Readings Afrol News. “Eritrea.” http://www.afrol.com/Categories /Women/profiles/eritrea_women.htm (accessed February 2010). Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Eritrea.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/er.html (accessed February 2010). Kowalski, B.J. “Eritrean Women Determined to Survive and Succeed.” Listen Real Loud, v.8/2 (1987). “Sacrificing Womanhood at the Altar of a Greater Society: The Eritrean Women’s Testimonies.” Impact (December 2001). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Eritrea.” http://genderindex .org/country/eritrea (accessed February 2010). Tripp, Aili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Eritrea.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/119000.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Estonia Estonia gained its independence from centuries of foreign rule at the end of World War I in 1918. The nation was subsequently forced to join the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1940, but again achieved independence when the union dissolved in 1991.

Since that time, Estonia has steadily increased ties to the West, joining the European Union in 2004. By the 21st century, 69 percent of Estonians had become urbanized. Although the majority of the population is Estonian (67.9 percent), Russians (25.6 percent) are also well represented. Diversity reigns in religion, with Evangelical Lutherans (13.6) having a slight majority. With a per capita income of $18,800, Estonia is one of the richest countries in central Europe, in part because of an economy dependent on strong electronics and telecommunications. Sixty-one percent of the workforce is engaged in service. Constitutionally and legally, Estonian women have the same rights as males, and those rights are generally enforced. Economic problems in 2008 led to an unemployment rate of 14.3 percent, and 5 percent of the population now lives below the poverty line. Even though a policy of women’s rights includes the right to equal pay, media reports indicate that, despite higher levels of female education, there is a 25-percent wage gap in male and female salaries. Women also face problems with domestic violence, sexual harassment, and human trafficking. Estonia’s infant mortality rate is 7.32 deaths per 1,000 live births, and the country ranks 168th in this area in the world. The infant mortality rate of females (6.08) gives them a survival advantage over males (8.48) that continues to adulthood, resulting in a female life expectancy of 78.53 years, as compared to 67.45 years for males. The median age for females is 43.5 years. Estonian women have an average fertility rate of 1.42 children. Estonians face major health risks, including an intermediate risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea and tickborne encephalitis. Estonia has a human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevalence rate of 1.3 percent. Literacy is virtually universal (99.8 percent), and Estonians are well educated. With a 17-year school life expectancy, females outrank males (15 years). Women have consistently been underrepresented in politics. In 1998, only 11 of 101 Members of Parliament were female. Six members of the cabinet were female, and one female ran for president. A decade later, the number of women in Parliament had risen to 21, and both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were female. The number of women in the cabinet had more than doubled.

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Both women’s rights groups and the media have repeatedly called attention to the issue of domestic violence. Officially, it is not considered pervasive, but nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) report that one in four women has been a victim of physical, sexual, or emotional domestic violence. In most cases, victims choose not to file charges. There are no laws specifically designed to deal with violence against women, but perpetrators are prosecuted under regular criminal codes. The government provides support for victims through social services, and NGOs are also actively involved in assisting victims. Spousal rape, like other forms of rape, is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Evidence suggests that Estonia has a problem with the trafficking of women into Nordic countries for the purposes of prostitution. Prostitution is not illegal in Estonia, but pimping is against the law. There are laws designed to prevent sexual harassment, but issues may be addressed in administrative hearings rather than in a court of law. Victims do have the right to seek compensation for damages. See Also: Domestic Violence; Infant Mortality; Prostitution, Legal; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Estonia.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/en.html (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Estonia.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eur/119077.htm (accessed February 2010). “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997; Estonia.” WIN News, v.24/2 (1998). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Ethiopia Ethiopia, one of the oldest countries in the world and the oldest independent nation in Africa, is a landlocked country located in the horn of Africa. With a population of approximately 60 million, Ethiopia is

This child progressed tremendously after being brought to a stabilization and therapeutic center near Konso, Ethiopia.

the second most populous country in Africa. Ethiopia is a country characterized by diversity in landscape, ethnicity, religion, and language, with the country being home to at least 80 different ethnic groups. Each group has its own culture, language, and traditions, infusing elements of both African and Middle Eastern customs, yet only nine so-called nationalities are formally recognized in the Constitution of the country. Ethiopia has a largely rural population, and accordingly has the largest livestock population on the continent. Despite the fact that the country is overwhelmingly rural, recent decades have seen mass influx to the urban centers, with the capital city Addis Ababa becoming a melting pot of cultures. Ethiopia’s recent history has been characterized by decades of political turmoil, civil war, economic reces-

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sion, and famine, that was particularly pronounced in the 1980s, when impoverished children from Ethiopia becoming recognized at the “face of Africa,” and approximately 1 million people lost their lives due to war and starvation. Recently, Ethiopia has made strong headway in building its economy, and is currently recognized as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with the largest economy in East Africa and a growth rate from $9 billion in the 1990s to an estimated $33.9 billion in 2009. This phenomenal growth rate is based primarily on its honey, cut flower, and coffee production and exports. Despite the economic growth rate, the majority of Ethiopians remain exceptionally poor, with many surviving on less than $1 per day. Ethiopia has historically had very clearly defined, specific gender roles for males and females, with males being entrusted as providers, while females have largely been relegated to the home sphere, engaging in domestic chores and childcare. Parents have also traditionally raised boys with more leeway than their female counterparts, and girls have, from an early age, assumed domestic responsibilities. With the patrilineal extended family being the core structure in terms of family and social life, girl children have historically assisted their elders on the domestic front, largely with cooking, cleaning, and childcare but have been prohibited from inheriting unless a girl’s father has died prior to her marriage or there are no sons eligible to inherent. Marriage is legally only permissible in Ethiopian law at the age of 18, yet approximately 30 percent of females in Ethiopia between the ages of 15 and 19 are either married, divorced, or widowed and female abduction for the purpose of marriage remains high despite contravening Ethiopian law. In addition, Ethiopia has one of the highest partner abuse statistics in the world, with 59 percent of Ethiopian women reporting that they have been raped by a partner. Eighty percent of the female population is also subject to female genital mutilation, although this cultural practice is punishable by incarceration or a hefty fine. Despite strict gender-based divisions, the position and social status of females in Ethiopian society has, and continues to be, elevated through military involvement. Women engaging in military activities and embracing military virtues are permitted to claim property through traditional inheritance chan-

nels after serving in military mobilization efforts—a scenario that allows females to assume the status normally attributed to male heirs only. The military has therefore served as a leveling device in which females have been able to challenge the subordinate gendered positions to which mainstream Ethiopian society relegates them, and has led to women becoming increasingly aware of, and engaging in, gender issues. Despite the patriarchic emphasis in mainstream society and the fact that views on specified gendered roles continue, predefined roles are in the contemporary era being challenged and renegotiated. This is so far specific to urban areas, where women are frequently assuming major positions in all areas of employment, and men are increasingly engaging in domestic duties as women are drawn into full-time employment. See Also: Divorce; Domestic Violence; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural. Further Readings Abbi K. and L. Admasachew. “Violence Against Women in Ethiopia.” Gender, Place and Culture, v.17/4 (2010). Bahru Z. A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1974. Athens, Ohio University Press, 2003. Harold, M. A History of Ethiopia. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2002. Sullivan, M., et al. “For Us It Is Like Living in the Dark: Ethiopian Women’s Experiences With Domestic Violence.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, v.20/8 (2005). Tseday, A. “Queens, Spies and Servants: A History of Ethiopian Women in Military Affairs.” http://www .tadias.com/08/11/2008/queens-spies-and-servants -a-history-of-ethiopian-women-in-military-affairs-2 (accessed July 2010). Susan Elizabeth de la Porte University of KwaZulu-Natal

Evangelical Protestantism Evangelical is a very capacious term, and both scholars and conservative Protestants themselves struggle to define the boundaries of this religious community. Some people apply the term to groups as divergent as



Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, and more conservative branches of Methodism, Lutheranism, and Presbyterianism. Complicating this definition, however, is the reality that not all of the members of each of these groups would self-identify as evangelicals. In general, several key beliefs and practices tend to characterize evangelical cultures. To begin with, a profound conversion experience, often called a “born again” experience, refers to the belief that lives must be transformed through a direct relationship with Jesus Christ. Evangelicals understand themselves to have a “great commission” to spreading the message of Jesus Christ, and they have long had a vibrant missions community. Many, but not all, evangelicals perceive the Bible as inerrant, but the Bible remains of great importance to even those evangelicals who do not read it literally. On a daily basis, many evangelicals engage in prayer and Bible study. This article will explore the roll of women within this religious community, as this fast-growing religion has distinctive ideas about gender norms. Numbers of Evangelicals in the United States and in the World Struggling to find the right questions to identity the number of evangelicals within the United States, the Gallup polls and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life have suggested differing numbers for this population. In 2005, the Gallup Poll suggested that 43 percent of United States population self-identify as evangelicals. In contrast, the Pew Forum’s Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007, asserts that just over 26 percent of American adults would call themselves evangelicals. In both cases, however, the data confirmed that slightly more than half of those people identifying themselves as evangelicals are female. Within the United States, approximately half of the evangelical churches are in the South, and the Northeast has the fewest evangelical churches. Globally, evangelical Protestantism—particularly if Pentecostal groups are included in this category— is among the fastest growing religions in the world. Asia, Africa, and South America, particularly South American countries that formerly had large number of Catholics, have all seen large increases in the numbers of evangelicals in recent years. In the first decade of 2000, combining evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Great Commission Christians produces a number of approximately 1.4 billion evangelicals—or 23 percent

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of the world’s population. Twenty-five years later, the World Christian Encyclopedia offers a projection that the world will have approximately 2 billion evangelicals, or 26 percent of the world’s population. Gender Dynamics and Family Formation A key aspect of evangelical ideology doctrine is male headship, which is the understanding that the New Testament instructs men to lead the family and make significant household decisions. While this philosophy of marriage instructs women to submit to their husbands’ wills, it also portrays “headship” as a kind of burden in which the husband must be extremely willing to care and sacrifice for his wife. While lived reality does not always exhibit this rigid hierarchy, many evangelicals make an effort to follow some version of male headship. In an extreme version of wifely submission, some women chose to obey even nonreligious or neglectful husbands, with the idea that their very submission will affect a change in their husbands’ beliefs and behavior. Within churches, small, group meetings, usually focused on Bible study, frequently serve to buttress these conservative views of gender relations. Often divided into men’s groups and women’s groups, the small meetings frequently focus more on leadership in the men’s groups and devotional practices in the women’s groups. Additionally, some parachurch groups exist almost exclusively for the purpose of prescribing and maintaining unegalitarian gender roles. Promise Keepers, for example, asks men to “take back” their biblically ordained headship even if their wives are opposed to this shift. While divorce is frowned upon, the numbers of divorced evangelicals are similar to those of Americans in the broader culture. Acknowledging this reality, many evangelical churches have support groups for single parents and other divorced members. While most evangelicals elect to employ birth control, a minority does not, and the “Quiverfull” movement aims to support those evangelicals who “trust the Lord for family size” and thus raise families of nine or ten children. Though some evangelicals might prefer otherwise, a large percentage of married, female evangelicals with children work. In many cases, working mothers understand their families to be unable to survive economically without two incomes, but there are also many evangelical women actively pursuing

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careers as a means of personal satisfaction. For those evangelical mothers who do stay at home with their children, the practice of homeschooling is growing. With opposition to the teaching of evolution and concerns about lax morals in public schools, homeschooling strikes many evangelicals as an ideal means of circumventing the public schools, and the publishing business dedicated to providing Christian texts for homeschoolers is flourishing. In fact, in 2000, Patrick Henry College first opened its doors, aiming to educate academically high-achieving evangelical youth. A large percentage of the students who attend the college were homeschooled, and women who attend Patrick Henry understand that they will end their careers upon having children. Youth Culture Evangelical youth culture, created as an alternative to popular secular youth entertainment, has experienced explosive growth in recent years. Rock music, fiction, and apparel buttress and prescribe gendered behavior of the variety that is appropriate in conservative Protestant circles. For example, the evangelical publishing house Thomas Nelson has created Old and New Testaments with additional content for both young men and women. Teenage girls can read Revolve: The Complete New Testament, a magazine that merges the New Testament with dating, school, and fashion advice in the glossy format of a Seventeen magazine. For both young men and women—but particularly for young women—the need to promise virginity until marriage occupies a great deal of rhetorical space. As part of the Silver Ring Thing, both genders can don rings that tell the world they have entered into a relationship with Jesus that enables them to withstand the temptations of premarital sex. Taking their fathers as dates, young women can also attend “purity balls,” prom-like events that aim to enhance the bond between fathers and daughters and ensure that the fathers help their daughters remain chaste until marriage. Politics Within the United States, a majority of evangelicals identify as politically conservatives. As such, the evangelical vote played a large role in electing George W. Bush to the United States presidency in the elections of 2000 and 2004. Influencing this conserva-

tive trend is an opposition to abortion and a belief in that biblically ordained heterosexual marriage precludes any approval of homosexual marriage. Nonetheless, the “religious Right,” which is comprised of some Catholics, evangelicals, and Mormons, should not be conflated with a system of beliefs held by all evangelicals, as evangelicals express a range of political views and choose to have varied approaches to allowing politics into their lives. For example, race informs political affiliation as much or more than religion, and a large majority of African American conservative Protestants identify as Democrats. In a study in the late 1990s, sociologist Christian Smith found that 92 percent of the evangelicals he queried believed that Christians should be engaged in trying to make the United States a place that better represents their understanding of God’s will. Further, Smith’s studies revealed that evangelicals participated in social activism—such as volunteering for a church program that serves the community or giving money or time to a Christian political candidate—significantly more than did liberal Protestants. Nonetheless, while groups such as Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family actively mobilize their members to enter into political activity, most American evangelicals do not belong to these kinds of lobbying and political activist groups. Some evangelical woman possess alternative means of approaching politics. In her study of Aglow, an evangelical women’s prayer group, historian R. Marie Griffith found that explicit political activity was against the rules for women. The women, however, understood themselves as able to influence politics through prayer. Recognizing the great power of stay at home moms, Focus on the Family has attempted to mobilize stay at home mothers by offering them lists of politicians to email, as well as politicians and social issues to pray for. A small but important faction of evangelical culture, the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women’s Caucus (EEWC) expresses the mission of inclusiveness. Employing the word expansiveness in reference to their understanding of God’s love, with this emphasis on inclusion, the EEWC supports gay marriage, something that few other evangelical groups do. Founded in 1973 as an outgrowth of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Evangelical Women’s Caucus (as it was known until 1990 when it expanded to include

Exercise Science



nonevangelical members) initially sought to speak out against what they perceived to be the unfair treatment and lack of opportunities for women in evangelical churches. See Also: Christianity; Focus on the Family; Fundamentalist Christian Identity; Home Schooling; Purity Balls; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Barrett, David B., George T. Kurion, and Todd M. Johnson, eds. World Christian Encyclopedia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. Evangelical and Ecumenical Women’s Caucus. http://www .eewc.com/About.htm (accessed November 2009). Evangelical Climate Initiative. “Climate Change: Call to Action.” http://christiansandclimate.org/learn /call-to-action/ (accessed November 2009). Gallagher, S. K. Evangelical Identity & Gendered Family Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Joyce, Katherine. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Boston: Beacon Press, 2009. “Pew Forum Religion Landscape Survey,” http://religions .pewforum.org (accessed November 2009). Smith, Christian. Christian America: What Evangelicals Really Want, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Eliza Barstow Harvard University

Exercise Science Exercise science is the science of human movement and the associated functional responses and adaptations. Students who are studying exercise sciences learn how to help people live healthier lives through exercise, physical rehabilitation, and nutrition. Subfields within exercise science may include sports management, athletic training, pre-physical therapy, and almost always kinesiology (the mechanics and anatomy of human movement, the most science oriented of the subfields). As a field of academic study, exercise science grew from the physical culture movement of the 1800s, whose goal was to improve the health of the working

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class through dance and sports. Early university programs were created before 1900 such as the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Physical Training at Harvard University. While this program focused on science training and premedical studies, that aspect diminished and the growth was in physical education programs in universities in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s.Another push for growth in this field came after World War I, and again after World War II, because there were concerns about the number of young men who failed physical fitness tests for entry into the military or during military training. Another indicator of growth for the field was the creation of the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory in 1927, which many experts view as the beginning of the field of exercise physiology. Another important aspect of the history of the field was using research to disprove a number of misunderstandings about exercise that had once been widely believed. In the 1930s and 1940s, many experts argued that weight training would slow an athlete and most athletic coaches banned weight training. In the same period, high-volume endurance training was thought to be bad for the heart. By the 1950s and 1960s, exercise was thought to be helpful to some age groups of people but not all, and exercise was not recommended for older people and endurance exercise was thought to be harmful to women. These ideas have now been disproved. The Study of Kinesiology Kinesiology is an essential subpart of exercise science. It involves the study of all of the body’s organ systems in response to movement, muscle contraction or exercise, and exercise training. Kinesiology includes research that examines the control of movement by the central nervous system (CNS), including how the CNS develops (motor behavior); the molecular, biochemical, and physiological responses of all the body’s organ systems to exercise and exercise training (exercise physiology); and the interaction of the mind and body related to health and exercise (exercise/health psychology). Some topics, such as health psychology, include material that kinesiologists need to learn, but are their own specialties. Exercise physiology and its study of the function of the human body during exercise stages and conditions is one of the major subparts. While exercise science programs differ widely in what they cover, most require that students complete an introductory course

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in exercise physiology as the basic study of the movements and coordination of all the body’s parts and systems, such as the bones and muscles. The biology of exercise is also usually a topic of study. The term kinesiology is derived from the Greek words kinesis (“movement”) and kinein (“to move”), and an earlier term was human kinetics. Kinesiologists today work in research, the fitness industry, clinically, and industrial environments. Specific terms in exercise science and kinesiology can easily be confused with fields that are not really related, such as the use of the term applied kinesiology, which refers to a more controversial alternative medicine technique related to chiropractic approaches. Generally, kinesiology is better known as a scientific field of study, although there are applied aspects. In the province of Ontario in Canada, for example, kinesiology was made a regulated health profession in summer 2007.

women and girls to participate in sports. The focus is on women to have equal opportunities as men on a whole, not on an individual basis, so it is not the case that all school teams, for example, must be open to women but rather that in areas such as athletic financial assistance and accommodation of athletic interests and abilities, the opportunities be similar for women and men. Both in high schools and colleges now, there is much greater involvement of women. This has increased the need for people in the field and the interest in understanding movement differences between men and women. In the last few years, there has been a growth of concern about high rates of certain types of injuries among female athletes and a call for more research on this topic. Some experts in the field now believe that major areas of future research will be research on gender differences in exercise and injury and on activity levels as people age.

The Field of Sports Medicine Sports medicine is a related field to exercise science and is the field of medicine concerned with injuries that occur in athletic activities, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of those injuries. Maintenance of optimal health is a major goal. While in the past, sports medicine was a field for physicians, who mostly worked with professional and Olympic athletes, the term now includes areas within exercise science such as athletic trainers, experts in biomechanics, and exercise physiologists and is a growing area in which exercise scientists are employed, because college and even high school–level teams may now have athletic trainers and use the services of exercise physiologists and experts in biomechanics as consultants. Title IX and its call for equal participation of women in academic institutions that receive federal funding have led to many increased opportunities for

See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Science Education for Girls; Sports, Women in; Title IX. Further Readings American College of Sports Medicine. “Careers in Sports Medicine and Exercise Science.” http://www.acsm.org /AM/Template.cfm?Section=home_page&Template =/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=1340 (accessed June 2010). American Kinesiology Association. “Careers in Kinesiology.” http://www.americankinesiology.org /careers-in-kinesiology (accessed June 2010). American Medical Association. “Exercise Science.” http:// www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/40/ah07 -exercise-science.pdf (accessed June 2010). Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld Arizona State University

F Faculty, Adjunct and Contingent Contingent workers are those individuals without any expectation of long-term or continuous employment within an organization. Within the field of higher education, contingent workers include parttime adjuncts and full-time nontenure-track faculty members. The use of contingent faculty has increased over the years, particularly within the field of higher education. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics analyst Steven Hipple, 25 percent of the contingent workers holding advanced degrees in 1999 were college or university instructors. The 2009 Almanac of the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that in 2007, 51 percent of faculty members were full-time compared with 49 percent categorized as part-time. The use of part-time adjuncts has been a common and long-standing practice among universities; however, in recent years many universities have increased the number of adjuncts and full-time faculty not on the tenure track. Jack Schuster indicates that adjunct appointments represented 22 percent of all faculty in 1970 compared with 46 percent in 1998, and the use of full-time nontenure-track faculty has increased at a greater rate. The American Association of University Professors reports that nontenure-track appointments accounted for only 3.3 percent of full-time faculty positions in 1969 compared with 28.1 percent in 1998.

The use of contingent faculty provides cost savings and greater flexibility to university administrations, which frequently attribute constrained budgets and the ability to meet fluctuating demands as the main reasons for the increased use of adjuncts and fulltime nontenure track faculty. The National Study of Postsecondary Faculty Institution Survey found that 40 percent of all institutions implemented policies to reduce the number of full-time faculty, including the replacement of tenured positions among retiring faculty with full-time nontenure-track faculty. Among the advantages cited by faculty members occupying contingent positions are flexibility in meeting competing demands and less pressure as a result of lighter research expectations. In addition, contingent positions provide the opportunity for graduate students to develop their teaching skills and for professionals without terminal degrees to enhance their resumes while serving their communities by bringing their work experience to the classroom. In contrast, individuals and institutions may also be disadvantaged by contingent faculty positions. At the individual level, contingent faculty members are more likely to teach the courses that full-time faculty members wish to, avoid particularly introductory courses, large sections, or evening schedules. Although contingent faculty members typically receive much lower pay than traditional faculty, adjuncts are particularly disadvantaged because they rarely qualify for health or retirement benefits. In 505

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addition, professional development, and travel support are nearly nonexistent for contingent faculty. At the institutional level, the use of contingent faculty members may exacerbate gender inequity, negatively affect the quality of instruction and academic freedom, and inhibit faculty governance. Regarding gender inequity, there tends to be an overrepresentation of women in contingent positions in higher education. Women represented 48 percent of part-time faculty positions and 39 percent of full-time positions in 2003. The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession reveals that in 2004, women were 10 to 15 percent less likely than men to occupy tenuretrack positions. A recent report on women’s progress in higher education indicates that women occupy 52 percent of the nontenure-track contingent positions at doctoral institutions, 54 percent at master’s institutions, 53 percent at associate institutions, and 49 percent at baccalaureate institutions. Regarding quality of instruction, the argument is often put forth that discourse within the classroom is limited among contingent faculty for fear of reprisal. In addition, student access to adjunct faculty members is frequently limited because instructors work full-time elsewhere and often do not have a designated office on campus. Regarding faculty governance, many contingent faculty members are prohibited from participating in department meetings, faculty senate meetings, or serving on university-wide committees. See Also: American Association of University Women; Attainment, Graduate Degree; College and University Faculty. Further Readings American Association of University Professors. “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession.” http://www.aaup.org/statements /SpchState/contingent.htm (accessed July 2010). “Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession: 2004–05.” Academe, v.91/2 (2005). Berger, Andrea, et al. Institutional Policies and Practice Results From the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty, Institution Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2001. Bradburn, Ellen M., et al. Gender and Racial/Ethnic Differences in Salary and Other Characteristics of

Postsecondary Faculty: Fall 1998. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2002. Euben, Donna R. “Win Some, Lose Some.” Chronicle of Higher Education, v.52/2 (2006). Hipple, Steven. “Contingent Work in the Late 1990’s.” Monthly Labor Review (March 2001). Shuster, Jack H. “Reconfiguring the Professoriate: An Overview.” Academe, v.84/1 (1998). Touchton, J., et al. A Measure of Equity: Women’s Progress in Higher Education. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2008. Heather Wyatt-Nichol University of Baltimore

Fair Trade Fair Trade is a trading arrangement intended to provide more equitable international trade by creating better conditions for disadvantaged and/or marginalized producers of goods. These practices include, for example, paying fair wages, supporting participatory workplaces, supporting environmentally sustainable production, and developing long-term and sympathetic buyer–producer relationships (typically between a buyer in a developed nation who is purchasing products from a producer in a developing country). Fair Trade results in a smaller margin of profit for (and sometimes the complete elimination of) the middleperson, whereas the producer or grower of the product receives a larger portion of the product’s ultimate price. The increased income producers and growers earn is intended to enable them to move from economic vulnerability to greater self-sufficiency and from powerlessness in relation to their products to greater involvement and financial empowerment. For example, by purchasing directly from farmers, the Fair Trade premium price is significantly higher than the world market price and is also a stable price. This allows farmers to afford basic costs of living such as food, health, and education. At this time, the world market price for coffee is $0.50 to $0.80 per pound (growers often receive less than this), whereas the stable Fair Trade price for coffee is $1.21 per pound for nonorganic and $1.41 per pound for organically grown coffee.



Fair Trade is mostly about making changes to conventional trade, which frequently fails to deliver on promises of sustainable livelihoods and opportunities for individuals living in the poorest countries in the world. Poverty and hardship limit individuals’ choices, and market forces tend to further marginalize and exclude them. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation, whether as farmers and artisans or as hired workers within larger businesses, or even as small entrepreneurs. This is particularly the case for women. Indeed, women in small, medium, and microenterprises, as workers and entrepreneurs, are important contributors to world trade. Women are at the same time profoundly affected by trade liberalization, as they are often not benefiting from concomitant market access and employment opportunities. The fact that 2 billion of the world’s citizens survive on less than $2 per day, despite working extremely

Workers at a fair trade coffee grower in El Salvador. The premium price allows workers to afford basic necessities.

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hard, suggests that there is indeed a problem. Women even survive on less money, often while providing for the entire household. Although Fair Trade seeks to change the terms of trade for the products consumers can buy to ensure that the farmers and artisans behind those products get a better deal, most often this is understood to mean ensuring better prices for producers. It often includes longer-term and more meaningful trading relationships, which particularly could benefit women when they are the head of the household. Women and Fair Trade Practices Women are at the forefront of exploring possible challenges and limitations of Fair Trade export. A typical example is the development of Fair Trade exports of shea butter from Burkina Faso. Processed by rural West African women and desired by wealthy Northern consumers of natural beauty products, shea butter seems a prime candidate for Fair Trade; yet to date, there has been little study of this industry, taking into account the context in which shea is produced and sold locally and internationally, the concept of Fair Trade, and the effect of gender relations on shea production. However, such development must occur, with proper consideration of possible challenges and limitations, for the industry to remain sustainable and viable for rural female producers. Free Trade may have its virtues, but it is not always fair. Big business aims to buy cheaply from producers and sell at a much higher price to consumers, enhancing its profit margins and shareholder value. Although 80 percent of the world’s resources are consumed by the richest 20 percent of the world’s population, largely living in the global north, an increasing proportion of the world’s resources is produced by 80 percent of the world’s population, living mostly in the global south. This means Northern consumers grow richer and richer while turning Southern producers into wage slaves—hence the notion of consumer capitalism. Women are particularly vulnerable to this cycle because the female half of the world’s human capital is undervalued and underutilized. Indeed, as a group, women and their potential contributions to economic advances, social progress, and environmental protection have been marginalized. For example, better use of the world’s female population could increase economic growth, reduce poverty, enhance societal well-

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being, and help ensure sustainable development in all countries, both developed and developing.

leadership and success in their homes, communities, and businesses.

See Also: Business, Women in; Homemaking; Poverty; Women in Farm Economy; Women’s Cooperatives.

Leaders, Not Homemakers Founded in 1945 as the Future Homemakers of America, a sister organization to Future Farmers of America, the group changed its name in 1999. FCCLA has more than 220,000 members in about 7,500 chapters. That number has fallen significantly from its peak of over 600,000 members in the 1960s; however, the number of young men involved has increased to about 20 percent and the overall membership has increased by about 3,000 participants since the name change. The change from “homemakers” to “leaders” and the growing involvement of young men reflect shifts in family structure and gender-role expectations. Instead of training young women in sewing, cooking, and child raising, as the group did in past decades, FCCLA now prepares all its members for multiple roles, expecting that both women and men will be active in the workplace, at home, and in the community. The organization’s continued growth also reflects a renewed cultural interest in skills such as culinary arts, sewing and fabric arts, and interior design. These pursuits have gained popularity among younger generations now that they are seen as voluntary activities available to both women and men—not expectations or “women’s roles.” FCCLA encourages young men to learn these skills and others, such as childcare, and to understand that as adults they will share in domestic responsibilities and child raising.

Further Readings Alvarez, J. A Cafecito Story. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2001. Barrat Brown, M. Fair Trade: Reform and Realities in the International Trading System. London: ZED Books, 1993. Dicum, G. and N. Luttinger. The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry—From Crop to the Last Drop. New York: New Press, 2000. Greig, D. “Shea Butter: Connecting Rural Burkinabè Women to International Markets Through Fair Trade.” Development in Practice, v.16/5 (2006). Grimes, K. M., et al., eds. Artisans and Cooperatives: Developing Alternative Trade for the Global Economy. Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 2000. Howes, D. Cross-Cultural Consumption: Global Markets, Local Realities. London: Routledge, 1996. Nash, J. Crafts in the World Market: The Impact of Global Exchange. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. Rupert, M. and S. Solomon. Globalization and International Political Economy. Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Nicoletta Policek University of Lincoln

Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a career and technical student organization for middle and high school students that functions within Family and Consumer Science Education curriculum and promotes related occupations. The organization has shifted its focus on gender roles and domestic skills and now includes both young women and men and encourages all members to prepare for

Programs and Goals FCCLA’s central focus continues to be on the family, but it also prepares students to become leaders and develop personal, business, and social skills. Across all of its programs, students develop life skills—from planning, critical thinking, and problem solving to interpersonal communication and practical knowledge—that are important for success in all areas of leadership. To that end, chapter projects explore a wide range of youth concerns, including many related to family (such as parenting and family relationships) and career exploration (including business organization and management, culinary arts, and interior design). Other topics include health (such as nutrition, fitness, and substance abuse prevention), as well as

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community service, traffic safety, financial planning, and environmental issues. Programs aimed at young women include awareness and prevention of teen pregnancy, dating violence, and sexual harassment. These programs often include leadership training, peer-to-peer outreach, and community involvement. For example, through the program STOP the Violence, participants learn to recognize and report the signs of youth violence, engage in conflict resolution, and educate their classmates about warning signs of youth violence and bullying. They also collaborate with schools and communities to develop action plans to reduce youth crime and school violence. FCCLA members also compete in STAR (Students Taking Action with Recognition) events—the organization’s competitive events in leadership and job-related skills. Students compete in events ranging from fashion design, early childhood, culinary arts, and environmental programs to job interviewing, interpersonal communication, and promotion and publicity. See Also: Business, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Homemaking. Further Readings Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America. “The Ultimate Leadership Experience.” http://www.fcclainc .org (accessed June 2010). Miller, Lisa M. “Where the Boys Are: Home Ec.” New York Times (December 16, 1993). http://www.nytimes .com/1993/12/16/garden/where-the-boys-are-home -ec.html (accessed July 2010). Reinhartz, Judy and Don M. Beach. Educational Leadership: Changing Schools, Changing Roles. London: Allyn & Bacon, 2003. Vanessa Baker Bowling Green State University

Family and Consumer Sciences The field of family and consumer sciences is an offshoot of home economics, which entered the public psyche in the mid-1800s, chiefly through the efforts of

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Catherine Beecher Stowe, who believed that women should be educated in the domestic sciences. By the middle of the century, there was a push to add “dom sci,” as it was called, to the curricula of land-grant colleges, so that women would be prepared to help husbands run family farms. In the late 19th century, Ellen Swallow Richards began applying scientific methods to domestic work and gave birth to the home economics movement. Despite its continued association with home economics, the contemporary field of family and consumer sciences has a broader reach that combines social and natural sciences to encompass all aspects of family, domestic, and community life in areas such as political and social change, nutrition, parenting, aging, the environment, and consumerism. Many schools at the K–12 level now offer courses in family and consumer sciences, and Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America serves as a career and technical resource in a large number of schools. A national survey of students in family and consumer science programs conducted in 2003 revealed that there was relative gender equity at the middle school level, with boys making up 49.7 percent of all students and girls making up 50.3 percent. That equity disappeared at the high school level, where boys made up only 37 percent of the student population in such classes compared with the 63 percent that were girls. At the college and university level, family and consumer science is dominated by women. A number of prestigious institutions, including Iowa, Texas, and Florida State universities, offer degrees in family and consumer sciences, and East Carolina University offers degrees through the College of Human Ecology. In some countries, entire facilities are devoted to the discipline. Australia has the Home Economic Institute, and the Philippines has the University of the Philippines, Diliman College of Home Economics. Courses included under the umbrella of family and consumer sciences may vary across institutions, but they are many commonalities. At Eastern Kentucky University, for instance, students may obtain associate degrees in Early Childhood Development. Fouryear degrees are available in Apparel Design and Merchandising, Child and Family Studies, Family and Consumer Sciences Education, and General Dietetics. Master’s degrees focus on teaching, community nutrition, and health. Individuals with degrees in family and consumer sciences are employed in jobs that

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range from teaching and research to social and consumer services. There are a number of associations designed to meet the needs of those involved in family and consumer sciences. For instance, in the 21st century, the American Association of Family and Consumer Science had more than 7,000 members who had expressed commitment to improving the well-being of individuals, families, and communities; raising their voices concerning the development, delivery, and evaluation of consumer goods and services; lobbying for public policies that promoted their interests; and shaping social changes designed to improve life in the United States. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Homemaking. Further Readings American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. “A Brief History.” http://www.aafcs.org/about/history .html (accessed April 2010). East Kentucky University. “Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.” http://www.fcs.eku.edu/degree programs.php (accessed April 2010). Haslett, Jacqueline. “Mary Hemenway: A Woman Ahead of Her Time.” Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, v.1/191 (1998). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Family Research Council The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American Christian Right political organization, established in 1983 and based in Washington, D.C. FRC merged with Focus on the Family, another large Christian Right organization, in 1988; the two organizations have retained discrete roles, with FRC maintaining a political focus while Focus on the Family concentrates on ministry. FRC is currently headed by Tony Perkins, who has been its president since 2003. FRC’s goal is to promote heterosexual marriage and the traditional family and to campaign against any perceived threats to these institutions or to the sanctity of human life.

The Christian Right is an umbrella term for a number of conservative evangelical Protestant denominations and organizations that have been particularly active in the United States since the 1980s and 1990s, and which are distinct from more liberal Protestant denominations. Similar to other Christian Right organizations, FRC aligns itself with right-wing, conservative politics and adheres to a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. Also in common with other Christian Right organizations, FRC adopts a conservative stance on gender roles, emphasizing women’s primary roles as wives and mothers. In spite of, or perhaps because of, this endorsement of traditional gender roles, Martin Durham claims that the Christian Right receives greater support from women than from men. Although the Christian Right does not receive widespread support across American society, it nonetheless attracts substantial numbers. Glenn Utter and James True’s secondary analysis of General Social Survey data identified 36 fundamentalist denominations with over 37 million supporters in total in 2000; this figure is likely to be higher because of the existence of smaller fundamentalist congregations omitted from the survey. FRC does not publish its membership figures on its Website. However, the organization Right Wing Watch, which monitors right-wing groups, claimed in 2003 that FRC had 455,000 members. The actions of FRC include contributing profamily and pro-life perspectives to public policy debates and new legislation, as well as disseminating profamily and pro-life research evidence via the media, its many publications, and its “Washington Watch” radio broadcasts. FRC policy experts monitor proposed legislation for its implications for the family and are called on to offer expert testimony on the benefits and drawbacks of proposed legislation. The FRC Website identifies six focal issues for its work: human sexuality, human life and bioethics, marriage and family, religion and culture, media, and the courts. The perceived threat of homosexuality to traditional marriage and family is one of its greatest concerns. FRC helped to develop the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and allows states to refuse to legally recognize same-sex marriages performed in another state. FRC also encourages its

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members to campaign against “gay–straight” alliances in their children’s schools, as well as opposing other practices that they fear promote homosexuality, such as lesbian and gay content in the school curriculum or resources and the recruitment of openly gay teachers. FRC adheres to a strong prolife stance that condemns abortion and euthanasia. It actively campaigns against pro-choice organizations such as Planned Parenthood, and its Website claims that it has contributed toward redirecting public monies away from Planned Parenthood and into the care of pregnant women and abstinence education. Another area of concern for the FRC is premarital sex and its association with pregnancy outside of marriage and sexually transmitted infections. As a consequence, FRC favors abstinence-only sex education. FRC also campaigns against pornography and sexually explicit and violent content on television. It seeks to protect religious freedom and therefore opposes hate crime legislation, which it argues would restrict freedom of expression against homosexuality. FRC supports the autonomy of the family but advocates federal support for families, with a key success being its role in securing family tax credits through the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. Running parallel to FRC is FRC Action, previously known as American Renewal. Established in 1992, FRC Action shares FRC’s values, but its classification as a lobbying organization legitimates endorsement of political candidates, in contrast to the requirement for FRC to remain nonpartisan as an educational and research organization. FRC Action produces voting guides to enable members to vote for profamily candidates and encourages members to lobby senators to make pro-family choices when voting for new legislation. See Also: Focus on the Family; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes; Planned Parenthood; Pro-Life Movement; Sex Education, Abstinence-Only. Further Readings Durham, Martin The Christian Right, the Far Right and the Boundaries of American Conservatism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2000. Family Research Council (FRC). “Issues.” http://www.frc .org/issues (accessed January 2010).

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Martin, William. With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America. New York: Broadway Books, 2005. Right Wing Watch. “Organization Profile: Family Research Council.” http://www.rightwingwatch.org /content/family-research-council (accessed January 2010). Utter, Glenn H. and James L. True. Conservative Christians and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Rebecca Barnes University of Derby

Famine Famine is a condition characterized by a drastic and widespread shortage of food, often leading to increased associated diseases and increased mortality from hunger, as well as social dislocation and disruption more generally. Whereas famines are commonly associated with death from starvation, famines are best viewed as a continuum, with mass death being the most extreme form. Less severe forms of famine might involve other social crises such as mass migration, dislocation of people from their livelihoods, or society-wide economic recessions. Along this continuum, the pandemic of infectious diseases that typically arise in famine-struck areas is also an important driver of increased morbidity. Famines may result from environmental, political, and social conditions including climate change, crop failure, market changes, or government or corporate policies regarding the distribution and pricing of food. Whereas famine has commonly been discussed as a sudden event occurring as a result of an environmental crisis, such as drought, or as a result of individuals’ choices, such as deforestation by the poor in search of fuel, famine is better understood as an endpoint in a long gestation of decreasing food access that typically occurs over multiple agricultural seasons. Famine is closely related to food insecurity, which is uncertain access to a sufficient quantity and quality of food necessary for health and well-being. Famine can thus be defined as a period of extended and extreme food insecurity likely leading to drastic consequences,

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Groups of people most vulnerable to famine include landless laborers, fisherpeople, and pastoralists.

such as death, deficiency, or disease, for individuals and societies living in famine-affected areas. Famines hold an important place in history, punctuating affected societies with some of the most tragic events in world history. For example, Ireland’s Great Famine in the mid-19th century led to the deaths of more than 1 million and the displacement of nearly 2 million people. More recently, famines in East and southern Africa in the early to mid-2000s are estimated to have affected over 14 million people and contributed to rises in mortality, migration, dislocation, food insecurity, and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS)—each patterned by gender and mediated by gender inequalities. Research on famine has historically tended to focus on individual or family factors and choices such as turning forests into farmland or fuel, or on environmental conditions that contribute to famine, such as periods of extended drought. Each of these factors continues to be significant, particularly as droughts

are often an antecedent to famine, and climate change promises to increase the prevalence of droughts in at-risk regions. However, although most researchers agree that these foci are important factors in understanding famine, critiques have also shown that these factors are insufficient to explain famine. Current research has pointed to the driving influences of markets, politics, and regional factors in producing famine. For example, deforestation for fuel, which is often done by the poor, who have no other heating options for food preparation, light, or warmth, was perceived as a main source of environmental degradation creating flooding, erosion, or drought—all contributors to famine conditions. Although these behaviors are still deemed problematic, research has shown that most of the deforestation in the world has not been created by the poor but, rather, is a result of for-profit industry. Famine thus develops over time and is driven by a combination of complex political, ecological, and social conditions within famine-prone regions. Because famine is a process, early detection is possible and necessary, but has proved difficult as a result of the complexity and ambiguity of famine’s driving factors and conditions. Social Aspects of Famine Similar to other natural and social disasters, famine intersects with social relations and may contribute to conflict over resources and exacerbate inequalities, such as gender inequality. Women are more likely to be in poverty, and female-headed households are especially at risk of impoverishment. In some estimates, women make up 70 percent of the world’s poor population. Gender inequality often contributes to women having less access to decision-making positions in society and fewer economic, political, and social resources. Although women are often the primary farmers, they are less likely to be the legal owners of land and, in many countries, have been historically excluded from land ownership. Gender discrimination and patriarchy render women, and particularly poor women, vulnerable to increased poverty, food insecurity, and greater inequality, especially in times of drought and famine. Research has shown that men’s and women’s mortality are affected differently by famine, as are their experiences of the social and economic consequences.



Men are more likely to die as a result of famine than women, and socioeconomically, women are more likely to suffer from the effects of famine on their households and as individuals. Women are more subject to the effects of famine-related migration, often losing resources previously available to them (such as land), experiencing a decline in social support and services, and having access to fewer financial or other resources to cope effectively with famine resulting from entrenched gender inequality. Famine, similar to drought, increases household workloads as women search for replacement water or food sources and alternative economic strategies to supplement dwindling agricultural, livestock management, or fishing resources. These labor burdens are differentially absorbed across households and within households. Poorer families are less able to absorb the burdens of declining economic conditions and increased household labor demands. Within households, women and girls are more likely to work harder to maintain their households during periods of famine. In many parts of the world, women and girls are responsible for household maintenance, including collecting water for their family, farming fields or gardens for subsistence, and preparing and cooking food for the family. When food is unavailable or scarce, women and girls often absorb the additional labor of seeking out sources of food, such as wild vegetables, or using informal opportunities, such as sex work, to access money in times of distress. Economic Aspects of Famine Extended and severe drought negatively affects agricultural productivity, which can lead to famine or famine-related conditions, affecting women in multiple ways. In less-developed countries, women are the primary farmers and food producers in communities relying on small-scale agriculture. In times of drought, women may be responsible for farming under difficult conditions—working harder to produce food for their families or crops for sale. Extended declines in agricultural production or livestock management in times of famine contribute to malnutrition, hunger, and at times, starvation. When yields are limited, women are more likely to suffer from intrahousehold food insecurity, in which female members of households are given fewer foodstuffs relative to male members.

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Famine also contributes to increased economic uncertainty for households. Food prices may rise during periods of famine, causing increased financial pressure on households—particularly the poor, who may not be able to access the same quantity or quality of food previously available. Research increasingly reflects the role of governments, corporations, and markets in affecting the pricing and distribution of food in periods of famine, or what is termed the “political causes of famine.” The consequences of economic liberalization in southern Africa in the 1990s, colonial policies in 19th-century India, and Ethiopia’s declining terms of trade for animal protein versus grain in the 1970s are now largely understood to have contributed over time to increasing specific populations’ vulnerability to famine. Groups of people most vulnerable to famine include landless laborers, fisherpeople, and pastoralists, who are more likely to lose resources or livelihoods and to be most negatively affected by declining terms of trade. When families or households do not have access to replacement resources for lost agricultural yields or animal sales, or if food prices are prohibitively high, those affected by famine are more reliant on cash and pressured to access available income opportunities, regardless of working conditions. Famine can push people to migrate to cities looking for work or to engage in risky strategies for economic survival, such as sex work. During recent famines, women and children have been documented turning to prostitution and sex work for financial resources or foodstuffs in hunger-induced desperation. In the East African drought and famine in the mid-2000s, international agencies such as the World Food Programme and the United Nations reported increased prostitution among women and children looking for food and money to survive the social and economic consequences of severe and extended drought and famine. Sex work as a strategy involves great personal risks such as exposure to violence, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS. Health Aspects of Famine HIV/AIDS is both a contributing factor to and an outcome of famine. Similarly, gender inequality is widely acknowledged to be both a driver and an outcome of HIV/AIDS infection and, thus, famine. HIV/AIDS cuts the productive capacity of house-

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holds as members become too sick to work and others, usually women, must take care of those afflicted. In predominantly farming communities, HIV/AIDS and the consequent caregiving affects agricultural productivity at the household level and availability of food at community and societal levels. Lowered productivity contributes to there being less available food resources for households, and possibly to less income as a result of the loss of surplus agricultural products. The decline in available financial and food resources contributes to ongoing and severe food insecurity, creating pressure to find alternate economic means. On a large scale, this may contribute to a rise in migration among people looking for work that becomes increasingly competitive and less available as economic conditions worsen throughout the society. A contemporary theory—new variant famine, or NVF—posits that recent famines are different than those of the past as a result of the role of HIV/AIDS. According to Andy Gibbs, “if, because of the impact of the HIV epidemic, new patterns of vulnerability to famine emerge, alongside new trajectories of destitution, accompanied by an increase in HIV incidence, a famine or food crisis can be classified as an instance of NVF.” The theory postulates that the patterns of NVF can be experienced as more geographically dispersed than traditional famines, resulting in fewer political demands and potentially contributing to less-effective responses from governments or international institutions. Critics of the theory suggest that NVF may not be that different from traditional famines and that the NVF framework needs a greater centralization of gender analysis to understand the interaction between gender, famine, and HIV/AIDS. See Also: Climate Change as a Women’s Issue; Drought; Environmental Issues, Women and; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Poverty; Rural Women; Water, as Women’s Issue. Further Readings Baro, Mamadou and Tara F. Deubel. “Persistent Hunger: Perspectives on Vulnerability, Famine and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Annual Review of Anthropology, v.35/521 (2006). de Waal, A. and A. Whiteside. “ ‘New Variant Famine’: AIDS and Food Crisis in Southern Africa.” The Lancet, v.362/1234 (2003).

Field, John Osgood. The Challenge of Famine. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian, 1993. Gibbs, Andy. “Gender, Famine and HIV/AIDS: Rethinking New Variant Famine in Malawi.” African Journal of AIDS Research, v.7/1 (2008). Kynch, Jocelyn. “Famine and Transformations in Gender Relations.” In Cecile Jackson and Ruth Pearson, eds., Feminist Visions of Development: Gender Analysis and Policy. New York: Routledge, 1998. Vaughan, Meghan. The Story of an African Famine: Gender and Famine in Twentieth-Century Malawi. Oxford, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Yvonne A. Braun University of Oregon

Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies For over half a century, scholars have identified the notion of “industry” as a producer of ideologies and material goods for audiences. In an early seminal work on the topic, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” Frankfurt School theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer propose that a “culture industry” produces and reproduces mass culture, effectively homogenizing cultural products and audience identities. Along the lines of these theorists, the fashion industry can be considered a contemporary culture industry. The fashion industry can be viewed as comprised of cosmetic/beauty, fashion, and other companies/industries that propagate Western cultural values of female beauty. The fashion industry promotes narrow messages of female beauty, thereby functioning to socialize people and mediate their reality; the fashion industry’s function thus carries economic, political, cultural, and social effects. It produces ideologies through media texts that engage a network of ideological and hegemonic institutions; these texts include advertisements, public relations campaigns, magazines, television programs, films, and new media. The characterization of the fashion industry as a culture industry is reflected in its urging of a capitalist lifestyle, which is uncritically consented to by the audience. For Adorno and Horkheimer, this view of passive audiences striving toward



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a narrow, industry-defined ideology was a hallmark of a culture industry. Significantly, the fashion industry’s messaging functions as a prescription of female beauty that is thin, young, Caucasian, and generally blonde. Up to current time, ideologies produced by the fashion industry reinforce the oppressive patriarchal norms and roles of women and places women in subordinate roles to men. The ideologies of the fashion industry are communicated through the representation of women in their texts, such as advertisements, as well as through the bodies of famous women (like celebrities or models) who similarly serve as living and breathing advertisements for a fashion brand. The “Male Gaze” The work of feminist theorist Laura Mulvey on “the male gaze” is relevant to understanding the representation of women produced by the fashion indus-

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try that circulates in mass culture. In her discussion about spectatorship and gender representation in media texts in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Mulvey employed a psychoanalytic lens, and suggested that the female role is negative and involuntary in media texts since the action of ownership of the gaze is inherently male, and the female is the object of the gaze. The role of women in media texts is only in relation to, and thus subordinate to the desires of, men because the female functions as an object of the spectator’s gaze. The male gaze—viewed both as the patriarchal structure and the actual men who look at women—objectifies women by emphasizing their bodies as their entire self worth and devaluing a woman’s mind or emotions. This viewpoint aligns with the fashion industry’s material desires as well— the consumption by audiences of its products, which are worn on the body as signs of social status and, as many people interpret, as signs of self-worth.

The dominant images of women (particularly of celebrity women and fashion models) present ultra-thin bodies for the approval and pleasure of the “male gaze.” This type of female body has become widely accepted as the desirable female identity.

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The fashion industry has created a culture wherein women constantly feel monitored and assessed by others about their beauty. To a greater or lesser degree, women have absorbed the cultural ideologies, and have learned how to monitor themselves. The dominant representations of women (particularly of celebrity women and fashion models) present ultrathin bodies for the approval and pleasure of the “male gaze.” This type of female body expresses the culturally desirable female identity. In Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, feminist cultural theorist Susan Bordo analyzes girls’ (and women’s) internalization of the “male gaze,” and how it has led to a cultural norm for female self-discipline of their bodies. Bordo and other feminist theorists who maintain that women self-monitor their bodies for an invisible male spectator aligns with feminist readings of French philosopher Michel Foucault regarding the functioning of institutional power in society. Foucauldian feminists find Foucault’s conceptualization of philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s work on the panopticon, a prison architecture that allows the person in charge (such as a guard) to view simultaneously the behavior of all prisoners, to be a relevant framework for understanding the relationship between cultural ideologies of gender and meanings of the female body. Like the panopticon, social institutions (understood as male authority or “patriarchy”) obtain power by impressing their ubiquitous nature upon subjects. Consequently, female subjects discipline themselves for an omnipresent yet potentially invisible male gaze. Foucault further articulated that social institutions establish these complex power relations through a variety of disciplinary practices (such as surveillance) that shape subjects as “docile” bodies that conform to the desired social ideology. In this sense, the fashion industry can be seen as a culture industry that promotes the notion of the male gaze and creates representations of the female body as passive for male pleasures (such as looking). For Foucauldian feminists, the theory of the panopticon is a useful way to unpack the patriarchal construction of female subjectivities. These thinkers also welcome the Foucauldian emphasis on the body as a site of contentious power relations between the individual and the social structure. Foucauldian feminists utilize Foucault’s ideas to understand how women’s identities are shaped through social meaning(s) that

are imposed on the female body. As Sandra Bartky argues in Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression, the beauty industry’s discourse connects a woman’s lack of conformity to the dominant representation of female beauty with consequences (such as failure to attract a mate) that speak to the fulfillment of gender roles and, tangentially, to a woman’s sense of personal happiness. The fashion industry as a culture industry persuades women to strive toward fulfillment of the patriarchal representation and thus enlists ideological and physical conformity. Brands and the Fashion Industry The fashion industry, in a less theoretical sense, is comprised of brands. Simply put, a brand is the name of a fashion company that audiences are familiar with due to its promotion through mass media outlets. Fashion brands can be “luxury” or “mass”; the categorization of a fashion brand is often a critical part of a fashion company’s marketing plan, whose goal is to create a brand image and price point for the item, as well as target a specific socioeconomic demographic. Examples of high fashion brands include Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney, Stuart Weitzman, and Cole Haan. Mass fashion brands include Jaclyn Smith’s clothing line and the Mossimo line promoted by Target stores. Taking shape in the 1990s, branding is a contemporary integrated marketing strategy that utilizes techniques of persuasion to make the brand become a seamless part of an individual’s everyday life. Practices of brand management are achieved through different forms of overt (such as advertisements) and covert marketing (such as peer-to-peer, guerrilla, and affective). Opportunities for branding include television, radio, movies, direct marketing, events, sponsorships, the Internet, product placement in the mass media, billboards, posters, point-of-purchase displays, using product packaging as a marketing tool, logos used as a status symbol, and social networking sites. Strategies of brand development include marketing campaigns accompanied by public relations techniques to place stories about products into the news, and tie-ins with retailers through mass media mediums (such as newspapers and magazines) and mall events. When brands originated in the late 19th century, they were labels that identified the manufacturer or



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distributor responsible for the product’s quality. Today, branding similarly serves to trademark corporate identity, but it is also a means of social communication, as eloquently described by media scholar Adam Arvidsson in Brands: Meaning and Value in Media Culture. When people purchase a brand based on the corporate identity that has been attached to it, human socialization occurs through a common association with the brand (i.e., two people who purchase Kate Spade products may bond in person or in online communities based on this mutual consumption and presumed shared identity characteristics). Their socialization, then, is mediated through the brand’s role in their lives, and their attachment to the brand serves to secure the brand’s place in culture and in people’s social networks. Sharing a brand identity with others also means sharing an ideology, and this, in turn, can affect personal identity. On many levels, then, fashion brands thus play a significant role in shaping an individual’s subjectivity. Contrasting Adorno and Horkheimer’s view of the culture industry and passive audiences, some current media scholars see audience engagement with brands as a means for individual agency (agency is characterized by many theorists as being resistant to structural ideologies, such as those constructed and promoted by the fashion industry). Fashion and Feminist Thought Contemporary feminist thought and practice show conflicts with many ideologies of the fashion industry. While second-wave and some third-wave feminist theorists regarded the beauty industry as a medium that intends to shape girls and women into ideological and material consumers, and henceforth rejected its products and ideologies, some third-wave feminist and postfeminist lines of thought embraced a feminine appearance that denotes consumption of cosmetics, fashion, and hairstyling. These contemporary feminist groups see self-beautification as a site of empowerment where women can express their sense of self. These third-wave feminists seek to reclaim the meaning and appearance of femininity from the male gaze, and the use of parody is recognized in contemporary feminist circles as a form of activism. One visible group within the third-wave that exemplifies this sort of parody are the “Girlies,” as third wave feminists Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards write in Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future.

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It is generally acknowledged that postfeminists argue for the embrace of femininity without the parody of the third wavers. The conception of agency in many third-wave and postfeminist theories deals with how women interpret the personal and societal meanings of female beauty and the body. In our current media world, public and private spaces offer the possibility of transforming people from content consumers into content producers and engaging with the fashion industry in a way that may reflect a sense of agency. Thus, media technology affords new conceptions of individual power in social networks. Participatory media—that is, “being online”—emphasizes individual agency through self-expression and a sense of community that, subsequently, may provide a sense of social identity. Twenty-first century consumers demand the right to participate how, when, and where they want in cultural spaces, and they interact with the media in a more open-ended fashion. Some media scholars offer that audience engagement with media messages is more under their control than in previous times. However, one online community that engages with fashion brands and ideologies offers a mixed understanding of female agency in relation to the fashion industry. The “pro-ana” (proanorexic) is a community that shares a social identity online. These female users have reclaimed the meaning of their eating disorder by promoting it as a positive lifestyle (a self-branded community). This ideology contrasts the view held by many psychologists that people with eating disorders are victims. These girls and women post images of fashion models, chat about fashion brands, and, importantly, discuss how to emulate the bodies of fashion models. This group point to the complex issues of agency and the fashion industry in contemporary society. See Also: Body Image; Cosmetic Industry; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Internet; McCartney, Stella; Representation of Women; Stereotypes of Women; Supermodels; Third Wave. Further Readings Arvidsson, Adam. Brands: Meaning and Value in Media Culture. New York: Routledge, 2006. Bartky, Sandra Lee. Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression. New York: Routledge, 1990.

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Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Horkheimer, Max and Theodor Adorno. “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” In Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner, eds., Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. Dara Persis Murray Rutgers University

Fatherlessness Fatherlessness is a term that refers to father absence, in general, but more specifically to the absence of a biological father from his children’s home. Public concern and controversy over fatherlessness is a relatively recent phenomenon, developing along with concerns over “family values” more generally. Commentators concerned with contemporary fatherlessness cite the higher likelihood of children with absent fathers to experience a variety of negative consequences. Critics argue that these commentators overstate the negative consequences as well as the degree to which fathers are actually absent. One side of this debate laments the loss of the traditional family while the other side celebrates increasing diversity of family forms—including single mother and lesbian families. There are at least two significant and related difficulties with studying fatherlessness. One difficulty is the ambiguity of the concept—children can have absent fathers for different lengths of time, at different ages, with different levels of paternal involvement, and with varying father–child relationship quality. Most nonresident fathers actually do have at least some involvement with their children, although that involvement may be minimal. The reasons for father

absence include reasons as varied as death, divorce, unmarried parenthood, military service, and prison. Developing an understanding of the consequences of father absence for children requires taking this variation into account. A second difficulty has to do with the politicized nature of the term fatherlessness, which tends to create an image of children with no father involvement at all set in stark contrast to an image of children with a perfectly involved biological father. Both are extreme images that distort a debate that might otherwise allow for variation in involvement of both residential and nonresidential fathers. Furthermore, although father absence may be due to any of the causes listed above, the term fatherlessness is generally used only to refer to situations of divorce, out-of-wedlock childbearing, or death. The controversy over fatherlessness centers on father absence due to divorce and unmarried motherhood, both of which have become more common than paternal death and both of which are at least somewhat voluntary in nature. Negative Consequences Despite these problems, the research does indicate that father absence is associated with a variety of long-term negative consequences for a significant minority of children, including lower levels of educational attainment, higher levels of childhood behavioral problems, higher rates of psychological problems that can persist into adulthood, higher rates of substance abuse, higher rates of delinquency, earlier sexual onset, higher rates of teenage pregnancy, poorer physical health, lower rates of satisfaction with intimate relations in adulthood, higher rates of union dissolution, and lower levels of economic well-being in adulthood. Some of these effects can be mediated by the presence of other adults, but the presence of a stepfather does not generally mediate the effects of father absence. There is debate in the literature over the causes of the above problems. One explanation is that absent fathers take with them their ability to serve as a male role model, as well as their ability to help support and control their children; this explanation has received moderate support in the literature. Another explanation is that preexisting conditions, such as poverty and parental conflict, cause the observed problems; the evidence indicates that preexisting conditions

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can partially explain some but not all negative consequences of father absence. A third explanation is that there are significant disadvantages—in economic security, in quality of mothering, and in social capital—that are associated with father absence. There is evidence that higher levels of these three factors moderate the effects of father absence, so that children who are better off economically, whose mothers are able to provide sufficient support and control, and who retain connections to significant others such as teachers and family members are less likely to suffer serious harm as a result of father absence. See Also: Addiction and Substance Abuse; Divorce; Single Mothers; Teen Pregnancy. Further Readings Amato, Paul R., Catherine E. Meyers, and Robert E. Emery. “Changes in Nonresident Father–Child Contact From 1976 to 2002.” Family Relations, v.58 (2009). Daniels, C. R., ed. Lost Fathers: The Politics of Fatherlessness in America. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Sigle-Rushton, Wendy and Sara McLanahan. “Father Absence and Child Well-Being: A Critical Review.” In Daniel P. Moynihan, Timothy M. Smeeding, and Lee Rainwater, eds., The Future of the Family. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004. Brenda Wilhelm Mesa State College

Faust, Drew Gilpin Drew Gilpin Faust (born Catharine Drew Gilpin, September 18, 1947) became the 28th president of Harvard University on July 1, 2007—the first woman to serve in this capacity, as well as the fifth woman to hold the office of president of an Ivy League institution. Faust joined Harvard in 2001 after being appointed dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, formerly the all-women’s Radcliffe College. Before her tenure at Harvard, Faust taught at the University of Pennsylvania for 25 years, where she was appointed Walter Annenberg Professor of History as well as the chair of the Department of American Civilization and the director of the Women’s Studies Program.

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Faust, the Lincoln Professor of History at Harvard, specializes in the culture and gender histories of the antebellum and Civil War South. Her six books examine topics including, among others, the roles played by white slaveholding women during the Civil War, intellectuals in the Old South, African American life in the pre–Civil War South, and the aftermath and effect of these events on the modern era. In her book Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (1996), Faust examines how secession, battle, and defeat affected white Confederate women, ultimately leading them toward greater social challenges and financial responsibilities. In 1997, this book won the Society of American Historians’ Francis Parkman Prize. In This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (2008), Faust considers how the Civil War generation dealt with the war’s traumatic effects and how the unprecedented soldier death toll continued to affect American life from the 19th century onward. This Republic of Suffering received the 2009 Bancroft Prize from Columbia University after being a finalist for both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize, and it was listed among the 10 Best Books of 2008 by the New York Times. Accomplishments As president of Harvard University, Faust has undertaken numerous initiatives—in particular, overseeing the creation of new programs including the Harvard University Science and Engineering Committee. Faust is committed to enhancing undergraduate education and revitalizing the undergraduate curriculum, as well as attracting the most promising and talented students regardless of their financial situation. Faust is dedicated to “opening [Harvard’s] doors more widely to people of different backgrounds, different experiences, and different economic means.” She states: “we have learned, more and more, that our commitment to excellence depends on a commitment to inclusiveness.” In November 2009, Faust was the first Harvard president to travel to Africa, where she toured South Africa and Botswana to oversee Harvard programs such as fellowships for human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) research. It is her custom, during most of her official trips abroad, to visit local girls’ schools, such as in March 2008, when she visited Shanghai No. 3 Girls High School.

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Born in New York City, Faust was raised in Clarke County, Virginia, in a prominent family. Her ancestors include the Rev. Jonathan Edwards (1703–58), third president of Princeton University, and Senator Lawrence Tyson (1861–1929) from Tennessee. As was customary for women at that time, Catharine Mellick Gilpin, Faust’s mother, did not attend college, and she conveyed to Faust that “it’s a man’s world.” Accordingly, Faust was raised with this principle in mind and with the Southern rules of graceful manners and genteel etiquette that were expected from her gender. Yet throughout her formative years, Faust resisted—even rebelled—against her social milieu’s expectations, declining to become a debutante. She attended the then–all-girls Concord Academy preparatory boarding high school in Massachusetts, and in 1968, after graduating from Bryn Mawr with a B.A. in history, magna cum laude with honors, she pursued graduate studies, obtaining first a master’s degree, then a doctorate in 1975 in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania. Faust claims that female mentors were invaluable throughout most of her academic life; she names, in particular, Mary Maples Dunn, her professor at Bryn Mawr, who went on to become president of Smith College and who preceded her as dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Honors and Awards Faust’s numerous honors include teaching awards from the University of Pennsylvania; honorary doctorates from Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Bowdoin College; and being listed as one of the “Time 100” by Time magazine in 2007. In 1993, Faust was inducted into the Society of American Historians; in 1994, into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and in 2004, into the American Philosophical Society. She was president of the Southern Historical Association, vice president of the American Historical Association, and member of the executive board of the Organization of American Historians and the Society of American Historians. Faust has also served several times on editorial boards and awards committees, including the Pulitzer Prize history jury. She has been a trustee of the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and Bryn Mawr College and is on the educational advisory board of the Guggenheim Foundation.

Faust is married to Charles Rosenberg, Professor of the History of Science and Ernest E. Monrad Professor in the Social Sciences at Harvard University. Her stepdaughter, Leah Rosenberg, holds a Ph.D. from Cornell and is an associate professor of English at the University of Florida, specializing in Caribbean literature. Her daughter, Jessica Rosenberg, who graduated from Harvard summa cum laude in 2004, is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. See Also: American Association of University Women; College and University Faculty; Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, College and University; Feminism on College Campuses; Mentoring; Representation of Women; Women’s Colleges. Further Readings Faust, Drew G. “Installation Address: Unleashing Our Most Ambitious Imaginings.” http://www.president .harvard.edu/speeches/faust/071012_installation.php (accessed June 2010). Faust, Drew G. “Living History: A Schoolgirl’s Letter to ‘Mr. Eisenhower’ Illuminates a Childhood in the Segregated South.”Harvard Magazine (May–June 2003). http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/05/living -history.html (accessed June 2010). Faust, Drew G.. Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Faust, Drew G. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. Jiang, Athena Y. and June W. Qu. “Around the World With Faust: Faust Resumes Major International Trips, Promoting Harvard in Africa and Asia.” The Harvard Crimson (December 18, 2009). http://www.thecrimson .com/article/2009/12/18/faust-university-harvard -alumni/?print=1 (accessed June 2010). Rimer, Sara. “A ‘Rebellious Daughter’ to Lead Harvard.” New York Times (February 12, 2007). http://www.ny times.com/2007/02/12/education/12harvard.html? _r=1 (accessed June 2010). “The Ten Best Books of 2008.” New York Times (December 3, 2008). http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/books /review/10Best-t.htm?_r=1 (accessed June 2010). Marcelline Block Princeton University



Fecundity Fecundity refers to the biological capacity to procreate, or the probability that a woman will conceive in any given month. Fecundity is typically measured by the time to pregnancy (TTP) or the length of time that it takes for a couple to conceive. TTP is used to calculate the probability of conception or the fecundability odds ratio (FOR). Direct biological markers of fecundity are not easily isolated from the social, environmental, and behavioral factors that promote or reduce the odds of conception and the sustained implantation of the fertilized egg. Some of these factors are the age at which women and men try to conceive, their overall health status, reproductive health (e.g., menstrual cycle regularity, endometriosis, sexually transmitted infections), disease and medication history (e.g., diabetes, chemotherapy), family planning and contraceptive use, the availability of reproductive technologies, exposure to environmental contaminants (e.g., radiation, lead, cigarette smoke), and social and lifestyle factors (e.g., stress, alcohol use, education level, frequency of sexual intercourse). Although there is some evidence that fecundity may have a significant genetic component, research in this area is still scarce. Symbols of fecundity and rituals that promote and celebrate pregnancy are common, and reflect the importance of women’s reproductivity in community and social life. Typically a young, healthy, well-nourished woman who is having frequent unprotected sex will conceive within six months. A prolonged TTP of six months to two years is an indicator of reduced fecundity or infertility. As a woman ages, the probability of conception decreases. Health Status and the Ability to Conceive TTP is closely linked to health status, regularity of menstrual cycles, and body weight. Body mass index (BMI) is a mathematical ratio of height and weight used to estimate body fat and to evaluate health and nutritional status. Women with an average BMI (20 to 24) are more likely to have good health and regular menstrual cycles that support conception and pregnancy. Fecundity is decreased among women who are overweight (BMI over 24) and more likely to have menstrual irregularity. Although the physiological mechanisms are unclear, researchers suggest

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that elevated levels of estrogen, insulin, and leptin common among obese women may interfere with the normal functioning of the ovaries and ovulation. Women who are underweight (BMI less than 15) also have reduced fecundity, often related to poorer nutrition and menstrual irregularity or cessation. Damage to women’s reproductive organs caused by, for instance, moderate or severe endometriosis, may also interfere with her ability to conceive. Exposure to some environmental contaminants is shown to reduce fecundity. For example, adults working in a lead battery factory were found to have elevated lead levels, lower sperm counts and prolonged TTP. Females exposed to cigarette smoke in utero and during childhood have decreased fecundity as adults. Researchers speculate that exposures to second hand smoke interfere with normal hormone regulation during the critical stages when sexual organs are developing in utero and during adolescence. Women who smoke have longer TTP than their nonsmoking counterparts, partly because smoking during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of miscarriage. Cultural practices and diverse forms of symbolic expression reflect the universal valuing of women’s procreativity and can be found in many ancient and contemporary cultures. Hens and chicks are symbols of fecundity, and appeared on footwear worn by Chinese women in Zhejiang province in the early 20th century. Rural Albanian narratives are replete with references to eating blueberries, mandrake root, apples, and rituals, such as being immersed in water or dunked in mud and water to promote fecundity. Contemporary women monitor their basal temperature to predict ovulation and increase the likelihood of conception. See Also: Contraception; Fertility; Infertility, Incidence of; Infertility, Treatments for; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Doja, Albert. “Dreaming of Fecundity in Rural Albania.” Rural History, v.16/2 (2005). Peppone, L. J., K. M. Piazza, M. C. Mahoney, G. R. Morrow, K. M. Mustian, O. G. Palesh, and A. Hyland. “Associations Between Adult and Childhood Secondhand Smoke Exposures and Fecundity and Fetal Loss Among Women Who Visited a Cancer Hospital.” Tobacco Control, v.18 (2009).

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Yilmaz, Nafiye, Sevtap Kilic, Mine Kanat-Pektas, Cavidan Gulerman, and Leyla Mollamahmutoglu, “The Relationship Between Obesity and Fecundity.” Journal of Women’s Health, v.18/5 (2009). Diana L. Gustafson Memorial University

Feinberg, Leslie Leslie Feinberg was born on September 1, 1949, and is an internationally recognized trade unionist, journalist, and grassroots activist. Feinberg refers to “hirself” as polygendered or complexly gendered, and prefers to use neutral pronouns, such as “hir” and “ze.” Feinberg Lives with hir longtime partner, poet and activist Minnie Bruce Pratt, in New York. Feinberg has been severely ill on and off over the last few decades, and has been struggling with a number of tickborne diseases for several years. Although Feinberg is known for challenging transgender bias, ze is also deeply committed to a broad array of antiracist, anti-imperialist, feminist, and socialist causes. Overall, Feinberg’s writing and activism focuses on making visible the connections between movements in defense of women, oppressed nationalities, the disabled, sexual minorities, transgendered individuals, and the working class. In particular, hir work often deals with the areas where transliberation fits into contemporary progressive movements. Feinberg helped to create bonds between the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans communities and was instrumental in persuading the international network of Pride celebration organizers to add bisexual and transgender to their name. Feinberg is best known for the groundbreaking 1993 novel, Stone Butch Blues. Hir latest novel, Drag King Dreams, was published in 2006. The novel is set in New York City, post–9/11 and centers on the story of Max Rabinowitz, a transgender character struggling with the day-to-day concerns of maintaining a job and a safe place to live, as well as the murder of hir friend Vick/Vickie. The novel makes visible Feinberg’s antiwar stance, hir solidarity with Arab, south Asian, and Muslim immigrants in the United States, and the importance of activism.

Feinberg is a national leader of the Workers World Party and managing editor of Workers World Newspaper, which has run hir weekly column, “Lavender and Red,” since 2004. The column examines how issues of sex, gender, and sexuality have been dealt with in revolutionary movements over the last century and a half. In 2001, Feinberg had a published article, “Trans Health Crisis: For Us It’s Life or Death,” in the American Journal of Public Health. Feinberg’s latest book, Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba, was published in November 2009, and is based on 25 columns from hir “Lavender and Red” series. Feinberg’s text examines lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) life in Cuba from the colonial period to the current century, including political and institutional initiatives to combat prejudice against LGBT people. Feinberg has been active in protesting the wars waged by the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in promoting the cause of Palestinian Liberation. Ze cofounded Rainbow Flags for Mumia, a coalition of LGBTQ people demanding a new trial for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Ze has also been involved with Rainbow Solidarity for the Cuban Five, a group of LGBTQ individuals protesting the imprisonment of five Cubans in America. The five men were arrested on charges of espionage, but insist they were protecting Cuba from terrorist attacks by the United States. Feinberg also collaborates with the International Action Center, an activist group that resists war, corporate greed, and oppression. In 2000, the Leslie Feinberg Room was established in The Women’s Building in San Francisco, and Feinberg gave the commencement Keynote at Antioch College. In 2002, ze gave a speech at an international retreat held by Al-Fatiha, an International organization for LGBT Muslims. On May 28, 2009, Feinberg was awarded the Lambda Literary Foundation lifetime achievement award. See Also: Drag Kings; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; LGBTQ; Political Ideologies; Transgender. Further Readings Feinberg, Leslie. Drag King Dreams. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006. Feinberg, Leslie. Rainbow Solidarity: In Defense of Cuba. New York: World View Forum, 2009.



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Feinberg, Leslie. Stone Butch Blues. New York: Alyson Books, 2003. Feinberg, Leslie. Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. Feinberg, Leslie. Transgender Warriors: Making History From Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. Stacy Weida Indiana University

Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution Female genital surgery (FGS), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation, and female circumcision, is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for cultural or other nontherapeutic reasons. The majority of women and girls who have undergone the procedure live in Africa, where it is reported in 28 countries, mainly across a belt reaching from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east. A broad spectrum of FGS practices exists, ranging from symbolic cutting to more invasive procedures, such as clitoridectomy, excision, and infibulation. In each context, there is marked variation in prevalence, in the type of surgery performed, and in the rituals associated with it. Even within the same geographic region, the nature of the practice, its rationalization, and the age at which it is performed can vary greatly by ethnicity and class. The WHO currently classifies the procedure as follows: • Type I: excision of the prepuce, with or without excision of part or all of the clitoris; • Type II: excision of the clitoris with partial or total removal of the labia minora; • Type III: excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening (infibulation); • Type IV: (unclassified) all other procedures that involve partial or total removal of the female external genitalia and/or injury to the female genital organs for cultural or any other nontherapeutic reasons.

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The most severe forms of FGS, Types III and IV, are found in the Greater Horn of Africa. However FGS, as a traditional practice, occurs throughout the world. The WHO estimates that between 100 and 140 million women and girls worldwide have undergone the procedure. FGS in Africa has been reported in nearly all societies north of the equator, except in matrilineal ones, and in the belt stretching south from southern Sudan through Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, to western Kenya. However, not all the inhabitants of these areas practice FGS, and most studies indicate that the custom is primarily an ethnic one, having little to do with political boundaries. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that around 3 million girls are subjected to the practice each year. Of these, almost half are from two countries: Egypt and Ethiopia. There are reports, but no clear data, on a limited incidence of FGS in Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Gaza). The practice has also been reported among certain populations in Indonesia and Malaysia. In India, a small Muslim sect, the Daudi Bohra, practice clitoridectomy. However, reliable data on the prevalence of the practice in Asia and the Middle East is scant. There have been accounts of FGS among certain indigenous groups in Central and South America, but little information is available. Global Distribution Shifting migration flows in the post–World War II period have altered the geographic distribution of FGS, meaning that it is no longer restricted to countries where it has been a traditional practice. The procedure is therefore increasingly found in Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, chiefly among diaspora from countries where it is traditionally practiced. Migratory patterns from Africa to industrialized countries commonly reflect ties to the colonial past, and thus UNICEF reports that migrants from Benin, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Senegal tend to choose France as their destination, while many Kenyan, Nigerian, and Ugandan citizens have migrated to the United Kingdom. In addition, the wars, civil unrest, and drought experienced by several African countries in the 1970s, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia, resulted in an flow of refugees to countries such as Norway, Sweden, and

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Denmark, which had hitherto been relatively unaffected by migration. Current data on the prevalence and nature of FGS in industrialized countries remains largely anecdotal, and extrapolations are sometimes used to gain insight on the extent of the practice. For example, by combining data from the office of migration with data on prevalence from countries of origin, the Swiss National Committee for UNICEF estimated that, in Switzerland, around 6,700 girls and women have either undergone FGS or are likely to undergo the procedure. Of these, more than one-third are of Somali origin. Health authorities in Italy estimate that 40,000 women of African origin, mostly Somalis, have undergone the practice. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that, in the United States alone, more than 150,000 women and girls of African origin have undergone FGS, or may have the operation performed on them. Data are better available for regions where FGS is a traditional custom. Excision (Type II) is found throughout Africa, including Egypt, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, and Senegal. The excision and stitching that constitute infibulation (Type III) comprise the minority of cases (15 percent) and can be found in northern Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, and parts of Côte d’Ivoire. WHO estimates that almost 80 percemt of all cases of FGS on a world basis can be categorized as Type II. FGS has been documented among Muslim communities in the Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. However, although often associated with religion, in particular Islam, it is important to note that FGS is not a religious practice. It predates the arrival of both Christianity and Islam in Africa, and FGS is not known in many Muslim countries. WHO reports that in cultures where it is an accepted norm, FGS is practiced by followers of all religious beliefs, as well as animists and nonbelievers, and is practiced by members of a number of different religions in the countries concerned, including Christians (Catholics, Protestants, and Copts), animists, and Jews (Falashas in Ethiopia). Where found, FGS practices tend to be deeply embedded in local traditional belief systems. FGS may be performed on prepubescent girls aged 4 to 12, although in Senegal and Mali it is sometimes performed on babies as young as 1 month old. In countries such as Sudan, FGS is normally performed

by traditional birth attendants on young girls, with trained midwives performing around one-third, whereas medical doctors perform less than 1 percent of operations. Traditional cutters may vary across different ethnic groups. Apart from traditional birth attendants, barbers may perform the procedure, as is the case in Egypt and northern Nigeria. In northern Zaire the traditional “circumciser” is a male priest. Across the African continent, implements used include razor blades, scissors, knives, and pieces of glass. The specific form that FGS takes can vary widely from one community to another and classification may be problematic, as girls and women may not always be certain of which procedure was performed on them. In cases where they were cut at an early age, girls may not even recall the procedure. See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Caldwell, John C., I. O. Orubuloye, and Pat Caldwell. “Female Genital Mutilation: Conditions of Decline.” Population Research and Policy Review, v.19 (2000). United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting.” UNICEF Innocenti Digest (2005). United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Statistical Exploration.” (2005). http://www.unicef.org/publications/index _29994.html (accessed July 2010). Yoder, P. Stanley and Shane Khan. “Numbers of Women Circumcised in Africa: The Production of a Total.” DHS Working Papers (2008). Máire Ní Mhórdha University of St. Andrews

Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of It is estimated that at least 2 to 3 million girls and women worldwide undergo some form of female genital surgery on an annual basis, although the exact



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Community outreach workers and teachers in Egypt help educate parents on the dangers of female genital cutting. Researchers have found that using the phrase female genital mutilation can hamper their interactions in countries where the practice is common.

number is difficult to determine due to underreporting. Female genital surgeries may be performed for a variety of cultural, religious, social, aesthetic, and cosmetic reasons. Surgeries typically involve the cutting, scarring, piercing, burning, or removal of external female genitalia, although the specific type and extent of procedures vary significantly. In recent years, increased attention by scholars, activists, healthcare providers, and politicians has generated much debate about female genital surgeries. One of the key aspects of this debate has been the terminology that is used to describe such procedures—including “female genital mutilation,” “female circumcision,” “female genital cutting,” and “female genital surgery”—and the political dimensions inherent in such terminology. Commentators typically distinguish between two categories of female genital surgery: those that are performed for cosmetic or aesthetic reasons, and those that are carried out in the name of culture, religion, or tradition. Cosmetic genital surgeries are most often

performed on adult women, although some children may undergo such procedures to address anatomical anomalies. Cosmetic genital surgeries are performed in a medical setting by a trained healthcare provider, with consent, and with the use of pain medication. Such surgeries are most common in industrialized nations including in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Surgeries done for cultural, religious, or traditional reasons are most common in northeast Africa, including Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Somalia, and Sudan. This type of surgery may be performed on females any time from infancy through adulthood, is typically done without consent, outside of a medical setting, and without the use of anesthesia or pain-relieving drugs or antibiotics. Female Genital Mutilation The phrase female genital mutilation is frequently used to refer to both categories of female genital surgery, and the use of the word mutilation con-

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notes a clear condemnation of such practices. This phrasing has been criticized as neocolonialist, particularly as it has been used by Westerners to critique surgeries done for cultural, religious, or traditional reasons in developing nations. Furthermore, researchers and practitioners have found that using the phrase female genital mutilation tends to hamper their interactions with populations in countries where such practices are common. Consequently, use of this terminology can lead to underreporting and limited gains in treating health problems commonly associated with female genital surgeries. Such phrasing, when used in campaigns aimed at reducing or eliminating female genital surgeries or at promoting alternative rituals, can also lead to increased resistance to social change and, in some cases, drive surgeries underground. The use of the word mutilation also implies that female genital surgeries are completed with the intent of disfiguring the individuals upon whom they are performed. Yet as many researchers and practitioners have pointed out, this is simply not the case. In fact, some surgeries are promoted with the explicit aim of enhancing female beauty. This appears to be the case in the United States, where women can elect to undergo surgeries that tighten or reduce the size of the labia in order to give the external genitalia a more “youthful” appearance. Female Circumcision The phrase female circumcision is often preferred because it translates easily into the various languages used where female genital surgeries are commonly performed in the name of religion, culture, or tradition. However, this phrasing is problematic, insofar as it suggests that female genital surgeries are akin to male circumcision. While male circumcision involves the removal of some or all the foreskin from the penis, female genital surgeries vary greatly. In their simplest form, they involve the removal of the clitoral hood and the piercing, nicking, or removal of the clitoris (commonly referred to as Type I or clitoridectomy). However, some types of female genital surgeries also include the removal of the labia minora and the labia majora (Type II or excision), and others involve the sewing together of remaining external genital tissue in order to decrease the size of the vaginal opening (Type III, also known as infibulation or Pharaonic

circumcision). In addition, the risks associated with female genital surgeries are typically much greater— both short term and long term—than those associated with male circumcision. Consequently, many regard the use of the phrase female circumcision as unhelpful and inaccurate. Female Genital Cutting The phrase female genital cutting has been adopted by many, and reflects the fact that many female genital surgeries involve cutting of the female external genitalia, including the clitoris, the labia majora, and the labia minora. However, not all surgeries involve cutting. In fact, some involve only piercing, burning, scarring, or stretching of the genitalia. Thus, “cutting” is only accurate in describing some surgeries. Moreover, the use of the term cutting might be regarded as an attempt to sensationalize female genital surgeries, particularly as it brings to mind images of wounds and injury, while failing to attend to the cultural, religious, or ritual foundations of such practices in many cultures. Female Genital Surgery Some commentators advocate using the phrase female genital surgery because they feel it is less judgmental and value laden. This terminology is accurate when used to describe those procedures that actually are surgeries—that is, those conducted in accordance with accepted medical standards. Yet to apply the term surgery to procedures carried out without the use of anesthesia, in unsterile conditions, and without the assistance of trained medical personnel is both inaccurate and minimizes the political dimensions of such practices. After all, many of these so-called surgeries are completed with the explicit aim of controlling women’s sexual behavior and, thus, are part of broader cultural systems that perpetuate the oppression of women and help maintain gender inequality. Indeed, such “surgeries” have been critiqued in accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). They have been similarly evaluated as violating principles set forth by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In light of such debates, the term female genital surgery may be too benign to accurately capture the ways

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in which such practices can constitute a form of violence against women and children and violate their basic human rights. See Also: Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Cosmetic Surgery; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; HIV/ AIDS: Africa; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Abusharaf, Rogaia Mustafa. Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. James, Stanlie and Claire C. Robertson. Genital Cutting and Transnational Sisterhood: Disputing U.S. Polemics. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Sarkis, Marianne. “Female Genital Cutting (FGC): An Introduction.” The Female Genital Cutting Education and Networking Project. http://www.fgmnetwork.org (accessed August 2009). Skaine, Rosemarie. Female Genital Mutilation: Legal, Cultural, and Medical Issues. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005. World Health Organization. Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: An Interagency Statement. http://www .who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/fgm (accessed November 2009). J. Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

Female Genital Surgery, Types of Female genital surgery (FGS) refers to practices that involve the cutting, scarification, cauterization, piercing, tightening, and/or removal of female genitalia. Such surgeries are typically divided into two categories: (1) traditional practices (often termed female circumcision, female genital cutting, or female genital mutilation) that are most common in developing countries; and (2) medical procedures done for cosmetic reasons, which are most common in industrialized nations.

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Traditional female genital surgeries are carried out for religious, aesthetic, social, or other nonmedical reasons. They have come under intense international scrutiny, particularly from human rights advocates. Surgeries are generally conducted without consent, without anesthesia, and are often performed by a midwife or elder female community member. They may be performed on girls anytime from infancy throughout adolescence (and on adult women, in some countries). A knife, razor blade, piece of glass, or other sharp object is used to cut or remove genital flesh. It is estimated that 2 to 3 million girls and women undergo traditional FGS annually, and over 120 million worldwide have had such surgeries. Traditional FGS practices are most common in Africa, but have also been documented in Asia, the Middle East, Central America, and South America. The World Health Organization (WHO) has divided traditional FGS into four main types. Type I, commonly referred to as clitoridectomy, is the most common. The prepuce or clitoral hood is removed. The clitoris may also be partially or totally removed. Common side effects include bleeding, pain and shock, cysts, infection, keloid scars, nerve damage and loss of sensation, and transmission of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), hepatitis, or other bloodborne pathogens as the cutting instrument may be used on multiple girls and is generally not sterilized. Individuals who undergo clitoridectomy may also experience psychological trauma. Type II, or excision, involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia minora. The labia majora may also be removed, and the wound is not stitched close. Side effects are similar to those experienced with Type I surgeries; however, scarring and blood loss are often more extensive with Type II surgeries. Together, Type I and Type II surgeries account for 80 to 85 percent of all traditional FGS practices. Type III, infibulation (or Pharaonic circumcision), aims to narrow the vaginal opening by creating a covering or seal of skin and scar tissue. First, the labia majora and labia minora are cut or scraped away. The clitoris may also be removed. Next, the raw edges are brought together and secured with thorns or sewn shut so the wound may heal. An opening is maintained to allow for urine and menstrual blood to pass. When the infibulated individual is married

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the opening must be sufficiently dilated in order to allow intercourse to take place; if the opening is very small, it is cut open. Short-term risks associated with infibulation include those discussed above, as well as hemorrhage and septicemia. Long-term risks include recurrent urinary tract infections, pelvic disorders, and a variety of obstetrical complications, such as perineal tears, fetal obstruction, fistulas, and hemorrhaging. Infibulation has also been linked to higher maternal and neonatal mortality rates. After giving birth, a woman may be reinfibulated. Infibulation accounts for 10 to 15 percent of all traditional FGS surgeries worldwide; it is the most common type of FGS performed in Djibouti, Somalia, and northern Sudan. Type IV, or “unclassified,” includes all forms of piercing, pricking, cauterization, scraping, cutting, or stretching of the external genitalia done for social or religious purposes and not included in Types I–III. Type IV carry risks similar to those associated with Type I surgeries. Medical Procedures These surgeries are performed on adult women, most often for aesthetic reasons or to increase sexual pleasure (though they are sometimes performed for medical reasons). Commonly referred to as elective genitoplasty or genital plastic surgery, these types of FGS are conducted by medical personnel, under either local or general anesthesia, in sterile conditions, and with informed consent. Procedures may include reduction of either/both the labia minora and labia majora, removal or reduction of the prepuce, tightening of the vaginal muscles or perineum, or shortening of the vagina. Risks include pain, scarring, blood loss, infection, nerve damage, and loss of sensation. These surgeries are most common in industrialized nations including the United States and have been linked to cultural standards of beauty. See Also: Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural; Cosmetic Surgery; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of; HIV/AIDS:Africa; World Health Organization. Further Readings Braum, V. “In Search of (Better) Sexual Pleasure: Female Genital ‘Cosmetic’ Surgery.” Sexualities, v.8/4 (2005).

Navarro, Mireya. “The Most Private of Makeovers.” New York Times (November 28, 2004). http://www.nytimes .com/2004/11/28/fashion/28PLAS.html (accessed September 2009). Population Reference Bureau. Female Genital Mutilation/ Cutting: Data and Trends. http://www.prb.org/pdf08/ fgm-wallchart.pdf (accessed August 2009). Sarkis, Marianne. “Female Genital Cutting (FGC): An Introduction.” The Female Genital Cutting Education and Networking Project. http://www.fgmnetwork.org (accessed August 2009). World Health Organization. Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: An Interagency Statement. http://www .who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/fgm (accessed November 2009). J. Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

“Femininity,” Social Construction of Social constructionism is based on the notion that human beings create the societies that they inhabit. William Isaac Thomas and the sociologists of the Chicago School and various phenomenological sociologists and philosophers have been credited with generating the term. However, the term only came into popular use in the 1960s with the publication of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality, which synthesized ideas developed previously by French sociologist Emile Durkheim and American philosopher George Herbert Mead. While Berger and Luckman focused most of their studies on religion, their work has also been used to explain the development of “femininity” as a concept. Thus, according to the dictates of social constructionism, the concept of “femininity” was constructed by beliefs, attitudes, and reactions formed within particular cultures over time. All societies were assumed to assign certain characteristics and behaviors to those that were born female, teaching both girls and boys that females were supposed to be timid, soft, delicate, beautiful, and nurturing and imbuing females with responsibility for perpetuating constructs of feminin-



ity that were consistent with the views of the particular society that they inhabited. Likewise, the term masculinity was socially constructed to explain how those of the male sex should behave and how males were viewed by the world around them. According to feminist thought, the system of patriarchy dictated that masculinity has historically been privileged in most cultures, including modern western culture, which gave birth to the legal emancipation of women. French writer and existentialist Simone de Beauvoir argues that in this way, males were defined as they norm, and females, by definition, become the “other.” Since females were viewed as extensions of males rather than as individuals in their own rights, the social constructionist argument contended that females were expected to fit into idealized representations promoted within popular culture that called on them to be “feminine,” denoting particular body types, which were usually thin, youthful, well proportioned, alluring, and free of body hair. Sexuality became imbued with paradoxical constraints, suggesting that women should simultaneously be sexually attractive, alluring, and available, yet behave in an appropriately “lady-like” fashion. Heterosexuality was generally presumed, and femininity was expressed as submissive, passive, and responsive to men’s advances. Expressions of femininity that deviated from the social prescriptions of normalized behavior were viewed as deviant. Over time, definitions of femininity evolved to embrace the changing roles of women that resulted from women’s movements in individual countries. Essentialists and constructivists originally took up polarized locations on the issue of the relation between the social and the natural. Essentialists held that the natural was repressed by the social, whereas constructivists posited that the natural was constructed by the social. This thought was epitomized in Simone de Beauvoir’s famous axiom: woman is made, not born. For women, the long-held belief about their proper roles evolved out of the conviction that in large part because of their reproduction capabilities, they were best suited to the private realm. Males, who were assigned the role of protecting and providing for their families, were assumed to be more at home in the public world. Today, the lines between the two schools of thought have become less distinct, with biological

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determinists contending that evolution rather than biology may be responsible for behaviors associated with gender roles. Evolving Concepts of Femininity The qualities of femininity and masculinity are typically mapped onto bodies at birth. The first question asked of parents of a baby is “Is it a boy or a girl?” If genitalia are obvious, and this is not always the case, a gender is proscribed onto the body of the child. Gendered role prescriptions come with expectations that males will express and conform to the accepted dictates of masculinity, and females will meet expectations associated with being feminine. The myriad influences that construct individuals as feminine or masculine are a result of the integration of attitudes, values, expectations, memories, dispositions, relationships and activities produced in particular sociopolitical, historical and cultural contexts. The qualities of femininity and masculinity are not stable or universal categories. Instead, identity unfolds as an ongoing story that signals where individuals have been, and what choices they have made. The qualities of femininity and masculinity are constantly being reinforced through patterns of socialization produced by social institutions that include families, churches, schools, and the media. As societies evolve, so do expectations associated with femininity. Around the world, but particularly in western societies, the birth of the women’s movement and the rise of feminism resulted in extremely different definitions of what constitutes femininity in the 21st century as opposed to how the feminine was understood by the Classical Greeks or the Renaissance French. Feminists rejected that notion that biology was responsible for creating “feminine” women who were predestined to behave in a certain way. They adopted the ideas put forth by Mary Wollstonecraft (1759– 97) in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she maintains that females who had been socialized into dependency would have acted very differently if they had been brought up to act as independent individuals. As a result, feminists promoted the notion that most of the perceived differences in males and females were the result of nurture rather than nature. The emphasis on “the personal is political” brought women’s issues into the public realm, and women claimed the right to be actively involved in making

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political and social decisions that affected their own lives and those of their children. Many women began rejecting the notion that being female required them to marry and reproduce. Others rejected the notion of heterosexuality altogether. Over the course of the 20th century, women continued to throw off old restrictions about what constituted the proper behavior for females. Although many rejected the label of feminism, they enjoyed the societal benefits made possible by feminist reforms. By the end of the century, large numbers of women had begun defining themselves according to the socalled new femininity. Journalist Nikki Goldstein opined in The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia) that this “new femininity” celebrated womanhood. She based her argument in part on trends in the fashion and cosmetic industries, which had adopted more “feminine” styles such as feathers, frills, sequins, and lace. Goldstein argued that the new emphasis on femininity was indicative of women expressing their individuality as they moved away from the mandate of power dressing. She contended that those born after 1980, known as Generation Y or Millennials, had embraced icons from American television such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and the three sister witches of Charmed (1998–2006) because of their sense of fashion as well as their “Girlie Power.” Goldstein’s argument was supported by Catherine Lumby of Sydney University, who stated that the symbols long associated with masculinity and femininity had eroded. Four years later, Anthea Taylor took major issue with Goldstein’s thesis, suggesting that she, along with many texts and contemporary media sites, had mistakenly used the term girlpower to find common ground between feminism and femininity. Even as women of the West attempted to define themselves in response to the frequently competing dictates of the popular media and feminist thought, in many cultures, women were still struggling for the right to choose the means by which they asserted themselves as women. For instance, in Turkey, where 99.8 percent of the population is Muslim, even in the 21st century, traditional Turkish culture characterized females according to 20th-century constructs that defined them according to their reproductive function and relegated them to the private sphere of hearth and home. In response to these efforts to

continue the subordination of women, an active feminist movement surfaced, and women’s studies programs were established in many Turkish universities. Although modern reforms granted women equal rights under the law as a result of Turkey’s adoption of the Swiss Civil Code in 1926, traditional social constructs continued to mandate that Turkish women hide their femininity whenever they venture into the public realm, and they were expected to remain subservient to male family members within their homes. Women who had become “westernized” were not always bound by those restrictions. Millennials and Feminism The four women of the American television show, Sex and the City (1998–2004) came to represent for many the popular ideal of both feminism and femininity of the 21st century. The show became so much a part of the popular culture that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began offering a course that allowed students to analyze the new concepts of women’s roles as portrayed by Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbes as they related to their own lives. While the four characters are successful career women, they are also overtly sexual beings who are generally interested in finding the ideal life partner. Over the course of the show, various members of the cast give birth, marry, divorce, and engage in promiscuity. Carrie, portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker, the star of the show, is obsessed with fashion, and her wardrobe exerted a major influence on young women around the world. In their many conversations, the characters explore the meaning of masculinity and femininity in relation to themselves. Elizabeth Kaufer Busch argues that the show, along with Ally McBeal and Desperate Housewives blamed feminism for women’s dissatisfaction with their lives. Feminist reaction to the success of Sex and the City was mixed. Some feminists lauded the open sexuality, but others complained that it perpetuated the agenda of liberal feminism, which had been shaped by reactions to the subjugation and objectification of white females while ignoring the exploitation of women of color, lesbians, bisexuals, and others who did not conform to white middle-class ideals. In general, the lines between male and female, black and white, gay and straight are not as clearly



draw for women of the millennial generation as for those of the past, and Millennials are more willing than other generations to allow others to “pursue happiness” according to their own dictates. In the United States, women of the millennial generation, like those of other generations, believe that parenthood and marriage are more important than career and financial success. However, in 2010, only a fifth of all Millennials were married. More than a third of millennial females between the ages of 18 and 29 had given birth outside of marriage. The PEW Research Center reports that as a group Millennials are more confident, more self-expressive, more liberal, more upbeat, more open to change, and more ethnically and racially diverse than earlier generations. They are also much better educated, which exposes them to different ideas and cultures, and they are less likely than others to consider themselves religious. Millennials are more likely than other generations to approve of gay couples raising children, mothers of young children working outside the home, cohabitation, and biracial marriage. They are also less strict in their definition of gender roles, and male and female Millennials approach life in a similar fashion. Government reports indicate that during the recession of the early 21st century, women were more likely than men to be employed. Some 71 percent of those with children under the age of 18 were employed. Studies of millennial attitudes suggest that females are just as ambitious as males, exhibiting similar desires to assume greater job responsibilities and advance in their careers. Women now earn 44 percent of household incomes, and millennial women tend to be better educated than their male cohorts. Among married Millennials, both females and males spend more time with their children than parents of any other generation, particularly those of Generation X, and millennial men are taking on a greater share of domestic duties in households where wives are employed outside the home. All of these social factors affecting the lives of Millennials have resulted in a much broader definition of femininity that embraces feminist thought without acknowledging it and welcoming diversity and the rights of the individual, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

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See Also: Celebrity Women; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Islam; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Representation of Women; Single Mothers; Social Construction of Masculinity; Stereotypes of Women; Teen Pregnancy. Further Readings Beauvoir, Simone de, H. M. Parsley, trans. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf, 1975. Berger, Peter L. and Tomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books, 1967. Bradfield, Rebecca. “Rereading Sex and the City: Exposing the Hegemonic Feminist Narrative.” Journal of Popular Film and Television, v.34/3 (Fall 2006). Busch, Elizabeth Kaufer. “Ally McBeal to Desperate Housewives: A Brief History of the Postfeminist Heroine.” Perspectives on Political Science, v.38/2 (Spring 2009). Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. London: Routledge, 1990. Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. London: Routledge, 2004. Cook, Sarah Gibbard. “Millennial Women Bring New Roles, Expectations to Campus.” Women in Higher Education, v.18/8 (August 2009). Cosar, Simten. “Women in Turkish Political Thought: Between Tradition and Modernity.” Feminist Review, v.86 (July 2007). de Lauretis, Teresa. Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film, and Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Fuss, Diana. Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature & Difference. New York: Routledge, 1989. Goldstein, Nikki. “Girlie Power.” The Sun Herald (July 25, 1999). Pew Research Center. “Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.” http://pewsocialtrends.org /pubs/751/millennials-confident-connected-open -to-change (accessed July 2010). Taylor, Anthea. “What’s New About ‘the New Femininity’? Feminism, Femininity, and the Discourse of the New.” Hectate, v.29/2 (2003). Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302 /texts/wollstonecraft/woman-contents.html (accessed July 2010). J. Mortenson University of British Columbia, Okanagan

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Feminism, American Simply put, feminism is a political philosophy and practice centering on the concerns of women and opposing gender inequality.  There is no one universally accepted way of conceptualizing feminism or of being a feminist; therefore, many contemporary feminists feel that the plural term feminisms best encompasses the great diversity among approaches to feminism.  Generally speaking, the various contemporary approaches to feminism overlap in their dedication to opposing sexism, misogyny, and structural inequalities between women and men, as well as inequalities between girls and boys. Many types of feminism also emphasize the importance of women’s personal experiences, arguing that “the personal is political.” Additionally, most contemporary feminisms share an intellectual and ethical commitment to addressing forms of structural inequality that intersect with gender, such as racism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, xenophobia, and/or sizeism. Although some media sources and opponents of women’s equality have called into question the contemporary relevance, or even existence of contemporary feminism, feminism remains both alive and necessary in the 21st century. Women still earn less than men, and this wage gap is greatest for women of color. Physical violence perpetrated against women by their current or former romantic partners remains prevalent and continues to constitute a leading cause of injury to women. Globally, women receive inferior healthcare and education to men, and wield less political and economic power than men. And in many countries, including the United States, constituents have yet to elect a female head of state. With a long history, extending back to the 19th century, feminism seeks to eradicate these and other injustices through a variety of means. Feminism has transformed not only higher education but language itself. Women, men, and people of varying gender identities who are aligned with the goals of feminism continue to strive for gender equality in numerous ways, including engagement with scholarly and/or artistic work, and by participating in social movements. The Wave Metaphor and Feminism Feminism has been conceptualized as occurring in three “waves.” The first wave of feminism is most

closely associated with 19th and early 20th century struggles for women’s suffrage. In the United States, feminist activism became less visible in the years following 1920, when voting rights were finally secured for women. However, feminist organizing reemerged in the late 1960s. This “second wave” of feminist activism and scholarship blossomed as female activists became increasingly dissatisfied with their experiences in mainstream civil rights and antiwar movements dominated by men. Second wave feminism subsequently took a variety of forms, both liberal and radical, including the genesis of the Women’s Liberation Movement, resistance to violence against women via the creation of rape crisis centers and battered women’s shelters, and organized efforts to change women’s relationships with mainstream institutions such as law enforcement and the mainstream medical establishment. During the second wave of feminism, women also gathered together and engaged in what came to be known as “consciousness raising” (CR): the sharing of personal stories in an effort to uncover commonalities of experience and understand the underlying social structures that served as the foundation of women’s subjugation. Defending the second-wave feminist practice of consciousness raising against claims that CR amounted to little more than a form of apolitical group therapy, Carol Hanisch is reputed to have coined what would become a feminist mantra: “The personal is political.” Second-wave feminists who embraced this premise came to realize that their experiences, previously understood as private and personal, were connected to gender inequality and other intersecting forms of oppression; this realization made political analysis and collective action possible. This feminist emphasis on the value of personal experience remains an important cornerstone of contemporary strains of feminism. Although second-wave feminists achieved many legal and social victories, including the (still contested) legalization of abortion and various legal protections and remedies for female workers and spouses, the ideologies and practices of second wave feminism were not completely unproblematic. In particular, second-wave feminists frequently theorized women as universal, ignoring the differences between and among categories of women. Working-class women, women of color, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgen-



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In this striking photograph taken in 1917, suffragists are picketing in front of the White House asking the president, “How long must women wait for liberty?” The National Woman’s Party utilized open public demonstrations to gain popular attention.

dered women found themselves alienated from a mainstream feminism, which all too frequently centered on the perspectives and needs of women with economic, racial, and other privileges. The third wave of feminism is considered a corrective to many of the shortcomings of second wave feminism. These contemporary feminists highlight a multiplicity of voices, emphasizing intersections of identity beyond gender, including race, class, and sexuality. Additionally, whereas second wave feminism has been seen as encouraging a “cult of victimization” among women, contemporary feminists place a greater emphasis on women’s agency. For example, this third wave has seen the increasing emergence of sex-positive writing and activism, particularly by sex worker rights activists, scholars, and writers. Other focal points for third wave feminism include movements for the inclusion of transgender and genderqueer practices, and in the case of globalization, an emergence of transnational feminisms that extend and/or challenge Euro-American feminist goals.

Although there is some speculation about an existing or imminent fourth wave of feminism, as of this writing it is nonetheless more common to consider contemporary feminisms as part of an ongoing third wave. However, the wave metaphor has recently drawn criticism from feminist scholars; conceptualizing feminism as occurring in three waves may encourage an understanding of feminism as disjointed, or consisting of temporally and ideologically discrete approaches. Feminism and the Academy Dissatisfied with disciplinary canons dominated by the writings and perspectives of “dead white men,” late-20th-century feminist professors and students made a concerted effort to imbue higher education with a feminist perspective that honored the work of feminist scholars and adequately addressed the reality of diverse women’s lives. Today, feminist professors located within traditional disciplines throughout the humanities, social sciences, and hard sciences

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continue to integrate women’s perspectives into their coursework, and adopt a curriculum that fosters students’ critical examination of gender inequalities. When possible, such professors often seek to reclaim the work of disciplinary foremothers. For example, early feminist sociologists such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane Addams, Marion Talbott, and Edith Talbott were completely eclipsed by their male contemporaries until feminist sociologists began integrating them into the theoretical curriculum. However, the still developing approach to teaching now known as feminist pedagogy goes beyond simply integrating the work of female researchers and writers into the existing curriculum. Professors and other instructors who adopt a feminist pedagogical stance are critical of the power differential that exists between student and teacher, and often seek to dismantle classroom hierarchies in a variety of ways. Students are not constructed as obedient recipients of their teacher’s expert knowledge; rather they too are understood as having knowledge worth contributing. In particular, the sharing of personal experiences in the classroom is believed to provide students with an opportunity to make concrete connections between theoretical course concepts and the lived experience they know intimately. In some feminist classrooms, students share responsibility for curricular development. In addition to attending to power dynamics in the classroom, feminist teachers aim to devise curriculum that highlights power and inequalities, and one that features diverse perspectives. Feminism has also transformed how many academics approach their research. As with feminist pedagogy, feminist research is characterized by an acknowledgment of the power differential between researcher and participant, as well as an attempt to minimize such hierarchies in the research process. Rather than extracting knowledge from passive “subjects,” feminist researchers conceptualize the people with whom they work as participants in the truest sense of the word, capable of sharing knowledge and making concrete contributions to the research process. In feminist participatory research, the investigator may go as far as to design her or his study in concert with her or his participants, tailoring the goals of the study to participants’ needs, and sharing the contents and/or ownership of the finished product with them.

Feminism permeates many progressive academic departments within traditional disciplines, but has also become an object of study itself. In the latter part of the 20th century, feminist academics organized across disciplines to create interdisciplinary women’s studies programs and departments. Such departments are now commonplace on college campuses, although the contemporary trend is toward the development of departments devoted to gender studies or feminist studies, indicating a move away from a focus on women as subjects of inquiry, and toward a feminist approach of studying a broad variety of topics. Feminism and Language Because language shapes the way in which we think about the social and political world, many feminists are concerned with the ways that language can be used to reinforce or challenge power. In the latter 20th century, feminists developed a critique of language that they understood as demeaning women, as well as androcentric language that erased women’s existence, such as use of the term men to stand in for people. Whereas these earlier feminists have at times been accused of overpolicing language, more contemporary feminists have utilized an ethic of co-optation rather than censorship. For instance, rather than disallowing language or words such as “whore,” “spinster,” “slut,” and “bitch,” many contemporary feminists have co-opted these words, redefining them and utilizing them in a way that empowers rather than degrades women. A few examples of this co-optation of language is reflected in the work of editors and writers for print media such as Bitch, Spread Magazine: Illuminating the Sex Industry, and in the work of feminist and antiracist writer Inga Muscio, author of Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. Similarly, some members of contemporary size acceptance or body diversity movements, many of whom are aligned with feminism, have reclaimed the word fat, fashioning both terms and identities that celebrate rather than denigrate fatness. Theoretical Trends, Activism, and New Possibilities Contemporary feminism and its related activism coincide with a dramatic shift in the theoretical and practical conceptualization of feminism and gender. Judith Butler and other queer theorists have been at the forefront of this shift. Whereas some early feminist



theorists made essential the categories “women” and “men,” postmodern theorists have invigorated feminism by destabilizing these categories. For example, Butler’s gender performances describe how gender organizes social relations and spaces. This and other related work, which focuses on the use of space, body comportment, and gender maneuvering/performance, marks a direct shift away from viewing gender as a fixed category. Nonetheless, although feminist writers such as Judith Butler have called for fluid, nonessentialist analyses of gender, other theorists and writers such as Peter Hennen have reminded us to remain cognizant of the body and the real, material consequences of gender inequality, issues that have often been lost in contemporary feminism’s postmodern shuffle. For example, in his recent study Faeries, Bears, and Leathermen, Hennen found that in contrast with the aforementioned theoretical developments, his interviewees described themselves in very essentialist terms. Hennen concludes that although postmodern theories are useful and necessary, those writing about issues of gender need to be sensitive to how people continue to understand their own identities. The postmodern turn in gender theory and constructions of the category “woman” have, at the same time, led to a proliferation of activism around genderqueer identities and practices. Both gender activists and theorists are redefining the category “woman” and exploding binaries of gender and sexuality. There are a number of contemporary examples of how these shifts in discourse are being realized in practice and everyday life. In the pornography industry, for example, queer porn has infiltrated the larger mainstream industry and continues to break gender and sexual boundaries that remain prevalent in mainstream porn. Other contemporary feminist activist engagements include the growing reproductive justice movement, global struggles for land and water rights, and movements promoting disability rights. See Also: Antifeminism; Critical Race Feminism; Feminism on College Campuses; Feminist Jurisprudence; Feminist Publishing; Feminist Theology; Global Feminism; Third Wave; Womanism; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, 1990.

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Hennen, Peter. Faeries, Bears, and Leathermen: Men in Community Queering the Masculine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Hokulani, K. Aikau, Karla A. Erickson, and Jennifer Pierce, eds. Feminist Waves, Feminist Generations: Life Stories From the Academy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. Muscio, Inga. Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. New York: Seal Press, 1998. Tracy Royce Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo University of California

Feminism on College Campuses In the early 1970s in the United States, feminism began to grow on college campuses, mainly as a result of the development of women’s studies programs, which was considered the academic arm of the feminist movement. In the 21st century, college campuses continue to be an active site of the evolving feminist movement as many national feminist and women’s organizations have a presence on college campuses. Feminism on campuses today largely revolves around issues of sexual violence, reproductive choice, and feminist identity. Women’s Studies Given its origins in the feminist movement, women’s studies programs have been activist in their framework, seeking not only to develop theories about women’s roles in society, but also to implement strategies to change these roles. Today, women’s and gender studies continue to be a hotbed for the emergence of feminist identity as well as a motivator for feminist activism on college campuses. Studies by Jayne Stake and Debra Kaysen indicate that women’s studies classes are one of the most prevalent ways that individuals are exposed to feminist ideas. They claim that women and gender studies educators have deemed it especially important that college students be encouraged toward activism, since they are the most likely demographic to engage in feminist and other kinds of activism. Additionally, engaging student activists has

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long-term benefits for the feminist movement. Students who have participated in activism during college are more likely to be more politically active later in their lives. Consequently, many national feminist organizations, such as the Feminist Majority Foundation, the National Organization for Women, and Feminist for Life started college campus outreach programs in the 1990s. Feminist Activism In addition to women’s and gender studies programs and courses, student organizations are an active site of feminism on college campuses. Many students form their own organizations, or join already established groups, often connected to national organizations. While some student organizations center on general “feminist” issues, such as body image and equal pay, others focus on issues like sexual violence or reproductive choice. As a result of the work of women’s studies scholaractivists, such as Susan Brownmiller, Maria Ochoa, Barbara Ige, and Andrea Dworkin, college campuses have become the focus of learning how theory influences practice in the antiviolence movement. The high prevalence of rape and sexual assault on college campuses has been, and continues to be, a major mobilizing area of concern for feminists. In response to on-campus rapes, students often organize and lobby administration for reform of sexual assault policies. On a systemic level, campaigns and events to address this problem, such as Take Back the Night (TBTN), V-Day, and the Clothesline Project arose, and are present on colleges and universities around the world. While many of these international and national antiviolence campaigns did not originate on college campuses, today campuses are a primary target audience for such campaigns. The first TBTN March in the United States was held in 1976 in New York. The TBTN marches consist of a public demonstration through city streets at night in order to reclaim public spaces that are normally unsafe for women to walk in alone. Early rallies focused on protesting local pornographic vendors, yet today’s marches focus more on raising awareness and healing survivors on college campuses and communities. In 1990, during a TBTN event in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the first Clothesline Project event took place. Influenced by the AIDS Quilt, visual artist Rachel Carey-Harper conceived of the idea of dis-

playing shirts decorated by female survivors of violence on a clothesline to raise awareness. As of 2010, the Clothesline Project estimated that there were 500 projects nationally and internationally, many of which were on college campuses. In 1998, the V-Day movement grew from the success of Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues. In 2009, 1,400 colleges and communities hosted V-Day events. College and community activists raised an annual average of $4 million for local domestic violence shelters and rape crises centers through benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues. While these international antiviolence organizations increasingly prioritize their presence on college campuses, they are still met with resistance. According to V-Day’s Website, in 2005, Catholic colleges accounted for approximately 40 of the over 1,100 colleges and communities that held V-Day events globally. Yet since 2003, the Cardinal Newman Society, a group dedicated to “the renewal of Catholic identity” in Catholic higher education (and not to be confused with the national network of campus Catholic chaplaincies or Newman Centers), has campaigned against the V-Day productions at Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. Similarly, TBTN’s Website cites that campus rallies have sometimes been met with confrontation, especially when passing by fraternity houses. However, in recent years, TBTN states that some fraternities have displayed pro-TBTN banners and have cheered on marchers. Reproductive choice is also a rallying point of feminism on college campuses. National organizations purport to advance feminism both from pro-choice and pro-life stances. The National Organization for Women’s Campus Action Networks and the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances both explicitly state support of “safe, legal and accessible abortion” in their college affiliation documents. On the other side, Feminists for Life’s College Outreach Program seeks to provide resources for pregnant and parenting students, and to challenge what they believe is the hegemony of the pro-choice discourse that dominates college campuses. Feminist Identity Some studies indicate a limited, positive perception of feminists among college students. However, scholars such as Alyssa Zucker believes that the preponderance



of research suggests the contrary; that the perception of feminists as deviants and the perceived threat to heterosexuality dominates the opinions held by young women and men. In a 2001 study by Miriam Liss, Christy O’Connor, Elena Morosky, and Mary Crawford, of predominantly Caucasian undergraduate students at the University of Connecticut, 77.6 percent of women did not consider themselves to be feminists. Moreover, 81 percent of women in this study who did not consider themselves feminists agreed with some goals of the feminist movement and agreed with the statement, “I am not a feminist but. . . .” Scholars such as Alyssa Zucker believe this trend of disavowing feminist identification among college students may be because these women grew up in an era influenced by the feminist movement, and thus were not exposed to the severe sexism of earlier generations. Another study by Kia Lilly Caldwell and Margaret Hunter shows that women college students of color similarly express a negative attitude toward feminism, as well as toward the term woman of color. However, after having taken a 15-week class about women of color and feminist thought, most female students acquired positive views of the terms. Caldwell and Hunter believe that helping students of color to positively identify with the phrase woman of color can help forge a feminist presence on a campus where the majority of students are minorities. Feminism on college campuses continually faces barriers, whether in the form of opposition by fraternities and Catholic organizations, or by the challenge of students not identifying with the term feminist. Nonetheless, a multiplicity of feminist, women’s, and antiviolence campaigns and organizations are present at an increasing number of colleges and universities around the world. Furthermore, with the growing establishment of women’s studies, college campuses will likely be an active site for the feminist movement for generations to come. See Also: Feminist Majority Foundation; Feminists for Life; National Organization for Women; Take Back the Night; Vagina Monologues, The; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Caldwell, K. L. and M. Hunter. “Creating a Feminist Community on a Woman of Color Campus.” Frontiers, v.25 (2004).

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Feminist Majority Foundation. “Choices Campus Leadership Program.” http://www.feministcampus.org /default.asp (accessed April 2010). Feminists for Life. “College Outreach Program.” http:// www.feministsforlife.org/cop/index.htm (accessed April 2010). Kaysen, D. and J. E. Stake. “From Thought to Deed: Understanding Abortion Activism.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, v.31 (2001). Liss, M., C. O’Connor, E. Morosky, and M. Crawford. “What Makes a Feminist? Predictors and Correlates of a Feminist Social Identity in College Women.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, v.25 (2001). National Organization for Women. “NOW on Campus.” http://www.now.org/chapters/campus/index.html (accessed April 2010). Take Back the Night. “History.” http://www.takebackthe night.org/index.html (accessed April 2010). Zucker, A. “Disavowing Social Identities: What It Means When Women Say, “I’m Not a Feminist, But…” Psychology of Women Quarterly, v.28 (2004). Pamela O’Leary Independent Scholar

Feminist Jurisprudence To define feminist jurisprudence, it is useful first to consider its component parts. Jurisprudence is the philosophy or theory of the law. Feminism is the belief in—and support of—the political, economic, social, and legal equality of women and men. Feminism rejects patriarchy and gender bias, and is fundamentally results oriented. Feminist jurisprudence is a feminist analysis of the law that emerged in legal scholarship in the 1960s as a rejection of law’s patriarchal bias, its use of men as the “norm,” and its view of women as the “other.” It argues that reform requires more than accommodation and assimilation into existing structures, and imagines the law as if women and men mattered equally. This is no small feat, as there is a long-standing tendency to think of the law as neutral and fair, and to overlook institutional biases that favor males. Catherine MacKinnon, in Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence, argues that

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male dominance is probably the most persistent and insidious system of power in history. Law is, among other things, a means of classifying things. Parties to every lawsuit are classified, arguments are classified, and decisions are classified. One reason the law is assumed to be neutral is the fact that legal judgments are phrased, or classified, in such a way as to be applicable in future cases involving other parties. Yet, making laws universally applicable requires making assumptions about people in order to delineate similarities and differences among groups, so that the same law can apply to future parties. Many feminist legal scholars believe that gender bias is inherent in our assumptions about groups of people, and that genuine objectivity is impossible, and that without objectivity, abstract universality is unworkable. Far from thinking of the law as neutral and fair, many see the patriarchal assumptions that pervade it and believe it to be inherently unfair. While feminist theories differ, they all reject the patriarchal bias inherent in the law. Feminist jurisprudence critiques the law for patriarchal assumptions and gender bias, and attempts to expand it to accommodate women as well as men. Traditionally, the idea of equality has involved the equal or similar treatment of people. However, most cultures, and the schools of jurisprudence and laws arising from them, have traditionally treated women and men differently. Rights have varied by gender in the areas of marriage, child custody, land ownership, the right to enter into contracts, and myriad others. Attempts have been made to redress these biases, with varying degrees of success, at both the national and international levels. The goal of feminist jurisprudence, nationally and internationally, has been to expand the law to include women’s experience. International Definitions In the United States, the first Supreme Court equal protection case decided favorably for women was Reed v. Reed in 1971, when the court decided that Idaho could not deny women the right to administer estates, since women and men are “similarly situated” with regard to administering estates. Complications arise when women and men are not “similarly situated,” such as in the case of pregnancy. Just which differences—biological, sociological, and so on—should be legally relevant has been the subject of much debate, and has given

rise to the idea of “special rights” for women. However, the special rights approach focuses on women’s differences from men, and many argue that it accommodates the assumption of men as the norm. In many countries, such as Iceland, Norway, and Canada, the most obvious barriers to women’s participation and inclusion in public life have been lifted, as women have won the right to vote, the right to work, the right to attend school, the right to own property, the right to enter into contracts, and the right to name and have custody of their children. Because of these advances, many believe that equal treatment under the law already exists in these countries. Yet even when overt discrimination is eliminated, there sometimes remain areas where male-centered laws aren’t easily adaptable to women (such as self-defense, pregnancy, and reproductive rights). In many other countries, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), women’s inequality remains overt in custom and in law, and international efforts have been made to improve the rights of women in their own countries, as well as to provide a means of appealing to the international community when their countries’ laws fail to address their needs adequately, or when the problems are transnational in nature, such as in the case of human trafficking and violence against women in areas of conflict. Women’s and human rights activists have advocated for an international feminist jurisprudence, and the opportunities for women to seek legal remedies through international systems when their domestic systems prove inadequate have greatly evolved over the last decade, in both their capacity to accommodate complaints and their ability to monitor compliance with international standards. One example of an international mechanism to promote accountability when national criminal systems fail is the International Criminal Court (ICC), created by the Rome Statute. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is another venue to which complaints can be made when domestic systems prove inadequate. Two important instruments used to promote women’s rights internationally are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, which improved complaints procedures and enforcement mechanisms, and enabled the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against



Women to suggest specific changes to a nation’s discriminatory laws. Proponents of international feminist jurisprudence seek to establish definitions, procedures and legal standards at the international level that can serve as a model for nations interested in reforming their legal systems. The International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, for example, have employed procedures and standards that can be adopted at the national level. Postconflict areas transitioning to more democratic societies also offer opportunities for creating more just legal frameworks and institutions, and for advancing women’s rights under the law. Promoting Equal Jurisprudence Arguments against international efforts to promote a more feminist jurisprudence are often grounded in the idea that they violate national sovereignty, particularly in developing countries, and disregard local custom, including the traditional status and roles of women. Feminist jurisprudence and feminist theory are closely intertwined. The roots of today’s feminist jurisprudence lie in the liberal tradition of placing a premium on universal human rights, and arguments surrounding women’s rights have long centered on whether women and men are fundamentally similar or different. Liberal feminism argues that women and men are fundamentally similar, and that a genderblind society would best eliminate barriers to women’s participation in public life. In the United States, many formal barriers were removed in the 1960s and 1970s, and more women were able to participate in public life, however they still experienced discrimination and stereotyping, and they tended to retain primary responsibility for work in the home in addition to their responsibilities in the workplace. These shortcomings in classical liberalism’s focus on removing institutional barriers gave rise to modern (welfare) liberalism as a solution to the persistent problems that women faced. Both classical and modern liberalism argue for equal opportunity on the basis that women and men are fundamentally alike, but modern liberalism argues that institutions should be supportive of the particular needs of women and their families. Radical feminism argues that liberalism is too limited in its focus (on removing institutional barriers, etc.) to ever bring an end to women’s disadvantage.

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It argues that eliminating patriarchal bias requires changing the way society thinks about and constructs gender and gender roles. Without an awareness of our assumptions about gender, it argues, we cannot begin to fundamentally change patriarchal structures and customs. Relational feminism, reminiscent of theories from the early 1900s, rejects liberalism’s assumption that women and men are fundamentally alike, arguing that they are not, and that rather than keeping the male as the norm, women’s and men’s differences should both be recognized and valued. Relational feminists believe it better to adapt male-modeled institutions to women rather than vice versa. Carol Gilligan, a Harvard educational psychologist, popularized the idea of valuing differences in her 1982 book In a Different Voice, where she detailed the results of her studies on moral development in both women and men, and concluded that whereas men evolve what she calls an “ethic of justice” centered on rules and rights, women evolve an “ethic of care” centered on relationships and responsibilities. Marxist feminism focuses on the role of capitalism, private property, and class in women’s economic disadvantage and lower socioeconomic status. Modern Socialist feminists agree with Marxist feminists, to some extent, but argue that the Marxist explanation falls short when attempting to explain women’s lower status outside the workplace. Postmodern (or French) feminism challenges the use of broad generalizations and the assumption that universal rules and doctrines can address all situations. It holds that theories attempting to explain women’s disadvantage are too limited in scope; in fact, that any attempt to find one theory to explain something so deep-rooted, complex and diverse is futile. Pragmatic feminism (associated with legal realist theory) is also skeptical of the usefulness of general theories and abstract categories, but believes that law should be a dynamic system capable of adapting to address the needs of particular individuals in particular contexts. Regardless of the theoretical bases and their many and varied means for changing the law to include women, the main purpose of feminist jurisprudence is to find ways in which women can be empowered and equally valued in the eyes of the law. Many writers and legal theorists have been instrumental in the development of feminist jurisprudence. Among them are

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Andrea Dworkin, Ann C. Scales, Carol Gilligan, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Catherine A. MacKinnon, Christine A. Littleton, Clare Dalton, Deborah L. Rhode, Elizabeth M. Schneider, Elizabeth Wolgast, Frances Olsen, Gloria Steinem, Heather Ruth Wishik, Herma Hill Kay, Joan Williams, Judy Scales-Trent, Kate Millet, Katha Pollitt, Katherine Bartlett, Katherine Franke, Kathleen Waits, Kelly Dawn Askin, Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, Leslie Bender, Linda McClain, Lynn Henderson, Margaret Jane Radin, Mari Matsuda, Martha Fineman, Martha Minow, Nadine Taub, Nan D. Hunter, Regina Austin, Robin West, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Susan Brownmiller, Susan Estrich, Susan Faludi, Sylvia Law, Wendy W. Williams, and many others. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Divorce; Feminism, American; Rape, Legal Definitions of. Further Readings Fineman, Martha and Thomadsen, N. At the Boundaries of Law: Feminism and Legal Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991. Law, Sylvia. “Rethinking Sex and the Constitution.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review, v.132 (1984). Littleton, Christine A. “Reconstructing Sexual Equality.” California Law Review, v.75/4 (1987). MacKinnon, Catherine A. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. Rhode, Deborah. Justice and Gender. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. Scales, Ann C. “The Emergence of Feminist Jurisprudence: An Essay.” Yale Law Journal, v.95 (1986). West, Robin, “Jurisprudence and Gender.” University of Chicago Law Review, v. 55 (2008). Charis Varnum Columbia University

Feminist Majority Foundation The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) is a noprofit organization dedicated to research and action by, about, and for women and feminists. Founded in 1987, the FMF is the sister organization of the Femi-

nist Majority, with the former being focused on feminist research and education and the later focused on the legal and political means of ensuring female and male equality. The FMF is also the publisher of Ms. magazine—the premier popular magazine of the women’s movement. Eleanor Smeal is the founder and president of the FMF. Smeal is a 1961 graduate of Duke University who began her feminist activism while a student, working for the complete integration of women into Duke. She has also earned a master’s degree in political science from the University of Florida. Smeal eventually joined the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1970 and served two terms as president of NOW between 1977–82 and 1985–87. Smeal gained national media attention for NOW during her first term as an organizer and spokesperson for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. During her second term as president of NOW, Smeal organized a national abortion rights march that drew more than 10,000 activists to Washington, D.C. After leaving NOW in 1987, Smeal founded the FMF as an organization dedicated to research, education, and political action. Smeal named the organization after a 1986 Newsweek/Gallup poll revealed that 56 percent of women identified themselves as feminists, and noting that this number constitutes a majority. Smeal founded the FMF to unite the men and women who were part of the feminist majority and to provide a clearinghouse for education and research that could affect social policy. The stated goals of the FMF are to advance women’s equality, nonviolence, economic development, and the general empowerment of women and girls across national boundaries, and the FMF has used a variety of techniques to advance these goals. For example, in the late 1980s, the FMF developed the National Clinic Access Project in response to violence enacted by antiabortion advocates, which threatened women’s access to reproductive healthcare clinics. The project has trained over 45,000 individuals in nonviolent clinic defense techniques; these individuals have protected clinics in 26 states. The FMF also started an outreach program to inform young feminists about feminist issues including threats to reproductive rights for women, violence toward women on college campuses, and other



issues related to women and equality. The program, called Choices Campus Program, in part helps students organize and maintain pro-choice feminist activist groups, called Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances, on their home campuses. At this time, the FMF has aligned with over 700 college campuses to promote these organizations for young feminists. In 2001, the FMF and Eleanor Smeal purchased Liberty Media for Women, LLC, publishers of Ms. magazine. The magazine was launched in the early 1970s as a voice for the liberal feminist movement and has continued for several decades as an advertising-free publication dedicated to feminist investigative journalism and critical, political analysis. The acquisition of Liberty Media for Women by the FMF was considered a positive change by the magazine’s cofounders and Liberty Media copartners Gloria Steinem and Marcia Gillespie. The magazine has retained its original format and thematic focus since the FMF assumed responsibility for its publication. The FMF hosts a series of yearly conferences and meetings to promote their education, research, and social networking goals. For example, each year the FMF hosts the FMF Global Women’s Rights Awards, an event at which a few individuals are honored for their work to advance the rights or women and girls. Honorees have included Nobel Prize winner Betty Williams, Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed, and journalist Christiane Amanpour. In addition, the FMF also holds conferences for Women of Color, Women in Policing, and Young Women Leaders on an annual basis. The FMF maintains an active Website that serves as a clearinghouse for news and events of interest to members and feminist students, researchers, and educators. The FMF also hosts a feminist blog on its Website and provides a resource center of books and other research materials. See Also: Amanpour, Christiane; Equal Rights Amendment; Feminism, American; National Organization for Women. Further Readings Feminist Majority Foundation. http://www.feminist.org /default.asp (accessed June 2010). Feminist Majority Foundation. “Help Afghan Women.” http://www.helpafghanwomen.com (accessed June 2010).

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Myers, Kristen A., et al., eds. Feminist Foundations: Toward Transforming Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998. Jennifer Adams DePauw University

Feminist Publishing For feminists, publishing has been an important way to share information, promote ideas, develop new theories and strategies, and organize for change. During the past 30 years, the publishing industry increasingly has consolidated into large media conglomerates, resulting in fewer publishing outlets for feminist voices. At the same time, the digital revolution, which is as significant for publishing as the development of the Gutenberg printing press in the middle of the 15th century, is creating new opportunities and challenges for feminist publishing. At the beginning of the 21st century, some feminist publishes, founded during the Women’s Liberation Movement, continue to flourish. Ms. magazine, which published its first issue in July 1972 under the editorial leadership of Letty Cottin Pogrebin, continues to publish now under the non-profit auspices of the Feminist Majority Foundation. A wide array of feminist journalists, writers, and theorists have written for Ms. magazine and been involved in its editorial leadership. Ms. magazine, like other feminist institutions suffered during its history from financial challenges, including problems with advertising revenue, but a flexible approach to publishing and the ability to change have produced an enduring periodical. While dozens of periodicals that were the lifeblood of the Women’s Liberation Movement during the 1970s and 1980s have shuttered, others, like Ms. magazine, continue. Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal founded in 1976 by Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Ellenberg (Desmoines), Calyx Journal, also founded in 1976 and focusing on publishing creative work by women writers, Herizons, a quarterly Canadian feminist magazine founded in 1979, and Lesbian Connection, a community gathering of news, notices, and ideas founded in 1974, all continue to publish. Newer

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feminist magazines, Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture and Bust magazine, both founded in the 1990s, publish feminist voices of a generation of women who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s. The newest print magazine, make/shift, reflects a newly revitalized feminism with publishing focused on antiracist, transnational, and queer work from a feminist perspective. During the Women’s Liberation Movement, book publishers flourished, but in the early 21st century only a few independent, feminist book publishers survive. The Feminist Press and Spinifex Press in Australia are two feminist publishers that continue to publish a robust catalog of significant books. Other publishers who have continue to publish independently in their feminist mission are New Victoria Press, which focuses on fiction, Alice James Books, which publishes poetry, and Paris Press, which publishes work by women writers that has been overlooked by the literary and publishing world including Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry. Seal Press in the United States and Virago Press in the United Kingdom both were purchased by corporate publishers but continue to publish feminist books. In the past decade, new publishers have been founded. Redbone Press is a literary publisher of writers of color; Kore Press is dedicated to publishing poetry and prose by women; Perugia Press publishes poetry by women; Bella Books publishes popular lesbian novels; Bold Stroke Books publishes lesbian romance novels. Although print publishing continues for some feminist publishers, other feminist publications have migrated from print to the Web publishing. On The Issues, the progressive women’s magazine published by Merle Hoffman, migrated in 2008 to an online format after 25 years of print-based published. Similarly, Trivia, which published as a print journal from 1982 until 1995, resumed publishing in 2004 as an electronic journal. Blogging, Websites that publish daily entries of commentary and reportage, are a popular form of contemporary feminist publishing. Blogging has developed as a hybrid form of citizen journalism, political commentary, as well as social networking. Notable feminist blogs include Feministing, Feministe, The Angry Black Woman, and Jezebel. Blogs with multiple contributors are increasingly popular and

develop a wide audience as well as an online community. BlogHer is an organization founded to promote women’s blogging activities and to bring more exposure to women bloggers and is a contemporary example of how feminist communities grow from publishing ventures. Feminists continue to explore and utilize new technology for publishing and communications both online and in print. New technologies, including print-on-demand, social media like Facebook and Twitter, electronic book publishing, and content aggregation, as well as older strategies like publishing cooperatives and nonprofit publishing, all offer new horizons and possibilities for feminist publishing while retaining the goals of building an informed and engaged movement for transformation social change. Feminist publishing will continue to be a vital part of a system of communications and organizing during the next decades. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Feminism, American; Journalists, Print Media; Romance Novels. Further Readings Danky, James Philip and Wayne A. Wiegand, eds. Women in Print: Essays on the Print Culture of American Women From the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. Endres, Kathleen L. and Therese L. Lueck, eds. Women’s Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. Goldsmith, Elizabeth A. and Goodman, Dena. Going Public: Women and Publishing in Early Modern France. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995. Julie R. Enszer University of Maryland

Feminist Theology Feminist theology is the global search for a usable past, a just present, and a better future, especially for women, in relation to religious traditions. If feminism, which feminist theology is intertwined with in many ways, is defined as the radical notion that women are people, and theology is understood as God-talk, femi-



nist theology could then be described as the radical notion that women are made in God’s image. This is so because feminist theology takes feminist critique and reconstruction of gender paradigms into the theological domain. It is both a critique of the patriarchy embedded in religious texts, beliefs, and practices and, at the same time, a social vision geared toward the full recognition and incorporation of women into the people of God. To be sure, feminist theology is done across religious traditions. Those who have done significant work in traditions other than Christianity include Judith Plaskow and Adele Reinhartz for Judaism, Rita Gross and Ven. Dhammanda (formerly Chatsumarn Kabilsingh) for Buddhism, and Ghazala Anwar and Nayereh Tohidi for Islam. Carol Christ is also noteworthy for her work on Wiccan or neo-pagan spirituality. Without a doubt, however, much of feminist theology’s herstory as well as its more prevalent and systematized form has a Christian face and it is for this reason that this entry focuses on Christianity. Herstory It is no secret that androcentrism or the dominance of the male experience and perspective in understanding divinity and humanity is embedded in the texts and history Christianity. For centuries, this androcentric worldview silenced and marginalized women in theology. Indeed, breaking out of this invisibility has not been easy for women. Women’s venture into the theological realm can be traced to female spiritual writers in the Middle Ages like Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich who were able to gain some theological education and wrote what were later on accepted as theological texts. In the Renaissance period Christine de Pizan (sometimes spelled as Pisan), poet, author, and invited member of the court of Charles V and Jeanne de Bourbon is often mentioned in feminist theological history, particularly for The Book of the City of Ladies where she literally argues that there is no doubt that women belong to the people of God and the human race as much as men and that women are not another species or dissimilar race. Other critical texts written by women in what is usually considered as the first wave of feminist theology include Margaret Fell’s essay “Women’s Preaching Justified According to the Scriptures” (1666), Mary Astell’s book A Serious Proposal to the Ladies (1694), the poems and essays of the Mexican poet,

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At left, Mary Astell’s A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, and a page from The Woman’s Bible, signed by Elizabeth Stanton.

Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz (d.1694), and the biblical commentary The Woman’s Bible (1895) by American women Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony. Although the first wave of feminist theology is obviously dominated by European women, the second wave was started by Euro-American women who entered seminaries and/or pursued graduate studies in theology and came up with books and essays that would eventually be considered as critical texts if not classics in Christian feminist theology. This group of women includes Rosemary Radford Ruether, Mary Daly, Letty Russell, Beverly Wildung Harrison, and Phyllis Trible. These women’s efforts were matched around this time in Europe by British spiritual feminists like Daphne Hampson, Mary Grey, and Grace Jantzen, and, in particular, by Dutch feminist theologian Catharina Halkes who is known for holding the first chair in feminist theology in a university worldwide, namely the Chair for Feminism and Christianity in what was then known as the Catholic University of Nijmegen (now called Radboud University Nijmegen). The German feminist theologian Uta Ranke-Heineman was the first woman appointed to a chair in Catholic theology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, in which position she served until her excommunication upon the publication of Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven (1988). She remains on the faculty, as a professor of the history of religion.

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Today, in what may very well be the third wave of feminist theology, women of color and the rest of the world, particularly the Third World, stand side by side with their white sisters in giving voice to and struggling for the full recognition and participation of women in religion and society. But this did not also come easily for white women theologians and, in particular, women of color theologians. In fact, this significant change came out of the critique by women theologians of color that classic (read: white) feminist theology does not take into account the experience of racism, colonialism, and more pronounced economic exploitation that women of color experience simultaneously with sexism. Women of color theologians pointed out that women’s experience as understood and articulated in classic feminist theology is based on the experience of white middle-class women. This could be seen, for instance, in the emergence of womanist theology and mujerista theology that takes into account the multidimensional experience of oppression by African American and Hispanic women in the United States, respectively. African American theologian Delores Williams and Cuban American theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz are considered as pioneers of these forms of feminist theology. In the Third World, in the meantime, women theologians who are often considered as foremothers (in Third World feminist theology) include Mercy Amba Oduyoye (Nigeria), Ivone Gebara (Brazil), and Mary John Mananzan (Philippines). Types and Forms Since its emergence in the late 1960s, modern feminist theology has taken on various types and forms. Consequently, various labels and categories have arisen to delineate one from the other or add one to the other. Most notable of these are those that more heavily intersects with economics, racial and cultural boundaries, as well as historical contexts, particularly the experience of colonialism and neocolonialism. Examples are womanist, mujerista, First World, and Third World feminist theologies. There have been attempts, however, toward a more comprehensive way of categorizing the different feminist theologies into types. Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow, for example, analyzed and described feminist theology under the headings of “revolutionary” and “reformist” in their introduction to the criti-

cally acclaimed work Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (1979). Anne Clifford builds on this in her book Introducing Feminist Theology, in what could be considered the most systematic analysis of the types of feminist theology to date. In this analysis feminist theology is classified as revolutionary, reformist, and reconstructionist. The first comes mainly from the works of post-Christian feminists many of whom have turned to ancient Goddess traditions believing that the symbol of the Goddess more appropriately and meaningfully takes into account the creative power of women. With regard to reformist feminist theology, while this type does agree that women have experienced and continue to experience some kind of oppression and want some changes, the changes it envisions are usually not definitive or categorical enough. Evangelical and fundamentalist Protestant women who might be considered reformist feminist theologians, for example, argue that the problems on women’s secondary status, particularly in the Bible, could be solved by better translations of the Bible and greater emphasis on egalitarian passages. Within the Roman Catholic tradition, in the meantime, one could also see this type of feminist theology with women theologians who argue for the inclusion of women in the life and leadership in the Church but are, for the most part, uncritical of the structures of the institutional church as well as of church teachings that limit women participation, particularly in ordained ministry. The last, reconstructionist feminist theology, seeks a more liberating theological core for women within Christianity. Like the reformists, feminist theologians who could be considered reconstructionists have a deep commitment to the Christian tradition. They, however, envision more profound transformation and genuine reconstruction not only of church structures but also of civil society. Most important, unlike revolutionary feminist theologians who believe that Christianity is irredeemably sexist and reformist feminist theologians who would rather not tinker with the tradition, reconstructionist feminist theologians believe that it is possible and desirable to reinterpret the traditional symbols and ideas of Christianity without rejecting or abandoning the God revealed in Jesus Christ. In one way or another, however, most of these types attend to what could be considered as the three tasks of feminist theology: (1) provide a gender-sen-

Feminists for Life



sitive critique of the Christian tradition; (2) recover women’s stories from the past and present to show the gifts and insights of women throughout history; and (3) reimagine traditional Christian doctrine and practice in way that they become more liberating for all, especially for women. See Also: Body Image; Christianity; Mujerista Theology; Nuns, Roman Catholic; Poverty; Religion, Women in; Roman Catholic Church; Virgin Mary; Womanist Theology. Further Readings Clifford, A. Introducing Feminist Theology. New York: Orbis, 2001. Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler and M. Shawn Copeland, eds. Feminist Theology in Different Contexts. London: SCM Press, 1996. Hampson, D. Theology and Feminism. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1990. Isherwood, L. and D. McEwan, eds. An A to Z of Feminist Theology. London: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996. Pui-lan, K. “Feminist Theology as Intercultural Discourse.” In Susan Frank Parsons, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Ruether, Rosemary Radford, ed. Feminist Theologies: Legacy and Prospect. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007. Gemma Tulud Cruz DePaul University

Feminists for Life Feminists for Life (FFL) is an antiabortion feminist organization. As of 2010, Serrin Foster was the president and Sally Winn was the vice president of FFL. It is the most prominent pro-life feminist group in the United States and does not associate itself with any particular religious or political faction or party. FFL, which was founded in 1972, seeks to appeal to people who identify themselves as pro-woman and pro-life, and it advocates a legislative agenda that includes overturning Roe v. Wade. Since the mid-1990s, the organization has focused especially on reaching a college-aged audience through its College Outreach

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Program. According to its Website, the group’s mottoes are “Refuse to Choose” and “Women Deserve Better.” Over the course of the group’s existence, many members have come to FFL because they believe that they can be both feminist and opposed to abortion. In large part, FFL uses its own interpretation of historical feminists’ ideas as proof that its pro-life stance is consistent with the politics of feminism. However, pro-choice, mainstream feminist organizations tend to object to the very idea of a pro-life feminist, believing that this is a contradiction in terms. Feminists for Life was formed in 1972 in Columbus, Ohio, by Pat Goltz and Cathy Callaghan. The organization’s statement of purpose took two stances: equal rights for women in all areas and the right of every baby to be born. Goltz and other early members were deeply troubled by the reproductive policies of mainstream feminist groups such as the National Organization of Women (NOW). Members felt that their objections to abortion stemmed from feminist principles (they considered abortion to be violence against women) and were angered that their position was rejected by other feminist organizations. FFL considers abortion to be a choice women make out of desperation: because of a lack of resources and support, and an anti-motherhood bias, women resort to abortion in order to avoid the perceived disadvantages of pregnancy and parenting to their career and education. Activities and Organizations FFL’s College Outreach Program, which was begun in 1994, is one of the group’s main activities. It seeks to attract college students to the FFL and to provide a feminist-identified organizational home as an alternative to mainstream, pro-choice feminist groups on campuses. The program also aims to prevent pregnant college students with limited campus resources from either ending their pregnancies through abortion or dropping out of school in order to parent. The College Outreach Program features speakers who give personal testimonies about their experiences with abortion, pregnancy, parenting, and feminism. In encouraging their audiences to refuse abortion and instead asking that colleges provide their students with services for pregnancy and parenting women, these speakers seek to provide viable alternatives to abortion and to encourage college students to associate feminism with pro-life politics.

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Beginning in 1972, FFL published a newsletter titled Sisterlife, which included both original articles by FFL members as well as pieces from other pro-life organizations and publications. The American Feminist succeeded Sisterlife in 1994 and is the official publication of FFL. Issues regularly include biographical articles on first-wave feminists, which emphasize their anti-abortion and/or maternal views; personal testimonies from women who have “survived” abortions but regret having them; reports on the College Outreach Program’s success; accounts of women who have died after having abortions; essays on the joys of being a mother; and pieces that offer parenting advice. A central component to FFL’s rhetoric, ideological justification, and outreach is the group’s use of history. FFL’s Website, organizational materials, and American Feminist issues feature anti-abortion quotes from historical feminists from the 19th and 20th centuries, including activists like Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Dorothy Day, and Fannie Lou Hamer. These quotes and articles collectively argue for a different narrative from that of mainstream feminists—one that places a pro-life ethic at the center of feminist history. FFL has shared many interests with other feminist groups over the past four decades. For example, media portrayals of women, women’s equality in the workplace, the sexual exploitation of women through pornography, and violence against women have all been issues of concern for the organization. In addition, FFL worked from 1972 to 1982 with other feminist groups, such as NOW, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and the National Women’s Political Caucus in a failed effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. In more recent years, FFL has found common interest with other feminist organizations on issues such as working to pass the Violence Against Women Act (1994), fighting to omit “family caps” in welfare reform, and encouraging stricter enforcement of child support laws. Despite working toward certain similar legislative goals, however, FFL has been almost universally rejected by mainstream feminist organizations because of its stance on abortion rights. FFL has found willing allies in the pro-life movement, with which it has become increasingly associated since the 1980s.

See Also: Feminism; Feminism on College Campuses; Pro-Life Movement; Reproductive Rights; Roe v. Wade. Further Readings Andrusko, Dave. “March for Life and National Abortion Rights.” National Right to Life News, v.25/3 (February 11, 1998). Feminists for Life. http://www.feministsforlife.org (accessed May 2010). Oaks, Laury. “What Are Pro-Life Feminists Doing on Campus?” NWSA Journal 21, v.21/1 (2009). Sarah Rowley Indiana University

Fertility Fertility refers to the human ability to produce a child through sexual intercourse. For statistical purposes, however, fertility is defined as a female’s ability to conceive and carry a pregnancy to full term. According to this gendered definition, fertility rates measure the number of children born to a woman during her childbearing years. Fertility requires the production of a mature egg that is released from one of a woman’s two ovaries and passed through the fallopian tube to the uterus, where it is fertilized by one of millions of sperm produced by a male and ejaculated into the vagina. The fertilized egg or zygote must successfully implant into the uterine lining within three to four days of ovulation. The developing embryo requires an environment rich in the appropriate levels of hormones, nutrients, and oxygen throughout a 40-week gestation until the pregnancy ends with a live birth. A number of individual factors influence female fertility, with less known about how male fertility impacts on fertility rates. Systemic and structural factors, such as poverty and exposure to environmental contaminants and nationalist attitudes toward overpopulation also affect fertility rates. Pharmaceutical interventions and other reproductive biotechnologies have changed if, how, and under what conditions conception, pregnancy, and childbirth occur. Similarly, symbols and rituals dating back to ancient Greece reflect the cultural goal of promoting fertility.



A female becomes fertile or able to conceive at puberty, and remains fertile until ovarian hormone levels decline with menopause, and ovulation ceases. Every month during her childbearing years, a woman has a 48- to 72-hour window of fertility after she ovulates, which typically occurs about 10 to 14 days after the start of menstruation. As a woman ages, the probability of conceiving and carrying a fetus to full term decreases. A young woman in optimal health, with good nutrition and regular menstrual cycles who is having frequent unprotected sex, has a high probability of becoming pregnant. Women who are the least likely to become pregnant are those with ovulation problems or other medical conditions, such as a blocked fallopian tube. Older women, those engaged in prolonged breastfeeding, those who exercise excessively, or those who are above or below normal weight ranges are less likely to have normal menstrual cycles that would support conception and pregnancy. Smoking, alcohol and substance use, hormonal imbalances, or extended use of oral contraceptives also interfere with ovulation and implantation of the zygote. About onethird of female infertility problems are linked to issues that may been caused by a sexually transmitted infection, pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, or a congenital anomaly of the female reproductive system. Psychological stress and mental illness, cancer treatment, a history of chronic illness and drug therapy, and male infertility also make it less likely that a woman will conceive or produce a live birth. Fertility rates fluctuate over time with differences within and between groups of women. A number of systemic factors may account for this: income and social status, education levels, level of engagement in paid workforce, access to childcare, exposure to environmental contaminants and radiation, miscarriage rates, access to abortion and effective contraception, migration and shifts in the supply of marriageable partners, access to adequate reproductive healthcare, religious attitudes toward contraceptive use and family planning, pronatalist beliefs, and political policies that stem population growth. International Fertility Issues Fertility rates in developed countries (calculated as the average number of children born to a woman in her childbearing years) rose dramatically after World

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War II, peaking in 1967 at 3.8 children. Fertility rates slumped in the 1970s, rising again in the 1980s and 1990s when baby boomers began to have children. Fertility rates in the United States at the turn of the 21st century were at replacement levels of 2.1 children per woman. Some sources indicate that fertility rates are on the rise again as more women, including unmarried women of all ages, give birth. The world fertility rate average is 2.6, with developed countries such as Brazil at 2.2, Australia at 1.7, the United Kingdom at 1.6, and Canada at 1.5, compared with less-developed countries, such as Burundi at 6.8, Sierra Leone at 6.5, and Rwanda at 6 children per woman. Differences in fertility rates between native-born and immigrant groups within the same country, and between highand low-income countries has lead to political anxieties about cultural annihilation, national survival, and overpopulation with laws regulating childbearing. At the Fourth World Conference on Women held in 1995 in Beijing, China, participating governments declared that it was every woman’s right to have access to reproductive healthcare, including the right to determine if, when, and how often to have children. The platform for action focused on providing accurate information, access to appropriate healthcare services, safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning, and a choice of contraceptive methods. Fertility Research Considerable biomedical research is devoted to understanding the functioning of women’s bodies and various aspects of fertility, infertility, and reproductive health. There is significantly less attention devoted to understanding male fertility and infertility, contraception, sexual behavior, and reproductive health issues, despite the fact that the healthy male is fertile (produces sperm) from the time he reaches puberty until the time he dies. The promotion of gender-based analysis in health research is addressing this deficit. An advantage of the attention on women’s reproductive health is the variety of options available to women for controlling their fertility. Temporary measures vary in effectiveness, and include the diaphragm, contraceptive sponge, spermicidal foams and creams, the intrauterine device (IUD) or coil, the birth control pill and, most recently, contraceptive implants for longer-term solutions. Pharmaceutical contraceptives

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that interfere with hormonal cycles have the highest effectiveness rates. Abstinence, condoms, the rhythm method, and the withdrawal method require the cooperation of a woman’s male partner, and are generally less effective. Permanent measures are also highly effective. A tubal ligation is a surgical procedure that permanently blocks the fallopian tubes so that an egg may not travel to the uterus for fertilization. Some women are unable to conceive. Infertility refers to the inability to conceive after six months or two years (depending on the source) of frequent unprotected sex, and/or the inability to carry a pregnancy to full term because of miscarriage or fetal death. Comprehensive and reliable data on the prevalence of infertility are difficult to find. Infertility rates are not routinely gathered, and vary depending on whether or not women who have been sterilized for noncontraceptive reasons (having a hysterectomy as a result of cancer treatment, for instance) are included in the calculation of infertility rates. A comparison of American surveys of family growth completed between 1965 and 1995 suggests that the infertility rate was stable at about 10.2 percent. There is, however, the perception that infertility rates are increasing. Four factors may contribute to this perception: (1) the absolute numbers of women (particularly older women) seeking infertility services may be increasing compared with previous decades, when the absolute number of women taking active steps to prevent conception was higher; (2) there is an increased availability of reproductive technologies and care providers specializing in infertility to serve infertile women; (3) the media devotes considerable space to the discussion of reproductive technologies; and (4) there appears to be less cultural stigma associated with discussing infertility, as evidenced, in part, by celebrity testimonials about their experiences with infertility and its treatment. Increasing Fertility A number of reproductive technologies may increase the likelihood that a woman will conceive. With artificial insemination, the process of inserting sperm into the vagina replaces sexual intercourse as an option for women who do not have a fertile partner or a male partner. Invitro fertilization refers to manually combining the egg and sperm in a laboratory setting, and transferring the fertilized egg into a receptive

uterus. Fertility drugs, such as Clomid, can be used alone to stimulate egg production, or in conjunction with other therapies. Surgical options include repair caused by scarring, mechanical obstruction of the fallopian tubes, or the insertion of a purse string suture to secure the cervix and increase the likelihood that the pregnancy will continue to full term. Natural or alternative methods for promoting fertility aim to improve a woman’s overall physical and mental health, and include acupuncture, hydrotherapy, aromatherapy, massage, dietary changes, herbal supplements, homeopathy, and naturopathy. Cultural symbols associated with fertility can be traced to ancient Greece. The ancient Greeks considered the pomegranate a sacred symbol of life, regeneration, and marriage. After Hades, the lord of the underworld, abducted Persephone, she ate the seeds of a pomegranate, symbolizing their eternal marriage. References to this multiseeded fruit appear in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist traditions. In the Song of Solomon, a bride’s cheeks are compared to the two halves of a pomegranate. Today, this fruit appears in religious regalia, on Chinese ceramic art, and is featured on the British Medical Association coat of arms. Pollen signified fertility among the Apache, and it was rubbed into deer skin footwear, giving it a yellow tint. The use of pollen, especially in girls’ puberty rituals, was a reference to the tale of the first Apache woman impregnated by the sun. The moon symbolizes fertility to the Sandawe of central Tanzania and to other world cultures. The waxing and waning of the lunar cycle is associated with the cyclic qualities of menstruation, and the possibility of conception and the swelling of the pregnant maternal body, followed by the body shrinking after birth. Followers of Jungian thought recognize the symbolic use of the moon in Thornton Wilder’s well-known play, Our Town, as representing the archetypal female, femininity, wisdom, productivity, and fertility. In contrast, symbols of male fertility, such as the crocodile depicted in Bantu rock art, and the bull represented in eastern antiquity and reproduced in contemporary body art, are associated with physical strength, virility and power. See Also: Contraception Methods; Fecundity; Infertility; Overpopulation; Sterilization, Involuntary; Sterilization, Voluntary.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Further Readings Brown, Jessica Autumn and Myra Marx. “Close Your Eyes and Think of England: Pronatalism in the British Print Media.” Gender & Society, v.19/1 (2005). Bryant, John. “Theories of Fertility Decline and the Evidence From Development Indicators.” Population and Development Review, v.33/1 (2007). Chavez, Leo R. “A Glass Half Empty: Latina Reproduction and Public Discourse.” Human Organization, v.63/2 (2004). Greer, Gill. “To Have or Not to Have: The Critical Importance of Reproductive Rights to the Paradox of Population Policies in the 21st Century.” International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, v.106 (2009). Kelly-Weeder, Susan and Cheryl Lorane Cox. “The Impact of Lifestyle Risk Factors on Female Infertility.” Women & Health, v.44/4 (2006). Langley, Patricia. “Why a Pomegranate?” British Medical Journal, v.321/4 (2000). Diana L. Gustafson Memorial University, St. John’s

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Fetal alcohol syndrome disorders (FASD) is an umbrella term to describe the range of birth defects caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy. FASDs are the most common nonhereditary cause of mental retardation and the leading cause of preventable birth defects and developmental disabilities. Among the diagnoses subsumed with the FASD are: Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), the most severe form of FASD, which is characterized by a cluster of facial defects, growth deficiencies, and central nervous system dysfunctions; partial FAS (pFAS), which consists of most, but not all of the growth deficiencies and facial dysmorphologies of FAS; alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorders (ARNDs), characterized by central nervous system damage; and alcohol-related birth defects (ARBDs), which consist of abnormalities of the skeleton and certain organ systems. According to the U.S. Institutes of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, “Of all the substances of abuse (including cocaine, heroin, and marijuana),

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alcohol produces by far the most serious neurobehavioral effects in the fetus.” Unlike the effects of some other licit and illicit substances, FASDs are lifelong. Despite the serious and long-term effects of alcohol use during pregnancy, prevention efforts are challenging because not every pregnant woman who consumes alcohol will have a child with FASD, and it is not clear exactly how much alcohol during pregnancy is harmful to a fetus. Nevertheless, because it is clear that alcohol consumption during pregnancy can be exceedingly harmful to fetuses, FASDs are 100 percent preventable, and all alcoholic beverages cause damage, medical experts recommend that avoidance throughout pregnancy. Because damage is especially severe in the first trimester, many experts recommend that women of childbearing age refrain from alcohol consumption, especially heavy consumption, if they are trying to become or suspect they might be pregnant. How Prevalent Is FASD? Accurate prevalence rates for FASD are somewhat problematic because an immediate diagnosis is only possible when the effects on infants are especially severe or of a particular type (such as facial dysmorphology). Otherwise, it may take months or years for a child to be diagnosed. Many of the symptoms, such as intellectual deficits or motor deficits, are not apparent until children are older. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reports that FASDs affect approximately 40,000 infants each year in the United States. Between five and 20 live births per 10,000 are FAS-affected, and at least 100 per 10,000 live births are affected by FAS, ARND, and ARBD combined each year. It is even more difficult to ascertain rates of FASDs cross-nationally because standardized and complete diagnostic criteria are not used universally, and because some nations do not gather data routinely. An often cited worldwide estimate for FAS alone is 1 to 3 births per 1,000—although substantial variation occurs across and within nations. The highest reported rates in the world are in the Western Cape region of South Africa, where binge drinking is prevalent. Estimates of FAS incidence are between 46 and 74 per 1,000 births. To acknowledge FASD as a serious public health concern, International FASDAY was launched in 1999. It has been commemorated every year since then on September 9.

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Despite the dangers, drinking among women of childbearing age, including binge drinking, has increased over time. More than half of all U.S. women of childbearing age report that they drink alcohol, and approximately 1 in 30 engage in risky drinking. Social, Economic, Cultural, and Political Perspectives on FASD Although the deleterious effects of alcohol use during pregnancy have been raised throughout history, scientifically linking alcohol to physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioral effects on fetuses arose in the latter part of the 20th century. In the United States, Drs. David Smith and Kenneth Lyons Jones coined the term fetal alcohol syndrome in 1973. The idea that alcohol is a teratogen (a substance capable of interfering with the development of a fetus and causing birth defects) had been raised by others, but was met with disbelief. Initially, Smith and Jones faced similar doubts, but enough support soon

Despite the dangers, drinking among women of childbearing age, including binge drinking, has increased over time.

emerged to propel a movement of research, public health information dissemination, and medical screenings of pregnant women. Costs to those affected by FASD as well as to their families and society are high. The most recent estimates available indicate that in 2003, average lifetime health costs for each child with FAS alone ranged from $860,000 to $4.2 million. Additionally, FAS is estimated to cost the United States nearly $5.4 billion each year including direct costs to the health, social welfare, and justice systems, and indirect costs of increased mortality, morbidity, disability, and incarceration of those with FASDs. As the damage to fetuses of alcohol use during pregnancy was established through scientific research, federal, state and local governments responded. In 1981, the U.S. Surgeon General issued the first federal advisory warning that alcohol use by pregnant women was risky. In 1989, the U.S. DHHS mandated warning labels on alcohol. Since 1980, a host of state statutes have been enacted across the nation. Two approaches predominate: the first is an environmental or public health approach which seeks to provide information, early intervention, and treatment to pregnant women. Mandates for priority substance abuse treatment, warning signs in bars, liquor stores, and other retail outlets, and appropriations for publicly funded substance abuse treatment all fall into this category. The second approach is individualistic, law enforcement-oriented, and seeks to control pregnant women’s behavior. Policies emanating from this approach include civilly committing pregnant women, requirements to report pregnant women who use or are suspected of using alcohol to law enforcement and/ or child welfare agencies, and initiating child welfare proceedings to temporarily remove children from mothers or terminate parental rights. A vigorous public debate exists about the effects of environmental and individualistic approaches to alcohol and pregnancy policies. Proponents of providing services and treatment cite evidence that prosecuting pregnant women, involuntary committing them, or requiring reports of suspicion or evidence of alcohol use discourage women from seeking prenatal care and substance abuse treatment. The problem may be worst for poor women and women of color, in part, because these populations are most vulnerable



to exposure of their conditions as they seek publicly funded services. On the other hand, proponents of punitive policies question the effectiveness of environmental approaches and maintain that only by restricting pregnant women’s access to alcohol can healthy babies result. They maintain that if women cannot restrain their behavior, then governments have no choice but to preclude the possibility of bringing children with lifelong physical, emotional, and behavioral problems into society. On one level, this debate addresses individual responsibility versus collective action. On another, it is a commentary on the nature of gender and power. Much pertaining to the former approach rests on cultural analyses of morality, virtue, purity, and the elevation of motherhood as women’s highest responsibility. As a result, pregnant women with substance abuse disorders can be treated as deviant, dangerous, and lacking moral fiber. Many report experiencing harassment and stigmatization, and some face criminal prosecution. Feminists decry this situation as injurious to women’s independent agency and as outgrowths of deeply patriarchal institutional, political, economic, social and cultural structures. They maintain that punitive approaches elevate the rights of fetuses above those of pregnant women. As scholar Janet Golden notes, “At the heart of these paradoxes lies our profound cultural ambivalence about women’s obligations as mothers, about the status of the fetus, about personal responsibility, and about alcoholism.” Children and Adults With FASD Depending on the severity of their diagnosis, FASD children and adults may have an array of difficulties including (1) cognitive deficits: low IQ, impaired reading, spelling, and math and abstract reasoning abilities, slow information processing, reduced ability to make sound decisions, poor executive functioning, and difficulty sustaining attention; (2) physical deficits: poor balance, coordination, and motor skills, and susceptibility to sensory overload; (3) emotional difficulties: reduced ability to fit in socially and read social cues, tendency to be oppositional or uncooperative, inability to learn from mistakes, inability to complete routine tasks, tendency to be unresponsive to rewards, susceptibility to peer pressure; gullibility; difficulty with self-entertainment, and appearing to be lazy or unmotivated; (4) behavioral difficulties:

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repeated rule-breaking, trouble with the law, inappropriate sexual behavior, alcohol and other drug problems, employment problems, and difficulty staying in school. In addition to the difficulties associated with having FASDs, children and adults with these diagnoses have an array of strengths. With early diagnosis and treatment, good care, and positive life conditions (such as stable homes and good quality parental and family care), those with FASDs can be hardworking, helpful, friendly, verbal, and willing to meet the challenges they face. Early intervention is critical to improving the development of those with FASDs, and the period from birth to 3 years is especially important. Useful treatments include speech, physical, behavioral, and occupational therapies, and special education. Additional information on FASDs can be found from various U.S. DSSH agencies including Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, as well as the March of Dimes, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. See Also: Addiction and Substance Abuse; Birth Defects, Envioronmental Factors and; Fertility. Further Readings Armstrong, Elizabeth M. Conceiving Risk Bearing Responsibility: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome & the Diagnosis of Moral Disorder. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Schroedel, Jean Reith. Is the Fetus a Person? A Comparison of Policies Across the Fifty States, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000. Stratton, Kathleen, Cynthia Howe, and Frederick C. Battaglia, eds. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Diagnosis, Epidemiology, Prevention, and Treatment. Washington, DC: Committee to Study Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Institute of Medicine, 1996. Thomas, Sue, Lisa Rickert, and Carol Cannon. “The Meaning, Status, and Future of Reproductive Autonomy: The Case of Alcohol Use During Pregnancy.” UCLA Women’s Law Journal. v.15/41 (2006). Sue Thomas Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

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Fiber Arts, Women in Fiber art today differs from its centuries-old origin in the domestic, utilitarian, and decorative field created primarily by women (e.g., fabric, clothing, and household necessities). The industrial revolution, manufacturing, marketing, and an abundance of consumer goods lessened the burden of the need for spinning, weaving, or carpet and basket making production in the home. What it did not do was to eliminate the innate aesthetic creativity of some women. Because of the long-standing belief in women’s inferiority, and inability to produce innovative works of art, women’s association with the decorative and the utilitarian aspects of craft, the so-called lesser arts, such as fiber art, were considered less important than fine art (i.e., painting and sculpture). During the 20th century, this viewpoint gave impetus to the creation of separate museums for craft, and more specifically textile art museums, and even guilds for fiber artists, and international exhibitions. In recent years, a reversal of opinion both about women’s abilities and about the place of craft in the overall picture of the arts has surfaced. New Methods and Materials Beginning in the 1960s, but especially since the 21st century, fiber artists have utilized new methods and materials that encouraged museums, galleries, and collectors to accept fiber art as a form of fine art. The traditional materials and methods of fiber art—weaving, embroidery, collage, quilting, and couching using fabrics such as cotton, linen, and wool on a flat twodimensional surface—have been creatively expanded to include works of art as three-dimensional sculptural objects. The increasing interaction between artists and cultures through travel and the Internet have spread knowledge about materials and methods used elsewhere—for example, the incorporation of metal and wood, or Haitian knotting techniques, or Chinese yarn wrapping in work that is primarily considered fiber art. Experiments with knitting and crocheting with unusual materials such as wire; the use of synthetic threads in weaving and embroidery; incorporating screen prints, photography, Xerox transfers, leather, grass, birch bark, bamboo, rubber bands, nails, and a variety of detritus reflects the willingness on the part of artists, exhibition judges, and collectors to accept the possibilities of a new aesthetic.

Color is a large component in the work of many fiber artists who sometimes dye their material to suit their purpose. For some that means vibrant colors; for others it means more neutral, subdued, or even somber colors depending on the intended mood of the piece. Words as surface decoration or embedded in various ways, including but not exclusively utilizing a variety of materials and methods also form messages of encouragement or urge activism for causes. More than decorative, some art is propaganda, a crossover addition from popular culture as well as socalled fine art in other media. One area of fiber art not generally included in museum collections (other than ethnographic or anthropological) is art to wear, better known as “wearable art.” Couture is collected by museums but not wearable art, which may actually have more to do with fashion than with fiber art. Both fashion and wearable art have their roots in the 19th century Arts and Crafts Movement. Wearable art artists today, however, tend to be more interested in the textile than the finished garment. Even though exhibitions and sales of wearable art are generally separate from fiber art exhibitions and sales, they both are part of the fiber art movement. Although both men and women create works designated as fiber art, it is an art primarily dominated by women. Exhibitions Exhibitions, such as Fiber Arts International, held triennially in the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts by the Society for Contemporary Craft, have increasingly drawn exhibitors from across the world. In 2007, fiber artists from 18 countries were represented: Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Wales, and the United States. This is in contrast to only 10 years earlier, when only eight countries were represented. Because of the interdisciplinary nature and use of mixed media in many works designated as fiber art, the role of traditional techniques such as weaving and surface decoration in two-dimensional works of art, no longer constitute the primary criteria for judging fiber art. By using aesthetic judgment in color, texture, and composition and strong individuality of design the innovative artist can avoid conventional forms. As more museums recognize that fiber art is part of the cultural representation of an age of expanding ideas,

Fields of Study



the more fiber artists can help redefine what constitutes fine art in postmodern times. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); National Museum of Women in the Arts; Studio Arts, Women in. Further Readings Artspan. “Introduction to Fiber Arts.” http://www.artspan .com/fiber-arts (accessed June 2010). Editors of Creative Publishing. Exploring Textile Arts. Minneapolis: Creative Publishing International, 2002. Kieffer. S. M. Fiberarts Design Book 7. New York: Lark Books, 2004.

Connie Koppelman State University of New York, Stony Brook

Fields of Study Women have become the majority of students in higher education in many countries, and have closed but not eliminated gender segregation within fields of study or majors. Women students still comprise a minority in nontraditional fields of study, such as business, engineering, information technology, mathematics, and the physical sciences, but have enjoyed larger percentage gains in many of these fields than men due to their previous underrepresentation. Gender stereotypes and gendered educational experiences that limit choice of fields of study show up early in the educational process and have lasting impacts. Gender inequities within fields of study can have long reaching impacts on career opportunities, earnings, and composition of the labor force. Women have attained much greater access to higher education since the mid- to late-20th century. Women comprise the majority of undergraduate students and degree recipients at the college and university level, and held higher grade point averages and other measures of achievement in many countries. According to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, women received 57 percent of U.S. bachelor’s degrees awarded in the 2004–05 academic year. In Europe, women comprise 56 percent of all higher education graduates, but

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are a minority of graduates in the sciences and other male-dominated fields. The percentages are even lower in many low-income and developing countries. Despite the achievement of gender parity in enrollment and completion rates, however, fields of study and majors pursued remained segregated by gender although the gap has narrowed since the mid20th century. The 2001 U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that the gender gap in enrollment and performance in nontraditional fields such as science has been eliminated at the lower educational levels, but reappears and widens at higher educational levels. Gender inequities in fields of study and career paths grow larger higher up the educational ladder, in what some researchers have termed the “shrinking pipeline.” Gender segregation in fields of study can be found in both academic and professional (trade or vocational) education. Female-dominated academic fields of study include the humanities, the fine and performing arts, education, foreign languages, literature, professional fields, and social and life sciences, while male-dominated fields of study include business, engineering, mathematics, information technology, and the physical sciences. Female-dominated vocational fields of study include family and consumer sciences (home economics), clerical and general office work, and beauty careers, such as cosmetology and hairdressing. Maledominated vocational fields of study include industrial, mechanical, and construction fields. U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) statistics show that in 2005, women comprised 22 percent of U.S. bachelor’s degrees in computer science (information technology), 43 percent of U.S. bachelor’s degrees in the physical sciences, and 45 percent of U.S. bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and statistics. The percentages of female majors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics drop even further at the graduate levels. Women also experienced the drop in majors that occurred among all students, beginning in the late 20th century, within education, the social sciences, and liberal arts, and the rise in majors within engineering and business. Women in engineering and business experienced even more dramatic percentage gains than men due to their previous relative absence in these fields of study, although they still remain minorities in these majors. Some of these gains have

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been lost, however, in the early 21st century. The percentages for female mathematics, statistics, and computer science bachelor’s degree recipients in the United States all showed declines in that period. A student’s field of study is one of the prime determinants of their skills, career opportunities, and choices, as well as their earnings and career success potentials, which can have a cumulative lifetime effect on financial welfare. Research has linked the narrowed gender gap in fields of study with narrowing gender pay gaps in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The distribution of women in fields of study also correlates with their distribution in the workforce, with many male-dominated fields of study leading the way toward male-dominated careers in those fields. Women’s improved access and enrollment in nontraditional fields of study that have historically held better salaries can translate into better future financial security. See Also: Attainment, College Degree; Community Colleges; Education, Women in; Professional Education. Further Readings Adamuti-Trache, Maria and Robert Sweet. “Vocational Training Choices of Women: Public and Private Colleges.” Gender and Education, v.20/2 (2008). Adamuti-Trache, Maria and L. Andres. “Embarking on and Persisting in Scientific Fields of Study: Cultural Capital, Gender, and Curriculum along the Science Pipeline.” International Journal of Science Education, v.30/12 (2008). American Association of University Women. http://www .aauw.org (accessed July 2010). Biklen, Sari Knopp and Diane Pollard. Gender and Education. Chicago: NSSE, University of Chicago Press, 1993. DeWandre, N. “Women in Science: European Strategies for Promoting Women in Science.” Science, v.295 (2002). Gabel, Dorothy. Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning. New York: Macmillan, 1994. International Rescue Committee. “Assessment Report on Female Enrollment in Technical and Vocational Training, Particularly in Non-Traditional Occupations for Women.” (2009). http://legacyinitiative.net/pubs /TVET_final.pdf (accessed July 2010). James, Abigail Norfleet. Teaching the Female Brain: How Girls Learn Math and Science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2009.

McWhirter, Ellen. “Perceived Barriers to Education and Career: Ethnic and Gender Differences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, v.50/ 1 (1997). Solomon, Barbara Miller. In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Figure Skating Ice skating originated in Europe, but American Jackson Haines (1840–75) was the first to combine ice skating with dance in the 1860s. Haines’s international style of figure skating became immediately popular in Europe and America by the 1900s. The International Skating Union (ISU) formed in 1892 for men’s competition, adding an event for ladies in 1906, pairs in 1908, and ice dancing in 1952. World War I interrupted the advance of figure skating, but the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) formed in 1921, fueling the development of ice skating as a competitive sport. Champions like Sonja Henie pioneered professional skating in tours and movies from the 1920s. Each generation of figure skaters has added new elements, increased difficulty levels, and innovation to the artistry and athleticism of the sport. The center of the sport has shifted several times. European skaters dominated competition prior to the World Wars, after which North American skaters triumphed in the 1950s. In 1961, an American figure skating team and their coaches died in a plane crash while traveling to the World Championships in Prague. Consequently, the Soviet Union dominated figure skating, particularly pairs skating and ice dancing. A Russian team won the gold at every Winter Olympic Games from 1964 until 2006, one of the longest winning streaks in all of sports history. American skaters continue to compete well, but many of skating’s rising stars are South Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. Olympic Skating Skating has four Olympic disciplines: singles, pair skating, ice dancing, and synchronized skating. Jumping is the most athletic element of figure skat-



American figure skater Caroline Zhang performing her short program during the Eric Bompard Trophy competition in 2008.

ing. There are six jumps: salchow, toe loop, loop, flip, lutz, and axel. Elite skaters may use transitional jumps to add difficulty to their programs, and sometimes jumps are performed in combination. Typically, individual female skaters perform triple jumps and double axels, though Midori Ito, Tonya Harding, and Mao Asada have landed triple axels in competition. Individual ladies have only recently consistently performed triple lutzes, and few perform triple– triple combinations. Individual men may complete several triple–triple combinations, with a handful performing quadruple salchows or toe loops. Spins are some of the most difficult elements of figure skating because of the balance and edge control they require. There are three basic spin positions: sit spin, camel spin, and upright spins, though many variations of these basic positions exist. Flying spins begin through a jump and land in a spin. Some spins may transition the outside to the inside edge during

Figure Skating

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the spin, considered a change of edge spin. Spin combinations may transition through several positions and switch spinning directions. Pair skaters can spin side by side, or may hold on to each other, spinning around the same axis. Footwork, or step, sequences are a series of edge patterns that follow a straight, circular, or three-ring pattern. All four Olympic disciplines require footwork sequences in competition. Many skaters use short footwork sequences to transition between elements. Perhaps the most famous figure skating element, the spiral, refers to a skater gliding on one foot, the other leg extended above the head. American ladies figure skating competitors are world-renowned for their exceptional spirals, often lifting to an almost perfect splits position. Nancy Kerrigan, Michelle Kwan, and Sasha Cohen are particularly known for their exquisite flexibility and grace. Skaters may use weights, yoga, plyometrics, and cardio training for off-ice conditioning. A typical training schedule for an elite skater includes several hours of on- and off-ice daily training. Many training rinks have created academies on site for skaters’ education. Elite skaters may pay more than $700 per week for training. Icenetwork.com, an affiliate of the USFSA, has advanced skater training by giving skaters access to videos of all levels of figure skating competition and professional exhibitions, allowing skaters to learn from each other and monitor their competition. Skating has also advanced significantly because of improved equipment, primarily through the development of lighter and tougher skating boots and blades. Figure skating costumes resemble theatrical costumes, and lightweight, well-designed costumes are preferred. Elite skaters may spend between $700 and $10,000 on their costumes. For training, skaters have adopted specialty fabrics for cold-weather sports that are thin, warm, and sweat resistant. Judging Competitive Skating Historically, skaters have been judged by a subjective 6.0 system. After a Franco–Russian collusion in pair skating competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the ISU instituted an international judging system (IJS). A technical specialist names each completed element and determines its base value through reviewing elements for correctness. The judges assign a Grade of

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Execution of plus or minus three points, based on their evaluation of each move. Every judging panel includes one alternate judge in case cheating is suspected. A recent phenomenon in competitive skating is the multinational competitor. For instance, 2010 Olympic Gold Medalist Kim Yu-Na competes for her native South Korea, but trains in Canada. Many Russian and Canadian skaters train in the United States. The ISU allows pair or dance teams to compete for a country if one team skater is a citizen. Many skaters who cannot find pairs or ice dancing partners domestically recruit internationally or skate for another country to improve their chances of winning. Skaters may be considered either amateurs or professionals. As long as skaters receive no compensation for their skating, they are amateur and eligible for competition. When skaters choose to become professionals, they may tour with a professional show or become coaches. The historic Ice Capades has been replaced with the Stars on Ice tour, produced by Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic, and typically features Olympic medalists and national and world champions. Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, and Evan Lysacek are some of the most recent Stars on Ice headliners. There are also dozens of regional ice shows, as well as shows affiliated with amusement parks and cruise lines. Some skaters have toured professionally and later returned to competition, including Michelle Kwan, Todd Eldredge, and Sasha Cohen. Challenges and Successes for Female Skaters While the rigorous training schedule for figure skaters keeps them in excellent condition, many female skaters have struggled with body weight. Dorothy Hamil, Elaine Zayak, Rosalyn Sumners, Nicole Bobek, Nancy Kerrigan, and Oksana Baiul have all made public statements about their struggles with body weight, including anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders. While figure skaters have no weight requirements, the unspoken rule is that thinner is better, particularly for women. In the early 1990s, many coaches were removed from the USFSA for administering pills that delayed the onset of puberty, keeping their skaters at prepubescent, aerodynamically low body weights. Now, competitors endure mandatory drug screenings that somewhat deter unhealthy dieting habits. Advances in nutritional science have produced performance foods for athletes that provide

needed energy and nutrition in a healthy way. However, among young, aspiring skaters, managing body weight remains one of the concerns for those who are serious about the sport, and many girls face pressure to maintain a certain body weight, primarily pressure from coaches, at a very young age. Women have made an indelible mark upon figure skating. In the 1960s and 1970s, Irina Rodnina transformed the roles of women skaters in pair skating. Kristi Yamaguchi marked the transition from the graceful ladies’ skating of Dorothy Hamill and Peggy Fleming into modern, athletic figure skating, combining the best of both styles; she also resembled Sonja Henie in her extended professional figure skating career. Katarina Witt is the only woman to have won two consecutive Olympic gold medals, and Irina Rodnina and Sonja Henie each won three. Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding made international headlines during the 1994 Winter Olympics. Harding’s boyfriend arranged for someone to strike one of Kerrigan’s knees with a crow bar in hope of eliminating Harding’s competition. The USFSA named Kerrigan, Harding, and Kwan to the 1994 Olympic team. Harding gave a disappointing performance, while Kerrigan gave one of the best in her career, only to place second behind the newcomer Ukranian sensation, Oksana Baiul. The Harding-Kerrigan scandal rocketed competitive figure skating to be one of the top-rated broadcast sports. After the Olympics, Harding was found guilty of conspiring to injure Kerrigan and was banned from the USFSA. Michelle Kwan, one of the most successful ladies’ figure skaters of all time, eventually broke every competitive record for American female skaters, including most national and world titles. Though never a gold medal winner, Kwan’s legacy of performance and skating excellence has paved the way for today’s ladies to strive to match or top her performance, grace, and athleticism. One innovator is Miki Ondo, who has advanced the athleticism in ladies’ figure skating when she was the first woman to land big triple–triple combinations and a quadruple jump. Kim Yu-Na may become the best ladies’ figure skater of all time because of her athleticism, impeccable technique, and exquisite performing ability. See Also: Kim, Yu-Na; Olympics, Winter; Sports, Women in; Sports Officials, Female.

Fiji

Further Readings Hines, James R. Figure Skating: A History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Kestnbaum, Ellyn. Culture on Ice: Figure Skating and Cultural Meaning. Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2003. Petkevich, John Misha. Sports Illustrated Figure Skating: Championship Techniques. New York: Time, 1989. Courtney Lyons Baylor University

Fiji The Republic of the Fiji Islands is located in the Pacific Ocean. The population is multicultural, with the two main groups consisting of ethnic and IndoFijians. The largest religions are Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. Traditional gender roles are still emphasized, although increased urbanization is eroding many traditional ways of life. Women enjoy full constitutional rights, but have limited leadership roles. Fiji ranked 103rd of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Most people choose their own spouse, and the traditional practice of polygany is no longer common. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.8 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend almost all births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 16 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate was 210 per 100,000 live births. Employers provide women with 84 days of paid maternity leave. The government has also begun family planning programs. Divorce and remarriage are both acceptable and common.The traditional role of Fiji women is that of wife, homemaker, and mother, and obedience to her husband is expected. Nuclear families are increasingly common in urban areas, while extended families predominate in rural areas. Single-parent female-headed households are increasing. The husband’s place as head of household is reinforced by cultural practices such as serving him first at meals. Domestic violence, incest, and rape rates are high. Fijians publicly socialize by gender. Some rural IndoFijians also maintain traditional domestic gender segregation. Education is not compulsory, but children are

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guaranteed access through secondary school. Female school attendance rates stand at 91 percent at the primary level, and 83 percent at the secondary level, but only 17 percent at the tertiary level. There is a slight gender gap between male and female literacy rates, which stand at 92 percent and 96 percent, respectively. Both Western-style and traditional forms of medicine are utilized. Problems include rising poverty levels, crime and juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, unwanted pregnancies, and inadequate healthcare. Life expectancy is age 61 for women and 57 for men. While men are the primary wage earners, many females work to supplement family income. 41 percent of women work, comprising 30 percent of paid nonagricultural workers and 9 percent of professional and technical workers. Women are employed in mostly low-paying jobs, such as in foreign-owned garment factories. Females comprise at least half of teachers through the secondary levels. Other employment for women includes healthcare, artisan crafts, and agriculture. Females cannot legally work in mining. A gender gap still exists in the average estimated earned income at $2,967 for women and $6,079 for men and unemployment rates, which stand at 5.9 percent for women and 4.1 percent for men. Women have the right to vote; however, women hold only 11 percent of parliamentary seats and 8 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. The National Council of Women, Women’s Action for Change, and the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement are among the organizations that represent women’s issues. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Sweatshops. Further Readings Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Jones, Sharyn. Food and Gender in Fiji: Ethnoarchaeological Explorations. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009. World Health Organization. “Fiji.” http://www.who.int /countries/fji/en (accessed July 2010). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

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Film Actors, Female Female film actors have been important participants in the movie industry since its inception, and have made significant contributions both on- and offscreen. Silent film icon and “America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford (1892–1979) was one of the most influential female actors. She co-founded the United Artists Studio and was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Pickford’s immense popularity changed the very notion of film acting as a specific art, rather than filmed theater. She also used her star power to advocate for causes such as Liberty Bonds. Pickford also created charities for impoverished actors, thus exemplifying the historical, cultural, and political importance as well as the impact of leading female film actors. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, female film actors have continued humanitarian work. Oscarwinning Angelina Jolie (1974– ) is well known for her global humanitarian initiatives, particularly on behalf of impoverished and/or displaced women and children, refugees, and asylum seekers from war-torn countries. Jolie was named a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador in 2001. Sophia Loren (1934– ) also served as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. Film actors appointed as United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassadors include Angela Bassett (1958– ), Audrey Hepburn (1929–93), Mia Farrow (1945–), Whoopi Goldberg (1955–), Jessica Lange (1949– ), Lucy Liu (1968– ), Vanessa Redgrave (1937– ), Susan Sarandon (1946– ), and Liv Tyler (1977– ). Nicole Kidman (1967– ) is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Australia. Other film actors known for their controversial activism include Jane Fonda (1937– ), Vanessa Redgrave (1937– ), and Sharon Stone (1958– ). Brigitte Bardot (1934– ) has created controversy as a zealous activist for animal rights. Powerful Cultural Icons Female film actors are visible and powerful cultural arbiters of the modern era, whose legacies continue to influence generations of spectators, often long after their deaths. Among the various examples, Marilyn Monroe (1926–62), is one of the greatest iconic sex symbols. Others include Bardot, Jean Harlow

(1911–37), Jayne Mansfield (1933–67), Lana Turner (1921–95), and Mae West (1893–1980). Renowned for their impeccable grace, elegance, and near-regal demeanor are Ingrid Bergman (1925–82), Catherine Deneuve (1943– ), Greta Garbo (1905–90), Grace Kelly (1929–82)—who became a princess upon her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco—Audrey Hepburn, and Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003). Deneuve was chosen to represent the French Republic as Marianne, the national symbol of France. Her face and bust decorated all the city halls throughout France from 1985–89, a particularly important time, as it was during the bicentennial of the French Revolution (1789). In 1999, the American Film Institute released its list of the top 50 (25 male and 25 female) stars of U.S. cinema. According to the list, the top 25 female stars are ranked as follows: Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, Grace Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Mae West, Vivien Leigh, Lillian Gish, Shirley Temple, Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall, Sophia Loren, Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, and Ava Gardner. In receiving worldwide recognition, many female film actors have broken gender, race, and age barriers as well as those of nationality. Hattie McDaniel (1895–1952) was the first African American to win an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind, 1939). Jessica Tandy (1909–94), at age 80, was the oldest female actor awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress (Driving Miss Daisy, 1989). Simone Signoret (1921–85) was the first French person to win an Oscar (Best Actress for 1959’s Room at the Top). The first female actor to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance was Sophia Loren (for Two Women in 1962). Vanessa Redgrave is one of only 12 performers to win an actor’s Triple Crown: the Oscar (for Julia, 1977); the Emmy for Playing for Time (1981) and If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000); and the Tony for Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2003). She is also the only British female actor to have won the Cannes, Emmy, Golden Globe, Oscar, Screen Actors Guild, and Tony awards. In 1983, Linda Hunt (1945– ) became the first person to win an Academy Award for playing a character of the opposite sex when she won the Best Supporting



Actress Oscar for her performance as Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously. Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep (1949– ) holds the record for most Academy Award nominations of any actor (16 nominations since 1979) and is the most nominated actor for the Golden Globe, with 25 nominations. Moreover, Streep’s 2010 win for Julie and Julia has secured her the most overall Golden Globes won by any actor. In April 2010, Streep was the first actor inaugurated as an honorary member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. Demi Moore (1962– ) was the first actress to be paid $10 million for her voiceover role in the animated 1996 Hunchback of Notre Dame. Tatum O’Neal (1963– ), at age 10, became the youngest actor to win an Academy Award, the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Paper Moon (1974). In 2001, Halle Berry (1966– ) became the first and only woman of African American descent to win the Oscar for Best Actress for Monster’s Ball. Kate Winslet (1975– ) is the youngest female actor to have been nominated for two Academy Awards, at age 20 and 22, respectively, for Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Titantic (1997). Winslet is the youngest actor to have received six Academy Award nominations. Compensation Equality Although leading female film actors have made big strides in pay equality with their male counterparts,on the whole females are outpaced by males. A notable exception is Julia Roberts (1967– ), the highest grossing actress. According to Vanity Fair’s list of the highest paid actors in Hollywood in 2009, only two women, Cameron Diaz (1972– ) and Emma Watson (1990– ), were included in the top 20. In 2009, Reese Witherspoon (1976– ) was the only female actor in the Top 10 of the Ulmer Scale (which measures overall “star power,” based on bankability). The complex dynamics of the female film actor– male director relationship is legendary. Many female actors have become the muses as well as often the romantic partners of their male directors: examples include Roger Vadim and his wives Brigitte Bardot, Annette Vadim (1936–2005) and Jane Fonda; Danishborn Anna Karina (1940– ) inspired Jean-Luc Godard; and Gong Li (1965– ), was often cast in leading roles by Zhang Yimou, including his Ju Dou (1989), the first film from China to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.

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See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Celebrity Women; Film Production, Women in; Trotta, Margarethe von; United Kingdom; United States. Further Readings Holston, Kim. Starlet: Biographies, Filmographies, TV Credits and Photos of 54 Famous and Not So Famous Leading Ladies of the Sixties. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Classics, 2000. Jordan, Jessica Hope. The Sex Goddess in American film, 1930–1965: Jean Harlow, Mae West, Lana Turner, and Jayne Mansfield. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2009. Majumdar, Neepa. Wanted Cultured Ladies Only!: Female Stardom and Cinema in India, 1930s–1950s. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. McCann, Bob. Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. Menefee, David. The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Negra, Diane. Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom. London: Routledge, 2001. Stoila, Tytti, ed. Stellar Encounters: Stardom in Popular European Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. Vincendeau, Ginette. Stars and Stardom in French Cinema. London; New York: Continuum, 2000. Willis, Andy. Film Stars: Hollywood and Beyond. New York: Palgrave, 2004. Marcelline Block Princeton University

Film Directors, Female: Europe The contributions of European female film directors have been central to the development of the film industry, both in Europe and in Hollywood. La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy, 1896)—what is considered the first narrative film of all time—was directed by Parisian-born Alice Guy Blaché (1873–1968). Blaché became a pioneering filmmaker in the United States, developing the East Coast film industry, heading a production company, and working as a director, writer, and/or producer of over 700 films. Blaché’s protégée, the American Lois Weber (1881–1939), was the first

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woman to direct a feature-length film, The Merchant of Venice (1914). Although she stopped making films in 1922, the French government awarded Blaché the Legion of Honor in 1953. The first comprehensive retrospective devoted to Blaché’s life and work was held at the Whitney Museum in New York City from November 2009 to January 2010, and was organized by Joan Simon. Not only was the first narrative film made by a European woman director, but the first female director ever nominated for the Academy Award for Achievement in Directing also hailed from Europe— Swiss-Italian director Lina Wertmüller (1928– )—for the film Seven Beauties (1976). French and French-Speaking Directors Along with Blaché, some of the most renowned European female film directors are from France or Frenchspeaking countries, including Germaine Dulac (1882–1942), whose experimental silent films include her 1922 The Smiling Madame Beudet, which is generally considered one of the original feminist feature films; her film The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) is considered the first surrealist film. Another significant independent and avant-garde French-language female filmmaker writer and director was Marguerite Duras (1914–96), born in French Indochina near Saigon, whose best-known film is perhaps Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), for which she wrote the screenplay (the film itself was directed by Alain Resnais). Duras, however, wrote and directed 14 feature films and numerous shorts, the most well known of which are Nathalie Granger (1972), La Femme du Gange (1974), India Song (1975), and Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta Désert (1976). Duras’s films explore the female psyche by radically experimenting with the cinematic medium itself, which has been commented on extensively by Gilles Deleuze, among other critics. Agnès Varda, another pivotal and prolific figure in European cinema, was born in Brussels in 1928 and began making films in 1954, beginning with La pointe courte, which is considered a predecessor to the French New Wave. Indeed, Varda’s moniker is “the mother [or grandmother] of the French New Wave”— a somewhat dubious title, as the New Wave itself is marked for its noticeable lack of female directors. At the 63rd Cannes Film Festival in May 2010, Varda was be honored by the Society of Film Directors’ Carrosse

d’Or (“Golden Coach”)—the lifetime achievement award given to legendary filmmakers, and one of the most prestigious awards for film directing. Similar to Varda, Chantal Akerman (1950– ) was born in Belgium. Akerman made her groundbreaking, epic film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) when she was 25 years old. Jeanne Dielman is considered the first masterpiece of feminist filmmaking and employed an all-female crew. This movie revolutionized filmmaking by liberating its female protagonist from the oppressive and dominant “male gaze,” about which British director and feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey (1941– ) wrote in her article, now a classic of feminist film theory, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” This article was published in the British film journal Screen the same year as the release of Jeanne Dielman. Mulvey is a filmmaker as well as a critic, and her films, made with her husband, Peter Wollen, mark a break with conventional filmmaking and include, among others, Riddles of the Sphinx (1977), which reimagines the Oedipus myth from a female perspective. Along with Mulvey, groundbreaking female directors from the United Kingdom include Sally Potter (1949– ), whose critically acclaimed Orlando (1992) was based on Virginia Woolf ’s classic novel. In 2010, Potter was awarded the Salento International Film Festival’s Director award for “visionary achievement in cinema” at a ceremony in London. Continental Directors Continental European female film directors include the German-born Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003)— an innovative documentary filmmaker whose best known work, Triumph of the Will (1934), a Nazi propaganda film, brought her lifelong international fame as well as infamy because of her personal ties to Hitler. Riefenstahl was arrested after World War II (although released without being charged). Berlin-born Helke Sander (1937– ) founded Frauen und Film, the first European feminist film journal, in 1974 (International Women’s Year). The avant-garde films of German-born Ulrike Ottinger (1942– ) are often held in contrast to her male counterparts in New German Cinema, such as Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Werner Herzog. Margarethe von Trotta (1942– ), who acted in many of Fassbinder’s films, is a member of the New German



Cinema movement and is considered the most prominent female filmmaker working in Germany. Von Trotta is perhaps best known for The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975), which she cowrote and codirected with her then-husband, Volker Schlöndorff. The openly lesbian German filmmaker Monika Treut (1954– ) is best known for her 1985 Seduction: The Cruel Woman, which is about sadomasochism. Leontine Sagan (1889–1974), although born in Budapest, was an Austrian actor and director who was best known for Mädchen in Uniform (1931), which she directed with Carl Froelich. This controversial, antifascist film, with an all-female cast, is considered the first openly pro-lesbian film and was initially banned in the United States. The Austrian feminist performance artist known as VALIE EXPORT (born in 1940 as Waltraud Lehner) challenges the concept of cinema as a form of female objectification with her Tap and Touch Cinema, performed throughout Europe from 1968 to 1971, as well as by publicly disrupting a pornography theater in Munich by overtaking it in her 1969 Action Pants: Genital Panic. Antonia’s Line (1995), by outspoken feminist director Marleen Gorris (born in 1948 in the Netherlands), won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. Antonia’s Line depicts a matriarchal community in a small Dutch village over a 40-year period and is described by Gorris as a “feminist fairy tale.” In Italy, Elvia Notari (1875–1946) was the first female film director, and her work is considered a precursor to Italian neorealism. Liliana Cavani (1937– ) is best known for her highly controversial and transgressive film Il Portiere di Notte (The Night Porter), which explores themes of sadomasochim set within the context of the Holocaust and its aftermath. Eastern European Maya Deren (1917–61), although born in Kiev, became a major figure of American avant-garde filmmaking. Her Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is one of the most acclaimed and influential avant-garde films of all time. Europa Europa (1990), by Polish director Agnieszka Holland (1948– ), won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. In Scandinavia, Swedish director Mai Zetterling (1925–94) made controversial films such as such as Loving Couples (1964) and Night Games (1966), which frankly depicted sexuality, causing them to be banned from film festivals.

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Notable current European female directors include, among others, Algerian-born French Nicole Garcia (1946– ); Catherine Breillat and Claire Denis, who were both born in France in 1948; Indian British director Pratibha Parmar (1955– ); French-Algerian Yamina Benguigui (1957– ); Anne Fontaine (1959– ) of France; Isabel Coixet (1960– ) of Spain; Agnès Jaoui (1964– ) of France; African British Ngozi Onwurah (1964– ); and Asia Argento (1975– ), daughter of the Italian horror master director Dario Argento. See Also: Coppola, Sofia; Film Directors, Female: Latin America; Film Directors, Female: United States; Film Production, Women in; Trotta, Margarethe von; Guerrilla Girls; Stereotypes of Women; von Trotta, Margarethe; Women Make Movies. Further Readings Acker, Ally. Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, 1986 to the Present. New York: Continuum, 1991. Bell, Melanie and Melanie Williams. British Women’s Cinema. London: Routledge, 2010. Beugnet, Martine. Claire Denis. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2004. Block, Marcelline, ed. Situating the Feminist Gaze and Spectatorship in Postwar Cinema. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2008. Cheu, Hoi F. Cinematic Howling: Women’s Films, Women’s Film Theories. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press, 2007. Ferrán, Ofelia and Kathleen M. Glenn, eds. Women’s Narrative and Film in Twentieth-Century Spain: A World of Difference(s). London: Routledge, 2002. Linville, Susan E. Feminism, Film, Fascism: Women’s Auto/biographical Film in Postwar Germany. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. Quart, Barbara K. Women Directors: The Emergence of a New Cinema. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1988. Redding, Judith and A. Victoria. Brownworth. Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors. Seattle, WA: Seal, 1997. Sullivan, Kaye. Films for, by, and About Women. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1979. Weber-Feve, Stacey. Re-Hybridizing Transnational Domesticity and Femininity: Women’s Contemporary Filmmaking and Lifewriting in France, Algeria, and Tunisia. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010. Marcelline Block Princeton University

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Film Directors, Female: International During the 82nd annual Academy Awards on March 7, 2010, Kathryn Bigelow (1951– ) became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Achievement in Directing for her 2008 The Hurt Locker, a film that also received the award for Best Picture, the first time a film directed by a woman has received this honor. Bigelow’s historic achievement—which took place during Women’s History Month, and on the eve of International Woman’s Day—is perhaps the most significant accolade bestowed on a female director. Moreover, Bigelow is the first woman to win all three major directing awards—the Academy, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and the Directors Guild of America (DGA)—for the same film. In receiving the highest award from the Hollywood establishment, the Columbia-educated Bigelow never lost sight of her intellectual and feminist background and coming of age during the heyday of semiotics in the late 1970s and early 1980s: Bigelow’s first film, The Setup (1978), features a voice-over by the Columbia professor and semiotician Sylvère Lotringer, who deconstructs the onscreen images of men fighting. Bigelow was involved with Lotringer’s Semiotext(e), the journal and publishing house, contributing to its 1980 Polysexuality issue. Bigelow also acted in Lizzie Borden’s (1958– ) groundbreaking Born in Flames (1983), which has since become a classic of feminist and women’s cinema. The wideranging scope of Bigelow’s oeuvre often treats traditionally male-dominated genres—including horror (Near Dark, 1987), action/adventure (Point Break, 1991), and war (K-19: The Widowmaker, 2002)—thus challenging prevailing assumptions about female directing and filmmaking (such as what types of films female directors make) as well as the social construction of femininity itself. While Bigelow’s Oscars and other recognition for directing The Hurt Locker are certainly triumphs for female film directors and the film industry in general, they also highlight the lack of interest for women’s contributions to the male-dominated world of film directing. Indeed, before Bigelow, only three women were ever nominated for the Oscar for directing: the Italian Lina Wertmüller (1928– ), who in 1976 was the

first woman director nominated for her Seven Beauties; Jane Campion (born in 1954 in New Zealand), for The Piano (1993); and the U.S. director Sofia Coppola (1971– ), for Lost in Translation (2003). Gender Disparity in Field of Directing While Bigelow’s historic victory demonstrates that significant strides are being made by women film directors in their long struggle—both in Hollywood and elsewhere—for recognition and standing on par with their male counterparts, much work remains to be done to achieve gender equality in the field of directing. In 2009, 7 percent of directors were women, a 2 percent decrease from 2008 and a figure that shows no change since 1987, according to Martha M. Lauzen, a professor at San Diego State University, in her annual study of female employment in the top 250 films. According to Lauzen, the percentage of women directors has been decreasing in the early years of the 21st century: from 7 percent in 2002, 6 percent in 2003, 4 percent in 2004 (although this represents an increase from the statistics of the DGA, which found that in 1983, 3 percent of film directors were female). The higher the film’s budget, the less likely for it to be directed by a woman: according to Stacy Smith of the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California, of the 100 highest-grossing films of 2007, only 2.7 percent of the directors were women. Indeed, only one film franchise, 2008’s Twilight—grossing over $385 million— was directed by U.S. director Catherine Hardwicke (1955– ). Twilight’s opening was the biggest weekend ever for a film directed by a woman. Yet, Hardwicke was not reinstated for the sequels in this series, the second film of which, New Moon (2009), was in fact directed by male director Chris Weitz. However grim these statistics may seem, they do not necessarily reflect the full scope of the role women directors have played historically and globally in the film industry. Indeed, the very first narrative film, La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy, 1896) was directed by a woman, Parisian-born Alice Guy Blaché (1873–1968). Blaché became a pioneering filmmaker in the United States, developing the East Coast film industry, heading a production company, and working as a director, writer, and/or producer of more than 700 films. Blaché was an initiator of narrative film and an innovator of special effects



techniques. Although she stopped making films in 1922, the French government awarded her the Legion of Honor in 1953. Lois Weber (1881–1939), Blaché’s protegée, was the first woman to direct a featurelength film, The Merchant of Venice (1914). While Weber would eventually become the highest paid female director of her era, she died in poverty and was completely forgotten. In Hollywood, women directors blossomed in the silent film era only to see their influence and standing drastically reduced with the advent of the talking pictures and after the Hays Code of 1929, with the notable exception of Dorothy Arzner (1897–1979), whose career as a director flourished from the 1920s until she stopped making films in 1943. Another major female director of the classic Hollywood era, British-born Ida Lupino (1918–95), gained momentum in the 1940s. Among other initiatives, she was the first woman to direct a noir film, The Hitchhiker (1953). Lupino’s Outrage (1950) was the first Hollywood studio film directed by a woman since Arzner stopped directing. After Lupino’s 1966 The Trouble With Angels, the first Hollywood studio film directed by a woman would be Elaine May’s (1932– ) The Heartbreak Kid in 1972. Women Directors Gain Success in Independent, Art House, and Avant-Garde Films Women have gained much ground in directing independent, art house, and avant-garde films, often flourishing artistically outside of the male-dominated studio system with films not necessarily intended for mass audiences and/or distribution. Germaine Dulac (1882–1942) was an experimental French director; her 1922 film The Smiling Madame Beudet is generally considered an original feminist feature film, while The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) is considered the first surrealist film. Other major independent and avant-garde French-language female filmmakers include French Indochina–born writer and director Marguerite Duras (1914–96) and Agnès Varda (born in 1928 in Brussels). Elvia Notari (1875–1946) was the first female director in Italy, and her work is considered a precursor to Italian neorealism. Leni Riefenstahl (born in Germany, 1902–2003), an innovative documentary filmmaker, leaves a dubious legacy for her best known work, Triumph of the Will (1934), a Nazi propaganda film, which brought her lifelong, international fame as well as infamy due to her per-

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sonal ties to Hitler and her arrest after World War II (although she was released without being charged). Kinuyo Tanaka (1909–77), the first Japanese woman film director, made six films beginning with 1953’s Love Letter. Maya Deren (1917–61), born in Kiev, was a major figure of U.S. avant-garde filmmaking, and her Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is one of the most influential avant-garde films of all time. Deren’s work was recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other awards, and Meshes of the Afternoon won the Grand Prix International for 16mm experimental film at the Cannes Festival. A pioneer of New American Cinema, Deren’s legacy includes the American Film Institute’s Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists Award, created in 1985. One recipient of this award (1991) is contemporary Vietnamese American film director, scholar and theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha (1952– ), renown for her first film Reassemblage (1982), among others. Films by Swedish director Mai Zetterling (1925–94) were highly controversial due to their frank depictions of sexuality, even causing some to be banned from the Cannes and Venice festivals, such as Loving Couples (1964) and Night Games (1966), respectively. The avantgarde films of German-born Ulrike Ottinger (1942– ) are often held in contrast to her male counterparts of New German Cinema, such as Wim Wenders, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Werner Herzog. Second wave feminism in the 1970s greatly impacted many female film directors who sought to liberate filmmaking from traditional patriarchal domination and bias and whose films often focused on social issues such as injustice. The Austrian feminist performance artist known as VALIE EXPORT (1940– )—who spells her name with capital letters— challenged the very concept of cinema as a form of female objectification with her Tap and Touch Cinema, performed throughout Europe from 1968 to 1971 as well as publicly disrupting a pornography theater in Munich by overtaking it in her 1969 public action Action Pants: Genital Panic. In 1972, the U.S. nonprofit organization Women Make Movies was founded to specifically address the training and promotion of female film directors. Important femaledirected films of this period include Wanda (1970) by American Barbara Loden (1932–80); the highly controversial 1974 The Night Porter, directed by Italian Liliana Cavani (1937– ); the 1975 Letter from the Vil-

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lage by Senegalese ethnologist Safi Faye (1943– ), the first sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed feature film; and Barbara Kopple’s (1946– ) Harlan County, USA (1976), winner of the Academy Award for best documentary feature; Gillian Armstrong (1950– ), with My Brilliant Career (1979), became the first Australian woman to direct a feature film in nearly 50 years. Berlin-born Helke Sander (1937– ) founded Frauen und Film, the first European feminist film journal, in 1974 (International Women’s Year). That same year, the National Film Board of Canada created Studio D, the first government-funded film studio dedicated to female directors and filmmakers. Although it closed in 1996, Studio D greatly advanced the cause of female filmmaking, as the films it produced gained much critical acclaim. Some of the watershed moments of 1970s cinema include Belgian-born Chantal Akerman’s (1950– ) epic Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), which is generally considered the first masterpiece of feminist filmmaking and revolutionized filmmaking in general, as it liberates its female protagonist from the oppressive and dominant “male gaze” about which British director and feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey (1941– ) wrote in her groundbreaking article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” published in the British film journal Screen in the same year as the release of Jeanne Dielman. The notable and prolific post–World War II generation of currently working female directors include, among others, Algerian-born French director Nicole Garcia (1946– ); Ann Hui (1947– ), a pioneer of the Hong Kong New Wave; Catherine Breillat and Claire Denis, both born in France in 1948; Polishborn Agnieszka Holland (1948– ); the British director Sally Potter (1949– ); Germany’s Monika Treut (1954– ); Indian British director Pratibha Parmar (1955– ); Anne Fontaine (1959– ) of France; Agnès Jaoui (1964– ) of France; and African British Ngozi Onwurah (1964– ). The 1980s and 1990s witnessed important progress for female film directors, including Lizzie Borden’s independent sci-fi mockumentary Born in Flames (1983); Daughters of the Dust (1991), the first feature film with general theatrical release written and directed by an African American woman Julie Dash (1952– ); and, in 1994, Darnell Martin (1964– ) was the first African American woman to

write and direct a film, I Like It Like That, produced by a major studio (Columbia Pictures). Other significant moments in female film directing from the 1980s and 1990s include critically acclaimed Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen’s (1945– ) 36 Chowringee Lane (1981); Salaam Bombay! (1988), the debut film by Indian-born Mira Nair (1957– ), which won the Golden Camera at the Cannes Festival and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film; the Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa (1990), which won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film; Barbara Kopple winning her second Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for 1991’s American Dream; and Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993), one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time, which won numerous Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Holly Hunter), Best Screenplay-Original (Jane Campion), Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin, who at age 11, became the second youngest winner of this award), as well as the Cannes Golden Palm and the César for Best Foreign Language Film. Women Directors in the 21st Century In the 21st century, female directors continued to make major strides. Nancy Meyers’s (1949– ) What Women Want (2000) became the highest-grossing film directed by a woman, earning more than $370 million. Nowhere in Africa (2001), directed by German Caroline Link (1964– ) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), was directed by Greek Canadian American Nia Vardalos (1962– ). In 2002, Mexican American film director Lourdes Portillo (1944– ) received the Special Jury Prize from the Sundance Film Festival for Missing Young Woman. Although Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) did not win the Academy Award for Best Director, Coppola won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. In 2005, British-born director Zana Briski (1966– ), and her male codirector Ross Kauffman, won the Academy Award for best documentary for Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids. With her first film, Phat Girlz (2006), Nnegest Likké (1970– ) became the first African American woman to direct, act in, and write a full-length feature released by a major studio (Fox Searchlight Pictures). Japanese director Naomi Kawase (1969– ) won the



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2007 Grand Prix at Cannes for The Mourning Forest. In the first decade of the 21st century, women directors are visibly taking on more importance, challenging previously held assumptions. Although many female film directors work independently or in the mainstream genre of the romantic comedy and depict archetypal “female issues” such as love and family, some of the most successful female directors currently making films, such as Kathryn Bigelow, work in what have been typically male-oriented genres such as biker, war, and horror films that portray primarily male protagonists, for example, Blue Steel (1990) is an example of what Monica Soare calls the career-woman-in-peril thriller. Since their initial prominence in the early film industry at the end of the 19th century, the role of female film directors was diminished during the advent of the talking picture, the Hays Code, and the rise of the studio system. Female film directors are now making significant gains and achieving new recognition in directing. Yet, they are still far from achieving parity with male counterparts. Kathryn Bigelow’s victory with her Best Director and Best Picture Oscars in March 2010 opens new perspectives that probably will encourage more women to break ground, overcome barriers, and destroy taboos that were in place in film directing—an old boy network—from which women had been excluded for far too long.

Erens, Patricia. Sexual Stratagems: the World of Women in Film. New York: Horizon Press, 1979. Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. Hurd, Mary G. Women Directors & Their Films. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Jermyn, Deborah and Sean Redmond, eds. The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor. London: Wallflower Press, 2003. Kaplan, Ann. Women & Film. New York: Routledge, 1990. Kuhn, Annette, ed. Queen of the B’s: Ida Lupino Behind the Camera. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. Laviosa, Flavia and Laura Mulvey. Visions of Struggle in Women’s Filmmaking in the Mediterranean. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Mayne, Judith. The Woman at the Keyhole: Feminism and Women’s Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. Polan, Dana. Jane Campion. London: British Film Institute, 2002. Rashkin, Elissa. Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.

See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Coppola, Sofia; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Film Directors, Female: Europe; Film Directors, Female: Latin America; Film Directors, Female: United States; Film Production, Women in; Guerrilla Girls; Professions by Gender; Stereotypes of Women; Women Make Movies; Women’s History Month. Further Readings Abramowitz, Rachel. Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? Women’s Experience of Power in Hollywood. New York: Random House, 2000. Bobo, Jacqueline, ed. Black Women Film and Video Artists. London: Routledge, 1998. Ching, Yau. Filming Margins: Tang Shu Shuen, A Forgotten Hong Kong Woman Film Director. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004. Dale, Holly and Janis Cole. Calling the Shots: Profiles of Women Filmmakers. Dallas, TX: Quarry Press, 1994.

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Marcelline Block Princeton University

Film Directors, Female: Latin America The 1960s brought about worldwide awakening to a new political consciousness, a renewed sense of social awareness, and a need to place societal demands in a public and visible sphere. Latin American intellectuals and artists, who had been greatly invigorated by the 1959 Cuban Revolution, were at the forefront of this activism. A movement called the New Latin American Cinema produced explicit and didactic movies reflecting an engaged cinema of the revolution and theories that conceptualize the social and political in cinema. The urgency of the time was to confront imperialism and colonialism, and in many ways, this singular goal overshadowed the presence and contribution of women to film.

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During the 1980s, we witnessed the materialization of the connections between feminist theories and film practices that was imbued with two decades of women’s movements. The films of Mexican and Argentinean women directors represent the most direct, prominent, and well-distributed work within the Latin American context. El Secreto de Romelia (1988) by Busi Cortés and Señora de Nadie (1982) by María Luisa Bemberg are just two examples of the thoughts and actions these films intended to promote—they were decidedly and unapologetically feminist works that investigated women’s interpersonal and social relations, as well as the historical and political conditions that create and support patriarchal structures. Growing Number of Women in Film Industry The number of women actively and visibly working in the film industry in Latin America has grown exponentially from the 1990s to the present time. Women are not only acting, writing, editing, and assisting but they also have carved a prominent space in their roles as directors and producers. The increase in women’s participation is due in large part to the creation of film schools and the configuration of the film industry in Latin America. Film schools have made obsolete a male-run meritocracy within the film industry by which men seemed to effortlessly advance and women were relegated to second- or third-tier positions. With legitimate and respected degrees from prestigious film schools, women have had the opportunity to enter the film industry without having to start as assistants, and with the real possibility of being directors and writers. The fact that most Latin American countries have government agencies that sponsor and fund filmmaking has also contributed to the advancement of women in a traditionally male industry. Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico Within the Latin American countries, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have the largest film industries with a fairly wide distribution. Films such as Nueve reinas (2000) by Fabián Bielinsky, Diarios de Motocicleta (2004) by Walter Salles, and Y tu Mama También (2001) by Alfonso Cuarón will sound familiar to audiences in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. These are also the countries with the largest number of women film directors, with Mexico count-

ing 106, Argentina 82, and Brazil 70. The numbers are encouraging and promising, but they do not always translate easily into what is necessary and desirable— the distribution of films made by women. The following list of directors and films serves as a mere illustration of the variety and scope of the work women are currently producing in some of the most active Latin American film industries. Thematically, technically, structurally these films cannot be conceived of as a unified corpus, but rather they represent a variety of approaches to topics and considerations that affect women as active agents in society. For each of the three countries, the list contains internationally recognized directors and a small sampling of their acclaimed films. Contemporary Argentinean women film directors and producers have been internationally recognized, although their films have not become household names. A few examples are: Lucrecia Martel. La Ciénaga (2000), La Niña Santa (2003), and La Mujer Sin Cabeza (2008) Carmen Guarini. H.I.J.O.S el Alma en dos (2002) and Maykinof (2005) Albertina Carri. No Quiero Volver a Casa (2000), Los rubios (2003), Géminis (2005), and La Rabia (2008) Paula Hernández. Herencia (2001), La Familia Lugones (2007), and Lluvia (2008) Julia Solomonoff. Hermanas (2005) and El Último Verano de La Boyita (2008) Lucía Puenzo. XXY (2007) and El niño pez (2009) Some of the most renowned names of Mexican women filmmakers are: Patricia Riggen. Retrato de Familia (2005) and La Misma Luna (2007) Natalia Almada. La Memoria Perfecta del Alma (2001), Al Otro Lado (2004), and El General (2009) Marisa Sistach. Anoche Soñé Contigo (1992), La Línea Paterna (1995), El Cometa (1998), Perfume de Violetas, Nadie te Oye (2000), La Niña de Piedra (Nadie te ve) (2006), and El Brassier de Emma (2007) Maria Novaro. Danzón (1991), Otoñal (1992), El Jardín del Edén (1994), Azul Celeste (1988), Sin Dejar Huella ( 2000), and La Morena (2005) Guita Shyfter. Los Laberintos de la Memoria (2007), Las Caras de la Luna (2002), Sucesos Distantes (1994), and Novia que te Vea (1993)



The following film directors are examples of the extensive and wide-ranging production of Brazilian women filmmakers: Tetê Moraes. Tierra para Rose (1987), Nuestro Aire de Todos los Días (1992), O Sonho de Rose (2002), and O Sol Caminando Contra o Vento (2005) Tata Amaral. Um Céu de Estrelas (1996), Através da Janela (2000), Antônia (2006), and O Rei do Carimã (2009) Suzana Amaral. A Hora da Estrela (1985), Uma vida em Segredo (2001), and Hotel Atlântico (2009) Tizuka Yamasaki. Fica Comigo (1998), Xuxa Requebra (1999), O Barato é ser Careta (2000), Xuxa Popstar (2004), and Gajin-ama-me como sou (2005) Marília Rocha. Abojo (2005), Descaminhos (2007), and Acácio (2008) International and national film festivals have traditionally been the spaces where women filmmakers can exhibit their work and get the much-deserved recognition they have earned through talent and dedication. Lucrecia Martel, for example, won the Alfred Bauer prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001 with her movie La Ciénaga. Tetê Moraes’s O Sonho de Rose won at the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, La Habana, 2000, and also took best documentary prize at the Festival de Río de Janeiro, 2000. Patricia Riggen won the Oscar for the best student work in 2003 for her short La milpa, and also the prize for best documentary for Retrato de familia in the Aspen Short Film Festival. Film festivals specifically created for the presentation of women’s work are, in the mind of some directors and critics, a double-edged sword. They provide a much needed forum for women to put their work on display, but they also can be perceived as exclusive spaces, and hence perpetuate the idea that a “feminine” mode of production is not equal to and cannot compete with men’s cinema or traditional cinema. Women filmmakers have consistently rejected the category of “women’s films” and the consideration of their films as a genre in itself, and hence are sometimes ambivalent about the value of these film festivals. Yet, women film festivals are still a vibrant part of the dialogue, with Mexico’ s Muestra Internacional de Mujeres en el Cine y la Televisión in its sixth year, and the Argentinean Mujeres en Foco: Festival Inter-

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nacional de Cine y Mujer por la Equidad de Género planning its first gathering for May 2010. There is a young but growing body of scholarship on women’s filmmaking in Latin America that exhibits the same distribution and recognition challenges as its subject of study. The increasing importance and widespread reach of electronic resources will provide greater exposure for critical and analytical studies of filmmaking by women. The availability and access to technology will also increase the distribution of information about women’s filmmaking, and also the distribution of their work. See Also: Film Directors, Female: Europe; Film Directors, Female: United States; Film Production, Women in; Professions by Gender; Stereotypes of Women; Women Make Movies. Further Readings Rangil, V. Otro Punto de Vista: Mujer y Cine en Argentina. Rosario, Argentina: Editorial Beatriz Viterbo, 2005. Rashkin, Elisa. Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. Richard, Nelly. Masculine/Feminine: Practices of Difference(s). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. Torres San Martín, Patricia, ed. Mujeres y Cine en América Latina. Guadalajara, Mexico: Universidad de Guadalajara, 2004. Viviana Rangil Skidmore College

Film Directors, Female: United States A film director is charged with the creative direction of the making of a film, video, or television program. She is the person responsible for the visual translation of the written script to the screen. She must pre-visualize, plan, and direct a film’s artistic and dramatic aspects, working closely with cinematographer (or director of photography [DP]), guiding the technical crew, and working with the actors in the fulfillment of her vision. Directors are responsible for the overall storytelling and aesthetics of a film. She plans the shot list, determines

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each shot’s framing and composition, angle, and the movement of the camera. Working closely with the DP, she devises the mood and tone of the piece, achieved through lighting style, production design, wardrobe, and the other components. She must block the scene (plan the actors and camera’s coordinated movements) and direct the actors’ performance. She oversees the project’s storytelling structure and overall aesthetic (look) through the many phases of filmmaking: preproduction (planning), production (filming), and postproduction (editing). Women directors are often categorized by the types of films that they direct, such as narrative feature and short films (including studio, large-budget projects and independent, lower-budget films), documentary feature and short films, theatrically distributed films, cable and made-for-television projects, Web-based videos, and art-house films that screen at specialty theaters, film festivals, and categorized by aspects such as DVD, home video, and educational distribution of their title films. Much of the academic and popular press studies of women film directors either focus on a short list of accomplished women filmmakers in Hollywood, determining their success by the amount their films gross, or discuss independent women filmmakers who produce films and videos praised by scholars, critics, and film festivals, acknowledging that this work is seen by comparatively smaller audiences. A new director in Hollywood, who is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), might earn as little as $20,000 a year, while the most successful director can earn over $500,000 and even millions per film, in some cases. It has been said that women directors have to make a choice: either they maintain creative control over their filmmaking and work as a lower budget independent filmmaker or they give up creative control to a studio or a producer to work with larger budgets in the Hollywood studio system. Still, the more affordable digital technologies are increasing the number of women directing films, videos and other multimedia projects. In early Hollywood cinema, films were distributed only in theatrical release (meaning they were shown in theaters), which is an expensive and exclusive market that serves only feature length films. In the 1970s, nonprofit feminist organizations such as Women Makes Movies offered production workshops to women to direct short films, and began showing their

work in women’s film festivals. By the late 1990s and 2000s, there are numerous feminist and educational distributors of women’s films, women-themed film festivals, cable television channels that celebrate independent films such as the Sundance Channel and IFC, and channels targeted at women. Additionally, new online markets such as sales, rentals, and streaming video on the Internet help create a whole new landscape where women filmmakers can create low(er) budget work and distribute it to an audience, without studios and distributors. History of Female Directors Women have been directing films since the invention of cinema in 1893. The first was French producerdirector Alice Guy Blaché (1873–1968). In 1896, she directed La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy), and she is considered the first director of fiction “narrative” film. She pioneered some early camera techniques, and in 1910 was the production manager for Gaumont Studios in New Jersey, the largest preHollywood studio. Julia Crawford Ivers, a U.S. screenwriter and director, became the general manager of Bosworth, Inc., an early Hollywood studio, and in 1919, with her son James Van Trees, cofounded the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), the union for cinematographers. The ASC didn’t allow camerawomen membership for 61 years. In her 48-year career as an actor-director, Ida Lupino (1918–1985), considered a pioneer filmmaker, formed an independent production company with her husband Collier Young, called The Filmmakers, where she became a producer, director, and screenplay writer of low-budget “women’s issue”–oriented films that addressed topics such as rape. Lupino was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the fields of television and motion pictures. A Woman’s Error is the first film written, produced, and directed by an African American woman, Tressie Souders, in 1922. The International Black Women’s Film Festival established the Tressie Souders Award (“Tressies”), which celebrates the accomplishments of black women in film, television, and media. In 1993, Leslie Harris directed Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., the first feature film directed by an African American woman that was released by a major theatrical distributor (Miramax). In 1994, Darnell Martin, a woman of black and Puerto Rican heritage, directed



I Like It Like That, celebrated as the first major studio produced film by an African American woman. Advancements for Women Since 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has nominated directors working in the motion picture industry for the Academy Award for Achievement in Directing (Best Director), considered the highest honor for a director working in Hollywood. The nominations for best director are made by members in the Academy’s directing branch, the award winners are selected by the Academy membership as a whole, and are presented during the prestigious Oscar Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. Italian director Lina Wertmüller became the first woman to receive a best director nomination in 1977, and a nomination for best screenplay written directly for the screen. Four women have been nominated in the best director category: Lina Wertmüller for 1976’s Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for 1993’s The Piano, Sofia Coppola for 2003’s Lost in Translation, and Kathryn Bigelow for 2009’s The Hurt Locker. In 2010, Bigelow became the first woman to win the Oscar for best directing and best picture. She also won the 2009 DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for directing The Hurt Locker; she is the first woman to win these top prizes for directing. The DGA represents over 14,000 members, of which, 3,080 are listed as women directors and assistant directors (January 2010). In 2002, Martha Coolidge, a DGA member since 1983, was elected as the first female president of the DGA. Studies done by the DGA specifically reports on Women and Minority Hiring in Hollywood, reveal that of the 12,000guild membership, few women or minority directors are actually working as directors. See Also: Coppola, Sofia; Film Directors, Female: Europe; Film Directors, Female: Latin America; Film Production, Women in; Professions by Gender; Women Make Movies. Further Readings Foster, G. A. Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. Hurd, M. G. Women Directors and Their Films. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.

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Juhasz, A. Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Lane, C. Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2000. Unterburger, Amy L., ed. The St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia: Women on the Other Side of the Camera. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press, 1999. Rachel Raimist University of Alabama

Film Production, Women in Film production includes all aspects of the behind-thescenes workings of motion pictures, videos, and television. The production (filming) and postproduction (editing) crew, hired by a producer or production company, is distinguished from the talent, meaning the cast of actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters who appear onscreen. The crew is divided into different departments, including camera department, sound department, art department (set and production design), hair and makeup, wardrobe (costumes), grip, electrical, and editorial. Since the advent of filmmaking, women have worked in all of the various crew positions including “above the line” jobs such as screenwriter, producer, executive producer, director and actor, and the numerous “below the line” positions such as the director of photography (DP or cinematographer), assistant director, editor, composer, sound recordist, boom operator, camera crew, grip, gaffer, art director, wardrobe, makeup, and production designer. The terminology of above and below the line comes from the early Hollywood studio days when the top sheet of the budget pages included a line drawn to separate the key above the line position salaries with the below-the-line costs including the salaries of the non-lead cast members and the technical crew, equipment, travel, location, and catering costs, and all the costs of film production. Women Pioneers in the Film Industry Lois Weber (1882–1939), the first consistently successful U.S. film director, was paid $5,000 per week, making her the highest paid female director of the

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silent film era. In 1919, Mary Pickford (1892–1979) became the first actress to receive $1 million per year, and in 1920 U.S. actress Lillian Gish (1896–1993) directed an “all woman” production, Remodeling Her Husband; she cowrote the screenplay with her sister who starred in the film. Dorothy Arzner (1897–1979) started her film career as a typist, reader, and script supervisor at Paramount Studios. She was promoted to film editor in 1922, and directed her first film in 1927. In 1936, Arzner became the first woman to join the newly formed Directors Guild of America (DGA). She is also credited as being the inventor of the boom microphone and the camera crane. In 1967, film editor Dede Allen (1925– ) became the first editor to receive a solo credit in the film titles. She pioneered editing techniques such as the use of audio overlaps and stylized jump cuts, which until that point had not been used in Hollywood film editing style. In 1973, Pamela Douglas became the first African American woman producer at Universal; she is the first woman of color to work as a producer at a major motion-picture studio. Sherry Lansing (1944– ) was the first woman to head a Hollywood studio and the first woman studio head to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And in 2010, Kathryn Bigelow (1951– ) became the first woman director to win an Oscar. Many women have experienced success working in film production in more than one key crew position such as screenwriter/producer/director Nora Ephron, producer/director/actor Jodie Foster, and cinematographer/director Ellen Kuras. Kuras is most known as a cinematographer who has filmed many award-winning pictures including Angela (1995) and Personal Velocity (2002), both directed by writer/ director Rebecca Miller, 4 Little Girls (1997), Summer of Sam (1999), and Bamboozled (2000), directed by Spike Lee, as well as indie films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Be Kind Rewind (2008). Kuras also directed the 2008 Academy Award winning documentary Nerakhoon (The Betrayal), and demonstrates the range of talents in creative and technical aspects of women working film production crew positions. Union Membership Unions have long controlled film sets in Hollywood. The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC),

established in 1919 by 15 cameramen, prohibited membership to women behind the camera for 61 years, until in 1980 membership was offered to cinematographer Brianne Murphy (1933–2003), the first woman cinematographer at a major studio. In 1984, Murphy and other women behind the camera established their own organization, Behind the Lens: An Association of Professional Camerawomen. Cinematographer Nancy Schreiber (1949– ) was the first female gaffer to join New York’s National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) guild, and has worked behind the camera on over 70 films. Production professionals belong to unions such as the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG), the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), the Director’s Guild of America (DGA), the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), the American Cinema Editors (ACE), and as a result can now enjoy much success as women working in critical crew roles on major motion pictures and television programs. Some guilds, such as SAG and WGA, boast tremendous numbers of women who enjoy membership, although according to research studies, women and minority members often work far less in proportion to other guild members. Founded in 2009, Women in Film is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women achieve their highest potential within the global entertainment, communications, and media industries and is committed to preserving the legacy of women. Under the helm of screenwriter and WGA member Mollie Gregory, the organization established For the Record, an interview CD and book project that documents, for the first time, the complete history of women in film production on record. See Also: Film Directors, Female: United States; Women Make Movies. Further Readings Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film. http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/index.html (accessed June 2010). Gregory, Mollie. Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood. New York: St. Martin’s, 2003. Krasilovsky, Alexis. Women Behind the Camera: Conversations With Camerawomen. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.

Financial Independence of Women

Women in Film. http://www.wif.org (accessed January 2010). Rachel Raimist University of Alabama

Financial Independence of Women Women’s increased rates of educational attainment and workforce participation, as well as their increased financial knowledge and involvement in personal finances, have increased women’s rates of financial independence, especially in industrialized countries. Many women, however, still face a number of gender inequities that hinder financial independence. Segregated labor markets and a shrinking but still present gender pay gap lower women’s incomes, savings, and retirement investments, and have cumulative effects on their lifestyle. In developing countries, microfinance, cooperatives, and other financial programs have dramatically improved women’s economic and entrepreneurial knowledge and opportunities, aiding both family and community development. Women’s financial knowledge is crucial as most women become solely responsible for their personal finances at some point in their lives. Industrialized Countries Women’s financial independence in industrialized countries is aided by their high rates of participation in higher education and the workforce, increasing presence at higher professional levels and nontraditional careers, and increased entrepreneurship rates. There are still several key obstacles, however, that hinder the financial independence of women in industrialized countries. Women generally work fewer years than men, as they traditionally bear more family caregiver responsibilities and are more likely to take career breaks to raise children or care for elderly or ill family members. They also continue to face a gender pay gap and are still underrepresented in nontraditional careers and executive positions. The 2008 “Global Gender Pay Gap” report found that pay inequities persist, despite the existence of antigender discrimination and equal pay legislation

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in many countries. Older, minority, and highly educated women faced the biggest pay gaps by gender, while women in unions or under collective bargaining agreements had lower pay gaps. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the 2009 U.S. ratio of female full-time workers’ median weekly earnings to men’s was 80.2 percent, and the 2008 U.S. ratio of full-time year-round women’s to men’s median annual earnings was 77.1 percent. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the median full-time earnings for women in all industrialized countries were 17.6 percent lower than men’s. The European figure was almost identical. Asian countries, such as South Korea and Japan, experienced the largest wage gaps among industrialized countries, with women’s earnings more than 30 percent lower than those of men, while Belgium experienced the smallest gap at 9.3 percent. Other countries in the higher ranges included Slovakia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece, Estonia, and Austria, while other countries in the lower ranges included Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, and Belgium. A lower pay gap, however, may be a reflection of low female employment rates rather than greater gender equity. Overall, the remaining gender gap is decreasing at a slower pace and in some industrialized countries it is even widening. Reasons for pay inequities include gender discrimination, the careers chosen by or open to women due to gender stereotypes and social pressures, segregated labor markets, family responsibilities, less bonus and overtime earnings as compared with men, and a higher percentage of female part-time workers. Over the course of a woman’s career, the lost income due to pay inequities can represent billions of dollars in lost potential income. Lost work years and lower incomes also mean that women have lower savings rates and participation rates in employer pension, 401(k), or other retirement investment plans. Women in industrialized countries have also increased their financial knowledge and investing rates, but a gender gap remains in these areas. Traditionally, women were not expected to be knowledgeable about personal finance, and men typically managed family finances. Research has shown that many women still lack the necessary financial knowledge and are more hesitant to discuss financial matters.

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Surveys have found that almost half of U.S. women felt that they were not knowledgeable about choosing investment options and that their total consumer debt was greater than their savings and investments, findings that bear a strong correlation. Researchers have also found gender differences in investment behavior that both aid and hinder female investors. Women are less likely to invest or to choose high risk, high reward investment options out of risk aversion or the feeling that they do not have enough financial knowledge. Women investors are thus more likely to hold conservative portfolios and less likely to make frequent trades that can yield high results, but are more likely to wait out short-term market instabilities, tend to do well over the long term, and are less likely to be victimized by financial scams. Women also tend to spend more time researching investments, attending financial seminars or workshops, and asking for information than men do. Women investors are viewed as more comfortable in collaborative settings, such as investment clubs. Women’s financial independence, or their lack of such independence, plays a key role in shaping other aspects of their lives. Financial knowledge and independence are important, as most women will become the sole financial decision makers at some point in their lives. Divorce rates in many industrialized countries hover around 50 percent, and the number of female single-parent households is on the rise. The average woman’s standard of living decreases substantially postdivorce and female single-parent households are one of the leading categories of those living below the poverty level. A lack of financial independence reduces a woman’s control over other aspects of her life. Gender-based financial inequities are often cumulative over a woman’s lifetime, having the greatest impact on the elderly. Almost half of all women over the age of 50 are single, bearing the sole financial responsibility for themselves as well as any dependent children or family members. Women in the United States, on average, have life expectancies that are seven to 10 years longer than those of men, with the average age of widowhood at 55 years. Figures for other industrialized countries are similar. Due to the gender gap in pay, years worked, and reduced contributions to savings and retirement plans that are largely tied to earnings, women on average

receive much lower retirement benefits than men. Many of these women face limited retirement incomes that are less than half of their male counterparts on average, continued work out of financial necessity, and an increased reliance on Social Security or other forms of government-subsidized aid. In the United States, Social Security is the only source of income for 25 percent of all women aged 65 or older, and more than 70 percent of that same group live in poverty. Developing Countries Women in developing countries have much lower rates of financial independence and face many barriers to achieving such independence. One such barrier is the high global poverty rate. Statistics show that approximately 50 percent of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day, and that most of those living in poverty are women. Such poverty also affects women’s health and longevity, with lowered life expectancies. Women are also more likely to work in low-skilled, low-paying jobs, face chronic unemployment or underemployment, work in the informal sector of the economy, and be denied access to formal financial institutions or a role in family financial decisions. Women are forced to rely on moneylenders who charge exorbitant interest rates to gain the funds to start microenterprises or to cover household, educational, or emergency expenses. Lack of financial knowledge, cultural attitudes, and lack of access to formal financial institutions also affects women’s savings rates in developing countries. Although research has shown that many of those living in poverty in developing countries do maintain savings, they often do so through less secure informal means. Studies have also shown that women tend to be the primary savers in most families. Although women are the main savers in poor families, they tend to keep their savings at home because they are denied access to secure formal savings institutions due to inconvenient locations, high fees, or the inflexible nature of accounts that do not allow easy access to funds. Global campaigns to increase financial literacy, reduce mistrust of banks and other formal savings institutions, and change cultural attitudes about savings and gender stereotypes in finance have increased women’s opportunities to become more active financial participants and decision makers. In the late 20th century, many international nongovernmental organi-

Finland



zations (NGOs) began working with local NGOs and financial institutions to increase the access of poor women in developing countries to financial services. Microfinancing became a prominent component of these funding efforts, beginning in the 1980s. Such programs and their local counterparts also provide women entrepreneurs with job skills training, expert business advice and assistance, and increased access to formal financial institutions. Key organizations working toward the financial independence of lowincome women around the globe include Women’s World Banking (WWB), Women for Women International, the International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF), the International Alliance for Women (TIAW) and its Micro Enterprise Development Program, and the Financial Women’s Association. Women’s thrift, credit, industry, insurance, and other cooperatives are another rapidly growing movement that has provided an important avenue for the achievement of female financial independence in poor or developing countries. These voluntary associations of women or mixed genders establish their own mutually agreed upon terms and conditions for mutual aid through credit, loans, insurance, or other financial tools. Many women who do not understand banking or trust banks are willing to utilize such alternative financial institutions. Although these programs have rapidly expanded, they still reach only a small percentage of the women around the world who would benefit from their services. Microfinance and other efforts have proven that helping low-income women achieve financial independence aids both their families and their communities, and is a sound business decision. Women’s repayment rates for microloans are extremely good, often as high as 98 percent, and their decreased reliance on moneylenders can help them break generational cycles of poverty and indebtedness. The World Bank has also found that women are much more likely to reinvest the income they earn into their families and communities than men, and are more likely to hire poor and women workers within their communities. Women entrepreneurs are also much more likely to increase their financial knowledge and role in family financial decisions, and reduce their vulnerability to disasters, conflicts, or other external shocks. As a result, such women are more likely to achieve and maintain financial independence.

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See Also: Business, Women in; Entrepreneurs; Homemakers and Social Security; Poverty; Women’s Thrift Cooperatives. Further Readings Counts, Alex. Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. Gilbert, Lucia Albino. Two Careers, One Family: The Promise of Gender Equality. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993. Jordan, William C. Women and Credit in Pre-Industrial and Developing Countries. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. Patterson, Martha Priddy. The New Working Woman’s Guide to Retirement Planning. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. Shefrin, Hersh. Beyond Greed and Fear: Understanding Behavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Shipler, David K. The Working Poor: Invisible in America. New York: Knopf, 2004. Sohrab, Julia A. Sexing the Benefit: Women, Social Security, and Financial Independence in EC Sex Equality Law. Brookfield, VT: Dartmouth, 1996. Sullivan, Teresa A., Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook. The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. Wall, Ginita. Our Money, Our Selves: Money Management for Each Stage of a Woman’s Life. Yonkers, NY: Consumer Reports Books, 1992. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Finland After centuries of being a grand duchy under Sweden, Finland became an autonomous grand duchy of Russia, its much larger neighbor, after 1809. Finland established itself as an independent republic during World War I, and maintained that independence throughout World War II. Finns tend to be extremely homogenous, and 93.4 percent of the population is Finnish. This homogeneity extends to religion, and

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82.5 percent of Finns are associated with the Lutheran Church of Finland. By the 21st century, 63 percent of the population had become urbanized. With a per capita income of $34,900, Finland is the 34th richest country in the world; but the global economic crisis of the early 21st century has resulted in an unemployment rate of 8.6. At the national level, women’s rights are protected by the Ombudsman for Equality, the Equality Union, and the Council for Equality. While Finland, which passed a comprehensive equal rights law in 1985, is considered to provide one of the best environments for women in the world, the nation continues to experience problems with domestic violence and the trafficking of females and children into Finland for the purposes of prostitution and pornography. Despite strong government measures to ensure equality, women make only 80 percent of what males make. Finland is a social welfare state, and it provides a maternity grant for pregnant women and a child supplement to mothers of children under the age of 17. This supplement is higher for single mothers. Nevertheless, women are more likely than men to be poor.

is well educated. Females are more likely than males to pursue higher education. Prostitution is legal in Finland, but there have been strict laws prohibiting the sexual exploitation of minors since 1999. Finnish women’s rights groups have been heavily involved in the campaign to end the practice of trafficking women from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania into Finland and other Nordic Countries to be used as prostitutes. In 2003, police officials estimated that each year 3,000 women and children were trafficked from former Soviet republics into these areas, and 12,000 each year were brought into western Europe. Finland has strong laws that ban violence against women, and the Union of Shelter Homes and each municipality provides assistance for victims. Statistics generated by these shelters indicate that the typical victim of domestic violence is a female between the ages of 25 and 35 who is either married or cohabitating. Approximately a fifth of all victims are immigrants. Nongovernmental organizations also provide a valuable service for women who are victimized. A 2008 report released by the National Research Institute

Leader in Gender Equality Finland, which ranks 12th on the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) list of countries with Very High Human Development, has a long history of gender inclusion. In 1907, 19 female Members of Parliament were elected around the world. Thirteen of those were elected in Finland. The women of Finland were the first in the world to win suffrage and the right to stand for office. In 1926, Miina Sillanpää became Finland’s first female minister. At the beginning of the 21st century, Tarja Halonen became Finland’s first female president. In 2003, Anneli Jätteenmäki became the country’s first prime minister. By 2007, Finland had the highest female political participation rate in the world. Sixty percent of the Finnish Cabinet was female, and women held 84 of 200 seats in Parliament. Finland has a fertility rate of 1.73, and an infant mortality rate of 3.47 deaths per 1,000 live births. The female health advantage begins at birth, and continues throughout life, resulting in a life expectancy of 82.61 years for females as opposed to 75.48 years for males. The median age for females is 43.7 years. Finland has a 100 percent literacy rate, and its citizenry

A street scene in Helsinki. Finland is thought to provide one of the best environments for women in the world.

Fitness



of Legal Policy and the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control estimated that a fifth of all Finnish women had experienced some form of abuse. Domestic violence is dealt with through various laws, which carry prison terms varying from six months to 10 years. A media campaign to raise public awareness about domestic violence has resulted in more victims coming forward to report abuse. Spousal rape is illegal in Finland, and carries a prison term of seven years. Estimates of unreported rape cases are as high as 75 percent. Specific laws prohibit sexual harassment in Finland, and these laws are generally well enforced. See Also: Domestic Violence; Heads of State, Female; Prostitution, Legal; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca V. Mbuh. Women in the Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Finland.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/fi.html (accessed February 2010). “Finland: Conference Examines Trafficking of Women and Children.” WIN News, v.29/3 (2003). Neft, Naomi and Ann D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries, 1997–1998. New York: Random House, 1997. Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Fitness Fitness is defined using various characteristics that pertain to a person’s ability to participate in physical activity and exercise. Moderate to high levels of fitness are important to a person’s ability to engage in daily living activities without major stress and strain to the various body systems, and with enough energy left over to participate in recreational activities. Articles written as early as 1894 indicated that most exercises were too dangerous for women to engage in for fear of the development of various unattractive manly physical qualities. The only physical activity recommended

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for women was walking, which was said to be the most conducive to physical beauty. Since that time, the value of exercise for women has been researched and the benefits of physical activity participation far exceed that of physical beauty. During the early 1980s, Jane Fonda introduced aerobic dance to the nation and many women were attracted to it because it incorporated dance moves to music. Women who had not participated in any type of exercise program prior began to get involved with this popular method of exercise. Today, women of all ages are still involved in group fitness classes that combine exercise with socialization. Today, women participate in not only aerobic dance, but other popular group fitness classes such as spinning, step aerobics, kick boxing, yoga, pilates, tai chi, zumba, and other fitness classes that offer a combination of cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, and endurance activities. The popularity of the group fitness concept combined with the desire many women have for exercising with other women, or more specifically, without men, has transpired into the development of “women only” fitness centers. One of the most popular of these centers is Curves for women. In 2005, Curves was the fastest growing franchise in U.S. history reporting over 8,500 franchises worldwide. The reasons men and women cite for exercise participation are often very different. A survey conducted by America Sports Data indicates that women’s primary motivation in exercising is to control their weight. Men, on the other hand, are more interested in the development of muscle mass. Women have often worried that, by lifting weights, they would become too bulky and develop large muscles that are seen in some fitness or body building magazines; however, this is a myth. Most women are not genetically predisposed to the development of large muscles. The desire to control weight is rightly in the forefront of women’s minds, as there are many health risks associated with being overweight or obese. Women, in particular, see an increased risk in diseases such as arthritis, birth defects, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, gallbladder disease, obstetrical and gynecological complications, urinary stress, incontinence, and pften suffer from stigma and discrimination issues. In addition, participation in exercise sessions is critical to the management of stress common to all women.

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Risks and Recommendations The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2008) provided guidelines for participation for specific populations in physical fitness activities. The recommendations below are for women at significant times in their lives. Premenopausal Women. Osteoporosis is most often associated with older women, but it is actually a disease that begins in earlier on, but does not present problems until the later years of a woman’s life. The U.S. Surgeon General recommends that all women, young and old, reduce their risk of osteoporosis through participation in an exercise program and eating a healthy diet. In order to prevent osteoporosis, as well as the health problems associated with being overweight or obese, premenopausal women should participate in a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five days per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week. More extensive benefits can be obtained when that time is increased to five hours of moderate activity, or 30 minutes of vigorous activity five days per week. Ten-minute sessions of aerobic exercise are recommended for women who are not capable of doing longer bouts, as long as the intensity is moderate to vigorous. Strength training exercises should be incorporated at least two times per week, with at least 48 hours of rest between each workout. Pregnant Women. Exercise is recommended for healthy pregnant women who have been cleared by their physician. Pregnant women should get at least 75 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week, such as brisk walking or low impact aerobics. Women who engage in vigorous exercise such as running, aerobics, or weight training should be able to continue to do so, with some modifications, unless they have been told not to participate by their physician. Women who are pregnant should avoid activities that involve lying on their backs, or that could cause injury to the abdominal area, such as soccer and other team sports. Menopausal/Post-Menopausal Women. Older women should get at least 30 minutes of accumulated moderate physical activity five days per week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. In addition to physical activity, special attention should be paid to resistance and flexibility exercises for two sessions per week. Participation in aforementioned physical activities and a diet low in fat and high in fiber

and calcium can help reduce the symptoms of menopause, such as increase in weight gain, osteoporosis, and heart disease. Other menopausal symptoms such as loss of bladder control, irritability, and depression can also be reduced with proper physical activity and diet. If safe for the individual to do so, involvement in cardiorespiratory and strength training exercises have been shown to reduce the afore mentioned risks. In general, the health benefits, both physiological and psychological, that women experience from participation in structured exercise far exceeds expectations. Psychological reports include increased self-esteem, increased body satisfaction, greater happiness, and increased self-value. In addition, exercise participants report having more energy for their daily routines and for life in general. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Diabetes; Exercise Science; Health, Mental and Physical; Heart Disease; Menopause, Medical Aspects of; Nutrition; Pilates; Pregnancy. Further Readings American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. Baltimore, MD: ACSM, 2010. American Obesity Association. “Women and Obesity.” http://obesity1.tempdomainname.com/subs/fastfacts /obesity_women.shtml (accessed December 2009). Fahey, T. D., et al. Fit and Well. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Physical Activity for Everyone.” http://www.cdc .gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/index.html (accessed December 2009). Jennifer J. Kane University of North Florida Julie Schlegel Maina Roanoke College

Flannery, Sarah As a 16-year old, Sarah Flannery achieved fame when she became the winner of the Esat Young Scientist Exhibit in 1998, the Irish Young Scientist of the Year



Award. Based on her internship-related work, which was conducted with researchers at Baltimore Technologies, she also received the European Young Scientist of the Year Award in 1999 for her instrumental work in the development of cryptography’s Cayley-Pulser algorithm, named after the 19th-century British mathematician (Cayley), modeled after the mathematician (Pulser) who inspired her during her internship. Three years later, in 2002, Sarah Flannery cowrote the book In Code: A Mathematical Journey, with her father, David Flannery. The book covers public-key cryptography, her work in developing this particular algorithm, and her interest in solving mathematical puzzles. After having graduated with a B.A. in the field of computer science from the University of Cambridge’s Peterhouse College in 2003, Flannery went to work for video game publisher and developer Electronic Arts. According to Biographies of Women Mathematicians, as of 2009, Sarah Flannery was working as a chief scientist at Tirnua, an institution that she helped to establish. According to Rafe Jones, Sarah Flannery’s book In Code: A Mathematical Journey is valuable for shedding insight into the mind of a teenager who achieved acclaim for her work in mathematics. The book also provides an energetic introduction into public-key cryptography, and more precisely, the RSA and the alternate algorithms that Flannery created. Finally, Jones advocates reading Flannery’s book because of the sheer joy that it brings with it. Flannery describes her process of discovery: “all of this was an unusual experience for me,” but that she “had a great feeling of excitement. I think it was because I was working on something that no one had worked on before. I worked constantly for whole days on end, and it was exhilarating.” To commemorate Flannery’s accomplishments, the lights on St. Patrick’s Street, one of the main areas of her home city of Cork, Ireland, are named after her. See Also: Ireland; Mathematics, Women in; Mentoring. Further Readings Agnes Scott College. “Biographies of Women Mathematicians.” http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle /women/women.htm (cited June 2010). Flannery, Sarah and David Flannery. In Code: A Mathematical Journey. New York: Algonquin Books, 2002.

Flight Attendants

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Jones, Rafe. “In Code: A Mathematical Journey.” Notices of the AMS, v.50/4 (April 2003). Claudine Boros Touro College

Flight Attendants Flight attendants are the cabin crew, required by law to be hired and trained by the airlines to ensure the security and safety of air travelers. Their training ranges from first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and defibrillation to in-flight firefighting and surviving in the sea or ice. Flight attendants also provide routine in-flight customer services, such as distributing food and drink, making passengers as comfortable as possible. This is a female-dominated occupation; men represent only 10–20 percent of the total work force. Wages and benefits vary among airlines. According to latest data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for flight attendants in the United States was $35,930 in May 2008 compared with $43,140 in 2002 and $38,820 in 2000. In 1922, the British-based Daimler Airway hired the world’s first stewards to weigh and load mail and passengers. These “cabin boys” began to be replaced by female cabin crews in 1930, when Ellen Church, an American registered nurse, persuaded the managers of Boeing Air Transport (later United Airlines) that nurses were well qualified to take care of air travelers’ welfare. Church thus became one of the “Original Eight”—the world’s first female flight attendants, or stewardesses. In the beginning, the requirements for stewardesses were strict: In addition to being registered nurses, they had to be single, younger than 25 years, weigh less than 115 pounds, and be a maximum of 5’4” tall. The original physical qualifications reflected the early aircrafts’ interior designs—low ceilings and narrow aisles, with maximum space allotted for mail and cargo—yet they also reinforced the image of stewardesses that endured for generations: pretty, slim, young “sky girls.” In the post–World War II era, the aviation industry expanded dramatically, and the airlines dropped their requirement that flight attendants be registered nurses. Soon female flight attendants became

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the focus of airline marketing and an icon of popular culture. In the 1950s, stewardesses were depicted in American advertisements as “perfect wives”: young, attractive, modern women who were excellent at providing various services and caring for others. In the 1960s, both airline marketing and the media such as Life magazine displayed flight attendants as sexy “glamour girls.” The stewardesses on Japan Airlines dressed in kimonos and played geisha music as they served the first-class passengers. The femininity and hospitality of their flight attendants have become part of the branding strategy of certain Asian airlines, such as Japan Airlines, China Airlines, Cathay Pacific, THAI, and Malaysia Airlines. Given the popularization of female flight attendants as icons of femininity, it is not surprising that the public is often unaware of flight attendants’ professionalism and working experience. Emerging studies from social sciences and occupational medicine reveal the physical and emotional demands placed on flight attendants as part of coping with their challenging working conditions. Flight attendants have higher risks for cancers and respiratory tract diseases as a result of workplace exposure to cosmic radiation, chemicals (fuel, jet engine exhausts, cabin air pollutants, pesticides), electromagnetic fields, and ozone toxicity. They also suffer from work-related illnesses involving, for example, musculoskeletal, sound perception, and gastrointestinal symptoms. The lifestyles they lead as a result of their job requirements— disrupted sleep patterns and night shift work—also make them more vulnerable to breast cancer, menstrual irregularities and infertility, and fatigue. Flight attendants are also subjected to mental distress such as sexual harassment and verbal abuse by passengers and are prey for posttraumatic stress disorder, especially since September 11, 2001. Over the years, the trade unions of flight attendants have fought for and won significant improvements in the professional status and well-being of crew members. Mandatory resignation because of marital status, age, and pregnancy was struck down in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. The unions also advocated for safer and healthier cabins by requiring floor-level exit lights, less-flammable cabin interiors, and smoking bans in the 1980s and 1990s. The economic recession and the severe competition within the industry in the first decade of the 21st century

have worsened working conditions, however. Airlines have cut jobs, increased the workload for those remaining on duty, and decreased employee benefits and pay. Passengers’ dissatisfaction with overbooked and overcrowded flights increasingly turns to air rage, and flight attendants are often the targets. As market competition has intensified and the glamour of flying has diminished, the reality of flight attendants as pink-collar workers in the burgeoning service sectors has begun to emerge. See Also: “Feminity,” Social Construction of; Professions by Gender; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Association of Flight Attendants. http://www.afanet.org (accessed June 2010). Barry, Kathleen Morgan. Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. 20th anniversary ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Nagda, Niren L. and Michael D. Koontz. “Review of Studies on Flight Attendant Health and Comfort in Airline Cabins.” Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, v.74/2 (2003). Omelia, Johanna and Michael Waldock. Come Fly With Us! A Global History of the Airline Hostess. Portland, OR: Collectors, 2006. Whitelegg, Drew. Working the Skies: The Fast-Paced, Disorienting World of the Flight Attendant. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Yu-ling Huang State University of New York, Binghampton

Focus on the Family Focus on the Family began as a family advice radio broadcast in March 1977. Later that year, Focus on the Family was founded as a nonprofit, conservative, Christian-based organization by Dr. James Dobson, and had a staff of two. Dobson has since stepped down as board chairman of the group. As of 2010, Focus on the Family was based in Colorado Springs,



Colorado and employed approximately 1,300 people. Focus on the Family reaches out to millions of people across North America and the world, broadcast in 27 languages, to spread the word of Jesus Christ and the importance of the institution of the family via radio, satellite, literature, film, and the Internet. Media Utilization With Christ and the Bible as its foundation, Focus on the Family strives to teach about the importance of its view of the family unit by providing an array of resources. According to the Focus on the Family Website, its “ministry is therefore based upon six guiding philosophies that are apparent at every level throughout the organization. These “pillars” are drawn from the wisdom of the Bible and the Judeo-Christian ethic, rather than from the humanistic notions of today’s theorists.” These guiding philosophies include: the preeminence of evangelism, the permanence of marriage, the value of children, the sanctity of human life, and the importance of social responsibility. Radio broadcasts, which range from 15 to 30 minute time slots, include topics such as living by Christian example, effective parenting with children of all ages, marital relationships, sexuality, infidelity, healthy living, depression, finances, and weight loss. To enhance its ministry, Focus on the Family also publishes magazines for all age groups such as Clubhouse, Clubhouse Jr., Thriving Family, and Citizen magazines. Other Rescources of Communication The Focus on the Family Website includes many other resources that communicate its mission. Topics include relationship and marriage, addressing issues such as finances, conflict, marriage challenges, and reviving marriages. The parenting link includes issues such as helping kids grow spiritually, dealing with teens, relationships, and education. The faith link includes the group’s definition of what it means to be a Christian and to live one’s faith, and the study of God. The entertainment link offers its supporters information regarding children’s exposure to media. This includes articles and movie reviews to orient parents on the pros and cons of popular culture outlets, from prime time programming to popular movies. The life challenges section of the Website addresses emotional issues, addiction, abuse, life transitions,

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love, sex, and support for dealing with death, grief, pain, and depression. The social issues link addresses issues involving abstinence, bioethics, the sanctity of life, education, gambling, the law and the courts, pornography, and sexual identity. Their midlife and beyond resources offers support in areas such as the empty nest syndrome, parenting adult children, staying happily married once the kids leave home, grandparenting, and dealing with a midlife crisis. Focus on the Family is one of the largest Christian organizations in the United States. In its attempt to conserve what it perceives as traditional values and the structure of the family, Focus on the Family supports the Defense of Marriage Act, and is opposed to same-sex marriage. It also opposes homosexuality and offer conferences for those who struggle with “such tendencies.” In essence, these conferences are designed to teach individuals that homosexuality is preventable and can be treated. Focus on the Family’s controversial position is that the inability for gays to change their sexual orientation calls for sexual abstinence. In addition to keeping a close watch on the gay movement, Focus on the Family is also highly involved in educational environments. Focus on the Family has attempted to bring back prayer into school systems, but only prayer that is led by students. Student-led prayer is supported over teacher-led prayer, due to ots belief that teachers may lead their students to pray to a power other than the Christian God. Focus on the Family also believes families should have the right to choose their child’s education. Thirty years have passed since the first Focus on the Family radio show. The group is now one of the largest nonprofit, conservative, Christian organizations in the United States, and has become a resource for millions of people. Although its conservative message is not for everyone, it draws an extensive audience and is impacting society. See Also: Christian Identity; Christianity; Fundamentalist Christianity; Same-Sex Marriage; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States. Further Readings Focus on the Family. http://www.focusonthefamily.com (accessed December 2009). Horovitz, Bruce. “Focus on the Family Got Super Bowl Buzz It Wanted.” USA Today (February 9, 2010). http://

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Christine Pease-Hernandez Slippery Rock University

the Vietnamese were not the enemy. After the United States left Vietnam for good in 1975, Fonda and thenhusband Tom Hayden began the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED) to express opposition to nuclear power. Fonda used some of the money raised through the CED to produce the film, The China Syndrome in 1979, a story about corporate greed and a nuclear power plant accident cover-up.

Jane Fonda, born December 21, 1937, is a renowned actress, activist, feminist, author, and fitness guru. While Fonda is known worldwide for her Oscar-winning performances in Klute (1972) and Coming Home (1979), she has worked tirelessly for decades on antiwar campaigns, reproductive health issues for teens, physical fitness promotion, and for civil and women’s rights both locally and internationally. Beginning in the 1960s, Fonda used her wealth and celebrity to stage protests and raise money to fight against the Vietnam War. In 1972, she traveled to Hanoi to investigate reports that the United States was intentionally bombing dikes that held back the Red River in North Vietnam. She recorded proof of these attacks, as well as interviews with Vietnamese soldiers, but her film allegedly disappeared once she returned to the United States. Fonda chose to speak publicly on Radio Hanoi about her strong antiwar sentiments. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency obtained transcripts of these radio shows, and monitored her closely, along with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the White House. Rather than highlight her antiwar efforts, these institutions, along with the international media, focused on a photograph of Fonda sitting on an antiaircraft battery. The photo earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.” She apologizes for the lapse in judgment that led to the photograph, but remains unapologetic for her antiwar protests. Despite the scrutiny, Fonda created the Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC) with the goal of moving the antiwar campaign from demonstrations and rallies into local communities. Through the IPC, she produced a film about ordinary Vietnamese people titled Introduction to the Enemy to prove to Americans that

A New Aspect to Her Career In the 1980s, Fonda turned her sights toward physical fitness with the Jane Fonda Workout Book and Jane Fonda Workout video. She made home fitness fun, and encouraged women and men alike to “feel the burn.” The Jane Fonda Workout video sold more than 17 million copies and boosted sales of the video cassette recorder (VCR) as well. Fonda became vocal about international human rights for women and girls in the 1990s and increased her activism worldwide. She visited Cairo in 1994 to speak at the International Conference on Population and Development as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. This trip exposed Fonda to extreme poverty and inspired her to found the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The campaign helps young girls to make informed choices about pregnancy, family planning, reproductive health, and raising children, while also encouraging young men to be attentive fathers. In 1995, Fonda traveled to Beijing to participate in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. A few years later, she went to the Nigeria to film a documentary titled Generation 2000: Changing Girls’ Realities about innovative schools in Nigeria that help foster girls’ self-esteem with a solid education. In the new millennium Fonda has devoted her time and energies to the VDay movement, with the mission of ending violence against women everywhere. She serves on the V-Board and has been a regular participant in benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues since 2001. In 2001, she also founded the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent and Reproductive Health at Emory University. Fonda cofounded the Women’s Media Center (WMC) in 2005, a nonprofit progressive women’s media organization, with fellow activists Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan. The WMC seeks to make women more visible in the media.

www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2010 -02-09-focusfolo09_ST_N.htm (accessed July 2010). Right Wing Watch. “Focus on the Family.” (2006). http:// www.rightwingwatch.org/content/focus-family (accessed July 2010).

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See Also: Celebrity Women; Ensler, Eve; Fitness; Pacifism, Female; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Vagina Monologues, The. Further Readings Fonda, Jane. My Life So Far. New York: Random House, 2006. Hershberger, M. Jane Fonda’s War: A Political Biography of an Antiwar Icon. New York: New Press, 2005. Hershberger, M., ed. Jane Fonda’s Words of Politics and Compassion. New York: The New Press, 2006. Katie M. White University of Maryland

Forum for African Women Educationalists The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is an African nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in Nairobi, Kenya, with the goal of advancing the education and overall opportunities of African women. FAWE was developed in 1992 by five women serving as ministers of education from several African countries including Fay Chung of Zimbabwe, Simone Testa from the Seychelles, Paulette Moussavon-Missambo of Gabon, Alice Tiendrebengo representing Burkina Faso, and Vida Yeboah from Ghana. Pan-African in scope, the mission of FAWE is to promote the education of women and girls in subSaharan Africa. Creating FAWE evolved following a series of pivotal global conferences and initiatives such as the United Nation’s Women’s Decade Conference (1985), the World Declaration on Education for All (1990), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990), and the Jontiem World Conference (1990). As a result of these events, the women who created FAWE examined the data on education worldwide indicating that 60 million girls around the world, primarily in developing countries, had little or no access to education while two-thirds of the world’s illiterate were women. The first official meeting of FAWE took place in October 1992 in Bellagio, Italy. Members of FAWE include ministers of education, university vice chancellors, education policy makers, human rights activists, and gender specialists. Currently, FAWE has

Eight-year-old Najmo in war-torn Somalia can continue her education through daily, radio-based programs.

a network of 32 national chapters across the African continent. Through these chapters and “centers of excellence” (COEs) ordinary schools are revitalized with programs that target the physical, academic, and social aspects of education. Integrating genderresponsive pedagogy in their academic programming, focusing on the needs of individual learners, FAWE has made significant achievements in girls’ retention and performance in educational facilities throughout the African continent. According to many statistics, the dropout rate of girls in Third World countries is relatively high as compared with their male counterparts. FAWE believes that the key to improving the lives of young girls is providing a fair and equitable education system while simultaneously, through educational programming, addressing long-standing oppressive societal norms that impact the lives of women. It is the belief of FAWE that many girls drop out of school due to “unfavorable learning environments.”

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Implementing gender-sensitive learning materials, within a supportive community environment, helps to encourage young girls to remain in school and this is the cornerstone FAWE initiatives.

compared with those nations without FAWE centers. FAWE has been recognized as one of the most important voices on the education of women in Africa today.

Strategic Objectives and Goals The strategic goals and objectives of FAWE focus on reducing gender disparities while advocating education for all (EFA); working together with partners to encourage positive societal attitudes; supporting policies that focus on equity for girls in terms of access, retention, and educational quality. Working with stakeholders throughout the African continent, FAWE seeks to influence the transformation of educational systems in Africa. These goals and objectives are articulated through a four-pronged approach outlined as (1) influencing policy in favor of the education of women; (2) creating awareness through advocating the importance of girls’ education; (3) demonstrating what works in addressing constraints to girls’ access, retention, and performance; and (4) influencing replication and mainstreaming of best practices related the development of education for girls and young women.

See Also: Africa; “Girl-Friendly” Schools; Nongovermental Organizations Worldwide.

Programs The first national chapters of FAWE were created in 1993 in the locales of Ghana, Malawi, and Seychelles. In 1994, eight more chapters were created in Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. FAWE programs include the Science, Math, and Technology Endeavor (SMT) instituted in 1995, the Tuseme (Let Us Speak Out) inaugurated in 1996 that utilizes theater techniques to encourage girls to address social concerns that may compromise educational achievement, and the COEs created in 1999 to transform existing educational facilities into quality institutions of excellence. The Tuseme approach has been incorporated into the curriculum of places such as Kenya and Tanzania. FAWE centers of excellence are present in 13 schools in 10 countries. These centers feature the SMT program for girls, gender responsive pedagogy, and sexual maturation management programs. FAWE has also advanced programs to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa.

Becoming a foster mother, as the term implies, refers to raising a child who is not biologically a women’s offspring, on either a short-term basis or for an extended period of time. Children placed in the care of a foster mother are either removed from the biological parent as the parent is deemed unfit or unsuitable by the state to raise the child, or alternatively, the process of child transferal to an alternative caregiver is a voluntary process that does not involve state intervention. Being a foster mother differs considerably from formal adoption as in the case of adoption the biological child is permanently removed from the parent–child unit and the biological parents cede all rights to the child. Alternatively, in the case of fostering, the biological parents retain the right to intercede in decisions taken with respect to the child and the child still maintains the right to legally inherit assets from the biological parents. In cases where fostering has been ratified by the state, the foster mother does not automatically assume the role of guardian to the child in her care, rather, this position is retained by the state, and the state is, for all intents and purposes, regarded as the custodian of the child. As such, the state has the

Achievements Countries with FAWE national centers have significantly higher levels of literacy and retention as

Further Readings Forum for African Women Educationalists. http://www .fawe.org (accessed January 2010). Kane, Eileen. Seeing for Yourself: Researchers Handbook for Girls’ Education in Africa. New York: World Bank Publications, 1995. Kwesiga, Joy. Women’s Access to Higher Education in Africa. Kampala, Uganda: Fountain, 2002. Hettie V. Williams Monmouth University

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right to remove the child at any stage in the fostering process, and if deemed appropriate, may reunite the child with his or her biological parents whose rights are viewed by the state as superseding those of the foster mother. Studies indicate that reasons for opting to become a foster mother are diverse and based on altruistic intentions as well as the need to fulfill a personal void. Common reasons for fostering cited by foster mothers include the will to help children in need, maternal desire, and “a calling from God.” While legal requirements in terms of becoming a foster mother vary from country to country, foster mothers are thoroughly screened, and in the case of state fostering, frequently receive training in an attempt to ensure suitability and preparation for the role. Once accepted as a suitable candidate, foster mothers may opt to foster on a short-term basis or for extended periods of time. Longer term fostering frequently results in a natural and enduring emotional bond forming between a foster mother and the child/children in her care. While the emotional investment in the child is beneficial in terms of the child receiving psychosocial support during what is often a traumatic time, the severing of the bonds formed if the child is reunited with the biological parents, or moved to an alterative caregiver, may be detrimental to both the foster mother and the child/children in her care. Voluntary Fostering In many parts of the world, such as South America, Asia, and Africa, children have historically been, and continue to be, fostered on a voluntary basis. In such instances, the child is fostered through a sociocultural arrangement made between the biological parents and the foster parents and such a fosterage system does not normally require state intervention. In the case of voluntary fostering, the child maintains a close bond with his or her biological parents but is raised by alternative kin caregivers, allowing for skills to be transferred or acquired, labor to be offered, kin ties to be strengthened, education opportunities to be sought, and companionship and care to be given. However, the nature of informal, voluntary fostering has changed considerably with the onset of the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic. HIV/AIDS has resulted in the demise of many prime-age caregiv-

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ers who have historically been the first line of defense against a child becoming destitute. As a result, the number of children being absorbed into households able to provide care has risen at an unprecedented rate, resulting in care-dependency ratios increasing dramatically. Social theorists have argued that in many regions of the world but most specifically in sub-Saharan Africa, voluntary fostering has now been replaced by crisis fostering. While non-kin fostering has historically been an anomaly in Africa, Asia, and many parts of South America, HIV/AIDS has resulted in the growth of this care sector. Models of foster care, such as global SOS Villages have become a natural response to the pandemic. In such fostering schemes, cluster fostering is the norm and individual foster mothers are required to raise a number of children in an individual homestead within a cluster village scenario. This type of foster care is regarded as a remarkable improvement to the typical residential “orphanage” model of care that arose with the industrial revolution and has become synonymous with care for orphaned and destitute children in many Western countries. While some assert that cluster fostering is likely to be the answer to the care challenges created by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, critics argue that such capital-intensive schemes are not likely to be easily replicated on a mass scale. A further aspect of foster care that has received both media and academic attention in recent years is the issue of interracial fostering. Interracial fostering has had a sporadic history, being virtually absent prior to the World War II, gaining precedence with the civil rights movement in the United States, dwindling significantly in the 1990s and resurging in popularity since the turn of the century. Historically, there has been a strong dichotomy with respect to interracial fostering. Debates have hinged on the positive and negatives attributes, with those in favor stressing the benefits of a stable home, a unique opportunity for learning culture through dual enculturation, and keeping children out of the less-favored residential orphanage system. On the flip side of the coin, critiques of interracial fostering have stressed the risk of developing poor racial, cultural, and ethnic identity as well as the possibility of experiencing appearance discomfort. With the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and the concentration of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa, cross-border

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trans-racial fostering, frequently culminating in more permanent adoption, has gained scope. As foster mothering is hinged on sociocultural and economic premises, the nature of foster mothering is constantly shifting and being renegotiated in response to the changing environment and childcare prerogatives. As a result, new foster care initiatives that are culturally and socially appropriate are likely to emerge as the HIV pandemic unfolds and societal status quos shift. See Also: Adoption; Childlessness as Choice; Children’s Rights; Convention on the Rights of the Child; HIV/AIDS: Africa. Further Readings Brown, J. “Challenges of Transcultural Placements: Foster Parent Perspectives.” Child Welfare, v.88/3 (2009). Campbell, C., and S. Whitelaw Downs. “The Impact of Economic Incentives on Foster Parents.” Social Science Review, v.61/4 (1987). Denby, R., N. Rindfleisch, and G. Bean. “Predictors of Foster Parents’ Satisfaction and Intent to Continue to Foster.” Child Abuse and Neglect, v.23/3 (1999). Jones, S. “Children on the Move: Parenting, Mobility and Birth-Status Among Migrants.” Questionable Issue: Illegitimacy in South Africa. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1992. Oleke, C., A. Blystad, and O. Rekdal. “When the Obvious Brother Is Not There: Political and Cultural Contexts of the Orphan Challenge in Northern Uganda.” Social Science and Medicine, v.61/12 (2005). Rushton, A. and H. Minnis. “Research Review: Transracial Placements: A Commentary on a New Adult Outcome Study.” Adoption and Fostering, v.24/1 (2000). Susan de la Porte University of KwaZulu-Natal

France In the aftermaths of World War I and World War II, France lost wealth, colonial territories, labor force, and previously held prestige or “grandeur,” a favorite term of Charles de Gaulle. Yet, France has emerged as one of the leaders of the European Union, particularly

as far as economic policy and cooperation with other European nations such as Germany is concerned, while also maintaining strong diplomatic ties with the United States. In 2009, France ranked 28th in the world in per capita income ($32,800) and is listed 8th overall on the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) Human Development Report list of countries with Very High Human Development, placing 7th in terms of life expectancy at birth (81 years). According to the World Factbook, France’s population is mainly Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese, and Basque minorities, while in terms of religion, 88 percent of the country are Roman Catholic, with a significant Muslim population (5-10 percent), along with Protestant (2 percent), and Jewish (1 percent) communities. Approximately 4 percent of the population have no religious affiliation. Birth of Women’s Rights Movement in the 18th Century The struggle for women’s rights in France began in the 18th century during the French Revolution, when Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) famously penned the “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen” in 1791, demanding female equality and legal representation in response to the 1789 “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” De Gouges was guillotined in 1793 during the Reign of Terror. In 1776, guilds of tailors and seamstresses allowed women to join, while divorce was legalized in 1792 (only to be abolished in 1816, although it would once again be made legal in 1884). The first woman to be recognized with the Légion d’honneur—the highest award given by the French Republic for service to the nation—was Angelique Marie Joseph Duchemion who was given the honor by Louis-Napoleon, President of the Republic, in 1851. The demand for female suffrage began in the early 19th century, but women were not granted the vote in France until October 1944. In the early 19th century, women accounted for one-third of the labor force (4.5 million women). By 1911, 36 percent of the workforce was female, and 50 percent of all women of working age worked. The decline of female employment between 1920 and 1945 leveled off and increased in the 1960s. In 2000, the total employment rates of women age 25 to 49 was 80.6 percent, broken down as follows: 87.7 percent of single women, 86.6 percent of married women with



no children, 85.2 percent of married women with 1 child (under age 16), 75 percent of women with 2 children (under age 16), 51.1 percent of married women with more than 2 children (under age 16). Women overall have a higher unemployment rate than men: in March 2000, the unemployment rate was 10 percent: 11.9 percent for women and 8.5 percent for men. In 2009, the unemployment rate for women was 8.5 percent while it was 7.4 percent for men. Women on average earn 25 percent less than men, which can be partially explained by the fact that women are more often part-time workers and work in lower paid fields. Yet even when employed in equal lines of work and with similar qualifications, a 7-percent pay gap persists between men and women. According to the Global Gender Gap Report of 2009, France was ranked 123st for wage equality for similar work. In 2009, women’s estimated earned income was $24,529; men’s was $39,731. This same report found that 64 percent of French women participated in the workforce while 74 percent of men did and that women formed 38 percent of legislators, senior officials, and managers as opposed to 62 percent of men. French Social Security provides a 16-week maternity leave, with 100 percent of wages paid (up to a ceiling). In 2009, France has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world (3.33 deaths/1,000 live births). Female babies (2.99) have a significant advantage over males (3.66). The same is true for life expectancy, which is 84.3 years for women as opposed to 77.8 for men (life expectancy at birth for the entire population averages to 80.9 years). Women have a fertility rate of 1.98 children, ranking 133st in comparison to the rest of the world. The median age for women is 40.9 years while for men it is 38 years. While the literacy rate is 99 percent for both males and females, the school life expectancy for women is slightly higher (17 years) than for men (16 years). In 2007, France spent 77 billion euros, or 28 percent of its national budget on education (6.9 percent per inhabitant). It ranked 46th in the world in educational spending. Women and Politics In October 1945, women made up 5.6 percent of deputies elected to the National Assembly, dropping to 1.5 percent in 1958 and climbing to 3.5 percent in

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1961. By 1986, the figure was 5.9 percent, dipping to 5.7 percent in 1988, and reaching 6.1 percent after the 1993 parliamentary elections. Since 1997, the Parti socialiste (PS) has reserved 28 percent of its constituencies for female candidates. As of 2009, France was ranked 16th for political empowerment by the Global Gender Gap report, with 63 women in Parliament (4 in ministerial positions). At the end of the 1970s, France was second only to Sweden for the highest number of women in high-ranking government positions. In 1974, Arlette Laguiller (1940– ) was the first woman to attempt a presidential campaign as part of the Workers’ Struggle Party—­and she would continue to run for president in 1981, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. There were nine women ministers during the presidency of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing from 1974­–81, including Françoise Giroud (1916–2003), minister for women, and Simone Veil (1927– ), minister of health. Veil would go to on to be elected the first female president and the first president altogether of the European Parliament in 1979. The presidential candidacy of François Mitterrand (1916–96) was supported by many feminists in 1981. Mitterrand’s victory in May of that year brought much success to the French women’s movement, including the 1983 passage of the Yvette Roudy— sponsored anti-sexism law as well as the creation of the Ministère des droits de la femme (Ministry of Women’s Rights) and the Secretariat à la condition féminine (Women’s Secretariat). One of the setbacks for the French women’s movement occurred with Mitterrand’s appointment of Edith Cresson (1934– ) as the first French female prime minister, whose tenure was short lived and marked by her unpopularity due to her homophobic, sexist, and racist statements. Cresson resigned after less than one year in office (the shortest of any Fifth Republic prime minister). The end of the 20th century in France witnessed an increase in feminist organizations and activity. A few of the most important women’s rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were created in the late 20th century including the Chiennes de guarde (Female Guard Dogs) founded in 1999 by Florence Montreynaud (1948– ); Ni Putes, Ni Soumises (Neither Whores, Nor Doormats), created in 2002 by young French Muslim women in response to violence against them; and the Collectif des féministes indigènes (Collective

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of Indigenous Feminists), started in 2007, against sexism, racism, and how its members consider that nonWestern women are dominated by Western feminists. The year 2007 also saw the first national French female presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal (1953– )​ of the Socialist Party. Nicolas Sarkozy (1955– ) of the Conservative UMP defeated Royal. Former model, actress, and singer Carla Bruni (1967– ) married Sarkozy in February 2008, becoming France’s first lady. Sarkozy appointed Fadela Amara (1964– ) as Secretary of State for Urban Policies in the 2nd UMP government of Prime Minister François Fillon. Amara­—who founded the Association des femmes pour l’échange intercommunautaire (Women’s Association for Intercommunal Exchange) when she was 18 years old—is a supporter of the controversial 2004 French Law on Secularity (headscarf ban). In September 2010, the lower house of French Parliament voted in favor of banning the burka in public. Laws to Protect Women French law penalizes rape with a minimum prison sentence of 15 years; 10,277 rapes were reported in 2008, an increase from the 10,132 reported in 2007. The number of women killed by their spouses decreased in 2008 to 156 from 166 in 2007. The Global Gender Gap Report found that on a scale of 0 to 1 (0 being the best score), France received a score of .25 for the existence of legislation punishing acts of violence against women. Female genital mutilation is against the law. Prostitution is legal, although there are strict regulations that are often difficult to maintain. Sex tourism and trafficking continue to plague France despite legal and political measures to combat them. Most victims of trafficking are women taken to France from Africa (Cameroon and Nigeria), Asia (China), Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria and Romania), and the former Soviet Union for sexual servitude. In the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report, France was ranked 18 out of 134 countries, a drop from the previous year when it ranked 15 out of 130 countries. Yet these are both significant improvements over previous rankings: 51 (out of 128) in 2007 and 70 (out of 115) in 2006. See Also: Domestic Violence; Professions by Gender; Representation of Women in Government, International;

Sarkozy, Carla Bruni; Secularity Law, France; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Amara, F. and S. Zappi. Ni Putes ni Soumises. Paris: La Découverte, 2003. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: France.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/fr.html (accessed April 2010). Jardine, A. and A. Menke, eds. Shifting Scenes: Interviews on Women, Writing, and Politics in Post-’68 France. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Mossuz-Lavau, Janine. “Gender Parity in Politics.” http:// www.ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article612 (accessed June 2010). Samuel, Henri. “Burka Is ‘an Affront to French Values,’ Parliament Rules.” The Telegraph (May 11, 2010). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe /france/7711510/Burka-is-an-affront-to-French -values-parliament-rules.html (accessed May 2010). Scott, J. W. Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. United Nations Development Programme. “Human Development Report 2009, France.” http://hdrstats. undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs _FRA.html (accessed June 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2009 Human Rights Report: France.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/ eur/136031.htm (June 2010). World Economic Forum. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009: Country Profiles and Highlights, France.” http:// www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap2009/France.pdf (June 2010). Marcelline Block Princeton University

Freedom of Choice Act The Freedom of Choice Act was first introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 21, 2004, by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and in the Senate on January 22, 2004 by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) during the 108th session of Congress, and was designed to reinforce the Roe v. Wade decision.



The Freedom of Choice Act specifically states that a woman has the right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy before the fetus is viable, or to terminate a pregnancy after the fetus is viable when necessary to protect her own life or health. Additionally, it states that federal, state, and local governments may not deny or interfere with a woman’s right to make these choices, nor may they discriminate against the exercise of these rights in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information. Finally, the act concludes by stating that these provisions should apply retroactively and that anyone who is harmed through a violation of this act shall be entitled to relief, even against a government, through filing a civil action. After being introduced into the House and Senate, the Freedom of Choice Act was referred in both cases to the Committee on Judiciary. The 108th session of Congress ended prior to the act being passed by the Senate and the House, and therefore needed to be introduced again in a following session on Congress before it can be acted upon again. The Freedom of Choice Act was introduced again during the 110th session of Congress on April 19, 2007, in both the House and the Senate. Both bodies again referred the act to the Committee on Judiciary, and again it failed to make it out of the committee prior to the end of this session of Congress. As of 2010, it has not been reintroduced for consideration in either the House of the Senate. Opponents One of the largest opponents of the Freedom of Choice Act is the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). This group argues that the Act would invalidate laws that protect women from unsafe abortion clinics, require taxpayer monies to be spent on abortion services, require states to allow partial-birth and late-term abortions, allow abortions to be performed by nonphysicians, ban laws that protect conscientious objection to abortion, and deny parents the opportunity to be involved in their minor daughter’s abortion decision. Organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL that support the act refute all these arguments and argue that it would serve to protect a woman’s right to have an abortion even if the Supreme Court reverses the Roe v. Wade decision. Independent ana-

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lysts assert that the impact of the Freedom of Choice Act, if passed, is unclear since much of the language in the Act is vague and therefore open to interpretation. They also argue that some of the claims of the USCCB may not transpire with the passage of the Act as it only applies to governments and not to private hospital facilities. Additionally, they argue that the Freedom of Choice Act would not supersede the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion, and is reaffirmed each year by Congress. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, United States; NARAL; Planned Parenthood; Pregnancy; Pro-Life Movement; Roe v. Wade. Further Readings Hull, N. E. H. and Peter C. Hoffer. Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History (Landmark Law Cases and American Society.) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Freedom of Choice Act: Most Radical Abortion Legislation in History.” http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/FOCA/FOCA _FactSheet08.pdf (Accessed December 2009). U.S. Library of Congress. “Freedom of Choice Act.” http:// thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.1173 (accessed December 2009). C. L. Cokely Curry College

“Freedom of Conscience” Legislation Freedom of conscience legislation refers to laws and legislative measures that protect the right of pharmacists, physicians, and other healthcare workers to refuse to provide healthcare services if doing so would conflict with their personal beliefs. Such legislation permits healthcare professionals to withhold these services without fear of penalty or discrimination. Conscience clauses, also known as “refusal clauses,” have recently become a source of increased scrutiny and debate. At the heart of public debate regarding freedom of conscience legislation is the question of how to balance the provider’s moral or religious

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beliefs, especially the right to act in accordance with one’s conscience, with the professional duty of care, or collective obligation to fulfill patient needs and provide nondiscriminatory access to professional services regardless of personal objections. Although freedom of conscience legislation is most often evoked in relation to the provision of abortion and sterilization procedures, it has implications for a wide range of healthcare issues, including emergency contraception for rape victims; the receipt or provision of abortion training; in vitro fertilization for infertile couples; therapies developed with the use of fetal tissue or embryonic stem cells, including vaccines; and end-of-life care. Constitutional Foundation and Recent Laws Freedom of conscience legislation is premised on the right to freedom of thought or conscience, characterized by United States Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo as the foundation for every other form of freedom, and recognized as a cornerstone of international human rights law. Such legislation represents an emerging front in the abortion wars nationwide. It protects the rights of “healthcare entities,” typically defined as individual physicians, postgraduate physician training programs, and participants in health professions training programs, although recent legislation has proposed to expand this definition. The first conscience clause in the United States, the Church Amendment, was passed in 1973 immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113). Drafted as a clause of the Public Health Service Act, it allowed health workers at private hospitals receiving federal funds to refuse to perform abortion or sterilization procedures on the basis of moral or religious convictions. By 1978, nearly every state had enacted similar legislation to protect the rights of health providers to refuse treatment against their conscience. Currently, 46 states have adopted some form of freedom of conscience legislation. Notably, these laws do not allow health providers to prevent or deter patients from receiving such care elsewhere. Congress enacted additional conscience clauses throughout the 1990s. Legislation passed in 1997 extends the coverage of conscience clauses beyond the individual health provider to the companies that pay for healthcare under the Medicaid and Medicare pro-

grams. It also expands the scope of earlier conscience clauses by allowing health plans funded by Medicare and Medicaid to refuse to provide counseling and referral for abortion services, whereas earlier legislation had only impacted the actual provision of these services. The Obama administration has proposed to reverse the Provider Refusal Rule, a 2008 expansion of existing conscience clauses that enables providers to define contraception as abortion and “human life” as beginning prior to the implantation of a fertilized egg, contrary to medical definitions of these terms. Practices in the Marketplace Pharmacists’ conscience clauses have proven especially controversial within the past decade. Some pharmacies, including CVS and Target, allow their pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control pills under the pharmacist’s conscience clause. Although not all pharmacies require their employees to refer their patients to alternative providers, Target upholds a corporate policy of “refuse and refer,” that is, employees who evoke the refusal clause must refer their patients to another Target location that will fill their prescriptions. Health providers and agencies opposed to abortion support conscience clauses because they uphold the right of health providers to make professional judgments based on ethical convictions. For example, Catholic hospitals advocate freedom of conscience laws because they reinforce the church’s moral stance on life and choice. Yet many healthcare and reproductive rights organizations, including the American Medical Association, Planned Parenthood, and National Abortion Rights Action League, suggest that conscience clauses obstruct patient care, especially by limiting women’s access to reproductive healthcare services. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Appel, Jacob M. “‘Conscience’ vs. Care: How Refusal Clauses Are Reshaping the Rights Revolution.” Medicine and Health, Rhode Island, v.88/8 (2005). Feder, Jody. “The History and Effect of Abortion Conscience Clause Laws.” Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress (January 14, 2005). http://

Fundamentalist Christianity

www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocu ments/RS2142801142005.pdf (accessed July 2010). Rovner, Julie. “Legislatures Grapple With ‘Conscience Laws.’” Weekend Edition Saturday. (May 14, 2005). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story .php?storyId=4652240 (accessed November 2009). Karina Eileraas University of California, Los Angeles

Fundamentalist Christianity Fundamentalism originated in the 1920s, in the urban North in the United States, in reaction to 19th century secularism and was largely unsuccessful. In the 1930s, Fundamentalism became a separatist movement. During the 1970s and 1980s, Fundamentalism resurfaced through the political efforts of the “Moral Majority.” After successfully overtaking the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), Fundamentalists have revised denominational history to support their dogma and limited women from ministerial leadership. In the late 19th century, several intellectual ideas challenged American evangelical Protestant Christian hegemony. The Enlightenment advocated individualism, reason, freedom, and progress. Biblical criticism questioned biblical inspiration and historicity. Evolutionary theory doubted Intelligent Design. Liberal theology attempted to reconcile the Enlightenment, biblical criticism, and evolution with Christianity. Rising secularism incited Protestant opposition to liberalism. California entrepreneurs Lyman and Milton Stewart commissioned 12 pamphlets containing 90 articles on The Fundamentals between 1910 and 1915, to be distributed freely to Christian leaders globally. In 1920, Northern Baptist newspaper editor Curtis Lee Laws authored a column labeling adherents to the fundamentals as “Fundamentalists.” In the 1920s and 1930s, Fundamentalists, primarily centered in the urban North, lost public battles and failed to dominate any major denomination. The most famous battle was the Scopes trial in 1925, in which Tennessee public school teacher John Scopes was sued for violating an earlier prohibition of teaching evolution. Though defense attorney Clarence Darrow

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defeated the prosecution, led by William Jennings Bryan, heavy trial press led to increasing public disapproval of Fundamentalism. The second most significant public loss for Fundamentalists occurred in 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt’s administration repealed Prohibition. In the 1930s, Fundamentalist leadership shifted from scholars to Bible teachers and evangelists. Fundamentalists separated themselves from mainstream culture and promoted their beliefs through radio, revivals, Bible colleges and seminaries, and missions. In the 1970s, Fundamentalism resurged into national discourse through the political campaigning of Jerry Falwell and the “Moral Majority” who sought legislation to protect Christian morality in America, namely: conservative social values, increased national defense, and capitalism. Fundamentalism is now primarily associated with the SBC. Fundamentalism originated without a governing authority; however, most early Fundamentalists subscribed to biblical inerrancy, dispensational premillennialism, and pietism. Biblical inerrancy specifically rejected biblical criticism and claimed inspired authorship and historical accuracy of the Bible. Dispensational premillennialism upheld a specific series of events to happen surrounding the return of Christ and the end of the world, which many Fundamentalists believe is imminent. Pietism, also known as the deeper life, connected D. L. Moody’s evangelism campaign with the Bible conference movement, advocating for strict holy living among believers. The Fundamentals rejected biblical criticism, evolution, and liberal theology and addressed threatened Fundamentalist beliefs. In 1910, the General Assembly of the Northern Presbyterian Church affirmed a list of five elements of fundamentalist doctrine: biblical inerrancy, the virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, Christ’s bodily resurrection, and the authenticity of biblical miracles. From the 1920s, “the five fundamentals” referred to this list, though sometimes the premillennial return of Christ appeared instead of the authenticity of miracles, and the deity of Christ was often added as a sixth fundamental. Biblical inerrancy is the foundation of Fundamentalist doctrine: the original manuscripts of biblical texts were flawless in theology, ethics, history, and science. Affirmation of the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Christ, and the authenticity of miracles similarly

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defend the historicity of the Bible. Substitionary atonement comes from John Calvin’s theology; its inclusion in the list reflects intra-Christian debate concerning the nature of the atonement rather than secularist influence. Premillennialism originated in the 19th century and proposes that the world is progressively becoming more sinful and that Christ will rapture Christians before seven years of tribulation, after which Christ and Christians will defeat Satan in the battle of Armageddon, and Christ will reign on Earth for a thousand years before God’s final judgment. Southern Baptists and Women In the early 20th century, several Fundamentalist churches were removed from the SBC and created independent Baptist circles. In 1979, the Convention hosted extensive controversy in which Fundamentalist leaders captured leadership of every Convention agency and moved the Convention toward Fundamentalism, away from Baptist distinctives local church autonomy and the separation of church and state. The 1963 Baptist Faith and Message (BFM) did not include any gender role statements concerning church ministry, and Baptists have historically affirmed women in ministry. The Fundamentalist-driven 2000 BFM specifically forbade women pastors, affirmed men as household spiritual leaders, and elevated Scripture as commensurate with deity. In addition to rejecting its more than 1,600 ordained women, the Convention has also removed its support of female military chaplains. During the 1980s and 1990s, SBC seminaries removed all female faculty teaching core disciplines. Convention’s missionaries are required to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, and women missionaries are limited in how they may serve. Fundamentalists interpret scripture concerning women and ministerial leadership literally rather than contextually and encourage women to find freedom through dying to themselves as Christ on the cross by submitting to the headship of their fathers then their husbands, and accepting their ministry through serving their male authorities. Fundamentalists prioritize Scripture over the ministry of Jesus, which included women apostles and preachers. See Also: Christian Identity; Christianity; Evangelical Protestantism; Feminist Theology; Focus on the Family; Ministry, Protestant; Religion, Women in; Religious

Fundamentalisms, Cross-Cultural Context of; Southern Baptist Convention. Further Readings Ammerman, Nancy. Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Humphreys, Fisher and Philip Wise. Fundamentalism. Macon, GA: Smith & Helwys, 2004. Joyce, Kathryn. Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Boston: Beacon Press, 2009. Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism in American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Courtney Lyons Baylor University

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Known most famously for its support of plural marriage (polygamy), the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), based on the revelations of Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr., encourages its female congregants to remain subservient to the men in their community. Though many female members of the FLDS subscribe to this belief system, others have rebelled against these traditional notions and have left the Church altogether. Scholars like Stephen Singular, author of When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back, draw special attention to Smith’s revelations and passages of Mormon scripture which form the crux for the FLDS’s views on women. Smith had a revelation in which he realized that to be granted salvation, a man needed to have more than one woman acting as his wife. A specific piece of scripture states that a man may have 10 women of his own and that since they “belong” to him, the man cannot be found guilty of committing adultery. Though the FLDS supports men having multiple partners, women may have only one. Singular analyzes another piece of Mormon scripture that clarifies the notion of women remaining faithful to one man; the



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The FLDS community in Eldorado, Texas, made international news in 2008 when state troopers and child welfare authorities stormed the church compound and removed over 400 children from their mothers’ care.

passage concerns Joseph Smith’s wife Emma, and how God commands her to keep only Smith as her partner, and that not doing so would incur God’s wrath. Women’s Roles in Recent Views Recent leaders in the FLDS continuously emphasize women’s roles as subservient to their husband. Warren Jeffs, who came under scrutiny and was placed on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Most Wanted List. After Jeffs was captured, he tried for crimes including incest and sexual relations with minors. Jeffs abandoned his many wives while attempting to outrun the law; these wives were simply assigned to other men. Jeffs further emphasized his view of men having ownership over women when, as Singular cites in When Men Become Gods, he reminded FLDS female students during their lessons that their husbands should have absolute rule over them. Though women’s roles in the FLDS remain strictly defined, and although women are expected to behave obediently without questioning male authority, several women have successfully left the FLDS, often taking their children from their polygamous (and often abusive) marriages with them. Women like Carolyn Jessop

(wife of Merril Jessop, a former FLDS leader), Flora Jessop (Carolyn’s cousin, who was forced to marry her first cousin Phillip at the age of 16), and Elissa Wall (one of Warren Jeff’s child brides) have separated themselves from the church and their polygamist marriages. With the help of counseling and other forms of support, these women have adjusted to life outside the FLDS. Tellingly, each of these women have also written autobiographies in which they chronicle their lives in the FLDS and, as they refer to it, their “escape” from the FLDS and its stifling expectations concerning women. The FLDS community in Eldorado, Texas, made international news in 2008 when state troopers and child welfare authorities stormed the church compound and removed over 400 children from their mothers’ care. While Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) claimed this action was taken for the children’s own good, the Texas Supreme Court subsequently ordered the return of the children to their mothers. The phone call that precipitated the CPS action was subsequently determined to have been a hoax. See Also: Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Polygamy, Cross-Culturally Considered;

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Religion, Women in; Religious Fundamentalism, CrossCultural Context of; Representation of Women. Further Readings Jessop, Carolyn. Escape. New York: Broadway Books, 2007. Jessop, Flora. Church of Lies. San Francisco: JosseyBass, 2009. Singular, Stephen. When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the

Women Who Fought Back. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008. Wall, Elissa. Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs. New York: William Morrow, 2008. Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

G Gabon Located in western Africa, the Gabonese Republic is one of the most politically stable countries in Africa. The per capita income ($13,700) is four times that of many sub-Saharan African nations, but poverty is extensive. Although 85 percent of the population are urbanized, 60 percent of the workforce are engaged in agriculture, and more than a fifth of the workforce is unemployed. Most Gabonese belong to one of four tribes: Fang, Bapounou, Nzebi, or Obamba. There are also large groups of other Africans, Europeans, and Gabonese of mixed heritage. From half to three-fourths of the population are Christian. Although French is the official language, most Gabonese also speak tribal dialects. Women have only limited rights, and the extent of those rights is often determined by family position and custom. Gabon has major problems with social discrimination of women and girls, teenage pregnancies, illegal abortions, and violence against women. Women’s rights groups, which make up a third of all human rights groups in Gabon, have had some success. In 2008, 18 of 120 seats in the National Assembly were filled by women, as were 13 of 49 cabinet posts. Abortion is now legal to save the life of a mother or in cases of fetal abnormality. Fifteen years is the legal age for marriage, and a 2004 United Nations Report revealed that 22 percent

of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years were married, divorced, or widowed. At the time of marriage, couples are required to choose between monogamy and polygamy, but husbands are not bound by their decisions. According to inheritance laws, widows only inherit if they obtain written permission from the late husband’s family. If women remarry outside that family, they then lose the right to use or control inherited property. Women are required to obtain their husbands’ permission to travel. All land rights reside with the husband, but ownership of other property may be joint or separate, according to the regime that governs the marriage. Gabon has the 48th highest infant mortality rate (51.78 deaths per 1,000 live births) in the world. Female infants (43.15 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a significant advantage over male infants (60.17 deaths per 1,000 live births), but that advantage narrows over time. Women have a life expectancy of 54.05 years compared with 52.19 years for men. For both men (18.4 years) and women (18.9 years), the median age is comparatively low. Gabonese women produce an average of 4.65 children each. Low survival rates are partly the result of the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS) adult prevalence rate (5.9 percent) and the very high risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, chikungunya, schistosomiasis, and rabies. Male literacy (73.7 percent) is considerably higher than that of women (53.3 percent). More than 593

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94 percent of children attend primary school, but rates drop to around 34 percent at the secondary level. Gabon, similar to many African countries, has only limited access to abortion, but according to one report, 23.8 percent of teenage girls and 48.1 percent of all teenage boys are sexually active by the age of 15 years. As a result, teenage pregnancy is a major social issue. In 2004, the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks revealed that one in four pregnancy-related deaths in Gabon are the result of illegal abortions. Violence against women is a major problem. There is little help for victims, and few cases are ever reported. Rape, including spousal rape, is also widespread, but victims rarely receive either medical or legal assistance. There is evidence to suggest that police officers frequently rape foreigners and prostitutes. It is believed that female genital mutilation occurs only among the non-Gabonese African population. Sexual harassment is widespread, but no official actions have been taken to deal with it. See Also: Domestic Violence; Property Rights; Teen Pregnancy. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Gabon.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/gb.html (accessed February 2010). Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Integrated Regional Information Networks. “Gabon: Illegal Abortions Cause One in Four PregnancyRelated Deaths.” http://www.irinnews.org/report .aspx?reportid=52524 (accessed June 2010). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “Social Institutions and Gender Index. Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Gabon.” http://genderindex.org/country/gabon (accessed February 2010). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Gabon.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/119002.htm (accessed March 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Gambia The Republic of The Gambia is the smallest nation in continental Africa, its borders reflecting the British colonial possession of the area surrounding the Gambia River in the midst of otherwise French-controlled West Africa. One of the poorest countries in the world, the majority (90 percent) of its 1.7 million people are Muslims, with the remainder following Christian denominations or indigenous religions. Women constitute 70 percent of the agricultural workforce and are responsible for most of the food production. However, their access to training and the means of production is limited, and women have few rights to land ownership. Women make up 4.9 percent of the qualified workforce and 61.9 percent of the unqualified workforce. The 1997 Constitution confers women with equal rights to men and prohibits discrimination based on gender, but it also explicitly proclaims the need to preserve traditions and customs. In 1992, Gambia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. However, Gambia has not integrated many of the legislative and legal provisions contained in the convention into its legislation. Domestic law is therefore often in contradiction to the convention, and especially to those articles concerning family law. The country’s legal system allows the coexistence of civil law, customary law, and Islamic Shari`a. The lives of most Gambian women are subject to the law of the Shari`a and/or customary law. Shari`a decrees are generally viewed to be discriminatory toward women, in particular regarding marriage, divorce, and inheritance rights. Marriages in Gambia are frequently arranged, and polygamy is practiced (a Muslim man may take up to four wives). Women in polygamous unions have property and other rights arising from the marriage, including the option to divorce, but have no legal entitlement to approve or be advised in advance of subsequent marriages. There is no minimum legal age for marriage, and child betrothal is still practiced under customary law, resulting in a high rate of early marriage: a 2004 United Nations report places 39 percent of Gambian girls aged between 15 and 19 years as married, widowed, or divorced. Such traditional practices, including wife inheritance and female genital surgery (FGS) expose Gambian women and girls to reproductive and health

Gandhi, Sonia



problems. FGS, a traditional practice involving the alteration or removal of the external female genitalia, is widespread in Gambia, particularly in rural areas, with data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicating that at least 78 percent of Gambian women have undergone FGS. The custom is not illegal in Gambia, the president of the Republic having stated that the practice is part of Gambian culture and cannot be prohibited. However, in recent years awareness-raising campaigns have increased at the grassroots level, promoted by nongovernmental organizations concerned with women’s health. Maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world, with an average rate of 1,000 out of 100,000, climbing to 1,600 out of 100,000 in rural areas. This is linked to the frequency of early marriage, as many girls are married as soon as they reach puberty. Because their needs are traditionally treated as secondary, women are more likely than men to suffer from nutritional deficiencies, particularly at times when agricultural work is hardest. Female life expectancy averages 55.4 years, and the rate of female literacy lags behind that of men (25 percent vs. 53 percent), as families tend to give priority to sons’ education over that of daughters.” In recent years, the government has increased its efforts in this area through provision of free primary level education and creating “girl-friendly schools,” which encourage the education of girls. However, no measures have been taken to outlaw practices preventing the education of girls, such as early marriage and employment in domestic service.

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Gandhi, Sonia Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the ruling Indian National Congress party and a Member of Parliament from Rae Bareilly, the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Sonia Gandhi is possibly the most powerful individual in India, holding unquestioned leadership of the most prominent political party and proven outreach to the poor masses. She also has the support of the prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh—a man largely perceived to be qualified and ethical. Sonia Gandhi’s emergence as a public figure is intertwined with the family that she became related to after her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi. Her husband Rajiv belonged to India’s most prominent political family, which includes Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and his daughter Indira Gandhi, a four-time prime minister of India. Sonia Gandhi (born as Edvige Antonia Albina Maino) was born December 9, 1946, in Lusiana, Italy,

See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Types of; “GirlFriendly Schools; Shari`a Law. Further Readings Schroeder, Richard A. Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in The Gambia (California Studies in Critical Human Geography). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. International Federation of Human Rights. “Note on the Situation of Women in Gambia.” (2005). http:// www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/49d095180.pdf (accessed June 2010). Máire Ní Mhórdha University of St. Andrews

Sonia Gandhi is possibly the most powerful individual in India and the leader of the Indian National Congress party.

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into the middle-class family of Stefano and Paolo Maino. She was raised with strict Catholic values. Gandhi was attending Cambridge University when she met Rajiv and married him in 1968. Gandhi moved to India, where her husband worked as an airline pilot. They resided in her mother in-law’s home, as she was then the prime minister of India. Sonia Gandhi was reclusive, and focused on one of her passions—restoring art. Gandhi has a published book titled Rajiv, and is the editor of a volume on letters exchanged between Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi from 1922 to 1964 titled Freedom’s Daughter: Letters Between Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and Two Alone, Two Together: Letters Between Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru 1940–1964. Her publicly proclaimed aversion to politics ended when her husband became the prime minister and joined the political foray after his mother and prime minister Indira’s assassination. Seven years after the assassination of her husband Rajiv, Sonia Gandhi campaigned and became an office holder in the Congress Party. Gandhi’s campaign resulted in the party reemerging as the largest party, which eventually formed the government at the center in the semi-federal structure of governance in India. She was recognized for her successful debut as a stellar campaigner, and displayed her mastery over the official language of India (Hindi) and for understanding the common man. In the process of her own political initiation, she has single handedly revamped and reorganized the leaderless Congress Party, according to popular and political commentary. She gained a spot in Indian history, in the true Gandhian style, when she turned down the post of prime minister, recognizing that many considered it inappropriate for a nonIndian-born candidate to hold the position of highest authority in a country with a long history of colonization by British. In her role as senior politician and party head, Gandhi has proven her political savvy by forging and maintaining political ties with numerous regional parties. She has managed to rekindle the Gandhi–Nehru legacy of a poor-oriented, ruralfocused, and secular Congress. In addition, she is given credit for facilitating the efforts to create a more transparent and effective administration through various laws and bills, such as the passage of Right to Information Act 2005 and Rural Employment Scheme. Surmounting controver-

sies and personal tragedies, this woman of European descent is now considered a leader among the varied population of India. See Also: India; Overpopulation; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Ansari, Yusuf. Sonia Gandhi: Triumph of Will. New Delhi, India: India Research Press, 2006. Gandhi, Sonia. Freedom’s Daughter: Letters Between Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989. Gandhi, Sonia. Rajiv. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1992. Gandhi, Sonia. Two Alone, Two Together: Letters Between Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru 1940–1964. New York: Viking, 2005. Sonia Gandhi. http://www.soniagandhi.org (accessed June 2010). Shweta Singh Loyola University Chicago

Gardasil Gardasil is a widely available vaccine against certain types of the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that infects skin and mucous membranes in humans. Gardasil was developed by Merck, and is effective against four types of HPV: types 6 and 11, which are responsible for 90 percent of cases of genital warts in females, and types 16 and 18, which are responsible for approximately 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine consists of virus-like particles very similar to HPV, that, when injected, cause an immune response that generates antibodies against HPV. When administered appropriately (three doses within a six-month period) Gardasil is nearly 100 percent effective in preventing the development of precancerous cervical cells. Gardasil is effective for at least four years, and some preliminary studies suggest its protective effects probably last much longer. Since it only prevents (rather than treats) HPV infection, it is most effective if given before becoming sexually active, typically between the ages of 11 and 25 years.

Gardening



However, when Gardasil is given to women already infected with one HPV type, the vaccine still protects them from the other types. It is currently approved for use in females and has recently been approved for males aged 9 to 26. The four types of HPV targeted by Gardasil are associated with other genital cancers in both men and women, including vulvar, vaginal, anal, and penile cancer. In rare cases, HPV is associated with head, neck, throat, and lung cancers. Although uncommon, HPV can be passed from mother to newborn, particularly if she has an outbreak of genital warts at the time of delivery. Despite the fact that Gardasil is not advertised to do so, it clearly has the potential to reduce rates of these other diseases. Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consider Gardasil to be safe, and it has been approved for use in more than 112 countries. Side effects from the vaccine are considered minor, and include headache, fatigue, and soreness around the injection area. Because the vaccine does not contain a complete virus, only virus-like particles, there is no chance of the virus reproducing in the body and causing disease. Merck and some legislators have suggested making Gardasil mandatory for school attendance. However, some groups are concerned that vaccination with Gardasil will stop women from getting Pap smears, and that it might give young girls a false sense of security regarding safer sex practices. Vaccination against HPV is a cost-effective healthcare strategy. In addition to reducing the incidence of cervical cancer by 70 percent, fewer HPV infections means fewer biopsies following uncertain Pap test results, and a reduced need for long-term management of genital warts. However, achieving mass vaccination may be difficult since the vaccine currently costs $360 ($120/dose plus any additional physician fees) and is not covered by all insurance companies. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Reproductive Health Issues; Sexually Transmitted Infections. Further Readings Nack, Adina. Damaged Goods?: Women Living With Incurable Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2007.

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U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Reports of Health Concerns Following HPV Vaccination.” http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety /vaccines/hpv/gardasil.html (accessed June 2010). U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Vaccines, Blood & Biologics: Gardisil.” http://www.fda.gov/biologicsblood vaccines/vaccines/approvedproducts/ucm094042.htm (accessed June 2010). Kelly Myer Polacek Independent Scholar

Gardening Food gardening is an increasingly popular means of food security and healthy eating. Through individual and community gardens, farmer’s markets, and school gardens, gardening increases food availability in all types of communities. It can also improve living conditions and income for women, particularly in low-income areas. Gardening is a positive answer to growing concerns about environmentalism and sustainability. Urban Agriculture Although flower gardening continues to be a popular pastime, food gardening in many forms has become increasingly appealing, partly due to interest in organic and sustainable living; concerns about pesticides and processed food; and a growing slow food movement and locavore (“local-eating”) culture. Information about gardening is popularly available through such magazines as Organic Gardening, Better Homes and Gardens, and Martha Stewart Living, which are largely marketed toward women. Many cities feature community gardens, which may be large shared gardens or collections of small plots. Community gardens are an important part of urban agriculture, which also includes rooftop and balcony gardens, raised beds donated to low-income neighborhoods or senior centers, or crops grown for a local restaurant or donated to a food shelter. Garden sharing, which matches a gardener with a landowner, and small-scale urban and peri-urban farming are also popular. Both in the United States and around the world, women play an important role in urban agriculture.

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Community-Supported Agriculture Small- and mid-scale farmers, market gardeners, and community gardeners sell their produce through face-to-face interaction with local customers at nearly 5,000 farmers markets throughout the United States. The majority of farmers markets accept coupons distributed through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Farmers’ Market Nutritional Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, and the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Acceptance Program (SNAP). Market gardeners are defined as people working a small amount of land as their business or primary income. Along with small-scale farmers, they may also sell their produce through community-supported agriculture (CSA). In this model, community “shareholders” subscribe in exchange for weekly delivery of just-picked, usually organic produce throughout the growing season. Educational Gardening Children also benefit from gardening. Through programs such as the Edible Schoolyard, created by chef Alice Waters for a Berkeley, California, middle school, students participate in all aspects of gardening in an on-site lot, through gardening and culinary classes, and through the garden’s integration into the full curriculum. The garden’s harvest may be eaten in cafeteria meals, donated to food banks, and/or sold at farmers markets to raise funds for the school. Children also eat fresh produce through farm-to-school programs, where schools connect with and receive seasonal produce directly from a nearby farm. These programs teach children about healthy eating and food production and promote school lunch reform. Education was also central to Michelle Obama’s White House garden, a plot planted by the First Lady and local students in March 2009. Besides providing produce for the White House and a local soup kitchen, the garden was also intended to encourage healthy eating, especially among children, and raise awareness about the importance of organic and sustainable food production. Gardening, Women, and Poverty With rising food prices and food insecurity, several organizations are encouraging and educating many of the world’s poorest citizens, both urban and rural,

to participate in individual and community gardening and urban agriculture; others are working to increase women’s access to land and the microloans needed to start small farms. Raising food and animals allows families to feed their children and often gain a small income. Having direct access to nutritional food particularly benefits women and girls, who may receive smaller portions than wage-earning men and boys. A varied, healthy diet is also vitally important to small children and individuals who have illnesses such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). See Also: Locavorism/Slow Food Movement; Microcredit; Obama, Michelle; Women in Farm Economy. Further Readings The Edible Schoolyard. www.edibleschoolyard.org (accessed June 2010). Lappe, Anna and Bryant Terry. Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen. New York: Penguin, 2006. Vanessa Baker Bowling Green State University

Gay and Lesbian Advocacy The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement has undergone many transformations since the first gay rights organizations of the 1950s. In understanding the movement’s advocacy experiences it is important to comprehend both the diversity and similarity of issues facing LGBT people. At times it has been important for the movement to work in solidarity for the recognition of identity and rights of all LGBT people. It has also been necessary to organize separately, both geographically and around specific identity politics of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, as well as around specific issues because successes, in recognition of LGBT rights, have not been achieved evenly globally, and the issues taken up are not necessarily the same for all LGBT people. For example, although gay men were more involved in the fight against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS),



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A crowd gathers to watch the floating Canal Parade, part of Gay Pride Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The weekend-long festival is celebrated with street parties, sporting events, and art exhibitions promoting gay themes and advocacy.

many lesbian women have aligned their struggle with the women’s movement. Although the LGBT movement is global, the advocacy it has engaged in has followed different trajectories in various countries and continents, depending on specific contexts and issues. Furthermore, the movement has been involved in both LGBT rightsbased and issue-based struggles, as well as LGBT people having been active in many other struggles, including broader human, women’s, civil rights, and socioeconomic struggles. Identity politics is an important factor in the LGBT movement: identity as all-encompassing, as well as separate identities of lesbian women, gay men, and trans-diverse populations. Elements within the broader movement have at times organized separately, which has been important in building specific identities and addressing critical issues in a more focused and sustained way.

Although 1969 is viewed as the year that the gay rights movement came into its own, it must be acknowledged that before this year, there was informal organizing and networking that formed the basis for the nascent movement. On June 27, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, New York, as they had done many times before. On this date, however, the people frequenting the bar fought back, and three days of protest ensued. The Gay Liberation Front was formed as a result, and similar organizations sprang up in Europe and Canada. The organized LGBT movements in Latin America emerged as early as the 1960s with Asian and African LGBT movements gaining momentum during the 1970s and the 1980s. Movements in developing countries continue to grow, despite the repressive and sometime dangerous contexts in which they organize. Although global solidarity is important, movements

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in the global South have developed in their own ways, taking into account the issues of their own constituencies and not mirroring the issues or tactics of the Northern movements. During the 1990s and beyond, regional movements have started to flourish, which adds to the power that national movements wield. Tactics The LGBT movement has used many different tactics to raise the issues of LGBT communities, including activism, advocacy, and litigation. Direct activism, including marches, sit-ins, and protests, has been used to raise issues around HIV and AIDS and civil union partnerships and rights. The annual pride march is held in many countries in the world and serves to raise LGBT visibility and issues and to commemorate Stonewall. Advocacy and lobbying has been an important tool of the movement, involving less radical and more negotiation strategies. In America, advances in the recognition of LGBT rights are a direct result of concentrated advocacy that took place over years. In Cameroon, following a raid on a bar in Yaounde in 2005 in which 11 men were arrested and imprisoned on charges of suspected homosexuality, intensive local, regional, and global advocacy to the United Nations Working group on arbitrary detention resulted in the United Nations making a public statement that the arrest was contrary to the International Convention Civil and Political Rights; the men were released in late 2006. Litigation is also a strategic tactic that has been used to great effect, especially in the global North, and increasingly in the global South. Some notable examples of successful litigation include two important cases: a constitutional court challenge in 2005 in South Africa, which ruled that the exclusion of samesex couples from common law definition of marriage was unconstitutional, and in India, where the High Court of Delhi in 2009 found that Indian Penal Code, in criminalizing consensual sexual acts of adults in private, was in violation of the constitution. Tactics have also included alignment with other, broader movements. For example, in South Africa from mid-1980s on there was explicit political organizing by the gay community against apartheid. Through building coalitions with antiapartheid groups, LGBT activists were able to get gay rights onto the public agenda and incorporate them into the broader strug-

gle for human rights. This resulted in the inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the equality clause contained in the constitution—this was seen, globally, as a victory for LGBT and intersexed people. Lesbian women have been an integral, if not sometimes marginalized, part of the feminist/women’s movement, and their contribution has assisted in the gains made against the oppression of women. The advocacy agenda in the women’s movement was at times contradictory to what was seen as the maledominated gay rights agenda, often placing women in an opposing position. Successful Advocacy The successes of the movement through decades of sustained activism and advocacy have been immense, and yet human rights violations against LGBT people are still a daily feature in many parts of the world. Some of the issues that people have fought for include the decriminalization of same-sex activity and abolition of the sodomy laws, the right for same-sex couples and single gay and lesbian people to adopt, recognition of relationships allowing for marriage and civil union rights, nondiscrimination in the workplace, and nondiscrimination in the military. In a growing number of countries, the rights of LGBT people are being realized. For example, although the number of countries recognizing gay marriage is relatively small, there are increasingly more countries recognizing civil unions and partnerships. Even more countries allow same-sex couples’ adoptions. However the struggle for LGBT rights and equality is far from over, and groups across the globe continue to fight oppression, including criminalization, hate crimes, and equal recognition of relationships. The advent of HIV and AIDS in the late 1970s to early 1980s forced LGBT health issues into the spotlight. Initially conceived of as a “gay disease,” and named accordingly as Gay-Related Immune Disease (GRID), HIV and AIDS galvanized an intensive and quick response from the LGBT movement, especially gay men, during the early 1980s. Activist organizations such as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, which had a predominately gay membership, both advocated for research and treatment and set up prevention, care, and treatment services in the United States and Europe. In Africa, gay and lesbian groups were active in the 1980s in dispel-



ling the myth that HIV was a gay disease to minimize discrimination and are now fighting for recognition and resources for LGBT groups, whose issues and vulnerabilities have been lost in generalized HIV and AIDS epidemics. Current Struggles and Emerging Issues The current attention of the LGBT movement is on Uganda, where a new bill has been proposed that will criminalize same-sex behavior, leading to imprisonment, and even in some cases will apply the death penalty. There is intensive advocacy to stop the bill from being passed by LGBT groups in Uganda and the rest of Africa; part of the strategy is to build alliances with civil society groups in an attempt to broaden the range of organizations opposed to such draconian measures. At the present time, the transgendered movement is at the forefront of LGBT advocacy and activism to challenge the current definition of gender identity disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, 5th Edition, which pathologizes an expression of human sexuality. Information on and services for lesbian women who are living with HIV and AIDS are virtually nonexistent in Africa, yet there is growing evidence to suggest that lesbian women are at risk of HIV infection and that infection rates may be as high as 8 percent in some lesbian communities. Lesbian groups are working on raising visibility of lesbians affected by and infected with HIV. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; HIV/AIDS: North America; Lesbians; LGBTQ. Further Readings Drucker, Peter. “‘In the Tropics There Is No Sin’: Sexuality and Gay-Lesbian Movements in the Third World.” New Left Review, v.218 (1996). Gevisser, M. and E. Cameron. Defiant Desire. Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa. London: Routledge, 1994. Marcus, E. Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945–1990: An Oral History. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Sanfort, T. Lesbian and Gay Studies: An Introductory Interdisciplinary Approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000. Shilts, R. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: St. Martin’s, 2007.

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Stein, M. Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America, vol. 2. New York: Thomson Gale, 2004. Vicci Tallis Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa

Gender, Defined To be born a man or a woman in any society is more than a simple biological fact. The differences between men and women may be divided into two large sections: one having to do with sex and the other concerned with gender. Sex is determined by the specific nature in the characters that, within the same species, distinguish persons differently concerning the reproductive function: hormonal levels, internal and external sexual organs, reproductive capacity, and so on. Gender, a term used for the first time in scientific discourse by Gayle Rubin in the article “The Traffic in Women” to indicate the set of the processes and forms of behavior and relationship with which society transforms sexual bodies and organizes the division of roles and tasks between men and women, socially differentiating them from each other, is something else. It has to do with the socially constructed differences between the two sexes and with the relationships set up between them in terms of distinctive, “appropriate,” and “culturally approved” behaviors. On the one hand, the concept indicates that sexual belonging in itself is not sufficient to define being a woman or being a man. In the human species, femininity and masculinity are not rigidly determined by the physical and biological dimension. Upbringing and culture are, in fact, highly important—culture seen as the set of values that the members of a given group share; of the rules, regulations, and principles that they respect and are called upon to observe; of the material assets that they produce. It includes many dimensions, including family life, work models, religious ceremonies, the use of time—and their transmission and assimilation. On the other hand, the term differs from the concept of feminine condition in that it shifts the focus of attention from the “woman” to the “relationship” between the two sexes,

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a dialectic relationship, of continuous exchange and constantly changing. The gender approach assumes and takes over the criticism of biological determinism—by focusing on the aspect of the transformation of sexuality in activities and behaviors—and reveals the essentiality of the relational component underlying the construction of male and female roles. Gender and Feminist Debate The relationship between the social and the biological aspect (between sex and gender) is a highly charged issue, central in the (neo)feminist debate for many years. In the 1960s and 1970s, feminist scholars explored the complex themes in the relation between gender and power, focusing above all on female subordination and the production, reproduction, and institutionalization of male supremacy. What was being challenged was the presumed “inferiority” of the female gender that, throughout history, had been taken as congenital to the natural order of things. These researchers saw the seed of discrimination in the transformation of biological difference into differences between roles and social differences: this sanctioned the different involvement of the two sexes in the sphere of family tasks and production activities. In fact, while it is possible that the lesser capacity to carry out physically demanding activities in the last few months of pregnancy and the first months of their babies’ lives favored the division of work between the sexes in premodern societies—when pregnancies followed each other with high frequency and the lives of babies depended exclusively on their mother’s milk— in modern societies, with the gradual elimination of physically heavy work, less numerous pregnancies, and artificial feeding, these factors can no longer explain the evident differences between female and male participation in production and reproduction activities. It was Simone de Beauvoir who cleared the way for this intuition; in 1949, The Second Sex was published, laying down the bases for the start of a new phase in Western feminist discourse. On the one hand, the author stated the need to overcome a hierarchical vision of feminine otherness as inferior and in which the male is taken as the “norm” and feminine as “other,” as the “second sex.” On the other hand, the way was paved to what was to be described as “gender perspective,” reflecting on the social influence in the construction of masculinity and femininity. The need was

felt to challenge the process of constructing feminine identity, always strongly constrained by biological and physical destiny and hence flattened onto the maternal and reproductive role. For these reasons, the term gender has often assumed the “opposite” meaning to the word sex. This tended to emphasise the process of social construction in contrast to the concreteness and “unchangeability” of the biological datum. Being and becoming a woman and, at the same time, being and becoming a man are processes that are closely correlated—women and men observe each other, like each other, desire each other, and reject each other—and undergo constant metamorphosis. Only an examination of the reciprocal influence of femininity and masculinity, of their ties and their contrasts may enable us to understand what the “feminine” and “masculine condition” is. Gender is therefore not a synonym for “woman,” “gender issues” are not only “things for women,” although, compared to men, women have utilized, encouraged, and contributed more to the consolidation of the theoretical perspective and that of gender-sensitive research—that is, to the characteristics, needs, and specific demands of women and men. On the one hand, this perspective has had the aim of giving back visibility and value and to retrieve what, in history, has been overshadowed by the claim for male universality. On the other hand, it has been difficult to name masculinity as the central level of the symbolic conflict: it has remained in the shade because it was not supposed to be drawn into the debate in its finiteness and vulnerability. The traces of a systematic study on the male gender are not evident. Becoming “men” has signified “achieving” a strong, neutral subject, who has silenced his body, at the same time imposing his power over other bodies. Therefore, although there is a general reluctance to reason in terms of women and men (often the differences emerge in fields in which questions linked to sexuality are at stake), gender is not a contrasting concept, but one of union, synthesis, and comparison; gender considers women in relation to the other sex (and vice versa). It is therefore pointless to oppose women to men, but we must deal contemporaneously with women, men, their relations, and their way of interacting, summing up the socially determined differences between the two sexes: the social transformation of sexual belonging is the function of reciprocal perception and interaction (present, past, and future).



The relationship between sex and gender is also historical and dynamic. Being a woman and being a man are the products of a historical process that has traversed the various cultures and societies, within which male and female have been differently defined, creating specific collective and individual identities. Biological sex is thus represented and channelled toward different roles according to culturally variable approaches. Simultaneously, with the evolution of customs, lifestyles, and—more generally—the complex relationship between economy and society, some prerogatives distinguishing the male and female genders have come up against numerous variations and will undergo an equal number in the future. Gender relationships—referring to the social relations between women and men and summing up their relative positions in the division of resources and responsibilities, benefits and rights, power and privileges—also change constantly, as the social rules regulating and approving individual behaviors also vary. Masculinity and femininity constitute collections of meanings in constant change, which we construct through relations with ourselves, with each other, and with the world in which we are immersed. Gender is therefore a concept that makes it possible to connect the microand macro–social levels of analysis. Gender appears to be a clearly useful factor in the field of theoretic reflection and social research. It does not merely translate a concept but a way of defining and perceiving reality, which continually underpins conceptions of male and female. A gender-sensitive perspective may therefore increase the depth of categories and practices for interpretation and research. Demographic models and those of cohabitation, institutions, values and beliefs, stereotypes, the system of inequalities evolve and are structured in that they are molded, constructed, contracted, interpreted, and defined by different genders. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Feminism, American; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Stereotypes of Women; Toys, Gender-Stereotypic. Further Readings Connell, Raewyn. Gender. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 2002.

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de Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1973. Kimmel, Michael. The Gendered Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Lorber, Judith. Paradoxes of Gender. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994. Rubin, Gayle. “The Traffic in Women. Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex.” In Rayne R. Reiter, ed., Towards an Anthropology of Women, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975. Elisabetta Ruspini University of Milano, Bicocca

Gender Dysphoria Gender dysphoria is a condition in which a person feels dissatisfied with the biological sex assigned to them at birth. A person experiencing gender dysphoria typically identifies more with the sex they were not assigned and even feels an aversion to behaviors typically associated with the gender they were assigned at birth. Most scholars believe that people are born with gender dysphoria but have also documented cases in which the dysphoria does not occur until adolescence or (most uncommonly) in adulthood. Women experiencing gender dysphoria, like men in the same situation, can suffer from low self-esteem, emotional strain, and even physical pain. Many important developments concerning gender dysphoria have occurred since the start of the 21st century. Contemporary society allows for more open discussion about gender dysphoria, compared with 30 years ago when many people automatically assigned this term (and other related terms like transvestitism and transsexuals) a negative association—usually that of perversion. The Internet, in particular, provides information and resources for not only people suffering from gender dysphoria but for their families and friends as well. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Gender Dysphoria Organization serve as two helpful online resources. WPATH (formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association) consists of a team of sex disorder specialists who published a standards of care booklet. This booklet advocates

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fair and appropriate treatment for dysphoria patients and includes detailed advice for both clinicians and patients considering treatment or gender reassignment surgery. The Gender Dysphoria Organization aims to educate readers about gender dysphoria and provides links to personal resources, medical resources, and support networks. According to the article “Diagnosing and Treating Gender Identity Disorder in Women,” women who experience gender dysphoria grow up feeling uncomfortable in situations in which they were confined to stereotypical female behaviors; they often identify themselves as tomboys, enjoyed sports with physical contact, and disliked wearing female clothing like dresses. Females suffering from gender dysphoria also often report unsatisfied feelings over sexual encounters with men; when these women experiencing dysphoria are sexually intimate with another female, they often serve as the male and set strict boundaries with their partner, who usually is not allowed to touch the dysphoric person’s genital area. Women with gender dysphoria also feel uncomfortable with their biological female anatomy and desire biological male anatomy instead. The sincerity of some women with gender dysphoria has been questioned, simply because men—in most parts of the world—have more privileges and power than women. Similarly, some studies demonstrate that in countries where life for women is more difficult, more women experience gender dysphoria and undergo gender reassignment surgery than men. Clinicians take gender dysphoria very seriously and, with the help of materials like WPATH’s book on standards of care and other resources, can help patients live comfortably with their biologically assigned gender or undertake the necessary measures to adopt a new gender. In “Gender Dysphoria and Transgender Experiences,” Richard Carroll describes the vital steps in counseling patients with gender dysphoria. Carroll stresses the importance of chronicling a patient’s gender history, paying special attention to elements like (but not limited to) how a patient played as a child, how they preferred to dress, and reactions to sexual experiences. Carroll also examines the intended outcomes when working with gender dysphoria patients, which include helping patients understand themselves as individuals and educating them (and their families) about alternatives, therapies, and gender reassignment surgery.

Men and women around the world struggle with gender assigned to them based on a physical examination at birth. These people experiencing gender dysphoria must work and cope with bodies of biological gender that do not align with the gender of their minds. The last 40 years—but especially the last decade—have witnessed positive developments in the studies of sexual conditions that, after time, are viewed less as diseases and more as natural conditions. The wealth of contemporary support systems available makes gender transition somewhat more comfortable for men and women alike. See Also: Coming Out; Drag Kings; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Reassignment Surgery; Intersex; LGBTQ; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Transgender; Transsexuality; “Two-Spirit.” Further Readings Callahan, G. N. Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of Two Sexes. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2009. Carroll, R. A. “Gender Dysphoria and Transgender Experiences.” In S. Leiblum, ed., Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy. New York: Guilford Press, 2007. “Diagnosing and Treating Gender Identity Disorder in Women.” Medscape Psychiatry and Mental Health eJournal. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle /430853 (accessed June 2010). Gender Dysphoria Organization. http://www.gender dysphoria.org (accessed June 2010). Rudacille, D. The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism, and Transgender Rights. New York: Pantheon, 2005. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health. http://www.wpath.org (accessed June 2010). Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Gender Quotas in Government Quotas for women are provided to ensure that a minimum number of women attain appointments in a parliamentary assembly, a committee, a govern-



ment, and/or inclusion in candidates lists. The quota system places the burden of recruitment not on the individual woman but on those who control the recruitment process. Quotas for women represent a development of the concept of equality. The classic liberal notion of equality was that of “equal opportunity” or “competitive equality.” Removing formal barriers was considered sufficient. Feminist pressure during the last few decades (as expressed, for instance, in the Beijing “Platform for Action” of 1995), an additional concept of equality is gaining ground and support: the notion of “equality of result.” Quotas and other forms of positive measures are thus a means toward equality of result. This argument is based on the experience that equality as a goal cannot be reached by formal equal treatment. If barriers exist, it is argued, compensatory measures must be introduced as a means to reach equality of result. From this perspective, quotas are not discrimination (against men) but compensation for structural barriers that women meet in the electoral process. Today, quota systems aim at ensuring that women constitute a large minority of 20, 30, or 40 percent or even aim at ensuring true gender balance of 50–50 percent. Reserved seats, legal candidate quotas, and political party quotas are the main quota types in use today. Sanctions for noncompliance are also important. Quotas alone do not remove all the other barriers to women’s full citizenship. But under certain conditions, electoral gender quotas can lead to historical leaps in women’s political representation. The establishment of quotas is meeting fierce resistance. Not all women support quotas—not even all feminists. Men are also divided on the issue. International and European Instruments on Gender Quotas Today, the international community recommends that a number of measures be taken in order to promote a more balanced representation of men and women in decision-making bodies. This shift in equality policy toward affirmative action policies is supported by the United Nations (UN) instruments. These instruments have been important for legitimizing the demands for gender balance in politics put forward by women’s organizations. Articles 7 and 8 of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

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deal with women’s participation in political and public life. The adoption of temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination (Article 4). The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women provided additional guidance in the implementation of the convention in 1997 in its General Recommendation 23. One of the 12 objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, was formulated for women’s equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision making. There is a clearly stated aim in the document to achieve gender balance in the nomination process as well as in all decision-making processes. The platform talks about “discriminatory attitudes and practices” and “unequal power relations,” thus shifting the focus from women’s (lack of ) resources to the practice of political institutions and political parties. Consequently, affirmative strategies are recommended, even if the controversial word quotas is not mentioned. In its resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace, and security, the Security Council called on member states to increase the representation of women. The importance of the issue has been recognized within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, which is the outcome of the 2005 World Summit. One of the indicators for monitoring Millennium Development Goals on gender equality is the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments. Gender balance in decision making is a stated goal of the European Union (EU), and recommendations such as Recommendation 96/694/EC on the balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process (1996) have been adopted by all the EU’s major institutions. The Council of Europe (COE) has also been very active in this field. The Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation (2003) 3 on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision making, Declaration titled “Making Gender Equality a Reality” (2009), Parliamentary Assembly’s Recommendation 1676 (2004) on women’s participation in elections, Resolution 1489 (2006) on mechanisms to ensure women’s participation in decision making, Resolution 1706 (2010) on increasing women’s representation in politics through the electoral system,

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the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the COE’s Recommendation 273 (2009) on equal access to local and regional elections, and the COE’s European Commission for Democracy through law (Venice Commission) Report on the impact of electoral systems on women’s representation in politics (2009) are the main documents on this issue. Europe has not been in the forefront of this new development; however, recently many new measures have been adopted in order to achieve gender balance in political assemblies. Percentage of Women in Governments Around the world, quotas have become a part of the electoral landscape. In the decade prior to 1985, four countries introduced quotas. As of 2010, more than 90 countries have some form of quota. However, equal participation of women and men in political life has remained an ideal rather than becoming a reality. In 1975, women held 10.9 percent of all parliamentary seats worldwide. As of January 1, 2010, women hold 18.8 percent of all parliamentary seats according to the “The World Map of Women in Politics 2010.” That is still far from the 30 percent target reaffirmed by the Beijing Platform. About one-quarter of the world’s countries did not have electoral systems amenable to quotas. Progress is variable among the different regions of the world. Since the Beijing Conference, the Americas have been in the forefront, followed by Europe and Asia. Arab countries have made the least progress, but progress is being made. For women in executive and head of state positions, overall progress is very slow. There are 9 women among the 151 elected heads of state (6 percent) in 2010. This is up from just 8 women leaders in 2005. On average, women hold 16 percent of ministerial posts. Thirty countries have more than 30 percent women members, with Cape Verde, Finland, Norway, and Spain achieving over 50 percent women ministers. At the other end of the spectrum, the number of countries with no women ministers has increased— from 13 in 2008 to 16 in 2010. The majority of these states are found in the Arab region, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Heads of State, Female;

Representation of Women in Government, International; Voting Rights. Further Readings Dahlerup, D. “Electoral Gender Quotas: Between Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Results.” Representation, v.43/2 (July 2007). Dahlerup, D. “Increasing Women’s Political Representation: New Trends in Gender Quotas.” Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers. A Revised Edition. Stockholm, Sweden: International IDEA, 2005. Dahlerup, D., ed. Women, Quotas and Politics. New York: Routledge, 2006. Dahlerup, D. and L. Freidenvall. “Electoral Gender Quota Systems and their Implementation in Europe.” Brussels, Belgium: European Parliament, 2008 http://www .europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/studies /download.do?file=22091 (accessed June 2010). Tripp, A. M., et al. “The Global Impact of Quotas on the Fast Track to Increased Female Legislative Representation.” Comparative Political Studies, v.41/3 (2008). United Nations. “World Map of Women in Politics 2010.” http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2010/100303 _IPU.doc.htm (accessed June 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Gender Reassignment Surgery Gender reassignment surgery (GRS) is a procedure that changes genital organs from one gender to another. Some transsexual people opt for reassignment surgery to better align their physical sexual characteristics with their gender identity, but it may also be performed on intersex people, often in infancy. GRS includes feminizing genitoplasty or penectomy, orchiectomy/orchidectomy, and vaginoplasty for trans women (male to female). In the case of trans men, genital reconstruction may involve either construction of a penis (phalloplasty) or metoidioplasty (an alternative to phalloplasty). To be more precise, penectomy is the complete (or sometimes partial) removal of the penis. Orchiectomy is the surgical removal of one or both testicles, or testes, in the



human male. It is also called an orchidectomy, particularly in British publications. Vaginoplasty is the surgical construction of a vagina through skin inversion. It involves removing the organs and erectile tissue of the penis. The skin and tissue is used to create a vaginal opening, clitoris, clitoral hood, and labia (lips). Phalloplasty involves the construction of a penis using donor skin from other areas of the body. Depending on the type of phalloplasty procedure, skin is typically taken from the abdomen, groin/leg, and/or forearm and grafted onto the pubic area. Phalloplasty often involves a urethral lengthening procedure so that the patient can urinate through the penis. Erections are usually achieved with either a malleable rod implanted permanently or inserted temporarily in the penis, or with an implanted pump device. Metoidioplasty—a surgical procedure developed in the 1970s—takes advantage of the fact that ongoing testosterone treatment in a trans man typically causes his clitoris to grow longer. The amount of clitoral growth varies with each individual, but it is not uncommon to see an increase in size to about the length of one’s thumb. By cutting the ligament that holds the clitoris in place under the pubic bone, as well as cutting away some of the surrounding tissue, the surgeon is able to create a small phallus from the elongated clitoris. Cost and Expectations While for the man–woman conversion, the aesthetic-functional results may be described as satisfactory, the woman–man transformation continues to remain a true surgical challenge, whose results rarely fully satisfy the patient’s expectations. In particular, penis reconstruction surgery today remains one of the most controversial surgical fields due to the difficulty of reaching optimal results from both an aesthetic and functional point of view. There currently does not exist a standard technique and frequent complications may arise, especially in the case when the reconstruction of the urinary tract is requested. Consequently, a calm assessment of the pros and cons becomes indispensable. An honest, transparent relationship between physician and patient plays a considerably important role. Reassignment surgery in the United States can cost between $10,000 and $20,000, not including the addi-

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tional cost of pre and post therapy. The therapies that may accompany the GRS are in fact numerous, costly, and lengthy, from hormonal therapy to the (many) forms of aesthetic surgery. First, the transition must necessarily be accompanied by a hormonal treatment. The authorization of hormone replacement therapy (estrogens and antiandrogens for male to female (MtF) patients and androgens for female to male patients (FtM)) generally calls for a psychotherapeutic course, according to approaches that may vary significantly. The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association provides the following eligibility and readiness criteria for transgender adults seeking hormone therapy: legal age of majority (age 18 in the United States); demonstrable knowledge of what hormones can and cannot medically do and hormone benefits and risks; either real-life experience (RLE) of at least three months or a period of psychotherapy (usually at least three months) specified by a mental health professional. RLE is a process where trans people live in their preferred gender role for a period of time in order to demonstrate that they can function in the preferred role. In Italy, the startup of hormone therapy depends on the patient’s having started and carried out, according to agreed approaches, a psychotherapeutic relationship of at least six months. For a woman undertaking the course toward masculinity, the hormone therapy has the twofold aim of terminating the production of female hormones (so that menstruation ceases and the breasts lose volume and consistency) and to induce the masculinization of the voice pitch and the increase of muscular mass. The pharmaceutical product used is testosterone, that is, the natural male hormone. Some changes are seen even after the first three months of therapy. After the operation, testosterone continues to be taken for the rest of one’s life. Regarding aesthetic correction, many possible treatments are available, which are more or less invasive, complex, painful, and costly. Chest surgery is the most common surgical procedure sought by trans men. The goal of chest surgery is to create a contoured, malelooking chest. In the case of MTF patients, the treatment is definitely more complex. It usually involves the definitive depilation of facial hair and, if necessary, of body hair; additive mastoplastic surgery (to increase breast volume); and possibly rhinoplasty. Many other

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surgical operations may be added to this list: cheiloplasty (lip reduction/augmentation), buttock enhancement surgery, addominoplasty to slim the hips, shave the knee bones, elbows, and wrists, and so on, voice feminization surgery (surgeries that can elevate the vocal pitch/sound of the voice), and feminilization facial surgery (FFS), which may take many forms. The modification of facial contours utilized in FFS also modifies the angle of the jaws and, by increasing the protrusion of the cheekbones, makes it possible to enhance the femininity of the face. The modification of the forehead is often associated with the raising of the temples (through lifting) and the advancement of the scalp. Regarding the lower contours of the face at the sides, intervention generally takes place on the angle of the jaws by reducing the muscular mass and the jaw bone, without an external operation but through incisions inside the mouth. The modification of the nose is one of the most common aspects generally undertaken in these operations and leads to a considerable reduction, associating the operation, in the case of breathing difficulties, with aesthetic surgery to correct of the deformities causing these problems. For the remodeling of the cheekbones and the creation of a greater protrusion, the use of prostheses is made, almost always introduced through the mouth and hence without leaving an external scar. The chin plays a fundamental role in this operation: the aim is to move from a typically masculine chin to a narrower, more pointed one, which is slightly more protruding (in general, this is associated with rhinoplastic with the aim of improving the patient’s profile). Intervention on the thyroid cartilage, the so-called Adam’s apple, is today almost an imperative in the process of feminization, because it is a feature exclusively belonging to the male gender. The operation takes place with a small lateral incision with a consequent reduction of the cartilage and may also be carried out separately with a local anaesthetic. The type of surgery and the number of the facial areas involved obviously vary according to the individual case, and so this technique involves a series of medical but also radiographic diagnoses, anthropological measuring of the face, photographs, and the achievement of face masks. Aesthetic surgery is not a compulsory step and, following hormone therapies and/or favorable hereditary features, invasive interventions are often not necessary. The approach to surgery may therefore be expe-

rienced in very different ways, in that it is a diversity underlining the variety of the transition experiences, the variety of starting points and the significance given to the change—which may not necessarily lead to a precise goal: for example, hormone treatment may be the first step, and for some the only step toward the change of their body and their identity. We may conclude by pointing out that the “clinical approach” alone cannot guarantee the success of a gender reassignment. May the removal or restructuring of parts of the body be sufficient to transform a man into a woman and vice versa? If gender is the outcome of a complex historical-social construction, then the transition between one gender and the other is necessarily full of profound implications, both at an individual level and a collective one. Creating a new gender identity (i.e., forming a feminine and/or masculine self ) signifies learning and adopting complex relational rituals (in terms of apparel, way of walking, tone of voice, language, etc.) that must synergetically interact with “formal/legal” strategies: change in personal data, documents such as passport, driving license, credit cards. See Also: Cosmetic Surgery; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Gender, Defined; Gender Dysphoria; Intersex; Transgender. Further Readings Garfinkel, H. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1967. Hudson’s FtM Resource Guide. “FtM Genital Reconstruction Surgery (GRS).” http://www.ftmguide .org/grs.html (accessed June 2010). Israel, G. E. and D. E. Tarver. Transgender Care: Recommended Guidelines, Practical Information and Personal Accounts. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1997. Prosser, Jay. Second Skins. The Body Narratives of Transexuality. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Roen, K. “But We Have to Do Something: Surgical Correction of Atypical Genitalia.” Body and Society, v.14 (2008). TransCare, Gender Transition. “Hormones: A Guide for FtMs.” http://transhealth.vch.ca/resources/library /tcpdocs/consumer/hormones-FTM.pdf (accessed June 2010).

Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural

TransCare, Gender Transition. “Hormones: A Guide for MtFs.” http://transhealth.vch.ca/resources/library/tcp docs/consumer/hormones-MTF.pdf (accessed June 2010). Elisabetta Ruspini University of Milano, Bicocca

Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural Gender roles are acquired social identities as male or female, socially constructed, assigned, negotiated, and mutable. What constitutes cultural difference between gender roles, and between female roles, ultimately depends on how gender and culture are defined and theorized in terms of the other—a central and ongoing problem in gender studies. An abundant amount of research traces gender roles across contemporary cultures, against a background of worldwide reconfigurations of labor, leisure patterns, reproductive technologies, domestic tasks, and global media. Below are outlined some of the ongoing theoretical challenges to studying gender roles across cultures; the internationalization of gender monitoring; use of standardized cross-culturally comparative research; and emergent research contexts. Theoretical Terms and Problems A strict opposition of sex (biology) and gender (culture) is often unhelpful in definitions of gender, and easily becomes complicit with normative assumptions. It can more productively be argued that biology provides an assortment of potentials, while socialization factors delimit, select, and channel these. Remarkable consistencies in gendered worldwide and world-defining phenomena such as military conflict result from an amalgam of gender role prescriptions and proscriptions with real but modest biological differences. The case of a pregnant transgender man (according to Thomas Beatie in 2008) demonstrates that medical technology continues to recalibrate what constitutes “female biology.” How gender relates to culture, however, is a complex question. Some take culture to be either an obstacle to, a potential asset in, or a background factor for global calls for gender equity. Others argue that gen-

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der is one of many interrelated ways in which cultural identity is asserted and imposed both locally and globally. Nuances in these formulations necessarily occupy center stage in all “gender and culture” debates. An example of culturally demarcated gender role concepts, marianismo (sporadically called hembrismo) comprises a Latina gender orthodoxy gravitating onto the cult of the Virgin Mary as the core of religious loyalty and the epitome of feminine decorum. A term coined in 1973 by political scientist Evelyn P. Stevens, it encompasses notions of self-sacrifice, passivity, caretaking, duty, honor, abstinence, and mothering, with variously explicit references to martyrdom and moral excellence of the Virgin Mary. As such it has variously been considered the pendant or “other side” of machismo (exemplary masculinity) and considered applicable across a variety of Latino/a cultures. In their 1996 book The Maria Paradox, Rosa Maria Gil and Carmen Inoa Vazquez describe marianismo as a set of Ten Commandments including, for instance, Commandment 5, “Do not wish for more in life than being a housewife.” Research in the past decade suggest that both marianismo and machismo pose major obstacles to healthcare programs related to human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and contribute to HIV infection risk and intimate partner violence. Critics, however, contest the implied image of passive complementation and acquiescence, and that the concept is a flawed extrapolation of impressionistic data to a continent-wide stereotype. The same, incidentally, has been argued by several critics of machismo. Not unrelated to the question whether internationalization empowers or disempowers social movements, the current mainstreaming of gender as a policy parameter can have varied implications for understanding gender as a cross-culturally diverse construct. For instance, to speak of “femininities” may fit a theoretical perspective interested in (cross-cultural) diversity and (interculturally) hierarchical distribution of power, but may also risk reifying gender as a circumscribed and necessary if mutable set of attributes, or as a single unifying predicament the world over. From this perspective, it has long been argued that both notions of “gender role” and “gender traits” should be abandoned for formulations and theories more attuned to narratives, discourses, representations, and performances, and

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thus on cultural idioms and ethnotheories of gender. The notion of gender role figures centrally in theories including role congruity theory, which posits that behavior will be positively evaluated when its characteristics are perceived to align with the requirements of the group’s typical social roles. A recent development is the diversification of gender studies by the scope of masculinity studies, which ranges from a focus on men’s rights to pro-feminism, but on the whole provides support for the contention that men’s participation is essential for overcoming worldwide gender inequalities. Gender roles have been researched predominantly in terms of socialization, mutability, and change, and both Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (since 2008) and Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies (since 2007) exemplify the ongoing introduction of thematic accents against a multicultural and international background. Intergovernmental Monitoring and Gender Roles Any cultural perspective will centralize the relational, contextual, and contestable parameters of gender roles, and that gender, articulated through role prescriptions, comes to pervade the various institutes of social life. Researchers have argued that women and femininities occupy a problematic and contradictory place in the often masculinized spaces of organizational, ideological, institutional, and military assertion, given their position both as collaborators and contesters, consumers and critics, opponents and participants, (re)producers and reformers of gender orders. How to demarcate or theorize either “gender,” “gender role,” or “culture” in this respect has been open for discussion. The anthropological drive for cross-cultural study of gender has been importantly legitimated, but also constrained, by interrelated global frameworks such as the post–World War II vista of international aid and development, new arenas of decision making such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and United Nations, as well as the transnationalization of the women’s movement. International development saw several paradigms from representing women in projects (WID: Women in Development), to adding gender to projects (GAD: Gender and Development), to, finally, making gender part of projects from the very start of their being

thought through (Gender Mainstreaming: GM). It is now consensus that the last, current paradigm will need to be culture sensitive. The ways in which this is being realized is likely to have direct and diverse effects on the worldwide gendering of “roles.” What constitutes a gender role may accordingly come to be defined in terms of the worldwide variable clustering of gendered tasks in what thus become distinct, gendered task domains. The cross-cultural applicability of feminism, or rather the theoretical, regional, and national diversity of feminisms, constitutes a central problematic for discussions of gender in anthropology and intergovernmental norm-setting by such infrastructures as the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW), and the Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), as well as the World Conference on Women, as can be read in academic outlets such as Women’s Studies International Forum. Whereas these structures push for internationalizing equity as an ultimate index of gender relations, here have been a number of indications that the scope of feminism is being diversified (or fractured, depending on perspective) across denominations, nationalisms, globalisms, internationalisms, diasporas, and migrations. Islamic or Muslim feminism, for example, can be seen as an emerging global movement, advocating critical and fair exegesis of Qur’anic and other sacred verse, and accommodating critical commentary simultaneously on Western and Islamic discourses, including reinterpretation of Shari`a (Islamic) law. Some readings may foreground alignments with powers and markets promoting Western ideas such as universal suffrage, human rights, and access to education. Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Comparison In anthropology, the most cited quantitative tool has been the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) covering 186, mostly preindustrial cultures rated for a large number of variables, ranging from women’s domestic authority and female participation in public political arenas, to consequences for adolescent girls of premarital pregnancy, ideology of male superiority, and relative importance of mothers. The relevance for contemporary cultures is limited given that sample cultures are pinpointed in history, meaning that change, globalization, migration, and so on, can-



not be studied. A widely used instrument facilitating qualitative comparison of cultures is eHRAF World Cultures, an online cross-cultural database containing full-text (also recent) ethnographic sources on all aspects of cultural and social life. It allows subjectbased searches by established codes including gender status, division of labor by gender, and gender roles and issues. The database is annually updated from microfiche; by 2013, approximately 150 cultures will be featured. A lot of comparative work on gender includes questionnaire-based cross-national research on consistency of sex differences in psychological traits that are found to have predictable effects on occupational preferences, health-related outcomes, and leisure behaviors. Such sex differences often form the discursive basis for “essentialist” or acultural formulations of gender (social) roles. Both in attribution and self-report data, Asian and African cultures generally show the smallest sex differences, whereas European and American cultures show the largest. New Contexts Gender roles are examined in relation to a wide variety of subjects, from women’s reproductive lives and among the matrilineal Khasi to portrayals of gender in Bulgarian television advertisements, and crossnational differences in marriage, cohabitation, and divorce. In the past decade, work by pioneering Australian gender sociologist Raewyn Connell, Charlotte Hooper, Carla Freeman, and others have focused on questions of globalization and internationalization. These require a focus on emergent areas for the articulation of gender relations, on new gender orders: the internal gender regimes of transnational corporations; the world of international diplomacy and the supranational state; global media; global markets (capital, commodity, service, labor). It has been observed, for instance, that considerably egalitarian Scandinavian gender relations can be overridden by transnational business models based on a managerial masculinity as competitive, mobile, and work driven, with a tendency to commoditize relations with women. This model of “transnational business masculinity” would be tied to a neoliberal agenda of globalization which tends to negatively impact social programs in which women and children are principal beneficiaries.

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Some ways of “doing femininity” may prove complicit with the benefits of hegemonic global masculinities, while others may be negatively impacted, or foundational to other-globalization or antiglobalization movements. One case study here is what has been called the global “power femininity” incorporating feminist signifiers of emancipation and empowerment next to popular postfeminist declarations of the already arrived possibility for women to “have it all.” Consumer-friendly idioms of female power, then, can be read as a capitalist response to feminism; as dimension of “consumer femininities” they signal the emptying out and appropriation of an originally emancipatory message. An comparable example is Japan’s kawai’i culture, a rapidly globalized consumer style based on inoffensive cuteness which originated in the 1970s as a countercultural statement by school girls. Of specific interest, finally, are emergent digital environments inviting cybersociological and cyberanthropological views on gender identities and gender relations, especially with regard to e-languages and communication environments; small e-business; access, literacy, and mobility; and user interfaces. The vista of digital socialities encompasses decentralized avatar- and network-based communicative and political structures which may, in various ways, replicate gender traditionalisms but may also provide less gendered, other-gendered, and (for some) anonymously transgendered performances. It certainly entails enhanced “trickling down” of gender theories and criticism, as well as a generally expanding range of practices, whether in terms of expressive needs (identity, desire, consumption) or political urgency (the idea of community, ethics). Contemporary users of instant messaging, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, or Second Life will undoubtedly realize the multifaceted implications for gender as an index of cultural assertion. Research will clearly need to proceed beyond content analysis, and centralize audience response and cultural bricolage. See Also: Gender, Defined; Global Feminism; Machismo/ Marianismo; Transgender; Transsexuality. Further Readings Bonvillain, Nancy. Women and Men: Cultural Constructs of Gender, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

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Bose, Christine and Minjeong Kim. Global Gender Research: Transnational Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2009. Burn, Shawn. Women Across Cultures: A Global Perspective, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. Ember, Carol and Melvin Ember. Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World’s Cultures. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2003. Gelb, Joyce and Marian Lief Palley, eds. Women and Politics Around the World: A Comparative History and Survey. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Laurie, Nina. Geographies of New Femininities. New York: Pearson Education, 1999. Lazar, Michelle. “‘Discover the Power of Femininity!’ ‘Global Power Femininity’ in Local Advertising.” Feminist Media Studies, v.6 (2006). Price, Anne. “Colonial History, Muslim Presence, and Gender Equity Ideology. A Cross-National Analysis.” International Journal of Sociology, v.38 (2008). Diederik F. Janssen Independent Scholar

General Union of Palestinian Women The General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) was founded in 1965, and it operated as a unit under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that served as the only political representative of the people of Palestine. Established a year later than the PLO, the essential rationale of the GUPW was similar to that of the PLO: the liberation of Palestine. The main objective of the organization was to mobilize and organize Palestinian women toward the goal of an independent Palestine. Hence, it provided women with an opportunity to participate in the national struggle with Palestinian men. During the initial years of the GUPW, the role of its members was confined to serving as caregivers to poor and needy Palestinians. The military aspect of the Palestine liberation movement was dominated by men. After the 1967 Israeli occupation, women’s responsibilities began to transform and many women started to take participate actively in the national struggle side by side with men. As a result, the GUPW

started to offer vocational and military training to Palestinian women during this period. The major objective of the GUPW is to mobilize Palestinian women for political action against Israeli occupation. The GUPW encourages women’s participation in the Palestinian struggle through organizing demonstrations or sit-ins against the arbitrary measures adopted by the Israeli government. In addition to that, the GUPW aspires to promote gender equality in legal as well as political spheres and seeks to increase literacy levels among Palestinian women. It runs vocational training centers where courses on sewing, embroidery, and typing are offered with the aim of providing young women with necessary skills in order for them to find jobs and participate in the well-being of the community. The GUPW organizes various seminars in order to educate women in preventative medicine, first aid and nursing, educational and cultural activities, and civil defense training. In addition to women, the GUPW targets Palestinian children as well. It runs nurseries and kindergartens in Palestinian refugee camps in order to provide children with an education and healthcare as well as to share the burden with working mothers.Today, the GUPW has 16 branches in Palestine and neighboring countries. These include al-Quds, Ramallah, Tulkarem, al-Khalil, Gaza, Rafah, Khan Yunis, Al Wosta, Alshmal, Jericho, Nablus, Qalqilia, Tubas, Bethlehem, Lebanon, and Egypt. Through its activities and organizations, the GUPW aspires to represent and serve to the interests of Palestinian women living in dispersed communities all around the world. See Also: Arab Feminism; Egypt; Islam; Lebanon; Military, Women in the; Palestine. Further Readings General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW). http:// www.gupw.net (accessed April 2010). Jad, Islah. “From Salons to the Popular Committees: Palestinian Women, 1919–89.” In Pappe Ilan, ed., The Israel/Palestine Question. London: Routledge, 1999. Joseph, Suad. Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000. Kawar, Amal. Daughters of Palestine: Leading Women of the Palestine National Movement. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

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Nakhleh, Khalil and Elia Zureik. The Sociology of the Palestinians. London: Taylor & Francis, 1980. Sabbagh, Suha. Palestinian Women of Gaza and the West Bank. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. Zeynep Selen Artan The Graduate Center, The City University of New York

Georgia A country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, near the Black Sea, Georgia was originally formed in 1000 b.c.e. and reached the height of its power during its Golden Age in the 12th and 13th centuries. Throughout its history, it has repeatedly been invaded by larger empires, from Rome to Russia. Georgia was part of the Soviet Union from 1921 to 1990, and when the Soviet Union collapsed, the country became the Republic of Georgia. It created a constitution and became a democratic republic. However, like many countries of the former Soviet bloc, Georgia has suffered from political instability, financial crisis, corruption, and internal strife. The lack of a stable infrastructure has prevented any serious attention to the status of women. While Georgian women are guaranteed equal rights under the Constitution, there is no practical enforcement to protect their rights. Women have equal access to education, and are well represented in universities, both as students and professors. However, instability and the economic crisis have undermined women’s rights, as sexual discrimination and violence against women have escalated. The Georgian Constitution asserts that every person is “free and equal.” Yet, those guarantees are not implemented. There is no state initiative to address the status of women. Women face increasing problems in the workforce, as sexual harassment has become more of a problem. There are no laws regarding gender equity in the workplace, and a lack of education on sexual harassment issues. As the country has faced crisis and upheaval, domestic violence against women has sharply risen. There are also no laws regarding spousal abuse, although spousal rape is outlawed. There are no shelters for women who want to leave a dangerous relationship, and no governmental systems in place to

A health advocate teaches young women how to examine their breasts at a Walk to Save Lives in Kutaisi, Georgia.

address the problem. Kidnapping a woman to marry her, especially in rural areas, continues to be a problem that the government ignores. Laws against prostitution do not exist, which has skyrocketed during the crises. Not only is organized prostitution on the rise, so too is sex trafficking. With their constitutional guarantees, women do exercise their right to vote. Women comprise 63 percent of the members of the various political parties. However, the have no substantial representation in elected or nonelected governmental positions. There are several different women’s organizations in Georgia that are fighting to bring attention to women’s rights, such as Women for Democracy, the Women’s Center, and the Georgian Young Lawyers Association. Like many women in countries developing since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgian women suffer from the economic, political, and social upheaval caused by the reorganization. Their Constitution guarantees them basic equal rights, but Georgia has no

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specific laws to address gender equity or discrimination. As the country suffers from the world economic downturn, women face increasing domestic violence and workplace harassment. See Also: Domestic Violence; Equal Rights Amendment; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined; Russia. Further Readings Asmus, Ronald. A Little War That Shook the World: Georgia, Russia, and the Future of the West. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Avdeyeva, Olaga. “When Do States Comply With International Treaties? Policies on Violence Against Women in Post-Communist Countries.” International Studies Quarterly, v.51/4 (2007). King, Charles. The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Pelkmans, Mathijs. Defending the Border: Identity, Religion, and Modernity in the Republic of Georgia (Culture and Society After Socialism). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Germany Women constitute 51 percent of Germany’s population of 82 million. They are still underrepresented in many key areas of social life, despite Germany’s basic law stipulating equal rights for women. They also earn less money and provide most of the unpaid care of family members. Recent demographic developments in Germany include a low birth rate, increasing life expectancy, and because of this, an aging society. The fertility rate (1.4 children per woman) is one of the lowest in the world. Life expectancy has risen continuously and is now 77 years for men and 82 years for women. This aging society has been perceived as one of the greatest challenges facing Germany today, especially in regard to health insurance and pension plans, and has caused the implementation of many familyrelated measures to increase the number of children. Despite the increase of nontraditional relationships, the nuclear family still plays a predominant

role. In 2004, nearly 90 percent of couples were married. The average age of women at their first marriage is 29.4 years. Women in Germany also tend to have children relatively late in life. In 2006, the average age of women at the birth of their first child was 30.1 years. In 74 percent of families, the parents were married, 18 percent were single parents (mainly women), and 8 percent were living with a domestic partner. Regarding wages and salaries, there continue to be differences between the sexes: female workers earn just 74 percent of their male counterparts’ pay, and a mere 71 percent were salaried staff. For the most part, this is due to the fact that women frequently work in lower positions. Women are noticeably absent in the top tiers of German business. In 2002, women only held 9.2 percent of upper- and middle-management positions. The same holds true for women in education: While almost half of university graduates are women, less than 10 percent of tenured professors are female. More than half of all women are employed in the services sector. Jobs in manufacturing, conversely, are dominated by men by a ratio of four to one. This shows that career choices are still made on a gender-specific basis. Gender differences are even more pronounced in regard to full-time versus part-time work: while 45 percent of employed persons are female, 42 percent of these employed women are part-time workers. This rate is even higher for mothers. In stark contrast, only 3 percent of employed fathers work part time. More so than many other European countries, Germany has maintained the belief that mothers need to stay home with their children. Germans have even coined the highly derogatory term rabenmutter, raven mother, to describe a woman who apparently spends too little time with her children. Because of this, many mothers decide to abandon paid work or cut back on their employment obligations in order to reconcile family and job responsibilities. In 2004, only 20 percent of West German mothers worked full-time. In the territory of the former East Germany, this rate was substantially higher; there, 48 percent of mothers worked full time. This shows the significant cultural differences that still exist between East and West Germany, especially in regard to parenting and gender roles.

Ghana



The availability of childcare is a highly contested issue for Germans. Parts of western Germany offer only a bare minimum of preschool facilities for children under 3 years of age. And since, traditionally, German primary school students end their day before lunch, many mothers find it difficult to work outside the home. Instead, they are expected to cook a warm meal and then care for their children at home. Women also tend to provide most of the care for older relatives. In 2001, legislation was strengthened to establish equal job opportunities for men and women and to increase the compatibility of work and family life. A key component of this legislation is the parental leave act that stipulates that a mother or a father can receive 67 percent of their net income before the birth of their child for up to 12 months. In an effort to increase fathers’ active participation in child rearing, two more months will be granted if the other partner demands parental leave as well. The standard of medical care in Germany is very high. Breast cancer is the most frequent cause of inpatient treatment for German women. Heart failure ranks second. Rates of infant mortality and maternal death are very low. In 2003, every fourth delivery was by caesarean section. Abortions are available and legal (after obligatory consultation) during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Financially, almost 36 percent of women depend on benefits from relatives. This holds true even for gainfully employed women: every seventh employed woman cannot finance most of her living expenses from employment. Women earned least in typically female occupations like cashier and salesperson. Despite this gender gap, most people in Germany are financially secure. Germany also boasts one of the most comprehensive welfare systems that includes healthcare, unemployment insurance, and state-run pension plans. Regarding political representation, women have made great strides. Whereas in 1980 they made up just 8 percent of all Members of Parliament, in 2005 this figure had risen to almost 32 percent. Seventy-eight percent of eligible female voters participated in the 2005 elections. That same year, Angela Merkel became the first woman to be elected German chancellor. See Also: Breast Cancer; Equal Pay; Heads of State, Female; Merkel, Angela.

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Further Readings Biehl, Jody K. “Women in Germany: Berlin May Get a Female Chancellor, but It’s Still a Man’s World.” http:// www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,371204,00.html (accessed June 2010). Facts About Germany. http://www.tatsachen-ueber -deutschland.de/en/home1.html (accessed June 2010). Federal Statistical Office. “In the Spotlight: Women in Germany 2006.” doku.iab.de/externe/2006/k060907f17 .pdf (accessed June 2010). Heike Henderson Boise State University

Ghana Ghana has a total population of 23.4 million and an annual growth rate of 2.1 percent. Although it is a low-income country in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana has recently achieved impressive gains in economic growth and poverty reduction, with an average economic growth of more than 5 percent since 2001. Income inequality across regions and between men and women, however, remains high and has even increased during the period of economic growth beginning in the 1990s. Women continue to earn much less than men, and poor women are the most economically vulnerable subset of the population. Almost half of Ghana’s population lives in urban areas. Rural–urban migrations continue unabated, putting pressure on the already high urban unemployment levels. Both men and women play substantial economic roles in an economy that depends on agriculture. Many women (57 percent) are involved in farming or related commerce. Urban market women specialize in trading manufactured goods. Other common occupations for women with little or no education in the informal sector are hairdressing and dressmaking. The ratio of female to male primary enrollment is 98.7, but ensuring that girls complete school and continue education remains a challenge, partly as a result of girls marrying early or becoming pregnant. A majority of people still see childbirth as essential for women, but only 44 percent of births are attended by skilled health staff, and maternal and infant mortality remain high (210 out of 100,000, and 7.6 percent).

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Women are poorly represented at different levels of government. The number of women in Parliament is only 9 percent. Traditional gender politics in Ghana are characterized by the concept of gender complementarity. In southern Ghana, female leaders, referred to as queen mothers, are the counterparts of the male chiefs in the traditional system of leadership. Although (post)colonial policies undermined women’s traditional authority, at present queen mothers have formed associations in various regions and work together for women and children’s welfare. In Ghana, over 60 percent of the population adheres to the Christian faith. In the north, Islam predominates, and among all ethnic groups, traditional religions have maintained their influence. Women were usually among the first to convert to Christianity in the orthodox mission churches, although they were not allowed to play major roles. Ghanaian women were founders of several Spiritual Churches, widely known as African Independent Churches. The charismatic churches are the newest form of African Independent Churches in Ghana. These churches have generated a new type of gendered leadership for the wives of today’s charismatic pastors akin to the prominent roles that wives of heads of state have come to play in African politics. Members, especially the female ones, defer to them as icons of spiritual power and support. Certain traditional notions such as witchcraft and the demonization of childless women still persist, and biblical ideas that women must submit to their husbands have not been challenged in charismatic discourse, but in principle, charismatic churches may promote gender equality, as charismatic Christianity is explicit on the spiritual equality of believers. See Also: Christianity; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Religion, Women in; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Soothill, Jane E. Gender, Social Change and Spiritual Power: Charismatic Christianity in Ghana. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2007. Steegstra, Marijke. “Krobo Queen Mothers: Gender, Power, and Contemporary Female Traditional Authority in Ghana.” Africa Today, v.55/3 (2009).

World Bank. “Ghana. Strategic Country Gender Assessment.” http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTA FRREGTOPGENDER/Resources/GhanaCGA-R.pdf (accessed January 2010). M. Steegstra Radboud University of Nijmegen

Ghozlan, Engy Ayman Engy Ayman Ghozlan is a project director for the Making Egypt Safer for Women program of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR). Charged with implementing the center’s strategies in their campaign against sexual harassment, Ghozlan has worked with the media to raise awareness of the problem. In this role, she has become the voice and face that many associate with the effort to end sexual harassment on the streets of Egypt. Ghozlan was born in Cairo in 1985. She graduated from Cairo University in 2007 with a baccalaureate degree in mass communication. Troubled by her silence in response to the sexual harassment that she endured, she decided that action was the solution. This decision led her to ECWR, whose campaign against sexual harassment was already in process. Becoming aware of the paucity of data on sexual harassment, ECWR launched its campaign against sexual harassment in 2005 with a pilot study that would allow it to understand the scope of the harassment Egyptian women were exposed to on Egyptian streets. The survey revealed that women of all ages and social classes endured inappropriate touching, verbal taunts, and other forms of harassment. Nearly one-third of the respondents reported being the victim of harassment daily, but few of them bothered to report the offenses, as Egyptian society, including the police and legal system, often blames women for inviting their harassment. The survey, which included more than 2,800 women from all around Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and five other Egyptian governorates, also made clear that many women accepted the guilt imposed by their culture and blamed themselves for the insults and unwanted touching. ECWR decided to approach the problem by targeting all of Egyptian society—persuading women that

Gibbs, Lois



they did not deserve to be harassed and educating men on the psychological and sociological effects of sexual harassment on women. This was the environment into which Ghozlan entered when she joined ECWR. She began holding awareness days at youth centers, coordinating an increasing number of volunteers, and undertaking outreach and education with schools and the media. Because Egypt lacked a clear, legal definition of sexual harassment, it was important to raise awareness that sexual harassment encompasses any uninvited behavior that is sexual in nature and makes women feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Labeling the campaign to do this “Making Egypt’s Streets Safe for All” attracted media attention. Throughout 2008, Ghozlan appeared on television and was quoted in newspapers and online as she gave interviews and issued press statements on behalf of ECWR. Ghozlan became known for her readiness to speak the truth without sugarcoating it. When Middle East Online asked Ghozlan about Egypt’s Ministry of Interior’s statement that 20,000 women are raped each year in Egypt, she answered that a more accurate figure would be 10 times that number, as most rape victims do not report attacks. She also reminded her questioner that in a 2007 ECWR study, 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women in Egypt reported being harassed. Ghozlan made clear to Daily News Egypt that two-thirds of men participating in the ECWR survey admitted to routinely harassing women. Ghozlan and the ECWR are actively campaigning for legal reforms that will criminalize sexual harassment—a campaign that gained momentum when warnings by the United Kingdom and the United States to their female citizens traveling to Egypt showed that sexual harassment could carry an economic cost. See Also: Egypt; Representation of Women in Government, International; Sexual Harassment. Further Readings Carr, Sarah. “Women’s Rights Group Demands Legislation on Sexual Harassment.” Daily News Egypt (May 14, 2008). http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article .aspx?ArticleID=13694 (accessed June 2010). International Museum of Women. “Danger in the Streets: Egyptian Women Fight Public Sexual Harassment.”

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http://www.imow.org/wpp/stories/view Story?storyid=1228 (accessed March 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Gibbs, Lois An American environmental activist, Lois Marie Gibbs was born in 1951. Gibbs organized her neighbors, the residents of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, after her discovery that her 7-year-old son’s elementary school and much of her entire neighborhood was built on industrial toxic waste dumped there decades before. Hooker’s Chemical Company’s successor Occidental Petroleum had burned the banned pesticides lindane and benzene, and known toxics like chloroform, dioxin, trichlorethane, and tetrahlnetrane. According to Ecology of Fame (2001), after her son became sick and was hospitalized for pneumonia, Gibbs, a young housewife and a high school graduate, educated herself about toxic waste issues and organized her (approximately 1,000) neighbors, creating the Love Canal Homeowner’s Association and becoming its spokesperson. She went from door to door with a clipboard and a petition stating, “My name is Lois Gibbs. I am concerned about the 99th Street School. I want to know if you are concerned as well.” As the head of the Love Canal Homeowner’s Association, she transformed herself into a powerful voice for treating “hazardous wastes” as something that cannot just be “thrown away” without costing a terrible price to be paid by the community and its environment. President Jimmy Carter issued an order allowing for the paid evacuation of the about 900 families living at Love Canal in October 1980, starting the process known as Superfund to clean up our country’s hazardous sites. A cleanup of Love Canal was initiated, leading to national press coverage and making Lois Gibbs a household name. Gibbs’s unwavering endeavors were instrumental in the reaction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Comprehensive Environmental Response. Compensation via the Liability Act, or

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Superfund, has now become instrumental in locating and in cleaning up toxic waste sites throughout the United States. Gibbs formed what was to be called the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (CHEJ), formerly the Citizen’s Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, in 1980, where she currently serves as executive director. A grassroots environmental crisis center, the CHEJ provides resources, information, training, technical help, and support to the nation’s community groups, aid that is needed to empower other communities to organize themselves to eliminate and reduce threats from toxic substances and various other environmental ills. Having shown concern for the effects of toxic waste, Gibbs has also shown the significance of citizen activists who protect the health of the environment in their communities, as well as the environment as a whole. In addition to having been awarded the Codrigan Environmental Prize (1990), and the John Garner Leadership Award from the Independent Sector (1999), she has also written several books. Her story was dramatized in the made-for-TV movie Lois Gibbs: The Love Canal Story, which aired in 1982, in which her character was portrayed by Marsha Mason.

Ginsburg, Ruth Bader Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands out as an American role model and tireless advocate for women’s rights. A former law school professor and founder of the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project, Ginsburg is the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Throughout her lengthy career, she has ardently researched and promoted women’s political, economic, educational, and health rights, taking a stand on controversial issues. Ginsburg was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, to Nathan Bader and Celia Amster Bader. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1954. She attended Harvard Law School, where she was a member of the Harvard Law Review, and received her LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1959, where she was a Kent Scholar and a member of the Columbia Law Review. Following graduation, she clerked for the Hon-

See Also: Ecofeminism; Love Canal; Toxic Waste, as Women’s Issue; United States. Further Readings Brewton, Barbara, ed. “The Heinz Awards: Lois Gibbs.” The Heinz Awards. http://www.heinzawards.net /recipients/lois-gibbs (accessed July 2010). Gibbs, Lois Marie and Ralph Nader. Love Canal: The Story Continues. Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers, 1998. Lee, Paul, ed. “Ecology Hall of Fame: Lois Gibbs.” EcoTopia: A Design Strategy for the New Millennium. http://ecotopia.org/ecology-hall-of-fame/lois-gibbs (accessed July 2010). Raeburn, Paul. “Okay, You Want to Fight Back?” Audubon Magazine, (November-December, 2008). http://www .audubonmagazine.org/profile/profile0811.html (accessed July 2010). Claudine Boros Independent Scholar

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

Girl Gangs



orable Edmund L. Palmieri of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York (1959–61). She subsequently entered legal academia as a research associate and associate director of the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure (1961–63). She became a professor at Rutgers University School of Law (1963–72), where she cofounded the first law journal to focus exclusively on Women’s Rights, the Women’s Rights Law Reporter. She then joined the Columbia Law School faculty (1972–80), where she became the first woman to receive tenure. She was also a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (1977–78) and served as a visiting professor at New York University School of Law, Harvard Law School, and several universities in western Europe. During her academic career, Ginsburg helped establish the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project. As the project’s chief litigator, she successfully argued cases advocating for women’s rights before the Supreme Court. Her publications include several coauthored books: Civil Procedure in Sweden (1965), written with Anders Bruzelius; Text, Cases, and Materials on Sex-Based Discrimination (1974), written with Herma Hill Kay and Kenneth M. Davidson, the first law school case book on sex discrimination; and the Art of Oral Advocacy, with David Frederick (2003). She has also published numerous articles in law reviews and other periodicals on civil procedure, conflict of laws, constitutional law, and comparative law. In 1980, Ginsburg left academia for the judiciary. Nominated by President Jimmy Carter, Ginsburg became a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980. In 1993, Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court as an associate justice by President Bill Clinton and became the second woman and the first Jewish woman to serve on the highest court. Ginsburg has continued to promote women’s rights as a Supreme Court justice. She supported women’s abortion rights in the court’s decision to strike down Nebraska’s partial-birth abortion ban in Stenberg v. Carhart 530 U.S. 914 (2000). Ginsburg advocated for equal pay for women in her dissenting opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618 (2007), which ultimately led to the establishment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. Ginsburg also wrote the majority opinion for United States v.

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Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), which struck down the Virginia Military Institute’s long-standing male-only admission policy as unjustifiable sex discrimination. Ginsburg has been married to Martin Ginsburg, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, since 1954. They have two children, Jane, a professor at Columbia Law School, and James, a classical music producer. She continues to serve on the Supreme Court despite having been diagnosed with cancer. See Also: Attorneys, Female; Education, Women in; Feminist Jurisprudence; Judges, Women as; Lilly Ledbetter Act; Reproductive Rights. Further Readings Campbell, Amy Leigh. Raising the Bar: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. New York: Xlibris, 2004. Strebeigh, Fred. Equal: Women Reshape American Law. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. Supreme Court of the United States. “The Justices of the Supreme Court.” www.supremecourtus.gov/about /biographiescurrent.pdf (accessed November 2009). Judith R. Halasz State University of New York, New Paltz

Girl Gangs The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, published results from the National Youth Gang Survey from 2007 revealing that gang activity declined from 1996 to 2001. However, gang activity and problems associated with gang activity (e.g., crime) have been steadily increasing since then. Further results from this study indicate that 27,000 gangs were operating in 2007, with approximately 788,000 gang members. Gangs are also predominately located in the urban centers of a city, but they do operate in suburban and rural (albeit a smaller percentage) areas of a city. Finally, results from this study indicate that gang members are predominately older than 18 years and are men, with women accounting for approximately 10 percent of gang membership nationwide. Although the media portrays a perception that female

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gang activity and membership are on the rise, the U.S. Department of Justice reports that this is not the case. However, the National Gang Threat Assessment, published in 2009, reports that female entry into maledominated gangs has burgeoned. This entry describes the risk factors for female juvenile gang involvement, gang life for female juvenile gang members, and policy implications for reducing female gang involvement and facilitating the transition from living the gang life to being a law-abiding citizen. Risk Factors for Gang Involvement Research has consistently supported prior sexual abuse as a moderate to strong predictor of female offending. Given this reality, it is not surprising that researchers have found that childhood sexual abuse is a pathway for female onset into juvenile gang involvement. After all, these juveniles most often are sexually victimized by a male family member (i.e., father, stepfather, uncle, or brother) before running away from home and turning to the streets for survival. If these juveniles are not ensnared by prostitution, they turn to gang membership to establish a new “family” and to provide emotional and financial support. Numerous research studies have attempted to identify the risk factors for female gang involvement. In a 1998 study, Walker-Barnes, Arrue, and Mason identified the risk factors for female gang involvement, which included family influences (i.e., parental affection, family conflict, abuse, and modeling), peer influences (i.e., peer pressure, making friends), neighborhood (i.e., high crime area, presence of gangs), and self (i.e., respect). Predominately, the researchers found that friends have a significant effect on juvenile gang involvement—more so than the other risk factors. Some researchers have also found that low selfesteem is a precursor to gang membership. More recently, Archer and Grascia have stated that women may join a gang to maintain a relationship with a boyfriend already in a gang, as a method for seeking protection from other neighborhood gangs, or because a close friend joined a gang. Clearly, friends, or peer pressure, are a consistent predictor of juvenile female gang involvement in the literature. Gang Life One of the first academic studies that discussed female gang involvement was conducted by Thrasher

in 1936. At the time, Thrasher stated that female gang members were auxiliary members to their male counterparts. Women who have enter gangs come from all different racial and ethnic backgrounds, from differing socioeconomic backgrounds, and from different parts of a city (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural). For women wanting to join a gang, initiation practices differ by city. In some gangs, females are “jumped in,” where they have to endure a beating by other gang members. This initiation method is used to establish loyalty to the gang by the inductee and for the inductee to demonstrate her toughness. Other gangs may require that a female be “sexed in,” where the female is required to engage in sexual activities with one or more members of the gang. Depending on the gang the woman joins, her role may be that of a “sex object,” where she is expected to engage in sexual activities with her male counterparts. Once initiated, women may take a more active role in committing delinquent acts and crimes, both economic (e.g., theft, drug selling, prostitution) and violent (e.g., aggravated assault, homicide). In fact, researchers have found that gang members engage in two to three times more delinquency when compared with non-gang members. However, female gang members are more likely to engage in property offenses as part of a gang, as opposed to violent crimes. When women do engage in violence, it is often the result of a perceived threat to their reputation. Typically, female gang members are less likely to engage in criminal activities than male gang members, but they do engage in similar levels of drug use. Given the increased attention to juvenile female gang membership in the last few decades by the media and researchers, it is necessary to understand how to assist these women in transitioning out of the gang life. Klein noted that “gang prevention programs have been rare” because of the complexity of accurately identifying the risk factors for gang membership and the causes of gang formation. The U.S. Department of Justice recommends several strategies for reducing gang activity, including school-based prevention programs, secondary prevention programs in the community (e.g., Boys & Girls Club), and tertiary prevention programs (e.g., programs helping those already in gangs). More research is needed on female gangs to assist policy makers in developing effective programs thwarting

Girl Scouts



gang formation and aiding in the successful transition from gang life. See Also: Drug Trade; Gun Control; Prisoners, Female (U.S.). Further Readings Archer, L. and A. M. Grascia. “Girls, Gangs and Crime: Profile of the Young Female Offender.” Journal of Gang Research, v.13/2 (2006). Chesney-Lind, Meda, et al. Female Gangs in America: Essays on Girls, Gangs and Gender. Chicago: Lake View Press, 1999. Miller, Jody. One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Valdez, A. Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence: Beyond Risk. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Elaine Gunnison Seattle University

Girl Scouts The Girl Scout organization in the United States is dedicated to building courage, confidence, and character in girls and encourages girls and young women to use what they know to make the world a better place. Girl Scouting in the United States was begun in Savannah, Georgia, by Juliette Gordon Low. After returning from a trip to England and witnessing the activities of the Boy Scout and Girl Guides organizations there, Low was committed to giving girls in the United States the same opportunities to learn outdoor skills, to contribute to their communities, and to develop their leadership abilities. The first Girl Scout troop consisted of 18 girls, and the first meeting was held on March 12, 1912—a date now celebrated by current Girl Scouts as the birthday of Girl Scouting in the United States. Girls can enter Girl Scouting as a Daisy in kindergarten. They progress to the Brownie level in 2nd grade, to the junior level in 4th grade, to the Cadette level in 6th grade, the Senior level in 9th grade, and the Ambassador level in 11th grade. Those who are in the Daisy, Brownie, and Junior levels meet with other girls and their adult leaders in a troop or group setting. Those at the Cadette, Senior, and Ambas-

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sador levels have the flexibility to design their own program and activities while working with an adult adviser/mentor. As girls move through the various levels of Girl Scouting, they are expected to take on more ownership and leadership for their Girl Scouting experience, and the adults move from being the leaders of the troop to advisors for the girls as they lead on their own. The three highest awards for girls in Girl Scouting are the Bronze Award for Junior Girl Scouts, the Silver Award for girls aged 11 to 14 years, and the Gold Award for girls aged 14 to 18 years. The Girl Scout organization strives to be inclusive and makes concerted efforts to engage in outreach to girls from diverse populations and communities. In the early decades of the Girl Scout movement, troops were established for girls with physical challenges, for girls from the Onondaga nation in New York, and for Mexican American girls in Texas. In the 1930s, Girl Scout materials were translated into Braille so that they would be accessible to girls who were blind. In the 1950s, efforts were made to include girls from both migrant families and military families, as well as girls from various American Indian nations. In the 1960s and 1970s, Girl Scouts worked on antisegregation campaigns and also assisted Viet-

A group of Girl Scouts learning to sew in 1918. The first Girl Scout meeting was held in March 1912.

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nam refugee children settle into homes in the United States. In the 1980s, global understanding projects were undertaken by Girl Scouts to gain a better sense of social issues affecting girls around the world. In the 1990s, Girl Scouts began outreach to two distinct populations through its Girl Scouts Beyond Bars and Girl Scouting in Detention Centers programs. The Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program is designed to offer a scouting experience for girls whose mothers are incarcerated. Troop leaders work with the incarcerated mothers to plan programming that will enable the girls to interact with their mothers on a regular basis at troop meetings that are held at the correctional institutions. These activities promote positive parenting and mother–daughter interactions that are beneficial to both parties involved. The Girl Scouting in Detention Centers program is an off shoot of the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program and is designed to bring Girl Scouting to girls who are being adjudicated, are wards of the court, or who are court-referred delinquents. Girl Scout staff and/or volunteers bring the programming into the detention centers with the goal of developing the girls’ self-esteem and skills and offering them positive models for dealing with problems they are facing in their lives. See Also: Adolescence; Alternative Education; Girls, Inc.; Prisoners, Female (U.S.). Further Readings Girl Scouts. “Girl Scouts Timeline.” http://www.girlscouts .org/who_we_are/history/timeline/today.asp (accessed November 29, 2009). Miller, Susan A. Growing Girls: The Natural Origins of Girls’ Organizations in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007. Proctor, Tammy M. Scouting for Girls: A Century of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2009. C. L. Cokely Curry College

“Girl-Friendly” Schools In many areas, education is known as the key to success. It has widely been accepted as the vessel toward

upward mobility as its benefits have the capacity to positively change lives. For some, however, the mere notion of attending school on a regular basis is not a reality. Challenges in access and equality permeate through many communities, tribes, and villages with many students denied basic fundamental rights to a quality education. Socioeconomic barriers and longstanding traditions have equated to educational disparities in many areas but these inequities are most profound in developing countries. Through worldwide initiatives and programs, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) focuses on the largest group denied educational rights—girls. In many remote and conflict-ridden areas, the state of education has been negative, if not nonexistent, for girls. In these populations, poverty rates and unequal power relations between genders are extremely high and girls are expected to contribute to their families’ economic needs through household chores. Many young women are forced into marriages that occur before the age of 16 and subsequently, give birth to multiple children at a very young age. These gender inequities result in girls’ inability to attend school. For the fortunate girls that are able, attending school presents yet another challenge. Schools in developing countries such as Niger, Thailand, and Sri Lanka have traditionally had accessibility and equality difficulties for the girls in attendance. These schools, like many others, are substantially distant from their homes, lack private toilet facilities, embody a curriculum that is malecentered, and lack the existence of female teachers with whom young women can identify. Girls attending these schools face sexual harassment and violation on their way to and from school, often do not attend during their menstrual cycle due to lack of privacy and sanitary napkins, and eventually drop out or have diminished enrollment. In response to these disparities in education for girls, UNICEF created girl-friendly schools from their child-friendly schools initiative. Dimishing Barriers Girl-friendly schools (GFS) were created in developing countries to diminish barriers to girls’ education while simultaneously bridging the gap of possibilities between the genders. These schools are for both male and female students but aim to eliminate gender

Girls Inc.



inequalities in education. Working in conjunction with educational conglomerates and local school leaders, UNICEF assists many schools by considering the local circumstances and specific needs of each community before establishing approaches to equal education for girls. GFS are intended to foster the education of girls by creating a safe and secure atmosphere of learning. Children attempting to attend these schools would find their walk to school much shorter, and subsequently, safer. GFS are geographically situated closer to homes within the local community in an effort to decrease physical and sexual assaults on girls as they walk to and from school. Since many girls choose not to attend school based on the distance and the potential for acts of violence, creating schools in closer proximity increases their access to education. Furthering their commitment to provide safety at school, GFS also encompasses private toilet facilities for girls in each building. Although the designs of these facilities differ between countries and local communities, girls attending these schools are provided separate toileting space from boys and clean water and soap to use while washing their hands. Having these separate facilities is needed for their safety but is equally important while they are menstruating. Many girls in developing countries do not have access to sanitary napkins thus making it difficult for them to attend school while menstruating. A UNICEF study in Uganda stated that out of 300 female, primary school participants, 94 percent reported having issues at school while on their period. Three out of five girls reported not attending school at all during this time. GFS provide free or subsidized sanitary napkins to menstruating girls at school and offer hygiene education from an increased presence of female teachers in their schools. In addition to increasing the amount of female teachers and lessons on hygiene, the GFS curriculum further narrows the gender gap by incorporating lessons that address the plight of women and encourages goal setting and aspirations for the future. Students receive education surrounding tolerance and respect to decrease incidences of violence in the school and local community. These practical lessons promote positive outlooks for girls that would serve as the impetus for sustainable learning thus teaching them to be active participants in their education.

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See Also: Children’s Rights; Educational Opportunities/ Access; Equal Rights Amendment; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Girls, Inc. Further Readings Chabbot, Colette. “UNICEF’s Child-Friendly Schools: Uganda Case Study.” Washington, DC: United Nations, 2010. SSHE Global Sharing Project. “Girl-Friendly Toilets for School Girls: Helping Adolescent Girls.” http://www.irc .nl/url/21187 (accessed March 2010). United Nations Children’s Fund. “Basic Education and Gender Equality.” http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation (accessed March 2010). Women Watch. “Education and Training of Women and the Girl-Child.” http://www.un.org/womenwatch /forums/review/education/unicef_bg_info.html (accessed March 2010). Corrie L. Davis Kennesaw State University

Girls Inc. Girls Inc., a national U.S. nonprofit girls’ organization, aims to encourage all girls to be “strong, smart, and bold.” It operates primarily in low-income neighborhoods by providing informal educational programs to its single-sex youth centers and to affiliate schools, churches, housing projects, and community centers. In 2005, Girls Inc. served approximately 800,000 girls, ages 5 to 18 years. Girls Inc. traces its origins to the 1860s, when reformers opened girls’ centers in the northeast to offer home like social spaces for young women who were textile and factory workers. In 1945, 19 similar organizations came together to form the Girls Clubs of America, and in 1990, the organization became Girls Inc. Until the 1970s, activities emphasized traditional female pursuits such as homemaking and developing charm. In response to the civil rights and women’s movements, Girls Inc. redefined its mission toward girls’ empowerment, confirming its belief in the benefits of single-sex recreation and education for girls.

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In addition to offering recreational activities, Girls Inc. lobbies on girls’ behalf and undertakes research to illuminate girls’ status and needs. Girls Inc.’s commitment to political advocacy is symbolized by its adoption of a Girls’ Bill of Rights, rather than the more traditional laws and pledges of many youth organizations. Girls Inc. insists that girls have the right to: “be themselves and to resist gender stereotypes . . . express themselves with originality and enthusiasm . . . take risks, to strive freely, and to take pride in success . . . accept and appreciate their bodies . . . have confidence in themselves and to be safe in the world . . . [and] prepare for interesting work and economic independence.” Its publications include national studies such as The Supergirl Dilemma, which argues that as girls’ opportunities in math, science, and athletics have expanded, pressures to look right and speak softly persist, creating high levels of stress among today’s girls, and advice workbooks for girls like Girls Inc. Presents: You’re Amazing! which helps girls identify their talents, deal with stress, and define beauty on their own terms. Girls Inc.’s most popular program encourages girls in math and science to prepare them for future technology careers. Girls take apart machinery, experiment, and learn to take the risks necessary for achievement in these fields. A Time Warner Foundation grant in 2003 enabled Girls Inc. to revitalize its media literacy program and give girls access to media tools to create their own media images. Girls Inc.’s sex education program provides practical knowledge and builds communicative relationships between mothers and girls as a cornerstone to making wise sexual choices and postponing sexual intercourse. Still, its feminist spirit has brought controversy. In 2005, a fundraising partnership with Mattel’s American Girl doll led several conservative groups to criticize the organizations’ support for girls of all sexual orientations and of reproductive rights. See Also: American Girl Dolls; Adolescence; Girl Scouts; Science Education for Girls. Further Readings Girls Inc. “Celebrating Girls’ Voices Since 1864.” http:// www.girlsinc.org/index.html (accessed August 2009). Girls Inc. The Supergirl Dilemma: Girls Grapple With the Mounting Pressure of Expectations. New York: Girls Inc., 2006.

Mysko, Claire. Girls Inc. Presents: You’re Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2008. Jennifer Helgren University of the Pacific

Glass Ceiling Coined in the early 1980s, the term glass ceiling refers to an invisible and unbreakable barrier that prevents the advancement of women and members of ethnic and racial minority groups beyond middle management into top executive management positions, despite their qualifications. Contemporary scholars note that the glass ceiling reflects inequalities in various job-related outcomes after all other employee characteristics (e.g., education, experience, ability, and so on) are controlled, that it manifests primarily in chances for advancement, particularly within the top tier of management, and that these inequalities tend to increase over the course of a person’s career; ironically, as experience increases. The term is often compared to the glass escalator, which reflects the rapid advancement of white men into leadership roles within traditionally female-dominated occupations. Scholars also point to the presence of a second glass ceiling to explain the barriers that women face even when they have broken through the glass ceiling and are working in top executive positions. Finally, some scholars draw attention to the glass cliff, which reflects women’s promotion to extremely risky top management positions where failure is high. Although there is some debate about whether a glass ceiling exists, an abundance of evidence supports its presence in North America, and more mixed evidence exists in other economically advanced countries. In 1991, under the Bush administration, the United States government appointed a bipartisan Federal Glass Ceiling Commission with the mandate of identifying the glass ceiling barriers that have blocked the advancement of women and ethnic and racial groups into upper management. In its 1995 report, the commission concluded that men dominated top executive positions, represent-



ing 95 to 97 percent of senior managers, and a significant majority of these men were white. Of the 3 to 5 percent female executives, a significant majority were white, as well, leading some scholars to argue that racial and ethnic minority women especially face a “concrete” ceiling beyond which advancement is negligible. Barriers identified included societal barriers (e.g., conscious and unconscious gender, racial, and ethnic stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination), internal structural barriers (e.g., lack of mentoring, little or no access to tailored training and informal networks, biased rating systems), and governmental barriers (e.g., lack of consistent monitoring and enforcement). Although the commission was dismantled in 1996, concern regarding diversity of the corporate business world has remained, and data suggest little improvement. Research on Women’s Barriers For example, information collected by Catalyst, an independent international research organization, demonstrates that in 2009 men represented 94 percent of the executive officers and top earners, whereas women represented approximately 6 percent. Moreover, approximately 30 percent of companies surveyed had no women executive officers, and 32 percent had one. With respect to overall business occupations, data show that whereas women make up more than half of management and professional occupations and hold more than half of business degrees, they only comprise 13 percent of Fortune 500 executive officers, 6 percent of top earners, and 3 percent of Fortune 500 chief executive officers (an increase from .2 percent in 1995. With respect to data on Fortune 500 board directors, approximately 15 percent of board seats were filled by women, and women of ethnic and racial minority groups held approximately 3 percent of all board seats. Thus, whereas entry into business seems less of an issue, advancement in business remains, especially for women of ethnic and racial minority status, very difficult. In European countries, recent research demonstrates a gender pay gap in the top levels of organizations, within both the public and private sectors. Considering the public sector, one study found that of 11 countries investigated (Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain), Ireland and Spain were the

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only two that did not evidence glass ceiling effects. However, within the private sector, glass ceiling effects were evident in all 11 countries. Other research on female expatriate managers in Europe reports significant disadvantages in terms of organizational support, with all managers interviewed reporting confronting the glass ceiling in their organizations. Scholars note that a host of job-related factors contribute to the glass ceiling effect. Female managers report job assignments that have little visibility and offer little opportunity to form social relationships necessary for networking and advancement, compared to their male counterparts. Moreover, white women and men and women of racial and ethnic minority groups find it difficult to secure mentors, which is essential for promotion into top executive positions. Contributing these inequities to gender and racial stereotypes, scholars note that members of these groups are perceived stereotypically less suitable for executive positions and thus less likely invested in. For example, research finds that compared to their white male counterparts, black male managers tend to be perceived less loyal and ambitious, traits essential for promotion to executive positions. Inequalities for Females in Management Unfortunately, it appears that these inequalities remain even for the few women who are able to break through the glass ceiling into top executive management positions. Although some evidence suggests salary and compensation levels at relative par for men and women, research finds that women’s positions are associated with significantly less authority than men’s, have significantly fewer stock options and international assignments, yet significantly more obstacles, even when controlling for a host of job-related factors and skills. Moreover, personal reports of the executive culture suggest that women report less personal support, less fit, and greater cynicism with respect to future career opportunities. Worldwide comparisons further support these attitudes. Global research finds that female executives report feeling less secure, less happy with their salaries, and less supported through mentoring than male executives do. With increasing awareness of the glass ceiling phenomenon, governments and individual companies have adopted diversity and inclusion initiatives to reduce its presence. These initiatives include creating

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senior-level positions responsible for overall diversity and inclusion practices, implementing strategies to reduce stereotyping in the workplace, expanding ideas of workplace culture that promotes varying perspectives and styles, creating mentoring and social networking opportunities and relationships, and developing monitoring strategies to ensure compliance with diversity initiatives. See Also: Business, Women in; Chief Executive Officers, Female; Equal Pay; Management, Women in; National Organization of Women. Further Readings Arulampalam, Wiji, et al. “Is There a Glass Ceiling Over Europe? Exploring the Gender Pay Gap Across the Wage Distribution.” Industrial and Labour Relations Review, v.60/2 (2007). Cotter, David, et al. “The Glass Ceiling Effect.” Social Forces, v.80/2 (2001). Lyness, Karen and Donna Thompson. “Above the Glass Ceiling? A Comparison of Matched Samples of Female and Male Executives.” Journal of Applied Psychology, v.82/3 (1997). U.S. Department of Labor. “Federal Glass Ceiling Commission Executive Summary Report.” (1995). www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports /ceiling1.pdf (accessed December 2009). Cherie D. Werhun University of Winnipeg

Global Campaign for Education The Global Campaign for Education is an international, nongovernmental coalition of organizations that advocates for the education of children and adults in developing countries, motivated by its core principle that education is a basic human right. The Global Campaign grew out of the World Conference on Education in Jontien in 1990, an event organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the World Bank; and the United Nations Development Programme to get countries

from the global North (or the developed, Western countries) to collaborate with the countries from the global South in creating a program of action to solve the crisis of education within the developing world. The international nongovernmental organization (NGO) response to this World Conference of Education was to found the Global Campaign for Education. Formed in 1999 by of the joining of the international education advocacy campaigns of three NGOs— Oxfam, ActionAid, and Education International—the Global Campaign for Education has since launched many initiatives to advocate its cause for universal education in the developing world. It has also since enlisted other NGOs, teachers unions, and children’s rights activists in its cause. These include World Vision International, the Girl Scouts, and coalition NGOs for educations in many different countries. The core principles of the Global Campaign for Education are that education is a basic human right, the key to poverty alleviation and sustainable human development, a central responsibility of the state, and achievable if governments mobilize the political will and available resources. In line with these values, the central goal of the Global Campaign for Education is to put public pressure on national and local governments to provide good educations for their citizens; in other words, to make governments responsible and accountable for their peoples’ educations. The two major ways in which the Global Campaign for Education contributes to its calls for the provision of global education is first through research, and second through advocacy. The research conducted by the campaign is primarily policy research on comparative education. This policy research includes school reports in different countries that rank the efforts of various governments toward providing a free and universal education to its people. Within the arena of advocacy, the Global Campaign for Education organizes a wide variety of campaigns and other activities. These include its involvements in many national campaigns to lobby the annual Group of Eight, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund meetings, and its organizing a yearly Action Week that takes place on the last week of April—an event that coordinates around a central theme concerning education. This has ranged from girls’ education in 2003 to a global “back-to-school” campaign in 2008, in which 9 million people took part.

Global Feminism



The landmark event that characterizes the history of the Global Campaign for Education is the World Education Forum in Dakar, which took place in 2000. The Global Campaign for Education was set up specifically to contribute to the forum. Since the forum took place, 40 million more children have managed to go to school, and a financial mechanism—the Education Fast Track Initiative—has been established to help meet the goals of this campaign. See Also: Educational Opportunities/Access; “GirlFriendly” Schools; Girl Scouts; No Child Left Behind; Nongovermental Organizations Worldwide. Further Readings Gaventa, John and Marjorie Mayo. “Spanning Citizenship Spaces Through Transnational Coalitions: The Case of the Global Campaign for Education.” IDS Working Papers, v.327 (2009). Mundy, K. and L. Murphy. “Transnational Advocacy, Global Civil Society? Emerging Evidence From the Field of Education.” Comparative Education Review, v.45/1 (2001). Adeline Koh Richard Stockton College

Global Feminism Global feminism is the global application of feminist thought, displaying both unique and overlapping characteristics in its focus as it advocates for a positive and culturally relevant change in women’s outcomes. The concept of intersectionality that emerged from Black Feminist thought and its emphasis on race, postcolonial feminism, and emerging postmodern and poststructuralist thought have been instrumental in forming the framework of global feminism. It is also thought of as part of the third wave of feminism. Third wave feminism is composed of cultural, postcolonial, and postmodern feminism. The three major characteristics of third wave feminism apply to global feminism as well. These include the acceptance of multiple narratives in diverse locationalities versus the metanarrative of second wave feminism; the acceptance of social activism in sociopolitical space

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for assorted causes instead of theoretical stabilizing and unifying intellectualism; and finally, an attempt to create coalitions rather than a single entity of an organization to address gender concerns. This movement has brought together cultures and issues affecting women under a broad and unifying framework of feminist thought that has emerged from countries outside the Western hemisphere. Agenda The agenda of global feminism is to be able to respond to local-level concerns of women while integrating the goals of earlier feminist movements and their philosophies into their mission and actions. Global feminism has given voice to varying feminist thoughts and agendas. These issues include human rights, social justice, the concept of “othering,” acceptance of a universal sisterhood, and the issue of inequality. The conflict between the overarching goals of liberal universalism and local cultural realities are central to this debate. One illustration of this debate is the goal of mainstream/liberal feminism to be recognized as equal by their communities, and identifying the traditional cultural practices that act as a barrier in accomplishing this goal. There are two major contentions proposed by those practicing or identifying with global feminism. These include those living outside the United States, and the ethnic and cultural minorities residing within the United States and in other Western countries. The first questions gender as a social construct having unilateral primacy, and argues for the recognition of multiple and simultaneous oppressions from various social constructs, such as categorizations of class, caste, and urban/rural living. The second issue is a reflection on women being perceived as oppressive—as a part of developed societies or higher up in institutional—communities. As an illustration, nationalistic sentiments and their associated movements are central to postcolonial feminist thinking. However, the same nationalism that is valued in postcolonial feminist thinking is perceived as patriarchal in second wave feminism. Also, while global feminism concurs with mainstream feminism that universal rights for women are desirable, global feminists also fear and dispute typologies that use cultural practices as a way of creating a hierarchy of values, and consequently the societies and

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people within them. Thus, global feminism argues for cultural relativism as an appropriate strategy to approach universalism. The genesis of global feminism occurred because academics from countries like Iran and India dispute the essentialist victimized status ascribed to their national and social identity; similar responses come from women who have formed multicultural identities after migrating to developed countries, and continue to shape global feminism. Key Issues, Methods, and Tenets The key issues being addressed within global feminism include environmental activism, domestic violence laws, work and globalization, and the role of religion. In most of these instances, the causal mechanism around issues like environmental degradation, the exploitation of cheap and unskilled labor, and religious identity (particularly Muslim identity) can be traced to the developed world; therefore, it can be surmised that women from the non-Western world may feel constrained in identifying with a global sisterhood. Trafficking of women from developing to developed countries has raised a number of parallels to global feminist thought. The female subject is seen as the “other,” a sexualized object created by males and the colonial power. Thus, by inference, liberal feminism is working to support the very system of oppression and exploitation that exploits the most vulnerable in the ex-colonies. Global feminism methodologies are feminist, propose the situatedness of knowledge, theorize on differences, and expand the scope and scale of inequality discussions by also studying the difference between subjects of study and the objective researcher or writer who represents their reality. The discussion within global feminism includes gender—women’s sisterhood as essentializing and outlining the scope of masculinities and femininities, particularly in light of globalization. Shirley Lim proposes that the issue right now is that of the U.S. system and not a simple open market (and liberalization), but the export of the U.S. system through media, technology, power, and politics, and the taking over of physical and abstract spaces comprising norms and culture Also, the onset of globalization and its material culture extends the concept of intersectionalities and the identification of race, class, gender, nationalities, language, and multiplicity of constructing feminism to reflective global feminism.

United Nations–based agencies like the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) have encouraged the establishment of grassroots feminist movements. These agencies have paved the way for antiliberalization movements. The grassroots-level movements that are part of the global feminism paradigm have difficultly working exclusively with women or addressing exclusively women’s concerns. This is both because society is collectivist, and because women themselves identify with group concerns of family and community and not solely with womanhood or sisterhood. Additionally, many women in less developed countries must contend with the transfer of resources and meeting basic necessities, thus making it difficult for them to consider gender-based inequalities their primary concern. For instance, women in rural areas of north India are fighting against liberalization that is leaving them with less than before, out-migration from entire villages, local markets being taken over by wholesale producers, and living in urban slums without basic necessities—the concerns of a community struggling against class and caste. In Bangladesh, women are struggling to establish their right to practice a secular Islam instead of Islamic fundamentalism. There are women supporting both ends of this spectrum. The contradiction of global feminism with socialist, liberal, and radical feminism comes from multiple sources. First, women in the developed world are able to operate in resource-rich societies with institutions that largely function according to established and legal expectations, and thus continue to have a level of accountability. On the other hand, in developing countries, resource-strapped societies are also bogged down by institutions and government that have poorer performance and less accountability. Also, in developed countries, class remains an issue, but it is largely framed within the context of state-supported capitalism: even though there is a stark divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” the perception of an equitable opportunity structure makes class appear to be based more on individual attributes than social attributes. In developing countries, conversely, socialism or communism is an accepted way of life, and class has always been thought to originate in structural inequity, and as such, class affinity is strong



and takes precedence in sociopolitical discussions, even after the advent of liberalization and open markets. Additionally, in developed countries, women have access to basic necessities, such as a high school education, minimum wage jobs, and basic housing. Their struggle is therefore to strive for the next level of needs, such as fighting discrimination in the workplace, gaining equality in promotion, and finding a place in public life in a simplistic translation of the feminist agenda. The agenda in developing countries is still focused on more immediate rights to life, such as access to schools, preventing female infanticide, anti-dowry legislation, and putting an end to child marriages. These are concerns that are relevant in specific cultural and class contexts. For example, the fact that women have been in the highest position of power and authority in a few developing countries, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, could be perceived as inequity being a function of class rather than gender. However, instantaneous communication and easy access to information, ideas, and thoughts have made it easier to identify commonalities and differences among individuals and groups across the boundaries of nation-states. The current era prefers nondualistic constructions, much in keeping with the poststructuralist thought. Despite these differences, gender-related concerns that would have otherwise been submerged in the local class, caste, and community preferences were given a name and voice under the aegis of Western feminist thought. The most successful example is the global campaign to prevent violence against women, particularly against traditional and culturally sanctioned practices like female genital mutilation and spousal rape. Global feminism has recently been termed cosmopolitan feminism by Martha Nussbaum. Discussions of cosmopolitan feminism address the problems of patriarchy and capitalism in the same realm. Cosmopolitan feminism also tries to find a position that moves away from universalizing gender to framing women’s concerns in the human rights paradigm. Niamh Reilly proposes that a cross-boundary dialogue, networking, and social criticism will make feminism relevant in the global context. The underlying tenet in global feminism needs to be that women with education and comfortable lifestyles, referred to as “elites” in both

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Western and non-Western contexts, might not have the experiences to justify their right to speak on the behalf of women who are living in a relative or absolute absence of resources. However, it is the duty of all women to raise the question of gender inequality and work toward greater equity. See Also: Arab Feminism; Chicana Feminism; Ecofeminism; Iranian Feminism; Islamic Feminism. Further Readings Ferree, Myra Marx and Tripp Aili Mari, eds. Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Narayan, Uma and Harding Sandra. Decentering the Center. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. Nussbaum, Martha C. Women and Human Development. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Singh, Shweta. “Deconstructing Gender and Development Paradigm for Identities of Women.” International Journal of Social Welfare, v.16/2 (2007). Walby, Sylvia. “Feminism in a Global Era.” Economy and Society, v.31/4 (2002). Wilson, Shamillah, Sengupta Anasuya, and Evans Kristy, eds. Defending Our Dreams: Global Feminist Voices for a New Generation. London: Zed Books, 2005. Shweta Singh Loyola University Chicago

Global “Gag Rule” The Global “Gag Rule” is an intermittent U.S. federal government policy that prohibits the use of family planning funds by overseas organizations that perform abortions or do not explicitly oppose sex work. It has been widely criticized by women’s groups and workers in the field of sexual and reproductive health. Formally known as the “Mexico City Policy” due to its place of origination, it was given the name Global Gag Rule by opponents who sought to emphasize the ways in which it limited freedom of speech. Although its anti-abortion basis was widely known, a lesser-known stipulation of the act required all organizations receiving funding to sign a form explicitly

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opposing prostitution. Those that took no position became ineligible for funds, as did those who referred to prostitution as sex work or supported legalization or decriminalization. For those that rejected the gag and lost their funding, it hampered or stopped altogether the delivery of services other than abortion that were essential for women’s health. In order to be eligible for the funds, besides actually performing abortions, clinics were also banned from offering information about terminations through advice, counseling, or advocacy. Organizations were not only barred from using U.S. funds for these services but also from using their separate funds received from other agencies and institutions. Lobbying local governments for the decriminalization of abortion was similarly prohibited. In addition, the rule required organizations to inform their clients of condom failure rates and encouraged the promotion of abstinence. Contraceptives, including condoms, were no longer shipped to 16 countries in the developing world while the rule was in place. Quantities shipped to 13 other places were sharply reduced. This included a number of countries with extremely high rates of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Women’s rights groups argued that the rule had serious negative impacts on the reproductive wellbeing of millions of women. Given that around 600,000 women die from unsafe abortions and pregnancy-related causes each year, it was argued this had profound health consequences, particularly in countries with limited resources. They said that it endangered lives by exposing women to the dangers of unsafe abortion because no information on safe abortion could made available. Unions and self-organized sex workers’ organizations argued that it was a form of political silencing against those who did not see sex work as a form of violence against women. The policy was implemented through conditions in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) grant awards. It was in effect from 1985 until 1993, when it was rescinded by President Bill Clinton. President George W. Bush reinstated the policy in 2001. The ban was in place for eight years until January 23, 2009; President Barack Obama rescinded the policy.

See Also: Abortion, Access to; Contraception, Religious Approaches to; HIV/AIDS: Africa; HIV/AIDS: Asia; HIV/ AIDS: Oceania; HIV/AIDS: South America. Further Readings Bogecho, Dina and Melissa Upreti. “Global Gag Rule: An Antithesis to the Rights-Based Approach to Health.” Health and Human Rights, v.9/1 (2006). Centre for Health and Gender Equity. http://www .genderhealth.org/GlobalGagRule.php (accessed November 2009). Kate Hardy Queen Mary, University of London

Golf It is widely believed that the game of golf originated in Scotland during the mid-1400s. The Scottish later established written rules for the game during the 1700s, which helped codify the sport. In the United States, the popularity of golf increased dramatically during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the American culture became more modernized, upperclass businessmen used the sport as a diversion from employment stressors. The growth of private clubs, resort hotels, and technological advancements stimulated the popularity of the game. Unlike many contact sports that were considered too dangerous, golf was an acceptable form of recreation for women during the era, which was also a significant variable for its expansion in the United States. Women emerged as golf professionals during the early 20th century. During this period, entrepreneurs actively sought avenues for capitalizing on the profitability of sport. Women’s golf was one of many sports used as a vehicle for selling tickets and promoting products for the purpose of profit. In 1943, the first professional golf tournament for women was established. The Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA) was created a year later, becoming the first governing body of women’s professional golf in America. After five years of operation, the WPGA dissolved in 1949. Fred Corcoran, a successful sports promoter and manager of superstar Babe Didrikson-Zaharias,



collaborated with the manufacturers of golf equipment to launch the Ladies Professional Golf Players Association (LPGPA) in 1949. In 1950, the organization changed its name and became the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Due in part to the fame Didrikson-Zaharias brought to the LPGA, the United States Golf Association (USGA) sponsored the first official Women’s U.S. Open in 1953. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the LPGA experienced a series of triumphs and setbacks. In 1963, the U.S. Women’s Open became the first televised LPGA event. The increased national attention enabled the LPGA to expand its schedule and prize money. Despite the gains made in the early 1960s, the tour struggled to adapt to the demands of the television market, which decreased the tour’s financial stability. During the 1970s, however, the LPGA recovered when Colgate-Palmolive became the tour’s title sponsor in 1972. A watershed event for women’s golf and the LPGA occurred in 1972 when Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act passed into law. Mandating that all federally funded institutions provide equal funding to men and women, Title IX increased athletic opportunities for women dramatically. Additionally, Nancy Lopez burst onto the scene in 1977, providing a much-needed shot of star power to the tour. Building a Brand Tour leadership has changed numerous times during the last four decades. The lack of continuity in the commissioner’s office hindered the stability of the LPGA. When Ty Votaw became commissioner, however, the organization experienced unprecedented successes. Under Votaw’s leadership, tour events increased from 12 to 30, and tournament purses grew approximately 64 percent. Votaw developed a successful branding strategy for the LPGA that helped move the organization closer to the benchmark of the Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour. The slogan “These Girls Rock” accompanied an aggressive media campaign. Further, Votaw established a playoff system designed to increase the level of excitement associated with the tour. After leading the LPGA into a new era, Votaw resigned in 2005. His replacement was Carolyn Vesper Bivens, the first female commissioner of the LGPA. Bivens inherited an organization experiencing unprecedented growth. Fueled by stars such

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as Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, and Lorena Ochoa, the LPGA appeared to be on stable ground. Two years into her tenure as commissioner, she made the decision to expand the LPGA brand to include a lower-tiered tour for aspiring golf professionals. The Duramed Futures Tour became the official developmental tour of the LPGA in 2007. Another component of the brand is the Legends Tour, the official senior tour of the LPGA. While Bivens was successful in some facets of her duties as commissioner, controversial decision making contributed to her demise. In an attempt to increase the brand quality of the LPGA, Bivens enacted a policy requiring all tour players to speak English when addressing the media, sponsors, or at press conferences. Players failing to comply with the mandate were at risk for suspension. Because the tour is composed of a large percentage of Asian players, the rule quickly became a contentious issue. Bivens later removed the stipulation of suspension from the policy, but the damage caused could not be undone. Her troubles deepened after the tumultuous economy coupled with unhappy sponsors led to a significant reduction in the number of LPGA tournaments.

Women playing golf at the Jackson Sanitorium in 1890. Golf was considered an acceptable form of recreation for women.

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Michael Whan became the eighth commissioner of the LPGA in January 2010 after Bivens received a vote of no confidence from tour members. With a background in brand management and a passion for golf, Whan aims to rebuild the LPGA into a formidable professional sports league. With bright stars such as Morgan Pressel and Michelle Wie capturing the attention of the media, the LPGA is poised for a return to grandeur. See Also: Sörenstam, Annika; Celebrity Women; Sports, Women in; Title IX; United Kingdom. Further Readings Business Wire. “LPGA’s Votaw Unveils Next Major Initiatives of LPGA’s Fans First Strategy: First Playoff Model for Professional Golf and New Brand Platform Introduced.” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m 0EIN/is_2005_June_7/pg_6?opg=n13800832&pnum=5 (accessed March 2010). Crosset, T. W. Outsiders in the Clubhouse: The World of Women’s Professional Golf. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Duramed Futures Tour. “Fast Facts 2010.” http://www .duramedfuturestour.com/AboutUs.asp?page=Fast Facts.ssi (accessed April 2010). Kahn, L. The LPGA: The Unauthorized Version. The History of the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Menlo Park, CA: Group Fore Productions, 1996. Kirsch, G. B. Golf in America. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Ladies Professional Golf Association. “The LPGA: A Timeline.” http://www.lpga.com/content/Timeline-08 .pdf (accessed November 2009). Leonard, T. In the Women’s Clubhouse. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2000. Sirak, R. “Nowhere to Hide?” http://www.golfdigest.com /golf-tours-news/2009-07/golf_uswomensopen _bivens_sirak_0707 (accessed April 2010). Yoon, Peter. “New Chief Michel Whan Tries to Point LPGA in Right Direction.” LA Times (March 31, 2010). http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/31/sports/la -sp-lpga-20100401 (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth A. Gregg Jacksonville University Jason W. Lee University of North Florida

Gomperts, Rebecca Rebecca Gomperts is an abortion rights activist who has earned international attention with her projects Women on Waves and Women on Web. Her motivations, goals, strategies, and successes are outlined in this article. Gomperts was born Suriname in 1966 and was raised in Vlissengen, the Netherlands, after her family moved there when she was 3 years old. She studied medicine and visual arts in Amsterdam and interned in surgery and radiology. While serving as the ship doctor aboard the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior II, Gomperts met many women in South America who suffered tremendously because of the lack of access to reproductive health services and safe, legal abortion. Their stories, along with those of health professionals, were her inspiration for founding Women on Waves (WoW) in 1999. WoW, a nonprofit organization, purchased and outfitted a boat, registered with the Dutch government, with a mobile abortion clinic designed by Dutch sculptor Joep van Lieshout. The mobile clinic was intended for display purposes only. The abortions performed at sea were medical, as opposed to surgical, using abortion pills. The idea was to sail to countries where abortion was illegal, take pregnant women seeking abortions out to international waters—where the ship would be under Dutch law and the abortions therefore legal—and then “perform” the abortions before returning the women to shore. While in harbor, the workers aboard the ship would also distribute contraceptives and offer counseling, education, and workshops for health professionals. Between 2001 and 2008, WoW sailed to Ireland, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, invited by local women’s organizations in those countries. The ship was grounded in 2009 because changes to Dutch law affected WoW’s ability to provide medical abortions. Previously, any Dutchlicensed physician could prescribe abortion pills anywhere, but the legal changes meant that only doctors in approved clinics could do so. As a consequence, WoW was forced to cancel trips to Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina. In the years that the ship operated, WoW experienced mixed success. On the first voyage to Ireland, WoW’s was under intense international media scrutiny. While the ship was en route, conservative mem-

Goody, Jade



bers of the Dutch government announced that Gomperts was not licensed to distribute the abortion pill and that she would face legal repercussions should she do so. Although Gomperts and her crew distributed contraceptives and the “morning after” pill, they could not help the more than 200 women who contacted them looking for the abortion pill. Organizers felt betrayed and bitterly disappointed, and WoW left feeling frustrated. The 2003 trip to Poland was more successful. Before WoW’s trip to the country, public opinion polls there showed that 44 percent supported the liberalization of abortion laws; that number rose to 56 percent after WoW’s visit. Even greater results were seen following the ship’s 2004 trip to Portugal. There, Gomperts’s boat was blocked by two warships—a move that was viewed by citizens as an overreaction. The publicity raised by the government’s response helped make abortion an issue in the 2005 federal election, which saw the defeat of the ruling party. In 2007, the country held a referendum on abortion that resulted in the president ratifying a law that allows women to obtain abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy. In spite of the mixed successes with their voyages, what WoW consistently succeeded at was bringing the issue into both the national and international media. Women on Web continues Gomperts’ efforts to bring safe abortions to women in countries where abortion services are unavailable and illegal. The Website is registered in Canada and, using an online interview with a physician, prescribes abortion pills to women in need. The pills are mailed from around the world to women in unmarked envelopes. In addition to prescribing abortion pills, Women on Web also continues Gomperts’s efforts to increase the public’s awareness and acceptance of abortion. Under a section of the Website titled “I had an abortion,” women are encouraged to “show your face. Break the silence surrounding abortion!” Viewers can read women’s stories of abortion, which include the types of abortions women had, their reasons for having them, and their feelings about their abortions. Many of the stories include pictures of the women, and some also include the woman’s name. Gomperts has received several awards for her ongoing efforts around reproductive rights, including the Ms. Women of the Year award in 2001, the Women Making History Award from Planned Parenthood of

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New York City, the Margaret Sanger Woman of Valor Award 2004 from Planned Parenthood of New York City, and Global Women’s Rights Awards, Feminist Majority Foundation, in 2007. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Methods; Contraception Methods; Netherlands. Further Readings Corbett, Sara. “The Pro-Choice Extremist.” New York Times (August 26, 2001). http://www.nytimes .com/2001/08/26/magazine/the-pro-choice-extremist .html?pagewanted=1 (accessed April 2010). Ferry, Julie. “The Abortion Ship’s Doctor.” The Guardian (November 14, 2007). http://www.guardian.co.uk /world/2007/nov/14/gender.uk (accessed April 2010). Haenen, Marcel. “No More Pro-Choice Protesters on the High Seas.” Spiegel Online (July 28, 2009) http://www .spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,638835,00.html (accessed April 2010). Women on Waves. http://www.womenonwaves.org (accessed June 2010). Women on Web. http://www.womenonweb.org (accessed June 2010). Shannon Stettner York University

Goody, Jade Jade Goody (1981–2009) was born in Bermondsey, southeast London. Rising to fame through her appearance in Big Brother, she became the United Kingdom’s most successful and most controversial reality television star. Goody first appeared on television in the third season of U.K. reality television show Big Brother. She attracted a strong negative reaction in the media, being commonly compared to a pig. She was criticized for stripping and for providing the show’s first sexual activity, performing oral sex on fellow contestant P. J., concealed under a duvet. Goody was also widely viewed as ignorant, following comments that she thought Cambridge was in London and that East Anglia, which she pronounced as “East Angular,” was “abroad.” Despite this, she finished fourth and went

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on to become the most financially successful of all the show’s 172 contestants (over 10 seasons). Following Big Brother, Goody stopped working as a dental nurse and became a professional celebrity. She featured regularly in gossip magazines, published an autobiography, launched a perfume, and appeared frequently on television, including starring in three reality television series: Jade’s Salon, Just Jade, and Jade’s PA. Her media career focused on behind-the-scenes looks at her career and family, blurring conventional distinctions between public and private life. For example, she and partner, Jeff Brazier, appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap. Goody and Brazier had two children together (in 2003 and 2004) and later separated. In 2007, Goody appeared on the fifth U.K. season of Celebrity Big Brother with her mother, Jackiey Budden, and boyfriend, Jack Tweed. She attracted media attention globally for her (and fellow contestants Tweed, Danielle Lloyd, and Jo O’Meera’s) arguments and name-calling directed toward Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Controversy, particularly in the United Kingdom and India, sparked over whether Goody’s actions constituted racism and/or bullying. Later commentary also discussed the role of class prejudice within the public reaction. After being evicted from the show in a public vote, Goody continued to attract negative media coverage, and her perfume was temporarily withdrawn from sale. She apologized publicly and repeatedly for her behavior and visited India. She gradually returned to celebrity work and, in 2008, appeared in the Indian Celebrity Big Brother, Bigg Boss, hosted by Shetty. On her third day of appearing on Bigg Boss, Goody received the news that she had cervical cancer and returned to the United Kingdom for treatment. Although her cancer was in an advanced state and was terminal, she continued working. She starred in a number of reality television programs charting her illness, sold the rights to her wedding with Jack Tweed, and published further autobiographical books. This and other work both secured her sons’ financial security and changed the United Kingdom’s attitudes to cervical cancer. Following the news that Goody’s cancer was terminal, there was a surge in requests from women in the United Kingdom, particularly younger women, for cervical cancer screening—reversing a long decline. Government health ministers reviewed

their policy of not offering screening for cervical cancer until the age of 25 years in England. Overall, the publicity around her illness, particularly the photographs of her after losing her hair as a result of chemotherapy, altered the way that cancer is seen. See Also: Celebrity Women; Reality Television; United Kingdom. Further Readings Arthurs, J., et al. “Comment and Criticism.” Feminist Media Studies, v.7/4 (2007). Goody, Jade. How It All Began: My First Book. London: John Blake, 2006. H. Mendick Goldsmiths, University of London

Government, Women in Government refers to the set of political, administrative, and judiciary institutions that rule over a determined territory and a determined body of citizens. This basic definition contains a static and a dynamic meaning for the term. On the one hand, it denotes the institutional machinery structured at different levels of the state (local, federal, and state levels), the bureaucracy with all its bodies with administrative functions. On the other hand, it refers to the active process of managing the affairs of the state, with political, economic, and social implications for its citizens. The process of government is put into motion by the aggregated interests of citizens, transforming these interests into binding policy decisions. The discussion about the relation women and government touches upon such crucial interrelated aspects as women’s agenda, gender representation in governing institutions, and government as a process and government’s impact on its female citizens. Women’s Agenda What do women want from governments? Do they have different policy preferences? What are the issues that they see differently, when compared to men? The women’s agenda is a virtual “to do” list of the needs and wishes of women. The nature of this



agenda comes from the differences in reproductive roles between men and women and the related social norms that are ingrained in them as a result of these differences. Historically, only the male population had full citizenship rights, and only their experiences, reflected in terms of their needs and interests, were institutionally accepted. The emergency of a public women’s agenda is a relatively new phenomenon: it is a consequence of women’s enfranchisement, of the growing pressure of feminist movements, and of the transnational coalitions that followed these movements. There are a myriad of crucial issues on this agenda, including economic independence, reconciliation of private and professional life, equal representation in decision making, eradication of all forms of gender-based violence, elimination of gender stereotypes, and promotion of gender equality in external and development policies, to name just a few. The very response of the government to this feminist agenda constitutes the moving core of the gender-government relationship. The challenges for governments are accepting the political nature of the problems advanced by the feminist agenda, allowing a different framing of policy ideas, and offering alternative solutions to the existing ones. Government by Women The political and economic inclusion of women in the governing institutions is still a major target of the new century. This would lead to assuring an equal “government by women.” Descriptive and substantive representations are two core dimensions of this issue. The descriptive representation refers to the numerical presence of women in governing institutions, while the substantive representation focuses on the performance of these women once inserted into government. The descriptive representation aims to create a mirror image of society through its governing institutions. Normative and symbolic arguments state that every social group should have the possibility to be represented by their own delegates. It is assumed that the members of the same group possess similar characteristics and interests. Consequently, they will behave accordingly and will produce outcomes that are beneficial for the represented group. The descriptive representation of women in government is measured by the number of employed women on different levels of governing institutions.

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Presently, women in most parts of the world have gained both the right to vote and the right to stand for elections. The governments of New Zealand and the United States were the first to release electoral rights to women. Women of other European and Asian countries have seen this legal right fulfilled in the middle of the last century. The goal of gaining formal rights has not yet been accomplished all over the world. Presently, women in countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are still excluded from the electoral process. The configuration of governing institutions is crucial to the promotion of a large representation of women. International agreements and transnational organizations and movements make demands and exert pressure on countries to promote an increase in the number of women in government. Gender friendly policies and positive actions like gender quotas are the fast track solution for governments to increase gender representation. These positive actions and quotas form the bulk of the struggle for increasing representation by women activists. However, the adaptation and implementation of quotas is not always welcomed by the actual establishment, as this is a clear menace to the status quo. Opponents to the adoption of gender quotas assert that these measures kill competition and punish competency in favor of ascribed characteristics. The example of eastern European countries is brought as an argument for the inefficiency of quotas as a measure to promote women in government. During the Communist regime, party quotas were vertically imposed in order to ensure equal representation of gender and other minority groups. These measures imposed by the Communist Party were regarded by both men and women as an interference to a well-functioning government. After the Communist regime collapsed, quotas were regarded as part of the negative past and an indicator of a semblant democracy instead of real, healthy political competition. After the totalitarian regime, these quotas had no medium- or long-term effects. Effective Presence of Women in Government. Government may be conceived as a pyramidal structure of power. According to Robert Putnam (1976), this pyramid is ruled by the law of “increasing disproportion”: the higher we climb the political ladder, the less possibility that we find women there. Conversely, the less

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important a governmental position, the more likely it employs women, for example, in positions of street bureaucracy and secretarial positions. The descriptive representation varies by level of democratic development. Western countries have more women in power, in contrast with Asian and Latin American countries, which are in a democratization phase. The case of the sub-Saharan countries is an exception to this theory, as the institutionalization of quotas has considerably increased the representation of women in their local parliaments.. The number of women executives is increasing all over the world. However, women tend to be assigned portfolios that are deemed “feminine” and those that closely relate to practices of equal opportunities, health and childcare, or education rather than matters of defense, interior, or foreign affairs. Presidents and prime ministers are undeniably at the top of the power pyramid, where women are present mostly in roles of wives rather than protagonists. Only a few European countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Germany have women in these top positions. It was only at the beginning of this century that the United States saw a woman candidate for the presidential position. Substantive Representation: Women Working for Women? The increasing presence of women in government is expected to trigger a higher representation of the women’s agenda. It is assumed that similar needs and experiences of members of the same group would produce similar interests, and that women in government would therefore have a higher propensity to work for the interests of women and to apply at least part of their agenda. There are various ways in which women in government may work for women. They may do so by official declarations and public discourses in support of women’s issues and gender equality. Their mere presence may challenge the informal institutional practices and the traditional views about the role of women in society. In more substantive terms, women in government may put issues of women’s concern on the forefront of the political agenda. Such issues regard matters of welfare such as working conditions and work–life balance that directly affect the quality of women’s lives. Skeptics of the idea of “women working for women” contend that group differences might be more prominent than the mere gender factor. Different social and educational backgrounds together with a different level of access

to resources may produce great distinctions of interests, attitudes, and behavior among different groups. A white, rich, highly educated woman may not be cognizant of the experiences of an ethnic woman with a lower level of education. What’s more, there might be a deep bias in the very recruitment process of women in power. The gatekeepers would allow only women who conform to the established formal and informal rules, and these women may be less sensitive toward the feminist agenda. Notorious examples of “masculinized” women are Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir, who were perceived as “iron ladies.” Examples of Women Working for Women. The phenomenon of “women working for women” and evidence of women employees advancing a feminist agenda is becoming more and more widespread. During the time she held the presidential post in Ireland, Mary Robinson had an active campaign in support of the empowerment of women. Case studies on the activity of women in politics, bureaucracy, or courts bring some empirical evidence in support of this expectation. For instance, increased descriptive representation of women in local councils in Norway had an evident positive influence over outcomes of local child care policy and the effects have gotten stronger over time. Furthermore, studies on the voting behavior of the U.S. Congress show that women have a more liberal voting pattern, while the existence of a critical mass of women in Congress determines the increase of women-related legislation. As the numbers of women in politics increase, so do the evidence and the studies of this substantive relationship. The mainstream of current feminist studies is moving in this direction and seeks further empirical data to confirm this substantive representation. Government for Women In summary, “Women in Government” looks at the phenomenon that we might call “the acquisition and management of power.” This phenomenon is embedded in formal institutions and, at the same time, it is the subject of deep informal societal beliefs and practices. The opposite side of the relationship regards the activities of the governing institutions toward its female citizens and it touches upon all the aspects of their private and public lives. In contrast with the active role that individual women have in the process of direct representation, women are receptive



subjects of state regulations and constitute the final addressees of government decision making. Now we turn to the concept of “government for women.” Here we refer to the structure and the outcomes produced “by” governments “for” women. Pressures of local and transnational movements (like the Beijing Conference ) of the second wave of feminism have challenged the state to incorporate key women’s issues like antidiscrimination, antiviolence, reproductive rights, childcare, and political equality. These pressures have translated gradually and to different extents into institutional mechanisms dealing with these policy issues. “Women’s agencies” undertake the responsibility of the promotion of women’s political, economic, and social status; such rights were created as a response to these pressures. Some of these agencies are either ruled by former members of these movements or have accepted the challenges of the feminist policy agenda. This is the case for most Western countries, but the majority of the developing countries are still at the onset of this daunting problem. Policy Outputs. The task for governments is to aggregate the feminist demand and transform it in gender-friendly policy. Compared to the “women working for women” approach, which is quite individualistic, feminist machinery is an integral part of the institutional setting of government (which is not necessarily composed of women). It has the same aim to “work for women” by applying the feminist agenda. In adopting the agenda, there are three instruments at the disposal of governments: the adoption of formal rights, positive actions, and mainstreaming. All of these approaches are complementary and all aim to reduce gender disparities. The “equal treatment” approach aims to grant equal rights to men and women and may be enforced case by case by court rulings. The most common problem with the legalistic approach is that legal provisions may be discriminative per se or they may fail to regulate gender-based problems. Another limit of the legalistic approach is that is it is marked by high costs that individuals have to face in order to defend their rights in court. Low budgets or the lack of sanctions often lead to a lack of implementation of legal rules. “Positive actions” is another mechanism that governments have on hand to improve their ties with female citizens. The basic contribution of this

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approach is that it brings groups closer that have different points of departure, offering specially tailored contributions to various groups that have an unfavorable social and economic base. Examples of positive actions are electoral gender quotas that target a higher descriptive representation. Gender “mainstreaming” is the often-cited method that foresees the integration of the gendered approach in every policy field. According to this view, every governmental decision has to take into account the gender impact. A high degree of subjective interpretation may put the proper implementation of this method at risk. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Gender Quotas in Government; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Representation of Women in Government, International; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Annesley, Clair. “Women’s Political Agency and Welfare Reform: Engendering the Adult Worker Model.” Parliamentary Affairs, v.60/3 (2007). Bacchi, Carol Lee. Women, Policy and Politics: The Construction of Policy Problems. London: Sage, 1999. Celis, Karen, et al. “Rethinking Women’s Substantive Representation.” Representation, v.44/2 (2008). Jacquot, Sophie. “The Paradox of Gender Mainstreaming: Unanticipated Effects of New Modes of Governance in the Gender Equality Domain.” West European Politics, v.33/1 (2010). Lovenduski, J. State Feminism and Political Representation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Mazur, Amy G. Theorising Feminist Policy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002. Angela Movileanu University of Siena

Grameen Bank of Bangladesh The Grameen Bank of Bangladesh (GB) provides banking services to the rural poor in Bangladesh, particularly poor women. Founded in 1976 by Mohammad Yunus, Professor of Economics at Chittagong

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University, the bank is best known for providing small, collateral-free loans (referred to as microcredit, microlending, or microfinance). Such loans— which are often less than $100—are intended to foster entrepreneurial activities and to help ease families out of poverty. Headquartered in the city of Minpur, the GB is currently a multimillion-dollar enterprise with more than 2,500 branches. Although some have raised concerns about the GB, others have lauded it as a model for successful economic stability and for the empowerment of women. The GB program is based on “Sixteen Decisions,” a list of maxims that loan recipients must ascribe to in their work. No assets are required to obtain a loan. Instead, a model of social collateral is implemented to encourage timely repayment. To begin, individuals collaborate with others in their village to form small loans groups (typically four to six members). Several loan groups combine to create a community loan center. Loans are initially extended to two members of each loan group. If regular repayments are sustained, loans are extended to two additional group members. If a member has difficulty making a payment, other members are expected to help her do so. In this respect, individuals are held accountable for the economic decisions and well-being of all group members. Critics have pointed to the limited and even negative outcomes of the GB. For example, poverty rates in Bangladesh remain very high. In addition, research suggests that women may be coerced—often through violence—into taking out loans and their husbands frequently control the use of loan money. It is common for loan money to be used for the purchase of food, household goods, or even travel rather than for entrepreneurial purposes. Furthermore, the GB charges a high interest rate (20 percent) and payments often consume a sizable portion of household income. It is not uncommon for participants to take out additional loans in order to maintain repayment schedules, a strategy that can lead to long-term, insurmountable debt. Finally, there is evidence that loan group members and GB loan officers may humiliate and even verbally abuse participants who are delinquent with their payments. Yet there are numerous indicators of success. The GB has a 98 percent repayment rate and has assisted nearly 7 million families in Bangladesh. Women comprise 95 percent of participants in GB lending pro-

grams. Thus, with access to the capital needed to start a small business, women may increase household income as well as their own status in their family and community. At present, the GB is financially self-sufficient, pays dividends to its borrowers, boasts assets of nearly $24 million, and serves as a model for similar credit programs throughout the world. Its sister organization, the Grameen Foundation (GF), was launched in 1997. It offers banking services, business training, and education programs relating to nutrition, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), sustainable farming, adult literacy, and maternal health in the Middle East and north Africa, the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and east Asia. See Also: Bangladesh; Entrepreneurs; Financial Independence of Women; Microcredit; Poverty; Poverty, “Feminization” of. Further Readings Grameen Bank. “Banking for the Poor.” www.grameen -info.org (accessed June 2010). Grameen Foundation. “Empowering People. Changing Lives. Innovating for the World’s Poor.” www.grameen foundation.org (accessed June 2010). Holcombe, Susan. Managing to Empower: The Grameen Bank’s Experience of Poverty Alleviation. London: Zed, 1995. Rahman, Aminur. “Micro-Credit Initiatives for Equitable and Sustainable Development: Who Pays?” World Development, v.27/1 (1999). Selinger, Evan. “Does Microcredit ‘Empower’? Reflections on the Grameen Bank Debate.” Hum Stud, v.31 (2008). Yunus, Mohammad. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. New York: Public Affairs, 2003. Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

Grandin, Temple Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and a world-renowned designer of livestock-handling facilities. Although she



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with her daughter to keep her from retreating into her own world. As she became older, Eustacia Cutler sought placements for her daughter in private schools that were willing to accomodate her particular needs. In her writings, Grandin frequently attributes her professional success in her adult life to these early interventions by her mother to keep her fully engaged at all times.

With the help of her mother, Temple Grandin has used her unique way of thinking to help her achieve scientific renown.

was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder as a young child, Grandin’s numerous works on animal welfare and her writings on neurology and philosophy are frequently cited and referred to by many in both the animal welfare and autism advocacy movements. Temple Grandin was born August 29, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Eustacia Purves Cutler, a writer and entertainer, and Richard Grandin, a real estate agent. From a very early age, she displayed the classic symptoms of autism: she had poor eye contact, didn’t speak until she was 4, did not like to be touched or held, and had a tendency to throw temper tantrums. After her parents took her to a neurologist and a hearing test revealed she was not deaf, the doctors labeled her “brain damaged,” and recommended she be institutionalized, which was the standard treatment for autistic children in the 1950s. Ignoring the physicians’ advice, her mother enrolled her in a program of speech therapy, placed her in a small private kindergarten, and read to her constantly. Because the family was financially welloff, Temple’s mother also hired a caregiver to play

Grandin’s Academic Achievements After high school, Grandin attended Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, where she received a bachelor’s degree with honors in 1970. During her tenure at Franklin Pierce, medical professionals and school officials tried to discourage her from using a homemade squeeze chute device she had constructed to calm herself down. She was inspired by a cattle squeeze chute she had used at her aunt’s ranch in Arizona as a teen, after seeing how much it calmed the livestock. After school officials confiscated the first device she made, Grandin responded to a professor’s suggestion that she try to learn why the chute calmed her nerves by doing scientific research. An improved version of the original machine she designed has been used in many schools and treatment centers to help individuals with autism spectrum disorders reduce anxiety and improve concentration. In the five years after her graduation from college, Grandin moved to Arizona, where she entered graduate school at Arizona State University, began working in the cattle industry, and later served as the livestock editor of the Arizona Farmer Ranchman. After seeing firsthand how cattle were slaughtered in the major meat-processing plants, she noticed that cattle, as with many autistic people, displayed extreme signs of stress and anxiety when they encountered particular visual and audio cues. As a result of this discovery, Grandin developed a new design for the chutes that put no stress on the animals as they were led to the slaughtering area. This discovery eased the process for workers in the plants, and is now used by almost half of the North American cattle processing industry. In the two decades that followed the receipt of her master’s degree from Arizona State, Grandin acquired a wealth of expertise in animal handling in slaughterhouses, and became one of the most respected leaders in her field. Granted her doctorate in animal science from the University of Illinois

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in 1989, Grandin has subsequently published the results of her research in numerous academic journals and industry trade publications. The lead subject of celebrated neurologist Oliver Sack’s book An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales, Grandin began to worry that her thoughts and her legacy would die with her if she did not begin sharing her experiences through writing. Thus, in 1986, she published Emergence: Labeled Autistic, an autobiographical account of her childhood and adolescence. A groundbreaking book, it challenged the dominant notion held by most professionals and parents of the time that an autism diagnosis always condemned a child to a tragic future of unfulfilled promise. Since then, Grandin has published several other insightful and influential books that offer advice to both parents and professionals who work and live with individuals on the spectrum. Clare Danes played the role of Grandin in a 2010 Home Box Office (HBO) film Temple Grandin based on her life and achievements as a scientist, author, lecturer, and inspirational advocate for autism and autism spectrum disorder. See Also: Education, Women in; Health, Mental and Physical; Medical Research, Gender Issues; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in. Further Readings Cutler, Eustacia. Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin’s Mother Tells the Family Story. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, 2004. Grandin, Temple. Emergence: Labeled Autistic. New York: Warner Books, 1996. Grandin, Temple. Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports From My Life With Autism. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. Grandin, Temple. The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger’s. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, 2008. Grandin, Temple and Kate Duffy. Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals With Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger, 2008. Grandin, Temple and Catherine Johnson. Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2006.

Grandin, Temple and Catherine Johnson. Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Temple Grandin. HBO Home Video, 2010. Danielle Roth-Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Grandmothers Grandmothers are an extremely diverse group. Although more than 75 percent of Americans over age 65 are grandparents, some people become grandparents at age 30. About half of women experience this event by age 47, and some spend half of their lives as grandmothers. Grandmothers report greater overall satisfaction with grandparenting than grandfathers do, and this is particularly true for maternal grandmothers. Worldwide, grandmothers provide care and support for their grandchildren and, increasingly, are serving as their surrogate parents. Factors Influencing Grandmother– Grandchild Involvement Grandmothers’ involvement with their grandchildren depends on a number of factors. One of these is geographical distance. Increased geographic mobility often means that grandparents live some distance from their grandchildren, making visits less frequent and relationships less intimate. Moreover, today’s grandparents are more likely to live independent lives apart from their children and to be involved in several other roles. Many middle-age grandmothers are in the labor force and may also have responsibilities for caring for their elderly parents. Thus, they may have less time to devote to grandparenting activities than did grandmothers a generation ago. In addition, the rising divorce rate may limit the access of grandparents to grandchildren who are living with a former son-in-law or daughter-in-law. An estranged parent may deny children access to their grandparents as a means of punishing the spouse. All 50 states once had laws allowing grandparents to petition courts to continue seeing their grandchildren if their child’s marriage ended through divorce or death. Now, many states have made grandparent visitation



laws invalid, deciding that they go against the rights of the parent. The Grandmother–Grandchild Relationship The ties between family generations are maintained largely by women. One example is that grandmothers tend to have warmer relationships with their grandchildren than do grandfathers. The maternal grandmother usually has the most contact and the closest relationship with the grandchildren, and the grandmother’s relationship with her daughter’s daughter often is especially close. Grandchildren often become closer to their grandmothers, particularly their maternal grandmother, following divorce, a trend that may be related to the fact that custody often is awarded to the mother. Grandchildren from divorced families often benefit from this increased involvement with their grandmother, who provides additional emotional and even financial support as the family adjusts to new configurations and economic hardships. Close, supportive relationships with grandparents, especially the maternal grandmother, are linked with better mental health in adolescents and young adults raised in single-parent families. In some parts of the world, the presence of a grandmother may spell the difference between life and death for her grandchildren. According to anthropologist Kristen Hawkes and her colleagues, postmenopausal women have helped ensure the survival and fitness of their grandchildren since prehistoric times. These women, no longer reproductively active themselves, are able to invest their energies in providing for the physical and psychological health of grandchildren and other young relatives. Hawkes and her colleagues studied the present-day Hadza huntergatherers of northern Tanzania and found that older women gather more edible plant foods than any other members of the group. Nursing Hadza women, unable to provide for their older children while tending their infants, rely not on their mates, but on these postmenopausal women relatives—their mothers, aunts, or elderly cousins—to make sure that the older children are well fed. Similarly, anthropologists Ruth Mace and Rebecca Sear found that in rural Gambia, the presence of a maternal grandmother doubled the survival rate of her toddler grandchildren. The presence of a paternal grand-

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mother made no difference in the children’s survival. Even more surprisingly, the presence of the father didn’t either. Similar results have been found in parts of rural India and Japan as well. Providing Care and Support for Grandchildren During their grandchilden’s infancy and preschool years, nearly half of the grandmothers in the United States provide the children’s parents with considerable emotional support, information, help with childcare and household chores, and to a lesser degree, financial support. Almost one-third of all preschoolers in the United States whose mothers are employed or in school are looked after by their grandparents, usually a grandmother. Some baby boomer grandmothers are retiring or taking time off from their careers to become nannies for their grandchildren. Similarly, in European countries ranging from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, nearly 60 percent of grandmothers provide some kind of childcare for grandchildren. The grandmother’s role in lending economic, social, and emotional support to her children and grandchildren varies among ethnic groups. For example, Asian American grandparents are more likely than other groups to care for their grandchildren whose mothers are employed. In one study of low-income multiracial Hawaiian children who had an absent or incapacitated parent, the nurturance and guidance of grandparents was a key factor in the children’s well-being as they grew to adulthood. Latina women are an important source of social support for their young adult daughters with children and their advice is often sought in major family decisions. Both Native American and African American grandmothers are significant figures in the stability and continuity of the family. African American grandparents view their relationships with their grandchildren as more central to the family than do European American grandparents. They have higher status within the family and carry more authority than do European American grandparents. This is especially true for grandmothers. For some children, grandparents are part of the family household. The number of grandparents living in homes with grandchildren has more than doubled since 1970 to 6.2 million in 2005, including 8 percent of African American, Native American, and Latina adults, 6.4 percent of Asian American adults, and 2.5 percent of European American adults. Some

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of the increase results from an uncertain economy and the growing number of single mothers, which has sent young adults and their children back to the parental nest. In other cases, elderly adults are moving in with their adult children’s families when they can no longer live on their own. New immigrants with a tradition of multigenerational households have also swelled the number of such living arrangements. The arrangement benefits all parties. Grandparents and grandchildren can interact on a daily basis. The grandparents often assume some parenting responsibilities, making it easier for mothers to work or for young single mothers to stay in school. Raising Grandchildren Increasing numbers of grandparents now find themselves raising their grandchildren on their own. Of the 6.2 million grandparents living in a household with a grandchild, over 40 percent are raising their grandchildren without a parent present. The majority of these so-called skip-generation parents are grandmothers. Grandparents become full-time caregivers for their grandchildren when the child’s parents are unable or unwilling to because of illness, divorce, teen pregnancy, child abuse, substance abuse, incarceration, psychological or financial problems, and/or military deployment. In some developing countries, parents migrate to urban areas to work, while grandparents remain behind and raise the grandchildren. The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has also increased the number of grandparents who are raising grandchildren in many nations, including the United States. Children reared by their grandparents fare well relative to children in families with one biological parent. They also show little difference in health and academic performance relative to children raised in traditional families. The belief that caregiving grandmothers are primarily poor ethnic women of color is a myth. Parenting grandmothers can be found across racial and socioeconomic lines. About half the grandparents raising grandchildren are European American, 29 percent are African American, 17 percent are Latina, 3 percent are Asian American, and 2 percent are Native American. African American women who are raising their grandchildren, compared with European American women, report feeling less burdened and more

satisfied in their caregiving role, even though they are generally in poorer health, dealing with more difficult situations, and dealing with them more often alone. Rearing a grandchild is full of both rewards and challenges. On the one hand, parenting a grandchild is an emotionally fulfilling experience. On the other hand, raising grandchildren has psychological, physical, and economic costs. A grandmother raising the young child of her drug-addicted adult daughter may concurrently feel ashamed of her daughter; anxious about her own future, health, and finances; angry at the loss of retirement leisure; and guilt about her own parenting skills. Moreover, grandparents primarily responsible for rearing grandchildren are more likely than other grandparents to suffer from a variety of health problems, including depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and a decline in self-rated physical and emotional health. Furthermore, they tend to delay seeking help for their own medical problems. The stress felt by grandparents is exacerbated if the grandchild exhibits behavioral problems often associated with a dysfunctional family. Caring for grandchildren also takes a toll on those grandmothers who are employed. In one study, 40 percent of employed custodial grandmothers reported that they arrived late to work, missed work, left work suddenly, or left because of a grandchild’s medical appointment. Grandparents raising grandchildren are often stymied by existing laws that give them no legal status unless they gain custody of the grandchild or become the child’s foster parents. Each of these procedures involves considerable time, effort, and expense. Yet without custody or foster parent rights, grandparents may encounter difficulties in obtaining the child’s medical records, enrolling the child in school, or becoming eligible for certain forms of financial assistance. For example, the welfare grant that a low-income grandmother collects on her grandchild’s behalf is only a fraction of what she would receive if she were to become the child’s foster parent. In most instances, grandchildren are ineligible for coverage under grandparents’ medical insurance, even if they have custody. In some cases, states ignore the significant expenditures made by caretaker grandparents when calculating the grandparents’ eligibility for Medicaid. Consequently, many grandparent caregivers face significant financial challenges.

See Also: Childcare; Family Research Council; Focus on the Family; Poverty. Further Readings Etaugh, Claire. “Women in the Middle and Later Years.” In Florence L. Denmark and Michele A. Paludi, eds., Psychology of Women: A Handbook of Issues and Theories. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008. Gibbons, C. and T. C. Jones. “Kinship Care: Health Profile of Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren.” Journal of Family Social Work, v.7/1 (2003). Goyer, Amy. Intergenerational Relationships: Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. Washington, DC: American Association of Retired Persons, 2005. Pittman, Laura D. “Grandmothers’ Involvement Among Young Adolescents Growing Up in Poverty.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, v.17 (2007). Pruchno, Rachel A. “Raising Grandchildren: The Experiences of Black and White Grandmothers.” The Gerontologist, v.39/2 (1999). Ruiz, Sarah A. and Merril Silverstein. “Relationships With Grandparents and the Emotional Well-Being of Late

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Adolescent and Young Adult Grandchildren.” Journal of Social Issues, v.63 (2007). Wang, Ying and Dave E. Marcotte. “Golden Years? The Labor Market Effects of Caring for Grandchildren.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, v.69 (2007). Claire Etaugh Bradley University

Granny Peace Brigade The grandmothers in the Granny Peace Brigade are not irrelevant, doddering, and nodding rocking chair elders nostalgic for the good old days. They are on the front lines, picketing, bearing witness, lobbying, singing, and getting arrested to protest the costly war in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and the vast domestic war machine. These respectable older women—they prefer to be called “seasoned”—can be found in 33 states and can hardly be dismissed as radical kooks or

The Granny Peace Brigade’s Philadelphia branch marches at the Mummers Parade. In 2006, 11 members showed up at the Military Recruitment Center in Philadelphia to “enlist” in the military, “so that our grandchildren would not kill or be killed in Iraq.”

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naive youths. Protest keeps them vital and provides them with a friendship network. Their inspiration came from the colorful Raging Granny groups that sprouted up all over Canada in the 1980s. The Granny Peace Brigade evolved slowly in New York City in 2003 and began holding small weekly antiwar vigils at Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue. In 2004, between five and 50 women stood in protest for anywhere from one to three hours, sometimes joined by groups of veterans, curious tourists, or their grandchildren. By the next year, the New York Times, New York Newsday, and members of the foreign press wrote about them, and they became a tourist attraction— filmed, interviewed, and sometimes heckled. Inspired by a Raging Granny group in Tucson, who the media covered extensively when they were arrested for attempting to enlist in the military, the New York group duplicated their action at the Times Square Recruiting booth in October 2005. Eighteen unthreatening grannies ranging in age from 59 to 90 years, some with walkers or canes, others blind and deaf, were jailed for blocking the entrance to the recruiting station. They did not want the youth, who were too busy paying for their education and working, sent to war, and felt they should go instead. After the arrest, the activities of the Granny Peace Brigade expanded and increased. They formed the Granny Chicks chorus, staged teach-ins at colleges on issues like the closing of all U.S. military bases in the Pacific, held phone-a-thons at which passers by are asked to call their representatives about pending antiwar legislation, organized counterrecruitment actions at high schools to encourage parents to be proactive in monitoring military recruiters’ access to their youth, and protested in front of stores such as Toys R Us during the holiday season, asking shoppers to buy smart toys, not those that foster violence and war. Their demonstrations are often colorful because they have know-how, time, and artistic and organizing skills. For Grandparents Day in September 2006, they paraded in black T-shirts—some in wheelchairs pushed by volunteers—across the Brooklyn Bridge, beating drums and carrying 25 enormous black balloons emblazoned with the words Troops Home Now. After they crossed to Manhattan, they held a press conference with politicians and actresses. The march ended at Ground Zero, where one Granny was arrested for talking back to a policeman who claimed

they had no permit to demonstrate. As their song says, “Watch Out. We’ve Just Begun to Fight.” See Also: Grandmothers; Peace Movement; Social Justice Activism; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Further Readings Granny Peace Brigade. http://www.grannypeacebrigade .org (accessed June 2010). Wile, Joan, Grandmothers Against the War, Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace. New York: Kensington, 2008. Rosalyn Fraad Baxandall State University of New York, Old Westbury

Greece Greece is located in southeastern Europe, and has a homogenous population that is 98 percent ethnically Greek and Orthodox Christian. There is a traditional cultural emphasis on family and women’s roles as wife and mother. Women have political and legal equality, but they are not always achieved in reality. Reporting and prosecuting domestic violence and crimes against women remain problematic. Declining birthrates and the legalization of abortion are key issues involving women. Greece ranked 86th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report—last among European Union members. Women in Private Life Greek culture emphasizes the family as a key source of an individual’s identity and support system. Consequently, Greece has high marriage rates and low divorce rates. Both church and civil marriages are common and legally recognized. The average woman marries in her mid-20s. The fertility rate is 1.3 births per woman. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 4 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate was 3 per 100,000 live births. The state Social Insurance Fund and employers provide women with 119 days of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages. Seventy-six percent of married women use contracep-



tion. The legalization of abortion and steep declines in the birth rate in modern Greece have both been recent controversial social issues. Cultural tradition emphasizes the woman’s role as wife, mother, and daughter. Women maintain strong economic roles within the family, and own property. Most Greek families are nuclear, but extended families and strong ties with godparents and wedding sponsors are also common. Related family households tend to live nearby. Parents, grandparents, and other relatives share childrearing responsibilities. The Family Law of 1983 legalized gender equality in family decision making. Family privacy is emphasized but hospitality plays an important role in Greek culture. Women are also heavily involved in religious and artistic activities. Domestic violence and other crimes against women often go unreported, and those that are prosecuted have low conviction rates. There is a cultural emphasis on parental self-sacrifice to ensure that children achieve greater success. Education for both sexes is highly valued, and public schools are both compulsory and free. Female school attendance rates stand at 100 percent at the primary level, 91 percent at the secondary level, and 95 percent at the tertiary level. There are several institutions of higher learning, but many receive higher education abroad. Women comprise half of all university students. Female and male literacy rates are almost identical, at 96 percent and 98 percent, respectively. The culture’s egalitarian emphasis has resulted in high rates of social mobility. Greece has been predominantly urban since World War II, with Athens containing approximately one-third of the population. Most Greeks own their own homes or apartments, even in urban areas. Families are expected to care for the elderly, infirm, and orphans. Informal social control limits violent crimes. There is a National Health Service of hospitals, clinics, and insurance as well as state systems of disability and pension plans and disaster compensation. Although most healthcare facilities are located in urban areas even rural populations have adequate access. There is also a private healthcare system for those with the funds. Life expectancy is high: age 73 for women, and 69 for men. Urban Greek women are commonly employed outside the home and represent almost half of the country’s workforce, although they hold a disproportionate number of low-paying jobs. Fifty-six percent of

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women participate in the labor force, comprising 42 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce, and 45 percent of professional and technical workers. Many work in tourism, trade, services, or the small familyowned businesses that are common in Greek cities. Women comprise more than half of teachers at the primary and secondary levels and 35 percent at the tertiary level. Women are beginning to enter traditionally male professions, such as medicine and the law. Children can work in certain occupations and in family businesses at age 12. Although there are improved childcare arrangements, many Greek mothers leave the workforce. A gender gap still exists in terms of average estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which stands at $21,181 for women and $40,000 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 12.62 percent for women and 4.95 percent for men. Both sexes share traditional rural agricultural labor. Legislation offers women recourse from sexual harassment. Greece has universal suffrage with a voting age of 18 and there is an increasing number of women who hold public political offices. Women hold 15 percent of parliamentary seats and 12 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. See Also: Christianity; Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Infant Mortality; Marriage. Further Readings Halkias, Alexandra. The Empty Cradle of Democracy: Sex, Abortion, and Nationalism in Modern Greece. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. Loizos, Peter and E. Papataxiarches. Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Green Belt Movement Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement as early as 1977 to organize poor rural Kenyan women, to combat environmental degradation (deforestation, soil erosion, etc.), and to better female access to

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resources and generate income for women. That same year, the United Nations International Conference on Desertification was held in Nairobi. The Green Belt has played an extraordinary role in empowering women by means of advocacy, networking, education, tree planting, capacity building, and vocational training within the several core programs that combine development, economics, and culture in a very dynamic and creative way. Since 1977, over 30 million trees have been planted in Kenya by those inspired by Maathai’s determination and initiatives, such as the Save the Land Harambee Tree-Planting initiative, as well as tree nurseries and seedlings. The training of over 30,000 women has taken place in fields such as forestry, beekeeping, food processing, and so on, which has allowed them not only to make a better living but also to preserve their resources and lands. Women and men of all Kenyan communities have been consistently organized against further environmental destruction while acquiring a conscience as the best environmentalists. Inspiring Other Campaigns The Green Belt Movement has inspired similar movements in at least a dozen other countries. The idea of creating “belts” is common to several African countries, particularly following the economic crisis of the 1970s. Thus, in the mid-1980s the Pan-Africa Green Belt Network developed once the movement came into being in Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi became a powerful ally or the movement in 1989. These belts provide shade and habitats for distinctive small animals and birds, facilitate soil conservation, and help community members, usually in large numbers, understand what protects the environment and communal values. This process has not come easy, and many leaders have been imprisoned or battered by police when defending the movement, Wangari Maathai being one of them. The Green Belt Movement of Kenya is linked to the International Green Belt Movement, as seen by the endorsement of the Forest Now Declaration, calling for new market-based mechanisms to protect tropical forests (2007). The ongoing “Plant for the Planet; Billion Tree Campaign”—a major worldwide treeplanting campaign established by the United Nations Environment Program, and one of the first environ-

Wangari Maathai in Kenya in 2004, the year she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the Green Belt Movement.

mental programs in Africa to be established in Nairobi (1972)—strongly encourages the planting of indigenous trees and trees appropriate to local environments. It has continued gaining the support of people, communities, businesses, civil society organizations, and governments worldwide. The United Nations Environment Program has been working toward a goal of planting 7 billion trees by the end of 2009. The Green Belt Movement remains vibrant and successful in the early 21st century, in empowering both women and environmentalism worldwide. It also shows relevant connections to other ecological and women’s movements (the Chipko Movement or Love Canal). Prominent ecological feminist thinkers such as Carol J. Adams, Irene Diamond, Ynestra King, Carolyn Merchant, Maria Mies, Gloria Orenstein, and Vandana Shiva emphasize that women are often central to efforts to stop environmental degradation (at least compared with other movements), as ecological change affects women more than men throughout the world.

Guam

See Also: Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Justice; Kenya; Maathai, Wangari; Shiva, Vandana; Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Further Readings The Green Belt Movement. http://www.greenbeltmove ment.org/ (accessed June 2010). Maathai, Wangari. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. New York: Lantern Books, 2006. Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed: A Memoir. New York: Anchor, 2007. Soledad Vieitez-Cerdeño University of Granada

Grenada Grenada is a small (344-square-kilometer) island nation in the Caribbean Sea that became independent from Great Britain in 1974. Most of the population (90,739 as of June 2009) is black (82 percent) with large minorities of mixed race (13 percent) and European and east Indian (5 percent) people. Roman Catholicism is the most common religion (53 percent) with 13.8 percent Anglican and 33.2 percent other Protestant. Life expectancy for men is 66 years and 69 years for women. The Grenadian economy is based primarily on agriculture and tourism and per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $12,700 in 2009. Women constitute 42.6 percent of the nonagricultural labor force but still suffer from discrimination and generally earn less than men. Traditional role expectations dictate that women are primarily responsible for children and the household and men are to be the head of the family: both constitute barriers to complete equality for women. Domestic violence remains a problem and is often considered a private rather than a police matter. By 2005, the total fertility rate was 2.4 children per woman, a sharp decrease from 1990 when it was 4.1 children per woman. Government concern about population growth led to widespread provision of family planning services throughout the country in

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health clinics, which are part of the national health service. About 50 percent of Grenadian women report using contraceptives. However, access to abortion is restricted as it is legal in Grenada only to save the mother’s live or to preserve her medical and physical health. Maternal and child healthcare is a high priority in Grenada. Almost all pregnant women receive four or more prenatal care visits and all births are attended by skilled health personnel. Childhood immunization is almost 100 percent for major diseases and the under age 5 mortality of 23 per 1,000 live births has been steadily decreasing since 1990. As of 2009, women hold 13 percent of the seats in the national parliament and in years past have held over 25 percent of the seats in some years. Several government ministries are also headed by women. This reflects a substantial change from previous cultural and practical barriers to women’s participation in government. For instance, until the 1980s women were not allowed to sit on juries in Grenada until they were 35 years old, while men were allowed to serve once they reached the age of 21. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Heads of State, Female; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Brizan, George I. Grenada: Island of Conflict. Oxford, UK: Macmillan Caribbean, 1998. Government of Grenada. http://www.gov.gd (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Guam Guam, an island in the North Pacific Ocean and that is part of the Mariana Islands archipelago, is an unincorporated territory of the United States with an area of 544 square kilometers and an estimated population of 178,430, in July 2009. The United States gained control of Guam from Spain in 1898, and today the island is home to several U.S. military bases. Residents of Guam are U.S. citizens and have a nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress but

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are not represented in the Electoral College, which elects the U.S. president. Guam’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism and U.S. military spending and imports are far greater than exports. Gross Domestic Product per capita in 2005 was $15,000, with unemployment at 11.4 percent and 23 percent of the population living below the poverty line. The major ethnic groups in Guam are Chamorro (indigenous people of the Mariana Islands [37.1 percent]) and Filipino (26.3 percent) with smaller minorities including other Pacific Islanders (11.3 percent), whites (6.9 percent), and other Asian (6.3 percent). Official languages are English and Chamorro. Eightfive percent of residents are Roman Catholic. Literacy is almost universal at 99 percent for both men and women. Guam’s population growth rate is 1.365 percent, with 18.22 births per 1,000 population and a total fertility rate of 2.54 children per woman. Infant mortality is comparable to the United States at 6.05 births per 1,000 population, and life expectancy is high for both men (75 years) and women (81.2 years). Illegitimate birth is common (over 50 percent of all births in 2003), and the teen birth rate is high: almost 11 percent of all births are to teenagers, and the birth rate per 1,000 teen women is 25.1. The crude marriage rate is 8.2 per 1,000 and the divorce rate is 3 per 1,000. Rates for preventive health measures for women in Guam are somewhat lower than for the United States. For example, 69.9 percent of women age 50 and over report having a mammogram in the last two years versus 79.4 percent of U.S. women. The rates for pap smears (in the last three years) for women over age 18 are 66.6 percent in Guam and 82.8 percent in the United States. Traditional Chamorro society is matrilineal, with heritage traced through the mother’s side, women controlling their clan’s property, and women being included in village councils. This was changed with the Spanish conquest (which eliminated much of the male Chamorro population) and imposition of Roman Catholicism in the 17th century. However, Chamorro women are credited with keeping their culture alive during the Spanish occupation and remained heads of household in actuality if not in name because the men frequently were absent for days at a time due to work. The American occupiers were even less tolerant of local customs and imposed laws requiring a wife to take her husband’s surname and the children to bear

their father’s surname. However, motherhood is still revered in Guam and ninana, or mothering in the sense of caring for others, is considered a basic value of Chamorro culture. However, many women also work outside the home and today women in Guam constitute 44.4 percent of the nonagricultural labor force. Guam has never had a female governor but its current representative in Congress is a woman: Madeleine Z. Bordallo, an American who married Ricardo Bordallo, who himself served two terms as governor of Guam (1975–79 and 1983–87). Women also serve on the Superior Court of Guam (including currently Katherine A. Maraman, Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson, and Anita A. Sukola) and in the unicameral legislature (including current Speaker Judith T. Won Pat, Assistant Majority Leader Judith P. Gutherze, and Legislative Secretary Tina R. Muna-Barnes). See Also: Government, Women in; Representation of Women in Government, International; Marriage; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Guampedia: The Encyclopedia of Guam. http://guam pedia.com/ (accessed April 2010). Official Portal for the Island of Guam. www.guam.gov (Accessed April 2010). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed April 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Guatemala Guatemala is rich in heritage and culture, as home to a variety of indigenous peoples including the Maya. The Central American country’s population growth rate is around 3 percent, and a high proportion of the population are indigenous peoples, the rest being ladinos (mestizos or “mixed race” and assimilated indigenous people). The most recent census (2007) gives the population as over 14 million. The infant mortality rate is 30 in every 1,000, and life expectancy was reported in 2005 as being 69 years of age.



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Women in Guatelama show their inked fingers after voting. Although at least 20 percent of the Guatemalan population is comprised of indigenous women, only two of 158 members of Congress and one of 333 mayors are indigenous women.

Guatemala enforces six free compulsory years of education, but attendance rates are only 41 percent. Literacy, however, is rated at 70.6 percent. The biggest industries in Guatemala are manufacturing and agriculture, and it is significant that almost 50 percent of the population engage in farming, usually at a subsistence level. Women make up about 27 percent of the Guatemalan workforce; they are usually employed in sales, clerical work, and the service industries. Women also make up 40 percent of professional workers. Guatemala’s official language is Spanish, but a large variety of native languages are spoken, including Maya and Quiché. The pre-Columbian Maya had an extremely complex hieroglyphic language, a sophisticated calendar, and an intricate religious belief-system. After the Spanish Conquest, however, Guatemala is more likely to be associated with colonial oppression and a postcolonial history of violence and human rights abuses. Pre- and postconquest, col-

lectives of Guatemalan women have had a significant role in nurturing indigenous traditions and fighting for human rights. Mayan women sometimes present a submissive stance to their husbands, but traditionally they have had strong roles as priests, healers, and midwives. Modern Mayan women continue to maintain responsibilities in deciding how wages should be spent in the household and, more recently, in maintaining their own jobs. Traditionally, they also have an important role as weavers. Today, this position includes elaborate selling rituals that build rapport with tourists; this performance does not so much emphasize the economic necessity of the exchange, but presents these women as bearers of traditional Mayan culture. Women’s rights were seriously eroded by a series of corrupt military-oriented leaders from the 1950s onward. Guatemala suffers from the politics of machismo, and the economic dependence of women

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on their husbands has included subjection to domestic abuse, infidelity, and poverty. Women have traditionally taken on unskilled jobs such as domestic service or badly paid factory labor, though this has improved recently. Until 1998, however, the Guatemalan Civil Code gave the husband the right to prevent his wife from engaging in activities beyond the home. In addition to harassment in the home and workplace, indigenous women endured shocking brutality during the counterinsurgency conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. On the pretext of exterminating guerrilla groups and quashing militant feeling, indigenous women were humiliated by rape, strip searches, or verbal harassment. Entire villages in the highlands of Guatemala were massacred, creating more than 50,000 widows. To escape the violence, large numbers of Guatemalan women became refugees, widening the Mayan diaspora in Central America and the United States. To combat the human rights abuses and government oppression of the late 20th century, women’s cooperatives developed. Possible models for these collectives were Evangelical Christian women’s networks and Roman Catholic groups that improved women’s literacy and provided nutritional information. Women-centered groups in Guatemala include the Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC) and the Mutual Select Group (GAM), as well as the National Coordinating Committee of Guatemalan Widows (CONVIGUA). These networks create political change by witnessing human rights abuses or crimes against women, performing peaceful protest, and supporting survivors of abuse. Rigoberta Menchú Tum of the CUC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her work as an advocate for indigenous rights. Although the government signed a peace treaty with Guatemalan guerrilla groups in 1996, military violence has left its legacy, as organized crime, the drug trade, and sex trafficking creates a new kind of brutality alongside the repressive government. The rate of crimes against women is rising: Oxfam and GAM reported that in the first half of 2005, 239 women, including 33 girls under the age of 15, were kidnapped before being tortured, raped, and murdered. See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Rape in Conflict Zones; Trafficking, Women and Children; Widows.

Further Readings Foxen, Patricia. In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2007. Green, L. Fear as a Way of Life: Mayan Widows in Rural Guatemala. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Human Rights Watch. From the Household to the Factory: Sex Discrimination in the Guatemalan Labor Force. New York and London: Human Rights Watch, 2002. Tooley, Michelle. Voices of the Voiceless: Women, Justice and Human Rights in Guatemala. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1997. Zoë Brigley Thompson University of Northampton

Guerrilla Fighters, Female Women’s participation in guerrilla warfare is long lived and well documented. Guerrilla warfare is defined as a type of unconventional warfare in which smaller groups of irregular forces, often civilians, use mobile tactics such as ambushes and raids to combat larger, better-trained, and regular forces. Guerrilla fighters are those individuals who make up the smaller groups of irregular forces and take part in the planning or execution of the attacks on the regular forces. While terrorist or national separatist groups are sometimes included as guerrilla groups, the distinction herein lies in the fact that guerrilla groups target regular military forces and national separatist and terrorist groups are target civilians or government officials; however, the lines between these types of groups are often blurred. Guerrilla warfare is widespread, existing in most parts of the world and at most times. Women have participated as fighters in guerrilla conflict in different roles, either directly in combat or in support positions, and are seen as beneficial to the guerrilla group. Often women have undertaken key leadership roles in these guerrilla struggles. Motivations for participation by women as guerrilla fighters varies based upon the conflict. Women have been motivated by security concerns, through coercion, because of feelings of emancipation, and because of deep attachment to the ideological or cultural goals of the guerrilla group. Participation



of women as guerrilla fighters has sometimes led to greater rights for women throughout society. Even though emancipation for women has often accompanied the involvement of women as guerrillas, women involved in guerrilla warfare have often fought on two fronts, combating the regular military forces pursued by the guerrilla group, while also combating sexism within the ranks of the guerrilla group. After the guerrilla struggle is over, women have also faced difficulty reintegrating into society as they are confronted in their societies with entrenched patriarchy, a social system in which men hold power over women and children. Geographic and Temporal Distribution Women’s participation in guerrilla warfare has been widespread across time and geographical location. During the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s, Southern women dressed as men and participated as guerrilla fighters, engaging in hit-and-run tactics against a better-armed and trained Northern army. Women were also important in the Greek Civil War in the 1940s. Touching every continent, women’s participation as guerrilla fighters has also been documented in Turkey, Russia, and the North Caucusus as well as in the Middle East. Perhaps the most active and best known female guerrilla fighters have participated in guerrilla struggles in Africa and Latin America. African women have participated as guerrilla fighters in struggles in Algeria, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Libya, Namibia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Estimates suggest that women make up about 30 percent of the guerrilla forces on the African continent. Women participated in most of the guerrilla struggles in Latin America as well. Most notably, they participated in large numbers in the guerrilla struggles in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Women have also participated in guerrilla struggles in Chile, Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. In Cuba and Uruguay, female guerrillas were estimated to be 25 percent of the fighting force. In Nicaragua, female participation is estimated to have been 30 percent, and in El Salvador, it was at least 40 percent. Women fighters face several motivations when joining guerrilla groups. In Africa, however, there is

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a noticeable difference in the motivations of women fighters participating in guerrilla groups fighting for independence from colonial powers and postcolonial guerrilla struggles. Motivation of Women in Guerrilla Struggles Motivations of earlier female guerrillas included emancipation from male-dominated societies as well as ideological or religious/ethnic motivations, while women participating in postcolonial struggles are more motivated by personal gain and protection. Women in both pre- and postcolonial struggles are often motivated to act as guerrilla fighters as a survival strategy. The guerrilla groups they join provide them with basic necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing and allow them to escape poverty in their home communities. The guerrilla groups also satisfy psychological needs for female guerrillas, providing them with companionship and security. Some women join guerrilla groups in order to escape domestic violence and abuse. Additionally, women, like men, are motivated to join guerrilla groups due to religious, ethnic, or ideological affiliations. Participation as a guerrilla fighter can also be empowering for women. This was particularly true in struggles to overthrow colonial powers in Africa. According to Harry West, women and girls who served as fighters in the guerrilla group Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) during the Mozambican struggle for independence from Portugal (1964–74) were empowered because of their ability to construct new roles and identities through their participation in the struggle. In the guerrilla group, women were trained as men and given the same duties and responsibilities of combat. The promise of emancipation has been a motivating factor in women’s participation as guerrilla fighters in struggles in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe as well. In Latin America, this was less of a motivating factor due to the entrenched patriarchy in the societies; however, emancipation appears a common motivator among El Salvadoran female fighters. Structural changes such as land concentration, the movement of people from rural to urban areas, and an increase in female-headed households increased participation by women in guerrilla struggles, particularly in Latin America. Women’s participation as guerrilla fighters is beneficial for guerrilla groups as it increases international sympathy and donations.

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In addition, women are less likely to gain the notice of authorities when plotting attacks. In some groups, however, women fighters do not join voluntarily. This has been more prevalent in Africa in postcolonial struggles. For example, women have participated in large numbers in the guerrilla conflict in northern Uganda that started in 1986. Most of the female fighters in this conflict, however, have been abducted and forcefully conscripted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the guerrilla group engaged in the conflict. Similar situations exist in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Roles of Women as Guerrilla Fighters As guerrilla fighters, women have participated in armed struggle against regular armies. For example, FRELIMO female guerrillas were responsible for ambushes and attacks against Portuguese soldiers, resulting in the death of many regular combatants. Women “fighters” have also had other roles. In the LRA, women not only participate as armed combatants, but they have been forced into becoming sex slaves and “wives” for LRA commanders. In the patriarchal societies of Latin American, women guerrilla fighters were often tasked with food preparation. Other women played support roles such as moving or storing weapons or operating safe houses. Women fighters are often preferred for hoarding and caching weapons because they are less likely to be suspected of guerrilla involvement than men. Often women alternate between supportive and combat roles in the guerrilla struggle. In some instances, women have acted in leadership roles in guerrilla groups, holding positions of command and authority. For example, women hold or have held leadership roles in Liberian guerrilla groups as well as in the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua. Emancipation and Postconflict Experiences of Female Guerrilla Fighters For some struggles, women’s emancipation and pursuit for equality with men at the national level dovetailed with female participation as guerrilla fighters. The emancipation of women has been seen by some guerrilla groups as necessary for the guerrilla struggle or revolution to succeed, and women report having gained status, power, and control through their participation as guerrilla fighters. Both struggles against a perceived oppressor and the struggle to overcome

traditional societies based on patriarchy have been seen in the discourses of guerrilla groups in which women actively participate as fighters. Nevertheless, even when women have participated actively in guerrilla combat, they are heavily pressured after the struggle to return to domestic roles. Female fighters can become marginalized when a conflict ends. While they may first be seen as heroines within society, they tend to be pushed into more traditional roles as time passes. Thus, conduct by female fighters encouraged during the conflict becomes discouraged after the conflict, resulting in difficulties with reintegration into society for female fighters that are less stark for male combatants. See Also: Conflict Zones; Terrorists, Female; Wars of National Liberation, Women in. Further Readings Afshar, H. “Women and Wars: Some Trajectories Towards a Feminist Peace.” Development in Practice, v.13/2 (2003). Barth, E. F. Peace as Disappointment: The Reintegration of Female Soldiers in Post-Conflict Societies: A Comparative Study From Africa. Oslo, Norway: International Peace Research Institute, 2002. Kampwirth, K. Women and Guerrilla Movements: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas, Cuba. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. Reif, L. “Women in Latin American Guerrilla Movements: A Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Politics, v.18/2 (1986). West, H. “Girls With Guns: Narrating the Experience of War of Frelimo’s ‘Female Detachment.’” Anthropological, v.73/4 (2000). Lori M. Poloni-Staudinger Northern Arizona University

Guerrilla Girls The Guerrilla Girls is a grassroots, activist group that was founded in April 1985 in New York City in order to advocate on behalf of women in the arts. Perhaps best known for the gorilla masks and suits they wear in public, the group consists of working artists and



professionals in the art industry. Through a unique combination of femininity, agit-prop street theater, feminist analysis, and humor, they aim to draw attention to institutionalized sexism and racism. Although they initially focused on the marginalization of women in the art world, over the years their agenda has expanded dramatically. Their actions and effective use of humor have helped the Guerrilla Girls raise awareness of social power hierarchies and challenge dominant stereotypes of feminism in American culture. Founding Spark and Modus Operandi The group was formed in response to the 1985 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibit, “International Survey of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture.” The approximately 25 original members of the group were critical of the fact that women comprised less than one-tenth of the 169 artists whose work appeared in that exhibit. The Guerrilla Girls responded to the MoMA exhibit by creating their first series of “public service announcements”—simple black-and-white posters. Working under cover of night, the Guerrilla Girls hung the posters throughout New York. Targeting art galleries, art critics, white male artists, and art collectors, their message relied on simple statistics to reveal the marginalization of women in the art world. Reflecting an organizational style common to many feminist consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s, the Guerrilla Girls rely on a collective decision-making process that emphasizes shared power and consensus among group members. In order to keep their identities anonymous during public appearances, group members wear gorilla masks. In addition, and again to foster anonymity, each member is known only by the name of a dead female artist or writer (for example, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe, Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde). In both their appearance and modes of communication, the Guerrilla Girls play on notions of femininity. They frequently use the color pink for posters and on their Website. In addition, members often wear high heels and miniskirts when they stage protests or speak in public, something that stands in stark contrast to their gorilla masks. This outrageous appearance is both evidence of their humor and a tactic that helps them attract attention.

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Operating on Other Fronts Although their initial concern was sexism in the art world, the Guerrilla Girls quickly expanded their agenda to include issues of racism, classism, and other systems of inequality. In addition, they have gone on to critique women’s marginalization in both theatre and film. They have also taken a public stance on a broad range of social justice issues including rape, gay and lesbian rights, poverty, war, reproductive rights, and political policies. The scope of their agenda is perhaps best exemplified by examples from their numerous posters. For example, one poster admonished collectors for not purchasing more work by women artists. Another critiqued military recruiting efforts for targeting poor populations. Still another revealed startling statistics about sexism in the Hollywood film industry. Several have targeted the actions and policies of conservative political figures. Despite intragroup tensions that resulted in a much-publicized split and a federal lawsuit in 2000, the Guerrilla Girls remain active. Group members regularly speak at colleges and universities, conferences, and art museums across the country, and their work is regularly included in art history curriculums. They have published several books, including The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, a revisionist “herstory” of art; as well as Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. Their work is included in more than 20 museum collections and has been translated into more than 80 languages. The Guerrilla Girls have received numerous awards, including the Susan B. Anthony award from the National Organization for Women, and the Brooklyn Museum’s Women in the Arts Award. They have brought their activism to cities across the United States and countries throughout the world, including China, Greece, Spain, Mexico, Italy, and the Netherlands. Perhaps most significantly, their efforts have helped bring about an increased awareness of and appreciation for the artistic contributions of women and persons of color. See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); CODEPINK; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Feminism, American; Photography, Women in; Social Justice Activism.

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Further Readings Demo, Anne Teresa. “The Guerrilla Girls’ Comic Politics of Subversion.” Women’s Studies in Communication, v.23/2 (2000). Guerrilla Girls. Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. New York: Penguin, 2003. Guerrilla Girls. “Guerrilla Girls: Re-Inventing the ‘F’ Word-Feminism.” http://www.guerrillagirls.com (accessed July 2009). Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Hoban, Phoebe. “Masks Still in Place, but Firmly in the Mainstream.” New York Times (January 4, 2004). http:// www.nytimes.com (accessed July 2009). Withers, Josephine. “The Guerrilla Girls.” Feminist Studies, v.14/2 (1988). Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson University of Texas, Dallas

Guinea Following the granting of its independence from France in 1958, the western African nation of Guinea has experienced decades of authoritarian rule. Despite extensive resources of minerals, hydropower, and agricultural products, Guinea is one of the most undeveloped nations in the world. More than three-fourths of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, much of which is subsistence. With a per capita income of only $1,100, 47 percent of the population live in poverty. Recent political instability has led international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to withdraw support. The Peuhl (40 percent), the Malinke (30 percent), and the Soussou (20 percent) are ethnically dominant. The majority of the population is Muslim (85 percent). Although French is the official language, each tribe has its own dialect. Gender discrimination, violence against women, and female genital mutilation are all issues of major concern. Women’s rights groups face major obstacles, in part because the government refuses to recognize them. Nevertheless, there has been some progress, including proposed civil code amendments designed to address gender inequities.

In 2008, five of 100 parliamentary seats were filled by women, but only one of 27 ministers was female. The international community has been active in promoting media campaigns to educate the public about women’s rights and violence against women. Although women have constitutional equality, custom ensures male dominance. The government has made some effort to address these inequities by establishing the Ministry of Social Affairs and Women’s Promotion. Women’s rights groups are involved in the effort to decrease incidences of early marriage. In the forest region, girls as young as 11 years are illegally involved in contracts brokered by their parents. This is one reason that only 35 percent of girls are enrolled in primary school. Guinea has the 31st highest infant mortality rate (65.22 deaths per 1,000 live births) in the world, but female infants (61.63 deaths per 1,000 live births) do have an edge over males (68.7 deaths per 1,000 live births). That edge also exists in adulthood, as women have a life expectancy of 58.6 years as compared with 55.63 for men. The median ages for both men (18.2 years) and women (18.7 years) are predictably low. Ranking 20th in the world in fertility, Guinea has a fertility rate of 5.2 children per woman. Guinea ranks 38th in the world in human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) adult prevalence (1.6 percent), and the population has a very high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, yellow fever, schistosomiasis, rabies, and Lassa fever. Guinea spends only 1.6 of its Gross National Product on education, and that lack of commitment is reflected in literacy and education levels. Women (18.1 percent) lag far behind men (42.6 percent) in literacy, and girls average only 7 years of education compared with 10 years for boys. Female genital mutilation, which is considered a female rite of passage, is widely practiced in Guinea (90 percent), and many men view the procedure as essential to keeping women and girls subservient to them. Infibulation, the most dangerous form of female genital mutilation, is performed in the forest region. Even though violence against women, including that which happens within households, is illegal, it is generally considered a family matter. Incidence of rape, similar to that of domestic violence, is rarely reported because of lack of support for victims and

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the social stigma experienced by victims’ families. Although sexual harassment is discouraged, it is not illegal. Despite the prevalence of child prostitution, the government rarely interferes in the matter. See Also: Domestic Violence; Educational Opportunities/Access; HIV/AIDS: Africa. Further Readings Afrol News. “Guinea.” http://www.afrol.com/Categories/ Women/profiles/guinea_women.htm= (accessed February 2010). Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Tripp, Aili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Equatorial Guinea.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls /hrrpt/2008/af/118999.htm (accessed March 2010). Yoder, P. Stanley, et al. “Female Genital Cutting and Coming of Age in Guinea.” WIN News, v.26/4 (2000). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Guinea-Bissau The west African nation of Guinea-Bissau is one of the most poorly developed nations in the world. This is partly the result of the country’s extensive political instability, ranging from military coups to presidential assassinations, in the years following the granting of the nation’s independence from Portugal in 1974. Less than a third of the population is urbanized. Because of its dependence on subsistence farming and fishing, Guinea-Bissau is one of the five poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income of only $600. Agriculture accounts for 62 percent of the workforce, and most of that work is done by women.

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However, women’s economic contributions are not considered valuable. Guinea-Bissau’s extreme poverty (66.7 percent) is made worse by the fact that its income distribution is the most extreme in the world. Almost all Guineans are Africans (99 percent) from the Balanta (30 percent), Fula (20 percent), Manjaca (14 percent), Mandinga (13 percent), and Papel (7 percent) tribes. Half the population is Muslim, and 40 percent have adopted indigenous religions. Portuguese is still the official language. Although women have constitutional and legal rights to equality, in practice they are discriminated against in all elements of Guinean society. Among some tribes, women are banned from owning or inheriting property; otherwise, property is inherited only by heads of household, who are usually men. Major social problems include systemic discrimination of women, violence against women, and female genital mutilation. Chiefly as a result of the efforts of women’s rights groups and international pressure, there have been some efforts to equalize Guinean society, and by 2008, 10 women sat in the National Assembly, and the president of the Supreme Court and three of 19 ministers were women. Guinea-Bissau ranks ninth in the world in infant mortality (99.82 deaths per 1,000 live births). Female infants (89.45 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a definite advantage over male infants (109.89 deaths per 1,000 live births). Life expectancy for both men (46.07 years) and women (49.79) is low, and the median age is only 19.8 years for women and 18.7 years for men. Guinea-Bissau has a fertility rate of 4.65 children per woman. Other social statistics also mirror poverty and lack of government commitment. Guineans have an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 1.8 percent and a very high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, yellow fever, and schistosomiasis. More than half (58.1 percent) of Guinean men are literate, and less than a third of women (27.4 percent) have obtained the ability to read and write. Most boys attend school for seven years, but girls only do so for four years. The Fula regularly perform infibulation, the most dangerous form of female genital mutilation, on young girls, and around half of all Guinean girls undergo female gender mutilation. Many girls are married at the age of 13 or 14 years, and polygamy is practiced in approximately a third of all households.

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Domestic violence is extensive, but it is generally perceived of as an acceptable way of handling domestic disputes. Few cases are reported to officials. Rape laws exist, but they are rarely enforced. Prostitution is illegal, but the police do little to interfere with the practice. As of 2010, nothing had been done to deal with the problem of extensive sexual harassment. See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Infant Mortality; Property Rights. Further Readings Afrol News. “Guinea-Bissau.” http://www.afrol.com /Categories/Women/profiles/guineabissau_women .htm (accessed February 2010). Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions: Guinea-Bissau.” http://genderindex .org/country/guinea-bissau (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Guinea-Bissau.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls /hrrpt/2008/af/119006.htm (accessed March 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Gun Control Gun control refers to the efforts to regulate the sale, ownership, and use of guns through licensure, registration, or other identification requirements. In a complex array of federal and state laws, gun control policies address measures such as minimum age requirements, required background checks, and restrictions on specific types of guns such as handguns and assault weapons. Gun safety laws focus on efforts to make guns safer and restrict the access of children to guns. Gun control policies can also focus on preventing those with criminal histories from having access to guns, and promoting harsher sanctions for those using guns while committing a crime. Historically, women have been far more likely to support gun control than men. Like men, women’s

views toward gun control are rooted in culture, political attitudes, and personal experience with guns. Gun control issues have been on the national agenda since the 1960s and remain an important focus for crime control policies today. Those who support individual rights and gun ownership emphasize the need for selfprotection from criminals. Those who support gun controls often frame the issue around public safety. An April 2007 ABC News poll found 50 percent of men and 72 percent of women favored stricter gun control laws. The Pew Research Center in May 2009 found that overall attitudes toward gun control have become more conservative and favor individual rights. White women became less supportive of gun control between 2008 and 2010. In 2008, the Pew Research Center found 61 percent of white women thought gun control was more important, while 33 percent thought the protection of the right to own guns was more important. In 2010, white women are equally divided, with 45 percent of women supporting gun control and 45 percent supporting the right to individual gun ownership. No name is more closely associated with gun control than that of Sarah Brady. Her husband Jim Brady, White House press secretary, was paralyzed when shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. The tireless efforts of Sarah and Jim Brady resulted in the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act. The act requires background checks on those purchasing guns through a licensed dealer. This law is credited with significantly reducing the number of guns purchased by high-risk individuals. Attitudes Toward Guns Overall attitudes toward gun control are associated with childhood experiences with guns and whether guns were kept in the family home. Those who grew up with guns are more supportive of individual gun owner’s rights than of gun control. Most of the 10 percent of gun owners who are women grew up in homes where guns were present. In terms of individual experiences with guns, women show more concern about owning a gun than men, feel less safe around guns than men, and also express greater concern over their own ability to shoot another person. This seems to be especially the case if there are children in the home. Women who own guns typically do so to hunt, for

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recreational purposes such as target shooting, or to protect themselves and their children. Kristin Goss pointed out that while women have historically been much more favorable toward gun control than men, generally women have done little to achieve tougher gun control policies. When women frame gun control as a child-safety issue, they are more likely to participate in activities that support gun control. Among the best-known women’s organizations that support gun control are the League of Women Voters, the National Organization for Women, the American Medical Women’s Association, and the American Nurses Association. For women who do own guns, the majority do so for self-protection. Rachel Jurado argued that women, along with minority groups, have suffered historically because they were unable to protect themselves with guns. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has fostered the belief in the importance of protecting oneself from crime. The NRA is a very powerful lobbying force and sought to increase female membership through the “Refuse to Be a Victim” campaign in the 1990s. With the development of more physically appealing “feminine” revolvers, Smith and Wesson doubled its sales of these guns to women from 1991 to 1993. Groups that support gun ownership among women are the Second Amendment Sisters, the Liberty Belles, Armed Females of America, and Women Against Gun Control. These groups see guns as an equalizer between the sexes and hold the view that it empowers women to own guns and know how to use them. M. Z. Stange and C. K. Oyster posit that gun-owning women and feminism are not mutually exclusive, supporting the fact that positions on gun control can be far more nuanced than either for or against guns. They point out that it is “…possible to be politically progressive and vigorously pro-gun.” The personal choice of women to use guns legally is overlooked in the gun control literature. Stange and Oyster call for more research to learn about the attitudes and experiences of women who own and use guns. The debate over gun control will continue. No major shifts in attitudes are expected in the near future. While female gun owners may continue to see gun ownership as a source of personal empowerment, others will continue to view guns as a threat to public safety that requires legal regulation.

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See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Self-Defense, Armed; Social Justice Activism; Further Readings Browder, L. Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Goss, K. A. “Rethinking the Political Participation Paradigm: The Case of Women and Gun Control.” Women & Politics, v.25/4 (2003). Jurado, R. “Gun Control Victims: Women Receive Little Encouragement for Self-Defense From Mainstream Feminists.” The American Enterprise, v.15/1 (2004). Kleck, G., et al. “Why do People Support Gun Control?: Alternative Explanations of Support for Handgun Bans.” Journal of Criminal Justice, v.37 (2009). Stange, Mary Zeiss and Carol K. Oyster. Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Stucky, T. D., et al. “Gender, Guns, and Legislating.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, v.29/4 (2008). Sylvia I. Mignon University of Massachusetts, Boston

Guyana The republic of Guyana, which is located in northern South America between Suriname and Venezuela, began its existence as a Dutch colony before becoming a British possession in 1815. The abolition of slavery in 1834 led to the importation of scores of Indian indentured servants to provide labor for large sugar plantations, and the ethnic makeup of the country has continued to produce a turbulent political environment. By the 21st century, the 43 percent east Indian population outnumbered the 30.2 percent black population. Religious divisions are also present, with around 28 percent of Guyanese identifying themselves as Hindu. Other religions varying from Protestantism to Islam are represented in varying degrees. Socialistic governments have been dominant since independence was declared in 1966. While women are considered equal in Guyana according to law, political and religious customs have often caused women to be considered second-class citizens. Women’s roles remain focused on caring for families and communities. According

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to some feminist scholars, male resentment has been growing in Guyana in response to increased activism among women, often manifesting itself in violence against women. Quality-of-Life Issues for Women Guyana is considered a country of very high human development, but its position (114th) on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) scale has declined in response to globalization. Females were granted suffrage in 1953, and women are guaranteed equality under the Guyanese Constitution. Guyana is one of only two Caribbean countries that grant women full reproductive rights. The other is Cuba. In 1990, feminists were successful in facilitating the passage of the Equal Rights Act. Many cities, including Sao Paulo, have also passed laws outlawing sexual discrimination. Despite these gains, many women continue to be among the 1,000 or so Guyanese who leave the country each month. In 1998, Guyana elected American-born Janet Rosenberg as its first female president. Representation in Parliament has steadily risen, reaching 29 percent in 2005. Female life expectancy is 70.38 years, and the median age of women is 29.2 years. The fertility rate of Guyanese women is 2.48, and infant mortality is reported at 39.11 per 1,000 live births. Women in Guyana are highly vulnerable to food- and waterborne diseases as well as to vectorborne and water-contact diseases, and Guyana ranks 26th in the world in human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevalence. Recent records indicate that 7 percent of pregnant women in urban areas test positive for HIV/AIDS, and many of these women pass the disease on to their children. Economic Disadvantages Guyana ranks 13th in the world in educational expenditures. At 98.5 percent, female literacy is only slightly lower than that of males (98.8 percent), and most females attend school for at least 14 years. Because access to higher education is often dependent on the ability to afford after-school tutoring for the Secondary School Entrance Exam, many females are unable to seek college degrees. With a per capita income of $3,900, Guyana ranks 157th in world income. Approximately two-thirds of the population continue to live in rural areas. More than 50 percent of the workforce

are engaged in service occupations, but women continue to make up roughly half of all agricultural workers. Between 1994 and 2005, only 3 percent of professional and technical workers in Guyana were female. Guyanese women have become disproportionately vulnerable to economic changes that have resulted from globalization. Some have lost their jobs, and their living standards have fallen in consequence. Many have become hucksters, who sell food and other items for minimal profit in order to survive. Others sell homemade items to tourists or exchange domestic labor for food and other essentials. Female earnings continue to lag behind those of males. In 2005, for example, women earned $2,655 in estimated earned income as compared with $6,467 for males. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Domestic Violence; Economics, Women in; Education, Women in; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; HIV/AIDS: South America. Further Readings Douglas, Carol Anne. “Guyana: Woman Elected President.” Off Our Backs, v.28/2 (February 1998). Khalideen, Rosetta and Nadira Khalideen. “Caribbean Women in Globalization and Economic Restructuring.” Canadian Women’s Studies (Spring/Summer 2002). NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women. “Guyana.” http://www.niew.gov.my/niew/index.php ?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=115 &Itemid=60&lang=en (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Gymnastics The sport of gymnastics is over 2,000 years old. In the present day, females participate in four different disciplines of gymnastics—artistic, rhythmic, trampoline and tumbling, and acrobatic. In the United States, the national governing body for the sport is USA Gymnastics, which is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The organization has more than 90,000 registered athletes, with females making up nearly 75 percent of that number. Approximately 85 percent of female gymnastics athletes are under the age of 14.



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her all-around score. In recent years, several changes have taken place in artistic gymnastics competition, including a change in the scoring system. Previously, athletes were judged on a scale of 10.0, which was considered a perfect routine. In 2006, however, the FIG instituted a new scoring system that awards gymnasts two scores, one for difficulty and one for execution. The two scores are added for the gymnast’s final score on each apparatus. This change in scoring was the cause for uproar in the gymnastics community, long used to the “perfect 10” scoring system. Under the new system there is no maximum value for scores. Another significant change in recent years is the age requirement for female gymnasts competing in the Olympics. In 1997, the FIG instituted a rule that all female gymnasts must be 16 to compete in the Olympic Games, which was thought to protect the gymnast both mentally and physically. In the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, several Chinese gymnasts were publicly scrutinized for possibly being too young to compete, and the FIG launched an investigation into the gymnasts’ ages. The Chinese delegation presented passports showing that the gymnasts were 16 years old, though some critics are still doubtful.

Artistic gymnastics involves gymnasts competing on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and performing floor exercises.

From an international perspective, gymnastics is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, also known as the FIG. The FIG was formed in 1881 and currently has 129 member federations, meaning that organized gymnastics is present in 129 countries around the globe. The FIG serves as the governing body for gymnastics events in the Olympic Games, World Games, World Gymnaestrada, World Championships, and any multicontinent competition event. Artistic Gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is the most popular of the four gymnastics disciplines in terms of participation, media coverage, and fans, artistic gymnastics involves gymnasts competing on four apparatus: vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. A gymnast’s combined total score on all four events is considered

Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Tumbling, and Acrobatics Rhythmic gymnastics has been recognized as a sport by the FIG since 1962, and has been an Olympic sport since the Los Angeles Games in 1984. This discipline involves five events, including rope, hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon. Rhythmic gymnasts are required to possess skills of strength, power, flexibility, agility, dexterity, and endurance. It differs from artistic gymnastics in that all five events take place on the floor exercise mat. Gymnasts also perform complex skills with the different apparatuses, and there is a much greater focus on dance and flexibility rather than complex acrobatic skills such as flips and twists. Within this discipline, gymnasts may perform as an individual on the trampoline, in the synchronized trampoline competition, power tumbling, or double mini-trampoline. Of these four subdisciplines, trampoline is the only one that appears in the Olympic Games. Trampoline made its Olympic debut in the Sydney Games in 2000. The United States holds national championship competitions in all four of these subdisciplines, which are quickly growing in

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popularity in the United States. Trampoline and tumbling competitions are judged on aesthetics and difficulty. Acrobatic gymnastics involves the combination of dance and gymnastics, and is done in groups of two or three for women. It requires athletes of all shapes and sizes, and consists of acrobatic balances in which one or two partners are lifted in various balances by the other partner(s). It requires grace, strength, and flexibility. Acrobatics was added to the list of disciplines governed by USA Gymnastics in 2002. On an international level, gymnasts in this discipline compete in World Championships, but not in the Olympic Games. Gymnasts’ Health Researchers have found that gymnastics has one of the highest injury rates of all sports for girls and women, with over 26,000 gymnastics-related injuries treated in hospitals or emergency rooms each year. The majority of these were upper or lower extremity injuries, such as sprains and strains. Researchers have also found that injuries were more common in gymnasts experiencing a growth spurt or training and competing at higher levels. Along with injuries, gymnastics has long been criticized as a sport in which many athletes suffer from eating disorders and unhealthy body images. There are several reasons why female gymnasts might be self-conscious about their bodies, including their attire—skin-tight leotards showing off every curve of their physique—as well as the thought that a lighter body weight will result in greater ease when performing gymnastics skills. One study focusing on collegiate gymnasts found that just 22 percent of those surveyed exhibited normal or nondisordered eating habits. USA Gymnastics has gone to great lengths to

ensure that its coaches and athletes are well educated on the topics of nutrition and healthy eating habits to minimize these risks. Additionally, the aforementioned age requirement of 16 to compete in the Olympic Games was enacted in order to ensure that the gymnasts’ bodies are both physically and mentally prepared for such a competition. See Also: Body Image; Coaches, Female; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Associated Press. “Age Questions Raised Over Two Female Chinese Gymnasts.” ESPN Website. http:// sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/gymnastics/news/ story?id=3507084 (accessed December 2009). Caine, Dennis, et al. “An Epidemiologic Investigation of Injuries Affecting Young Competitive Female Gymnasts.” The American Journal of Sports Medicine, v.17/6 (1989). Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique. http://www .fig-gymnastics.com (accessed December 2009). Petrie, Trent A. “Disordered Eating in Female Collegiate Gymnasts: Prevalence and Personality/Attitudinal Correlates.” Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, v.15/4 (1993). Singh, Shubha, et al. “Gymnastics-Related Injuries to Children Treated in Emergency Departments in the United States, 1990–2005.” Pediatrics, v.121/4 (2008). USA Gymnastics. http://www.usa-gymnastics.org (accessed December 2009). USA Gymnastics. 2007–2008 Media Resource Guide. Indianapolis, IN: USA Gymnastics, 2007. Andrea N. Eagleman Indiana University

H Haiti Women in Haiti in the early 21st century face lives of challenge marked by grinding poverty, the impact of political violence and instability, and pervasive male dominance as a social norm. This is reflected in low incomes, high birth rates, high maternal mortality rates, and little or no access to healthcare and education for many women. The poorest country and one of most economically vulnerable in the Western Hemisphere, 80 percent of Haiti’s population live below the World Bank’s poverty line, and more than half make less than $100 per year. Women’s wages remain among the lowest in the world and 72 percent of households are headed by women. This vulnerability was brought to the world’s attention on January 12, 2010, when an earthquake of 7.0 Mw magnitude struck near the community of Léogâne. The quake caused extensive damage in a 30 km. radius that included the capital city of Port-auPrince and the cultural center of Jacmel. As many as 200,000 people lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands more were injured and lost their homes. Poverty and Political Instability Poverty has fostered increasing crime with devastating effects on the basic human rights of women and girls in Haiti. The feminization of both poverty and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)—1.6 women to

every man infected—is coupled with an ever increasing vulnerability to sexual, physical, psychological, and economic violence. Political instability and lawlessness have increased in Haiti since the coup that ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004. In spite of efforts by the Haitian government and the United Nations (UN) Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to combat sexual violence against women, rape as a form of political terror and reprisal used by armed gangs has increased since 2006. Destabilizing events, such as a dramatic rise in food prices in 2008 and the earthquake in 2010, leave women at an even greater risk of violence. Fragile networks of community solidarity that have offered women protection have been lost, as 200,000 people have been forced into the many temporary shelter sites that have sprung up in the wake of the destruction. As a result, the many thousands of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and relief organizations working with women in Haiti have redoubled their efforts to provide education on how to combat domestic and politically based sexual violence and where to receive medical treatment and support. Many organizations have also recognized the importance of such strategies as developing child safe spaces, and distributing information cards in Creole to promote gender equity, reduce domestic violence, and empower women. Women comprise 52 percent of the population of 9.5 million people in Haiti, but as of 2009, they held 661

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only 5 percent of the seats in the national parliament. Women’s social well-being is often tied to relationships with men, secured by the ability to give birth to children for whom the men become responsible. Women in Haiti give birth to an average of five children each, often with several different men who may, in turn, be supporting a number of women and their children in a common-law family network known as plasaj. The low success rate of internationally sponsored Family Planning initiatives in Haiti reflects this highly gendered cycle of women’s dependence and men’s responsibility. The traditional preference for sending boys to school rather than girls, particularly in rural areas, diminishes opportunities, and literacy rates are low among women in many communities. Girls are frequently used as domestic workers, also limiting their chances for education, and the trafficking of women and children across the Dominican Republic border is common. A Desperate Workforce The feminization of poverty is also directly related to other employment issues. Global markets and farm subsidization programs in wealthy nations have had a devastating impact on Haiti’s agricultural economy. Commodities such as rice and sugar are now imported and sold at a lower cost than Haitian products in the local markets. The loss of agricultural productivity combined with a growing influx of global capital in the industrial sector has prompted a migration from rural to urban centers. Industries such as garment factories, attracted by low wages in the 1990s, have often exploited a desperate work force comprised mainly of women who are forced to compete for jobs that offer no security and few if any benefits. Women employed in the industrial sector often live in hastily built and densely populated slum neighborhoods with inadequate sanitation and water supplies. Such conditions have contributed to the poor health of women and children. These neighborhoods were also hard hit by the 2010 earthquake, as construction standards were low, increasing the likelihood of collapse. Women are, however, the backbone of Haiti’s informal domestic economic activities, which constitute 75 percent of the economy. They operate within a carefully organized and complex market exchange

system that circulates produce from small subsistence farms to urban centers, and returns limited market goods back to rural communities. In spite of many obstacles to social equality, women in Haiti are often referred to as poto mitan, or pillars, and are respected as the source of social strength and security within families. Women are widely recognized in the revolutionary history of Haiti that saw a colony populated by slaves forged as an independent republic. See Also: Dominican Republic; HIV/AIDS: North America; Poverty, “Feminization” of. Further Readings Almog, Nava and Nadine Puechguirbal. A City in the Sand. United Nations Democracy Fund. http://www .un.org/democracyfund/Docs/Haiti_gender_book _ENG.pdf (accessed June 2010). Bakody, Jennifer. “Amidst the Rubble, Haiti Celebrates International Women’s Day.” United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry /haiti_52939.html (accessed June 2010). Becker, Mary, executive producer. Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy. Tèt Ansanm Productions, Renegade Pictures, UCSB Black Studies Research Center, 2009. Farmer, Paul. Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Maternowska, Catherine. Reproducing Inequalities: Poverty and the Politics of Population in Haiti. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Partners in Health. http://www.pih.org/where/Haiti /Haiti-background.html (accessed June 2010). Jill Allison Memorial University of Newfoundland

Hate Crimes Hate crimes, also known as bias crimes or bias-motivated crimes, have been defined in many ways within diverse disciplines and in both contemporary social and political discourse. In general, a hate crime can be thought of as a crime against a person that is motivated by hatred. A legal definition of hate crime can be found in many national legislations, which tend to



define a hate crime as an offense motivated by prejudice rather than by hate. Hate crimes arise from specific social, political, and economic conditions that encourage expressions of intolerance. Using examples such as the anti-Semitic assaults that led to Holocaust, the Ku Klux Klan’s violence against African Americans, and more recently, the post–September 11, 2001 anti-Muslim violence, it is clear that the term hate crime refers to the phenomenon of bias motivated violence, which has roots that can be traced back to ancient societies. Despite its long-standing history, it is only in the last decades of the early 21st century that hate crimes have gained the attention and efforts of lawmakers and researchers, and have sparked adequate responses to the ongoing spread of bigoted violence. Data reveal that the percentage of hate crimes is much lower than other categories within the entire scheme of criminology. However, hate crimes have been the subject of a massive legislative response in the last two decades. This is due, in part, to the escalation of such crimes, and, simultaneously, to the growth of the civil rights movements in western states. Hate crimes are also important to women studies, not only because women are often victims of crimes motivated by gender and sex, but also due to the frequent lack of disaggregated data in crime statistics. Furthermore, the number of hate crimes committed against women, as well as the rate of increase or decrease, is still unknown. Consequently, there is a need for raising awareness in this field of research. Definition, Meaning, and Public Opinion While the precise definition of a hate crime may vary among countries, a comparative analysis elicits that hate crimes refer to discriminatory criminal acts committed by a perpetrator who intentionally selects the victims because of their actual or perceived belonging to a status group, characterized by a certain ground, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, political belief, physical appearance (height, weight, skin color, etc.), homelessness, disability, class, or other discriminatory ground. In other words, hate crimes are the result of an offender’s prejudice. Although the reason motivating a particular individual’s action may not often be clear, relevant research have studied both the psy-

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chological and sociological variables involved in hate crime developments, outlining trends concerning typical victims and offenders of hate crimes. The results show that, since the beginning of the 21st century, the most frequently victimized groups are those based on race, sexual orientation, and, since the September 11 attacks, Arabs and Muslims. In Europe, another target group of hate crimes is the “Roma minority,” an umbrella term that has replaced the word gypsy in the European public and scientific discourse due to its perception as an offensive exonym by this minority group. As far as offenders are concerned, it is very difficult to construct a “typology” to provide insight as to which type of offenders perpetrate hate crimes. The difficulty lies in the fact that hate crimes are almost solely defined by their offenders’ motivation. Hate crimes against a person that involve intimidation, defamation, and violence are more common than crimes that involve vandalism and property damage. Some nations include the subcategory hate speech within the hate crime category, defined as speech offending a person or a group of people that may be considered at a disadvantage in a given context. Legislation prosecuting hate crimes varies extensively, depending on a particular nation’s legal culture, history, and social development. However, a dichotomy can be roughly traced between substantive criminal legislation and sentence enhancement legislation. Substantive criminal law punishes newly introduced hate crimes or recriminalizes existing offenses into more harshly punished ones, depending on their bias. Sentence enhancement legislation upgrades the degree of an existing offense, or increases the maximum penalty allowed if the crime is motivated by bias. In U.S. public opinion, an extensive debate has developed regarding hate crimes since the passing of the first federal law in 1969, and subsequent state and federal laws on the subject. On the one hand, society supports the punishment of hate crimes, maintaining that the crimes harm both individuals and society, while simultaneously disempowering the individuals and groups at risk of being offended. Others argue, in primis, that hate crime legislations exacerbate conflicts between groups. In secundis, it is argued that such laws are unconstitutional because they freely and arbitrarily select the protected groups and, in so

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doing, treat different defendants unequally for the same crime, depending on who the victim is. Hate Crime Legislation in the United States The historical and political framework that generated the concept of hate crime in the United States dates back to the civil rights movements in the mid-1960s and to antidiscrimination politics. The hate crime concept extends the protection of human beings beyond the labor and equality law regimes. Crimes motivated by bias based on the victim’s race, color, religion, or national origin have been punished at the federal level since the 1969 Federal Civil Rights Law, although the term hate crime only dates back to the Hate Crime Statistics Act, which was presented in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1985. In 1990, the Hate Crime Statistics Act entered into force, and requires the U.S. Department of Justice to collect statistics on crimes motivated by prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity, and to publish an annual summary of the findings. The bill was the first federal statute to name gay, lesbian, and bisexual people as protected groups. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 expanded the definition to protect the disabled. Since 1992, the Hate Crime Statistics report has been published annually by a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies. The report plays a key role in both raising awareness about hate crimes in the United States, and in serving as a statistical tool for those advocating or studying this field. According to a 2008 report, racial victimization remains the most frequent type of hate crime committed. In the 1990s, hate crimes became a commonplace category among legal and scholarly discourses, as well as in the mass media. On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (also known as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Act, named after two victims of highly publicized hate crimes). This widened the scope of the existing hate crime laws and banned hate crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Additionally, this act was the first federal law to introduce legal protection to transgender people. The bill was highly criticized by conservative movements: they claimed that the act directly violated the Equal

Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibit the government from favoring any particular group, and that media freedom would come under threat by prosecuting thought and limiting free speech. However the increasing “epidemic of hate,” particularly based on sexual orientation, became the government justification for the bill, designed to promote equal protection. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the largest regional security organization, has a long tradition in dealing with crimes motivated by discrimination and hate in its 56 member states, but the term hate crime only appeared in documents after 2003, when member states decided to take efforts toward decreasing the high percentage of stereotypes against Jews, Muslims, Roma, or those based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of OSCE established a working definition of a hate crime, taking into account national differences. According to this definition, a hate crime is a criminal offense against persons or property where the victim, premises, or target of the offense is selected based on a real or perceived connection, attachment, affiliation, support, or membership with a group, based upon a characteristic common to its members, such as race, national or ethnic origin, language, color, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or other similar factors. An issue of serious concern is the perpetration of hate crimes against human rights defenders, who are often victims of intimidation, insults, smear campaigns, hate speech, death threats, and destruction of property. Incidentally, there is no official data regarding hate crimes against human rights defenders, because a defender is generally not recognized as a protected category in data collections. The Council of Europe (CoE) is also stepping up efforts to tackle hate crimes within its 47 member states. In particular, the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a body engaged in the periodic review of state activities in the area of human rights, including the fight against hate crimes. The European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, has ruled on cases of hate crimes, including

Hate Speech and Bias on College Campuses



hate speech, when they have constituted a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Within the European Union (EU), the Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), based in Vienna, highlights that data collection on hate crimes is still poor in most member states, making it difficult to measure the full extent and nature of these crimes. Therefore, the FRA recently called on 27 EU member states to fully implement EU Equality Directives and to foster data collection as a precondition for developing effective policies to combat hate crimes. On November 28, 2008, the European Union Framework Decision on Racist and Xenophobic Crime was adopted, with the goal of establishing a common criminal law approach to hate crimes in the member states. See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Homophobia; LGBTQ; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Fischer, Christopher and Salfati C. Gabrielle. “Behavior or Motivation: Typologies of Hate-Motivated Offenders.” In Barbara Perry, ed., Understanding and Defining Hate Crime, v.1. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2009. Jacobs, J. B., et al. Hate Crimes: Criminal and Identity Politics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998. Levin, Brian. “The Long Arch of Justice: Race, Violence and the Emergence of Hate Crime Law.” In Barbara Perry, ed., Understanding and Defining Hate Crime. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2009. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. “Hate Crimes in the OSCE Region—Incidents and Responses. Annual Report for 2007.” http://www.osce .org/item/33850.html (accessed June 2010). Pearlman, Terrylynn. Sanctioning Bias Crime. A Public Perspective. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly, 2008. Barbara Giovanna Bello University of Milano

Hate Speech and Bias on College Campuses Often considered to be racist or anti-Semitic speech, hate speech generally refers to that language that demeans or degrades a group, based on a number

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of characteristics that includes, but is not limited to race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religious preference. College campuses, which historically have been settings that encourage a marketplace of ideas, have in recent years become the sites of hate and biased speech with attacks on various groups, including women. In turn, many college campuses have responded to the acts of intolerance by establishing speech codes. Opponents of these codes argue that the regulations amount to institutionalized censorship while proponents maintain that hate speech hinders—and not helps—education. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) remains one of the most vocal opponents. As women continue to outpace men as students at colleges and universities in the United States, hate speech and bias against women have become of greater concern. Universities want to maintain a safe space for all students, but struggle with how to create that atmosphere. College women (and the men who support them) are taking steps themselves to reclaim college campuses and other spaces through programs like Take Back the Night, a rally against sexual assault and abuse. Still, hate speech and how to handle it remains elusive, particularly because of the trickle-down effect it could have on other forms of speech. Examples of Hate/Bias Speech At California’s Harvey Mudd College, someone wrote on a student’s whiteboard following the 2008 Democratic primary, “Hillary is a foxy lesbian.” The incident provoked a response from the college, and was treated as a bias incident. One year earlier, Rutgers University officials in New Jersey dealt with the misogynistic off-campus words of radio icon Don Imus when he referred to the school’s women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” The comment served as fodder for discussion for months, raising a myriad of issues in the process. The result in both cases: while neither comment was particularly positive, nor did either foster an environment of openness, the comments were also not illegal. In the latter situation, Imus apologized for his comments but was ultimately fired because of the incident. In fall 2009, students at Johns Hopkins University protested the university-sanctioned appearance of Tucker Max, comedian and author of I Hope They

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Serve Beer in Hell. Max is known for his low-brow humor and depictions of women, rating them from “super hottie” to “common-stock pig.” The female students, while protesting, were called a variety of insults, including fat bitches and whores, from male students. They, in turn, blamed the male students’ tirade of hate speech on the degrading messages regularly conveyed by Max. Similar protests occurred at Ohio State University and North Carolina State University, where Women and Allies Rising in Resistance and the Women’s Center, respectively, demonstrated against Max and/ or his film. Herein lies another stumbling block of speech codes: whether or not a speech code should apply to visitors or the speech evoked because of said visitors. To combat hate speech, college campuses throughout the United States have created speech codes that focus on eliminating bigoted, narrow-minded, hurtful, and/or offensive speech from campuses. The codes themselves create several other problems, according to opponents. First, someone must decide what speech is considered offensive, hurtful, bigoted, etc. Second, if codes are followed to the letter of the law and certain words are to be eliminated from the campus, certain pieces of literature and media also run the risk of being banned. To avoid that situation, campuses have relied on the 1942 Supreme Court decision Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire and its fighting words doctrine to get around the outright censoring of certain terms. The fighting words doctrine argues that any word(s) that can incite violence simply by their mere utterance can be punishable. However, the Supreme Court has not applied the doctrine to hate speech cases within the past half century. Despite potential problems, proponents of speech codes argue that the benefits are worth the hassle. Marginalized groups cannot prosper if they live in fear. Women have made numerous strides in a post-millennium world, but feminist scholars would argue that sexual oppression is still apparent. One look at popular culture—music videos, magazines and video games— reveals a hypersexualized woman who is valued not for her intelligence, but for her sex appeal. Terms like bitch and whore have become part of the everyday vernacular, instilling a certain ideology and expectation of women that is accepted even by that sex.

Hate Speech From a Legal Standpoint R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul does not involve gender bias or gender-based hate speech, but the 1992 Supreme Court decision is important to the overall debate. The case involved a Minnesota teenager who burned a cross on the lawn of an African American family. Robert Victoria was charged with violating a St. Paul statute that made it illegal to place specific symbols that were likely to spur, among other things, anger. The Supreme Court found that the St. Paul law was content-based and unconstitutional on its face. However, the decision did not prohibit Victoria from being arrested on trespassing or other charges. The decision is important because it recognizes that even unpopular symbolic (or unspoken) speech, is protected by the First Amendment. The ACLU does not advocate hate speech. However, it does support the belief that speech, whether popular or not, should be protected. If it is not, colleges and universities run the risk of traveling a slippery slope on what words should be banned in which situations and creating a chilling effect on speech in general. College campuses have a history of being sites of debates. The ACLU position is not that hate speech should be banned, but rather it should be discussed openly and challenged. The speech in and of itself is often not what is problematic; the ideologies and belief systems behind the speech are what is dangerous. Speech code opponents argue that if the United States government as a democracy is to flourish, all types of speech must be allowed, whether agreed with or not. Punishable by Legal Means There is a legal line between speech and conduct, however. Hate speech also can be part of a bigger, more punishable problem when it targets someone specifically. A woman who is followed across campus while being referred to as a slut or a whore has a right to feel protected and not be defamed. A woman who is threatened because of her sexual orientation has a right to privacy and to feel safe in her dormitory. The fact that speech is involved does not automatically preclude something from being punishable. Proponents of speech codes maintain that hate speech does not belong on college campuses. Opponents, on the other hand, see the benefits of having a teachable moment, focus on the differences between speech and

Heads of State, Female



conduct, and stress that conduct can—and should be—punished. Criticism of so-called hate speech and bias also comes from the conservative political right. Groups such as David Horowitz’s Freedom Center have, under the guise of academic freedom, accused liberal campus-based organizations and ostensibly leftleaning faculty of practicing their own form of bias. Particularly since September 11, 2001, conservative critics have singled out individuals and groups traditionally among those targeted by hate speech (most especially Muslims and African Americans), as practitioners of reverse discrimination. See Also: Censorship; Hate Crimes; Sexual Harassment; Sports, Women in; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Cortese, Anthony and Richard Delgado. Opposing Hate Speech. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. Gould, Jon B. Speak No Evil: The Triumph of Hate Speech Regulation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. O’Connor, Rory. Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio: America’s Ten Worst Hate Talkers and the Progressive Alternatives. San Francisco: AlterNet Books, 2008. Weinstein, James. Hate Speech, Pornography, and the Radical Attack on Free Speech Doctrine. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999. Kalen M. A. Churcher Niagara University

Heads of State, Female Since 1950, there have been approximately 70 women heads of state, not including monarchs or those appointed by monarchs to serve as ceremonial heads of government. A complete list is included at the end of this article. As the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report documents, women still remain vastly underrepresented in political leadership. While there has been progress in terms of women’s political participation and representation globally, the numbers of women heads of state has remained relatively low, hovering around 10–12 women heads of state at any one time. It is important to note that

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women have been elected head of state in almost every region of the world and that they span the ideological spectrum. Heads of State Versus Ceremonial Leaders It is critical to differentiate between heads of state in largely ceremonial posts and those with real political power. Title alone is not dispositive. Because countries have different governments and political systems, the president in one country can have significant power (e.g., the United States), while in another, the president does not (e.g., India). In a parliamentary system, the leader with the most political power is usually the prime minister; however, even in a parliamentary system, the amount of power a prime minister holds varies. For example, Norway is a parliamentary democracy in which the prime minister is both the executive and legislative head of government. Former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Bruntland was the first, and to date only, woman to hold this position, holding it three times: in 1981, 1986–89, and 1990– 96. Bruntland was a practicing physician before entering politics and served as minister for Environmental Affairs during 1974–79. She was asked to serve as head of the Labor Party, hence prime minister, when the Labor prime minister resigned. Her second and third cabinets were internationally recognized because virtually 50 percent of the ministers in each were women. Along with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, she was recognized by the Financial Times in 2004 as one of the most influential Europeans in the preceding 25 years. In comparison, French prime minister Edith Cresson, that country’s first woman prime minister, held less power. France’s president chooses the prime minister from the party dominant in Parliament. When that party differs from the president’s party, the prime minister has significant power. However, as was the case with Cresson, Parliament was controlled by President François Mitterrand’s party and therefore Cresson had more limited power. Even though ceremonial leaders do not have significant political power, they can play important roles. For example, both President Mary Robinson of Ireland (1990–97) and President Vigdis Finnbogadottir of Iceland (1980–96) used their ceremonial posts strategically.

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Robinson was elected to the Irish presidency in 1990, having served in the Irish Parliament for 20 years, focusing on issues of women’s equality. Robinson was adept at harnessing the power of symbolism. According to Robinson, she used the presidency to focus on international human rights issues by serving as the rapporteur of an international human rights meeting in Salzburg. As a symbol of inclusion, she placed a light in the window of her presidential residence, where that light could be seen from the public road, to make the point to members of the Irish diaspora that they are part of Ireland. The president of Iceland is seen as a cultural ambassador, who does not introduce legislation, and is mandated to sign into law all bills passed by the Icelandic Parliament. In 1980, Vigdis Finnbogadottir was the first woman globally to be elected the head of state in a democratic election, even as a divorced woman who later adopted as a single mother. Finnbogadottir was narrowly elected over three male opponents with 33.6 percent of the vote. She was subsequently reelected three times, twice unopposed. Finnbogadottir was aware of the importance of her role as a woman head of state and received letters from women around the globe because of the historical nature of her election. Similarly, the president of India, the world’s largest democracy, has largely ceremonial powers. Most of the authority vested in the president by the constitution is in practice exercised by the prime minister. India previously has had a woman prime minister, Indira Gandhi, but current president Pratibha Patil is its first woman president. Like President Robinson, Patil held numerous positions in the executive and legislative branches of the state of Maharashtra, including heading several key ministries during 1972–85. She also served as a Member of Parliament (1991–96) and as governor of Rajasthan (2004–07). These women have taken one of two basic paths to power: (1) serving as a representative of a deceased (often assassinated) male family member and (2) climbing the ladder of the country’s political and party systems. In many cases, the women in the latter category also come from families with political involvement. According to Laura Liswood, secretary-general of the Council of Women World Leaders and an expert in this arena, “often someone in the woman’s family was involved in politics so that the woman had a level of

familiarity with politics. It’s not quite a ‘legacy’ but … women see that being involved in politics is possible.” For example, Norwegian prime minister Bruntland’s father was the Norwegian minister of defense; Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla’s father was comptroller of Costa Rica; Prime Minister Jenny Shipley’s father was active in New Zealand politics. Power From Continuing a Family Legacy About a third of women heads of state have come to power following (although not immediately) a husband or father who was assassinated while in office or while running for office. These women are seen as representatives of their family’s political legacy and campaign as such. Virtually every woman head of state in Asia and a significant number in Latin America have followed an assassinated husband or father into office. Many are from prestigious families with great name recognition. Examples include: • Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka, the world’s first woman prime minister (1960–65, 1970–77, 1994–2000), who followed her assassinated husband, Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike. • Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, India, who followed her father Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of newly independent India, into power and served as prime minister twice: 1966–77 and 1980–84. • President Corazon Aquino, the Philippines, who was elected president after her husband Benigno was assassinated at the Manila airport returning from exile in the United States. She served one term from 1986–92. • Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan, who took over the political mantle from her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto. Her father was killed by the military while in office. She was elected prime minister twice (1988–90, 1993– 96) and was the first woman to lead a modern Muslim state. • President Violeta Chamorro, Nicaragua, who campaigned as a proxy for her husband, Pedro Chamorro, who was gunned down while driving to work in 1978. She followed him as publisher of the newspaper La Prensa and then later ran for office under the mantle



Cristina Fernández de Kirchner won the presidency of Argentina by the widest margin since civil rule was reinstated in 1983.

of her family legacy as the best candidate to unify opposition to the Sandinista regime. She served from 1990 to 1996. • Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh, who served as prime minister twice, 1991–96 and 2001–06, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Bangladesh, the current prime minister of Bangladesh, serving her second term, 1996– 2001, 2009–present. These two political rivals have essentially alternated as prime minister of Bangladesh since 1991. Zia led protests after her husband, President Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in 1981. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibar Rahman, the prime minister of Bangladesh and most of Hasina’s family was assassinated in a coup in 1975. • President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina, who is the first women elected president of Argentina, and followed her husband Nestor into office, beginning in 2007.

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As candidates, these women and their campaign organizations reflect the continuation of their family legacy, and people know of their lineage. Bhutto often referred to her father during her campaign. Chamorro invoked her husband, who had been assassinated and was seen as a martyr: “I am doing this for Pedro [Chamorro] and my country.” Aquino returned to the Philippines after her husband was killed to lead the mourning for her husband’s death and became a leader who could unify citizens and effectively defeat Ferdinand Marcos for the Philippine presidency. With some exceptions, the widows have little political experience before running, while the daughters, such as Indira Gandhi or Benazir Bhutto, have significant political experience. Gandhi was a longtime party activist and head of the Congress Party. Bhutto’s father asked her to carry on his work, and he groomed her for the role. Throughout her campaigns, she used photos and images of her father and his work. Since 1981, Sheikh Hasina has been the president of her party, the Awami League. There are exceptions, however, including President Cristina Kirshner, who served in both the state and federal legislatures in Argentina and was an influential party strategist before succeeding her husband as president. Power From Climbing the Political Ladder Many well-known women heads of state have climbed the ladder of political involvement, including Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Kim Campbell of Canada, President Ellen JohnsonSirleaf of Liberia, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Prime Minister Bruntland of Norway, Prime Minister Cresson of France, Prime Ministers Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley of New Zealand, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia. Several stories illustrate this path to power across the regions of the globe. Golda Meir Golda Meir had been involved in Israeli politics for over 40 years before becoming prime minister in 1969. Meir and her husband moved to a kibbutz in Palestine in 1921. She gradually became more involved with the Zionist movement and at the end of World War II, took part in the negotiations to create the state of Israel and was one of two women signatories (out of 24) to Israel’s

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declaration of independence. In 1948, she became Israel’s first ambassador to the Soviet Union and returned to Israel in 1949, when she was elected to the legislature and became minister of labor. She then became foreign minister and served in this capacity from 1959 until her retirement in 1965. In 1969, when Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died of a heart attack, many members of the Knesset asked Meir to return to politics and she did. While prime minister, she focused on developing support for Israel in the West. Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher actively sought a political career and worked her way up the ranks of the British Conservative (Tory) Party. She served as leader of the Tories from 1975 to 1990, and as prime minister from 1979 to 1990. To date, she is the only woman to have held either post. Thatcher was raised by her parents to be interested in current events and grew up during the Depression and World War II. She became active in politics at university and was president of the Oxford Union Conservative Association. After losing her first two races for Parliament, she won a parliamentary seat in 1959. When Conservatives came to power in 1970, Thatcher was appointed secretary of state for education and science. After her party lost the 1974 election, Thatcher ran for and was elected Conservative Party leader in 1975. In 1979, she was elected Britain’s prime minister and served for three consecutive terms. She is known internationally as the “Iron Lady” for her strong will, her government’s austerity measures, and for prosecuting the Falklands War. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf riveted the world’s attention by being sworn in as the first woman president of an African country in 2006. After being educated in the United States, she returned to Liberia to work in government. She served as minister of finance in 1979–80; after the 1980 coup d’état, Johnson-Sirleaf left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She ran for president in 1997, placing a distant second with 10 percent of the vote. In 2003, Liberian president Charles Taylor left office, after civil war and regional strife, and the interim government and rebel groups signed a historic peace accord. While Johnson-Sirleaf was proposed as a possible candidate for president, she was

not selected and instead served as head of the Governance Reform Commission in 2004–05. She then ran for president in the 2005 elections and won. Women, particularly market women, and the group Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, were instrumental in her election. Angela Merkel German chancellor Angela Merkel is the first woman to hold this position, and the first chancellor who grew up in East Germany. Like most East German youth, Merkel was a member of an official youth group. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Merkel became involved in the growing democracy movement. Following the first (and only) democratic election in East Germany, she became the deputy spokesperson of the new caretaker government. In the first postunification government, Merkel was elected to the German Parliament (Bundestag) and after her party merged with the West German Christian Democrats, she became minister for women and youth and later minister for the environment and nuclear safety. In 2000, she became the first female chair of her party and later, leader of the conservative opposition in the Bundestag. In 2007, Merkel was also chaired the G-8, the second woman to do so after Margaret Thatcher. Michelle Bachelet Chilean president Michelle Bachelet is a moderate socialist who was the first woman president of Chile. She is a pediatrician and epidemiologist by training and also studied military strategy; she is a separated mother of three and describes herself as an agnostic. Her father, a Chilean general, was part of President Salvador Allende’s government. After the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, Bachelet’s father refused exile, was tortured extensively, and died in prison. Bachelet and her mother worked as couriers for the underground Socialist Party group trying to organize resistance to Pinochet. They were captured and tortured and later exiled. In 1979, she was given permission to return to Chile, and she became politically active in the fight to reestablish democracy. After democracy was reestablished in 1990, Bachelet ran unsuccessfully for mayor of a wealthy Santiago suburb. In the 1999 presidential primary of Chile’s governing coalition, she worked for Ricardo Lagos’s successful nomination and then



served as his health minister and defense minister. She was, in fact, the first woman minister of defense in the Americas. In the 2005 presidential election, Bachelet faced three male candidates in the primary, and was elected in a runoff with 53.5 percent of the vote. She won praise for her handling of Chile’s financial crisis and has worked on post-earthquake reconstruction, both in Chile and Haiti. Public Perceptions In general, public perceptions of women as potential heads of state appear to be changing. This is in part evidenced by the small increase in the number of women heads of state and in the increase of women elected to office in general. There are more images of women heads of state, perhaps because the election of a woman president still generates a lot of press attention. Further, there has been some progress as women address tough issues, such as war, the fight against terrorism, and the world fiscal crisis. While Aquino found that her military commanders initially found it hard to accept orders from a woman, there have also been women heads of state who have aggressively prosecuted wars, most notably Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In addition, the contemporary high visibility of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has changed the perception of how women can deal with tough security matters, and this will shift even more as there are more women secretaries of defense. Bachelet won praise for her handling of Chile’s financial crisis. See Also: Bachelet, Michelle; Government, Women in; Representation of Women in Government, International; Merkel, Angela; Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson; Thatcher, Margaret. Further Readings Council of Women World Leaders. http://www.cwwl.org (accessed June 2010). Hausmann, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. The Global Gender Gap Report 2009. World Economic Forum (2009). http://www.weforum.org (accessed June 2010). Hoogensen, Gunhild and Bruce O. Solheim. Women in Power: World Leaders Since 1960. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Lewis, Jone Johnson. “Women’s History: Women Prime Ministers and Presidents: 20th Century.” About.com.

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http://womenshistory.about.com/od/rulers20th /a/women_heads.htm (accessed August 2010). Paxton, Pamela and Melanie Hughes. Women, Politics and Power. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2007. Stephenie Foster Independent Scholar

Health, Mental and Physical On average, women live longer than men. Life expectancy for women is now over 70 years, compared to around 65 for men. Longevity statistics alone, however, do not capture the full picture of women’s wellbeing. Women’s quality of life is frequently tied to physical and mental health concerns that uniquely or disproportionately affect women and girls. Some women’s health concerns are related to biological sex. The role of prenatal care in preventing maternal mortality is an example of an issue pertaining specifically to females. Other health concerns are tied to gendered social conditions. For instance, in societies where women are paid less than men, the cost of healthcare is a concern for women’s health. Understanding the mental and physical health issues that affect women around the world as well as their experience in healthcare systems is important to understanding the quality of women’s lives. Health has been conceptualized in many different ways throughout history and across cultures. Definitions range from broad subjective assessment of how well a person or group is thriving, to specific and narrow biomedical measurements of standardized physiological processes. Patriarchal cultures have frequently excluded women’s voices and concerns from dominant conversations about health and medicine, and this has influenced how health is defined. Failing to include female participants in medical research, for instance, has led to the development of medical models based on male bodies. This has contributed to diagnostic standards based on typically male symptoms and the pathologizing of female body processes. Health education about myocardial infarctions (heart attacks), for instance, has historically overlooked the symptoms faced by women, while processes such as menstruation and pregnancy have at times been

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treated as if they were illnesses rather than normal bodily experiences. In 1970, a group of women in Boston, Massachusetts, came together to write a booklet titled Women and Their Bodies, researched and written by and for women. The booklet, which was later expanded to become the book, Our Bodies, Ourselves, was an important part of the women’s health movement in the United States. Feminists called into question the male-dominated field of medicine and its power to define women’s health. Those in the women’s health movement sought to understand and educate others about women’s bodies. They also worked to expand conceptualizations of “women’s health” to include concerns about relationships, parenting, violence, body image, aging, and other topics frequently overlooked in medical discourse. Today, women’s health needs continue to be overlooked or dismissed in public policy and medical decision making. Women’s health advocates point out, for instance, that contraceptive pills are frequently not covered by health insurance prescription plans in the United States, even when men’s sexual health prescriptions (such as Viagra) are covered. The disagreements over what constitutes legitimate health concern for women are made most public when the issues of healthcare funding and abortion are discussed. In the 2008 United States presidential election, Republican candidate John McCain conveyed his belief that women’s health was defined too broadly in considering when abortion should be permitted by using a finger-quotes gesture while referring to “health” and going on to say that the definition has been stretched to mean almost anything to justify abortion. Despite efforts to expand “women’s health” to include a broader range of issues affecting well-being, women’s health rhetoric has frequently centered around issues of reproductive capacity. A healthy woman, by common understanding, is one who is young and fertile. Inclusion of female bodies in medical textbooks is often limited to chapters on puberty, pregnancy, and childbirth. The Körperwelten (Body Worlds) traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies intended to promote health awareness has been criticized for its presentation of male bodies as the norm and its portrayal of female bodies in mostly sexual and reproductive contexts. Even beyond pregnancy and childbirth, a woman’s reproductive social

role is emphasized in health policy. In some places, for instance, healthcare programs and services for low-income women are made available to mothers while those without children are not covered. In addition to reproductive capacity, beauty standards are often influential in discussions of women’s health. Dermatology, weight management, and cosmetic surgery are all examples of medical fields that frequently target women and reinforce gendered beauty norms. Tall and short stature, large body size, birthmarks, atypical genitalia, and other “aesthetically undesirable” traits have been treated as medical conditions. Pharmaceutical companies have emphasized beauty-enhancing effects of their drugs in marketing directed toward women. For instance, oral contraceptives have been marketed as an effective means of improving one’s complexion. In 2009, pharmaceutical company Allergan began marketing a prescription glaucoma drug as an eyelash lengthener, calling thin eyelashes “hypotrichosis” and encouraging those who want fuller, thicker eyelashes to “ask their doctor about Latisse.” This conflation of the health and beauty industries, along with the multibillion dollar weight loss industry and high rates of eating disorders, has led women’s health advocates to pay special attention to issues of body image when considering health priorities. Most books and conferences about women’s health devote time to women’s body image and related concerns. Physical Health Conditions Affecting Women and Girls When discussing health conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women, it should be noted that not every woman has typical female anatomy and physiology or faces risks associated with heterosexual relationships and childbearing. Postmenopausal women, prepubescent girls, nonheterosexual women, and women who have had hysterectomies or mastectomies all face unique sets of gender-related risk and protective factors, and their experiences are sometimes overlooked in dominant rhetoric about women’s health. Additionally, women with intersex conditions and transgender women (those born with male physiological characteristics who identify and live as women) may be affected by gender-related health conditions in ways that differ from non-intersex and non-transgender women. Personal histories and indi-



vidual biological profiles must always be taken into account when applying information about the associations between sex, gender, and health. Health concerns typically linked to female biology include certain cancers and diseases of sex-specific organs as well as pregnancy-related conditions. Cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancer are all women’s health issues, although breast and lung cancers are the most frequent cause of cancer-related death in women. Skin cancers and breast cancers are the most prevalent forms of cancer in women. In most areas, maternal mortality rates have declined in the past century, due to improved sanitation, family planning practices, and prenatal care. The vast majority of cases of pregnancy-related disability and death are found in impoverished communities and nations. These occurrences are often related to malnourishment, young maternal age, unsafe abortion, infection, and hemorrhage. The leading cause of mortality among both women and men is heart disease. This statistic can be misleading, as morbidity (rate of disease occurrence) and mortality (rate of death) vary greatly by age, region, and social status. Of women 15 to 45 years old worldwide, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, and pregnancy complications are leading causes of death and disability. The risk of premature death for women in some developing countries is over 40 percent, while in affluent countries, the risk for women in this age range is very low. In affluent countries where women frequently live longer than 60 years, conditions such as cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer, and respiratory diseases are leading causes of death. Other common women’s health concerns include diabetes, chronic pain, osteoporosis, and sexually transmitted infections. Lifestyle health promotion efforts targeting women in such societies often focus on nutrition, fitness, tobacco use avoidance/cessation, and safer sex practices. This emphasis on individual behavior and personal responsibility for health sometimes results in victim blaming and healthism, or prejudice based on health status. Women’s health advocates point out that many conditions affecting women could be addressed through social and environmental changes such as increased availability of fresh produce, safe opportunities for physical activity, reduced exposure to environmental

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pollutants, and increased social agency to negotiate sexual experiences. Mental Health Conditions Affecting Women and Girls Physical health is often linked to mental health. Physical conditions may contribute to mental health conditions. For example, the stress of coping with a chronic illness may lead to depression for some women. Mental health conditions can also affect physical health. A woman living with schizophrenia, for instance, may be unable to provide for her own basic physical needs. Worldwide, suicide is a leading cause of premature death among women. Mental health conditions that disproportionately affect women and girls include phobias and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, and somatic complaints (physical symptoms with no apparent physiological cause). They are less likely than men to experience violent and antisocial mental disorders or substance abuse and equally likely to experience schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, though when these mental illnesses do occur, they manifest differently in terms of symptoms and treatment outcomes. For example, the onset of recognized symptoms of schizophrenia tends to be later in women than in men. Women are also more likely to experience more than one mental disorder, and this comorbidity contributes to higher rates of disability due to mental illness. Physiological differences may contribute to gender differences in mental health diagnosis. Differences can frequently be explained by different social conditions. For instance, some studies have found more similarities between men and women when controlling for education and workplace experience. Others have demonstrated the importance of perceived control over one’s life in preventing mental illness, and perceived control is an experience that often differs between men and women. Gendered cultural norms regarding emotional expression and help seeking may also contribute to differential diagnosis for some mental disorders. Violence and Women’s Health Violence is increasingly recognized as a women’s health issue. War, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence affect women and girls around the world.

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In times of war, women face many threats to their physical well-being. Intentional spread of disease, torture and killing, rape, slavery, forced impregnation, and forced abortion are all tactics used in warfare that affect the health of women. Additionally, women are often expected to stay and care for the ill, the elderly, and the very young while others flee in times of war. They are then faced with living and working in areas that lack basic necessities including food, clean water, sanitation, and medical services. In times of national peace as well as times of war, sexual violence affects women and girls. It is a persistent threat to women’s health and well-being in all areas of the world, regardless of affluence. Women in prison, migrant women, women with disabilities, and women in war zones face particular high risk of sexual abuse and rape. In the United States, it is estimated that as many as one in four women will be sexually abused in her lifetime. Sexual violence can lead to the spread of sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, and permanent injury to reproductive organs and other body systems. Survivors may also experience depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, personality disorders, and heightened risk of suicide. Perpetrators of sexual violence are usually known to the victim. Sexual coercion and rape may be part of an ongoing pattern of domestic violence (though awareness and prosecution of marital rape remains low). Intimate partner violence, also known as domestic violence, was once considered mostly a private family matter, but is now more recognized as a threat to women’s well-being that must be addressed at multiple levels. Physical acts of violence can include slapping, punching, shoving, kicking, dragging, choking, and use of a weapon. These forms of physical violence are frequently accompanied by other types of abuse, including verbal abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Those who have experienced domestic violence have higher rates of ill health, even long after the direct violence has ended. Chronic pain, memory loss, emotional distress, and suicidality have all been linked to experiences of domestic violence. Reproductive health issues including miscarriage are also more common among women who have experienced such violence. Many women do not seek help when experiencing violence or its effects. Some believe the experience is

normal and acceptable. Others want to avoid potential consequences such as retaliation and individual or family stigma and shame. Many fear they will not be believed or supported. Women and Healthcare Women are the primary providers of health-related care throughout the world, in the family, community, and health professions. Much of this work is unpaid caregiving that may not be recognized as part of the healthcare system. Despite cultural and historical connections between women and caregiving, women have been underrepresented in many areas of medicine and in the leadership of professional health organizations. As patients or consumers in formal healthcare systems, women experience several barriers to accessing regular professional healthcare. Despite increased emphasis on the importance of preventive healthcare and screenings, many women do not receive regular checkups that could prevent or more effectively address conditions such as cervical and breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Even in affluent countries, many women lack access to basic healthcare services. Some do not have health insurance that will cover preventive services and regular screenings. Others live in rural areas without nearby healthcare facilities. Inequalities in education and pay create difficulties in understanding, physically accessing, and affording medical care. When receiving professional healthcare, women may face gender discrimination, having their concerns and complaints dismissed, or not being provided with detailed information about their physical health. In some places, women’s healthcare is affected by cultural norms regarding interactions between male physicians and female patients. For individual and cultural reasons, women may prefer female health practitioners. This is especially common when women are seeking obstetric and gynecological care. Many women make use of alternative health practices outside the tradition of allopathic medicine (also known as Western, scientific, or standard medicine), including massage and touch-based therapies, aromatherapy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutritional approaches, and spiritual practices. They may be motivated by cultural tradition, religious belief, dissatisfaction with standard medical techniques, lack of access to other medical care, or a desire to have



greater personal control over their health options. Such practices are frequently criticized or dismissed as ineffective, dangerous, or wishful/magical thinking by medical practitioners, though there is growing recognition of the potential value of honoring and integrating complementary health traditions within the practice of standard medicine.  Improving Women’s Health In addition to greater awareness of gender-related concerns in healthcare settings, the World Health Organization has called for action beyond the healthcare sector. Improving the health of women and girls requires a broad approach that recognizes the individual, social, cultural, political, and economic influences on their lives. Without attending to issues of violence and inequality in a society, women will likely continue to face physical and mental health conditions that affect their quality of life, despite improvements in health knowledge and medical technology. National and international organizations have formed to address the health needs of women. In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services has a dedicated Office on Women’s Health that provides information to laypeople as well as professionals about trends and issues in women’s physical and mental health. In 2007, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution on gendermainstreaming intended to integrate gender analysis and action into all activities of the World Health Organization. Additionally, there continue to be local networks of feminists and women’s advocates around the world addressing the health and wellness needs of individuals and communities and working for cultural and political change. These include groups dedicated to reproductive justice, antipoverty, and peace causes as well as those with a stated purpose of working for women’s health. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Heath Insurance Issues; Life Expectancy, International Comparisons of; Our Bodies, Ourselves; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of; Women’s Health Clinics. Further Readings Boston Women’s Health Collective. Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era. New York: Touchstone, 2005.

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Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health. The Healthy Woman: A Complete Guide for All Ages. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008. Doyal, Lesley. “Sex, Gender, and Health: The Need For a New Approach.” British Medical Journal, v.323 (2001). Goldman, Marlene and Maureen Hatch, eds. Women and Health. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2010. Lorber, Judith and Lisa Jean Moore. Gender and the Social Construction of Illness. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2001. Turshen, Meredith. Women’s Health Movements: A Global Force for Change. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Unger, Rhoda K., ed. Handbook of the Psychology of Women. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004. World Health Organization (WHO). Women and Health: Today’s Evidence Tomorrow’s Agenda. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Press, 2009. Virginia Dicken Southern Illinois University

Health Insurance Issues Health insurance, like other branches of insurance, is a form of mutual assistance by which people collectively pool their risk—in this case, the risk of incurring medical expenses. It may be provided through a government-sponsored social insurance program, or from private insurance companies. The covered groups or individuals pay premiums or taxes to help protect themselves from unexpected healthcare expenses. Similar benefits paying for medical expenses may also be provided through social welfare programs funded by the government. Although many international and European instruments provide the right to health insurance, the AlmaAta International Conference on Primary Health Care (1978) held by the World Health Organization (WHO) was the first event to put health equity on the international political agenda. The International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), and the European Union (EU) Roadmap for equality between

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women and men (2006–10) all emphasized equal right to social security, including health insurance. Maternity insurance is provided as a separate branch of insurance by the international and European instruments. Global recession has caused many health systems to lose focus on fair access to care. In transitional and underdeveloped countries, cut backs in public health spending contribute to the structural decline of public health systems. In addition, privatization of healthcare systems, without appropriate guarantees of universal access to affordable healthcare, further reduces healthcare availability. A 2008 WHO report documented vast differences in healthcare between rich and poor countries, within countries, and sometimes within individual cities. Only 20 percent of the world’s population has adequate social security coverage, and more than half lack any coverage at all. Less than 10 percent of workers in the least-developed countries are covered by social security. In middle-income countries, coverage ranges from 20 to 60 percent, while in most industrial nations, it is close to 100 percent. However statistical data on health are often not systematically collected, disaggregated, and analyzed by age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Relatively little is known about how social and economic factors affect the health of women (in particular, women with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual or transgender women, and women from ethnic minorities, all of whom face multiple discriminations). Medical research and epidemiological studies in many countries are often based solely on males, or are not gender specific. Health Insurance and Women Women use healthcare servivces, especially primary care services more often than men. This is mainly related to women’s reproductive health and childbearing functions, but also to their persistent social roles as the primary caretakers of dependents, whether children or other family members. In spite of this higher level of use by women, healthcare systems and services are not particularly women-friendly or considerate toward women’s health needs. Inequality is the main driver of poor health among women. Women are affected by many of the same health conditions as men, but may experience them differently. The prevalence among women of pov-

erty and economic dependence, their experience of violence, discrimination due to gender and/or race, and sociopolitical discrimination all contribute to ill health. The limited power many women have over their sexual and reproductive lives and their lack of influence in decision making are also social realities in many countries worldwide. Discrimination against girls (often resulting from preferential treatment toward sons), and access to nutrition and healthcare services endanger their current and future health and well-being. Conditions that force girls into early marriage, pregnancy, and childbearing and which subject them to harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, pose grave health risks. Counseling services and access to sexual and reproductive health information for adolescents are still inadequate or absent. A young woman’s right to privacy, confidentiality, respect, and informed consent is often not considered. The trend toward early sexual experience, combined with a lack of information and services, increases the risk of unwanted and early pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as unsafe abortions. Mental disorders related to marginalization, powerlessness, and poverty, along with overwork, stress, the growing incidence of domestic violence, as well as substance abuse, are some of the many other health issues of growing concern to women. Women throughout the world, especially young women, are increasing their use of tobacco with serious effects on their health and that of their children. Occupational health issues are also growing in importance. Cancers of the breast and cervix, and other cancers of the reproductive system, as well as infertility, affect growing numbers of women, and may be preventable, or curable, if detected early. The long-term health prospects of women are influenced by changes during menopause, which, in combination with lifelong conditions and other factors, such as poor nutrition and lack of physical activity, may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Other diseases of aging and the interrelationships of aging and disability among women also need particular attention. Women (as well as men), particularly in rural areas and poor urban areas, are increasingly exposed to environmental health hazards due to environmental

Heart Disease



catastrophes and degradation. Women have a different susceptibility to various environmental hazards, contaminants, and substances, and they suffer different consequences from exposure to them. Health policies and programs often perpetuate gender stereotypes and fail to consider socioeconomic disparities and other differences among women, and may not take full account of the lack of autonomy of women regarding their health. The WHO report found striking inequalities in health outcomes, in access to care, and in what people pay for care. For 5.6 billion people in low- and middle-income countries, more than half of all healthcare expenditure is through out-of-pocket payments. With the costs of healthcare rising and systems for financial protection in disarray, personal expenditures on healthcare now push more than 100 million people into poverty each year. Since women are at higher risk of living in poverty, this impacts their access to healthcare, whatever the quality of that care. Health insurance is often strongly connected to employment status. Health insurance benefits are not available to people outside a formal work environment or those not steadily employed, such as the rural, agricultural, self-employed, or urban poor. These groups represent a significant part of the population in lowincome and middle-income countries. Because of their inability to pay for contributory insurance, they are ineligible for full medical care. Since women are more likely not to work than men, or to work in unregistered sectors, women are at increased risk of being uninsured. Many so-called housewives are dependant on their husbands or fathers for health insurance. See Also: Breast Cancer; Health, Mental and Physical; Homemakers and Social Security; Medical Research, Gender Issues; Prenatal Care; Reproductive Cancers; World Health Organization. Further Readings International Labour Organization. “ILO Social Security Department. Extending Social Security to All: A Guide Through Challenges and Options.” Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2010. Kickbusch, I. and G. Lister, eds. “European Perspectives on Global Health: A Policy Glossary.” Brussels: European Foundation Centre AISBL, 2006. http://www .efc.be/Networking/InterestGroupsAndFora/Global

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Health/Documents/EFC_EPGH_GlobalHealth Glossary-1.pdf (cited July 2010). Ron, A., B. Abel-Smith, and G. Tamburi. “Health Insurance in Developing Countries—The Social Security Approach.” Geneva: International Labour Organization, 1990. United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women. “UN Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).” http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing /platform (cited July 2010). World Health Organization. “The World Health Report 2008: Primary Health Care (Now More Than Ever).” http://www.who.int/whr/2008/en/index.html (cited July 2010). K. Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Heart Disease Heart disease (cardiovascular disease) means a broad spectrum of heart and circulatory system problems. The American Heart Association estimates that it affects 80 million adults in the United States, accounting for more than one-third of all deaths. There is a global epidemic of heart disease, and more than 60 percent of the global burden occurs in developing countries. Heart disease is very prevalent among women, killing nearly twice as many than all types of cancer including breast cancer, but women tend to underestimate the health threat because of a public misconception that it is generally a man’s disease. Therefore, public health campaigns have been launched to raise awareness of heart disease among women and to promote healthy living. This article provides an overview of heart disease, including its types, causes, diagnosis and treatment. Heart disease in women and men is similar in many ways but important differences exist, including some experiences unique to women, which are discussed in this entry. Types and Causes There are many types of heart disease. Fifteen million people in the United States have coronary heart disease, the most common and widespread form, which is caused by fatty deposits on artery walls. It often

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leads to angina (chest pain) and heart attack (myocardial infarction). Other common types of heart disease include cardiomyopathy (deterioration of heart muscle function), ischemic heart disease (reduced blood supply to the heart and organs), hypertensive heart disease (caused by high blood pressure), congestive heart failure (insufficient blood supply to body), and congenital heart disease (heart abnormality since birth). Conditions and habits for developing heart disease are wide ranging and include age, culture, lifestyle, menopause, obesity, smoking, and socioeconomic status. The risks of these factors are similar in men and women but gender differences have been recognized, including women-only experiences such as menopause. Heart disease is most common among older people. Women are generally older than men at the disease’s onset. Risk increases gradually following menopause, at around age 50, which is attributed in part to declining levels of the estrogen hormone. Prior to menopause, estrogen benefits cardiovascular health by, for example, maintaining blood vessel function, normal blood pressure, and blood levels of certain lipids and high-density lipoproteins (HDL). However, the level of protection diminishes following menopause. It is still uncertain, based on current medical research, whether replacement estrogen (HRT) reduces the risk of heart disease. The use of oral contraceptives, which contain estrogen, has been linked to heart attack risk, but modern forms are considered to be safer. Lifestyle contributes to developing heart disease. Risk factors include obesity, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, stress and anxiety, and unhealthy diets. Smoking is a problem because it reduces estrogen and HDL, and can cause early-onset menopause; but the good news is that smoking cessation considerably reduces risk. Obesity increases the likelihood of developing heart disease, largely as a result of associated problems such as hypertension. Diabetes has been linked to cardiovascular problems. High blood sugar levels play a role in the hardening of arteries. Research suggests that diabetes might pose a greater risk of heart disease among women than men; also, a higher percentage of women have diabetes. The risk is much higher when diabetes is combined with other lifestyle risk factors. Pregnancy can sometimes trigger a number of heart-related conditions such as hypertension, preeclampsia, bacterial endocarditis. Pregnancy is more

dangerous for some women who already have heart problems. Heart disease is more prevalent among black and Hispanic women, as are the risk factors for developing the disease (e.g., high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, etc.), underpinned partly by variables such as culture, social exclusion, and socioeconomic background. There are also variations between countries. According to the World Health Organization, the burden of the disease is generally greater in highincome countries than in low- and middle-income countries, which reflects differences in major risk factor such as diet, smoking, and physical activity. Migrating to another country can change the risk of developing the disease. For example, people who have migrated from east Asian countries such as Japan, which have a low rate of coronary heart disease, have been found to have a gradually increased risk when moving to the West, such as the United States. Symptoms and Diagnosis The classic signs of heart disease, experienced by both men and women, include chest pain and tightness, upper body discomfort, shortness of breath, and light-headedness, which can lead to heart attack. These classic symptoms were first described in early research studies involving older men, who reported experiencing chest pain prior to a heart attack; but women’s symptoms have not received the same level of concern in medical research. Women with some types of heart disease may experience subtle and atypical symptoms, sometimes within weeks prior to a heart attack, including indigestion, shoulder, neck and abdominal pain, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, and mental distress. These varied, multiple symptoms are prone to misinterpretation and, therefore, are underdiagnosed and undertreated. Also, as women generally develop heart disease at an older age than men, additional health ailments are common, such as diabetes and hypertension, which can complicate diagnosis and recovery. Diagnosis of heart disease usually begins with a cardiovascular risk assessment, which is a medical evaluation of health status and risk. Diagnostic tests include chest X-rays; echocardiogram or ECG/EKG (ultrasound of the heart); electrocardiogram (measures the heart’s electrical activity); Exercise Stress Testing or EST (measures the heart’s performance during exercise); Holter Monitoring (records the



heart’s rhythms); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI body scan); and more invasive procedures such as angiogram to look inside arteries. The accuracy of some diagnostic tests is not as effective for women, such as ECG and EST, which, for certain disease types, report higher false-positive results (i.e., false indication of cardiovascular problems). Treatment and Prevention Treatments for heart disease depend on its cause and type, and include medication, angioplasty (relieving blocked arteries), ablation or cardioversion (correction of abnormal heart rhythm), pacemaker (to aid heart beat), and surgery. Treatment is often accompanied by cardiac rehabilitation, which is a support program of exercise, education and counseling. Comparatively few studies have investigated the care and treatment most appropriate for women. Some research claims that access and quality treatment, as well as overall prognosis, differ between the sexes. Studies have reported that women are less likely to receive treatment; experience longer hospital delays; and have higher rates of disability and death following surgery, but further research is needed. On a more positive note, heart disease can often be prevented. The first step involves assessing and lowering the risk, such as lifestyle modifications like smoking cessation, physical activity, healthy eating, and weight management. Interventions for women with high and intermediate risk include maintaining healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and keeping diabetes under check. Women considered to be at highest risk might benefit from preventive therapy such as medication. In developed countries, such as the United States and many western European countries, there has been a steady decline in disease-related deaths in recent years. Reasons include improved prevention, diagnosis, and treatment; and healthier lifestyles. Public health promotion strategies have also played an important role in combating heart disease. However, society and media campaigns about women’s health tend to emphasize wider-known but less prevalent conditions, such as breast cancer. In 2004, the American Heart Association launched their award-winning “Go Red for Women” campaign to raise awareness of women’s heart disease and promote healthy living. The situation is different in developing countries, where

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heart disease is increasing as a result of increasing longevity and changing lifestyles, and where healthcare services and medical facilities are less adequate. It is difficult to draw conclusions about heart disease in women. It is complex, and has many forms, each with a different prognosis. Women tend to underestimate the health threat, and continue to be underrepresented in medical research. Facts about the disease might be more relevant to men. Urgent action is needed to tackle the disease, such as better awareness and education, control of risk factors, improved diagnosis and treatment, and health promotion campaigns. See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Menopause, Medical Aspects; Nutrition. Further Readings American Heart Association. American Heart Association Complete Guide to Women’s Heart Health: The Go Red for Women Way to Well-Being & Vitality. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2009. Mackay, Judith and George Mensah. The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2004. Phibbs, Brendan. The Human Heart: A Basic Guide to Heart Disease. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007. Gareth Davey Hong Kong Shue Yan University

Hefner, Christie Christie Ann Hefner was born November 8, 1952, in Willmette, Illinois, to Mildred Williams and Hugh Hefner, an Army veteran and then copywriter for Esquire magazine. Only one year after his daughter’s birth, Hugh Hefner quit his job over a pay dispute, borrowed $8,000 from more than 45 investors, and began a men’s adult magazine named, simply, Playboy. More than 30 years later, Christie Hefner would take over Playboy Enterprises as her father’s heir apparent. In December 2008, Christie Hefner announced that, as of January 31, 2009, she would be stepping down from her position as Playboy’s chief executive officer,

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citing her need to make changes to her life, including increasing her own charitable work. In her 20 years at the Playboy helm, Christie Hefner was responsible for a number of savvy business decisions, including increasing the media focus on the Hefner family, acquiring numerous adult-oriented businesses, and continuing the international diversification of the ubiquitous Playboy brand. Corporate Success Hefner’s parents separated before she turned 5 years old, and she spent her early years out of the Playboycentered spotlight in Willmette, Illinois, where she graduated from New Trier High School before attending the Interlochen Center for the Arts. In 1974, Hefner graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a degree in English and American Literature. After just one year working in journalism, Hefner went to work for her father at Playboy Enterprises; by 1982, she was named vice president of the corporation. In 1988, Hefner took over as the corporation’s chief executive officer, and in 1994, she made the risky decision to create an online presence for the company—making it the first national magazine on the Web. After the success of this online venture, Hefner exported the Playboy brand overseas and continued to grow its U.S. presence with the creation of videogames, Playboy stores, and new entertainment venues in Las Vegas and overseas. Under her care, Playboy’s global retail sales have grown to more than $500 million. In 2005, Hefner was named number 90 on the Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women. During her time at Playboy Enterprises, Christie Hefner started the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards, named for her father, and awarded to people who are thought to have made important contributions to the protection of the First Amendment Rights. Recipients include Michael Moore, Bill Maher, and Molly Ivins. Hefner has also been credited with raising more than $30 million toward the CORE Center in Chicago, Illinois—the first AIDS outpatient treatment facility located in the midwest. See Also: Business, Women in; Feminist Publishing; Journalists, Broadcast Media; Journalists, Print Media; Management, Women in; Management Styles, Gender Theories; Media Chief Executive Officers, Female; Pornography Produced by Women.

Christie Hefner, daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, was publisher of Playboy until 2009.

Further Readings Jancovich, M. “Naked Ambitions: Pornography, Taste and the Problem of the Middlebrow.” Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk /film/journal/index.htm (accessed June 2010). Miller, R. Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy. London: Corgi, 1985. St. James, I. Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2006. Watts, S. Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. Donna McKinney Souder Colorado State University



“Helicopter Parents” The term helicopter parents became popular in both media and institutions of higher education in the early 2000s, even though it was coined in 1990 by Foster W. Cline and Jim Fay in their book, Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility. Indeed, Cline and Fay were the first to suggest that “some parents think that love means rotating their lives around their children. They are helicopter parents. They hover over and rescue their children whenever trouble arises.” As a result, the term helicopter parents is a metaphor for parents who “hover” over their children, constantly micromanaging their children’s lives, making decisions for their children, and/or trying to prevent any failures or mistakes by their children. Although the term is applied to parents of all children, it is used most often in the context of parents of college-age children who plan their children’s class schedules, manage their children’s dorm lives, and/or even help write their children’s papers. Many people see technology as a key factor in the development of helicopter parenting because parents can stay in constant contact with their children via cell phones, e-mail, and instant messaging. In response to helicopter parents’ demand for “two-way” communication between themselves and the schools they send their children to, many colleges and universities have expanded their parent programs, increased the number of parent liaisons, and now have “parent-only” talks or orientation sessions designed to encourage parents to separate from and allow their children to make their own decisions. While many experts and educators perceive helicopter parenting as problematic because children are too dependent on their parents, some believe that helicopter parenting may benefit children because children report that they feel closer and more connected to their parents than previous generations. Baby Boom Parents Helicopter parents are of the baby boom generation, while their children are considered millennials because they were born between the early 1980s and 2000. The millennial generation is unlike any other because they have been raised within an intensive parenting approach and are considered the most pro-

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tected children in history: from bike helmets to mandatory child-safety laws and regulations, scheduled play dates by parents, and, finally, constant supervision by parents, teachers, or other caregivers. Consequently, millennials have been intensely protected and under the constant scrutiny of their parents. Moreover, because millennials have grown up with technology, it allows them to be in constant contact with their parents in ways that are unlike previous generations. As a result, while previous generations celebrated their independence from their parents and left home for college as a way to “get away from the parents,” millennials tend to feel close to their parents, often referring to parents as their “best friends,” and are used to and expect to have the constant connection that technology affords them with their parents, even when they leave for college. While helicopter parenting is the opposite of neglectful parenting, many view helicopter parenting as negative and problematic for both parents and children. For parents, helicopter parenting is thought of as indicative of parents’ inability to foster independence in their children or the inability to “let go” when their children leave home for the first time to attend college. For children, while the intentions of helicopter parents are to help their children, the message communicated to children when their parents are constantly hovering is that they are incapable of managing their own lives. Because helicopter parents also try to protect their children from negative feelings and/or experiences, children also come to believe that both are problematic and should be avoided. Thus, rather than learn that mistakes and failures, while difficult, are some of the most important learning experiences and opportunities to take responsibility for their own choices and behavior, children of hovering parents come to fear or even avoid any negative feelings and/or experiences and fail to learn how to take responsibility for their own lives and behavior. See Also: Childcare; Educational Administrators, College and University; Internet. Further Readings Cline, F. W. and J. Fay. Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility. Colorado Springs, CO: Pinon Press, 1990.

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Colavecchio-Van Sickler, S. “Mommy, Tell My Professor He’s Not Nice!: (Over)involved Baby Boomer Parents— and Cell Phones—Redefine Adulthood.” http://www .sptimes.com/2006/06/19/State/Mommy__tell_my _profes.shtml (accessed January 2010) Fortin, J. “Hovering Parents Need to Step Back.” http:// www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/02/04/hm.heli copter.parents/index.html (accessed January 2010). Gibbs, N. Time. “The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting.” http://www.time.com/time/nation /article/0,8599,1940395-4,00.html (accessed January 2010). Howe, N. and W. Strauss. Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation. New York: Vintage Books, 2000. D. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein Boston University

Hello Kitty Hello Kitty, a cartoon character, has been applied to children’s pens, stationery, coin purses, and other “fancy goods” by the Japanese-owned Sanrio Corporation since 1974. The popularity of this pure-white cartoon cat has risen along with the growth of kawaii (feelings of protectiveness toward the cute) culture among girls and women worldwide and has generated enormous profits for the company. Kawaii involves females resisting traditional adult roles by engaging in childlike handwriting, reading manga, and watching entertainment aimed at small children. This cultural strain is variously interpreted as antifeminist or symptomatic of a postponement of adulthood by “kidults,” both male and female. More recent interest in the figure is often ironic. Mainstream film and television producers lacked interest in Hello Kitty and other female characters for cross-promotional tie-ins. Instead, Sanrio has focused on selling high-quality licensed goods, closely supervising their production. Hello Kitty’s frequently mentioned lack of mouth and her overall innocuous demeanor, with her small, overall-clad, sexless body often rendered in flat colors with thick outlines, allows audiences to project their own emotional states onto the figure. This simple, unadorned graphic style, consistent with premium brands, has

competed well with characters like Barbie, Smurfette, and Strawberry Shortcake. Hello Kitty sells especially well in Japan where the white cat is seen as international rather than expressly Japanese. Throughout the 1990s, Hello Kitty continued to grow in popularity with young girls, women who had grown up with her, and celebrities, who gave her mainstream visibility. Hello Kitty has been accused of being a “consumer whore,” by lending her image to products from pencils to toasters to maternity hospitals without concern for promoting stereotypes of female—especially Asian female–passivity and helplessness, but of course it is the Sanrio Company that exploits her astonishing profitability. Artists responses included Denise Uyehara’s 2002 play, Hello (Sex) Kitty: Mad Asian Bitch on Wheels, and performance artist Kristina Wong’s asking what Hello Kitty was thinking all these years under the mouthless/speechless facade of cuteness. Artist Jaime Scholnick’s 2004 art exhibition “Hello Kitty Gets a Mouth” included a film in which the cat yearns for reconstructive surgery. The graphic simplicity that makes Hello Kitty a modern classic also allows ironic recontextualization and outright alteration by Goths, punks, and grrrl-power “third wave” feminists. Hello Kitty has been stenciled onto walls and leather jackets, tattooed onto bodies, and cut into skin. Sometimes she is shown wielding a rifle, dressed as Darth Vader, or otherwise simultaneously cute and menacing. Recently Sanrio itself has marketed its own punk, Goth, and pirate variations, and worked with Tokidoki and with Mac Cosmetics, who brought out a black pleather Hello Kitty doll wearing high-heeled boots for a recent line. Sanrio may be willing to defile the innocent image that originally made Hello Kitty popular in order to cash in before the enterprise collapses from brand fatigue. See Also: Adolescence; Japan; Manga; Third Wave; Toys, Gender-Stereotypic. Further Readings Belson, K. and B. Bremner. Hello Kitty: The Remarkable Story of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon. Singapore: Wiley Asia, 2004. Gomez, E. “ASIAN POP: How Hello Kitty Came to Rule the World.” SFGate.com. http://articles.sfgate

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Liz C. Throop Georgia State University

such as the right to marry legally, and the ability to enlist in the military without concealing one’s sexual identity. Heterosexism continues to permeate institutions such as language, healthcare, and popular culture. Nonetheless, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer women and their allies continuously resist and subvert heterosexism in a variety of ways.

Heterosexism is an ideological system that privileges heterosexuality while simultaneously stigmatizing, erasing, or otherwise denigrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ) sexuality, relationships, and identities. Whereas homophobia is frequently understood as an individual’s expression of sexual prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and/or queer people, heterosexism operates at the institutional level. Although heterosexism can be realized in social interaction among small groups of individuals, it is the structurally supported belief in the naturalness and superiority of heterosexuality that fuels heterosexist interactions. Without intending to be homophobic, persons, organizations, and institutions may foster heterosexism simply by reinforcing the primacy of heterosexuality. Heterosexism resembles institutionalized racism, sexism, classism, sizeism, and other systematic forms of oppression. The related postmodern term heteronormativity, sometimes used interchangeably with the term heterosexism, refers to the institutional mechanisms by which heterosexuality is constructed and functions as normative and ideal in contrast to homosexuality, bisexuality, and/or queer practices. Unfortunately, despite 20th-century social movements for gay and lesbian rights, heterosexism remains so pervasive as to be virtually ubiquitous in today’s world. In the 21st century, heterosexism continues to strongly and negatively impact the lives of women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, or queer, as well as other women who have sexual and/or romantic relationships with women. Heterosexism manifests in numerous ways, including via laws and public policies that restrict LGBTQ individuals’ access to rights and privileges which heterosexuals take for granted,

Heterosexist Language Just as feminists have developed a critique of spoken and written language that excludes or denigrates individuals on the basis of gender, proponents of LGBTQ rights also assert the need for inclusive language. Heterosexist language is characterized by bias in that it naturalizes heterosexuality, erasing the legitimacy or even the possibility of nonheterosexual practice and identity. For example, asking one’s teenage niece whether she has a boyfriend may sound like an innocent question. However, the gendered nature of the question excludes the possibility that she may in fact have (or desire to have) a romantic attachment to another girl. Many lesbian and bisexual women report that such automatic presumptions of heterosexuality make it more difficult for them to disclose their true sexual identity to friends, family members, and other people. Those who wish to adopt more inclusive language, devoid of heterosexism, should consider using gender-neutral language rather than simply assuming heterosexuality as a default. For example, a person might ask her niece whether she has a partner (or partners), or whether she is seeing someone special, because such gender-neutral language does not simply assume the heterosexuality of the other party, and thus leaves open other possibilities concerning sexual identity and practice. Heterosexist language can be particularly problematic in contexts where women’s health and/or safety are at risk. For example, conceptualizing partner abuse as “wife battering,” a term typically associated with male-perpetrated violence within heterosexual marriages, obscures the reality that domestic violence occurs at approximately the same rate in same-sex relationships as it does in opposite sex unions. Some lesbian and bisexual women report that the rhetoric of mainstream organizations addressing forms of physical and sexual violence against women is so infused with heterosexism that they feel that such organizations are ill-equipped to meet their needs.

.com/2004-07-14/entertainment/17432959_1_sanrio -kitty-president-shintaro-tsujiå (accessed June 2010). Phoenix, W. Plastic Culture: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2006.

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Medical and social service professionals, as well as policy makers and others, can better serve all women by using inclusive, gender neutral language which doesn’t privilege heterosexuality over other forms of experience and identity. While heterosexist practices and beliefs affect members of various sexual cultures throughout the world, “heterosexism” may not always be the term that best describes how sexual inequalities are understood and realized in non-Euro-American contexts. For example, in Brazil, travestis, transgendered prostitutes who identify as effeminate homosexuals, endure a variety of forms of interpersonal and institutional inequalities. According to anthropologist Don Kulick, travestis have difficulty securing employment and housing, are maligned in the press, and are routinely targeted for harassment and abuse by local law enforcement. Passersby often insult travestis using slurs that invoke travestis’ homosexuality, but they are vulnerable to such abuse precisely because their femininity makes them particularly visible to strangers. Because for travesties, gender and sexuality are closely interrelated, the systematic discrimination they endure may not be captured solely by the term heterosexism without simultaneous consideration of the impact of transphobia and sexism. Therefore, a more precise word to describe systematic sexual inequality would have to account for sexual and gender performances that do not necessarily follow the binaries, man/woman, heterosexual/homosexual. Heterosexism and Healthcare Heterosexist healthcare continues to impact the LGBTQ community in the United States in detrimental ways. For instance, lesbian medical patients who disclose that they are sexually active frequently report enduring pressure to acquire birth control pills or other prophylactic devices from medical staff that automatically equate women’s sexual activity with vulnerability to conception. Another problem that lesbian, bisexual, and queer women often face when discussing their sexuality concerns a lack of knowledge about same-sex sexual practices on the part of doctors, nurses, and other medical practitioners from whom queer women receive treatment. Rather than receiving information from medical professionals, lesbian, bisexual, and queer patients may find them-

selves in the unenviable position of having to educate medical professionals about their sexuality and relationships. Furthermore, heterosexist practices in mainstream healthcare have also led to an underutilization of health services by those in the LGBTQ community, leading to untreated illness and other negative health effects. This underutilization of healthcare is also detrimental in that it reduces the likelihood that LGBTQ people will have access to preventative measures such as screening programs for a number of health concerns. LGBTQ patients aren’t the only ones who suffer the ill effects of mainstream medical heterosexism. Lesbian, bisexual, queer, and transgendered medical professionals have also faced resistance to their efforts to reform mainstream healthcare provision, especially when they have advocated for changes in the healthcare system in order to increase support and assistance for LGBTQ patients. Fortunately, U.S. organizations have emerged to address some of these issues, including San Francisco’s Dimensions, which provides a place for queer, transgender, and questioning youths to receive information about medical and mental health from LGBTQ-affirmative health professionals; Sydney’s APSI (Access Plus Spanning Identities), which serves the needs of LGBTQ Australians with disabilities; OASIS, which provides acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) education and advocacy in Guatemala; and PACE in London, England, which offers health and well-being services to the LGBTQ community. Resisting Heterosexism in Popular Culture Heterosexism is nearly ubiquitous in Western popular culture, permeating cultural forms as diverse as mainstream women’s and men’s magazines, blockbuster movies, popular television shows, top-selling novels, fine art in galleries and museums, and the mainstream music industry. For example, most popular mainstream magazines owe their circulation to a combination of articles and advertisements that alternately celebrate the joys of heterosexual love and desire and warn against the pitfalls of heterosexual relationships, all without serious acknowledgment of any nonheterosexual alternatives. Similarly, the storylines of Hollywood films often hinge upon the heterosexual entanglements of the main characters.



Even action films frequently rely on a romantic subplot between a male protagonist and his leading lady. Further, queer-identified film stars, as well as singers, athletes, and other queer celebrities, are frequently encouraged to conceal their sexual identities from the public in order to maintain their broad appeal under the guise of feigned heterosexuality. In the case of hip hop in the mainstream music industry, heterosexism reigns. The recent use of the term no homo in mainstream hip hop, for example, exemplifies the pervasiveness of heterosexism. Male hip hop artists use this term to reinforce their heterosexuality and masculinity if a previous lyric has somehow undermined those sexual and gender identities. For example, in a recent song titled “Run This Town,” Kanye West sings, “everybody on your dick/no homo.” Mainstream media, which are so thoroughly dominated by images of heterosexuality, fail to reflect the lives of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women; however, performers, writers, filmmakers, and other artists harness various media to provide a much-needed alternative, as well as a direct critique of heterosexism in popular culture. For example, in the 2006 documentary Pick Up the Mic, directed by Alex Hinton, queer hip hop performers discuss how their own music challenges the largely homophobic and queerphobic mainstream hip hop music industry. Additionally, over the course of the last decade there has been an increase in the production of narrative films challenging heterosexism, including director Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed Brokeback Mountain (2005). However, award-winning films such as Lucía Puenzo’s XXY (Argentina, 2007) or Ekachai Uekrongtham’s Beautiful Boxer (Thailand, 2003) are nonetheless outliers in what remains a largely heterosexist global cinematic marketplace. Print media have also challenged mainstream culture’s heterosexism, thus offering transgendered women and transgendered men a space in which to discuss and represent themselves, on their own terms. For example, in fall 2009, the magazine Original Plumbing came out with their first issue for transmen, while a new magazine named Candy offers the first transversal style magazine, featuring style and fashion that celebrates a robust range of transvestism, transexuality, cross-dressing, and androgyny. Queer authors have also resisted mainstream heterosexism by providing affirmative portraits of queer existence in their

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novels, memoirs, poetry, and other forms of creative expression. For example, founded by San Franciscobased writer Michelle Tea in 1997, the collective Sister Spit features a full range of women artists, writers, and performers who have toured both the United States and Europe. These artists include writers such as Cristy C. Road, whose graphic novels include Indestructible and Bad Habits: A Love Story, Ali Liebegott, author of The IHOP Papers and The Beautifully Worthless, and Rhiannon Argo, who wrote The Creamsickle. See also: Homophobia; Lesbians in the Military; LGBTQ; Same-Sex Marriage; Sexual Orientation. Further Readings Argo, Rhiannon. The Creamsickle. Midway, FL: Spinsters Ink, 2009. Cramer, Elizabeth P., ed. Addressing Homophobia and Heterosexism on College Campuses. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2002. Kulick, Don. Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Liebegott, Ali. The Beautifully Worthless. San Francisco: Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005. Liebegott, Ali. The IHOP Papers. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006. Road, Cristy C. Bad Habits: A Love Story. Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2008. Road, Cristy C. Indestructible. Bloomington, IN: Microcosm, 2006. Sears, James T. and Walter L. Williams, eds. Overcoming Heterosexism and Homophobia: Strategies That Work. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo Tracy Royce University of California

Heterosexuality Heterosexuality typically refers to sexual attraction, desire, and erotic interest in the opposite sex. Debates exist about whether sexual identity should be categorized as a set of practices, a set of attitudes and desires, or as a self-identified concept. One might

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engage in heterosexual behaviors but not self-identify as heterosexual; similarly, one might not engage in heterosexual behaviors yet recognize attraction to the same sex. Still others might self-identify as heterosexual even while participating in same-sex behavior (e.g., heterosexual-identified women kissing other women at bars in front of their boyfriends). Further, heterosexuality is often considered invisible because of its privileged status. That is, heterosexuality primarily appears in relationship to homosexuality and bisexuality, particularly when recognizing the “heterosexual-homosexual continuum.” Because heterosexuality is often unrecognized as an identity, it confers a variety of privileges in Western culture. People are often assumed to be heterosexuality unless they identify themselves concretely as nonheterosexual (“coming out”). This constructs heterosexuality as the “normal” and “default” identity, putting those who do not identify as heterosexual at a distinct disadvantage. Some refer to the privileging of heterosexual identity over other identities as “heterosexism,” a theoretically different concept than “homophobia” because it references privilege rather than hatred, fear, or aversion. Feminist theorist, Adrienne Rich, famously identified heterosexuality as “compulsory,” meaning that homosexuality and heterosexuality are not constructed as equally acceptable and viable options for sexual identity. Rather, people are taught from an early age that heterosexuality is often considered the “normal” and “righteous” identity while heterosexuality or bisexuality are often considered “abnormal” and “deviant.” As such, all institutions privilege and favor heterosexuals, often at the expense of homosexuals. For example, the media rarely recognizes same sex couples but almost always portrays heterosexual couples. Girls and boys are taught in schools that they should find a partner of the opposite sex. The military does not recognize homosexuals but instead assumes that all service people are heterosexual. Legal and social situations also value heterosexuality above homosexuality. In many countries throughout the world, homosexuality is a punishable offense, where those caught engaging in samesex behaviors can be put in jail or even sentenced to death. Eighty countries continue to consider homosexuality illegal. For example, throughout the Middle

East, heterosexuality is the only recognized form of sexuality, as homosexual activity is punished with the death penalty in Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen. Since 1979, the Iranian government has executed more than 4,000 people charged with homosexual activity. Globally, accusations of homosexuality have led to arrests, murders, and mass “roundups” in a number of countries, including Zimbabwe, North Korea, China, Russia, Afghanistan, and Ghana. Recent debates in the United States about marriage have identified the unjust favoritism present in the fact that only heterosexual people can marry, while homosexual people cannot marry. Conservatives often argue against gay marriage based on the idea that heterosexuals can reproduce, though liberals often point out that artificial means of conception are possible and that conservatives simply do not want to recognize homosexual couples. Even wedding ceremonies favor heterosexuality, as women are expected to be “given away” by their fathers to their husbands, and men traditionally ask the father’s permission to marry his daughter. Homosexual couples have fought numerous legal battles over the right to marry, often confronting intense opposition within the conservative heterosexual community. Historical Context Historically, heterosexuality has not always existed, but rather, was invented in the late 1800s. Heterosexuality first referred to those people who had sex for reproduction, while homosexual behavior referred to those who had sex for pleasure. Thus, those who engaged in opposite sex eroticism for pleasure were labeled homosexuals. This changed in 1892 when Krafft-Ebbing published Psychopathia Sexualis, a text that classified sexual behavior into deviant and nondeviant categories. During this time, heterosexuality (which referenced the Greek word heteros—meaning “different” or “other”) evolved into its current definition: those who have sexual attraction and desire for the opposite sex. The word heterosexuality did not come into regular use until the early 1920s and was not recognized widely until the 1960s. Today’s use of the word straight is largely not considered progressive, in part because it references homosexuality as “bent,” “odd,” or “deviant.” Some argue that “same sex” and “opposite sex” should be used instead of “homosexu-



ality” and “heterosexuality,” as the former terms do not make assumptions about self-selected identity. Much research has examined heterosexuality as a set of practices, feelings, behaviors, and identities, with many prominent researchers finding that most people harbor both opposite sex and same sex attractions and practices. Alfred Kinsey’s work in the 1940s, followed by Fritz Klein’s work in the 1980s, found that most people have both heterosexual and homosexual experiences and sensations, and that most people are actually bisexual. He argued that sexual identity should be conceptualized along a six-point continuum from “totally heterosexual” to “totally homosexual” in order to reflect the reality that most people identity as “mostly” or “somewhat” homosexual. Kinsey argued that sexual identity is fluid and often shifts depending on age, social norms, changing sense of attraction to others, environmental influences, and peer group socialization. While some have criticized Kinsey’s work by pointing out that he oversampled homosexuals and sex offending prisoners, most recognize the homosexual-heterosexual continuum as a foundational concept in the study of both heterosexuality and homosexuality. Researchers have also asked whether sexual identity is innate or socially driven. Notably, most of this research has been directed toward homosexuals by heterosexuals, often to label homosexuals and homosexuality as deviant. In response to these research trends, Martin Rochlin invented the “heterosexual questionnaire” in order to sarcastically attack the absurd assumptions within this nature/nurture debate. The questionnaire asks heterosexuals: “What do you think caused your heterosexuality?,” “Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?,” “If you’ve never slept with a person of the same sex, how can you be sure you wouldn’t prefer that?,” “Why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyle?,” and, “A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual men. Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual male teachers, pediatricians, priests, or scoutmasters?” Such questions are intended to provoke discussion about the unquestioned interrogation of homosexuality identity and practices, and the largely unquestioned concept of heterosexuality. Other researchers have pointed out that heterosexuality depends largely on one’s context. For

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example, in locations where heterosexuality is more enforced, and gender roles are more fixed (e.g., rural America), those deviating from heterosexuality more often remain “in the closet.” Conversely, in urban spaces, where differences in sexual identity are more embraced, heterosexuality and homosexuality can exist more out in the open. Heavy pressures to present as heterosexual have led to a variety of resistances among nonheterosexual communities, including the establishment of “gay bars,” gay pride marches, and LGBT community centers. Conservatives often critique these resistances as being “showy” and “unnecessary,” citing that heterosexuals do not distinguish separate bars and parades. Liberals often rebut that heterosexism often leads to discrimination, violence, harassment, and punishment of those who do not identify as heterosexual, so these alternative spaces are necessary in order to provide safe space for nonheterosexuals. Globally, activists have rallied to end punishments for homosexual activity, particularly in countries that still jail and murder gay citizens. Heterosexuality has spawned much debate, particularly as it becomes marked publicly and within the research literatures. Many point out that, as long as heterosexuality persists as the unquestioned, assumed sexual identity that confers privilege, everyone is disadvantaged because they cannot properly choose their sexual identity without referencing “normality” and “abnormality.” Much like whiteness, masculinity, and wealth, heterosexuality often goes unnoticed as an identity, choice, or pattern of behavior, thereby distinctly disadvantaging those who do not ascribe to its tenants. See Also: Coming Out; Hate Crimes; Heterosexism; Homophobia; Homosexuality; LGBTQ; Marriage; SameSex Marriage. Further Readings Gray, Mary L. Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Katz, Jonathan Ned. The Invention of Heterosexuality. New York: Dutton Books, 1995. Krafft-Ebbing, Richard Von. Psychopathia Sexualis. New York: Arcade Books, 1998. Rich, Adrienne. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Existence.” Signs, v.5/4 (1980).

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Rochlin, Marin. “The Heterosexual Questionnaire.” http:// monster-island.org/tinashumor/humor/quest.html (accessed November 2009). Breanne Fahs Arizona State University

High School Teachers High school teachers in the United States public school system must be licensed by their state’s Department of Education to teach grades 7–12. The licensure process requires a bachelor’s degree in one’s content area, for example, English, math, sciences, history, foreign language, art, and/or music; admittance into an accredited teacher preparation program, which includes a minor in Education and a semester of directed student teaching; and a passing score on the PRAXIS examination, which is the national-level examination in one’s content area, classroom management, and pedagogical practices. Once these requirements have been fulfilled, the pre-service teacher may apply to the state board of education for a teaching license. Alternative licensure processes are also available for those who would like to pursue teaching careers after having had a number of years experience in the field, who have valid licenses in other content areas, or who have a major in a specific content area but have not taken the required Education course work. While most private schools do not require state licensure, they do, however, require the bachelor’s degree in the content area. While women have been exceptional teachers since Antiquity, research demonstrates that female teachers, when compared to their male counterparts, have historically had to do more with less—less educational opportunities, less salary, fewer resources, and fewer opportunities for professional advancement. History It is not an unknown fact that in ancient Greece, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato all studied under female teachers—Aristoclea, Diotima, and Aspasia, respectively. While the lower ranks of society during the medieval period would not receive scholarly educations, learned women thrived as scholars and

teachers in convents, which provided women the safe haven of a spiritual and intellectual community. Aristocratic girls would be educated in mathematics, history, and the classics right alongside their brothers. By the Renaissance, shifting ideas about women’s proper roles in society and the purpose of education limited women’s access to education. Ironically, it may have been in part because of women’s limited access to education and, thus, the religious and domestic nature of their resulting educations, that women were viewed as the moral guardians of children and most appropriate choices for guiding their early educations. Even so, women continued to serve as teachers in the 18th and 19th centuries, and a few pioneering teachers paved the way for others to obtain access to education, positions in the field, and professionalize the profession. Catharine Esther Beecher’s (1800–78) groundbreaking work in the early 19th century to construct a school for girls and send out her graduates to teaching positions across the country cut the path for hundreds of teachers to follow in their footsteps. Others early leaders include Rosa Philippine Duchesne (1769–1852), who opened three boarding schools for girls in early 19th-century Louisiana; Emma Willard (1787–1870), who opened Troy Female Seminary, which boasted a program of study as rigorous as neighboring boys’ schools; and Mary Lyon (1797– 1849), who founded Mount Holyoke college for girls, revised their curriculum, and raised the standard on female education. These women and others cut the path for greater access to education, and also worked across lines of race and class to ensure that underrepresented groups of girls would also have access to educational opportunities. Demographics The face of the high school teacher has changed remarkably. By the end of the 19th century, only 40 percent of public school teachers were male. By the turn of the 20th century, this number decreased to 30 percent. Of the 70 percent that were female, 90 percent were single. By 1969, the hiring policies that prevented married women from working in public schools were rewritten, which created greater access for employment for married women and, as a result, the number of single women teaching decreased to 29 percent. Today, teaching is one of the largest pro-



Female teachers, when compared to their male counterparts, have historically had to do more with less.

fessional occupations open for women. According to the most recent data reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2001, 79 percent of public school teachers are female. The median age is 45 years old, and over 84 percent are married or widowed, divorced, or separated. Fifty-six percent of high school teachers hold a master’s or specialist degree; 43 percent hold a bachelor’s degree. High school teachers spend an average of 52 hours a week on teaching duties, and earn an average annual salary of $43,262; however, this figure varies by state. For instance, while the average annual income of a teacher in California, Connecticut, Illinois, and New York is over $55,000, the average annual income for a teacher in Alabama, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia is $43,000 and under. The data demonstrates that there are proportionally more women than men in classrooms and that the women who teach high school, today, are generally older than their female forebears, work longer hours, and hold higher professional degrees. This trend may be due to enrollment increases, changing expectations of women, and the professionalization of the profession. In The Condition of Education 2007, statistics for 2003–04 indicate that of the 3,313,000 elementary

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and secondary teachers in the United States, 25.2 percent are male and 74. 8 percent are female. The gap narrows for high school teachers when the elementary teachers are separated out. The report shows that 84.1 percent of elementary teachers are female while at the secondary level only 56.7 percent are female. These data suggest that as the educational level rises, the proportion of female to male teachers falls. In terms of race/ethnicity, in public schools 84.2 percent are white, 7.5 percent of teachers are black, 5.5 percent are Hispanic, 1.3 percent are Asian, .2 percent are Pacific Islander, and .6 percent are American Indian/Alaska Native. When student enrollment data for high schools is compared to these demographics on teaching staff, the comparison demonstrates that teachers in the United States are increasingly white, middle-aged, and female while our students are from increasingly diverse backgrounds—racially, ethnically, and economically. For instance, while U.S. high school teachers are 84.2 percent white, U.S. high school students are only 63.4 percent white. The Gendering of Education Studies show that the gender of the teacher plays a minor role in classroom management issues, that is, instructional supervision, student supervision, and behavioral supervision. What does account for influence is the school’s setting, particularly whether it is a rural or urban location. While the gender of the teacher is not critical in determining teacher response to students, the gender of the student has been found to be a determining factor. Research indicates that at the high school level, male students receive more praise, criticism, and remediation from male and female teachers than do female students. Additionally, recent research reveals that when asked to evaluate inequities in the school environment, female teachers’ perceptions were significantly more favorable than the perceptions of their male counterparts. Recent scholarship documents gender inequities in the field of Education for women high school teachers. Salary parity for male and female high school teachers has not been achieved. According to NCES data for 2003–04, female teachers earned $46,600 to men’s $51,000. Wages for women in the teaching ranks remain disproportionate to wages for men. This is alarming since in public schools women outnumber men in the classroom. Research also documents

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the gender imbalance in the number of women in teaching positions versus the number of women in administrative positions. U.S. educational statistics document that 84.5 percent percent of public school teachers are women. Even though women dominate teaching positions, their male counterparts dominate the top executive positions. One study reveals that in 1994 women held only 20 percent of the executive positions in education. While women provide the majority of the service in our schools, men provide the majority of the leadership and have the lion’s share of the power and authority. While the power gap has been narrowing in the past 20 years, research demonstrates that gender discrimination still figures significantly in the educational arena. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, Elementary and High School; Gender, Defined; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Duffy, Jim, et al. “Classroom Interactions: Gender of Teacher, Gender of Student, and Classroom Subject.” Sex Roles, v.45 (2001). Eisenmann, Linda, ed. Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. Hoffman, Nancy. Woman’s True Profession: Voices From the History of Teaching. New York: Feminist Press, 1981. Huang, Shwu-yong L. “Investigating High School Teachers’ Perceptions of School Environment.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association. New Orleans, 2000. Lee, Valerie. “Gender Equity in Teachers’ Salaries: A Multilevel Approach.” Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, v.12 (1990). McCreight, Carolyn. Female Superintendents, Barriers, and the Struggle for Equity. Report ED432041. U.S. Department of Education, 1999. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2007). The Condition of Education 2007 (NCES 2007-064). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. http://nces.ed.gov (accessed April 2010). Phyllis Thompson East Tennessee State University

Hindu Female Gurus and Living Saints Gurus in Hindu religion, women or men have a distinct and revered role as philosopher and guide to help their disciples attain the goal of a Hindu life— moksha or salvation—through maintaining contact with the nonrelational, nondual, supreme consciousness that is both self and God. Globalization has made access to gurus simpler than it was in olden times, and the circle of their influence has become much more extensive. The tradition of Hindu women in the role of guru is not new and can be traced to the presence of women as sages in ancient India, such as Devi Leilama, the first to establish guilds in India in the 5th century; Dhanwantari, a woman who was knowledgeable about the Ayurvedic system of medicine; Karraikal Ammeiyar in the 6th century; and Aandaal in the 8th century, who was the only woman Alvar of Vaishnavism. Also, it was a woman guru, Leelavati, who in 6000 b.c.e. established mathematical lore in India, leading eventually to formulation of the decimal system in later centuries. Female Sages During the Vedic times also, there emerged women sages like Maitreyi, Gargi, Ghosha, Lopamudra, and many more. A perceptible drop in women’s status can be traced most conclusively to post-Vedic times during the origin of Manusmriti and puranas, resulting in the corruption of religion, rise in ritualistic practices, and establishment of rigid caste and gender hierarchies. During the Brahmin-dominated times, women saints emerged as part of the Bhakti movement during the 15th century. After the downfall in women’s status during the Muslim invasions in India, followed by British colonization, there emerged the social reformist movement. As part of this movement, the ancient practices of Hindu life were revived through the establishment of ashramas and the Hindu concept of four stages of life. Men like Shree Aurobindo Ghosh, Ram Krishna Paramhans became religious leaders, and their wives and women followers established their own identities as spiritual leaders with a sociopolitico-religious influence upon their devotees and beyond. Ma Sarda,



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hailed as the divine mother, was the wife of Sri Ram Krishna Paramhans, who was a highly revered mystic saint. Mira, a devotee of Aurobindo, became “The Mother” and she presided over the Aurobindo Ashram. History is full of such female gurus. The followers have implicit belief in these women gurus and their power to orient the followers to the “real truth.” Considered a symbol of goddesses themselves, these women saints or gurus are as much a part of established ashramas and institutionalized practices of spiritual devotion as their male counterparts. Karen Pechilis refers to the gurus profiled in her text, The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States, as the “third-wave gurus.” They are based out of India and abroad, some of them are married while some others are unmarried. She identifies self-initiated female gurus like Anandmayi Ma, or gurus who have been initiated by other female gurus, like Anasuya Devi. Gurus like Gurumaayi Chidvilasananda were born into middleclass families that were devotees of a guru, (in this instance, Swami Muktananda) and were initiated into the order by a male guru. These women draw substantively from the spirit of the Bhakti cult, of secular teachings, and social acceptance of nonrelational lives, where their devotion to God allows their behavior to be outside the purview of traditional gender norms. In fact, gender does not play a role in the spiritual arena. Also, the female gurus continue to be manifestations of the Shakti, symbolic of the Female as Power in the post-Vedic era and the tantric traditions of Hinduism, where the mother has a higher position and is worthy of worship. The women like Anandmayi Ma and Ammachi, who became gurus and initiated themselves, were subjected to ridicule and early rejection. However, their trances like meditation and related revelations led to the recognition of their superior powers, which eventually led to the acceptance of their exalted existences by their families/communities. Their interaction with their devotees and followers includes darshan or showing their presence, listening to problems and performing miracles to resolve them, and giving of Prasad or blessing food.

problems, rights of girl children, and other relevant issues. Some of these saints are associated with international organizations such as the United Nations and its initiatives. Mata Amritanandamayi is affiliated with the global movement for peace and nonviolence and has also received awards. Anandmurti Gurumaa started Shakti with the mission of empowering female children in India and to stop female foeticide. CEAP (Computer Education Awareness Program) is another program started under the Shakti umbrella. There is a range of unique and common characteristics that the women gurus and saints display. Some interact extensively with people, and influence the public sphere through being spiritual gurus to the powerful and political entities; some give lectures and participate in public forums; still others run ashramas with local devotees; a few maintain complete silence and have no overt affiliations with any established religious bodies. Anandmayi Mata was the religious guru of a number of politicians ranging from Jawahar Lal to Govind Ballabh Pant to Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Ma Meera, who hails from the south of India, now lives in Germany with her husband and a close female companion, does not have an ashram or teaching. Jayashri ma has a Tantric and a Bhakti lineage; she maintains a very low profile, is an unmarried woman who works as a primary school teacher and practices as a sadhvi with a strong following in Bengal. These gurus also have groups of followers. Some, like Ma Meera, have degrees of association with different groups, while a rare few maintain the same degree of closeness with and distance from all their devotees, like Shree Ma. Some of them who are known and function in the public realm seem to have a widespread organizational set up to support them, and a few work alone and stay away from public life. A role that these female gurus, right from Gauri ma who was initiated into religion by Ramkrishna, to Ammachi, have been performing is reinforcing positive values of womanhood, education, and knowledge while at the same time generating religious arguments for the empowerment of women. The creation of women icons in a traditional context is meaningful and helps counter the rigid interpretations of women, their generic nature, and socially sanctioned roles and responsibilities as listed in texts such as the Manusmriti and Streedharma that question women’s

Female Gurus and Saints Gurus, at the turn of the century, are active in raising awareness of women’s cause, pertinent social

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right to a religious public life that prevents women from performing what was traditionally considered their primary social duty, that is, service to man. Additionally, these women saints are doing for secularism what most intellectual dialogues cannot. They are facilitating a flexible spiritualism that allows for members of different religious groups to participate. Through the religious organizations, such as the one established by Ammachi in Los Angeles, the essence of Hinduism, which is a belief in pluralistic existence, has found popular support. See Also: Hinduism; India; Kumari, Living Goddess in Nepal; Math, Mata Amritanandamayi (“Amma”); Nepal; Religion, Women in.

Further Readings Hallstrom, Lisa. Mother of Bliss: Anandamayi Ma (1896– 1982). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pechilis, Karen, ed. The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004. Selva Raj, J. “Passage to America: Ammachi on American Soil.” In Thomas Forsthoefel and Cynthia Ann Humes, eds., Gurus in America. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. Shweta Singh Loyola University Chicago

Hinduism Hinduism is considered to be the oldest living religion in the world. It was not founded on the teachings of one man, nor was it based on the doctrines of one single book. The Vedas, the oldest of the Hindu scriptures existed for many centuries before the sacred writings of any other religion. In the Vedas, there is no mention of the words Hindu or Hinduism. Rather, the religion is described as “Sanathana Dharma,” or guidelines for a fulfilled life leading to Eternal Bliss. The terms Hindu and Hinduism seem to have originated from the time of Indus Valley Civilization, around 2500 b.c.e. In the Vedas, God is described as the Absolute or Brahman from which humans or Atmans have

emanated. Uniting the Atman back with Brahman is the state of Eternal Bliss and the ultimate goal of human life. The Vedas enumerate the guidelines, conducts, and duties for humans to reach this goal. The concepts of Karma and Rebirth are fundamental to Hinduism. Karma, or the fruits of the Atman’s actions, is the primary determinant of the length of time it takes before its final reunion with Brahman. The Atman is believed to take several births, one after the other, based on the good and bad actions in its previous life, before reuniting with Brahman. The elements of nature are the divine gifts given by the Brahman to assist humans in their pursuit of good Karma, leading to ultimate Bliss. Thus, all forms of nature represent divinity and are treated equivalent to the Brahman by the Hindus. Place of Women in Hindu Scriptures The Vedas visualize the Absolute Supreme as the repository of two forms of energy that govern the universe: profound potential energy represented by the male form, and the manifested kinetic energy represented by the female form. The two forms of God are inseparable and complementary to each other. The three aspects of the universe, namely, creation, preservation, and absolution are assigned to the three male forms, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva (the Divine Trinity of Hinduism). Their female consorts, Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge), Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth), and Parvati (Goddess of Strength) represent the kinetic energy. The worship of the female aspect of God as Shakti or Devi is deeply rooted in Hinduism. It is perhaps the only religion that has scriptures, prayers, and temples exclusively devoted to Goddesses. The Vedas hold woman in high esteem and address her as Dharma Patni (one who promotes and preserves the rightful conducts of life). She is expected to play an integral role in all religious activities of the family. Hindu Women Through the Ages In spite of the exalted position assigned to women in the Vedas, the status of women has gone through quite a few ups and downs in the Hindu society. The post–Vedic period saw the establishment of Manu Smriti (Codes of Manu—approximately dated 200 b.c.e.) by the divine sage, Manu, who systemized the



social and religious laws of Hinduism. These laws still influence the life of Hindus. The classification of society into four castes (Varnas) and the division of human life into four stages (Ashramas) appeared first in Hindu society through Manusmriti, that enumerated laws called Varna-Ashrama-Dharma. These spell out the Dharmas, or appropriate conducts for persons in each stage of life and each walk of life. Manusmriti states that women are to be revered, cherished, and cared for by other family members in all castes and at all stages, as a daughter by parents, as a wife by the husband, and as a mother by the sons. “Where women are honored, in that family, great men are born. Where women pass their days in misery and sorrow, the family soon perishes entirely. Where the women are happy, the family continually prospers” (Manusmriti 3:55–57). These statements were exemplified in the two famous Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, where the mistreatment of one woman (Sita in Ramayana and Draupati in Mahabharata) brought on the destruction of an entire kingdom. Medieval India saw several changes in Hindu religious practices. Self-proclaimed religious leaders interpreted Manusmriti to their advantage, especially with respect to women. Manu’s guidelines on women were misread to reflect women as dependent entities with no freedom of choice. Thus their status was reduced to a subservient role in the family and their rights and freedom were suppressed by the male dominated society. Women were mostly homebound, illiterate, and were prohibited from even studying the scriptures. The slow deterioration of the Hindu social structure during the medieval centuries gave rise to reformers who strived to rejuvenate and reform Hinduism. But attempts to elevate the status of Hindu women were only sporadic. However, a few significant Hindu women during this period defied the norms of a homebound life, educated themselves, studied the scriptures, and preached unconditional love and devotion to God. For example, in the 12th century, Akka Mahadevi was a female saint with an unusually modern outlook. She not only preached devotion to Shiva, but she was also venerated as a symbol of women’s equality and an early champion of women’s emancipation. In the 16th century, Mira Bai, a Rajput princess who was widowed in her early

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married life, ignored the normal Hindu codes of conduct set for the widows at that time, and became an ardent musician and devotee of Lord Krishna. She lived in ecstasy of being in love with God and composed several hymns in His praise that are used in Hindu prayers even to this day. During the 19th and early 20th centuries two important factors were instrumental in elevating the status of Hindu women. One was the revival of the Shakti movement, the primary worship of God in the female form. One of its famous proponents was Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who was an intense worshipper of Shakti (or Kali, as she was known in western India). It was believed that during his intense and lengthy meditations on Kali, he was actually able to converse with Kali and receive answers to many philosophical questions. His writings based on these conversations became the guiding light for such Hindu leaders as Swami Vivekananda. The second factor was the British colonization of India and the independence movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. This had a lasting influence on the changing role of women in Hindu society. Women were encouraged to come out of their shells and pursue higher education, becoming lawyers, physicians, scientists, political leaders, and social reformers. Some women ventured out to travel abroad in pursuit of higher education. Among the significant women leaders of this time, Sarojini Naidu and Vijayalakshmi Pandit stand at the forefront. Sarojini Naidu, an accomplished English poet and an eloquent orator, worked alongside Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian National Congress, and was elected the first female president of the Indian Congress. She also held the distinction of being the first female governor of a state after India’s independence. Vijayalakshmi Pandit, who was a talented writer and orator, held the distinction of being the first female cabinet minister in 1936, even before independence. She was also the first woman president of the United Nations General Assembly. Indira Gandhi, who was the niece of Vijayalakshmi Pandit, followed in her footsteps and became the first female prime minister of India. Hindu Women in Today’s World The Hindu woman’s traditional role in the family has changed a great deal since the mid-20th century.

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Globalization and Western cultures have played a significant part in the evolution of modern Hindu women. Many have entered the traditionally male professions of medicine, engineering, finance, science, and, technology. These women still continue to fulfill their family duties, as defined by the Hindu guidelines, while achieving success in their professions. Many women have stepped forward to fight for women’s rights and to elevate the status of women in the Hindu society. Through their efforts, legislations to stop exploitation of women have been successfully enacted. The Sarda Act of 1929, the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, and the further amendments of these Acts in the 1980s exemplify this effort. Divorce and remarriage for women, practices that were once considered “un-Hindu,” have become socially and morally acceptable in current Hindu society. Some traditionalists view these changes as a deterioration of Hindu values, while modernists view these as tools of empowerment of Hindu women. On another front, the emergence of female Hindu gurus and religious exponents has grown to a significant extent in today’s world. Some have denounced the traditional role of wife and mother to propagate the values of Hindu principles and philosophy, while others maintain their roles as wives and mothers, and also function as teachers and orators who strive to revive and rejuvenate Hinduism. They are educated in the scriptures and propagate the Hindu way of life. For example, Ma Amritananda Mayi (familiarly know as Ammachi) gives comfort and solace to her many followers with her divine hug, religious lectures, and prayerful music, and has attracted many Western followers to Hinduism. In the Hindu religious order of Brahmakumaris (Daughters of God) established in 1961 in northern India, most of the leaders are women from many walks of life. This organization has branches all over the world, and is focused on fostering individual and social peace and harmony through Hindu values and practices. In yet another category of female Hindu religious proponents are the eminent careers of women like Premaji Pandurang and Visaka Hari. Pandurang and Hari are eloquent orators and are skilled in the theatrical art form of musical religious discourses. They travel within India and around the world to propagate Hindu values, especially among Hindu children growing up in multicultural societies.

In the 21st century, there are many examples of Hindu women fulfilling multiple roles as career professionals, exponents of Hindu Dharma, and able leaders of their families and communities. In a changing world, Hindu society is continuously redefining the role of women in the institutions of family and society. The modern Hindu woman is ready to meet the challenges of her new role while striving to preserve the values of her religion. See Also: Hindu Female Gurus and Living Saints; Math, Mata Amritanandamayi (“Amma”); Navdanya; Religion, Women in; Representation of Women; Representation of Women in Government, International; Suttee. Further Readings Godbole, Rohini and Ram Ramaswamy. Lilavathi’s Daughters: The Women Scientists of India. Bangalore, India: Indian Academy of Sciences, 2008. Leslie, Julia. Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1992. Londhe, S. A Tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and Wisdom Spanning Continents and Time About India and Her Culture. New Delhi: Pragun Publications, 2008. Manusmriti Sanskrit text. http://www.scribd.com /doc/7189037/manu-smriti (accessed July 2010). Pechillis, Karen. The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004. Vasantha Narasimhan Skidmore College

Hip Hop The genre of hip hop has long stirred controversy because of its often negative depiction of women. Scores of hip hop videos include scantily-clad women who gyrate violently, pole dance, or make other sexually suggestive actions. Though this depiction continues, the male-dominated hip hop industry has witnessed a rising number of successful female artists. Some of these artists, like their male counterparts, continue to objectify themselves and other women; conversely, a growing number of female hip hop artists work to change the perception of women in the



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genre, and send positive, uplifting messages to their listeners—females in particular. The portrayal of women in hip hop videos serves as a major point of contention. Almost all videos in the genre by male artists show a male in a position of power (equivalent, often, to the role of a pimp) and women in subservient roles (synonymous with prostitutes). Women are further exploited by the typical fashion formula for most hip hop videos. Women wear very little clothing, and videomakers create shots where women’s breasts and backsides are often emphasized. While women voluntarily participate in these videos and thus choose to function in a role that objectifies and demeans women, the male artists and video designers continue to rely on the motif of women as sex objects and secondary citizens in order to heighten the video’s appeal and success. Similarly, in two episodes of the True Hollywood Story series (titled “Hip Hop Wives”), women glorified the hip hop lifestyle, in which male artists showered them with expensive cars, homes, clothing, and jewelry. While the episode glamorized the status of wives of hip hop artists, the show also devoted time to exploring problems faced by many of hip hop artists’ wives, including husbands who are unfaithful and abusive.

Conversely, many female artists pride themselves on creating more positive portrayals of women in their lyrics. Artists in this category include the Angolanborn Namibian singer Lady May, who tries to inspire confidence in her listeners. Sister Fa from Senegal not only imparts positive messages with her lyrics, but also held a tour called “Education sans Mutilation” in 2008, during which she rallied against and created awareness about female genital mutilation. Perhaps the most powerful international event involving female hip hop artists remains the B-girl Be festival, which is sponsored by Intermedia Arts, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The festival brings together dozens of international female hip hop superstars, and works to change the perception of women in the hip hop industry. The landscape of hip hop has changed drastically since its inception in 1970s New York. Women, often used as sexual props in hip hop videos, now also make vital contributions to the creative, artistic aspect of the genre. In contrast to their male colleagues, more female artists concern themselves with changing the perception of women in the genre, rather than record sales.

Female Success in an Otherwise Male-Dominated Field The hip hop genre, long dominated by males, has recently seen explosive success by numerous female artists. The most successful female artists are American, though African female artists have also grown in number and popularity. Some of the most well-known female American hip hop artists include Lil’ Kim, Rihanna, Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, and Beyoncé. Artists like Lil’ Kim and Rihanna, however, perpetuate objectifying women. In her song “How Many Licks,” Lil’ Kim chronicles her experiences with scores of men, judging each of them on how well they performed oral sex. Rihanna highly sexualizes violence in her video “Russian Roulette,” during which Rihanna and a man engage in a game of roulette. Rihanna refuses to back down from the game, and at one point is shown in a deep pool of water where bullets strike her. Rihanna survives the game, but nonetheless her skimpy costumes, coupled with her depiction of violence against women, cause concern in many viewers about the status of women in hip hop.

Further Readings Cheney, Charise. Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual Politics in the Golden Age of Rap Nationalism. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Watkins, S. Craig. Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006.

See Also: Queen Latifah; Representation of Women; Rock Music, Women in.

Karley Adney University of Wisconsin

HIV/AIDS: Africa Since 1985, the proportion of women infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) globally has risen from 35 percent to 50 percent, with the numbers of women being infected with HIV increasing substantially in every global region. In 2008, women made up half of all people living with HIV. Of the 15.7 million women living with HIV globally, 76 percent

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live in sub-Saharan Africa. The high levels of HIV infection among women in sub-Saharan Africa has serious implications for the welfare of families, as women are the main caregivers and grow most of the subsistence crops that contribute to the food security of households and communities. The high levels of female HIV infection expose the vulnerability of women to this deadly disease and indicate high levels of discrimination against women in the region. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a new disease that was first identified by the medical community in 1982. Although the disease has been recognized for almost 30 years, there is still no cure or vaccine, and in that period the disease has spread to every global region. It is estimated that since the epidemic began, over 60 million people worldwide have been infected. HIV/AIDS is acknowledged to be one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. The seriousness of the epidemic was acknowledged by the international community when in 1996, the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, was set up to lead the fight to control and eliminate the disease. In 2000, the detrimental effect of the pandemic on the development of some of the poorest regions of the world—especially Africa— was recognized when the halting and reversal of the spread of HIV infection by 2015 was accepted as a United Nations Millennium Development Target. This article explores the main features of the HIV/ AIDS epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa and investigates the feminization of the epidemic in the region, highlighting the principal factors responsible for high levels of female infection. The HIV/AIDS Epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa Since the beginning of the epidemic, sub-Saharan Africa has been the global region most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. By the mid-1990s, AIDS had become the leading cause of death in the region. In 2008, it was home to 22.4 million adults and children living with HIV/AIDS—accounting for 67 percent of the global total. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, with adult (those aged 15–49 years) prevalence in the region recorded at approximately 5 percent. Over the last decade, the data suggest that prevalence rates are beginning to decline in the region as the rate of new HIV infec-

tions has slowly declined. The number of new infections in the region in 2008 was approximately 25 percent lower than at the epidemic’s peak in the region in 1995. However, in 2008 the region accounted for 68 percent of new global HIV infections of adults and 91 percent of new infections among children. The disease continues to have a devastating effect on families, communities, and national economies in the region. There is not a single sub-Saharan African HIV/ AIDS epidemic. The epidemics affecting this region are highly varied, with differences between and within regions. Southern Africa is the region most heavily affected by the disease, followed by East Africa, with some countries in West and Central Africa displaying some worrying increases in prevalence rates. The nine countries making up the region of southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) account for approximately 32 percent of global cases of HIV/AIDS and 34 percent of AIDS deaths yet is home to only 2 percent of the world’s population. The Republic of South Africa has the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases of any country in the world, estimated at 5.7 million—a figure that continues to rise. Swaziland has the most severe levels of infection in the world, with an adult prevalence rate of 26 percent. Botswana, Lesotho, and Namibia all have rates between 20 and 24 percent. In East Africa, the evidence suggests that HIV prevalence rates are stabilizing and in some regions may be declining. HIV prevalence in West and central Africa is much lower than southern Africa; however, there are a number of serious national epidemics, including in Côte d’Ivoire, with an adult prevalence rate of 3.9 percent, and Ghana, with a prevalence rate of 1.9 percent. HIV is spread by contact with infected bodily fluids, such as blood, sexual secretions, and breast milk. In sub-Saharan Africa, the epidemic is primarily spread by unsafe heterosexual activity, which accounts for 94 percent of infections, and it is young, sexually active adults who are most at risk. The peak age of AIDS cases in the region is 35–45 years for men and 30–34 years for women. There are also high levels of motherto-child transmission, which can occur in the womb, during childbirth, and through breast feeding, which in 2008 accounted for an estimated 390,000 infant and child infections in the region—90 percent of the



global total. Infant and child cases of HIV are largely responsible for the increase in under-5 mortality rates over the last decade in sub-Saharan Africa. Feminization of HIV/AIDS Epidemics in Sub-Saharan Africa Women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, with 59 percent of cases of HIV in the region occurring among women. For every 10 adult men infected with HIV, there are 14 infected women in the region. Of particular concern is the recent dramatic increase in HIV infection among young women in sub-Saharan Africa. Young women aged 15–24 years now make up 60 percent of new HIV infection in the region, and evidence from Kenya indicates that young women aged 15–19 years are three times more likely to be infected than young men of the same age, and 20–24-year-old women are 5.5 times more likely to be living with HIV than men in the same age cohort. In Tanzania, young women aged 15–24 years are four times more likely than men to be living with HIV. In all nine southern African countries, in young women aged 15–24 years, HIV prevalence is three times higher than among men of the same age. What is especially concerning is the evidence that married faithful women are among the groups at greatest risk of infection. Studies in Kenya and Zambia reveal higher rates of HIV infection among young married women (aged 15–19 years) than among their sexually active unmarried female peers. The reasons are many and complex, but the fact that husbands are usually older than boyfriends, and thus more likely to be HIV-positive when they marry, and that married women are more frequently exposed to unprotected sex, probably account for this difference in infection rates. Research in 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa indicates that husbands of 15–19-year-old women are on average 10 years older than their wives. Increasingly, as well, men have been initiating sex with younger and younger female partners, placing young women at increasing risk of HIV infection. Women’s Vulnerability to HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa Physiologically, women are more vulnerable to HIV infection than men, but their physiological vulnerability is compounded in sub-Saharan Africa by

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severe economic, social, cultural, and legal disadvantages. HIV/AIDS highlights gender inequality in subSaharan Africa; in particular, the disease exposes the discrimination faced by women in the region, which affects their own health, the health of their children, and the welfare of their families. Physiological Factors Biologically, women are more at risk of contracting HIV than men. It is much easier for a woman to contract the disease in unprotected sex from an infected man than the other way round. This is thought to be because women have a larger surface area of mucous membrane exposed during sexual intercourse, and they are exposed to a larger quantity of infectious fluids (semen) than men. Women are also more susceptible because of hormonal changes, vaginal microbial ecology, and higher prevalence of untreated sexually transmitted infections. Social and Cultural Vulnerability The United Nations Secretary-General’s Task Force on Women, Girls, and HIV/AIDS in southern Africa has identified three key factors that contribute to the greater vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa. These are the culture of silence surrounding sexuality, exploitative transactional and intergenerational sex, and violence against women. All are issues that mean women are less able to exercise control over their bodies and lives, than men. Culture of Silence. In most societies in sub-Saharan Africa, cultural expectations expect men to have multiple partners, whereas women are expected to abstain or be faithful. This contributes to a culture of silence around sexual and reproductive health, as couples do not discuss their sexual relationships or behavior. By fulfilling expected gender roles, both men and women are increasing their risk of HIV infection. Exploitative Sexual Relationships. Lack of education and limited income-earning opportunities often mean women are very dependent on men for their livelihoods. This social and economic dependence on men often means that women are unable to refuse sex or negotiate the use of condoms. Many women with no means of support turn to transactional sex. These women, who are often marginalized by society, are at greater risk of becoming infected with HIV. Many of

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these women desperately need money to feed their children and may themselves be widowed by AIDS. They are in no position to insist that their customers use condoms. This means that if they are not already HIV-positive, they are at risk of acquiring the infection, and if they are HIV-positive, they can pass it on to their clients. These clients then take the infection home to their wives. Violence Against Women. Violence in the form of coerced sex or rape may result in HIV infection, especially as coerced sex may result in the tearing of sensitive tissue. Studies have found that many young women report that their first sexual encounter was forced. South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual violence and, by no coincidence, has a high HIV prevalence rate. In some parts of Africa there is a belief that having sex with a virgin can cure HIV infection. This totally mistaken belief has lead to the rape of many young women and children, including babies, by HIV-positive men. Conflict situations aggravate a number of risk factors for women, with women more at risk of rape and sexual assault then men in conflict situations. In 2007, major agencies such as UNAIDS and the World Health Organization agreed about the critical links between violence against women and HIV, but action by governments and international organizations has been weak. Antiretroviral Treatment for Women in Sub-Saharan Africa Significant progress has been made since the signing of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in providing HIV testing, counseling, and antiretroviral treatment for people, and in particular women, in sub-Saharan Africa. In the high-prevalence regions of East and southern Africa, 58 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women were receiving antiretroviral therapies in 2008, up from only 12 percent in 2004. In Botswana, Namibia, and Swaziland, 80 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women are provided with antiretroviral therapies. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/ AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that since the turn of the millennium, the provision of antiretroviral therapies to HIV-positive pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa has averted 134,000 cumulative new HIV infections among infants and children. Preventing mothers from dying of AIDS and preventing babies

from becoming infected with HIV is a priority focus for UNAIDS. Although antiretroviral therapy can allow people infected with HIV to live longer, betterquality lives with the disease and can prevent motherto-child infection, it is only by reducing the inequality between women and men and addressing human rights violations against women that HIV infection rates among women in sub-Saharan Africa will begin to be halted and even reversed. See Also: Rape and HIV; Sex Workers; Sexually Transmitted Infections. Further Readings Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). “AIDS Epidemic Update December 2008.” Geneva: UNAIDS, 2009. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). “Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. Progress Report.” Geneva: UNAIDS, 2006. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), et al. “Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis.” Geneva: UNAIDS, 2004. Quinn, T.C. and J. Overbaugh. “HIV/AIDS in Women: An Expanding Epidemic.” Science, v.308 (2005). Sen, G. and P. Ostlin. “Unequal, Unfair, Ineffective and Inefficient Gender Inequality in Health: Why It Exists and How We Can Change It.” Final Report to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network, 2007. World Health Organization. Gender and HIV/AIDS. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2003. Hazel Rose Barrett Coventry University

HIV/AIDS: Asia Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which attacks the body’s cellular defense mechanisms that help fight off infections. HIV is transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids through sexual activity, blood and plasma transfusions, injection drug use (IDU) and unsterile syringes, and mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). HIV/AIDS is not curable, but



antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) can significantly delay the onset of fatal complications related to AIDS, help prevent MTCT as well as the opportunistic infections that occur as a result of lowered immunity. However, many Asian countries lack the financial and logistical resources required to provide adequate ART coverage; over two-thirds of Asia’s HIV-positive population has no access to ARTs. Heterosexual contact has become the main driver of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia, contributing to its feminization in many of its countries. The sheer size of the female demographic at risk of infection in densely populated Asia also makes addressing HIV/AIDS an imperative. Moreover, women’s higher biological susceptibility as compared to men is compounded by their socioeconomic and religious–cultural contexts, making it a major concern not just epidemiologically but also in human rights terms. Additionally, the potential socioeconomic cost due to disruption of women’s pivotal roles as producers and reproducers is immense. Incidence and patterns of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia, the above referenced bio-, geo-, and socioeconomic vulnerabilities of its women and consequent policy concerns are considered here. Incidence, Prevalence, Trends, and Patterns In the 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was already sweeping through much of the world, but Asia’s first cases were identified only by the mid-decade. However, by the 1990s, HIV/AIDS became a “pandemic” or global epidemic as it spread rapidly through southeast and then south Asia. By 2008, Asia accounted for almost six million of the estimated 33 million people living worldwide with HIV/AIDS, second only to sub-Saharan Africa, with India the largest single contributor with 2.5 million persons living with HIV/ AIDS (PLWHAs). Asia is defined here as spanning from the Indonesia in the east to Turkey in the west, and from Russia in the north to the Maldives in the south. Regional divisions are: south and southeast Asia, east Asia, central Asia, and west Asia (Middle East). Women aged 15 and above now comprise over a third of all PLWHAs in Asia, and their proportion is slowly rising. Overall adult prevalence rates of HIV are low at less than 1 percent in all Asian countries except Thailand. This is one of the reasons the magnitude of the epidemic and its risk is frequently not fully grasped.

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Women in particular often lack awareness about HIV/AIDS and its dynamics, enhanced by low-risk perception due to their own relatively lower levels of voluntary participation in “risky behavior” (IDU, unprotected sex, and/or multiple sexual partners) as compared to men, contributing to their greater vulnerability. Lack of awareness and low-risk perception is partly responsible for the current feminization of the epidemic because women often do not, or traditionally cannot take protective measures, particularly within marriage. The trajectory of the HIV/AIDS epidemic largely began in the “Golden Triangle” of the continent’s drug industry, primarily affecting injection drug users in Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, and continuing along a corridor through India to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal. Spreading primarily through heterosexual contact, the epidemic soon widened to include the overlapping and thriving sex industry, affecting not only female commercial sex workers (CSWs), but also extending from the clients to their non-CSW partners. Injection drug users and CSWs continue to be the most affected groups in Asia, still directly and indirectly impacting the feminization of the epidemic. A third group, men having sex with men (MSMs) are also significant in this process in that many are married or have regular heterosexual female partners. This triad of “high-risk” groups, along with mobile populations such as migrants and truck drivers play a crucial role in conveying the infection to the general and “low risk” female populations by acting as a “bridge population.” Asia is a diverse continent with several distinct regions, each of which displays extremely disparate patterns of HIV/AIDS occurrence, both inter- and intraregionally. Incidence and rates have typically ranged from very high (e.g., India and Thailand, respectively) to very low (Maldives, Japan, west Asia). Over the past decade, previously high-prevalence countries like Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia have registered declining prevalence due to adoption of extensive prevention programs particularly targeting CSWs and injection drug users. However, HIV/ AIDS is on the rise in countries such as China, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Russia. Causation for these disparate trends also varies: for instance, injection drug users and sexual contact are universally important driving forces of the epidemic across all of Asia, but particularly so in countries named above that lie along

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Neighbors in India shunned this woman and her child after learning that the baby was HIV-positive.

human and/or drug trafficking routes. Also, countries in west Asia have consistently shown low incidence: the protective influence of Islam’s conservative social mores has been named as a cause, as has been underreporting due to very the same reason. Guest workers to this region are also important as a bridge population between areas of origin and destination. Among women in Asia, the primary emergent trend of HIV/AIDS occurrence is the increasing incidence of new infections, both in certain “high risk” groups, and in the general population. A rise in HIV infections among injection drug users has been observed in parts of China and Central Asia with the proliferation of the drug trade in these areas. The epidemic is also increasingly extending into previously “low risk” populations such as monogamous married

Socioeconomic Contexts of Vulnerability Despite regional variations, Asia’s common social characteristics of deep-seated patriarchal and agehierarchical systems, along with strong cultural/religious normativity are extremely influential in determining the HIV/AIDS situation among women. The low social status of women across Asia manifests itself in low levels of investment in women’s education and earning potential, health and overall development, and practices such as early marriage and condoning of abuse. Early marriage, common in south and west Asia, not only begins women’s risk earlier, but also places them at the lower tiers of the gender and age hierarchies, adversely affecting levels of autonomy, including regarding sexual encounters. Domestic and structural (social) abuse is also common in Asia, and its relationship with HIV/AIDS is bidirectional. Abusive relationships often entail coercive sex, which increases the chances of HIV infection in areas where epidemic prevalence is high, particularly given women’s biological vulnerability. Conversely, attempts to negotiate safe sex or refuse it, or seek testing and other services are all seen as reasons to perpetrate violence and force sex on women, again raising risk. The role of religion may be protective or facilitative; for reasons noted before, HIV incidence is typically low in predominantly Muslim countries. However, such countries often have strongly patriarchal mores and practices (e.g., early marriage in Bangladesh, restrictions on education/awareness and healthcare in Saudi Arabia), creating disempowerment and greater vulnerability for women. Myths and cultural beliefs rooted in sexual politics of power also contribute to women’s risk of HIV, such as the widely held erroneous belief that intercourse with virgin girls/women has a curative effect. Lack of awareness about HIV/AIDS, including transmission, prevention, and treatment is a significant vulnerability, yet not simply a matter of literacy. HIV/AIDS is perceived as a sexual issue in most cultures of Asia, where discussion of such topics is taboo, and women are particularly discouraged from seeking or even receiving any information about it.



Adverse and hostile attitudes toward PLWHAs, even by health personnel add to hesitation toward counseling, testing or treatment services. Stigmatization and criminalization of CSWs, MSMs, homosexual, and transgender people also play a part in exacerbating the spread of HIV/AIDS by marginalizing these populations out of reach of appropriate services. Stigma forces the latter three groups to often live double lives in traditional Asian societies, where their public life may include heterosexual partners/wives, who in turn are exposed to HIV risk. Transgendered persons who identify sexually as women are also particularly vulnerable in south and southeast Asia, where they are openly stigmatized, but their services widely used as part of a traditional set of sexual customs. Poverty is also closely linked to HIV/AIDS in a vicious cycle: poverty and lack of skills often force women into sex work and risk behavior, but contrarily, the burden of HIV/AIDS itself can push women into poverty, whether or not they are the ones infected in their household. All these factors of lack of autonomy and of access to socioeconomic resources, stigma and taboo render women particularly vulnerable to HIV/ AIDS since they have neither the requisite information nor empowerment to procure necessary prevention, or negotiate terms of sexual intercourse, safe or not. In fact, for many monogamous women in Asia today, marriage is ironically the greatest risk factor for exposure to HIV/AIDS. Related Concerns and Policy Implications Women, particularly in south and southeast Asia, suffer from endemic levels of malnutrition and undernutrition. Poverty as well as patriarchal traditions are responsible factors, where the allocation of all resources within households is prioritized to male members. Considering that many parts of Asia also face the dire tuberculosis (TB)/AIDS “dual epidemic,” the lack of access to proper nutrition wipes out women’s first line of defense against the ravages of HIV/ AIDS. Moreover, within the pandemic, caregiving at household and community levels has fallen disproportionately on women, but in most traditional societies of Asia, HIV-positive women themselves are not entitled to similar care or social support. Most governments in Asia are cognizant of the need for prevention and care programs, but not all have implemented sustained programs and many

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have not mainstreamed gender and special groups into their responses. For example, despite the largely successful “100-percent condom use” campaign primarily aimed at CSWs by the Thai government in the 1990s, brothel-based female CSWs, often brought to this part of the world by the illicit human trafficking trade frequently remained beyond reach, fearful of their doubly-criminalized status. More nuanced policy and programs will be required to address context-specific complexities of the epidemic. Additionally, the international “3 by 5” and “all by 10” ART coverage drives (referring, respectively, to millions covered by 2005 and 2010) have not and will not meet targets. While these have spurred several countries including India, China, Cambodia, and Thailand among others to institute low-cost/free ART programs for all requiring them, only a fraction are receiving them. Moreover, motherhood is an integral part of women’s identity in much of Asia, but appropriate ARTs such as nevirapine (a single dose reduces risk of MTCT by half ) are available to less than a fifth of those identified as being in need. Universal ART coverage is a crucial element in determining the current health of women and that of future generations. Since a cure is not yet available and control still out of reach for many, vigilance and prevention are particularly important. This will require widespread education and awareness programs, basic health and social support systems, development and distribution of effective microbicides and female condoms (placing options with women), and a serious effort to destigmatize the disease. Fighting HIV/AIDS with ARTs and medical knowhow is a necessary strategy, but is incomplete without addressing systemic issues embedded in women’s life-contexts. Tackling issues of poverty, food shortages, violence, stigma, disempowerment, substance abuse, and lack of basic healthcare and survival resources is vital. Strategies also need to include men and communities in promoting women’s empowerment, and greater sensitivity from healthcare personnel regarding the needs of HIV-positive women. See Also: Drug Trade; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rape and HIV; Sex Workers; Sexually Transmitted Infections. Further Readings Ghosh, J., et al. “Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS Among Women of Reproductive Age in the Slums of Delhi

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and Hyderabad, India.” Social Science and Medicine, v.68 (2009). Huda, S. “Sex Trafficking in South Asia.” International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, v.94 (2006). Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) /World Health Organization. “2009 AIDS Epidemic Update.” http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre /HIVData/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2009/default.asp (accessed January 2010) Kallings, L. “The First Postmodern Pandemic: 25 Years of HIV/AIDS.” Journal of Internal Medicine, v.263 (2008). Rajabali, A. yah, et al. “HIV and Homosexuality in Pakistan.” Lancet Infect Diseases, v.8 (2008). Ruxrungtham, K., et al. “HIV/AIDS in Asia.” Lancet, v.364 (2004). Silverman, J. G., et al. “Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Infection Among Married Indian Women.” Journal of the American Medical Association, v.300/6 (2008). Vandana Wadhwa Boston University

HIV/AIDS: Europe Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the precursor to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is inevitable that a person who has HIV will eventually succumb to AIDS—an incurable but manageable disease. The body’s immune system is targeted by HIV, which destroys cells, with the result that the cells become prone to infection and are unable to protect the body as effectively. Certain factors like good nutrition, proper medication such as antiretroviral therapy, and a healthy lifestyle can prolong the onset of AIDS; however, HIV does eventually cause AIDS and lead to death. At the end of 2008, it was estimated that 33.4 million people were living with HIV globally, 15.7 million of which were women. In 2008, approximately 2 million people had died of AIDS-related deaths. People acquire HIV through various means, such as through unprotected or unsafe sex—whether hetero- or homosexual in nature, through the use of unclean needles while involved in injection drug use, and through mother-to-child transmission. Certain drivers may be extremely prevalent in some coun-

tries, assisting in the spread of HIV there, but not as prevalent in other countries. In Europe (western and central), the main drivers that cause HIV are heterosexual sexual encounters, with approximately just over half of new HIV cases resulting from this cause of infection. However, men who have sex with men follow closely, with around 40 percent of western Europeans and 30 percent of central Europeans becoming infected in this manner. Women are significantly affected by the various drivers of HIV infection because of their often vulnerable positions in society. Geographical Regions and Incidence Levels Europe is divided into three geographic regions: Western, eastern, and central Europe. HIV/AIDS statistics for these three areas are often grouped together with other geographic locations; for example, data on HIV/ AIDS in western and central Europe are frequently compiled with statistics from North America. The reason for this is that all three of these regions share the same drivers for HIV infection: men who have sex with men, intravenous drug use, and immigrant populations. Statistics from 2009 state that there are a combined 2.3 million people living with HIV in these regions. Eastern Europe and central Asia are grouped together by the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, because of their geographical closeness and because both regions have common etiological characteristics. There are a combined 1.5 million people living with HIV in these two regions. UNAIDS has determined that intravenous drug use to be the main driver behind the rise of HIV infection rates in both eastern Europe and central Asia. Infection rates in Europe have doubled between 2000 and 2007, with the rate of infection in Europe recorded as 89 seropositive (HIV-positive) cases recorded per million members of the population. Countries with the highest HIV rates include the United Kingdom, Estonia, and Portugal. Diagnosed AIDS cases are decreasing in western and central Europe, but not in eastern Europe. Of new cases recorded in Europe, women make up 35 percent, which places them as a demographic in a high-risk category. Eastern Europe is the most affected of the three regions, with three countries within this region contending with approximately 1 percent of the population being infected with HIV.



Drivers of HIV Infection Although men who have sex with men are the main drivers of HIV infection rates in western and central Europe, and injection drug use are drivers of HIV infection in eastern Europe, heterosexual sexual encounters follow closely for each region. These drivers may directly or indirectly affect women and help to spread HIV infection among the European population. All of these drivers can overlap, which spurs on infection rates among women in Europe. In the Ukraine, for example, 45 percent of all adults infected with HIV are women. Although HIV infection through injection drug use in western and central Europe has declined to a degree, it is still prolific in eastern Europe—57 percent of new HIV cases in the region come from this demographic. Dirty needles and unhygienic practices assist in spreading the disease among both men and women, and those who engage in injection drug use are also likely to spread the disease to their sexual partners, who may or may not participate in drug taking. Heterosexual encounters contribute to 42 percent of HIV infections in eastern Europe. Therefore, heterosexual sexual encounters coupled with injection drug use gives rise to increased HIV infection rates. Men who have sex with men are often a stigmatized demographic of the population, particularly in eastern Europe. The result of this stigmatization is that these men may also have female sex partners, who in turn contract HIV through sexual encounters with their partners. Men in western and central Europe are twice as likely to be HIV-positive as women; however, this is not the case in eastern Europe. Trafficking of women and girls for sex and other services is prolific throughout Europe, with approximately 700,000 women being trafficked into western Europe every year, according to the Website humantrafficking .org, a project of the Academy for Educational Development. Women are at risk of HIV infection through coercion into sex work, and the violence that often characterizes these encounters cannot be ignored in the context of HIV/AIDS infection in Europe. The World Health Organization stated in their 2006 report that in 2003, new HIV infection rates among women in all three European regions were between 31 and 38 percent. Women who are sexually violated have an increased chance of contracting HIV as a result of their biological make-up. Trauma, such as tearing and

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abrasions, to the vagina increases the likelihood of a woman contracting HIV if the person assaulting her is HIV-positive himself. Those women most likely to become infected are those who are most vulnerable to sexual abuse, such as prostitutes, injection drug users, and those who have been coerced into sex work through trafficking. In general, women in these groups are unable to negotiate condom use because of their dependency on the men who control them and their economic and social reliance on these men. The negotiation of condom usage, which is also experienced by many women in sub-Saharan Africa, is often met with violence, as men might feel emasculated or that the woman is implying that he or she is been unfaithful when suggesting that a condom be used. Prevention Strategies and Government Intervention Prevention measures, as prescribed by the WHO, are as follows: western and central Europe should focus their attention on the main demographic that drives HIV infection rates: men who have sex with men. It has been suggested that central Europe tailor prevention strategies for every country within this geographic location so as to keep infection rates relatively low. The prioritization of prevention programs that focus on men who have sex with men is necessary because of the increased infection rates of this demographic. Western Europe’s focus, although also on men who have sex with men, should be on immigrant populations, as immigrants may have acquired HIV in their home countries before migrating to Europe. According to UNAIDS, in 2007, 77 percent of heterosexually transmitted HIV infections occurred outside of the United Kingdom. In 2004, state and government representatives from Europe and central Asia congregated in Dublin, Ireland, to discuss ways in which they could partner in combating HIV/AIDS. The resulting declaration included the recognition of vulnerable groups, ways in which to protect and prevent these groups from further infection, and the identification of leadership and partnership between states and government. One of the key points of the declaration was recognizing that equality between men and women is crucial in this battle against HIV/AIDS, as well as respecting rights pertaining to reproductive health. The declaration recognizes that those most

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vulnerable to HIV/AIDS include intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men, women who are involved in illegal trafficking, and migrant populations, all of whom make up the group most prone to infection in Eastern, Western, and Central Europe. The effect of HIV/AIDS on women is specifically mentioned in the declaration, as they are extremely vulnerable to infection and likely to experience gender inequality, especially in relationships of a sexual nature. Men are encouraged to be more responsible for their own sexual behavior as well as to be more respectful of the women in their lives. Key prevention strategies of the Dublin Declaration include assisting injection drug users in accessing “prevention, drug dependence treatment and harm reduction services” by strengthening programs that address these issues. The prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV through the implementation of maternal and reproductive healthcare services is also necessary to prevent an increase in HIV incidence in Europe. See Also: HIV/AIDS, Africa; HIV/AIDS, Oceania; HIV/ AIDS, South America; Sexually Transmitted Infections. Further Readings European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control/ World Health Organization. “Surveillance Report: HIV/AIDS Surveillance in Europe, 2008.” http://www .ecdc.europa.eu (accessed July 2010). Humantrafficking.org. “2008 Europe Reconsiders Prostitution as Sex Trafficking Booms.” http://www .humantrafficking.org/updates/773 (accessed July 2010). Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS/World Health Organization. “2009 AIDS Epidemic Update.” http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIV Data/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2009/default.asp (accessed July 2010). United Nations Children’s Fund. “Dublin Declaration on Partnership to Fight HIV/AIDS in Europe and Central Asia.” http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/The_Dublin _Declaration.pdf (accessed July 2010). World Health Organization. “HIV/AIDS in Europe: Moving From Death Sentence to Chronic Disease Management.” http://www.euro.who.int/document /e87777.pdf (accessed July 2010). Ashling McCarthy University of KwaZulu

HIV/AIDS: North America While human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) were initially identified as diseases that primarily affected men, women have continued to contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, at disproportionately greater rates. The effects on women and families have become catastrophic in some regions, with women and children diagnosed more frequently than men. As of the end of 2007, there were approximately 3 million cases of women with HIV in North America. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that at least 25 percent of individuals with HIV are unaware of their positive status. This article will summarize the impact of HIV/AIDs, present prevalence and transmission issues unique to each region, and discuss research and prevention. HIV in Canada The estimated female prevalence rate in Canada is between 0.2 and 0.5 percent, affecting between 7,700 and 12,000 women. The province of Ontario has the highest prevalence rate in Canada. Between 1995 and 2000, the female proportion of new HIV cases in Canada nearly tripled. A similar rate increase was seen in U.S. Census data. This increase has been attributed to several factors. Canada has a large number of African and Caribbean immigrants each year. However, 20 to 60 percent of HIV cases in African and Caribbean immigrants are contracted post immigration. Nearly half of the new female cases have been attributed to intravenous drug use (IDU), but these women have multiple concurrent high-risk behaviors, including sex work, so determining causality is often difficult. Black women account for nearly 50 percent of new HIV cases, while only making up 16 percent of the female population. Socioeconomically, black women are often marginalized in Canada, and they have less access to healthcare, preventative care, and generally less power to negotiate safe sex in relationships when compared with other women. HIV in the United States Prevalence rates in the United States fall between 0.4 and 1 percent, affecting between 150,000 and 300,000 women. African American women of low socioeconomic status are disproportionally affected.



For nearly a decade epidemiologists compiled evidence showing that HIV and AIDS present symptomatically differently in women than it does in men. Women are nearly 20 times more likely to be infected with HIV through heterosexual contact than men. From 1985 to 1988, women’s deaths due to HIV quadrupled. Until 1992, the definition of AIDS focused on how the syndrome presented in men and did not include symptoms unique to women. This resulted in many women dying of AIDS who had not been previously diagnosed. The CDC’s revised (1992) definition of AIDS facilitated women’s earlier diagnosis that can postpone AIDS and resulted in a recalculation of the number of women impacted by HIV/AIDS. Women were also, until recently, underrepresented in clinical trials of antiviral drugs, which prevented greater understanding of the gender differences found in successful treatment. Women with co-occurring disorders, mental illness and substance abuse/dependence, are at the highest risk for HIV. These women often have broad and repetitive trauma histories beginning in childhood and adolescence. This complex web of cofactors needs to be targeted in HIV prevention efforts in the United States. HIV in Mexico National estimated prevalence rate in Mexico is less than 1 percent (between 0.2 and 0.7 percent), affecting between 17,000 and 91,000 women. The Mexican state of Baja California and Mexico City have the highest prevalence rates in Mexico. Predominant means of transmission varies greatly by region. Trends have shown that for women in northern Mexico, the predominant route of transmission is IDU, while central Mexico is disproportionately impacted by male partners who have sex with men. Economic conditions and cultural beliefs play a role in the increasing heterosexual HIV transmission in Mexico. Many married migrant workers work in the United States, and are away from their wives most of the year. The majority of migrant workers do not have health insurance, live in poor housing developments, and males often participate in extramarital affairs. While the wives of migrant workers are aware of the prevalence of sex outside the marriage, qualitative studies show they rarely insist on condom use. Women who support traditional gender roles view

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sex as a way to strengthen a marriage that is strained by distance, and using condoms brings mistrust into the situation and is therefore avoided. These cultural dynamics have perpetuated heterosexual transmission in Mexico. HIV in Central America In Latin America, the Central American countries consistently have the highest rates of HIV prevalence. Estimated prevalence rates vary from Nicaragua, with a rate below .6 percent to Honduras and Belize with rates between 0.8 and 2.4 percent, and 1.4 and 4.0 percent, respectively. However, many Central American women lack access to HIV-related healthcare. With the exception of Costa Rica, there is little access to antiretroviral combination therapy or Zidovudine, which prevents perinatal transmission. As a result, HIV has continued to spread, and AIDS is the leading cause of the death for women in Honduras. HIV in the Caribbean The overall Caribbean adult prevalence rate is 2.1 percent. This is second highest prevalence rate in the world, behind sub-Saharan African. Haiti has the highest prevalence rate in North America at 3.8 percent. Rates are also remarkably high for young women in this region. In 2005, HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death for adults in the Caribbean between the ages of 15 and 44. In Trinidad and Tobago women between the ages of 15 and19 have a prevalence rate that is six times higher than the men in this age group. Studies suggest these prevalence rates are the result of sex work, primarily of underprivileged indigenous people, and the often hidden bisexual behaviors of men. Future of HIV Prevention The most promising interventions for women are gender specific and targeted for the particular population. These interventions include the multiple factors that define women’s realities. Culturally relevant interventions that include an understanding of socioeconomic factors, power inequities in relationships and an emphasis on skill building and selfempowerment show great promise. The presence of sexual victimization of girls and women throughout the continent need to be taken into account when developing interventions.

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See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Health, Mental and Physical; Medical Research, Gender Issues in. Further Readings Garcia-Calleja, J., C. Rio, and Y. Souteyrand. “HIV Infection in the Americas: Improving Strategic Information to Improve Response.” Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, v.51 (2009). Lohse, N., et al. “Low Effectiveness of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy and High Mortality in the Greenland HIV-Infected Population.” Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Disease, v.36 (2004). National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “HIV Vaccine Regimen Demonstrates Modest Preventative Effect in Thailand Clinical Study.” http:// www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2009 /ThaiVaxStudy.htm (accessed October 2009). Shors, A. R. “The Global Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS.” Dermatologic Clinics, v.24/4 (2006). Spittal, P., et al. “Surviving the Sex Trade: A Comparison of HIV Risk Behaviors Among Street-Involved Women in Two Candadian Cities Who Inject Drugs.” AIDS Care, v.15/2 (2003). Wheeler, D., et al. “Availability of HIV Care in Central America.” JAMA, v.286/7 (2001). D. Salina B. Parenti Northwestern University

HIV/AIDS: Oceania Oceania is a geographical region in the South Pacific consisting of 15 countries and 20 dependent territories that are grouped into the subregions of Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Oceania exhibits extreme cultural, linguistic, and environmental diversity, and most countries have very small populations that are highly mobile and dispersed over wide areas. Although data are sparse, every country and dependency in Oceania aside from Niue, Tokelau, and Pitcairn Islands has reported cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), though the region’s only generalized epidemic occurs in Papua New Guinea (PNG). With the exception of Australasia, Oceania is experiencing rapid social change

and many factors including migration, low levels of development, high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), widespread unsafe sexual practices, and political instability predispose the region to the more rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in the future. Australasia Australasia consists of the countries of Australia and New Zealand, as well as the dependencies of Christmas Island, Coco Islands, and Norfolk Island. HIV/ AIDS has been successfully managed in Australasia, as prevalence estimates are 0.2 percent for Australia and 0.05 percent for New Zealand, which are well below the rates of other Western countries. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS among non-Indigenous populations has been declining for a number of years, though increasing among Indigenous populations (Aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders, and the Maori). There is also a significant difference in the modes of transmission between these groups. Among nonIndigenous peoples, sexual contact between men account for the majority of infections. Among Indigenous groups, sexual contact between men is still the main mode of transmission, though the rate of infection from intravenous drug use is significantly higher. Finally, women account for a greater proportion of HIV/AIDS cases among Indigenous groups than in the non-Indigenous population, which points to their marginalization within their communities. All of this is consistent with the low health status and marginalization of Indigenous populations within Australasia. Melanesia Melanesia consists of the countries of Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and the dependency of New Caledonia. Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu report few cases (less than 0.2 percent prevalence) of HIV/AIDS, though rates are on the rise, leading to fears of generalized epidemics in these countries. All of the Melanesian countries have experienced political instability in the recent past and rank poorly in development indicators, suggesting that their governments may be unable to launch effective responses to any epidemics. New Caledonia also reports few cases, but because of its status as a dependency of



France, it is both more developed and better situated to avoid an epidemic. PNG is in the midst of a generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic, and prevalence is estimated at 1.5 percent (approximately 55,000 cases). Excluding Australasia, PNG accounts for more than 99 percent of all HIV/ AIDS cases in Oceania. PNG’s epidemic can be attributed to a slow and weak response from the national government, the low status of women, widespread sexual violence, high levels of STIs, high risk sexual practices (including multiple-partners, unprotected intercourse, and commercial sex), a highly mobile population, sociocultural changes brought on by rapid modernization, low levels of access to social services, and poor knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Papua New Guinean females have borne the brunt of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is attributed to a decline in their status. For example, bride prices have inflated and women are now commonly seen as pieces of property that are purchased through the transfer of cash, while sexual and domestic violence are all prevalent problems that women and girls in PNG confront. The epidemic in PNG is expected to worsen in the coming years because of the continued existence of the factors that led to the outbreak. The Papua New Guinean government has been unable to launch an effective response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and remains dependent upon resources from donor countries, primarily Australia. Micronesia Micronesia consists of the countries of Kiribati, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, and the dependencies of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. HIV/AIDS has yet to pose a significant problem in this region, as only a handful of cases (less than 500) have been reported, and many cases are diagnosed in returning migrants. However, several factors make the countries of Kiribati, Palau, and Nauru susceptible to an outbreak of HIV/AIDS, including a highly mobile population, underdevelopment, poor knowledge about HIV/ AIDS, high levels of STIs, and low levels of condom use. The Federated States of Micronesia is in a free association with the United States, while Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are American dependencies, and so may be better able to prevent or manage outbreaks.

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Polynesia Polynesia consists of the countries of Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the dependencies of American Samoa, Cook Islands, Easter Island, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Niue, Pitcairn Islands, Tokelau, and Wallis and Fortuna. All the Polynesian countries and dependencies with the exceptions of Niue, Tokelau, and Pitcairn Islands have reported cases of HIV/ AIDS. Though high quality-data do not exist, HIV/ AIDS prevalence rates across Polynesia are thought to be low. However, like Melanesian and Micronesian countries, Polynesian countries are thought to be susceptible to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS because of population mobility, high levels of STIs, and highrisk sexual practices. However, unlike Melanesian, Micronesian, and Tuvaluan populations, Tongans and Samoans receive significant remittances from emigrants, which has kept population growth in check and propelled development and stability. Polynesian dependencies have similarly benefitted from their relationships with the United States (American Samoa, Hawaii), New Zealand (Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Wallis, and Fortuna), France (French Polynesia), Great Britain (Pitcairn Islands), and Chile (Easter Island). Thus, with the exception of Tuvalu, Polynesia may be somewhat better situated to avoid an epidemic of HIV/AIDS than other subregions in Oceania. Conclusion With the exception of PNG, the Oceanic region has not experienced an epidemic of HIV/AIDS, and prevalence estimates are low. This, however, is predicted to change as cases mount and as numerous factors make the region susceptible to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in the future. Because of the high levels of mobility, small populations, high levels of STIs, unsafe sexual practices, and underdevelopment, Oceanic countries are especially susceptible to even minor increases in levels of HIV/AIDS in their populations. Oceanic dependencies, territories, countries in association with other more developed nations, and Tonga and Samoa, are thought to stand a better chance of avoiding an outbreak because of higher levels of development and political stability. Finally, it is important to note that although social and demographic data from Australasia are of high quality, data from elsewhere in Oceania are often lacking and unreliable. In particular, HIV/AIDS prevalence

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and distribution estimates have been hampered by poor surveillance and data collection, as well as insufficient analysis. Some authorities believe that current prevalence estimates may in fact be too low. See Also: Australia; Fiji; Kiribati; Marshall Islands; Micronesia; New Zealand; Palau; Papua New Guinea; Rape and HIV; Samoa; Solomon Islands; Sexually Transmitted Infections; Tonga; Tuvalu; Vanuatu. Further Readings Lewis, Milton, Scott Bamber, and Michael Waugh, eds. Sex, Disease, and Society: A Comparative History of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. Lewis, Milton and Kerrie L. MacPherson, eds. Public Health in Asia and the Pacific. London: Routledge, 2008. World Bank 2007. Strategic Directions for Human Development in Papua New Guinea. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2007. Christopher A. J. L. Little University of Toronto

HIV/AIDS: South America Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects the cells within an individual’s immune system. The CD4 cells, or T-helper cells, are white blood cells that aid your body in fighting off infection. HIV damages and impairs the normal functioning of the immune system, and thus the individual becomes more susceptible to infection. HIV leads to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV has several modes of transmission, including the exchange of fluids through unprotected sexual activity, injecting drug use (contaminated needles), blood transfusions, and mother-to-child transmission (pregnancy, childbirth, and/or breastfeeding). There is no cure for HIV/ AIDS, but the disease can be manageable with the use of antiretroviral treatment. Recent epidemiological reports show that the within South America, HIV/AIDS is concentrated among high-risk populations, and in particular among men who have sex with men, commercial sex workers, injection drug users, those affected by mother-to-

child transmission, migrants, and prison populations. Heterosexual transmission of HIV is also a factor in the epidemic throughout South America, but to a lesser extent. Although there is a large population of men infected with HIV in the region, recent statistics reveal that there are increasing cases of HIV infection among pregnant women and among women in their 20s. As of 2004, over half a million women in Latin America between the ages of 15 and 49 years were living with HIV/AIDS. The increase in the feminization, as it relates to the spread of the HIV virus among women who are not commercial sex workers, of HIV/AIDS in South America is evident throughout the region. An increase in female infection rates in Brazil by 44 percent between 1996 and 2005 suggests there is an increasing need to understand the various trends, socioeconomic factors, and prevention efforts that affect the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the region. Incidence, Trends, and Patterns The HIV prevalence rate, or the percentage of the population living with HIV/AIDS, throughout Latin America has remained relatively low (approximately .06 percent in 2008) in comparison with areas throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where the prevalence rate exceeds 5 percent. The epidemic, however, affects a considerable amount of people—as of 2008, there were approximately 2 million adults and children living with HIV/ AIDS throughout Latin America, with around 170,000 new infections and 77,000 AIDS-related deaths. Throughout South America, the prevalence rates vary between countries and between regions within each country. The countries of Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay have less than 0.6 percent HIV prevalence rate; in Brazil, this translates to over 730,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, which is the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America. The smaller countries of Guyana and Suriname face a more severe epidemic in relation to their populations, with prevalence rates of 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. The HIV/AIDS epidemic throughout South America is considered a concentrated epidemic (primarily high-risk populations). Throughout Latin America, between 0.2 and 1.5 percent of the female population are engaged in sex work. There is also a large population of male sex workers throughout the region.



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Since 1992, USAID has been assisting Bolivia’s national HIV/AIDS program with an automated reporting system in the La Paz regional HIV/AIDS center. The project built an automated system that provides clinic-based data on HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

Numbers of injection drug users in South America are high among the populations in the southern countries—particularly Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay—and the sharing of needles further fuels the spread of the disease. Research also shows that populations involved in drug use may coincide with populations of sex workers in the region. Throughout South America, the risk exists that the epidemic may become more generalized (affecting more than 1 percent of the population), similar to the more generalized epidemic seen in areas throughout Central America, where the primary mode of transmission is heterosexual transmission. The nature of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is constantly changing, and research has shown that heterosexual HIV transmission increases as epidemics mature, thus placing the region at an increased risk for the rise of feminization of HIV/AIDS. Research has shown that generalized epidemics that are primarily spread by heterosexual transmission lead to higher rates of HIV infection among women.

Contributing Factors Individuals living with HIV/AIDS in many parts of the world, including South America, face a multitude of challenges, such as issues with disclosure, stigma, discrimination, cultural issues associated with being HIV-positive, gender inequality, access to medical services, and physical, mental, and emotional adverse effects of living with the disease. Factors that people living with HIV/AIDS in Latin American countries face include poverty, low education levels, and gender inequalities such as differences in economic burdens, sexual relations, and violence against women. Stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS is prevalent throughout the world, and in particular when high-risk populations are the primary drivers of the disease, such as in South America. In addition to socioeconomic factors, the high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and tuberculosis intensify the spread of HIV. In Latin America, approximately 13 percent of people aged 15 to 49 have a STI. The existence of a STI suggests that

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unsafe sex practices led to the infection, thus allowing the possibility for HIV infection. STIs also can physiologically alter the urogential tract, providing an easier entry for HIV into the body’s cells. Between 30 and 50 percent of adults living in Latin America are suspected to have latent tuberculosis, and approximately 20 percent of these adults may be infected with HIV. The coexistences of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and widespread cases of tuberculosis strengthen the spread of HIV and complicate the prevention and treatment efforts of the diseases. In some instances, the situation of the country and/or regions within South America affects the epidemic. For example, as a result of the violent conflicts in Colombia for the past several decades, various participants in the conflict have helped fuel stigma and discrimination of HIV/ AIDS and led to higher levels of migration (creating a high-risk population group for HIV/AIDS). Treatment, Prevention, and Policy The availability of antiretroviral treatment to individuals throughout Latin America at the end of 2008 was 55 percent compared with the 42 percent average for low- and middle-income countries throughout the world. Brazil provides a successful example of antiretroviral treatment rollout at an affordable price, along with HIV/AIDS policy that makes treatment a priority. Other areas of South America also have high treatment coverage including Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela, although individuals in some regions, particularly more rural areas, do not have access to antiretroviral treatment. People living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America are also accessing treatment at earlier stages in the course of the disease. In addition, as of 2008, 54 percent of HIV-infected pregnant women in Latin America were receiving antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission in comparison with the 45 percent global average. There are positive examples of successful prevention efforts and national intervention programs initiated by governments in South American countries, such as in Brazil, where media campaigns and large condom distribution have aided prevention. Sex education is available in some Latin American schools, but many schools do not offer this class. A definite need exists to strengthen surveillance systems and prevention programs, improve access to social and health services, and address factors related to the

epidemics, such as the prevalence of stigma and discrimination; a prevention focus on information and awareness of HIV may help lessen these factors. When the spread of HIV/AIDS is concentrated among key high-risk populations, as in South America, prevention programs need to be specifically directed at these various populations. Programs targeting injection drug users, commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, and the generalized population are still needed. The prevention efforts by Latin American countries tend to be on a smaller scale, and because of a shortage of resources in various regions, the efforts are often dependent on international and nongovernmental organizations. The economic effect of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on South America affects both the governments and people living with HIV/ AIDS. HIV-infected individuals throughout Latin America need more access to comprehensive and adequate health services. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in South America is currently stable, but the combination of high-risk population groups and a possible increase in a generalized epidemic and feminization of HIV/AIDS makes the need for improvement to HIV/AIDS policy in South American governments, HIV/AIDS prevention, and treatment paramount concerns. See Also: AIDS: Africa; HIV/AIDS: Asia; HIV/AIDS: Europe; HIV/Sexually Transmitted Infections. Further Reading AVERTing HIV and AIDS. “HIV/AIDS in Brazil.” http:// www.avert.org/aidsbrazil.htm (accessed April 2010). AVERTing HIV and AIDS. “HIV/AIDS in Latin America.” http://www.avert.org/aidslatinamerica.htm (accessed April 2010). Jain, Anrudh K. “Feminization of HIV/AIDS and Men’s Sexual Behaviour.” http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs /events/Jain_20090310.pdf (accessed April 2010). Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, et al. “Women & HIV/AIDS—Confronting the Crisis 2004.” http://www.unfpa.org/hiv/women/docs/women_aids .pdf (accessed April 2010). Population Reference Bureau. “World Population Data Sheet 2009.” http://www.prb.org/Publications/Data sheets/2009/2009wpds.aspx (accessed April 2010). United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS/World Health Organization. “AIDS Epidemic Update 2009.”

Holzer, Jenny

http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIV Data/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2009/default.asp (accessed April 2010). United Nations Population Fund. “State of World Population 2005.” http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/ english /ch4/chap4_page1.htm (accessed April 2010). Amy Hixon University of KwaZulu

Holzer, Jenny Jenny Holzer (1950– ), one of the most influential conceptual and multimedia artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, was the first woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale (1990). Born in Ohio, she now resides and works in Manhattan, as well as on her farm in Hoosick Falls, New York. Holzer received a bachelor of arts degree from Ohio University in 1972 and a master’s of fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1977, before moving to New York City in the late 1970s, where she pursued writing at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Soon she realized that her strength was in conceptual art rather than in writing: “The epiphany for me was that I wasn’t a writer, and I had to do something with these texts. I put them in the street as posters.” The written word therefore continues to factor prominently in Holzer’s artwork, in particular, her installations, most of which are large light-emitting diode (LED) projections displayed at night in cities around the world. According to one art critic, “The postmodernist ‘text’ suggested a very different kind of entity: in the influential definition of Barthes, ‘a multidimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash.’ This notion of ‘textuality’ seemed well suited to the strategy of appropriated images and/or anonymous writings, as used in the early . . . poster-statements of Jenny Holzer.” Blurring the Boundaries Holzer is best known for her use of short, deceptively simple yet provocative quotations projected in public settings—plaques, street posters, telephone booths,

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monuments, and buildings, among others—which, despite their brevity, encapsulate the struggles of the modern condition. Holzer’s work blurs boundaries between the private and public spheres while exploring the intersection of art, via technology, with ideas and concepts culled from current events (including AIDS, genocidal rape in the former Yugoslavia, and the war in Iraq) as well as issues of gender, dynamics of power, the pervasiveness of consumerism, and acts of violence. Holzer’s Truisms (1977–79) is a group of quotations and aphorisms (among others, “Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise”) that she compiled and displayed in many venues, most famously on an enormous LED billboard in Times Square in 1982. “Men Don’t Protect You Anymore,” from her 1983–85 Survival Series was printed on street signs, billboards, and condoms. Since 1996, her LED quotation projections have appeared globally, such as in a permanent installation in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Holzer is the recipient of several honorary doctorates: from the University of Ohio (1993); the Rhode Island School of Design (2003); and New School University in New York (2005) celebrating her impact on modern art. She was awarded numerous honors, including the Leone d’Oro, at the XLIV Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 1990; The Crystal Award, World Economic Forum, Geneva, 1996; and she is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France, 2002, among others. See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Chicago, Judy; National Museum of Women in the Arts; Studio Arts, Women in. Further Readings Anastas, Rhea, ed., with Michael Brenson. Witness to her Art: Art and Writings by Adrian Piper, Mona Hatoum, Cady Noland, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker, Daniela Rossell and Eau de Cologne. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: Center for Curatorial Studies, 2006. Auping, Michael. Jenny Holzer. New York: Universe, 1992. Buchloh, Benjamin. “To Whom It May Concern.” Artinfo. http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/29158/to-whom-it -may-concern. (accessed January 2010). Foster, Hal, Rosalind Krauss, Yves-Alain Bois, and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh. Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. v.2: 1945 to the Present. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007.

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Holzer, Jenny. Abuse of Power Comes as No Surprise. Halifax, Canada: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1983. Joselit, David, Joan Simon, Jenny Holzer, and Renata Salecl. Jenny Holzer. London: Phaidon Press, 1998. Lewine, Edward. “Domains: Art House. At Home With Jenny Holzer.” New York Times Magazine. http://www .nytimes.com/2009/12/20/magazine/20fob-domains -t.html. (accessed January 2010). Waldman, Diane. Jenny Holzer. New York: Harry Abrams, 1989. Marcelline Block Princeton University

Homemakers and Social Security Homemakers are persons of either sex, who are engaged in household duties in their own home and who are not economically active within the terms of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) definition—that is, work carried out for income, wages, or salary. The term homemaker is not gender specific. A trend (especially in Western societies) during the late 20th century is that increasing numbers of men are adopting the role of a homemaker. A large majority of homemakers are still women, possibly because traditionally homemaking has been seen to be “women’s work.” Recently, many feminists have criticized the institution, claiming that by having the husband as the only financial supporter the wife is entrenched in economic subordination. Feminists confirm that homemaking should not be gender specific. According to United Nation (UN) figures, women do two-thirds of the world’s work for 5 percent of the world’s income. The work that homemakers do is not only central to the well-being of humanity, but it is the work that underpins economics and the work upon which capital bases its profits. By producing workers and caring for workers, women directly contribute to the profits of capital. But while the wage worker gets a fraction of the wealth they create, the housewife gets none. Social security is a woman’s issue (and increasingly an issue for the generic homemaker). Since its incep-

tion, social security has often been the only income source that prevents women from living out their days in abject poverty. Women are absent from the labor force for an average of 15 percent of their working careers, primarily to fulfill responsibilities as carers of their children, spouses, or elderly family members. International instruments adopted by the UN such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, affirm that every human being has the right to social security. The Declaration of Philadelphia the International Labor Conference recognized the ILO’s obligation in regard to “the extension of social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care.” However, because societies have not recognized the economic value of the goods and services provided by the homemaker to her or his family and the community; the homemaker as a “nonworking” person is deprived of job-related benefits. No international or European instruments contain any specific provisions relating to the right of homemakers to social security. At the 1995 UN World Conference for Women in Beijing, governments agreed to recognize women’s unwaged work and to value that vital contribution to the economy. The conference agreed that this work included “caring for children and older persons, preparing food for the family, protecting the environment and providing voluntary assistance to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and groups.” However in paragraph 175(g) the Platform for Action instructed member states to “adopt policies to extend or maintain the protection of labor laws and social security provision for those who do paid work in the home.” The consequence of this lack of provision is that women make up the primary group that is excluded from social security. So-called housewives are dependant on their husbands and fathers in terms of some of the social security schemes such as healthcare, maternity benefits, child benefits, and pensions. Many housewives are affiliated to the social security system as self-employed in order to supplement the household income with an eventual old-age benefit. However this system, where the premium payments required for voluntary insurance is high, makes it almost impossible for women to benefit from this option.

Homemaking



There is now increasing recognition of the contribution made by homemakers to society and that that work should be classified as “work,” for the purpose of inclusion in social security systems. This should be achieved through independent registration for social security entitlement in her/his own name. This entitlement would be portable into and out of marriage and into and out of paid work. Disability and retirement benefits should be part and parcel of this entitlement. Independent entitlement to social security enhances gender equality and safeguards a homemaker’s position in the event of separation or divorce. See Also: Domestic Workers; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Homemaking; Household Division of Labor; Unpaid Labor. Further Readings Bergmann, B. R. “The Housewife and Social Security Reform: A Feminist Perspective.” In H. R. Moody, Aging: Concepts and Controversies, 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002. International Labour Organization (ILO). “Resolution Concerning Statistics of the Economically Active Population, Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment.” Adopted by the Thirteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians, October 1982. StateUniversity.com. “Homemaker Job Description, Career as a Homemaker, Salary, EmploymentDefinition and Nature of the Work, Education and Training Requirements, Getting the Job.” http://careers .stateuniversity.com/pages/308/Homemaker.html#ixzz 0c2V8nJRK (accessed January 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Homemaking Homemaking is the compilation of activities that an individual does to maintain the home. These activities can include cleaning, laundry, making meals, shopping for household needs, and paying bills, as well as outdoor work such as lawn care, and home maintenance. This kind of work is necessary because it

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enables other household members, usually males, to perform in the formal market economy. While homemaking can be distinguished from childcare, it is important to note that these two types of work often occur simultaneously. While not often thought of as an occupation in the traditional sense of doing work to earn an income, maintaining one’s living environment can be considered a full-time job. In fact, there have been numerous movements that have attempted to have household work formally compensated by wages. A woman who is not employed in the formal labor market but works to maintain the household is called a “homemaker.” It is now more common for individuals who work as homemakers to do so only when they have children, which means that the terms stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad may be more appropriate in describing these individuals. Homemaking is often stereotyped and thought of as women’s work. Traditionally, it was thought that a man’s role was one that was both independent and public, whereas women’s roles were relegated to the domestic sphere: taking care of the home and children. Even recently, women do nearly twice as much house-related work than men, though the net difference between men’s and women’s work has decreased since the middle of the 20th century. This has occurred because although men are doing more housework than before, women are doing substantially less, perhaps because of educational and occupational commitments. Further, even when women and men split the duties of homemaking, chores often are split along gendered lines: men will mow the lawn and fix the family car, while women do most of the day-to-day cleaning and meal preparation. Further, women are often still responsible for the planning and organizing of household tasks. Opportunities Outside the Home There are several forces that have decreased the number of women who work solely as homemakers. Women have many more opportunities outside of the home, due to expanding educational and career opportunities. Increasing educational opportunities have resulted in a growing number of women attaining college educations and careers in the formal labor market. Moreover, many women find having careers and participating in work outside of the home fulfilling. Furthermore, increased standards of

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living and economic necessity have resulted in many families needing both parents to earn wages in the formal labor market, thus decreasing the number of full time homemakers. In westernized, industrial countries, technological advancements and the outsourcing of household work to other individuals or companies have reduced the amount of time that is spent doing housework. Increasing consumerism and marketing to homemakers in these countries have resulted in an astounding number of household devices, such as vacuums (some of which are even robotic and work on their own), which dramatically decrease the amount of time that needs to be spent in order to accomplish household tasks. The affluence of the middle and upper classes has also provided individuals with the opportunity to pay hired individuals to complete some or all household tasks, thus changing the way that household labor is performed. This further distinguishes between upper-class and lower-class women, as the devalued labor of homemaking has been outsourced to working-class, poor women. For instance, workingclass immigrant and African American women make up a substantial amount of those hired to do house or childcare work as nannies and maids. There are, however, still a substantial number of women who choose to work solely as homemakers and take care of children. According to Lisa Belkin, since 2000, between a third and a quarter of women with college or graduate degrees have opted to be stay-at-home mothers. Moreover, some mothers choose to work part-time in order to contribute both as homemakers and in the paid labor market. While many women and men see formal careers as a very fulfilling role, those who choose to be homemakers find satisfaction in providing clean, warm, and nurturing environments for their families. See Also: Childcare; Household Division of Labor; Nannies; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Belkin, Lisa. “The Opt-Out Revolution.” In David Grusky and Szonja Szelenyi, eds., The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class and Gender. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2007. Coltrane, Scott. “Research on Household Labor: Modeling and Measuring the Social Embeddedness of Routine

Family Work.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, v.62 (2000). Oakley, Anne. The Sociology of Housework. New York: Pantheon Books, 1974. Steiner, Leslie Morgan. Mommy Wars. New York: Random House, 2007. Michelle Zagura University at Albany

Homeschooling Homeschooling is about parents’ right to choose the education their children will receive. In the United States, 1.5 million children—2.9 percent of the schoolage population—were homeschooled in 2007 according to an Institute of Education Sciences Issue Brief. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, the number of homeschooled children in 2010 is 2,000,000. Homeschooling was the dominant form of education in the United States until the later part of the 19th century, when compulsory attendance laws led to increased children’s attendance at public or private schools. Homeschooling gained momentum again during the 1960s. According to a 2007 Fraser Institute Policy Brief on Home Schooling, two groups of homeschooling advocates have emerged. One group is recognized for its ideological beliefs and known as the Christian Right. The second group is known for its pedagogical beliefs. John Holt, the author of How Children Fail and Teach Your Own, was the founder of the homeschooling magazine Growing Without Schooling and a prominent member of the pedagogical group of homeschool advocates. Homeschooling is legal in all the states. The passage of legislation favorable to homeschooling has been aided by the work of activists, including homeschool mothers, who had time to organize and act and who were assets to these lobbying efforts. Phone calls and e-mails to legislators are powerful lobbying tools. As a result of the efforts put forth by the activists and lobbyists, homeschools have minimal regulation. In addition, there are legal restrictions concerning the data that can be collected about homeschooling. For this reason, limited data concerning homeschool-



ing exist. The National Household Education Survey provides data on homeschooling, and state data also may be used to identify the number of homeschooled children in a state. However, state data may not be complete, and there is no consistent requirement for the reporting of homeschooling. Family Involvement Mothers are seen as the primary home teachers. Because data are not collected about homeschool teaching arrangements, it is difficult to provide a portrait of the time and extent of involvement of family members in homeschool activities. If a mother homeschools a child or children, she has less time to work outside the home, which can result in a lower household income. There are thus “tuition” costs involved in homeschooling, in terms of both time and money—including the loss of the income a mother could earn if she did not engage in homeschooling—which are important family factors in homeschooling decisions. The 1.5 to 2.0 million children in homeschools suggest that there is a savings to public schools when these children do not participate in the public school program. It is difficult to estimate the savings, however, as school funding formulas and revenue streams vary. The Choice to Homeschool Parents choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons. These include religious reasons (schools teach subjects that conflict with the parents’ religious beliefs), school curriculum (parents believe they can provide a better academic experience for their children through homeschooling), school culture (avoiding safety concerns, drug availability, and peer pressure), sex education and race issues, health or behavior issues (children may have special needs that parents will be able to meet in the homeschool situation), family issues (mothers may want to spend more time with the children and families may want to influence the beliefs, values, and behaviors of their children and seek to nurture these through homeschooling). The Internet is an asset to homeschool families as a source of instructional materials and opportunities. Homeschool teaching materials can be accessed through sites such as Amazon.com, which lists 1,338 homeschooling books, or Homeschool World: The Official Web Site of Practical Homeschooling Mag-

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azine. The Internet is also a vehicle for connecting homeschool families. Homeschool World includes a link to organizations and support groups. The site includes 20,385 articles on homeschooling issues and 4,471 regular users. Technology may make homeschooling a more accessible option for families. According to a 2009 Condition of Education Report on Homeschooled Students, in 2007, 84 percent of homeschooled students received all of their education at home. Of the homeschooled children, 77 percent were white. Students in two-parent families made up 89 percent of the homeschooled population. Homeschooled children have been successful in seeking admission to institutions of higher education. Students use results of the General Educational Development (GED) tests, letters of recommendation, portfolios, and other means to document their academic achievements to gain admission to colleges and universities. In 2000, Patrick Henry College in Virginia was established especially for homeschooled children. The number of homeschooled students may increase in the future. As resources for homeschooling become more accessible, the possibilities for homeschooling increase. Bookstores offer special events for homeschool families that feature resources and activities for homeschoolers, and the Internet provides access to instructional materials and books. Networks of homeschoolers provide resources and support to individuals who homeschool their children, and distance education increases options for homeschool families. See Also: Alternative Education; Christian Identity; Stayat-Home Mothers. Further Readings Apple, Michael. “Away With All Teachers: The Cultural Politics of Home Schooling.” http://epicpolicy.org/files /Apple.Away_.pdf.(accessed January 2010). Basham, Patrick, et al. “Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream.” In Studies in Education Policy. Fraser Institute Occasional Paper. Vancouver, Canada: Fraser Institute, 2007. Cooper, Bruce S., ed. Homeschooling in Full View: A Reader. Charlotte, NC: Information Age, 2005. Isenberg, Eric. “Home Schooling: School Choice and Women’s Time Use.” Occasional Paper 64. New York:

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Homophobia

Teachers College, Columbia University, National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, 2002. National Home Education Research Institute. http://www .nheri.org (accessed June 2010). Marilyn L. Grady University of Nebraska

Homophobia Although the term was first published by George Weinberg in an early 1970 article for the U.S. magazine Gay, the term was introduced formally in his 1972 book, Society and the Healthy Homosexual, to describe a fear heterosexual people experienced when in contact with homosexual people; namely, the fear of contagion, of corrupting traditional values, and of being labeled homosexual. The term gained legitimacy around the same time as the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973, declaring that possessing a same-sex sexual orientation was not inherently associated with psychopathology. Although the term is widely used today to reflect the widespread prejudice and discrimination gay, lesbian, and bisexual people experience, scholars have questioned its suitability. Specifically, many question the usage of “phobia” to describe reactions to homosexual and bisexual people. Stigmas and Stereotyping Perhaps the most influential work has been by social psychologist Gregory Herek, who has demonstrated that negative reactions to gays, lesbians, and bisexual people are less motivated by fear than disgust and anger, which manifests in ostracism, bullying, dehumanization, brutality, and even homicide. Moreover, he contends that by conceptualizing antigay and bisexual attitudes within the rubric of mental illness, locates them at the individual level as pathology and overlooks the larger cultural and systemic factors that promote discrimination against non-heterosexual groups. Thus, rather than an irrational fear of homosexual and bisexual people, antigay hostility is believed to be a function of widespread cultural knowledge

that homosexuality is a stigma and is expressed mainly in stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Homophobia is maintained by but distinct from heterosexism, which represents the system of beliefs that legitimizes inequality between heterosexual and homosexual people by positioning heterosexuality as the norm, rendering all nonheterosexual behavior as either invisible and/or abnormal. Although a number of countries have included sexual orientation as part of human rights legislation, homosexual and heterosexual rights are by no means at par. For example, same-sex marriage is not recognized in most countries. Denmark was the first country to recognize same-sex partnerships in 1989 and since then, only approximately 10 countries have followed, among them the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Canada. Although some U.S. states recognize these unions, same-sex marriage is not federally recognized in the United States. Moreover, the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prohibit acts of discrimination based on sexual orientation, although a number of individual states have developed antidiscrimination laws (e.g., Wisconsin was the first U.S. state to pass a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation). Thus, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is apparent in educational settings, employment, housing, and in the military, as evidenced by the U.S. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Hostility and Harassment Antigay hostility is entrenched in popular media and rampant at state and individual levels. Stereotypes portray lesbians as men-haters and gay men as pedophiles. Homosexual relationships are assumed to be less serious and infidel, and gay men and lesbians are often stereotyped as immoral, sexual predators. According to the International, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association, approximately 80 countries deem consensual same-sex sexual acts criminal and in approximately five of these countries, the acts are punishable by death (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen). Although the United States has no federal level antidiscrimination protection, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Hate Crimes Prevention Act added sexual orientation and gender identity to hate crime legislation in 2007 and data collected on the



prevalence of homophobic acts of violence and crime documented 37,800 instances of hate crimes motivated by the victims’ sexual orientations over a three year period. Moreover, in a U.S. national probability sample, 21 percent of gay and lesbian respondents reported violence or property crimes at least once in their adult lives. More than half of respondents reported harassment and approximately 10 percent reported experiencing housing or employment discrimination. Moreover, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Educators Network reports widespread homophobia and gaybaiting in schools, especially directed at young men and boys. One analysis of secondary media reports of random high school shootings in the United States from 1982 to 2001 found that of the boys who had committed the acts of violence, nearly all had experienced gay baiting and bullying. Because of widespread stereotyping and stigma of homosexuality, “internalized homophobia” reflects an individual person’s acceptance of society’s prejudice and stigma as part of his or her own self-concept and belief system. Internalized homophobia is expressed in the desire to deny, denounce, or change one’s homosexual orientation or desires. Traditional Gender Roles Social psychological research demonstrates that a number of variables are associated with hostility toward gays, lesbians, and bisexual people. For example, antigay attitudes are associated with religious fundamentalism and a strong adherence to traditional gender roles. Moreover, homophobic beliefs and attitudes are strongly correlated with high levels of authoritarianism, political conservatism, dogmatism, beliefs that homosexuality is freely chosen, and little contact with gay, lesbian, or bisexual people. Finally, research finds strong gender, age, and educational differences in attitudes suggesting that being male, older, and less educated is associated with more negative attitudes toward gays, lesbians, and bisexual people. Research also finds that gay men and lesbians differ in their experiences with homophobia, with an abundance of evidence suggesting that homosexuality is more negatively sanctioned in men. Indeed, homosexual men are more likely to experience gay bashing and extreme violence. Feminist scholars attribute this

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gender difference to traditional gender norms associated with being the higher status sex; deviation from traditional masculinity is less forgiving and acceptable, leading some to contend that homophobia represents men’s general fears of being declared insufficiently masculine and thus, serves to maintain rigid beliefs of masculinity. The negative psychological, cognitive, and interpersonal effects of homophobia are extensive. Because of blatant, indirect, and anticipated homophobia gay men and lesbians are more likely to develop mood disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression), are at a greater risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and cognitive impairments from regulating concealment compared to heterosexual counterparts. Within work environments, disclosing sexual orientation has been noted as one of the most difficult career challenges for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and one study of over 400 respondents found that approximately 75 percent of gays and lesbians reported being attacked or physically threatened after disclosing their sexual orientations. Dating back to the Stonewall Riots in New York in June 1969, and the repeal of sodomy laws in most U.S. states in the early 1970s, the gay rights movement has inspired and created a number of initiatives and legal milestones around the world to combat homophobia. These include gay pride events, ally organizations, national “coming out” days, safe-space initiatives in work and educational environments to fight homophobia, and the affirmation of U.S. privacy laws in 2003. May 17 has been declared as International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia and, in 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Committee created a declaration denouncing discrimination and torture based on sexual orientation and gender identity. See Also: Hate Crimes; Heterosexism; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; LGBTQ; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; Partner Rights. Further Readings Herek, Gregory M. “Beyond ‘Homophobia: Thinking About Sexual Prejudice and Stigma in the 21st Century.” Sexuality Research & Social Policy, v.1/2 (2004). International Gay Lesbian Human Rights Commission. http://www.iglhrc/cgi-bin/iowa/home/index.html (accessed June 2010).

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Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward

Kimmel, Michael. “Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity.” In P. Murphy, ed., Feminism and Masculinities. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004. Cherie Werhun University of Winnipeg

Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward Attitudes in the United States toward marginalized groups have been marked by increased tolerance according to polls. Although attitudes toward lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender (LGBT) people have, in many important respects, become more tolerant, large segments of the population continue to hold negative attitudes toward LGBT individuals. Some general trends and patterns are obvious: in general, men and people of color tend to hold more negative attitudes toward LGBT individuals than do women and white people, and people tend to hold more negative attitudes toward gay men than lesbians. In terms of both demographic patterns and basic doctrine ideology, some segments of the religious community persistently hold and actively promote intolerant, hostile views of LGBT people. Although the vast majority of religions place great emphasis on compassion, peace, tolerance and love for others in general terms, many of the world’s prominent religions condemn homosexuality. Research demonstrates an important connection between religiosity and homophobic prejudice. A reliable positive correlation between religiosity and prejudice reveals the connection: the more religious one is, the less tolerant one is. Religious Orientations In order to understand the relationship between religion and prejudice social scientists differentiate three types of religious orientations: extrinsic, intrinsic, and quest. These orientation designations describe the kind of religiosity an individual experiences and describe the point of view, and the religious lens through which the individual understands the social world. The ways in which religiosity interacts with

homophobia depend, in part, on which of these orientations is engaged. Individuals with an extrinsic religious orientation use religion as a means to achieve nonreligious goals. Extrinsic orientation obtains social rewards secondarily derived from religion and participation in religious activities, including recognition from peers, developing and enhancing business contacts, or personal rewards in which religion provides personal comfort, relief, and protection. People with extrinsic orientation attend services infrequently. Intrinsically oriented people have internalized the values of their religion, live life according to those beliefs, and attend services regularly. The quest orientation views religion as a process of questioning, doubting, and reexamination in response to the contradictions and tragedies of life. These orientations typify individual approaches to participation in religious activities. At a larger, more abstract level, religions are described in terms of the degree to which religious doctrine and activity is relatively more conservative or reform. Religious fundamentalism and Christian orthodoxy play a role in prejudice toward LGBT people. Religious fundamentalism represents the belief that there is one set of religious teachings that contain the inerrant truth about God and humanity. Christian orthodoxy reflects the degree to which people agree with the core beliefs of Christianity. Intrinsic religious orientation, fundamentalism and Christian orthodoxy have all shown to be linked to negative attitudes toward LGBT people. The extrinsic orientation is unrelated to attitudes toward homosexuality. The quest orientation has the weakest link to prejudice, and in fact, the quest orientation is associated with positive attitudes toward homosexuality. One important limitation of the research on the relationship between religiosity and attitudes toward homosexuality is that most of the research has been conducted on Christian religions, and very few studies have included non-Christian organizations. Those studies that have included Jews have found more positive attitudes toward LGBT people among Jews than Christians. In terms of Christian denominations, liberal Protestants (e.g., Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Unitarians) tend to have the most positive attitudes toward homosexuality, followed by moderate Protestants (e.g., Methodists and Lutherans) and Catholics.

Honduras



Other Features of Religion and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Students of prejudice have examined other aspects of religiosity. For instance, factors connected to active participation, such as the frequency with which one attends religious services is positively associated with prejudice toward LGBT people. Religiosity—the degree to which people are involved in their religion, or simply view themselves as religious—is also associated with negative attitudes toward LGBT people. How do we understand the apparent conflict between doctrines that espouse tolerance and benevolence on the one hand and practice intolerance and condemnation where LGBT individuals are concerned? First, there is a link between religiosity and the social ideology, right-wing authoritarianism—many religious fundamentalists are right-wing authoritarians and many right-wing authoritarians are religious fundamentalists. Right wing authoritarians tend to think in terms of black/white either/or dichotomies. They tend to see the world in terms of good or evil, they are rigid in their thinking, and hold traditional values. Particularly relevant to religiosity, right-wing authoritarians tend to unquestioningly follow authority figures. Therefore, if religious leaders condemn homosexuality, right-wing authoritarians will tend to obediently follow their lead. Second, LGBT people are portrayed as violating important American values and are perceived as threatening to those values. People who are religious might be especially sensitive to threats to their values, therefore the greater the extent to which they are likely to perceive LGBT people as threatening those values, the more likely they are to hold negative attitudes toward them. Finally, another factor related to the relationship between religiosity and negative attitudes toward homosexuality is the extent to which people believe that homosexuality is controllable, changeable, and a matter of choice. Negative attitudes and hostility toward homosexuality as an abstraction quickly extends to hostility toward LGBT people. If it is widely believed that a stigma is under the control of the stigmatized person, the more negative the attitudes one will hold toward the stigmatized person. For instance, those with more sympathetic attitudes toward homosexuality and supporters of LGBT rights are more likely to think that homosexuality is not a choice—that there is a

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biological or genetic component to sexual orientation. Conversely, those who hold negative attitudes toward homosexuality and do not support LGBT rights tend to believe that homosexuality is a choice and under the direct control of individuals. To the extent that religious leaders or religious doctrine espouses homosexuality as a choice, followers will tend to have more negative attitudes toward homosexuality. The issue of controllability may explain why most prominent religions do not (or no longer) condemn racial and ethnic minorities, yet continue to condemn homosexuality. In summary, most forms of religiosity, except for the extrinsic and quest orientations, are associated with negative attitudes toward homosexuality. Rightwing authoritarianism, perceived value violation, and controllability are likely moderators of the relationship between religiosity and negative attitudes toward lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people. See Also: Christianity; Coming Out; Homophobia; LGBTQ; Religion,Women in. Further Readings Finlay, Barbara and Carol S. Walther. “The Relation of Religious Affiliation, Service Attendance, and Other Factors to Homophobic Attitudes Among University Students.” Review of Religious Research, v.44/4 (2003). Whitley, Bernard E. Jr. “Religiosity and Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men: A Meta-Analysis.” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, v.19/1 (2009). Kristin J. Anderson University of Houston

Honduras The Republic of Honduras is located in Central America. Most of the population is mestizo. The predominant culture is Hispanic although there are also sizeable indigenous Afro-Honduran and Arab-Honduran groups. The predominant religion is Roman Catholic. The social concept of machismo, emphasizing male dominance and virility, and marianismo, emphasizing female purity, are common in Hispanic cultures. These attitudes limit political and economic

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Honduras located nearby. Both genders increasingly share in household decision making and many middle- and upper-class wives utilize domestic servants. Discipline of children tends to be stricter in rural areas. Female school attendance rates stand at 94 percent at the primary level but only 20 percent at the tertiary level, largely because of an inability to afford higher education. The 2009 literacy rates for females and males are almost identical, at 83 percent and 82 percent respectively. Problems include strained ethnic relations, high domestic violence rates, economic crimes, youth street gangs, and lack of affordable and accessible healthcare for poor and rural populations.

Protestors were divided after the 2009 military coup that ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.

opportunities for women and encourage high rates of domestic violence. Women’s opportunities are also limited by high poverty levels. Honduras ranked 62nd of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Common-law, civil, and church marriages are all practiced. Newlyweds each take both surnames as their new family name. Most marriages are monogamous, although a small percentage of wealthy men maintain a separate household with another woman. There is social stigma placed upon divorce but women have equal legal rights during divorce. The 2009 fertility rate was 3.3 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend 67 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 23 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate was 280 per 100,000 live births. The state social security system and employers provide women with 10 weeks of paid maternity leave. Many young urban couples live with their parents until they can afford a separate household, ideally

Women in the Workforce Because of financial necessity to supplement the family income, 38 percent of Honduran women work outside the home. Women constitute 33 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 52 percent of professional and technical workers. Women make up 75 percent of primary level teachers, 55 percent of secondary level teachers, and 38 percent of tertiary level teachers. Many urban industrial parks contain foreign-owned garment factories known as maquilas that produce clothing for export. These factories employ mostly women in sweatshop conditions at low wages. Other key employers are stores and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Some occupations such as construction, driving, and the military do not employ women. Men also perform most agricultural labor. A gender gap still exists in terms of average estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which stands at $2,254 for women and $4,863 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 6.2 percent for women and 3.17 percent for men. Women have the right to vote. While men continue to dominate political life, women have served as judges and lawyers, congressional and cabinet members, mayors, and heads of the national police force. Women hold 23 percent of parliamentary seats and 24 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. There are numerous NGOs in operation, most in rural areas. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Machismo/ Marianismo; Maquiladoras.

Honor Killings

Further Readings Dore, Elizabeth and Maxine Molyneux. Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. World Health Organization. “World Health Report Statistical Annex, Annexes by Country (A-F).” http:// www.who.int/entity/whr/2005/annex/indicators _country_a-f.pdf (accessed February 2010). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Honor Killings Violence against women is common throughout the world. A cultural code of honor exists for women and men. Honor-related violence is most prevalent in Muslim countries. Internationally it involves immigrants, though the connections to religion may be spurious. It should be noted that men also are the targets of honor-related violence, but that women comprise the majority of victims. Honor killing, the most severe of these acts, is precipitated by the woman transgressing cultural norms, which brings perceived social dishonor to the family. A cultural convention, a primary norm for behavior for women, is the maintenance of her virginity (e.g., purity), it is expected that she be “preserved” until marriage. Consequently, a woman’s actions and behavior are very closely scrutinized not only by her family but also by her community. Any transgressions are taken very seriously and the penalties are usually severe. Illicit premarital or extramarital affairs are common reasons underlying the attacks. Other examples of motivating “offenses” for the attacks: attempting to avoid an arranged marriage, dating, dowry issues, wearing inappropriate clothing, attempting divorce or even flirting. The penalty can occur for a simple suspicion of a “crime” (e.g., illicit affairs). Even cases involving rape, though this is considered sex out of wedlock, the victim is murdered to restore family purity and honor.

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The United Nations estimates 5,000 women are the victims of honor killing annually. Due to the private nature of these crimes, most honor killings are unreported, usually uninvestigated and, ultimately, unprosecuted; therefore, it is quite difficult to quantify the true extent of the phenomenon. Furthermore, the greater community and extended family of the victim likely know about the crime but nothing is done as honor crimes are usually condoned and seen as justified. The accepting attitude can be seen in the way the perpetrators are treated by the systems of justice in front of which they appear. Either their cases are suspended or given brief sentences relative to the crime(s) they have committed. Moreover, these crimes may go unnoticed as honor killings may be concealed or construed as accidental death or suicide. This phenomenon is being recognized and investigated in many nations around the world. An immediate family member is most commonly the perpetrator of the homicide. It is usually the father who commits murder, but the murder may be handled by a brother, first cousin, son, or any combination of people organized to restore family honor and purity. Siblings are often responsible for the victimization as they are usually met with a lighter sentence since honor killings are considered a family affair. The entire family may conspire against the victim/ offender/woman to commit the crime. For example, there have been cases where the woman’s mother was found to have lured the girl home to meet her fate at the hands of other male family members. Women do escape from their family’s reach. There are many stories of complex ways in which the woman plans her escape. However, even if the woman succeeds in avoiding the penalty for her crime, she remains at risk. She will ultimately live in a permanent state of fear, afraid she will continue to be hunted. In some situations the woman is coerced into taking her own life, or an honor suicide. She is provided with a weapon, sometimes locked in a room and given a certain amount of time at which to respond. Usually, there is a threat that there will be a more painful or serious outcome if the woman does not carry out the suicide. Murder is not the only consequence for violating cultural norms and bringing shame upon the family. Women face many types of honor-related crimes and violence. In some cases a woman is beaten and placed

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in solitary confinement and locked in a room for an extended period of time, sometimes for months. There are several alternate consequences to honor killing that deserve mention. A substitute to death is the heinous crime of disfigurement, also known as vitriolage or acid throwing. This is when acid is thrown into the face of the woman to permanently blemish her face. Another related crime is corrective rape. If a woman is suspected of being gay or openly lesbian there is an attempt to “fix” the problem by raping her. Sometimes mutilation and or murder follow such incidents. In these cases, as with honor killings, the attacks are rarely if ever prosecuted. Impunity is a motivating force, as these crimes are social supported. There is no fear as well as no deterrent. Is Religion to Blame? Honor killings are usually perceived as a cultural practice. Unfortunately, the act is much more widespread than most people are aware. The popular media portray honor killing as a Muslim phenomenon. The term is usually coupled with Islam. It may be argued on many levels that it is not necessarily unique to the Muslim community. First, there is no component or statement in the Qur’an that endorses or justifies honor killing. It is argued by many that it is not Islam but an ancient cultural or tribal practice. Culturally, women are thought of as the property of the males in their lives. Though the practice is not condoned officially in any nation, even conservative Muslim nations, many honor killings do occur in those regions. Research has shown some connections between religion and honor killing but that may be explained away when taking a closer view of the culture and condoned ancient practices. The act of honor killing is perpetrated around the world, even in non-Muslim, Western nations. Young Muslim women are being victimized in countries such as Australia and Canada, in such European nations as Great Britain, Italy, France, and Germany as well as in the United States. Even nations noted at the pinnacle of egalitarian relations between men and women, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, acknowledge the presence of honor related violence. The practice of murdering women is nothing new in the world. Statistically, the usual perpetrators of sexual violence and homicide against women are males who are known to the victim. Violence against women cuts

across class, racial, ethnic, regional, and national boundaries. Honor killing is a human rights issue; women are being victimized. Regardless of the underlying motivation for the attack, thousands of women are being murdered annually. Consequently, the motivation for the attack does not necessarily have a religious basis. From any angle, it is simply another example of attempted male dominance and control of a woman’s freedom, control of her body and her sexuality. What is needed to effect the eradication of all honor related violence is not only international recognition, but a transnational and cross-cultural cooperation, a partnership to eliminate these crimes against women. See Also: Arab Feminism; Domestic Violence; Honor Suicides; Human Rights Campaign; Islam; Islam in America; Islamic Feminism. Further Readings CBS 48 Hours. “Honor Crimes.” CBS 48 Hours Mystery. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/10/18/48hours /main242349.shtml (accessed January 2010). Hossain, Sara and Lynn Welchman. Honour: Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women. London: Zed Books, 2005. Husseini, Rana. Murder in the Name of Honour. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2009. Tawfeeq, Mohammed and Brian Todd. “Four Arrested in Iraq ‘Honor Killing.’” CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2007 /WORLD/meast/05/18/iraq.honorkilling/index.html (accessed January 2010) United Nations Population Report. “Chapter 3: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls” http://www .unfpa.org/swp/2000/english/ch03.html (accessed January 2010) Paul E. Calarco, Jr. Hudson Valley Community College

Honor Suicides Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members who are thought to have brought dishonor upon the family. In the cultures that these crimes take place, women are often placed in subordinate posi-



tions to males. As subordinates, the wrongdoings of the women reflect onto and shame the men. The only way to restore honor to their families is for the shamed woman to die. A woman can be targeted by her family for a variety of reasons, including refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce—even from an abusive husband—or (allegedly) committing adultery. Regularly, speculation that a woman has behaved in a specific way causing “dishonor” to her family is accepted as truth. A more recent phenomenon is called an honor suicide. Like honor crimes, these deaths occur after a woman dishonors herself and her family. Honor suicides are frequently associated with Kurdish southeast Turkey, and are associated only with women. When a woman was going to be killed for dishonoring her family, it was usually the youngest man in the family that was told to commit this act. Because of his youth, the young man would usually receive a shorter prison sentence. Additionally, sentences were reduced under the defense that a relative had been provoked to commit the murder. In 2005, in an attempt to join the European Union (EU), Turkey instituted reforms of its penal code against honor crimes. Pressured by the EU to tighten punishment of honor killings, the reform eliminated lenient sentencing, and introduced mandatory life sentences for honor killers. With new attention being paid to honor killings, an unintended consequence has occurred. Following the reforms, the numbers of female suicides in Turkey quickly began to rise. Thus, instead of being murdered by one’s family for bringing shame or dishonor to the family, women are now being pressured to commit suicide. Following a woman’s transgression, a family council determines her fate. The council, made up of the extended family of the woman, discusses the alleged dishonor and comes to a decision on her punishment. If the outcome of the council is a decision that she be put to death, the family pressures the woman to take her own life, subsequently sparing the men of the family from serving time in jail. Girls are told that if they don’t kill themselves, their father or brother will have to go to jail, indicating that one way or another the girl will die. Family Secrecy Two types of secrecy are relevant to honor suicides. The first of these involves secrecy within the families

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of the dead women. In some instances, what appears to be an “honor suicide” is actually an orchestrated honor killing perpetrated by the family. As a consequence of the silence maintained within families, Turkish authorities investigating honor suicides are often unable to determine whether suicides are the result of family pressure or are actually homicides. To preserve the honor of the family, men and women alike rarely confess to authorities that a suicide is actually an honor killing. In an attempt to escape ridicule, shame, and blame, women frequently try to hide their transgressions. For example, when a woman engages in premarital sex, she may fear being caught, and consequently takes precautions to prevent dishonoring her family. Though illegal in many places, some women have medical procedures to reattach their hymens prior to marriage, keeping her indiscretion a secret. While this may seem like an extreme example, women are often forced to keep their attitudes, behaviors, and desires a secret in order to prevent being killed or being pressured to kill themselves. Women who ordered to take their own lives are usually locked in a room at the family home with various tools for killing herself: a noose, gun, or rat poison are common. In a final attempt to gain approval from her family, “honor suicides” occur when women don’t feel they can take the ridicule and pressure from their families and communities any longer: they see suicide as an opportunity of escape. Notably, suicide is not the only option for these women; however, most women are illiterate and unfamiliar with their legal rights. See Also: Honor Killings; Suicide Methods; Turkey. Further Readings Bilefsky, Dan, “How to Avoid Honor Killing in Turkey? Honor Suicide.” New York Times. http://www.nytimes .com/2006/07/16/world/europe/16turkey.html (accessed November 2009). Bilefsky, Dan, “Virgin Suicides Save Turks’ Honor.’” http:// www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/world/europe/12iht -virgins.2184928.html (accessed November 2009). CBS Worldwide Inc. “Suicide for Honor and Country.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/07/21/sunday /main217634.shtml (accessed November 2009). Navai, Ramita, “Women Told: You Have Dishonoured Your Family, Please Kill Yourself.’” http://www.independent

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Horse Racing, Women in

.co.uk/news/world/europe/women-told-you -have-dishonoured-your-family-please-kill-yourself -1655373.html (accessed November 2009). Devon G. Thacker University of Colorado

Horse Racing, Women in The ancient sport of horse racing includes thoroughbred racing, where horses are ridden by jockeys, and harness racing, where drivers operate two-wheel carts. Horse owners employ trainers who prepare horses for racing and stewards to enforce regulations. While participants in these sports have, historically, been primarily male, women have played important roles in the sport even prior to their legal entry. By the 1950s, Wartha Davis had become a leading American jockey, and in 1964 an American female jockey was successful in obtaining her license under the Civil Rights Act. It was not until 1974 that women were permitted jockey licenses in Australia, and England’s Victorian racecourses did not permit women to race in regular races against men until 1979. Women involved in horse racing have had to work to overcome gender-based discrimination that prevented their involvement or hindered their success in the field. Women lack visibility in this highly competitive field, and are subject to sexual harassment on and off the track. While there has been some success in increasing equitable participation of in the last 15 years, many obstacles remain. Visibility remains an issue, as those involved are typically self-employed and need to advertise their services to reluctant male owners and trainers who still believe the stereotype that women are not strong enough to handle horses in competition. Only 10 percent of mounts, or opportunities to race in competition, go to women. And as there are so few women on the racetrack, women are held to a higher standard on the track. If a man does poorly, the perception is that it could have been caused by a number of reasons, but if a woman does poorly, it is assumed that she performed poorly because she is a woman. In situations where a husband and wife team acts as horse trainer and owner, the wife is often assumed

to be secondary to the husband. This can also occur in harness racing, where one of the spouses may be the driver. Instead of a being understood as a team, the woman may only be seen as a support for the husband, changing the “husband and wife team” to one of a husband being the trainer/owner and the woman slipping into the role of the “trainer’s wife.” While workplace safety and freedom from harassment and prejudice is entrenched in law, in horse racing there is often insufficient protection for women. In 2005, the New York Times reported that one of the reasons female jockey Chantal Sutherland left Toronto’s racing circuit was because she encountered sexual harassment. It was noted that the male trainer would often assume that if he were giving the female jockey the ride, she would date him. Judged on her appearance rather than her professional performance, Sutherland would often receive comments that she was too attractive to be a jockey. Recent Female Success Although women face prejudice in the sport, some have achieved success. Since women were permitted in major competitions, only five have competed in the Kentucky Derby, one the most prestigious horse races in North America; women jockeys placing no higher than 11th. Rosemary Homeister rode in the derby in 2003. Julie Krone was the fourth woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby, doing so twice, in 1993 and 1995. In 2000, Krone became the first woman inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and in 2002 the first woman to win a Grade 1 race in California. While in 2005, trainer Bettye Gabriel won the “Distinguished Women in Horseracing Award,” a female trainer has yet to win a Kentucky Derby. This, however, is not the case in major competitions elsewhere. Australia has seen major advances in female competition; in 2001, Sheila Laxon become the first trainer to win the Melbourne Cup—the most important thoroughbred race in Australia. In 2003, Clare Lindhop was the first woman to ride in the Melbourne Cup. In 2005, it was announced that the Racing Victoria Limited would be conducting an audit on and improving the women’s facilities at its 34 racecourses. In Australia, women have made a number of advances in many positions, currently holding positions at every level of participation, including in course management.

Household Decision-Making



In 2009, Britain’s Venetia Williams was the second female trainer to have a horse win the Grand National, a British thoroughbred hunt. Prior to that, Jenny Pitman had been the only female trainer to win, having won in 1983 and 1995. Another British trainer deserving mention is Henrietta Knight, who in the past few decades has had hundreds of horses she’s trained go on to win awards. While women have found their way into all roles in harness and thoroughbred racing, the sport has considerable room to improve. Time has not solved all problems facing females in horse racing, and issues of visibility, harassment, and gender-based discrimination still exist. While women in Australia and Britain have made many advances and have held the ground they have gained, in North America, women had a strong involvement in the sport in the 1990s, but by the 2000s few female “big names” remained in thoroughbred racing. See Also: Bullying in the Workplace; Business, Women in; Coaches, Female; Glass Ceiling; Sports Officials, Female; Stereotypes of Women; Team Owners, Female; Track and Field, Women in. Further Readings Finley, Bill. “Horse Racing; Homeister Prepares for Ride of a Lifetime.” New York Times (November 17, 2009). http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/03/sports/horse -racing-homeister-prepares-for-ride-of-a-lifetime.html (accessed November 2009). Larsen, Elizabeth A. “A Vicious Oval: Why Women Seldom Reach the Top in American Harness Racing.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, v35/2 (2006). D. Davidson York University C. Davidson Independent Scholar

Household Decision-Making Decisions in households concern different aspects of family life, work life, household chores, and the purchase of goods, and are made by partners of married or unmarried couples (with or without children)

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who live together in one household. There has been a lot of research, mainly in the social realm, on the underlying processes and roles of decision-making within families and couples. The individual members of a household have different roles and functions during that process and it is not rare that conflicts arise. Processes of decision-making vary across cultures, although there is a general trend toward the adoption of traditional role patterns. Household decision-making has been studied from psychological, sociological, and economic perspectives. Power structure in a relationship is analyzed as a factor in decision-making. In sociology, decision-making within a household is typically examined in the context of societal developments, such as changes in the proportion of women in the workforce. From an economic perspective, household decision-making is usually studied in terms of consumer behavior. Often two types of household decisions are distinguished. The first type concerns the purchase of goods and, along with that, the spending of money. The second type is about the division of labor (paid work and unpaid household chores) and responsibilities within the family. Decisions about money management constitute a specific domain, distinguished between the allocation of money and the responsibility for finance related tasks (e.g., paying bills). According to Robert O. Blood and Donald M. Wolfe, family decisions can be classified with respect to autonomy and influence and involve decisions of complete autonomy, in which a family member decides independently, decisions made by a male or husband, decisions where the female or wife dominantes, and decisions with a cooperative structure, in which each family member contributes their opinion. Underlying Social Roles Specific roles were distinguished by researchers Conway Lackman and John M. Lanasa, including the gatekeeper, who initiates the process of decisionmaking; the influencer, whose position has an impact on the decision; and finally the decision maker, the buyer and consumer. Decision-making is also influenced by the social roles of the household members. The member in charge of making decisions often depends on real or perceived power within the relationship, as well as on earnings, social and

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educational backgrounds, and the previous relationship experience of the partners. Today, cooperative money management is typical in many households. Similarly, decisions on the distribution of labor and duties are no longer solely made on the basis of traditional gender roles. The partners’ social roles and functions have become more flexible and intertwined. In Western societies, the percentage of women in the workforce has increased, and an increasing number of fathers accept responsibilities regarding childcare. It is still rare, however, that household chores are shared equally, and gender-typical allocations of decision-making can still be distinguished. Women typically make the decisions on aspects of everyday life and family concerns, such as purchasing food or taking care of children. Men often make technical and long-term decisions, for example, which new car to purchase or overseeing the finances. Conflicts, Power and the Decision-Making Process Conflicts involving decision-making often arise on issues of the distribution of paid and unpaid work within the couple. The perception of fairness is essential in these cases. Patterns that are unequal but regarded as fair (e.g., when they involve symbolic rewards) do not usually provoke conflict. Other issues that can cause conflict involve education and healthcare of children. The distribution of power within a couple can be equal or unequal, and the exercise of power is often a subtle and possibly subconscious process. Power has an effect on who makes the decision, but it is not necessarily the partner who has more power who decides whether or not to buy certain goods or how to deal with a resource. Instead, decision-making is sometimes delegated: power is relevant to the question of deciding who makes the decision. A child’s influence on decision-making depends on their age, their knowledge about a product, and the financial resources of a household. In Western societies, nontraditional roles, with both partners contributing equally to decision-making, have become more common. Above all, decisions concerning the entire family are more often made by both partners. This trend emerges even more so in urban areas. Current research focuses on the differ-

ences between Western and eastern societies, as well as between urban and rural areas. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Household Division of Labor; Social Justice Theory. Further Readings Antonides , Gerrit and Maaike Kroft. “Fairness Judgments in Household Decision Making.” Journal of Economic Psychology, v.26 (2005). Blood, Robert O. and Donald M. Wolfe. Husbands and Wives. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1960. Foote, Nelson N., ed., Household Decision-Making. New York: New York University Press, 1961. Lackman, Conway and John M. Lanasa. “Family DecisionMaking Theory: An Overview and Assessment.” Psychology and Marketing, v.10/2 (1993). Astrid Schütz Uta Kretzschmar Chemnitz University of Technology

Household Division of Labor The term household labor is used and defined in different ways. In general, it refers to unpaid work that is done in the house to maintain a home (domestic work). Often, it includes care of children or other family members. Studies on the division of household labor usually deal with cohabiting or married couples and with ways of sharing household chores. Mostly, they focus on heterosexual couples. However, there is a growing body of literature on samesex couples, too. Household division of labor is a core issue of gender and women’s studies, as well as family sociology and social psychology. It affects many aspects of social life, such as intimate relationships, individual wellbeing or opportunities on the labor market. It is especially important because it is one of the areas where inequalities seem to be particularly tenacious. Even in countries with a high degree of gender equality, and with couples in which both partners are employed fulltime, inequalities in home’s division of labor are common. This entry deals with ways of empirically researching household division of labor and pres-



ents selected findings of quantitative and qualitative research as well as important theoretical approaches. Data Collection In its quantitative dimensions, household division of labor can be derived from time use surveys. People in the sample are asked to fill in a time use diary during certain periods, that is, to write down all their activities and the amount of time they have used for them per day. Results provide information about mean values of time use and allow for comparisons between men and women or different countries. Additionally, people’s social practices or discourses about household division of labor are studied by means of methods of qualitative inquiry. Results provide insights into how couples negotiate the division of household responsibilities or how they perceive housework and its division. The United Nations estimates that women worldwide spend approximately twice as much time on unpaid work as men. Despite the fact that women’s participation in gainful work has been increasing globally, unequal division of unpaid work persists. In total, women work more hours than men and, as a result, have less time for leisure and participation in public life. To give some examples: In Canada, women spend four hours and six minutes per day with domestic work, compared to men’s two hours and 30 minutes, according to data compiled by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. In the United States, women use three hours 38 minutes per day for domestic work compared to two hours, two minutes for men. A similar pattern can be seen in comparative time use surveys carried out by the European Union. In any of the 10 included countries—Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, and United Kingdom—women perform more domestic work than men. In this study, domestic work was defined as housework, child and adult care, gardening and pet care, construction and repairs, shopping and services, and household management. In summary, women perform between 60 and 66 percent of all domestic work. In any of the 10 countries, as well as in Canada and the United States, men perform more gainful work and have more free time than women. Together (gainful work plus domestic work), women work more hours then men

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in every country, except Sweden and Norway. Moreover, men and women perform different kinds of domestic work: women are more involved in housework and caring, and men are more consumed with maintenance and repair work. Influences on Household Division of Labor Practices of household division of labor are sometimes described by differentiating between types of division, for example, traditional, egalitarian, and reversal of gender roles. The division of household labor correlates with factors such as income, educational background, professional status, and working times. A well-studied influence is the traditionalizing effect, which is linked to the transition into parenthood. Even couples who used to practice an egalitarian division of labor when they were childless tend to take up a more traditional division as soon as they have a child. Perception of Fairness and Satisfaction Studies have shown that women tend to compare their male partner’s effort not to their own contribution, but to other men’s housework responsibilities. As a consequence, women tend to be satisfied with the division of labor if their partners contribute more than other men in their relationships, even if they still work less then the women themselves. As part of her influential work on emotional labor, Arlie Russell Hochschild described the so-called economy of gratitude. She argues that gratitude, for example, for men’s contribution to housework, is distributed according to the nonegalitarian structures of society. For example, for the same amount of work, men receive more gratitude than women. Hochschild also found out that men explain inequalities by rational reasoning, often claiming that they have less need for household chores, for example, because they are less demanding with regard to food or standards of cleanliness. Unequal household division of labor is not just a result of societal gender inequalities. Housework is considered as a site where gender differences are being produced. A highly influential approach in gender studies first described by Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman understands gender as being produced in social interaction. Housework is a key area in which gender is being “done.”

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Drawing on this idea, Polly A. Fassinger additionally showed that household chores are perceived as “naturally” gendered. In other words, that women are perceived as “instinctively” being good at doing housework because of their biological sex. Explanations for unequal divisions of housework are provided by socialization approaches, too. There is evidence that parents tend to assign more or other housework chores to girls than to boys. As a result, gender-specific views and competences with regard to housework are internalized during socialization. See Also: Childcare; Domestic Workers; Elder Care; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Homemaking; Household Decision-Making; Unpaid Labor; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Ahrne, Göran and Christine Roman. Hemmet, Barnen Och Makten. Förhandlingar om Arbete och Pengar I Familjen.” (The Home, the Children and the Power. Negotiations About Work and Money in the Family.) Stockholm, Sweden: Fritzes, 1997. Fassinger, Polly A. “Meanings of Housework for Single Fathers and Mothers—Insights Into Gender Inequality.” In Jane C. Hood, ed., Men, Work, and Family. London: Sage, 1993. Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. Hochschild, Arlie Russell, with Anne Machung. The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. New York: Viking, 1989.  Shelton, B. A. and D. John. “The Division of Household Labor.” Annual Review of Sociology (January 1996). West, Candace and Don H. Zimmerman. “Doing Gender.” Gender & Society, v.1/2 (1987). Karin Sardadvar University of Vienna

Huffington, Arianna Arianna Huffington is an author, philanthropist, political pundit, television personality, and owner of the independently liberal, online news magazine,

The Huffington Post. Though a naturalized U.S. citizen, Arianna Huffington’s interest in United States politics began with her marriage to Texas oil millionaire and former conservative member of the House of Representatives, Michael Huffington. Though the two divorced in 1997, Arianna Huffington remained politically passionate, and eventually returned to her liberal roots as the author of more than a dozen politically focused books, as a frequent commentator on national news shows, as the 2003 independent candidate for governor of California in the campaign to recall Governor Gray Davis, and, even today, as the host of two nationally syndicated public radio shows, Left, Right & Center and 7 Days in America. In 2006, Huffington was named to the “Time 100,” Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2009, she was ranked number 12 on Forbes’s list of the “Most Influential Women in Media.” Arianna Stassinopoulos was born in Athens, Greece, in 1950 to politically active parents. At the age of 16, Arianna left Greece and moved to England. She attended Cambridge University, and in 1971, she was named president of the prestigious Cambridge Union Society, a debate club and the oldest society at the university. The society is recognized worldwide as a symbol of free speech and balanced debate, and Arianna was only the third woman to hold the position of president. She graduated from Cambridge with a degree in Economics in 1972. Thanks to her prominent position as president of the Cambridge Union Society, after graduation, Arianna was invited to be a regular guest on the weekly BBC programs, Any Questions?, Call My Bluff, and Face the Music. A Move to the United States In 1980, Arianna moved to the United States after the end of a nine-year affair with famed British broadcaster, author, and journalist Bernard Levin. In 1985, Arianna met conservative Michael Huffington, a family friend of the Bushes, in San Francisco. The two married in 1986, and moved to Washington, D.C., where Michael served a term as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. Some years later, they moved to California, established residency, and ran Michael’s successful 1992 Republican campaign for the House of Representatives. Though Arianna supported many of her husband’s moderate causes, she remained close to her liberal upbringing



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Kerry. Huffington has made numerous television and movie appearances in the years since, often as herself, and in 2008, Fox Broadcasting announced that Huffington would play a character on the animated comedy, The Cleveland Show. On the show, Huffington gives voice to the also named Arianna, wife of Cleveland’s next-door neighbor, Tim the Bear.

Arianna Huffington campaigns during her run for governor of California in the recall election against Gray Davis.

on most issues. Michael would go on to lose his 1994 campaign for the U.S. Senate, and, in 1997, the couple divorced. The terms of their settlement, though never public, are thought to have been generous to Arianna and the couple’s two daughters, Christina and Isabella. In 1998, Michael made the public announcement that he was bisexual. Politics and Television In the years just before and following her divorce, Huffington became a well-known pundit on the cable sensation, Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher, where the then moderately conservative Huffington often appeared in pajamas in a large bed, with liberal funnyman and current U.S. Senator for Minnesota, Al Franken, in order to provide comic commentary on the 1996 presidential election. Their work on the show earned Huffington and the Comedy Central team an Emmy nomination, but it also heralded the end of Arianna’s conservative-leaning years. In the late 1990s, Arianna would be a loud opponent to the United States’ involvement in the Yugoslav wars. By 2000, she was disillusioned with both parties, and during that year’s presidential election, she hosted “shadow conventions” at both the Republican and Democrat National Conventions. By the end of the election year, Arianna had, once again, firmly embraced her liberal roots, and in 2004, she publically endorsed Democrat front man, John

Media Influence Huffington’s early books included The Female Woman (1974), After Reason (1978), and The Woman Behind the Legend (1981). In 1988, she wrote two more books: The Gods of Greece and Picasso: Creator and Destroyer. In 1994, she wrote the spiritual exploration, The Fourth Instinct, and in 1998, she published the satirical novel, Greetings From the Lincoln Bedroom. How to Overthrow the Government, 2000, focused on political corruption and greed; and in 2003, Huffington introduced her fans to the New York Times bestselling book, Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America. In 2004, she followed with the less-popular, Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America. Her most recent book, On Becoming Fearless . . . in Love, Work, and Life, offers a personal look at finding strength and fearlessness in every aspect of life. Huffington is perhaps best known for her creation and management of the first “Internet Newspaper,” the online blog The Huffington Post. Though it was originally condemned as irrelevant and unnecessary during its launch in 2005, even its detractors quickly reconsidered once it became clear that Huffington had attracted a variety of famous commentators on subjects as varied as politics, business, entertainment, and living, and the public followed—thanks to her connections in Hollywood and Washington. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Business, Women in; Economics, Women in; Greece; Journalists, Broadcast Media; Journalists, Print Media; Novelists, Female; Political Ideologies; United Kingdom. Further Readings Dougray, Ginny. “Arianna Huffington: The Superblogger.” The Times Online. November 1, 2008. http://www .timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5029618 .ece (accessed June 2010).

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The Huffington Post. “Arianna Online: About Arianna, Biography.” http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com /about/index.php (accessed June 2010). Donna McKinney Souder Colorado State University

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) political advocacy organization within the United States, with over 750,000 members and supporters in 2009. Its overarching mission is the realization of equality and fairness across gender identities and sexual orientations. It uses education, advocacy, organization of grassroots movements, political funding, lobbying, and working with other LGBT organizations at the state and federal levels to secure recognition, equal rights, and protection for LGBT individuals and families in the home, community, and workplace. The HRC currently advocates and lobbies for equal rights and opportunities on multiple fronts; it operates in conjunction with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC Foundation), which raises and supplies funding for HRC endeavors, conducts research, and provides educational and outreach programs. On its Website, the HRC lists 13 key issues: aging concerns for same-sex couples; coming out; hate crimes; health issues, including lesbian health and healthcare discrimination; international rights and immigration; marriage and relationship recognition; military issues, including the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy; parenting concerns such as adoption, custody, and foster parenting; people of color; religion and faith; challenges of transgender individuals; nondiscriminatory workplace benefits and policies; and high school and college activism. Equal Rights and Protection During the last decade, the HRC has advocated for numerous pieces of legislation to secure equal rights and protection. For instance, since 1997 the HRC has been a key promoter of hate crime legislation; such legislation recently become law with President Barack Obama’s signature on the Matthew Shepard and James

Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) on October 28, 2009. The HCPA includes protection for violence against someone based on his or her race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The HRC also continues to work in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would protect individuals in the workplace against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The EDNA is currently being discussed in various Congressional hearings. In recent years, a primary focus has been on marriage equality. On the federal level, the HRC has worked to gain passage of the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and grant same-sex couples equal marriage rights on the federal level. On the state level, the HRC has worked with state leaders in the slow progression of state-recognized civil unions, domestic partnerships, and marriage rights for same-sex couples. In January 2009, the HRC held it’s first Women and Leadership conference; it brought together 24 women who supported LGBT rights, were active in the HRC, or were committed to being community leaders for discussions and trainings on leadership, the affect of gender bias on race, sexuality, and class, and the development of leadership skills. The Women and Leadership program promotes the engagement of women as leaders in their communities and in the HRC. See Also: Bisexuality; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Hate Crimes; Heterosexism; Heterosexuality; Lesbian Adoption; Lesbians; Same-Sex Marriage; Sexual Orientation; Transgender. Further Readings Cornell University Library. “25 Years of Political Influence: The Records of the Human Rights Campaign.” http:// rmc.library.cornell.edu/HRC/index.html (accessed November 2009). Golman, Linda. Coming Out, Coming In: Nurturing the Well-Being and Inclusion of Gay Youth in Mainstream Society. New York: Routledge, 2007. Human Rights Campaign. http://www.hrc.org (accessed November 2009). Kathryn C. Oleson William Horsley Reed College



Hungary Following World War II, the central European nation of Hungary was forced into communism. In 1956, when officials announced that the country would leave the Warsaw Pact, Moscow responded by sending in troops. Nevertheless, Hungarian leaders began a program of economic reform, which became known as “Goulash Communism.” After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Hungary freely endorsed capitalism, joining both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1999) and the European Union (2004). By the early 21st century, Hungary had become the 63rd richest country in the world, with a per capita income of $18,600. However, Hungary continues to struggle with an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent, and 12 percent of the population still live in poverty. Some 68 percent of Hungarians live in urban areas, and almost 63 percent are employed in the service industry. Amid the Hungarian majority (92.3 percent),

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a Roma minority (1.9 percent) continues to struggle for equitable treatment. Hungary is more diverse in religion than in ethnicity, and approximately 52 percent classify themselves as Roman Catholic. While Hungarians are protected against legal discrimination, there are still wage disparities, with women making an average of 11 percent less than men. Workplace discrimination continues, particularly against older, minority, and pregnant women. Other major societal problems for women involve domestic violence, trafficking of women, and sexual harassment. Slow Progress in Political Circles As Hungary began liberalizing its monetary and social systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s, women’s organizations and groups were revived. Feminists such as Krisztina Morvai suggest that those groups continued to face serious obstacles because the concept of women’s rights was viewed as alien to the culture and because attempts to enforce more equitable

The Hungarian parliament building was built in Budapest in 1896. In 2008, just 43 women sat in the 386-member National Assembly, and only two women were members of the Council of Ministers..

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treatment of women was perceived of as abhorrent government interference. Despite fears that women would lose rights under a non-communist regime, newly established political groups and parties did help to form groups directly related to women’s issues. However, the new government produced only 28 (7.3 percent) women in the first, freely elected Parliament, and no real effort was made to address women’s issues. By 2008, just 43 women sat in the 386-member National Assembly, and only two women were members of the Council of Ministers. That they were there at all, was a result of increased political participation by women following the establishment of women’s studies programs and the founding of a women’s studies center at the University of Economics in Budapest in 2001. While women remain a minority in political decision making, they are making their presence known in male-dominated areas such as foreign affairs and the military. Yet, females in the National Legislature are more likely to be placed on committees dealing with topics such as the environment and human rights. Education and Business There is virtually no difference in literacy rates of males (99.5 percent) and females (99.3 percent) in Hungary, and females (54 percent of student populations) tend to be better educated than males. However, a study released by the Central Statistics Office at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor in 2006 revealed that female university teachers comprise only 8 percent of the total, and only 35 percent of business managers are women. Males comprise a considerable majority in the business world, and three-fourths of all businesses are male dominated. Nevertheless, many companies are making a real effort to hire more women; and 23.4 percent of male-dominated companies now employ more women than in the past. Hungarian companies have not always responded to the needs of women with families, and less than a third have instituted reforms to make companies more responsive to the needs of women with families by offering options such as telecommuting and flexible work hours. Women’s rights advocates have led the battle for family-leave laws that protect the rights of parents who need to care for newborn or adopted infants or for seriously ill family members. Even though sexual harassment is considered a crimi-

nal offense, few women are willing to report it. As a result, sexual harassment continues to flourish in the Hungarian workplace. Domestic Violence, Rape, and Prostitution The most serious problem affecting Hungarian women is violence. Legally, rape is considered to occur only when it involves the use of force. As a result, most cases go unreported. There are no legal provisions to make spousal rape a crime, but victims of domestic violence can bring charges of assault and battery. Despite estimates that a fifth of all Hungarian women have been victimized, cultural dictates prevent most women from reporting domestic violence. Perpetrators are rarely prosecuted even when charges are filed, leaving women unprotected and frustrated. Since 2004, courts have been allowed to issue restraining orders against abusive spouses, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor offers abused women some support through a 24-hour hotline and a limited number of government-operated shelters. Prostitution is legal in Hungary, and many young girls are trafficked into Hungary for this purpose. See Also: Domestic Violence; Government, Women in; Prostitution, Legal; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Rape, Prosecution Rates of; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Hungary.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/hu.html(accessed July 2010). Eberhardt, Eva. “Situation of Women in Hungary.” Transitions, v.44 (2003). http://dev.ulb.ac.be/cevipol /dossiers_fichiers/eberhardt012.pdf (Accessed July 2010). Fábián, Katalin. “Making an Appearance: The Formation of Women’s Groups in Hungary.” Aspasia, v.1/1 (2007). Koncz, Katalin. “Hungary: Implementing Gender Equality.” WIN News, v.26/1 (2000). Morvai, Krisztina. “Women and the Rule of Law in Hungary.” Feminist Review, v.19/1 (2004). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Hungary.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eur/119083.htm (accessed July 2010). Claudine Boros Touro College



Hunting The term hunting comprehends a broad, complex, and always culture-specific range of human activities. For the purposes of this article, and to capture a sense of the complexity, we shall use the definition first employed by British historian John MacKenzie: “the pursuit, driving, ambushing, and trapping of wild animals of all species with the intention of killing them for meat, other animal products, or purely for sport.” Obviously, for most of the 20th century and in most Western and colonialist contexts, hunting in this sense was not considered to fall under the category of “women’s work.” Indeed, the dominant view of the origins and underpinnings of human society that developed in the latter half of the 20th century—the so-called hunting hypothesis of human origins—established the dyad Man the Hunter/Woman the Gatherer as the fundamental unit in human society. That “hypothesis” was itself a construct of the post–World War II period in which anthropologists and ethnographers sought to discern an ideal, and ostensibly universal, form of human social and economic organization. Grounded in an androcentric evolutionary theory, it looked strikingly similar to the gender-based patriarchal arrangements of the developed West. While natural and social scientists discarded the hunting hypothesis relatively quickly, it proved to have considerable staying power in the popular imagination. Contemporary Women as Hunters Nonetheless, it is clear that while hunting has in most times and places been a predominantly male activity, women have also been among the ranks of hunters, sometimes hunting cooperatively with men, sometimes hunting on their own. The most frequently cited examples of female hunters include those women in the ancient world “to whom” the Greek historian Xenophon commented “the goddess has given this blessing (i.e., a love of hunting)”; a long line of royal aristocratic European women stretching from Elizabeth I of England and Sweden’s Queen Christina to the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, a renowned 19thcentury fox hunter; pioneer women on the American frontier; female adventurers who hunted in Asia and Africa during the period of Empire; women of contemporary indigenous populations like the Tiwi

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Aborigines in Australia, central Africa’s Mbuti Pygmies, and the Philippine Agta peoples; and, most recently, the dramatically increased numbers of female hunters in North America in the last decades of the 20th century. Reckoning the precise number of American women afield today is an inexact science at best, since several states do not specify gender on hunting licenses, and even states that do often neglect to track that information. But according to figures released by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in 1995, between 1988 and 1993 the number of women hunting with firearms in the United States increased by 23 percent, with women accounting for roughly 10 percent of hunters in the United States, a percentage that appears to have remained fairly consistent since then. Currently, 15 percent of Canadian hunters are female. In the United States, rural women are three times more likely to hunt than their urban counterparts. The six U.S. states with the highest percentages of women hunters are, not surprisingly, also states with predominantly rural populations: Wyoming and Montana (states where one in five hunters is female), Wisconsin, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Texas. The pattern of higher rural hunting participation is similar in Canada. In Europe, by contrast, female hunting is less prevalent overall and is not so likely to be tied to living in a rural area. Finland, France, Sweden, and Norway are the countries with the highest percentage of women hunters, all around 6 percent. A mere 1 percent of Italian hunters are women. Determining female hunter numbers is Europe is, however, particularly difficult, since most European nations do no record gender on hunting licenses. European and North American female hunters have in common the fact that they are, as sociologist Thomas Heberlein puts it, “produced by male hunters”—that is, women tend to be initiated into hunting by significant men in their lives. Heberlein sees this as a potential problem, as with decreasing numbers of male hunters overall there will be “fewer males to socialize [women] into hunting.” However, other studies suggest that the socialization can just as readily be carried out by female-friendly hunting skills workshops, most notably the Becoming an OutdoorsWoman Program, founded in 1991 and currently operating in 41 states, five Canadian provinces, and New Zealand.

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Motives for Women Hunting Why do women take up hunting? Early research conducted in the 1980s on Wisconsin deer hunters by psychologist Robert Jackson suggested that women hunt for most of the same reasons men do, ranging from putting meat on the table to communing with nature. More recent research conducted by Mark Damien Duda finds, however, that women are twice as likely as men to say they hunt for meat, and less than half as likely as men to say they hunt for sport or recreation. They are also more likely to specify being with friends and family as a major motivation for hunting, while placing relatively less emphasis on getting close to nature. Virtually every study shows that competition and acquiring “trophies” figure far less as motivations for female than for male hunters. One other significant gender difference between male and female hunters is that while hunting seems to decline among men as their education level rises, among females college-educated women are just as likely to hunt as are women with less, or different, formal education. Among indigenous peoples worldwide, in the relatively few areas where hunter/foraging is still a viable way of living, women frequently play a significant role in individual and group hunting. In addition to the groups mentioned above, an exemplary case in point would be that of the Ju/’hoansi-!Kung people of the Nyae Nyae region of the Kalahari Desert. Ju/’hoan women are expert trackers, and work in concert with their husbands: hunting in this context is a matter of spousal cooperation, and the success of the hunt depends as much (if not more) upon the wife’s skill as the husband’s. Following in the tradition of the adventuresses of a century and more ago, North American and European women are also among the ranks of those who hunt on safari in sub-Saharan Africa, and in some parts of Asia and South America. Establishing a newer tradition in this regard, women are also joining the ranks of professional hunters. One such woman, Marina Lamprecht, who with her husband and son operates a hunting preserve near Windhoek, Namibia, has also served several terms on the executive committee of the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA). Lamprecht counts among her accomplishments the development of oral training modules and testing mechanisms for the certification of nonliter-

ate, but nonetheless expert, African natives as professional hunters. See Also: Animal Rights; Ecofeminism; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Rural Women; Shooting Sports, Women in. Further Readings Biesele, Megan and Steve Barclay. “Ju/’Hoan Women’s Tracking Knowledge and Its Contribution to Their Husbands’ Hunting Success.” African Study Monographs, suppl. 26 (March 2001). Capstick, Fiona Claire. The Diana Files: The HuntressTraveler Through History. Johannesburg, South Africa: Rowland Ward Publications, 2004. Duda, Mark Damien and Martin Jones. “The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation: Affirming the Role, Strength and Relevance of Hunting in the 21st Century.” Harrisonburg, VA: Responsive Management. Paper presented to the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. Phoenix, 2008. MacKenzie, John M. The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation, and British Imperialism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1988. Stange, Mary Zeiss, ed. Heart Shots: Women Write About Hunting. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. Stange, Mary Zeiss. Woman the Hunter. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. Mary Zeiss Stange Skidmore College

Hysterectomies A simple hysterectomy is the surgical removal of a woman’s uterus, a reproductive organ about the size and shape of an inverted pear, while a total or complete hysterectomy also includes the removal of her two fallopian tubes (bilateral salpingectomy) and two ovaries (bilateral oophorectomy). Once described as the “gold mine of gynecology,” hysterectomies rank among the most common surgical procedures performed on American and Canadian women of reproductive age, with chronic benign gynecological disease the reason most often cited for this surgery. Hysterectomy and hysteria are derived



from the same root word, hyster, meaning womb. The term hysterectomy was coined in the 1800s when removing the womb was the treatment of choice for female hysteria, a psychological condition said to be characterized by nervousness and emotional excess stemming from sexual dissatisfaction. This aggressive treatment illustrates how the medical establishment in the 19th century viewed women’s bodies as needing regulation because of their deviance from the normative male body. Global Statistics Hard to Derive Debate persists about the high incidence and medical necessity of hysterectomies and the related moral and ethical issues of such aggressive intervention. Women who have their uterus surgically removed are rendered infertile even if permanent contraception was not the primary or desired goal of the procedure. In most cultures, the ability to procreate is central to what it means to be a normal, functioning, feminine adult. Thus, the loss of the uterus by hysterectomy can be a pivotal moment when a woman reflects on her identity and her place within the family and wider community. Approximately 600,000 hysterectomies are performed in the United States each year. The Canadian age-standardized incidence rate for hysterectomies was reported at 346 per 100,000 in 2005, representing a steady decline since 1997. Similarly, a 23-year retrospective study in Western Australia reported that the age-standardized rates for hysterectomies have declined by 23 percent, to 4.8 per 1,000 women. However, there are significant differences in rates, type of procedure, and average length of hospital stay across geographic regions, socioeconomic, and ethnic groups, that are not explained by known risk factors. For example, in poorer Canadian provinces such as Newfoundland and Labrador, there continues to be a substantially higher than national average rate of 458 hysterectomies per 100,000 population. Similarly, American surveys report higher rates of hysterectomies in economically depressed regions than in more affluent regions, and higher rates among disadvantaged African American and Hispanic subgroups than among their white cohorts. In Western Australia, indigenous, women particularly those in rural areas, are more likely to have a hysterectomy than their nonindigenous urban counterparts. Health researchers call

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for international comparisons that would explore nonpathological factors such as ethnic, culture and access to care. Currently, international statistics are difficult to find or unreliable because they tend to be extrapolated from incidence and prevalence rates in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, rather than generated from country-specific data. Reasons for the Operation and Its Evolution Most hysterectomies in North America (70 to 90 percent) are performed for the treatment of chronic benign gynecological disease. A hysterectomy is deemed medically necessary when a women has uterine fibroids (more common among black women); uterine or vaginal wall prolapse (more common among those who have had multiple or unsupervised deliveries); painful and prolonged bleeding, especially among women in the years prior to menopause; or when a woman is living with persistent and debilitating symptoms of endometriosis that do not respond to less aggressive medical treatments. Under these conditions, a hysterectomy is regarded as elective or nonemergent, whereas a hysterectomy for the treatment life-threatening complications during or immediately after childbirth is considered an emergency. Another indication for an emergency hysterectomy is for the treatment of ovarian or cervical cancer; this involves removing a woman’s ovaries, the hormonal equivalent of removing a man’s testicles. A premenopausal woman who undergoes a complete hysterectomy is thrown into sudden surgical menopause and requires hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Although short-term HRT helps these women adjust more gradually, research indicates that longterm therapy puts women at greater risk for breast cancer, stroke, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other serious health problems. Decades ago, a hysterectomy was considered major surgery involving a large abdominal wound, an extended hospital stay of four to seven days, and a recovery time of six to eight weeks. During the 1980s, there was a steady increase in the number of vaginal hysterectomies—an approach that was less invasive and of shorter duration, averaging about 35 minutes. In 1989 came the first reported laparoscopic hysterectomy, which involved inserting into the abdomen a lighted instrument about as big around as a pen to directly visualize and remove the uterus. With time,

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many surgeons began using a laparoscopically assisted approach to the vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH). A surgeon may choose one approach over the other for several reasons: an abdominal approach is preferred for malignant uterine disease, while other approaches can be used for the treatment of most benign uterine diseases. The woman’s past medical history is another factor. Endometriosis, and the involvement of surrounding organs, or previous abdominal surgeries resulting in adhesions or scar tissue, make an LAVH or vaginal approach more challenging. Other factors are the woman’s body weight, the size and weight of her uterus, and any other procedures planned during the same operation. Studies suggest that a surgeon’s gender, seniority, clinical setting, and surgical experience also factor into the decision. Physical and Psychological Aftereffects Women having abdominal hysterectomies tend to experience higher rates of intraoperative and postoperative complications, typically urinary tract or wound infections (or much less commonly hemorrhage or injury to other organs), than women having a vaginal approach. Women tend to prefer a vaginal approach or LAVH over an abdominal approach for aesthetic reasons and because of the speedier recovery. A woman can recover at home after a one-day hospital stay, and is typically able to return to normal activities after two to three weeks. However, performing an LAVH requires additional surgical training, more time and equipment in the operating room, and thus is more costly to perform than a vaginal hysterectomy. During the late 20th century, the dramatic rise in the number of hysterectomies for benign disease was characterized as unnecessary at best, and an example of sexual terrorism at worst. In the past, the mostly male medical establishment has been accused of abusing their power, patronizing women, and denying them autonomy in their reproductive decision-making, as exemplified by the Schoendorff case. Today, many women regard elective hysterectomies as the solution to their chronic difficulties with abdominal pain, bleeding, and other unpleasant symptoms. Advances in laparoscopic technologies, safer anesthetics and speedier recovery times, as well as higher literacy rates, women’s movement into the paid work force, and the trend toward smaller families may

account for the increasing numbers of women who accept the consequences of permanent infertility to achieve a better quality of life after a hysterectomy. Women may experience both positive and negative effects on their psychological and sexual functioning after a hysterectomy. For example, those whose symptoms of pain were relieved following surgery report improved sexual functioning because of improvements in overall health status and quality of life. Some who have completed their family or don’t want to have children report that they feel freed of worrying about unintended pregnancies and are more able to enjoy sexual activity. Those for whom a hysterectomy ended their hopes of having children were more likely to report a negative impact on their emotional and sexual well-being. Similarly, some women who had a complete hysterectomy and experienced hormonal fluctuations and persistent vaginal dryness reported less satisfactory emotional and sexual functioning. See Also: Medical Research, Gender Issues in; Menopause, Medical Aspects of; Reproductive Cancers; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Elson, Jean. Am I Still a Woman? Hysterectomy and Gender Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. Farquhar, Cynthia Margaret, Lynn Sadler, and Alistair W. Stewart. “A Prospective Study of Outcomes Five Years After Hysterectomy in Premenopausal Women.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, v.48/5 (2008). Lombardo, Paul A. “Phantom Tumors and Hysterical Women: Revising Our View of the Schoendorff Case.” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, v.33/4 (2005). O’Toole, Laura L., Jessica R. Schiffman, and Marge L. Kiter Edwards, eds. Gender Violence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Spilsbury, K. J.B. Semmens, I. Hammond, and A. Bolck. “Persistent High Rates of Hysterectomy in Western Australia: A Population-Based Study of 83,000 Procedures Over 23 Years.” BJOGL: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, v.113/7 (2006). Diana L. Gustafson Memorial University, St. John’s

I Iceland Iceland is the westernmost European nation and one of the world’s least densely populated countries, with most of the population in the southwestern urban areas. The dominant ethnic group is Icelandic (Nordic-Celtic) and the dominant religion is Evangelical Lutheran, which is the state church. Icelandic women enjoy a high standard of living, a comprehensive state welfare system, high educational attainment, and more gender equality than most women in other countries. Most women work, although there is still a gender gap in wages. Women have attained the highest political offices. Iceland was first of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. The average age at marriage is 31, and women continue to use their maiden names after marriage. The 2009 fertility rate was two births per woman. Out-ofwedlock childbirths are common and carry no social or legal stigma. The 2009 infant mortality rate was very low at 2 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate was 4 per 100,000 live births. Women receive three months of paid maternity leave at 80 percent of their wages, paid by the state social security system. Parenting and childrearing classes are common and most parents attend. Many families use day care centers to care for their children while they’re at work as most parents work outside the home. Education is compulsory from ages 7 to 16 and almost all people complete the primary level. Stu-

dents in remote areas alternate weeks at boarding schools with weeks at home during the academic year. Preschool, general and technical secondary schools, vocational schools, and universities also are available. Female school enrollment rates stood at 97 percent for the primary level, 92 percent at the secondary level, and 96 percent at the tertiary level. Education at the third level for men was only 52 percent. On average, children attend school for 17.6 years. The 2009 literacy rate was among the highest in the world at 100 percent for both genders. Standard of Living Icelandic women enjoy a high standard of living, good health, minimal crime rates, an egalitarian society with little discrimination, and a comprehensive welfare state. Benefits include pensions, medical coverage, sickness and maternity benefits, and government subsidized housing. The state medical system is modern and well funded. Problems include high prices for imported staple goods such as food and gasoline, alcoholism, and domestic violence. Increasing awareness of violence against women has resulted in better enforcement and harsher criminal penalties for reported cases. Life expectancy in 2009 was high at age 74 for women and age 72 for men. Many women work outside the home, with 83 percent of women participating in the labor force in 2009. Women comprise half of the paid nonagricultural labor force and 56 percent of professional 737

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and technical workers. Women also are well represented in education and fish processing. Unemployment is low for both genders at just over 2 percent. Although women are legally required to receive equal pay, there is still a gap in the 2009 average estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which stood at $29,283 for women and $40,000 for men. There is a comprehensive subsidized day care program for working families. Women have the same legal rights as men and there is universal suffrage. In 2009, women held 43 percent of parliamentary seats and 36 percent of ministerial positions. Vigdis Finnbogadottir was Iceland’s first female president, serving from 1980 to 1996. The Women’s Party is one of Iceland’s main political parties and there is a special women’s issue’s committee in the Equal Rights Affairs Office of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Nongovernmental organizations such as the Union of Women’s Societies also support women’s issues.

explicitly socially and fiscally conservative, and their mission states that their primary concerns include respect for limited government, free markets, strong foreign policy and national defense, and equality under the law and property rights. Although the IWF is an organization that fosters the rights of women, its positions on several contemporary issues have been labeled antifeminist by their critics. The feminist philosophy of the IWF is described as “equity feminism”—a term coined by IWF board member Christina Hoff Sommers. Sommers, born in New York in 1950, is an American author best known for her 1994 book Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women. Her notion of equity feminism focuses on the fight for equal civil rights and legal equality. Sommers also critiques most contemporary popular feminism that highlights differences in gender and claims victim status for women, and she is critical of most research showing women to be disadvantaged by patriarchy in any way.

See Also: Equal Pay; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Heads of State, Female.

Public Campaigns and Education The IWF has constructed numerous public campaigns that promote their philosophy. One current project designed and implemented by the IWF is called the Women for School Choice Program. The goal of the program is to educate the public on the benefits of school choice through school voucher programs or education tax credit programs. In support of this program, the IWF has circulated petitions in support of general school choice and publicized the work of other groups in promoting this issue. The IWF also has a campus program sustained through the IWF’s R. Gaull Silverman Center for Collegiate Studies. The mission statement of the Silberman Center is to dispel what they consider to be a “myth” circulated on college campuses that men are dangerous to women and that women are victims of men. In recent years, research published by the IWF has argued that the wage gap between men and women is a result of individual choices of men and women, rather than professional discrimination against women. Other research has argued that current Title IX enforcement designed to protect women’s athletics in schools has institutionalized discrimination against men in collegiate sport. These positions have been highly criticized by other feminist researchers.

Further Readings: Einarsdottir, Thorgerdur. “Women in Iceland: Strong Women-Myths and Contradictions.” In Janet Mancini Billson and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, eds., Female Well-Being: Towards a Global Theory of Social Change. London: Zed Books, 2005. Hepburn, Stephanie, and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Lacy, Terry G. Ring of Seasons: Iceland—Its Culture and History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Independent Women’s Forum The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) is a nonpartisan 403(b)(3) organization for research and education that is dedicated to domestic and foreign issues that affect women. Formed in 1992, the group is

India



The current president and chief executive officer of the IWF is journalist Michelle Bernard. Current members of the board of directors for the IWF include notable conservatives such as Heather Higgins and Lynne V. Cheney. The IWF continues its work on domestic issues that affect women, and they have expanded their programs to include Iraq and Afghanistan. The IWF maintains an active Website that serves as a clearinghouse for news and events of interest to IWF members. Membership requires dues and can be obtained through the Website. See Also: Antifeminism; Feminism, American; Feminism on College Campuses. Further Readings Bernard, Michelle. Women’s Progress: How Women Are Wealthier, Healthier, and More Independent Than Ever Before. Dallas, TX: Spence, 2007. Independent Womens Forum. http://www.iwf.org (accessed June 2010). Sommers, Christina Hoff. Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Jennifer Adams DePauw University

India The status and condition of women in India reflects the cultural and economic diversity of the country. Gender-related indicators of development show that women fare better in southern than in northern India. To counter population growth, the need to increase women’s access to healthcare and education is now increasingly viewed as more effective than simple fertility control techniques. Discriminations linked to religion, caste, and tribal identity exacerbate the consequences of gender-based inequalities and this has led to a range of women’s organizations playing an active role in reshaping legal and societal norms. Demographic Characteristics A skewed sex ratio is one significant indicator of gender inequality in India. According to the 2001 cen-

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sus, the overall sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 men) is 933, reaching a high of 1,058 in the southern state of Kerala and a low of 861 in the northern state of Haryana. A strong son preference can be held responsible for this situation. The sex ratio for rural India is 946 compared to 900 in urban India, reflecting the migration of men to cities and the gender-specific consequences of rural underdevelopment. As the second most populous country in the world, India has been the target of a number of national and international population control programs. Policies focused exclusively on controlling the fertility of women have been widely criticized as negatively impacting women’s health and leading to further social disempowerment. Women’s access to healthcare is especially urgent as relatively high infant mortality rates (54.3 per 1,000 live births under 1 year) and maternal mortality ratios (450 deaths per 100,000 live births) continue to characterize India. There is also a need to invest in women’s education, given that the women’s literacy rate for India as a whole is 54 percent, ranging from 73 percent in urban areas to 46 percent in rural areas. In contrast, the literacy rate for men is 75 percent, ranging from 86 percent in urban areas to 71 percent in rural areas. Social and Cultural Issues India’s secular constitution guarantees equal rights irrespective of religious persuasion. Most of the population is Hindu (81 percent according to the 2001 census), but there is also a substantial Muslim population (13 percent), with a smaller number of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians (Parsis), and Jews. A uniform civil code that would ensure that women’s marital and inheritance rights do not vary by religion has become a controversial issue, since it could infringe on minority rights. The caste system within Hinduism is a principal component of social inequalities. Tribal or indigenous communities across central India and in the northeastern states constitute yet another site of cultural difference and social inequality. Social discriminations are sought to be addressed through reservations in education and employment for officially designated Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Violence faced by women in their marital homes is of significant concern. The inability to provide sufficient dowry to the husband’s family is often the cause of such

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Women attending a wedding ceremony in India. From the lavish clothing to the mendhi body art to the religious chanting, everything in a Hindu wedding ceremony follows age-old traditions, and the celebrations can last for days.

violence, even since dowries were officially banned in 1961. Matriarchal communities in parts of northeast and southern India serve as arguments against viewing Indian women as uniformly powerless. The divergence of tribal norms from caste Hindu strictures has often served as a pretext for the sexual exploitation of tribal women, which magnifies the security risks faced by women belonging to minority cultural groups. Gendered cultural norms are often reflected in clothing styles. The most visible of these are practices of veiling, with such customs usually strictly followed in northern India, especially by married women, while largely nonexistent in southern India. Notions of modesty, however, are also becoming more attuned to Western fashions with the globalization of Indian society, especially through beauty contests. Women in Government and Social Movements India is a parliamentary democracy and equal rights for women were enshrined in India’s constitution from the outset. But the translation of legal norms into societal values has continued to be a matter of struggle, and a range of feminist and women’s organizations have proved equal to this challenge. Even as the women’s movements in India cannot be considered integrated at the national level, its diversity ensures the availabil-

ity of political forums for women’s varied interests. India has had a female prime minister (Indira Gandhi), but only 8 percent of India’s parliament consisted of women in 2007 and attempts to reserve seats in Parliament for women have so far been unsuccessful. The symbolic representation of the country as Bharat Mata (Mother India) during the independence struggle has not shielded women from bearing the brunt of political violence. The British-led partition of India and Pakistan at independence in 1947 was followed by religious violence and the specific targeting of women during this phase as well as in more recent episodes of communal violence is being documented. Religious tensions continue to be inflamed by the Hindu right-wing movement, led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers Organization), which has consolidated power at the national level through its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People’s Party). The RSS also has a women’s wing, the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti (National Women Volunteers Committee). India has recently become the target of terrorist attacks, partly due to the disputed northern region of Kashmir and partly due to the rise of Islamic terrorist organizations in south Asia. The gendered consequences of terrorism, however, have yet to be documented.



Women in Rural and Urban Economies India is predominantly rural, with over 72 percent of the population residing in rural areas and 58 percent of its workers in the agricultural sector. Women’s work participation rate was 31 percent in rural areas and 11 percent in urban areas according to the 2001 census, again distinctly lagging behind rates of 52 percent and 51 percent for men in rural and urban areas, respectively. Actual rates of women’s participation, however, are likely to be higher, since women’s work is often ignored as domestic work, and women’s participation in the informal urban economy cannot be accurately estimated. The shift from quasi-socialist to neoliberal economic policies in the 1990s has put further pressure on women in low-income households as state-led social programs have declined. Women’s economic and social powerlessness is often reflected in lack of formal ownership rights, even as laws are being enacted to ensure that wives and daughters become eligible for a share in family property. According to the World Bank, only 17.3 percent of India’s women worked in the nonagricultural sector in 2007. In terms of agricultural development, while the green revolution has been criticized for the marginalization of women’s agricultural and environmental knowledge, women’s participation has been a key component of the success of the white revolution in dairy development. Women’s relative absence in the formal industrial and service sectors should, however, be juxtaposed with their participation in the urban informal economy. The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) has been prominently associated with organizing informal women workers. The recent rise of an information technology sector is likely to have provided more jobs for women, but is biased toward women from the urban, literate classes. Overall, women’s development in India is likely to be dependent on the state’s support for women’s rights and the efforts of activists to provide recognition for women’s economic roles. See Also: Bollywood; Hinduism; Kali for Women: Feminist Publishing in India; Marriages, Arranged. Further Readings Agarwal, B. A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

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Butalia, U. The Other Side of Silence: Voices From the Partition of India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Kapadia, K., Ed. The Violence of Development: The Politics of Identity, Gender and Social Inequalities in India. New Delhi, India: Kali for Women, 2002. Sarkar, T. Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. Pratyusha Basu University of South Florida

Indigenous Religions, Global The category indigenous religions denotes religions practiced by peoples with ancestral or longstanding cultural ties to local places. Despite the persistence of the category world religion and its identification with or denotation of particularly widespread religions (Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism), indigenous religions need not be read either in contrast to “world religions” or in isolation from those traditions. In fact, indigenous religions are global traditions in at least two senses: first, indigenous peoples practicing traditional religions live on every inhabited continent, literally around the globe; and second, the diversity of indigenous peoples, whose cultures and religions reflect their engagement with myriad local environments, reflects the stunning heterogeneity of human societies. Contact, colonialism, and their consequences complicate the picture of indigenous religions today. Because of forced relocation, diasporic growth or immigration, an indigenous person’s ties to place, culture, and people may be less direct today than in the past. Nevertheless, indigenous peoples—and women, in particular—continue practicing and passing on their cultural traditions, whether at home or abroad. In fact, distance from local lands and ancestral peoples has created space for creative restorations, revivals, and reinventions of indigenous religions around the world. Indigenous Religions as Global Traditions Indigenous religions are practiced on every inhabited continent, even though indigenous peoples comprise

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a minority (approximately 4 percent) of the global population. In contrast to world religions that have expanded through missionary activity, colonial imposition, emigration and/or diasporic movement, indigenous religions tend to be rooted in specific communities and their surrounding landscapes. As such, their focuses tend to be more local and less universalizing. Further, to separate “religion” from “daily life” when speaking of indigenous communities creates a false dichotomy foreign to most indigenous peoples’ conceptions of their purpose in and movement through the world. Indigenous religions conceive of the world as a unified whole in which humanity’s place within the environment, as a members of its fauna responsible for its flora, lies suspended in a delicate balance maintained through respectful exchanges, ritual vigilance, and holistic interactions with the planet and its inhabitants. Although indigenous peoples have various names for “the world” in their native languages, scholars attuned to the differences between indigenous and Western worldviews refer to indigenous outlooks using terms like life-world, lifeway, and cosmovision. These terms acknowledge indigenous peoples’ conceptual and perceptual integration of human, animal, and plant life, with features of the natural and built environment. For example, “cosmovision,” a term that derives from the work of historians of religions and arises in the work of scholars studying indigenous Mexican religions, recognizes the mutual (in)formation of the human body with the landscape and multiple senses of time in the Mesoamerican conception of the universe. Images like the frontispiece of the Codex Fejérváry Mayer encapsulate the precontact Central Mexican cosmovision through their simultaneous presentation of the ritual body, sacred structures, and calendric time. Contemporary Latina writers, artists, and performers, like Gloria Anzaldua, Norma Alarcón and Cherríe Moraga, emphasize bodily, spatial, and temporal experiences as significant, if not sacred, in their contemporary (re)interpretations of inherited cosmovisions. Like the terms life-world and lifeway, the term cosmovision serves not as a simple alternative to or synonym for “worldview,” but as an intentional marker of the conceptual, existential, and ontological differences between Western worldviews shaped by the European Enlightenment and indigenous perspectives on the world and its societies.

The Postcontact Persistence of Indigenous Religions Despite the interruption and destruction of colonial powers’ presences in indigenous communities from the 15th century through today, indigenous religions continue to be practiced all over the world. Some indigenous communities succumbed to colonial forces, while others suffered traumatic relocation, assimilation, or acculturation. Many indigenous peoples resisted total assimilation by maintaining traditional beliefs and practices in secret or under the guise of colonial religion. These modes of indigeneity persist today; for example, in Cuba female and male practitioners of Santería (santeras and santeros) venerate orishas, who manifest African (Yoruban) deities as Catholic saints; a priest opens the Wahgi pig-killing festival, an indigenous ritual of generosity among Polynesian polities, with a Christian invocation; and Catholic pilgrims to Chalma, Mexico, gaze upon a “Black Christ” whose dark skin betrays the sacrality of blackness in indigenous Mexican belief systems. Each of these examples of contemporary indigenous religious practices reveals the process of transculturation, a term coined by Fernando Ortiz that describes the exchanges that take place in cultural contact zones. Through the process of transculturation, indigenous peoples (and other colonial subjects) exert agency as they adopt and reject aspects of the dominating culture and its practices. For example, native Amerindians living near Chalma in the colonial period were active agents in the cultural (and likely literal) construction of the Catholic Church and its Christ, whose black body signified the sacred, much like the blackened bodies that their precontact priests once had. Despite the eventual removal and replacement of the original “Black Christ” with a lighter-toned Christ, contemporary pilgrims to Chalma continue to recognize and refer to the Christ as “black,” demonstrating the persistence of indigenous concepts in Mexican Catholicism today. Transculturation facilitates the continuation of indigenous practices as indigenous peoples selectively (re) appropriate foreign religious concepts and activities to suit local needs and ancestral traditions. Additionally, syncretic processes like transculturation blur the boundaries between indigenous and nonindigenous traditions.



Beyond the reach of the outside world—that is to say, beyond identifiable syncretisms of the colonial period and those that continue to arise through global exchanges of technology and information—indigenous people keep secrets. Rigoberta Menchú stated this fact clearly in her 1983 testimony on the war against Guatemalan Indians, who despite comprising the country’s majority population, found themselves and their cultures in peril: “Indians have been very careful not to disclose any details of their communities, and the community does not allow them to talk about Indian things. I too must abide by this.” For Menchú and other indigenous women and men, secret-keeping relates directly to religion. Indigenous peoples keep secrets about their traditions to safeguard them, and secret-keeping functions as an active form of resistance, repair, and regeneration in indigenous communities. Further, it serves as a pointed reminder that indigenous communities protect precious knowledge and customs, and so some elements of indigenous life remain inaccessible to cultural or religious outsiders. Indigenous Women as Active Agents in Indigenous Religions Indigenous women play foundational roles in their religions. In fact, many indigenous religions attribute their mythohistorical foundations to women’s (pro) creative and generative activities. Creation myths told by the Nuer, a group indigenous to the Sudan, identify women’s sexual desire as the demise of immortality, and in one Maori account of cosmic origins, Papa’s intimate embrace of her partner Rangi occasioned their childrens’ rebellion and the subsequent separation of their bodies into the Earth and sky. In addition to inspiring sacred stories, women’s sexuality and fecundity also give rise to and occasion for rituals and rites that recognize transitions between phases in life. For example, Inés M. Talamantez describes the persistent presence of Isanaklesh, the Apache female deity and source of medicinal knowledge, in Mescalero girls’ initiation rites and women’s dreams. Despite the intrusion of Christianity into the Mescalero Apache community and its acceptance by some, Isanaklesh Gotal, an initiation ceremony that ritualizes girls’ first menses, continues to be practiced as an important rite of passage for many young women. During the ritual, the young woman performs a series of rites over the course of four days, through which she embodies Isanaklesh

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and so experiences the deity’s power and wisdom. The experiential quality of the ritual helps Apache women maintain and transmit Isanaklesh Gotal, meaning both the ritual and its concomitant experience of the deity, to their daughters and granddaughters. (A National Geographic video available online documents one young Apache woman’s initiation ritual.) The fact that Mescalero Apache women continue to practice Isanaklesh Gotal despite relocation, colonialism, and (in some cases) conversion, serves as one demonstration of the vitality and persistence of women’s roles in indigenous religious traditions. Indigenous Women in the Diaspora Contemporary indigenous people living in diasporic circumstances sustain their traditions through processes of restoration, reconstruction, and reimagining. Indigenous women, who transplant ancestral traditions to their new surroundings, comingle traditional practices with those they encounter in their new contexts or initiate new religious movements, facilitate creative transferrals and revivals of their native religions. In the 1990s, Karen McCarthy Brown’s work with Mama Lola, a Haitian Voodoo priestess living in Brooklyn, raised public awareness and understanding of both indigenous Caribbean religions and of their existence—even proliferation—outside their native boundaries. (Of course Mama Lola’s tradition, Haitian Vodou, reflects prior processes of reconstruction and reimagining stemming from cultural contact among Caribbean islanders, Africans and Europeans in Haiti.) Mama Lola’s stories and experiences, including ecstatic union with or mounting by Vodou spirits, reveal many (though not all) of the ways in which her religion adapts to the lives of its practitioners. McCarthy Brown recounts how Mama Lola (re)appropriates principles of correspondence embedded in Haitian Vodou to understand and interpret the experiences she and others have in Brooklyn. Mama Lola’s integrative practice—Haitian Voodoo that recognizes Hindu deities, African spirits and nontraditional entities without hesitation—exemplifies contemporary indigenous women’s abilities to live in multiple worlds: the worlds of their ancestral traditions and the worlds of their contemporaries. Indigenous women (and men) are not isolated from globalization; indigenous peoples living in the western hemisphere have not been since at least the 15th

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century, and those residing in many other regions since much earlier. Rather, indigenous women have found and continue to find themselves in mediating roles: mediating among individuals within their cultures, mediating between the ordinary and extraordinary worlds, and mediating between their communities and outsiders. Like Rigoberta Menchú, Mama Lola and other women practicing indigenous traditions, whether locally or diasporically, find themselves in positions of power within and on the borders of their communities. Contemporary indigenous women expand and may even explode traditional understandings of both “indigenous” and “world” as the terms relate to religions, because they embody globalism in constantly transforming and transformative (life)ways. See Also: Indigenous Women’s Issues; Native American Religion; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Carrasco, Davíd. Religions of Mesoamerica. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. Falk, N. A. and R. M. Gross. Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2001. McCarthy Brown, K. Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Menchú, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. London: Verso, 1983. National Geographic. “Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage.” http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/index.html (accessed October 2010). Peterson, J. F. “Perceiving Blackness, Envisioning Power: Chalma and Black Christs in Early Colonial Mexico.” In D. Leibsohn, et al., eds., Seeing Across Cultures. New York: Ashgate, Forthcoming. Molly H. Bassett Georgia State University

Indigenous Women’s Issues It is estimated that there are nearly 400 million indigenous people comprising 5,000 distinct peoples spread across 70 countries worldwide. They retain social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which

they live. They are the descendants of those indigenous people who originally inhabited a country or a geographical region. Later migrants became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement, or other means. The international community has not yet adopted a definition of indigenous peoples and the prevailing view today is that no formal universal definition is necessary for the recognition and protection of their rights. Indigenous peoples around the world seek recognition of their specific collective rights, such as their identities, their ways of life, and their right to traditional lands, territories, and natural resources; yet throughout history, their rights have been violated. Indigenous peoples are arguably among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of people in the world today. Indigenous women are often the most marginalized. In many cases, indigenous women are doubly discriminated against due to their ethnicity and their gender. This results in indigenous women being worse off than indigenous men and nonindigenous women. They endure higher incidences of preventable diseases, gender-based violence, and socioeconomic discrimination. The rate of maternal mortality is alarmingly high among indigenous women. The issue of trafficking of indigenous women and girls is also notable. Discrimination in employment and occupation affects indigenous men and women differently. Many indigenous women have less access to training, are more affected by unemployment and underemployment, and are more often involved in non-remunerated or less remunerated work. They have less access to administrative and leadership positions. They experience worse working conditions such as longer work hours and poor health and safety standards. They often have to seek employment far away from their communities. They are subject to discriminatory cultural practices that, for example, inhibit the education of the girl-child or prevent women from inheriting land or participating in decision-making processes. International Instruments Related to Indigenous Women For the last 20 years, the international community has recognized that special measures are required to protect the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples. As a result, a number of international instruments address indigenous peoples’ rights or include provisions relevant to them.



A 2010 Brazilian National Health Foundation study found an alarming growth of diseases among indigenous women.

The main legally binding documents entirely focused on the rights of indigenous peoples are International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention (No. 107) of 1957 and an updated instrument, Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of 1989. The United Nations (UN) Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) provide provisions for the protection specifically of indigenous women. In a historic decision, the General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on September 13, 2007. The ILO has been concerned with indigenous and tribal peoples in their role as workers like any others. Protection is critical in cases where those peoples are expelled from their ancestral domains to become seasonal, migrant, bonded, or home-based laborers and are thereby exposed to the forms of labor exploitation

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covered by the ILO mandate. The ILO Convention No. 169 provides that indigenous women and men are equal in rights and adopts special measures to ensure the effective protection of these peoples with regard to recruitment and conditions of employment. With regard to indigenous women workers, there is a provision, which is unique in international law, that addresses sexual harassment and abuses of indigenous people. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action provides that the UN Country Teams (UNCTs) emphasize gender issues across all program activities dealing with indigenous peoples (paragraph 32); and Beijing Platform for Action provides that UNCTs emphasize explicit program components on indigenous women’s rights and empowerment of indigenous women at both formal (i.e., laws, policies) and informal (i.e., customs and cultural factors) levels (paragraph 34). The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples on a wide range of issues, provides that indigenous women and men are equal in rights, and calls upon Member States to ensure that indigenous women and children enjoy full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence and discrimination (articles 21 and 22). The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the General Assembly on December 18, 1979, does not specifically address indigenous women. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, however, has paid special attention to the situation of indigenous women as particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged groups such as in the General Recommendation No. 24 of 1999 (Women and Health). Indigenous women have been active in the global women’s movement since its inception and have played leadership roles in processes that yielded progress. Yet, indigenous women have often been marginalized within the broader movement for women’s human rights, which tends to stress the universality of women’s oppression at the expense of recognizing differences in the forms and subjective experiences of that oppression. Indigenous women also believe that many non-indigenous women, as colonizers, have hardly come to terms with oppression of indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women. In response,

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indigenous women have been working in the international arena to articulate their own perspective on women’s human rights. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminaion Against Women; Indigenous Religions, Global; Indigenous Women’s Rights, Bolivia. Further Readings Daes, Erica and Irene A. “Protection of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights.” In J. Symonides, ed., Human Rights: Concept and Standards, Dartmouth, UK: Ashgate-UNESCO, 2000. International Labour Organization (ILO). “Eliminating Discrimination Against Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Employment and Occupation: A Guide to ILO Convention, No. 111.” Geneva: International Labor Standards Department, 2007. United Nations Commission on Human Rights. “Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Indigenous Peoples and Minorities. Working Paper on Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples. E/CN.4/ Sub.2/2001/2, 18 August 2001.” http://www.unhchr .ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/(Symbol)/E.CN.4.Sub.2.2 001.2.En?Opendocument (accessed June 2010). United Nations Development Group. “Guidelines on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues.” (2008). http://www2.ohchr .org/english/issues/indigenous/docs/guidelines.pdf (accessed June 2010). K. Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Indigenous Women’s Rights, Bolivia Bolivia is among the poorest and least-developed Latin American countries. It has a large indigenous population composed of groups such as Quechua and Aymara. Bolivia shares the Latin American culture of machismo and historically based gender and ethnic prejudices. Indigenous women are most affected by the resultant poverty, low educational attainment, economic inequality, unemployment, low skills and wages, poor healthcare, violence against women, and ethnic and gender discrimination. Grassroots indigenous and

women’s organizations have risen since the late 1970s to challenge discriminatory laws. Key areas in the struggle for indigenous women’s rights include land redistribution and titles and political representation. Indigenous women’s rights activists seek to improve their quality of life. Most indigenous women in Bolivia live in poverty in rural areas or urban slums. They face limited access to basic education and healthcare, high birth rates, little prenatal care, high death rates during pregnancy and childbirth, and limited access to abortions and contraceptives. Many are illiterate or do not speak Spanish. Many begin working as children out of economic necessity; hold unskilled, low-paying jobs; and face sexual harassment and other forms of gender discrimination. Domestic violence is widespread. Those who cannot afford the travel or cost of a national identity card are excluded from much employment and political participation. Indigenous women were traditionally excluded from landownership, and many family plots were too small for sustainable agriculture. Grassroots Organizations Many indigenous women work for their rights within grassroots women’s organizations. Their goals include basic needs, indigenous sovereignty, land redistribution, and the reappropriation of natural resources. Women began collectively organizing in the 1980s, when the Federation of Peasant Women was formed within the larger peasant movement. The Bartolina Sisa National Federation of Bolivian Peasant Women is the country’s largest indigenous women’s organization, with over 100,000 members. Other notable nongovernmental organizations include the National Confederation of Indigenous Women of Bolivia, MADRE, the International Indigenous Women’s Forum, and local neighborhood councils. Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism, was elected in 2006 on a platform that emphasized land redistribution (particularly to women), indigenous rights, and gender parity in government. His land redistribution program granted 10,300 property titles to women between 2006 and 2008—numbers much higher than those achieved by previous administrations. It is more difficult to measure women’s benefits in the many indigenous communities where land was collectively titled. Indigenous women have also worked within the larger women’s rights movement to gain greater polit-

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ical representation, although they are still underrepresented. Morales also implemented constitutional reforms in 2009 that gave indigenous communities greater self-government and sought gender equality in government. Women have slowly increased their percentage of parliamentary seats and ministerial positions. Other advancements include the Law Against Domestic and Family Violence and the Victims of Crimes against Sexual Freedom protections. Protection of political rights is lower at the local level. See Also: Bolivia; Indigenous Women’s Issues; MADRE. Further Readings Kellogg, S. Weaving the Past: A History of Latin America’s Indigenous Women From the Prehispanic Period to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Leon, Rosario. “Bartolina Sisa: The Peasant Women’s Organization in Bolivia.” In Elizabeth Jelin, et al., eds., Women and Social Change in Latin America. London: Zed, 1990. Mickelwait, Donald R. Women in Rural Development: A Survey of the Roles of Women in Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya, Nigerria, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru. Jackson, TN: Westview, 1976. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Indonesia The Republic of Indonesia is populated by several hundred different ethnic groups, the largest of which includes the Javanese and Sudanese. The predominant religion is Muslim although there are numerous others practiced. Women’s social and political positions are generally considered high for a mainly Muslim nation but they still face traditional cultural expectations of subservience. One sign of advancement is that Indonesia recently had a female head of state. Overall, though, the living and working conditions for women vary by region and ethnic group. The sex trade is a major problem hindering women’s advancement in this country, the world’s fourth most populous nation. Indonesia ranked 93rd of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report.

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Indonesians generally marry and there is great family and social pressure to do so. Children do not gain full adult status in the eyes of most citizens until they marry and become parents. Most Indonesians marry within their own ethnic groups. The decision of marriage partner can be based on a number of different factors, including descent, love, socioeconomic status, or potential for family advancement. Indonesians generally marry when they’re in their early 20s. Different ethnicities have different divorce and remarriage practices range from strict to liberal. The divorce customs of many traditional societies as well as the Muslim population favor the husband over the wife. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.2 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend 66 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 26 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate was 420 per 100,000 live births. Employers provide women with three months of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages. A child’s citizenship comes only through the father and not the mother. There is a national family planning program due to the problem of overpopulation, especially in Java and the larger urban areas. To combat the nation’s uneven populations, Indonesia has a program to resettle people from crowded to less crowded areas within the nation. Nearly 6 in 10 (58 percent) of married women use contraceptives. Nuclear Families Kinship and family obligations are culturally emphasized and provide important systems of social support. Most families are nuclear and reside in rural areas. Among the matrilineal Minangkabau society, households are segregated by gender and husbands are visitors in their wives’ homes. Men are traditionally family and community leaders and make most major decisions. Marriage laws view the husband as head of household. Women maintain the home and instill family values. Men, elders, and guests are shown deference. Although rules of etiquette vary among different ethnic groups, there are rarely public displays of affection between members of the opposite sex. There is domestic violation legislation, but it is still a key social problem. The public education system is poor and many university-level students study abroad. Female school attendance rates stand at 93 percent at the primary level, 68 percent at the secondary level, and 17 percent

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Javanese tea leaf pickers working at a tea plantation in Java, Indonesia. Both men and women in Indonesia are employed in rural village agriculture, a field in which most of the population is employed.

at the tertiary level. There is a gender gap in literacy rates, which are 87 percent for females compared to 95 percent for males. Functional literacy is limited in many rural areas. Urban residents face overcrowding, limited access to clean water and poor sanitation. Both the urban and rural poor populations lack adequate nutrition. Rural residents commonly endure annual periods of hunger as the harvest approaches. There is a lack of basic infrastructure in many areas and no social security or unemployment insurance. Life expectancy stands at 59 for women and 57 for men. Modern healthcare facilities and midwifery centers are limited and concentrated in urban areas while traditional medicine and spiritual healing predominate in rural communities. The minority Chinese population, which controls over half of the nation’s wealth, faces restrictive regulations, discrimination and periodic violence. Trafficking in women and children for the sex trade is a major issue. Both men and women participate in rural village agriculture, which represents most of the Indone-

sian workforce. Harvest groups are often segregated by gender. Women are left to tend to rural farms and gardens when men go on extended hunting or fishing expeditions or travel to the cities in search of employment. More than half, 55 percent, of women participate in the labor force, comprising 31 percent of paid nonagricultural workers and 42 percent of professional and technical workers. Urban women are employed in stores and markets, trade and small industries. Women comprise 58 percent of teachers at the primary level, 49 percent at the secondary level, and 41 percent at the tertiary level. A gender gap still exists in terms of average estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which stands at $2,179 for women and $4,729 for men. Unemployment rates, which are higher for women than men, stand at 10.76 percent for women and 8.1 percent for men. Women’s Rights Women have the right to vote. Although women hold a variety of political positions, men still dominate all

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levels of politics. Megawati Sukarnoputri served as the first female president from 2001 to 2004. Women hold 17 percent of parliamentary seats and 11 percent of ministerial positions. There is a governmental Ministry of Women’s Affairs. There has been a long presence of nongovernmental organizations in Indonesian urban areas but they face government restrictions and funding difficulties. Examples of women’s groups include the Indonesian Women’s Congress, the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association, the Council of Muslim Women’s Organizations, the Association of Women of the Republic of Indonesia, and the Indonesian National Commission on the Status of Women. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Heads of State, Female; Overpopulation; Rural Women. Further Readings: Hepburn, S. and R. J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Martyn, Elizabeth. Women’s Movement in Postcolonial Indonesia: Gender and Nation in a New Democracy. New York: Routledge, 2004. Tantri, K. Revolt in Paradise: One Woman’s Fight for Freedom in Indonesia. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1989. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Infant Mortality Infant mortality refers to deaths during the first year of life. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the standard way of measuring infant deaths. Significant declines in infant mortality began in wealthy countries with the industrial revolution and have occurred since World War II in the developing world. These declines have significant implications for women’s changing gender roles and status in the 21st century. Infant mortality is typically measured using the IMR. This is calculated by dividing the number of deaths to infants under age one by the number of live births in that population multiplied by 1,000. The IMR thus refers to the number of babies out of every 1,000 who die before reaching the age of 1.

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Humans are the most fragile in the earliest stages of life. Because infant deaths are highest in the first weeks of life, infant mortality is often divided into several more specific measures. Neonatal mortality is the number of deaths (per live births, per 1,000 population) in the first 28 days of life. This can be further subdivided into early neonatal mortality (during the first week of life) and late neonatal mortality (deaths from 8 through 28 days). Postneonatal mortality refers to all infant deaths from 29 days through 1 year. (Thus, the neonatal mortality rate added to the postneonatal mortality rate is equal to the infant mortality rate.) Within wealthier countries in particular, variation in neonatal mortality is a good measure of quality of hospital care for young infants. Because mortality is highest in the first year of life, infant mortality is the most sensitive measure of mortality. It is a good way of gauging differences in the quality of life between countries or between groups within a country. Historical Change in Infant Mortality Infant mortality rates dropped dramatically over the past several centuries. In the developed countries, significant declines in infant mortality began with the industrial revolution. In London, for example, some estimates indicate that in the early 1700s, nearly threequarters of children died before the age of 5. Only a century later, this had fallen to less than a third. These declines continued throughout the 20th century. As an illustration, out of every 1,000 babies born in the United States today, more will survive to be 65 years old than survived to be 1 year old in 1900. In developing countries, the declines in infant mortality were much more recent. Most of the change began with the exportation of Western sanitation, agricultural techniques, and medical technology after World War II. In 1950, the average infant mortality rate in less developed countries was 170.5. By 2000, it had dropped to 60.5, and it is predicted to decline to 17.2 by the middle of the 21st century. In some parts of the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the decline in infant mortality was slowed by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic. Differential Mortality Rates Just as infant mortality has changed and will continue to change over time, levels of infant mortality vary both

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between and within countries. When looking at international variation, poorer nations have much higher rates of infant mortality than do richer nations. Data in the first decade of the 21st century (2009) show a range of infant mortality rates from a low of 2.5 in Bermuda to a high of 180.2 in Angola. The way to interpret this number is that in Bermuda, only 2.5 out of every 1,000 babies born (1 in 400) die in the first year of life. In contrast, in Angola, over 180 out of every 1,000 babies (nearly one in five) die before they reach the age of 1. When comparing these two extremes of the spectrum, the infant mortality rate in Angola is approximately 72 times higher than in Bermuda, but about what it was in the United States and western Europe in 1900. Prediciting Future Mortality Rates The extreme variation of infant mortality means that it is the most important component in predicting variation in life expectation at birth, another measure often used to compare quality of life. When the IMR is very high (175 or above—the rate for sub-Saharan Africa in 1950, and the rate for the United States and most of Europe in the 19th century), life expectancy at birth is around 40. When infant mortality declines to about 100 deaths per 1,000 live births (sub-Saharan Africa today), life expectancy is closer to 50. The first half of the 21st century will see continued declines in infant mortality, particularly in developing countries. While the differentials between countries will diminish, they will not disappear. Using the same two examples of extreme cases, it is projected that by 2050, the infant mortality rate in Bermuda will remain at 2.5. In Angola, it is projected to drop from the current rate of 180.2 to 88.7, still some 35 times the rate in Bermuda. In countries with very high infant mortality, dehydration and diarrhea are common causes of infant death. Lack of drinkable water and inadequate diet, combined with inadequate access to medical care, are a dangerous combination leading to high infant mortality. One very promising solution has been oral rehydration therapy, in which inexpensive solutions of water, sugars, and salts can reduce deaths due to diarrhea. However, this does not solve the greater problems of extreme poverty and lack of basic sanitation, food, water, and medical care. While reducing the infant mortality rate, oral rehydration therapy shifts the leading cause of infant death to commu-

nicable diseases like pneumonia. In wealthier countries with much lower infant mortality, infant death is typically a result of premature birth and resulting low birth weight. These are correlated with lack of prenatal care, smoking, use of drugs or alcohol during pregnancy, and inadequate maternal diet. Within countries, IMRs follow predictable patterns. As with mortality at all age levels, females have lower rates of infant mortality than males. This has been true throughout history and is the case in virtually every country in the world. It is even true in countries where the status of women is very low. For example, in Afghanistan in 2009, the female IMR is 159.9, while it is 170 for male infants. One of the few exceptions to this pattern (using 2009 data) is India, where the male IMR is 49.3 and the female IMR is slightly higher at 52.4. The life expectancy at birth for women in India, however, is higher than for men (67.2 for females and 65.1 for males). The extreme consistency of the sex difference in mortality across time and space suggests a biological component. The difference in mortality occurs even before birth. At conception, the sex ratio (number of males per 100 females) is approximately 120. By birth, it tends to fall to 104–106 in countries around the world. A recent exception can be found in China, where the combination of a one-child policy, preference for a male child, and sex-selective abortion have resulted in a higher sex ratio at birth—reaching 118 by 2005. Infant mortality also varies by social status. As income, the status of occupations, and education increase, infant mortality decreases. This finding is far from recent. Indeed, John Graunt conducted the earliest statistical analysis of population data in 1662. He examined mortality information in London and demonstrated that infant mortality was higher in poor sections of the city than it was in better-off neighborhoods. Similarly, disadvantaged racial and ethnic populations tend to have higher infant mortality than other groups. Data from a wide range of countries show higher infant mortality rates among indigenous groups or racial/ethnic groups that experience social inequality. Mortality Decline and Women’s Status Declines in infant mortality (and mortality in general) have significant implications for the gender roles and the status of women. When infant mortality is high,

Infanticide



there is significant pressure for women to marry, often at an early age. Once married, there is cultural and social pressure to begin having children shortly after marriage, and ultimately, to have more children. High infant mortality requires higher fertility to ensure that enough children survive to adulthood to work in the family economy, continue the family line, and care for the parents in their old age. In cultures where there is a strong preference for a male child, this pressure is even greater. All projections about future change in the infant mortality rate suggest that it will continue to decline in countries throughout the world. Changes will be greatest in poorer countries. This suggests the possibility of significant transformations in the role and status of women in a variety of cultural settings. See Also: Fertility; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; HIV/ AIDS: Africa; Life Expectancy, International Comparisons of; Prenatal Care. Further Readings Guerrant, Richard L., Benedito A. Carneiro-Filho, and Rebecca A. Dillingham. “Cholera, Diarrhea, and Oral Rehydration Therapy: Triumph and Indictment.” Clinical Infectious Diseases, v.37/3 (2003). U.S. Census Bureau. “International Data Base.” http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb (accessed November 2009). Weeks, John R. Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. Edward L. Kain Southwestern University

Infanticide Infanticide is the killing of an infant or baby who is less than 1 year old. Related terms are neonaticide and filicide. Neonaticide is a specific form of infanticide that is the murder of a newborn baby who is less than 24 hours old. Filicide is the murder of a child that may also include infants. While the killing of a child who is over the age of 1 is not infanticide per se, scholars, medical professionals, and legal experts use

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the term infanticide to describe the killing of infants and children. Many societies have practiced infanticide for a variety of reasons that include population control, eugenics movements that seek to eradicate a group of people such as those with physical disabilities, cultural norms surrounding illegitimate children, inheritance customs, poverty, and patriarchal traditions that welcome male infants and reject female babies. Infanticide is practiced in many countries but is particularly widespread in China and India. Methods include exposure, drowning, suffocation, starvation, and crushing the baby’s skull. Parents have committed infanticide because of poverty or because the baby was disabled, ill, or female. Economic reasons account for the killing of many babies. Parents who are too impoverished to care for large families commit infanticide against both male and female children. However, cultural norms regarding gender account for why female infants rather than male infants are more likely to be killed. The high cost of dowries—a custom that involves the bride’s family paying money or goods to the groom’s family—in addition to the tradition of a bride joining her husband’s family continues to perpetuate the Chinese and Indian practice of female infanticide. Contemporary infanticide in China surged after the 1979 one-child policy that limited family size to one child. While this policy was intended as a means of population control, it increased the rate of female infanticide in a society that valued sons over daughters. The introduction of reproductive technologies, such as ultrasound machines, created new means of disposing of female infants through sex-selective abortions. Yet these new technologies did not eradicate female infanticide or the cultural tradition of son preference. Like China, there is an intense preference for sons in India, particularly in northern India. Poverty alone does not account for female infanticide in India. Evidence shows that wealthy families murder their infant daughters as well. The general condition of women’s low status accounts for the phenomenon of killing female infants in India as well many other cultures that practice infanticide. In 1998, reports estimated that 10,000 female fetuses are killed every year in India. The sex ratio imbalance in India reflects the disappearance of girls.

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Infanticide in the United States In contemporary industrialized societies, particularly the United States, medical and legal professionals are the primary agents who treat the victims and reprimand the perpetrators of infanticide. This is due in part to the medicalization and legalization of social life found in most advanced capitalist societies. Unlike other societies such as China and India that practice infanticide for reasons such as family poverty or son preference, in the United States infanticide is understood vis-à-vis an amalgamation of medical and legal discourses that depict the act of infanticide as a crime against the state (or society) rather than a cultural tradition. Consequently, U.S. society treats the perpetrator of infanticide as a criminal, as well as mentally ill. Unlike cross-cultural examples of infanticide that reflect gender inequality through the prevalence of killing female infants, infanticide in the United States is significantly less sex specific. Instead, the gendered dimension of infanticide lies more with the perpetrator rather than with the victim. Worldwide, women tend to commit infanticide more often than men. This is due in part to the sexual division of labor: women are more likely to care for children and take responsibility for their livelihood than men. Therefore, medical and legal institutions tend to recognize women, not men, as the perpetrators of infanticide. In the United States, mothers who commit infanticide tend to kill older children, not infants. Another key distinction in advanced capitalist societies is the influence of the media. Television, Internet, and print media cover and often sensationalize stories of infanticide committed by mothers. Because medical and legal experts depict mothers who kill their children as disturbed, infanticide in the United States is centered on the question of what kind of mother could kill her own children. Medical typologies include explanations such as mothers who are detached, abusive, neglectful, psychotic, depressed (including but not limited to postpartum depression), drug and alcohol addicted, and survivors of abuse (physical, emotional, mental, sexual). The underlying assumption in the medical model of infanticide is that no mother in her “right” mind would possibly commit such an abominable act. Infamous Examples The following examples of Melissa Drexler, Susan Smith, and Andrea Yates show how medical and

legal experts work together to depict mothers who kill their children as criminally insane and how legal retribution for killing one’s child or children varies. Melissa Drexler is what some scholars term a pregnancy denier. These women are often young and are in denial that they are pregnant. The denial extends to their families and friends who also claim that they had no idea their daughter, sister, friend, etc., was pregnant. In June 1997, Drexler gave birth in her high school bathroom during her senior prom (and was dubbed the “prom mom” by the media) and disposed of the baby in a trash can that was later discovered by a school janitor. According to her statement to police, Drexler claimed that she did not know that she was pregnant. She was released on parole after serving three years of a 15-year murder sentence. A second example is Susan Smith, whom psychiatrists classified as psychotic with impulsive tendencies. In October 1994, Susan Smith claimed that her car had been stolen and that inside the car were her two young sons. After the police spent days searching for the car, Smith eventually confessed that she had contemplated killing herself and her children but ultimately pushed the car into a lake, killing her sons. She is currently serving a 30-year murder sentence. A third example is Andrea Yates. In June 2001, Yates drowned her five children in her bathtub. Unlike Drexler and Smith, Yates was initially diagnosed with postpartum depression (although incorrectly, she was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder). Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was remanded to a state mental hospital. These examples show the range of reactions by the legal establishment for murdering one’s children. Being Held Responsible Some scholars and healthcare professionals understand the reasons that women commit infanticide through social factors in addition to the focus on mental health status. In interviews with women who are serving prison terms for infanticide, many women were found to be held responsible for their children’s death even when the death was accidental or the consequence of an abusive relationship. For example, one single mother was sentenced for murder because she had left her children unattended in order to work so that she could support her family. When she returned from work one night, she discovered that one of her

Infertility, Incidence of



children had unintentionally started a fire while trying to cook dinner. The fire took the life of one child and she was sentenced for murder and child neglect. Another woman was in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend who is not the father of her children. The boyfriend beat one of her children to death and threatened to kill her other children if she called the police. Together, she and her boyfriend hid her dead son’s body in a crawl space in the basement. When the police discovered the body, the mother and her boyfriend were arrested. However, even though the boyfriend—who killed the child—was charged with murder, he received a lesser sentence than the mother, who was charged with homicidal facilitation. This example shows how the legal establishment holds women more responsible for murdering their children than it does men. See Also: Abortion Methods; China; India; Postpartum Depression; Postpartum Psychosis; Yates, Andrea. Further Readings Bhatnagar, Rashmi Dube and Reena Dube. Female Infanticide in India: A Feminist Cultural History. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. Meyer, Cheryl L. and Michelle Oberman. Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms From Susan Smith to the “Prom Mom.” New York: New York University Press, 2001. Mungello, D. E. Drowning Girls in China: Female Infanticide Since 1650. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Oberman, Michelle and Cheryl L. Meyer. When Mothers Kill: Interviews From Prison. New York: New York University Press, 2008. Spinelli, Margaret G, ed. Infanticide: Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives on Mothers Who Kill. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publications, 2003. Connie Oxford State University of New York, Plattsburgh

Infertility, Incidence of Infertility can be considered to be a social as well as an individual problem. In order to ascertain the incidence rates of infertility, one must first be diagnosed

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as infertile. After discussing competing medical definitions for infertility, this article presents infertility rates in the United States and globally, then discusses causes and effects of infertility. Definition and Diagnosis The medical industry generally diagnoses infertility for a heterosexual couple if neither spouse is surgically sterile, they had correctly timed sexual intercourse, had not used contraception, and had not become pregnant during the past 12 months or longer, although some physicians, especially specialists, will even treat couples after six months of trying to become pregnant. Some believe that the availability of for-profit fertility treatments has created an unrealistic time frame. The World Health Organization defines infertility if there is no conception after two years of unprotected sexual intercourse with the same partner. This definition is supported by a 2004 finding by the National Collaborating Centre for Women’s and Children’s Health that states that under normal conditions, about 84 percent of couples in the general population will conceive within one year if they do not use contraception. Of those who do not conceive in the first year, half will do so in the second year. Moreover, 94 percent of women over 35 and 77 percent of women over 38 will conceive after three years of trying. Whereas physicians often dismiss women’s selfdiagnoses from charting, how to diagnose infertility is not agreed upon by the medical community. One general indicator is age, where women over 35 years old are treated more aggressively even though women under 35 are the largest consumers of fertility treatments, which some call a “prognosis-oriented approach,” where women are recommended to proceed to treatments following an often incomplete diagnostic workup. Beyond age, symptoms of infertility are debated in the medical field, which leads to a lack of standardization in diagnostic tests. Despite a basic diagnostic workup outlined by the American Fertility Society and the World Health Organization, a lack of agreement exists among fertility specialists with regard to how to interpret diagnostic tests, which tests to perform, what their prognostic utility is, and what should be judged as “normal.” Findings suggest that variability exists in which tests are performed based on the type of practice and physician age and gender.

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Rates Fifty years ago, infertility was a “non-issue” as the topic was not discussed socially and little was known about it scientifically. Now, however, there are countless media reports, more infertile women in the population, and a larger proportion of infertile couples seeking treatment in a fertility industry that is estimated at $3 billion annually. In the United States, rates of involuntary childlessness are reported to be increasing; 2002 reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 7.4 percent of married women experienced infertility. By 2007, it was reported that 1 in 7 men and women experienced infertility. Infertility also affects on average 8–12 percent of couples worldwide. Rates vary from country to country; in the worst-affected areas, over 25 percent of couples may be unable to conceive. These numbers, however, may not represent the entire world because infertility problems are underreported in developing countries due to the focus on perceived overpopulation problems. Female factor infertility rates range from 30–50 percent, the male factor ranges from 20–30 percent, and 10 to 50 percent of the time the issue remains unknown. Higher infertility rates for women may be attributed in part due to the fact that women usually initiate contact with the medical community because motherhood is often an integral part of women’s status, women’s responsibilities accord more with the sick role, women are more accustomed to consulting doctors about reproduction, and most people assume that the fertility problem lies within the woman’s body, including many physicians. The medical focus is often on women’s bodies as women generally get tested first for infertility and sometimes can go through years of treatments before their male partners get tested. Last, women often take responsibility for infertility, regardless of which partner is actually infertile. Causes The medical category of “unexplained infertility” can be one of the more frequent diagnoses for women, which can be frustrating even though the exact cause of the infertility is not that significant for treatment purposes as these are relatively standard regardless of exact causes. There is some feminist critique about certain medical terminology of causes of female infertility such as “hostile mucus” and “incompetent cervix,” which convey a sense of inadequacy and that there

are no parallel terms for male infertility. Most current medical knowledge attributes causes of female and male infertility to the use of lubricants that kill sperm or not timing intercourse correctly; the heavy use of alcohol or other drugs; starvation diets; stress; scarring from sexually transmitted diseases or other surgical procedures; age; chemicals in our environment; immunologic disorders; ovarian, tubal, and cervical factors; and/or hormonal and genetic conditions. Effects On a personal level, infertility causes feelings of guilt and grief and many engage in self-imposed social isolation to avoid places and people with children. In poor communities around the world, infertility can be devastating for women, causing social stigma, social isolation, and even violence. On a practical level, many families in developing countries depend on children for economic survival. See Also: Infertility, Treatments for; Pregnancy; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Glatstein, Isaac Z., Bernard L. Harlow, and Mark D. Hornstein. “Practice Patterns Among Reproductive Endocrinologists: Further Aspects of the Infertility Evaluation.” Fertility & Sterility, v.70 (1998). Inhorn, Marcia and Frank van Balen, eds. Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. World Health Organization. “Infertilty.” http://www.who .int/reproductivehealth (accessed November 2009). Ophra Leyser Haskell Indian Nations University

Infertility, Treatments for Although some infertile couples remain childless or adopt, others pursue their desires for biological children more fervently. Factors influencing the decision to pursue fertility treatments include family, cultural, and women’s reproductive histories; financial and material resources; marital status; political and legal



conditions; medical options; the physical and mental health of women and those close to them; religious beliefs; views on adoption; and internal and external pressures to become parents. Further, physicians often pair infertility diagnoses with optimistic treatment prognoses and generally the middle class embraces medical discourse, irrespective of race and education. This article outlines available treatment options, usage and success rates, and personal and societal implications of fertility treatments. Treatment Options Regardless of male or female factor infertility, almost all treatments focus on the woman. Most women start with hormonal treatments, yet one drug, Clomid, which stimulates the ovaries to release eggs, is sometimes administered to men with low sperm count. Another common procedure is the artificial insemination of sperm. Inseminations now mostly consist of “washing” the sperm in a solution in order to separate it from the seminal fluid that is toxic in a uterine environment because the sperm is directly injected into the uterus by guiding a small catheter through the cervix for an intrauterine insemination (IUI). Sperm can be fresh, removed from the testicle if ejaculation is impossible, or frozen from a donor. Almost all assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), or higher-impact procedures, are in vitro fertilization (IVF), wherein egg cells are fertilized by sperm outside the womb. The majority of these procedures include intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which punctures the removed ova with a fine needle for a direct injection of sperm. Other technologies used with IVF are the use of frozen embryos, donor egg and/or donor sperm, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which takes a biopsy of an IVF fertilized embryo. Less common procedures include gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), the transfer of eggs and sperm into the fallopian tube, and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT), where the zygote is transferred into the fallopian tube; these account for 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, of highimpact procedures. All ARTs can also be performed on a surrogate mother. These treatments only bypass the medical problem, yet complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), such as homeopathy and naturopathy, are more focused on treating the problem, and quite a few women use

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CAM for infertility, either by itself or in conjunction with Western medical treatment. Some physicians discourage CAM usage, yet others now recommend acupuncture to complement their treatments. Usage and Success Rates The cost of treatments ranges from hundreds to many thousands of dollars, which restricts access to many; yet incidentally, the highest rates of infertility are among the poor. Services are not easily accessible in developing countries due to cost but are starting to make an appearance. Fertility treatment services are available in developed countries and services cross borders. Usage rates for pharmaceuticals remain unreported because any physician can prescribe them. Success rates, however, are reported to approximate 30 percent. ART usage rates are reported because fertility clinics are required to submit data to the Centers for Disease Control. By 2004, 12 percent of women of childbearing age in the United States received an infertility service, which equates to hundreds of thousands of treatment cycles. Women under 35 years old are the largest group using ARTs; they represented 40 percent of all ART cycles carried out in 2005. European data also show that younger women seek medical help for infertility, which might result in overtreatment due to the false-positive diagnoses of infertility. Success rates for ARTs, measured by a pregnancy or a live birth, are approximately 30 percent. Success declines as the age of a woman increases and with the use of frozen embryos; however, the use of a donor egg increases the probability to 31 percent for a single birth and 52 percent for multiples. Implications On the positive side, fertility treatments provide opportunities for parenthood to diverse groups of people including single women, gays, and lesbians, which is opposed by several conservative groups. Many women who conceived through ARTs report that motherhood is important to their self-development and self-esteem, yet some feminists have long battled against the idea that a woman’s social value is linked to biological procreation. Also, treatments give people the ability to claim or disown ancestry by using their genetic material or that of others.

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International Action Network on Small Arms

On the less positive side, however, treatments require heavy emotional, physical, and financial costs, especially on women, because they are invasive as they control problems on individual and biological levels, rather than structural and social levels. The use of fertility treatments can also strain the entire healthcare system when costs get displaced to other medical departments. Children born through the use of fertility treatments have a higher chance of health problems, thus the increased cost for neonatal intensive care and pediatric units. Others contend that fertility treatments reinforce the idea of genetic determinism, which has racist and classist implications and affects areas of health and medicine and the criminal justice system. Other ethical concerns deal with the creation and destruction of embryos, and that the illness/disability that causes infertility may be nature’s way of controlling reproduction; yet ARTs bypass those problems and thus scientific intervention is changing evolution. Women and men with fertility problems can now transmit diseases, one of those being infertility, which creates the next generation of infertile patients. See Also: Infertility, Incidence of; Pregnancy; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Dooley, Dolores and Dalla-Vorgia Panagiota. The Ethics of New Reproductive Technologies: Cases and Questions. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books, 2003. Lebovic, Dan I., John David Gordon, and Robert N. Taylor. Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility: Handbook for Clinicians. Arlington, VA: Scrub Hill Press, 2005. Ophra Leyser Haskell Indian Nations University

International Action Network on Small Arms The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) began in August 1998 at a Toronto meeting of 33 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from 18 countries. It was formed as a network of campaigns against small arms and light weapons (SALW). By

2010, the network included 800 civil society organizations working in 120 countries. SALW are weapons that can be carried and used by one or two people. While the majority of both SALW users and victims are men, women suffer in their interference with provision of basic needs and in being forced to endure rape, sexual violence, and slavery. Women are more likely to die violently when there is a gun in the house. For these reasons, the IANSA Women’s Network was created in 2001, focusing on the links between gender, women’s rights, small arms, and armed violence. Putting a Human Face on Small Arms Modeled after the successful International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in the Ottawa Process that produced the 1997 Land Mines Convention, IANSA sought to put a human face on small arms. IANSA’s work countered that of the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups. IANSA has been active in monitoring and promoting the implementation of the 2001 UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eliminate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons. The Biting the Bullet Project and IANSA produced an important 2003 report that concluded that implementation had been limited. In fall 2003,with Amnesty International and Oxfam, IANSA launched the Control Arms campaign, calling for a global arms trade treaty. Among controversial issues are whether to limit international regulation only to illicit arms and whether to include brokering of arms transfers. IANSA has been funded by the United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, and foundations. The IANSA Women’s Network and other organizations concerned with violence against women have worked to make clear the gender implications of small arms. Women’s NGOs banded together to help the United Nations Security Council in October 2000 pass Resolution 1325, which addresses both the impact of armed conflict on women and their role in peace negotiations. The IANSA Women’s Network works to stop gun violence against women; to involve women in peacemaking, peace building, and disarmament; to reduce military spending; to break the link between violence and masculinity; and to prevent gun violence in general. In June 2009, it launched its Disarm Domestic Violence campaign. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has supported



International Conference on Population and Development

IANSA Women’s Network planning sessions and an exhibit on the impact of SALW on women at the Biennial Meeting of States on the Programme of Action. See Also: Domestic Violence; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide; Rape in Conflict Zones; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Clegg, Liz. “NGOS Take Aim.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Small Arms, Big Problem. v.55/1 (January– February 1999). International Action Network on Small Arms. http:// www.iansa.org (accessed March 2010). Small Arms Survey 2009. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. http://www.smallarmssurvey .org/files/sas/publications/yearb2009.html (accessed July 2010). United Nations. “Report of the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, New York, July 9–20, 2001.” A/CONF.192/15. Carolyn M. Stephenson Independent Scholar

International Conference on Population and Development The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994, was one of a series of United Nations world conferences of the decade that achieved significant decisions to promote gender equality and the advancement of the world’s women. This conference of 180 United Nations (UN) Member States produced an agreement, the Program of Action, which connected demographic issues of managing the expansion of global population and sustainable world development to the promotion of women’s welfare and rights to education, health, and reproductive services. In the 1980s and 1990s, neoliberal “globalization” of the world’s economy and structural adjustment programs (SAPs) promoted by Western governments, the

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World Bank, and other international lenders resulted in severe cutbacks to state-sponsored social welfare spending generally and to funds for family planning in particular in both the north and the south. This pushed the world’s poor—overwhelmingly women and children—into a state of crisis and, in turn, provoked “push back” from progressive social forces, including feminist activists who expressed themselves locally as well as internationally at UN world conferences. Following the pattern of transnational feminist activism set at the 1993 Human Rights Conference in Vienna, women’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were an especially active and effective lobbying force at the 1994 ICPD hosted by the UN in Cairo. The NGO Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) organized a Women’s Caucus of 300 women and men from 62 countries that formed alliances among population control groups, environmental groups, and women’s rights groups and that was active at every conference preparatory meeting. Making a Difference In a significant step forward, the Women’s Caucus built widespread government recognition, linking the goals of managed population growth, sustainable development, the global elimination of poverty, and protection of the environment to human rights to “development” and women’s rights to access to education, reproductive services, and other healthcare. The ICPD Program of Action included key chapters on “Gender Equality, Equity, and the Empowerment of Women” and “Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health” and it endorsed the principle of reproductive rights and the right of couples and individuals to determine the number and spacing of their children—even though some Middle Eastern Islamist nations voiced reservations, and the Vatican and several Latin American Catholic governments opposed these provisions. The ICPD Program of Action also included carefully “word-smithed” language regarding the highly contentious issue of abortion that stated “In circumstances in which abortion is not against the law, such abortion should be safe. . . . Post-abortion counseling, education and family planning services should be offered promptly which will also help to avoid repeat abortions.”

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It bears noting that the approach taken by the ICPD Program of Action is not without some critics within feminist circles. These critics claim that it places undue responsibility for the overpopulation “problem’” on the backs of poor and indigenous women, without taking cultural and religious differences sufficiently into account. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Global “Gag Rule”; Overpopulation; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Diamond, Irene. Fertile Ground: Women, Earth and the Limits of Control. Boston: Beacon Press, 1997. Higer, Amy J. “International Women’s Activism at the 1994 Cairo Population Conference.” In Mary K. Meyer and Elisabeth Prügl, eds., Gender Politics in Global Governance. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Pettman, Jan Jindy. “Global Politics and Transnational Feminisms.” In Luciana Ricciutelli, Angela Miles, and Margaret H. McFadden, eds. Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision: Local and Global Challenges. London: Zed, 2004. United Nations. “Cairo Conference Links Population, Sustainable Development, and Women’s Rights.” http:// www.un.org/popin/icpd/infokit/infokit.eng/1overvw .html (accessed December 2009). United Nations. “International Conference on Population and Development Summary of the Program of Action.” www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/populatin/icpd.htm (accessed December 2009). Karen Garner State University of New York, Empire State College

International Monetary Fund The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were born out of the post–World War II Bretton Woods conference designed to correct “failures” in international capital markets that prevented global capital from flowing to the right destinations, particularly poor countries. The IMF was to ensure exchange rate stability and provide liquidity to the new pegged exchange rate system by making short-

term loans to countries to address their balance of payments problems. The IMF or the Fund was to be an agency that would ensure international financial stability while the World Bank was to provide lonterm loans for reconstruction and development. Every member country contributes a portion of its national income to the IMF, against which it is eligible to borrow. The Central Bank or Treasury of a country acts as the representative of that country to the IMF. Credit tranches are blocks of loans given by the IMF to members upon request. The first two tranches are lent out without hesitation but subsequent tranches are given only if the country promises to install economic policies that are designed to secure a country’s financial position. A large share of the IMF’s lending has been to developing countries. Such lending began in the 1950s and increased over time thereafter. During 1976 and 1982, the IMF approved 114 new stand-by arrangements (assurance to borrow a certain amount within a fixed time provided that the provisions are met) of which 108 were with developing countries. Because developing countries have used more of their credit tranches, they have been subject to conditionality by the IMF. The IMF is a leader in establishing theory and practice in macroeconomic policy in developing countries. As the most influential organization in development finance, it attracts renowned academics and practitioners. Because of the paucity of women in this field, most of the senior officials and the top theoreticians have been men. Fewer than 20 percent of the senior administration is female and fewer than 10 percent of the members of the organization’s boards of governors are women. While the IMF has the authority to alter the gender composition of its staff, it has little control over the board of governors, which are appointed by individual member countries. Yet the discussion below shows that IMF policies have greatly affected and altered the lives of millions of women across the world. Structural Adjustment in the Post–Oil Shock Era The beginning of the 1970s ushered in a new era of global currency exchange arrangements. The dollarbased exchange rate system was abandoned in the industrialized world but most developing countries continued to peg their currencies to a reserve currency such as the U.S. dollar or currency baskets. The role of



the IMF in maintaining exchange rate stability in the developing world became even more acutely needed. The oil shocks of 1973–74 and 1979–80 led to further Fund involvement in lending and designing policy packages for developing countries. A new phenomenon was large amounts of commercial bank credit now available for sovereign borrowing. Such private flows dwarfed lending by the international financial institutions and were mostly medium-term loans with no conditions attached. These were invested in low return projects such as infrastructure and construction projects throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. Although the 1970s saw significant borrowing by the developing world, the loans increased by eightfold in the 1980s. Unfortunately, by the end of that decade, the world economic situation had become adverse for most of these countries. They faced declining demand for their products in industrialized countries, deteriorating terms of trade, and higher real interest rates on existing and new debt. Many countries were hit by severe financial crises, and Mexico announced in 1982 that it would be unable to meet its debt service obligations. Many other countries found themselves in similar insolvent positions, the situation worsening for most of Africa by the 1990s. By the early 1980s global economic policy became synonymous with “getting the prices right.” This entailed removal of public subsidies from every sphere of the economy where they had been instituted in the name of economic development. Previously touted practices of public procurement of goods, subsidy on inputs, credit and other necessities of production, and government regulation became “bad policies.” Public expenditure became synonymous with profligacy, inefficiency and failure. With the Reagan and Thatcher eras transforming popular ideology in the West, the transition to this new idea of laissez-faire led development was inevitable and smooth. Thus was born, in an era of the debt crisis, structural adjustment lending by the World Bank, which went hand in hand with stabilization programs meted out by the IMF. This was formalized by a Bank-Funk accord in 1989. These programs were based on formulations made by economists at the IMF. They maintained that a balance of payments crisis could either be corrected by lowering spending on imports or by lowering overall spending. This meant the government could either

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lower the value of its currency, increasing exports and reducing imports, or reduce its own public spending. During the 1970s and 1980s, governments established export promotion policies and curtailed their spending, primarily in areas such as health, education, and other public services. The World Bank complemented the IMF’s work by instituting long run structural changes. Based on abstracted notions and models, these policies were constructed by social engineers who were mostly male economists with substantial scorn for “softer” subjects such as literature or anthropology that offered narratives of the everyday effects on the lives of people who had to bear the burden of these policies. In the models, people were faceless and genderless “agents” and no particular country context mattered. Policy Reform Any takers desperate for loans had these policies imposed on them. Trade policy reform, which entailed import liberalization and export promotion, was a prime ingredient in the market-led road to development. Altering the kinds of products made in the country was therefore crucial. New export industries that were competitive and productive were put in place—in garments, flowers, electronics, plastics, toys, and most other consumer goods, which are today manufactured in developing countries. Women entered the labor market in large numbers as rural areas faced higher poverty amidst environmental degradation and war in many poor countries. This kept wages down, increased women’s work in export industries, and altered the consumption habits and lives of societies around the world, making them more reliant on the market. It also subjected women to further time constraints and uncertainties created by the social changes. Hand in hand with the market oriented policies went the dismantling and privatization of the state owned enterprises. As a reward for these policies, countries were granted long term structural adjustment loans. Governments that were indebted sold what assets they could to pay off their foreign currency debt. Debt servicing meant increasing exports and reducing domestic expenditure or tightening belts. They were tightened particularly around the poor. Farmers could not buy agricultural inputs because of subsidy removal, making the price of energy and food higher. Stories of hardship were heard from most countries in the southern hemisphere. In the 1990s, most of Central Asia and

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eastern Europe joined these ranks with the fall of the iron curtain. The structural adjustment policies continued for the longest in Sub-Saharan Africa in new nation states that were considered “least developed.” Weaker nations that did not have the legal and security apparatus to make painless economic adjustments were infantilized and dictated to. Women and girls were significantly affected by government budget cutbacks because they needed to increase their unpaid work to make up for shortfalls in healthcare and other public services. Girls were the first to be pulled out of school so that they could supplement family income. Prostitution and trafficking increased, along with unskilled work in the export non-unionized low wage sectors. Households were pushed to poverty, with female-headed vulnerable households faring the worst. Chronic hunger forced desperate rural women and girls into sex work and early marriage, vastly increasing their exposure to human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). The lack of property and land ownership by women exacerbated their vulnerability. New taxes on goods and services, such as the Value Added Tax, resulted in the burden of those falling unevenly on poor women whose entire budgets went to basic consumption. Charging user fees for services that were previously free led to increased expenditures for poor families. Approaching the Millennium: The 1990s and Beyond With the fall of the Soviet regime, market-led development and globalization increased in their pace. Trade had been growing rapidly, foreign direct investment was growing faster, but financial flows were increasing fastest of all. With waves of mergers and acquisitions, large multinational companies asserted their presence and influence throughout the world. Both the World Bank and IMF took more of a back seat because of the strength of private capital flows and earnings of migrant workers, which became significant in size in addition to export revenues. Technology and cost changes led to a boom period in the industrialized countries and most of the world. Unfortunately, this growth was interrupted by financial crisis in several emerging economies. In east Asia, capital flows into well-functioning exemplary economies led to sudden currency devaluations and

massive contractions of these economies. The IMF still maintained its line: reduce or end any restrictions on the global inflow of capital; do not defend the currency; let it fall until the market stabilizes it; and raise interest rates as high as necessary to keep the capital in or attract even more fresh capital. The crisis or contagion continued to spread to Russia and to Brazil and Argentina. During this period, the IMF and World Bank also came under pressure from various groups—activists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and political movements—to take into account environmental impacts of projects and to include various disenfranchised groups such as women and indigenous peoples in the development process. Because of their accountability to the public, these organizations were forced to respond by doing more studies on the impact of development activity on women and nature as well as allocating more credit to projects that targeted women and minorities. Instead of looking at the failure of IMF theories and past policies, countries and their cultures were blamed. Good governance was synonymous with good development management, rather than greater democracy. The badge of good governance had been given to countries such as Thailand, Korea and Indonesia until the Asian crisis occurred; then those same governments were blamed as having “crony capitalism.” In south Asia and Africa, global poverty was still present and the number of abject poor living on less than a dollar a day grew. In earlier years of the IMF, it was asserted that economic growth and poverty were not interconnected. In the areas where poverty alleviation strategies could be attempted—basic primary education, rural water systems and sanitation, and other social projects—the traditional criteria of “bankability” could not be applied. Clear and positive rates of return were given instead by large-scale infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, dams, or power supply. It took a generation before the Bank turned its attention to projects such as girls’ education or microenterprise lending, which were small in scale. The success of NGOs in providing poor people loans with micro-credit began to be replicated by the World Bank. In fact, such programs were supported and began to replace welfare, public services and subsidies as a tool of poverty alleviation. This new form of small capitalism designed to cultivate micro-entre-



preneurs, particularly among women, have become the order of the day in most developing countries. The funds are distributed through NGOs and government agencies that now assume ownership of administration, accountability and risk. The highly indebted countries receive funding upon submission of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), in addition to monitoring poverty and being under a reform program of the IMF. The PRSPs are written by governments in conjunction with civil society groups. Many of these reports have substantial content and incorporate gendered perspectives representing the findings of women’s groups. But the role of the IMF and the Bank in supporting the policies in these reports is very small since the policies are now to be carried out by governments that have been trained in cutting expenditures. It remains to be seen whether the future entails increased roles for the IMF, and whether concerted policies to add gender balance and diversity to the organization lead to any changes in its economic policy recommendations. See Also: Financial Independence of Women; Grameen Bank of Bangladesh; World Health Organization.

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Further Readings Copelovitch, Mark S. The International Monetary Fund in the Global Economy: Banks, Bonds, and Bailouts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Danaher, Kevin and Muhammed Yunus. Fifty Years Is Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org /external/index.htm (accessed July 2010). Farida C. Khan University of Wisconsin

International Women’s Day Every year on March 8, women all over the world celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD). The day is marked to celebrate women’s solidarity, to raise awareness of the ongoing struggles that women face and to express a commitment to fighting for women’s social, political, and economic rights.

International Women’s Day celebration in 2009 in Bogotá, Colombia. The day is celebrated around the world annually on March 8 and is used to highlight women’s struggles, particularly around work and labor, and as a platform to demand women’s rights.

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Socialist women in the United States were the first to celebrate a women’s day on February 23, 1909, when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter work hours, better pay, and voting rights. Over the following three years national women’s days occurred annually on the last Sunday in February. During this time, at the Second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, Denmark, a motion was tabled by socialist German politician Clara Zetkin to mark the day internationally. The motion eventually passed unanimously by more than 100 women from 17 countries. As a result, the first international women’s day took place on March 19, 1911. It was marked in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, where more than 1 million women and men took part in rallies. A tragic fire a week later on March 25, 1911, in which 140 women died in a factory in New York, crystallized the importance of these demands and emphasized the importance of working conditions and labor legislation to previous demands, which had been largely civil in nature. The demands voiced at IWD have shifted through its history. At the first IWD, demands focused on women’s rights to work, vote, receive training, hold public office, and end discrimination. In 1913 and 1914, women mobilized to demand peace on the brink of World War I. In 1917, women used the day to begin a mass strike in Russia. They were protesting against the 2 million deaths during the war and the extreme hunger they faced, demanding “bread and peace.” Days later, the event sparked the onset of the Russian Revolution. Although the date for IWD shifted in the early years, in 1913 it was fixed on March 8, where it has remained ever since. The observance is officially recognized as a holiday in many ex-Soviet or socialist countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, and is celebrated in most countries across the world. The Trade Union Congress in the United Kingdom voted unanimously in 2005 for IWD to become a national public holiday. Despite its origins in contentious and oppositional politics, some elements of women’s day have been appropriated or neutralized and is often treated akin to Mother’s Day, Children’s Day, or Friends’ Days, as

women are offered gifts and kind words to commemorate it. However, a great many women’s groups continue the radical tradition; they use the day to highlight women’s struggles, particularly around work and labor, and as a platform to resist oppression and continue to demand women’s rights in all spheres of social and political life. See Also: Equal Pay; Feminism, American; Sweatshops; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Kaplan, Temma. “On the Socialist Origins of International Women’s Day.” Feminist Studies, v.11/1 (1985). Kollontai, Alexandra. International Women’s Day. International Socialist Publishing, 1975. International Women’s Day. http://www.intern ationalwomensday.com (accessed October 2010). Kate Hardy Queen Mary, University of London

Internet Women have primarily been engaged in community building on the Internet nationally and globally, primarily through content sharing and development. Although women have virtually no documented role in the creation of the Internet, they can easily be credited for its evolution since its public debut in the mid-1980s. Moreover, since 2000, women have become increasingly engaged in online activism on various fronts, such as empowering women to use the Internet and related Webbased technologies to communicate and train girls and women on critical regional and global issues. Near the end of the 20th century, a number of ideas and inventions led the way toward wireless communication, all of which have been credited to men. It is significant to review the emergence of wireless communication as an extension of masculinity, and contextualize the subsequent birth and maturity of the Internet within the field of cyberfeminism. British, American, and Indian scientists and inventors across Europe wrestled with concepts of electromagnetism that would lay a foundation for wireless



communication. For instance, the first telegraph message was sent by inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1902 as a wireless transmission. Marconi would become a leading member of the Fascist Party in the years that followed, embracing some of the tenets of Italian Futurism that lauded the masculinity of technology, emphasizing concepts of power and speed and contextualizing industrialization as progress. Women’s voices were often overshadowed by an escalating emphasis on technological change, rather than social change. But by 2000, women had found new ways to promote social change through the Internet, networking across the globe to other women instantaneously to places once disconnected from the world where women were alienated to confront dire circumstances with limited resources and communication. The Galactic Network In the 1960s, a group of MIT researchers proposed the creation of a Galactic Network, a global computer network. The Internet, in its earliest form, dawned in the early 1960s, and began at a time when major U.S. universities and military defense contractors sought ways to transfer data among their respective laboratories and research centers. Katie Hafner wrote one of a few extensive histories on the creation of the Internet, complete with its initial funding during the Eisenhower administration through the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). An earlier model of the Internet, ARPANET, was established for information sharing among scientists and military personnel. Hafner documented the lack of women involved in these early projects, with the then female computer scientists often opting home over careers to raise children. The Interep Trade show, a leading technology event, featured women and men representatives by 1989, the year that the World Wide Web was officially launched. Hafner provided an instance where an Associated Press reporter, covering paternity claims to the invention of the Internet, met with a group of its contributing founders, and asked “How about women . . . are there any female pioneers?” After this statement, there was silence among those being interviewed by the reporter. The consequence of the absence of female computer scientists in the making of the Internet is speculative, at best, but likely contributed to a slow adoption among women in its

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early years. To date, a gender gap exists within technology, from missed educational opportunities to the continued propagation of stereotypes fueled by scientific advertising. The very exclusion of cultural considerations dealing with gender, race and ethnicity has shaped research, practice and ensuing dialogue associated with new technologies. At the turn of the century, Jennifer Brayton wrote of women’s love and hate relationship with the Internet, as they struggled to adapt to a medium created by men. Web Collectives Women would become online participants, and would help shape Web collectives and information sharing networks that have grown stronger in recent years. Neil Postman posits a medium is defined and evolves through its social applications. Educators, medical workers, artists, and laypeople formed online collectives beginning in the 1980s, and Howard Rheingold’s (1998) The Virtual Community tells the story of the formation of a cyber-public sphere, The Well, one of the first user nets that connected people of varying socioeconomics with each other on a continual basis. Its base of operations was in the San Francisco Bay area—also the start of virtual world Second Life, an online based virtual community, in 2003. Sherry Turkle (2005) in The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit pursues her understanding on the social construction of community, as well as identity, in virtual spaces that connect women online. These spaces facilitate discussions, and allow gender, race, and culture to be experienced and reexamined within a virtual reality. Various women’s organizations have attempted to examine how Internet usage has impacted social policy, and how the status of women over the past decade has transformed due to the Web. Also, Jo Sutton and Scarlet Pollock, founders of Womenspace and coordinating editors of Womenspace ,magazine, an online and print publication, have been at the forefront of the Women’s Internet Campaign directed at achieving equal access, participation, and control of new communication technologies. In their book Cyberfeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity, Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein discuss the political power of the Internet and its role in facilitating democratic participation in a way that allows women to develop skills and experience in community building and collective sharing of information.

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These remain relevant concerns today to stimulating dialogue about and across the Internet. Michele White, in The Body and the Screen, examines the role of spectatorship and identity online, and the formation of gender roles through communicative expression via the Internet and online communities, and virtual worlds. Since 2000, the Internet has been host to virtual communities that have facilitated women’s exploration of opportunities in business, media, artistic endeavors, and social activism in what has been described as second spaces that have served as training and networking sites and empowering incubators for women to establish or extend careers. Resources The Internet has provided a plethora of resources for works about women and by women, from literary publications, such as 19th-century British literature by women’s writers, to research findings in scholarly journals. In Rye Senjen and Jane Guthrey’s The Internet for Women, a range of issues, from pornography, sexual harassment, privacy and security, are relevant to the future of women’s participation online. Since 1993, The Association for Progressive Communications’ Women Networking group was established to assist women in social change and empowerment through information and communication technologies (ICTs). Approximately 100 women representing more than 35 countries use ICTs to communicate with one another. Issues have ranged from communication rights, economic empowerment, governance policy advocacy, training and universal access, violence against women, and women’s representation in media, among others. In 2009, Take Back the Tech Campaign, which began in 2005, brought together those who sought to end violence against women across multiple platforms, with some of the events including a protest march online in Second Life. Digital storytelling, chat exchanges, blogging and other topics featured through creative online workshops were conducted to empower women, girls and young lesbians across the world against violence. Groups participating have included Women’s Net, Centre for Independent Journalism, and Women of Uganda Network. Technology might be viewed as a networking database base that provides mobility for communication and information flow. Ingeborg Reichle conceptualizes the Internet and cyberspace as

“tied to images of the body and gender situated within a historically specific social matrix.” In 2004, Reichle expressed concerned that the “natural” referents associated with gender identity are increasingly becoming diluted through online representations, disembodying communication from its source. Women’s role on the Internet continues to evolve to the point that the number of women participants in virtual online communities is nearly comparable to those of men. Many women have played a major role in the economic, political and social development of these communities, and that holds promise for women as equal partners in the invention and evolution of new technologies in the near future. See Also: Chatrooms; Computer Games; Computer Science, Women in; Journalists, Broadcast Media; Representation of Women. Further Readings Brayton, Jennifer. “Women’s Love/Hate Relationship With the Internet.” In Igor Markovic, ed., Cyberfeminism. Zagreb, Croatia: Centre for Cultural Studies, 1999. Hafner, Katie. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. Hawthorne, Susan and Renate Klein, eds. Cyberfeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity. Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 1999. Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York: Viking Press, 1985. Senjen, Rye and Jane Guthrey. The Internet for Women. Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 1996. Turkle, Sherry. The Second Self: Computer and the Human Spirit; Twentieth Anniversary Edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. White, M. The Body and the Screen: Theories of Internet Spectatorship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. Phylis Johnson Southern Illinois University

Internet Dating Technological innovation is moving at a rapid pace and dramatically affecting the ways in which people form relationships with others in contemporary soci-



ety. Internet dating is one area that has grown in popularity over the last 15 years, providing a convenient and effective way of meeting others for friendship or romance. Internet dating sites can be used as an alternative to more traditional, face-to-face ways of meeting potential partners and has the benefit of enabling contact with others all over the world at the click of a mouse. Roughly equal numbers of men and women use Internet dating sites, but women in particular have hailed the use of Internet dating and indeed the use of online social networking sites more generally (Facebook and Twitter, for example) as empowering for women. First, the anonymity provided by chatting to others via text online provides a degree of safety for women and, as a result, gives them more confidence in their communication with men; second, cyberspace is often celebrated by feminists as an arena where gender inequalities can be overcome and women can communicate with men on a more equal footing. The online dating process involves registering with one or more of a variety of dating sites available on the Internet. The sites require you to respond to a series of questions and post a “profile” of yourself, which can include a photograph, details of personal characteristics, and aspirations for future relationships. Once registered, the user is free to browse the profiles of others using a search engine and similarly the user’s own profile is on view for others to read. Users can contact each other anonymously through the sites to initiate further contact. The common goal of Internet dating is to move beyond chatting online via text and eventually meet face-to-face for a date. Many users, however, simply enjoy chatting online, indeed some Internet lovers, perhaps separated by thousands of miles, are destined never to meet. While Internet dating has been described as empowering for women, it is important to note that women’s use of online dating sites depends on the acquisition of information technology (IT) skills and ownership of, or at least access to, a computer. Women and girls are less likely to have access to information technology regardless of whether they live in a rich or poor country. Similarly, older women will have less access to IT than their younger counterparts. Dating Sites as Source of Empowerment For those women on the right side of the digital divide, dating sites have been hailed as sites of

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empowerment. Women can contact and chat to men online from the safety of their own home. Added to this, communicating via text provides a degree of anonymity that further adds to women’s feelings of safety. Interacting online removes the fear of potential offline consequences, such as sexual violence, pregnancy, or sexually transmitted diseases for example. As a result, women can communicate more confidently online as they are more likely to contact men directly, rather than wait for them to make the first move; and they also tend to be more outspoken and overtly sexual in their exchanges with men. On the other hand, the consequences of using online dating sites can produce new forms of risk for women once their online encounters move offline. These sites enable women to contact men from all over the world and, as a result, they can find themselves traveling hundreds of miles to meet a man for that first offline date. Added to this, online communication provides more opportunity for misrepresentation and deception, which provides a potential risk for women when meeting a man in the flesh. Overcoming Gender Inequalities Cyberspace has been hailed as a place where gender inequalities can be overcome and women are subsequently empowered to interact with their male counterparts on an equal footing. As mentioned above, women’s more direct and overtly sexual approach to men on dating sites reveals how challenges to gendered sexual relations are being enabled in cyberspace. Women can also feel empowered on dating sites because their communications with men are “disembodied.” In other words, their bodies are “hidden” behind their computer and therefore they are less likely to be judged by their bodily appearance. Women, it has been an argued, are more likely than men to be judged by their bodies and pressure is upon all women in contemporary Western societies to aspire to the ideal of slim youthfulness. Disembodied interaction on dating sites is also empowering for women with a physical disability as it enables a choice to be made as to whether to disclose any bodily impairment. The use of online dating sites, however, does place limits on the degree of disembodiment that can be achieved. First, a photograph can optionally be posted on the user’s profile and, of course, many users will eventually meet in the flesh. Nevertheless, Internet dating can be

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seen as an effective, convenient, and empowering way for women to find suitable dates by providing an arena that continues to challenge more traditional gendered dating behavior. See Also: Body Image; Dating Violence; Feminism, American; Internet; Marriage. Further Readings Ben-Ze’ev. Love Online, Emotions on the Internet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Cooper, A. and L. Sportolari. “Romance in Cyberspace: Understanding Online Attraction.” Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, v.2 (1997). Geoghegan, T. “Internet Dating Empowers Women.” BBC News Online. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk _news/248615 (accessed January 2010). Judy Richards Newcastle University

Intersex Dominant contemporary definitions of sexual classification are founded on the socially constructed, binary and mutually exclusive sex categories of male and female. However, the sex of humans, animals, and plants can better be understood on a spectrum of characteristics associated with the biological category of sex. Intersex, previously known as hermaphroditism, is an umbrella term used to describe biological variations that present in humans as statistically atypical combinations of male and female primary and secondary sex characteristics. Such variations begin as genetic and metabolic processes occurring during fetal sex differentiation. Levels of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment are also responsible changes to sex characteristics. Variations may be apparent at birth, or later childhood or adolescence, especially around the time of hormonal changes with puberty. Changing 20th-Century Concepts Thus, individuals described as intersex fall into a category of ambiguity, as they do not clearly fit the two sex female–male model. Recent estimates put intersex births at 1.7 per 100. However, not all intersex

variation presents itself at birth, and slighter variations of characteristics may never be noted. Furthermore, not all cultures recognize individuals showing sexual variation as being intersex. The term intersex was used in medical discourse by the 1920s to describe and diagnose individuals having atypical sex anatomy including, for example, a disparity between internal and external sex organs, enlarged labia, a notably small penis, a scrotum that looks like labia and, in the 1950s with the discovery of chromosomal composition, a mosaic of X and Y sex chromosomes. Secondary sex characteristics, meaning those that are not directly part of the reproductive system, such as breasts, may also be involved in a diagnosis of intersex. Since the 1950s, the medical management of individuals labeled intersex has involved surgery, often multiple surgeries, as well as lifetime hormonal intervention. With advances in sex endocrinology and the development of surgical techniques during and following World War II, intersex came to be understood as a medical problem to be remedied through surgical and hormonal intervention. Although it was in 1956 that sex chromosomes were discovered, XX being typically female and XY typically male, it was primarily the presence or absence of what was considered an adequate penis, and not chromosomal composition or reproductive potential, that determined if the child with ambiguous genitalia would be assigned male or female identification. An adequate penis was to be at least 2.5 cm at birth and a clitoris was not to be so large as to be considered “offensive.” Because assignment has been based on the ease of surgical modification and likely physiological development of the penis, more intersex infants and children have been assigned as female. John Money and Gender John Money, psychologist and sexologist, recognized as foremost in the field of intersex, was responsible for introducing the concepts of gender, gender role, and gender identity to distinguish anatomy from socialization, and with them case management protocols for assigning sex for intersex infants. In the name of benevolence, decisions have been grounded in what is considered psychological health based on coherence between sex and gender. Money’s thinking was that if you were not born a specific sex, you could become a sex by being socialized into a gender. This was based

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on the assumption that regardless of genetic sex, it would be preferable to be a female than a male with an inadequate penis. Money and his associates thought that parents would not sufficiently bond with a child having uncorrected ambiguous genitalia, and neither could they rear the child in such a way as to allow for a coherence between sex and gender identity that was perceived necessary for psychological health, which included heterosexual orientation. In the belief that gender identity is established by age 2, but changeable up to 18 months of age, medical intervention was considered urgent, despite the fact that only one intersex condition, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, represents a serious health threat to infants. Controversy and Contemporary Views In the 1990s, however, intersex advocates, scholars, and some clinicians began to pose important challenges to case management protocols. Coming into question was that medical judgment came from a team comprised of specialists, with insufficient involvement by parents and youth. Medical urgency for most cases was challenged, as were health consequences of lifetime hormonal intervention. Consequences for sexual sensation resulting from surgery had been ignored. And medical management assumed heterosexuality as normal sexual functioning, along with a generic implication that sexual satisfaction is achieved only through genital intercourse. These challenges have motivated some change. The term intersex itself has been disputed. Recently, the term disorders of sexual development has been used in its place. However, critics of that label argue that it continues to medicalize and stigmatize what are variations in nature, proposing instead that the term variations of sexual development is more appropriate. Intersex is a global phenomenon, as are the oppressive and discriminatory conditions to which intersex individuals are subjected, despite the fact that the Preamble and Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified in 1948 entitles all dignity and rights to all. It was not until 1999 that the Constitutional Court of Colombia was the first high court in the world to rule that intersex people are a minority group deserving of human rights protection, including the right to consent to “corrective” genital surgery. This is consistent with the United Nations Convention

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of the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by all but two member countries (United States and Somalia) as of late 2009. Intersex rights groups continue to work internationally to reduce oppression, marginalization, and discrimination of intersex people. The rhetoric of medical and psychosocial necessity, normative and natural, illness and cure, silence and shame, and mandatory heterosexuality have been contested. Approaches are shifting toward more cautious medical intervention, less biased information, and more account of the lived experiences and input from individuals who are labeled intersex. In the future, atypical genitals may no longer be pathologized and excised from those who do not fit neatly into the socially constructed categories of binary, heteronormative genital sex. See Also: Chase, Cheryl; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Reassignment Surgery; Heterosexism; Transgender; Transsexuality. Further Readings Chase, Cheryl. “Surgical Progress Is Not the Answer to Intersexuality.” Journal of Clinical Ethics, v.9/4 (1998). Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books, 2000. Intersex Society of North America. http://www.isna.org (accessed November 2009). Karkazis, Katrina Alicia. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008. Kessler, Suzanne. Lessons From the Intersexed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998. Deborah Davidson York University

Iran Iran is one of the oldest civilizations in history, dating back to 4000 b.c.e. At one point in history, the Persian Empire was a leading superpower. From the 15th century until the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran was a monarchy. The popular uprising against

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the shah culminated in the Islamic Republic and rule by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Iran is home to 72 million people, 66 percent of whom are under the age of 30. Women have a rich history of power and influence in Iran, but the institutionalization of conservative Islam has severely restricted women and much of their status and rights have been rescinded. However, Iranian women continue to draw on their history and culture to fight for equal rights. Throughout Iranian history women have had a great influence. The fictional character of Scheherazade celebrates women’s wit and intelligence. The female poet Tahirih inspired the Tahirih Justice Center, just as the beauty of Mumtaz Mahal led to the Taj Mahal. Fight for the Modern Woman The Persian Women’s Movement dates back to the early 20th century, when Iranian women began their fight for the “modern woman,” which included the vote, change in family laws, and access to education. In 1937, women gained the right to higher education, and became professors, doctors, lawyers, and government officials. In 1963, women won the right to vote and prior to the revolution women served as ambassadors and ministers. Through the 20th century, even with the moderate Shari`a laws instated by the shah, women continued to make advancements in political, social and economic rights. Women were very active in the populist uprising against the shah, but with the rise of the rule of conservative Islam, women lost almost all of the gains they had made through the last 100 years. In 1968, Farrokhroo Parsa had become the first female minister of education, but was executed during the revolution. The ayatollah dismantled much of the legislation for which women had fought. Women’s rights were repealed, and women had to be covered in public with a chador and headscarf. Iran repealed the family protection laws, barred women from serving as judges, reduced the marriage age to 13, and outlawed married women from attending school. Many public areas were officially sex segregated, and women faced prosecution and lashings if found in public with a man. Women can face up to 74 lashes if they appear in public without being properly covered. With each change made by the Islamic Republic, Iranian women fought back. In 1983, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution banned women from

A female dentist treats a male patient in Iran. Iranian women were granted the right to higher education in 1937.

studying certain fields, such as engineering, science, and agriculture. However, through women’s protests, these fields were opened up again in 1986. In 1997, with the election of President Mohammad Khatami, women were hopeful a more moderate regime would relax some of these rules, and women began protesting for more rights and challenging the dress code. However, with the election of conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, crackdowns have occurred. Under President Ahmadinejad, the regime has targeted women protesters and stringently enforced Shari`a. Starting in 2007, they began arresting and beating women who were not fully covered. In 2008, Ahmadinejad introduced a family support bill allowing men to marry a second wife without their first wives’ permission. He also reinstituted “temporary marriages,” which allow men to have sex with impunity. Female activists were harassed and arrested.

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Alieh Eghdamdoust, who was a political prisoner in the 1980s and then became a feminist activist, was jailed for three years. Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Prize winner for human rights, started a center, Defenders of Human Rights, but was threatened so much that she had to close the facility. In 2009, mobs attacked her home. Women who challenge the regime put their lives at risk, and suspected women are routinely arrested and detained. In 2006, women started a One Million Signatures campaign to demand an end to discrimination against women. Its organizers have been attacked, beaten, and arrested. Women have a long history of power, authority, and activism in Iran. Under the Islamic Republic, they have lost most of their public, social, economic, and familial rights. Even under the threat of violence and persecution, Iranian women continue to fight for equality. See Also: Arab Feminism; Educational Opportunities/ Access; Global Campaign for Education. Further Readings Esfandiari, Haleh. Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. Friedl, Erika. The Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village. New York: Penguin, 1991. Howard, Jane Mary. Inside Iran: Women’s Lives. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers, 2002. Koush, M. Voices From Iran: The Changing Lives of Iranian Women (Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002. Moaveni, Azadeh. Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America And American in Iran. New York: Public Affairs Press, 2006. Osanloo, Arzoo. The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Iranian Feminism Farsi, the Persian language spoken in Iran, has no word for feminism, perhaps explaining in part the varying ways in which women (and men) have

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responded to gender inequality in that country. Women in Iran have been working for more equal rights for over a century. As long ago as the latter part of the 19th century, despite the fact that most women lived in a society where male domination was routine, women were often secluded and veiled, and polygamy was practiced, some women resisted such restrictions. Women were barred from voting or holding public office and family laws remained under the Shari`a model. A man could have up to four permanent and as many temporary wives as he wished. Fathers, or other male relatives, always had custody of children. Women were required to have permission from husbands or male relatives to travel. Following the 1906 revolution, women pressed for changes and were successful in opening schools for girls in Tehran and forming associations (some secret) to support women and children. In 1931, women gained limited rights to ask for a divorce and the marriage age was raised to 15 for girls. A governmental office for women was established and in the 1930s, women entered Tehran University. However, over the next decades women’s rights fluctuated and laws pertaining to marriage, children, and abortion not only changed but were imposed with varying severity. Women obtained voting rights in 1963 and by 1978 one-third of all university students were female and 2 million women were in the Iranian workforce. With the Iranian Revolution of 1978 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite the fact that women’s groups had supported the revolution, many of the gains that had been won were suddenly lost. Women working in government had to observe conservative dress rules, the marriage age for girls was reduced to 13, women were barred from judgeships and married women from most schools. Abortion was banned and adulterous women could be stoned to death. Regaining Lost Rights In the final decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st, women have regained some lost rights and made progress in other arenas, but the struggle continues. The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Shirin Ebadi in 2003 for her human rights activities gave encouragement, but the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency in 2005 and the disputed election in

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summer 2009 have brought new restrictions on activists, including women. A campaign to collect a million signatures in support of repealing discriminatory laws against women gained several international awards and prizes, but also resulted in the prosecution, jailing, and lashing of activists. Iranian feminists living in exile, such as Mahnaz Afkhami (founder of the Association of Iranian University Women) or Roya Toloui (former editor of Rasan, or “Rising Up”) contribute to the cause, while others such as Shahla Sherkat (founder of Zanan magazine on Iranian women) have been imprisoned. Iranian feminism strives for progress in a country where 64 percent of university entrants in 2009 were women, yet women constitute only about 15 percent of the labor force. Wives need their husband’s permission to work outside the home. Government social services are seldom provided to female-headed households. Feminists in Iran have divergent goals and strategies, in part dependent on their religious or secular affiliation. Iranian feminists live with contradictions. As of 2010, both the political situation and that of feminism in Iran is uncertain. See Also: Arab Feminism; Attorneys, Female; Ebadi, Shirin; Iran; Islamic Feminism. Further Readings Ahmadi, F. “Islamic Feminism in Iran: Feminism in a New Islamic Context.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, v.22/2 (2006). Moallem, M. Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Politics of Patriarchy in Iran. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Naghibi, N. Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007. Paidar, P. Gender of Democracy: The Encounter Between Feminism and Reformism in Contemporary Iran. New York: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2001. Povey, E. R. “Feminist Contestations of Institutional Domains in Iran.” Feminist Review, v.69 (Winter 2001). Briavel Holcomb Dordaneh Davari Rutgers University

Iraq Located in the northern Persian Gulf, Iraq has a long history, dating back to the 6th millennium b.c.e. The Middle Ages were considered the “Islamic Golden Age” as Baghdad was the center of art, culture, and learning. After Mongol, Ottoman, and British rule throughout the centuries, Iraq became an independent country in 1932. In 1970, the Constitution ensured equal rights for women. However, in the decades that followed, women actually lost status, power and public roles due to the rise of conservative Islam, instability caused by war and occupation, and a chauvinistic culture. In this male-dominated society, women now have no legal equality or rights to property. They are required to wear a veil or hijab, are forced into marriages, segregated, and denied access to education. Women comprise 65 percent of the 25 million residents, but are denied any voice. Saddam Hussein rose to power at a time when fundamentalist Islam was growing. In order to appease the religious right, Hussein sacrificed the constitutional guarantees that protected women. In 1990, he granted immunity to men who committed honor killings. A father, brother, or uncle could not be prosecuted for killing a female relative who shamed the family by having sex, appearing immodest or being in the company of a man. It is estimated that two to three women are murdered each week in Basrah for not wearing the hijab, or veil. Women live in fear of violence or rape.There are no laws protecting women against domestic violence. One in five married women have been victims of domestic violence. In this patrilineal society, a woman joins the family of her husband, and the new wife often faces abuse from her mother-in-law, for which she has no recourse. The patriarchal, conservative culture has segregated women, and not allowed them a public presence. Young girls are forced into arranged marriages, even when it is against their mother’s will. Women experience higher rates of poverty and lower educational standards. In recent years, 76 percent of girls said they were forbidden from attending school. The illiteracy rate for women is two times that of men. Nearly one-quarter, 24 percent, of all women over the age of 10 are illiterate. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq also has destabilized women’s lives. One in 10 households in Iraq are headed by

Ireland



women, 80 percent of whom are widows. With limited economic opportunities, these women face constant poverty. Women only comprise 18 percent of the labor force, and rates are much lower outside of the larger cities. War, instability, and conservative Islam have severely undermined the status of Iraqi women. However, the new coalition government has made efforts to address the status of women. The new Constitution requires that 25 percent of the parliamentary seats must go to female representatives. Women are allowed to vote and are even forming their own political parties. However, the patriarchal fundamentalist culture makes this a dangerous venture for women, who face threats and ridicule. The group Women for Women International has declared that the status of women has become a national crisis. Efforts are under way to ensure girls and women access to education. The United Nations and several nongovernmental organizations have started various projects to help Iraqi women, including education, employment, shelter, health and nutrition, and food assistance. See Also: Arab Feminism; Honor Killings; Islam; Poverty. Further Readings Al-Ali, Nadje. Iraqi Women: Untold Stories From 1948 to the Present. London: Zed, 2007. Al-Ali, Nadje and Nicola Pratt. What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. Al-jawaheri, Yasmin Husein. Women in Iraq: The Gender Impact of International Sanctions. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Ireland The modern state of Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland or Éire, shares a border with Northern Ireland, whose six counties were partitioned in 1921. With a history of colonization and economic domination by Great Britain, Ireland was slow to industrialize and remained primarily an agrarian economy until

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the mid-20th century. Although currently experiencing a severe setback in its economic stability, Ireland has in recent decades been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Neoliberal economic restructuring brought rapid industrialization and an influx of multinational corporations. The 1990s saw a period of unprecedented economic growth known as the “Celtic Tiger,” which has affected all aspects of Irish society and facilitated a vast improvement in people’s quality of life, including employment and education opportunities for women. It also brought an end to over a century of large-scale emigration that had left the population growth rate in decline since the Great Famine of the1840s. With a current population of almost 4.25 million, Ireland is now one of the fastest-growing populations in Europe. Religious Beliefs The majority of Irish people are Roman Catholic, although the rates of people practicing their faith have significantly declined in recent years, particularly in the wake of several sexual and child abuse scandals. The Catholic Church has direct control over the majority of schools and hospitals in Ireland and indirect control over social policy. The role the Catholic Church has played in social life has had a significant impact on the status of women. Traditional gender stereotyping is embedded in the Irish Constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann), which makes specific mention of women’s role as mothers and the state’s responsibility to protect and enable mothers to engage in duties within the home. A 1983 amendment to the Constitution provides an equal right to life for both the unborn and the pregnant woman. Abortion was already a criminal offense under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. Currently, abortion may only be performed in Ireland where a continuation of pregnancy poses a “real and substantial” risk to the life, as opposed to the health, of the pregnant woman. The lack of legal clarity or medical guidelines means that many doctors will not perform an abortion in any case, and many women are forced to travel abroad. Women’s Movement The women’s movement in Ireland has played a significant role in transforming public opinion on women’s

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social roles and reforming discriminatory legislation, for example, in relation to illegitimacy, access to contraception, removal of a marriage bar in the public service, access to information about legal abortion in other countries and the right to travel to obtain an abortion, and the legalization of divorce. Membership in the European Union (EU) has also had an impact on legislative and policy reform, especially in relation to antidiscrimination, as membership requires compliance with EU Directives. Despite several policy initiatives promoting equality in recent years, including the Equal Status Act of 2000 and the National Women’s Strategy, women still experience discrimination on a variety of fronts in Irish society. On average, women outperform men in education but are at greater risk of poverty, particularly women in vulnerable groups such as single parents, rural women, older women, Traveller and immigrant women, and women with disabilities. Approximately 40 percent of women have experienced sexual abuse or violence. Lack of access to quality healthcare and an unequal distribution of caring responsibilities also negatively affect women’s opportunities. Women are more likely to be in low-paid or parttime employment and on average earn only 85 percent of what men earn. In addition, several disincentives exist for women in the labor market, including no paid parental leave and one of the lowest levels of publicly funded childcare in the EU, while the cost of private childcare as a proportion of earnings ranks among the highest. Although current president Mary McAleese and former president Mary Robinson are both women, as are the Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) and three members of the cabinet, women are underrepresented in decision making, both in the political spectrum and in the private sector. The impact of the recent global economic recession has been extreme, returning Ireland to debt, unemployment, and emigration rates the country has not experienced since the 1980s. Concerns are growing about the impact upcoming budget cuts, especially in the areas of social welfare and healthcare, will have, particularly on women and children. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, International; Equal Pay; Poverty; Representation of Women; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Robinson, Mary; Roman Catholic Church.

Further Readings Barry, Ursula, ed. Where Are We Now? New Feminist Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Ireland. Dublin: Tasc at New Ireland, 2008. Galligan, Yvonne. Women and Politics in Contemporary Ireland: From the Margins to the Mainstream. London: Pinter, 1998. Hill, Myrtle. Women in Ireland: A Century of Change. Belfast, UK: Blackstaff, 2003. O’Connor, Pat. Emerging Voices: Women in Contemporary Irish Society. Dublin, Ireland: Smurfit Print, 1998. Jennifer K. DeWan Independent Scholar

Islam International interest in Muslim women has increased as their dress, behavior, and social roles are seen as symbols of socioreligious trends against a backdrop of increasingly visible religiosity in Muslim communities in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Interpretations of Islamic scriptures regarding women vary significantly and have been enshrined in law to differing degrees. Islam plays a key—yet often polarizing—role, especially as the current sociopolitical climate is such that debates about women’s status are increasingly taking place in Islamic terms. Controversy over increasing religiosity, and its impact on Muslim women, stems from debate in many Muslim communities about whether social, economic, and political institutions should be based on western or Islamic models. Analyzing the spread of disillusionment with Western ideas and practices is crucial to understanding the increasing appeal of Islamic models. By the 1970s, non-Islamic political and economic models had failed to deliver prosperity and freedom to many Muslim communities in the Middle East and Asia, and created instead oppressive governments and widespread poverty. The social changes of the early 20th century—including the spread of nuclear families and companionate marriage, and the expansion of education and middle-class aspirations—were significant around the world, but many later Western changes—for instance, women’s sexual liberation—



were not widely accepted in many non-Western Muslim communities. Finally, foreign intervention in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia did not cease with the founding of independent governments, but continues in ways that frustrate many—from Western support for corrupt and oppressive regimes to perceived occupation in Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Increasing scrutiny of Muslims living in North America and Europe serves to further heighten tensions. As disillusionment with Western models increased, Islamic revivalist movements have spread and the popularity of social, political, and economic models that derive inspiration from Islam have increased. Proponents link them to Islamic heritage—even if many of their practices are actually recent developments—including a centuries-old tradition of Islamic “renewal” as the ideal solution to failure or weakness. Islamic political parties can link their policies to the

Chador-clad women entering the mosque in the holy city of Qum, Iran, where the public veiling of women is required by law.

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values of fairness, honesty, and lack of corruption, which are often seen to be lacking in the Westernstyle alternatives. Finally, these models often do not require further social change or upheaval, especially with respect to women’s status. Muslim Women as Polarizing Symbols Muslim women are currently seen by many as a barometer and tangible symbol of their community’s stance within these debates, with their dress and public behavior becoming a key issue for postcolonial governments, Western organizations, and a wide variety of local actors. Outside intervention— or any actions that could be portrayed as such by opponents—aimed at changing the education, dress, or behavior of Muslim women remains an extremely sensitive topic, as (often hypocritical) colonial administrators in parts of the Muslim world used the status of women as an excuse for condescending interference in local affairs. The dress of Muslim women is an area that has attracted significant interest from Western audiences. Veiling takes a variety of often region-specific forms, and can involve concealing some combination of hair, face, or entire body. Veiling is required by law in some Muslim countries—for instance, Iran and Saudi Arabia—yet more controversy surrounds women who choose to veil in countries—Muslim majority or otherwise—where it is not a legal requirement. Some argue that these women are forced to veil by society or their families, and that the veil is therefore a symbol of the oppression of women within Islam. While pressure from family or society to veil exists in many communities, many Muslim women choose to veil to make a social, religious, or political statement. To many, veiling is a symbol of religious belief and an important part of their religious practice. Others veil to make a political statement, perhaps as a rejection of pressure to blend into a non-Muslim country or of Western cultural influence in the Middle East or Asia. Veiling can be a way to cope with near-constant harassment from men on the streets of some increasingly crowded Muslim-majority cities. Wearing a veil can also protect a woman’s reputation as a moral and pious person within conservative communities where working outside of the home is not fully accepted for women. Similarly, veiling can be a distinguishing factor within highly competitive

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marriage markets. To understand veiling in any given community, it is crucial to consider the explanations of the veil-wearers in relevant social, political, economic, and religious contexts. Islamic Teachings Regarding Women What Islam actually says about women is as contested as the dress and behavior of Muslim women. Interpretations of Islamic scriptures on issues impacting women vary widely around the world and it is crucial to remember that Islamic interpretations are neither monolithic nor unchanging. At the same time, the increasingly global nature of Islamic revival and interpretation makes it easier to discern certain common threads. Some of these interpretations have been incorporated into law, while others impact women due to their social and political resonance. Conservative, revivalist interpretations of Islam do not generally grant women and men full equality, but instead assign each rights and responsibilities. Women are often under guardianship of a man related to them— their father, brother, husband, or son—which ranges in meaning from financial support and moral oversight to legal control over their ability to work, travel, study, or marry. The primary duty of wives—and one that must be satisfied before they embark on a professional career—is to their families, and they are often expected to begin having children immediately after marriage. Wives are often instructed to defer to their husband, and many interpreters allow husbands to strike disobedient wives. Men are allowed up to four wives, and it is much easier for them to obtain a divorce. Because men are supposed to be the sole breadwinner, they often receive a double share of an inheritance. Women protect their reputations and—given the controversy surrounding relationships before marriage, especially in societies where many assume that a man and woman left alone together have had illicit sex—they must carefully guard their interactions with men as well as their activities after dark. Proponents of conservative teachings often argue that Islam demands a very high standard of behavior from both men and women, and that men who abuse this system are doing so in contravention to Islam. Opponents point out that unequal access to both social, legal, and economic recourse leaves women with very few options when their male guardians do not live up to expectations.

The Islamic essence of these teachings is hotly contested, especially in western contexts where they contrast sharply with gender equality. Over the past 20 years, an increasingly vocal minority of North American Muslims have been arguing that these teachings are not valid and that Islamic scriptures need to be significantly reinterpreted. Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, and Khaled Abou El Fadl are among those supporting much more active and equal roles for women in Islamic interpretation, practice, and leadership. Their ideas and activities have gained worldwide attention, although their influence in conservative communities is limited because the decentralized nature of Islamic authority magnifies the importance of being seen as legitimate by audiences, and these audiences often expect continuity instead of change. Changing Women’s Status by Contesting Islam In Muslim communities around the world, an increasing number of groups who want to increase the rights provided to women are arguing for this in Islamic terms. This is because—in the current climate—concepts, arguments, and initiatives that are seen to be associated with western ideas and practices, including feminism and secular conceptions of human rights, can easily be branded as inauthentic and illegitimate by their opponents. Earlier in the 20th century, when Western social and political ideas were increasing in popularity, feminism was a viable channel through which to improve the position of women. In Egypt, a local feminist movement emerged as an offshoot of post–World War I nationalist activity, and post-independence states such as Egypt, Syria, and Pakistan were (officially at least) supporters of gender equality. However, the postcolonial legacies described above mean that feminism is often currently derided as a foreign and therefore inauthentic import. Pressure from revivalist groups— who claim that their ostensibly Islamic gender norms are more authentic—have even led groups supportive of gender equality to avoid the label feminist. Controversy and Activism As the stigma surrounding Western concepts has increased, the most interesting debates occur within the realm of Islamic interpretation itself. One example, Asma Nomani’s 2004–05 Muslim Women’s Freedom Tour, included Amina Wadud’s controversial



leading of Friday prayer for a mixed-gender audience, and is part of North American calls for women to be accepted equally in mosques as scholars, religious leaders, worshipers, and community representatives. Wadud was also involved in the founding of Sisters in Islam of Malaysia in the 1990s. This group teaches interpretations of Islam that support gender equality in order to halt the spread of conservative Islamic teachings and practices in Malaysia. Similarly, a wide variety of activists and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) working to combat specific problems—such as female genital mutilation—at the grassroots level have realized explaining and justifying their agendas through reference to Islamic concepts and arguments maximizes their chance of success. Surprisingly, the activities of some female mosque instructors can be seen in this light. Mosque instructors are traditionally seen as spreading conservative religious practice as most must endorse conservative gender norms to gain religious authority. Yet female religious leaders from countries like Indonesia and Trinidad use their religious authority to actively resist the spread of more restrictive practices. On a wider level, the teachings of some—certainly not all—female mosque instructors improve the daily lives of their followers by presenting religious and secular education and an active public life as a right. Mosque lessons also often give students the tools to resist male and familial practices—such as forced marriage or insisting that women remain at home—that are often justified as Islamic yet contravene the moralities or systems of rights and responsibilities taught by these instructors. Muslim women with a wide variety of perspectives, therefore, are currently using Islamic ideas and arguments to play an active role in the reconfiguration of Islamic interpretations and Muslim societies. See Also: African American Muslims; Arab Feminism; Islamic Feminism; Islam in America; Progressive Muslims (U.S.); Religion, Women in. Further Readings Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992. Joseph, Suad, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Online, 2008.

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Mahmood, Saba. Politics of Piety: the Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Hilary Kalmbach University of Oxford

Islam in America The large majority of Muslims arrived in the United States after 1965, when immigration quotas discriminating against non-Europeans were lifted. The new laws favored family reunification, allowing men to bring over brides and families. Over the last 40 years, the Muslim community has grown steadily, raising the first generation of American-born children. At the same time, many African American converts to the Nation of Islam turned toward orthodox Sunni Islam. Major communities are found in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, New York, and New Jersey. Demographics There is no clear consensus regarding the number of American Muslims; the 2007 Pew Forum survey estimates 2.35 million (less than 1 percent of the population). Of these, 65 percent are foreign born. In the total Muslim population, 32 percent are from Arab countries (including Iran), 18 percent from south Asia and 20 percent are native-born African American. 46 percent of the Muslim population is female (compared to 52 percent of the U.S. population). The main gender imbalance lies in the African American Muslim population, which is only 36 percent female. This is likely due to patterns of conversion, many of which happen in prison. The relationship between African American and immigrant Muslims has been strained on occasion, with the two communities maintaining mainly separate spheres. One reason for this split is that post1965 immigrants have generally maintained a higher socioeconomic status than African Americans. As well, African Americans see U.S. racism as a Muslim issue (it was often the impetus for their conversions) but immigrants do not, preferring to focus on injustice abroad in places like Palestine or Iraq. This tension may lessen as the next generation, who have

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been born in the United States and have grown up with orthodox Sunni Islam, engage in dialogue. Theology and Practice Islam is a monotheistic religion that dates to the 7th century. It began in Saudi Arabia when Muhammad revealed himself as the last and greatest prophet of God (Allah). His teachings, believed to be Allah’s literal word, are gathered in a text called the Qur’an (Koran). To become Muslim requires a Declaration of the Faith (shahada): “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet.” The shahada is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the five duties that every Muslim must perform. The others are salat (pray five time a day), zakat (give charity to the poor), sawm (fast during daylight in the month of Ramadan), and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Islam is diverse, comprised of different schools of jurisprudence and divided into a number of sects that do not always recognize one another. More than 85 percent the world’s Muslim population is Sunni. Muslim American women range from highly practicing to seeing Islam as important primarily for historical and ethnic reasons. A small but important number of Muslims practice Sufism, a mystical movement that cuts across sectarian divides and uses dance and music to connect emotionally with faith. For some women, this provides an outlet not otherwise available in more legalistic expressions of Islam. Hijab (The Veil) Hijab is controversial because, for many non-Muslim Westerners, it is symbolic of perceived Islamic repression of women. Most American Muslim women do not believe that Islamic dress is a religious requirement yet nearly all, whether they cover or not, have stressed repeatedly that hijab is not repression but a choice. Some Muslim women who wear hijab have complained of discrimination at school and work. A number of instances have come to public attention where employers, such as U.S. Airways and Domino’s Pizza, refused to allow employees to wear hijab with their uniforms. In a few instances this has led to court cases. Education Education for both genders is considered a key duty in Islam; Taliban-like restrictions are the exception. Most American Muslims strongly support women’s

education, however there are some, particularly from conservative areas such as South Asia, Yemen, and Afghanistan, who do not to encourage their daughters to pursue higher education for fear that it will disrupt domestic structures. Currently, there are 235 Islamic day schools in the United States but about 93 percent of Muslim children attend public schools. Sixty to 65 percent of private school attendees are girls, particularly in high school. Muslim Feminism Since the 1970s, Muslim feminists have looked to the idea of ijtihad, individual interpretation of Islamic law, to argue that all Muslims, women and men, have a role to play in theological interpretation. Generally, Muslim feminists focus on the idea of complementary relationships between women and men as opposed to superior/inferior. Dr. Riffat Hassan, a Pakistani American professor has fought for women in Islam to be recognized as equals and, in particular, for end to “honor killings” in Pakistan. American Muslim feminists courted international controversy when, in 2005, Indian American journalist Asra Nomani organized the first woman-led prayers for a mixed-gender audience in modern history. The prayers were held in New York and led by Dr. Amina Wadud, an African American convert and feminist scholar. Another feminist who has been the source of much debate (and has received death threats) is outspoken Canadian Irshad Manji, who has championed queer rights within Islam. Muslim Women in Popular Culture and Politics Muslim American women have used various media to assert their presence in the public sphere, particularly in the last decade as the younger generation goes online. A number of recent anthologies deal with Muslim women’s experiences, as do online columns like “Sex and the Umma” (www.muslimwakeup.com). Azizah Magazine began publication in 2001 and is geared toward young Muslim women and teens. In December 2004, Bridges TV, North America’s first Muslim broadcasting channel, was launched with Aasiya Zubair, a Pakistani American woman, serving as programming director. Other Muslim women in television journalism include Rudi Bakhtiar, a correspondent for Fox News, and Farah Ispahani, the executive producer on Voice of America’s Beyond the Headlines. Zarqa Nawaz, a young Canadian film-



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maker, created the hit TV comedy show Little Mosque on the Prairie, which has been airing weekly on Canadian television and various affiliates since 2007. In the early 1990s, a number of national organizations were founded by and for Muslim American women. In 1992, 150 women from 30 ethnicities founded the North American Council for Muslim Women, which is an advocacy and legislative organization. Karamah, founded in 1993 by lawyer Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, seeks to promote human rights, particularly issues of gender bias Islamic marriage, divorce and inheritance laws. The largest Muslim women’s organization is the Muslim Women’s League, which is dedicated to disseminating accurate information about Islam and Muslim women. There have been a number of recent “firsts” for Muslim women in public leadership roles. In 2006, Dr. Ingrid Mattson was elected to serve as the first female president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim organization in North America. In 2004, Mona K. Majzoub was the first Muslim woman judge appointed in the United States and, in the same year, Yasmin Ratansi, was the first Muslim woman elected to the Canadian Parliament. As of yet, no Muslim women have been elected to the U.S. Congress.

Raouda, N. The Feminine Voice of Islam: Muslim Women in America. South Bend, IN: Victoria Press, 2008.

See Also: African American Muslims; Islamic Feminism; Secularity Law, France; Wadud, Amina.

Gender Inequality Inequality takes shape in many forms. Sex and sexuality spurs debate over Qur’anic interpretation directed at male homosexuality, but organizations are driving to broaden such readings. Muslim dress code varies worldwide, but in some cultures women are expected to wear full-body coverings (burka or abaya) and others simply a headscarf (hijab) in public spaces. Islamic feminists are also calling for a reformed text of Muslim Personal Law (or Muslim Family Law), discriminating legislation that dictates marriage, divorce, and inheritance or a complete rejection of such law. There are three primary groups of people propagating Islamic feminism identifying themselves as either: committed Muslims, secular feminists, and/ or former leftists. Muslim scholars are also engaged in addressing such issues as Islam and democracy, human rights, and philosophy. In addition to representing the project or identity of Islamic feminism on a global level, local responsibilities include prioritizing the particular needs of a region and engaging in local activism.

Further Readings Abdul-Ghafur, S. Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005. Gehrke-White, Donna. The Face Behind the Veil: The Extraordinary Lives of Muslim Women in America. New York: Citadel Press, 2006. Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, Jane I. Smith, and Kathleen M. Moore. Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. Joseph, Suad and Afsaneh Najmabadi, eds. Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Family, Law, and Politics. Boston: Brill, 2006. Karim, Jamillah. American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class and Gender With the Ummah. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Pew Research Center. “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream.” http://pewresearch.org /pubs/483/muslim-americans (accessed May 2010).

Hillary Kaell Harvard University

Islamic Feminism Islamic feminism began as a movement in the 1990s, primarily in Asia and Africa, although it is not geographically confined, and centers its principles on full equality of all Muslims regardless of gender. Conceptually there is no division between the East and West; and as an ideal, Islamic feminism is spreading faster now than in the past due in large part to the expediency of information dissemination via the Internet. In contrast to secular feminism, Islamic feminism seeks equality in both public and private spaces. In public, this includes appointing women as heads of states, imams, judges, and sharing the same mosque space as men. In the private sphere, it includes challenging traditional roles of male authority over spouse and family.

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Islamic feminism is not immune to enemies, particularly resistance from men who fear a loss of power but also women who fear a loss of protection (whether materially, spiritually, and/or morally). Additionally, many individuals denigrate Islam as antiwoman, including certain invalid Western generalizations of tribal, patriarchal, and misogynistic features. Efforts to reinterpret Qur’anic passages in support of Islamic feminism counteract such opinion. Female heads of state have now been appointed in at least six Muslim majority countries and the annual International Islamic Feminist Conference, held in Barcelona, Spain, has been in existence since 2005. See Also: Arab Feminism; Feminist Majority Foundation; Feminist Theology; Global Feminism; Islam in America. Further Readings Badran, Margot. Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Press, 2008. Jameelah, Maryam. “The Feminist Movement and the Muslim Woman.” http://www.islam101.com/women /jameelah.htm. (accessed January 2010). Najmabadi, Afsaneh. “Feminism in an Islamic Republic: ‘Years of Hardship, Years of Growth’.” In Yvonne Y. Haddad and John Esposito, eds.,Women, Gender, and Social Change in the Muslim World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Jennifer Struve Towson University

Israel The status of women in the state of Israel has been predisposed primarily by liberal and socialist ideologies of the Zionist movement; respectively, Israel’s declaration of independence (May 14, 1948) conveys that the state of Israel “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” Yet, in Israel, during the first decade of the 21st century, one can still identify many areas in which women cannot yet enjoy full impartiality and ultimate equality. The Israeli central Bureau of Statistics, 2007, indicates that women comprise 50.6 percent of Israel’s

population, meaning that for every 102.4 women there are 100 men, whereas in the world at large that ratio is inverted. Israeli women have the highest average number of children in the Western world. The Israeli average is 2.9 compared to two children in the United States. The Israeli central Bureau of Statistics, 2009, reports that the average life expectancy for women is 83 years compared to 79.1 years for men. A report on the status of women in Israel in 2004, presented by the Israel Women’s Network to the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women, points out that the average marrying age for Jewish women is 24.5, and for Muslim women 20.5. In Europe, on the other hand, the average marrying age for women is 27. Of mothers in Israel, some 97,000 are single parents, and 64 percent of them are Jewish. Single mothers head 10 percent of families in Israel compared to 17 percent in other Western countries. Violence Against Women In Israel, as in many other countries, it is difficult to estimate exactly the scope of violence against women, especially owing to the fact that many women are still reluctant to report violent incidents due to fear, shame, and sense of helplessness. Yet, according to police estimates, in 2008, 12,777 police files were opened due to women’s complaints about familial violence directed against them, an increase of 5 percent compared with data for 2007. In recent years, minimum punishment was legislated for sex offenders and perpetrators of domestic violence. In 1991, the Domestic Violence Prevention Law was enacted, empowering family courts to issue protective orders against violent spouses. In 1998, Israel adopted a comprehensive Sexual Harassment Prevention Law, which defines sexual harassment, makes it a criminal offense, and also cause for a civil suit against the perpetrator and his employer. Education and Military Service The report on the status of women in Israel in 2004 indicates that approximately 22 percent of Israel’s women have 13 to 15 years of formal education compared to 20 percent of men, but conversely, 4.5 percent of women have no schooling at all compared to 1.8 percent of men.Stemming from current data concerning high school students, 74 percent of the girls



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The Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel. It is estimated that women comprise 50.6 percent of Israel’s population, and Israeli women have the highest average number of children in the Western world.

and 65 percent of the boys are candidates for matriculation certificate. The female ratio of students is also high in institutions of higher learning, with an overall average of 56 percent. The female ratio among doctoral students also continues to grow, and in 2008, 52.7 percent of the third-degree students were women. According to the Advancement of the Status of Women report from 2001, Israel ranks seventh in the Western world with regard to the percentage of women who are studying in higher education facilities. Still, academic courses that are considered traditionally feminine enroll more women than men. The Defense Service Law of 1959 legalizes the obligation of service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). According to the law, the majority of citizens and permanent residents of Israel are required to perform military service. All Jewish women at the age of 18 who are physically fit, unmarried, have no children, and have not declared their religious beliefs must fulfill their military obligation. Women currently per-

form compulsory military service in the IDF for a period of one year and nine months (compared with the three years compulsory service for the male draft). In 2000, Israel’s Parliament adopted an amendment to the Security Service Law, opening most military areas of expertise to women. Health Israel’s National Health Law (1995) ensures health insurance to all Israeli citizens based on progressive payments. Under the law, infertile women, whether married or single, are entitled to fertility treatment to produce their first two children paid for by their public health insurer. Moreover, the basket of health services offers a growing number of medications, including remedies for numerous gender-specific problems. According to the Israeli Women’s Network, heart disease is the leading cause of death in Israeli women. Despite this fact, it is likely that in Israel, as in the United States, people still think of heart disease as a

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man’s illness. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, and some researchers predict that it is likely to become the leading cause of death in industrialized countries in the 21st century. Employment Since the establishment of the state of Israel, the rate of unemployment among females has always been higher than that of males. In 2003, 11.3 percent of women who wanted to work were unemployed compared to 10.2 percent of men. In 2008, the unemployment among women dropped to 6.5 percent compared to 5.7 percent among men. The gross average monthly income of $2,268 for male employees in 2005 was 58 percent higher than the $1,433 earned by female employees. The gender gap in monthly income can be only partially related to the fact that men work more hours per month than women. However, according to the Research and Information Center of the Knesset, women work mostly in lower-paying jobs, in services, education, health, welfare, and clerical positions, and are significantly less represented in prestigious and lucrative occupations such as high-tech, management, and engineering. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris on May 16, 2007, approved a decision to open accession discussions with Israel. The decision confirmed Israel’s achievements as a democratic and developing country as well as its ability to contribute both to the global economy and to the organization. Nevertheless, one of the possible prohibiting factors in putting this decision into action may be the vast gap between gender-oriented earnings. Politics The representation of women in Israeli politics seems to be rather poor. Of all the countries in which women are included in the legislature, Israel, despite having once been led by a woman prime minister (Golda Meir), ranks 67th. Women comprise only 17.5 percent of Israel’s 120-member Knesset, placing Israel somewhere in the middle. In comparison, the female ratio among Scandinavian legislators is 40 percent and rising. The ratio of women in the local councils of Israel is continuously increasing. Nevertheless, only 17 women have served as the head of any municipal authority since the establishment of Israel.

Following the historical adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on October 31, 2000, which specifically notes women’s contributions to conflict resolution and to peace negotiations, the fourth amendment of women’s equality rights (Israel, July 20, 2005) finally added the subsection suggesting that women should take part in decisions concerning Israel’s national policy. See Also: Educational Opportunities/Access; Equal Pay; Heads of State, Female; Judaism; Orthodox Judaism. Further Readings Ifrach, A. Women’s Health in Israel: A Data Book. Jerusalem: Women’s Network, Hadassah, abd WIZO, 2000. Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. Statistical Abstract of Israel (2009). Jewish Virtual Library. “Report on the Status of Women in Israel in 2004.” Report presented by the Israel Women’s Network to the Knesset. Jerusalem: Israeli Knesset, The Committee of the Advancement of the Status of Women, 2004. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org /jsource/Society_&_Culture/women2004.html (accessed July 2010). Lotten, O. Violence Against Women. Jerusalem: Israeli Knesset, the Committee of the Advancement of the Status of Women, 2007. Shachak, I. Violence Against Women—Updated Data. Jerusalem: Israeli Knesset, The Committee of the Advancement of the Status of Women, 2002. Weissblay, E. Violence Against Women. Jerusalem: Israeli Knesset, the Committee of the Advancement of the Status of Women, 2008. Yaffe, N. Women and Men in Israel 1985–2005, Statistics, No. 67. Jerusalem: The Authority of the Advancement of the Status of Women, Prime Minister’s Bureau, 2006. Sara Zamir Ben-Gurion University at Eilat

Italy An ancient country with a strong emphasis on family, Italy is located in southern Europe. After the defeat of Benito Mussolini and fascism during World War II,



the Italian monarchy was superseded by representative democracy and alliances with the former Allies. Despite membership in the European Union and the adoption of the euro in 1999, modern Italy is plagued by high unemployment (7.7 percent) and low incomes that affect the lives of many Italian women, particularly those in the largely agricultural south. By the early 21st century, 68 percent of Italians were living in urban areas, and 65.1 percent of the workforce were employed in the service industry. Italy is a homogeneous nation both ethnically and religiously. While there are subgroups of Germans, French, Slovenes, Albanians, and Greeks who continue to speak their native languages, most people ethnically identify themselves as Italian. Legal and Economic Challenges for Women Legally, women have the same rights as men, but discrimination against women continues as a result of the patriarchal culture and the influence of the Vatican. As might be expected in this Roman Catholic country, reproductive rights are limited. Abortions are banned in state hospitals, and doctors can refuse to perform abortions by declaring themselves “conscientious objectors. Despite all efforts to protect the rights of women, there have been incidences of honor killings, female genital mutilation, and forced or arranged marriages in immigrant areas. Other problems that affect large groups of Italian females include violence against women, sexual harassment, and human trafficking. Due to the relative prosperity of the heavily industrialized northern region of the country, Italy has a per capita income of $30,300, making it the 44th richest nation in the world. However, many Italians insist that the adoption of the euro monetary system has impoverished many Italian women in response to skyrocketing living costs and the erosion of Italy’s once-strong welfare state. As a result, women’s access to education and health services has been seriously curtailed. Among working women and men, there is a wage gap of approximately 7 percent, and women are underrepresented in upper levels of business and most professions. The Italian government has charged the Ministry for Equal Opportunity, the Equal Opportunity Commission of the Prime Minister’s office, and the Ministry of Labor and Welfare with protecting the rights of Italian women.

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In response to a negative population growth rate (minus 0.075 percent), there is grave concern over the future of the Italian family. On the average, Italian women produce only 1.32 children each, and there is an increase in the number of single persons, childless families, and single-parent households. Divorces and separations are on the rise, further affecting family growth patterns. The government actively encourages women to have more children, and public appeals have been made to encourage males to become more involved in domestic chores. The government also promotes greater flexibility in employment for women, improved access to day care and public transportation. With a female infant mortality rate of 4.82 deaths per 1,000 live births as compared to a male rate of 5.96 deaths per 1,000 live births, a female life expectancy of 83.46 years as compared to 77.39 years for men, and a female median age of 45.3 years as compared to 42.3 years for males, females are healthier than males at all stages of their lives. While males (98.8 percent) have a slightly higher literacy rate than females (98 percent), Italian women (17 years) tend to be better educated than Italian men (16 years). Domestic Violence a Continuing Problem Violence against women continues to be a major concern in Italy, particularly among immigrant women. Some reports suggest that almost a third of Italian women between the ages of 16 and 70 have been victims of violence at some point in their lives. Many of those abuses include rape or attempted rape, and almost a third of those incidences are perpetrated by partners. According to Italian law, rape, including spousal rape, is a crime, and the government effectively enforces those laws. Despite government efforts to support victims of violence, many women refuse to file charges out of fear, shame, or ignorance of the law. Since 2006, the Ministry of Equal Opportunity has operated a hot line for victims and provides temporary shelter upon request. To deal with the particular needs of Muslim women who face the threat of violence, domestic confinement, or being forced into polygamous marriages, the nongovernmental organization ACMID Donna has established a designated toll-free hotline. Italian law also identifies sexual harassment as an illegal activity, and gender-based emotional abuse is likewise considered a crime. Prostitution is legal in

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private residences in Italy, but commercial prostitution is prohibited. However, there are concerns over trafficking women into Italy for the purposes of prostitution, and those who travel to other countries for the purposes of sexual tourism can be tried in Italian domestic courts. Increased political representation has given Italian women a greater voice in decision making than in the past. In 2008, there were 58 women in the Senate, 134 women in the Chamber of Deputies, and four women on the Council of Ministers. Nongovernmental organizations continue to play an active role in protecting women’s rights. As the result of a backlash against what are seen as antifemale positions, including the passage of Law No. 1.514 which defined fetuses as persons with legal rights, women’s groups have been reenergized in 21st-century Italy. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, International; Domestic Violence; Government, Women in; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Roman Catholic Church; Sexual Harassment; Trafficking, Women and Children.

Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Italy.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/it.html (accessed February 2010). Columbus, Frank H. European Economic and Political Issues, vol. 7. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2003. Giampiero, Dalla Zuanna. “Few Children in Strong Families. Values and Low Fertility in Italy.” Genus, v.60/1 (2004). Henig, Ruth Beatrice and Simon Henig. Women and Political Power: Europe Since 1945. London: Routledge, 2001. Strom, Sharon Hartman. Women’s Rights. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Italy.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eur/119086.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

J Jackson, Shirley Ann Shirley Ann Jackson, born August 5, 1946, in Washington, D.C., is a renowned American physicist and the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Her career in science has included leadership positions in academe, business, and government, and she has received many awards in recognition for her work in these areas. Jackson received her B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968 in the field of theoretical physics. Although she was one of a small minority of African American students at the university, she continued her studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, eventually becoming the institute’s first female African American doctoral graduate, in 1973. Her primary area of research has been in theoretical elementary particle physics, which uses theoretical concepts and mathematical formulas to understand subatomic particles, and she has continued her research into this area through many postdoctoral appointments. Postdoctoral Positions Jackson worked as a research associate for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, and the European Center for Nuclear Research in Switzerland before joining the Theoretical Physics Research Department at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1976, where she remained as a researcher until 1991.

In 1991, Jackson began her career as a professor at Rutgers University, where she taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in physics until 1995. In 1995, Jackson was appointed by President William Clinton to serve as chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the organization charged with supervising the safety of reactor by product material in relation to public health, the environment, national security, and other related issues. She was the first black woman to hold this position, and she served in this capacity until 1999. In 1999, Jackson became the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, becoming the first black woman to achieve this distinction. Further, she was the first black woman to become president at any top 50 research university in the United States. As president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, she has surpassed fund-raising goals established for the university and supported the move to hire significantly more faculty members to reduce class size. Despite the success, her presidency has not been without controversy, and she has been criticized for her substantial compensation package by faculty members and the news media. Honors and Awards Jackson has been the recipient of many awards and honors for her work in research and education. She is an invited member in the American Physical Society and the American Philosophical Society, and in 783

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1998 she was inducted in the National Women’s Hall of Fame for her work as a scientist and for her contributions to education, science, and public policy. In 2002, Jackson was recognized as one of the Top 50 Women in Science by Discover magazine, and in 2004 she was named a fellow of the Association for Women in Science, which seeks to promote equity in the participation of women in the sciences. In 2007, Jackson was selected as the 2007 recipient of the National Science Board Vannevar Bush Award, which recognizes lifetime achievements in science and contributions to public policy. In 2009, Jackson was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Jackson chairs the New York Stock Exchange Regulation Board, and she also serves on the board of regents of the Smithsonian Institution. She is on the board of directors for many organizations, including IBM Corporation, FedEx Corporation, and Marathon Oil Corporation, and she is a trustee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See Also: Educational Administrators, College and University; Physics, Women in; Science, Women in. Further Readings June, Audrey Miller. “Shirley Ann Jackson Sticks to the Plan.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (June 15, 2007). O’Connell, Diane. Strong Force: The Story of Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson (Women’s Adventures in Science). Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2006. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “President’s Profile.” http://www.rpi.edu/president/profile.html (accessed June 2010). Jennifer Adams DePauw University

Jamaica Jamaica is an island nation in the Caribbean that became independent from Great Britain in 1962. The population of almost 3 million are primarily black (91.2 percent) with an additional 6.2 percent of mixed heritage. Over 60 percent of Jamaicans identify with

Growing unemployment in Jamaica has increased income inequality and some women sell food to try to make a living.

a Protestant church while a small minority (2.6 percent) are Roman Catholic and about 30 percent do not indicate any religion. Jamaica has a young age structure because of its high fertility rate (2.25 children per woman) and a high degree of migration out of the country by working age adults: 31.4 percent of the population is age 14 or younger. In 2009, the country had a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $8,300 with tourism, services, and remittances (money sent from relatives working abroad) being the most significant sources of revenue. The country has one of the highest per capita debt burdens in the world (131.7 percent of GDP in 2009) making it difficult for the government to deliver high-quality social services, while growing unemployment has increased income inequality and exacerbated a serious crime problem. Education and Employment Opportunities The rate of female literacy (91.6 percent) in Jamaica exceed that of men (84.1 percent) and more than twice as many women as men enroll in tertiary education. Compared with men, women hold about 50 percent more of Jamaica’s professional and technical jobs although women are less likely to be in the labor



force, more are likely to be unemployed, and earn only about 63 percent as much as men do for similar work. Mothers are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave at 100 percent of salary. The World Economic Forum ranks Jamaica in the middle third of countries on gender equality. On a scale in which 1 indicates perfect equality and 0 indicates inequality, in 2009 Jamaica received an overall score of 0.701 with 1.000 for educational attainment (highest in the world), 0.971 for health and survival, 0.743 for economic participation and opportunity, and 0.091 for political empowerment. In the Jamaican government, women hold 15 percent of the seats in Parliament, 13 percent of ministerial positions, and have had one female head of state (Portia Lucretia Simpson-Miller, who served from March 2006 to September 2007). In Jamaica, almost all women receive at least four prenatal care visits and almost all births are attended by skilled personnel. However, outcomes lag behind: the childhood immunization level is below 90 percent, the maternal mortality ratio is 170 per 100,000 live births, and infant mortality is 26 per 1,000 live births. Save the Children rates Jamaica 23rd on its Mothers’ Index, 24th on its Women’s Index, and 28th on its Children’s Index, out of 75 Tier II or less developed countries. Excellence in Sports One very visible area of excellence for Jamaica women is athletics where they regularly win Olympic medals and world championships particularly in the sprints. Well-known Jamaican track stars include Merlene Ottey, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Lorraine Fenton, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Tayna Lawrence, Beverly McDonald, and Sandie Richards. See Also: Government, Women in; Poverty; Representation of Women in Government, International; Sports, Women in; Track and Field, Women in. Further Readings Hausman, Ricardo, et al. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities /Women%20Leaders%20and%20Gender%20Parity /GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010).

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Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethechild ren.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd_pub (accessed February 2009). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Jamison, Judith Judith Jamison (1943– ) is the artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, one of the most renowned and traveled dance companies in the world. She has received numerous awards, honors, and appointments and has been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the top dancers and choreographers of all time. Under her leadership and direction, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues to perform worldwide and provide dance and choreography training and education. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jamison began dance lessons at age 10. She attended Fisk University and the Philadelphia Dance Academy. She received her first big break into dancing after being discovered by famed U.S. dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille, who invited Jamison to perform the ballet The Four Marys. The following year Jamison moved to New York. She auditioned for a performance and was seen by Alvin Ailey, who invited her to join the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Jamison became one of the primary dancers in the company and added choreographing to her repertoire. She quickly gained attention, performing nationally and internationally, dancing duets with famous dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov set to the music of legendary musician Duke Ellington. She became a sought-after solo act and choreographer. Jamison left the company in 1980 to star in the Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies. In 1988, she started her own dance company, the Jamison Project. A year after she started the Jamison Project, she returned to take over as artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the request of Alvin Ailey.

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Charitable Works and Accolades Under Jamison’s leadership, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has developed programs to bring dance into the lives of young people. Ailey’s Arts in Education and Community programs serve over 100,000 youth. The Ailey Camp provides a summer program for low-income youth, offering dance and creative writing classes, personal development seminars, and field trips. AileyDance Kids offers dance training to schools in the New York Tri-State area and has expanded into New Jersey as well. These programs serve to assist youth and young adults in honing their dancing and choreographing skills in preparation for a career in dance, as well as introducing dance to the community. Jamison has received many accolades in her lifetime. In 1999, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2001, she was honored with the National Medal of Arts, the highest award for artists that is given by the government of the United States. She won both an Emmy Award and American Choreography Award for Outstanding Choreography for A Hymn for Alvin Ailey, a PBS special program. Jamison received the Making a Difference award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Bessie Award for her commitment to preserving the arts. She has been honored at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Honors, was one of 2009’s Time 100: The World’s Most Influential People, and received a Presidential Appointment to the National Council of the Arts. Jamison announced that she would retire in 2011, and remain with Alvin Ailey as artistic director emerita. See Also: Alternative Education; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Dance, Women in. Further Readings Dunning, Jennifer. Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998. Jamison, Judith. Dancing Spirit: An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday, 1993. Maynard, Olga. Judith Jamison: Aspects of a Dancer. New York: Doubleday, 1982. Leesha Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Japan Shifting economic and social realities in the 21st century have presented Japanese women with opportunities as well as challenges as they try to balance various interests and concerns. They have attained some progress, especially in terms of their participation in electoral politics, while remaining confronted by views and practices that hinder their full participation in the government and business sectors. These obstacles include notions of elective office and managerial positions as the domain of men. To nurture women’s interests, nongovernmental organizations equipped women for political and business careers. Women have also pursued other routes for reform, including grassroots political activism and have found other means of self-fulfillment outside of marriage and having children. Mainstream Politics More than 60 years after Japanese women exercised their right to vote, their role in policy- and decisionmaking processes remains minimal. The Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of parliaments, ranked Japan 97th (as of October 2009) out of 187 countries, in terms of the number of women legislators. Yet an increasing number of women have ran and won elections and been appointed to public office. The proportion of women in the lower house of the Diet (national legislature) reached an unprecedented 11 percent or 54 women—11 more than the previous number—after the August 2009 election. Women governors comprised 8.5 percent of the national total in 2004. Ota Fusae, Japan’s first female governor, was elected in Osaka in 2000. From 2001 to 2005, Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro appointed 10 women to the cabinet, including Tanaka Makiko, who became Japan’s first female Foreign Minister. Koizumi’s appointees represent more than half the women in the cabinet (18) from 1960 to 2000. Women, however, remain a minority among the powerful bureaucrats who man the different ministries. Interest in issues related to the family, health, education, the environment, and consumption, which male politicians tend to ignore, have spurred a relatively high number of women to run for election. Most of these areas are extensions of women’s domestic roles, and gave women the confidence to enter



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Amid an unstable economy, more women in Japan are staying single or postponing marriage and not having children. Japanese women now have more opportunities available to them with the social realities of the 21st century.

the electoral arena while limiting the extent of their participation in policy and decision making. Women legislators and cabinet appointees tend to be involved on declining birthrate, education, welfare, environment, consumer affairs, and gender equality, while their male counterparts are engaged in diplomacy and defense, budget and finance. There are also obstacles that prevent women from entering the electoral arena, including heavy familial responsibilities, the high cost of electoral campaign and lack of financial resources needed for personal support organizations (kôenkai) that are crucial for winning elections, and a political culture that considers elective office as more appropriate for men. Few political parties field female candidates as serious contenders for the political race. To nurture the aspirations of women who want to run for election, nonpartisan schools in Japan have trained women for political careers.

Grassroots Political Activism Many women have turned to grassroots activities, lobbying for such issues as clean environment and food safety. As members of cooperatives and women’s groups, they advocated for consumer and environmental issues, gathering signatures and staging boycotts to effect change. Women’s involvement in related endeavors (e.g., peace/antiwar) became prominent in the postwar years. Women’s grassroots activities represent their attempts to influence policy making from outside the government and serve as platform for those who wish to pursue other avenues for reform. Education, Labor, Family, and Health Women constitute more than 50 percent of those who finished secondary (51 percent) and junior college education (89 percent), and less than half (40 percent) of those who completed a university degree,

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according to 2008 research. The majority of women in the labor force are employed in relatively lowstatus and low-paying jobs (e.g., clerical and sales), as outworkers (doing piecework at home), and on a temporary or part-time basis with unstable work conditions. The nature and types of work deemed appropriate for women are linked with the perception of women’s roles as wives and mothers. Amid an unstable economy and rising cost of living, more women are staying single or postponing marriage and not having children. The average marrying age for women has increased to 28.5 in 2008. Others try to balance paid work, child rearing, and elderly caretaking responsibilities. Having the highest life expectancy in the world (86 years, or seven years longer than men in 2005), Japanese women are the main caretakers of the aged, many of whom are bedridden. Concerned with Japan’s fluctuating birthrate (1.34 children born per woman as of 2007) and an aging society (21.5 percent of the population was 65 years and older as of 2007), and their impact on the labor force, the government and business sector have supported the idea of aiding the work–life balance by encouraging men to participate in childcare and housework. Yet many women find it difficult to balance home and paid work, due to unfavorable work schedules and incremental changes in household division of labor. Those with capital have often started their own businesses. Some seek personal fulfillment, rather than profit, wanting to provide an alternative to maledominated and money-oriented economy. Although the number of women entrepreneurs is relatively low, government loans for new businesses intended to stimulate the ailing economy, as well as nongovernment forums that train women how to establish and run a business, support the growing trend of women entrepreneurs in Japan. See Also: Business, Women in; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Entrepreneurs; Representation of Women in Government, International; Working Mothers. Further Readings Iwanaga, K. “Women’s Political Representation in Japan.” In Kazuki Iwanaga, ed., Women’s Political Participation and Representation in Asia. Copenhagen, Denmark: NIAS Press, 2008.

Kato, M. “Women Lack Confidence, Ambition for Diet: Experts.” Japan Times Online (September 10, 2009). http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090910f3 .html (accessed September 2009). Mackie, V. “Feminist Critiques of Modern Japanese Politics.” In B. G. Smith, ed., Global Feminisms Since 1945: Rewriting Histories. London: Routledge, 2000. National Women’s Education Center of Japan. “Gender Statistics Database.” http://winet.nwec.jp /cgi-bin/toukei/load/bin/tk_search.cgi (accessed November 2009). Rosenberger, N. Gambling With Virtue: Japanese Women and the Search for Self in a Changing Nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. Shimizu, K. “Going for President: Female Entrepreneurialism a Budding Industry.” The Japan Times Online (April 6, 2002). http://search.japantimes .co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20020406b4.html (accessed July 2010). Febe D. Pamonag Western Illinois University

Jewelry Design, Women in The history of jewelry is as old as the history of humankind. Burials from 30,000 b.c.e. show the use of nonprecious metals, including materials like shells, pebbles, and even animal teeth and claws during prehistoric times. Jewelry pieces have been used as talismans and amulets to evoke good luck or ward off evil—a belief which still exists today for some. Jewelry through the ages has evolved from being a form of currency, a display of wealth and status, and as a fashion accessory, to being considered an art form. Through about the 17th century, owning and wearing jewelry was reserved for the upper classes and the wealthy. The 18th century saw new techniques in manufacturing, and a developing popularity of costume jewelry for the middle class. Sonia Delaunay’s (1884–1979) jewelry derived inspiration from paintings. Others derived inspiration from royalty like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Queen Victoria, Princess Diana. Hattie Carnegie (1889–1956), an Austrian designer, started at Macy’s creating hats but became renowned for her costume jewelry during World War II. Irene Castle (1910) was

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famous for her narrow velvet headband with pearl trimmings that was worn on the bobbed hair popular at the time. Luxurious Costume Jewelry Two great women, Coco Gabriel Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, firmly established the connection of fashion to jewelry design in the 1920s. Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was Italian, and used cubism and surrealism on her jewelry designs, creating phosphorescent brooches, earrings, and paperweights. Chanel was a French designer who had a very strong influence on jewelry. Her first jewelry shop debuted in 1924, and she opened a boutique in 1929 selling jewelry, scarves, hats, and belts. Chanel’s signature style—tweed suits with rows of pearls and a gilt chain bag—remains fashionable. Chanel was a pioneer for introducing luxurious costume jewelry, which quickly became popular worldwide. By this time her jewelry designs, as well as her clothing line, attained the exclusivity she desired, placing her at the top of the fashion and jewelry industries. Her beliefs were that a suit was naked without jewelry, but that too much money kills luxury. She espoused that when wearing a lot of jewelry, some should be “faux,” some should be authentic. Her designs have been copied worldwide, yet the House of Chanel retains its exclusivity through their unique method of placing a band of metal around the edge of precious and semiprecious stones instead of placing the stones into a base. This has become a trademark for Chanel and many modern-day jewelers. Chanel was inspired by the rich jewelry design of the Renaissance, Byzantine periods, and Egyptian jewelry. Amazingly enough, because of Chanel’s vision and talents, she had 2,400 employees even during the Great Depression of 1932. For some time, Chanel reduced her output as the depression settled in and new labor laws came into effect, but was back in full production by 1957. Madame Gripoix designed the first jewelry line for Poiret—the first couturier in costume jewelry design, and continued to prosper in the 1920s and 1930s. Madame Gripoix incorporated Chanel’s use of Venetian patterns on glass beads, derived from Egyptian designs. Many designers imitated her style and work. Madeleine Vionnet was a fierce competitor. Judith Leiber was well known for her bags and jewelry. Suzanne Belperson, Mary Quant, Vivienne

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Westwood, Ann Demeulemeester, Charles Caroline, andMadeleine Cheruit are all women jewelry designers of great renown. Elsa Peretti is an Italian designer who gained acclaimed in 1969 for her use of horns, ebony, ivory, and silver in jewelry making. She collaborated with Tiffany’s, and has been working with them since 1974. Her work portrays asymmetrical heart pendants in gold, and small diamonds and affordable stones on delicate chains. Paloma Picasso, daughter of Pablo Picasso earned her fame from creating exotic costume jewelry and jeweled bikini strings. She successfully launched her line through Tiffany’s in 1980. Her work has featured unusual color combinations and shiny, polished metals. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Entrepreneurs; France; Italy. Further Readings Charles-Roux, Edmond. Chanel and Her World: Friends, Fashion and Fame. New York: Vendome Press, 2005. Cullen, Georgina O’Hara. The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers. London: Thames & Hudson, 1998. Peacock, John. 20th Century Jewelry, The Complete Sourcebook. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. Judy Jamal Columbia University

Jingjing, Guo Guo Jingjing is an international sports figure from the People’s Republic of China. She is well known for her diving performances and gold medals at the Olympic Games; her celebrity status in China, where she is nicknamed “The Princess of Diving”; and a colorful personal life that has been intensely reported and scrutinized by the media in Asia and around the world. Jingjing was the leading member of the Chinese national women’s diving team. She has successfully competed in numerous diving events in the Asian Games, Olympic Games, World Championships, and World Cup. As well as holding several world championship titles, notable highlights of her career include two gold medals (Woman’s Springboard Diving and

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Women’s Synchronized Springboard Diving events) in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens; and, four years later, two gold medals in the same events at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Despite her announcement in 2006 of retirement, Jingjing continued to compete in diving events, such as in the 2009 World Championship where she came in first place in two competitions. Pressures of Celebrity Jingjing was born in 1981 in north China’s Hebei Province. She began diving when she was 7, and was selected to the national team at age 11. Like other Chinese Olympic champions, she became a household name across the country. She is now one of China’s richest sports stars, as a result of numerous endorsement deals with national and multinational companies. However, Jingjing’s career has not been without criticism. For example, she was once expelled from the national diving team following complaints of excessive commercial activities, and was later readmitted following a public apology. Commercial advertising activities of Olympic champions is a sensitive issue in China, which is regulated by administrative centers within the government (state control over many aspects of people’s lives is a dominant feature of Chinese society). Following her rise to star status, Jingjing’s personal and social life has been closely scrutinized by the media, particularly in China and Hong Kong. Newspapers and gossip magazines have speculated on her personal and romantic relationships, especially her meetings in public with Kenneth Fok, the grandson of a Hong Kong business tycoon. At the time of the Beijing Olympics, for example, some media outlets questioned whether her personal relationships would undermine her chances of success in the competitions. Improvements in Status of Women Jingjing followed in the footsteps of former Chinese springboard diving champions Gao Min and Fu Ming­ xia. In recent years, an increasing number of female sports champions have achieved celebrity status and wealth in China. The achievements of Chinese women such as Jingjing and others come at a time when there is an urgent need to improve the status of women in Chinese society. In China, there is a cultural and historical tradition of male dominance, based on a stereotypical division of gender and social roles in which women have held devalued positions. Despite some

recent improvements, especially in urban areas, gender inequalities still remain in education, income, and status. Female national sports figures and celebrities such as Guo Jingjing help to achieve the empowerment of Chinese women and to improve gender equality. See Also: Celebrity Women; China; Olympics, Summer; Olympics, Winter; Sports, Women in; Stereotypes of Women; Swimming. Further Readings Dong, Jinxia. Women, Sport and Society in Modern China: Holding Up More Than Half the Sky. London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003. Wasserstrom, Jeffrey. China in the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Xinran. The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices. Boston: Anchor, 2003. Gareth Davey Hong Kong Shue Yan University

Johnson, Sonia Sonia Johnson is an American feminist activist, author, and speaker. Born February 27, 1938, Johnson was raised in Logan, Utah, by a religiously conservative family who belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She practiced Mormonism until she was excommunicated from the church in 1979 for her public feminist positions. Since that time, Johnson has developed a self-reflective, personal feminist philosophy that has as its focus as women and their experiences, rather than patriarchy and male experiences. Johnson earned a B.A. in English from the Utah State University, and her M.A. and Ed.D. degrees from Rutgers University. She married soon after completing her undergraduate degree, and she and her husband had four children together. Johnson and her husband were both employed as teachers in various positions in locations that included California, Malaysia, and Virginia. A Time of Reinvention Soon after the family settled in Virginia, Johnson became interested in feminist politics. The Church

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of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was publically opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)—a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ensure equality between men and women— but Johnson supported the amendment. She marched in a public rally for the ERA in Washington in July 1978 under a banner that read “Mormons for the ERA,” which received attention when she was invited to speak at a Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights as a female representative of Mormon supporters. She continued a period of activism over the next several months that included public speeches and demonstrations, along with negotiation with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but she was ultimately excommunicated in 1979 for her public support of the ERA. This experience, followed by a divorce from her husband, is described by Johnson as a time of reinvention for her, in which she reconsidered her previously held beliefs and interpretations. She began using methods of civil disobedience, including chaining herself to the Republican National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 1980 to protest their removal of the ERA from the presidential platform. She also participated in a hunger fast to support the ERA that involved sitting in the Illinois Legislature wearing purple banners to draw attention to the struggle for equal rights. Although Illinois ultimately failed to ratify the amendment, Johnson was well known for her activism by the end of this time. Government Discontent In 1981, Johnson published her first book, From Housewife to Heretic, which was an autobiography of her development as a feminist activist. She would go on to publish five additional books including Going Out of Our Minds: The Metaphysics of Liberation (1987), in which she details her discontent with government as a patriarchal force, and The Ship That Sailed Into the Living Room: Sex and Intimacy Reconsidered (1991), in which she redefines relationships outside of the lens of patriarchy. She ran for president in 1984 as a candidate for the Citizens Party, although she garnered little media notice in this move. She continues to refine her feminist philosophies to focus on women and a women-centered world, and she has adopted a stance that does not include nor consider men or patriarchal constraints. Although Johnson identifies with lesbian-

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ism, her later writings suggest a move away from any limitations in her definition of relationships, which is an extension of her move away from institutions she sees as constructed by patriarchy. See Also: Equal Rights Amendment; Feminism, American; Lesbianism; Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Further Readings Foss, Karen A., et al. “Sonia Johnson.” In Karen A. Foss, et al., Feminist Rhetorical Theories. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999. Johnson, Sonia. From Housewife to Heretic. Albuquerque, NM: Wildfire Books, 1989. Johnson, Sonia. The Ship That Sailed Into the Living Room: Sex and Intimacy Reconsidered. Albuquerque, NM: Wildfire Books, 1991. Jennifer Adams DePauw University

Jordan Jordan is a Middle Eastern country of 6.3 million people sharing borders with Israel and the West Bank, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia as well as a small seacoast on the Gulf of Aqaba. It became independent of Great Britain in 1946. Most, 98 percent, of the population is Arab and Sunni Muslim, 92 percent, with minorities of Christians, Shia Muslims, and Druze. The population of Jordan is young, with almost one-third of the population aged 14 or younger. The population growth rate is just shy of 2.2 percent despite a negative migration rate due to a high fertility of 3.46 children per woman coupled with a birth rate of 27.38 births per 1,000 population and long life expectancy of 78.6 years for men and 81.18 years for women. Jordan has a small economy and a lack of natural resources including oil and water. The Gross Domestic Product per capita in 2009 was $5,300 and about 14 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The country houses about 1.8 million Palestinian refugees, half a million Iraqi refugees, and has about 160,000 internally displaced persons stemming from the 1967 Arab–Israeli War.

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Journalists, Broadcast Media in cases of fetal impairment. In 2002, over 50 percent of women reported using contraceptives, including over 40 percent who use modern methods. Jordan reserves six seats in its House of Representatives, also called the Chamber of Deputies, for women, where seven women currently serve in the House. Seventeen percent of government ministers were female as of 2009. Jordan is a transit and destination country for human trafficking for forced labor and sexual exploitation and is on the Tier 2 Watch List for failure to investigate cases of trafficking and internal forced labor. The latter refers to women who have also migrated to Jordan to work legally as domestic servants but have found themselves in conditions of forced labor, including physical and sexual abuse and non-payment of wages. See Also: Islam; Queen Noor of Jordan; Trafficking, Women and Children; World Economic Forum.

A Jordanian entrepreneur received small business loan assistance for her home-based business producing pickles.

Gender Discrimination The World Economic Forum ranks Jordan 113th out of 134 countries on gender equality. On a scale where 1 means perfect equality and 0 means inequality, in 2009 Jordan’s score was 0.681. Jordan scored highest on educational attainment (0.985) and health and survival (0.971) but substantially lower in economic participation and opportunity (0.594, ranked 112th) and political empowerment (0.064, ranked 111th). Female literacy lags behind their male counterparts, 84.7 percent versus 95.1 percent, but females currently outnumber males in all levels of education. Working women constitute a disproportionate percentage of professional and technical workers but earn an average of 72 percent of a man’s salary for comparable work. Almost all births in Jordan take place in health facilities and over 90 percent of women receive four or more prenatal care visits. The infant mortality rate is 22 per 1,000 births and the maternal mortality ratio is 41 per 100,000 live births. Abortion is legal only to save the mother’s life or mental or physical health or

Further Readings Hausman, Ricardo, et al. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org /en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%and%20 Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010). United Nations Statistics Divisions. UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info. http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Journalists, Broadcast Media The landscape of U.S. broadcast news changed in 1971 after a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate that directed that stations needed to diversify their staffs in order to retain broadcast licenses. From 1971 to 1976, networks hired large numbers of women and men of color to meet the new requirements. Many of this early generation are still familiar names: Connie Chung, Jane Pauley, Diane Sawyer, Carole Simpson, Leslie Stahl, and Barbara Walters got their starts in national broadcast news during this period.



Their heirs are the well-known anchors and reporters currently in mid-career on network television news shows. In 2006, shifts in daily news shows—morning, evening, and nighttime—led to several higher profile positions for women anchors. Elizabeth Vargas briefly co-anchored the ABC evening news cast with Bob Woodruff; Cynthia McFadden was named a Nightline co-host; and Robin Roberts replaced Charlie Gibson as Diane Sawyer’s co-anchor on Good Morning America. The biggest news that year, however, came when Katie Couric was made the first woman solo anchor of the evening news at CBS. This move generated much commentary, a cover story in Newsweek, and discussion on blogs and mass media among the media punditry, with some hailing it as a break in the glass ceiling for women. Others saw Couric as a news lightweight without the “gravitas” necessary to anchor the evening news. CBS stated publicly that she was hired in part to attract younger viewers at a time when network news was losing viewers at a fast pace, particularly the younger demographic. Market Share and Commercial Appeal More women have taken anchor positions at a time when the broadcast media are increasingly worried about market share and commercial appeal. The content of national newscasts has concomitantly softened as well. While it is true that as the number of women anchors and reporters have increased, as have the number of feature stories, it is not clear what the cause and effect relationship is. It is possible that as commercial interests become more important to news organizations, more features are offered, and more doors open for women, as they are often associated with soft news. It is also possible that the content of news is changing, and the division between hard and soft news is less meaningful when stories combine elements of both to interest a wider public, such as stories on the environment, healthcare, and other quality of life issues. Even as the number of feature stories has increased, the gender of the reporter is not related to the number of features. Diane Sawyer was named the sole anchor of the ABC evening news show, World News Tonight, in 2009, making the face of the national news for two out of three networks a woman. The evening news has lost an estimated million viewers per year since 1980. Still, network shows deliver news to about

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three times as many viewers as cable news shows, and the national news anchor continues to be a central national figure. In 2006, studies showed that the diversity of correspondent’s gender and race was up over previous years. Women reported 28 percent of all network news stories, and CBS Evening News led the pack, with 34 percent by women and 15 percent by minorities. However, on Couric’s program, while her exposure increased, other women appearing on that show fell by 40 percent. In local news broadcasts, while women and men are both represented on air, white men dominate on-air positions overall. More significantly, it is still the case that as men gain more experience, they get more air time and are seen as ever more credible. As women age, they get less air time, as a rule. Additionally, 65 percent of bachelor’s degrees in journalism went to women in 2003—more than double the 30 percent in 1970. However, newsrooms are still quite male dominated. In 2003, only 26.5 percent of local stations had a female news director, and men made up the majority of assignment editors (60 percent) and managing editors (70 percent). In 2007, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was accused of “ageism” after it fired 58-yearold female news broadcaster Moira Stuart from its Sunday morning news show. In early 2010, as a result of this and other accusations that the network favored younger women, it is now hiring and re-hiring older anchorwomen, including Julia Somerville, 62, and Moira Stuart, 61. Cable News The rise of cable news networks, beginning with CNN in 1980, believed to be responsible for the erosion of the network audience, has also fragmented the U.S. news audience. For the most part, women have been present as coanchors with men on CNN, and also have a presence as reporters, most notably Christiane Amanpour as the chief foreign correspondent, whose influence has continued to grow—she was given a daily show on CNN International called Amanpour. Also on CNN, Candy Crowley is a longtime senior political correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux is a White House correspondent and the primary substitute on The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer, Jeanne Meserve is a longtime

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political correspondent who has covered homeland security since the September 11 attacks, and Jeanne Moos has developed a distinctive feature story style. Cable news channels have also changed the meaning of journalism. They have come to rely on hourlong political news discussion programs that do not report the news in traditional ways of understanding the term news, but discuss the day’s events with guest interviews. While women have had a place in the cable lineups, men are most often the strongest voices. CNN has showcased some women stars on their own political news shows, for instance Paula Zahn, Judy Woodruff, and Connie Chung. Andrea Mitchell is a news veteran with a show on MSNBC. The blurring of lines between news and commentary has produced personalities that may be best seen as pundits. Rachel Maddow, who has her own nightly show on MSNBC, blends news and commentary with left-slanted analysis central to the purpose of the program. On the right, personalities Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and Laura Ingraham make frequent appearances on various political commentary shows, mostly on Fox News, opining on more than reporting news. Maddow and Ingraham also both have very successful daily radio shows. Within this expanding universe of editorializing talk, women are still by far the minority of those deemed stars, and even those who speak at all. Public Television and Radio News The primary news show on PBS, The News Hour With Jim Lehrer, has boasted the talents of women reporters like Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Margaret Garrard Warner, Judy Woodruff (who returned to the show after years as a political reporter at CNN), and Gwen Ifill, who has also hosted Washington Week in Review since 1999. National Public Radio (NPR) actually has more women as its primary voices than men. This is especially distinctive given that it is radio, as women’s voices were historically thought to be too shrill or lacking the proper authority to be on the radio. At most, women’s voices traditionally were only a part of the daytime broadcasting. Susan Stamberg was the first host of the evening news show, All Things Considered, and the first woman to anchor a U.S. newscast, in 1981. Stamberg continued as an arts reporter at NPR, and is joined by veteran

Barbara Walters was one of the first women to be hired in broadcast media after the FCC mandate in 1971.

news analysts and anchors Linda Wertheimer; Cokie Roberts, political correspondent; and Nina Totenberg, legal affairs correspondent. All Things Considered is currently anchored by Michelle Norris, Melissa Block, and Robert Siegel, alternately. The morning news show, Morning Edition, has been hosted bicoastally by Renée Montaigne and Steve Inskeep since 2004. Women reporters from around the world who work on both shows include Anne Garrels, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, Eleanor Beardsley, and Sylvia Poggioli. Alternative Broadcasts Alternative news broadcasts have expanded beyond radio to include television broadcast via satellite. Perhaps the best known example in the United States is

Journalists, Print Media



Amy Goodman, who was the News Director at Pacifica Station WBAI in New York until she launched the program Democracy Now! in 1996. Originally conceived as a news show to track the 1996 election, the show continued and grew to cover national and international news, subtitling itself “the war and peace report.” It is currently broadcasted by over 800 radio stations and DIRECTV. Goodman has distinguished herself as an investigative journalist focusing on peace and human rights, and identifies herself as an advocacy journalist. Goodman is actively working to develop the next generation of independent journalists through training and internships at Democracy Now! Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host, and producer of Uprising, a morning show that reports of national and international issues. It originates from the Pacifica Los Angeles station, KPFK, and is syndicated around the country. Laura Flanders has made her name as a progressive feminist voice in a number of independent radio news shows. She currently hosts GRITtv on Free Speech TV, a daily political news discussion program. These independent voices are unconstrained by corporate sponsorship, and continue to improvise with new technology to develop new avenues for those who are not heard on mainstream news a place to offer their perspectives. See Also: Amanpour, Christiane; Couric, Katie; Journalists, Print Media; Walters, Barbara. Further Readings Byerly, Carolyn and Karen Ross. Women and Media: A Critical Introduction. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006. Chambers, Debora. Women and Journalism. London: Routledge, 2004. Goodman, Amy. Breaking the Sound Barrier. New York: Haymarket Books, 2009. Kapoor, Nivedita. “BBC Recruits Older Women Presenters.” Suite101.com (February 3, 2010). http:// british-tv.suite101.com/article.cfm/bbc-recruits-older -women-presenters (accessed June 2010). Whitt, Jan. Women in American Journalism: A New History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Jennifer Reed California State University

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Journalists, Print Media In the 21st century, women are now well established as newspaper reporters. In the United States, women comprise 37 percent of the full-time staff of daily newspapers, 36.9 percent at weeklies, and 43.5 percent at newsmagazines. Their status is not equal to men’s, however, especially at the uppermost rungs of the print hierarchy. Overall, women earn about 20 percent less than men. A “glass ceiling” has been cracked, but it blocks women’s promotion to key decision-making positions and to high-prestige areas of journalism that men have long seen as their domain, such as politics, business, and sports. Women are disproportionately found in smalltown, regional, and community newspapers—especially weeklies—and in low-status, “soft” areas, such as human-interest stories and features. Nor has the shift to professionalism in journalism eradicated the sexist culture of many newsrooms, although most women profess not to be bothered by it. Whether the crisis of urban dailies or newspapers’ transition to multiplatform structures will level the playing field for women remains to be seen. Gender Divides in Subjects and Writing The contemporary status of women journalists must be understood in historical context. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, print journalism was a carefully guarded male enclave. Over time, a few “exceptional” women managed to invade news genres otherwise restricted to men and gain front page status. For them, the highest compliment was to be told they were “just like men,” and that they were “newsmen.” Much more often, when women journalists began to enter the field in increasing numbers, it was primarily to write for and about women, covering society, home, and family issues. The other entry route for women was a genre known as “sob sisters” in the United Kingdom, and they were known for their dramatic, personal, and emotional stories that supposedly brought readers to tears. Stunt journalists, such as the pseudonymous Annie Laurie and Nellie Bly, also attracted attention. These were topics and writing styles men were not interested in. To attract advertising for department store and products aimed at women, publishers needed female

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readers. They therefore created “women’s pages” and hired women to write women’s news, gossip, and advice columns. In any case, the women’s pages opened the door for the feminist debates of the 1960s, and provided space for issues such as equal pay, divorce, and abortion. In the wake of the feminist movement, most newspapers abandoned women’s pages, per se, although some of these issues reemerged in newly invented “lifestyle” sections. The notion of a “women’s style” in journalism is controversial. On the one hand, feminist critics complain that women are required to produce a particular news “commodity” that, in the name of women’s interests, exploits a highly personal, confessional approach. Other scholars say women do and should have a distinct style. Women journalists themselves say that they believe women offer a more human perspective, that “the news is the news,” and that the same ethical standards apply equally to all journalists. Women do appear to be more likely to draw on women as sources, include the voices of ordinary citizens, and focus on social problems and issues associated with women, such as reproductive rights, education, and childcare. Other than this, there is little to indicate that women and men approach journalism work differently. Some data that suggest gender differences in what readers are interested, however, align with conventional gender stereotypes. Such notions appear to be confirmed, for example, by data that women make up 38 percent of the readers of the Wall Street Journal, but 49 percent of the readers of the New York Times. In any case, the perception that women are disinterested in sports, business, and foreign relations would not explain why only about a quarter of the syndicated columnists are women, few women run op-ed pages of major newspapers, and only a handful of political cartoonists are women. In the 1970s and 1980s, many women organized to fight sexism and discrimination in recruitment and assignment decisions, salary, and promotion decisions, and they successfully litigated several class action suits against major news organizations, including Newsweek and the New York Times. Many of these associations, however, are now dormant, primarily because women working in print themselves rarely believe that gender remains a discrimination factor.

War Reporting During World Wars I and II, when military officials refused to accredit women, few women did war reporting. More often, they replaced men in newsrooms until peacetime, when women were typically evicted from newsrooms. In contrast, during the Vietnam War, women could travel at their own expense to Vietnam, even if no news organization formally sent them. Once there, some military officials and soldiers enjoyed talking to women journalists; some women even claimed to have an advantage over male competitors. Now, women war correspondents are prominent, although they are not seen as “normal.” Their lives are scrutinized, and working mothers in particular are criticized for risking their lives. In general, the question of whether women and men should report on wars and conflicts in the same way remains unsettled. Some say (and consider it praise) that women reporters can personalize stories, highlight the human, nonmilitary dimensions of war (including the specific impacts of wars on women, children, and other civilians), and provide political and historical context. Thus, women are said to challenge the “bullets and bombs” discourse that otherwise pervades war reporting. Others insist that that all good reporters provide full context. Importantly, some female wars journalists resent and reject invitations to cover the “women’s angle,” which is unlikely to appear on the front page. Compared to broadcasters, newspapers have typically assigned fewer women correspondents to conflict zones; this is probably because broadcast media are better at exploiting feminine beauty. Early pioneers in news reporting include Helen Thomas, who wrote for the United Press International (UPI) for 57 years, eventually becoming the White House bureau chief. Another prominent U.S. journalist is Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation since 1995, and publisher since 2005. Statistics in Reporting and Management Since university-level journalism schools never anticipated that women would apply, they did not exclude them. This encouraged women to consider journalism careers in the early and mid-20th century, and many curricula adapted to their presence by steering women toward “writing for women.” Since the 1970s, women have outnumbered men in university journalism programs; they are now about two-thirds of

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the student body. Among journalists with less than five years experience, women outnumber men. This may result from women leaving the profession early, deterred by problems with advancement, childcare, or the entire newsroom culture. According to one 2002 survey, job satisfaction was strong among journalists, but women were slightly less satisfied than men. Another 2002 study found that 45 percent of women journalists (and 33 percent of men) expected to quit; in particular, “career conflicted” women were dissatisfied, and 64 percent of this group blamed gender discrimination. The crisis of newspapers caused by competition with free media and even citizen journalists and loss of revenue to the Internet has caused general instability, downsizing, and lower pay in journalism. This may cause fewer men than women to seek journalism careers, and more men to quit. The most pronounced disparities are in management. Class action suits have not broached the question of upper management; women make up only about 20 percent of the top editors of the 100 largest papers. Four women have been president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in its 87-year history; three of these have been elected since 2000 (including one woman of color). Women represent about 20 percent of the publishers at large newspaper groups like Gannett and McClatchy. Since the suffrage and abolitionist papers and contemporary third-wave publications, feminist periodicals have enabled women to take on ownership, decision making and editorial roles, and to participate in the public sphere on their own terms, albeit on a nonprofit basis. Whether in print or online, women-run, “alternative” newspapers and magazines have proposed new ideas about womanhood and experimented with distinctive organizational and management structures. Feminist news outlets have provided skills training for women, but women don’t often transition back and forth between feminist press and mainstream press. See Also: Feminist Publishing; Journalists, Broadcast Media; Media Chief Executive Officers, Female; Ms. Magazine; Thomas, Helen; vanden Heuvel, Katrina; Women’s Magazines. Further Readings Chambers, D., L. Steiner, and C. Fleming. Women and Journalism. New York: Routledge, 2004.

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Edwards, J. Women of the World: The Great Foreign Correspondents. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. Graham, K. Personal History. New York: Knopf, 1997. Hemlinger, M. A. and C. Cynthia Linton. Women in Newspapers 2002: Still Fighting an Uphill Battle. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2002. Mills, K. “What Difference Do Women Journalists Make?’ In Pippa Norris, ed. Women, Media and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Steiner, L. “Gender in the Newsroom.” In Karin WahlJorgensen and Thomas Hanitzsch, eds., Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York, Routledge, 2009. Weaver, D., et al. The American Journalist in the 21st Century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007. Linda Steiner University of Maryland

Judaism Judaism is a religious civilization of the Jewish people. The term Judaism (Yahadut in Hebrew) was first used among Greek-speaking Jews in the 1st century c.e. The language spoken and/or read by Jews is Hebrew (Ivrit), but Aramaic is also an ancient Jewish language that has found its way into the Talmud and other sacred books. Another language associated with Jewish people is Yiddish, which is still the common language among Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Jewish Law Jewish law is called halacha. Jewish society was governed by halacha, which is a legal system that pervaded all aspects of life. It is also a religious system and its influence is much more pervasive than an ordinary legal system, for it is responsible for legal and ethical behavior. It has molded the major institutions of Jewish life, including marriage and the family. Judaism is based on the doctrine that there are two sacred Torahs— the Written Torah (the Bible) and the Oral Torah (the traditions, including the rabbinic ones)—out of which the halacha develops. Eventually, the Oral Torah was written down and became part of Jewish Sacred literature. However, since the Oral Torah was based on learning and discussion among sages who devoted

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their life to study and clarification, it was never monolithic in its decisions. Halacha has shown amazing flexibility and staying power by being able to accommodate disagreement. The earliest codifications and interpretations of halacha—the Mishnah (c. 200 c.e.), the Tosefta (240 c.e.), and the Talmud (Jerusalem c. 400 c.e. and Babylonian c. 500 c.e.)—preserve minority as well as majority opinions. Later attempts were made to codify preceding material, and codes appeared, such as the Yad he-Hazakah, also known as Mishneh Torah, of Maimonides, the Tur of Jacob ben Asher (14th century), and the Shulhan Arukh by Joseph Caro (16th century). Finally, there is a vast collection of responsa literature that includes rabbinical rulings on specific questions. These responsa date back to the 750s and continue to be written today. Less frequent are takkanot, which are ordinances or rulings promulgated to meet a specific need and which, in effect, change the halacha by creating legislation. Some rulings had to do with instituting marriage contracts, outlawing polygamy, prohibition of giving too much money to charity, child support, and so on. These takkanot were ordained by sages to regulate life and to radically alter, or amend, an existing law. Although these takkanot have great potential, they are rarely used today since they can be described as revolutionary rather than evolutionary. Jewish descent is on the one hand patralineal, a Jew is referred to as X son (or daughter) of a father— yet, the determination of who is a Jew is matrilineal, except in the Reform Movement. In Israel, anyone who can show Jewish ancestry is entitled under the Law of Return (1950) to immigrate to Israel. However, since the Israeli Rabbinate is controlled by the Orthodox, many immigrants who are eligible for citizenship are not able to be married in Israel. Jews number about 13.5 million worldwide and about 80 percent of Jews live either in Israel or in North America. Conservative and Reform Movements Both the Conservative and Reform Movements take a historical approach to traditional sources and have progressive understandings of religious practice. The Orthodox Movement is more diverse. The modern Orthodox has a few women who are all but rabbis in name (ABRs) and have separate but equal participation in services. The haredi world has their its divisions (often to be seen in their dress) and even the Hassidic

missionary movement of the Chabad have their divisions with those believing that the Lubavitcher Rebbe is the Messiah and those who don’t. None of the movements lives in a vacuum and almost all are aware of, even if not always adapting to, the modern human rights agenda. On this agenda are changes regarding women’s status, patrilineal descent, homosexual rights, and intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews. The following institutions train clergy and offer degrees in Jewish subjects like the Bible, Jewish History, Philosophical Thought, Talmud, and Midrash education. The Orthodox Yeshiva University, which traces its origins to Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, was founded in 1886 on New York’s Lower East Side. In 1896, the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) was founded. Yeshiva was granted university status in 1945 and today includes a college of liberal arts and sciences for women and graduate schools of medicine, law, social work, and psychology. The Reform Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest Jewish seminary in the Ameri-

A woman lighting the Sabbath candles and praying, one of the three Jewish commandments reserved for women.



cas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal workers in Reform Judaism. It has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is located near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism, a liberal movement established by Mordecai Kaplan that views Judaism as the “evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people.” From its second year in 1969, RRC students included women. Since 1984, RRC has admitted and ordained openly gay and lesbian rabbis, the first major rabbinic seminary to do so. The Conservative institutions include the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and American Jewish University in Los Angeles. Both of these are recognized universities in addition to ordaining rabbis. In addition to the mainstream movements there are the Jewish Renewal movement and the Society for Humanistic Judaism. Treatment of Women The plurality of opinion and interpretation that constitutes halacha also applies to its treatment of women. The attitude of halacha toward women can be characterized as ambivalent rather than monolithic. Until recently, the input of women into the halachic process was rare, and it was almost always men who had the authority to make halachic decisions. In biblical law, women are perceived as chattel. In the 10th commandment in Exodus we are told not to covet our neighbor’s house, wife, slave, maid, ass, ox, or anything that belongs to our neighbor. In Deuteronomy 5:18, the wife precedes the house, field, slave, maid servant, ass, ox, and everything that belongs to the man. Monetary transactions accompanied many changes of a woman’s status. A mohar (price of virginity) had to be paid to the father of the “bride” by a rapist. The husband is the master (ba’al), whose permission to rule over his wife originates in Genesis 3:16, where God tells the first woman that her husband shall rule over her. The word ba’al implies ownership as well as lordship; as in the law about the ba’al of the ox spelled out in biblical law. When a woman gets married, the father’s property rights are transferred to the husband. If the husband’s property is damaged, compensation is paid to him. There are other biblical sources that support the view of woman as chattel. The first has to do with the description of how a man comes to get a wife.

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The verbs describing this act are lakach (to acquire) and ba’al (to possess). It is written that “a man acquires a wife and possesses her. [If ] she fails to please him because he finds something obnoxious about her, [he can] write her a bill of divorcement, hand it to her and send her away from his house.” Marriage in the post-biblical era reflects the transition of the marriage “acquisition” or purchase from a private deal between two adults or between two families to a social and religious institution administered by the community and under rabbinic supervision. This change gives rise to rabbinic control over marriage and divorce, matters that in the biblical period were purely a family matter. Patriarchal Religion Carolyn G. Heilbrun wrote that “men can be men only if women are unambiguously women.” Jewish tradition contains many statements detrimental to women. This is because Judaism is a patriarchal religion, a religion which, to use Kate Millet’s terminology, was run by a male God and whose theology was essentially “male supremacist, and one of whose central functions [was] to uphold and validate the patriarchal structure.” However, Jewish sources are not monolithic. Some Jewish texts studied by the scholarly Jewish male portray women as lesser beings: stupid, talkative, and lewd. Others imply that she is spiritually higher than the male, and therefore potentially capable of more than the man. Since Jewish learning took place in a sex-segregated setting isolated from the presence of women, very often the only things a man knew about women was learned second hand from books. The dual message he received (spiritual being versus lewd being) led him to both admire and look down on women. In Jewish tradition, there were three commandments that were reserved for women: lighting candles, separating a portion of dough, and ritual immersion after the end of the menstrual period. However, today it is commonly accepted that women are educated equally with men and that they are allowed to pray either communally with other women in an Orthodox setting or as equal partners to men in the other movements. Some of the roles that women have taken upon themselves are publicly reading from the Torah scroll, being counted as a part of the quorum of 10 (minyan), serving as a cantor, rabbi, and halachic decisor.

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Many women also don prayer shawls and phylacteries (less common) and head covering. The only area that remains problematic is that of women serving as legal witnesses in cases where Jewish law requires two witnesses. One way of getting around this is to require four signatures, two men, and two women. Another interesting innovation in Modern Orthodox settings is that of requiring 10 women and 10 men to form the necessary prayer quorum. It is too soon to tell what the impact of modernity will be on the entire spectrum of Jewish practice, but change is in the air. The feminist movement, which goes back to the early 1970s, has influenced all major branches of Judaism. Some of its achievements include women’s ordination as rabbis, use of feminine language and imagery to describe God, use of prenuptials to protect women from becoming agunot (chained women), being counted as equal in the quorum, equal rights in marriage, and assumption of positions of leadership in the synagogue and within the general Jewish community. See Also: Chabad Movement; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; Israel; Rabbis, Female. Further Readings Biale, Rachel. Women and Jewish Law. New York: Shocken Books, 1984. Dorff, Elliot N. and Arthur Rossett. The Living Tree. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. “Halakha.” Encyclopedia Judaica. Jerusalem: Keter, 1971. Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. London: Sphere Books, 1971. Sigal, Phillip. “Elements of Male Chauvinism in Classical Halakha.” Judaism, v.24/2 (1975). Wegner, Judith Romney. Chattel or Person? The Status of Women in the Mishnah. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Naomi Graetz Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Judges, Women as Women’s participation in the judiciary is one indicator of aspirational and actualized formal and substantive gender equality. It symbolizes and engages broader issues such as access to political power, con-

ceptions of agency and strategies for furthering social citizenship. The recent appointment of Sonia Sotomayor as the first woman of Puerto Rican descent to the United States’ Supreme Court accentuates how women’s ability (or lack thereof ) as official decision makers remains a site of contest and contradiction. Justice Sotomayor’s assertion that ”wise Latina women” may well reach ”better conclusions” than white male judges in specific contexts, has reignited questions about the potential impact of a gender integrated bench. The first part of this article is an overview of the commonalities and divergences lens through which the judicial role can be examined. The second part outlines similarities that female judges share across multiple jurisdictions. It sketches out the shared features of the gendered legal culture in which women work, such as the persistence of overt and more subtle discrimination and assumptions about women’s natural tendencies toward certain kinds of labor. It also points to the overall effect of women’s increased participation in formal adjudication and the challenges female judges may pose to dominant understandings of authority, impartiality, integrity, and justice. While acknowledging and recognizing many similarities among women judges, the second part also addresses their differences, which are embedded in systems of power based on race, class, sexual orientation, ability, religion, ethnicity, and nationality. Attention will be drawn to the specific contexts in which particular women judges work and how the judicial function relates to broader social conditions such as war, ecological disasters, famine, political dictatorships, unemployment, lack of access to education, structural adjustment policies, direct and indirect discrimination against minority groups, systems of imperialism and colonialism, neocapitalism, environmental degradation, and global poverty. The final part suggests where feminist thinkers, working at the intersection of gender and judging turn their attention: nonformalized and noninstitutionalized modes of judgment by women. This article grapples with a number of questions. Can we, and should we, speak in terms of gender-specific modes of judgment? How do particular women find their way to the judiciary? Are there jurisdictions where law remains largely a male and masculine preserve? To what extent do women judges feel they are



expected to act on behalf of all women? How does official legal decision making better promote justice when more members of equality-seeking groups are named to the bench? Do women and other ”outsider” judges impact the everyday and institutional actions of their counterparts from more dominant social locations? What constitutes judicial objectivity and impartiality and to whom is it attributed? Commonalities and Divergences: A Framework The question of whether women judges ”make a difference” highlights feminist concerns about the utility of gender—or the category “women”—as the focal point of the women’s equality movement. Feminist standpoint theories note that women’s experience is a site of privileged understanding. Dominant legal processes and practices have historically excluded and continue to exclude the complexity and diversity of many people’s lives, including those of most women. As ”outsiders,” women judges may be better positioned to understand the realities of other outsiders such as people of color, the aged, sexual minorities, members of nondominant racial, ethnic and cultural groups, and people living with physical and intellectual disabilities. Accordingly, women sitting on the bench can provide a unique perspective on the matters they hear by virtue of their difference, their lives as women, and especially their experiences of discrimination. This unique and consequently ignored, devalued and excluded perspective will further formal and substantive equality. It also will serve as a corrective because without it, legal actors and legal institutions will continue to systematically favor men and disadvantage women. However, the impact of gender equity on the bench is complicated by differences in women’s experiences, depending on where they are located along shifting axes of privilege and disadvantage. Thus, the category of female judges remains open to deconstruction or at least destabilization. Each female judge’s subjectivities—like any other woman’s—are multiple and often conflicting because of the different cultural and racial identities, physical and intellectual abilities, geographic locations, political affiliations, social power, economic means, and sexual orientation she embodies and inhabits. Thus it seems untenable to suggest that the voices of women judges can or should be representative of all women.

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And yet, as the next section suggests, there are particular expectations of female judges, and women on the bench do face similar struggles. Moreover, there is evidence that women judges have had and do have a direct and meaningful impact on the lives of women and other equality-seeking groups. Commonalities and Differences: A Discussion Empirical research shows that globally women continue to be underrepresented and marginalized within all levels of the judiciary. There continues to be social and economic barriers to women’s participation in judicial roles. Research in Guinea, India, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe has found that inequality in terms of education, health and employment, discrimination, the feminization of poverty, the effects of armed conflict, and the urban–rural divide as well as the effects of armed conflict, trade liberalization and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) all affect women disproportionately and reduce the probability that they will attend university, let alone law school, or assume leadership and decision-making roles. Further, while in the West women are no longer excluded from the legal profession—and indeed gender parity has been achieved in most law schools— female lawyers are still paid less than men, more frequently leave the profession, experience sexual harassment in the workplace, and are excluded from informal networks in law firms that would enable them to get peer recognition and higher profile cases. In Australasia, North America, and most of western Europe, lack of access to childcare and affordable housing, economic, physical and sexual violence, and the persistence of the wage gap continue to be barriers to women’s substantive equality and their participation in the kind of law work that could eventually lead to an appointment in the judiciary. There is, at the same time, a global trend toward greater gender equity in the judiciary. Any country or state party that signs and ratifies the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) makes a commitment to implement legislation and policies that foster gender equality. Such a commitment usually includes generating conditions for women’s increased participation in public life and official decision making, especially the judiciary. Similarly, the Protocol on the Rights of Women

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in Africa explicitly mandates parity for women in the judiciary. Many countries have developed policies that stem from a normative commitment to gender equality and from a desire to counter gender bias in the courts. In France, Italy, Lebanon, and the Netherlands, women make up at least half of the judiciary in lower-level courts—though their numbers decrease exponentially in more senior-level courts. Pakistan’s Access to Justice Program includes the appointment of female judges and magistrates as part of an effort to combat and control domestic violence. In Israel, women currently constitute 40 percent of all judges. Almost a third of judges in Thailand are women. In Algeria, women are relatively well represented at about 35 percent. However, female Algerian judges are not allowed to adjudicate questions of personal status law such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance under Shari`a law. Though Malaysia has a long history of appointing Muslim women in civil courts, it has yet to name a woman to a Shari`a court. Indonesia has named over 100 women to adjudicate on matters of Shari`a law. Iran and Sudan have also named women to Islamic courts. Currently, four out of the nine (44 percent) justices of the Supreme Court of Canada are women. Egypt, which has previously been criticized for lagging behind on the question of gender equity on the bench, has recently appointed 30 women to its Supreme Judicial Council. These appointments were made despite claims by Islamic fundamentalists that women should be banned from the bench. Finally, 15 women sit on Kenya’s High Court, and women make up approximately 30 percent of all judges in that country. Conversely, there are no women who have ever held a judicial position in East Timor. Northern Ireland has never appointed a woman to its Appeal Court. Of India’s 617 high court judges, only 45 (14 percent) are women. Until 2004, no woman had ever sat on the United Kingdom’s highest court. In Bahrain, it was only in 2006 that the first woman judge was appointed to the Greater Civil Court. Women make up only 18 percent of the judiciary in South Africa. In Sweden, women comprise 23 percent of permanent judges; however, they also made up 60 percent of nonpermanent judges, who have less income stability, social power, and sanctioned authority. In Australia, Canada, and the United States, women of color and aboriginal women are vastly underrepresented. Women living

with physical disabilities are extremely underrepresented in all jurisdictions. In Israel, no woman of Arabic descent has ever been named to the judiciary. In the realm of international law and institutions, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1325 in 2000. Its goals included the recognition that women’s contribution to conflictresolution was undervalued and underutilized. The resolution has been used in Egypt and elsewhere to ground proactive governmental measures designed to attain gender integration. Nevertheless, only one woman sits at the International Court of Justice, the United Nation’s principal judicial organ. No women currently sit on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Conversely, the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is independent from the United Nations’ system, has a high numbers of women judges (seven of 18 currently presiding). This more equitable gender representation may be attributable to the ICC provisions mandating women be on the bench. Discrimination Scholars and activists have compiled research on both the overt and subtle factors that impede women’s recruitment and promotion in the judiciary. Women working as judges experience overt discrimination, especially political and cultural practices that outright exclude women’s entry into the profession or ghettoize them in particular judicial functions. For instance, there are more women in lower-courts than in upper-level courts in all jurisdictions surveyed. There is a paradox here. Women judges in lower courts have lower wages, less social power, and are less formally engaged in upper-level law making. However, the greater number of women in lower-level judicial positions may have real effects. While their decisions are subject to appeal and being overturned by an upper level court, it is also at the court of first instance where relevant facts are determined and brought together to construct a cohesive narrative of women’s lives. These ”fact patterns” are the stories to which the law will be applied. Women judges may narrate these stories in a way that is more sensitive to the broader context in which conflict emerges and to experiences of discrimination more specifically. Cultural feminists have pointed out that women judges’ emphasis on facts; contextual approaches; holistic, intuitive, and



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their allies, and other progressives have successfully argued in some countries that there are no verses in the Koran, no provisions in the Hadith and no other traditional order that ban women from the judiciary.

Navanethem Pillay became the first non-white female judge on the South African high court in 1995.

empathetic modes of judging; and practices that balance multiple interests may better position them to deal with the specifics of women’s experiences. This viewpoint is vulnerable to charges of essentialism about how women as a group think and behave. However, the transformative potential of imagining different modes of judgment alone shatters one of the common law’s most persistent fictions that judges do not make law, they merely find it and apply it to the facts before them in a measured manner, unobstructed by feelings, beliefs, or past experiences In Islamic countries, women’s role in the judiciary is often more circumscribed. Women work as judicial clerks rather than adjudicators in Afghanistan. In Malaysia, they may only adjudicate over civil matters. Women in Kuwait may hold positions as investigative judges but are barred from serving adjudicative functions. In Saudi Arabia women are barred from all judicial functions. This reality suggests and reflects inherited assumptions that women have a natural proclivity toward emotional labor or certain skills that are better suited for particular aspects of the law. In these countries, Islamic law has been interpreted restrictively by fundamentalists to deny women judicial appointments. However, Muslim feminists,

Indirect Discrimination Women also experience indirect and institutional discrimination. Women across various social locations continue to take on the lion’s share of child and elder care and in most jurisdictions, the judicial workday— as in other employment sectors—is not organized in ways that recognizes or accommodates women’s care work; sexist beliefs and stereotypes, such as pregnant women do not look authoritative are still circulated. Like many other women working in the legal profession, women judges face persistent sexual harassment. Recently, formal and informal, direct and implicit methods have been used in most jurisdictions to address discrimination within the judicial realm, including advisory committees with employment equity mandates; diversity training and continuing judicial education sensitize and maintain awareness about gender, culture, and race biases; statutory reform and constitutional amendments; and proactive (affirmative) strategies that promote diversity in the judiciary (such as South Africa’s institutional redefinition of merit to take into consideration the qualitative potential for and as a judge rather than just quantifiable past experience). Further, retired justices also have become activists once relieved of their judicial functions. For instance, Martha Koome, formerly a justice of South Africa’s High Court, is currently championing the cause of women disinherited by sexist interpretations of property law. Outsiders In the West for instance, the objective standard is the white heterosexual male judge; his wisdom, rational thought, and independence is presumed. Women, members of racial and sexual minorities, and people with disabilities, on the other hand, are always already perceived as marked by their subjectivity, as having to transcend their partiality, and as having to rein in their feminist or otherwise critical (“activist”) tendencies. Having the markers of outsider status, whether because of gender or otherwise, seems to increase the likelihood that a judge will be a renegade or dissenter; that is, there is evidence that women judges tend

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to disagree with majority opinions more often than men do. Their outsider status has certainly rendered women judges vulnerable to backlash and vilification in the media. In Canada, Justices Corrine Sparks and Leslie Baldwin had their impartiality and judgments viciously called into question and even subject to formal complaints because they were, respectively, considered biased as a member of a racial minority and overly committed to complex gendered analyses of domestic violence. On another level, the vast majority of women appointed to the bench still share the experience of being pioneers. Justice Navanethem Pillay was the first woman to open a law practice in her home province, the first black woman appointed to the Supreme Court of South Africa, and the only woman on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Ertha Pascal Trouillot, the first woman judge in Haiti at the civil tribunal, was the first woman at the Supreme Court and the only woman ever to sit as provisional president of Haiti. Fathima Beevi was the first female judge of the Supreme Court of India, the first Muslim woman appointed to the highest court of any country in the world, and the first female governor of the state of Tamil Nadu. Dubai’s first woman to be named as a judge, Ebtisam Ali Rashid Al Bedwawi, is only 27 years old. Unlike men who can usually rely upon and negotiate within informal networks, access to mentors for women judges has been more complicated and often very difficult. Women judges formally organized in 1991 through the creation of the International Association of Women Judges, a nonpartisan organization with the mandate to advance women justices and to create networks and mentorship programs for women in the judiciary. Affiliates include both male and female members from more than 80 countries. Similarly, in 1993, homosexual judges formed the International Association of Gay and Lesbian Judges to serve as a resource to provide mentoring opportunities for lesbian judicial officers. Actual Effects of Women’s Judgment In most jurisdictions, popular and academic accounts have found that, at the very least, more women on the bench will increase the appearance of justice. It is difficult, however, to measure the impact of parity for women on the bench because of complicating vari-

ables such as the area of law, the ideological leanings and other identity markers of an individual judge, and the relationships or collegiality on the bench. Despite these methodological challenges, there is compelling empirical evidence that increased representation of women on the bench has had a direct and significant impact on women’s lives around questions of physical and sexual violence, access to safe and state-funded abortion, pay equity, affirmative action, and harassment in the workplace. Domestically, the judgments of many female justices—often written as dissenting opinions—have called attention to gender bias in specific areas of law, dispelling myths about women and other groups whose experiences are often improperly characterized in the legal process. For instance, orthodox understandings in criminal law is based on assumptions about women’s sexuality and tax regimes that reduce child rearing to a personal choice by individual women; employment, welfare, and housing law decisions often reinforce assumptions that women have male providers. In Canada, Justice Bertha Wilson recognized discrimination as a tort; and Justice Claire L’HeureuxDubé relied on social science evidence to shatter assumptions about sexual assault complainants. Further, while Islamic law has sometimes been interpreted to restrict what women can say before male judges in divorce proceedings, the recent appointment of two women judges presiding over Islamic courts in the Middle East—Asmahan Liwheidi in Hebron and Khulud Mohammaed Faquh in Famallah—have fostered conditions in which female litigants can speak about their experiences of sexual and physical violence. Internationally, the landmark precedent for international and regional judicial bodies on the issue of sexual violence is almost entirely attributable to Fathima Beevi’s presence as the only woman on the Rwandan Tribunal during the Akayesu case. During that first international war crimes trial, the accused was found guilty of genocide for crimes which expressly included sexual violence; it also was the first time an accused has been found guilty of rape as a crime against humanity. Similarly, the nature of the cases that go before the ICC directly impact women and especially women victims of war crimes. The ICC has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity as well as war crimes. While the court recognizes that anyone in



conflict zones can be the victim of these crimes, the statute states that certain crimes can only be committed against women—for example, as in forced pregnancy or sterilization—and others, such as rape, sexual assault, and forced prostitution, are committed disproportionately against women. Beyond Formal and Institutionalized Judging Judging is not limited to the formal and institutional realms. For instance, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers is an alliance of 13 women elders from across the globe that was organized to uphold indigenous practices and ceremonies and affirm the right to use plant medicines free of legal restriction; their mandate is to protect the lands where their people live and upon which their cultures depend, to safeguard the collective heritage of traditional medicines, and to defend the earth from further destruction. Feminist painter Judy Chicago and feminist filmmaker Trinh T. Min Ha have created artefacts that explicitly and implicitly explore the relationships between gender, law, and judgment. Similarly, in Canada, a group of feminist activists and academics have formed the Women’s Court of Canada (WCC). Justices of the WCC correct and rewrite Supreme Court of Canada decisions that do not uphold meaningful conceptions of substantive equality. Moreover, while television personality Judge Judy’s performance (in the literal and figurative sense) of judgment on her small claims court television program is open to feminist critique, she does nonetheless shatter the rational/emotional dichotomy at the core of most dominant understanding of law. Unlike views of the judge as impartially applying the law to the cases at hand, Judge Judy combines emotional and emotive statements, expresses outrage and engages in shaming tactics while providing reasons for judgment without relying on precedent. She highlights the discretionary nature of judging and calls into question popular

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assumptions and mythical stories of judges as apolitical, objective, neutral, disengaged, and constrained. Finally, in terms of mediation, women circulate and deploy traditional knowledge and methods of conflict prevention and resolution around the globe. In Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Namibia, Tanzania, and Somalia, despite having been marginalized by the formal, top-down, institutionalized, male-dominated peace negotiations and rebuilding strategies, women have mobilized to engage in local-level peace-building. These variegated practices and processes undermine dominant modes of judgment in ways that account for more feminine and especially feminist views of conflict resolution. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Ginsburg, Ruth Bader; Representation of Women; Shari`a Law; Sotomayor, Sonia. Further Readings Bazelon, Emily. “The Place of Women on the Court: An Interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” New York Times (July 7, 2009). Belleau, Marie-Claire and Rebecca Johnson. “Judging Gender: Difference and Dissent at the Supreme Court of Canada.” International Journal of the Legal Profession, v.15 (2008). Brooks, Kim, ed. Justice Bertha Wilson: One Woman’s Difference. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2009. McGlynn, Clare. “Judging Women Differently: Gender, the Judiciary and Reform.” In S. Millns and N. Whitty, eds., Feminist Perspectives on Public Law. London: Cavendish, 1999. Moran, Leslie. “Judicial Diversity and the Challenge of Sexuality: Some Preliminary Findings.” Sydney Law Review, v.28 (2006). Suzanne Bouclin McGill University

K Kali for Women: Feminist Publishing in India Kali for Women was Asia’s first feminist publishing company, founded by two visionaries in 1984. Ritu Menon and Urvashi Butalia, two zealous women came together and pooled $100 to begin that which may be called a revolution in terms of feminist publishing in India. The objective behind this venture was to bring women’s work out of Social Studies’ books and into the areas of fiction, memoirs, and biographies, even pamphlets and monographs; to bring women’s writing into the foreground; to build up a knowledge base of such writing; and to provide a forum and a platform for women’s writing on a range of issues. The Kali for Women publishing house was set up as a nongovernmental organization. Butalia and Menon took on editorial jobs and design and print jobs from other publishing houses to make the money for their own publishing house. The Kali for Women publishing house became an important milestone in women’s writing and publishing not only in India but also across the world. Women’s Publishing Icons The publishing house derives its name from Kali—a Hindu Goddess, who is supposed to be the epitome of power and in this sense the name is quite significant. The house publishes fiction, primers, historical,

and academic texts, besides The Kali Diary produced for United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which provides a list of women’s organizations. The publishing house has today come to be associated with names which have acquired the status of icon in the field of women’s writing/publishing. Gita Sen, Nayantara Sahgal, Vandana Shiva, and Urvashi Butalia are some of the names published by Kali for Women. The house keeps pace with the latest developments in women’s issues and trends in women’s studies. It is one publishing house that was not tempted by the profits that it could make in the Western markets. It was in the Indian tradition that Kali for Women was based. In an e-mail interview Butalia emphasized Kali’s focus on globalizing what was considered parochial: “So along with foregrounding women’s voices, reflecting their thinking, building a knowledge base, we also wanted to reverse the flow of information that has traditionally been from countries of the north to the south. We thought it was time to say and show that we can do this as well, and to put our books out there with everyone else’s books, and let them take the place they deserved.” The publishing house broke up in 2003, with Menon and Butalia splitting up. With the growing change in the publishing scenario, the need for expansion was felt by both of the partners. For almost 20 years this publishing house served the cause of Indian women without any other precedent and left many successors including its own offshoots in Zubaan and Women 807

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Unlimited begun by Butalia and Menon, respectively. It is to be acknowledged, however, that Kali set a trend in India and today even mainstream publishers are increasingly turning to publishing women’s writing in India and elsewhere. The objective that Kali began with has been accomplished and once the target was achieved bifurcation/diversification was certainly the need of the day. See Also: Feminist Publishing; India; Journalists, Print Media; Women’s Magazines; Women’s Review of Books; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Butalia, U. et al. Making a Difference: Feminist Publishing in the South. Chestnut Hill, MA: Bellagio Publishing Network Research and Information Center, 1995. Deonandan, Ray. “Kali for Women: Feminist Publishing in India.” IndiaStar: A Literary-Art Magazine, http://www .indiastar.com/deonandan.html (accessed May 2010). Zubaan, an Imprint of Kali for Women. “From Kali to Zubaan.” http://www.zubaanbooks.com/zubaan_profile .asp?TxtFile=Kali2Zubaan (accessed May 2010). Asha Choubey MJP Rohilkhand University

Karpinski, Janis Brigadier General Janis Karpinski of the U.S. Army Reserves came into the public eye with the release of photographs depicting a series of humiliation techniques apparently used on male Arabic prisoners in two cell blocks of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. The entire prison facility, along with 16 others, was nominally under the leadership of General Karpinski, who was later (in 2005) demoted to Colonel and asked to resign from the U.S. Army Reserves. As the officer of record for the prison, she was reprimanded by the Army and by the George W. Bush administration, while seven of the Military Police under her command were convicted of misconduct: most notably Lynndie England, who received a threeyear prison term, and Charles Graner, who was sentenced to 10 years. But as the story unfolded, it was clear that the orders that resulted in these practices,

and many others that violated the terms of the Geneva Convention, came from much higher levels. Ms. Karpinski’s name gradually came to light. While some spoke out in defense of her personnel, others involved were considered “‘a few bad apples.” Even before more complete details of higher-level collusion were revealed, many questioned how such an otherwise successful, career military officer could have allowed the abuses “on her watch.” What emerged was a much more disturbing story. Military History Ms. Karpinski, born May 25, 1953, in Rahway, New Jersey, was one of six children of Nelson Arthur and Ruth (Sorenson) Beam, and grew up in a conservative, Republican family. She was interested in a military career at an early age, but didn’t actualize this interest until she completed a B.A. in teaching and met and married George Frank Karpinski in 1974. The couple decided to join the Army together in order to travel and to receive the government incentives offered to married couples and women. She completed officer training school and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant U.S. Army in 1977, advancing through the ranks to Captain by 1981. She was assigned to intelligence in Mannheim, Germany, and between 1985 and 1986 was commander of the military police at Fort McPherson, Georgia. She resigned from the regular Army in 1987 and joined the U.S. Army Reserve. She continued to receive security and intelligence assignments until 1991 and the onset of the Persian Gulf War, when she returned to the regular Army and a post in Saudi Arabia. For this service, she received a Bronze Star. She also worked in the United Arab Emirates helping to set up military training programs for Arab women in the Gulf region, and served as a commander of the 160th military police battalion in Tallahassee, Florida. By the time the Iraqi War began, she returned to the Reserves and was made a Brigadier General, and oversaw a prison reconstruction program in Baghdad in 2003. General Karpinski, at that time, oversaw the Army Reserves’ 800th Military Police in Iraq, with responsibility for 17 prisons and 3,400 security personnel (Abu Ghraib and its military police among them). England, Graner, and the other security personnel charged in the Abu Ghraib incidents worked under her. However, the personnel in charge of the cell blocks where the

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violations of the Geneva Conventions took place did not. They were under the leadership of General Geoffrey Miller, formerly of the Guantánamo Bay facility. Scapegoat or Criminal In Karpinski’s book, she reveals that Army policy toward the Reserves was probably responsible for the fact that she received only a small portion of the funds necessary to carry out her responsibility of refurbishing prisons that had been looted by Hussein’s forces before they left. She also noted a major disparity in the number of security personnel assigned to guard a population of over 7,000 prisoners. Within months after she nominally took over the supervision of the prisons used by the United States for prisoners of war and political prisoners, the shocking photographs of abuse were shown around the world. There is evidence that her superiors knew about them long before she did, and that they occurred between October and December 2003. By this time, Karpinski was no longer actually in command of Abu Ghraib. Major General Antonio Taguba filed a report in February 2004, and CBS’s 60 Minutes ran the story, complete with photographs, on April 29, 2004. What seemed most memorable about the photographs, as discussed in Tara McKelvey’s book, One of the Boys, are the pictures of women like England participating in often sexually explicit humiliation. Ms. Karpinski charges that superiors in the regular U.S. Army set her up as a scapegoat to conceal a vast number of abuses, and that in fact many of the practices meant to break down prisoners for later interrogations were a normal part of military intelligence, sanctioned at least up to the level of Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney. There was enough substance to her allegations that she was not convicted of a crime. Ms. Karpinski, currently a business consultant specializing in training women for management, has continued to protest the characterization of both herself and her soldiers after her resignation. She has presented information on policies sanctioned by the Bush administration under the guise that the prisoners under question were terrorists and thus not entitled to any legal protections, a battle that is still being fought after Bush has left office. Ms. Karpinski, associated around the world with Abu Ghraib, is also known for her attempts to publicize the treatment and inequali-

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ties experienced by women in the military, and for her efforts to end mistreatment of Arabic prisoners. In addition to a great number of public appearances, interviews, and news reports, her book One Woman’s Army describes her career along with details of Abu Ghraib and larger issues of prisoner abuse. See Also: Abu Ghraib; Conflict Zones; Ehrenreich, Barbara; Iraq; Islam; Military, Women in the; Military Leadership, Women in; Military Stationed in Muslim Countries. Further Readings Cohn, Marjorie. “Abu Ghraib General Lambastes Bush Administration.” Interview with Janis Karpinski, August 3, 2005. U.S. Labor Against the War. http:// www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=9002 (accessed June 2010). Democracy Now. “Col. Janis Karpinski, The Former Head of Abu Ghraib, Admits She Broke the Geneva Conventions.” Interview with Janis Karpinski (October 26, 2005). http://www.democracynow.org/2005/10/26 /col_janis_karpinski_the_former_head (accessed June 2010). Karpinski, Janis. One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story. New York; Miramax Books, 2005. Mazetti, Mark, et. al. “Inside the Iraq Prison Scandal.” U.S. News and World Report, v.136/18 (2004). McKelvey, T., ed. One of the Guys, Women as Aggressors and Torturers. Jackson, TN: Seal Press, 2007. Janice M. Bogstad University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

Kazakhstan Adjacent to the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world, with 16 million residents. The country became part of the Russian and then Soviet empires, and became host to the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons testing during the height of the Cold War. In 1991, Kazakhstan was the last country to declare its independence from the former Soviet block and its former leader. In 2007, Parliament gave the president lifetime power and privileges. The

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USAID helped the Yassy community in southern Kazakhstan build an irrigation system to benefit residents. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world and has 16 million residents.

country is ethnically and culturally very diverse, in large part due to Stalin’s deportation of various ethnic groups that migrated to Kazakhstan. While the country has an oil industry, the transition to capitalism has been challenging. Violence and Sex Trafficking The status of women in Kazakhstan has decreased in large part due to the economic stagnation after the fall of the Soviet Union. While women have equal rights under the law, the reemergence of old gender ideas and the capitalist economy have undermined the status of women. The end of communism also meant the end of government childcare and state-run businesses which hired women. In the new market economy, women earn a third less than men on average. Increased childcare costs and decreased wages have plunged women into poverty. Women have tried to redefine their economic lives, and now make up 80 percent of

the country’s market vendors. Women made up 46 percent of the overall labor force, primarily in healthcare and social services, or traditionally pink collar jobs. While women have equal access to education, they are limited in their economic opportunities. Violence against women is a national problem. While Kazakhstan adopted domestic violence laws in 1999, which included an action plan on improving the status of women, there is little enforcement in place. The nation has criminalized rape in all forms, including spousal rape; however, the United Nations estimates that 60 percent of women experience some form of domestic violence. The Commission on Gender Issues has estimated that more than 30,000 women file complaints each year, but that 40 percent of domestic violence cases were unreported. Violence and poverty contribute to increased prostitution, sexual harassment and sex trafficking, all of which have become serious problems. Young women are pressured to enter the sex trade because of severe

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poverty and orphans are kidnapped or forced into prostitution. The Kazakhstan sex trade has been growing over the last two decades. The transition to capitalism and subsequent economic collapse have negatively impacted the status of women. Poverty has increased the sex trade and violence against women. While laws to protect women exist, there is no enforcement. However, Kazakhstan did adopt the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and has developed a plan to address women’s issues. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Prostitution in Combat Zones; Rape and HIV; Russia. Further Readings Aitken, Jonathan. Nazarbayev and the Making of Kazakhstan: From Communism to Capitalism. London: Continuum Press, 2009. Olcott, Martha Brill. Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise. New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002. Schatz, Edward. Modern Clan Politics: The Power of “Blood” in Kazakhstan and Beyond. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Kenya Kenya, a sub-Saharan, East African country, has a total population of 39 million. Women make up roughly 49 percent of the population, with an average life expectancy of 49 years. The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic affects life expectancy and infant mortality and lowers population growth. Women’s equality is hindered by two key obstacles: poverty (50 percent of the Kenyan population lives below the poverty line) and traditionalism. Women represent 75 percent of the agricultural workforce but make an average monthly income two-thirds less than men. Violence against women, including domestic violence between intimate part-

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ners, is a primary concern for many African-ethnic women. Traditional custom allows spousal discipline against women, and there is currently no law against spousal rape. There are also high rates of child rape and molestation, and girls younger than 14 years who are assaulted are not categorized as rape victims but, rather, labeled as “defiled.” In addition, female genital mutilation afflicts approximately 50 percent of Kenyan women. Other traditions more prevalent in rural areas, increasing the discrimination against women living in these regions, include requirements such as requesting a husband’s consent for national identification and passports. Women also cannot inherit land and live on family property only by the request and permission of her in-laws. Seventy percent of the illiterate population in Kenya is composed of women. Even with free primary education, eliminating poverty as an obstacle, a girl’s education is hindered by additional factors—girls often leave school to prepare family meals, a nationwide lack of sanitary pads means many school-age girls stay home when menstruating, and the schools are in need of more restrooms for the students. Many girls cannot afford school uniforms or must wear secondhand uniforms, which is seen as a source of shame. Schools also permit bullying by boys— another circumstance that may keep a girl from attending—and when faced with a choice between sending a son or daughter to school, boys are favored over girls. Other traditions mark a girl’s exit from school, including female genital mutilation and adolescent marriage. Finally, family cases of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) may require girls to stay home and care for their ailing parents or siblings, work to offset family debt and provide income for sustenance, or divert funds to medical bills resulting from the disease. Girls are shown to be three times more likely to contract HIV and are more often coerced into engaging in sexual intercourse with older men— often their teachers. Kenyan Women in Politics Women are just starting to take a more prevalent role in politics, including at the university level. However, despite their ability to participate, women are still

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A young Maasai woman with a baby on her back helping an older woman loading a donkey with water cans from a well in a very arid region of Kenya. The Maasai live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.

subjected to discrimination such as campaign posters being removed, intimidation, and physical abuse. At the higher levels of government, there are efforts under way to pass laws guaranteeing women a specific number of seats in Parliament. At last count, 13 of 210 Parliament seats were held by women—the highest number in Kenya’s history. See Also: Educational Opportunities/Access; Female Genital Surgery, Types of Forum for African Women Educationalists; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Reproductive Rights. Further Readings Human Rights Watch. “Double Standards.” http://www .hrw.org/en/reports/2003/03/03/double-standards (accessed June 2010). Mbilinyi, M. “Women Studies and the Crisis in Africa.” Social Scientist, v.13/10–11 (1985).

Nelson, D. “Problems of Power in a Plural Society: Asians in Kenya.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, v.28/3 (1972). O’Connor, E. “Contrasts in Educational Development in Kenya and Tanzania.” African Affairs, v.73/290 (1974). Silliman, J. and Y. King. Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on Population, Environment, and Development. Cambridge, MA: South End, 1999. Stromquist, N. “Women and Illiteracy: The Interplay of Gender Subordination and Poverty.” Comparative Education Review, v.34/1 (1990). Wojcicki, J. M. “Socioeconomic Status as a Risk Factor for HIV Infection for Women in East, Central and Southern Africa: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Biosocial Science, v.37/1 (2005). Jennifer Jaffer Independent Scholar



Kim, Yu-Na Yu-Na Kim is a figure skating champion from South Korea. She is most known for her impressive scores and for breaking the world record in figure skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada— the first medal in figure skating for South Korea. Those in the world of figure skating have claimed that her fiercest rivalry is with Mao Asada of Japan, whom she beat at the 2010 Winter Olympics but lost to at the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships. In April 2010, the International Skating Union ranked Kim first in the world of figure skating. At that time, she also held the record for the short program, free-skating program, and the combined total. Being the first female skater to move past 200 points is also an honor that she has earned. In South Korea, Kim has received various endorsement deals and is the public face of products from mobile phones to fabric softeners. Born in Bucheon, South Korea, on September 5, 1990, Kim began figure skating at the age of 7. Her first coach, Ryu Jong-Hyeon, saw great potential in her and predicted that she would one day be a skating champion. The Triglav Trophy in Italy was the site of her first competition in 2002, at which she won gold in the novice category. At the age of 12 she became the youngest person to win the South Korean Figure Skating Championships. She continued to compete nationally and internationally, defending her titles at such competitions as the World Junior Figure Skating Championships, Junior Grand Prix, World Championships, and Four Continents Championships. In 2006, Kim began training in Toronto, Canada, at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club. She moved to the country in 2007. In the Grand Prix Final competitions, Kim won the gold medal twice and the silver once. In the Four Continents Championships, she brought home the gold. In the World Championships, she has won the bronze medal twice and the silver and gold once each. In addition, in the Winter Olympics she won the gold while setting a world record. Kim is most known for her bent-leg layover, jump combinations, speed, artistry, and grace on the ice. Even before competing at the Winter Olympics, Kim was a millionaire as a result of her many endorsement deals in South Korea—at one time, Forbes esti-

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mated her as having made over $8 million in endorsements alone. She received intense scrutiny from her home country before the Olympics, with many hoping that she would live up to the fanfare already given her before the games began. The pressure of competing and defending her numerous records has led Kim to question whether or not to continue competing or turn professional. She has indicated an interest in eventually pursuing her education at university and studying sports psychology. See Also: Figure Skating; Olympics, Winter; South Korea. Further Readings Judd, R. The Winter Olympics: An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, Lore and Events of the Games. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books, 2009. Milton, Steve. Figure Skating’s Greatest Stars. Richmond Hill, Canada: Firefly Books, 2009. Leesha Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Kirchner, Cristina Fernández de Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became president of Argentina in 2007, the first woman to be elected to that office. She is also the wife of Nestor Kirchner, her immediate predecessor as president. Some critics say that she owes her victory to her husband’s immense popularity, but Cristina Kirchner brought nearly two decades of political experience to the office, having served as both a provincial and national legislator, and a reputation as an advocate for human rights and women’s issues. She also was among her husband’s most influential advisers during his tenure as Argentina’s head of state. Kirchner is often compared to Eva Peron and Hillary Clinton, and, like them, her appearance and personal life often generate more press than her political activities. Political Crusader Cristina Elizabeth Fernández was born in 1953 in La Plata, near Buenos Aires, and was the daughter of a bus driver and a homemaker. She became active in the youth branch of the Peronist movement as a

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student in the early 1970s. It was then that she met Nestor Kirchner, who was also a law student and activist. The couple married in 1975. A year later they moved to Nestor Kirchner’s home province of Santa Cruz where they ran a successful law practice. She was first elected to the provincial legislature as a member of the Peronist Justicialist party in 1989, a feat she repeated in 1993. She was elected to the Senate in 1995, and again in 2001 and 2005. During her first term as senator, she became a vocal critic of President Carlos Menem, appearing on political talk shows to attack his economic policies. When she returned to the Senate in 2001, she furthered her reputation as a crusader against government corruption and for social and economic justice. Nestor Kirchner’s election to the presidency in 2003 meant that Cristina Kirchner had dual responsibilities. Sources report that her husband made few decisions without soliciting her opinion. She used her influence in the Senate to consolidate the administration’s policies. When candidates to succeed Nestor Kirchner were named, his wife was among them, and she quickly emerged as the leading candidate. Cristina Kirchner won the general election in October 2007 with 45.3 percent of the vote, well ahead of her closest competitor. Argentina’s “Latin Hillary” Comparison to the famed Evita is inevitable for female politicians in Argentina, and Kirchner’s travels and glamour led easily to Peron comparisons, as did her oratory skills. Kirchner has also been termed the “Latin Hillary.” Like Hillary Clinton, she met her husband while they were law school students, helped her husband fulfill his political ambitions as governor of a small southern state, and, against the odds, as president of his country. She ran for the presidency after proving herself as a politically powerful senator. Kirchner’s presidential popularity has been threatened by inflation and accusations of corruption. The ruling Peronist Party lost control of Congress in midterm elections that many see as a referendum on the presidency. Journalists continue to write about her designer clothing and speculate about her having plastic surgery, but her insistence of sovereignty over the Falklands has the approval of more than 80 percent of Argentineans and the unanimous support of

other Latin American countries. She cannot succeed herself as president, but some prognosticators remain convinced that Cristina Kirchner will be Argentina’s once and future president. See Also: Argentina; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Heads of State, Female; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Bevins, Vincent. “Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: A Profile of the Argentinian President.” http://www .newstatesman.com/south-america/2010/03/kirch ner-malvinas-president (accessed March 2010). Levitsky, Steven, and María Victoria Murillo. “Argentina: From Kirchner to Kirchner.” Journal of Democracy, v.19/2 (2008). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Kiribati Formerly the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati ended its history as a British protectorate in 1979. The islands, which include 33 separate Pacific coral atolls, are still largely agricultural, and 56 percent of the population live in rural areas, although the service industry (66.8 percent) provides the lion’s share of Kiribati’s Gross National Product. The per capita income is approximately $5,300, but the islands are heavily dependent on financial aid from the European Union, the United States, Australia, and other countries as well as on remittances from I-Kiribati (Kiribati citizens) who work abroad. Kiribati has long been a patriarchal society, with well-defined roles for women and men. In recent decades, the government has made a conscious effort to remove barriers that have historically limited women, and Kiribati joined the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2004. Ethnically, Kiribati is homogeneous, and 98.8 percent of the population are Micronesian. The people are more diverse religiously, however. More than half of the residents are Roman Catholic, and another 40 percent are Protestants. English is still the official language.

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In response to a changing economy and the conscious effort to address inequities, women are now entering the workforce in large numbers. By 1990, 60.9 percent of women were in the workforce, but most of them labored in low-paying unskilled and semiskilled positions. In 1999, women broke down the barrier that had shut them out of politics by electing the first female to Parliament. By 2008, there were two women in the 45-member legislature, and a number of women were serving as permanent government secretaries. The median age for females in Kiribati is 21.3 years. With a total infant mortality rate of 43.48 deaths per 1,000 live births, female infants (38.36) have a distinct edge over male infants (48.35) that continues throughout their lives, resulting in a female life expectancy of 66.45 years as compared to 60.14 for males. Kiribati ranks 46th in the world in fertility, and women give birth to an average of 4.04 children each. Both females and males stay in school for 12 years. There are no laws against sex discrimination, but women do have full rights of inheritance and property ownership. Domestic violence is considered a serious problem in Kiribati society, but it is often dealt with only by community censure. Rape laws exist and are enforced when necessary. Contrary to husbands who marry noncitizens, I-Kiribati wives cannot confer citizenship on foreign husbands. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Domestic Violence; Property Rights. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “World Factbook: Kiribati.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/kr.html (accessed February 2010). Ottis, Ginger. “Women in the House.” Ms. Magazine (February–March 2000). United States Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Kiribati.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hr rpt/2008/eap/119042.htm (accessed February 2010). WIN News. “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997; Kiribati.” WIN News, v.24/2 (Spring 1998). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

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Kngwarreye, Emily Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c. 1910–96) was an Aboriginal artist from Utopia in the remote desert region of Australia’s Northern Territory. Her exact date of birth is uncertain, but she was in her late 70s when she began painting on canvas, creating a phenomenal number of artworks in the eight years before her death. Untutored in the techniques of Western art, she nevertheless produced works that have been compared to such masters as Monet and Kandinsky. Many art critics consider her to be one of the greatest abstract artists of the 20th century. For the greater part of her life, Kngwarreye lived the ordinary life of a woman among the Anmatyerre, who had lived on their traditional lands for thousands of years. Kngwarreye participated in awelye, the ancient ceremonies for women that utilized body painting. Kngwarreye’s first art was the designs painted on breasts, shoulders, and neck, using ground ochre to form the linear and curved lines that she would later use in her paintings. The designs relate to the individual woman’s “Dreaming.” For women, Dreaming was connected to fertility and their traditional roles as nurturers and food gatherers. After Kngwarreye achieved fame as an artist, her response to questions about her work never varied: her painting was “whole lot, everything.” It was about her Dreaming, her land, her people, the essence of the world she knew. New Style Develops From Traditional Body Markings In 1977, as part of an adult literacy course for the women of Utopia, a batik-making fabric workshop was begun. Kngwarreye was a founding member of the group. She adapted the traditional body markings of the awelye and her perceptions of the land itself to the batik fabric. When the group began working with acrylics on canvas, she found the medium most suited to her bold use of color. Her first canvas, Emu woman 1988–89, reproduced on the cover of The Summer Project catalog for the exhibition at the S. H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney in 1989, attracted much attention. In 1990, she had two one-woman shows. Within three years, her art had been shown in more than 50 exhibitions throughout the world. Between 1989 and her death on September 2, 1996,

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she completed more than 3,000 paintings. Galleries and private collectors purchased her work for substantial amounts. However, Kngwarreye continued to live a largely traditional life as a senior law woman of her people and uses her income to support her community. A major retrospective of her work traveled to galleries throughout Australia in the late 1990s, and in 2007, Earth’s Creation sold for $1,056,000, breaking the record for work by an indigenous artist. In 2008, an exhibition of Kngwarreye’s paintings in Japan drew more than 130,000 people in what had been called the largest single-artist exhibition to travel internationally from Australia. The same exhibit, valued at more than $130 million, appeared at the National Museum of Australia later the same year. Hailed as a genius, Kngwarreye is difficult to categorize. Some insist she should be viewed solely as an aboriginal artist. Others see her through the lens of abstract impressionism. Margo Neale, curator at the National Museum of Australia, suggests both views are limiting. She terms Kngwarreye a hybrid artist whose power is greater than labels. See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Australia; Australian Aboriginal Artists. Further Readings Bates, Elizabeth. “Emily Kame Kngwarreye.” http://www .dreamweb.nl/emilyengels.htm (accessed March 2010). Caruana, Wally. Aboriginal Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Neale, Margo, ed. Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Canberra: National Museum of Australia Press, 2008. Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Ku Klux Klan First established in the 1860s, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a right-wing white protestant American organization that seeks to preserve the purity and supremacy of white Christian America. Jews, African Americans, immigrants, and homosexuals are

regarded by the KKK as threats to this mission, and its activities have included propaganda, protests, and violence against these groups during its various waves of activity. The KKK continues to exist today, albeit in a diminished and fragmented form. However, Klan activity is believed to be increasing in a backlash to economic instability and perceived threats to white Christian values. Female Roles The position of women within the KKK has shifted during key waves of Klan activity. The KKK has traditionally been a male-dominated organization, but it has occupied a contradictory position in relation to women, both reinforcing traditional female roles and gradually recognizing the benefits of attracting women members. During its first wave (1860s to 1870s), women were excluded from joining, with the emphasis being the development of a brotherhood of white Christian men. The second wave of KKK activity, which began in 1915, led to the establishment of the Women’s Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) in 1923. Through forming the WKKK, the KKK sought to bolster support by capitalizing on women’s recently granted suffrage. According to Kathleen Blee, the WKKK attracted an estimated half a million women in the 1920s. It had little involvement with the violent racism for which the KKK was infamous, but instead employed tactics such as boycotting and discrediting non-white, and particularly Jewish, individuals and businesses. According to Blee, the KKK viewed the WKKK as its auxiliary force, yet WKKK leaders challenged this subordinate position by advocating women’s empowerment and rights, without undermining women’s reproductive and homemaker roles. Collectively, both movements have played a major role in fueling racist beliefs and acts across America. Amid leadership struggles and the exposure of corruption in the KKK, the WKKK had largely dissolved by the end of the 1920s. The KKK in Today’s Society The contemporary KKK is a disparate collection of competing Klans. Klan organizations rarely release membership numbers, but the Anti-Defamation League estimate that there are 5,000 members across at least 40 different Klan groups. Most Klans now claim

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to be nonviolent and law-abiding, although the secret practices of some Klan groups were exposed following the murder of Cynthia Lynch when she attempted to leave a Klan initiation rite in Louisiana in 2008. Most contemporary Klan organizations are open to men and women, with no separate women’s organization. Kathleen Blee’s study of women in organized racism finds that although the rhetoric of Klan organizations may portray women as equal, core responsibilities and leadership positions remain largely inaccessible to them. An exception is The Knights Party, Arkansas, which declares itself the most genderinclusive Klan and has a separate minisite for women on their Website, an online television program for women, and a high-ranking female spokeswoman, Rachel Pendergraft. See Also: Political Ideologies; Religion, Women in; White Supremacy. Further Readings Anti-Defamation League. “About the Ku Klux Klan.” http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/kkk/default .asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat =Extremism_in_America&xpicked=4&item=kkk (accessed December 2009). Blee, Kathleen M. Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Ferber, Abby L. ed. Home-Grown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism. New York: Routledge, 2004. Wade, Wyn Craig. The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Rebecca Barnes University of Derby

Kumari, Living Goddess in Nepal Kumari is a living virgin goddess worshipped in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. The living kumari is a young prepubescent girl who is chosen in an elaborate process similar to that of Tibetan lamas, after which the Nepalese believe the goddesses Taleju or Durga inhabits her body. Taleju is the protective god-

Kumari Devi, one of Nepal’s virgin “Living Goddesses,” photographed in Kathmandu in 2007.

dess of the country and its ruler. The kumari is worshipped as the goddess and honored in the annual Indra Jaatra harvest festival. The kumari tradition originated from the unique Nepalese interplay of the Hindu and Vajrayana Buddhist religions. There are various kumari in Nepal, but the most significant is the Kumari Devi (Raj Kumari) of Kathmandu. Senior Vajracharya Buddhist priests select the true kumari from young girls of the Shakya Buddhist clan of the Newar community in the Kathmandu Valley. Only girls with excellent health who have shed no blood are considered. The girls are then checked for the 32 perfections of a goddess, known as battis lakshanas, including physical characteristics such as hair and eye color and voice quality. A potential kumari’s horoscope must be compatible with the king’s, and her family must be devoted to him. Those girls who have the necessary attributes then enter a darkened room

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and observe a series of frightening rituals designed to test their character. The true kumari will show calm fearlessness. She must then be able to identify her predecessor’s clothing and jewelry. The selected kumari is cleansed through tantric rituals and inhabited by the goddess. Her feet must never touch the ground. She resides in the Khumari Ghar (Khumari Chowk), a three-story brick palace located in Kathmandu’s Hanuman Dhoka (Durbar) Square. King Jaya Prakash Malla built the palace in 1757. Legend claims that he had angered a kumari and built her the palace as atonement. People visit the Khumari Ghar to view its intricate carvings and try to glimpse the kumari as she occasionally appears at the palace windows. Her days are spent studying and performing religious rituals. During the Indra Jaatra harvest festival of late August or early September, the kumari appears on the third day to travel through the streets of Kathmandu in a chariot. Thousands gather to worship her. She also blesses the king by placing a mark known as a tika on his forehead. The Nepalese government pays for her expenses, as well as those of her caretakers. Once a kumari either begins menstruation or bleeds in any way, she is no longer considered a kumari and is expected to leave the palace and return to everyday life. A new kumari is quickly chosen. Former kumari often have a difficult time adjusting because they receive no education while serving and because of the traditional belief that a man who marries a former kumari will die young. They receive a small pension from the Nepalese government. See Also: Buddhism; Hindu Female Gurus and Living Saints; Hinduism; Nepal. Further Readings Allen, Michel. The Cult of Kumari: Virgin Worship in Nepal. Kathmandu, Nepal: Mandala Book Point, 1996. Majupuria, Indra and Patricia Roberts. Living Virgin Goddess Kumari: Her Worship, Fate of Ex-Kumaris, and Sceptical Views. Gwalior, India: M.D. Gupta, 1993. Shakya, Rashmila and Scott Berry. From Goddess to Mortal: The True-Life Story of a Former Royal Kumari. Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra, 2005. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Kuwait Kuwait is a Muslim country located in the Middle East. Forty-five percent of the nation’s citizens classify themselves as Kuwaitis, and 35 percent as Arabs. After several decades as a British protectorate, Kuwait achieved independence in 1961. With a per capita income of $55,800, Kuwait is the seventh richest country in the world. Ninety-eight percent of the population live in urban areas, and more than 99 percent of the workforce are engaged in either service or industry. Kuwait is ranked 31st on the United Nations Development Programme list of countries with very high human development. As a major and strategically located oil-producing nation, Kuwait forged alliances with key Western nations and organizations, notably the United States. In 1991 when Iraq attacked the small nation, the United Nation’s went to Kuwait’s defense. Both male and female Kuwaitis also responded to the call for duty, and female recruits, who served without pay, outnumbered male servicemen. The cost of that four-day siege has been estimated at $5 billion. Since that time, the government has become more open to individual rights, and the legislature has begun asserting itself. Women in Kuwait Kuwait is highly traditional in its approach to women but the Kuwait–Iraq conflict helped open some doors for women. Kuwaiti women finally won the right to vote in 2005, and four women were elected to the National Assembly in 2009. These gains were tempered by the insistence of Islamic legislators that a clause be added to the suffrage language, requiring women to abide by Islamic law. Social indicators reveal that the median age for females is 22.7 years. Kuwait has an infant mortality rate of 8.97 deaths per 1,000 live births, and the country ranks 160th in the world in this area. The life expectancy of females is 78.96 years compared to 76.51 years for males. The fertility rate is 2.76 children per woman. Female literacy has been on the upswing in recent decades, rising from 59 percent in 1991 to 91 percent in 2005. Both males and females generally have at least 12 years of school, but females now outnumber males in higher education. However, wages for females lag far behind those of males. In 2005, for

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instance, the estimated earned income for females was $12,623 as compared to $36,403 for males. Violence and Women’s Rights Foreign-born women who live in Kuwait are particularly vulnerable to violence, and a number of Filipino maids have been raped and/or physically abused. Although many victims are afraid to come forward, some who do have been able to obtain justice. The Filipino, Indian and Sri Lankan embassies have frequently provided shelter to victims of domestic abuse from their individual countries. Wives, particularly those who are foreign born, also are frequently the victims of domestic abuse. Reports on such cases suggest that violence occurs in 15 percent of Kuwaiti marriages, and 60 percent of those involve wives who are not Kuwaiti citizens. Despite important gains in women’s rights, Kuwait continues to restrict women’s lives in a number of ways. Wives are required to obey their husbands, and they need their husbands’ permission to obtain passports. Citizenship is passed to children through the father, and women’s testimony is not given equal weight in courts. Inheritance laws are based on Islamic law, often limiting women’s property rights. Although 28 percent of women of working age are employed, employment opportunities are restricted, and women are banned from occupations that are considered dangerous or unhealthy. Women are forbidden to marry non-Islamic men, and women who marry foreigners are required to pay residence fees for them. Polygamy continues to flourish, but males are required to notify their first wives and provide them with separate residences at the first wife’s request. In 2005, in response to resistance to an AmericanIdol–type television show in which male and female teenagers competed against one another, the government banned all forms of entertainment that included women singing, dancing, or entertaining audiences. See Also: Domestic Violence; Equal Pay; Infant Mortality; Islam; Military, Women in. Further Readings Keddie, N. R. Women in the Middle East: Past and Present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women. “Kuwait.” http://www.niew.gov.my/niew/index.php?option=com

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docman&task=cat_view&gid=105&Itemid=60&lang=en (accessed February 2010). Nour, Al-Falah. “No Going Backward.” Gender Watch, v.1/6 (May 1991. Priya, Verma, et al. “Kuwait: Women Gain Political Rights.” Off Our Backs, v.35/5–6 (May–June 2005). Stachowski, R., et al. “Kuwait: Ban on Women Performers.” Off Our Backs, v.34/7–8 (July–August 2004). “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998; Kuwait.” WIN News, v.25 (Spring 1999). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country in central Asia, founded in 840 c.e. The nation became part of the Mongol Empire in the 12th century, and was absorbed into the Soviet Union in the early 20th century. It is a mountainous region bordered by China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. During the fall of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan became an independent, democratic republic. However, independence did not bring stability, as the country has suffered from political, cultural, and economic tumult. The government is secular, but the population is 75 percent Muslim and 20 percent Russian Orthodox. As fundamentalism spread in the area, tensions increased over asserting Islamic law. Although Kyrgyzstan received financial backing from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the country has suffered economic hard times, which has exacerbated the country’s problems with organized crime. In 2005–06, four Members of Parliament were assassinated. Two-thirds of the 5.2 million residents live in rural areas, and 34 percent of the population are under the age of 18, which further destabilizes the country. Equality for Women Legally, women faired well under the communist government, with equal rights. Kyrgyzstan also has a history of female equality, as its early nomadic societies had women working as equals alongside men. However, with the reintroduction of capitalism and

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After an exchange program in the United States, a woman in Kyrgyzstan formed her own organization, Atyn Kol, with the marketing skills she learned. The women are shown preparing wool for handmade carpets.

religious fundamentalism, many patriarchal attitudes reemerged, especially in the countryside. Women also earn considerably less than men. Women in Kyrgyzstan are better off than their sisters in other central Asian countries, but culture and tradition are limiting their full equality. Women do have a political voice in Kyrgyzstan. They have the right to vote, and females comprise 23 of the 75 Members of Parliament. In addition, women hold prominent national positions, such as ministers of Finance, Education and Science, Labor and Social Development, and Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court. Legally, women have the same rights as men, and there are laws against sexual harassment, violence, rape, and spousal rape. However, culturally, violence against women is ignored, and very few women press charges. It is estimated that 40 to 60 percent of the crimes against women

involve domestic violence. The tradition of forced marriages or “bridal kidnapping” is illegal, but in wide practice, especially in rural areas. With the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, there have been recent efforts to decriminalize polygamy. In 2007, the president signed a law to achieve equal rights, asserting that it “establishes state guarantees in terms of providing equal rights and opportunities for persons of various sexes in political, social, economic, cultural, and other fields . . . and aims to protect men and women against discrimination on the basis of sex.” With such legal assurances, the women of Kyrgyzstan need to address the culture of patriarchy, which prevents the enforcement of such guarantees. See Also: China; Marriages, Arranged; Polygamy, CrossCulturally Considered; Russia.

Further Readings Abazov, Rafiz. The Kyrgyzs: A Modern History (Central Asian Studies). London: Routledge, 2010. Bauer, Armin, et al. Women and Gender Relations: The Kyrgyz Republic in Transition. Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank, 1997. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Kyrgyzstan.” https://www.cia.gov/library/pub

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lications/the-world-factbook/geos/kg.html (accessed July 2010). Khalid, Adeeb. Islam After Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

L LaDuke, Winona Winona LaDuke is a Native American writer, environmentalist, professor, and activist. She is part of the Anishinabe tribe, one of the largest tribes in North America. LaDuke’s work primarily focuses on recovering land for the Anishinabe people. She was the vice presidential candidate on the Green party ticket with Ralph Nader in 1996 and 2000. LaDuke is the founder and director of the White Earth Recovery Land Project and the founder and cochair of the Indigenous Women’s Network. She has received numerous awards and is known internationally for her commitment to American Indian people. LaDuke was born in Los Angeles, California, to an Anishinabe father and Jewish mother. At a young age she moved to Ashland, Oregon, where she was raised. At the age of 18 she was the youngest person to ever address the United Nations, speaking on issues facing Indian peoples. She went to Harvard University and earned a degree in Rural Economic Development and later earned her master’s degree from Antioch University in Community Economic Development. Although she worked for a time as a high school principal on the Anishinabe White Earth reservation in Minnesota, she soon realized that her work was in land recovery for her people. LaDuke worked tirelessly to recover lands rightfully owned by the Anishinabe people after an 1867 treaty agreement with the U.S. government. She was success-

ful in thousands of acres of ancestral land being bought back by her people. It was during this process that she founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project—the largest reservation-based nonprofit organization in the United States. The goals of this project are land recovery, Ojibwe language preservation, environmental concerns, and cultural and agricultural sustainability. The White Earth Land Recovery Project is also the umbrella organization for Native Harvest, a program to expand the production and selling of native foods and harvests. She serves as a board member for the Trust for Public Lands Native Lands program and the Christensen Fund—organizations involved with land sustainability and cultural preservation. Current Efforts In 2010, LaDuke was the director of Honor the Earth, which was established in 1993. The primary goals of this organization are to work for a green community that is sustainable and culturally relevant, to financially support native community organizing and social justice efforts, and to push native issues and concerns from the margins to the center of political life. These goals are accomplished through the Energy Justice, Building Resilience, and Youth Leadership initiatives. Honor the Earth is also active in publishing literature that speaks to their work for native communities. There are several causes and issues with which LaDuke was concerned as the vice presidential nominee for the Green Party, and that she continues 823

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to speak to in her work as an activist. Working with Women of All Red Nations, she has brought attention to the forced sterilization of American Indian women. She has also been outspoken about the United States’ involvement in wars—she believes that the United States is a country preoccupied with war for the sake of opportunity, and not human rights. LaDuke is in favor of preferences in education and employment based on race, ethnicity, and sex; was a fierce opponent of the welfare reform bill of 1996, saying that it hurt women; and wants representation for indigenous people at the United Nations. She speaks out against environmental racism and has alleged that the federal government is responsible for dumping waste materials into Indian lands. She is also against genetic engineering of wild rice, which is a mainstay and financial revenue for Native people. LaDuke has appeared in a number of films as well, including Anthem, The Main Stream, and Skins. LaDuke has received many accolades. Most notable was her induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2007. The White Earth Land Recovery Project received the International Slow Food Award for Biodiversity in 2003, LaDuke received the Human Rights Award from Reebok in 1988, she was one of 1994 Time magazine’s 50 most promising leaders, and in 1996, she was awarded the Thomas Merton Award, which is given to those who exemplify the struggle for peace and equality and work toward social justice. She also was given the Dream Maker award by the Ann Bancroft Foundation for her dedication to Native rights. In 1997, LaDuke was honored by Ms. Magazine and named Woman of the Year. LaDuke lives in Minnesota on the White Earth reservation. She is a mother to three children and a grandmother to one.

LaDuke, W. The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur, 2002.

See Also: Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Indigenous Women’s Issues.

Advocate for Women and Gays During an interview with Larry King, Gaga said, “I am a feminist.” In particular, Gaga encourages her viewers to analyze their assumptions about women. Gaga claims that most of her costumes are “a rejection of people’s views about women.” At her Video Music Awards performance in 2009, Gaga performed a portion of “Paparazzi.” By the end of the number, she was drenched in fake blood; this costume encouraged viewers to think of the damaging ways in which the media portrays women.

Further Readings LaDuke, W. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. LaDuke, W. Last Standing Woman. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur, 1997. LaDuke, W. Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005.

Leesha M. Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Lady Gaga Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986, Lady Gaga has developed into an exuberant performer known for her lyrics, performances, videos, fashion, and sexuality. Her outrageous outfits and shocking performances often stir controversy, but Gaga hopes to be remembered as an icon and activist, primarily for women and for the gay community. Gaga’s debut album, The Fame (with songs like “Love Game,” “Poker Face,” and “Just Dance”), found international success. Her second album, The Fame Monster (which includes the hits “Bad Romance,” “Telephone,” and “Alejandro”), brought more fame. In her short career to date, Gaga has already sold over 15,000,000 records. The most controversial element of Gaga’s artistry remains her sexuality, which she flaunts openly. Rumors sparked early in Gaga’s career that she was a member of the intersex community—that she possessed both male and female reproductive organs. Gaga allowed the rumors to perpetuate as controversy and her record sales grew exponentially, before finally confronting the rumor. She revealed she had only female genitalia and accused those who participated in the rumor mongering of associating power and success strictly with men, which Gaga says, is why people unsettled by her status and influence assigned her a penis.

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her life. She promises to continue to write, perform, shock, and advocate for many years to come. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Madonna; MTV; Rock Music, Women in. Further Readings Herbert, Emily. Lady Gaga: Behind the Fame. New York: Overlook Press, 2010. Lady Gaga Interview. Larry King Live. CNN, June 1, 2010. “Lady Gaga Speech at the National Equality March—October 11, 2009.” www.youtube.com /watch?v=T1QYXHzgRw4 (accessed June 2010). Spines, Christine. “Lady Gaga Wants You.” Cosmopolitan (April 2010). Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

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Lady Gaga, perfomer and gay activist, giving a speech at the 2009 National Equality March.

Gaga serves as an advocate for the gay community. She spoke at the National Equality March in October 2009, where the audience proudly displayed signs that said “Gay for Gaga.” Gaga told protesters that speaking at the rally was the most important moment of her career. She screamed into the microphone at President Barack Obama, asking if he was listening to the pleas she and her fellow protesters made about members of the gay community receiving rights equal to those of the straight community. The following year, Time magazine named Gaga one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Concerns about Gaga’s workaholic attitude worry fans and fellow performers, who fear Gaga, like her idol Michael Jackson, may develop a substance dependency or work herself into exhaustion. A former experimenter with drugs, Gaga assures the public that her abusive behaviors are behind her and that show business saved

There are more than 100 million land mines in almost 70 countries around the world and they kill or maim approximately 26,000 people annually, inflicting physical and psychological damage to individuals, families, and communities. Seventy-five to 80 percent of land mine victims are civilians in countries at peace, the majority of them women and children in poor, rural areas. Although land mines are inexpensive to manufacture, they are extremely difficult and dangerous to remove. Women have taken leadership roles in worldwide efforts to ban their use and to aid land mine survivors through organizations such as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). These activists argue that land mines’ limited military usefulness is countered by their great humanitarian costs. Antipersonnel land mines are often buried weapons that explode through a triggering mechanism such as a trip wire or the pressure of a person’s body weight as they walk over or near them. The modern land mine was first widely used during World War II in the mid20th century. Terrorist and rebel groups have begun making homemade land mines, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Land mines can remain active for decades or longer. Arguments against their military use include that they violate international rules of

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warfare by their inability to distinguish between civilian and military targets and the injuries they inflict are disproportionate to military objectives for their use. Modern military technology such as motion-detection equipment further limits their usefulness. Land mines were initially developed as defensive devices aimed to maim enemy combatants, but in the late 20th century they became increasingly used as weapons with which to terrorize civilian populations. Modern land mines also began to kill increasing numbers of the soldiers they were designed to protect. Even newer “smart mines,” which have self-destruction or deactivations mechanisms, still fail or claim civilian victims. Early land mine fields were carefully marked and mapped, but technological developments such as the ability to drop mines from aircraft made careful record keeping more difficult and less likely. Natural phenomena such as weather can also cause minefield locations to shift over time. One of the main problems with land mines is their indiscriminate nature—civilians, peacekeepers, and aid workers are common victims and most are killed or injured in countries at peace. Injuries caused by land mines include blindness, burns, limb injuries or losses, and shrapnel wounds. Other dangers include loss of blood, difficulty in getting the victim to medical care, inadequate medical care, amputations, and secondary infections such as gangrene. The United Nations (UN) has registered approximately 250,000 amputees worldwide. Surviving victims face long hospital stays and rehabilitation as well as ongoing physical and psychological problems. Children injured by land mines often never return to school and adult victims often struggle economically because of a lack of vocational training or other forms of support. Victims often face social exclusion and discrimination. Families who lose their main provider also struggle. Fear of the presence of mines limits community development. Communities where land mines are present often have limited or no access to farmlands, roads, waterways, and public utilities, which threatens food production and livelihoods. The presence of minefields also hinders social services and emergency relief assistance. Their presence slows the resettlement of refugees and displaced populations. Poor countries’ economies are further strained under the expense of removing land mines and caring for their victims. Public activism against land mines surged in

the 1990s. Women are among the most prominent land mine ban supporters, including the late Diana, Princess of Wales as well as Heather Mills and Queen Noor of Jordan. The ICBL, a worldwide coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) formed in 1992, is the global leader in this struggle. The group’s mission includes monitoring mine usage and removal, implementation of humanitarian programs for affected communities and survivors, promoting public awareness, and research services. They publish the annual “Landmine Monitor Report” and other information. One of the ICBL’s major accomplishments was the passage of the International Mine Ban Treaty, commonly known as the Ottawa Treaty, in the late 1990s. The group and spokesperson Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize for this achievement. The activism of groups such as the ICBL has dramatically reduced global production, trade, and stockpiles of land mines, reduced the number of land mine victims, and increased humanitarian assistance for victims and land mine removal and eradication efforts. See Also: Conflict Zones; Health, Mental and Physical; International Action Network on Small Arms; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide. Further Readings Cameron, Maxwell A. and Robert J. Lawson. To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Ban Landmines. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Monin, Lydia and Andrew Gallimore. The Devil’s Gardens: A History of Landmines. London: Pimlico, 2002. Williams, Jody, et al., eds. Banning Landmines: Disarmament, Citizen Diplomacy, and Human Security. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Landscape Architecture, Women in This history of women in the field of landscape architecture has been tumultuous. Initially, women were thought to be well suited to the field because of a



natural inclination toward gardening. There were few opportunities for formal education, and most female landscape architects, including pioneer Elizabeth Bullard of Bridgeport, Connecticut, learned their craft by providing on-site assistance to male relatives or by teaching themselves. By the late 19th century, landgrant schools began offering courses in landscape design, and women, particularly those of the middle class, began to seek out advanced degrees in the field. As a result, landscape architecture became more professionalized. This professionalism was accompanied by male dominance of the field, with the result that women were marginalized. Battles With the Old Boy’s Club The field of landscape architecture underwent vast changes in the 20th century, becoming more interwoven with the related fields of art, sculpting, and architecture, and many women landscape architects began viewing themselves as artists. This stance increased tensions with conservative males of the old guard who disliked this blending of fields. In the 21st century, 34 percent of all landscape architects are female, as are half of all students in the field. Many women insist that female landscape architects continue to be denied opportunities for jobs and career advancement because of the “old boy’s club” that operates its own informal network. They insist that women frequently run into a roadblock caused by gender stereotyping, which suggests that women are not capable of meeting the requirements of modern landscape architecture. This claim was borne out in 2007 when Martha Schwartz, often considered the most prominent contemporary female landscape architect, resigned from an adjunct position at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, announcing that the program had never hired a female landscape architect into a tenured position in the 106 years of its existence because of the “entrenched sexism” of male faculty members. Some efforts have been made to address discrimination of female landscape architects. The American Society of Landscape Architects has established the Women in Landscape Professional Practice Network with the express aim of promoting “personal and professional development” for female landscape architects. In 2008, ELLE DÉCOR and Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum began recognizing “outstanding

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female achievement” in the fields of architecture, communications, fashion, interior, landscape, and product design. The first annual celebration of this event took place in New York City at the Harold Pratt House. Notable Landscape Achievements Some of the women who became the most celebrated in their field in the late 20th and early 21st centuries include Martha Schwartz, Diana Balmori, and Maya Lin. Schwartz, who also has a background in fine arts, has achieved international fame through her work on such projects as the Cosmopolitan Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Children’s Discovery Centre in Damascus, Syria. Although born in Spain, Balmori spent much of her childhood in England and Argentina. She has become known for innovativeness in sustainable systems. Her works range from creating the master plan for the Abandoibarra District in Bilbao, Spain, to bringing Robert Smithson’s dream for a manmade floating island around New York City to fruition. Lin, a Chinese American, is best known for her design for Washington, D.C.’s Vietnam War Memorial, which bears the name of all 58,261 Americans who lost their lives in southeast Asia. Other celebrated female landscape architects include Nancy Goslee Power, Pamela Burton, Achva Benzinberg Stein, and Kathryn Gustafson. Best known for gardening designs, Power is the author of Power of Gardens. Burton is celebrated for her designs of urban, campus, and residential buildings; Stein, who serves as director of the Graduate Landscape Architecture Program at the School of Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture at the City College of New York, has worked around the world designing projects that focus on socially conscious urban development. American Kathryn Gustafson designed the Gardens of the Imagination in Terrasson, France, and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in London’s Hyde Park. Other women, including Angela Danadjieva and Janis Hall, have been instrumental in advancing the success of corporate landscape architecture. Struggles to Combine Work and Family Because of the perceived prejudice against women and the disinclination of males to provide flexible working situations for women who were raising families in addition to working as landscape architects, by the 1980s,

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nearly half of all women in the field eschewed large firms, choosing instead to open their own smaller enterprises. This phenomenon became known as the “big firm blues.” Many female-owned firms have achieved considerable recognition. For example, Carol R. Johnson Associates, the largest of these firms, has been involved in park design, reclamation projects, campus planning, and recreational and waterfront design. A smaller firm owned by Patricia O’Donnell has become known for cultural landscape preservation. Christy Ten Eyck, who opened her own firm in 1997 with a staff of three, now juggles numerous projects, including work on a public park in Phoenix, Arizona. Landscape architecture for women is often a collaborative project. For instance, in the design of South Cove Plaza in New York City, landscape architects Susan Child and Steven Goldberg combined efforts with environmental artist Mary Miss and architect Stanton Eckstut to produce a stunning waterfront recess along the Hudson River. See Also: Architecture, Women in; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Business, Women in; Education, Women in; Lin, Maya. Further Readings Close, Leslie Rose. “Women Landscape Designers” In Pat Kirkham, Women Designers in the USA 1900–2000. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. “ELLE DÉCOR and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Announce First ‘Women in Design’ Event.” Women’s Health Weekly (December 4, 2008). Redden, Elizabeth. “Twist on Harvard’s Gender Battles.” Inside Higher Ed. v.18 (January 2007). http://www .insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/18/harvard (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Laos The People’s Democratic Republic of Laos is located in southeast Asia, and is one of the least densely populated Asian countries. The population is multicultural, with ethnic Lao, Chinese, and Vietnamese being the

largest of the nation’s ethnic groups. Buddhism is the predominant religion. Women enjoy relatively high social status and equal constitutional rights but are expected to be subservient to men. Poverty, the sex trade, and health issues negatively impact many women’s lives. Marriage and childbirth represent a girl’s passage into adulthood. Laotians generally select their own marriage partners with parental approval. Patrilineal ethnic groups emphasize parental involvement in the process more than matrilineal ethnic groups. Dowery payments are still prevalent, and polygyny exists among some ethnic groups. The nation’s fertility rate is high at 4.41 births per woman and the infant mortality rate is 77.76 per 1,000 live births. The state generally recognizes men as heads of household for religious and political purposes. The Family Code provides for equal marriage and inheritance rights, and divorce initiated by either spouse is acceptable and not uncommon. Family Life and Social Practices Most families live in rural villages. Nuclear family households are increasingly common but also are usually located near the households of other kin. Both patrilineal and matrilineal societies exist. Most families participate in subsistence rice cultivation. There is little separation of household tasks by gender, although women generally perform the household chores. Ethnic Lao emphasize the avoidance of separation between mother and infant so the child can be fed whenever hungry. There is limited state provided childcare. Older children often assist in the care of younger children. There are government-run primary schools but they are largely inadequate. Higher education is limited and mostly obtained abroad. In 2001, the literacy rate stood at 61 percent for women and 77 percent for men. Social practices are generally guided by one’s age and gender. There is an emphasis on politeness, a resistance to outright conflict and an avoidance of public body contact, especially between members of the opposite sex. Although government liberalization in the 1990s eased many restrictions, the government still regulates many areas such as censorship of reading materials and insistence on traditional women’s dress styles. Female social and cultural status is ambiguous and changing, particularly in urban areas where traditional status and customs are often lost.

Latvia



Buddhist men’s social status is enhanced by their ability to become monks and that ability is largely credited to their mothers. Women serve as shamans and spirit mediums among practitioners of traditional ethnic Lao religions. Laos is one of the world’s most impoverished nations. Most of the population consists of rural subsistence farmers. State social welfare programs are limited. Problems include inadequate food, clean water, sanitation, drugs, prostitution, small crimes, infectious diseases, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and inadequate healthcare. Prostitution and the sex industry exploit large numbers of women despite legislation against it. Modern healthcare is limited but improving and often combined with traditional medicinal practices and herbal medicines. A social insurance system has existed since 2001 and life expectancy stands at 59 years for women and 54 years for men. Many children work despite child labor laws. Key employers include both local and long distance trade; agriculture, especially rice cultivation and limited manufacturing and industrial fields, including an increasing number of foreign-owned garment making factories that employ predominantly women in poor conditions for low wages. There are a small number of women in professional fields. The 2005 unemployment rate was 2.4 percent. Men predominate in the political arena, although women have slowly entered the field and have full citizenship rights, suffrage, and equality under the state. Rural village committee membership is usually limited to senior males. Women benefit from the social and cultural Lao Women’s Union and the significance presence of international aid groups. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Asia; Rural Women; Sex Workers; Sweatshops; Water, as Women’s Issue. Further Readings Ireson, Carol. Field, Forest, and Family: Women’s Work and Power in Rural Laos. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Ireson, Carol. The Lao: Gender, Power, and Livelihood. Westview Case Studies in Anthropology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2008. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

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Latvia Almost from the beginning of its history, Latvia, an eastern European nation bordering the Baltic Sea, was controlled by foreign powers, including Germany, Poland, and Sweden. By 1940, Latvia had established its identity as a republic, but the country fell to Russia in 1940. It took more than half a century before independence was regained after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Russian presence is still felt in Latvia, however, and Russians comprise almost a third of the population. Even though almost 58 percent of the population are Latvian, approximately 38 percent speak Russian. There is some religious diversity, but the majority of Latvians are either Lutheran (19.6 percent) or Eastern Orthodox (15.3 percent). Latvia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union in 2004. By the early 21st century, 68 percent of the population had become urbanized. Mixed History of Progress In 2009, Latvia’s estimated per capita income was $14,500, making Latvia the 79th richest country in the world. Latvia has a mixed history of progress for women. In 1995, women filled only 15 of 100 seats in the country’s Parliament. By 2008, that number had expanded by only seven seats. However, 4 of 19 cabinet members were female. Women constitute the majority of both the population, and the workforce, and Latvian law guarantees women equality. However, there is a serious gap between theory and reality. An unemployment rate of 18.6 percent has created major issues for women. In 1992, 93 percent of Latvians lived below the poverty line, and economic problems resulting from a large budget deficit have continued to disproportionately affect women and children. This is offset to some degree by the government’s compensation to mothers of young children. Subsidies begin with the 28th week of pregnancy and end when a child starts kindergarten. Domestic violence and human trafficking also continue to be major concerns. Among Latvian nongovernmental organizations, Marta is the most active in the field of women’s rights. With a rate of 8.77 deaths per 1,000 live births, Latvia ranks 162nd in the world in infant mortality. Female infants (6.82) have a significant advantage over

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male infants (10.63), and this health advantage continues throughout life, with a female life expectancy of 77.59 years compared to 66.98 years for males. The median age of Latvian females is 43.4 years. On average, women give birth to 1.3 children each. Like many former socialist republics, Latvia struggles with major social issues. It ranks 60th in the world in human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevalence (0.8 percent). Latvians also have an intermediate risk of developing bacterial diarrhea and tickborne encephalitis. There is virtually no difference between male and female literacy, with each at near 100 percent, but there are distinct differences in the pursuit of education. Females generally go to school for 17 years, whereas males go for 14 years. Although rape is against the law, there are no legal prohibitions specifically aimed at marital rape. Penalties for rape depend on factors that include the nature of the crime, the age of the victim, and the criminal history of the perpetrator. Sentences range from probation to life imprisonment. The Skalbes Crisis Center has expressed the conviction that rape victims are reluctant to come forward because of the tendency to blame them rather than the perpetrator. While the law bans violence against women, domestic violence has not been expressly outlawed. Both the police and local women’s support groups admit that domestic violence is a major problem in Latvia. Many women refuse to come forward out of ignorance and mistrust of the legal system. There are no women’s shelters in Latvia, but battered women can turn to family crisis centers for assistance. Prostitution is legal in Latvia and has strong links to organized crime. Sexual harassment, which is against the law, also is a major problem, and laws are ineffectively enforced. See Also: Domestic Violence; Infant Mortality; Prostitution, Legal; United Nations Conferences on Women. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Latvia.” http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/lg.html (accessed February 2010). Grike, G. Women in Latvia Today: Changes and Experiences. Duluth, MN: New Moon, 1997.

Neft, N. and A. D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries, 1997–1998. New York: Random House, 1997. U.S. State Department. “2008 Human Rights Report: Latvia.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/ eur/119087.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Law Enforcement, Women in The U.S. Department of Justice conducts a census of federal, state, and local law enforcement every four years; the last census was conducted in 2004. According to a Bureau of Justice statistician, in 2004, females represented 16 percent of all employed federal law enforcement officers. Moreover, about one-third of these female officers were members of a racial or ethnic minority, with Hispanics/Latinas representing the largest group at 33 percent. In its census, the Justice Department did not report the number of female law enforcement personnel at the state and local level. However, a 2001 study on the status of women in policing, conducted by the National Center for Women in Policing, indicated that females represent approximately 13 percent of state and local law enforcement personnel, with women of color representing about 5 percent of those positions. This article devotes discussion to the history of women entering into law enforcement in the United States, the challenges female officers across the world face in their profession and in their communities, and suggests policy implications for women seeking careers in law enforcement internationally and for those already employed in law enforcement. History of Women in Law Enforcement Historically, policing has very much been a maledominated profession and females’ entry into the profession was not met with open arms. In the early 1900s, some police departments recognized the need for women to assist in the department on cases involving women and children. The early female officers were referred to as police matrons and lacked the



full power and authority of male police officers. In 1910, Alice Stebbins Wells was appointed as a detective by the Los Angeles Police Department and is considered the first official policewoman to be hired in the United States. With Wells’s hiring into the police department, many other departments followed this lead and began hiring more women in their departments. However, these early hires were relegated to working solely with women and juveniles and in support positions to male officers. In fact, many of these policewomen were required to have more education than their male counterparts, were not permitted to perform patrol duties, and were not allowed to compete with male officers for promotions. Thus, females’ entry into the policing profession was fraught with discrimination and bias. The practice of discrimination against women in policing continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, there was a growing social awareness in the United States of discrimination impacting individuals in society based on their race or gender. With this greater social awareness, individuals brought issues of discrimination to the forefront of the U.S. court system and many landmark cases paved the way to making employment in policing less discriminatory. One piece of legislation that assisted women is the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which required that men and women be given equal pay for equal work. Another legislative ruling that assisted women in the police profession was Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employer discrimination on the bases of race and color, as well as national origin, sex, and religion. It applied to employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. This legislation assisted women in the policing profession to some extent, and a few police departments began assigning female officers to patrol. In 1968, the Indianapolis Police Department became the first department in the nation to assign two women to regular patrol duties in a marked police car. However, many police departments were still reluctant to assign females to patrol duty. Impact of the Equal Opportunity Act Throughout the 1970s, the feminist movement was well under way and continued to draw attention to the plight of women in society. With increasing attention being directed toward female inequity in the work-

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place (as well as to other groups in society), additional legislation was implemented. The Equal Opportunity Act of 1972 sought to strengthen Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by again asserting that those seeking employment should be treated fairly and should not be discriminated against based on their race, sex, religion, color, or national origin. An additional provision of the Equal Employment Act of 1972 was the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Program, which instituted policies such as affirmative action and offered assistance to those who may have been discriminated against. Even with this legislation, however, women faced additional hurdles in entering the policing profession. Additional barriers that prevented women from entering the policing profession included common standards required by police departments in regard to physical attributes such as weight and height and physical fitness standards. If women did not meet a particular height or weight requirement for a police department, they were unable to apply to the department for an officer position. Additionally, the physical fitness standards were not modified for females given any differences in physical abilities (e.g., no differences in regard to push-ups, sit-ups, or running times). In a historic Supreme Court ruling, Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971), the Court ruled that businesses, including the police profession, cannot establish a policy that has a detrimental impact on the hiring of a particular group in society. It was only after the Griggs ruling that police departments had to modify their employment standards (i.e., suspend or modify height, weight, and physical fitness standards) for females and that ruling finally allowed a larger number of females to enter the policing profession. Challenges Women Face in Law Enforcement While the feminist movement in the 1970s in the United States assisted women in entering the policing profession in greater numbers, females in law enforcement still encountered plenty of challenges on the job. In some cases, female officers experienced discrimination in the workplace. They may have been legally allowed to become officers, but that did not mean that their fellow male officers welcomed them. At the time, many male officers believed that policing was a man’s job and expressed disapproval at a woman’s presence in the workplace.

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Other male officers expressed concern about whether females could cope with danger effectively (they are too emotional) and could command authority with the public. Because women have been stereotyped as being too emotional, some researchers have set out to determine if their emotionality has resulted in more harm to them on the job. Research has indicated that female officers are less likely to use their firearms and less likely to be harmed on the job. Thus, females may be better at deescalating violent situations, perhaps due to having stronger verbal skills than male officers, thereby resulting in a lesser likelihood of injury on the job. In 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that all 57 officers killed in the line of duty were male. Female officers in other countries have also faced challenges. For example, female police officers in Bahrain are segregated into working in female police units are often required to work mostly on cases involving women and children. In India, female officers often work in sex-segregated policing units as well, but they report a desire to be more fully integrated into police work. This is a trend observed for many women in law enforcement around the world. In the Philippines, female officers report that they are often viewed as being physically weak by their male colleagues. Despite the research on the capabilities of female officers, some male officers have harassed their fellow female officers or have simply refused to work with them on patrol. Harassment in policing experienced by female officers included improper touching, sexist and racist comments, destruction of their personal property, and having sexual materials (i.e., pornography) placed on their office desks. Harassment of female police officers has occurred internationally in countries such as Australia, England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. African American women in policing have experienced both racist and sexual harassment even by African American male officers. In 1985, Ramona Arnold, a Seminole, Oklahoma, police officer, brought further attention to the plight that female officers experienced on the job. She sued the city of Seminole due to the discrimination she experienced on the job, which included sexual harassment and termination due to her voicing the discrimination claims. When she was hired in 1977, her supervisor told her that he did not believe women should be police officers, he refused to speak to her, and he even stated that

This female police officer in Russia may experience bias and not receive the same level of respect given to male officers.

he would harass her until she quit or was fired. Arnold was passed over for promotions that ultimately went to male officers with less service and seniority. She was victorious in her lawsuit in 1985 (Ramona Arnold v. Seminole, Oklahoma), and she was awarded back pay and reinstatement. Clearly, female officers have experienced discrimination in the workplace by their peers who do not view them as being fit for “a man’s job” despite their abilities or who view them as a token. Although promotions are possible for female officers in the United States, women continue to be underrepresented in higher administrative ranks such as captain. This tendency for females to be less represented as police leaders has been exhibited in other countries such as England, Wales, and Bahrain. Although the workplace environment has improved for female officers, a report by the International Association of Police Chiefs (1998) states that female officers still experience gender and racial bias and harassment on the job.



Female officers experience challenges from the public as well. Some community members possess bias and do not give female officers the same level of respect they give to male officers. In India, this appears to be a challenge for female law enforcement officers. In the United States, it seems that citizens may also be incapable of accepting the authority of a female officer—particularly if she is a minority. With officers facing bias in the workplace and in the community, it is no wonder that many female officers experience job stress and report dissatisfaction with their job. The job stress associated with policing has been well documented in the literature for officers in many countries including the United States, United Kingdom (UK), India, China, and the Netherlands. In the United States, police officers, regardless of gender, are more likely to be dissatisfied with their job, experience health problems such as high blood pressure, experience marital problems, and increase their intake of alcohol and tobacco. For officers in other countries such as the Netherlands, job stress and burnout are key problems that they face. It appears that the organizational culture contributes to the stress experienced by international police officers. Policy Implications Clearly, one policy implication is the aggressive recruitment of females into the profession across the world. Departments need to be strategic in their recruitment practices. In the United States, several cities have held Women in Law Enforcement Career Fairs, where a large number of state and federal law enforcement agencies convene to recruit new officers. This type of career fair demonstrates to women in the community that the policing profession wants them to apply and to work with them. It also sends a powerful message to all police agencies and citizens that police departments are united and committed to hiring more female officers. In other countries, this may pose more of a challenge as female entry into law enforcement is discouraged due to cultural barriers for women in the greater community. As stated earlier, female officers are less likely to be represented at higher ranks. Research has reported that many female police officers in countries such as the United States and the UK do not seek promotions due to family or child care issues. If departments could be supportive of child care issues for all officers in general and the special needs that female

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officers may have in regard to childcare, perhaps more females would seek positions at higher ranks. See Also: Equal Pay; Health, Mental and Physical; Nontraditional Careers, U.S.; Sexual Harassment. Further Readings Collins, Pamela A. and Scarborough, Kim. Women in Public and Private Law Enforcement. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001. Heidensohn, Frances. Women in Control?: The Role of Women in Law Enforcement. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996. Wexler, J. D. and D. D. Logan. “Sources of Stress Among Women Police Officers.” Journal of Police Science and Administration, v.11/1 (1983). Elaine Gunnison Independent Scholar

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters was founded in 1919 during the intense political battle for women’s suffrage in the United States. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the largest political organization with the goal of increasing women’s participation in politics through voting, preceded the League of Women Voters. With the passage of Nineteenth Amendment, the goal of the League of Women Voters expanded the initial mission of the NAWSA beyond securing voting rights for women to participation in a wide range of political and civil activities. Maud Wood Park was the first national president of the league. The league has been involved in many different legislative and political milestones such as lobbying for the Equal Rights Amendment and helping to establish the United Nations. The League of Women Voters was one of the first groups to receive status as a nongovernmental organization from the United Nations. The league has a history of partnering with other liberal advocacy groups and nonprofit organizations such as the American Association of University Women and the National Organization for Women to lobby for changes in policy ranging from increased access to education and jobs to policy supporting economic independence for women.

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The League of Women Voters is a national organization with individual chapters operating largely as autonomous entities. The decentralized nature of the organization allows local and state chapters the flexibility to address the most pressing political and civic issues in their communities while working with the support of a national organization. According to the organization’s Website, there are over 900 state and local league chapters. League chapters exist in every major city in the United States, as well as in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Hong Kong. Local and state League of Women Voters chapters report to the national organization on specific issues. Much of the league’s work is conducted at the grassroots level, with membership in local and state chapters dictating the focus of advocacy work and education activities within their communities. The League of Women Voters Is a Nonpartisan Political Organization The league’s primary mission is to encourage active participation in government through voting registration drives and education about elections, the voting process, and public policy. The League of Women Voters has two separate roles, one that focuses on citizen education and voter services, and another that focuses on advocacy and action. The league’s education work may take different forms and involves a range of activities such as facilitating mock elections with school children, hosting public forums on policy issues, and organizing debates for political candidates. The league’s popular publication, Smart Voter, provides nonpartisan information for national, state, and local elections. Although the league is nonpartisan, the organization does take action by supporting an issue or endorsing a policy. This process involves multiple steps including careful selection and study of an issue or policy to reach a position; this is achieved through discussion and agreement to reach a consensus among the membership. League members may then take action or advocate for a particular issue or policy once a position statement is reached by consensus. The League of Women’s Voters has both elected and appointed leaders, and members can volunteer to serve on boards as a chair or committee member. Membership dues and donations financially support the league’s activities. Members also donate resources such as their expertise and time. Anyone can join the

League of Women Voters, yet some scholars note that despite having open membership, the league continues to be dominated by older, middle-class, collegeeducated professionals. Although the league does not officially identify as a feminist organization or women’s advocacy group, some mistakenly assume that the organization only supports a narrow range of issues that divide along gender lines. Expanding women’s influence and participation in the formal political process remains one of the League of Women Voters’ greatest legacies. The league continues to serve as an important source for communities, through voter education, registration drives, and providing impartial voter information on political candidates and legislation during elections. The flexibility provided by the league’s structure ensures that the membership at the local level is allowed to guide grassroots efforts in the spirit of the mandates issued by the organization’s national leadership. The structure of the league allows the organization to be resilient in an ever-changing political climate for local communities as well as at the national level. Recently, the League of Women Voters has created position statements for such issues as protection of water rights, environment issues, immigration policy, healthcare reform, and redistricting of voting districts. Due to the education and advocacy work by its membership, the League of Women Voters remains an important political and civic organization. See Also: Equal Rights Amendment; National Organization for Women; Voting Rights. Further Readings Costain, Anne N. “Representing Women: The Transition From Social Movement to Interest Group.” The Western Political Quarterly, v.34/1 (1981). Davis, Flora. Moving the Mountain: The Women’s Movement in America Since 1960. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. League of Women Voters. http://www.lwv.org (accessed June 2010). Mueller, Carol. “The Gender Gap and Women’s Political Influence.” Annuals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v.515 (1991). Marcia Hernandez University of the Pacific



Lebanon In western Asia on the Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon has a rich culture and history, dating back over 7,000 years. The country has a parliamentary democracy, with a president and prime minister. Lebanon’s 4 million residents are very ethnically and religiously diverse. To curb sectarian violence, the government recognizes 18 different religions, and has quotas for the various groups in government positions. The Lebanese Civil War, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, caused a generation to grow up in wartime. The people also suffered civilian casualties in 2006, during the monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah. The war-torn country, however, has been able to create a stable government, commercial economic system, and a tourist trade. While women have gained some rights and improvement in status in the last few decades, a 2005 United Nations report suggested that Lebanon need to address women’s family and marital rights, gender violence, and issues of citizenship. Both laws and customs prevent women from reaching gender equality or equal opportunity. Culture of Chauvinism The culture of chauvinism limits women’s access to political or economic power. Women won the right to vote and have held office since 1953, yet they still only comprise 2 percent of the Members of Parliament and 1 percent of municipal councils. Legally, women have the right to sign contracts, receive medical care, and access to contraception. However, women cannot transfer citizenship to their children if they marry a foreigner. Citizenship is determined through the father. Also, a woman’s religion can limit her as well. Non-Muslim women are entitled to the same inheritance rights as men, but Muslim women are only allowed to inherit 25 percent of the sum. There are also laws that prevent people of different religions from marrying. Women comprise 27 percent of the workforce, but are limited to traditionally feminine professions—many of which are denied welfare benefits. Even when women enter professions such as banking, they are not promoted. Women have access to education and constitute more than half of all university students, but they are primarily relegated to the feminine fields of the arts and social sciences.

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Patriarchal rule dominates family life. Despite international pressure, the government has been reticent to address the prevalent issue of violence against women. Citing culture tradition in which family matters are private, there are no laws to protect women from spousal or family abuse. In an “honor killing,” a man can be pardoned in court for murdering a female relative who engaged in premarital sex, same-sex relationships, or adultery because she has shamed the family. Despite patriarchal customs, a women’s movement does exist in Lebanon. Women such as Laure Moghayzel, helped found women’s groups such as the Lebanese Women’s Council, the Lebanese Association of Women Lawyers, and the Committee for the Political Rights of Women. In 1996, through the pressure of these women’s groups, Lebanon ratified the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Lebanese feminists are pushing for greater access to political power, believing that if women had a voice in local, municipal and national affairs, they could achieve greater equality. In comparison to the status of women in many Middle Eastern countries, Lebanese women fair well in terms of legal rights and access to education. However, because of the prevalent chauvinistic attitudes which claim women are inferior to men, women have very little political, social, economic, or familial power. Equal citizenship and laws that protect women from domestic violence are two key areas on which Lebanese feminists are currently focusing. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Equal Rights Amendment; Honor Killings; Islam; Islamic Feminism. Further Readings Abisaab, Malek. Militant Women of a Fragile Nation (Beyond Dominant Paradigms in the Middle East). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009. Bechara, Souha. Resistance: My Life for Lebanon. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2003. Cortas, Wadad Makdisi. The World I Loved: The Story of an Arab Woman. New York: Nation Books, 2009. Peteet, Julie. Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

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Ledbetter, Lilly Lily Ledbetter is a fair-pay activist from Alabama who became well-known across America for her discrimination lawsuit against Goodyear, and her subsequent efforts to encourage the Congressional passage of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. She was a production supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 to 1998. Although she worked in a male-dominated industry and received commendations and awards for her service, including a “Top Performer” award in 1996, she experienced sexual discrimination throughout her employment at Goodyear. In 1998, Ledbetter received an anonymous note listing the salaries of male colleagues in her position, and discovered that she made 15 to 40 percent less than any of the men, most of whom had less seniority and experience. Ledbetter immediately took her claim to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), fil-

ing discrimination complaints under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963. She claims that shortly thereafter, she was forced into an early retirement by Goodyear. A jury awarded her $3.8 million in damages, which was subsequently reduced to $360,000 by the trial judge because of caps on damages under Title VII. After an appeals court ruled against Ledbetter, she appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2007, the Court ruled 5–4 that Ledbetter’s case should be dismissed because although she filed a complaint of pay discrimination within 180 days of receiving a paycheck, she did not file her claim within 180 days of the first discriminatory decision made against her by Goodyear. The statute involved does require a plaintiff to file a complaint within 180 days from the date of the discrimination; however, decades of EEOC precedent as well as the decisions of nine federal appeals courts had previously allowed that clock to reset after each discriminatory paycheck when equal pay issues were

Lilly Ledbetter was a speaker during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law by President Obama, eliminating the time limit for an employee filing a complaint of pay discrimination.



involved. The Supreme Court ended that precedent, and decided that the 180 days must be counted only from the first moment of discrimination, whether or not the victim knew about it, and whether or not it continued for years afterwards. Many, including Justice Ginsburg in her dissent in the case, pointed out that the decision means that as long as employers can hide the discrimination from the employee for six months, they are legally permitted to get away with it indefinitely. That case, known as Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., became one of the most well-known Supreme Court cases in recent years, spurring multiple grassroots movements to “overturn the Court.” Ledbetter, working together with many women’s and civil rights groups, turned her sights to a congressional amendment to the Civil Rights Act explicitly allowing each new discriminatory paycheck to reset the clock. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was proposed shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision, but was defeated by Republicans in the Senate in April 2008. It was reintroduced after the 111th Congress took office in 2009, and that time passed quickly and was the first legislation signed into law by President Obama on January 29, 2009. It was the first bill President Obama signed into law after taking office on January 20, 2009. In brief, the law mandates that there be no time limit for an employee to file a complaint of pay discrimination if he or she is still on the company payroll. Under the new law, Lilly Ledbetter would have been able to file a complaint of pay discrimination against her former employer when she found out that she had been discriminated against and underpaid for years. Ledbetter continues to serve as a voice for pay equity for women. She has remarked that the effects of her discrimination are lasting a lifetime; even in retirement, her pension and Social Security, being based on her salary, will continue to retain the effects of the discrimination. See Also: Bullying in the Workplace; Equal Pay; Lilly Ledbetter Act; Management, Women in; Sexual Harassment; Working Mothers. Further Readings George, Bindu. “Ledbetter v. Goodyear: A Court Out of Touch With the Realities of the American Workplace.” Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review, v.18/253 (2008).

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Goldstein, Amy. “Democrats Overturn Barrier to UnequalPay Suits.” Washington Post (January 28, 2009). Ledbetter, Lilly and Linda Hallman. “For Women, What a Difference a Year Almost Made.” The Huffington Post (January 29, 2010). http://www.huffingtonpost.com /lilly-ledbetter/for-women-what-a-differen_b_436113 .html (Accessed November 2010). Lee, Young Eun. “Creating a Proper Incentive Structure: A Case Study of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.” Cardozo Jounral of Law & Gender, v.15/117 (2008). Miller, Frederic P., John McBrewster, and Agnes F. Vandome, eds. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Beau Bassin, Mauritius: Alphascript Publishing, 2010. U.S. Committee on Education and Labor. “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.” http://edlabor.house.gov/lilly-ledbetter -fair-pay-act/index.shtml (accessed April 2010). Deborah Anthony University of Illinois at Springfield

Leibovitz, Annie Annie Leibovitz is one of the most famous and esteemed women photographers of our time. Her portraits have achieved iconic status: the photo of Demi Moore in the nude, holding her pregnant belly; John Lennon’s naked body curled around a fully dressed Yoko Ono; Whoopi Goldberg in a bath of milk; and Leonardo DiCaprio with a swan curled around his neck are just a few of the unforgettable photographs in which Leibovitz captures her subjects in a gripping and provocative manner. In 1991, when her museum show Photographs: Annie Leibovitz, 1970–1990 opened at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., Leibovitz became the first woman portraitist whose to have work exhibited at this museum. She has also been hailed as a living legend by the Library of Congress. A Living Legend Born in 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz was interested in the arts as a teenager and was drawn to a wide range of creative output, from music and painting to photography. She enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute to study painting. Later, however, she discovered that her real passion was photography.

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In the 1970s, she started her photographic career by working for Rolling Stone. Her portrait of John Lennon appeared on the cover of the January 21, 1971, issue. While working for this magazine, she photographed many rock stars and musicians, including Bob Marley, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Sting, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger. From Rolling Stone she moved to Vanity Fair, where her photographs, featured on the cover of the magazine, had celebrities as their subjects, including Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, and Jack Nicholson. In addition to music and movie celebrities, Leibovitz’ s portfolio also contains the portraits of famous politicians, such as the George W. Bush cabinet, Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton, the Queen of England, and the Obama family. Her collection of photos titled Women was published in 1999 and contains more than 100 photographs. It is an impressive book, with powerful photographs of women living in America at the end of the 20th century. Photography has contributed widely to the stereotyping of women. In the accompanying essay, Susan Sontag considers the way Leibovitz undermines and complicates the image of women within the framework of a medium such as photography. For example, Leibovitz juxtaposes the portrait of the glamorous showgirl Narelle Brennan shot in color with a black-and-white portrait of Brennan as an ordinary woman in jeans and T-shirt holding her daughters. Sontag points out the wide range of women’s portraits shot by Leibovitz. In addition models of beauty, success, and self-esteem, she photographs models of aging and transgressiveness. The book contains portraits of powerful women (e.g., Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Supreme Court justices), artists (e.g., Louise Bourgeois, Susan Sontag, Cindy Sherman, Yoko Ono), actresses (e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow and Blythe Danner, Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Sigourney Weaver), and sportswomen (e.g., Marion Jones, tennis players Martina Navratilova and the Williams sisters, and Ila Borders, the first woman to pitch on a man’s professional baseball team). Among the “average women,” there are working-class women, a waitress, and a washerwoman. There are also plenty of portraits of “average women” whose occupations transgress traditional gender norms. We can see women as soldiers, drag car racers, mountain bikers, bull riders, coal

miners, and rabbinical students. Thus, Women exemplifies the diversity of womanhood and undermines any concept of essence in “woman.” Personal Projects Leibovitz recognizes Sontag’s influence on her life and work from the beginning of the 1990s. They met when Leibovitz was photographing the writer for her book AIDS and Its Metaphors, and their relationship lasted until Sontag’s death in 2004. During this period, Leibovitz worked on projects such as Women, and she also traveled to Sarajevo during the war. Among her Sarajevo photos, the most compelling is a black-and-white photograph of a bicycle collapsed on the pavement, smeared with blood, titled “Sarajevo, Fallen Bicycle of Teenage Boy Just Killed by a Sniper.” She has also recorded the horrors of war in Rwanda. In her recent book A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, Leibovitz presents not only her characteristic celebrity photographs but also personal pictures of her parents, siblings, children, nieces, and nephews. This collection of photographs and works such as Women, in addition to the photographs taken in Sarajevo and Rwanda, demonstrate that Leibovitz’s work goes beyond celebrity shots and displays her great talent. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Celebrity Women; Photography, Women in. Further Readings Leibovitz, Annie. American Music/Annie Leibovitz. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Leibovitz, Annie. Annie Leibovitz at Work. London: Jonathan Cape, 2008. Leibovitz, Annie. A Photographer’s Life: 1990–2005. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006. Leibovitz, Annie. Photographs, 1970–1990. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Leibovitz, Annie and Susan Sontag. Women. London: Jonathan Cape, 2000. Schirmer, Lothar, ed., and Elisabeth Bronfen. Women Seeing Women: A Pictorial History of Women’s Photography From Julia Margaret Cameron to Annie Leibovitz. London: Haus, 2002. Zita Farkas Independent Scholar



Lesbian Adoption Emerging research on lesbian adoption explores and discusses the social, legal, and political issues and implications, but because gay family adoption is such recent legally supported phenomena, there is minimal information. Anecdotal information suggests that lesbians have been adopting children for decades as single parents; however, it is only recently that adoption agencies have been made accessible to lesbian and gay parents. There are unique challenges for lesbians who wish to adopt; however, there are also supportive practices emerging within those agencies that value the inclusion of a wide range of family compositions to support the needs of the many children waiting to be adopted. Lesbians who adopt disrupt the heterosexual family narrative and widen the space for re-conceptualizing more diverse family constellations. Current Research Narratives from qualitative research about lesbian adoptive parents describe their experiences and charts the particular ways they navigate the challenges faced, including negotiating the tensions between “begin out” in the adoption process and their legal and social realities. Research demonstrates that negative beliefs based on stereotypes and fallacies are still demonstrated by the public at large toward lesbian parents, but more damaging are those negative beliefs held by professionals who either hold lesbian parents to higher standards due to their orientation or dismiss them as potential candidates. Research reveals that some of the negative myths still present include the belief that gay parents are more prone to abuse their children, less likely to remain committed in their relationships, that the children will be purposefully isolated from opposite sex gender roles, and that gay parents will be poor role models. Current research is also tracking the positive experiences of lesbian parents, who find support in either specific agencies or with certain professionals; these findings are being utilized for training and developing best practices, and reflect shifting attitudes toward lesbian adoption as potential resources to meet the needs of children. While more research is needed in this area, current research suggests that lesbian parents contribute positively to the lives of children they

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adopt, despite a heteronormative milieu, discriminatory practices, and oppressive structures. Family can be broadly defined as any two people who choose to call themselves “family.” While the term family is imbued with heteronormative cultural ideology and is often used politically to promote a conservative, moral order in the public sphere, lesbians who adopt offer a widened potential for understanding family and present an untapped potential resource for children in need of families. While it is sometimes viewed as negative that lesbian and gay parents are often encouraged to adopt those children that are more challenging to place, this reverse privileging does ensure that children with diverse needs, such as mobility or behavioral issues, children of color and older children have a greater opportunity to achieve “forever families” in a wider pool of choice. Lesbians who adopt may reduce foster care drift through providing additional resources in the permanency planning for children, and contribute to diversifying family structure to meet particular needs. Tensions and Barriers Some well-meaning professionals may believe that they are saving children from presumed social isolation and hesitate to place children with lesbian families for more benevolent, though misguided intentions. An argument made to oppose same-sex adoption focuses on the importance of opposite sex role models in a child’s home in order to grow up to live a functional and adequately gendered life. Socialization theory upholds and argues for traditional ideas about gender and family, any difference is perceived as deviant. Feminists have critiqued socialization theory, suggesting that the organization of gender roles in patriarchal societies is highly restrictive. Meta-analysis of research in child development studies has shown that children raised in lesbian and gay families are not only typically as well adjusted as their heterosexual parented peers, but they often demonstrate greater sensitivity to and celebration of diversity in myriad forms. Some birth-parents object to same-sex parents adopting their children, or may prioritize heterosexual parents are preferential, rendering the open adoption process particularly risky for lesbian parents. Social workers assessing potential families for adoption may assume heterosexuality. Lesbian parents believe that disclosure of their sexual

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orientation could have negative consequences in the process. While legislation and policies are shifting to include adoption by lesbian and gay parents, attitudes and practices reflect cultural ideals and often take longer to achieve acceptance, tolerance and celebration. Many lesbians report the belief that their disclosure or visibility may cost them the ability to adopt without prejudice. Lesbian parents believe that are often held to higher standards than non-lesbian parents, and report experiencing pressure from professionals to adopt “less desirable” children. Supportive Practices Professionals are encouraged to be aware of stereotypes, and to reflexively check their own biases. Sexual orientation does not predict parental capacity. As sexual orientation may be a less salient aspect of a woman’s identity, professionals are encouraged to value the importance of considering lesbian women’s individual experiences. Agencies that revise their application and intake forms to include more inclusive and gender neutral language are greatly appreciated by lesbian parents. As follow-up services are often geared toward heterosexual families, those agencies that are mindful to offer support services that are inclusive to diverse family structures facilitate positive “family esteem” and support the cohesion of newly formed adopted families. Protective factors in lesbian adoption include strong partner relationships, positive social support, and resilient personalities. Services that foster these protective factors would be supportive of lesbians who choose to adopt. Legal Challenges Worldwide Many countries have absolute bans on lesbians and gays adopting children. Opposition tends to be strongest in countries that are predominately Roman Catholic because of the Vatican’s position on the issue. Some of the countries that ban adoptions by lesbians and gays, single or in committed partnerships, do allow heterosexual single persons to adopt. As a result, a 1998 French case aroused international attention. When a lesbian, known only as “Emmanuelle B,” applied to become a single adoptive parent, she was turned down on the basis that her household suffered from the “lack of a paternal figure.” That decision launched a wave of gay rights protests in France

because lesbians and gays vehemently objected to being told they were unfit to be parents because of their sexual orientations. In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights issued a condemnation against France, accusing the country of engaging in legal sexual discrimination. The following year, the case was overturned. By that time, the originator of the case had turned 48, and was employed as a nursery school teacher. Gay rights activists expressed mixed reactions to the decision. On the one hand, they were elated to have the adoption barrier removed, but they were appalled that the decision applied only to single persons and did not extend the right of adoption to same-sex couples. While the United States is generally more open to lesbian and gay adoptions than France, the federal system allows individual states to govern adoption laws. Florida is the only state in the Union to use that authority to deny lesbians and gays the right to adopt children solely on the basis of their sexual orientations. However, lesbians and gays are permitted to foster children in Florida. The American Civil Liberties Union has launched the End Florida Adoption Ban campaign, and celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell and Cynthia Nixon, who are both outed lesbians, have been involved in arousing public indignation over children being deprived of loving parents simply because those would-be parents are homosexuals. In 2010, the world spotlight focused on Hollywood, Florida, where Vanessa Alenier, a lesbian was denied the right to adopt a foster child to whom she is related. An earlier case involving a gay man whose petition to adopt two foster children who had been in his care for several years is still making its way through the Florida courts, and the outcome of that decision may have a significant impact on the Alenier case. Although the man had won the right to adopt the two boys earlier, the state had appealed the decision. In Great Britain, gay rights activists have achieved some success. In 2002, both England and Wales passed the Adoption and Children Act, permitting both lesbian and gay couples to adopt children. Scotland followed suit with the Adoption and Children Act of 2007. All three countries also allow single lesbians and gays to adopt. By 2008, both children’s and gay rights activists were expressing disappointment that the rate of gay and lesbian adoptions had actually declined at



the same time the rate of heterosexual adoptions had risen. That same year, a survey conducted by Action for Children revealed that two out of five individuals in Britain were opposed to adoptions by gay males, and 36 percents were against lesbian adoptions. In the former countries of eastern Europe, individual nations have made great strides in recognizing the rights of gays and lesbians; however, they have fallen short of accepting the right of same-sex couples to adopt children. The Czech Republic, which legalized same-sex partnerships in 2006, is often held up as a model for its neighbors. Despite legal gains, there has been little public support for allowing lesbian and gay adoptions, even though a government working group has recommended passage of such a law. Both Hungary and Slovenia have also legalized same-sex partnerships, but neither country has cleared the way for lesbian and gay adoptions.

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As early as 2001, Frans Kgomo, a South African judge handed down a landmark decision legalizing the right of same-sex couples to jointly adopt children, declaring that there was overwhelming evidence to support the notion that children brought up in such homes “had developed well, were happy and well adjusted.” The case concerned Anna-Marie de Vos, a judge of the Pretoria High Court, and her partner, Suzanne Du Toit. The couple had been together for 11 years, and the judge had an adopted daughter and son. However, du Toit was not legally eligible to serve as legal guardian for the children. According to South African law, only samesex couples were allowed to adopt children jointly, and lesbian partners had no legal authority to seek guardianship upon the death of a partner who possessed sole guardianship. Nor did the nonguardian parent have the right to perform daily parenting roles such as signing school reports. In order to remove this barrier, the

Some of the negative myths about gay parents are that they are less likely to remain committed in their relationships, that the children will not have exposure to opposite sex gender roles, and that gay parents will be poor role models.

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couple was asking that portions of the Child Care Act be overturned in view of South Africa’s ban on sexual discrimination based on sexual orientation. Around the world, decisions such as the one handed down by Judge Kgomo have been applauded, but in many areas legal barriers to lesbian and gay adoptions continue to infringe on the rights of homosexuals, while limiting the right of children to find loving parents. See Also: Adoption; Childcare; Coming Out: Foster Mothers; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Homophobia; Lesbians; Roman Catholic Church; Sexual Orientation– Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States. Further Readings Brown, C. and C. Cocker. “Lesbian and Gay Fostering and Adoption: Out of the Closet and Into the Mainstream.” Adoption and Fostering, v.32/4 (2008). Engelhart, K. “Same-Sex Couples Fight to Adopt.” Maclean’s, v.122/46 (2009). Goldberg, A. E., J. B. Downing, and C. Sauck. “Choices, Challenges, and Tensions: Perspectives on Lesbian Prospective Adoptive Parents.” Adoption Quarterly, v.10/5 (2007). Hicks, S. “Good Lesbian, Bad Lesbian: Regulating Heterosexuality in Fostering and Adoption Processes.” Child and Family Social Work, v.5 (2000). Pedrag, S. “South Africa Issues Landmark Ruling in Lesbian Adoption Case.” Lesbian News, v27/4 (2001). Ross, L., R. Epstein, C. Goldfinger, L. Steele, S. Anderson, and C. Strike. “Lesbian and Queer Mothers Navigating the Adoption System: The Impact on Mental Health.” Health Sociology Review, v.17/3 (2008). Szalai, P. “Frozen in Success.” Transitions Online (June 9, 2008). Taylor, A. “Vulnerable Children Still Waiting for Placements.” CommunityCare (November 6, 2008). http://www.communitycare.co.uk/ Articles/2008/11/05/109856/gay-couples-overlookedin-adopters-shortage.htm (accessed July 2010). J. Mortenson University of British Columbia, Okanagan

Lesbian/Gay Clergy The issue of homosexuality is one of the most controversial and debated topics in religious contexts, with a particularly contentious question being whether homosexuality should prohibit access to formal roles in religious leadership. These issues have received the most attention in Western societies and almost exclusively in relation to Christianity and Judaism, both of which accept women clergy, albeit not in all denominations nor at all levels. The issue of lesbian and gay clergy is a significant one, bringing together two of the most polarizing issues in contemporary Christianity and Judaism: the ordination of women and attitudes toward homosexuality. Within these faiths, therefore, lesbian women seeking clergy positions must surpass the barriers of both their gender and their sexual orientation. The 21st century has witnessed increasing opportunities for lesbian clergy, although these developments remain the source of great tension and division. Lesbian and Gay Clergy in Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, and Buddhism For various reasons, the place of lesbian and gay clergy has scarcely presented itself as an issue for debate within Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, or Buddhism. Within Hinduism and Sikhism, women have a low profile in religious leadership, and in spite of the scarcity of references to homosexuality in scripture, the wider social and cultural context has either discouraged or prohibited homosexuality. In Islam, there is a much more explicit condemnation of homosexuality, with the most extreme intolerance being evident in countries governed by Shari`a law. There are also limitations on the roles that Muslim women can take in religious leadership, with suitably qualified women generally being permitted to lead others in prayer, but only for woman-only congregations. In spite of the widespread intolerance of homosexuality, there are a small number of openly gay male imams internationally. In Buddhism, monks and nuns are required to take a vow of celibacy, and breach of this vow is regarded as a disrobing offense; this applies equally to heterosexual or homosexual intercourse, and so the sexual orientation of Buddhist monks and nuns is not of prime concern. Within Roman Catholicism, where



ordination is only open to men, because priests similarly take a vow of celibacy, discussions of Catholic priests’ sexual orientation has been less prolific than it has been across Protestant denominations and within Judaism. However, the Roman Catholic Church deems homosexuality to be unnatural and unacceptable, and a Vatican policy in 2005 stated that men who had deep-seated homosexual tendencies or supported gay culture, even if not practicing homosexuals, were unsuitable for priesthood. Lesbian and Gay Clergy in Judaism Accessibility to lesbians and gay men to clergy (rabbi) positions in Judaism varies among the four main denominations or movements of Judaism: Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. Within the Reconstructionist and Reform movements—the most liberal branches of Judaism—there is an established tradition of ordaining gay and lesbian rabbis. Within the Reconstructionist movement, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College was the first rabbinical seminary in the United States to prohibit sexual orientation–based discrimination, admitting its first openly gay student in 1984 (Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman), and shortly after ordaining its first openly gay rabbi (Rabbi Deborah Brin). In 1991, a policy prohibiting employment discrimination against lesbian and gay rabbis seeking positions in congregations was implemented across the Reconstructionist movement in the United States. Within Reform Judaism, the largest branch of Judaism in the United States, the Central Conference of American Rabbis—the largest rabbinic association in the United States—has permitted the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis since 1990, following a report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate. However, the committee could not decide whether gay and lesbian rabbis should remain celibate, and no subsequent stipulation of this has been made. In the United Kingdom (UK), Liberal Judaism (the equivalent of Reform Judaism) also ordains gay and lesbian rabbis. This is in stark contrast to Orthodox Judaism, which adopts the most fundamentalist interpretation of the Torah and internationally refuses to ordain gay male rabbis or female rabbis, whether heterosexual or homosexual. Conservative Judaism, which sits between the liberal Reform and Reconstructionist movements and

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Orthodox Judaism, is the most recent Jewish movement to accept gay and lesbian rabbis. The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly, an international body based in the United States, voted in 2006 to ordain gay and lesbian rabbis. Decisions regarding the admission of gay and lesbian rabbis have been left to the discretion of individual synagogues and seminaries, however. Further, in an attempt to keep this ruling consistent with Jewish law, gay rabbis are not allowed to engage in sodomy. Following this decision, the two conservative seminaries in the United States have changed their admissions policies to accept lesbian and gay entrants, but the two conservative seminaries outside the United States, in Jerusalem and Buenos Aires, have decided against this. Gay and Lesbian Clergy in Protestant Christian Denominations It is within Protestant denominations that debates regarding gay clergy have been the most controversial and, increasingly, the most polarized. While conservative Evangelical denominations and denominations such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Seventh-Day Adventists continue to take a strong stance against homosexuality for lay members as well as clergy, the more dominant thread of the debate has involved disagreement both within and between Protestant denominations regarding whether lesbian and gay clergy should remain celibate or whether they may be in a committed sexual relationship. The requirement for celibacy is supported by the Presbyterian Church and the United Methodist Church in the United States, and the Church of England, Methodist Church of Great Britain, and United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom (UK), to give a few examples. The Church of England revised its policy in 2005 to permit gay and lesbian clergy to enter legal civil partnerships, but with the understanding that these partnerships should not be sexual. In contrast, numerous denominations have opened up ordination to lesbians and gay men in committed sexual relationships, including the United Church of Canada, and in the United States, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, and most recently in August 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. A number of denominations in Europe also accept noncelibate and openly gay and lesbian clergy,

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including the Episcopal Church of Scotland, the Lutheran Church of Norway, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, and the Lutheran Church of Sweden, which elected its first openly lesbian bishop in 2009. Another important organization is the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), which is a global network of approximately 250 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)–affirming churches in 23 countries. MCC welcomes openly LGBT clergy, including those in committed sexual relationships. MCC also has a strong record in relation to the ordination of women and promotion of women into the most senior positions in the organization. Debates regarding the ordination of noncelibate gay men and lesbians reached crisis point in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated the first openly gay and noncelibate bishop, Gene Robinson. This decision created a significant and, as some have feared, potentially insurmountable schism in the Anglican Communion, a body of 80 million Anglicans in churches across 160 countries. Following Robinson’s appointment and the breakaway of some Episcopal congregations that opposed the appointment, the Lambeth Commission in the Windsor Report commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury asked the Episcopal Church to apply a moratorium (temporary ban) on ordaining noncelibate bishops while efforts were made to reach a consensus on this issue. The Episcopal Church agreed and the ban was in place until July 2009, when bishops in the Episcopal Church voted to overturn it. Later in 2009, Canon Mary Glasspool was elected to become an assistant bishop in the Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. Her election and subsequent ordination in May 2010 were controversial within the Anglican Communion because of both her gender and her open lesbianism and long-term partnership. The Episcopal Church’s defiance of the moratorium has shed doubt on its future in the Anglican Communion. A number of provinces within the Anglican Communion have indicated they cannot remain in communion with churches that ordain noncelibate gay and lesbian clergy and have instead joined the conservative Anglican Churches of North America, which was inaugurated in 2009 in response to the schism. Members include some African Anglican provinces that are opposed to homosexuality, including the Anglican churches of Nigeria and Uganda.

See Also: Anglican Communion; Christianity; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; Judaism; Metropolitan Community Church; Priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican; Rabbis, Female. Further Readings Alpert, Rebecca T., Sue L. Elwell, and Shirley Idelson, eds. Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Congregation for Catholic Education. “Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations With Regard to Persons With Homosexual Tendencies.” http://www.vatican.va /roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents /rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20051104_istruzione_en.html (accessed January 2010). Hazel, Dann. Witness: Gay and Lesbian Clergy Report From the Front. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000. Jewish Mosaic. “The Reconstructionist Movement on LGBT Issues.” http://www.jewishmosaic.org/page /load_page/58 (accessed January 2010). Lambeth Commission on Communion. The Windsor Report. London: Anglican Communion Office, 2004. http://www.anglicancommunion.org /windsor2004/downloads/windsor2004full.pdf (accessed January 2010). Siker, Jeffrey S., ed. Homosexuality and Religion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Rebecca Barnes University of Derby

Lesbians Definitions for the term lesbian range from identifying the people of the Greek island of Lesbos, to female homosexual, to women who are sexually oriented to women. The term has both psychological and social meanings. Contemporary terms for lesbians begin with derivatives of the name of a 16th century b.c.e. poet, Sappho, from Lesbos. Some slang terms include sapphic, lesbo, dykey, butch, and lezzie. These terms are sometimes used to denigrate girls and women who identify themselves as lesbian, and other times are reclaimed by gay women as an act of empowerment. The word lesbian can be used as a



noun as in, “she is a lesbian” or as an adjective as in, “lesbian mother.” Lesbians may identify themselves in a more masculine gender roles, earning them the name butch lesbian or more feminine role, earning them the term lipstick lesbian. Visibility for Women and Lesbians The acceptance of lesbian identity in the 21st century is not secure, and could not have taken place without the work of many pioneering predecessors. In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir explored questions of female identity when she commented that “one is not born a woman, one becomes one.” Two lesbian writers, Monique Wittig and Adrienne Rich, furthered this premise to question both female heterosexuality and gender identity. Wittig boldly declared, to the shock of her audience at the Modern Language Association Convention in 1978, “I am a lesbian, not a woman.” In her 1980 groundbreaking essay that ignited much public debate, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Rich argued that lesbian identity requires breaking the compulsory way of life. The key contribution of these and many other writers was to disengage biological sex from socially constructed gender identity. That is, rather than presume that having female genitalia dictates which clothes women should wear, the sports they should play, the education they should have access to, and the people with whom they have emotional and sexual relationships, there was an acknowledgment that an individual’s feelings and wishes must play a part. Instead of insisting that the natural order of things is a presumption of patriarchy and heterosexuality that ties women to reproduction and opposite-sex sexuality, lesbian writers offered an alternate way of thinking. They insisted that gender was socially constructed, and depended on a psychological attachment to gender that was not solely biological. Within such a framework, gender identity allowed women who did not identify under a system of heteropatriarchy to redefine womanhood outside the imposition of opposite sex imperatives and passivity. Even with the heightened attention and acceptance of women and lesbians living independent of men, the struggle to identify as a woman and lesbian outside heteropatriarchy is still ongoing. Lesbian writers continue to help legitimize relationships between women. There is a growing library

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of lesbian novels for teens, such as those authored by Nancy Garden. Authors such as Jeanette Winterson continue to add to the growing literary work, with lesbian themes penned by lesbian authors. Academic work contributes to contemporary debates about legal and social constructs of lesbian identity. These include the writings of E. J. Graff, Sara Ahmed, and Brenda Cossman from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, respectively. Earlier writings exposed marriages of women living full lives with other women, such as David Mamet’s 2002 play, Boston Marriage, female-to-female attractions, and the revelation of rich and famous women who had long intimate relationships with other women that were found recorded in private documents (see Lillian Faderman’s 1991 work, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers). Uncovering such histories alone was not sufficient to legitimize lesbian relationships. Seismic changes occurring since the 1920s repositioned women in the world order: World War II forcing large numbers of women to leave their homes and take on traditionally men’s jobs outside of the home; the radical bra-burning 1960s and 1970s of women’s liberation; and the more diversified 1980s and 1990s when conditions advanced further to permit women to enter public debates in ways they never had before. What lesbians in particular brought to this political landscape was a notion that women had sexual desire, and that their desire was not always oriented toward men, that they were not satisfied to be relegated to the domestic sphere, and that lesbians could not be reduced to be identified solely by their sexual orientation. The legacy of these political movements is that a more legitimate gender identity, one that has been expanded beyond heterosexual women, was made possible in many parts of the world. Current political movements have seen changes in same-sex benefits and laws in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In Canada, a law allowing samesex marriage was passed in 2005; a growing number of states in the United States have legalized domestic partnerships, and a handful of European countries, South Africa, various South American nations, Australia, and New Zealand also have passed laws legalizing same-sex relationships. Where these laws are in place, lesbians are able to openly and legally live together, organize family units, have children together, and adopt each other’s children. In some

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instances, immigration is made possible through the recognition of lesbian relationships. This is not to suggest, however, that homophobia has been eradicated in countries with even the most progressive same-sex laws, such as legal marriage. Multiple and Interlocking Identities As is the case in any marginal identity, the more compounded one’s identity is, the more difficult it is to avoid social penalties. For instance, some indigenous women and women of color have noted that the term lesbian doesn’t apply to them because it is perceived to exclude them and privilege white women. From the mid-1970s on, groups such as the Salsa Sisters and Third World Wimmin were created as a way for lesbians of color to break into white-dominated spaces and resist racial discrimination. It is more common today to find groups that represent and welcome lesbians of color. Because of the way in which social identities are either accepted or not in certain cultures, white, middle-class, able-bodied lesbians are likely to have more privileges than black, poor, or disabled lesbians. Lesbian identity joins heterosexuality as two of a number of sexually oriented identities available to women. Others include transgendered women, or men who identify with the female gender. Another is transsexual women, or men who identify as women and undergo a sex change surgery. In cases of female trans identity, the person may or may not be a lesbian. Lesbian identity in the case of male to female is sometimes challenged by other lesbians as not legitimate. Thus, transphobia may be part of some lesbian communities. The Aboriginal term two-spirited represents those born with both male and female spirits, and is a term that has been reclaimed by lesbians, gay men, and those who identify themselves as transgendered or queer. Prior to colonial contact, two-spirited women fought as male warriors and formally partnered with other females. They were revered and honored as a “third gender,” who were often seen as visionaries and healers. Women with disabilities are often overlooked in lesbian circles because of society’s tendency to view people with disabilities as not possessing sexual desire, whether opposite or same sex oriented. More research needs to be done to examine how different groups are able, or not able, to raise funds to create spaces that include the full range of multiple lesbian identities.

Internationally, lesbian identity is often extremely complex. In some countries there is no language for the identity, nor are there public spaces in which lesbians can congregate. In 1994, Lepa Mladjenovic was given the international human rights award, Filipa de Souza, for lesbian rights. She spoke out about the constraints and invisibility of lesbians in Belgrade, Serbia. As Deepa Mehta’s film, Fire (1996), demonstrates, in some countries, to be caught in a lesbian relationship is punishable by the family and/or the state. Punishment can be as severe as a death sentence or serving long jail terms. In some conservative and religious communities, identifying as a lesbian is cause for psychological reassignment. Robert Spitzer, an American psychiatrist, claims to be able to “cure” same-sex orientation by reorienting lesbians (and gay men) to the opposite sex. He supports his claims with questionable research that is challenged by many doctors in the field of psychology and psychiatry, as well as by the head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington. Lesbian Activism The Daughters of Bilitis began formal lesbian political mobilization in the mid-1950s, and many other groups have followed in their wake. Since 1992, the Lesbian Avengers—lesbian activists who take direct action in public spaces such as street theaters and marches— have created space for lesbians in the male-dominated gay rights movement. The first Dyke Marches took place in the early 1990s in New York City, and in Washington, D.C. Dyke Marches have since become a mainstay during many Pride celebrations in larger urban centers. The Dyke Marches celebrate women loving women, and often takes place a day before larger Pride Parades. Male supporters are invited to attend, but not to march. The march is traditionally started by the loud motorcycle revving of the group Dykes on Bikes. Popular Culture Lesbian identity is not a singular category, and as noted above, has a complex and varied history. Popular media represents lesbians in ways that can further identify, categorize, vilify, and normalize them. Lesbian kissing on television and in movies can attract much publicity and attention. There is some debate about when the first televised all-female kiss took place. On the TV show LA Law, a kiss took place in 1991 between the actors Michele Greene and Amanda



Donohoe, and on the Roseanne show, a kiss occurred in 1994 between actors Roseanne Barr and Mariel Hemmingway. That debate seems less important now that lesbians have been portrayed more often on TV shows such as The L Word, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, ER, Queer as Folk, Friends, and Spin City. Comic books have also included lesbian characters. Alison Bechdel, in her long-running comic strip (1983–2008), Dykes to Watch Out For, provided a diverse range of contemporary lesbian identities with which younger lesbians could identify. Bechdel’s comic strip addressed political and personal issues in the lives of young lesbians, such as relationships, homophobic family angst, and the meaning of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (an annual woman-only music festival that began in 1976, and is attended predominantly by lesbians). In the Batman comic strip, the lead female character, Renee Montoya (Batwoman) was first developed as a police officer, a Latina, and a tough, beautiful woman before coming out in the series as a lesbian in 2003, in Batman: The Animated Series, and later in the New Batman Adventures. This readily available range of popular culture, activities and literature creates a stronger sense of lesbian identity for lesbians today. Lesbians in the public eye in the early 21st century included Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell (television hosts), Dorothy Alison (novelist), Angela Davis (activist), Melissa Etheridge (musician), Amy Ray and Emily Saliers (musicians, Indigo Girls), k. d. lang (musician), and Marilyn Waring, Linda Ketner, and Kathleen Wynne (politicians). See Also: Coming Out; Drag Kings; Dykes on Bikes; Homophobia; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; Lesbian Adoption; Lesbians in the Military; Same-Sex Marriage; Sexual Orientation and Race; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation– Based Social Discrimination: United States. “Two-Spirit.” Further Readings Herdt, G. H. Same Sex, Different Cultures: Exploring Gay and Lesbian Lives. Jackson, TN: Westview Press, 1998. Hollows, J. Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2000.

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Horne, P. and R. Lewis, eds. Outlooks: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities and Visual Cultures. London: Routledge, 1996. Jacobs, S. E., W. Thomas, and S. Lang. Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Rich, A. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” In A. Rich, ed., Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979–1985. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994. Sickels, A. Adrienne Rich (Gay and Lesbian Writers). New York: Chelsea House, 2005. Williams, S. Lesbianism: A Socialist Feminist Perspective. Seattle, WA: Red Letter Press, 2003. Wittig, M. The Lesbian Body. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. Wittig, M. The Straight Mind. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. Doreen Fumia Ryerson University

Lesbians in the Military Women’s roles in the U.S. military have varied. Initially, women were not permitted to serve in the military under any circumstances. Later, women were permitted to serve as clerical staff during World War I and in the Women’s Army Corps, the Navy WAVES, and the Coast Guard SPARS during World War II. In some instances, women served in the military by posing as men. Reception to women service members varies; nevertheless, the reception of lesbians in the military has been consistently negative. As a result of a ban on homosexuals’ being service members, lesbians have not been able to serve in the military. In 1993, Congress and President Bill Clinton compromised on the president’s attempt to lift the ban on homosexuals’ serving in the military. The compromise “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy acknowledged that homosexuals had served in the military, many with distinction; eliminated homosexual sexual orientation as a bar to military service; and called for an end to questioning of and investigations into an individual’s sexual orientation and behavior. Census 2000 data showed that 28,681 lesbians were serving on active duty and in the guard/reserve. These data further suggested that lesbians and bisexual women

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are more likely to serve in the military than gay or bisexual men. For example, 6.2 percent of the women enlisted in the military were lesbian or bisexual, while only 1.5 percent of the men were gay or bisexual. Increased Harassment Many argue that the DADT policy has resulted in more homosexuals being discharged from the military. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) explained that the DADT has had an extremely negative impact on lesbians, and women in general. Through “lesbian baiting,” women—both homosexual and heterosexual—have faced harassment when attempting to advance their careers in nontraditional fields or reporting unwanted advancement by male colleagues. It has also been suggested that DADT has contributed to increased harassment of lesbians. For some, fear of being “outted” often keeps lesbians from reporting harassment from male peers. Reports by the Palm Center and the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute supported SLDN’s claims that women are disproportionately discharged under DADT. For example, while women made up only 15 percent of enlisted military in 2008, they represented 34 percent of servicemembers who were discharged. The percentages vary by branch; however, in the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, the percentage of women discharged under DADT is almost three times their overall representation in the branch. Lesbians were discharged from the Air Force at alarming rates. While women comprised only 20 percent of those enlisted in the Air Force, they represented 62 percent of servicemembers discharged under DADT. Similarly, 14 percent of Army servicemembers are women, and they represent 36 percent of those discharged under DADT. There have been many publicized stories of lesbians who have been discharged from the military since the implementation of DADT. In 2003, Cathleen Glover was discharged from the Army after acknowledging that she was a lesbian in a letter to her commanding officer. Spec. Glover had served as an Arabic linguist. Not even the unique language skills of Spec. Glover assisted her in retaining her position. Thirty-seven other homosexuals have also been discharged from the Defense Language Institute by the Department of Defense. Kansas Army National Guard specialist Amy Brian was discharged in 2009

after a civilian reported seeing Spec. Brian kissing her partner in a Wal-Mart checkout line. Jene Newsome, a former sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, was also discharged because of her sexual orientation. Officials at Ellsworth Air Force Base were informed of Sgt. Newsome’s marriage to her female partner by Rapid City, South Dakota, police officers. The officers reported seeing the Iowa-issued marriage license on a table in Newsome’s home while they were attempting to arrest her partner. In his election campaign, President Barack Obama called for a repeal of the DADT policy. During his State of the Union Address on January 27, 2010, the president announced that his office planned to work with Congress and the military to repeal the policy that denies homosexual Americans the right to serve as military servicemembers. Many homosexuals continue to serve, albeit silently—they wait for 2011, when it is proposed that the repeal will be written into an appropriation bill. See Also: Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Homophobia; Lesbians; Military, Women in the; Military Leadership, Women in; Sexual Harassment. Further Readings Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara. http:// www.palmcenter.org (accessed June 2010). Lehring, Gary L. Officially Gay: The Political Construction of Sexuality by the U.S. Military (Queer Politics, Queer Theories). Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. http://www.sldn .org (accessed June 2010). Qiana M. Cutts Argosy University, Atlanta

Lesotho The Kingdom of Lesotho is an enclave within South Africa. Its 1993 constitution still recognizes customary or traditional law, although it also grants civil and political rights to both women and men. The Constitution also recognizes domestic violence and rape as criminal acts and provides for equal rights for men



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Young women in the Kingdom of Lesotho, an enclave within South Africa. Prior to reforms in 2007, married women in Lesotho were considered minors and could not sign legal documents or own property without their husbands consent.

and women on property ownership. Heavily dependent on men, however, Basotho women are considered legal minors under the permanent guardianship of father, brothers, or most likely, husbands, with no right to own land, but they do gain usufruct rights through marriage, as in several other African countries. The government passed a law in 2006 aimed at eliminating discrimination against married women, but it has had little effect so far. Customary law grants ownership rights only to men. Women are de facto heads of households but have limited job options, as 50 percent of the male workforce works in South Africa. Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland, which are intimately tied to South Africa’s mining economy, have the highest human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence (41 percent) in Africa. Lesotho has had one of the world lowest women’s life expectancy averages, at 36 years in 2007, very

closely followed by Swaziland (34 years for women; 33 years for men) and Botswana (33 years for women; 35 years for men). Life expectancy at birth is quite low, and 32.3 for men and 32 for women. Basotho women are highly disadvantaged within the family structure, and early marriage is prevalent. It is estimated that 18 percent of girls between 15 and 19 years old are married, divorced, or widowed. Polygamy is legal, although the proportion of population practicing it is minimal. As a result of marriage customary law, custody of children is almost always granted to the father. In contrast, female enrollment in higher education is quite high in this country—at the National University of Lesotho, in 1997, 1,121 women were enrolled, as opposed to 892 men. Some women have actively fought to promote gender rights through political mobilizing and lobbying. The political path toward gender equality possibly

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began with the 21st century, through gender policies such as the Lesotho Gender Policy or the Gender and Development Policy. The Lesotho Gender Policy (2003), based on the “realization of human rights for all,” “equal participation principles in development,” and “nondiscrimination and empowerment of the marginalized,” was promoted by the Minister of Gender and Sports. Limakatso Ntakatsane founded the Kopanang Basotho Party in 1992, and the Basotho Women’s Parliamentary Caucus was established, among other political structures, as part of the implementation of the Gender and Development Policy (2003). The Executive Committee Ruling of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (ruling party) showed 41 percent female and 59 percent male. The 2002 general elections registration recorded a voting population that was 57 percent women and 43 percent men, so the future seems quite promising in this regard. See Also: Botswana; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Property Rights; South Africa; Swaziland. Further Readings Chaka-Makhooane, L. Sexual Violence in Lesotho: The Realities of Justice for Women. Maseru, Lesotho: Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, 2002. “Lesotho: African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality.” 2006. http://genderismyagenda.com/country _reports/states_reports_eng/lesotho_report.pdf (accessed June 2010). Mosetse, P. Gender Stereotypes and Education in Lesotho. Bloemfontein, South Africa: University of the Free State, 2006. Soledad Vieitez-Cerdeño University of Granada

Lessing, Doris Doris Lessing, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2007, is an English female novelist of the post–World War II period; her prolific and varied literary career, however, extends into the first decade of

the 21st century with the publication of such recent novels as The Cleft (2007) and Alfred and Emily (2008). Doris Lessing’s status as a feminist writer is as much unsolicited as inescapable. In spite of her attempt to drown her literary voice in the major political and communal issues of her age, thus instinctively shying away from a stereotyped feminine sensibility, many of her novels are today celebrated as feminist manifestos, deep psychic insights into the contemporary feminine self in both white colonial and metropolitan societies. Doris Lessing hence represents a controversial image of the contemporary female writer at war with her own “feminine” expression; her novels in addition show the development of the debate around women’s oppression and liberation into unprecedented frankness about hitherto silenced psychosexual issues like matrimony, motherhood, and sexual liberation. As a female writer, Lessing followed a quite neat line of development from autobiography to collective and communal experience. Her writings have always shown, however, a willful overshadowing of feminism by political and global concerns, thus seemingly asserting masculine values. Her own fiery character and eloquent anger against the patriarchal urge to mold her into a delicate, submissive femininity is expressed by her rejection of feminine models (represented by the much-despised mother figure) and her self-assertive choice of masculine modes of experience (especially her own experience as a left-wing activist and immigrant in bleak, postwar London). In art, as much as in life, Lessing’s feminine rebellion is expressed by her flight into universal and as such, masculine, experience. Transcending Femininity The movement from the personal (feminine) to the collective is best illustrated by Lessing’s early novel sequence, The Children of Violence (1952–69), which recounts the personal development of Martha Quest from adolescence and early youth spent on an African farm in Southern Rhodesia to middle-aged, neurotic disintegration and decay in a mid-20th century London threatened by nuclear catastrophe. The novels’ heroine represents the tormented, self-conscious female in search for a way out of the stasis of both colonial life and middle class, conventional matrimony. The most abhorred aspect of femininity, matrimony and motherhood, is an unbreakable cycle of

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repetition explained by the tyrannous rule of biology (pertaining to pregnancy and childbirth) and the stunting life of bourgeois colonial female society. The only way to break free is taking an active part in cultural, historical change through the renunciation of marriage and motherhood, immersion in left-wing politics, sexual freedom, and self-fulfilment associated with regaining England. The Golden Notebook (1962) comes out as a revolutionary feminist novel contrary to its author’s intention. The novel anticipates later debates around female liberation while presenting a psychological insight into female love and sexual relationships with men. It is a deep study of the dilemma of the intellectual female and her struggle between “independent” commitment and intellectualism, on the one hand, and the urge to embark on the tossing waves of emotional and heterosexual relationship on the other. The novel makes a pointed critique of male attitudes and female emotional dependency, and paints a sinister image of woman on the verge of personal disintegration. Issues around feminine experience remain constant throughout Lessing’s literary career apart from her dip into space fiction in the late 1970s and 1980s. From The Grass Is Singing (1950) to The Cleft (2007), feminine experience resurfaces from the novelist’s will to foreground communal and universal experience. While The Grass Is Singing represents both black and white as the victims of the pernicious system of Apartheid, the issue is expressed in terms of Mary Turner’s struggle with an insipid married life and a profoundly destabilizing sexual attraction to her black servant. In The Cleft, Lessing reimagines humanity’s beginnings as a lost feminine utopia where maleness is both physiological perversion— “Monsters. The deformed ones, the freaks, the cripples . . .” Lessing writes—and destructive mental constitution. See Also: Feminist Publishing; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Novelists, Female. Further Readings Fand, Roxanne J. The Dialogic Self: Reconstructing Subjectivity in Woolf, Lessing, and Atwood. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1999.

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Robinson, Sally. Engendering the Subject: Gender and SelfRepresentation in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists From Brontë to Lessing. London: Virago, 1993. Spacks, Patricia Meyer. The Female Imagination: a Literary and Psychological Investigation of Women’s Writing. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1976. L. Tayeb Higher Institute of Human Sciences

LGBTQ LGBTQ is an acronym for the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/transgender/transsexual, and queer, a term with historical roots in the political and social activism of the industrialized world over the last century. LGBTQ is intended to encompass a broad range of individuals who are conceptualized as part of a sexual and gendered minority for whom various rights and protections are sought. Some variation of the term LGBTQ is used by grassroots local, national, and global political and social organizations to indicate the individuals and groups forming their constituency. Depending on the context, groups might order the letters in distinctive formulations, for example, using LGB to identify a constituency that includes lesbian, gay, and bisexual but that may not directly be concerned with transgender, transsexual or queer issues. In the contemporary era, LGBT/GLBT is most commonly used in the English-speaking nations of the global north, or industrialized world. Placing lesbians first in the term LGBT is seen as an important political move for some groups in redressing the dominance of gay men and celebrating the place of women. Categories like lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer are far from universal, cross-culturally understood terms. On the contrary, these ways of understanding and manifesting sexual and gender difference are specific to particular cultural contexts. With globalization, the spread of particular sexual identities has been uneven and adapted distinctly to reflect local circumstances. This entry highlights some of

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the key ways that LGBTQ has been developed in the global north and critically examines the worldwide relevance of the acronym. LGBTQ Worldwide The term LGBTQ is not a worldwide term. On the contrary, it is a historically and culturally specific way of identifying and labeling gender and sexual difference. Currently, worldwide, there are significant variations in how sexual identity, attraction, and desire are named and understood, and how this relates to gender, family and kinship forms. Thus, while desire and sex might happen between men and between women across the world, it is not always understood as a defining feature of one’s identity, nor as a way of organizing familial/kinship relationships. Similarly, solely understanding gender within binary categories of male–man/female–woman is not a universal understanding found worldwide. It is often assumed that countries in the global north, such as the United States, are “better” and “more developed” in terms of the rights of LGBTQ people, and that those in the global south (or “developing nations”) repress LGBTQ people. While there is evidence of this, for example in the United Kingdom (UK), the Equalities Act 2010 makes public bodies accountable for their LGBT populations, there are also challenges to these rights and protections. In 2009, there were a spate of homophobic beatings and killings in London, England. Contrasting this, South Africa has some of the most liberal laws in relation to sexuality, and has led the way in legislative progress. History of LGBTQ Activism In its current configuration, LGBTQ reflects accumulated and sometimes contested sets of meanings, stemming from the emergence of globally distinctive gay and lesbian rights movements. The labeling of sexual and gender identities as LGBT is relatively recent, evolving from the medical categorization of homosexuality in the 19th century. Visible homosexual activism emerged as early as the 1800s in Europe and in the post–World War II era in North America, the UK, and Australia. In the UK, a secret society, the Order of Chaeronea, was established in 1897, “for the cultivation of a homosexual moral, ethical, cultural and spiritual ethos.” Activist organizations in North America, Scandinavia, Britain, and other European

countries after World War II used the word homophile to refer to both homosexuals (men and women) and to those heterosexuals who were interested in or supported their political and social causes. In Canada, the Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT) and the University of Toronto Homophile Association (UTHA) were established in the late 20th century, and provided local community center space for socializing, education, political activism, and support. In the global north, most of the identifiable early organizations were administered by both men and women: by the early 1960s, many had dropped the term homophile in favor of the term gay, a term understood as encompassing both men and women. However, lesbians increasingly found reasons to form their own organizations. Although there was some engagement with the early feminist movements, lesbians often found the early women’s movement somewhat hostile, given concerns about women’s organizations being perceived as lesbian. Certain lesbian groups had little common interest with gay male activism until political activism increasingly focused on obtaining human rights protection around sexuality. Many organizations, once calling themselves simply “gay,” began to incorporate both the terms lesbian and gay in their naming. As political activism gained momentum in the global north throughout the 1980s, bisexuals sought admission to gay and lesbian organizations for social and political support, prompting the inclusion of the “B” organizational nomenclature. Bisexuals were sometimes seen as taking advantage of heterosexual “privilege” when looking for the assistance of gay and lesbian organizations when necessary; they also were sometimes viewed, particularly in some lesbian communities, as introducting diseases and the potential for male violence. Bisexual women have spoken of exclusion and rejection from social and support lesbian networks because of their desires for and relationships with men. Bisexuality also challenged the binary understandings of sexual orientation as either homosexual or heterosexual. Nevertheless, bisexual political and social interests were largely incorporated into (or subsumed under) gay and lesbian political organizations, reflected in the use of the term LGB. Trans, transgendered, and transsexual individuals have a historically and geographically distinctive con-



nection with gay and lesbian communities and their political and social organizations. The so-called gender inversion of gays and lesbians has been a staple of medical discourse and social and political approbation, beginning with the psychoanalytic and medical discourses of the early 20th century. After World War II, gay and lesbian communities included drag queens and “fairies,” butches, and femmes, and nonconforming gender identities were highly visible. With lesbian feminist politics in the 1970s, butchfemme culture was seen as obsolete and oppressive; a misguided and perverse reassertion of heterosexual roles in lesbian life. Offering a robust critique of masculinist society, lesbian feminism has sought to challenge heteropatriarchy and establish an independence and autonomy for women. More recently within lesbian feminism, transgendered and transsexual women were viewed with distrust and sometimes open hostility. Trans women are often regarded as men, and in this way unable to transcend the gender they were assigned at birth, reiterating an essentialist understanding of gender. How trans people relate to LGBT scenes, spaces and services varies geographically; in Brighton in the UK, for example, organizations worked hard to develop services that were inclusive to, and catered for, trans people before they became LGBT. In this context, activism around LGBT enables trans people to fight from a position of collective support. There are numerous forms of trans lives and experiences; some are defined by trans identities and enjoy being part of LGBT scenes and activisms. Others see themselves as trans only when transitioning, such that they then seek to live in their chosen gender. Still others seek to question the gendered binaries of male/female and live as neither, both or either. By the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s, a growing global north transgender and transsexual movement increasingly called for the inclusion of “gender identity” as a protected ground against discrimination and also for the broader, more flexible, notion of “gender expression,” which seeks to work beyond the binary gender category and open up the possibility for multiple and unstable gendered opportunities. Questioning LGBTQ Identities Political activism in the global north has been grounded in a politics of identities, which regards

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sexual orientation and gender identity as an essential, stable and unchanging identity forming in early childhood. Despite the largely essentialist arguments underpinning gay and lesbian identity politics, many now question the stability of these identities. The emergence of queer theorizing in the humanities and the social sciences in the 1980s challenged the heteronormative presuppositions structuring LGB identity politics. “Queer” for some is used as an umbrella term encompassing individuals who do not identify with essentialist categories such as “gay” or “lesbian,” and whose practices of desire, sexualities and genders are fluid, unstable, and transformative. Despite this anti-essentialist stance and rejection of identity politics, individuals understanding themselves as part of a queer minority continue to work within LGB organizations; the recognition of their presence is signaled by the “Q.” Yet, queer is also a way of understanding gender and sexuality that recognizes the fluidity of identities and the ways in which these are recreated. Queer conceptualizations seem better able in the global context to capture sexual and gendered forms and models that are not legible or coherent within Western categories, reflecting diverse organization of sexualities and genders along multiple axes. Globalizing LGBTQ Most scholars would assert that LGBTQ is an acronym specific to the political, historical and cultural circumstances of the global north. Many international rights organizations utilize the term LGBT and advocate largely on an essential, stable and universal understanding of sexual orientation. Their success in asserting this perspective is reflected in such organizations and declarations as the United Nations Human Rights Conventions, International Conference on LGBT Human Rights 2006, and the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. A key moment in activism that has in many ways globalized LGBTQ politics was the Stonewall Riots of 1969 that started after a police raid at a popular bar in the gay community, the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The Stonewall Riots became iconic across the global north because of the way the streets were used to visibly protest. Although in many places,

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the Pride marches inspired by Stonewall dissipated, they have more recently reemerged, grown in size, and in become increasingly commercialized. Sydney Mardi Gras is now a huge tourist attraction, boasts a large parade and a huge party. However, in other places, Pride marchers have experienced abuse, violence, and a lack of state support. In 2009, a Pride march took place in Riga, Latvia, after the ban on the event was overturned; however, in the same year Pride marchers in Poland and Russia clashed with the police. For many in the global south, LGBT human rights activism, while offering protection to those operating within Western identity categories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered or transsexual, has excluded those who do not occupy these categories. Research in India about the hijras, for example, demonstrates the problems inherent in importing gendered concept from the global north to non-Western locations. The hijras can be defined as a “third sex,” and this questions the binary models of gender through which many aspects of society in the global north are understood. It also reworks understandings of “transgender” and the medical, social, and other models associated with this. In Indonesia, research has shown that same-sex female couples have intimate relationships that are not defined as lesbian; they also rework Western notions of butch–femme conventions as they negotiate the structures of society and employment. The adoption or rejection of lesbian and gay identities is mediated by class, race, and ethnicity in specific local and national contexts. In other words, there is no global gay identity: the globalization of LGBTQ does not determine how on a local level gender and sexuality is done. Transnational Activism and Assumptions of Progress There is often an assumption of progress, development, and superiority associated with LGBTQ identities in the global north that then translates into a patronizing desire to help LGBTQ activists in the global south. Engagements since the 1970s with LGBTQ activism in the global south have challenged the uncritical adoption of European and North American sexual identities and models of identity politics. There can be little doubt that supporting marginal-

ized groups is necessary across the globe. However, where it is perceived that ex-colonial powers are trying to control a nation, global north demonstrations, media attention and so on can be counterproductive to attaining sexual and gender liberation in the global south. For example, LGBT activists from across African nations wrote an open letter that asked Peter Tatchell to stop campaigning on their behalf, arguing that their expertise and advice was ignored in his and Outrage’s campaigns. These activists pointed to Uganda and Nigeria, where internal activist advice was ignored and large campaigns deployed by Outrage; these campaigns, they feared, would have a detrimental effect in part because they drew attention to repressive bills that were already “dead,” but could be revived as a negative reaction to Outrage’s campaigning. Understanding transnational activist support and learning requires a recognition of the complexities of how gender and sexual difference is lived across the globe. This also honors expertise, and works against reductionist tactics that can, for example, portray all Muslim countries as intolerant of same-sex desires. A geographically engaged understanding of LGBTQ lives can work to enable activism that supports sexual and gender liberation across the globe, from our own doorstep to thousands of miles away. See Also: Bisexuality; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Lesbians; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States; Transgender; Transsexuality.

Further Readings Boellstroff, T. The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Hemmings, C. Bisexual Spaces: A Geography of Sexuality and Gender. New York: Routledge, 2002. Herdt, G. H. Same Sex, Different Cultures: Exploring Gay and Lesbian Lives. Jackson, TN: Westview Press, 1998. Kennedy, E. and M. Davis. Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community. London: Routledge, 1993. Puar, J. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.

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A woman in Liberia speaks out, after years of women’s voices being silent, about a local resolution to end Liberian discrimination against women. The men behind her are seen laughing and covering their faces in amusement.

Reddy, G. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Stryker, S. and S. Whittle. The Transgendered Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. Tucker, A. Queer Visibilities: Space, Identity and Interaction in Cape Town. Malden, MA: WileyBlackwell, 2009. Warner, T. Never Going Back: A History of Gay Activism in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. Kath Browne University of Brighton Catherine J. Nash Brock University

Liberia The Republic of Liberia is marked by a high population growth rate and low life expectancy. There are a variety of ethnic groups and religions, including a small percentage of Liberico Americans (Amerafricans) descended from freed slaves from the United States repatriated to Africa. Rural women largely remain in traditional subservient gender roles and exercise more limited rights than their urban counterparts. Women are affected by high domestic violence, fertility, and poverty rates, female genital mutilation, political instability, and a continuing human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic. Women played a key role in the peace movement that ended the

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repressive presidency of Charles Taylor and helped elect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2005. Among Liberia’s indigenous ethnic groups, women are valued for their agricultural labor and childbearing and polygyny is considered the ideal state, although most males do not have multiple wives. Bride wealth payments are still common. Among Liberico Americans and Christianized indigenous groups, there is a religious emphasis on monogamy. A few men maintain what are termed “country wives” in addition to a religiously sanctioned “ring wife.” In some areas, intermarriage is eroding tribal distinctions. The fertility rate of 5.79 births per woman and the infant mortality rate of 138.24 per 1,000 live births are both high. Indigenous groups are patrilineal and male dominant, and consider wives as property. Husbands have legal claim to their wives’ children whether or not they are the biological fathers. Women handle domestic and childcare responsibilities. Domestic violence and female genital mutilation are common; the victims have little recourse. Women receive less education than men, generally receiving eight years as opposed to 11, and few receive higher education. There is a large gap in literacy rates at 73 percent for men but only 42 percent for women in 2003. Most rural residents have no access to Western style healthcare and rely on traditional medicine. Serious disease threats include malaria, tuberculosis, and cholera. The continuing HIV/AIDS epidemic has left behind many orphans. Life expectancy is very low, at 40.71 for men and 43 for women. Most rural agriculture is subsistence based, with tasks segregated by gender. Men clear the land while women and children plant, weed, and harvest the crops. Educated women often work outside the home, mainly in white-collar jobs. These women lose some of the social status gained through their education and employment if they must also perform traditional female activities such as farming or hauling water. Many indigenous societies have separate political systems run by each gender.

crimes. Accusations included crimes against women, including the use of rape as a tool of oppression, as well as backing insurgent forces that committed abductions, tortures, murder, and the conscription of child soldiers. The conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone left hundreds of thousands dead and over 1 million refugees. Liberian women played a key role in ending the conflict and forcing Taylor to resign in 2003, through the formation of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. The movement also aided the 2005 election of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected head of a sub-Saharan African state and herself a prominent peace activist and international leader. As a result, women have emerged as a significant political constituency and have emphasized free and compulsory education, healthcare, employment training, voter registration, rape prosecution, and collaboration between the government and nongovernmental organizations on women’s issues.

Key Role in Change of Government Liberian women faced violent oppression during the government of President Charles Taylor from 1997 to 2003, which was marked by conflict. The United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone would later charge him with crimes against humanity and war

Liechtenstein is a small nation of 160 sqare kilometers landlocked in central Europe that shares borders with Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is an extremely prosperous country with a diversified economy that includes a large financial services sector. In 2009, Liechtenstein had the world’s highest per

See Also: Heads of State, Female; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Polygamy, Cross-Culturally Considered; Rural Women; Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson. Further Readings Dahn, Kadiker. Learning From the Lives of Exiled Liberian Women: An Oral History From 1979 to 2006. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag, 2009. Liberian Women Peacemakers: Fighting for the Right to Be Seen, Heard, and Counted. Trenton, NJ: African World Press, 2004. Moran, Mary H. Civilized Women: Gender and Prestige in Southeastern Liberia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

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capita Gross Domestic Product of $122,100. It uses the Swiss Franc as its currency, and the nation’s culture is heavily influenced by surrounding countries, particularly Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Liechtenstein’s national language is German. The population of 34,761 (estimate as of July 2009) is primarily Roman Catholic (76.2 percent). Women in Liechtenstein only won the right to vote in 1984, but since then, the country has established gender equality as a principle in law with the Gender Equality Act of 1998, revision of the Marriage Act in 1999, and revisions in laws concerning rape and domestic violence. Liechtenstein provides a generous package of benefits to support women as both workers and mothers, including maternity leave of up to 20 weeks, support payments for children, and statesupported day care facilities. Liechtenstein has a low fertility rate (1.52 children per woman), and high life expectancies for both men (76.59 years) and women (83.52 years). There’s also a high net migration rate (4.66 migrants per 1,000 population), resulting in a positive growth rate of 0.702 percent. Maternal and child health services are excellent and the infant mortality of 4.25 deaths per 1,000 live births is among the lowest in the world. Literacy and Education Literacy in Liechtenstein is 100 percent for both men and women. Boys and girls attend elementary in approximately equal numbers but slightly fewer girls than boys are enrolled in secondary education. Substantially fewer women than men are enrolled in tertiary education, although women’s enrollment in higher education is increasing rapidly. Women constitute about 40 percent of the labor force in Liechtenstein. In 2009, women held 24 percent of seats in the national (unicameral) parliament. As of 2010, women also hold major positions in the government including Dr. Aurelia Frick, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cultural Affairs and Justice; and Dr. Renate Müssner, who is the Minister of Public Health, Social Affairs, and Environmental Affairs, Land Use Planning, Agriculture and Forestry. Several women from Liechtenstein have achieved world-class status in sports. Hanni Wenzel won three Olympic medals and four Olympic medals in Alpine skiing, including two golds at Lake Placid, New York,

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in 1980. Urzula Konzett won a bronze medal in slalom skiing in the 1984 winter Olympics in Sarajevo. See Also: Maternal Mortality; Olympics, Winter; Roman Catholic Church; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Portal of the Principality of Liechtenstein. http://www .liechtenstein.li/en/eliechtenstein_main_sites/portal _fuerstentum_liechtenstein/home.htm (accessed February 2010). United Nations Statistics Divisions. UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info. http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Life Expectancy, International Comparisons of Life expectancy is the number of years an individual can expect to live if conditions remain constant. Age at death varies tremendously from country to country and from group to group within a country. In most countries, life expectancy increased dramatically during the 1900s due, in part, to fewer deaths among children and pregnant women. Public health measures such as access to clean water, sanitation, and vaccinations for children were largely responsible for improvements in health. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), however, is decreasing life expectancy in some countries. Females live longer at every stage of life and in almost every country. While the average global life expectancy is 68 years, it is about 70 years for women and 65 for men. Life expectancies are reported separately by sex. One of the largest differences is in Russia where women live 13 more years than men. Life expectancy ranges from 86 years for women in Japan to 42 years for women in Afghanistan. Regionally, women in Africa have the shortest life expectancies. Explanations for this sex difference include biological advantages for women, their responsibilities for family health, and risky behaviors and occupations for

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men. Women’s longer lives are typically coupled with higher rates of illness and disability, however. Life expectancy is also reported by age; years of additional life vary at each age. Infant mortality rates (deaths from birth to one year per 1,000 live births) are roughly 400 times higher in the poorest countries than in the richest countries. Under-5 mortality rates (deaths by age 5 per 1,000 live births) are also much higher in poorer regions. Globally, almost 20 percent of deaths are children less than 5 years old. Average life expectancy is reduced dramatically when infants and children die. These deaths are unexpected in richer countries, but more common in other parts of the world. Most of these deaths are preventable with vaccines, antibiotics, and proper nutrition. About half a million women die each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth; maternal mortality is higher in poor countries or poor populations within richer countries. Women with access to good prenatal care, healthy diet, attended births, and access to birth control are at much lower risk of death during pregnancy and delivery. Developed Countries Life expectancy in high-income countries (i.e., Japan, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, western Europe) is about 80 years. People are healthier and live longer at all stages of life in richer countries; most deaths occur among the elderly. For example, on average, women in the United States live until age 81, and men, age, 76, but substantial differences exist between groups. Life expectancy for white women is about 80, for black women it is about 76 years. The leading causes of death in the United States and other developed countries are heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, unintentional injuries (especially motor vehicle accidents), diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and septicemia. HIV/AIDS is not a leading cause of death. Infectious diseases account for less than 1 percent of deaths in richer countries. Infant mortality rates are very low in developed countries, about 5 or fewer per 1,000 live births. In some countries, such as Iceland and Sweden, the rate is 2/1,000 births. In the United States, roughly 6/1,000 infants die before age 1. Under-5 mortality rates are also low, about 4 or 5/1,000 live births; the child mortality rate in the United States is 8/1,000

live births. The expectation is that children will live to grow up. Children are more likely to die from unintentional injuries and violence than from communicable diseases. Maternal mortality rates are also low in developed countries. Rates are relatively high in the United States, largely because of the high number of deaths among African American mothers. Developing Countries In middle-income countries, the impact of living conditions, economic opportunities, gender inequalities, and poverty becomes more obvious. Communicable diseases and infant, child, and maternal deaths are more common than in richer countries. Life expectancy and causes of death vary in developing countries; individuals living in the former Soviet Union struggle with more health problems and higher mortality than those in South America, for example. Countries in Asia and the west Pacific have the highest rates of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Life expectancy has increased for many of these regions. Female life expectancy is 66.9 years in Arab states, 70.4 years in east Asian and Pacific countries, 71.7 in Latin American and Caribbean countries (Haiti is an exception, with a life expectancy for women of 52.7), 63.2 in south Asia, and 68.1 in eastern European countries. Infant and child health is improving in many middle-income countries. On average, about 27 infants and 34 children die per 1,000 live births. China and India demonstrate both the range of life expectancies in developing countries and exceptions to the rule of female advantage in life expectancy at each age. In China, women’s life expectancy is approximately 75 years. The infant mortality rate is 19/1,000 live births (22/1,000 for females and 16/1,000 for males), and under-5 mortality rate is 22/1,000 live births (26/1,000 for girls and 19/1,000 live births for males). Women in India can expect to live about 65 years. The infant mortality rate is 54/1,000 live births (55/1,000 for females and 54/1,000 for males); under-5 mortality rate is 72/1,000 (77/1,000 for females and 67/1,000 for males). In both China and India, as in all developing countries, women outlive men, but their unusual patterns of increased mortality among female infants and children due to infanticide and neglect are unique.



Least Developed Countries Africa is the poorest continent in per capita income and by most health measures. High death rates among infants, children, and pregnant women and widespread HIV/AIDS infections shorten life expectancy significantly. Poverty and lack of necessities such as clean, available water, sanitation, and adequate diet are largely responsible. Life expectancy for African women is 54 years. Seventy percent of the world’s HIV infections are in sub-Saharan Africa, and over half are women. This depresses life expectancy to below 50 years in some African countries. Communicable diseases account for about 72 percent of deaths on the African continent. Tuberculosis and noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, and injuries are also prevalent. Infant and child mortality rates are highest in subSaharan Africa. Childhood diseases such as measles and diarrheal diseases are responsible for many deaths. Malaria is another disease that is concentrated in Africa; the highest malaria mortality rates are for children under 5. Africa also has 19 of the 20 countries with the highest maternal mortality rates. (The other is Afghanistan.) In Sierra Leone, 2,000 mothers die per 100,000 live births. Influences Health and life expectancy are influenced by hereditary factors, such as genetic predisposition to disease. This does not account for the large disparities in life expectancy around the globe. Individual lifestyle has a larger impact on life expectancy in richer countries than poorer ones. For example, in richer countries, individuals can choose to overeat, putting them at risk for heart disease, for example. In poorer countries, individuals have fewer choices in their diet. The diseases of poorer countries often result from too few calories, leading to death directly through starvation or indirectly through malnutrition that weakens the body. Women and children are most vulnerable to the health impact of a poor diet. Environmental factors can also contribute to lower life expectancies. Access to clean water and adequate sanitation are crucial to health, and lack of access impacts women and children the most. Air, water, soil pollution, climate change, and conflict decrease

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years of life in some areas more than in others. The increased number of motor vehicles is related to more traffic-related deaths. Available, affordable healthcare systems also contribute to better health and longer lives. Patients in rural areas may live hours away from the nearest healthcare facility, making access almost impossible. Many pregnant women in poor countries die because they do not have skilled attendants for delivery. Vaccines and antibiotics can prevent many child deaths in poorer countries. Measurement Estimates of mortality are fairly reliable even in countries without a strong vital registration system. Infant mortality rates are more problematic since all deaths may not be reported. Most of the rates reported here are from 2007 World Health Organization (WHO) statistics. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Heart Disease; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Infant Mortality; Infanticide; Maternal Mortality; Women’s Health Clinics; World Health Organization. Further Readings Heron, Melonie, Donna L. Hoyert, Sherry L. Murphy, Jiaquan Xu, Kenneth D. Kochanek, and Betzaida Tejada-Vera. “Division of Vital Statistics. Deaths—Final Data for 2006.” National Vital Statistics, v.57/14 (2009). Heron, Melonie and B. Tejada-Vera. “Deaths: Leading Causes for 2005.” National Vital Statistics Reports, v.58/8 (2008). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, (2009). UC Atlas of Global Inequality. http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu /cause.php (accessed November 2009). World Health Organization (WHO). World Health Statistics: Mortality and Burden of Disease. Geneva: WHO, 2009. Rebecca Reviere Howard University

Lilly Ledbetter Act The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 29, 2009. It was the first bill President Obama signed into

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law after taking office on January 20, 2009. In very basic terms, the law eliminates the time limit within which an employee must file a complaint of pay discrimination as long as he or she continues on the employer’s payroll. In other words, under the new law, Lilly Ledbetter, for whom the act is named, would have been able to file a complaint of pay discrimination against her former employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., when she found out that she had been underpaid because of her gender for years. She was unable to win her case because under the statutes of limitations of the old law, she had taken too long to file a complaint about a discriminatory practice of which she was unaware. The Road to Success The road to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was long. Lilly Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Alabama for 19 years. In a corporation dominated by men, she experienced sexism on the job throughout her tenure, yet was often praised for her work as a supervisor. She did not know the extent to which she was underpaid until an anonymous person left a paper in her mailbox detailing the salaries of her male counterparts. She was being paid 20 percent less than the lowest-paid male supervisor. Armed with this information, Ledbetter filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Initially, a jury found Goodyear guilty of discrimination and awarded Ledbetter $3.8 million in back pay and damages. This sum was reduced to $360,000 because of caps on damages under Title VII. On May 29, 2007, however, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict by a vote of 5–4. The opposition, led by Judge Samuel Alito, claimed that although Ledbetter did file a complaint of pay discrimination within 180 days of receiving a paycheck, she did not file the complaint within 180 days of when Goodyear decided to pay her less than her male counterparts. Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who voted in favor of Ledbetter, argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling does not take into account the reality for women in the workplace and urged Congress to reverse the ruling legislatively. The Lilly Ledbetter Act is not solely about gender discrimination. The act clarified that every paycheck or other compensation resulting from an earlier dis-

criminatory pay decision constitutes a violation of the Civil Rights Act and applies to workers who file claims of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, or disability. It reversed a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that made it more difficult for Americans to pursue such claims. The act amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, extending the statute of limitations to file claims of compensation discrimination under all of the major federal civil rights laws. Compensation Discrimination Guidelines Before the Ledbetter Act, employees had 180 days to file a complaint of compensation discrimination, or 300 days if the state has a fair employment agency. Under the new law, there is no statute of limitations as long as the employee remains on the payroll of the alleged discriminatory corporation, as each payment of wages is a new unlawful discriminatory act. The employee needs only to establish that he or she is a member of a protected class and that he or she was paid less than those who are not members of a protected class to file a complaint of discrimination. Congress made the law retroactive to May 28, 2007, the day before the Supreme Court ruled against Lilly Ledbetter in her Title VII discrimination lawsuit. Therefore, the Lilly Ledbetter Act applies to all pay discrimination charges that were pending on or after that date under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Rehabilitation Act. Lilly Ledbetter never saw a penny from her suit against Goodyear, but she helped set in motion a series of events that would eventually make the workplace a more equitable environment for many Americans. For example, the Paycheck Fairness Act, passed by the House in January 2009, would help to strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963, as well as the Lilly Ledbetter Act. See Also: Bullying in the Workplace; Equal Pay; Ledbetter, Lilly; Management, Women in; Sexual Harassment; Working Mothers. Further Readings Barnes, Robert. “Over Ginsburg’s Dissent, Court Limits Bias Suits.” Washington Post (May 30, 2007).

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Miller, Frederic P., John McBrewster, and Agnes F. Vandome, eds. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Beau Bassin, Mauritius: Alphascript Publishing, 2010. U.S. Committee on Education and Labor, “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.” http://edlabor.house.gov/lilly-ledbetter -fair-pay-act/index.shtml (accessed April 2010). Katie M. White University of Maryland

Lin, Maya Maya Ying Lin is a noted American architect and sculptor. She was born October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio, to Henry and Julia Lin, Chinese immigrants and professors at Ohio University. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Yale University in 1981 and 1986, respectively, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1987. Lin is best known for her controversial design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, one of the most visited sites in Washington, D.C. Maya Lin was a 21-year-old undergraduate student at Yale when she won a contest to design a memorial for Vietnam veterans sponsored by veteran Jan Scruggs and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF). Design criteria stated that the memorial must harmonize with its surroundings, be reflective in nature, contain the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers killed or missing in Vietnam, and that it did not make a political statement about the controversial U.S. involvement in the conflict. Lin won the contest and a $20,000 prize on May 1, 1981, in a unanimous decision from a panel of noted architects and landscape designers who served as judges. Lin’s simple but powerful design featured two long paneled walls of reflective polished black marble that gradually increase in height and meet in an inverted V-shape. Lin’s design received a mixed reaction, with some praising its haunting and interactive qualities while others felt that it was too different, abstract, and not patriotic enough; some also questioned her youth and Asian heritage. Secretary of the Interior James Watt initially halted construction. The dispute was settled through the agreement that a bronze statue by Frederick Hart, titled the Three Servicemen, and an inscribed flagpole would be added near the

Maya Lin’s student project submission at Yale’s School of Architecture for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

memorial. Later additions included Glenna Goodacre’s sculpture known as the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, and an In Memory plaque dedicated to those lost to war-related illnesses. Lin moved to Washington, D.C., to oversee construction of the memorial, which was dedicated on Veteran’s Day of 1982. In 1988, she received the Presidential Design Award for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Memorial attracts more than four million annual visitors, many of whom leave personal mementos such as flags, flowers, letters, pictures, and other objects, or trace rubbings of the names of relatives or friends listed on the wall. The National Park Service collects and displays objects left at the memorial. After the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Lin later moved to New York City, where she opened her own studio. She designed homes as well as sculptures. Lin’s sculptures are noted for their large size

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and minimalist but evocative, interactive designs. She often uses natural materials in her work. The chief influences on her sculptures include landscape, universal harmony, science and technology, history, Asian themes, and personal experiences. Lin created the Wave Field at the University of Michigan, a series of 50 earthwork grass waves in eight rows where pedestrians can study or enjoy leisure activities. Lin’s other notable projects included the 1988 Civil Rights Memorial commissioned by the Southern Poverty Center in Montgomery, Alabama; an outdoor chapel at Juniata College in Pennsylvania; the Women’s Table at Yale University; and a large clock that hangs at Penn Station in New York City. Director Freida Lee Mock told Lin’s story in the Academy Award-winning, 1995 PBS documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. See Also: Architecture, Women in; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Vietnam. Further Readings Lashnits, Tom. Maya Lin (Asian Americans of Achievement). New York: Chelsea House, 2007. Malone, Mary. Maya Lin: Architect and Artist. Springfield, NJ: Enslow, 1995. Scruggs, Jan C. and Joel L. Swerdlow. To Heal a Nation: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Linton, Simi Simi Linton is among the foremost experts on disability studies, arts, and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from New York University and was on the faculty at the City University of New York for 14 years. She has been active in the disability rights movement since 1971 when she was injured in a car accident en route to protest the Vietnam War. In 1998, Linton developed disability/arts consultancy for filmmakers, artists, and cultural institutions (e.g., Smithsonian, Margaret Mead Film Festival, and the Public Theater), working to shape the

presentation of disability in the arts. Linton lectures widely on the cross-disciplinary relevance of disability studies, advocates for greater representation of disabled artists, and argues to incorporate disability into the multicultural curriculum. Her work brings an insider’s perspective to the many professional and artistic achievements of people living with disability and the persistent discrimination they face. Changing Societal Views on Disability Her book, Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity, was among the first to establish the legitimacy of disability studies as an interdisciplinary field. Challenging medical definitions that treat individual conditions as pathologies, disability studies exposes the social, political, and economic determinants of disability as a contested designation that structures inequality. Claiming Disability not only affirmed the relevance of disability to the humanities but also cultivated community by making apparent the shared realities of individuals with different impairments, too often characterized as living lives of tragedy, shame, and suffering. In her book, Linton wrote, “We are bound together, not by a list of our collective symptoms but by the social and political circumstances that have forged us as a group.” Linton’s memoir My Body Politic provides personal insight into an often invisible world, documents the evolution of her identity politics, and celebrates the pleasures associated with coming out as a disabled woman. Simi Linton promotes an inclusive, egalitarian society. Her scholarship and creative endeavors aim to transform narrow conceptions of beauty and movement; to legitimize alternative forms of selfexpression; and to establish greater public presence of disabled people on college campuses, onstage, and as parents, partners, and professionals. Her work encourages dialogue on policy issues. For instance, she presents on the forgotten history of disabled people exterminated at the advent of the Holocaust and engages politically against the selective availability of physician-assisted suicide based on faulty presumptions that a life with disability is not worth living. In collaboration with others, Linton has advocated for greater attention to the legal and personal complexities confronting a new generation of disabled veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and navigating purposeful lives in politicized bodies.

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Her current project is a documentary film titled Invitation to Dance. The film brings the disability arts movement to the screen, and simultaneously reveals the lived experience of disability. Invitation to Dance is based on Linton’s memoir, My Body Politic. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Disability Definitions; Film Directors, Female: United States; Iraq; Peace Movement; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Linton, Simi. Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Linton, Simi. My Body Politic: A Memoir. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. “Simi Linton.” http://www.similinton.com (accessed May 2010). Michelle R. Nario-Redmond Hiram College Kathryn C. Oleson Reed College

Lithuania Lithuania’s post–World War I independence ended with annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940. Fifty years later, in 1990, Lithuania reclaimed its independence, even before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. By 2004, Lithuania had become a member of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Ethnic Lithuanians are the dominant group in the country, comprise 83.4 percent of the population, but there also are small groups of Polish (6.7 percent) and Russians (6.3 percent). Almost 80 percent of Lithuanians are Roman Catholic. By 2008, 67 percent of Lithuanians lived in urban areas. Women’s rights groups have been active since the late 19th century, and women won the right to vote in 1920. However, activism was outlawed under Communism. Since the early 1990s, women’s rights groups have reasserted themselves. According to the constitution and the law, females have equal rights of property, inheritance and opportunity. In reality, women lag behind men in almost every field.

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Domestic violence and human trafficking are of major concern. After a period of prosperity, the recent global economic downturn adversely impacted Lithuania with unemployment rising from 4.8 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2009. At the same time, per capita income dropped from $18,000 to $15,000. Four percent of the population began living in poverty. Women and children are disproportionately affected by these changes. In business, women face a glass ceiling that prevents advancement into professional and managerial positions; and according to reports issued in 2008, the wage gap between men and women is 79 percent. In 1997, there were two female ministers in the 17-member cabinet. By 2008, 26 women sat in the 141-seat Parliament, but the number of women in the cabinet had declined to only one. Overall, 5 percent of mayors, 21 percent of municipal council members, and 5 percent of local administration directors were female. Infant Mortality and Domestic Violence Lithuania ranks 176th in the world in infant mortality, with a rate of 5.13 deaths per 1,000 live births for females and 7.73 deaths per 1,000 live births for males. Females maintain their health advantage, and life expectancy for females is 80.1 years compared to 69.98 years for males. The median age for women is 41.9 years. Lithuanian women have a fertility rate of 1.23 children. Lithuanians of both sexes are at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), approximately 0.1 percent, and they have an intermediate risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea through food- and waterborne diseases and tickborne encephalitis. There are no gender differences in literacy (99.6 percent), but females generally receive 17 years of schooling versus 15 years for males. Domestic violence has been a perpetual problem, and is often associated with alcohol abuse. As the result of organized crime, some females, including minors, are forced or tricked into prostitution abroad. Due to post-Communist reforms, rape, including spousal rape, carries a prison term of three to five years. Domestic violence is dealt with through regular criminal codes rather than laws designed for that purpose. A 2008 law forces perpetrators rather than the victim to leave the family residence, and the government established the National Strategy for Reduction of Domestic Violence

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against Women. With the assistance of nongovernmental organizations and the European Union, various programs were established and 39 shelters established to provide help to victims of domestic violence, forced prostitution and human trafficking. Sexual harassment is illegal in Lithuania, and victims can turn to the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman’s Office for help. However, most cases go unreported. See Also: Domestic Violence; Trafficking, Women and Children; United Nations Conferences on Women. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Lithuania.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/lh.html (accessed February 2010). Neft, Naomi and Ann D. Devine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries, 1997–1998. New York: Random House, 1997. “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997; Lithuania.” WIN News, v.24/2 (Spring 1998). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Little League The history and visibility of Little League Baseball and Softball has left an indelible mark on youth sport participation in America and throughout the world. Little League Baseball and Softball is a nonprofit organization based in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Little League, and its premier annual event the Little League World Series, is widely recognized as being the most visible producer of youth baseball and softball. Though Little League has maintained a strong presence as a preeminent provider of youth sport opportunities, it has gone through various changes since the league’s inception. Little League’s origin dates back to 1939, when it was founded by Carl Stotz as a boys-only youth baseball league. Since its inception, Little League has experienced dramatic change, including expanded

program offerings and diversity in regards to program participants throughout the United States and internationally. Under Little League International, individual member affiliates throughout the world provide baseball and softball leagues to boys and girls ages 5 to 18. Currently, both boys and girls play on Little League teams. That, however, has not always been the case. Originally only boys were allowed to participate on Little League Baseball teams. Resistance to female participation was based on factors such as the preconceived belief that girls were more prone to injury than boys, that their involvement would weaken the masculinity of the game thereby discouraging boys from playing, or claiming that the organization was a private entity. Title IX and the Aftermath Following the furtherance of female sport opportunities resulting in the passage of Title IX in 1972 and other social liberation movements, and ultimately after numerous legal battles, Little League Baseball was ordered to allow female participants. In 1974, subsequent to a court order, Elizabeth Osder became the first female to “officially” play in Little League Baseball. This watershed event opened the door for additional girls interested in participating in Little League Baseball, Little League Softball, and Senior League Softball programs as well (with the latter two established in the aftermath of this ruling). Currently Little League Baseball and Softball boasts remarkable numbers in regards to funding, participation, and corporate support. The organization is separated in a divisional structure consisting of four levels. The first level includes Local Little League affiliates, followed by District, Regional, and International Divisions. A large percentage of operational funds for Little League Baseball and Softball are provided by Little League International. Additional financial support is provided by various corporate sponsors. The majority of the processes necessary to execute Little League events are managed by a network of volunteers. Little League Baseball and Softball coaches, umpires, and scorekeepers are typically individuals who donate their time to the organization. Since its inception, Little League Baseball has evolved tremendously. Contemporary program offer-

Locavorism/Slow Food Movement



ings include developmental sport camps and multiple divisions of baseball and softball leagues for boys and girls age 5 to 18. It is presently estimated that nearly 3 million young people participate on approximately 7,400 Little League Baseball and Softball teams globally. The future of Little League Baseball and Softball appears to be bright, as the preponderance of youth sport offerings for both boys and girls will lay a foundation for involvement, development, and expansion of the sport that serves as America’s national pastime and a global phenomenon. See Also: Coaches, Female; Sports, Women in; Sports Officials, Female; Title IX. Further Readings Ardell, Jean H. Breaking Into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005. Berlage, Gai I. Women in Baseball: The Forgotten History. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994. Cohen, Marilyn. No Girls in the Clubhouse: The Exclusion of Women From Baseball. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Fields, Sarah K. Female Gladiators: Gender, Law, and Contact Sports in America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005. Little League Baseball and Softball. Structure of Little League Baseball and Softball. http://www.littleleague .org/Learn_More/About_Our_Organization/structure .htm (accessed November 2009). Ring, J. Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don’t Play Baseball. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Jason W. Lee University of North Florida Elizabeth A. Gregg Jacksonville University

Locavorism/Slow Food Movement The 20th century witnessed the growth of large corporate farms and massive industrial feed lots, along with the demise of family farms. Multinational companies became dominant in the production, packag-

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ing, and distribution of food, and American consumers became removed from the sources of their food. A back-to-the-land movement inspired by the works of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, and Helen and Scott Nearing emerged in the 1960s to 1970s. Outbreaks of foodborne diseases were not uncommon. In the late 1990s, Eric Schlosser reported some of the more unsavory practices of the meat industry, and Michael Pollan’s work made us more conscious of how our food affected our health. Consumers began to be more aware of the dangers associated with an industrialized food supply and looked for alternative means of provision. Two approaches to eating emerged from these concerns Locavores In 2001, Gary Paul Nabhan published a book in which he described a year of eating foods harvested within 250 miles of his home in Arizona. His book inspired Jessica Prentice to coin the term locavore (or localvore) to describe one who consumes locally sourced food. In 2005, she challenged the residents of the Bay Area of San Francisco to eat only from their “foodshed” for one month. Doing so was based on the belief that local food is better for both the consumer and the environment, as it required fewer miles of transport and delivered a fresher product. The San Francisco locavores defined a 100-mile radius to be their local source of food. Because of the climate, this limitation allowed the necessary quantity and diversity of foodstuff. Some items were difficult to source in that radius—for example, home-grown flour, coffee, and olive oil. Today, locavores allow for exceptions for favorite food items, as the family of writer Barbara Kingsolver did when they spent a year of eating locally. The main theme of locavorism is to attempt to eat locally as far as it is possible. This has the double benefit of supporting the local economy and securing fresher food. Critics of the local food movement, such as James E. McWilliams, point out that there are inherent geographic limitations to local eating and that local food is usually more expensive than food provided by large agribusiness. However, the locavore movement thrives today, where geography allows and where consumers are concerned about their carbon footprint. In 2007, the Oxford American Dictionary declared locavore to be the word of the year.

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Slow Food Just across the San Francisco Bay, in Berkeley, a related food movement was well in progress and was brought to the attention of Americans by Alice Waters, chef and owner of the restaurant Chez Panisse. Ms. Waters practiced locavorism in her food purchasing but also advocated for food that is prepared carefully, with a view toward sensual pleasure. Only the best ingredients are to be used, and cooking must not be rushed. She believed that food worth eating takes time to prepare and to savor. Her beliefs are shared by members of Slow Food International, of which she is vice president. Whereas locavores are concerned about where food comes from and the carbon footprint it leaves, subscribers to the Slow Food Movement are concerned with how their food is grown and prepared for consumption. The Slow Food Movement began in 1989 as a reaction to the proliferation of industrialized fast food. Carlo Petrini, a political and food activist of Bra, Italy, organized a protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant near the Spanish Steps in Rome. The protestors threw fresh macaroni—a dish that takes time to make. The Slow Food Movement has grown to an international community that claims more than 100,000 members in 132 countries, with the snail as the chosen symbol for the organization. The members are bound together with the desire to eat local, sustainable, organic food that has been carefully cooked to maximize taste. They hold against food without flavor and genetically modified food. They support food biodiversity, native planting, the preservation of heirloom seeds, and small farmers. They are a politically and socially active group that spread their ideas through their convivia, or local chapters. Slow Food efforts have led to the Terra Madre Network of producers, who gather together every two years to share information on sustainable foodways. Criticism of the Slow Food Movement usually invokes the costs involved or the time taken to prepare it. Organic fresh food is expensive, and not everyone can afford it. Prepared food from the supermarket is less expensive and easier to put together for a meal, given the fast pace of many lifestyles. Members of the Slow Food Movement would argue that the supermarket lifestyle is precisely why many humans have diseases related to diet—diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity. Members of the move-

ment might recommend that Americans slow down a bit and eat delicious slow food. See Also: Gardening; Health, Mental and Physical; Waters, Alice. Further Readings Bendrick, L. Eat Where You Live: How to Find and Enjoy Local and Sustainable Produce, No Matter Where You Live. Seattle, WA: Skipstone, 2008. Kingsolver, B., et al. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. McWilliams, J. E. Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly. Boston: Little, Brown, 2009. Namhan, G. P. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001. Petrini, C. Slow Food: The Case for Taste. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Pollan, M. Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. New York: Penguin, 2009. Pollan, M. In Defense of Food. New York: Penguin, 2009. Pollan, M. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Una Bray Skidmore College

Love Canal Love Canal has come to signify the environmental contamination of a community. Since 1978, it has been a symbol in the fight for clean communities across the nation and for the belief that the fight can be won. Worldwide, the notoriety of Love Canal has kept the grassroots environmental movement alive, encouraging residents’ awareness of and mobilization against neighborhood contamination from chemical landfills and their perceived health threats. The envisioning of Love Canal began in 1898 when William T. Love, a land developer from Knoxville, Tennessee, developed a plan to build the canal and transform Niagara Falls into an economic power for the 20th century. Love proposed a model city in



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land was deemed public space, Hooker deeded the land to the school board for $1. The deed included details of the chemicals buried in the area and directed that excavation and development of the land were unwise. After meetings between the school board and Hooker Electrochemical Company, the school board accepted the deed, thinking that the construction planned would not disturb the chemicals underground.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency photo of the cleanup efforts in the abandoned toxic neighborhood.

which his goal was to harness waterfalls to generate electricity that would attract industries. Love’s technology and development plan included using direct current to generate electricity and connecting the lower and upper Niagara River with a manmade canal. Love’s model city never materialized because economic depression gripping the country at the turn of the century which forced him into bankruptcy. Furthermore, Nikola Tesla’s invention of the alternating electric current rendered the technology of direct current obsolete. All that remained of Love’s vision was a partially finished canal that was 60 feet wide, 10 feet deep, and 3,000 feet long, used as a swimming hole in the early 1900s. Chemicals and Municipal Waste Dumped Into Canal In 1940, Hooker Electrochemical Company acquired Love’s partially completed canal for a chemical waste landfill. Between 1942 and 1953, Hooker disposed of 22,000 tons of chemical waste. The city of Niagara Falls, New York. and residents obtaining permits from the local health department also used the canal for disposing municipal waste. Company technicians believed the canal was an adequate landfill because of its cement sides and its depth. When Hooker closed the landfill in 1953, a clay cap was placed over the waste barrels and covered with grass. In 1953, the city of Niagara Falls approached Hooker about acquiring the property. Because the

Home and School Built on Canal Site In January 1954, the city of Niagara Falls began construction on the canal property with the development of the 99th Street School and surrounding residences. The houses bordered the canal on the east and west, and the school playground was located on top of the dumpsite. Underground sewer systems, basements, and roads also accompanied the construction of the new community. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, reports surfaced of children with rashes and burns on their hands and feet after playing on the school playground. Residents also complained of clogged sump pumps, strange smells, and leaking basements. In 1976, Niagara Gazette reporter, Mike Brown, became interested in the complaints and arranged for the analysis of samples of basement sludge. Analysis revealed high concentration of benzene among other dangerous chemicals. The publication of the findings sparked concerns of residents like Lois Gibbs whose son attended the 99th Street School. Concerned about the proximity of the chemical site to the school, Gibbs started a door-to-door campaign asking residents if they or their children had any health problems and when the health problems began. Health Emergency Declared Taking note, on August 2, 1978, the New York State Department of Health Commissioner, Robert Whalen, announced that a health emergency existed at Love Canal and advised the evacuation of pregnant women and children under age 2. Within that year, remedial work started immediately following the discovery of chemical migration. Because of complaints of fumes and the general frustration of residents, the state ordered a temporary relocation program initiated by New York State Department of Transportation. Residents were provided food allowances and

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living accommodations in area hotels and college dormitories. Because of concern over the high health risk to residents beyond the first two blocks closest to the canal, and much pressure from Lois Gibbs, the Homeowners Association, and local political representatives, a third evacuation took place on May 21, 1980, that included all homes within a 10-block radius of the canal. Before Love Canal, there was no discussion about contaminated communities. The social processes that occurred within this community offer an analysis of how environmental problems in communities are defined, reacted to, and remedied. Although other communities have been confronted with environmental disasters, Love Canal is the first such case in which people were evacuated and resettled. The Environmental Protection Agency conducted two habitability studies that led to resettlement of the area in 1990. Three of the seven areas in the 10-block Emergency Declaration Area were deemed not safe for residential use, but safe for light industrial purposes. To date, these areas have not been resettled, but residents who chose to remain still live there. Legislatively, Love Canal has proved to be an important precedent for grassroots activism as well as policies for brownfields redevelopment since it set forth motion that culminated in the Superfund program, which was developed as part of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, which allocates federal funds for the cleanup of dangerously contaminated sites across the nation. The placement of a chemical waste site on the list is based on the potential harm and severity of the buried material. Lois Gibbs went on to found the Citizens’ Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, a nonprofit group that has assisted numerous communities with environmental problems. She has since renamed it the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice in recognition of the fact that the antitoxics movement, inspired by Love Canal, has now joined forces with the environmental justice movement made famous by the work of Robert Bullard. Through this effort, Gibbs helped the nation to recognize the link between people’s exposure to dangerous chemicals in their communities and serious public health impacts. As a result, in 1998, on the 20th anniversary of the crisis, she received the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.

See Also: Birth Defects, Environmental Factors and; Cancer, Environmental Factors and; Cancer, Women and; Gibbs, Lois. Further Readings Brown, M. Laying Waste: The Poisoning of America by Toxic Chemicals. New York: Pantheon. 1979. Brown, M. “Red Tape Stalls Dump Solution.” Niagara Gazette (February 5, 1978). Brown, M. “Unreasonable: Newspaper Editorial Niagara Falls, New York.” Niagara Gazette (September 16, 1979). Bullard, R. Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990. Levine, A. Love Canal: Science, Politics, People. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1982. Dara Nix-Stevenson University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Luxembourg Luxembourg is a landlocked country in central Europe sharing borders with Germany, France, and Belgium. It has long been involved in international trade cooperation, beginning with the Benelux Customs Union in 1948 (with Belgium and the Netherlands) and was a founding member of the European Economic Community. The population of about half a million is primarily Roman Catholic (87 percent). Luxembourg has a stable and diversified economy and in 2009 had a per capita Gross Domestic Product of $77,660, the third highest in the world. Much of the labor force is foreign or cross-border workers from neighboring European countries, and Luxembourg has one of the highest net migration rates in the world at 8.44 per 1,000 population. The World Economic Forum ranks Luxembourg in the middle third of countries on gender equality. On a scale from 0 (inequality) to 1 (perfect equality) Luxembourg in 2009 achieved an overall score of 0.689 (63rd out of 134 countries). The country received scores of 1.00 for educational attainment (tied for highest in the world), .973 for health and survival (80th), 0.638 for economic participation and opportunity (73rd), and 0.144 for political empowerment (57th).



Literacy stands at 100 percent for both men and women in Luxembourg, and women are more likely than men to be enrolled in tertiary education. About 60 percent of women in Luxembourg are in the labor force, versus 75 percent of men, and women constitute 43 percent of the nonagricultural labor force. Women earn about 70 percent of what men do for the same work and overall earn about 55 percent of what men do. As of 2009, women held a third of the seats in Luxembourg’s Parliament and 17 percent of government ministry positions. Luxembourg provides excellent maternal and childcare and services, and all births are attended by trained staff. Infant mortality is extremely low at 3 per 1,000 live births as is maternal mortality, at 12 per 100,000 live births. Mothers are entitled to 16 weeks of maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages. Save the Children ranked Luxembourg 9th among 43 Tier I or more developed countries on its Children’s Index, 28th on its Mothers’ Index, and 34th on its Women’s Index.

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See Also: Liechtenstein; Maternal Mortality; Representation of Women in Government, International; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Luxembourg.” https://www.cia.gov/library/pub lications/the-world-factbook/geos/lu.html (accessed July 2010). Eccardt, Thomas M. Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2004. Reid, Andrew. Luxembourg: The Clog-Shaped Duchy: A Chronological History of Luxembourg From the Celts to the Present Day. Self-published, AuthorHouse, 2005. Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

M Maathai, Wangari Wangari Muta Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, is an activist for environmental conservation, democracy, and women’s rights; a professor; and a former Kenyan parliamentarian. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work as a political advocate who helped combat poverty and deforestation by organizing women to plant millions of trees. Maathai was born on April 1, 1940, the third of six children, along with several half siblings, in a small village near Nyeri, Kenya. Her parents were subsistence farmers who belonged to the largest ethnic group in Kenya at the time, the Kikuyu. Maathai’s father and his four wives moved their family to Nakuru in 1943 to live on land owned by a European settler, who employed Maathai’s father as a driver and mechanic. At age 11, Maathai attended a Catholic boarding school in Kenya until she won a scholarship to Mount St. Scholastic College in Kansas, where she graduated in 1964 with a degree in biology. She went on to earn a master of science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966. Her doctoral work included 20 months at the University of Giessen in Germany and about 2 years at the University of Nairobi, where she became the first woman in East Africa to earn a Ph.D., in 1971, and joined the faculty, teaching veterinary anatomy. She became department chair in 1976.

Maathai was married to Mwangi Maathai, a Kenyan businessman and politician, from 1969 until their divorce in 1979, and together they have three children. In 1977, she began growing trees in her backyard and soon gave seedlings to local women, paying them to start their own nurseries. In Kenya, women gather firewood for cooking, and Maathai saw her tree-planting program as a way to help women while saving deforested lands. Today, the Greenbelt Movement has helped create thousands of nurseries and has helped plant more than 40 million trees on community lands in Kenya alone. Political Life Maathai often protested the Kenyan government’s attempts to limit democracy and destroy the environment, despite the retaliatory beatings and jail time she received. Later, she worked within the government to effect change. She was elected to Kenya’s Parliament and served from 2002 to 2007, including an appointment as assistant minister for environment and natural resources from 2003 to 2007. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Maathai has received numerous awards, including France’s highest honor, Legion d’Honneur, in 2006, and honorary degrees from universities worldwide. She served the boards of more than a dozen organizations, including the National Council of Women of Kenya, and the Women and Environment Development Organization. She has served the United Nations in several 871

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capacities, including its commissions on governance and the future and on the U.N. Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament. In 2009, Maathai became a U.N. Messenger of Peace. Her most recent book is The Challenge for Africa, published in 2009. See Also: Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Green Belt Movement; Kenya; Women and Environment Development Organization. Further Readings Greenbelt Movement. http://www.greenbeltmovement .org (accessed July 2010). Maathai, Wangari. The Challenge for Africa. New York: Pantheon, 2009. Maathai, Wangari. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. New York: Lantern Books, 2003. Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed: A Memoir. New York: Knopf, 2006. Carolyn Edy University of North Carolina

Macedonia (FYROM) In 1991, after peacefully separating from Yugoslavia, Macedonia entered into a conflict with Greece over its new name. A compromise was reached, designating the newly independent country as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, better known simply as Macedonia. National Statistics In recent years, Macedonia has struggled economically, reporting a minus 2.4 percent real growth rate and 35 percent unemployment in 2009. Also last year, per capita income was estimated at $9,000, and almost a third of the population lived in poverty. Approximately 67 percent of the citizenry lives in urban areas, but a fifth of the Gross National Product was still derived from the agricultural sector. Two-thirds of the population, 64.2 percent, is Macedonian and 25.2 percent are Albanian. Almost 65 percent of the population are Macedonian Orthodox and one-third is

Muslim. Macedonian women have equal rights with males according to both the Constitution and legal codes, however, customs continue to dictate a secondary role for women. The Department of Gender Equality is responsible for protecting women’s legal rights. In the 1990s, women, working chiefly through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), became heavily involved in promoting social, political, health, and cultural improvements for women. Despite that work, major problems surround the issues of domestic violence and human trafficking. Mothers have legal rights with fathers where children are concerned, but little information is available as to whether or not those rights exist in practice. Although women do have equal inheritance and property rights, vast inequities exist in practice. Among Albanian women living in Macedonian, many have had suffrage rights usurped by male family members who cast proxy votes on their behalf. Macedonian law guarantees a third of party seats to women; and out of 120 seats in Parliament, 38 are female. However, only two women sit on the 22-member cabinet. Macedonia ranks 158th in the world in infant mortality, with a rate of 9.01 deaths per 1,000 live births. The life expectancy for women is of 77.38 years compared to 72.18 for males. The median age for females is 36.2 years. Macedonian women have a fertility rate of 1.58 children. Males are more likely to be literate than females, 98.2 percent compared to 94.1 percent, but there is no gender difference in levels of education. Domestic violence is a major social problem, but it has not been not been adequately addressed. Since it is considered a family rather than a legal issue, only limited official help is available. Researchers have demonstrated the prevalence of psychological abuse of women in Macedonia. While NGOs do provide some assistance, their ability to help is limited by lack of resources. Macedonia serves as a transit point for human trafficking from eastern Europe to the Middle East and western Europe. All forms of rape are illegal, but many cases, particularly those involving the rape of spouses, are not reported. Even when reported, few cases are prosecuted because of strict laws concerning proof. Prostitution is illegal, but laws are rarely enforced. The same is true of sexual harassment laws. See Also: Domestic Violence; Trafficking, Women and Children; United Nations Conferences on Women.

Machismo/Marianismo

Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Macedonia.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/mk.html (accessed February 2010). Copic, S. “Wife Abuse in the Countries of the Former Yugoslavia.” Feminist Review, v.76 (April 2004). Neft, N. and A. D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries, 1997–1998. New York: Random House, 1997. Nicolic, Ristanovic. “Sex Trafficking: The Impact of War, Militarism, and Globalization in Eastern Europe.” Michigan Feminist Studies, v.17 (2003). Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Macedonia, FYR.” http:// genderindex.org/country/macedonia-fyr (accessed February 2010). U.S. State Department. “2008 Human Rights Report: Macedonia.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eur/119091.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Machismo/Marianismo Machismo and marianismo are ideological constructions, originating in 19th-century Spanish and Latin America, which serve as a model for gender relations. Machismo refers to an idealized understanding of male behavior and power while marianismo is the term for the corresponding female role. The terms are predicated on a heightened and exaggerated masculinity and femininity. While often naturalized as the innate roles of men and women, machismo and marianismo are culturally and historically specific. These constructions arose at the same time as the Victorian ideal of separate spheres, with men in the public world of finance and politics and women in the private sphere of the home. Machismo and marianismo are a Latin American variant that first appeared in the 1800s and are still prevalent today in altered forms. While the ideology and understandings of male and female differences encouraged rigid gender roles, both sexes, nonetheless, behaved,

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and continue to behave, in a range of ways often at odds with gender norms. Thus, the practice does not always reflect the ideology. Moreover, gender relations and the accompanying ideology are not static, not only evolving over generations but changing within the lifetimes of individuals. Machismo and marianismo are two sides of the same coin; each of them cannot exist or be understood without the other. The practice of machismo implicitly relies on notions of “proper” womanhood, and similarly, the definition of marianismo can only be understood in relation to a macho masculinity. In most basic form, they are the ideological and cultural expressions of male domination and female subordination. As such, they both espouse limited roles and experiences for men and women, creating a binary understanding of the two groups. They are predicated on the notion of separate realms for men and women and in most ways are stereotypical and one dimensional. Origin and Historic Understanding The two terms and the system of gender relations they describe are rooted in the colonial period in Latin America. While men inhabited the worlds of politics, economics, and public institutions, women were taught to emulate the Virgin Mary, particularly her spirituality and her role as intercessor. Within the colonial legal system, the Spanish crown granted women limited legal rights and defined a secondary role for them that relegated them to the home, family, and church. Although, in practice, women and men behaved in a myriad of ways, the ideology and legal system served to relegate each to his or her place. This system was rooted in fears concerning female chastity because legitimate birth was the primary means by which status and wealth were inherited and reproduced. Thus, machismo and marianismo were deeply connected to historic understandings of honor and shame in which a man’s honor was based on the virtue of his mother, sister, or wife and his willingness to defend these through violence if necessary. Perhaps the most notable example of a woman who exceeded her role was La Malinche, who served as translator, strategist, and mistress to Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico. A counterpoint to the Virgin Mary, she was vilified for her role in these and

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other activities, exemplifying the fate of women who involved themselves in political and military affairs. In the 19th century, gender constructs transferred the religious spirit inherent in the worship of the Virgin Mary to secular motherhood. The counterpoint of this is the woman gone bad, the “whore,” the “slut,” and in Mexico, La Malinche. These categories create limited and static definitions of womanhood. In practice, they are often challenged, negotiated, and denied. The 19th century brought the dismantling of the colonial state throughout Latin America, and at the same time, machismo and marianismo emerged as an explicit ideology. Although this political change brought about new roles for women, there were significant continuities in the roles of men and women between the colonial and the modern period. In both systems, women remained legally, socially, and economically dependent upon men. Nonetheless, there was considerable change in gender roles, and the evolving gender ideology should be understood within the context of modernizing states and capitalist development. Masculine Behavior and Power Machismo is a cultural phenomenon that varies across space, time, ethnic group, age, and social class. It is an expression of masculine power and is predicated on a series of limited and conventional understandings of masculine behavior. Based on the concept of an “innate” masculinity, the defining attributes of “macho” are courage, invulnerability, honor, sexual prowess and fertility, the latter linked to what is considered to be a sexual drive much higher than that of women. Within this schema, men are responsible for protecting and providing for their families, allowing their wives, mothers, sisters, and children to remain safely within the boundaries of the home. In this view, the sanctity of the home is threatened by the rampant sexuality of other men and the harsh realities of politics, business, and the world in general. It is the duty and obligation of the man, the husband, father, or son, to protect the women and children within it. Marianismo, in turn, is generally considered to complement machismo in that a passive and longsuffering woman submits herself to the dominance of the male. It suggests that the subordination of women

is a sacred obligation. The ideology of marianismo is based on the notion of an idealized womanhood in which women are semi-divine, morally superior, and spiritually stronger than their male counterparts. As such, they willingly deny their own individuality and humbly sacrifice themselves for their husbands and children. Invoking the intercessory role of the Virgin Mary, women serve as the moral compass for their families, interceding for sinful husbands and guiding the clan on the road to salvation. Within the confines of the home, women wield power through household and family yet the power is, ultimately, based on abnegation. The ideology of marianismo may offer women a private realm in which they have power as well as a sense of identity and continuity with the past, thus explaining why women submit to the norm. Yet, on balance, the rigid sexual division of labor and relegation of women to the private sphere has serious, negative consequences for women. In the modern period, men often care for children and women work outside the home. This is especially true for those who need two incomes to maintain a family. Indeed, the gender ideology is generally understood to be largely confined to the middle and upper classes and a means to enforce class and race as well as gender ideology. For these classes, the sexual division of labor often excludes women from more lucrative economic roles, and therefore, female dependence on men is increased and the relegation of women to the home more commonplace. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Mexico. Further Readings Arrom, Sylivia. The Women of Mexico City. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985. Ascencio, Marysol W. “Machos and Sluts: Gender, Sexuality, and Violence Among a Cohort of Puerto Rican Adolescents.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly: New Series, v.13/1 (1999). Collier, Jane F. “From Mary to Modern Woman: The Material Basis of Marianismo and Its Transformation in the Spanish Village.” American Ethnologist, v.13/1 (1986). Ehlers, Tracy Bachrach. “Debunking Marianismo: Economic Vulnerability and Survival Strategies Among Guatemalan Wives.” Ethnology, v.30/1 (1999).

Madagascar



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Gutmann, Matthew C. The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Sara Katherine Sanders University of Oxford

Madagascar The Republic of Madagascar is located off the southeastern coast of Africa. The population is a mixture of ethnicities and religions. Women generally have influence in society, have access to good medical care, and do not face widespread domestic violence. However, women still face traditional subservient gender roles and wage-earning gaps and do not occupy top-level positions in business and government. Madagascar ranked 78th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Arranged marriages and polygyny have decreased in prominence in recent years. The 2009 fertility rate was high, at 4.8 births per woman, and skilled healthcare practitioners attend 45 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 72 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate was 510 per 100,000 live births. State social insurance and employers provide women with 14 weeks of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages. Only 27 percent of married women use contraceptives. Divorce is common, with property acquired during marriage divided equally. The population is primarily rural and lower class. There are both nuclear and extended families as well as single-parent female-headed households, the numbers of which are increasing. Fathers are the main authority in families in Madagascar, and women and children perform most domestic chores. Education is compulsory from ages 6 to 14 years, but many rural children, whose work is needed in agriculture, do not attend. Female school attendance rates stand at 99 percent at the primary level but drop to 21 percent at the secondary level and 3 percent at the tertiary level. There is also a gender gap in the literacy rate, which stands at 65 percent for women and 77 percent for men. Problems include malnourishment and

A young woman from the village of Amkarinomby demonstrates how she weaves hats, baskets, and purses.

inadequate healthcare. Life expectancy is 50 years for women and 47 years for men. Eighty-four percent of women participate in the labor force, but most rely on their husbands for financial support. Women make up 38 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 43 percent of professional and technical workers. Key employers include agriculture, education, services, and artisan crafts. A gender gap still exists in the average estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which stands at $723 for women and $1,034 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 3.49 percent for women and 1.74 percent for men. There is a social security system for wage earners. Women have the right to vote, and recent laws have addressed women’s issues such as equal pay. Women

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hold 9 percent of parliamentary seats and 13 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Marriages, Arranged; Polygamy, Cross-Cultural; Rural Women. Further Readings Cole, Jennifer. Sex and Salvation: Imagining the Future in Madagascar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Huntington, R. Gender and Social Structure in Madagascar. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. Sharp, Lesley A. The Possessed and the Dispossessed : Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Maddow, Rachel Rachel Maddow (born April 1, 1973) is an American political commentator and cable news anchor and, until recently, a radio talk show host. She is known for her liberal political leanings and acerbic wit as host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC TV, a role she has had since September 2008. Maddow’s relationship with MSNBC began in 2005 when she became a regular contributor to The Situation With Tucker Carlson. She was also a regular commentator and occasional guest host on Race for the White House With David Gregory and a frequent guest and sometime guest host on Countdown With Keith Olbermann. She was on the air with Air America Radio from its inception in spring 2004 through 2010, first on “Unfiltered” with Lizz Winstead (cocreator of The Daily Show) and Chuck D (of hip-hop group Public Enemy), and then with her own eponymous show. Her first job hosting a radio show came after she entered and won a contest sponsored by WRNX in Holyoke, Massachusetts, to find a new on-air personality. WRNX hired her to cohost the popular The Dave in the Morning Show. In 2002 she joined WRSI in Northampton, Massachusetts as a morning show host.

Before Maddow began her career in broadcasting, she earned a B.A. in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. After graduation, she received a Rhodes scholarship and began studying at Lincoln College at Oxford University in 1995. She graduated with a D.Phil. in politics in 2001 after completing a dissertation titled “HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons.” Professional and Community Service Maddow is known for being a dedicated human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and prisoners’ rights activist and is regularly honored for her professional and community service. In 2008, Maddow was included in Out Magazine’s “Out 100: Gay Men and Women Who Moved Culture” and was named to the magazine’s Annual Power 50 List the following year. In 2009, she received a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; her MSNBC show was the only cable news show nominated for a Television Critics Association award in the Outstanding Achievement in News and Information category. In March 2010, Maddow won a Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Award in the category Outstanding TV Journalism—Newsmagazine for her segment, “Uganda Be Kidding Me.” Bartending is a skill that Maddow holds dear, often crafting cocktails when she appears as a guest on other talk shows, such as Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, as well as on her own. The Rachel Maddow Bar was a feature of the 2009 White House Correspondents Dinner After-Party, hosted by MSNBC at the Washington Historical Society. Maddow made up her own creative cocktails for the event. She splits her time between Manhattan and western Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula. See Also: Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Journalists, Broadcast Media; Lesbians. Further Readings Lehoczky, Etelka. “Left and Centered: Air America’s Rachel Maddow Is Out, Brilliant, and Ready to Defend the Other L Word: Liberal.” The Advocate (August 2004). Lehoczky, Etelka. Rachel Maddow: A Neowonk Guide to the Leftist, Lesbian Pundit. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace, 2009.

Madonna

Traister, Rebecca. “Rachel Maddow’s Life and Career.” The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080818/ traister (accessed April 2010). Katie M. White University of Maryland, College Park

Madonna Born Madonna Louise Ciccone on August 16, 1958, into an Italian American Catholic family, Madonna grew up to become one of the most powerful and iconic women in the American music entertainment industry. In the wake of second wave feminism, Madonna achieved great critical and commercial success by carving out a niche for the sexually empowered and entrepreneurial female popstar. Scandal and controversy have followed Madonna throughout her career. Along with creating catchy pop songs, Madonna is well known for her provocative music videos (e.g., Like a Virgin, Papa Don’t Preach, Like a Prayer, Justify My Love), which helped make MTV a household name in the 1980s. During the critically lauded Blonde Ambition Tour in 1990, a public furor erupted over one particular performance in which she simulated masturbation on stage. Madonna continued to gain the ire of social conservatives by performing fellatio on a bottle in the 1991 documentary Truth or Dare, which gave the public a backstage look into the singer’s personal life. Beyond the Music Sphere These public acts of sexual defiance culminated with the 1992 release of Sex, a highly stylized collection of photos depicting Madonna in various sexual scenarios with both women and men, some of whom were celebrities. Many critics attacked Madonna for her immorality and demanded the book be censored, while her fans applauded her bisexual transgressions as a celebration of human sexuality. Madonna’s legitimacy was further challenged in 2008 when she became a Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame inductee. The media debate centered on Madonna’s contributions to rock, or lack thereof, and whether her mass commercial appeal and popular music warranted such a prestigious recognition.

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Not satisfied with her role as musical pop star, Madonna has successfully expanded her empire by delving into the worlds of fashion, writing and directing, publishing, and acting. While her acting career has generally not been well-received, there are notable exceptions such as her acting role in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), praised by many feminist scholars for raising important questions about the female gaze and desire in patriarchal Hollywood cinema, and Evita (1997), for which she received a Golden Globe Nomination for best actress in a comedy/musical. Madonna’s cultural influence has been profound and pervasive, as her multiple transformations and controversies have attracted the attention of numerous scholars working in a variety of fields, namely feminist and queer theory, cultural studies, film and media studies. Scholarly debates about Madonna encompass a broad spectrum of topics, such as subcultural appropriation, the politics of representation, the male gaze, body modification, reception studies, and postmodernism. Critical studies of Madonna reveal her—as symbol, image, and brand—to be a critical nexus for the exploration of contemporary attitudes about sexuality, gender, race, consumer culture, and feminism. Throughout her career, Madonna has also lent her name to numerous social causes, most notably her human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) advocacy work in the 1980s. She played an important role in bringing attention to the issues and helped humanize the experiences of the many gay men who were living with and dying from the disease, at a time when they were being vilified in the media. Recently, Madonna has focused much time and money raising awareness about the plight of children in developing countries, namely Malawi, the birthplace of her two adopted children, son David Banda and daughter Mercy James. Given Madonna’s history in the public eye, the adoptions have also been questioned and debated. See Also: Adoption; Celebrity Women; Censorship; HIV/ AIDS: North America; Malawi; MTV; Queer Theory; Rock Music, Women in. Further Readings Cross, Mary. Madonna: A Biography. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007.

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Mistry, Reena. “Madonna and Gender Trouble.” Theory. org.uk. http://www.theory.org.uk/madonna.htm (accessed October 2009). Schwichtenberg, Cathy, ed. The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992. Stacey, Jackie. Desperately Seeking Difference. The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture. London: Women’s Press, 1988. Natasha Patterson Simon Fraser University

MADRE MADRE, Spanish for the word mother, is an organization created, advised, and sustained by women. By 2010, MADRE boasted a membership of over 25,000 and thus functions as a strong international political force. MADRE’s slogan, “Demanding rights, resources and results for women worldwide,” supports the mission of “advancing women’s human rights by meeting immediate needs and building lasting solutions for communities in crisis,” as advertised on the MADRE Website. The organization examines, in particular, U.S. foreign policy and how it affects women and children around the world. In 1983, a group of Nicaraguan women invited some American women to witness their war-dominated lives. Nicaraguan women, ceaselessly threatened by the Contra War, sought help from the United States because the United States helped fund the Contra militias and was thus partly responsible for the violence in Nicaragua during the early 1980s. Unsettled and shocked by what they witnessed, some of the women who had visited Nicaragua founded MADRE and vowed to educate Americans about the ramifications of U.S.-sponsored policies throughout the world and how those policies affected women who found themselves ravaged by war and its accompanying violence. Since the organization’s inception in the early 1980s, MADRE has assisted women in countries including Mexico, Pakistan, Lebanon, Haiti, Colombia, Cuba, Kenya, and many others. Since the beginning of the 21st century, MADRE has increased efforts to combat problems affecting

women around the world. MADRE prides itself on not opening new offices in the countries in which it supports projects; instead, the countries receiving assistance from MADRE build their own programs and thus sustain and expand existing efforts into successful organizations that also champion the rights of women. The organization does provide relief and protection in critical situations; once any urgency has been addressed, MADRE encourages women to work toward change. Current Projects MADRE classifies its projects into three primary categories: Women’s Health/Combating Violence Against Women, Peace Building, and Economic/ Environmental Justice. Some of the current projects in the Women’s Health/Combating Violence Against Women include the Afghan Women’s Survival Fund and the Safe Birth Project (based in Palestine). The Afghan Women’ Survival Fund supports an escape network that has saved the lives of many women fleeing from Afghanistan. The Safe Birth Project supports the Midwives for Peace Organization, which helps Palestinian women deliver babies safely (they are often prohibited from going to hospitals by the Israeli military, who also deliberately keep ambulances from reaching Palestinian women in labor). Protecting the Children of War is one of MADRE’s Peace Building programs; the program combats the exploitation of children in Colombia who, at ages as young as 8, are being recruited to serve as soldiers in various conflicts. Women Farmers Unite qualifies as Economic/Environmental Justice Programming. Women Farmers Unite provides assistance to female farmers in Sudan by giving them the resources to grow food, rather than only supplying them with food. The results of this program have been especially promising, since MADRE’s assistance has helped female farmers produce more food and become more self-reliant. MADRE assists preexisting organizations in various countries to help advance and to protect the rights of women. Some of the organizations MADRE has partnered with are LUNDU in Peru, Daughters of the Stars in Panama, the Indigenous Information Network in Kenya, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, the Women Workers’ Committee of Guatemala, and Taller de Vida in Colombia.

Mail-Order Brides



Though MADRE’s primary mission is to offer support to women and children in need, the organization also works tirelessly to educate the public about human rights in general. The organization’s Website provides scores of links to credible, detailed articles concerning atrocities affecting women and children. The Website provides a link to their own “Press Room,” under which several article called “Talking Points” are categorized. Each “Talking Points” article provides a detailed history of the conflict examined (like “Women in Afghanistan: Confronting the Legacy of U.S.-Supported Extremism” or “Iraq: Six Years of ‘Liberation’ and an Epidemic of Violence Against Women”) and also discusses the ramifications of the United States’ involvement in the conflict. MADRE, admired for bringing relief and assistance to women and children around the world, must also be reckoned with as a growing and empowering political force. By educating people about the consequences of U.S. foreign policy, MADRE creates awareness of and ultimately champions human rights on an international level. See Also: Arab Feminism; Human Rights Campaign; Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan; Violence Against Women Act; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Women’s Resource Centers. Further Readings Association for Women’s Rights in Development. http:// www.awid.org/eng (accessed July 2010). MADRE. www.madre.org (accessed June 2010). Sontag, Debra. “Sexual Assaults Add to Miseries of Haiti’s Ruins.” The New York Times (June 24, 2010). Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Mail-Order Brides A mail-order bride is a woman who advertises her availability for marriage—either in a paper-based catalog or more recently on the Internet—and then subsequently marries a man, usually from another, more wealthy country. The common perception is of mail-order brides as desperate, passive women and of

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the men who “purchase” wives as inadequate, unable to get a wife any other way. The reality is sometimes more complicated. Historically, mail-order brides were likely to come from more developed countries; they married men who themselves had previously traveled abroad to farm, to mine, or otherwise start a new life. The women who chose this path to marriage did so because they thought they could achieve a better lifestyle than if they remained at home����������������� —���������������� as either a married or single woman. Similarly today, mail-order brides are hoping for a better life in terms of more financial security through their husband, or maybe even a job of their own. They are now, however, more likely to originate from developing countries and marry men from wealthier countries such as the United States (the largest importer of mail-order brides), Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, among others. The majority of mail-order brides are from southeast Asia, including the Philippines (exporter of more brides per year than any other country), from nations of the former Soviet Union; and from Latin America. Before the advent of the Internet, women typically placed paid advertisements in magazines and catalogs, but nowadays the vast majority of potential mail-order brides advertise online—although the “shopping for” and “purchase” of mail-order brides may still involve physical as well as virtual tourism. Men who advertise themselves similarly for marriage have been referred to as mail-order husbands, but this is a much less common practice. Stereotypical Assumptions The practice of mail-order marriage is controversial, not least because it draws upon traditional expectations of femininity and female behavior, and masculinity and male behavior. Stereotypes are often used to advertise potential brides, with men being offered a “traditional” relationship with a woman who meets the so-called feminine ideal as beautiful, exotic, and passive; for example: • Where can you meet exotic Asian women? • Foreign Brides, International Russian Women, Oriental Girls, and Latin Ladies. • AsianDate.com—Meet 1,000 Asian Women online. (various Website advertisements).

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• Our membership program is designed for single men looking for mail-order brides who are beautiful, significantly younger, educated, unspoiled by feminism, and whose culture is one of support and respect. (Website ad) On the other hand, prospective husbands are sometimes warned of the extra financial outlay attached to women of certain nationalities; for example: • Whereas a Thai is unprepared for cold German winters—one has to buy her clothes—a Pole brings her own boots and fur coat. And she is as good in bed and as industrious in the kitchen. (Website advertisement) These and other such examples suggest that the use of the Internet and catalogs to buy and sell brides demonstrates a continuation of unequal gender relationships. In support of this, when wives are “bought” rather than attracted in ways that are thought to be “natural,” their purchase is likely to attract hostility, ridicule, or moral censure. However, it is important not to take these stereotypes at face value. The popular discourse surrounding men who buy brides is that they are pathetic and inadequate, unable to attract a woman by the more accepted routes of Western courtship. However, studies show that many such men are college or university educated and economically and professionally successful, thus, stereotypically at least, “eligible” to women in their own communities and countries. Possibly then, the issue is not whether the men themselves are appropriate husband material, but that they themselves are rejecting contemporary Western marriages and courtships. In support of this, surveys suggest that many men who marry women via mail-order bride services are seeking a wife who shares their desire for traditional values: that is, to be homemaker for a bread-winner husband. Supporting and Challenging the Stereotypes Popular discourses surrounding women who offer themselves as brides are frequently judgmental and disapproving, often positioning the women as victims of their husbands and the agencies that advertise them. Indeed, there is evidence of trafficking of

women for marriage and of mail-order brides being abused, even killed by their husbands. However, rather than viewing all women on mail-order Internet sites as victimized and exploited, it is possible to argue that for some, seeking such a match may be an act of agency. Admittedly an act of limited agency, for truly free women would not need to seek such a marriage, but it may be the only kind of agency available to women who are entrapped in social and economic structures that limit their life opportunities. The “ideal family”—a father, mother, and their children living together—is enshrined in legal, social, religious, and economic systems; promoted in advertising; referred to by government, and reflected in housing and social policy. This in turn reinforces the view of this type of family form as “normal,” “natural,” and “inevitable,” which leads to prejudice and discrimination toward those who are not part of families that meet this “ideal.” Ironically, mail-order bride or mail-order husband families are attempting to create this “ideal,” but are still condemned by some as “unnatural.” See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Internet Dating; Marriage; Stereotypes of Women; Wedding Industry. Further Readings Johnson, Erika. Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband. Russian-American Internet Romance. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. Letherby, Gayle and Jennifer Marchbank. “Cyber-Chattels: Buying Brides and Babies on the Net.” In Y. Jewkes, ed., Dot.cons: Crime, Deviance and Identity on the Internet. Devon, UK: Willan Publishing, 2003. So, C. “Asian Mail-Order Brides, the Threat of Global Capitalism, and the Rescue of the U.S. Nation-State.” Feminist Studies, v.32/2 (2006). Gayle Letherby University of Plymouth

Mairs, Nancy Nancy Mairs is a feminist poet, memoirist, and essayist. Although Mairs has written about diverse subjects, she is best known for her writings about life as



a disabled person. Diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) at age 28, she has lived most of her adult life dealing with the limitations her disease and society’s response to the disabled impose. Beginning with her much anthologized essay “On Being a Cripple,” first published in Plaintext (1986), her first collection of essays, Mairs has written candidly about living with MS. Born July 23, 1943, in Long Beach, California, Mairs grew up in Boston, the daughter of John and Anne Pedrick Smith, a naval officer and a tax collector. In 1963, she married George Mairs, a teacher; and in 1964, she graduated cum laude from Wheaton College. A decade later, after working as an editor at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard Law School, Mairs moved with her husband and two young children to Tucson, Arizona, where she entered graduate school at the University of Arizona, earning the M.F.A. in creative writing (poetry) in 1975 and the Ph.D. in English literature in 1984. Distinctive Writing Style Garners Critical Praise Mairs’ earliest publications were two volumes of poetry, but it was her essays that garnered the most prestigious critical attention. Plaintext (1986), autobiographical essays written for her doctoral dissertation, earned a positive review from a New York Times Book Review critic, and others soon followed, praising Mairs for her honesty, astringency, complexity, and wit. Remembering the Bone-House (1989) was even more openly autobiographical, covering such subjects as former lovers, motherhood, and illness. In Carnal Acts (1990), Mairs continued with what was becoming her trademark disconcerting candor, considering the effects of the progressive debilitation of MS. Even in essay collections that focused on other topics, Mairs disclosed intimate details of her life. Ordinary Time (1993), a spiritual autobiography, includes accounts of adultery (both Mairs’s and her husband’s). Voice Lessons (1994) examines her creative process and the shaping of her “voice” and of the role her particular circumstances as reader, student, daughter, wife, and mother played in forming her voice. Her next book, Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled (1996) is Mairs’s take on life in a wheelchair. Determined to make readers see the wholly human, flawed, and privileged person in the

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motorized chair, Mairs uses comedy, passion, and an uncommon wisdom to ruminate on sex, nurturance, the right to life and death, the power of language, and the importance of advocacy. In A Troubled Guest: Life and Death Stories (2001), Mairs explores death and dying both in ethical issues such as euthanasia and capital punishment and in her own life, ranging from the death of a beloved pet to her parents’ deaths to her own suicide attempt and the murder of her foster son. Religious Experimentation Her 2007 book, A Dynamic God: Living an Unconventional Catholic Faith, draws upon her experience as a member of a group that experiments with Catholic liturgy, celebrates mass in members’ homes, and shares a commitment to social justice that is rooted in the group’s origins in the Sanctuary Movement, a religious/political movement in the United States during the 1980s that sheltered Central American refugees from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Mairs describes her theology as subversive and admits to believing in randomness rather than reason to explain her disease that now in an advanced stage has left her a quadriplegic who finds reading and writing increasingly difficult. After living for more than 35 years with a disease that leaves her more and more a self-described “body in trouble,” Mairs continues to display an ability to find humor in the midst of suffering and the sacred in the midst of the commonplace. See Also: Disability Definitions; Health, Mental and Physical; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Heffern, Rich. “Nancy Mairs: The Spirituality of a Body in Trouble.” National Catholic Reporter (October 5, 2007). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/ is_40_43/ai_n27406612/?tag=content;col1 (accessed March 2010). Mairs, Nancy. A Dynamic God: Living an Unconventional Catholic Faith. Boston: Beacon Press, 2008. Mairs, Nancy. Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled. Boston: Beacon Press, 1997. Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

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Malawi

Malawi Malawi is a landlocked nation of 15 million people in southern Africa, sharing borders with Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. Malawi became independent from Great Britain in 1964. It is one of the poorest countries in the world (its 2009 Gross Domestic Product was $900 per capita), and more than half the country lives below the poverty line. Most of the population is Christian (79.9 percent), with 12.8 percent Muslim. Life expectancy is among the lowest in the world, at 49.39 years for men and 50.67 years for women. A high fertility rate (5.59 children per women, the 14th highest in the world) results in an extremely low

median age of 16.8 years; 45.8 percent of the population is 14 years or younger. The population growth rate is 2.746 percent—among the highest in the world. Abortion is legal only to save the woman’s life, and less than a third (28.1 percent) of Malawian women report using modern methods of contraception. Until recently, women played little role in politics in Malawi. However in 2009 Loveness Gondwe became the first women to run for president. She was not elected, but Joyce Banda does serve as vice president in the current government. As of 2009, 27 women held seats in Malawi’s Parliament (of 193 total), and Gondwe, elected first deputy speaker, rose higher than any other women in that body. Seven

Women suffer disproportionately from poverty and related social conditions. For instance, girls are less likely to attend school, and fewer than half of Malawian women are literate, as opposed to over three-quarters of men.

Malaysia



women hold ministerial positions, and four women hold judgeships (of 27 total). The World Economic Forum ranks Malawi in the middle third of countries on gender equality. On a scale in which 0 indicates inequality and 1 perfect equality, in 2009 Malawi had an overall score of 0.674 (76th of 134 countries) with scores of 0.960 (116th) on health and survival, 0.930 (113th) on educational attainment, 0.594 (42nd) on economic participation and opportunity, and 0.159 (48th) on political empowerment. Women suffer disproportionately from poverty and related social conditions. For instance, girls are less likely to attend school, and fewer than half of Malawian women are literate, as opposed to over threequarters of men. Patrilineal customs often mean that despite laws to the contrary, a woman and her children do not inherit family property after the husband’s death. Women make up almost half the labor force but earn about 74 percent of what men do for similar work. Maternal and child care is poor—about half the births are attended by skilled personnel, and infant and maternal mortality are both high, at 76 per 1,000 live births and 1,110 per 100,000 live births, respectively. An estimated 11.9 percent of adults in Malawi are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which is the ninth-highest infection rate in the world. About 60 percent of adults living with HIV and and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are female, and young women (aged 15–24 years) are several times more likely than men of their age to be infected, in part because of cultural and social customs that increase female exposure to HIV. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Poverty; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Hausman, R., et al. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2009. United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Wills, A. J. An Introduction to the History of Central Africa: Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. London: Oxford University Press, 1985. Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

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Malaysia Malaysia is a country that is made up of the Malay Peninsula south of Thailand, and the northern portion of the island of Borneo. It is a former British colony, and is a multiethnic and multireligious society. It has a population of 28 million, with its major ethnic groups being the Malays, 60 percent; the Chinese, 26 percent; and the Indians, 10 percent. Malay, or Bahasa Melayu, is the official language of the state. It is a relatively wealthy country within southeast Asia, with major industries in computers, petroleum and chemicals, palm oil, rubber, and timber. Malaysia is a majority Muslim country in most of its states, but its economy is dominated by a powerful ethnic Chinese community. In 1971, the Malaysian government began the New Economic Policy, which implemented positive discrimination toward the Malay community in the areas of education, business, and the civil service. However, ethnic Chinese continue to make up the wealthiest community in the country. Malays are the most dominant political group, while Indians are the poorest ethnic group. Ethnic Conditions The conditions of Malaysian women differ by ethnicity. As Muslims, most Malay women are governed according to the Islamic laws of the Syariah Court, and also by Malay customary law, or adat. According to Syariah laws, for example, men and women are supposed to be maintained in separate spaces. If a Muslim man or woman is caught in “close proximity” to a person of the opposite gender outside of marriage, this is deemed as khalwat, a legal offense that may lead to a fine and/or imprisonment. In 2006, Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, compared conditions of Malay women to peoples living under “apartheid,” because of their legal separation from men in the public sphere. This pronouncement generated a great deal of controversy. In comparison with Muslim women in the Middle East, however, Malaysian Muslim women enjoy a great deal more personal and legal freedom; they manage to play a prominent role both in business and public life. In addition, Malay women receive some measure of positive discrimination, as the state recognizes all Malays as bumiputera, or “sons of the soil.” In order to make it easier for Malays to enter more lucrative pro-

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fessions and the civil service, for example, Malaysian universities maintain different standards of admission for Malays than for other ethnic groups. Malaysians from minority ethnic groups, mainly the Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are allowed to set up their own schools to teach in their respective languages. However, they find it more difficult to enter national universities. These discriminatory economic and educational policies have most affected the minority Indian population, and in turn minority Indian women. Of the Indian Malay community, about 15 percent live in urban squatter settlements, with total household income below the minimum wage. Improvement Over Time In general, however, the conditions of Malaysian women have improved greatly since the country gained independence in 1957. Maternal mortality rates have greatly decreased, and life expectancy has increased to 74 years. There has also been great progress in women’s education in general. The Malaysian Constitution provides 11 years of free basic education for all Malaysian children, and by 1999 well over half of Malaysia’s university students were female. Malaysian women have also been actively involved in Malaysia’s industrialization from the 1980s and 1990s forward. The Sixth Malaysia Plan, the national economic development campaign of the early 1990s, specifically targeted Malaysian women for entry into the labor force, particularly into industries such as electronics, textiles, and clothing. In 1957, the proportion of female employees in the manufacturing sector was about 17 percent; by 1995 this had grown to 43 percent. In addition, according to the Malaysian Constitution, Malaysian women are recognized as possessing the same amount of social, civil, and political rights as their male counterparts. See Also: China; Educational Opportunities/Access; India; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Islam; Shari`a Law. Further Readings Andaya, B. W. and L. Y. Andaya. A History of Malaysia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News. “Malaysia Country Profile.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia -pacific/country_profiles/1304569.stm (accessed June 2010).

Ong, A. Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987. Adeline Koh The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Maldives The Maldives is a series of 1,190 islands in the Indian Ocean, south of India. Only 200 of the islands are habitable and most residents live in small fishing villages. Sitting only 4 feet, 11 inches above sea level, Maldives is the lowest country in the world, and rising sea levels pose a real threat to the future of this island nation. In 2004, the nation suffered a devastating tsunami, which altered the environment and left many of its 390,000 residents homeless or in poverty. The Maldives has a constitutional democracy, with a bill or rights. Sunni Islam is the official religion of the nation, which also requires all of its citizens to be Muslim. While Islam and social custom prevent women from full equality, women gain status as wives and mothers. Most women take on a traditional family role, with full responsibility for the children and household affairs. The average woman gets married by the age of 16, and has been married twice by the time she is 20. Divorce is relatively easy if it is mutual, otherwise women have to petition the court. Maldivian culture functions as a patrilineal kin group, whereby women keep their father’s last name and need his consent to marry. Family ties are very strong in the Maldives, and as wives and mothers, women have a great deal of authority over family affairs, although their husbands have the final voice. A woman convicted of adultery is sentenced to 100 lashes and banishment to an uninhabited island for a year. No punishment exists for male adulterers. There also are no laws regarding domestic violence, sexual harassment, or spousal rape. One in three women ages 15 to 49 report to be victims of physical or sexual violence. While the constitution enables women to vote and serve in office, under their Islamic laws, a woman cannot be head of state. Women do have some legal protections. Women can own and control their own property, yet, inheri-

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tance laws favor sons, who receive twice as much as daughters. Girls have equal access to education, and actually have higher literacy rates than boys through primary education because many sons leave school by ages 9 or 10 to help their fathers. However, more boys travel abroad for college, as girls usually get married and do not pursue higher education. Women do receive equal pay for equal work, and women comprise 37 percent of the overall workforce and 21 percent of government employees. Many women rely on informal household economies, such as rope making for an income. Poverty and social custom limit women’s opportunities. See Also: Divorce; Equal Pay; Islam; Poverty. Further Readings Kenworthy, Lane and Melissa Malami. “Gender Inequality in Political Representation: A Worldwide Comparative Analysis.” Social Forces, v.78/1 (1999). Maloney, Clarence. People of the Maldives Islands. New Delhi, India: Orient Longman, 1980. Siedler, Helen. “Report on the Survey of Island Women.” National Planning Agency, Government of the Maldives, 2007. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Mali Mali is a vast landlocked country in West Africa with a population of 13 million people. Islam is the major religion (over 90 percent), followed by traditional African beliefs and Christianity. The largely rural population is predominantly occupied with agriculture, livestock raising, and fishing; 77 percent of primary sector workers are women. Most Malians live below the poverty line. A former French colony, Mali’s legal system is based on a combination of customary law and the French civil law system. Although the constitution prohibits all discrimination on the basis of sex, many of women’s civil liberties are restricted, including their freedom of movement, which is limited by the obligation to follow their husbands. Despite Mali’s

Training for schoolteachers in Mali has introduced them to ideas and strategies they can use in their classrooms.

ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, its legal code provides little protection to women and contains discriminatory stipulations such as the requirement that a woman have her husband’s agreement to embark on commercial business. In the area of marriage, Malian law provides for unequal treatment of men and women; for example, the legal age of marriage for men is 18 years, but it is only 15 years for women. The legal code recognizes men alone as heads of household and accords sole family and parental authority to husbands. Polygamy is legal, allowing a husband to take up to four wives, and 42 percent of Malian women live in polygamous unions. Many traditional practices discriminatory to women also persist, including “betrothal at birth,” when a baby girl is promised at birth for marriage to a particular individual or into a particular family. Female genital surgery—a custom involving the alteration or removal of the external female genitalia—is widely practiced in Mali, particularly in rural areas, with recent data from the United Nations

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Children’s Fund indicating that at least 85 percent of ever-married women have undergone the practice. However, the government, although not outlawing the practice, has declared the abandonment of female genital surgery a priority as part of its strategy for increasing women’s empowerment. To this end the Malian government has founded a national committee to eliminate this and other traditional practices harmful to women and children. Education and Illiteracy Women are poorly represented at all levels in the education system. The illiteracy rate among rural women in particular is extremely high (around 90 percent), which is related to the prevalence of early marriage of girls in rural areas and the excessive workload of rural women, as well as a lack of teaching materials and women’s inability to afford them. Malian women have very limited access to legal services and are particularly vulnerable in matters of divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Sociocultural and socioeconomic constraints reinforce women’s secondary status in society, compounding the problems of illiteracy and extreme poverty hampering the country’s development. However, numerous women’s groups are active that promote the rights of women and children, and the Malian government has recently adopted an action plan concerned with the advancement of women, with the aim of removing obstacles to the enhancement of the status of women and the improvement in women’s living conditions. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Polygamy, Cross-Culturally Considered. Further Readings Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. “Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Combined Fourth and Fifth Reports of States Parties.” Mali, CEDAW/C/ MLI/2-5. (2004). Holloway, Kris and John Bidwell. Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years With a Midwife in Mali. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2006.

McKissack, Patricia and Frederick McKissack. The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa. New York: Henry Holt, 1995. Máire Ní Mhórdha University of St. Andrews

Malta Malta is an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea with a population of some 405,000; it became independent of Great Britain in 1964. It is a prosperous country with a 2009 per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $23,800 and a high standard of living. Income distribution is among the most even in the world (Gini Index of 26.0, eighth lowest worldwide). Most of the population—98 percent—is Roman Catholic. The World Economic Forum ranks Malta in the lower half of countries in terms of gender equality. On a scale where 1 indicates perfect equality and 0 inequality, in 2009 Malta’s overall score was 0.664, or 88th out of 134 countries. On health and survival rates for women, Malta scored 0.974 (77th); on educational attainment 0.995 (47th); on economic participation and opportunity 0.594 (105th); and on political empowerment 0.124 (69th). Women in Malta have a higher literacy rate than men (93 versus 90 percent) and more women than men are enrolled in tertiary education (36 percent versus 27 percent). However, women are less likely to be in the labor force (40 percent versus 78 percent) and earn 73 percent of what men do for similar work. Women constitute 18 percent of legislators, senior officials, and managers, and 41 percent of professional and technical workers in Malta. In 2009, women held nine of 100 seats in the Maltese Parliament, and 15 percent of the government minister positions. Agatha Barbara was the first and (still, as of 2010) only woman to serve as president of Malta (1982–87). Traditional Maltese culture places a high value on fertility and childbearing. This is reflected in current policies that provide 14 weeks of maternity leave at 100 percent of wages, along and a high standard of maternal and childcare: 100 percent of births are attended by skilled personnel, while infant and mater-

Management, Women in



nal mortality are quite low, at 5 per 1,000 live births and 8 per 100,000 live births, respectively. Abortion is illegal, but 86 percent of married women report using birth control. Save the Children ranks Malta seventh among 41 More Developed Countries on its Children’s Index, 29th on its Mothers’ Index, and 33rd on its Women’s Index. See Also: Gender Quotas in Government; Representation of Women in Government, International; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Hausmann, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org /en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20 Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010). Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_ hd_pub (accessed February 2009). United Nations Statistics Division. “Gender Info.” http:// data.un.org/Explorer.aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Management, Women in The discussion of women in management emerged in response to a perceived masculinization of management, given the disproportionately low number of women in managerial positions. Organizations are said to give priority to men as more suitable for managerial roles as a result of preconceived ideas about women. Historically, women have struggled to break the dichotomous positioning they share with men, where they are seen as opposites; women being mainly associated with the home (private sphere) and men mainly associated with work (public sphere). This positioning finds its roots in the reproduction versus

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production dichotomy. This debate links women with motherhood, and men with productive roles; as a result women are seen as inadequate workers because motherhood is considered to be incompatible with work in organizations. Special roles and positions, as well as limitations, have historically affected women at work. While these vary across cultures, stereotypes are generally linked to perceived differences between men and women, rather than specific cultural beliefs. The existing patriarchal social system of the 19th century established men as the dominant sex in the workplace. Underlying Patterns of Gender Identity Karen Legge notes that the discursive construction of the “problem” of women in organizations suggests that men are being considered the norm against which women need to be compared. This provides an important foundation for the development of a body of knowledge that attempts to identify the positive features that are overlooked in the assessment of women’s suitability as managers, and also highlights how personal and organizational characteristics inhibit women’s opportunities. For instance, career interruptions due to childbearing are seen as lack of commitment, hence it is generalized that women’s commitment to the workplace is not as solid as men’s due to the timing and spacing of their absences. Furthermore, the idea of a ruthless “go-getter” seems to pervade notions of successful managers. As a result, the presence of women in management is conflictive, because it breaks with the patterns of subordination and “invisibilization” that have traditionally affected them in both social and organizational settings. Two central elements of the debate on women in management are assessment of managerial leadership and opportunities of career progression. On the one hand, differences between male and female styles are considered to be linked to effectiveness in the workplace. Women’s collaborative/participatory style is considered less assertive than men’s tough, autocratic approach. Similarly, differences in the way power is exerted are salient; while women generally focus on personal power, men focus on structural power. In terms of career progression, barriers to gender equality, such as the glass ceiling, occupational segregation, benevolent sexism, and other forms of adverse

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treatment, constrain women’s achievement in the workplace by limiting their access and visibility in the managerial arena. The work of Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe has focused on leadership differences between men and women. Some key findings are that women are more likely to adopt a transformational leadership style, while men are more likely to adopt a transactional leadership style. This difference is fundamental to the way men and women are perceived to be effective managers, as transformational leadership focuses on people, while transactional leadership focuses on outcomes. Workplace Structures and Advancement Strategies Women account for 40 percent of the global workforce, and there has been an increase in the number of women in management across the world in the last 20 years as a result of factors such as globalization, the internationalization of business, changes in societal arrangements, and more women entering higher education. Other trends that have facilitated this are the emergence of female values as desirable leadership qualities, and some feminization of management. However, women remain underrepresented in senior management; statistics by the International Labour Organization indicate that the increase of women in managerial roles worldwide has been minimal. Many arguments attempt to explain the lack of women at the top; for example sex role learning, socialization patterns; limited networking, and race and gender issues. These can be summarized as related to structural barriers, stereotypes, and individual differences. The structural barrier discussion suggests that as a minority in management, women struggle to fit in with the majority culture. However, other aspects of the structural discussion need consideration. For example, as defined by and for the majority culture, structures adversely affect women’s movement by limiting opportunities. Similarly, organizations do not embrace the different developmental needs of men and women. For instance, networking, alongside mentoring, has been noted as instrumental to managerial career progression. However, differences in both networking opportunities and patterns of networking interaction between men and women result in limited opportunities for women to establish links and develop sup-

Table I: Women’s Share as Administrative and Managerial Workers, 1996–99 and 2000–02 0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50 %

United States Brazil Bermuda Colombia Philippines Venezuela Thailand Sri Lanka

1996 99

Chile

2000 02

Malaysia Bahrain Japan Pakistan Bangladesh Saudi Arabia Source: Wirth (2004:14).

port systems to further their careers in management. Lack of support networks hinders women’s ability to empower themselves and gain support and respect from others. As a result, women develop strategies to counteract this. These include consistently exceeding performance expectations; developing a style that male managers find nonthreatening; and seeking out difficult assignments or tasks with high visibility. In some cases, women have to work twice as hard to gain similar recognition to their male peers. This is associated with gender stereotypes and it is important to note that by engaging in these strategies, women contest the gender order. The down side is that life cycles and personal choices become secondary, and women risk having to choose between work and other aspects of their lives. Roles, Traits, and Identities In line with these situations, the impact of gender roles is particularly relevant; organizations and management have historically being considered to promote masculine values. For example, effectiveness has usually been



Management Styles, Gender Theories

linked to behaviors considered to be masculine, such as individualism, aggressiveness, and competitiveness. Feminine traits, such as bonding, solidarity, and sensitivity to others’ needs, on the other hand, have been equalled with weakness as they seem inconsistent with superior performance and competitiveness. Even as there is not one single definition of manager, the managerial role seems framed by strict gender stereotypes, where men are masculine and women are feminine; and organizations are masculine hence women are considered to be out of place. Virginia Schein notes the existence of a “think manager—think male” mentality, which assumes that the characteristics of successful managers are more similar to and have more in common with those of males than those of females, thus making females unnatural for the task. Other issues women in management face are related to how they construct their identities as managers; they have to “change their ways” and assume a masculine posture in order to live up to the expectations of the managerial role. However, they are also vilified for doing so, as they are then seen as aggressive and radical, which is not as acceptable for women as it is for men.

lytical category is relevant to understand how experiences of women in management vary across cultures and geographical spaces.

Solidarity and Diversity More recently, discussions about women in management have shifted toward the exploration of solidarity behavior between women, and also to the relationship between management and diversity. Sharon Mavin has made an important criticism to the women-in-management discussion as it relates to the issue of solidarity behavior for women in management. This aspect is overlooked in womenin-management literature, hence the discussion is portrayed as one sustained by sisterhood. One of the issues affecting women in management is that they are ruthlessly assessed by men and unsympathetically assessed by other women. On the other hand, the discussion on management and diversity contests fixed ideas of “woman,” highlighting the sociocultural nature of the woman category and how this has implications for the term women in management. In addition, it is relevant to consider that problems faced by women vary in nature and intensity based on other categories related to difference, such as ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic background. As a result, diversity as an ana-

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See Also: Antifeminism; Business, Women in; Gender, Defined; Glass Ceiling; Management Styles, Gender Theories; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Parental Leave; Parental Leave Act; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Alimo-Metcalfe, B. “An Investigation of Female and Male Constructs of Leadership and Empowerment.” Women in Management Review, v.10/2 (1995). Davidson, M. J. and R. J. Burke. Women in Management: Current Research Issues Volume II. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000. Mavin, S. “Queen Bees, Wannabees and Afraid to Bees: No More ‘Best Enemies’ for Women in Management?” British Journal of Management, v.19 (2008). Powell, G. N. and L. M. Graves. Women and Men in Management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003. Schein, V. “Managerial Sex Typing: A Persistent and Pervasive Barrier to Women’s Opportunities.” M. Davidson and R. J. Burke, eds. Women in Management. London: Paul Chapman, 1994. Wirth, L. “Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management—Update 2004.” Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office, 2004. Jenny K. Rodriguez University of Strathclyde

Management Styles, Gender Theories The gendering of management styles is related to the association between masculinities and femininities as fundamental traits that define management styles and determine their effectiveness based on how successful they are in the struggle for power and resources. The discussion of gender in management is a shift from what initially was focused on women in management, and the distinctions between the management styles of women and men. The discussion progressed toward how the construction of femininity and masculinity defined man-

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agerial traits and styles. This discussion can be theoretically placed within a “gender-centered” approach to explain the disadvantaged position of women in management. Gender influences the way behaviors, characteristics, individuality, and attitudes of women and men are seen and understood. As a result, based on assumptions about women and men and the way they “should be,” their styles are categorized as suitable or not suitable for the managerial role and the perceived effectiveness of their management style is directly linked to these assumptions. An important point is made by Nancy Chodorow who notes that gender differences and more generally the experience of difference do not exist as things in themselves but are socially and psychologically created and situated within relations established by women and men. Gender Differences These differences between women and men are embedded in social systems and are determined by gender roles, which are socially and culturally defined notions about behavior and emotions of men and women which are instrumental in the way their identity is constructed. A combination of messages about gender-appropriate behavior, and structural dimensions such as sexual division of labor and desirable job traits establishes gender norms that determine expectations of the managerial role. Both women and men find themselves complying with these expectations or falling outside “the norm,” which sustains the idea of gendered management styles. The acceptance of these notions creates gender schemas that regulate the way individuals think about what women and men “should be like” and creates fixed perceptions and acceptable/unacceptable expectations of people and social dynamics. In the workplace, this creates ideas and expectations about what management is, what a manager should behave like, and what are the characteristics of the person best suited to be a manager. Some common distinctions between women and men in management are associated with the way they establish relationships with others. For example, based on patterns of socialization, women are said to focus on establishing relationships and finding commonalities, whereas men are said to focus on competition and outperforming one another.

As a result, women are considered to lack the confidence and assertiveness to be effective managers, whereas men are considered to be more natural for the task given these traits which are seen as appropriate to deal with the demands of the managerial role. An important point is this discussion is that organizations are gendered social environments and the logic of interpretation of practices and actions has a strong base on gendered shared societal beliefs and assumptions. The correlation between “innate” feminine or masculine attitudes and behavior is usually grounded in two dimensions of the managerial role: leadership and management skills. Gender and Leadership One of the most common ways to discuss gendered management styles is focusing on leadership. Early empirical work found no significant differences between men and women, and on the contrary suggested that in management positions, similarities are more striking than differences. However, the specificity of gender worlds subsequently became central to identifying differences between men and women. Structure is a important aspect and research findings made reference to female leadership as transformational and people oriented, and male leadership as transactional and task oriented. These created dichotomies encompas traits that are thought to be characteristic of women and men. For instance, as transformational leaders, women are said to be interpersonal-oriented and centred on involvement and collaboration; use persuasion and inspirational motivation, and generally demonstrate a participatory management style. Men on the other hand are said to be more concerned with outcomes and use a contingent reward approach; for instance, by rewarding good performance and punishing bad performance. These characterizations are based on assumptions about women and men; for instance, women are stereotypically considered to be warm, caring, tactful, subjective and sensitive. Men are considered to be independent, aggressive, objective, logical, and analytical. Gender and Management Skills In relation to management skills, distinctions between women and men are established by speaking about “soft” skills and “hard” skills. Just like the dichotomy of feminine/masculine, the soft/hard

Manga



dichotomy aims to highlight the weak and strong aspects of management. Soft skills are related to the social, the subjective and the emotional and in most cases are referred to as “people skills.” Hard skills are related to the numerical, the objective and the factual. In this distinction, women and men are stereotypically dichotomized with women being considered as having mostly soft skills and men considered as having hard skills. Nonetheless, an important element in contemporary discussions of management skills addresses the reversal of the gender order, for instance, through the general feminization of management and even the masculinization of women in management. The assumption still prevails that there are distinct feminine/masculine skills, regardless of whether individuals challenge the gender order or not. More importantly, these distinctions still present masculinity as the ideal against which women are measured or compared, hence this indicates that the behavioral and attitudinal standard expected reflects what are perceived to be masculine values. Managerial Values This leads to the issue of managerial values. It is normally assumed that managerial values should portray a strong competitive element since organizations are generally in the market to be competitive. As such, collaboration, relationships and commonalities are identified as possible weaknesses. The result is that whilst men seem to encompass desired managerial values; women’s capabilities and management competence are put into question. An influential study was conducted by Carol Gilligan, who studied differences in moral reasoning between women and men. She argues that although they differ in their notions of what is ethically moral, this does not mean that they are both wrong but rather the principles, values and concerns they prioritize are different. The issue is then that in the case of women, these principles, values and concerns are seen as less relevant to organizational aims than those of men. In that sense, there is a pervasive culture of masculine ethics in organizations; for example, Virginia Schein and Marilyn Davidson noted the “think manager, think male” mentality in organizations, which perpetuates that the managerial role is expected to be performed by men and to be constructed around perceived mas-

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culine values. In summary, gendered management styles are the result of the combination of organizational structures, and behavioral and cultural causes. More specifically, assumptions about the gender roles of women and men, and dichotomies created by expectations of management as primarily a masculinized function create ideas definitions of effective management, traits of managers and different types of management styles. See Also: Business, Women in; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Management, Women in. Further Readings Chodorow, N. “Feminism and Difference: Gender, Relation, and Difference in Psychoanalytic Perspective.” Socialist Review, v.9/4 (1979). Eagly, A. H., et al. “Gender and Leadership Style: A Meta Analysis.” Psychological Bulletin, v.260 (1990). Gilligan, C. and J. Attanucci. “Two Moral Orientations: Gender Differences and Similarities.” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, v.34 (1988). Rigg, C. and Sparrow, J. “Gender, Diversity and Working Styles.” Women in Management Review, v.9/1 (1994). Schein, V. “Managerial Sex Typing: A Persistent and Pervasive Barrier to Women’s Opportunities.” In M. Davidson and R. J. Burke, eds., Women in Management. London: Paul Chapman, 1994 Schein, V. and M. Davidson. “Think Manager, Think Male.” Management Development Review, v.6/3 (1993). Statham, A. “The Gender Model Revisited: Differences in the Management Styles of Men and Women.” Sex Roles, v.16 (1987). Wajcman, J. “Desperately Seeking Differences: Is Management Style Gendered?” British Journal of Industrial Relations, v.14/3 (1996). Jenny K. Rodriguez University of Strathclyde

Manga Manga, the Japanese name for comics, is rooted in Japanese graphic arts and caricatures dating back as far as the 12th century. The contemporary manga genre, involving mostly story manga, emerged in the

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1950s and expanded in the 1960s. Unlike single-frame caricature, story manga consists of dozens of frames that engage readers in the story as the plot develops. Children are generally assumed to make up the majority of comic book readers, but development of story manga into complex tales and human dramas helped manga attract adults who grew up with the genre. Japan’s economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s helped the manga industry expand its readership to include children, adolescents, young adults, homemakers, middle-aged businessmen, and working women. To respond to these readers’ needs and expectations, manga addresses a range of forms and topics reflecting Japanese society and culture, including science fiction, love stories, adventure, history, sports, and politics. By the early 1990s, manga was a major part of the Japanese publishing industry. Slow Opening to Women Cartoonists Historically, manga had been a primarily male domain until the mid-1960s. In this regard, Machiko Hasegawa (1920–92), Japan’s first nationally acclaimed woman cartoonist, was the only exception. Hasegawa became popular through her daily newspaper strip Sazae-san, that had started in 1946. She comically depicted the everyday life of Sazae, a homemaker in an extended family in postwar Japan. Despite Hasegawa’s success, male cartoonists continued to dominate manga. Even after the first monthly serialized comic magazines for girls appeared in the mid-1950s, men wrote manga stories for female readers. Depictions of women, such as their bodies, feelings, and tastes, were thus limited to male perspectives. In the mid-1960s and 1970s, women cartoonists brought new voices and expressed priorities that their female audience shared. This contributed to the expansion of girls’ weekly and monthly comic magazines such as Nakayoshi, Ribon, and Māgaretto and attracted young readers to inner worlds of dreams, fantasy, love, and human relationships. These manga also featured female protagonists and heroines such as Osukaru (Oscar) in Berusaiyu no bara (Rose of Versailles) by Ryoko Ikeda (1947– ) and more recently Usagi Tsukino in Bishōjo senshi sērā mūn (Sailor Moon), who earned national recognition and global mass popularity. When television became available in most Japanese households in the 1960s, the medium did not threaten Japanese manga. Serialized popular manga

Manga reflects Japanese society and culture, including science fiction, love stories, adventure, history, sports, and politics.

were often adapted for television animation, which increased the popularity of the original comic books. In the 1990s, manga popularity began declining in Japan. The decreasing population of a younger generation who were expected to be manga readers into adulthood was a major reason. New options for home entertainment, especially video games, and expanded choices of media networks made manga less competitive and less able to sustain a large readership. Despite challenging circumstances, manga remains the popular entertainment source for many Japanese people regardless of their gender or age. Charismatic cartoon characters play important roles in manga’s survival. Along with Japanese anime or animation, manga has expanded its overseas market, becoming a global phenomenon as Japan’s iconic representative of popular culture.

Mankiller, Wilma

See Also: Anime; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Cartoonists, Female; Japan. Further Readings Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. London: Laurence King Publishing/Harper Design International, 2004. Kinsella, Sharon. Adult Manga: Culture & Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. Misaka, Kaoru. “The First Japanese Manga Magazine in the United States.” Publishing Research Quarterly, v.19/4 (2004). Schodt, Federik L. Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1997. Toku, Masami. “What Is Manga? The Influence of Pop Culture in Adolescent Art.” Art Education, v.54/2 (2001). Ayako Mizumura University of Kansas

Mankiller, Wilma One of the most prominent leaders of the late 20th century bore a surname that spoke of her impact on the Cherokee Nation, U.S. politics, and indigenous peoples’ rights across the globe. Wilma Mankiller was born on November 18, 1945, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. One version of her surname, Outacity, is an honorary title conferred on a person with exceptional skill in warfare. The title also sometimes refers to individuals who can change minds and affect bodies to avenge wrongs. From her early experiences as an activist and community organizer to her leadership of the Cherokee Nation as the first female Principal Chief in modern history, Wilma Mankiller was just such a persuasive force and role model for Cherokee sovereignty. Political and Cultural Consciousness Her family left their home while Wilma was still a child to follow the promise of a better life promoted by a Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation program. Unfortunately, life for Indians in the San Francisco relocation program was wrought with poverty and injustice. During her adolescent years in the Bay

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Area, Mankiller’s involvement with the San Francisco Indian Center heightened her political and cultural consciousness. Later, although married with two young children, she found political inspiration and personal empowerment from both a college education and the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, in which several of her siblings were active participants. Mankiller’s subsequent work as director of the Native American Youth Center in East Oakland and her involvement with the Pit River Tribe’s battle over ancestral land rights solidified her commitment to tribal sovereignty and community organizing. By 1974, conflicts between Mankiller’s increasing involvement in community affairs and her husband Hugo Olaya’s traditional expectations of his wife resulted in the dissolution of their marriage. Shortly thereafter, she moved with her two daughters, Gina and Felicia, back to Oklahoma to work for the Cherokee Nation. Shortly after returning to Oklahoma, Mankiller was severely injured in an automobile crash and then diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. As she recovered, she continued to champion community causes. As Community Development Director for the Cherokee Nation, she went to work on the Bell Project, a community-based effort to improve living conditions in the rural town of Bell, Oklahoma. Working on the project brought Mankiller to the attention of her future husband, Charlie Soap, and Chief Ross Swimmer, who asked Mankiller to run for the contested position of deputy chief in 1983. After their victory, Swimmer accepted an appointment to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, promoting Mankiller to Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Political Career In 1987, Wilma Mankiller ran for the office of Principal Chief and was victorious. The election was significant for many reasons, including the return of Cherokee women to positions of leadership they had historically occupied before European colonization and the Trail of Tears. During her years as Principal Chief, Mankiller revised tax laws affecting businesses operating on Cherokee land, expanded health services, championed youth programs, and signed an historic self-governance agreement with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. These successes led Mankiller to run for a second full term, and she was reelected with almost

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83 percent of the vote. In April 1994, Mankiller was invited to moderate a presidential summit of tribal leaders. Her efforts contributed to the creation of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Indian Justice. Mankiller received recognition for her philanthropy, activism, and education related to Indian issues. Wilma Mankiller was named Ms. magazine’s “Woman of the Year” in 1987, was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, and was honored as one of the nation’s most extraordinary older women by the American Association for Retired People. Upon her death in April 2010, more than 1,000 people attended her memorial service at the Cherokee National Cultural Grounds. See Also: Indigenous Women’s Issues; Ms. Magazine; Native American Religion; Philanthropists, Female; Political Ideologies; Representation of Women in Government; Steinem, Gloria. Further Readings Agnew, Brad. “Wilma Mankiller: Cherokee,. In R. David Edmunds, ed., The New Warriors: Native American Leaders Since 1900. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001. Mankiller, Wilma and Michael Wallis. Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. New York: St. Martin’s, 1993. Perdue, T. Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change 1700–1835. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Emily Plec Western Oregon University

Maquiladoras Maquiladoras or maquila are terms often used synonymously to identify a foreign-owned factory in Mexico or Central America. In some contexts, the term maquila is used to refer to the factory and maquiladora to the factory worker. The maquiladora workers are predominately female; approximately 70 percent of this workforce are women, some are as young as 12 years of age. They work in a sweatshoplike setting earning extremely low pay, working long hours and under scandalous conditions.

International export production facilities in Mexico have been in existence since the 1960s; during the 1980s the number of these factories began to grow rapidly. A major driving force, enabling transnational corporations to profit tremendously and encourage outsourcing, was facilitated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA was, at the outset, a Republican initiative under George H. W. Bush, but ultimately was signed into law on December 8, 1993, by President Bill Clinton. NAFTA’s goal was to facilitate trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The maquiladora has its origins in Mexico, but this model has been expanded to the nations of Central America. The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) under the George W. Bush administration was passed by a 217-to-215 vote on July 27, 2005, but the January 1, 2006 implementation date passed without international action due to staunch criticism. However, CAFTA could not be halted and was implemented in El Salvador on March 1, 2006; Nicaragua and Honduras on April 1, 2006; Guatemala on July 1, 2006; and the Dominican Republic on March 1, 2007. Costa Rica is the only remaining nation included in CAFTA to not have the trade agreement ratified, as they are currently waiting to hold a referendum. ”Free Trade” and Wage Slavery The creation of a “Free Trade Zone” is taken advantage of by multinational corporations who use NAFTA and CAFTA, not to facilitate trade with Mexico and Central America, but to minimize production cost and maximize profit. Factories are built within the Free Trade Zones at minimal costs; no federal or state taxes need to be paid, as would be mandatory if the factory was located in the United States. Machinery and raw materials can be shipped across the border to Free Trade Zone factories duty-free, and completed products shipped around the world at reduced tariffs. The arrangement benefits U. S. multinational corporations in their ability to relocate production for tremendous savings. In addition to the tax and tariff benefits, the most significant and profound savings is reduced labor costs. The multinational corporation, to maximize profit, has the goal of searching for and demanding the lowest wages. The average compensation for an entire day of work for a maquiladora worker is less



than the hourly wage for comparable work in the United States. A maquiladora worker can expect to make $3 to $4 a day. Also, the companies do not have to pay any benefits; for example, social security, retirement, health insurance, or unemployment insurance. The multinational corporation has a vested interest in producing goods using this model. NAFTA and CAFTA may have their goals as advancing trade, but the maquiladora workers do not make enough money to buy any of the products they produce. Worker and Environmental Protection U.S. companies utilizing the maquiladora are not subject to the guidelines set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The factories are not held to the same (or any) standards for worker safety and rights, as Mexico and other nations lack an adequate staff and funding to complete the task of regulating safety and waste. Workers are exposed to unsafe conditions, with the potential of immediate and longterm effects. The labor is fast paced and machinery does not have safety features, which increases risk of immediate physical injury (e.g., cuts and amputation). Long-term injuries from rapid repeated motion without adequate rest or ergonomic accommodations are common (e.g., stress injury, carpal tunnel syndrome). Maquiladoras produce goods for a spectrum of industries; workers are placed into harm’s way as they are rarely provided protective gear and there is inadequate ventilation as they work with toxic, sometimes carcinogenic materials (e.g., plastics, resins, glue/ adhesives, lacquer/paints). Many companies actively relocate to utilize materials in the maquiladoras that have been banned for use in the United States. In addition to the potential harm to workers, there are many maquiladoras that pollute the surrounding area and environment by dumping their waste locally. Many members living in communities near maquiladoras have been known to become ill due to the pollution of surface and ground water, air, and land. Some factories use waste export and control companies, but repeated research has documented these are the minority of cases. Worker’s Rights and Human Rights The most egregious violation is the (ab)use of child labor. The maquiladora is staffed by children and young adults ranging from 12 to 20 years of age.

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These workers are mostly female, and work very long hours under extreme conditions. The typical maquiladora work day spans from 10 to 12 hours, sometimes longer if there are large orders to fulfill. Workers have been known to be beaten and threatened with loss of pay for not making their daily required production. In addition, workers are sometimes forced to take home work to complete if they do not meet their quota. It has been documented that the use of female labor is preferable as young women are easier to control. Female workers have been forced to take birth control pills daily so they do not become pregnant. If they do become pregnant, they are urged to abort the baby to maintain employment or are fired without pay if they choose to not comply. There are no unions or worker organizations to protect workers’ rights. Maquila workers are threatened, fired, and sometimes physically harmed when attempting to organize for workers’ rights or providing information to the press. Further, workers who have been caught organizing or talking about the conditions are usually blacklisted and they become unable to solidify employment in any of the other factories in the area. The economic and political power of the multinational corporation makes it difficult to sway these business practices. Most corporations deny direct knowledge of these practices as they subcontract the oversight and operations of the factories to other companies; being one step removed from the process allots the option of denial. A similar business model is currently used by multinational corporations in China. See Also: Ecofeminism; Human Rights Campaign; Migrant Workers; Sweatshops; Unions. Further Readings Bickham Mendez, Jennifer. From the Revolution to the Maquiladoras: Gender, Labor, and Globalization in Nicaragua. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005. Fatemi, Khosrow. The Maquiladora Industry: Economic Solution or Problem? Westport, CT: Praeger, 1990. Fuentes, Annette and Barbara Ehrenreich. Women in the Global Factory. Boston: South End Press, 1983. Iglesias Prieto, Norma and Gabrielle Winkler. Beautiful Flowers of the Maquiladora: Life Histories of Women

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Workers in Tijuana. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. Rosenberg, Jerry Martin. Encyclopedia of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the New American Community, and Latin-American Trade. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Paul E. Calarco, Jr. Hudson Valley Community College

Mariana Islands, Northern The Northern Mariana Islands, a group of 14 islands in the same chain as Guam in the North Pacific Ocean, is a self-governing commonwealth in political union with the United States. Major islands include Saipan, Rota, and Tinian, and the total land mass is 464 square kilometers with a population estimated in July 2009 to be 51, 484. The population is highly urbanized, and most inhabitants live on the island of Saipan. Indigenous inhabitants of the Northern Mariana Islands are U.S. citizens but do not elect representatives to the Electoral College, which selects the U.S. president. The Northern Mariana Islands receive substantial financial assistance from the United States but also have local industries including tourism, agriculture, and garment production. Despite a total fertility rate of 2.2 children per woman and a birth rate of 21.97 births per 1,000 population, the Northern Mariana Islands have the lowest population growth rate in the world (minus 7.078 percent) as a result of the highest out-migration rate in the world (minus 89.7 per 1,000 population). Coupled with high in-migration of foreign workers, this means that only about half the island’s inhabitants are U.S. citizens. Because these foreign workers are predominantly female, the Northern Mariana Islands have an extremely low male-tofemale ratio, particularly in the 15- to 64-year-old age group (84 men per 100 women in that age group). The population is primarily of Asian (56.3 percent) or Pacific Islander (36.3 percent) origins, with a small Caucasian minority (1.8 percent) and the remainder of mixed or other ethnicities. The major language groups are Philippine languages (24.4 percent), Chinese (23.4 percent), English (10.8 percent), and other Pacific island languages (9.5 percent). Most islanders

are Roman Catholic or other Christian denominations, although traditional beliefs are also practiced. Life expectancy is similar to in the United States (at 74.08 years for men and 79.47 years for women), as is infant mortality (at 6 deaths per 1,000 live births). Literacy is almost universal, at 96 percent for women and 97 percent for men. Primary influences on the culture of the Northern Mariana Islands include Roman Catholicism, the native Chamorro culture, and United States. Large families and traditional gender roles remain common, as do extended kinship networks, which may include people who are friends of one’s family, rather than blood relatives. Garment Industry and Current Issues Recently, international attention has focused on the exploitation of women working in the many garment factories that have been established on Saipan to take advantage of two facts: goods made in the Northern Mariana Islands can enter the United States duty-free, and the minimum wage is lower than in the United States. Many of these factories have been found to exploit their workers, usually young women from poor families in Asia, by means such as forcing them to labor under sweatshop-like conditions, charging them exorbitant amounts for inferior housing and food, requiring them to work overtime, and failing to pay promised wages. These women are classified as “guest workers” who do not have the right to apply for U.S. citizenship and are not protected by U.S. labor, civil rights, or immigration laws. Human trafficking is also a problem, with women being trafficked to the Northern Mariana Islands for prostitution, sometimes through deception by promising the women other types of employment, then forcing them to work as prostitutes. See Also: Migrant Workers; Roman Catholic Church; Sweatshops. Further Readings Clarren, Rebecca. “Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists.” Ms. Magazine (Spring 2006). http://www.msmagazine.com /spring2006/paradise_full.asp (accessed April 2010). Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. “Marianas (USA).” http://www.catwinternational.org/factbook /Marianas.php (accessed April 2010).

Marriage

United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed April 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Marriage Historically, and across cultures, marriage is considered to be the socially recognized bonding of a man and woman. As these terms are culturally variable, marriage manifests differently around the world and over time. Broadly defined, marriage is a means of creating kinship that typically involves a social union or legal contract between individuals, and in many instances families as well. Despite the diversity of marriage practices across cultures, marriage is typically formalized by a wedding to indicate the beginning of a marriage and is recognized by the state, a religious authority, or both. All of the major world religions have strong views relating to marriage, usually decreeing that marriage is a duty, gift, sacrament, responsibility, or requirement. The legal, political, economic, and social consequences of marriage for women and men have been well documented. In fact, marriage is a topic that has concerned social scientists around the globe, because it reveals a tremendous amount about the universal features of the human condition and because of the remarkable diversity of marriage customs that exist cross-culturally. Commonality and Diversity in Definition In working toward a definition of marriage, scholars agree that no one definition of marriage applies to all cultures. Most definitions of marriage involve some outlining of rights associated with both sexual monopoly and rights with respect to children— although there are those who criticize marriage defined in this way because there are cultures that do not require marriage to legitimate children. In addition, the specifics of these rights vary across cultures. Anthropologists and other scholars have also noted that marriage is known in almost every society as a fundamental economic, social and cultural institu-

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tion. Most people around the world expect to marry regardless of the particular cultural context, social class, country of origin, ethnic group, or religious background from which they come. Nearly 45 years ago, E. E. Evans-Pritchard posited that in simple societies, there was no such thing as an unmarried woman; companionship was weak and women had little choice in whether they would or would not marry. In this view, marriage is a universal, or nearly universal, social institution. In addition to the universality of marriage in simple societies, Evans-Pritchard also noted that the concept of romantic love was nonexistent; and women could not choose a career instead of marriage. During the same period, Meyer Fortes proclaimed that the topic of marriage had been exhausted in anthropological thought, given the breadth of kinship studies. His declaration that so much was known about the customs and institutions of marriage in all human societies, and his subsequent conclusion that it was unlikely that anything new on the subject of marriage could be added, failed to account for the ongoing impact of social change. The Re-Examination of Marriage The prevalence, or universality, of marriage around the world, however, masks its heterogeneity, the historical changes the institution has undergone in local contexts, and the shifts and variations in social roles and statuses of people both within, and outside, of marriage. The re-examination of marriage continues to reveal that marriage is more diverse and more fluid than previously implied. For the past two decades, scholars have examined how the encounter between local and translocal/global cultural currents reshapes social practices and cultural configurations; this is particularly evident in the realm of marital relationships and practices. The expectations and experiences of women and men in their relationships, particularly their marital relationships, are changing, expanding, and shifting. For women, in particular, their engagement with modern and global ideas about love and monogamy influence decisions regarding when to marry, who to marry, whether to (re)marry, and so on. In fact, love, work, and choice of who to marry— previously considered absent from women’s experience of marriage in the non-Western world—now

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complicate marriage and relationships over the life course around the world. People marry for a host of reasons, including social, emotional, economical, legal, practical, spiritual, and religious. In most cultures there are inherit benefits and rights afforded to married couples, ranging from gaining control over a spouse’s sexual services, labor, and property to establishing the second legal guardian of a parent’s child. Other rights can include responsibility for a spouse’s debts, visitation rights when a spouse is in jail or hospitalized, control over a spouse’s affairs when the spouse is debilitated, and establishing a relationship between the families of spouses. The exact nature of these rights differs between and within cultures. Marriage Restrictions Who a person marries, or the preferred marriage partner, as well as restrictions on who one can marry, are also factors with tremendous variability cross culturally and historically. Restrictions on marriage to relatives are common in all cultures. Marriage between parents and children, or between siblings, is considered incestuous and is not permitted in most places. Marriage between distant relatives is more ordinary. In some cultures parallel-cousin (in the same descent group and are from the parent’s same-sexed sibling) or cross-cousin (from the parent’s opposite-sexed sibling) marriage is the preferred partner for a marriage. Marriage is promoted between first cousins in some cultures because is said to help keep property within an extended family. Concomitantly, cousin unions in some cultures would fall under an incest taboo and may even be illegal. While the frequency with which they occur has diminished, arranged marriages still exist in many parts of the world. Arranged marriage is when someone other than the couple seeks, organize, and choose the potential marriage partner. Historically, arranged marriages have deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world. Today, however, arranged marriage is still practiced in parts of south Asia, the Middle East, east Asia, and Africa. Arranged marriages can involve parents, extended families, and/ or a matchmaking mediator or representative who is either a professional or trusted third party. This is not to say that the prospective bride and groom are not involved or that the opinion of bride and groom are not considered or solicited.

Dowry and Bridewealth Historically, dowry and bridewealth were associated with marriage, and are still part of marriage negotiations and processes in many countries. A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage and is usually a part of a wider marriage settlement and contract. Dowry was widely practiced in Europe, often seen as an early form of inheritance for women; failure to pay the dowry could result in a marriage being called off. Dowries are no longer commonplace in the Western world, and are mostly considered obsolete. In some cultures, dowries continue to be requirements of the marriage process; Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Sudan are a few examples. Some countries, such as India, where the practice of dowry is commonplace even today, have had to impose restrictions on the payment of dowry by, in fact, making it illegal. The reason for this is to protect women from bride burning; in India there are thousands of deaths per year of brides due to disputes over dowries. However, making dowry illegal has proven ineffective at protecting young women. In other cultures, the groom or his family are expected to pay a bride price, or bridewealth, to the bride’s family for the right to marry the daughter, which is payable to the bride and/or various members of her family. Bridewealth is a social, symbolic, and economic matter of reciprocity. Bridewealth continues to be a part of the marriage process in many African countries, as well as in parts of Asia. Some traditions, among Muslims in particular, maintain that if a divorce occurs, the bridewealth is to be returned to the groom/groom’s family. In many countries, particularly in Europe and North America, marriage does not include dowry or bridewealth payments and marriage partners have the choice of combining or keeping their property separate. Sexual Issues in Marriage Marriage is also an institution in which sexual and intimate interpersonal relationships are acknowledged in a variety of ways that vary according to culture or subculture. For example, the practice of polygyny, where a man is married to more than one woman, dramatically impacts the intimate and sexual relationships between spouses with particular consequences for women. Restrictions against polygyny are found in most coun-



tries, although there are a number of cultures which continue the practice. Two societies may be described as polygynous but this does not mean that the practice is experienced in the same way. For example, wives may be required to live together in one polygynous setting, while in another they may have separate houses. Sexual relations in polygynous societies also vary. A husband may have sexual relations with all of his wives concurrently, or upon subsequent marriages he may cease sexual relations with his first wife. Extramarital affairs, adultery, or infidelity is widely acknowledged as a violation of marriage by almost all cultures. At the same time, however, extramarital relations, while often secret, are actually a widespread and widely acknowledged social practice. Many of the world’s major religions look with disfavor on sexual relations outside of marriage, both before marriage and with someone other than a spouse. Adultery, sex with someone other than one’s spouse, is considered to be a crime and justification for divorce in many cultures. In other cultures it is anticipated and considered preferable to alternatives, such as polygyny. Changing Definitions The definition of marriage has recently been under debate as same-sex couples work to achieve the right to marry in the United States and elsewhere. This process has stirred up not an insubstantial amount of controversy as the public and politicians debate the definition of marriage and the rights associated with it. Despite the intense debate over same-sex marriages, there is a long history of various types of same-sex marriages ranging from informal, unsanctioned relationships to highly ritualized unions. Examples of same-sex marriage exist from Ancient Greece and Rome as well as some regions of China. Woman-marriage is acknowledged in at least 40 precolonial African cultures. Present day examples of woman-marriage have endured to the present, and E. Kathleen Gough, as well as others, has demonstrated the importance of the practice among the Nuer ethnic group. The practice of woman-marriage in this setting, however, looks nothing like what same-sex couples in the United States seek. Monogamous, heterosexual relationships are the most commonplace form of marriage; however, they are not the only type of marriage found throughout the world, both contemporarily

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and historically. It should also be noted that marriage, in its modern form, is significantly different from the historical one. The death of a partner usually signifies the end of a marriage. In monogamous cultures the surviving partner is permitted to remarry. Most societies currently permit and provide for the end of a marriage through divorce, and people are then free to remarry. Like marriage, the process of divorce varies crossculturally. Some religions, such as Islam, have always provided a means to end a marriage, whereas the right to end a marriage was only acknowledged in Western countries in recent decades. See Also: Divorce; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Marriages, Arranged; Widows. Further Readings Bledsoe, Caroline and Giles Pison, eds. Nuptiality in SubSaharan Africa: Contemporary Anthropological and Demographic Perspectives. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1994. Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan. Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1965. Fortes, Meyer. Marriage in Tribal Societies. London: Cambridge University Press, 1962. Hirsch, Jennifer, et al. The Secret: Love, Marriage, and HIV. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2009. Wilcox, W. Bradford and Nicholas H. Wolfinger. “Then Comes Marriage? Religion, Race, and Marriage in Urban America.” in Social Science Research, v.36/2 (2007). Susi Krehbiel Keefe Independent Scholar

Marriages, Arranged Marriage is a contract between two individuals, but when it is brought about by their parents or families and not the boy/girl who get married, it is known as arranged marriage. Since arranged marriages are brought about by people who are not the involved parties—bride or groom—love is no consideration at all. However, there are other, more important factors which become the focus of concern in arranged

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Arranged marriages are often looked upon as means to ensure the lineage and tradition in the cultures practicing it. A couple sits on display at a wedding held in the small town of Pakistan called Qila Dedar Singh near Gujranwala.

marriages. For example, the vocation of the groom is an important factor, although a bride’s vocation is not considered as important. There are also, most importantly, caste, class, religion, family reputation, horoscope, age, language and other considerations. Matchmaking is sometime an obsession with parents and relatives in cultures where arranged marriages are in vogue. Arranged marriages are common in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Japan, India, and Nepal. Before 1949, when the Communists outlawed it, tong yang xi in China was very common. This was a form of arranged marriage where a girl from a poor family would be sent to a rich family even as a child. She would work as a slave, and in exchange for her services the family would marry a young male member to her once she became marriageable. The rich family would thus have a bride, as well as a free maid.

This type of marriage was also practiced in Taiwan where it was known as shim pua; however, it went out of vogue after the economic prosperity of the 1970s, which made such arrangements unnecessary. The Orthodox Jews practice shidduch, which begins with dating by arrangement by the parents and then works toward marriage with mutual consent. A more acceptable form of arranged marriage is prevalent in the rural parts of North America, Japan, and Iran. Parents introduce their child to the potential spouse and then the children manage the relationship if they are interested in marriage. In fact, marriages are often looked upon as means to ensure the lineage and tradition in the cultures practicing it. Arranged marriages are linked with family honor, as love marriages are sometimes supposed to bring disgrace to the family. In fact, the system of arranged marriage was devised by the upper class in



order to safeguard their caste/class/community from dilution by people belonging to an outside or lower caste/class/community. Hence, there is a zeal to marry within the caste/ class/community/religion. Arranged marriages in India are brought about by the consent of the groom and his family primarily, and little importance is attached to the bride’s choice or consent. In bygone times, child marriage was the most evil form of arranged marriage, but with legislation against it, the evil tradition has to large degree died out. New Dimensions to Ancient Traditions Matchmaking Websites have given a new dimension to arranged marriages. These Websites have the bioprofile of the prospective bride and groom, accompanied sometimes by their photographs as well. Families and parents search for suitable profiles and then arrange for a meeting between the eligible man and woman. Sometimes it is the bride or groom themselves who manage their profiles and arrange their marriage on behalf of their families. This is a more progressive form of arranged marriage, which is gaining favor in light of time constraints increasing due to both young men and women becoming equally career oriented. Arranged marriages have a long history in India where the swayamvar system used to be the norm of the day. When there was a marriageable daughter in the family, a date would be fixed for marriage and a public announcement would be made. All eligible boys would flock at the fixed time on the fixed date, and the bride would garland the groom whom she found most suitable. Apparently it would be a marriage of choice, but actually the grooms would be invited by the parents without consulting the bride, so the choice would be arranged by parents only. Arranged marriage has many proponents as well as opponents. Its proponents feel it guarantees stability, but stability always depends on sincerity of the partners, whether it is a love marriage or an arranged one. Changes in Social Valuation of Marriage In cultures where arranged marriages were most prevalent, the engendered norms are breaking down and increasingly men and women are entering into marriages based on love and choice. Gradually, in the erstwhile conservative societies like India, caste, class, and religion are losing relevance while education and

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compatibility are becoming more important grounds for marriage. Parents can now see their children’s logic and they are increasingly giving in to the choice of their children. Also, since job considerations are taking young men and women to greener pastures, the marriageable youth, away from their families, stay in close proximity with members of the opposite sex. Love is then a normal offshoot and much of the time it also results in marriage. In modern times, however, people like the Rev. Sun Myung Moon have seen a sociopolitical relevance in arranged marriages; they advocate cross-cultural arranged marriages as a means of peace building. Moon has been arranging unification marriages through his Unification Church for decades. However, some couples who got married through such public weddings have complaints that their partners do not even speak the same language as they do. In India, public marriages are arranged more for social/economical reasons than for political/religious ones. Marriageable men and women from economically weaker families are introduced to each other through public ceremony, and all the couples get married under one roof with minimal show and pomp. Since in India, dowry is a major consideration, public marriages save a lot of young women from this ordeal. According to surveys, the system of arranged marriage is fast breaking down even in India, which was supposed to be its major hub. Increasingly, love marriages are being seen as the only remedy toward breaking caste and class barriers that have eaten into the Indian culture. Moreover, it is the only solution to the menace of dowry that is widely practiced in India. See Also: Afghanistan; Divorce; Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; India; Iraq; Japan; Marriage; Nepal; Pakistan; South Korea; Sri Lanka. Further Readings Batabyal, Amitrajeet A. Stochastic Models of Decision Making in Arranged Marriages. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006. Frolova, Ekaterina. Agency Within Subordination: Tajik Women’s Experiences With Arranged Marriages. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag, 2009. Myers, Jane E., Jayamala Madathil, and Lynee R. Tingle. “Marriage Satisfaction and Wellness in India and the United States: A Preliminary Comparison of Arranged

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Marriages and Marriages of Choice.” Journal of Counseling and Development, v.83 (2005). Seth, Reva. First Comes Marriage: Modern Relationship Advice From the Wisdom of Arranged Marriages. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. Asha Choubey MJP Rohilkhand University

Marshall Islands The Republic of the Marshall Islands is a matrilineal society. In addition to daily duties such as home and family maintenance, women have the right to own and inherit land. This places the Marshallese women at the center of the society. Despite this matrilineal establishment, women are less educated, more unemployed, and are compensated less for work than are men in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Teenage pregnancy in the Republic of the Marshall Islands is the highest among the other Pacific Islands and, according to the nongovernmental organization Women United Together in the Marshall Islands (WUTMI), 80 percent of Marshallese women have reported domestic abuse. Programs and services for such abuse and teenage pregnancy are limited in the country. WUTMI is a chartered, nonprofit organization designed to advocate for the Marshallese women. WUTMI’s campaigns include educating parents on how to raise healthy and strong children (Parents as Teachers Project); increasing awareness of domestic violence and advancing legislation to combat abuse (Protection of Women-Enhancing Human Rights Project); and researching the reaction of Marshallese citizens toward women leaders in government (Gender Equality in Leadership Project). In 2006, the Republic of the Marshall Islands was the first of the Pacific Islands to propose a Gender Budget Initiative. The nation’s budget was targeted to provide gender equality through implementing expenditure of money more appropriately and equally for both genders. The measure was intended to signify the priorities of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, which was proposed as host of the pilot Gender Budget Initiative for the other Pacific Islands, by virtue of its matrilin-

eal society and its grassroots women’s organizations, such as WUTMI. While the bill failed to pass, it is still thought to have brought awareness to gender inequality and government accountability in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. On March 1, 1954, the United States detonated the atomic bomb Castle Bravo at Bikini Atoll on the Marshall Islands as a nuclear test. The fallout from Castle Bravo was intended to drop into the ocean; however, wind currents relocated the fallout to two inhabited atolls in the Marshall Islands: Rongelap and Utirik. Women there reported suffering irregular and excessive menstrual cycles, back pain, and pelvic deformities from the fallout. Many women also delivered what are known as “jelly babies” (malformed fetuses); however their claims that these fetuses were radiation related was dismissed. Marshallese women have also reported suffering goiter tumors, resultant of radioactive exposure. See Also: Domestic Violence; Environmental Issues, Women and; Health, Mental and Physical; Nongovermental Organizations Worldwide; Teen Pregnancy. Further Readings Pollock, Nancy J. “Marshall Islands Women’s Health Issues: Nuclear Fallout.” http://www.converge.org.nz /pma/RMIwomen04.doc (accessed November 2009). Sharp, Rhonda and Sanjugta Vas Dev. “Integrating Gender Into Public Expenditure: Lessons From the Republic of the Marshall Islands.” Pacific Studies, v.29/3–4 (2006) Women United Together in the Marshall Islands. “Projects.” http://www.wutmi.org/projects.html (accessed November 2009). Sarah Heilbrunn California Polytechnic State University

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene, an important female figure in the Christian belief system, has experienced renewed interest in the late 20th and early 21st century. Viewed traditionally as a sinner in need of Jesus’s assistance, Mary Magdalene and her image have undergone positive revisions during recent years in which her



status as a powerful member of Jesus’s ministry has been somewhat restored. Recently, scores of authors, desperate to reveal Mary Magdalene’s story, have published both scholarly and fictional works analyzing her. Books like Robin Griffith-Jones’s Beloved Disciple: The Misunderstood Legacy of Mary Magdalene, the Woman Closest to Jesus, Lynn Picknett’s Mary Magdalene: Christianity’s Hidden Goddess, Bruce Chilton’s Mary Magdalene: A Biography, and Jane Schaberg’s Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament explore the saint and examine her true role in Christianity, usually based largely on scriptural evidence. Interest in Mary Magdalene reached fervent heights after the publication of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code in 2003. In the novel, Brown weaves together the story of the Holy Grail, the Catholic Church, and the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Brown suffered criticism for his portrayal of the Church and various historical inaccuracies; nonetheless, the theories he introduced to the general reading public about Mary Magdalene

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were met with passionate, obsessive interest. Some of these theories were that the Holy Grail was, in fact, Mary Magdalene, who was carrying Jesus’s child at the time of his crucifixion (the Holy Grail was thought to hold Jesus’s blood, and in being pregnant with his child, Mary Magdalene indeed would have carried his blood within her). Brown’s novel also suggested that the Church feared having a powerful female figure to worship (which Mary Magdalene would have been, as Jesus’s wife), so Church fathers—thousands of years ago—instead described her as a prostitute to be pitied, rather than a woman worth revering. In 2004, the film The Passion of the Christ (directed by Mel Gibson) portrayed Mary Magdalene far differently than in Brown’s novel and other contemporary works about her. In this film, she is demure and synonymous with the adulteress whom Jesus saves from stoning. Gibson’s film portrays Mary Magdalene traditionally, as a woman of scandal, instead of an important and respected member of Jesus’s ministry. A renewed interest and movement to defend Mary Magdalene from historical slander has garnered her a recent wealth of popular and scholarly attention. She remains one of the most important women in Christianity and recently, has become a focus for analysis of women’s roles in religion in general. See Also: Christianity; Da Vinci Code, The; Religion, Women in; Roman Catholic Church; Virgin Mary; Womanist Theology. Further Readings Brown, D. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Chilton, B. Mary Magdalene: A Biography. New York: Doubleday, 2005. Griffith-Jones, R. Beloved Disciple: The Misunderstood Legacy of Mary Magdalene, the Woman Closest to Jesus. New York: Harper One, 2008. Lutzer, E. The Da Vinci Deception. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2004. Picknett, L. Mary Magdalene: Christianity’s Hidden Goddess. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2004. Schaberg, J. Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament. New York: Continuum, 2002.

The Penitent Magdalene by Guido Reni, c. 1635. Mary Magdalene is one of the most important women in Christianity.

Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

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“Masculinity,” Social Construction of Debates about the nature of what it means to be a woman or man have existed since humans began recording written language. However, the nature of the conversation about masculinity and femininity evolves and changes at a rapid pace. One explanation for the fluid nature of gendered behaviors comes from social constructionism, or the philosophical view referring to the ways a society builds or creates reality through social interactions. It may help to think of social constructionism as a set of hidden or expressed rules about what we accept as truths in society. More specifically, it is a sociological view that considers how we use language to describe and make meaning in social contexts. For example, a social constructionist might argue that a concept like masculinity only exists because a particular group of people agree that it has specific meaning and significance. Inherent in the theory is that meanings can and often do change over time to reflect different historical, social and cultural influences. Social constructionism gained popularity in the United States during the 1960s after Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann published The Social Construction of Reality. They argued that most of our everyday knowledge of reality—what we would call common sense—comes from and is maintained through our social interactions. Social constructionism was one of several forces that helped support the Women’s (or Feminist) Movement in the United States at that time by challenging long-held assumptions that biological differences between the sexes could be grounds for granting different social and legal rights such as voting or owning property. Since then, the public conversation about what it means to be a man or a woman in modern society has changed and will likely continue to evolve. One social concept or construct that has generated a great deal of research and theory during the past 30 years is masculinity. Just using the word masculinity in conversation is likely to bring with it a set of assumptions and some level of assumed shared meaning. Early notions of masculinity were rooted in essentialist or deterministic views which suggested that all men are born with a set of characteristics or

traits that can be defined and described. For example, an essentialist view of masculinity might argue that aggression is a fixed trait of being born male or at least directly influenced by the presence of different levels of testosterone in men and women. In contrast, a social constructionist view might suggest that men and women vary in their levels of aggression depending on context and social cues. For example, a certain society might accept a parent showing physical aggression to protect his/her child from harm, but not to challenge an unfair school policy at a parent– teacher conference. Although this simple example highlights different views on a concept like aggression, modern social constructions of masculinity are much more complex given the cultural diversity in today’s world. Social Construction of Gender Roles While the term sex refers to the biological or reproductive capabilities of being born male or female, the word gender refers to all of the others things we associate with maleness or femaleness regardless of anatomy or reproduction. People across all cultures tend to take on roles that are seen as more or less appropriate for males and females, and there is a broad range of roles that exist within and between different cultures. For example, in many countries men have historically taken on primary responsibility for earning income while women take primary responsibility for providing care for young children. These gender roles are the behaviors and expectations that a society associates with being masculine or feminine—not predetermined roles based only on biology. Society constructs the rules and standards about how men and women should think, feel, and act, and works to constrain them from certain behaviors that violate notions of masculinity or femininity. The process of learning those rules begins in childhood and continues throughout our lifetimes as societies change. Given that gender and gender roles can be seen as largely constructed by our environment, it is important to explore how societies influence the concept of masculinity. Social Constructions of Masculinity Masculinity refers to the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that are most often associated with being or behaving male in our society. For example, being



“masculine” in many cultures has been associated with encouraging self-reliance, seeking power, achievement in the work role, dominance over others and the environment, homophobia, avoidance of femininity, and discouraging emotional expression, dependence on others, and seeking help. Some have argued that some of these behaviors may have been adaptive to our ancestors for survival (e.g., dominance over animals through hunting) or access to resources for potential mates (e.g., achievement through work for greater share of financial resources). This deterministic view of masculinity has been labeled hegemonic masculinity because some of the behaviors and attitudes can cause harm to self and others. For example, a great deal of research in the past 30 years has demonstrated relationships between traditional, hegemonic masculinity and a range of harmful physical, emotional, and interpersonal problems. For example, men who conform more to hegemonic masculinity have higher rates of substance use, depression, risk taking, violence, and suicide, including using more lethal means (e.g., guns). They also demonstrate more homophobia (e.g., heterosexual men are less likely to interact with gay men), diminished sense of sexual agency with prostate cancer, and decreased help-seeking behaviors for a broad range of health problems. However, social constructionists have challenged the idea of masculinity as a stable trait because it fails to explain the wide variation in men’s (and women’s) behaviors. Rather than looking at a dominant and stable construct of masculinity, we should consider the existence of multiple masculinities that are contextualized and dynamic constructions. Central to the social constructionist argument is that masculinity is demonstrated in any number of ways and is often influenced by societal conditions, interpersonal relationships, and changing gender role expectations. Quite simply, men and women are capable of behaving in different ways in different contexts. A contemporary example of the influence of language and fluid nature of masculinity is the phenomenon of the metrosexual man introduced by Mark Simpson in the mid-1990s. While concern for appearance and physical beauty was historically associated with femininity, the metrosexual man is one who puts more emphasis on maintaining his appearance than traditional men from previous generations. This cultural shift in masculinity, or at least a subset of behav-

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iors and attitudes associated with it, was supported by a new set of products and services such as men’s cosmetic lines, clothing accessories, and men’s spas that would have been considered unthinkable only one generation ago. As a true reflection of the social constructionist view, the term retrosexual emerged shortly thereafter as a response to these changing gender norms. In essence, the retrosexual man is one who rejects the modern concern for appearance and instead reflects previous stereotypes of masculinity. This shift and reaction to changes in the value of physical appearance is just one of many possible constructs of masculinity, and serves to illustrate the importance of social context in how we define our sense of reality. Cross-Cultural Constructions of Masculinity Perhaps the strongest argument in support of the role of social context in how we express gendered behaviors comes from cross-cultural comparisons of masculinity. Although some of the dominant norms of masculinity outlined above are found across a wide variety cultures and even historical periods, exceptions to those norms challenge a strict essentialist view of gender. Notable examples come from anthropologist David Gilmore’s experiences living with men and women in cultures around the world. Although violence and war have often been associated with traditional masculinity in societies, there is no tradition of combat or even warriors in the !Kung bushmen of southern Africa. In Tahiti, Polynesian men and women have been described as almost indistinguishable in their behavior, personalities, and roles, with women often in positions of power and men showing no concern for behaviors that might be considered effeminate in Western cultures (e.g., men dancing together in close physical contact). Finally, the Semai of southest Asia are also known for their nonviolence, minimal use of gender distinctions in their language, and lack of competitiveness in children’s play. Women’s Roles in Constructing Masculinity One other lens social constructionists can use to critique masculinity is how it is displayed and experienced by women within a culture. We know that gendered behavior does not follow strict biological determinism because women show variation in what are considered traditionally masculine traits and behaviors. Consider

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three characteristics and norms which have historically been associated with masculinity: physical (e.g., athletic, strong), functional (e.g., provider for family), and sexual (e.g., sexually aggressive or experienced). Women in many contemporary cultures have seen a significant shift with respect to these characteristics as evidenced by the growth of women’s professional sports, increasing participation in the workforce, and changes in sexual expression. Situational contexts can also influence women’s endorsement of masculine norms as they do for men. A social constructionist would argue that masculinity and femininity does not describe who we are in all situations, but helps determine what we do in any given situation. Challenges to Social Constructionism One of the challenges in taking a social constructionist view of masculinity is the difficulty in defining and measuring levels of it. While supporters of the view argue that it is a helpful viewpoint precisely because it cannot be simplified outside of our experiences, opponents point out the lack of consistency due to everchanging social contexts in which we find ourselves. They further argue that it is not a pragmatic approach because it depends so heavily on history, time, and social factors. Supporters have responded that taking a constructionist view provides a more realistic framework with which to understand why we do the things we do, and accounts for why “strong” men can show weakness and “peaceful” women can be aggressive. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Homophobia; Nontraditional Careers, U.S. Further Readings Addis, Michael and James Mahalik. “Men, Masculinity, and the Contexts of Help Seeking.” American Psychologist, v.58/1 (2003). Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books, 1966. Gilbert, Lucia Albino and Murray Scher. Gender and Sex in Counseling and Psychotherapy. London: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. Gilmore, David. Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.

Kahn, Jack. An Introduction to Masculinities. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Ryan A. McKelley University of Wisconsin, La Crosse

Mata Amritanandamayi Math Mata Amritanandamayi Math (also known as M. A. Math) is a charitable humanitarian organization, founded by the female Hindu spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, who is known popularly as “Amma.” Through its various centers (ashrams) and branch groups, M. A. Math offers educational, financial, medical, and social welfare assistance to disadvantaged people in India and overseas. Key projects in India include care centers for the elderly; schools, training centers, and orphanages for children in need; free housing schemes for the homeless and handicapped; health and medical services; free meals; and, more recently, relief assistance to victims of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Serving Women Worldwide and Locally A large number of M. A. Math projects cater to the needs of women, such as women’s shelters and pensions for widows and the destitute. As well as reaching the poor in India, the organization operates worldwide in Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and elsewhere; and is recognized as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) by the United Nations. M. A. Math has donated tens of millions of dollars in aid to international projects, as well as providing local projects in various countries. Amma and a small number of her followers founded M. A. Math in the early 1980s as an informal ashram to serve the local community in the city of Kollam, north of Thiruvananthapuram, in Kerala state in southwestern India. The center and its location are now known as Amritapuri; it serves as the organization’s headquarters. Although M. A. Math caters to people from all backgrounds and religions, it embodies Hinduism principles in its activities and teachings, blending spiritual awareness with practi-



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See Also: Hindu Female Gurus and Living Saints; Hinduism; India; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide. Further Readings Canan, Janine. Messages From Amma: In the Language of the Heart. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 2004. Cornell, Judith. Amma: Healing the Heart of the World. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Poole, Karuna. Getting to Joy: A Western Householder’s Spiritual Journey With Mata Amritanandamayi. Seattle, WA: Shantini Center, 2000. Gareth Davey Hong Kong Shue Yan University

Amma has devoted her life to philanthropic activities and is known as the “hugging saint.”

cal humanitarian service. Also, some projects focus specifically on Hinduism, such as the construction of Brahmasthanam temples throughout India for Hindu worship. Amma has devoted her life to philanthropic activities. In recognition of her contributions, she has been presented with numerous international honors, such as the 2002 Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence by the World Movement for Nonviolence; and the Fourth Annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award in 2006. She travels all over the world delivering speeches and teachings. In addition to being credited as the founder of M. A. Math, Amma is known in the international media as the “hugging saint” because her blessings take the form of an embrace symbolizing compassion and healing. Large numbers of devotees congregate every day to hug the spiritual leader, and there have been times when she has hugged thousands of visitors daily, stretching over many hours. It has been claimed that Ms. Amritanandamayi has embraced tens of millions of people during the past three decades. Her remarkable life story, as well as the success of M. A. Math, have been documented in several books and documentaries, and were showcased recently in the 2005 film titled Darshan: The Embrace.

Maternal Mortality Childbirth can be dangerous for women, particularly poor women. Over 500,000 women die each year from childbirth-related causes, or about one each minute. Deaths result both from direct physical problems and from underlying poverty and gender inequalities. Skilled birth attendants and healthy living conditions contribute to healthier births. Maternal mortality rates in various parts of the world vary from 9 per 100,000 births to 450 per 100,000 births. Maternal mortality is defined as death while pregnant or within 42 days after pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes. Up to 15 percent of all births are complicated by unpredictable, potentially fatal, but usually treatable conditions. If such cases are untreated, the mothers, and often their babies, die. Direct and Underlying Causes Most deaths occur within the first 48 hours after delivery (or pregnancy termination), and 80 percent result from direct immediate causes. Postpartum hemorrhaging is responsible for about one-quarter of all maternal deaths; if severe bleeding begins, a woman can die within two hours. Infections leading to blood poisoning (childbirth fever), usually avoidable in sterile conditions, are the second leading cause. Preeclampsia from high blood pressure during pregnancy, can result in fatal convulsions for the mother. Another

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direct cause of death is obstructed labor, when the baby’s head is too large for the mother’s pelvis, or the baby is in an abnormal position. Complications from unsafe abortions also kill many women. Poverty is the most important underlying cause of maternal mortality, and women’s high rates of poverty (compared to men’s) reflect their second-class status in general. Ninety-nine percent of maternal deaths occur in poor parts of the world. Even within richer countries the rates vary, and childbirth is more dangerous for poor women. For example, black women in the United States are about three times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than white women. Poor women in general have less access to healthcare before and during childbirth, adequate nutrition, sufficient clean water, hygienic living and birthing conditions, and transportation to healthcare facilities. Risk of death also increases for mothers under the age of 20, and even more for mothers under the age of 15. The risk also increases with each additional pregnancy. Other indirect causes of maternal death which are more common among women in poverty include malnutrition, anemia, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. Responses and the Continuing Priorities The United Nations proposed the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 to meet several of the most pressing challenges in impoverished countries. One goal is to reduce maternal mortality by 75 percent by 2015. Of all the goals, this one has been least successful, with the largest gaps remaining between rich and poor nations. The most critical intervention for maternal health is to increase the presence of skilled birth attendants, such as midwives, physicians, and nurses. In the developing world, about 58 percent of births are attended; in some countries, this factor is as low as 10 to 12 percent. The individual with midwifery skills manages normal birth, recognizes the onset of complications, starts treatment, and if necessary, supervises transfer of mother and baby to a setting for emergency care. A healthcare facility must be fairly close if complications occur. After the mother reaches the facility, she must be able to afford culturally acceptable treatment; the clinic and providers need essential drugs and sufficient equipment. Wealthier and urban women have greater access to clinics and services than rural and poorer women.

Additionally, maternal mortality can be reduced substantially with universal access to knowledge, reproductive healthcare before and after birth, contraception, family planning, and access to safe abortions. Adolescents are at high risk for dying during childbirth, and their reproductive healthcare needs (including freedom from early pregnancies and marriages) must be considered. Women must also have good nutrition, healthy living conditions, and freedom from violence in their homes and communities. They must have access to a healthcare environment that is adequate, affordable, and appropriate. Reducing poverty and increasing the status of women through education and legislation help insure women’s health at this critical time. The problem is underreported globally. The poorest countries with the highest maternal mortality rates are also the countries with limited vital statistics data. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Infant Mortality; Midwifery; Nurses; Nutrition in Pregnancy; Poverty; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care. Further Readings Koblinsky, Marjorie A., ed. Reducing Maternal Mortality: Learning From Bolivia, China, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, and Zimbabwe. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2003. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). “Population Issues: Safe Motherhood.” http://www.unfpa.org/ mothers (accessed November 2009). World Health Organization. “Maternal Mortality in 2005.” http://www.who.int/whosis/mme_2005.pdf (accessed November 2009). Rebecca Reviere Howard University

Mathematics, Women in Historically, women have had less involvement in mathematical activity than men. Although women’s participation and achievement have increased rapidly across the world since the beginnings of the second wave of feminism, differences (particularly in par-



ticipation) exist in the majority of countries. Many explanations have been offered for these differences connecting to a range of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors. As a result, a range of initiatives has been developed to promote interest in mathematics among women. While some approaches see mathematics as a fixed body of knowledge and seek to change women so that more of them want to pursue mathematics, others have used the focus on gender to find different ways of doing mathematics. The Western narrative of the history of mathematics is dominated by men. The male dominance of mathematics in the past is related to the way that women had few opportunities to pursue the study of mathematical and scientific work and to dominant ideas that such studies would affect their mental and physical health, being viewed as particularly detrimental to their reproductive capacity. Despite this there have been a number of women mathematicians, although their contributions have often been excluded or downplayed in official accounts of the subject’s development. These women include Hypatia, an early Egyptian astronomer and philosopher; Emilie du Châtelet (1706–49), a French mathematician and physicist who translated Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica into French adding her own commentary; Sophie Germain (1776–1831), a French mathematician who contributed work on elastic surfaces and number theory; Mary Somerville (1780–1872), a Scottish mathematician and scientist whose books brought ideas in physical science to a wider audience; Ada Lovelace (1815–52), an English mathematician who is generally acknowledged as the first computer programmer; Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), an English nurse and statistician who developed original modes for presenting data; Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–91), a Russian mathematician who worked on analysis and mechanics and was the first woman appointed to a full professorship in northern Europe; and Emmy Noether (1882–1935), a German mathematician who made far-reaching contributions to the fields of algebra and topology. As education and wider society gradually opened up to women during the 20th century, more women were able to study mathematics. However, gender differences in examination attainment and participation persisted. These have been the focus of considerable attention since the 1970s when the education of girls and women became a focus in the West

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due largely to the influence of the second wave in the feminist movement. A range of organizations developed to address this issue, including the International Organization of Women and Mathematics Education, European Women in Mathematics, the Association for Women in Mathematics (U.S.), the Gender and Mathematics Association (UK), and the Ada Byron Organization (Spain). More recently, the push to increase women’s participation in mathematics has moved into the mainstream as part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and in many Western countries, as part of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) agenda. In current policy, mathematics is seen as central to national competitiveness in the context of the new global knowledge economy. Within this, the promotion of women in mathematics is a route to addressing the decline in participation in the subject and to producing sufficient mathematically qualified workers to service the economy. Both in these policies and in feminist interventions, mathematics is viewed as a “critical filter” controlling entry to high-status educational and employment opportunities and to a range of cognate fields such as engineering, physics, and computing. Gender Differences Gender differences in mathematics attainment have been recorded both in terms of average scores and in the distribution of the scores. General patterns are that male students’ results tend to have a higher average than female students’ results, particularly on spatial topics, and to be more extreme than female students’ results with higher proportions at the bottom and top of the range. However, the evidence on differences in attainment is ambiguous. There is a “file drawer problem” since studies showing no gender differences are less likely to be published than those that do find differences. The nature and size of gender differences in performance vary both historically and geographically. They also depend on how the test itself and individual test items are framed. It is possible to produce mathematics tests which on average favor men or women or which produce essentially identical averages. Mathematical test scores always show substantial overlap between boys and girls and men and women and within-group variation in results is consistently much higher than the differences between the genders.

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Differences in mathematical participation also show considerable variation across different social contexts. Although they continue to be found in some form in the vast majority of countries, the level at which they start varies. For example, in the United States, mathematics is largely gender balanced until postgraduate level; while in the United Kingdom, boys outnumber girls by nearly two to one in A-levels, the first mathematics qualification to be taken after the end of compulsory schooling at age 16. The “She Figures” report published by the European Commission shows that the proportion of doctorates in mathematics and statistics awarded to women rose from 30 percent in 2002 to 34 percent in 2006. However, this figure varied from 14 percent in Slovenia to 60 percent in Lithuania. The number of women involved in mathematics declines rapidly at higher levels. Data collated by the European Congress of Mathematics in 1998 showed that, in the mid1990s, Italy and Luxembourg were the only European countries where more than 10 percent of mathematics professors were women. Biological, Psychological, and Sociological Explanations Biological explanations have been offered for gender differences in relation to mathematics based in differences in relation to chromosomes, hormones, and brain lateralization. Such biological explanations generally draw on ideas from evolutionary psychology, which argues that since humans have spent over 99 percent of their evolutionary time as hunter-gatherers, so their minds have evolved adaptations in response to the selection pressures of that environment. Gender differences in the hunter-gatherer environment, together with men and women’s different investments in their offspring, have meant that successful genes were often ones that have different phenotypic effects in men and women. These differences are then used to account for contemporary gendered behavior patterns. Psychological explanations have been offered for gender differences in mathematics based in differences in relation to self-esteem, confidence, anxiety, and/or self-concept. One particularly influential strand of research suggests that girls and women are more likely than boys and men to attribute success in mathematics to chance and failure to more stable and internal factors such as the difficulty of the subject

and their inability at it. This female pattern of attributions is viewed as maladaptive because it leads girls and women to feel that they cannot do mathematics and so produces a state of “learned helplessness.” Those developing sociological explanations for gender differences in mathematics have critiqued the biological and psychological explanations for ignoring both the educational context and wider social issues. They have instead argued that differences in the socialization of boys and girls produce differences in attainment and participation in mathematics. They have pointed to the lack of female role models; the widespread gender stereotyping in mathematics textbooks; the mass media and the views of parents, teachers, and peers; and boys’ dominance of school lessons, monopolizing classroom space, equipment (particularly technology), interactions, and teacher time. “Ways of Knowing” Another strand of explanations (which may be biologically, psychologically, or sociologically oriented) has developed arguments that there are gendered preferences for different “ways of knowing,” leading male and female students to favour different teaching, learning, and assessment styles. For example, the use of closed questions and multiple-choice tests, the directive pedagogic style with little room for discussion and the conception of mathematical knowledge as abstract and unconnected from the world, have been seen to be antithetical to women’s “ways of knowing.” In an influential critique of the explanations discussed above, Valerie Walkerdine challenged the terms of the debate. She argued that the problem had never been one of “real” differences between boys’ and girls’ performances in mathematics but instead was about how these differences were constructed. For example, she noted that girls’ better average performance than boys in early mathematics tests in the United Kingdom was labeled (by teachers and researchers) as resulting from rule following and rote learning, things that were not seen as valuable to pursuing higher level mathematics. In contrast boys’ lower average test scores were taken as evidence of their real understanding and flair in the subject, things which were seen to stand them in good stead for the future. She explained that these constructions are possible because of an historical alignment of rationality with masculinity in Western thinking, in

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opposition to femininity, which is aligned with the irrational and the emotional. The increasing engagement of women with mathematics has contributed to changes in our understandings of what mathematics is and how it can be done. The notion of mathematical activity has been expanded to include, for example, women’s traditional craftwork and everyday activities such as calculating calories as part of dieting. Women’s less linear career pathways have helped to challenge a range of stereotypes of mathematicians such as the idea that they do their best work when they are young. And feminist interventions have been part of questioning the conception of mathematics itself as abstract and unconnected to the world. See Also: Computer Science, Women in; Physics, Women in; Science, Women in; STEM Coalition. Further Readings Agnes Scott College. “Biographies of Women Mathematicians.” http://www.agnesscott.edu/Lriddle/ women/women.htm (accessed August 2009). Henrion, Claudia. Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997. Mendick, Heather. Masculinities in Mathematics. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 2006. Walkerdine, Valerie. Counting Girls Out. London: Falmer, 1998. Heather Mendick University of London

Mauritania After gaining independence from France in 1960, Mauritania became embroiled in both external and internal strife before instituting democratic rule in 2005. However, ethnic tensions continue to cause concern, and there are major differences in the traditions and lifestyles of the urbanized Moorish and rural black populations. Around half of the workforce is engaged in agriculture and livestock, and 30 percent are unemployed. Mauritania has a per capita income of $2,100 and a poverty rate of 40 percent.

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The majority of the population is of mixed Moor/ black heritage (40 percent). The rest are evenly divided between Moors and blacks. There is no diversity in religion, as all Mauritanians are Muslim. Shari`a law continues to dictate the conditions under which many women live, but some customs have been discarded by educated, urbanized Moor women. The government and nongovernmental organizations work together to improve the status of women. Both female gender mutilation and gavage, the forced feeding of adolescent girls, have been outlawed. Although women have legal rights to equality, property ownership, and child custody, it is only more educated, urban women who are able to take full advantage of those rights. Other major concerns include arranged marriages, violence against women, involuntary servitude, and societal discrimination of women. The Secretariat for Women’s Affairs and women’s rights groups work together to inform women about the dangers of female genital mutilation and educate them about their rights. Equal pay is mandated by law, and some employers offer generous family-leave policies. According to Shari`a tradition, a woman can be married or divorced without her consent. However, divorce rates (37 percent) are high among Moor women, and wives can also end marriages by repudiating their husbands. Female court testimony carries only half the weight of that of men. Female genital mutilation is generally performed on infant girls between 7 days and 6 months of age. The government has now forbidden all hospitals from performing female genital mutilation. The practice of involuntary servitude has declined to some extent. By law, adult males can leave servitude at will; however, mothers find it more difficult to leave because they may not be able to take their children if they leave. Women have the right to vote and are active in party politics. The quota system dictates that 20 percent of candidate lists be women. In 1997, more women voted than men for the first time. By 2008, 15 women served in the National Assembly, eight sat in the Senate, and four were in the cabinet. Mauritania has the 35th highest infant mortality rate in the world (63.42 deaths per 1,000 live births). Female infants (58.03 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a considerable advantage over male infants (68.65 deaths per 1,000 live births). That advantage

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continues throughout life, and women have a life expectancy of 62.59 years compared with 58.22 years for men. The median age for women (20 years) is somewhat higher than that of men (18.3 years). Mauritanian women have a fertility rate of 4.45 children. Mauritanians have the 59th highest human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) adult prevalence rate (0.8 percent) in the world. They also have a high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, Rift Valley fever, meningococcal meningitis, and rabies. Nearly 60 percent of men are literate, but only 43.4 percent of women are able to read and write. All Mauritanians have a school life expectancy of eight years. There is a major problem with domestic violence, but it is generally left to families and ethnic groups to deal with the matter. From an official perspective, rape is rare. However, nongovernmental organizations insist that there are high

incidences of unreported rape. Wealthy men accused of rape have reportedly managed to avoid prosecution and imprisonment. Prostitution is a growing problem, and there are reports of trafficking of Chinese women for use in brothels that cater to foreigners. See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Mutilation, Geographical Distribution; HIV/AIDS: Africa. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Mauritania.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/ the-world-factbook/geos/mr.html (accessed February 2010). “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2000: Mauritania.” WIN News, v.27/2 (2001). Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

School children in Mauritania in 2008. A survey of children not attending school in Mauritania found that 25 percent needed to support their families or perform domestic work, and 22 percent did not attend because of the distance to school.

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Helms, Jesse, et al. “Women and Human Rights.” WIN News, v.23/2 (1997). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Tripp, Aili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Mauritania.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/ af/119013.htm (accessed March 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Mauritius After centuries of foreign domination, Mauritius— an island nation located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar—eventually became a British protectorate. After obtaining independence in 1968, Mauritius became one of the most highly developed countries in Africa. Some 42 percent of the population now lives in urban areas, and 70.5 percent of the gross national product is derived from the service industry. With a per capita income of $12,400 and an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, 8 percent of the population live in poverty. Most Mauritians are Indo-Mauritian (68 percent), but there is also a large group of Creoles (27 percent). The largest religious groups are Hindu (48 percent), Roman Catholic (23.6 percent), and Muslim (16.6 percent). Although English is the official language, more than 80 percent of the population speaks Creole. Mauritian females have legal equality, and the government and nongovernmental organizations have worked together to improve the status of women and address inequities that do exist. The most pervasive problem is domestic violence. The number of women in the national legislature trebled in 2005, rising from four to 12, and making it a banner for women in politics. Previously, Mauritius had one of the lowest female participation rates in politics in Africa. This increase was in large part a result of the success of woman-oriented nongovernmental organizations. Social indicators reflect government commitment to addressing problems. Total infant mortality is 12.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.

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Female infants (9.77 deaths per 1,000 live births) are more likely to survive than males (14.51 deaths per 1,000 live births), as are adult women, who have a life expectancy of 77.65 years compared with 70.53 years for men. The median age is 32.7 years for women and 31 years for men. Mauritius has a fertility rate of 1.81 children per woman. Social Indicators Despite a human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) adult prevalence rate of 1.7 percent, Mauritius has been able to avoid many of the diseases that plague less-developed African nations. The literacy rates of 80.5 percent for women and 88.4 percent for men are high among African countries, and as a rule, Mauritians are well educated. Women generally complete 13 years of school compared with 14 for men. Despite high ratings on many social indicators, women in Mauritius are frequently the victims of violence. They are beaten and even burned alive. The government has set up a gender bureau and passed new legislation to deal with the problem. However, the emphasis is on producing cohesive families, rather than on dealing with the causes of violence or providing support for victims. Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal, and laws are generally enforced. However, many cases go unreported because of familial and cultural influences and the fear of retaliation. Mauritius has passed sexual harassment laws, but they have proved largely ineffective. Although illegal, prostitution is widespread. See Also: Domestic Violence; Representation of Women in Government, International; Roman Catholic. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Mauritius.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/mp.html (accessed February 2010). Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008.

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Tripp, Ail Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Mauritius.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/119014.htm (accessed March 2010). Yoon, M. and Sheila Beware. “The Mauritian Election of 2005: An Unprecedented Increase of Women in Parliament.” Journal of International Women’s Studies, v.9/3 (2008). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

McCartney, Stella Stella Nina McCartney is a fashion designer who was born in London, England, on September 13, 1971, to ex-Beatles singer Sir Paul McCartney and American photographer Linda McCartney, née Eastman. McCartney and his wife also performed together in the band Wings, which they formed in 1971. Interested in fashion since her early teenage years, she worked with Christian Lacroix on his first couture collection since she was 15. She also took on an apprenticeship with renowned Savile Row tailor Edward Sexton. McCartney attended foundation year at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, in Bromley, England, and then enrolled at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in fashion design. She graduated in 1995, with a collection that was famously modeled by her friends, supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. This collection was selected by several retailers including Browns in London, and Bergdorf Goodman in New York. After two collections under her own name, she was appointed head designer at Chloé, a Paris-based ready-to-wear fashion house, in 1997. Her style was distinguishable by the juxtaposition of lace petticoats and intricate tailoring. She occupied the post for four years, assisted by her friend and fellow designer Phoebe Philo. In 2001, she was recruited by the Gucci Group to develop her own label, a post that she accepted. Philo then took over McCartney’s position at Chloé. Branching out, McCartney launched her own perfume in 2003, and a line of luxury organic skin prod-

ucts, Care, in 2007. McCartney has had many collaborations with other brands. Since 2004, she has an ongoing partnership with athletic-wear icon Adidas, where she designs lines for various sports including running, swimming, golf, winter sports, and more recently, triathlon. In 2005, McCartney created a single collection for international apparel manufacturer and retailer H&M; in 2008, she designed backpacks for sportswear bag brand Le Sportsac. In November 2009, she created a line of children’s and infants’ apparel for mainstream American retailer Gap, which was extended into a second season in March 2010. Today, her 16 boutiques include locations in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, and more recently, Milan and Beirut. Champion of Green Issues McCartney is a lacto-ovo-vegetarian, and refuses to use leather or fur: all her bags are produced in faux, “green” alternatives. She is an animal rights activist and supports People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The motto “Suitable for Vegetarians” can be found on the bottoms of her line of shoes, and inside clothes, notably for Adidas products. The designer does use wool, silk, and other animal-derived fabrics in her product lines. Her green efforts have been rewarded several times. In 2005, she received the Organic Style Woman of the Year Award in New York. In 2009, the Natural Resources Defense Council honored her work during its 11th Annual “Forces for Nature” Benefit, for “Pioneering Environmental Work in Fashion and the Media Industries.” Professional Achievements, Forming a Family Stella McCartney also received the Woman of Courage Award for her work with cancer charities, at the Unforgettable Evening Event 2003 in Los Angeles. McCartney is said to have been especially motivated by her own mother’s death to breast cancer in 1998. Her design skills, too, have often been honored through, for example, the Glamour Award for Best Designer of the Year, in 2004, and the Elle Style Award for Best Designer of the Year in 2007, both in London. Stella McCartney has been married to British publisher Alasdhair Willis since 2003. The couple has three children: two sons, Miller Alasdhair James Willis (born 2005), Beckett Robert Lee Willis (2008), and a daughter, Bailey Linda Olwyn Willis (2006).

McCorvey, Norma

See Also: Animal Rights; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Business, Women in; Celebrity Women; Working Mothers. Further Readings British Broadcasting Corporation News. “Stella Triumphs in New York.” 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/enter tainment/982824.stm (accessed July 2010). Brozan, Nadine. “Chronicle.” 1995. http://www.nytimes .com/1995/06/14/style/chronicle-526795.html (accessed July 2010). Craven, Jo. “Vogue.com Who’s Who: Stella McCartney.” http://www.vogue.co.uk/biographies/080422-stella -mccartney-biography.aspx (accessed July 2010). Alice Pfeiffer Independent Scholar

McCorvey, Norma Norma McCorvey is the pseudonymous “Jane Roe” of the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States. In 1995, McCorvey recanted her position and joined the pro-life movement. Her extraordinary life story casts light on an array of issues, including the rise of the Christian Right in politics and the ways in which class tensions have informed the ongoing conflict over abortion. Born to a poor family in 1947, McCorvey grew up mainly in Texas. In her autobiography, she recounts a hardscrabble life marred from an early age by physical, sexual, and substance abuse. By 1970, when she signed on as the plaintiff in the Texas court case that would become Roe v. Wade, she had already born and relinquished two children. Disturbed by her daughter’s lesbian relationships, McCorvey’s mother had seized custody of her firstborn; McCorvey herself had given the second-born up for adoption.

Roe v. Wade Still in her early 20s, McCorvey was working as a carnival sideshow barker when she became pregnant again. She tried to find a doctor who would perform an abortion, falsely claiming to have been raped. Eventually, she was referred to two young lawyers,

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Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, who were seeking a potential plaintiff for a case designed to challenge Texas’s strict abortion statute. At the time, a number states had already enacted laws allowing for “therapeutic” abortions in special cases, and Hawaii and New York were on the verge of passing legislation that legalized medical abortions up through the 24th week of pregnancy. By the time her case reached the Supreme Court, McCorvey’s relationship with Weddington and Coffee had soured, and she would later claimed that her lawyers used her as a “pawn.” (By then, Roe. v. Wade had become a class action lawsuit.) McCorvey particularly resented the fact that Weddington did not reveal that she herself had undergone an illegal abortion in Mexico in 1967. Speaking to a reporter in 1994, she complained, “When I told her then how desperately I needed one, she could have told me where to go for it. But she wouldn’t, because she needed me to be pregnant for her case.” In the end, “Jane Roe” never underwent an abortion; she gave birth and put the baby up for adoption. More than two years later, the Supreme Court struck down the Texas law that had prevented her from terminating her pregnancy, along with all other state laws that criminalized abortion prior to viability. Activism and Conversion

Roe v. Wade galvanized a “pro-life” movement that has fought ever since to recriminalize abortion. Within this ongoing battle, McCorvey has been a controversial figure since the mid-1980s. After revealing her identity in a 1984 interview, she delivered speeches on behalf of the pro-choice movement, and she later published a book, I Am Roe, which is both memoir and pro-choice manifesto. But in 1995, when working at an abortion clinic in north Dallas, she befriended members of Operation Rescue, a pro-life group that had set up shop next door to the clinic. Soon thereafter, she experienced a dramatic conversion and began working for the organization. In 1997, she founded her own outreach effort, Roe No More Ministry, and published a new book, Won by Love, in which she explains her transformation. In 2003, McCorvey became the plaintiff in a new lawsuit (McCorvey v. Hill) that attempted, unsuccessfully, to reopen Roe v. Wade. The factors that informed McCorvey’s stunning defection from the pro-choice movement are subject to

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debate. In Won by Love, she writes that she experienced a sudden moment of clarity when confronted with an image of a developing fetus. “I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that’s a baby!” she wrote. “It’s as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth— that’s a baby!” Yet McCorvey also clearly felt slighted by prominent pro-choice activists and marginalized within the movement. She complained that its leaders kept “as wide a hedge around me as possible,” declining to invite her to address large rallies or to attend the 1993 White House celebration marking the 20th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Such grievances may also have contributed to McCorvey’s change of heart. Today, she remains active in the pro-life movement. See Also: Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Abortion Laws, United States; Operation Rescue; Pro-Life Movement; Roe v. Wade; United States. Further Readings Garrow, David J. Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of “Roe v. Wade.” Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. McCorvey, Norma, with Andy Meisler. I Am Roe: My Life, “Roe v. Wade,” and Freedom of Choice. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. McCorvey, Norma, with Gary Thomas. Won By Love. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1997. Rebecca Jo Plant University of California, San Diego

Media Chief Executive Officers, Female Female media chief executive officers (CEOs) are in a position to make decisions that shape both industry and culture. The term media CEO refers to those people working as top executives in media industries including, but not limited to, film, television, radio, advertising, and digital media. Like any CEO, the media CEO is considered the primary liaison, manager, and marketer for her company; rather than possessing any one area of expertise, she must have an understanding of her company at every level, as well

as a clear vision for the company’s future. For a media CEO working in film production, that vision guides her major decisions of, for example, whom to hire and fire and what projects to “greenlight” (give permission to proceed). A CEO works in the interest of the company’s owner, board members, and shareholders, and her successes or failures are judged by the company’s profits and losses. Historically, men have held the vast majority of CEO positions, with women almost entirely excluded from executive boardrooms on an international scale. During the first decade of the 21st century, the film and television industries became notable exceptions to this; in 2005, the same year that less than 1 percent of CEOs for top companies were women, almost every major studio in Hollywood employed a female CEO to run its motion picture production. Women executives have become much more common in entertainment than in previous decades, and this change has both inspired celebration and, for some, raised the question of whether discussion of gender in the media industries is still necessary. However, while much public attention has been given to women in key creative and decision-making positions, quantitative research shows that major disparities remain at nearly every echelon of media companies, and that there is still much progress to be made before gender equality can be declared in this business sector. A New Approach During the 1990s, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, two major industry trade journals, began publishing annual special issues with the goal of drawing attention to women’s power and achievements within the media industries. Both trade journals have since optimistically declared that due to changing perceptions women can move more easily up the executive ranks, and female executives have finally become familiar in the boardroom. Those influential female CEOs held up as examples of such positive changes to women’s status include Stacey Snider as CEO of Dreamworks, Judy McGrath as CEO of MTV Networks, Cecile Frot-Coutaz as CEO of FremantleMedia, Abbe Raven as CEO of A&E Networks, Debra Lee as CEO of BET, Andrea Wong as CEO of Lifetime, Kay Koplovitsz as CEO of USA Networks, and Paula Wagner as CEO of United Artists. The success of these women was met with much celebration in trade journals and the popular press



throughout the early 2000s. Yet at the same time as trade articles questioned whether gender distinctions were still meaningful, the success of female CEOs was also framed according to gender stereotypes, including their perceived maternal instincts and ability to nurture. The increase in female CEOs represents progress, but high-profile success stories represent only a fraction of those working in the media industries, where gender stereotypes persist and disparities in employment are still drawn along gender lines. Disparities Remain Quantitative research points to the ongoing need for critical attention to the gender of those working within media industries. Studies have confirmed that increased numbers of female executives in the early 2000s do not reflect women’s status in the industries overall. For example, a study conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania documented the number of women in executive positions and on boards of directors for entertainment companies. Between the years 2000 and 2001, the percentage of women in top executive positions decreased from 14 percent to 11 percent. Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, with the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, conducts annual studies of women’s employment in film and television. The results reveal that disparities remain at every level of the industries. In 2008, Lauzen found that women made up only 16 percent of all directors, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors that worked on the 250 highest grossing films in the United States, with 22 percent of films employing women in none of those five categories. Such research ultimately points to what both studies refer to as a “glass” or “celluloid ceiling”—a barrier that, while difficult to see, has thus far prevented women from achieving equal status with men. Further evidence of this barrier can be seen in the fact that the owners of media companies remain almost entirely men. The impact of female CEOs has been great, and yet it can be overestimated. The numbers show that more change is needed before gender equality can be declared in media industries. See Also: Business,Women in; Chief Executive Officers, Female; Film Directors, Female; Film Production,Women in; Management, Women in.

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Further Readings Bollinger, L. and C. O’Neill. Women in Media Careers: Success Despite the Odds. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2008. Byerly, C. M. and K. Ross. Women & Media: A Critical Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006. Holt, J. and A. Perren, eds. Media Industries: Theory and Method. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Lauzen, M. M. “The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 250 Films of 2008.” http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2008_celluloid _ceiling.pdf (accessed December 2009). Ryan Noelle Bowles University of California, Santa Barbara

Medical Research, Gender Issues in Medical research is undertaken in order to better understand causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. One of the most important experimental methods in medical research in the United States is the clinical trial, which ensures the safety and efficacy of new treatments before they are widely prescribed. In the mid-1980s, researchers began to recognize that biological differences between women and men could have a significant impact on health, although the majority of medical research prior to this time had been conducted almost exclusively on men. Since then, sex differences have become a focus of attention in medical research. Critics argue that some research fails to account for the differences in women’s and men’s biology, yielding a body of medical knowledge that leads to inadequate or even dangerous treatments for women. In addition, it is suggested that research regarding women’s health is underfunded in comparison to men’s health issues. Several national and international organizations have called for additional research into the importance of sex differences in health. History and Changes by Research Bodies The U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 required for the first time that drugs be proven safe through clinical trials before being made available

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to the public. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) became the governing body for the oversight of clinical trials of new therapies. Trials are carried out in several phases, all of which include human subjects, to determine the toxic dose, efficacy of the medication, and effect on morbidity and mortality. During the 1940s and 1950s, most clinical trials used male volunteers, although women were sometimes subjects of research concerning the female reproductive system. Inclusion of both male and female subjects was not considered important in most research studies, since women were regarded essentially as smaller versions of men, biologically indistinguishable except for by their reproductive systems. In the 1960s and 1970s, researchers recognized the connection between birth defects and two drugs: thalidomide, which had been widely prescribed for morning sickness in pregnant women, and diethylstilbestrol, a synthetic estrogen prescribed to prevent miscarriages. In an effort to protect women from such dangers, the FDA published a guideline in 1977 that excluded women of childbearing age from participating in most phases of clinical trials. Although the FDA’s intention in issuing the exclusion guideline was the protection of women’s and fetal health, it resulted in the systematic exclusion of women from clinical trials for a decade. However, by the mid-1980s, researchers began to see that the findings resulting from male-only trials could not be extrapolated to women as successfully as had once been thought. Change was slow to come, since many researchers preferred the simplicity of male-only studies, which did not have to account for the extra variable of gender or the more cyclic nature of women’s physiology. In 1986, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) began to deny funding for research that did not include both male and female subjects, but given the relatively minor percentage of research funded by NIH, their effort did not bring significant change. To further promote women’s health, NIH created the Office of Research on Women’s Health in 1990, which supports advocacy and education and works to ensure that women are adequately represented in medical research. The FDA made a series of revisions to their guidelines throughout the 1990s to require inclusion of women in clinical trials, but do not require that results be analyzed for sex-dependent variations. Following several mandates for gender equality in the

1990s, the World Health Organization (WHO) created its Department of Gender, Women, and Health in order to encourage gender equity in healthcare, in part by calling for increased inclusion of women in medical research. Gender Differences in Health Men and women experience different patterns and manifestations of illness beyond the obvious variation in diseases of the reproductive organs. A 2001 report by the Institute of Medicine concluded that sex was a significant factor in behavior, perception, and health, calling for increased investigation into the biological reasons for such differences between men and women across the entire life cycle. The report theorized that hormones, bodily cycles, and genetic differences all play a role in the ways that men’s and women’s biology differs. These biological variations mean that nearly every major organ functions differently in women and men, if only slightly. For example, the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone affect the rate of digestion, while the fluid makeup of men’s and women’s gastrointestinal tracts differs—making women more susceptible to certain illnesses and men more susceptible to others. Hormones have an effect on nearly every part of the body, and the major differences in levels of sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone account for some of the biological variations seen between men and women. However, researchers also recognize that men and women differ at the cellular level, and these differences have not yet been fully explored. Since men and women’s bodies function differently, it is not surprising that men and women can respond in significantly different ways to medications. For example, women generally achieve longerlasting pain relief from the class of drugs known as kappa opioids than do men; in fact, kappa opioids can actually cause worsening pain in some men. It is also thought that women’s livers metabolize certain drugs differently than do men’s. However, doctors do not generally consider gender in prescribing medications, and sometimes fail to provide the treatment best suited for the patient based on his or her sex. Given that clinical practice is grounded in knowledge derived from research that focused almost exclusively on men for decades, women are sometimes misdiagnosed because manifestations of illness in women



are not as well understood. For example, only since the late 1990s have researchers made significant investigation into women’s heart attacks. Recent research shows that many, if not most, women who suffer heart attacks do not experience the classic and well-known heart attack symptoms identified through years of research on men. Instead, women’s symptoms are considered “atypical” in comparison to the clinical picture of heart attacks based on middle-aged male subjects. Women who suffer heart attacks may consequently delay seeking treatment, be misdiagnosed, or receive treatment that is less effective or even harmful to them. While much discussion of gender in medical research focuses on improving healthcare for women, consideration of gender differences can also benefit men. Whereas women’s heart attacks are more likely to be missed because heart disease is considered a “men’s illness,” men can also suffer from diseases traditionally considered “women’s illnesses.” For example,

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several organizations have been active in encouraging women to take steps to prevent osteoporosis and seek screening, creating the notion that osteoporosis is a women’s disease. However, although the incidence of osteoporosis in men is lower, they are still at risk, and many clinicians are unsure how to interpret bone mass density studies in men since no research has investigated this area. Researchers also have yet to significantly explore men’s health disadvantages, such as why men have a lower life expectancy than women, why male babies are twice as likely to die at birth, or why outcomes are less favorable for men in certain types of cancer. Directions of Current and Future Research It is still not completely understood why men and women respond differently to certain illnesses and treatments. Further, although rates of women’s inclusion in medical research have steadily risen over the

Given that clinical practice is grounded in knowledge derived from research that focused almost exclusively on men for decades, women are sometimes misdiagnosed because manifestations of illness in women are not as well understood.

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last several decades, much of the research that has formed the foundation of medical knowledge was conducted primarily on men. Thus, it is important that research not only consider sex differences, but also that the findings of these studies are incorporated into medical training and clinical practice. Several national and international organizations, such as the NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health and WHO’s Department of Gender and Women’s Health, have issued recommendations for research to investigate the cellular and genetic differences between men and women, target diseases that affect women, and explore differences in men and women’s health across the entire life span. Some nonprofit organizations also promote research into sex-based differences in health. For example, funded in 1990, the Society for Women’s Health Research aims to promote funding of research that explores sex differences, and encourages more researchers to embrace the concept of sex-based biology. See Also: Breast Cancer; Cancer, Women and; Eating Disorders; Heart Disease; Menopause, Medical Aspects of; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in. Further Readings Glezerman, Marek. “Discrimination by Good Intention: Gender-Based Medicine.” Israel Medical Association Journal, v.11 (2009). Greenberger, Phyllis and Jennifer Wider, eds. The Savvy Woman Patient: How and Why Sex Differences Affect Your Health. Sterling, VA: Capital Books, 2006. National Institutes of Health. “Office of Research on Women’s Health.” http://orwh.od.nih.gov (accessed April 2010). Valk, Minke, S. J. R. Cummings, and Henk van Dam. Gender and Health: Policy and Practice: A Global Sourcebook. Oxford, UK: Oxfam Publications, 2006. Wizemann, Theresa M. and Mary-Lou Pardue, eds. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health: Does Sex Matter? Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2001. http://www.nap.edu/openbook .php?isbn=0309072816 (accessed April 2010). World Health Organization. “Gender, Women, and Health.” http://www.who.int/gender (accessed April 2010). Lisa Federer University of California, Los Angeles

Megan’s Law Megan’s Law is the unofficial term for statutes within the United States that allow local police departments the authority to make data accessible to the community concerning individuals listed as registered sex offenders. Each state determines what data will be made public and how they will be distributed, but common information consists of the offending individual’s name, photograph, address, dates of imprisonment, and the type of crime committed. While these data may be viewed on one’s computer, the authorities possess the right to print the individual’s photo in a newspaper, on road signs, or in any manner they feel that benefits the community. Mandated Reporting on and by Sexual Offenders Megan’s Law within federal statutes is called the Sexual Offender Act of 1994 (also known as the Jacob Wetterling Act), which mandates that any individual found guilty of perpetrating a sex crime against a child must inform the local police regarding any address change or change in job after being discharged from detention (either from the penitentiary or psychiatric hospital). These requirements vary from state to state; that is, the individual might have to notify the authorities for 10 years, or possibly until death. Every state has the right to command that each individual involved in a sex crime must register, regardless of whether or not one of the victims was a minor. If an individual convicted of a sex crime does not update his/her data, he/she has committed a felony and can be sent back to jail. Megan’s Law supplies the public with two primary data benefits: (1) any individual convicted of a sex crime must register; and (2) one’s community will know whether a citizen is a sexual perpetrator. Each state handles this differently, and the rules and regulations regarding an individual’s registration and/or how the community is alerted changes periodically. A supplement to Megan’s Law concerning the registration of criminals is the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, a measure that categorizes sex offenders regarding their potential danger to local neighborhoods. On July 29, 1994, Jesse Timmendequas kidnapped, brutally raped, and murdered Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl who lived across the street from his



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Megan’s Law is called the Sexual Offender Act of 1994, which mandates that any individual found guilty of perpetrating a sex crime against a child must inform the local police regarding any address change or change in job after being discharged from detention.

residence in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. The 33-year-old Timmendequas had a long history of committing heinous sexual crimes and thus upon conviction of this latest criminal act was sentenced to death. However, while he was on Death Row in December 2007, he received a sentence of life without parole due to the New Jersey Legislature abolishing the death penalty. Timmendequas had lived, with two other sexual offenders, in a house opposite the Kankas. Megan’s parents, Richard and Maureen Kanka, later stated that if they had known this, they would have made their daughter promise to stay away from all three. Before Megan’s Law, community groups would often handout flyers telling neighbors about sex offenders who lived within their neighborhood. The

Kankas, after the vicious murder of their daughter, circulated a petition insisting that the New Jersey legislature devise a law making sure that there would be no repeat of Megan’s murder. More than 400,000 citizens signed their names and consequently, Megan’s Law became statutory less than three months after the child’s death. Questions of Effectiveness In 1995, the federal government initiated 42 U.S.C. § 13701, called the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which contained conditions mandating that a neighborhood receive a warning concerning sex offenders within their vicinity. In addition, it stipulated that each state formulate a process for informing the community whenever a sex

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offender is released from prison and lives within their neighborhood. In an effort to gauge the effectiveness of Megan’s Law, a group of researchers stated that the law had zero impact regarding the span of time before a sexual offender was rearrested and sent back to jail; likewise, they stated that Megan’s Law did not significantly lower the rates of sexual reoffending. Moreover, it had no effect on reducing the number of victims involved in sexual offenses. See Also: Child Abuse, Perpetrators of; Child Abuse, Victims of; Sex Offenders, Female; Sex Offenders, Male. Further Readings Levenson, Jill S. and Leo P. Cotter. “The Effect of Megan’s Law on Sex Offender Reintegration.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, v.21/1 (2005). Levenson, Jill S., David A. D’Amora, and Andrea L. Hern. “Megan’s Law and Its Impact on Community Re-Entry for Sex Offenders.” Behavioral Sciences & the Law, v.25/4 (2007). Welchans, Sarah (2005). “Megan’s Law: Evaluations of Sexual Offender Registries.” Criminal Justice Policy Review, v.16/2 (2005). Zgoba, Kristen, Philip Witt, Melissa Dalessandro, and Bonita Veysey, 2008. “Megan’s Law: Assessing the Practical and Monetary Efficacy.” New Jersey Department of Corrections. http://www.ncjrs.gov /pdffiles1/nij/grants/225370.pdf (accessed July 2010). Cary Stacy Smith Mississippi State University Li-Ching Hung Overseas Chinese University

Mehta, Renu Renu Mehta is the founder of Fortune Forum, a network that unites philanthropists, celebrities, politicians, and business leaders to target global poverty, environmental issues, and disease. Mehta, daughter of Indian textiles mogul Vijay Mehta, left what she described as a comfortable job with her family’s business to devote her efforts to philanthropic causes. In collaboration with Nobel

Prize–winning economist Sir James Mirrlees, she has proposed the Mehta/Mirrlees (MM) Model, a fiscal incentive that matches private donations with government money in order to meet the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals. The MM Model has been endorsed by an impressive list of luminaries including three Nobel laureates in economics. Mehta grew up in London, the spoiled youngest child and only daughter in a wealthy family. She credits her parents’ inculcating Gandhi’s ideas for her spiritual values and her brother Vimal, born with Down’s syndrome, for making her sensitive to others. Her first ambition was to work in fashion, and with that goal in mind, she studied at the London College of Fashion. In her early 20s, she spent 18 months as a model, but found it boring. She worked as head of design at Sphere, the fashion arm of the family business. Her job included travel to Milan and Paris and left ample time to party at the trendiest clubs. At 35, she found that her life lacked meaning. Her first attempt at conquering her ennui was a charity event she organized in three weeks. The event, held at a members-only London nightclub, boasted attendees such as Eric Clapton and Jools Holland and raised £100,000. Its success convinced Mehta to resign from her job and pursue her new interest. Her father advised her to spend a year reading about issues. She read one book, The World Ahead, by Federico Mayor. Determined to do something to address the problem Mayor’s book had awakened her to, Mehta established the Fortune Forum with half a million dollars of her own money. Binding Private Donors to Public Efforts The first Fortune Forum Summit was held in September 2006. Bill Clinton delivered the keynote address, and the work of the British Red Cross, African Renaissance, WaterAid and Alliance for a New Humanity were highlighted. The event raised $1.7 million, but after costs were deducted, only half that amount went to charities. Mehta decided that fund-raising was too limited to achieve her goals and transformed Fortune Forum from a charity to a network designed to attract and direct cash contributions. The boldest move of the newly defined organization came about through a chance meeting at a party. Mehta’s conversation with Patricia Wilson, wife of Cambridge economist Mirrlees, led to a meeting between

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the fashion heiress and the Nobel laureate. The result was the MM Model, a plan designed to persuade people, particularly the wealthiest, to give more to charity. Mehta and Mirrlees argue that only by partnering with private donors can governments, who were falling short of UN targets even before recent economic problems, hope to end poverty and world hunger. In 2009, the unlikely partners challenged the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations to agree to match private donations with government aid. The plan has the backing of Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN and four Nobel Peace laureates: Mairead Maguire (1976), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984), the 14th Dalai Lama (1989), and Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (2007). See Also: India; Philanthropists, Female; Poverty; United Kingdom. Further Readings Flintoff, John-Paul. “Renu Mehta, the New It Girl.” Times Online (February 1, 2009). http://www.timesonline .co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5604439.ece (accessed April 2010). Mehta, Vijay. The Fortune Forum Code: For a Sustainable Future. London: VM Centre for Peace, 2006. Slater, Lydia. “Billionaires Beware: This Woman Wants Your Wallet.” Daily Mail (July 19, 2009). http://www .dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1199663/Billion aires-beware--This-woman-wants-wallets.html (accessed July 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Menopause, Medical Aspects of Menopause, a normal developmental transition, marks the end of a woman’s reproductive capacity. It is defined as the absence of the menstrual cycle for 12 consecutive months, and it typically takes place in a woman’s early 50s. Women who are using hormone therapy for symptoms may have difficulty determining when they actually reach menopause because the hormones obscure the physiological transition. Although the words menopause and menopausal

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are frequently used to describe the remainder of a woman’s life after the end of regular menstruation, the appropriate medical term for that time of life is postmenopausal. Perimenopause refers to menstrual cycle–related and other physical signs and symptoms that occur in the five to 10 years around (i.e., prior to and just after) menopause as the ovaries gradually stop producing the hormones estrogen and progesterone. During the perimenopausal transition, a woman’s menstrual period will vary in length, periods will occur at irregular intervals, and the intensity of the menstrual flow also will vary as levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) increase. The surgical removal of both ovaries (usually in connection with a hysterectomy) results in a sudden (rather than the natural, gradual) emergence into menopause. The shortened transitional period is often accompanied by more bothersome symptoms and reports of greater discomfort. Perhaps because of its association with aging, menopause is viewed by many in Western societies as a negative event. Physical Symptoms Associated With Menopause Transitional discomfort has been reported to include, but is not limited to, vaginal dryness, decrease in sexual arousal, hot flashes, trouble sleeping, night sweats, difficulty concentrating, fluctuating mood states, urinary incontinence, headaches, vertigo, weight gain, and aches and pains. It is important to know that most women do not experience all of the symptoms; in fact, some women report that they did not notice any signs or symptoms until they realized that they had not had to buy tampons or pads for months. No one can predict what an individual woman’s experience will be like until she finds out for herself. Hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and joint pain have been linked to declining estrogen levels. The experience of hot flashes is as unique as each woman to whom the sensation occurs. Hot flashes often include sudden rushes of perspiration, redness or flush in the face, heat sensations in the chest and/or back, and waves of heat that pulsate from the head throughout the torso. Hot flashes can occur as rarely as a few times per week or as often as a few times per hour. The average length of a hot flash is about three minutes. Not all

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women experience hot flashes, but they are the most commonly reported symptom of menopause. Declines in a woman’s sexual libido can be due to a number of reasons, including relational problems, stress, or other environmental factors, as well as the decline in the natural lubrication of vaginal walls due to changing hormone levels. The vagina may become tightened, narrowed, or shortened, which can result in painful intercourse or difficulty masturbating that contributes to a loss of interest in sexual activity. However, some women report increases in libido after menopause; they find that the end of worries about pregnancy and contraception provide a renewed sense of sexual freedom. Research does not support the idea that changes in a woman’s mood are related to ovarian development and activity. However, lack of sleep due to night sweats (i.e., hot flashes that occur overnight), worries about other signs and symptoms of menopause, the stresses and strains of midlife women’s busy lives, and concerns related to aging and body image that occur around the same time as menopause may be responsible for the anxiety and irritability some women experience. A woman’s mental health history, her current level of stress, her physical health, her coping skills, and the amount of social support she has are the best predictors of her emotional state during midlife. Other changes women often report around the time of menopause (e.g., forgetfulness, aches and pains) are not directly related to ovarian processes, but may be due to aging. Urinary incontinence that begins at midlife may be a result of hysterectomy complications, side effects of medications, or other medical problems. Women should consult their doctors about any physical concerns they have. Coping With Transitional Discomfort Coping with physical symptoms is an important task during the menopausal transition. Good health habits, such as exercise, a healthy diet, adequate time for sleep, and stress management, are often helpful. Vitamins E and C and increased dietary sources of phytoestrogens (e.g., flax and sesame seeds, soy milk, tofu, hummus, dried apricots, and dates) may help to minimize hot flashes. Some women have noted that stress, caffeine, alcohol, hot weather, and/or spicy foods tend to trigger hot flashes, and they have taken steps to manage or

eliminate those environmental triggers. Techniques for managing hot flashes and night sweats include dressing in layers, carrying a fan, standing in front of an air conditioner or open refrigerator, sipping cool drinks, sleeping nude, and using imagery (e.g., imagining oneself walking through a snowstorm or swimming in a cold mountain stream). Over-the-counter water-based personal lubricants are an effective form of relief for vaginal dryness. Declines in libido should be discussed openly with one’s sexual partner. Longer periods of foreplay, a vacation in a romantic location, changes in position, or new techniques can be stimulating. Sex therapy may be helpful to couples at midlife. Hormone Therapy Pros and Cons Hormone therapy is often helpful for women whose hot flashes are severe, long lasting, or very frequent. Although this type of therapy has been popular in the past, physicians currently recommend that this treatment be used at the smallest possible dose for the shortest possible period of time. It is not recommended for women at high risk for cancer or heart disease, and it is important for women to know that perimenopausal symptoms often recur after the hormone therapy is stopped. Women who have difficulty coping with their perimenopausal symptoms should have a talk with their doctors about hormone therapy and other possible methods for managing their discomfort. Hormone therapy (also known as hormone replacement therapy or HRT) was popularized in the 1960s after the publication of Robert Wilson’s book Feminine Forever, which led to the medicalization of menopause. In his book Wilson described menopause as a deficiency disease (like beriberi or pellagra), whose cure is estrogen. He suggested that doses of synthetic estrogen would allow women to maintain youthful faces, bodies, and sexuality as they aged. The treatment was initially known as estrogen replacement therapy (ERT); however, it soon became apparent that ERT put women at high risk for uterine cancer. Combined estrogen and progesterone (HRT) seemed to reduce that risk. Since then, hormone regimens have been modified to include different levels of those hormones or the use of more natural hormones, such as estirol, estrone, estradiol, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Later, physicians hypothesized that hormone therapy was an important way to protect women against

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heart disease, osteoporosis, and other chronic illnesses. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a major, multisite, government-funded research project conducted from the mid-1990s to early-2000s, showed that those hypotheses could not be substantiated. The WHI was stopped earlier than planned because women in the HRT group had a higher rate of breast cancer, heart attacks, and strokes than did women in the control group. Other side effects of HRT include, but are not limited to, blood clots, gall bladder disease, ovarian cancer, cardiovascular disease, headaches, mood irregularity, nausea, bloating, breast tenderness, and vaginal bleeding. Thus, it is recommended that women try to manage their symptoms in other ways before seeking hormone therapy. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Health, Mental and Physical; Hysterectomies; Menopause, Social Aspects of. Further Readings Kagan, L., B. Kessel, and H. Benson. Mind Over Menopause: The Complete Mind/Body Approach to Coping With Menopause. New York: Free Press, 2004. Voda, Ann M. “Menopause: A Normal View.” Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, v.35/4 (1992). World Health Organization (WHO) Scientific Group. “Research on the Menopause in the 1990s.” Geneva: WHO, 1996. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/trs/WHO _TRS_866.pdf (accessed July 2010). Joan C. Chrisler Amanda L. Almond Connecticut College

Menopause, Social Aspects of Menopause (the last menstrual cycle), like menarche (the first menstrual cycle), is a normal, developmental transition that signals a change in physiological functioning and social status. Both menopause and menarche usher in a new stage of life; both close some doors and open others. Menarche closes the door on childhood, which some girls regret. Yet most girls look forward with eagerness to find out what challenges and experi-

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ences adolescence and adulthood will bring. Menarche raises a girl’s social status; she becomes more important and more interesting. Menopause closes the door on fertility; it means that women will no longer be able to become pregnant and bear children. Some women regret the lost opportunity to have a child (or another child), but others are relieved to see the end of responsibility for contraception and menstrual hygiene management. However, fertility is associated with youth and beauty, and perimenopausal women find it difficult to look ahead with eagerness to see what life has in store for them. Instead, many women see menopause as a signal that their best days are behind them. In youth-oriented societies, menopause lowers a woman’s social status; she becomes less important and less interesting. Attitudes Toward Menopause In societies where older women are respected more than younger women are, attitudes toward menopause are more positive than they are elsewhere. For example, in some Asian, African, and Native American cultures, elders are celebrated for their wisdom, experience and longevity, and so women gain rather than lose social status at menopause. Women who live in societies with a positive cultural emphasis on aging report fewer perimenopausal symptoms than do women in societies with youth-oriented cultures. For example, a recent study of women in China showed that they report very few physical symptoms in comparison to women in North America. The medicalization of menopause (i.e., the cultural belief that menopause is an illness to be treated medically, rather than a natural and necessary developmental transition) contributes to a general, negative attitude toward menopause and expectations that women will suffer and need treatment. Such expectations can cause women to focus on every ache, hot flash, and unusual sensation; worry about them; and thus magnify their importance. Women might also attribute to menopause symptoms that are related to aging in general or to a chronic illness and actually have nothing to do with menopause itself. These misattributions can also make perimenopause seem worse than it is. Surveys of midlife women have typically shown that women have mixed feelings about menopause.

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Among the reasons why women see menopause negatively are the loss of fertility, the symptoms that tend to accompany it, the belief that it has come too soon, the fact that menopause is a clear sign of aging, and a sense of being less feminine. Positive aspects of menopause include the end of the bother of managing menstruation, the end of the need for contraceptives, and a general sense of liberation. Older women tend to have more positive views of menopause than younger women do, and older women are more likely than younger women to agree that postmenopausal women feel freer, calmer, and more confident than ever before. In a recent cross-cultural study done in the United States and Mexico, college students were asked to list at least five words or phrases that describe “a menopausal woman.” The students listed more negative (52) than positive (17) and neutral (28) words. The most common negative words were classified as emotional alteration (e.g., “angry,” “uncontrollable”), negativity (“depressed,” “frustrated”), contempt (“old,” “incomplete”), and illness-related (“aching,” “fatigued”). Positive words included “admirable” and “experienced”; neutral words included “changing” and “mature.” The young students in the study obviously had had no personal experience with perimenopause, but they seem to have accepted the idea that menopause is an illness rather than event to be anticipated with eagerness or even with equanimity. There are not many cross-cultural studies of attitudes toward menopause, perhaps, in part, because menopause remains a topic many women are uncomfortable discussing. For example, there is no word for menopause in Japanese, although the term kônenki refers to a time in midlife when women are thought to be vulnerable to emotional problems. This could refer to changing roles in life, or it could refer to menopause, as one recent study that compared Japanese and Australian perimenopausal women showed that the Japanese reported more psychological symptoms (e.g., anxiety), whereas Australians reported more vasomotor symptoms (e.g., hot flashes). A study of Native American women who lived on a Papago reservation showed that menopause is rarely discussed, and younger women do not know much about it. If Papago women experience symptoms, they seek advice from female elders or from the medicine man.

Menopause in Popular Culture Many older women have reported that the worst part of menopause was not knowing what to expect. This is, in part, because each woman’s experience is different, so doctors cannot predict whether their patients will have an easy perimenopause or a difficult one. However, it is also because, until recently, menopause was not talked about in public very much, and women tended to keep their experiences private. If there is any upside to the medicalization of menopause, it is that menopause is now a topic of conversation, at least in Western industrialized countries. Television commercials, magazine ads, and articles about perimenopausal symptoms and treatments are common, and talk shows have frequently taken up the topic. Several best-selling books about menopause and women at midlife have been published in recent decades, and the Health and Medicine sections of newspapers and news magazines have also addressed it. Mentions of menopause are now common enough in popular culture in the United States that it might be surprising to younger readers to learn that the first mention of menopause on television was highly controversial. The 1970s sitcom All in the Family aired an episode in which Edith was experiencing perimenopausal symptoms. The characters used the euphemism “the change of life” so that uninitiated viewers would not be embarrassed by the plot line. Is all of the cultural attention helpful or harmful to society’s view of perimenopausal women? That is a difficult question to answer. Certainly women are better served if they have more information about the signs and symptoms of menopause and how to cope with them. However, media reports that emphasize the medicalization of menopause contribute to younger women’s (and men’s) negative attitudes toward menopause, and lead women to worry about whether they will be able to cope with it. Media reports that conflate common midlife experiences, such as the “empty nest syndrome” (i.e., children moving away from home), the development of chronic illness (e.g., arthritis), and signs of aging (e.g., grey hair, wrinkles, hearing loss), with menopause do a disservice to women by misattributing the stresses and strains of everyday life to perimenopause. An article published in USA Today in 2000 referred to menopause as “the last remaining corporate taboo.”

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Although the author was perhaps well meaning and intended to say that menopause should not be a taboo topic, the article suggested that many perimenopausal women in the workforce experience debilitating symptoms and so need special assistance and understanding. Articles such as this might be more likely to hurt than to help the reputation of midlife women workers. Menopause-related humor is increasingly common; it appears in cartoons and comic strips, television and movies, greeting cards, jokes women share via e-mail, and even in the theater in the form of the popular Menopause: The Musical. Although some scholars are concerned that the exaggerated symptoms portrayed in these media might add to negative views of menopause, the humor seems to be more gentle than the nasty humor about premenstrual syndrome, for example, and much of it is produced by women for women. Laughter and seeking social support are among the best ways to cope with any problems, and that is what women are doing when they share jokes about hot flashes or go with friends to see a musical about menopause. There is a lot of laughter at support groups run by the Red Hot Mamas.

did not start her career as an artist until she was in her 70s. The members of the Red Hat Society show us all what fun women can have together and how important friendships are as women age. Although it is natural to feel some regret as the door closes on the reproductive years, women should step boldly through the door that opens to the next stage of life to see what challenges and opportunities lie ahead. The postmenopausal years can be an empowering time for women who reject negative cultural views and write their own destiny.

Toward a More Positive View The old saying “Life begins at 40” suggests that once one’s children are grown up, people have more time, energy, and financial means to devote to their own interests. Today, many say that “50 is the new 40.” This might be especially true for women, as they are giving birth at a later age than was once the case, and today’s women are better educated, healthier, more physically fit, and more financially independent than their mothers and grandmothers were when they were in their 50s. Women in their 50s are going back to school to pursue new interests, changing careers, starting businesses, traveling, and using their free time for volunteer work or hobbies. Today’s midlife women are blurring and diversifying the traditional gender and age roles, and setting a course for themselves. A rocking chair on the porch is not the right place for every grandmother. The role of mother will always be a valued and respected role for women, but it is hardly the only important role women can play. Women can (and do!) make significant contributions to culture and society at every age. Remember that Grandma Moses

Joan C. Chrisler Jaimee Versace Connecticut College

See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Menopause, Medical Aspects of; Menstruation; Menstruation, Rituals Surrounding; Vagina Monologues, The. Further Readings Cooper, Sue Ellen. The Red Hat Society: Fun and Friendship After 50. New York: Warner Books, 2004. Muhlbauer, Varda and Joan C. Chrisler. Women Over 50: Psychological Perspectives. New York: Springer, 2007. The Taos Institute. The Positive Aging Newsletter. http:// www.taosinstitute.net/positive-aging-newsletter (accessed July 2010).

Menstruation Menstruation is the monthly occurrence in women’s lives where their bodies shed the lining of the uterus, resulting in approximately four to seven days of bleeding and discharge through the vagina. During menstruation, women lose an average of 10 to 80 mL of menstrual blood along with some endometrium lining that looks like tissue mixed with blood. People sometimes misinterpret this tissue-like substance for an early miscarriage, but it is in fact a normal part of women’s menstrual cycles. Symptoms Women typically experience a range of symptoms associated with menstruation, particularly uterine cramps (“dysmenorrhea”) that are caused by the contractions of

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the uterine muscles as the uterus expels the blood from the woman’s body. Menstruation typically occurs from early teenage years until mid- to late-40s, though timing of onset of menstruation as well as menopause varies greatly. Girls can begin menstruating as early as 8 or 9 years old, and women can go through menopause as late as their sixties. In average premenopausal women, menstruation pauses only during pregnancy and for some time after childbirth (“amenorrhea”). Typically, menstruation is a physiological event that allows women’s bodies to rebuild the endometrium every fertility cycle, thus ensuring adequate opportunity for fertilization should she desire to become pregnant. Many women refer to menstruation as their “period” (short for “menstrual period”). Women sometimes say they are “on the rag” or “visiting Aunt Flo” as informal or slang references to the event. Women may also say they are “late” when their menstrual cycle does not start on time as expected, sometimes indicating pregnancy. Irregularity of menstrual cycles is fairly normal, as stress, emotional problems, physical strain, malnutrition, and hormonal imbalances can cause menstruation to become irregular. Hormonal birth control methods like the birth control pill, Depo Provera, hormone-based IUDs, Norplant, and the patch also can cause menstruation to cease entirely or become much lighter. Birth control pills control for a shorter menstrual cycle precisely every 28 days, while Depo Provera and Norplant often completely eliminate the menstrual cycle. New birth control options like Seasonale allow for a period every three months. Menstruation is part of the reproductive cycle and typically occurs every 28 days. In a typical menstrual cycle, women will bleed during days one through five and will ovulate on day 14 and 15 of the cycle. They will then bleed again at the start of the next cycle. During ovulation, women are fertile and can become pregnant. While it is technically possible to become pregnant during menstruation—as an egg could be released irregularly during this time, or sperm could be inserted into the vagina and wait for an early ovulation cycle—it is not likely. Debates about whether women synchronize their menses while cohabitating is also debated; some researchers believe that this does occur, while more recent research suggests that this does not occur. Disagreements about the evolutionary purpose of menstruation also continue, as researchers cannot fully explain why human females do not

absorb the endometrium like many other female mammals do during their menstrual cycles. Notably, only humans and their close evolutionary relatives (e.g., chimpanzees, gorillas) menstruate through the vagina with distinct discharge. Other mammals have a menstruation period but their bodies simply absorb the tissue and blood into the body, perhaps because their tissue is less complicated than human tissue. Cultural Differences Cross-cultural differences in the experience of menstrual symptoms have been noted, as Western women more often report that their periods distress them, while non-Western women describe them as a natural part of life that is relatively nondistressing. Often, women experience a variety of intense sensations prior to and during menstruation, including menstrual cramping, abdominal pain, migraine headaches, depression, bloating, nausea, sleeplessness, emotional sensitivity, changes in sex drive, breast swelling, binge eating, and irritability. Recent debates about the existence of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)—a more severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS)—have ensued following the decision by the American Psychiatric Association in 1993 to classify PMDD as a mental disorder that warranted further study. Some research has shown that women typically believe other women have more severe menstrual symptoms than their own, indicating that the idea that menstrual symptoms are universal might be a cultural myth. Women differ greatly in their reported physical and emotional symptoms. Some feminist theorists believe that women’s expression of anger and sadness during menstruation might occur because it is the only socially acceptable time period when they can express these unpopular or “unfeminine” emotions. Having a menstrual cycle might give women permission to express emotions that are not otherwise socially sanctioned. Others argue that women’s physiological changes cause emotional, psychological, and physical symptoms that women experience as real, and that they mirror the kinds of symptoms women describe during pregnancy. Different Cultures, Different Perceptions Throughout history, cultures have had different ways of thinking about and addressing women’s menstruation. In some parts of the world, menstruation has



been thought to give women special powers and to inspire fear in others. Some cultures, like the Gerai people, believe that men, too, can menstruate, and they see it as a sign of honor. In other non-Western cultures, women have been placed in “menstrual huts” away from the rest of the tribe because menstruating women were thought to contaminate food and destroy the harvest. Orthodox Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam prohibit intercourse during menstruation because it contaminates men’s bodies and fertility, while other cultures require rituals to be performed at the end of menstruation (e.g., “Mikvah” in Judaism or “ghusl” in Islam) in order to cleanse women from menstruation. Recently, the Japanese government has considered enacting “menstrual leave” to acknowledge women’s “disabled” status during menstruation and to allow them time off from work. Different concerns arise for Western and non-Western women, as Western women express concern with managing their periods (e.g., keeping them secret), while non-Western women express concern with violating cultural taboos about keeping menstruation secret. Western women spend billions of dollars annually buying products that conceal menstruation, leading to multimillion dollar advertising campaigns targeting young women. Many products have been developed to help women manage menses, including products to absorb the blood (e.g., tampons, menstrual pads, menstrual cups) and products to ease symptoms of menstruation (e.g., drugs that relieve cramping, iron supplements, and so on). Western women most often use menstrual pads, rectangular pieces of material worn on the underwear to absorb menstrual flow, and tampons, cotton cylinders inserted into the vagina to absorb menstrual flow. Recently, reusable items such as menstrual cups and sea sponges have gained popularity as women have more directly addressed the environmental impact of disposable menstrual products. Also, because tampons can cause toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a disorder that results from leaving the tampon inserted into the vagina for too long a period of time, some advocate not using any method that involves insertion of cotton into the vagina. Non-Western women most often use reusable rags, or sometimes leaves, to absorb their menstrual flow. A recent report on menstruating women in developing countries advises that

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hygiene surrounding the washing and drying of cloths is a top priority for public health officials. Feeling Shameful The Western world typically constructs menstruation as something that should be kept secret and hidden. Research has shown that women often feel shame about menstruation and want to keep tampons and menstrual pads hidden from view. Commercials advertising menstrual products often espouse their ability to help women keep menstruation a secret. Women also typically feel conflicted about whether to engage in sexual intercourse during menstruation, as some believe it is “dirty” and “disgusting,” while others believe it is “pleasurable” and “sexy.” Some studies have shown that men’s attitudes toward menstruation also vary greatly, as some men find menstruation to be repulsive, while others feel accepting and tolerant of women’s menstrual periods. In controlled experiments, men believed that menstruating women were less intelligent and less attractive than nonmenstruating women, perhaps indicating that social pressures to keep menstruation secret might relate to the judgments men make about women who menstruate. Regardless of individual attitudes, the cultural norm mandates that women do not publicly announce menstruation or advertise their menstrual status. Learning the Facts Sex education about menstruation varies greatly, as most girls learn about menstruation in public schools during the fifth or sixth grade. Classes that address menstruation are often sex segregated and emphasize menstruation as something to be “managed” rather than something to be embraced. Girls learn why they menstruate, how to put in a tampon or use a menstrual pad, and what to expect from their menstrual periods. Because sex education is not federally mandated, some states have no sex education classes for young people. In these cases, girls only learn about menstruation from their families and friends, often leading to the dispersal of misinformation about menstruation. Studies have shown that parents tend to give a wide variety of misinformation to young girls about menstruation, particularly surrounding the physiological causes of menstruation. Race and socioeconomic status differences have also been noted in the way women learn about

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menstruation, as women of color and working-class women are more often socialized to think about menstruation as a “life change” and a “rite of passage,” while white women and middle- and upper-class women learn about menstruation in more medical terms (e.g., how to manage it, what processes happen with their bodies). Similar differences have been found between Western and non-Western women as well. Anthropologist Emily Martin found that, in the United States, working-class women felt more positive about their menstrual cycles than did middle- and upper-class women, in part because their mothers socialized them to conceptualize menstruation as a positive change that occurs when becoming a woman. Middle- and upper-class women typically experience more fear and dread about menstruation than do working-class women. Women often struggle with their body image and feel that they are inadequate and in need of “maintenance” throughout the life span. Because of this, women’s ideas about menstruation often correlate with their body image, as those with better body image feel more positively about menstruation than do those with negative body image. Comfort with menstruation predicted more healthy eating behaviors and more responsible attitudes toward drinking and driving. Research has also shown that those who feel more positively toward menstruation typically have more positive attitudes toward sexuality, particularly masturbation, in that those who embraced menstruation also embraced masturbation. Better Attitudes and Affirming Views In response to these conflicting attitudes about menstruation, menstrual activists have begun campaigning for better attitudes toward menstruation in recent years. These activists have focused their efforts on promoting a positive, affirming view of menstruation within institutions like education, the health industry media, and the family. They have advocated that schools change their sex education to include more positive views of menstruation, and they have attacked the medical field for conceptualizing menstruation as a mental disorder (PMDD). They have also challenged the toxicity of commercial menstrual products, embraced menstruation as a form of power and political protest, and critically examined advertisements that celebrate menstrual suppression. Some

argue that cultivating these positive attitudes will unite women, particularly mothers and daughters, and will teach women to adopt attitudes that encourage full embodiment. Gloria Steinem’s famous essay, “If Men Could Menstruate,” highlights the way that, because menstruation happens to women, it is considered disgusting and something to be hidden. However, if men menstruated, Western cultures might look at it quite differently. She sarcastically argued that if men could menstruate, menstrual products would be subsidized by the government, menstruation would become an enviable event where men would competitively compare their menstrual flow, and men’s ability to menstruate would be used as an excuse to keep women out of certain institutions like the military. Though menstruation is often considered “disgusting,” Steinem and other menstrual activists have noted that such constructions are arbitrary and highly dependent on the power structures that currently exist. Disgust about menstruation might simply result from larger narratives about women having less power than men, as men’s bodies set the standard for what is considered “normal,” while women are always fighting against notions that women’s bodies are “abnormal.” See Also: Body Image; Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder; Premenstrual Syndrome; Sex Education, Comprehensive; Sex Education in the Home. Further Readings Bobel, Chris. “From Convenience to Hazard: A Short Story of the Emergence of the Menstrual Activism Movement, 1971–1992.” Health Care for Women International, v.29/7 (2008). Freidenfelds, Lara. The Modern Period: Menstruation in 20th Century America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. Howie, Gillian and Andrew Shail. Menstruation: A Cultural History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Marin, Emily. The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001. Steinem, Gloria. “If Men Could Menstruate.” http://www .mum.org/ifmencou.htm (accessed November 2009). Breanne Fahs Arizona State University



Menstruation, Rituals Surrounding Rituals surrounding menstruation have an important role in cultures throughout the world, though different cultures approach menstruation in different ways. From first menses to celebration rituals to ceremonies that ensure purity, menstruation is a complicated cross-cultural event. Often, menstruating women are separated from their cultures, either to deem menstruation a spe-

Dogon sculpture, c. 17th–18th century. In the Dogon culture, women stay in a special hut during their menstrual cycle.

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cial and powerful occurrence, or to denigrate it as a potentially contaminating event that could spoil food or otherwise disrupt cultural traditions. In cultures that separate women from their tribes, women are not permitted to cook or have sex with their partners until menstruation ceases. Some cultures even designate a “menstrual hut,” such as the Dogon culture from the central plateau region of Mali. Scholars disagree about whether these societal exclusions represent patriarchal dominance over women, or whether they empower women by allowing them to have female-only space where domestic and sexual labor are not required or demanded. Similar to discussions of veiling, the establishment of women-only spaces is controversial. Godlike Powers and Parallels Some cultures treat menstruation as a revered and worshipped event, such as the Khoisan culture of southern Africa, which considers women at their most powerful while menstruating. By placing women in menstrual huts, the Khoisan culture deems them “inviolable” and capable of “godlike” acts such as sending down bolts of lightning at the snap of a finger upon any disrespecting male. As another example, some cultures routinely encourage men to cut their genitals and allow them to bleed; such bleeding is thought to show respect toward powerful, menstruating women. As women’s menstruation perhaps cleanses the body, some cultures also believe that men need similar cleansing through bloodletting. Some cultures construct menstruation as a punishment from higher powers. In Mayan mythology, menstruation was thought to arise as a punishment for premarital sex. When the Sun God wooed the Moon Goddess, her father the Earth God punished her by having her destroyed. Her “evil blood” of disobedience colored the water of the sea and the lake red and sank into the earth. This menstrual blood then transformed into snakes and insects, thus bringing about disease and poison as well as medicinal plants. From this blood, the Moon was reborn, and human procreation was engendered. Additionally, other cultures that worship goddesses and nature typically value menstruation as a sacred act, as women’s menstrual periods are associated with phases of the moon or with the moon goddess. Indeed, some people around the world

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nickname menstruation “moontime.” Women’s menstrual cycles are thought to derive from cycles of the moon, and as such, become in sync with a partners’ cycles in order to maximize reproductive potential. Christian Religions Most Christian religions do not specify any rituals related to menstruation, preferring instead not to discuss it. Some Christian denominations, particularly the Eastern Orthodox Church, advise women not to receive Holy Communion during their menstrual periods, particularly in Greece and Russia. Other denominations follow rules laid out in the Holiness Code, which prohibit sexual relations during menstruation because women are “unclean.” In Islam, the Qur’an forbids sexual intercourse during menstruation but allows physical intimacy. During menses, women need not pray or fast, and they are also not permitted to enter mosques. After the completion of menstruation, women are expected to perform a ghusi, or spiritual bath, to cleanse them so that they may again pray, fast, and enter a mosque. This bath is also expected of both women and men after they have sexual intercourse. In Judaism, menstruating women are prohibited from sexual intercourse or physical intimacy during menstruation and for one week after. Until she takes a mikvah, or ritual bath, she is not permitted to interact with her husband in any way. Orthodox Judaism forbids menstruating women from touching or passing things to men during her menstrual period, as she is considered contaminated. As a result, women are often secluded from men for approximately two weeks per month. In Hinduism, menstruating women cannot attend religious ceremonies for the first four days of her cycle. In Nepal, Hindu women are confined to a shed where they eat only dry foods, salt, and rice until menstruation ceases. While Buddhist practices do not designate menstruation as an event worthy of any particular rituals, Hinduism has influenced Japanese and Thai culture such that many Buddhist cultures now ban women from attending temples. Sikhs believe that women are impure while menstruating and should not attend religious services. Jainism also deems that women should not cook or attend temples while menstruating, and many modern Jain temples have large signs on temple doors that specifically prohibit menstruating women from entering temples.

See Also: Buddhism; Hinduism; Islam; Judaism; Menstruation; Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder; Sikhism. Further Readings Buckley, T. and A. Gottleib. Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Dornan, J. “Blood From the Moon: Gender Ideology and the Rise of Ancient Maya Social Complexity.” Gender and History, v.16/2 (2004). Howie, G. and A. Shail. Menstruation: A Cultural History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Knight, C. Blood Relations: Menstruation and the Origins of Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991. Breanne Fahs Arizona State University

Mental Health Treatment, Access to Most information about women’s health has until recently focused on family planning, reproduction and parenting, but has overlooked mental well-being. Yet there is a mounting problem of mental ill health among women, and the need to promote healthy living has never been greater than today. Mental health disorders affect some 450 million people worldwide, interfering with their ability to lead productive and satisfying lives. Men and women experience many of the same mental health issues, but there are some striking differences in their incidence, course, and treatment. A better understanding of gender dimensions of health will help to address the global health problem. Women’s health and well-being is interconnected to other topics in this encyclopedia because gender differentials in healthcare stem from issues such as gender roles in society; power and control differences; and discrimination and social inequality. This article explores these issues in relation to women’s access to mental health treatment, beginning with a look at women’s health services and willingness to seek treatment, followed by a discussion of minority women and cross-cultural differences in healthcare.



Health Services for Women Health service provision is usually divided into two levels: primary healthcare providers, such as general practitioners and family doctors who represent the first stage of treatment; and secondary healthcare such as hospitals. Many studies from industrialized countries report that women are more likely to utilize primary healthcare and outpatient mental health services than are men, but less likely to seek specialist and inpatient care. Men tend to seek care at a later stage, after the onset of symptoms, and delay consulting a doctor until symptoms become severe. Women tend to have a better knowledge of health and treatment options. A common complaint among women is that male doctors are unsympathetic. Healthcare professionals commonly assume that women’s mental health needs are the same as those of men. Some doctors might think that dealing with gender and psychosocial issues underlying mental health is not a legitimate part of their role. A consequence is that women’s health concerns might not be understood and diagnosed by doctors. Poor patient–doctor interaction could lead to dissatisfaction with health services and nonadherence to medical advice and treatment. Women and men with mental illness have different needs in rehabilitation. Yet most mental health services are generic, mixed-sex services. There are a limited number of doctors who specialize in women’s mental health. Many women find mainstream services to be inaccessible or inappropriate. For example, women who have been abused (physically, emotionally, or sexually) often have difficulty occupying mixed-sex wards and talking to male medical staff. Furthermore, women who have children might need health services that offer childcare facilities and mother-and-baby units; and might be reluctant to seek help when childcare facilities are not available because of fears of losing custody of children, especially among vulnerable groups such as lone teenage mothers. Health and social support services directed toward women are increasing in number, but they remain inadequate. They typically have a narrow focus on reproductive health and fertility control. The majority of women-only support services are provided by the voluntary sector such as charitable trusts, support organizations, and community groups, etc. They are often not officially defined as mental health service,

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and do not always fit the criteria for alternatives to hospital treatment. Women are major contributors to health services through their roles as healthcare providers and primary caregivers in the family. However, they are less represented in executive or management-level positions, and tend to occupy lower-status occupations such as in nursing, midwifery, and community health services. Willingness to Seek Treatment Women and men experience emotions and mental health in similar ways, but there are differences in their willingness to consult health services and disclose that they have mental health conditions. For example, women are more likely to disclose problems such as depression, generalized anxiety disorders, emotional problems, and eating disorders; but less likely to admit to problems such as alcohol abuse and antisocial personality disorder. A likely reason is gender stereotyping in emotional expression and social behavior. Based on gender differences in the social acceptability of certain mental health problems, men and women learn different ways to channel their emotions to match society’s gender-based stereotypes. For example, a common stereotype in Western society is that women tend to be more emotional than men and, therefore, more prone to emotional problems and depression. According to the World Health Organization, the lifetime prevalence of major depression is almost twice as common among women. Another example is the widely held assumption that certain groups of women succumb to some mental health problems, such as binge-eating disorder which has a higher incidence among young white women, even though it is reported by other ethnic groups and also men. Similarly, women are less likely to report issues such as alcohol abuse, presumably because it is not socially sanctioned to do so. On the other hand, the prevalence of alcohol dependence is more than twice as high in men than women; and men are more than three times more likely to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Gender stereotypes pose a barrier to accessing health treatment because they reinforce social stigma and discourage women to disclose problems and seek help. Gender stereotypes on the part of the doctor may

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also lead to a bias in the diagnosis of mental health problems. Doctors are more likely to diagnose problems such as depression in women, and less likely to diagnose problems with alcohol. Minority Women and Cross-Cultural Differences Minority women use fewer health services, and there is an underrecognition of mental illness among them. Many women encounter barriers to health treatment such as discrimination, lack of knowledge, poor language skills, isolation, poverty, lack of trust in the medical system, stigma-related concerns, and other social, economic, and cultural barriers. Western conceptualizations of illness and health provision may be less relevant to ethnic minorities and might even produce negative outcomes. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) people experience a number of health inequalities. Their special mental health needs are often overlooked in health services that hold assumptions about women being heterosexual. Some healthcare workers might discriminate against same-sex partners. There is wide variation across countries in the prevalence of mental ill health and availability of services such as policy and legislation, mental health facilities, and therapeutic drugs. In many low-income and middle-income countries, access to healthcare is limited, particularly in rural areas. Many patients suffering from mental health problems are undiagnosed and untreated. Reasons include limited numbers and types of mental health professionals; low position of mental health on public health agendas; and scarcity of information about mental health. For example, there is variation across countries in the number of mental health professionals. According to the World Health Organization, the median number of psychiatrists (a medical doctor with postgraduate training in psychiatry) is 1.20 per 100,000 population. This number varies across world regions: Africa (0.04), Americas (2.00), eastern Mediterranean (0.95), Europe (9.80), southeast Asia (0.20), and the western Pacific (0.32). Similarly, the median number of psychiatric beds per 10,000 population varies across regions: Africa (0.34), Americas (2.60), eastern Mediterranean (1.07), Europe (8.00), southeast Asia (0.33), and the western Pacific (1.06). In many developing countries, mental health professions experi-

ence poor working conditions and low social status, and there are few incentives to live in rural areas. Some countries have no national mental health policy or mental health legislation. Women face inequality in nearly every culture. Women tend to have lower incomes than men, even when doing the same job. Women are more likely to occupy low status and part-time employment, and do unpaid domestic and caring work. Women are overrepresented among those with low education and living in poverty. Many studies have shown an association between indicators of poverty and the risk of mental disorders. Health of women is affected by social and economic factors, such as access to education, household wealth, and place of residence. This disadvantaged position hampers the ability of millions of women worldwide to access healthcare and achieve the best possible level of health. Unequal power relations and gendered norms in society lead to differential access to health resources. Therefore, any consideration of women’s health should take into account the wider historical, economic and social

More effort is needed to develop mental healthcare that is genuinely sensitive to women’s needs.

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aspects, particularly social inequalities and violation of women’s rights. The reasons why health systems fail women are often complex. More effort is needed to develop mental healthcare that is genuinely sensitive to women’s needs. A better understanding of gender dimensions of health will help to address the mounting global problem of mental ill health among women. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Health, Mental and Physical; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of; World Health Organization. Further Readings Daver, Bhargavi. Mental Health From a Gender Perspective. New Delhi, India: Sage, 2001. Peters, David, Sameh El-saharty, Banafsheh Siada, Katja Janovsk, and Marko Vujicic. Improving Health Service Delivery in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2009. United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service. Women’s Mental Health: Into the Mainstream—Strategic Development of Mental Healthcare for Women. London: UK Department of Health, 2002. World Health Organization. Women’s Mental Health: An Evidence Based View. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2000. Gareth Davey Hong Kong Shue Yan University

Mental Health Treatment, Bias in Mental health is traditionally defined in terms of emotional well-being and an absence of mental illness. More recent perspectives take a holistic approach that considers how social and cultural variables, such as gender, interact with health. It is important to consider gender for several reasons. Mental disorders are the result of a complex interaction between biological, psychological and social factors, of which gender plays an important role. There is a mounting problem of mental ill health among women, which interferes with their ability to lead productive and satisfying

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lives. There is a gender bias in access to health services, diagnosis of mental health disorders, treatment seeking behavior, treatment outcomes, etc. A better understanding of these issues will help to promote good mental health among women and provide congruent healthcare services. This article explores gender differentials in mental health treatment, beginning with a look at the diagnosis and treatment of mental ill health, through to recovery and outcomes. As treatment options for mental illness are diverse, and involve a wide array of treatments and health professionals, this article presents a general overview of the topic. Diagnosis of Mental Health Family doctors and general healthcare centers represent the first stage of mental health treatment: they diagnose health problems, prescribe medication, and offer basic therapeutic services. The second stage consists of hospitals and specialist mental health services. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, is the standard assessment handbook used by mental health clinicians in the United States and many other countries to classify and diagnose mental disorders. The DSM has been criticized for its limited coverage of both women-only disorders and sex differences in mental health. In particular, there has been a call for more focus on women’s mental health in relation to reproduction, such as during menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, and so on. Another criticism is that the DSM follows the biomedical model of health, reducing mental health to a biological basis, while overlooking psychosocial and other factors. Studies suggest that there is no overall difference between men and women in the diagnosis of most mental health problems, especially severe mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But there is a clear bias in some common health issues, as doctors are more likely to diagnose depression, emotional problems, generalized anxiety disorders, and eating disorders among women. Women are more likely than men to suffer from the coexistence of more than one mental disorder (comorbid mental disorders). Conversely, men are more commonly diagnosed with problems such as alcohol dependence, substance abuse, and antisocial personality disorder.

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The words sex and gender are closely related, but have different meanings. Sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics of men and women, such as genetics, brain functioning and hormones; whereas gender refers to socially constructed behaviors and roles that societies consider appropriate for men and women. Although a number of health differences between men and women can be explained by biological sex differences, there are also sociocultural explanations. For example, one explanation for differences in the prevalence of mental disorders between men and women is gender stereotyping, which means society’s norms concerning the social acceptability of certain mental health problems for men and women. For instance, the prevalent stereotype in Western society that women are the emotional and weaker sex is believed to encourage women to seek treatment for some emotional problems, but discourage men from doing so. Gender stereotypes on the part of the doctor may also lead to a bias in diagnosis of mental health problems, which might account for the larger proportion of women diagnosed and receiving treatment for certain mental problems. Psychological Therapy There is also a bias in the therapeutic treatment of mental health. Therapists often have stereotypical assumptions and roles regarding women, failing to address gender and power aspects; and are sometimes insensitive to their unique circumstances and needs. Theories and models of counseling, psychology and mental health have been criticized. They tend to regard symptoms as having the same meaning for men and women, and fail to appreciate how symptoms might be shaped by the broader social and gender contexts. Treatment approaches differ in how they recognize gender equality. For instance, whereas some therapists use frameworks that regard both partners as equal—for example, in relationship therapy—other approaches such as psychoanalytic and family psychology have traditionally overlooked gender equality and assume that power equity does not exist in families. Women from minority ethnic groups face additional bias, as health provision is dominated by Western models and sociocultural factors that might be less relevant to patients in minority groups. In addi-

tion, the special mental health needs of minority groups such as lesbian, bisexual and transgendered women are often overlooked in health services that hold assumptions about women being heterosexual. Women clients appreciate the option to choose a female therapist. Some women feel more comfortable with a female therapist, especially if their troubles are specific to women or related to sexism in society. Women who have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused might find it difficult to interact with male medical staff. There are issues about gender equality among doctors and other healthcare professionals, such as the number of men and women who train to become doctors, and the barriers they face in career progression. For example, the majority of psychiatrists in the world are male; and female psychiatrists complain of inequalities in salary, career structure, and so on. In university medical schools, fewer women are professors, department heads, deans, university presidents, etc. However, women outnumber men in lower status jobs such as in nursing. Primary caregivers of elderly people with cognitive disabilities are almost always female relatives. Women receive less health treatment than men due to inequalities associated with gender roles. Unequal power relations and gendered norms in society lead to differential access to health resources. Women’s overrepresentation among those living in poverty means that they are less able to pay for health services, and ill health is more common among those in poverty and difficult circumstances. Medication and Treatment Outcomes Drug therapy—such as antidepressants, anxiolytics, and mood stabilizers—is the core of mental health treatment, and is usually prescribed by a psychiatrist or family doctor. Research on medication use suggests that women are more likely to be prescribed drugs for mental health issues. Reasons include a higher proportion of women diagnosed with common health issues such as depression and anxiety; greater health-seeking behavior and inclination to use primary health services; differences in reporting health conditions and symptoms; and a gendered pattern of communication about health and treatment, as it is often women have a better knowledge regarding treatment.



There is a gender bias in treatment outcomes. Most research on this topic has focused on the treatment of severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Women with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders generally show less severe courses of illness; better responses to drug therapy; and more favorable hospital treatment outcomes such as fewer hospitalizations, less likelihood of relapse, and so on. This bias can be partly explained by social construction of gender such as social expectations of men and women; and the ways that men and women cope and respond to their health problems. Biological differences such as structural brain differences and hormonal differences are also likely to play a role, but more research is needed. Another key consideration in mental health treatment is variation across countries in the availability of mental health services and therapeutic drugs. In many low-income and middle-income countries, access to healthcare is more limited, particularly in rural areas. In the developing world, many patients suffering from mental health problems are undiagnosed and untreated. Reasons include limited numbers and types of mental health professionals, low position of mental and public health agendas, and limited public knowledge about mental health. Most middle- and low-income countries devote very little of their health expenditure to mental health. Another reason is that gender inequalities tend to be more pronounced in non-Western countries: the lower social status of women, greater social expectations of men, and women’s responsibility and expectation to care for children all impinge on access to health treatment. In many countries, mental illness among women attracts a greater amount of stigma and rejection. This article has shown that comprehensive and effective approaches to mental health treatment are undermined by gender-based stereotypes and barriers. There is a lack of understanding of the distinct historical, economic and social experiences tied to women’s health. There is a need to overcome bias to create a positive environment for healthcare and recovery. Key issues such as gender and the social context must be incorporated into the planning, delivery and evaluation of services; and doctors and mental health providers must develop a better understanding in the role of gender in mental illness.

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Improvement is needed to help to provide gender congruent services for women. See Also: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of; Medical Research, Gender Issues in; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of; World Health Organization. Further Readings Daver, Bhargavi. Mental Health From a Gender Perspective. New Delhi, India: Sage, 2001. Hayes, Bernadette, Pauline M. Prior, and Jo Campling. Gender and Health Care in the UK: Exploring the Stereotypes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Repper, Julie and Rachel Perkins. Social Inclusion and Recovery: A Model for Mental Health Practice. London: Bailliere Tindall, 2003. United Kingdom National Health Service. Women’s Mental Health: Into the Mainstream—Strategic Development of Mental Healthcare for Women. London: Department of Health, 2002. Gareth Davey Hong Kong Shue Yan University

Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of Economic, legal and environmental factors combine with cultural and individual aspects to place women at greater risk of mental disorders in every country around the world. Women of color and sexual minorities face even greater risks for mental disorders due to racism and discrimination. Poverty and interpersonal violence are some of the risk factors for mental disorders that women face at greater rates than men, even in developed and wealthy nations. Mental disorders result from a combination of biological, psychological and social factors in ways that are not yet well understood. Regardless of cause, the more stressors one has, the more likely one is to develop a mental disorder and the more severe the disorder is likely to be. This means that any disadvantaged group in society will have more risk factors

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for developing a mental disorder. Women, people of color, sexual minorities, and members of lower social classes remain oppressed around the world. Statistics are not available for all disorders from all countries because of differential recognition and research funding for mental disorders at the national level. For example, 40 percent of countries in the world do not have any kind of established mental health policy. It is also true that mental disorders remain one of the most stigmatized of all conditions, which makes underreporting likely. When research is conducted, heterosexual, middle-class to upper-class males are considered the norm against which all people are compared. This means that women are less likely to be the focus of formal studies, and the data available regarding women of color, poor women, and sexual minority women remain especially scarce. Therefore, the data provided herein are preliminary at best, with much more information required worldwide. Rates of Mental Disorders There are many different types of mental disorders, but the ones that tend to be researched in large population studies are mood disorders (depression and anxiety disorders, including phobias), psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia), bipolar disorder (a combination of mania and depression), and substance use disorders. This means that somatization disorders (where psychological distress results in physical symptoms, including pain disorders), adjustment disorders (difficulty adjusting to a stressful life event), eating disorders (including restricting, purging, and combinations thereof ), trauma, and culture bound syndromes (disorders specific to a given culture) are not included. It is important to note that the disorders that are not included in most studies occur disproportionately in women. According to the available data, men and women have similar rates of mental disorders worldwide, with roughly 25 percent of the world’s adult population suffering from a mental disorder at any given time. These numbers vary by country: 15.5 percent in Australia, 23.2 percent in the Netherlands, 26.2 to 29.5 percent in the United States, and 31.1 percent in Germany. Mental health problems account for 10.5 percent of all disability worldwide—more than cancer and heart disease—and violence, substance abuse, physical injuries, and sexually transmitted infections account for

30 percent of all disability worldwide. Mental disorders tend to be chronic and their effects range from loss of productivity to temporary or permanent disability, homelessness, and in some cases, suicide. In the United States, people with mental disorders die 25 years earlier than the general population. Some mental disorders occur equally in men and women around the world, such as bipolar disorder (0.4 percent) and schizophrenia (0.4 percent). These disorders are thought to have more of a biological component, though stress can exacerbate or prolong the symptoms. Other disorders vary greatly in men and women. For example, alcohol use disorders affect 2.8 percent of men but only 0.4 percent of women, though women’s alcohol use is increasing worldwide, particularly among indigenous women. All other disorders disproportionately affect women, which is thought to be due to social factors like gender discrimination, a higher workload than men, domestic violence, sexual and reproductive violence, and increased societal pressures. Depression, anxiety and somatization disorders all occur twice as often in women than men. This includes mood disorders that are only diagnosed in women, such as postpartum depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Anxiety disorders have a longer course in women: indeed, women are two times more likely than men to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a stressful event. Eating disorders are sometimes classified as a culture-bound syndrome because they occur almost exclusively in wealthy, industrialized nations. In the United States, 35 percent of women in the general population have some type of eating disturbance, but this number reaches as high as 90 percent on college campuses. European Americans and Asian Americans tend to be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa or bulimia whereas Latinas and African Americans display more complicated patterns of overeating and restricting, which often leads to a diagnosis of Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Depression is a major risk factor for suicide. Considering that women suffer from depression twice as much as men, this makes suicide a significant issue for women. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in women aged 15 to 44 worldwide, though these numbers vary by country and ethnicity within countries. Suicide is the number one leading cause of death of



women aged 15 to 34 in rural areas in China, and the third leading cause of death of women aged 15 to 34 in Western Europe. In the United States, women attempt suicide twice as often as men but men are more successful at completing suicide. European American women are the most likely to commit suicide, followed by Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinas, and Native American women. In the United States, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women are more likely to commit suicide than heterosexual women. Risk Factors for Mental Disorders Education, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and exposure to trauma significantly impact the likelihood of developing a mental disorder. In general, the more education, socioeconomic status, and social status one has, the more likely one is to be mentally healthy. Women have less access to education worldwide compared to men and make up the majority of the world’s impoverished population, particularly if they have children or are a member of an oppressed ethnic or sexual group. Globalization had led to an increase in poor-quality jobs for women, especially in developing nations, which demonstrates that economic growth for a nation does not necessarily help women. Women all over the world earn less than two-thirds of a man’s wage for the same job, and women of color earn even less worldwide. Over 50 percent of homeless people in developed countries are women, and the average age a woman becomes homeless is decreasing. In the United States, 56 percent of people living in poverty are female, with unmarried women, women of color, and sexual minority females most likely to be poor. Violence disproportionately affects women, including domestic violence, family abuse, and sexual violence, such as rape. Rates of violence against women are rising for all ethnicities and social classes around the world. Intimate partner violence against women occurs throughout the life span, but is especially common in adolescents and young adults. Risk factors for intimate partner violence include economic inequality, no option of divorce for women, and men having greater decision-making authority in the home or family. Pregnancy is a time of increased violence against women from intimate partners. Domestic violence is common worldwide, with roughly 16 percent to 50 percent of women suffer-

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ing abuse from a romantic partner. Reported rates include 11.6 percent in North America, 16 percent in Cambodia and Mexico, 37.5 percent in North Korea, and 42 percent in Kenya. Sexual violence, including rape, is thought to occur in 20 percent of women’s lives worldwide. In the United States, women are more likely to be assaulted, injured, raped, or killed by a romantic partner (past or present) than any other type of assailant. In the United States and New Zealand, over 30 percent of women were victims of child sexual abuse. These numbers are likely underestimates, as it has been found that violence against women is usually not reported. Women who have been victims of any kind of violence, at any age, are more likely to develop a mental disorder, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance use disorders. They are also more likely to attempt and complete suicide, have poor overall health, and are more likely to suffer from other types of abuse throughout their lives. See Also: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of; Suicide Rates. Further Readings Hughes, Tonda, Carrol Smith, and Alice Dan. Mental Health Issues for Sexual Minority Women: Redefining Women’s Mental Health. New York: Routledge, 2003. Kristof, Nicholas D. and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Paludi, Michele A., ed. Feminism and Women’s Rights Worldwide: Volume 2, Mental and Physical Health. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2010. Slater, Lauren, Jessica Henderson Daniel, and Amy Elizabeth Banks, eds. The Complete Guide to Mental Health for Women. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003. World Health Organization. Women’s Mental Health: An Evidence Based Review. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2000. http://whqlibdoc .who.int/hq/2000/who_msd_mdp_00.1.pdf (accessed July 2010). Geneva Reynaga-Abiko University of California, Merced

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Mentoring Despite positive changes in gender equality and recent shifts in cultural and demographic landscapes, women still have unique needs and concerns that can differ from their male counterparts. Often situated within a society that places them toward the lower quadrant of the organizational hierarchy, women must still combat feelings of inferiority, oppression, and marginalization in a male-dominated society. Through formal and informal conventions, women are participating and volunteering in mentoring programs in an effort to confront negative societal messages while increasing their social capital, visibility, and representation in a myriad of areas. Women serving as mentors are purposely chosen based on a vast array of traits, experiences, and characteristics that may be valuable to others. These women provide their mentees an opportunity to learn and to practice skills that are meant to aid in an individual’s personal or professional development. Based on their experiences, women can provide an honest evaluation of circumstances and goals while instilling a sense of encouragement and confidence in those to whom they offer their guidance. Often seen as an extension of the family, female mentors tend to build rapport and energize those involved in their social interventions by confronting the many uncomfortable social and professional realities that may exist in their respective communities. Female mentors understand the oppression that manifests itself in a complex society and therefore possess the ability to prepare others to lead successful, independent, and fulfilling lives through practical advice and contextually specific discussions. On some occasions, however, these relationships can foster an unhealthy dependence and may highlight the power differential that they may be attempting to circumvent. Motivation and Encouragement Women of all ages have sought out mentors to assist them in negotiating various settings and stages of life. Some women seek refuge from the isolation and loneliness they may feel. These women may question their purpose and intellect or may lack self-esteem and self-worth. Their competency and decision-making capabilities may be in question, and having someone that has accomplished similar goals and tasks often

serves as motivation and encouragement. Another reason women may seek or be assigned a mentor is for upward mobility. They may seek someone with qualities they wish to emulate as they strive to develop their own personal and/or professional crafts and skills. This relationship or coaching model may provide an increase in tangible and intangible resources and could expose hidden capabilities that may result in an increase in female visibility and representation. Mentoring is an established practice in many fields and communities. For women, it can offer solace from the complexities of male dominance and gender disparities and can also provide opportunities to acquire and further develop abilities not otherwise realized. Although the meaning, intensity, and dependent nature of these reciprocal relationships may vary, each requires devotion of time and energy from both the mentor and mentee. With time, these individualized yet collective voices offer reliable sources of support. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Association for Women’s Rights in Development; Representation of Women; United Nation Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Brown, Mark and Stuart Ross. “Mentoring, Social Capital and Desistance: A Study of Women Released From Prison.” Australian and New Zealand Journal off Criminology, v.43/1 (2010). Dedrick, Robert F. and Freda Watson. “Mentoring Needs of Female, Minority, and International Graduate Students: A Content Analysis of Academic Research Guides and Related Print Material.” Mentoring and Tutoring, v.10/3 (2002). Laff, Michael. “The Guiding Hand: Mentoring Women.” Training and Development, v.63/9 (2009). Mason, Catheryn and Elizabeth Bailey. “Benefits and Pitfalls of Mentoring.” http://www.faculty.english.ttu. edu/barker/5377/Mentoring/BenefitsAndPitfalls MasonandBailey.pdf (accessed June 2010). Mentoring.org. “Spanning the Gender Gap in Mentoring.” http://www.mentoring.org/access_research/spanning (accessed June 2010). Corrie L. Davis Kennesaw State University



Merkel, Angela Angela Merkel is Germany’s first female chancellor. A Protestant from the former East Germany, she was elected head of state in September 2005 and assumed office on November 22, 2005. She has been the chairwoman of her party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), since April 10, 2000. Despite initial skepticism of her ability to lead Germany, she has proven herself a pragmatic and popular politician who was easily reelected in 2009. Her influence extends well beyond Germany; for four years in a row (2006–09), Forbes magazine named her the most powerful woman in the world. This is especially remarkable considering that she entered politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Upbringing and Personal Life Merkel was born as Angela Dorothea Kasner on July 17, 1954. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother a teacher of English and Latin. She has two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. Like most children growing up in socialist East Germany, she was a member of the official youth movement Free German Youth (FDJ). From 1973 to 1978, she studied physics at the University of Leipzig. She then transferred to the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin, where she obtained a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986. Her first marriage (1977–82), to fellow physics student Ulrich Merkel, ended in divorce. Her second and current husband, Joachim Sauer, is a quantum chemist and professor who, for the most part, has stayed outside of the public spotlight. Merkel has no children of her own, but Sauer has two adult sons by a previous marriage. Political Career In December 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Merkel got involved in the growing democracy movement in East Germany. She joined the new party Democratic Awakening (Demokratischer Aufbruch) and quickly rose in its ranks, becoming her party’s press secretary in February 1990. That August, she joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Soon thereafter, in the first postunification elections, she was elected to the German Parliament (Bundestag). As a protégée of then-chancellor

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Helmut Kohl, she first became Federal Minister for Women and Youth (1991–94), and later Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (1994–98). Following a financial scandal involving Kohl and other leading figures of the CDU, Merkel publicly broke with her former mentor and advocated for a fresh start. She was subsequently elected the first female chair of her male-dominated, socially conservative party. For the first four years of her reign as chancellor, Merkel led a “grand coalition” with the center-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After her reelection in 2009, when her party obtained the largest share of votes, she formed a coalition government with the centrist, pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP). Merkel is a smart, highly educated and skillful politician who uses her academic background in the sciences to analyze situations and develop strategies that are supported by many. Unlike many politicians, she is not a gifted speaker and not interested in grand gestures. She has, however, been widely praised for modernizing her party, especially in regard to family and migration policies, and for her ability to build coalitions. See Also: Germany; Government, Women in; Heads of State, Female; Political Ideologies. Further Readings Heckel, M. So Regiert die Kanzlerin [This Is How the Chancellor Governs]. Munich, Germany: Piper, 2009. Merkel, Angela. “Angela Merkel.” http://www .angela-merkel.de/ (accessed November 2009). Mills, Clifford W. Angela Merkel (Modern World Leaders) New York: Chelsea House Publications, 2007. Heike Henderson Boise State University

Metropolitan Community Church Metropolitan Community Churches (MCCs) have served as one of many touchstones to political activism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)

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followers. The increased visibility of LGBT individuals seeking liberation from the closets sparked discussions on tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people as parishioners, communicants, volunteers, and clergy in Roman Catholic, conservative, mainline, liberal, and Evangelical Protestant churches, and Jewish synagogues throughout the United States. Notable was the absence of LGBT people in such discussions on church policies, practices, and teachings on homosexuality. Reverend Troy Perry lost his Pentecostal ministerial position when he disclosed his sexual orientation. However, Perry’s passion for his Pentecostal faith inspired him to place an advertisement in the September 1968 issue of the LGBT magazine The Advocate for a Christian service at his home in Los Angeles—the first meeting occurred on October 6, 1968 with 12 people. Two years later Perry and his followers had founded the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) and by 2000, UFMCC boasted 48,000 members attending 314 churches in 18 countries—it is the faith group with the largest number of LGBT followers, worldwide. Dallas, Texas’s MCC is the largest with 3,000 members, in 2000. The success of the Dallas MCC has been a testament to MCC’s appeal to LGBT people searching for religious tolerance in the midwestern and southern states of the United States. The congregants and ministers in UFMCC’s first decade were largely men, some of whom had considered a ministerial career— in 1973, women represented only 10 percent of the flock. These parishioners shared the Word of God in lesbian and gay bars and published the national monthly magazine In Unity and half-a-dozen periodicals. Since 1972, the MCC has adopted gender-neutral language and encouraged loving commitments among its members—Perry had performed 250 holy unions or gay marriages by 1974. By 1989, 40 percent of MCC clergy were women, and women represented 30 percent of members. In 2009, women outnumbered men slightly in the clergy ranks. Adherents of MCCs credit the church for its allowance of a personal perspective on Christianity—the rituals of individual MCCs are generative in that congregations’ preferences determine the format for services, and clergy consider themselves to be ecumenical and inclusive. Parishioners have rejected the tendency

of liberal Protestant groups to conceptualize them as LGBT first and potential Christians second—MCC clergy have always considered LGBT people Christians first. UFMCC has resolved an inherent tension—that LGBT people can be “gay and Christian!” See Also: Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; Lesbian/Gay Clergy; Social Justice Activism. Further Readings Enroth, Ronald M. and Gerald E. Jamison. The Gay Church. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1974. In Our Own Words. http://www.inourownwordsmcc.org (accessed August 2009). Metropolitan Community Churches. http://www .mccchurch.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home (accessed August 2009). Perry, Edith. (Foreword). The Lord Is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m Gay: The Autobiography of the Rev. Troy D. Perry as Told to Charles L. Lucas. Los Angeles, CA: Nash Publishing, 1972. Perry, Reverend Troy D. with Thomas L.P. Swicegood. Don’t Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches. New York: St. Martin’s, 1990. Wilcox, Melissa M. “Of Markets and Missions: The Early History of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.” Religion & American Culture, v.11/1 (2001). Wilson, Rodney C. “ ‘The Seed Time of Gay Rights’: Rev. Carol Cureton, The Metropolitan Community Church, and Gay St. Louis, 1969–1980.” Gateway Heritage, v.15/2 (1994). Jonathan Anuik Lakehead University, Orillia

Mexico Women in Mexico are a diverse group that has historically contributed significantly to the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the region. Mexico is a highly stratified society, and therefore, women’s experiences vary according to class, race, and region. Thus, when considering the subject of women in Mexico, it is important to remember that



there is no one unified category, but rather, multiple and changing experiences. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the New World in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, Mexico was ruled by the Mexica. These indigenous people, rulers of the Valley of Mexico, developed what is now known as the Aztec Empire. Women played a critical role within this civilization, which was based on agriculture, expansion, and tribute. While the dominant gods of their polytheistic system were primarily male, there were also important female deities including Ometeotl, the Lord of Duality who incorporated both a male and female principle; and Coatlicue, or Mother Earth. Despite the narrowness and rigidity of roles available to them, Mexica women played important parts in the ongoing life of their society. Women were responsible for domestic chores such as cleaning and cooking. In addition, they spun, wove, and made ceramics. Perhaps, most importantly, they were responsible for agricultural production and animal domestication, reinforced perhaps by the deity Mother Earth. In a society largely sustained by farming, these responsibilities were important. Mexica society was clearly patriarchal—women’s lives centered on the home and motherhood. Women were expected to be virgins until marriage, and adultery was punished by stoning to death, which indicated the importance of female honor and its relationship to sexuality. If the husband was able to support more than one wife, polygamy was accepted. Elite women were expected to protect the poor, thus extending their role as mother to the marginalized. Perhaps this protective role was a precursor to the Virgin of Guadalupe, a figure who first gained prominence during the colonial period. The Conquest and Its Effects The Spaniards arrived in Mexico in 1517, beginning a period of colonialism that would last three centuries. While there were some similarities between the pre-conquest and the colonial regimes—both were powerful states based on political and military expansion, deeply religious, and male-dominated—the differences were significant. The conquest resulted in an enormous upheaval for the Mexica. Throughout the 16th century, approximately 90 percent of Mexico’s indigenous population died, largely a result of new

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A local woman sells seashells to tourists while walking on a beach in Acapulco, Mexico.

diseases introduced by the Spanish. An altered society emerged, and women both continued with their old roles and found new ones. Within the colonial system, women were likely to be found weaving cloth, making ceramics, tending to crops, selling goods in city markets, laboring in tobacco factories, or working as servants in large Spanish houses. Colonial society was divided according to race and social class. Indigenous women, for instance, were often found working in the homes of Spanish women. A woman’s legal position within the colony was that of a minor. Women could inherit property, titles, businesses, and land; nevertheless, once they were married, their husbands became the administrators of the property. The wealth of elite families was predicated on economic and kinship networks, and women played a vital role in maintaining familial networks.

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Much like the preconquest system, however, women’s most essential role was that of mother. Three Iconic Women Three figures emerged from the colonial period and became archetypes of Mexican womanhood: La Malinche, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. La Malinche was an indigenous woman who translated for the conquistador Hernán Cortés. As Cortés’s mistress, she was typically cast as a treacherous woman who denied her country and helped “the enemy.” Complementing La Malinche was the Virgin of Guadalupe, who succored the poor, particularly the indigenous peoples. Guadalupe, based on the Christian image of the Virgin Mary, provided an image of charitable motherhood and, during the War of Independence, became the image of the Nationalists. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz represented the artistic and intellectual achievements of Mexican women. Known as the Tenth Muse, she dedicated her life to learning and writing. As a nun, she believed that the only place where a woman could aspire to knowledge normally reserved for men was within the house of God. Sor Juana was perhaps one of Mexico’s first precursors of feminist consciousness. In the 19th century, Mexico gained its independence from Spain and began a process of liberalization and capitalist development. This century was marked by the rise of mariansimo, an ideology predicated on motherhood and women’s relegation to the home. This was possible only for elite women. The majority of women worked in factories, in artisanal industries, in commerce, and in food services, as seamstresses, spinners, weavers, and servants. By the 20th century, women’s work expanded to include store clerks, secretaries, and stenographers. Women gradually were incorporated into the educational system, and their increased work and public presence led to a heightened awareness of gender differences and the beginnings of a feminist movement. Women were active during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. They were most famously represented as soldaderas, women who traveled with and often fought alongside their husbands. The revolution ushered in a new period in Mexican society and provided women with different roles and a sense of national participation. This emerging awareness was perhaps

most visibly epitomized by leftist artists such as Frida Kahlo. The 20th century was marked by increased feminist activity, much of it centered on suffrage. By the end of the century, women had gained the vote, access to birth control, entered schools in higher numbers, and were employed throughout all sectors of the economy. The Outlook Today In present-day Mexico there is both change and continuity in women’s roles. More women than ever participate in the paid labor force, they are likely to have fewer babies than the women of past generations, and they continue their history of political participation. While women are increasingly likely to seek paid employment, they are also likely to quit their paid jobs after marriage. Since the 1970s, fertility rates among women have steadily declined, although there is a marked urban/rural difference with women in the countryside having more children than their urban counterparts. In both city and country alike, extended households are prevalent and, for many women, essential to juggling the demands of work and motherhood. In the 1980s and 1990s and women joined the paid labor force with greater frequency, particularly after the advent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, 1994) and the corresponding growth of maquiladoras (import–export factories) on the border between Mexico and the United States. Women can typically be found working in the textile, garment manufacturing, and electronics industries. They are represented in higher numbers than men in low-wage jobs and in the informal labor sector where the work conditions are difficult, the hours arduous and there is little or no maternity leave. Female immigrants often find domestic and childcare work in the United States, sending remittances home for the support of their families and children. Women may also cross the border as seasonal migrant farm workers. Mexican women continue to play a strong role in politics, whether participating at the grassroots level or in formal, electoral politics. While women often run for office in Mexico, they remain underrepresented at the state and federal levels of government. They are prominent in the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, holding positions of leadership and among

Michelman, Kate



the rank and file. Mexican women have joined transnational solidarity organizations and protests with women from the United States and Canada to protest the effects of NAFTA. Following a struggle for the right to first-trimester abortions, the Mexican Supreme Court declared in 2008 that an absolute constitutional protection of life in gestation would violate the fundamental rights of women. Despite these and other gains, persistent inequality remains, and Mexican women continue their struggle for change, contributing to the shape of the nation and its future. See Also: Government, Women in; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Machismo/Marianismo; Maquiladoras; Virgin of Guadalupe. Further Readings Arrom, Silvia Marina. The Women of Mexico City. Stanford, CT: Stanford University Press, 1985. Barndt, Deborah. Tangled Routes: Women, Work, and Globalization on the Tomato Trail. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Tuñón Pablos, Julia, translated by Alan Hynds. Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled. Austin: University of Texas Press, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1999. Sara Katherine Sanders University of Oxford

Michelman, Kate A key figure in the pro-choice movement, Kate Michelman served as president of NARAL ProChoice America, the largest pro-choice advocacy group in the United States from 1985 to 2004. During this period, she emerged as one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, D.C. She has advised and campaigned for many political candidates, sought to defeat Supreme Court nominees who threatened to overturn Roe v. Wade, and worked to defeat a wide range of legislative attempts to deny or restrict women’s access to safe and legal abortion. Michelman was born in New Jersey in 1942 to an upwardly mobile Catholic family. From a very early age, she demonstrated a passion for politics and social justice, but it was personal experience that first led

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Michelman to the issue that would come to define her public life. In 1969, four years before the Supreme Court legalized abortion, Michelman’s husband left her for another woman. Soon thereafter, she learned she was pregnant. At the time, she was a stay-at-home mother and a practicing Catholic. Relying on the rhythm method for birth control, she had given birth three times in three years. Lacking the means to support her young family, Michelman grew desperate. After a failed suicide attempt, a doctor told her she might be eligible for a “therapeutic” abortion. To qualify, however, she had to obtain permission from both her estranged husband and an all-male hospital review board that subjected her to humiliating questions about her sex life. “Everyone else had control except me, and I had to bear the consequences,” she later explained. “It was then I became acutely aware of how desperate the situation is for women.” After this searing experience, Michelman gradually got her life back on track. She went on welfare for a time, took a part-time job in a library, and in 1972 remarried. She then worked for several years in the nonprofit and social service sectors. Her career as a champion of women’s reproductive rights began in 1980, when she was named executive director of Family Planning Services in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which under her tenure became the Tri-County Planned Parenthood. Michelman, who saw her job as providing clients with a full range of reproductive services—from abortion to infertility treatment—found herself drawn into the political fray. In the early 1980s, the pro-life movement, having abandoned hopes of reversing Roe through a constitutional amendment, had turned its energies to the state level, targeting Pennsylvania as a key battleground. Michelman’s experiences combating pro-life forces in Pennsylvania would prepare her to take on a national leadership role within the pro-choice movement. Michelman assumed the helm at NARAL in 1985 and two years later helped to lead the successful fight against Robert Bork’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Even as pro-choice forces managed to prevent the wholesale overturning of Roe, however, they failed to stave off a host of new laws that have restricted access to abortion, including laws that require parental notification for minors, impose mandatory waiting periods, or ban all public funding of abortions. In

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response to the shifting political climate, Michelman and NARAL consulted with pollsters and adopted a more conservative message—one that sought to protect abortion rights by tapping into the public’s widespread distrust of big government. Rather than insisting on women’s absolute right to control their own bodies, the organization began to stress the need to safeguard individuals against undue government intervention. Their new slogan asked, “Who Decides? You or Them?” Although this pragmatic strategy proved effective in reaching undecided voters, critics have argued that NARAL’s message has undercut its ability to defend the reproductive rights of poor women, who often rely on public funds. Michelman left NARAL in 2004 to cope with family medical emergencies. In 2001, her daughter, who was uninsured at the time, suffered a tragic accident that paralyzed her for life. The following year, Michelman’s husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Though he was previously a college professor with seemingly good benefits, his insurance has covered only a fraction of the costs of his long-term care. Once again, Michelman has drawn a larger, political lesson from her own personal experiences: She has used her family’s tragic story to call attention to the ways in which the current healthcare system leaves even solidly middle-class Americans vulnerable to financial ruin. At the same time, she has continued to champion women’s reproductive rights. Most recently, Michelman has denounced attempts to amend proposed healthcare legislation in ways that would deny women access to abortion services. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion, Ethical Issues; Abortion Laws, United States; NARAL; Roe v. Wade. Further Readings Michelman, Kate. “A System From Hell.” The Nation (April 8, 2009). Michelman, Kate. With Liberty and Justice for All: A Life Spent Protecting the Right to Choose. New York: Penguin/Hudson Street, 2004. Saletan, William. Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Rebecca Jo Plant University of California, San Diego

Microcredit Microcredit (also known as microlending, microfinance, village banking, and “barefoot banking”) involves providing small, short-term, collateral-free loans to the poor—typically women—living in developing countries. The loans, typically less than $100, are intended for the creation or expansion of small businesses so that recipients can earn the income necessary to move their families out of poverty. Although pioneered in the 1970s, the past decade has seen thousands of microcredit banks provide loans to more than 100 million people. Advocates claim that microcredit can help foster prosperity, enhance quality of life, build community, and promote women’s status. Yet, numerous challenges remain if microcredit is to expand and effectively meet the demand for assistance by the ever-increasing population of poor in the world. How Microcredit Differs From Traditional Aid Microcredit is regarded by many as a cost-effective means of combating poverty. Grounded in the concepts of self-help and entrepreneurship, microcredit represents a significant shift away from charity-based poverty alleviation programs and traditional government welfare programs. For one, most microcredit programs target women. This is both because women comprise the majority of the world’s poor, and because women often lack the collateral necessary to participate in traditional loan programs. Also, rather than providing free food, clothing, or services to individuals in need, microcredit programs provide participants with small cash loans. Recipients then use the loans to create or further develop small businesses (referred to as microenterprises). Types of microenterprises vary greatly: one loan recipient may purchase several goats and sell their milk; another may purchase a sewing machine to start a garmentmaking business; still another may purchase a refrigerator so she can add eggs, dairy products, and meat to the items she buys from her village store. A Bank as a Grassroots Unit The principle of communal responsibility is central to the microcredit system. To begin, a group of six to eight individuals come together to form a loan group. Several loan groups then combine to form a bank.



The bank is typically not an institution housed in a material building—instead, the bank is simply a group of individuals who are active participants in a microcredit loan program. Once a bank is established, participants (who are generally referred to as “members”) determine who receives the loans, set interest rates, negotiate terms of repayment, and levy penalties for late payments. Interest rates for most microcredit loans range from 10 to 15 percent, a rate that helps ensure the sustainability of microcredit programs. Loans are typically given for a maximum of six months, payments are made on a weekly basis, and once a loan is successfully repaid, the member may be eligible for additional loans to further expand their business. Bank members generally meet on a weekly basis to make payments. Meetings may take place in members’

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homes or even in a central location in the community such as a courtyard or field. The bank is built on trust and accountability—if a member of a loan group cannot make a payment, other members of her loan group try to help her find a way to do so and, if necessary, may loan her the money needed to make the payment. Those who do not make timely payments risk losing status and respect; they may also become ineligible for future loans. Loan money that is repaid is “recycled” and made available for additional loans. Positive Outcomes and Pressing Challenges Microcredit differs from traditional loans in several ways. First, microcredit loans do not require collateral or contracts. In addition, women comprise the overwhelming majority of participants in microcredit programs. Furthermore, microcredit loans have a high

A Cambodian woman has transformed a backyard chore into a lucrative business, with the help of USAID. She expanded her pig farm, and went from earning $300 per breeding cycle to $5,000 or $6,000 per cycle.

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repayment rate, as much as 98 percent in some loan programs. Finally, many microcredit programs provide not only financial assistance, but also offer savings accounts. Many also offer education and training in the following areas: business and financial skills, nutrition, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevention, maternal and infant health, sanitation, sustainable farming practices, literacy, and immunizations. Thus, while microcredit loans help recipients and their families most directly, there are a number of positive effects on the local community as well. Microcredit loans can help enhance the local economy, increase quality and availability of education, foster better health and hygiene, increase community solidarity, and improve overall quality of life. Despite these positive outcomes, a number of challenges remain. Loans are not always used for their intended purposes and some recipients use the money to purchase food or household goods, to pay school fees, or even for travel. In addition, while women are primary participants in loan programs, their husbands may control the use of loan money. Husbands may also use verbal or physical violence to pressure their wives into taking out loans. While some lending organizations boast repayment rates of up to 98 percent, not all programs are equally successful. Perhaps most importantly, only a portion of the world’s poor have access to microcredit; the demand for such loans far exceeds the supply. See Also: Entrepreneurs; Financial Aid; Financial Independence of Women; Grameen Bank of Bangladesh; Poverty; Poverty, “Feminization” of; United Nations. Further Readings Daley-Harris, Sam. “The State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2009.” Washington, D.C.: MicroCapital, 2009. http://www.microcapital.org /microcapital-paper-wrap-up-the-state-of-the-micro credit-summit-campaign-report-2009-by-sam-daley -harris (accessed July 2010). Fisher, Thomas and M. S. Sriram. Beyond Micro-Credit: Putting Development Back Into Micro-Finance. Oxford, UK: Oxfam Publishing, 2002. Rahman, Aminur. “Micro-Credit Initiatives for Equitable and Sustainable Development: Who Pays?” World Development, v.27/1 (1999).

Robinson, Marguerite S. The Microfinance Revolution: Sustainable Finance for the Poor. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2001. Smith, P. and E. Thurman. A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Yunus, Muhammad. Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007. Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson Texas Woman’s University

Micronesia After obtaining independence through a Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1986, the Federated States of Micronesia, located in the Pacific Ocean, established a constitutional government. As a nation comprising more than 600 islands spread along the Equator in the western Pacific Ocean, Micronesians are ethnically diverse. The largest ethnic groups are the Chuukese (48.8 percent) and the Pohnpeian (24.2 percent). Social Structure and Women’s Roles Micronesian society continues to be strongly hierarchical, and although the constitution bans gender discrimination, women are viewed largely by their reproductive and familial roles. Women who do work are generally relegated to entry-level jobs. Few women have been able to break down barriers that have prevented them from joining the ranks of decision makers. There are no women at all in the Micronesian Parliament, but there is one female in the Cabinet. Women are better represented in local politics. At the national level, the Women’s Interest Section of the Department of Health and Social Services has been charged with protecting women’s rights. According to the constitution, women have equal rights with males to own property. In the first decade of the 21st century, Micronesia continued to struggle economically, reporting massive unemployment (22 percent), overfishing, and overdependence on American foreign aid. With a per capita income of only $2,200, many Micronesians survive through subsistence farming and fishing. The



result is a poverty rate of 26.7 percent. Only 22 percent of the population lives in urban areas. Religiously, the country is divided fairly evenly between Roman Catholics (50 percent) and Protestants (47 percent). While English is the official language, various local dialects are also spoken. Reproductive Issues and Domestic Violence Parts of Micronesia have been isolated from the outside world for centuries, and cultural conditions affecting females, such as those surrounding pregnancy, remain strong. Many islanders still believe that evil spirits may cause a miscarriage or produce a child with birth defects if a pregnant woman visits the ocean at night or if she remains near a doorway for long periods. In some areas, women are expected to pay homage to males, and some religious meetings are segregated by sex. The median age for Micronesian females is 22.5 years. With an infant mortality rate of 26.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, Micronesia ranks 82nd in the world. Female infants (23.27) have an advantage over males (28.79) that lasts throughout their lives, resulting in a life expectancy of 72.93 years for females and 69.06 for males. Micronesian women have an average fertility rate of 2.89 children. Females (88 percent) lag behind males in literacy (91 percent). Domestic violence continues to be a problem, but incidences generally go unreported because it is considered a family matter rather than a legal issue. In recent years, island governments have begun addressing the problem by updating laws and training police officers to deal with reports of domestic violence. However, in the case of single women who are sexually assaulted, it is often argued that they invited attacks by traveling alone. See Also: Domestic Violence; Government, Women in; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Property Rights. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Micronesia, Federated States of.” https://www.cia.gov /library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fm.html (accessed February 2010). Flood, Nancy Bohac. “Change and Choice in the Western Pacific.” Midwifery Today, v.19/36 (1991). United States Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Federated States of Micronesia.” http://www

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.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eap/119048.htm (accessed February 2010). Women’s International Network (WIN) News. “Women and Human Rights.” WIN News, v.20/2 (1994). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Midlife Career Change In recent years, midlife career change for women has become a topic that has gained the attention of employers and employees in all types of workplaces. This is in part because over 30 years ago, a generation of young women embarked on adulthood with unique and unprecedented choices to make about family, career, and lifestyle. Now large numbers of these baby boomers have entered midlife with wonderfully diverse workplace and life issues and experiences. This entry explores contemporary midlife career change issues in the following areas: emerging definitions of mid-life and career; gender differences; overall challenges; influence of family responsibilities; and career barriers and successes. Flexibility in Defining “Midlife” and “Career” Definitions can be helpful in illuminating career change during midlife. First, “midlife” or “middle age” is defined in a variety of ways. Some sources report that it is a time in a person’s life that falls between young adulthood and old age, while others describe it between youth and old age. Depending on the source, it spans the ages from 35 to 55, 40 to 60, or 45 to 64. In fact, Victor Hugo (1802–85) once said that “40 is the old age of youth; 50 is the youth of old age.” The term midlife is closely linked with the terms midlife transition and midlife crisis. Wherever the age lines are drawn, the present middle-aged generation tends to have careers that are becoming more multidirectional instead of linear, transitional instead of constant, and flexible instead of unaccommodating. Because of a major shift toward multiple careers, with shorter times spent in each career, “boundaryless” careers necessitate an expanded definition of career that transcends the more traditional perceptions of a single employer, a

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single definition, and a single path. New descriptors emphasize a process of development, an evolving sequence of experiences, a course or path, work experience over time, a chosen pursuit, employment in one or more organizations, and a work-related life journey. Emerging definitions also include all work-related experiences instead of only those related to paid employment. For example, a woman may choose to spend the first part of her career as a homemaker and caretaker; she may work at home full time in these roles and also use her professional expertise to lead social change efforts in her community. When her children are older, she may choose to hold a full time paid position outside the home or return to school, retool, then enter the workforce. Because all types of work-related experiences—paid and unpaid alike—can provide critical developmental experiences, the most flexible definitions of careers encourage individuals to look at their life experiences more holistically as developmental strategies to create meaningful careers.

sional achievement, expanded choices in career and family roles), these women now report more depression and lower self-esteem than previous generations. Midlife can also bring discontentment or boredom, desire for employment and lifestyle changes, restlessness, notable increase or decrease in ambition, and health concerns. This phase can also bring frustrations with the gender inequality that remains in some organizations and industries. Although women have made progress with more women in middle and senior leadership, the percentage of women in top positions remains low. Women in their midlife phase also tend to reflect on their earlier decisions, plans, and goals. They may realize their own mortality and seek to reprioritize goals based on “meaning” related to what they want to do with their lives as a whole. Consequently, women often experience changes in priorities (e.g., importance of success, money, status, meeting others’ expectations) that can change the trajectory of their careers.

Differences and Challenges Career choices for women constitute major life decisions, and changes made at midlife tend to be very different from those made earlier in lives and careers. It is not uncommon for most individuals to make decisions during these years that change their careers in often a drastic way. However, the experiences of men and women during midlife tend to differ as gender continues to influence the way individuals negotiate paid work and all other areas of life. Women’s choices are often complicated by powerful social norms about gender and careers. Although midlife can be an energizing and exciting time for women, this life transition can be challenging. Women often have increased complexity and conflict in their lives surrounding work and family integration, changing roles and responsibilities, the glass ceiling, menopause and other health concerns, and general uncertainty. Today, more women than men report turbulent midlife transitions. The most common culprits include marital problems, death of loved ones, job stress, an employer’s unethical or poor behavior, or job disappointments and disillusionment. Surprisingly, although midlife women acknowledge more advantages than past generations (e.g., expanded opportunities for higher education, increased profes-

The Family Factors One of the most often-cited differences between genders is that women, more often than men, make important career decisions based upon family responsibilities. Women tend to experience more conflict and challenges with childcare, lack of personal time, and demanding schedules—and still they construct their careers around being able to spend time with their children. A woman’s career path often reflects the different choices she has made through the years as she has negotiated her responsibilities in the home and the workplace. Many mothers prefer flexible careers even though the choice may take a toll on their “career success,” which is often defined by others. Another fairly recent phenomenon is that women today in their midlife phase may be providing caregiving for two generations; they often have children at home and parents who need assistance. Women also continue to have the greater portion of home management responsibilities such as shopping, cleaning, childcare, and social engagements. Shaping Holistic Careers Although the term career barriers is often used to refer to the responsibilities women have that lead them toward choosing more flexible careers, the past

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definitions of “career success” are now being challenged and may soon change the way people use the word barrier. Career success has become much more complex: it changes within individuals over time, and increasingly refers to balancing external rewards and recognition (e.g., promotions, increased pay) with internal feelings of achievement, contributing, and being worthwhile. The question then becomes Who defines a successful career? More than ever before, women who are evaluating career alternatives during mid-life are looking for a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their work lives. They are motivated to choose a career that they feel will provide a greater sense of purpose in their overall lives. The need for many to strive toward developing their full potential will play an important role in career choices during midlife. When individuals have not had opportunities to discover personal meaning and growth, during midlife they often re-evaluate their past choices and begin the process of career decision making again. For many women, this cycle will continue until they obtain the meaningful and fulfilling work they desire. For some women, the responsibilities that have been previously termed “barriers” will become acknowledged work that can positively contribute to the holistic development of the individual they are becoming. The world is more complex that it was just a few decades ago, when today’s middle-aged women were children and adolescents. Women now have higher levels of stress and anxiety, increased commitments and responsibilities, and more roles and identities. Although there are many forces that drive change for women during midlife, inherent in this process are promising possibilities for new growth and development. Midlife requires both internal and external change for each woman who passes through this phase. Increasing awareness of self and the world can lead to better choices and increased confidence, so that a woman can find meaning in her quest for a successful career and life—however she chooses to define it. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward Business, Women in; Childcare; Divorce; Glass Ceiling; Homemaking; Management, Women in; Menopause, Social Aspects of; Part-Time Work.

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Further Readings Baruch, Yehuda. “Career Development in Organizations and Beyond: Balancing Traditional and Contemporary Viewpoints.” Human Resource Management Review, v.16/2 (2006). Cohen, Benjamin N. “Applying Existential Theory and Intervention to Career Decision-Making.” Journal of Career Development, v.29/3 (2003). Emslie, Carol and Kate Hunt. “‘Live to Work’ or ‘Work to Live’? A Qualitative Study of Gender and Work-Life Balance Among Men and Women in Mid-Life.” Gender, Work and Organization, v.16/1 (2009). Gersick, Connie J. G. and Kathy E. Kram. “HighAchieving Women at Midlife: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Management Inquiry, v.11/2 (2002). Murtagh, Niamh, Paulo Lopes, and Evanthia Lyons. “What Makes a Career Barrier a Barrier?” Industrial and Commercial Training, v.39/6 (2007). Whitmarsh, Lona, Donalee Brown, Jane Cooper, Yolanda Hawkins-Rodgers, and Diane Keyser Wentworth. “Choices and Challenges: A Qualitative Exploration of Professional Women’s Career Patterns.” The Career Development Quarterly, v.55/3 (2007). Wright, J. “Coaching Mid-Life, Baby Boomer Women in the Workplace.” Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, v.25/2 (2005). Susan R. Madsen Utah Valley University

Midwifery The word midwife means “with woman.” In many countries throughout the world, women routinely have midwives care for their entire pregnancies. According to the World Health Organization, most babies in the world are delivered into the hands of midwives. Midwives, who focus on the health of mother and baby, have been caring for pregnant mothers and delivering their babies much longer than organized Western medicine has been involved in the business of “giving birth.” Principles and Historical Development Midwifery care is founded on the principles of women-centeredness, acknowledging and supporting

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natural maternal processes, intervening only when necessary, and advocating for women and their families. Midwifery philosophy includes a valuing of the mind/body connection and “women’s ways of knowing,” including birthing women’s ability to attune to the rhythm of childbirth and knowing what they need better than anyone else. Midwives view birth as a normal physiological process, not a medical event. In the modern Western culture, midwives have fought to gain primary care provider status; the ability to deliver babies where the mother wishes, be that home or hospital setting; and to offer care, control, and choice to women. In North America, aboriginal midwives have reclaimed their ability to provide culturally safe and community-centered maternity care that is informed by elders and guided by aboriginal protocols.

Egyptian papyrus records dated as early as 1900 b.c.e. depict midwives engaged in delivering babies and caring for mothers during pregnancy. Midwifery is an ancient practice that offers contemporary women a shift from modern medicine and technology that often regards pregnancy as an illness to be treated medically, and the birthing process as a surgical procedure. Having a baby is an important social event in human life. Midwives focus on the birthing mother, her desires and designs for the actual birth, as well as making space for the mother’s social community. Many cultures worldwide value midwifery as essential in maternal care. In North America, midwives provide services to healthy women, while obstetricians provide care for high-risk pregnancies and intervene during birth complications.

Women whose primary care physicians do not support midwifery care are forced to either keep their intentions a secret, or avoid medical care. Regulation serves to enhance both safety and accessibility of midwifery care.



Tensions Between Medicine and Midwives Many women believe that through the practice of Western medicine, the processes of pregnancy and birth have been taken from them and placed into the hands of doctors who do not prioritize the desires of the mother. As many as one-third of North American births that are assisted within the medical model use either surgical interventions, such as Caesarean sections, or technological interventions, such as forceps. Midwives believe that most episiotomies—the surgical procedure of cutting small incisions in the vaginal opening to facilitate birth—are typically unnecessary: for example, generally the incidence of medical interventions are greatly reduced within midwifery care. The intervention of using fetal monitors is controversial for midwives, given that when used in medical settings, it leads to mothers being three times more likely to receive a caesarean section, while the efficacy choosing fetal monitors over the use of manual devices is not clear. Manual devices used to listen to babies’ heartbeats are equivalent to fetal monitors in tracking the stability of the baby, but do not lead to increased surgical interventions. Midwives who work outside of the medical model use touch in profound and sensitive ways with the families they serve. Midwives may provide women in their care with healing touch, such as massage or Reiki, and they also tend to be more sensitive to women’s responses to invasive procedures during pregnancy. Midwives might use a women-centered approach and not assume that all women would find abdominal palpitation reassuring. Midwives might ask the mother if she would like to be palpated, or if the mother would like to be guided in doing it herself. As an antenatal assessment measure, midwives regard the woman’s comfort to be a priority to set birthing goals around, whereas medical practice often treats women and their desires as secondary to the birth process. Benefits to Mother and Baby Mothers who have had midwives deliver their babies report high satisfaction throughout their pregnancy and birthing process. Mothers report many reasons for this satisfaction, including, but not limited to, the belief that midwives are more sensitive and attuned to their needs; midwifery is a less intrusive practice than using obstetricians for uncomplicated births; midwives support creative approaches to childbirth

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that support the mother and her community, such as water births, squatting, and the use of birthing swings and birthing chairs. Midwifery practice delineates levels of intervention in birthing, with the aim to apply the least intrusive measures to facilitate the healthiest birth. Midwifery is often practiced in the women’s home or a birthing center that simulates a home environment, and where women are not exposed to some of the first-level interventions that could create anxiety, such as unfamiliar surroundings, hospital sights and sounds, and being exposed to other women’s birthing processes. Midwives spend more time talking to women than doctors, in part because their delivery of care is radically different. Midwives Around the World Britain’s system of maternity care is focused primarily on the practice of midwifery. Throughout many western European countries, midwives are the primary care provider for maternity. In Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, onethird of the births take place in the home. In Canada, midwives are qualified to provide total care in pregnancy, birth, and afterwards, acting as primary care health professionals for healthy women. In Germany and Italy, birth clinics are similar to the United States model, where midwives practice almost exclusively in clinical settings and obstetricians are often an important part of the pregnancy and delivery team. Midwifery in Australia and New Zealand is emerging from historical domination by medicine. Maternity services are delivered in private and public centers; both are publicly funded. Africa and Asia suffer the largest numbers of maternal/child deaths in labor, with midwives providing most maternity care. Indigenous societies around the world continue to use midwifery as primary maternal care. In North America, a renaissance in aboriginal midwifery care is unfolding, where traditional and contemporary practices are entwined. In recognition that current systems were not meeting the needs of Native Americans, Native American midwives have sought specific healthy policies and practice to support culturally safe midwifery care, respect for the participation of men and elders in pregnancy and delivery, and that pregnant women be protected within their communities through collective caretaking and responsibility sharing. The indicators of

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good health, such as proper nutrition and sleep, sufficient physical exercise, appropriate spiritual care, and reduced stress are all important components in holistic Native American midwifery care. Additionally, value is placed in honoring the placenta and cord as having important cultural symbolism and meaning. Research and Current Legislation The new midwifery is evidence based. Current research is undertaken and evaluated rigorously to support the efficacy of midwives practicing primary antenatal and postnatal maternity care. Prior to regulation, midwives charged “fee for service,” thus limiting access for those women and families who depend on publicly funded healthcare resources. Women whose primary care physicians do not support midwifery care are forced to either keep their intentions a secret, or to avoid medical care. Regulation serves to enhance both safety and accessibility of midwifery care. See Also: Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital; Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural; Doulas; Pregnancy; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Bourgeault, Ivy, Cecilia Benoit, and Robbie Davis-Floyd, eds. Reconceiving Midwifery. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press. 2004. Devries, Raymond, Sirpa Wrede, Edwin Van Teijlingen, and Cecilia Benoit, eds. Birth By Design: Pregnancy, Maternity Care, and Midwifery in North America and Europe. New York: Routledge, 2001. Gaskin, I. M.. Spiritual Midwifery, 3rd ed. Summertown, TN: The Book Publishing Company, 1990. Kitzinger, Sheila. The Politics of Birth. London: Elsevier, 2005. Joani Mortenson University of British Columbia, Okanagan

Migrant Workers At present, over half of world’s migrant population are women. The highest increase in feminization of migration is in migrant domestic work, nursing, care work, and sex work. The greatest majority of migrant

women work in the informal sector, which besides being a window of opportunities for disadvantaged women, has the limitations of being often unregistered and exposed to economic, physical, sexual, and psychological risks. Definitions and Impacts The patterns of migration are from east to west and from south to north, but due to illegal migration, the statistics are often problematical. Women migrants tend to remain longer than male migrants abroad. There are many definitions of migrant workers: from a United Nations broader understanding of migrant worker as “a person who is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a national,” to a more narrow view of migrant workers as low-wage manual workers, including illegal. The term also applies to persons who migrate for work within their own country, for example in China. Migrant workers can be “documented” (authorized to enter, to stay, and to engage in a remunerated activity) or “nondocumented” (not meeting the above criteria). At the societal levels, women’s migration shapes the welfare services in both the destination and in the home countries. Remittances are important contributions to national budgets in developing states, often exceeding international aid and foreign investment. Unlike social benefits, their allocation is free of bureaucratic costs and directed at the ones intended to. At the individual economic level, the poorest have the most to gain from moving. Yet, the social outcomes of individual women’s migration are controversial: ranging from being expressions of personal agency, to more ambivalent considerations on migration as a process that ironically reinforces conventional gender norms. Reasons and Motivations Why do women migrate? There are many theoretical models that aim to explain migration. Annie Phizacklea assessed four: (1) “push/pull thesis,” from the neoclassical economic perspective, the migrant is an autonomous individual (usually a man) engaged in a cost/benefit analysis; (2) “the household strategy perspective,” which while including women, still views households as indivisible entities; (3) “structural theories” situate migration within the wider socioeconomic



and political contexts, but understates individual agency; (4) “the migratory networks approach,” which involves a qualitative view of the social capital generating a culture of migration, not necessary related to poverty. One should not understate the demand for poorly paid work that contributes to the feminization of migration. Other explanations from scholars like R. Parreñas and S. Horton see migration as motivated by the Western ideology of “ideal childhood.” The “Care Drain” and “Care Chains” When migrating for domestic work, women are shifting the care roles traditionally associated to them, from the home country, to the ones of destination. Arlie Hochschild named this phenomenon “care drain.” She argued that women’s migration to affluent countries is providing economic returns, but contributes to a drain of care and love in their transnational families. Global care chains was the term coined to express the dynamic of care work that involves women from societies with different developmental levels, as migrants or recipients of their work. Hochschild’s influential position was challenged for being dichotomous and for underrating the degree of negotiation and agency involved in the international dynamic of care and domestic work. Unlike previously, today migrant domestic workers are more likely to be married, with dependent children in their home country, with a previous history of employment, and higher levels of education. All this transformed domestic work from a permanent occupation, into a (desirably) temporary one, with the potential for social mobility in the country of origin and rarely in the one of migration, according to H. Lutz. Nevertheless, a trend toward indefinite prolongation and permanence of migration may occur, often motivated by poor employment opportunities at home. As many highly educated women (e.g.. from former communist countries) undertake domestic work in developed countries, “the maid issue” ceased to be a matter of class and became one of ethnicity and nationality. Despite the model of the autonomous voluntary migrant (an inheritance of the “single adult male” model), migration is never completely independent or isolated from family. Recent research contradicts the profile of the single Chinese migrant woman, by demonstrating that both single and married women

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migrate, often leaving children in the care of grandmothers during successive episodes of departure. Worldwide there are culture-specific social expectations exerted upon migrant mothers, wives, and daughters, which simultaneously reinforce their moral culpability, a sense of sacrifice, and insecurity about relations with children and family obligations. Feminization of migration and transnational motherhood are recent phenomena. Transnational care giving remains largely unacknowledged and underresearched. Previous research has been mainly concerned with the effects on migration upon children remaining in the home country, than with the welfare of migrant women themselves. Yet, emotional and psychological health consequences, concerns over family reunification, anxieties over unauthorized immigration and exhaustion are still ignored social health issues in countries with high immigration. Besides, there is a need for addressing the higher level of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection than comparable population, among female migrant workers, especially domestic and sex workers. Nature of the Migrant Labor Environment Despite being presented as voluntary, migration is not free from political and economic pressures. Polarized economic development and the economic and political power exerted by developed countries are several structural factors driving international migration. Migrant workers are clustered in labor sectors that are themselves poorly paid (domestic work; care of children, sick, and the elderly; textiles; agriculture; tourism services). Thus, discrimination is often hidden by the type of employment and cannot be associated directly the migrant status. Nevertheless, the causality is ambivalent: it is not sure to what extent it is not the overrepresentation of migrants in certain sectors that lowered the salaries in the first place. Employed in occupations that are “dirty, dangerous, and demanding (3-D),” migrant women face high economic, social, and health risks. There are several public campaigns initiated by migrant domestic workers, trade unions and nongovernmental organizations (e.g., Kalayaan and Unite in the UK; NOVA in Philippines). The United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Migrant Workers came into force in 2003. However, through mid-2010, the dozens of ratifying states represent mainly sending countries,

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whereas no Western migrant-receiving state has ratified the convention. It does not propose new rights for migrants, but it guarantees a minimum level of protection for all migrants and equal treatment and working conditions with nationals. The ratification is a sensitive issue for receiving countries. Legalization, family unification for legal workers, status of children born abroad, border control, and issues of expedited removal are several highly politicized topics in the United States. Extent of Gender Role Changes Unclear To what extend is migration having an emancipator role in the lives of women from developing or transitional countries? There are mainly two traditions of research, proposing contrasting results. One group of studies argues that migrant women have increased autonomy, derived from their repositioning into the paid labor market, the control over earnings, and the increased household involvement of men back home. Migration is considered an expression of women’s agency, as it tends not to be imposed by family. Besides, it has been argued that migration into Western, more liberal societies offers the enabling circumstances for women to challenge the male hegemony in the domestic sphere. A different group of research, however, shows that one should not overestimate the degree to which migration liberates women from conventional gender roles. Migrant women redefine motherhood in ways that include breadwinning, but it does not appear that fathers are undertaking previous mothers’ tasks; rather, these are usually assumed by female kin. Besides, recent research reveals the reinforcement of gender inequalities in the context of migration, because of migrant workers’ marginal position in the receiving country. Secluded in occupations without possibilities of advancement, with low trust in institutions, Mexican women in the United States, for instance, avoid establishing cross-gendered networks outside work because of concerns over reputation. According to the same research, men in migrant couples, try to balance the disruption of family connections and lack of familiarity with the new environment by developing a defense mechanism that relies on idealized gender behaviors. Further research is necessary to explore the intricate transformations in gender relations that intervene during and after

migration and the forms of social control and care operating beyond borders. For the moment, a large research confirms Parreñas’s finding that although women’s migration has questioned several traditional gender practices, in effect it has not transformed the established gender ideology. See Also: Domestic Workers; Elder Care; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Grandmothers; Working Mothers. Further Readings Asis, Milagros Maruja, Shirlena Huang, and Brenda Yeoh. “When the Light of the Home Is Abroad: Unskilled Female Migration and the Filipino Family.” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, v.25/2 (2004). Horton, Sarah. “Consuming Childhood: ‘Lost’ and ‘Ideal’ Childhoods as a Motivation for Migration.” Anthropological Quarterly, v.81/4 (2008). Lutz, Helma, ed. Migration and Domestic Work. A European Perspective on a Global Theme. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008. Parreñas, Rhacel. “Long Distance Intimacy: Class, Gender and Intergenerational Relations Between Mothers and Children in Filipino Transnational Families.” Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, v.5/4 (2005). Phizacklea, Annie. “Women, Work and Migration.” Conference on “Migration and Mobility.” Kingston University, 1999. www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/briefings/ brief3.pdf (accessed July 2010). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Human Development Report. Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development. New York: UNDP, 2009. Maria-Carmen Pantea Babeş Bolyai University

Military, Women in the Women have served a vital role in just about every major battle and in every major military throughout history, but their official participation has been limited in most countries throughout time. Women’s participation often comes in association with the military, in either civilian roles or in auxiliary corps, rather than as direct participants. Women’s current



position in most major world militaries is still quite precarious. Many countries are just now beginning to allow women’s service, since many militaries still rely on the conscription of men to fill their ranks. Those women who do serve in militaries also face many barriers both occupationally and socially. The most progressive inclusion of women in a major world military is the Israeli military, where women are active service members, and are even permitted in combat. Israel is also the only major military that conscripts women. The U.S. military, while also quite progressive in its acceptance and inclusion of women in its formal military service, still disallows women in certain combat positions, and has yet to include women in any form of the draft. Many European nations have a fluctuating history with women, often allowing them to serve in connection with the military during times of war. Many of these countries have only more recently begun to allow women into their militaries in a formal capacity during peacetime, and most of these roles are still restricted. This entry will focus on women’s participation in formal state militaries, rather than in guerrilla, militia, or other nonsanctioned militaries. The article does not address all world militaries, but focuses on some of those that allow women to serve, with an emphasis on the Israeli and U.S. militaries, both of which have high percentages of women who serve and a higher level of gender integration than other world militaries. Israeli Military The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was established at the same time as the State of Israel was founded in 1948, after World War II. The role of the IDF has changed greatly over the years, from guerrilla warfare, to more traditional warfare, to urban warfare and counter terrorism. Women have been active members of the IDF since its inception, though at varying rates and in shifting occupations over time. There are three different service routes within the IDF: Regular Service, which constitutes years of conscription that all Israeli citizens must serve; Permanent Service, which is a longer-term contractual agreement to serve in the military; and Reserve Service, where citizens are called up to active duty after the completion of their Regular Service. Participation in the Regular Service is mandatory for all non-Arab Israeli citizens over the age of 18.

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Men are required to serve three years, while women are required to serve two. While there are some exceptions made, based on physical or psychological injury or on religious grounds, women may also avoid service based on marital status. A third of female conscripts are exempt from military service based on religious or marital grounds, which is nearly twice the exemption made for male conscripts. Permanent Service commences after tenure in the regular service, and is open to any and all who wish to have a military career. While fewer women than men join the military on a permanent basis, as of 2002 women make up 33 percent of lower-rank officers, 21 percent of captains and majors, and 3 percent of the most senior ranks. While nominally Reserve Service can call up anyone who participated in Regular Service, in practice, mainly men are called up. The call to Reserve Service has soldiers participating in training and activities up to one month annually in order to keep soldiers’ training up to date. Reserve soldiers may also be called to active duty in times of imminent crisis. For women, those in combat roles get called for active reserve more often than those who served in noncombat roles, and many only for a few years following their active service. Women also have more opportunities for exemption based on marital status or pregnancy and/or parenthood. Women’s opportunities to serve in combat and combat related fields have changed greatly over time, but since 2005, over 80 percent of military occupational specialties (MOSs) are open to Israeli women, including navy shipboard service, piloting fighter jets, and even artillery positions. All women’s combat service is voluntary. In 2001, the IDF eliminated its Women’s Corps command as a means to help integrate women into regular service, but the IDF did keep an “adviser for women’s affairs.” Female soldiers now fall under the authority of individual units based on jobs, and not on gender. U.S. Military Women’s current participation in the U.S. military is vital to the survival of the institution, but in spite of this, their place within the organization is rather precarious. The changing landscape of U.S. social and political ideology has forced the military to adjust its

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U.S. female Airmen and Soldiers stand in an all-women formation as part of a 380th Air Expeditionary Wing retreat ceremony honoring Women’s History Month, March 19, 2010, at an undisclosed location in southwest Asia.

institutional structure to allow for the presence and participation of women. These changes have helped to increase the number of women participating and the types of roles they are allowed to hold, without equally influencing changes in the masculine culture of the institution. In order to understand women’s current situation in the military, one must first understand the long history of women’s participation. Women’s history with the institution has been one of conflict and inconsistency. The ambivalent relationship the military has historically had with women also helps explain many of the current social, cultural, and occupational challenges female soldiers still face today. Before 1941, the U.S. military was literally an exclusively male profession. Beginning in 1941,

women began their first certified involvement with the military. Women had previously served as nurses and aids to soldiers, but the Woman’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) marked the first instance when women were allowed to have an occupation directly associated with the military. The initial reasoning for wanting a women’s corps was to fill clerical position to free up men who currently filled those positions, and utilize them in other stations. The bill explicitly stated that the purpose for the WAAC was meant for service with the Army, not “in” the Army. The distinction was that these women were only aiding the military men in their pursuits, not joining them in the battle. They were not considered a direct branch of the military, as is evident in their title, Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. Because of their secondary,



or auxiliary, status, women were not entitled to the same pay, benefits, or ranks as their male counterparts. Soon after the commencement of the WAAC, other branches of the military, such as the Navy and Marines, began permitting women to join as integrated members, though in separate women’s corps. This in turn lowered the desirability for women to hold auxiliary positions in the Army. Because of this, the enlistment rate dropped drastically, and subsequently U.S. Congress signed a bill in 1943 establishing the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), where women were given full military status. The Army was later the first branch to make women a part of their regular, integrated service. Women within military service included the WACs, the WAVES (women accepted for volunteer emergency service in the Navy), the SPARs (Coast Guard), and the WAF (Women’s Air Force). These women served in a wide variety of military positions, ranging from drivers to photographers to pilots to weather forecasters. More than 150,000 women served during World War II—they served their country both domestically and abroad, and were honored with a number of medals and citations. The important services these women provided, no matter how good a job they did, did not lessen their social burden nor increase their status or opportunities within the military. Every achievement a woman made was met with direct opposition and required a fight on some level. After World War II, Congress felt pressure to install the various women’s corps (which were originally only a wartime addition) as a full-time part of the U.S. military. They accomplished this with the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act in 1948. The act allowed women full-time participation in the military, instead of just wartime, but did not yet integrate women with the men. Women continued to serve in every branch of the military throughout the United States and at bases around the world. It was not until 1967 that the military finally lifted promotion restrictions, allowing women to rise to the positions of general and commander. At this time, entrance into previously banned areas of service made weapons training and defense readiness a mandatory part of women’s training. With more opportunity for upward mobility and the allowance of women into combat support positions, the size of the all-volunteer corps nearly tripled. From 1973 to

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1978, a time when men’s participation in the military dropped drastically after the disbandment of the draft and the installment of an All-Volunteer Force, women’s participation boomed. This drastic increase in women’s participation and the drastic decrease in men’s participation during this time lead to a decision uniting the two forces into one integrated Army: the Navy, Air Force, and eventually even the Marines later followed suit. Through 1981, the government placed a ceiling on the number of women allowed in the various branches of the military: the Army had the largest allotment of women, with a cap at 65,000. The government explained the ceiling by stating that it gave them the opportunity to better study the issue of women in combat. This ceiling prevented numbers of highly qualified women from enlisting or gaining a commission. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, there were a number of changes to the MOSs open to women. In 1994, the government lifted almost all restrictions on women’s combat assistance, and women were only restricted from occupations that would put them directly in ground combat, or into positions that dealt directly with those units. This opened up nearly 90 percent of career fields to women. These standards remained in place through the rest of the century and into the late-20th- and early-21st-century wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this time, warfare has changed significantly. While women remain restricted from direct combat, they continue to fight, and even die, in combat-related fields. Although there have been discussions of once again changing the restrictions on women’s participation in combat, the regulations have not significantly changed since the mid-1990s. Over 30 years after the initial integration of women into the general U.S. military branches, women now make up around 15 percent of today’s total department of defense enlisted and officer positions. This is a significant increase over the not quite 2 percent that women constituted in the 1950s and through the early 1970s. European/NATO Militaries The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which is a military alliance of democratic states in Europe and North America, currently has 28 member states. As of the turn of the 21st century, 16

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member nations of NATO have women serving in their armed forces. Two of the exceptions are Iceland, which has no armed forces, and Luxembourg, where no women serve. In the United States, as outlined above, women make up over 15 percent of the armed forces. Canada has the second highest representation of women at just over 10 percent of regular service and almost 20 percent of the reserve forces. In Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (UK), women make up between 7 and 8 percent of the armed forces. Women comprise about 5 percent of the armed forces in Denmark, Portugal, and Norway, while in Greece and Spain, the rates are between 2 and 4 percent. Turkey currently only allows women officers, not as enlisted members of its armed forces; and in Italy, recruitment of women only began in 1999, so although the number of women who serve is still fairly low, there is public support for women’s participation. Until the 21st century, Germany limited women’s participation in the armed forces to positions in the medical service or in military bands. While women made up nearly a quarter of medical service positions, they were not allowed to serve in other roles within the military until 2000. In 2000, the European High Counsel ruled that it was against European law to disallow women’s service in most branches of the military. The court case on this issue was based on a suit by a German woman, and thus Germany changed its policies: many other European nations followed suit. Many European nations still rely on men’s conscription for a significant portion of their armed forces. There has never been a draft for women in any NATO country. While the issue of women’s service in the military has only come to the attention of many member states in the past decade, many of the nations are currently actively engaged in recruiting women, as well as increasing women soldiers’ quality of life, in order to increase retention rates. Most European nations still limit women’s participation to noncombat roles. South American Militaries Military dictatorships have long been central to Latin American governmental control. Many South America nations have a tradition of machismo and government dictatorships. But in recent years, women have

been appointed to start giving direction on matters of defense. Since the turn of the century, five South American countries have named women to head their defense ministries for the first time: Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador. The appointment of women to these positions highlights women’s recent progress in the region. While many Latin American militaries remain exclusively male in their composition, the installment of women in key leadership positions denotes a changing relationship between the government and militaries, as well as the changing culture. The first appointment of a woman as a military leader came in 2002. Chile had a female defense minister who later became president, at which time she appointed another woman as defense minister. In Argentina and Uruguay, where military rule was also prevalent through the late 20th century, two women (both former human rights lawyers) are running the defense ministries. In all three countries, there is a changing relationship between government and military, with an increased emphasis on human rights, and a decreased reliance on military strength and power. Asian Militaries In China, military service is compulsory for all men at the age of 18, but because of the high rate of volunteers, China has not yet had to enforce the draft. Women in China are allowed to serve in medical, veterinary, and other technical positions, but are still disallowed from combat and combat-related positions. Women are also allowed to serve in the Indian, Pakistani, and the North and South Korean militaries. In most of these countries, as in most parts of the world, women’s roles are limited to medical, educational, or other noncombat-related fields considered more acceptable for women’s participation. Current Issues for Women in the Military Many women who occupy positions in militaries around the world are still somewhat limited in their field choices and face a “glass ceiling.” There are very few women in the highest ranks of any world military. Some scholars suggest the ceilings placed on women’s participation in countries like the United States, or the late start for women in European militaries, can in part explain the dearth of higher ranked women. Since it takes so long to get from the lower



to the higher ranks, usually 15 to 20 years, and since fewer women populated the military in the past 15 to 30 years, it would make sense that fewer occupy the higher positions today. This, however, is only part of the problem. Not only are women limited in numbers within their fields, they are also limited as to which fields that they can fill. Many militaries still limit the occupations they allow women to occupy. For the most part, women are excluded from all combat and some combat-related fields. Traditional outlooks on women assume that they do not want to be directly involved in combat, nor are they capable of such occupations. Many people believe that men are more physically and emotionally suited for combat roles. Opinions about women’s participation in combat fields vary cross-culturally, and have changed over time, but worldwide, there is still much contention on the issue. These views are not necessarily supported by fact or reality. Whether or not women want to be in combat roles, many are currently still exposed to combat and all of its associated terrors, without the associated benefits. Critics of the combat restrictions in place in many countries assert that with modern warfare, there is little distinction between combatant and noncombatant soldiers—both types are killed in battle without bias—and therefore, it is absurd to believe that the military can protect women by restricting them from combat positions. This lack of distinction on the part of the “enemy” and technology is especially apparent in the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where many women have died or have been captured while serving in positions listed as noncombatant. Other than restrictions in job opportunities and unequal representation in the higher ranks, women also suffer from social restrictions. During women’s participation in World War II, male soldiers spread a series of slanderous rumors about the women serving in the military, depicting them as prostitutes to the soldiers, as women of loose morals and poor character, and as women who were prone to be pregnant out of wedlock. These rumors lowered the moral of the women, and in some instances caused serious emotional distress. At a time when slandering a woman’s reputation was as harmful and dangerous to her as the acts described, this was a very dangerous and mildly successful tactic in discouraging women from

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joining the military. When investigated, these reports were found not only to be fallacious, but more often than not to be the result of disgruntled male soldiers who were uncomfortable letting women into their sacred space. Military historians believe that former notions of military women as prostitutes continue to vex modern military women. Some efforts to counteract these prejudices led militaries to instate conduct and appearance codes for women who joined. These rules included restricting female soldiers interactions with their male counterparts. As time has progressed, so too have the social restrictions placed on women. Women are no longer as restricted in their socialization with male colleagues, but an unhealthy social environment remains where military women live and work. Women in early-21st-century militaries have to deal with sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and cruel double standards. Beginning in World War I, military psychiatrists said that in order for women to achieve full participation in the military, men would have to rise above their prejudices about women and their roles. Almost 100 years after this initial observation and recommendation for change, women still serve beside men who are taught and encouraged to see their female counterparts not as peers, but rather as inferior or otherwise unsuited for military service. Facing Sexual Harassment and Assault One form of unhealthy social environment in the military is the abundance of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination has been prevalent in the military since long before women were even members, and the tradition has held through to the modern military. Most modern militaries have policies prohibiting sexual harassment, and even provide punishment for offenders. Militaries give special instruction during training and throughout a soldier’s years of service to discourage such behavior, but even the most strenuous, zero-tolerance policies hardly deter the behavior and are at most mildly effective. Sexual harassment continues to be a problem for most modern militaries, as it is all over the occupational world. Part of the problem of sexual harassment in the military is that people are often confined to very small areas with large numbers of people. People in the military not only work but frequently live in very close

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quarters, possibly breeding a hostile and dangerous environment conducive to sexual harassment. Some academics also hypothesize that sexual harassment is a way in which men express their hostility toward women for invading a once all-male domain. Studies of sexual harassment in the military were slow to occur, and changes made in response to findings have been implemented at an even slower pace. Although the colloquial definition of sexual harassment varies between female officers and enlisted women, all the military women in a number of studies agreed that sexual harassment does in fact occur. Unfortunately, the problem doesn’t stop at sexual harassment: many world militaries also have a much higher sexual assault rate than the civilian world. These assaults range from inappropriate touching to rape. Many assaults go unreported, due to problems with the process of reporting them, as well as women’s fears of retaliation, retribution, or sanction. In some military situations, women experience retaliation for both reporting and testifying, and since militaries are such group-minded arenas, woman are often hard pressed to find men, or other women for that matter, who will testify against the perpetrators of the offenses. There are a number of retaliations used when women bring suit against their aggressors: they are given bad evaluations, put under criminal investigation themselves, further sexually and physically assaulted, or generally made to “pay” for their “disobedience.” Even when a woman’s claims are heard and their perpetrators punished, critics complain that the punishments are often not nearly harsh enough, often consisting of nothing more than marching rounds or janitorial duties. All in all, militaries are socially and sexually dangerous places for women, making it difficult for them to immerse themselves in the culture, and perhaps discouraging other women from joining. Gender Gaps In spite of recent efforts on the part of governments to integrate or equalize their militaries, most world militaries still have a very distinct gender gap. As previously mentioned, qualifications for women differ from those of men, job and promotion opportunities vary greatly, and women face social roadblocks in advancing in their careers. For years, world militaries have overlooked, ignored, or questioned the potential and abilities

of women without considering how their perspectives and social attributes might benefit the military. According to military statistics, women in the military display overall better behavior, and therefore lose less time to disciplinary restrictions. They are also less likely to over indulge on alcohol or use and abuse drugs during military service. Women, on average, enter the military more educated than men, making them more suitable for certain occupations. Some studies show that the presence of women influences male soldiers, improving their behavior in some areas. Women, in effect, are a civilizing agent in the military. Future Aspirations In all countries, except for Israel, women are and always have been involved in military service on a volunteer basis. In countries where there is no male conscription, female participation has drastically increased the overall number of soldiers. In countries with male conscription and where some men seek to avoid service, many women still have a desire to serve. Instead of celebrating the fact that women are eager to serve, there is a great deal of resistance and an inordinate amount of debate surrounding women’s participation. With a host of logically circular critiques, many critics of women in the military claim both that women would not have to be in the military if things were going well, and that women are the reason things are not going well in the military. Needless to say, the road to full integration, not only occupationally but also socially, still has not occurred for women in military service. Most of the restrictions placed on women’s service and the discomfort with women’s participation in militaries have to do with cultural standards related to gender. While there are significant cultural differences between countries, one fairly consistent concept is the idea of gender segregation. Men are often associated with a kind of masculinity that lends its self to violence and aggression, while women are relegated to the realm of nurturing. Although there are mythological stories of women’s participation in war, such as the myth of the Amazons, for the most part, militaries have been the domain of men and an arena for exhibiting masculinity. Modern militaries still struggle with issues of gender stereotypes that suggest that women make life (give birth), while men take life (fight in wars). In spite of the ever-changing dynam-

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ics of modern militaries, some of these traditional ideas of gender remain, affecting women’s experience and opportunities with and in the military. Women’s participation in military service often comes out of necessity, rather than changing cultural ideologies. But in order for women to ever be fully integrated members of military service, not only the rules, but also the culture of the military must change. See Also: Glass Ceiling; Lesbians in the Military; Military Leadership, Women in; Military Stationed in Muslim Countries; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Female Military; Sexual Harassment. Further Readings Addis, E., V. Russo, and L. Sebesta. Women Soldiers: Images and Realities. New York: St. Martin’s, 1994. D’Amico, F. and L. Weinstein. Gender Camouflage: Women and the U.S. Military. New York: New York University Press, 1999. Friedl, V. Women in the United States Military, 1901– 1995: A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. Holm, J. Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1992. Rogan, H. Mixed Company: Women in the Modern Army. New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1981. Sherrow, V. Women and the Military: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1996. Stacie R. Furia Northland College

Military Leadership, Women in Biographies and histories document pervasive male dominance in military roles, while in the United States and worldwide, military cultures continue to be shaped by male leaders and heroes. Although women have unofficially been involved in the security and defense of the United States since the Revolutionary War, and women have been members of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) since its inception, Congress did not pass the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act until 1948. The act made women

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other than nurses eligible to serve in the active duty military in times of peace as permanent regular and reserve members of the Army, Navy, Marines, and the then recently formed Air Force. Major Historic Change Historically, women’s leadership in the military is a new phenomenon, one that gained momentum after the Vietnam War with the creation of the all-volunteer military force in the 1970s. After the creation of the all-volunteer military, U.S. gender integration of the Armed Forces began when President Gerald Ford signed Public Law 94-106 in 1975, opening the formerly all-male U.S. service academies to female applicants, and thereby creating conditions in which women officers would lead men. Women volunteered for the military services in record numbers after these changes, and, as the number of military women increased, the military and the government saw large numbers of female military volunteers as essential—rather than ancillary—due to the dearth of eligible men volunteering to serve in the military. The number of women in the U.S. military increased from 4 percent in 1974 to 14 percent in 2008. In 2008, the percentage of women in the active duty military included 6 percent in the Marines, 14 percent in the Army, 15 percent in the Navy, and 20 percent in the Air Force. The percentage of women in the military has increased, and so has the number of women selected and placed into the primary leadership roles of officer and noncommissioned officer. Although women leaders are evident in most military specialties, there is a disparity between men and women in some military combat specialties. Women still have limited opportunities based, on departmental regulations within the current combat exclusion policies that do not allow women the opportunity to serve in some combat specialties such as infantry, Special Forces, and armor positions. Globally, women military members have increased in many parts of the world. The scope of their military service has also intensified and expanded. In 2010, female Pakistani air force fighter pilots, female Israeli artillery soldiers, and Australian sailors all participate in combat operations with their male counterparts. Also noteworthy is the increase of women military leaders in many parts of the world.

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Leadership and Gender Leadership is a complex human interaction process; due to this complexity, there are hundreds of definitions of leadership. A common definition is that leadership is an influence process between two or more people who desire to accomplish a common goal. In addition to positive character attributes (i.e., values such as integrity, selfless service, duty, courage, respect, and emotional intelligence including empathy), the best leaders are confident, intelligent, make well thought-out decisions using their critical-thinking skills, and they are calm in the face of crisis or stress. The mental construct of leadership has masculine characteristics and traits. Worldwide, women have culturally been relegated to the lower rungs of the organizational hierarchy and have less frequently been afforded leadership positions or opportunities for promotion and advancement. This underrepresentation of women at the senior levels of organizations is called the “glass ceiling” effect. The glass ceiling is a phrase and a metaphor commonly used to describe the inability of women and minorities to ascend past a certain management level of an organization. The glass ceiling allegedly prevents or limits women from rising to the senior levels of management. Leadership competencies (behaviors) such as leading by example, clearly communicating a vision of the future, actively listening and motivating others, continually learning, creating a positive climate that accepts honest mistakes, one-on-one counseling and coaching, and developing subordinates or followers, are needed in today’s complex environments—and women prefer using these leadership competencies. Women’s Leadership Differences In general, men and women are equally effective as leaders, although men and women seem to lead in different ways. Stereotypical gender differences state that male leaders are task-oriented with controlling, transactional, and directive leadership styles, while women leaders are interpersonally oriented with transformational and collaborative leadership styles. In the 21st century’s global environment, women leaders prefer using participative decision making, sharing power and expertise, encouraging teamwork, showing concern for others, actively resolving conflict, and valuing diversity.

The collaborative, interactive, and democratic style of leadership that many women leaders use is called transformational leadership. Women are more likely than men to inspire, mentor, and creatively stimulate their followers while leading. These leadership actions have transformational qualities that build cohesive teams and encourage participation and relationship building. U.S. military doctrine expands the definition of leadership as the process of influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while improving the organization and developing the subordinates. Globally, the military is dependent on good leaders to complete its mission. The role models that have been highlighted in military history are primarily male field generals from past wars. There is currently a void in the development of some potential military women leaders. A part of leadership development and relationships concerns the lack of mentorship for women in the military. Mentoring and Military Example Mentoring relationships have always existed in the workplace, although the term mentoring has not always been used to describe the relationship. Mentoring, also called “sponsorship” and “coaching,” is a factor mentioned by women military leaders when asked what factors they thought were important for advancement and promotion. Military leaders are found at every level and branch of the military. Every soldier, sailor, marine, and airman has an immediate supervisor or leader to guide their actions, decision making, and development for future leadership positions. Military leadership grooming, sometimes called mentoring, is critical for women. Many military women are not as exposed to mentoring, primarily due to fewer women leaders and role models in the military. A slow change in military leadership gender is being witnessed in the world. Although women were leaders in the military prior to the 21st century, Congressional law changes based on societal attitude changes and demands for equality enabled women to rise to the highest levels of the military (general or flag officer rank), attend the prestigious military academies, and command at all levels. An especially promising milestone for women’s increased opportunities for high-level military leadership occurred in November 2008 when U.S. Gen-

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eral Ann Dunwoody became the first woman fourstar general in the military. This huge achievement indicates women are being afforded advancement opportunities based on their leadership performance and decision-making ability. In summary, in the turbulent 21st century, decision making and leading others are infinitely more complex and challenging than in former times. In this environment, the military remains the vanguard for protecting society. Women leaders are essential to the successful operation of the military. They bring numerous needed leadership skills in developing self-directed teams, and they are empathetic critical thinkers who value both mission accomplishment and taking care of people. See Also: Combat, Women in; Glass Ceiling; Management, Women in; Management Styles, Gender Theories; Mentoring; Military, Women in. Further Readings Bass, Bernard, M. Bass & Stodgill’s Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, & Managerial Applications, 3rd ed. New York: The Free Press, 1990. Eagly, Alice, et al. “Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles: A Meta-Analysis Comparing Women and Men.” Psychological Bulletin, v.129/4 (2003). Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Inc. “Statistics on Women in the Military.” http://www.womensmemorial.org/PDFs/StatsonWIM .pdf (accessed July 2010). Yvonne Doll U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Military Stationed in Muslim Countries Women perform military duties in a number of countries where the dominant religion is Islam. Some female soldiers from Western countries are deployed in support of combat operations or otherwise stationed in Muslim countries. Women also serve in the militaries of a number of Muslim countries. There are numerous restrictions placed on these servicewomen.

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Women in Muslim Countries’ Militaries Several Muslim countries’ militaries contain women, though these women are often confined to traditionally feminine roles in administration, education, and medicine. When women are confined to limited specialties, they are also denied advancement opportunities and other benefits. Although women have served in Turkey’s and Jordan’s militaries since the 1950s, these countries have mainly limited women to noncombat positions. The Turkish Armed Forces restricts women to the officer, as opposed to enlisted, ranks. The Turkish Air Force is currently training its first female jet pilots, but Turkish women cannot serve in infantry, armor, or submarine specialties. Women primarily served in administrative and nursing positions in Jordan until the 1990s, when the government opened the bodyguard, military police, and military intelligence positions to women. Women have served in a number of other Muslim countries’ militaries, including revolutionary forces in Iran and Libya. Syrian women have enlisted since 1970, and they perform numerous specialties including parachuting. Libyan head of state Mu’ammar Quadhafi’s push for gender equality included opening the Libyan Women’s Military Academy, which opened in 1978. Bangladeshi women serve in the “Gentlewomen Cadets.” Pakistani women have served in the army since that nation’s founding, and recently they have entered into combat and elite forces positions. The militaries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Oman, and Sudan also have female soldiers. In some countries, such as Iran and the United Arab Emirates, women perform military duties while wearing a black chador, a cloak that cover the head and body. During the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the militaries in these countries welcomed women. While women served in the Iraqi military since 1981, the women usually occupied administrative positions. By June 2003, women performed administrative, medical, and public affairs duties in the Iraqi Armed Forces. By 2010, more than 120 Iraqi women completed combat training under American soldiers. In 1984, Khatol Mohammadzai became Afghanistan’s first female parachutist, and today she is the only serving woman general there. Women training for inclusion into the reorganized Afghanistan National

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Army conducted their first live-fire exercise in January 2007; many wore scarves to cover their hair and some their faces, while others simply wore the traditional military helmet without further cover. Western Women Soldiers Serving in War Zones Military women from several non-Muslim countries are currently aiding combat operations in Muslim countries. In fact, women from the United States, United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Spain, and Ukraine have died during military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The strict gender norms of Muslim countries have required the U.S. military to develop new positions for women soldiers. In Iraq, the U.S. Marines developed the “Lioness” program, where female troops served alongside male combat troops in order to search Muslim women without offending Islamic tradition. The perceived success of this program encouraged the development of “cultural teams” where U.S. Marine women engage directly with Afghan civilians to gain intelligence and the trust of the civilian population. The guerrilla nature of these wars has meant that numerous female soldiers have often come under fire, and they have returned fire. Although both the UK and the United States bar women from direct ground combat positions, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have no front lines, and this has meant that women in noncombat supply, transportation, and other specialties have had to participate in battle. These wars are also the first wars in which U.S. women have flown attack helicopters and fighter jets in close air support missions. Restrictions on Women Serving in Muslim Countries A number of rules constrain the actions and clothing of non-Muslim women serving in Muslim countries. In particular, women soldiers from the United States are encouraged to wear some form of head covering while serving in Muslim countries. These restrictions have generated controversy. In 1991, U.S. military commanders in Saudi Arabia directed women soldiers to wear the abaya, a cloak similar to the aforementioned chador; ride in the back seat of vehicles; and be accompanied by a man when traveling off the military installations. U.S. military men were forbidden to wear traditional

Saudi clothing, and women working for the U.S. State Department were not expected to wear an abaya. In response to a 2002 lawsuit brought by Lieutenant Colonel Martha McSally, the highest-ranking female fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. legislature forbade military commanders from requiring or encouraging the abaya. While the abaya was forbidden in Saudi Arabia, female soldiers have been encouraged to show cultural sensitivity in Iraq and Afghanistan by wearing headscarves when working with civilians. However, not all women wear these. Some of the women soldiers do claim the headscarves assist communication with Afghan men. While the U.S. military offers cultural sensitivity training for most soldiers deploying to Muslim countries, men are not encouraged to don Muslim cultural symbols or dress. These policies reflect not only a double-standard for military soldiers, but it links women primarily to culture and men primarily to traditional warfare. These military policies’ policing of gender coexists with strong praise for women’s recent combat performances in Muslim countries. See Also: Afghanistan; Iraq; Islam; Military, Women in the; Military Leadership, Women in; Turkey; Wars of National Liberation, Women in. Further Readings Carreiras, H. Gender and the Military: Women in the Armed Forces of Western Democracies. New York: Routledge, 2006. Holmstedt, K. Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2007. McSally, M. “Women in Combat: Is the Current Policy Obsolete?” Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy, v.14 (2007). Lisa Leitz Hendrix College

Millennial Generation The terms Millennial Generation (Millennials) or Generation Y (Gen Y) are used to describe the generation that followed Generation X, which in turn



followed the Baby Boom generation. These generations are defined variously but a common definition of Gen Y (used, for example, by the Pew Research Center) is people born from 1977 to 1990, many of whom came of age in the early years of the New Millennium (2000). Millennial Generation Priorities One salient characteristic that has affected Millennials in many countries is a lowered fertility rate, particularly in industrialized countries. For instance, in the European Union (EU) from 1960 to 1964, the average total fertility rate was 2.64, while in 1980–84 it was 1.79, which is below replacement level fertility. This means that on average, families are smaller, allowing more parental resources to be spent on each child: some have termed Millennials “trophy children” and their parents “helicopter parents,” to refer to parents that play an unusually large role in their children’s lives. Smaller families increase the potential for generational conflict, as in the future, fewer workers will be required to support more retired people, who thanks to increasing life expectancy rates, will spend more years than previous generations drawing health and pension benefits. In most countries, women in Generation Y are far more likely to work outside the home than women of a generation or two earlier. For instance, in 2000 in the United States, about 75 percent of women aged 25–34 were working outside the home, compared to about 50 percent in 1975. Women in this age group are also less likely to be married and to have children compared to earlier generations. In 2000, about 60 percent were married and less than 60 percent had children, while in 1975 over 75 percent of women in this age group were married and 76 percent had children. Generation Y women are less likely to see a conflict between being a mother and having a career, and also less likely to believe that the so-called traditional family, in which the husband earns the money and the wife takes care of the children and household, is an optimal arrangement. Contrary to some reports in the popular press, Millennials place a high value on traditional family life. A 2009 Pew research study of U.S. Millennials found that their highest priorities were being a good parent (52 percent) and having a successful marriage (30 percent). A 2007 poll found that almost three-

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quarters of U.S. Millennials reported concerns about balancing professional and personal obligations. Female Millennials plan to marry and have their children later in life, in part because of the emphasis they place establishing a career. On the other hand, a higher proportion (over one third) of Millennial women who gave birth to children are unmarried as compared to earlier generations. Millennials are more tolerant of alternative families; for instance, only 32 percent disapprove of gay couples raising children, as opposed to 36 percent of Generation X and 48 percent of Baby Boomers. Generation Y Outside of the United States In most countries, Millennials are the best-educated generation in history. In sub-Saharan Africa, the duration of school attendance increased from slightly more than 4 years in 1970 to more than 8 years in 2008, while in North American and western Europe it increased from just under 8 years to almost 14 years in the same time period. In the United States, over half (54 percent) of Millennials have attended at least some college, and Millennial women are more likely than Millennial men to attend and graduate from college, reversing the pattern of previous generations. This pattern is found for the Millennial Generation in many industrialized countries as well, while in developing countries (particularly in south and west Asia and sub-Saharan Africa), men still compose a disproportionate share of college enrollees and graduates. Due to national and world economic conditions, Millennials face a tough job market in many countries. In 2009, 37 percent of U.S. 18-to-29-year-olds were unemployed—the highest share in that age group in over 30 years. In the EU, the youth unemployment rate has been twice that of the entire population over the past decade. See Also: Attainment, College Degree; Educational Opportunities/Access; Single Mothers; Work/Life Balance; Working Mothers. Further Readings Jones, Sydney and Susannah Fox. “Generations Online in 2009.” Pew Research Center report. http:// pewresearch.org/pubs/1093/generations-online (accessed October 2010).

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Pew Research Center. “Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.” (2010). http://pewsocialtrends. org/2010/02/24/millennials-confident-connected -open-to-change (accessed October 2010). Sloan Work and Family Research Network, Boston College. “Questions and Answers about Generation X/Generation Y: A Sloan Work & Family Research Network Fact Sheet.” (2008). http://wfnetwork.bc.edu /pdfs/GXGY.pdf (accessed October 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Million Mom March Donna Dees-Thomases founded the Million Mom March in 2000. The march, which occurs in Washington, D.C., brings together a group of mothers outraged and terrified by the current state of gun violence in America. The women march to demonstrate support of gun laws that would make obtaining a gun more difficult for youth and criminals, and to quell— if not eradicate—gun violence. In her book Looking for a Few Good Moms: How One Mother Rallied a Million Others Against the Gun Lobby, Dees-Thomases chronicles how she became a champion of women campaigning for stricter gun laws. She explains that after learning about a random shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, California, Dees-Thomases felt paralyzed by shock and fear. In her preface, Dees-Thomases acknowledges all of the dedicated, supportive, untiring women who worked with her between August 1999 (when the Granada Hills shooting occurred) and May 2000, when the first Million Mom March was held on May 14—Mother’s Day. Though march members faced counterprotesters (the Sisters of the Second Amendment) and, as Dees-Thomases describes, “bullies” from the National Rifle Association, the women held a successful rally and continue to do so each year. Fight for Stricter Gun Control Laws Kristin Goss observes in her book Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America that the Million Mom March was the first cause to empha-

size women’s concerns about gun violence in America; women, until then, remained the underrepresented population in the gun control debate. The women marching were primarily concerned with children’s safety related to guns, and protesters built their rhetoric on the symbol of the child. In one well-known instance of Dees-Thomases using this rhetoric to her benefit, she claimed that in the nine months it takes a woman to grow and deliver a baby, the government should be able to design and implement stricter gun control laws. The organization classifies itself as grassroots and houses chapters across America. The mothers involved firmly support the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, members of which also work to establish stricter laws related to gun control. The Million Mom March Organization, in conjunction with the Brady Campaign, hosts a Website that educates readers about gun violence in the United States by sharing testimonies of those whose lives have been affected by gun violence. The Website also informs the public about current gun laws, organization chapters across the country, and ways to support the Million Mom March. Dees-Thomases describes the Million Mom March as developing from a march into a nationwide movement. She claims that before the march, she considered herself a mom, but during the process of designing the march and watching it realize itself, Dees-Thomases started to consider herself an activist as well. Under her leadership, the Million Mom March continues to gain support and, in the process, turns thousands of other women into activists every year. See Also: Brady, Sarah; Children’s Rights; Gun Control. Further Readings Dees-Thomases, Donna. Looking for a Few Good Moms: How One Mother Rallied a Million Others Against the Gun Lobby. New York: Rodale, 2004. Goss, Kristin. Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. Million Mom March. http://www.millionmommarch .com (accessed July 2010). Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County



Ministry, Protestant Protestant ministry is religious service performed within the Protestant tradition. Because of the numerous and varied denominations that make up the Protestant tradition, there is no singular model of Protestant ministry, or singular set of criteria for determining the ability and qualification of one to serve in ministry. Ordination is the process by which a church recognizes a person’s call and desire to serve in ministry, specifically the ministry of word and sacrament and/ or congregational leadership. The ordination process is more formal and institutionalized in certain denominations, particularly churches maintaining an episcopal polity, including Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalian churches, and churches maintaining a Presbyterian polity, such as Presbyterian and Reformed churches. For example, the United Methodist Church has an extensive ordination process with requirements that include completing graduate theological education, undergoing a psychological evaluation, providing written and oral responses to questions relating to doctrine, serving in ministry for one year, and receiving approval from denominational boards. The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s requirements include a graduate theological degree, passing a five-part examination, and approval from the presbytery. Other denominations, including the Southern Baptist Convention, are marked by congregational polity in which ecclesial authority resides at the individual congregational level. These denominations recognize the gifts of ministry but do not have a formal, denomination-wide ordination process. Instead, the authority of ordination resides within the local congregational context, where both the requirements for ministry are established and the readiness and ability to serve in ministry are discerned. Women and Protestant Ministry In 1853, Antoinette Brown, a Congregationalist, was the first woman in the United States to be ordained. Her ordination occurred at the congregational level, as was the practice of the Congregationalist church. However, it would be another 100 years before women gained acceptance into the ordained ministry at the denominational level in the so-called Mainline denominations. The United Methodist Church and

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the Presbyterian Church (USA) began giving full ministry access to women in 1956, the Lutheran Church in America (the predecessor of today’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States) in 1970, and the Episcopal Church (USA) in 1976 Other denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod do not allow women to serve as senior pastors. The Southern Baptist Convention recognizes the gifts of women to minister within the church but maintains that the role of senior pastor is for men only. Similarly, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod maintains that the office of senior pastor is reserved for men and that women are only to assist the pastor within his role. Outside of the United States, women have had instrumental roles within Protestant ministry. In Latin America, women have been particularly drawn to Pentecostalism, where their participation has helped redefine gender roles. Although Latin American women have found freedom within Pentecostalism to express their spirituality and have served informally within the church, in many cases they are not interested in entering into formal positions within the church’s ministry, even when those positions are offered to them. Throughout some areas of Africa, women are being given the opportunity to receive theological education to prepare for ministry. However, in denominations that do ordain women within Africa, African women are facing the obstacles of male denomination and patriarchy. Women in Ministry The reason behind an opposition to women serving within Protestant ministry as pastors is largely based on a particular reading of Christian scripture. Churches disallowing women to serve in the pastoral office cite select biblical passages to support their policy. The texts often cited by opponents of women pastors reside within the New Testament writings of Paul as well as other writings attributed to Paul. Examples of these passages include 1 Corinthians 14:33–34, where women are told to remain silent in churches and to ask their husbands at home if they have questions; 1 Timothy 2:11–12, in which women are instructed to learn in silence and are prohibited from teaching men or having authority over men; 1 Timothy 3, in which the qualifications for elders and

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deacons are outlined; and Titus 1, in which elders and bishops are described with masculine pronouns. Further support for the case against women in ministry has come from an understanding of the biblical description of women’s and men’s roles, including statements asserting that man is the head of woman. Although those who oppose women in ministry cite biblical support for their position, there is debate as to whether or not the verses cited are understood and interpreted correctly. This issue becomes particularly questionable as supporters of women in ministry also find biblical support for their stance. In Acts 2:17 and Joel 2:28, it is written that both sons and daughters will prophesy. Mary Magdalene was commissioned to announce the news of Jesus Christ’s resurrection to the male disciples, as recorded in the Gospels. Within the New Testament, in particular, there are examples of women working within the ministry of the early church, including Chloe, Lydia, Nympha, Phoebe, and Priscilla, who led house churches in their homes. Finally, Junia, mentioned in Romans 16:7, is named as a female apostle. Collectively, these examples provide validation for those who support women within ministry. See Also: Evangelical Protestantism; Religion, Women in; Women’s Ordination Conference. Further Readings Clouse, Bonnidell. Women in Ministry: Four Views. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1989. Grenz, Stanley J. Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1995. Holifield, E. Brooks. God’s Ambassadors: A History of the Christian Clergy in America. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2007. Heather Morgan Dethloff Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Mistresses The term mistress has various meanings in our modern world. The most common use of the term describes women who have ongoing extramarital rela-

tionships with married men. Usually these relationships are continuing, secretive, and sexual in nature. Also, many married men provide financially for their mistresses. The term mistress is usually reserved for use in extramarital relationships only. The term does not require that the involved female be married, only the male. The acceptance, motivations, and levels of stigma attached to mistresses have changed over time and vary from one culture to the next. Historic Evolution and Significance The term mistress dates back to the 14th century and originates from Anglo-French and Middle English roots. The term’s original usage described a woman with power, a woman who owns property or servants, or a woman who is the head of an institution—usually in an educational setting. Earlier meanings of the word have largely ceased to be used due to the negative connotations derived from either the ownership of servants or common distain for the later connotation of adultery. Still yet, in many British-English speaking areas of the world, the term is used to denote an educational institution’s female headmaster or other administrative leader. The term mistress is historically significant because it was one of the first terms used to denote nonroyal female power holders. Prior to the development of the term, common women were often seen as powerless across cultures. Royal females have long been seen as powerful women but other leadership roles for females have been historically limited. Placing women in charge of educational institutions (at first only girls’ institutions) was a step in the direction of society’s acceptance of female leadership and early gender equality. The later and alternative meaning of the term also has historic significance. The use of this term, though similar in meaning, marks a clear etymological and cultural distinction from the use of the more ancient term concubine. Concubines are women who cohabitate with a man and his wife. The concubine held status in the household but was seen as ranking below the status of the wife. Historically, the practice of keeping concubines was well documented and largely accepted. This can be seen in early religious writings (Christian, Jewish, and Islamic texts) and Greek and Roman records. However, as time progressed, the practice of keeping concubines was largely shunned.

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This prompted mistresses to replace concubines as extramarital partners and live separately from the already-established matrimonial relationships. Famous examples of married men and mistresses can be seen throughout the remainder of world history and into the present day. Some notable couplings include European royalty (Edward II and Alice Perrers), politicians (John Edwards and Rielle Hunter), and celebrities (Tiger Woods and various women). Modern Cultural Variations Generally speaking, modern cultures are becoming less approving of the practice of men having or keeping mistresses. In U.S. culture, the practice is highly stigmatized yet frequently practiced. This distain for infidelity is seen legally and socially. Legally speaking, if a man has a mistress (or is otherwise unfaithful), his wife has the right to file for a divorce and usually receives alimony as a sign the man was at fault for the failed relationship. Socially speaking, there is often public embarrassment for the offending man and public anger at the existence of his extramarital relationship. Recently, political and celebrity affairs have sparked media firestorms that are sure to be long lasting and cause damage to reputations and careers. In other cultures, such as the Chinese culture, the practice of married men having mistresses is common and largely accepted as a type of status symbol. Many Chinese political and business leaders keep multiple mistresses. This tradition is an ancient practice in China that has made a recent resurgence. Many Chinese mistresses come from lower socioeconomic classes and become mistresses to powerful men to make financial or social gains. While the wives of these cheating men may not embrace the idea of mistresses, little opposition is noted in this particular culture. See Also: China; Feminism, American; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Marriage. Further Readings British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). “Islam: Slavery in Islam.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/ islam/history/slavery_1.shtml (accessed April 2010). Coonan, Clifford. “China’s Era of Corruption Feeds Desire for Concubines.” The Irish Times (August 8, 2009).

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Goldman, Russell. “Trouble in the Tiger Den: What Can Woods Do to Save Reputation?” ABC News (December 9, 2009). The Jewish Encyclopedia. “Concubines.” http://www .JewishEncyclopedia.com (accessed April 2010). MacIntyre, Ben. “Farewell to the Last Royal Mistress.” The Times (London) (February 12, 2005). Carl J. Brown East Tennessee State University

Moldova Moldova, a nation located in eastern Europe, has one the highest population densities of the former Soviet republics, but low fertility and high emigration has led to recent population declines. The dominant ethnic group is Moldovan (Romanian) and the dominant religion is Eastern Orthodox. Moldovan women have legal equality and high educational attainment, but face traditional domestic roles and high rates of violence; they are negatively affected by the country’s economic and political instability. Moldova was 36th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. The 2009 fertility rate was 1.4 births per woman. The infant mortality rate was 16 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate was 22 per 100,000 live births. Women receive 126 days of paid maternity leave through the state Social Insurance Fund. Among married women, 68 percent use contraceptives. Due to economic and political crises, many young couples live with the groom’s parents, divorce and spousal abandonment rates are high, and many young women offer themselves as “mail-order brides.” Mothers, grandmothers, and older female siblings provide most childcare and perform most domestic chores. Education is compulsory from ages 6 to 17, with preschool and higher education also available. Female school enrollment rates stood at 87 percent for the primary level, 82 percent at the secondary level, and 48 percent at the tertiary level in the 2009 research. The average school attendance level is just over 10 years. 2009 literacy rates were high, at 98 percent for women and 99 percent for men. Problems include a poor economy, widespread poverty, poor

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Monaco cent of ministerial positions in 2009. Women have achieved the highest levels in business and politics, although they are underrepresented because of discrimination and because many women continue to prioritize their domestic lives. Political organizations and nongovernmental organizations pursuing women’s issues include the Christian Democratic League of Women of Moldova, the Women’s Organization of Moldova, and the Gender in Development Project. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Government, Women in; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children.

Many women in Moldova work outside the home due to economic necessity, comprising 55 percent of the labor force.

sanitation and safe water availability in rural areas, discrimination, unaffordable housing, and political and civil unrest. There are high rates of domestic violence, which is rarely prosecuted. Moldova is a source country for female sex workers, who are lured by jobs overseas and kidnapped. The state social insurance and medical system has deteriorated since the Soviet Union’s collapse. The 2009 life expectancy was low among European nations, at age 62 for women and age 57 for men. Many women work outside the home, due to economic necessity. Women comprise 55 percent of the paid nonagricultural labor force and 68 percent of professional and technical workers. Key employers include agriculture, education, industry, and services. There is a gender gap in average estimated earned income, which was $1,865 for women and $2,969 for men, and also in unemployment rates, which stood at 3.87 percent for women and 6.22 percent for men. Many workers must leave the country for better opportunities. Women have suffrage and equal legal rights. They held 24 percent of parliamentary seats and 11 per-

Further Readings Dyer, Donald, ed. Studies in Moldovan: The History, Culture, Language, and Contemporary Politics of the People of Moldova. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1996. Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. King, Charles. The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture (Studies of Nationalities). Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2000. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Monaco Monaco, the second smallest country in the world at two square kilometers, is located on the Mediterranean coast and shares a land border with France. It is a prosperous country (2009 per capita gross domestic product [GDP] $30,000) and the population of 32,965 (as of July 2009) enjoys a high standard of living similar to French metropolitan areas. Life expectancy of 76.3 years for men and 84.09 for women is 19th highest in the world. The population is 90 percent Roman Catholic; the leading ethnic groups are French (47 percent), Monegasque (natives of Monaco; 16 percent), and Italian (16 percent). Because Monaco does not levy an individual income tax, many rich foreigners reside there, making Monaco an extremely cosmopolitan country.

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The Monaco Constitution was revised in 1962 to include female suffrage. Women are equal by law in most aspects of life, and domestic violence is prohibited and rare. One exception to the general rule of equality is that unlike men, women who are naturalized Monegasque citizens cannot transfer that citizenship to their children. Women hold about onequarter of seats in the national Parliament and have served in key posts, including the mayor of Monaco and as members of the Crown Council, National Council, and Economic Council. Women comprise about 40 percent of the nonagricultural labor force and many hold professional positions. In 2009, Monaco became one of the last countries in the world to legalize abortion, but restricts it to specific circumstances including rape, fetal deformity, and mortal danger to the mother. Monegasque social security allows referrals to France for abortion (where abortion on demand is available through the first trimester and emergency contraception is available), although it does not cover fees for the procedure or medication. Monaco provides a high standard of maternal and childcare. The infant mortality rate is 5 per 1,000 live births, in the middle range for European countries but the lower quarter for all nations. The birth rate in 2009 was 9.1 per 1,000 population, among the lowest in the world, and the fertility rate was below replacement levels (1.75 children per woman), but one of the world’s highest net migration rates (7.58 migrants per 1,000 population) resulted in a positive population growth rate of 0.394 percent). See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, International; France; Government, Women in; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Pemberton, H. The History of Monaco, Past and Present. London: The British Library, 2010. United Nations Statistics Division. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “Monaco: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl /rls/hrrpt/2001/eur/8309.htm (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

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Mongolia Mongolia, located in west-central Asia, is one of the world’s most sparsely populated nations. Khalkha Mongols are the majority ethnic group; the country’s main religions are Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. Women enjoy equal rights under the law. Key women’s issues include high rates of domestic violence, poverty, and child labor. Mongolia ranked 22nd of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. The average age of marriage is in the mid-20s. The traditional practices of arranged marriage and bridal dowries have decreased. Family sizes have also decreased. The 2009 fertility rate was 1.9 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend 99 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 35 per 1,000 live births and the maternal mortality rate was 46 per 100,000 live births. The state social insurance fund provides women with 120 days of paid maternity leave at 70 percent of their wages. Of married women, 66 percent use contraceptives. Antidomestic violence legislation was passed in 2005. Most families live in patrilineal, rural nomadic camps and raise livestock. All family members contribute to household enterprise, but women perform most housework and childcare. Female school attendance rates stand at 89 percent at the primary level, 85 percent at the secondary level, and 58 percent at the tertiary level. Many rural children leave school so they can work. Literacy rate by gender is almost equal, at 98 percent for women and 97 percent for men. Problems include rapidly rising poverty rates and wealth differentials, street children, rising urban crime rates, and lack of post–Soviet funding for social welfare programs. Most have access to basic healthcare, but Western-style medicine is restricted to urban areas. Alternative medicine is also popular. Life expectancy is improving, at age 58 for women and age 53 for men. Some 60 percent of women participate in the labor force. Women comprise 53 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 54 percent of professional and technical workers. They are legally forbidden from hazardous work. Key employers include agriculture, livestock, manufacturing, industry, and service. Women are the majority of teachers at all education levels.

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A gender gap still exists in average estimated earned income, which stands at $2,172 for women and $3,603 for men. Unemployment rates are just over 14 percent. Women have the right to vote. Women hold 4 percent of parliamentary seats and 20 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no female heads of state. Women’s groups include nongovernmental organizations, as well as the Women’s Information and Research Center and the Committee of Mongolian Women. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Government, Women in; Marriages, Arranged; Rural Women. Further Readings Avery, Martha. Women of Mongolia. Boston: Asian Art & Archaeology, 1996. Hanson, J. L. Mongolia. New York: Facts on File, 2003. Hepburn, S., et al. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Montenegro After centuries of existence as a theocracy, the small Balkan nation of Montenegro became a secular principality in 1852. Following World War I, it became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which evolved into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After winning independence in 1992, Montenegro aligned with Serbia before opting for independence in 2006. Following that breakup, Montenegro launched a campaign to stabilize its economy with assistance from international financial institutions and applied for membership in the European Union. Today, 60 percent of the population have become urbanized. Montenegrins face an intermediate risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea and Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. Montenegro is ethnically diverse. While 43 percent classify themselves as Montenegrin, additional key groups include Serbs (32 percent), Bosniaks (8 percent), Albanians (5 percent), and other minorities (12 percent) such as Muslims, Croats, and Romas. Less diversity exists in religion, and 74.2

percent of Montenegrins are Orthodox (Christian). However, the Muslim community is also large (17.7 percent). More people speak Serbian (63.6 percent) than Montenegrin (22 percent), the official language. Traditions are strong in Montenegro, and many customs relegate women to second-class citizenship. In theory, women have equal property and inheritance rights. In practice, the patriarchal system makes it difficult for women to assert those rights. The Council for Gender Equality is responsible for protecting women’s rights, and the council announced a new National Action Plan for Gender Equality in 2008. Montenegro has major problems with domestic violence, human trafficking, lack of support for women’s issues, and discrimination among the Roma population, which disproportionately affects Roma women and children. By 2007, unemployment had reached 14.7 percent, and 7 percent of the population was living below the poverty line. More than 42 percent of the unemployed were female, and employed women were earning 20 percent less than employed men. In 2009, per capita income was estimated at $9,800. There is a lack of reliable data on Montenegrin social indicators. Infant mortality is reported at 22.3 deaths per 1,000 live births, and the mortality rate of children under the age of 5 is 24.3. Life expectancy for females is 76.5 years, as compared to 71.6 for males. The median age for females is 38.4 years. Literacy for males (98.9 percent) outranks that of females (94.1 percent). In 2002, international researchers who conducted on-site interviews with Montenegrin and Serbian women found that unemployment aroused the most concern. It affected all groups, regardless of class and educational background, but it was particularly evident among Roma women who suffered from a lack of educational opportunities. This group was also the most susceptible to poverty, which restricted educational opportunities for children, access to healthcare, and overall living conditions. Like unemployment, domestic violence has a long prevalence in Montenegro, and support efforts have been hampered by inadequate resources and societal pressures. Most cases of domestic violence go unreported. The same is true for rape cases, even though rape, including spousal rape, is illegal. The fact that judges have considerable discretion over what is allowed in rape cases has discouraged many victims



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from coming forward. Most help is generated by female-oriented nongovernmental organizations, and there are constant complaints about the lack of support from social welfare services. Prostitution is illegal and is not considered a major problem. Human trafficking for the purposes of prostitution, on the other hand, is of major concern. Sexual harassment is illegal, but there is considerable ignorance of the subject among the general public. Victims receive little support. Politically, of 81 members in the Assembly, only nine are female. The only female in the cabinet is a deputy prime minister. One mayor is female. However, female participation in some areas is steadily increasing, and more women are becoming judges, lawyers, scientists, and physicians. See Also: Domestic Violence; Equal Pay; Government, Women in; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Bjerkan, Lise. “Creating Dialogue in a Landscape of Conflict in South Eastern Europe.” Canadian Woman Studies, v.22/2 (2002). Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Montenegro.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/mj.html (accessed June 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Montenegro.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ hrrpt/2008/eur/119095.htm (accessed June 2010). Women’s International Network (WIN) News. “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998; Serbia Montenegro.” WIN News, v.25/2 (1999). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Historically, the mainstream branch of Mormonism, known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or LDS Church), has maintained an emphasis

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on the nuclear family as the most important aspect of religious expression. Although there are many negative stereotypes surrounding the Mormon Church and its treatment of women, the church provides a social structure that has at times been more helpful to feminism than other socioreligious structures. The Mormon Church remains a patriarchal, hierarchical institution that believes, above all, in the maintenance of the heteronormative nuclear family. Women are expected first and foremost in the church to be good wives and mothers, supporting men as heads of the household and of the church. Women cannot perform the role of the priesthood— a position open to all Mormon males over the age of 12 years—but they are assigned many duties in the maintenance of each Mormon ward (parish). Since the 1950s, these assignments have followed the guideline of “separate but equal”—that is, gender roles are strictly delineated but are not seen as superior or inferior to each other. Women and men mix freely in Mormon wards and are only separated during specific gender-based activities. Continuing education is of great importance to Mormon women. College education is common, and postgraduate learning that does not interfere with the maintenance of the home and family is encouraged. Mormon women are expected to be exemplary role models in knowledge, skills, and homemaking. Women in Church History The feminist branch of the Mormon Church has its roots in the very beginning of the church’s history. The Relief Society, a woman-run organization whose aim is to support members of the church through charitable contributions, was founded by the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1842. In 1870, Utah passed legislation allowing all Mormon women to vote, predating the Nineteenth Amendment by 50 years. Later, this decision was revoked by federal statute on Utah’s incorporation into the Union. Church leader Brigham Young encouraged all Mormon women to receive an education in the late 19th century, and Utah had one of the highest percentages of female doctors during this time. In the 1950s, the Mormon Church began to separate itself from the increasingly liberal American culture by reclaiming its roots in “family values.” Combined with advancements in technology and

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increased urbanization, women were seen less as autonomous agents working alongside men to carve a home out of the wilderness, and more as subjects under the authority of the Mormon priesthood. The women’s Relief Society became correlated under the direct influence of the priesthood in 1971, meaning that all of the Mormon Church was now controlled by its male priests. In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment passed both houses of Congress and was ratified by 33 of the needed 38 states. The Mormon Church, stating that such an amendment would lead to a decline in family values, combated this passage. Although not solely responsible for the failure of the ERA, the Mormon Church, with the open support of its female members, was adamant that such a measure not be passed. Despite the explicitly patriarchal doctrine of Mormonism, the LDS Church is one of the first American religions to embrace the idea of a feminine deity. Called “Heavenly Mother” or “Mother in Heaven,” she is referred to explicitly in the Mormon hymn, “O My Father.” The theology of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. dictates that there is a heavenly family, consisting of both a mother and a father, responsible for the creation of all life on Earth. Although this theology existed at the beginning of Mormonism, Heavenly Mother is something of a taboo doctrine of the LDS Church. In 1978, the Mormon Church stated that Heavenly Mother was “modest” and that any explicit interpretation or teaching of her was inappropriate. During the 1980s, despite Mormon feminist writings that appealed to the idea of a divine feminine, the practice of praying to the Heavenly Mother, although not officially heresy, was considered inappropriate and borderline apostasy. This is justified by the fact that there is no theological evidence of Jesus praying to anyone but his Father in Heaven. Although women in the Mormon Church are encouraged to better themselves and seek education, this is done so only with the stipulations that they consider being a supportive wife and good mother to be their primary goals in life. Whether this “separate but equal” mentality is harmful to a woman’s wellbeing or helpful has been debated through much of Mormon literature. See Also: Feminist Theology; Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Johnson, Sonia.

Further Readings Barber, Phyllis. How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1992. Bradley, Martha Sonntag. Pedestals and Podiums. Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 2005. Bushman, Claudia L. Contemporary Mormonism. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Cannon, Janeth Russell. Women of Covenant. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Books. 1992. Johnson, Sonia. From Housewife to Heretic. Albuquerque, NM: Wildfire Books, 1989. Austin J. Buscher Claremont Graduate University

Morocco In 1912, centuries of foreign rule interspersed with periods of independence came to an end when Morocco became a French protectorate. Independence was successfully achieved in 1956. Ethnically, 99.1 percent of the population are Arab Berber, and 98.7 percent are Muslim. Almost 45 percent of the population are engaged in agriculture, and only 57 percent of Moroccans are urbanized. Morocco has a per capita income of $4,600, an unemployment rate of 9.1, and a poverty rate of 15 percent. Legally, Moroccan women have equal rights with men, but in practice religious and ethnic traditions dictate a subservient role for some women, particularly those who live in rural areas. Historically, Morocco’s Civil Code has been based on Islamic law, which treated women as minors. Females needed the permission of male guardians (tuteurs) to marry. Husbands could end a marriage by repudiating their wives, and female consent was not needed in a divorce. In addition, husbands could demand unlimited sums before agreeing to a divorce. A woman’s inheritance was only half that of male heirs. Major reforms instituted in 2004 have made life more equitable for women, but violence against women, property rights for rural women, and arranged marriages continue to be major concerns. Morocco ranks 76th in the world in infant mortality (29.75 deaths per 1,000 live births). Female infants (24.49 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a considerably higher survival rate than males (34.77 deaths per



1,000 live births), and that advantage continues into adulthood, resulting in a life expectancy of 78.68 years for women compared with 72.42 years for men. The median age is 25.6 years for women and 24.5 years for men. Male literacy (65.7 percent) is considerably higher than that of women (39.6 percent), and men generally receive 11 years of schooling as opposed to 9 for women. Some reports indicate that female illiteracy may be as high as 90 percent in rural areas. Nongovernmental organizations have been instrumental in pressuring the government for more equitable treatment of women. In 2000, women’s rights groups sponsored a march to demand improved female literacy and educational opportunities, the end of early marriages, more equitable property distributions, divorce assistance, and the termination of repudiations of marriage and polygamy. The march drew hundreds of thousands of supporters to Rabat. At the encouragement of Moslem theologians, a countermarch in Casablanca drew from 200,000 to 500,000 participants. The success of the initial march is supported by major social reforms instituted in 2004 that gave women substantially more control over their lives and decreased the ability of husbands to have multiple wives, be divorced by repudiation, control property, and automatically gain custody of children. Since 2007, mothers have been able to endow citizenship on their children. Arranged marriages of young girls are declining. Women in Politics In 1997, only two women served in the 333-member Parliament, and there were none in the cabinet. Reforms now mandate the inclusion of women in positions of leadership. After the 2007 election, 34 seats were filled by women, and five women sat in the 33-member cabinet. Quotas require that 12 percent of local council members be women. Because family is so important, Morocco’s Criminal Code carries severe penalties for rape. However, most cases are not reported because of the social stigma attached to the loss of virginity outside of marriage. Perpetrators are sometimes encouraged to marry victims to preserve family honor. Both domestic violence and spousal rape are considered family issues. Abuse of young girls forced into domestic service is common. In 2006, the government launched a campaign to educate the public about violence against

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women, but feminists feel it has not gone far enough in implementing the reforms. A number of shelters and women centers now exist, operated by the Anaruz network and the Democratic League for the Rights of Women. Honor killings, prostitution, and sexual harassment continue to elicit concern. See Also: Domestic Violence; Honor Killings; Islam; Marriages, Arranged; Property Rights. Further Readings Afrol News. “Morocco.” http://www.afrol.com/Categor ies/Women/profiles/morocco_women.htm (accessed February 2010). Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “Morocco.” https://www.cia .gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos /mo.html (accessed February 2010). Helms, Jesse, et al. “Women and Human Rights.” WIN News, v.23/2 (1997). Mantilla, Karla. “Morocco: Women’s Rights Plan under Fire.” Off Our Backs, v.30/5 (2000). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Morocco.” http://genderindex. org/country/morocco (accessed February 2010). Tripp, Ail Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Morocco.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /nea/119122.htm (accessed March 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Morrison, Toni Born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, Toni Morrison is one of the United States’ foremost writers. Using settings from the 1940s to the 1980s, Morrison’s novels explore African American lives and issues of poverty, rape, incest, beauty,

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racism, and oppression. Morrison states that her works are about how people relate to one another, love and its effects, and how people who are victimized by experiences in society struggle to survive whole. Thus, the novels focus upon the quest for self and cultural identity in the face of a world that is often alienating and oppressive due to racism and the legacy of slavery. The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s first novel, describes the descent into madness of a young black girl, Pecola, who longs for blue eyes because she believes they will make her beautiful. A victim of cultural messages favoring whiteness over blackness, Pecola succumbs not only to her own internalized racism but also to the pressures of the community who fail to support her. This focus on the need for community in women’s lives continues in Sula. Following the lives of two girlhood friends, Nel and Sula, Morrison delves into women’s identities and friendships. In particular, the novel sets out Morrison’s concerns with self-identity as the two African American women must learn to accept themselves. In Song of Solomon, Morrison turns to the power of language and the act of naming, for naming is one way a person understands identity. Coming from Africa, slaves left behind their names and tribes. This novel traces Milkman Dead’s journey as he explores his family history and seeks to understand not only his own identity but also his cultural identity. Significantly, Milkman is guided by Pilate, his aunt, who demonstrates how one must claim one’s identity rather than accept the one created by outside forces. In Tar Baby, Morrison turns her eye to black culture—in particular, the place and experience of women in black culture. Jade, the novel’s main character, learns that she can only build her identity through a validation of the strength and history of black women’s experiences.

Paradise and Love were not well received, Morrison’s most recent novel has received critical attention. A Mercy returns her to a familiar landscape as she once again delves into slavery’s past through the story of Florens, a young slave girl, and investigates themes of loss and abandonment. Set in the late 17th century, the novel opens as Florens’s mother pushes her daughter ahead of her young son as collateral for a debt her master owes. Florens thus lives her life thinking her mother has abandoned her, valuing son over daughter, and struggles to build her life anew. Morrison’s fiction is complemented by her children’s books and essay collections. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1993) examines African Americans and the American literary imagination. Suggesting that race itself is a metaphor for the conflicts that exist in American society, Morrison provides new readings of Cather, Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville through an African American critical lens. What Moves at the Margin contains selected nonfiction writings from 1971 to the present with a wide range of discussions from family to black women’s culture to writers she admires to issues of race and politics in America. Morrison’s critical acclaim is wide and she is the recipient of several awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for Beloved, the National Book Award nomination and Ohioana Book Award for Sula, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon, and the National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 1993, Morrison became the first African American and only the eighth woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Critical Acclaim Morrison’s most well-known novel, Beloved, was named one of the most important books of the 20th century by the New York Times Book Review. In Beloved, Morrison creates a complex story of an escaped slave woman, Sethe, haunted by her desperate act of infanticide, which she committed to prevent the return of her children to slavery. Through Sethe’s story, the novel uncovers the powerful legacy of slavery that haunts American history. While the novels

Further Readings Beaulieu, Betsy, ed. A Toni Morrison Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. Peach, Linden. Toni Morrison. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Taylor-Guthrie, Danille K., ed. Conversations With Toni Morrison. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994.

See Also: Critical Race Feminism; Infanticide; Novelists, Female; United States.

Jeannette E. Riley University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth



Mothers Against Choice As the name implies, Mothers Against Choice is a pro-life support movement constituted of mothers opposed to women’s having the choice to abort. These mothers believe that abortion is cruel and that all babies—regardless of the mother’s situation—deserve to live. These women are most troubled by the fact that other mothers or mothers-to-be support the right to abortion. Members of the Mothers Against Choice movement include pro-life organizations (like Friends of the Unborn and the Susan B. Anthony List) that offer support to pregnant mothers considering abortion in the hope that these mothers will choose a prolife path. Still other women, like mothers in Quiverfull, take an even harsher stance against women and prochoice philosophies. Organizations With Similar Principles Mothers Against Choice shares foundational beliefs with other groups, including Friends of the Unborn and the Susan B. Anthony List Organization. Friends of the Unborn, a Massachusetts-based organization, is comprised of members who assist pregnant women. Friends of the Unborn believes that women who have abortions lack a support system in which they can give birth and thrive; by providing support for pregnant women debating having an abortion, Friends of the Unborn prevents some women from having abortions. An organization with similar principles is the Susan B. Anthony List Organization, a pro-life organization deeply involved with and interested in politics. The Susan B. Anthony List’s goal is to prevent pro-choice legislation and to help more pro-life female candidates obtain positions in various political offices; the organization also takes donations to help stop abortions. Friends of the Unborn and the Susan B. Anthony List both offer assistance to pregnant mothers while asking them to consider options other than abortion. Other related organizations with similar philosophies include the National Women’s Coalition for Life, National Association of Pro-Life Nurses, and Women Affirming Life. Mothers in the group Quiverfull share the core beliefs of halting pregnant women from having abortions, but the group’s philosophy differs radically from most other groups in the Mothers Against Choice movement. Though groups like the Susan B.

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Anthony List support women obtaining power, especially in the political arena, mothers in Quiverfull not only object severely to the pro-choice movement but to the liberation of women in general. The name of the organization originates from Psalm 127, in which a man with a quiver full of arrows appears well suited against his enemy. Mothers in Quiverfull believe that each child born becomes part of an army for God, and hence they are violently opposed to the idea of women having the choice to abort and believe that a woman who considers such an act faces damnation. Though separate groups in the Mothers Against Choice movement hold different philosophies about women considering abortion—some offer support while other factions of the movement feel only anger—all groups support, unfailingly, the pro-life movement. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Abortion, Late; Abortion Laws, International; Abortion Laws, United States; Abortion Methods; EMILY’s List; Feminists for Life; Pro-Life Movement. Further Readings Birnie, Marilyn. “Friends of the Unborn.” http://www. friendsoftheunborn.org (accessed July 2010). Quiverfull. http://www.quiverfull.com (accessed July 2010). Susan B. Anthony List. http://www.sba-list.org (accessed July 2010). Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving, better known by its acronym MADD, is a nonprofit organization founded for the purpose of preventing drunk driving. The grassroots movement began when Candace Lightner, whose 13-year-old daughter was killed in her Sacramento neighborhood by a drunk driver with previous drunk-driving convictions, and a group of her friends determined to get drunk drivers off the road. MADD was incorporated on September 5, 1980, on what would have been Cari Lightner’s 14th birthday. Cindy

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Lamb of Maryland, whose infant daughter Laura became the nation’s youngest quadriplegic as the result of an accident caused by a drunk driver (also a repeat offender), joined Lightner later that year and is considered a cofounder of MADD. Their stories replaced statistics with faces of children, moved a multitude to lobby for new laws, and changed a nation’s perception of drunk driving. In the process, MADD became one of the best-known and best-liked charities in America. Media Impact Media attention, contributions, and an increasing army of volunteers, most of whom had a personal stake in the issue, quickly made a difference. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced the formation of the Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving and invited MADD to participate; by the end of the year, 16 states had governor-appointed DUI (driving under the influence) task forces, and MADD volunteers were lobbying in all of them, pushing for new legislation. A year later, 129 new anti-drunk driving laws had passed. President Reagan signed the Federal Minimum Legal Drinking Age 21 in 1984. Candy Lightner left the organization in 1985, citing what she felt was an increasing antialcohol emphasis, but MADD continued to grow in numbers and influence. In 1990, as part of its 10th anniversary celebration, MADD announced a “20 by 2000” plan that aimed to reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities by 20 percent in the 1990s—a goal that was met in 1997. Although the achievements of MADD in the 1990s were less dramatic than those of the previous decade, the organization’s lobbying continued to play an important role in new legislation, including the zerotolerance law, which made it illegal for underage drivers to operate a vehicle with any amount of alcohol in their bodies, and the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995, which provided sanctions for states that failed to enact a zero-tolerance law. Philanthropy and Charities MADD celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2000 with a rally at the U.S. Capitol. The organization was 600 chapters strong, with 2 million members. In some ways, the MADD of the 21st century is markedly different from the organization it was in the 1980s. Some say it is less accountable. In 2001, Worth magazine listed MADD among the best 100 charities in

the United States, but the group’s shining reputation was tarnished by reports from two organizations that evaluate the efficiency and accountability of charities. In 2005, the American Institute of Philanthropy gave MADD a grade of “D,” noting that 58 percent of its revenue was used for fund-raising and management. Charity Navigator was even harsher, rating MADD 36.72 for the 2006–07 fiscal year, based on its efficiency. The organization that began with a group of white women has now been led by an African American man, Glynn Birch, who served as president from 2005 to 2008, and it has made a concerted effort to become more racially and ethnically diverse. The core of the organization that Candy Lightner started is still in place: the passion for the cause, the strong support for victims (helping them deal with the courts and with their physical and psychological injuries), and the charismatic leadership that speaks with the voice of the wounded. Businesspeople serve on the board, and a professional is executive director, but the president, the public face of MADD, is always a member who knows personally the cost of drunk driving. See Also: Children’s Rights; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Philanthropists, Female. Further Readings California DUI Lawyer Center. “History of MADD.” http:// www.sandiegodrunkdrivingattorney.net/2008/03 /history-of-madd.html (accessed April 2010). Durna, Tuncay. MADD, Drunk Driving Laws, and Deterrence: Do They Change Individual Attitudes and Behavior? Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag, 2009. Hoover, Eric. “For MADD, the Legal Drinking Age Is Not Up for Debate.” Chronicle of Higher Education, v.55/11 (2008). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Mothers in Prison Approximately 70 percent of female prisoners are mothers of minor children. Among these mothers, one-third were living alone with their children at the



time of their arrest, resulting in a disruption in their children’s living arrangements. In the United States, more than 250,000 minor children have mothers who are either in prison or jail. Although women make up a small percentage of the total prison population (6.9 percent in the United States; 4.9 percent in Europe), rates of women prisoners have increased dramatically in recent years. In the United States, the percentage of incarcerated women has increased by more than 800 percent over the past 30 years, with similar increases found in Europe (e.g., England and Wales report a 200 percent increase over the past 10 years). The majority of women in prison are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes with most arrested for drug- and property-related offenses. While prison terms for women in Europe are relatively short, in the United States, with mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes, women serve longer terms. The increase in female prisoners, the majority of whom are mothers, has brought attention to healthcare issues unique to women, specifically reproductive and mental health issues, as well as societal issues related to the welfare and well-being of displaced children. Reproductive Health In Prison In the United States approximately 4 to 5 percent of women in jail or prison are pregnant at the time of admittance. Although a woman maintains her right to terminate a pregnancy after incarceration, obstacles can exist for women prisoners that deter them from obtaining abortions. Obstacles include requiring court orders before granting transportation to an abortion clinic, requiring women to pay for transportation, and requiring the woman to make all arrangements on her own. Debate exists over the effects of incarceration on birth outcomes. While negative effects have been noted due to increased stress, inadequate prenatal care, and lack of attention to nutritional needs of pregnant prisoners, positive effects have also been found. The majority of female prisoners lived in poverty prior to their arrests. Many female prisoners have substance abuse problems or have suffered abuse and trauma in their lives. Incarceration may serve several functions for women, including increasing access to prenatal care, decreasing access to alcohol and drugs, and removing them from violent situations. While there are guidelines for prenatal care in U.S. federal prisons, state and local prisons are not

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required to follow these mandates. Consequently, the prenatal care pregnant inmates receive is often minimal and childbirth education is rarely offered. Few prisons have medical facilities that can accommodate childbirth, so pregnant inmates are frequently transported to community hospitals. Since there is no policy requiring special accommodations for the transportation of pregnant inmates, laboring women are often subjected to the same routine used for male prisoners, which includes body searches and shackling. This routine, combined with long distances to local hospitals can result in women being shackled for all or the majority of their labor as well as giving birth en route. The process of shackling laboring inmates has been deemed “cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment” by Amnesty International, U.S.A. Mothering Infants in Prison In the United States, there are very few prisons that can accommodate having infants stay with their mothers. While prison-based nurseries were fairly common in the 1950s, the majority had closed by the 1970s. Currently, most pregnant women in prison have their children placed with either a family member or in foster care within hours after giving birth. This practice has been found to disrupt the mother–child bond and is detrimental to both the mother and child. Prison nurseries are far more common in Europe. Although great variation can exist between countries, on average children remain with their mothers for the first three years of life in European prisons. However, facilities and conditions vary widely; some have special mother-and-baby units or nurseries, while others make no special provisions and children are incarcerated along with mothers in their cells. Research shows that prison-based mother–child nursery programs, both in the United States and Europe, have positive outcomes. Mother–child bonding increases and women who take part in these programs have lower rates of recidivism. Female prisoners are more likely than male prisoners to have been the sole or primary caregiver of their children prior to arrest. Consequently, one of the major issues women face upon incarceration is figuring out who will care for their children as they serve their sentence. Most children of incarcerated mothers live with their grandparents, with only 25 percent

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living with their fathers. The remaining children live with other relatives, friends, or in foster care. Parenting From Prison Female prisoners face many obstacles as they try to parent from prison and maintain their identity as a mother. Since women make up such a small percentage of the total prison population, there are significantly fewer prisons for women than men. Thus, women often serve their sentences in locations far from their home, making visitation difficult. It is up to the temporary caregiver to arrange visits and as caregivers usually shoulder significant financial burdens; long-distance visits are often impossible. In the United States, approximately 9 percent of mothers serving sentences in state prisons receive visits from their children. The majority of incarcerated mothers maintain some form of contact with their children through phone conversations and visits. Maintaining parental ties is especially critical for women who plan on reunification with their children upon their release. Maintaining parental responsibilities while incarcerated is difficult, given the lack of available contact with children and tensions that may exist between caregivers and mothers. Substance abuse and other mental health issues may have impaired their parenting practices prior to incarceration and it can be difficult to repair strained relationships from behind prison walls. In spite of the difficulties, female prisoners report their identities as mothers as a primary motivator and coping strategy while in prison. Kathy Boudin, imprisoned for her involvement in the 1981 Brinks Robbery when her son was 14 months old, developed a successful parenting program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York during her incarceration. This “Parenting From a Distance” program recognized the positive impact mothering has on the lives of women prisoners, and allowed them to address their own issues while putting their children’s needs first. Women’s custodial rights are often questioned in prison. Without knowledge of their rights and access to an attorney, mothers are likely to lose their children in custody battles with temporary caregivers or to the foster care system. The Federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1996 allows for permanent adoption of children in foster care who have not lived with

their custodial parent for 15 out of the previous 22 months. Given mandatory drug sentences, mothers in prison who have children in the foster care system are at risk of losing all parental rights. There is a growing trend in the United States and Europe to develop community-based alternatives to prison for mothers who have committed nonviolent crimes, are serving short sentences, and are either pregnant or the primary caregiver of young children. These programs allow women to serve their sentence with their children in a nonprison setting. Many of these alternative arrangements have substance abuse treatment services, parenting programs, and day care for children. As with prison-based nurseries, results show decreased recidivism for mothers and more positive outcomes for children. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Addiction and Substance Abuse; Childcare; Prenatal Care; Prison Administration; Prisoners, Female (U.S.). Further Readings Boudin, Kathy. “Lessons From a Mothers’ Program in Prison.” Women & Therapy, v.21/1 (1998). Enos, S. Mothering From the Inside: Parenting in a Women’s Prison. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Health in Prisons Project. Women’s Health in Prison: Correcting Gender Inequity in Prison Health, 2009. Copenhagen, Denmark: World Health Organization, 2009. http://www.juvenilejU.S.ticepanel.org/resource /items/D/e/Declaration_Kyiv_Women_60s_health_ in_Prison.pdf (accessed July 2010). Tracy R. Nichols University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Mozambique In 1975, an independent Marxist government was established in Mozambique by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique. An internal military uprising resulted in the formation of the Mozambican National Resistance—an anticommunist party and supported by Rhodesia, apartheid South Africa, and the United States, leading the country into a 17-year-

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long civil war. The civil war especially affected the people in the rural areas, the majority of whom are women. Hundreds of thousands were killed, and more than 4 million were internally displaced. By the late 1980s, Mozambique had one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world. A new Constitution was enacted in 1990 that provided for a multiparty political system, and the war ended in 1992. By 1997, 1.7 million Mozambican refugees returned to the country. Women were mobilized by Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, although a gendered analysis of women’s oppression was largely absent from the revolutionary struggle. Women’s emancipation within the private sphere, including subsistence farming and freedom from gendered cultural practices, were not addressed. Despite this, Mozambique is one of the few countries to have surpassed the 30 percent target of women representation in Parliament. Liberation and the Constitution The Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique guarantees equality between women and men regarding the right to access and control land, although in practice, the majority of women do not have control over land. The new Land Law is a legal instrument to protect the rights of women and acknowledges both formal and customary law. Some critics argue that this makes a conservative interpretation of customary norms available to deny women access. Despite government efforts, literacy among women has not increased significantly compared that of men, rising from 25.9 percent in 1997 to 32 percent in 2003. Women’s ability to access formal employment is generally limited because of their educational qualifications, which on average are lower than men. Several studies indicate that the main productive income-generating activities done by women are the sale of agricultural produce. Women also dominate in small business enterprises, operating between provinces and across borders. The Domestic Violence Bill of 2009 provides some insight into local debates concerning the implementation of gender equality. Some members of the press argued that the bill needs to be “more inclusive,” as it “demonizes men”—and one even introduced a new word, “mulherismo,” or “female chauvinism.” The assumption behind these claims is that women frequently commit acts of gender-based violence on men

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and that gender neutrality in the wording of the bill would be a real reflection of gender equality. Research does not concur, as a recent study in Mozambique revealed that 54 percent of interviewed women had been subject to physical or sexual violence. The study indicated that only 10 percent of cases of violence were reported to the police, partly because domestic violence is still viewed as a private matter. Powerful women in Mozambique include Luísa Dias Diogo, the first female prime minister of Mozambique. She promotes the free provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare within the region. Graça Machel is an international advocate for women’s rights. She has served as the Mozambican minister of education and vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town. Maria Mutola is an athlete who specializes in the 800-meters race. She won the gold medal at the World Athletics Championships on 1993, 2001, and 2003 and was an Olympic gold medalist in 2000. See Also: Land Mines; Property Rights; Rape, in Conflict Zones; Rural Women; Track and Field, Women in; Wars of Liberation, Women in. Further Readings da Silva, Terezinha and Ximena Andrade. Beyond Inequalities 2005: Women in Mozambique. Harare, South Africa: Southern Africa Research and Documentation Centre, 2007. Disney, Jennifer Leigh. Women’s Activism and Feminist Agency in Mozambique and Nicaragua. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008. Osório, Conceição. Subverting Political Power? Gender Analysis of the 2004 Legislative Elections in Mozambique. Maputo, Mozambique: Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust Mozambique, 2007. Danai S. Mupotsa Monash University

Ms. Magazine Ms. is an internationally circulating United Statesbased feminist magazine that is one of the longest running feminist periodicals. Established in 1969, Ms.

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was the first openly feminist magazine; it entered the marketplace with the dual goal of competing directly with nonfeminist women’s magazines and reforming the magazine industry from within. While Ms. began as a commercial magazine, it is now a not-for-profit publication. Ms.’s slogan is “More Than a Magazine— A Movement.” Ms. was cofounded by Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin; early editorial staff included Steinem and Pogrebin, as well as Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Suzanne Levine, Mary Peacock, Margaret Sloan, and Ruth Sullivan. As a former journalist, Steinem used her contacts within the publishing industry to help raise the initial capital to fund the periodical’s first issue, with a run of 300,000 copies, which was released in 1971 as a supplement to New York magazine. Following this preview issue, 26,000 people purchased subscriptions and the periodical received a stunning 20,000 letters in response. By September 1973, Ms. had a subscription base of 350,000 and an estimated readership of 1.4 million. By 1975, the publication had 400,000 subscribers. Publication History In 1979, Ms. became a not-for-profit publication. This shift was motivated by the fact that the magazine had been losing revenue annually (approximately $500,000 per year) since 1974. Not-for-profit status allowed the periodical to access the substantially lower postage costs for not-for-profit publications; also, as a not-for-profit, Ms. ran under the auspices of the Ms. Foundation for Women and Education, receiving additional support through the fund-raising activities of the organization. Despite its not-for-profit status, Ms. continued to suffer financial difficulties during the 1980s. The magazine was sold to the Australian company Fairfax in 1987. Although readership soared to 548,708 in 1988 under the leadership of Anne Summers and Sandra Yates, the publication was widely perceived as having lost its critical feminist edge. The periodical was repoliticized in 1989 with the “It’s War” issue, which took a strong pro-choice stance on abortion. The issue resulted in the withdrawal of many advertisers. As a result of its flagging revenue, the magazine was put on temporary hiatus, relaunching in 1990 as an ad-free publication under the editorial direction of Robin Morgan.

In her inaugural editorial, Morgan recommitted Ms. to representing greater diversity among women in terms of both writers and topics covered within the magazine. Coverage of countries other than the United States would be written by women from those countries, and a Board of International Advisors was established. These changes attempted to respond to criticisms leveled at Ms. for inadequately addressing diverse women. Since 2001, Ms. has been published by Liberty Media for Women, LLC, which is owned by the Feminist Majority Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization. Unlike many second-wave periodicals, which were explicitly organized as collective endeavors, from the very beginning of its publication history Ms. adopted a more formal organizational structure similar to other commercial magazines, with discrete editorial and publishing staff, although early mastheads attempted to disrupt traditional magazine hierarchy by listing staff names alphabetically. Currently, staff members’ roles include executive and managing editors, proofreaders, a strategic planning/marketing adviser, and interns. Additionally, Ms. is informed by a committee of scholars, each of whom represents an area of Women’s Studies scholarship relevant to contemporary feminist concerns. Content and Online Presence The print version of Ms. magazine is organized into four sections: Up Front, News, Features, and Departments. Up Front typically contains letters from readers, as well as a section called Keeping Score, which provides facts and figures on the status of women and important milestones achieved by feminists and feminist organizations. The News section covers both national and global news stories; in a typical issue, Ms. runs approximately 16 short news stories (one to two pages each), and divides its attention to national and global stories equally. The Features section consists of in-depth investigative articles or interviews with prominent feminists. The final section, Departments, is organized thematically. Regularly appearing departments include environment, health, economy, law, leadership, and fiction. Three final sections round out the magazine: Book Reviews, Backtalk, and No Comment. A one-page column that typically provides commentary on a contemporary feminist issue, Back-

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talk is so named since it both “talks back” to dominant culture and is literally located near the back of the publication. No Comment comprises the final, non-cover page of the magazine. For No Comment, readers submit advertisements that they find offensive due to their sexist, racist, homophobic, or classist content. The ads are reproduced in Ms. without editorial commentary, implying that the ads would be so obviously offensive to a feminist reader that they merit “no comment.” Its Website, http://www.msmagazine.com, serves as both an online version of the print magazine and an extension of it. The Website includes online versions of articles from the print magazine, a history of the magazine, an online store, and an archive of back issues, dating from 1999. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Feminism, American; Feminist Publishing; Steinem, Gloria; Women’s Cooperatives; Women’s Magazines. Further Readings Farrell, Amy Erdman. Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Steinem, Gloria. Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundries of Gender. New York: Touchstone, 1995. Thom, Mary. Inside Ms.: Twenty-Five Years of the Magazine and the Women’s Movement. New York: Henry Holt, 1997. Elizabeth Groeneveld University of Guelph

MTV On August 1, 1981, MTV, short for Music Television, played its first music video, the Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star. In the three decades since then, network executives have transformed MTV from a channel that entertained viewers with videos into a network of channels (including MTV2, MTV Europe, and mtvU) known instead for its reality television programming. MTV remains an influential force in American culture, and the network’s representation

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of women has, especially in the 21st century, garnered criticism. In 2007, Sut Jhally produced a film called Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex, and Power in Music Video. This film, like its predecessors in the series, Dreamworlds 1 and 2, examines women’s roles in music videos, and how women play subservient, passive, and fantasyfulfilling roles. Consider the Bloodhound Gang’s hit single The Bad Touch, which reached worldwide popularity in 2000. The band members shoot four women in short black dresses wearing sheer black stockings with tranquilizers and then lock them in a cage; they later force the women (and other people) to dance and perform sexually suggestive movements. The 2002 video by Jimmy Eat World for their smash hit The Middle opens with an attractive woman getting out of a car, walking to a door, and then removing her coat, under which she wears only a bra and underwear. The band plays their song during a house party where guests are only allowed to wear undergarments. Kid Rock’s popular 2008 video All Summer Long shows women dancing around in small bikinis. The video was very popular and received major rotation on MTV. Some scholars suggest that depictions of women like those in the aforementioned videos, coupled with MTV’s power to influence young minds, leads some viewers to consider women as weak and as targets for violence, especially sexual violence. Though MTV cannot be held responsible for the content of all the videos it plays, the network remains responsible for airing videos that perpetuate negative images of women. Shift in Content Starting in 2001, MTV played far fewer music videos than in the last past. Instead, reality television programs dominated the network. MTV’s Spring Break specials, a staple of the network’s spring programming, focused on popular vacation spots, and the women in bikinis visiting them. The Real World, another highly successful program, employed a voyeuristic approach and viewers turned in each week to see what drama would dominate the show, drama that typically focused on sex and deceit between house members, especially women. Other successful reality shows included The Osbournes (2002–05) and The Hills (2006–10). The

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focus of The Osbournes stayed on Ozzy, but viewers also made the show the most-watched program to air in MTV’s history because of the foul-mouthed Osbourne women, Sharon (Ozzy’s wife) and Kelly (Ozzy and Sharon’s daughter). Producers repeatedly cast Sharon in the role of martyr for dealing with Ozzy’s antics, and Kelly in the role as a dramatic, promiscuous teenager. The Hills followed a group of people living in Los Angeles. Viewers also found the women (Heidi Montag and Lauren Conrad, among others) alluring because of their theatrics; they fought regularly and cried often, usually over situations involving sex and men. The emphasis on women as martyrs or as lovers of drama perpetuates negative stereotypes of women. Contemporary programming, including 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, often portray young pregnant women as self-obsessed and obnoxious. Farrah (the focus of a 16 and Pregnant second season episode) shows her worrying more about the cheerleading squad and what she will wear to prom, than being pregnant. While MTV’s programming perpetuates negative stereotypes about teen mothers, its Website aims to educate readers about teen sex. On the homepage for 16 and Pregnant, the site provides links to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and sponsors blogs like Birth Control Methods: What Works and What Doesn’t and Does Having Low SelfEsteem Put Teen Girls at Risk for Pregnancy? MTV (and its sister networks around the world) has recently encouraged its viewers to think about important political issues, ranging from presidential elections to gay marriage. Network executives reflect progressive views in some of their broadcasting, but their depictions of women continue to encourage viewers to consider women as theatrical sex objects who make good entertainment. See Also: Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Celebrity Women; Country and Western Music, Women in; Lady Gaga; Madonna; Nicks, Stevie; Reality Television; Rock Music, Women in. Further Readings Jhally, Sut. Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex, and Power in Music Video. Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation, 2007. http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin /commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=223 (accessed July 2010).

Knopper, Steve. Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. New York: The Free Press, 2009. Williams, Kevin. Why I (Still) Want My MTV: Music Video and Aesthetic Communication. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2003. Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Mujerista Theology Women (mujeres) are claiming their voices and spaces in all areas of 21st-century life, including the arena of theology. Mujerista may not be a familiar term yet, but as demographics change in the United States, theologians and others are starting to take notice of the voices of Latinas, particularly in North America. Mujerista theology is emerging as a major expression of feminist theology from the context of the lived experience of Hispanic women. While efforts of Hispanic women to liberate themselves take varying forms in the United States, Mujerista theology is one strain of a multistranded struggle for justice and liberation of Latinas. Mujerista theology weaves together elements of feminist (feminista), cultural, and Latin American liberation theologies. Since Christian belief and practice is intrinsic to Hispanic culture, many Latina women in the United States express a need to practice their faith and do theology in light of grassroots Latina experience, refusing to deny the cultural lens they bring to their thinking and practice. In the last decade such mujeres intentionally renamed what was formerly known as “Hispanic women’s liberation theology” “Mujerista theology.” Mujerista theologians work to bring the voices and experiences of Latina women out of the margins and into the mainstream of academic study of theology, as voices and efforts made by communities of mujeristas (women who opt to struggle for and with women, particularly women living in poverty and oppression). Leading Mujerista theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz has worked extensively to articulate and define Mujerista theology for mujeristas and for the mainstream, bridging the worlds of Latina practice of Christian faith and the academy, and struggling



in solidarity with those who live at once the culture of the United States and one’s country of origin. Mujerista theology enables Latinas to understand how much they have internalized their own oppression by acclimating themselves to the prevailing systems in society—including the religious systems— rather than creating spaces for their particular voices and cultural expression within systems. Mujerista theology helps Latinas to see that radical structural change cannot happen unless radical change takes place inside each and every one of them. Within the field of biblical scholarship, the context from which a reader comes crucially impacts her/his process of doing theology. The social, cultural, and economic contexts of the reader drastically impact the questions (s)he asks of the text, and her/his interpretation and use of the text. Mujerista voices add to the emerging multiplicity of voices for a flourishing body of work in theology that ideally includes all people. Mujerista theology distinguishes itself in a number of ways. Like African American Womanist theology, from which it has drawn inspiration and influence, it emphasizes liberating praxis, which deals with concerns less typical of Caucasian women. Where Feminist theology is likely to be directed more to an economically and educationally privileged audience, Mujerista theology insists upon addressing the concrete and the particular. Doing “Mujerista Theology” unfolds theology, anthropology, and ritual from within the context of the lives of Latinos in the United States. Its goal is not complex theoretical work, but change in the understanding and lucha/struggle, and ultimately, the elimination of injustice in the lives of Latinas. See Also: Feminist Theology; Machismo/Marianismo; United States; Virgin of Guadalupe; Womanist Theology. Further Readings Dávila, Arlene. Latinos Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. de Luna, Anita. “Popular Religion and Spirituality.” In Edwin David Aponte and Miguel A. De La Torre, eds., Handbook of Latina/o Theologies, St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2006. Isasi-Díaz, Ada María. “A Hispanic Garden in a Foreign Land.” In Letty M. Russell, et al., eds., Inheriting Our

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Mothers’ Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective. Louisville, KY: Westminster Press, 1988. Isasi-Díaz, Ada María. En La Lucha: In the Struggle, Elaborating a Mujerista Theology. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993. Isasi-Díaz, Ada María. La Lucha Continues: Mujerista Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004. Carolyn Johnson Independent Scholar

Multiverses, Gender Stereotypes in The roles that men and women occupy in what has come to be known as the multiverse—that is, various graphical online environments such as EverQuest, World of Warcraft, or Second Life (which is more of a social virtual world than a game)—have been a matter of much debate and even more confusion and misunderstanding. The central issue of gender in virtual worlds seems to be whether the practices of gender stereotyping have been appropriated by the various online communities or whether, given the relative creative freedoms and anonymity of the multiverse, they have also begun to fade. This article addresses the questions of whether gender stereotypes exist in the multiverse and, if they do, what forms they tend to take. First, the persistence of stereotypes within virtual worlds is considered, and second, the ways in which these stereotypes are changing (but certainly not disappearing) is addressed. “Traditional” Gender Roles in the Multiverse Although the numbers of female video game players within the multiverse have risen over the past decades, currently making up about 40 percent of all participants, a number of gender stereotypes remain. This is so partly because gender roles in the multiverse are largely a function of the stories, films, and video games that are the influences behind its worlds, and as such, are often made up of detailed, customizable, computer-generated stereotypes that move about and interact in environments that can range from mundane to fantastical. Pictures of wellmuscled, fully armed, aggressive male avatars and

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of scantily dressed vixens are common, but so are nonhumanoids, many of whom nevertheless retain some male or female identities and characteristics. Within the universe of Second Life, participants are initially given two choices of avatar gender—male or female—and are offered ways to design and redesign their avatar once its gender identity has been established. Given this choice, a number of participants who decide to customize a female avatar (regardless of their real-life gender identity) tend to design a body with exaggerated features, such as a large bust; a tiny waist; long, flowing hair; and overly long legs. Those who choose a male-appearing avatar tend to create, among other things, a muscular, tall, broad-shouldered body. The female-appearing avatars will often pose and move in a more seductive manner, and their sitting and standing positions are often deliberately designed to signal their femininity, as often does the higher pitch of their “voices.” Indeed, Second Life’s visual, highly interactive, and customizable platform often serves as host to a variety of stereotypical gender modeling that emphasizes not a broad spectrum of gender identities but hypersexualities. Body types and manner of movement are not the only elements of game play that seem to retain much of the physical world’s gender-based stereotypes. Avatar behaviors and interactions are also often assessed and interpreted through the lens of gender stereotypes. Research has shown that in EverQuest, players offer more assistance to female-appearing characters than they would to male-appearing ones, to such an extent that a number of (real-world) males choose to appear as female avatars. Other studies have suggested that while within the multiverse, one might retain strategic advantage if playing as a female character because one is perceived as a player of lesser ability (and thus lesser potential threat or competition). However, players have also indicated that certain disadvantages still exist in game play as a female avatar, including sexual harassment, unwelcome propositions, insults, requests for cybersex, and assumptions that a character’s female identity signaled lesser abilities or intelligence. Beyond Gender Roles Despite the continued presence of gender-based stereotyping within the multiverse, challenges by virtual world designers and players alike are slowly

changing the online environments. Even though many of their efforts collapse into the familiar male– female dichotomies, a number players do “try on” different genders and attempt to experience what it is like to be perceived as another. Moreover, even though existing stereotypes might suggest otherwise, women spend more time playing than men, are less likely to quit, and often play more intensely. Even if one takes the essentialist view that there are “masculine” and “feminine” pursuits within the universe of the game, there are nevertheless invitations and built-in opportunities for men and women to switch activities or to explore each other’s virtual “occupations,” such as cooking, healing, or fighting. Finally, although the old habits of stereotypical construction of overly “masculine” or “feminine” avatars certainly remain, the varieties of fantastical creations made possible by the designers of a given game or world often do not conform to the overly sexualized social norms. In fact, within World of Warcraft, no differences exist in the game-play of male and female characters, and female-appearing avatars possess the same powers and abilities as male-appearing ones. This suggests that although stereotypes have not been left entirely behind, the multiverse is becoming a performative space in which visual and aural construction of gender is evolving and expanding beyond the conceptual limitations and epistemic boundaries found elsewhere. Although much still depends on a particular game’s rules and design, virtual spaces just might be in the process of opening up possibilities for more experimental, and gender stereotype–defying, acts of identity creation. See Also: Computer Games; Gender, Defined; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Adam, Alison and Eileen Green. Virtual Gender: Technology, Consumption and Identity Matters. London: Routledge, 2001. Carr, Diane. “Games and Gender,” in Computer Games: Text, Narrative, and Play. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2006. Corneliussen, Hilde G. and Jill Walker Rettberg. Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader. Boston: MIT Press, 2008.

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DeWester, David, et al. “Perceptions of Avatars in 3D Virtual Worlds: Impact of Task and Gender Stereotypicality.” SIGHCI 2009 Proceedings. Paper 21, 2009. http://aisel.aisnet.org/sighci2009/21 (accessed July 2010). Johnson, Bobbie. “Online Gamers Play at Swapping Gender.” Guardian (March 5, 2008). http://www .guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/05/games .internet (accessed July 2010). Jones, Steve. Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting ComputerMediated Community and Technology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998. Kirkland, Ewan. “Masculinity in Video Games: The Gendered Gameplay of Silent Hill.” Camera Obscura, v.24/2 (2009). Williams, Dmitri, et al. “Looking for Gender: Gender Roles and Behaviors Among Online Gamers.” Journal of Communication, v.59/4 (2009). Woudhuysen, J. “Computer Games and Sex Difference.” http://www.woudhuysen.com/documents/Computer GamesSexDifference.pdf (accessed July 2010).

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harassment, or domestic violence. Women remain in largely pink-collar jobs and are barred from military service. The burden of poverty falls largely on women. In recent years, women in exile have formed a Women’s Pro-Democracy movement to pressure the government to address women’s issues. One of the most famous pro-democracy advocates is Aung San Suu Kyi, an opposition leader who ran for prime minister in 1990. When she won the election with her National League for Democracy party, the military government nullified the elections and put her under house arrest. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years, even though the international community has pressured the regime to release her. While imprisoned, she won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990. In 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2007, the U.S. Congress awarded her

Anna Gotlib State University of New York, Binghamton

Myanmar Located in southeast Asia, Myanmar, or Burma as it is also known, is one of the poorest countries in the region. Myanmar is ruled by a military junta, long criticized by the international community for its human rights violations. A United Nations report listed it as one of the most repressive and abusive regimes in the world. Its citizens do not have freedom of speech, the regime censors information, and they do not allow any nongovernmental organizations to operate. The junta has severely hurt women, using sexual violence and rape for intimidation purposes and taking young girls as sex slaves. Human trafficking and prostitution are also serious issues, and Burmese girls are sold into the Thai prostitution market. Because the military government ignores human rights issues, women are at severe risk. Culturally, in Myanmar women have high social status and legally have the same rights as men. However, there are no laws regarding equal pay, sexual

A Burmese woman sorts rice. The 2008 cyclone was devastating, and most offers for aid were refused by the junta.

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the Congressional Medal of Honor. She was the first person to receive the award while in confinement. In November 2010, she was released from house arrest by the junta government. When basic human rights are routinely violated, women suffer the consequences. The ongoing fear of rape, sexual assault, or forced prostitution is daunting. The women of Myanmar suffer greatly under the repressive junta. See Also: Human Rights Campaign; Suu Kyi, Aung San; Traffic in Women and Children.

Further Readings Peters, Julie and Andrea Wolper, eds. Women’s Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 1994. Sardesai, D. R. Southeast Asian History: Essential Readings. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2006. Suu Kyi, Aung San. The Voice of Hope: Updated and Revised Edition. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2008. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

N Namibia Despite the postindependence efforts to improve the social, political, and economic position of Namibian women, there continue to be considerable discrepancies in the situations of men and women. The government of the Republic of Namibia has developed a substantial Gender Machinery (a system embodied by governmental institutions aimed at the promotion of gender equality) and counts on a significant number of associations working on women’s issues. Yet, customary law still has a great influence in women’s daily lives at all levels. Women in Namibia constitute 51 percent of the population. Female life expectancy is 62 years. Literacy ratio for women compared with men is 0.96. These differences increase when talking about income ratio, as women’s salaries are almost half of those of men (0.57), despite the fact that women’s participation in the labor force is 46 percent. There are 30 percent of women in decision-making positions: 55 percent are female professionals and specialized workers. Since 2005, parliament seats are 27 percent women. The National Gender Machinery is composed of a Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, as well as gender focal points in any other ministry, all of which are used to coordinate gender mainstreaming. However, there are no governmental gender structures locally yet. The government of Namibia is linked to supranational organizations, with specific

gender units within them at the regional and the continental levels. The numerous women’s associations of Namibia are working on legal reforms; on raising awareness on the position of Namibian women; at lobbying on legal, medical, and emotional issues; on offering support to female victims of gender-based violence; on creating resource and research centers; and so on. In terms of health, many Nigerian women are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive. The legal system includes the following: the Constitution of Namibia, which recognizes the significance of gender differences, enshrines the principle of equality, and prohibits gender-based discrimination, among other forms; the 1996 Married Persons Equality Act, which grants men and women equal access to property beyond land and allows that right to each spouse without his or her partner’s consent; the 1997 National Gender Policy, which increases female participation in politics and decision making at all levels; the 2003 Anti-Rape Law, which broadens the definition of rape and punishes perpetrators of spousal rape; and Article 5 of the 2007 Labour Law, which prohibits sexual discrimination at the workplace. Namibian legislation guarantees women’s civil rights, but discriminatory traditions widely persist. Although the constitution enshrines gender equality, the daily lives of a vast majority of women continue to be determined by customary and common law in a population setting in which 80 percent of 991

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the inhabitants are Christian. Legislation has had little effect on changing attitudes and practices that are embedded within culture and tradition. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined. Further Readings LeBeau, D. “The Changing Status of Women in Namibia and Its Impact on Violence Against Women.” In Ingolf Diener and Olivier Graefe, eds., Contemporary Namibia: The First Landmarks of a Post-Apartheid Society. Windhoek, Namibia: Gamsberg Macmillan, 2001. Zuckerman, Elaine and Marcia Greenberg. “The Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction: An Analytical Framework for Policymakers.” Gender and Development, v.12/3 (2004). Juan Rodríguez-Medela University of Granada

Nannies The term nanny popularly evokes images of Mary Poppins or Supernanny Jo Frost—a woman with a British accent who, through magic or management, solves all problems. Then there are the headline nannies whose exploits with celebrity employers are the stuff of tabloid titillation. The reality in the 21st century is that a nanny may be a college-educated professional on the lists of some pricey agency or, more likely, a woman who has emigrated from the Philippines, Central America, or the Caribbean. She—nannies are predominantly female—is employed on either a live-in or live-out, part-time or full-time basis to care for children within the home, typically working from 40 to 60 hours per week. According to a 2006 survey by the International Nanny Association, a nanny’s salary ranges from $300 to $1,000 per week. As Western women have entered previously male-dominated jobs in business, politics, and other professions, the need for a nanny has grown proportionally. In the United States, two-thirds of women with children provide the primary source of family income or an essential supplementary income. More than half of

mothers with children younger than 6 years work outside the home. Of the childcare options available to these women, the preferred choice for those who can afford to do so is to hire a nanny. The need for childcare within the home has been filled to a high degree by millions of women from poor countries immigrating to wealthy nations. Since the 1960s, women have accounted for international migration in ever-increasing numbers; in 2008, they made up almost 50 percent of emigrants worldwide. Unknown numbers of these women end up working as nannies. Some lack formal education and employable skills. Others, who have been educated for a profession, lack the credentials that will allow them to work in their fields. All possess the domestic skills almost universally defined as “women’s work,” and for some their only choice is between working as a nanny, a housekeeper, or a maid and prostitution. In many cases, these women leave their own children in their native land, often in the care of a grandmother, with months or even years between visits. They send home a large portion of their earnings, hoping to provide a better life for their families. Their earnings are important not only for the families they left but also for the economies of their countries. In the Philippines, for example, overseas employment is considered a major component in the national economy. According to the Philippine Central Bank, for 11 sequential months in 2006–07, deposits from overseas employment remained above the $1 billion mark. Given the importance of their salaries, it is unsurprising that when visas, usually given for only a few months, expire, women continue in their jobs as undocumented workers—a situation some employers are willing to exploit because it allows them to avoid paying the “nanny tax,” Social Security, and Medicare taxes. The most fortunate of the nannies are well paid, well treated, and able to forge a better future for themselves and their families, but some are victims of many kinds of abuse, from low wages to sexual harassment and even rape. Even in the best of situations, they are vulnerable to indignities and insecurities. Lucy Kaylin, executive editor of Marie Claire and author of The Perfect Stranger: The Truth About Mothers and Nannies, describes a “status hierarchy” that allots higher salaries to white nannies than to nannies who are women of color. Nannies also lack job security. Even long employment ends when a

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child reaches the age when a nanny’s care is no longer required. Changing circumstances may render a nanny redundant, as many found in the economic crunch of the early 21st century, when layoffs and downsizing made nannies dispensable. Without citizenship, and often without legal documentation, the emigrants who work as nannies have little recourse when they are mistreated. Domestic workers are not covered under the National Labor Relations Act. Unlike men who immigrate and find employment as construction workers or cab drivers, nannies are isolated from one another and are nearly invisible to the outside world. They lack the information that is passed to the more experienced about rights and protections, and activists have discovered that traditional strategies are ineffective. Efforts to win some protection for nannies and other domestic workers in Houston failed, although campaigns in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C., have fared somewhat better. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles worked for years to win overtime pay for nannies and saw the bill pass the state legislature in 2006, only to have it vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who claimed it would not benefit the nanny business. New York has proposed a Bill of Rights, drafted by Domestic Workers United, an organization of Caribbean, Latina, and African domestic workers, that would guarantee nannies and other domestic workers overtime pay, vacation and sick days, protection from discrimination, and notice before termination. See Also: Childcare; Domestic Workers; Philippines; Professions by Gender. Further Readings Ehrenreich, Barbara and Arlie Russell Hochschild, eds. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003. Kaylin, Lucy. The Perfect Stranger: The Truth About Mothers and Nannies. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007. Liebelt, Claudia. “On Sentimental Orientalists, Christian Zionists, and Working Class Cosmopolitans.” Critical Asian Studies, v.40/4 (2008). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

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NARAL NARAL Pro-Choice America is one of the leading organizations in the United States seeking to advance and protect reproductive rights. It works to elect prochoice candidates to public office, organizes individuals throughout the country to advocate on behalf of reproductive rights and defend against antichoice efforts, lobbies members of Congress, and conducts research and analysis on relevant legislation and judicial decisions at the federal and state levels. NARAL Pro-Choice America consists of three branches that fulfill different roles: NARAL Pro-Choice Inc., NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, and NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC. The organization also has 22 state affiliates that operate independently to engage with state politics and policy. History and Structure In 1969, a group of activists established the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL). Four years later, following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, the organization kept the acronym but changed its name to the National Abortion Rights Action League. In 1993, it again kept the acronym and revised its name to the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, prior to changing its name to NARAL Pro-Choice America. NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc., is a 501(c)(4) organization, holding a tax-exempt status that allows it to conduct lobbying activities and participate in legislative processes. NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation has 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status that enables it to receive tax-deductible donations but restricts the type of political activity in which it may engage. NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC is a political action committee that contributes financially to pro-choice political candidates and further engages in electoral politics. Established in 1978, NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC is the largest nonpartisan pro-choice political action committee in the United States. NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc., the 501(c)(4) organization, advocates for comprehensive reproductive health policies and reproductive choice. It uses the political and legislative systems, engaging members across the country and lobbying legislators. Excluding electoral activities that the foundation are prohibited from being involved with NARAL Pro-

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Choice America, Inc., and the foundation are largely intertwined. Sharing office space and staff, together they conduct strategic planning and implement advocacy and public education campaigns. The authority to endorse political candidates, however, lies solely with NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC. Much of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s work between 2000 and 2008 was oriented toward defeating antichoice legislation, judicial appointments, ballot measures, and corporate policy, while mobilizing grassroots efforts to elect pro-choice candidates, support pro-choice elected officials, and expand women’s access to reproductive healthcare. For example, the organization helped increase women’s access to emergency contraception by acting to persuade Walmart and Kroger to carry it. It also helped prevent President George W. Bush’s antichoice nominee from receiving a lifetime appointment as a U.S. district court judge. In 2004, the organization cosponsored the March for Women’s Lives that included between 500,000 and 1.15 million participants, making it one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history. In May 2008, three months before the conclusion of the Democratic presidential primary campaign, NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC made the controversial decision to endorse Democratic candidate Barack Obama for president. NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan explained that both Senator Obama and his opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, were equally pro-choice, but Senator Obama was likely to win the primary. In 2009, with a Democratic president and congressional majority, the organization worked to increase low-income women’s access to abortion, reduce obstacles to comprehensive sexual education, and increase funding for family-planning programs in the United States and abroad. It added more than 160,000 email activists, who participated in campaigns sending 340,000 e-mails to legislators on behalf of reproductive rights. In early 2010, NARAL Pro-Choice America focused on health insurance reform, organizing and lobbying against the inclusion of antichoice proposals. Ultimately, the organization did not endorse the bill because of its restrictions on abortion coverage, but it also did not call for its defeat, as the bill’s other reproductive health provisions were worthwhile. The organization also called for President Obama to nominate, and Congress to confirm, a pro-choice Supreme Court Justice to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

Leadership and Staff NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc., and NARAL ProChoice America Foundation have separate boards of directors made up of from 21 to 30 members and no more than 21 members, respectively. All serve three-year terms. NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc., board members may also be elected to serve on the PAC. Annually, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Inc., has three board meetings, and the foundation has at least two. Board members also participate in conference calls and committee meetings. Board members include civic leaders, former elected officials, and healthcare experts. To protect the safety of its staff, NARAL Pro-Choice America is housed in a secure building and does not publish the names of staff members or board members. NARAL Pro-Choice America relies on members for financial support and, critically, for activism toward shared goals. As of 2010, NARAL Pro-Choice America has 1 million members, or “member activists,” who are located in every state. NARAL Pro-Choice America partners with a number of pro-choice organizations, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the National Asian Pacific American Forum, SisterSong, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and the National Abortion Federation. In partnership with organizations that specifically represent women of color, NARAL Pro-Choice America collaborates on lobbying efforts, cosponsors SisterSong’s annual conference, and consults with the organizations’ leaders on increasing engagement with diverse communities. On issues such as judicial nominations, NARAL ProChoice America partners with groups in the broader progressive community, such as the Human Rights Campaign, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Alliance for Justice, and People for the American Way. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, United States; Planned Parenthood; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Roe v. Wade. Further Readings Hayden, S. “Revitalizing the Debate between Life and Choice: The 2004 March for Women’s Lives.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, v.6/2 (2009).

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Keenan, N. “Why NARAL Pro-Choice America Endorsed Barack Obama.” The Huffington Post (May 2008). http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-keenan/why-naral -pro-choice-amer_b_101708.html (accessed April 2010). NARAL Pro-Choice America. http://www.prochoice america.org (accessed June 2010). Shin, Y. “Constituency Opinion and PAC Contributions: A Case of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.” Public Choice, v.118/1/2 (2004). Perrin L. Elkind University of California, Berkeley

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only art museum in the United States that is dedicated to the work of women artists. Wilhelmina Cole Holladay founded the museum in 1981 after

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her good friend Nancy Hanks, the first female chair of the National Endowment of the Arts, jokingly suggested that Holladay and her spouse, Wallace F. Holladay, start a museum with their collection of approximately 500 works by women artists that they had acquired over a 20-year period. Today the collection includes more than 3,000 works by more than 800 women artists, dating from the 16th century to the present, and represents a broad range of media, styles, and nationalities. For example, the collection includes works by 16th-century Italian painter Lavinia Fontana, 19th-century French sculptor Camille Claudel, and 20th-century Mexican photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo. The mission of the museum is to bring recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities. The museum supports this mission by preserving and acquiring artworks in the permanent collection, holding special exhibitions, offering approximately 80 educational and outreach programs annually to the community and educators, and maintaining a library and research center

The interior of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. The museum’s mission is to display and bring recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities.

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that includes files on more than 18,000 women artists and more than 18,500 books and catalogues. The museum also publishes a quarterly magazine for museum members, Women in the Arts, and books on women artists. According to Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, her interest in collecting art by women artists began when she and her husband were traveling in Europe in the early 1970s and saw works by 17th-century Flemish painter Clara Peeters in museums in Austria and Spain. On their return to the United States, they discovered that there was no mention of Peeters, or of any other woman artist, in art history reference books. The Holladays began collecting artworks, focusing on the contributions of women artists. The museum began as tours of the Holladays’ collection in their home in 1981. The collection was relocated to a historic building near the White House in 1983, and in 1987 it was moved to its present location at 1250 New York Avenue NE in Washington, D.C. The museum has more than 200,000 members and has hosted 1.2 million visitors since opening. One of the museum’s growth goals is to expand its network of 28 U.S. state and three international committees that help support the museum. The National Museum of Women in the Arts has promoted a greater recognition of women artists and their contributions to the history of art. In 1986, Janson’s History of Art, an authoritative text on art history, included women artists for the first time since its initial publication in 1962. In 2006, Holladay was awarded both the National Medal of Arts from the U.S. government and the Legion of Honor from the French government for her services to the arts. She serves as chair of the museum board of trustees. See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Studio Arts, Women in. Further Readings Cole Holladay, Wilhelmina. A Museum of Their Own: National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Abbeville, 2008. National Museum of Women in the Arts. http://www .nmwa.org (accessed December 2009). Smart Woman. “A Museum of Their Own: Founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.” http://smart

womanonline.com/feature/2009/01/a-museum-of -their-own (accessed December 2009). Deborah R. Bassett University of Washington

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women, commonly called NOW, is currently the largest nonprofit membership organization in the United States working to advance women’s civil rights. The history of this activist organization began with its formation in 1966 and includes significant examples of public demonstrations for women’s equality in all aspects of women’s lives. As a contemporary organization, NOW has been publically advocating for six priority issues: advocating constitutional equality, ending violence against women, supporting abortion rights and other reproductive issues, promoting diversity and ending racism, forwarding lesbian rights, and ensuring economic justice for women. The organization was formed in 1966 by several feminist activists who were advocating the enforcement of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited sex discrimination in employment. Founding members included a large circle of feminist activists and academics, including Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique; Dr. Pauli Murray, activist and attorney; and Aileen Hernandez, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner. Other founding members active in the early leadership of NOW include Richard Graham, Caroline Davis, Inka O’hanrahan, Rosalind Loring, Mary Eastwood, and Kay Clarenbach. The organizing conference was held in October 1966, with 30 attendees representing approximately 300 charter members. At the conference, NOW founding members wrote a Statement of Purpose for the organization, which was formed to bring women closer to the goals of equality and partnership with men. In order to achieve this goal, target areas were formed for equal opportunity of employment, legal and political rights, education, women in poverty, the family, the image of women, and religion.



The first elected president of NOW was Betty Friedan, who served in this role between 1966 and 1970. As president, she brought the spotlight of celebrity to the organization due to the success of her best-selling book, The Feminine Mystique, attracting greater numbers of members. During her tenure, the organization also continued to become more politically and publically active. For example, NOW members initiated a persuasive boycott against ColgatePalmolive products in protest of rules that barred women from certain company positions. In another example, NOW members organized large public demonstrations outside the offices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in every large city in the United States to decry the use of sex-specific job advertisements in newspapers, a practice that continued despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both efforts resulted in more public awareness and an end to these discriminatory practices. Finally, NOW also became the first national organization to officially support the legalization of abortion while under Friedan’s leadership. Throughout the 1970s, NOW experienced continued growth in membership and more success in lobbying and activist activities. In 1970, NOW organized the “Women’s Strike for Equality” event in cities throughout the United States to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment that gave women the right to vote: in New York City, an estimated 50,000 women participated in the walk down Fifth Avenue. In 1972, NOW organized a campaign to recognize girls as equal to boys in all facets of education and celebrated when Congress passed the Education Amendments of 1972, which included the Title IX protections that guarantee equal education opportunities, including sports, to girls and boys. In the mid1970s, organizers from NOW aided the movement to redefine rape as a crime of violence, and they helped plan the first “Take Back the Night” rally to protest violence against women in 1975. Later in the 1970s, NOW’s platform expanded to specifically include the rights and interests of battered women and lesbians. Nearly from its inception, NOW provided public support of the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would affirm the equality of men and women. After significant lobbying efforts by NOW and other feminist organizations, the ERA

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was passed by overwhelming majorities in the U.S. House and Senate in 1972. As is required by the Constitution, the Congress then sent the proposed amendment to the individual state legislatures, seeking the required three-quarters approval within seven years. By 1977, 35 of the required 38 states had voted to ratify the ERA, and when the deadline approached in 1979, NOW organized a march of 100,000 women down Constitution Avenue to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., to push Congress for an extension. Although the extension was ultimately granted, the ERA failed in 1982 when no additional states moved for ratification. NOW continues to support the amendment, and it has been reintroduced into the Senate every subsequent year by legislators such as Edward Kennedy (former D-MA) and Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY). Although the ERA failed to become an amendment to the Constitution, NOW has continued to advocate for women’s rights and has been successful in attracting media attention to these issues, often with large public rallies in Washington, D.C., and other cities. For example, NOW sponsored a massive public demonstration in 1992 called the “March for Women’s Lives” that involved 500,000 demonstrators who gathered on the mall in Washington to advocate for women’s reproductive rights. In 1995, NOW organized another demonstration at the capitol that was designed to draw attention to violence against women, and more than 250,000 attended. In 2004, NOW drew 1.15 million demonstrators to the nation’s capitol to advocate women’s reproductive health rights. NOW Foundation In 1986, The NOW Foundation was formed to specifically engage in litigation, education, and advocacy for women’s rights in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. Unlike NOW, which is a political organization, the NOW Foundation is registered as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The NOW Foundation is closely allied with NOW, and the two organizations share office space and support staff. The foundation uses litigation to protect reproductive health options, including abortions. In a famous example, NOW used federal antitrust laws to sue Joe Scheidler and other antiabortion activists, claiming that Schiedler and the others had conspired to close women’s health clinics. The case was highly contested and was in litigation for 20 years, eventually being

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heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. When the court ruled against NOW on February 20, 2006, NOW publically stated that such a ruling could make safe access to reproductive choices even more difficult for women, and it vowed to continue to protect a woman’s right to choices in reproductive health. The NOW Foundation also uses education and advocacy to promote the goals of equality for women through the planning and implementation of conferences, seminars, and training sessions. One example of this work is the Love Your Body Campaign. Started in 1998, the Campaign’s focus is to promote healthy, positive body images for women in the face of the negative and unrealistic messages about women’s bodies popular in the media. The Love Your Body Campaign involves educational events at many college campuses and a poster contest with a cash prize. The NOW Foundation also promotes voter-empowerment programs, encouraging women to vote and to become and remain politically active. Contemporary Issues Currently, NOW focuses its activism on the six priority issues of advocating constitutional equality, ending violence against women, supporting abortion rights and other reproductive issues, promoting diversity and ending racism, forwarding lesbian rights, and ensuring economic justice for women. The issue of constitutional equality is an issue that continues to retain central importance to members of NOW, despite the 1982 failure of the ERA. NOW argues that any progress in women’s equality in job opportunities and pay, politics, and education will always risk erosion until they are protected by a constitutional amendment that guarantees equality between women and men. A second key issue of NOW’s agenda is to end violence against women. This focus has been a central tenet since the founding of the organization, and NOW continues to fight all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, violence at abortion clinics, and hate crimes related to gender and sexual identity. Special campaigns constructed to address violence have focused on sexual assault specifically on college campuses and in the branches of the U.S. Military. Supporting abortion rights and other reproductive concerns is the third key issue for NOW, which

fully supports a woman’s right to a legal abortion. Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that upheld a woman’s legal right to abortion, NOW has rallied against the erosion of abortion rights in state and federal legislation. NOW also campaigns for effective birth control and emergency contraception. The organization is particularly concerned that women retain the right to receive reproductive education in schools and in health clinics. A fourth priority for NOW is the promotion of diversity and the ending of racism. As a civil rights organization, NOW has consistently maintained a position against racism and has publically supported every civil rights bill that has been considered by federal legislators since its inception. NOW also has a specific campaign for the concerns faced by undocumented, immigrant women and supports immigration reform that would recognize the basic rights of undocumented individuals. Lesbian rights is the fifth key issue in NOW’s current platform and has been an official part of NOW’s focus since 1971. By 1973, NOW organized the Task Force on Sexuality and Lesbianism and resolved to introduce and support civil rights legislation to end discrimination based on sexual orientation. More recently, NOW has applauded the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal hate crime laws to include crimes based on gender or sexual identity or orientation. NOW has supported the repeal of the the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy currently enforced by all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces that requires gay and lesbian service people to hide their sexual preference to retain their positions. In March 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a proposal to repeal the law, and government leaders, including President Obama, remained hopeful that the policy will be overturned. NOW also supports the equal rights of marriage for all, including gay and lesbian couples. Finally, the sixth priority issue promoted by NOW is economic justice for women, and the organization continues to rally for equal pay for women and men in comparable positions, a goal that has not yet been achieved. NOW is also committed to other economic issues impacting women, including welfare reform, job discrimination, livable wages, housing discrimination, and social security and

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pension reform. Toward these ends, NOW began the Women-Friendly Workplace and Campus Campaign that publicizes the concerns of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace through consumer pledges of support for women-friendly organizations, employer pledges of minimum standards for women in the workplace, and direct action and consumer campaigns targeted against the merchants who have poor track records in discrimination and equality in the workplace. NOW continues to promote advocacy work and education to promote equality for women. NOW maintains an active Website that serves as a clearinghouse for news and events of interest to NOW members at http://www.now.org. See Also: Equal Rights Amendment; Feminism, American; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Sex Education, Comprehensive. Further Readings Barasko, Maryann. Governing NOW: Grassroots Activism In The National Organization For Women. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. Commire, Anne. Live From The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion: NOW’s 20th Anniversary [VHS Recording]. Peg Yorkin Productions, 1986. National Organization for Women. “History of N.O.W.” http://www.now.org/history/index.html (accessed December 2009). Jennifer Adams DePauw University

National Women’s Political Caucus The National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) was founded in 1971 by Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan. Originally the group was organized as a response to the lack of women both in public office and as political appointees. The NWPC started out as a local grassroots organization focused on getting women elected to public office at every level. In 1973, the NWPC became one of the first organizations to open a

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Washington, D.C., office with the idea of lobbying Congress and promoting the election of women. Initial lobbying efforts focused on the Equal Rights Amendment. Subsequently, the group began to focus on other women’s issues. The NWPC defined its objectives early on when it decided not to endorse Shirley Chisholm in 1972 for president. Instead, NWPC founders such as Bella Abzug believed the caucus needed to focus on statewide caucuses and to gain political representation for women at local and national political conventions. The NWPC continued to believe that getting women into public office, from the local level up to Congress, was a top priority. The NWPC pressured the political parties to be more inclusive of women. Even though the group was only established in 1971, it worked with other interest groups to increase female representation at the 1972 political conventions. NWPC leadership called for proportional representation of delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. As a result, the number of women delegates was increased at the 1972 convention compared with the 1968 convention. During the 1980s, the NWPC worked to reduce sexism in the federal code and to improve insurance and pension legislation. The NWPC emphasized the mobilization of voters over advocating the forms of protest commonly used in the 1970s and 1980s. Following the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas, the NWPC ran an advertisement in the New York Times pointing to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s all-male membership. As part of the campaign, NWPC President Harriett Woods went to New York to pressure magazines to write articles calling 1992 “The Year of the Woman.” The NWPC’s political action committee played a significant role in funding women’s campaigns during this election cycle. In 1994, the NWPC commissioned an oft-cited study uncovering the fact that men and women in traditionally political occupations perceived running for public office differently. They found that half of the women believed they were not qualified to run for public office. Reductions in membership during the 1980s and 1990s forced NWPC to reduce the size of its staff, and today it only has one full-time employee. Still, at this time, the NWPC belongs to a number of active

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lobbying coalitions and uses its political action committee to focus government attention on concerns such as pay equity and family-planning issues. Local chapters in 38 states continue to work on getting women elected to public office and to raise awareness for national women’s issues. To help women get elected to public office, the NWPC offers training literature and provides local and national training to women seeking public office at the local and national levels. Its workshops focus on encouraging women to run for public office and teaching women how to develop winning campaign strategies. See Also: EMILY’S List; Equal Rights Amendment; League of Women Voters; Government, Women in; Representation of Women in Government, U.S.; Social Justice Activism; Steinem, Gloria. Further Readings Boles, Janet K. “Form Follows Function: The Evolution of Feminist Strategies.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v.515 (1991). Darcy, R., et al. Women, Elections, and Representations. Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. Freeman, J. “Women at the 1988 Democratic Convention.” PS: Political Science and Politics, v.21/4 (1988). Sawyers, Traci M. and David S. Meyer. “Missed Opportunities: Social Movement Abeyance and Public Policy.” Social Problems, v.46/2 (1999). Angela L. Bos Alexander Lans College of Wooster

National Women’s Studies Association The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) is a professional organization meant to lead the fields of Women’s Studies and gender studies, both educationally and socially. The organization believes that Women’s Studies is vital to education and is comparative, global, intersectional, and interdisciplinary. Scholarship, activism, and teaching are not mutually exclusive for members of the NWSA but, rather, inseparable elements of academic life.

The first convention of the NWSA was held at the University of San Francisco on January 13–16, 1977. A founding preamble to the NWSA Constitution was adopted at this meeting, which outlined the mission and goals of the NWSA and also credited the movement for the liberation of women via the existence of women’s studies. The preamble was revised in 1982 to incorporate more inclusive language. The original document cited the need to eradicate sexism and racism; the revised edition builds on that need, adding the abolition of class and ethnic bias; anti-Semitism, as directed against both Arabs and Jews; ageism; and heterosexual bias. NWSA membership is composed of approximately 2,000 faculty, staff, and students from educational institutions of all levels, employees of women’s centers, and community scholars. The organization is led by a president, who serves as the intellectual leader for NWSA and also spearheads the programming for the annual conference, and a full-time executive director, as well as a director of media and technology, a deputy director, a national administrator, and a member services and operations coordinator. The staff aids the NWSA in its mission to further the social, political, and professional development of its members through publications, conferences, workshops, job listings, scholarships, and supporting scholarship that transforms the knowledge of women and puts that knowledge into practice. The major publication of the organization, the NWSA Journal, is currently published triennially by Johns Hopkins University Press. Although it is independently incorporated, the NWSA Journal, similar to its flagship organization, is committed to publishing feminist research and creating space for dialogue among feminist scholars. As of January 1, 2010, the journal will be published at the University of Minnesota under the name Feminist Formations. It has been published previously at the Ohio State University, University of New Hampshire, Appalachian State University, Iowa State University, and Louisiana State University. Along with the NWSA Journal, the NWSA has produced numerous publications to further scholarship and curriculum development in women’s studies and gender studies such as Liberal Learning and the Women’s Studies Major; Guide to Graduate Work In Women’s/Gender Studies; Bridges of Power: Women’s Multicultural Alliances; The Courage to Question:



Women’s Studies and Student Learning; and Students at the Center: A Feminist Assessment. The NWSA hosts a conference in a different location annually that brings together feminist scholars and activists from around the globe. The president of the NWSA leads the planning for the annual gatherings. Each conference celebrates a particular theme pertinent to the field of women’s studies and includes plenary sessions that celebrate the diverse work of leading feminist scholars and activists, panels and workshops proposed by NWSA members, and feminist cultural events and entertainment. Proposals for conference papers and posters are accepted from students, faculty, community members, and representatives from women’s centers. One hundred registration and travel scholarships are available for each conference for students, activists, and community members who are presenting and demonstrate financial need. The NWSA has a strong commitment to providing support and resources to women’s studies and gender studies scholars. Each year the organization recognizes excellence in the field of women’s studies with scholarships and monetary prizes. The Sara A. Whaley Book Prize honors members for exceptional books on the topic of women and labor. The Gloria Anzaldúa Book Prize is awarded for groundbreaking women’s studies scholarship, with a specific focus on multicultural and transnational issues for women of color. The NWSA offers a distinguished fellowship each year to a feminist scholar who has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to women’s studies. The recipient spends a summer, semester, or full academic year in residence at the NWSA office in College Park, Maryland, working on a research project dedicated to the promotion and development of Women’s Studies scholarship. The NWSA also offers several scholarships for eligible graduate students. The NWSA Graduate Scholarship Award is granted to a student who will be writing a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation in the fall of the year the award is granted; the Lesbian Caucus Scholarship is given to the graduate student whose master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation project emphasizes the goals of the NWSA and the Lesbian Caucus; and four awards are given by the Women of Color Caucus to graduate students of African descent; Latina descent; Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander/Arab/Middle Eastern descent;

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and African Native American, American Indian, and Alaskan Native descent. The history of the NWSA has been controversial at times. The annual conference at the University of Akron in 1990 was a watershed moment for the members and leaders of the NWSA, as attendees argued over the future goals of the association. It was decided, however, that the NWSA is needed to foster interdisciplinary scholarship; to promote feminist theory, pedagogy, and practice; to establish the professional identities of women’s studies scholars; and to mentor graduate students in women’s studies. See Also: College and University Faculty; Education, Women in; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Feminism, American; Feminist Publishing; Social Justice Activism; Women’s Studies. Further Readings McFadden, Margaret, ed. “25 Years of NWSA: Vision, Controversy, Transformation.” NWSA Journal, v.14/1 (2002). National Women’s Studies Association. http://www.nwsa .org (accessed November 2009). Katie M. White University of Maryland, College Park

Native American Religion At the beginning of European contact with the Western Hemisphere in the 16th century, there were literally hundreds of small-scale traditional or tribal religions throughout the Americas. At the core of many of those religions were expressions of the creative power as a goddess who grew from the power of women and the feminine. Many new religious movements among Native Americans over the centuries of contact grew from both Native traditions and unique interpretations of Christian teachings, which also focused on the role of women in bringing God or the gods to life on Earth. By the start of the 20th century, many tribal religions, especially in North America, had diminished or disappeared due to violence, disease, missionization, and a systematic persecution of Native Ameri-

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can religious traditions. As women’s rights became an issue in industrialized nations and women gained the right to vote in many parts of the world, restrictions against traditional religious practice among Native Americans began to ease and a resurgence of interest in the preservation of traditional philosophies among tribal nations emerged. In Native American religions, as in most religions, the first contact with the sacred is through our mothers. Membership in a tribal religion is through birth from a woman, affiliation with a clan with its requisite clan mothers, or membership in a tribe where women were the head of the family, the clan, or recognized as the chief or head of the tribe. Birth is a sacred event and is marked by Native religious practice as something more than a woman having a baby. The tribe has a new citizen and at birth becomes a son or daughter, grandchild, niece or nephew, and the responsibility of the entire tribal community. A name for the newborn is given from or through the ancestors or spirits associated with the tribal religion, and family, clan, and tribe realizes the promise of new life and a continuation of the ancestral ways. For every child, puberty signals another time of ceremony to celebrate the acquisition of more responsibility and status: in Native American religions, the puberty ceremony for the transition of girls to women is more marked than it is for boys. A girl’s menarche, or first menses, engenders an intense time of teaching about her fecundity and potential contribution to the future of the entire tribe. The ceremonies of menarche are often four days of fasting, sweating, instruction on the role of women in the tribe, and the acquisition of power through the changes in her body. She is a new woman, and as such can attract good or bad intentions from other tribal members or even outsiders who might exploit her power for their own selfish ends. Throughout the life of each Native American, these transitions are noted by contact with women of the tribe; mother, grandmother, wife, daughter, and grandchildren, as well a recognition of the power of the feminine at the heart of those rites of passage. Women give birth to boys and girls, marry men, heal and mourn the dead men or women-and replace the dead with their power to give birth. Just as many religions in the world rely on men or women to worship and celebrate a male creator, most

Native American religions lay out paths for their believers to find their way to the sacred feminine. Central American Catholicism centers around the worship of the Virgin de Guadalupe, and millions of recent immigrants of predominantly Central American Indian ancestry have brought those religious ideas to the United States. Even though tribal religions in North America accouns for only few million, the addition of Native American Catholics, whose spiritual path takes them to the feet of the “brown virgin,” should be counted as followers of Native American religions as well. Contemporary Native American Religious Expression Native American religious ideas have also found their way into contemporary religious expressions through the New Age religious movements, not only in America, but also in Western Europe. Worship of the goddess or goddesses of creation, celebration of the earth and its cycles (which harmonize with women and their cycles), the use of the sweat lodge as a method purification and rebirth, and a recognition of women and the feminine as core beliefs are shared by both Native American religions and most New Age religious sects. Language and culture revitalization efforts by tribes in the United States have found their greatest success through the development of programs that focus on teaching young women of chil-bearing age. In reverse of church and government policies of the 19th and early 20th century, which took children, especially girls, from the homes of Native Americans for instruction and “civilization” in white culture, Native American leaders recognize the role of women as first and primary teachers of new generations of tribal citizens. There are more than 560 federally recognized tribes in the United States, and overo200 groups that have applied for federal recognition since applications were opened in the late 1970s. Once women in the dominant society gained voting rights and began to get elected in significant numbers to leadership positions, women leaders were also allowed to emerge among Native American tribes. Ada Deer, a Menominee, led the movement to reestablish the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin in the 1970s, and went on to become the first woman to lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs (1993–97). The late Wilma Mankiller was elected to lead the largest Native

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American tribe, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. All across the United States, women are being elected to tribal councils and as chiefs, governors, and chairpersons of tribes which a hundred years earlier, faced the end of their religious and cultural identity. Native American tribes are undergoing a resurgence of their traditional religions. Women and expressions of the feminine are at the core of that revival. Languages once forgotten are being taught to mothers, who teach their children and grandchildren, and the circle of traditional teaching centered on the family is once again being embraced by Native American women. See Also: Indigenous Religions; LaDuke, Winona; Mankiller, Wilma; Religion, Women in; Virgin of Guadelupe. Further Readings Allen, Paul Gunn. The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Boston: Beacon Press. 1992. LaDuke, Winona. Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming. Cambridge, MA: South End Press. 2005 Mankiller, Wilma. Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2004. Johnny P. Flynn Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis

Nauru After years of foreign occupation by Australia and other nations and a period as a League of Nations mandate, the Pacific island of Nauru achieved independence in 1968, becoming the world’s smallest independent republic in 1999. By 2008, the entire island had become urbanized. Ethnically, 58 percent of the population is Nauruan, and 27 percent is Pacific Islanders. The island is religiously divided among Nauru Congregationalists (35.4 percent), Roman Catholics (33.2 percent), and Nauru Independent Church (10.4 percent). Suffrage is compulsory for all Nauruans aged 20 years and older, but few women participate in politics. Reports indicate that many women have

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been intimidated when trying to cast ballots. There are no women in parliament. Feminist scholars have attributed this fact to cultural prejudice that prevents women from taking an active role in either politics or religion. Although no specific data exist on incidences of domestic violence, evidence suggests most families deal with the issue on their own. Economically, Nauru is struggling for survival. When it became clear that phosphate supplies on which Nauru’s economy depended were being exhausted, the government established a trust fund to prepare for a transition economy. However, those funds were used for other purposes, plunging the government into virtual bankruptcy. Subsequently, wages were frozen, and government staffs were cut. By the early 21st century, Nauru had a per capita income of $5,000 and an unemployment rate of 90 percent. The median age for Nauruan females is 22.2 years. With an infant mortality rate of 9.25 deaths per 1,000 live births, Nauru ranks 155th in the world. From the beginning of life, female infants (6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a survival advantage over boys (11.58 deaths per 1,000 live births). This advantage continues throughout life, resulting in a female life expectancy of 68 years compared with that of men (61 years). Nauruan women have an average fertility rate of 2.85 children per woman. Nauruan women generally attend school for nine years—a year longer than men. In response to international pressure following the Beijing Women’s Conference in 1995, the government of Nauru launched a conscious effort to improve the life of women on the island. In 1997, a Women’s Office was created at the national level to monitor women’s rights and promote professional opportunities for women. A new national plan identified the following areas in which women’s issues needed to be addressed: health, education and training, violence, human rights, decision making, economics, media, the environment, culture, and agriculture and fisheries. See Also: Australia; Educational Opportunities/Access; Environmental Issues, Women and; Health, Mental and Physical; Indigenous Women’s Issues. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Nauru.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/nr.html (accessed February 2010).

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Republic of Nauru. “Response to the United Nations Questionnaire on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome of the TwentyThird Special Session of the General Assembly, August 2009.” http://www.unescap.org/ESID/GAD/Issues /Beijing+15/Responds_to_Questionnaire/Nauru.pdf (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Nauru.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eap/119050.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Navdanya Navdanya is a women-centered network of seed keepers and organic producers in India. Created in 1987 by scientist and environmentalist Vandana Shiva to ensure the protection of both biological and cultural diversity, the organization endeavors to create awareness of the dangers of genetic engineering, to safeguard indigenous knowledge from biopiracy, and to guarantee food rights in the face of economic

Navdanya was created by scientist and environmentalist Vandana Shiva to protect biological and cultural diversity.

globalization and climate change. Spread across 16 states in India, Navdanya has been instrumental in the creation of 54 community seed banks and the largest direct-marketing, fair trade organic network in the country. Over the past two decades, Navdanya has trained more than 500,000 farmers in seed sovereignty, food sovereignty, and sustainable agriculture. An outgrowth of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, a public interest research organization founded by Dr. Shiva to counter dominant paradigms in science and technology, Navdanya (the word refers to the nine crops that represent India’s collective source of food security) began as a biodiversity conservation program to support local farmers and to rescue crops and plants that were being pushed to extinction—to conserve them and make them available through direct marketing. In the years following its inception, the network launched several campaigns, including a challenge to the patenting of the neem seed (an important ingredient in skin care creams and a natural insect repellent) and of basmati rice, and has protested against the Monsanto Corporation’s creation of GMO Bt. Cotton (because of what they perceive as an effort by multi­national companies to control Indian agriculture and its markets). More recently, the organization has allied itself with Slow Food International, the Center for Food Safety, the Waterkeepers Alliance, and the Dalai Lama, as well as a plethora of other organizations to, disseminate the Navdanya vision and philosophy more widely throughout the world. A concrete manifestation of Dr. Shiva’s philosophical commitment to the creation of what she has termed Earth Democracy (a living democracy committed to the defense of the rights of nature and human rights), the network’s mission is to promote peace, justice, and sustainability through the conservation and renewal of nature’s gifts of biodiversity to maintain them as a commons for all humanity. Members of Navdanya believe that seeds, biodiversity, and traditional knowledge must be kept in the hands of the people to generate livelihoods and provide basic needs to eradicate poverty. To that end, they advocate that the world community respect seed sovereignty (bija swaraj), food sovereignty (anna swaraj), and water sovereignty/democracy (jal swaraj). They are also committed to changing the rules of trade that they say are forced on small peasants through the

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World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture—an accord they claim is leading many farmers into debt, destitution, and suicide. Recipient of a Slow Food Award in 2001, Navdanya hosts interns from across India and around the world at Bija Vidyapeeth (Earth University), an educational partnership with Schumacher College in the United Kingdom that is designed to promote environmental and economic solutions rooted in deep ecology and the principles of democracy. See Also: Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Environmental Justice; Fair Trade; Nongovermental Organizations Worldwide; Shiva, Vandana; Social Justice Activism; Women in Farm Economy; Women’s Environment and Development Organization; Women’s Thrift Cooperatives. Further Readings Navdanya. http://www.navdanya.org/home (accessed April 20, 2010). Shiva, Vandana. Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2005. Shiva, Vandana, ed. Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2007. Shiva, Vandana. Soil Not Oil. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2008. Danielle Roth-Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Nepal Despite its small size, Nepal contains an impressive diversity of ethnic and caste groups: more than 100 groups and 90 languages are represented. Prior to 2008, Nepal was the world’s only Hindu kingdom. Eighty-one percent of the population is Hindu, 11 percent is Buddhist, and 4 percent is Muslim. In 2008, the monarchy was overthrown and the country became the Republic of Nepal. One of the biggest challenges to development in Nepal is the creation and maintenance of adequate physical infrastructure to support healthcare and education in rural, remote areas. The violence and

Women in Nepal harvesting lemongrass for use in perfume and cosmetics, helping them earn an income in their rural town.

destruction perpetrated by an insurgent group with general communist aims called Maowadi, or Maoists, along with the Security Forces seeking to eliminate them, was a major impediment to improving country indicators between 1995 and 2006. However, a more enduring challenge is the range of Himalayan mountains that stretch across the northern two-thirds of the country. Nepal is home to some of the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest. The quality of life for Nepali women has improved on a few fronts. In 2002, a bill was passed allowing daughters to inherit property from their parents. Previously only an unmarried daughter over 35 years of age had the right to inherit ancestral property. Life expectancy at birth for women has surpassed that of men, at 64 and 63 respectively. While advances have been made in terms of the percentage of girls attending primary school, the percentage of adult women who attended secondary or higher education was 13 in 2001 and 21 in 2006. The literacy rate for adult

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females is 47 percent and 73 percent for adult males. Trafficking of women and girls into the sex trade remains a rampant problem. Maternal mortality rates remain high; in response the government is offering free maternal health services as of January 2009. These statistics reflect the overall poverty of the country, the fact that approximately 80 percent of the people of Nepal live in rural areas, and the negative effects of being involved in an armed conflict for a decade. However, they have not precluded Nepali women from achieving international recognition as leaders in literature, journalism, art, politics, law, medicine, and humanitarian work. And the constitution, still under construction as of 2010, has the potential to bring about a more equitable society. When the Constituent Assembly formed in 2008, women filled one-third of the seats. Also in 2008, the Supreme Court awarded rights and protection to Nepal’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex population. Many challenges lie ahead as Nepalis grapple with the difficulties of forming a stable government and a new constitution. See Also: Hinduism; Kumari: The Living Goddess of Nepal; Maternal Mortaility; Reproductive Cancers; Tamang, Stella. Further Readings Amnesty International. “Human Rights in Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal: Report 2009.” http:// www.amnesty.org/en/region/nepal/report-2009 (accessed January 2010). World Bank. “Unequal Citizens: Gender, Caste, and Ethnic Exclusion in Nepal.” (2006). http://siteresources .worldbank.org/INTRANETSOCIALDEVELOPMENT /Resources/Bennett.rev.pdf (accessed June 2010). Jan Brunson Bowdoin College

Netherlands In the first decade of the 21st century, the Netherlands finds itself in a paradoxical situation when it comes to gender equality. The self-image of Dutch society as tolerant—based on its welfare state, the

legalization of soft drugs and prostitution, and openness toward homosexuality—needs to be further examined. First, tolerance is on the decline because of the growing popularity of anti-immigration forces in politics. Second, the schism between a high degree of gender mainstreaming and a low degree of gender equality, called the “Dutch Case,” still exists. This produces a Third Wave feminist attempt to bridge the gap between women from different generations and ethnic groups. Dutch Second Wave feminism has been very successful in its “long march through the institutions.” As early as the late 1960s, the feminist group Man Vrouw Maatschappij (Man Woman Society) worked closely with policy makers and parliament in order to instigate change. However, institutionalizing feminism has resulted in a paradox. What is meant by the “Dutch Case” is a schism between the successful governmental implementation of the feminist struggle and the actual state of affairs in Dutch society. Despite the wide range of gender mainstreaming policies and organizations on the governmental, provincial, and municipal levels, the facts concerning “gender” issues in Dutch society are striking. First, in 2007, only 9 percent of women with children under 18 had a fulltime job. Twenty-six percent of them did not work at all, whereas another 26 percent only worked 20–27 hours a week. In the Netherlands, women are victims of a prevalent “one and a half earners” model. Another striking figure is that in 2009, only 12 percent of Dutch professors were female. This is an incredibly low figure in comparison to other European countries and on a worldwide basis. Women’s and Gender Studies The “Dutch Case” has been extensively studied by women’s and gender studies scholars. This topic of women’s issues has a long history in the Netherlands. The first women’s studies departments were set up in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s and 1990s, women’s studies were present in all Dutch universities. In the wake of the restructuring of Dutch higher education instigated by the European Union–wide “Bologna process,” which sought to create a unified European higher education system, this situation has changed. Women’s and gender studies are still prominent at the universities of Amsterdam, Nijmegen, and Utrecht. In Amsterdam, the focus is on the social sciences,



and in Nijmegen and Utrecht, on the humanities. The Netherlands Research School for Women’s Studies, based in Utrecht, offers interdisciplinary Ph.D. courses. Utrecht is a center for European women’s and gender studies as well, hosting academic and professional networks such as ATHENA and ATGENDER. Several professors in women’s and gender studies based in the Netherlands have gained international fame, in particular Rosi Braidotti. Third Wave Feminism and the Decline of Tolerance Third Wave feminism in the Netherlands finds itself affected by the “Dutch Case” and the decline of women’s and gender studies. It also has to deal with the current political climate characterized by, apart from the sexualization of the Dutch media landscape, a decline of tolerance. After the political murders of right-wing politician Pim Fortuijn in 2002 and the outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004, a strong anti-immigration climate has begun in the country, voiced by politicians like Geert Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. This backlash is accompanied by an abuse of feminism and sexual freedom: it is argued that the Netherlands is a feminist country, whereas many have seen that this is an overstatement, and it is presupposed that migrants from Muslim countries affect “our” gay rights negatively. Dutch Third Wave feminists like Stine Jensen address the need to bring together women from different ethnic groups. A Third Wave feminist who has a particular impact is Sunny Bergman. Her 2007 documentary Beperkt Houdbaar (Over the Hill) generated [inter] national media attention. Bergman addresses the beauty myths that Dutch girls are influenced by and published a manifesto that was supported by a wide range of Dutch (Second Wave) feminists. Treating women’s issues internationally and placing feminism in a transgenerational and transnational frame, her feminism is also based on bridging gaps, and helps define Third Wave Dutch feminism. See Also: Feminism on College Campuses; Gomperts, Rebecca; Social Justice Activism; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Bosch, Mineke. “Women in Science: A Dutch Case?” Science in Context, v.5/2 (2002).

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Buikema, Rosemarie and Iris van der Tuin. Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture. London: Routledge, 2009. Davis, Kathy and Marianne Grünell. “The Dutch Case: An Interview With Margo Brouns.” European Journal of Women’s Studies, v.1/1 (1994). Statistics Netherlands. http://www.cbs.nl (accessed March 2010). Iris van der Tuin Utrecht University

New Age Religion The expression New Age, which alludes to an upcoming age of peace and harmony, indicates a “postmodern” (as Paul Heelas defines it) religious or spiritual movement whose beliefs and practices are highly variable. The New Age shifting of the locus of religious authority from established, and historically male-dominated, religious hierarchies to the individual seems to have offered a unique chance to women traditionally marginalized by such structures. However, Monica Sjoo has criticized the movement as antifeminist and patriarchal. The New Age holds the idea of an evolutionary “quantum leap” in consciousness that awaits the human species; each individual “seeker” collaborates to the arising of the global consciousness of the living planet Earth (Gaia) through an inner journey of selfunderstanding and a spiritual quest in search of harmony, healing, and happiness. As scholars have noted, the New Age arises from a process of detraditionalization that took place in the past century and that allows practitioners to freely borrow beliefs and practices from Eastern and native religions, from previous religious movements (Spiritualism), and also from genre literature and cinema. Thus the New Age adopts concepts such as that of synchronicity; karma or the cycle of birth-death-rebirth; and a set of practices such as channeling, palm and crystal healing, divination systems, massage, visualization, yoga exercises, and “[neo]shamanic” practices. As New Agers have a holistic view of mind, body, and soul, such practices aim at bringing together mental focus, physical wholeness, and spiritual harmony. Academic studies on the New Age agree on the complexity and diversity of its beliefs, rooted in

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modern esotericism, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and several spiritual 19th-century movements. The New Age has been defined as self-religion, as its focus is on the self and inner life; all authority rests on the individual, who is able to decode “occult teachings” because of the divine spark hidden within each human being. The divine can be conceived as a personal god or in a pantheistic way, as in the New Age coexisting diverging views on the divine. Scholarly criticism of the New Age has focused on its antimodernist attitude; on its beliefs on healing, which contrast with official medicine, on its millenaristic tendencies; and on its idea of a teleological development of human history. Several scholars read the New Age as the religious expression of consumerist capitalism, offering ready-made and rapidly changing spiritual teachings that avoid dealing with structural social issues (such as inequality, racism, and exclusion). The absence of hierarchies and dogmatism, as well as the stress on self-improvement and alternative healing techniques, has been appealing for women, especially those belonging to the middle class. Some well-known spokespersons for the New Age have indeed been women—for example, Marilyn Ferguson or Shirley MacLaine. See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Native American Religion; Religion, Women in; Yoga. Further Readings Hanegraaf, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1997. Heelas, Paul. The New Age Movement. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1996. Lewis, J. R. and J. G. Melton, eds. Perspectives on the New Age. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. Possamai, Adam. “Alternative Spiritualities and the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.” Culture and Religion, v.4/1 (2003). Sjoo, Monica. “New Age and Patriarchy.” Journal of Contemporary Religion, v.9/3 (1994). York, Michael. The Emerging Network: A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995. Maria Beatrice Bittarello Independent Scholar

New Zealand New Zealand is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean that became an independent dominion of Great Britain in 1907. The population of 4.2 million is primarily of people of European descent (69.8 percent), with large minorities of Maoris (native New Zealanders; 7.9 percent), Asians (5.7 percent), and Pacific Islanders (4.4 percent). The largest religious denominations are Anglican (14.9 percent) and Roman Catholic (12.4 percent), and about a quarter of the population does not indicate a religion. New Zealand enjoys a high standard of living comparable with many European countries, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $27,700 in 2009. Life expectancy is among the highest in the world, with an average of 78.43 years for men and 83.20 years for women. Gender equality is among the highest in the world— the World Economic Forum ranked New Zealand 5th of 134 countries in 2009. On a scale in which 0 indicates inequality and 1 perfect equality, New Zealand had an overall score of 0.788, ranking behind only Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. On educational attainment, New Zealand got a score of 1.000 (best in the world), on health and survival 0.974 (72nd), in economic participation 0.784 (7th), and on political empowerment 0.393 (7th). Despite efforts to integrate the Maori population into a society that sprung from what was formerly a British colony, Maoris have poorer health and lower educational and economic attainment and are more likely to be victims of domestic violence than the national average. Women in New Zealand constitute almost 50 percent of the labor force and hold a disproportionate share of technical positions, although they earn about 77 percent of the average wage paid to men for comparable work. Literacy is 100 percent for both men and women, and substantially more women than men are enrolled in tertiary education. About onethird of the New Zealand Parliament is female, and women hold a comparable percentage of ministerial positions. Helen Clark served as the prime minister of New Zealand for three terms (1999–2008) and is currently head of the United Nations Development Programme. Margaret Wilson has served as speaker of the House of Representatives, and several women have served as governor-general, most recently Dame

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Sian Elias (who has also served as chief justice) and Dame Sylvia Cartwright. New Zealand women enjoy a high standard of maternal and child care. Ninety-five percent of births are attended by skilled personnel, and infant and maternal mortality are quite low, at 5 per 1,000 live births and 4 per 100,000 live births, respectively. Abortion is available on several grounds, including fetal deformity, rape, and to preserve the mother’s life or mental or physical health, and almost three quarters of married women report using contraceptives. Save the Children ranks New Zealand 5th on its Mother’s Index, 6th on the Womens’ Index, and 19th on the Children’s Index. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, International; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: New Zealand.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/nz.html (accessed July 2010). Montgomerie, Deborah. The Women’s War: New Zealand Women 1939–45. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press, 2001. Zschokke, Magdalena. Delayed Paradise. Port Orchard, WA: Windstorm Creative, 2007. Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Nicaragua The Republic of Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America, with a high population growth rate, young population, and low population density. The majority of the population is mestizo or indigenous, Hispanic is the dominant culture, and Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion. Gender roles are shaped by traditional Hispanic values and the concepts of machismo and marianismo, although women have made business and political advancements, including the election of a female president in the 1990s. Nicaragua ranked 49th out of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report.

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The predominant Roman Catholic culture places a strong emphasis on church marriages, although there are also numerous common law marriages. The average age of marriage is in the early 20s. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.8 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend 67 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 29 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate was 170 per 100,000 live births. The state social security system provides women with 12 weeks of paid maternity leave at 60 percent of their wages. About 72 percent of married women use contraceptives. Large families are common and highly valued, with women usually bearing most of the responsibility for childcare and rearing. Many couples live with their parents due to poverty and an affordable housing shortage. Issues Facing Disadvantaged Groups The 1980s struggles that brought the Sandinistas to power also brought attention to issues facing traditionally disadvantaged groups such as women and the poor. Public education is free and compulsory from age 7 to 12 but lacks adequate funding, and many children do not attend due to agricultural needs. Female school attendance rates stand at 96 percent at the primary level, 49 percent at the secondary level, and 19 percent at the tertiary level. Literacy rates are almost equal, at 81 percent for women and 79 percent for men. Access to healthcare is improving. Other problems include political instability, poverty, unemployment, inadequate water and sewage systems, and disease. Life expectancy is age 63 for women and age 60 for men. Nicaraguan women have entered the workforce in significant numbers since the 1980s, many due to high poverty rates. Currently, 40 percent of women participate in the workforce. Women make up 43 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 52 percent of professional and technical workers. Key employment includes seasonal migrant agriculture, manufacturing, industry, and education. Some women supplement family incomes through laundry or street food vending. A gender gap still exists in average estimated earned salary of $1,182 for women and $3,703 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 4.9 percent for women and 5.4 percent for men. Women have the right to vote. Women hold 19 percent of parliamentary seats and 33 percent of

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ministerial positions. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro served as president of the country from 1990 to 1996. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Heads of State, Female; Machismo/Marianismo; Migrant Workers; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Dore, Elizabeth and Maxine Molyneux. Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Hausman, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. The Global Gender Gap Report 2009. Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org /en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20 Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010). Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Marcella Bush Trevino Independent Scholar

Nicks, Stevie One of the most recognizable figures of 1970s rock music, Stevie Nicks is still spotted running errands in her custom designed six-inch high platform boots, shawls, and gypsy girl apparel. Journalists have commented that her mystical, uniquely bohemian ensembles have made her an archetype of personal style. Born in 1948 in Phoenix, Arizona, Stephanie Lynn Nicks is one the most notable female singers, songwriters, mentors, and producers of music in the 20th century. Although most often recognized as a member of legendary group Fleetwood Mac, Nicks has also had a successful career as a solo artist. Her passion for music and dance began in high school, when she joined Changing Times, a tribute band to Bob Dylan, and became influenced by the harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas. Her experience in this group eventually led Nicks to partner with Lindsey Buckingham, and the two produced their Buckingham Nicks album in 1973. Buckingham Nicks caught

the attention of Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, a successful English blues band, and a collaboration soon followed. Throughout her career with Fleetwood Mac, the band was plagued with turmoil and breakups that eventually manifested in one of their most popular hits, “Go Your Own Way.” In press interviews, Stevie accused her male rocker companions of chauvinism, arguing that she should be taken seriously as a writer. In 1977, she met Paul Fishkin, and the two co-founded Modern Records in 1980 with Danny Goldberg. By 2000, with seven solo releases on that label, Nicks sold over 15 million albums. She did, in fact, “go her own way” and produced 12 solo albums by 2009, including a Japanese edition of her 1994 collection, Street Angel. The pressures of multiplatinum selling albums and tumultuous relationships with bandmates and other rock icons took a toll on Nicks, and she developed issues with cocaine and alcohol abuse. After successful rehabilitation at the Betty Ford Center in 1986, Stevie returned to the music world to continue her life’s passion. Since that time, she has appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone six times, and has performed on numerous albums, with artists such as B. B. King, Tom Petty, and Sheryl Crow, and in movie soundtracks of such films as Boys on the Side and School of Rock. Nicks also performs charitable concerts to support research at the Arizona Heart Foundation, a cause of personal importance given her family’s relationship to the foundation. Nicks and other members of Fleetwood Mac dined with wounded veterans at Walter Reed Memorial Hospital and participated in benefit concerts for Special Olympics and other charities. In 2009, Nicks reunited with Fleetwood Mac for another world tour and has no plans to retire from performing or producing in the near future. Nicks has also become something of a fashion icon for women “of a certain age.” Designers Izaac Mizrahi and Anna Sui claim to have taken inspiration from her California look. See Also: Celebrity Women; Madonna; Rock Music, Women in. Further Readings Bruni, Frank. “After the Show With: STEVIE NICKS; Going Her Own Way, But Slowly This Time.” New York Times (November 25, 1997). http://www.nytimes.com /1997/11/25/arts/after-the-show-with-stevie-nicks

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-going-her-own-way-but-slowly-this-time.html?page wanted=1 (accessed July 2010). La Ferla, Ruth. “Still Dressing for Stevie.” New York Times (April 8, 2009). http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09 /fashion/09STEVIE.html (accessed July 2010). The Nicks Fix. http://www.nicksfix.com (accessed November 2009). Erika Cornelius Smith Purdue University

Niger A Sahelian country with few resources, Niger has the second-poorest living standards in the world. However, a recent change in government has given hope that the extreme poverty may be alleviated. Little progress has been made in promoting women’s rights, particularly because traditional practices, including the use of family or traditional courts, still regulate living conditions for most women. Nevertheless, Niger’s women’s activism has hesitantly grown. The Republic of Niger has ratified numerous international conventions on gender equality and human rights, but the ratification of legal and political public instruments does not guarantee their effective and systematic implementation, with particular consequences for women. Negative gender stereotypes have persisted and continued to legitimize harmful traditional practices, such as early and forced marriages, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, woman trafficking, and wife repudiation. Islam and consuetudinary law, despite numerous public reforms working toward gender equality, dilute the fight against discrimination and inequality. In addition, women often have little or no knowledge of their rights. Niger has no discriminatory family code against women and did ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), with certain reservations; in fact, the National Assembly rejected the Protocol on African Women’s Rights of the African Union in June 2006. Nevertheless, diverse legal reforms on gender equality have been passed in Niger, such as law 2000-008, which set quotas on women in main decision-making offices, where government and public administration must

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have a minimum of 25 percent women and 10 percent of elected officials be female. In 2004, revisions of the penal law included the banning of female genital mutilation and slavery. A health law in 2006 has also started to regulate reproductive health rights for women. Statistics from the Human Development Report (2007–08) and the United Nations provide a clear picture of women’s position in Niger. Women make up more than half the population of the country; their life expectancy at birth is 52 years; and their literacy rate is 16 percent, whereas it is 44 percent for men. Only 37 percent of girls are enrolled in primary school. Large differences are experienced, depending on individual family rules, but the minimum marriage age is 15 for women and 18 for men; 61.9 percent of women between 15 and 19 years old are married, whereas only 4.2 percent of men that age are married. The number of women dying as a result of pregnancy, delivery, or postpartum complications is 1,800 per 100,000 live births. Women in Niger have between seven and eight children each, and only 5 percent of women use modern contraception. At the national level, gender issues are developing, such as by the Ministry for Women Promotion and Infant Protection. Created by law in December 1999, the ministry serves to promote, coordinate, and support gender equality policies statewide. Women’s associations, nongovernmental organizations, and women’s groups, all quite aware of their role in working toward equality and of their growing effect on developing civil society, have increasingly supported these efforts. See Also: Domestic Violence; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Stereotypes of Women; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Alidou, Ousseina D. Engaging Modernity: Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency in Postcolonial Niger. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. Dunbar, Roberta A. “Islamic Values the State and the ‘Development of Women’: The Case of Niger.” In Catherine Coles and Beverly Mack, eds., Hausa Women in the 20th Century. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. M. Dolores Ochoa-Rodríguez University of Granada

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Nigeria Because the almost 70 million women of the Federal Republic of Nigeria make up 49 percent of the population, African feminist and women’s movements are extremely important in this western region of Africa. Nigerian women contribute considerably to improving gender equality both at the international and the national levels. Their activism and activities have focused on different aspects of their lives, such as health, education, work, family, marriage, rights and laws, and so on. In fact, the national gender machinery has been put into place to gradually and eventually provoke significant economic, political, and cultural changes in the country. According to the 2006 census, Nigeria’s population has reached 140 million, making it the most populous of any African country. Most estimates have shown that more than 40 percent of Nigeria’s population is younger than 15 years. Life expectancy is 46.6 years.Nigeria is a multiethnic country with over 250 ethnic groups, 10 of which account for 80 percent of the total population: the Hausa and Fulani (both located in the north), Yoruba (mainly in the southwest), and Ibo (in the east). Most Nigerians speak languages that belong to these groups, although English is the official language. Religious affiliations are divided as follows: Muslims, 50 percent; Christians, 40 percent; and indigenous religions, 10 percent. After Nigeria gained independence from British rule in 1960, the country went through turbulent political periods and frequent forceful governmental change by several military dictatorships. Indeed, a movement against intellectuals by military rulers persists, particularly against intellectual women. The transition to democracy became effective in May 1999, and at this time, the country is divided into 36 states. The Constitution of Nigeria acknowledges gender equality. Women political representation and female participation in decision-making processes remain very low compared with other African countries, such as Rwanda or Mozambique, with hardly 6.1 percent of representatives in parliament being women and 3.7 percent of the senate. In spite of this, there are very important political and civil organizations fighting for the advancement of women’s rights. The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Youth Development, currently named the Federal Minis-

try of Women Affairs and Social Development, was created in 1999. This ministry is responsible for the design of equal gender policies, gendered planning and implementation, and the provision of specialized services for Nigerian women and children, as well as coordinating and supervising those policies in other ministries (education, health, and so on). Nevertheless, the national gender machinery and its new political order offer some negative aspects, such as the First Lady Syndrome, or Femocracy, which refers to women who end up being prone to bureaucratic corruption. In fact, Nigerian women are conscious that to have women in high offices and with access to decision making does not guarantee gender equality, as some women may use their power, and manage their political relationships in government, toward other goals. Many femocrats have not only accumulated

Two Nigerian women in an outdoor food preparation area, pounding grain with a large mortar and pestle.

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enormous wealth through illegal means but also have wielded tremendous political influence. The National Council of Women’s Societies was founded in Nigeria as early as 1958. The women’s movement of Nigeria also uses research, lobbying, advocacy, and activism and has done so formally since 1983. The women’s movement of Nigeria aims to transform the conditions that women suffer under as members of a subordinate class and as women in general. Market women’s associations, the Federation of Women Lawyers, and numerous civil society organizations are all parts of the women’s movement of Nigeria. Although Nigeria can boast of being the first African country to organize a women’s conference in 1960, the path toward gender equality really gained speed as a result of the United Nations Women Conference in Beijing (1995). In fact, the Beijing Platform promoted national policies such as state sections of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development being extended to the 36 states of the federation and a Women’s Department being created in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Those state ministries, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, implement the Beijing Plan of Action in coordination with international agencies, such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women; the United Nations Children’s Fund; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; and the International Labor Organization, among others. Social awareness about the predicament of Nigerian women and their need for empowerment is growing. Significant social transformations are taking place regarding urbanization, education (very much influenced by Western values), marriage (monogamy has become more common among the younger generation and the elite), modern economies, and the local and foreign media (and its enormous influence in gender ideology). See Also: Mozambique; Niger; Property Rights; Rwanda; United Nations Conferences on Women United Nations Development Fund for Women; . Further Readings Maduganu, Bene E. “The Nigerian Feminist Movement: Lessons From Women in Nigeria, WIN.” Review of African Political Economy, v.35/118 (2008).

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Mama, Amina. “Khaki in the Family: Gender Discourses and Militarism in Nigeria.” African Studies Review, v.41/2 (1998). Para-Mallam, Oluwafunmilayo J. Nigerian Women Speak—A Gender Analysis of Government Policy on Women. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM, 2007. Marian del Moral-Garrido University of Granada

9to5 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, began as a local organization in the early 1970s and grew to become the largest nonprofit organization of working women in the United States. 9to5 supports research, advocacy, and policy reform leadership in areas of concern to American working women and their families. The organization seeks to overturn the gender discrimination they believe exists within the American workplace. Issues of interest include equal pay, sexual harassment, the glass ceiling, job retention, workplace discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, civil rights, health and safety laws, family leave, and welfare policies. The organization has achieved considerable political influence and success. 9to5 began on a grassroots level in 1972, when Boston female office workers such as Karen Nussbaum gathered to discuss issues of interest to women workers, such as pay inequalities, sexual harassment, and the difficulties of balancing work and family responsibilities. It first published the newsletter 9to5 News and then formed a collective. The group grew to become a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a number of local chapters and members in every state. Its main constituents are women who work for low wages in traditionally female occupations or who have experienced workplace gender discrimination. 9to5 also seeks to educate working women and their employers on workplace and family issues—a key component in the organization’s efforts to end workplace discrimination. Guidebooks published by 9to5 include The Job/Family Challenge: A 9to5 Guide; 9to5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment; The Job Family Challenge: Not for Women Only; and

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What Do I Do if I’m Experiencing Race Discrimination? It also publishes fact sheets and newsletters, sends Action Alerts to local chapters and members, maintains the toll-free Job Survival Hotline, provides a Speak Out program so women can voice their individual experiences, maintains a Speakers Bureau for public presentations and diversity training, and runs the Job Retention Project to aid office workers in enhancing their skills. One of 9to5’s main goals is to publicize, advocate, and provide research and leadership for the fight to gain favorable legislation and oppose unfavorable legislation on the federal, state, local, and workplace levels. It emphasizes nonpartisan voter registration and education and has served on state and local task forces and provided expert testimony to U.S. Congress. It also monitors equal-opportunity enforcement agencies to ensure adherence to the laws. 9to5 helped ensure passage of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act and Civil Rights legislation changes. At all levels, 9to5 has worked for paid sick days, programs to expand Family and Medical Leave Act benefits, the maintenance of equal-opportunity programs, health and safety laws, living wages and equal pay, antidiscrimination legislation, more funding for child care and healthcare for working families, and job training. It has actively opposed welfare reform, which it argues enforces a punitive approach to welfare; the privatization of Social Security, which could cut benefits to working families; and the religious and political right wing, which it argues threatens women’s rights, abortion access, and affirmative action programs. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Business, Women in; Equal Pay; Glass Ceiling; Sexual Harassment; Working Mothers. Further Readings O’Toole, James and Edward E. Lawler. The New American Workplace. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. U.S. Department of Labor. “Federal Glass Ceiling Commission Executive Summary Report.” (1995). www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/reports /ceiling1.pdf (accessed December 2009). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

No Child Left Behind The legislation known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is a piece of U.S. federal legislation designed to reform kindergarten through 12thgrade education based on standards. A majority of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted in favor of the legislation, and it was signed into law by President George W. Bush. Although NCLB is often perceived to be a brand-new law, it is actually the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which is best known for the creation of titles (such as Title I, a federal program for low-income children, and Title 9, a mandate for gender equity in education). The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is reauthorized every few years; similarly, NCLB will need to be reauthorized— an issue that Congress is currently considering. The foundation of NCLB is standards-based education—the theory that combining high standards with intermittent checkpoints is the most effective way to improve individual educational outcomes. Although NCLB is federal legislation, it does not mandate standards for individual states; instead, it mandates that individual states set standards and then implement a series of standardized assessments to evaluate student progress on those standards. The assessment program is a prerequisite for obtaining federal funding for public schools in a given state. The broad measurement of a school’s success in educating students is called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). AYP was designed as a tool that schools could use to help students know where they were ineffective in producing positive student outcomes. AYP is composed of testing scores in the areas of language arts and mathematics and a measure of graduation (for high schools and districts overall) or attendance rates (for elementary and middle schools). Schools and districts must show a higher percentage of achievement from one year to the next. If schools or districts do not increase their percentage of achievement, they have not met AYP. The consequences of not meeting AYP increase progressively for each year AYP is not met; they include offering tutoring to students, state takeover, reconstitution, and opening the school as a charter. Supporters of NCLB argue that the legislation is having positive effects. National Assessment of



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Education Progress (NAEP) results demonstrate increased average levels of achievement over scores recorded before 2001. In addition, NAEP results indicate that at least some achievement gaps have narrowed. Supporters also argue that mandating that teachers meet particular content-area mastery requirements results in a more professional and effective teacher workforce. Finally, supporters argue that the requirement that schools implement “scientifically based research practices” increases curriculum effectiveness for all students. Critics of NCLB argue that increased test scores do not necessarily transfer to real-world learning, as the test questions themselves may reflect a narrow set of skills rather than broad understandings. In addition, critics argue that teachers may be pressured to teach specific skills that they know are tested rather than teaching higher-order thinking skills or nontested concepts or even content areas. Critics also argue that the emphasis on low-performing students may harm gifted and talented students. Finally, critics are concerned that the specificity of the legislation limits what schools may choose to teach while simultaneously limiting local control. One challenge presented by NCLB, regardless of an individual’s perspective on the legislation, is the issue of funding. NCLB places demands on school districts that require financing to implement. For example, increased professional development and standardized test preparation are both additional costs that school districts must bear. However, the funding provided through NCLB does not equal the increased cost associated with its implementation. The funding associated with NCLB has increased each year since its passage. As NCLB comes up for reauthorization, a number of reforms have been proposed. One theme among these reform proposals is a move away from sanctioning individual failing schools to working for systemwide changes. Another theme is to move from skillsbased standardized tests to more holistic outcome measures. Finally, another theme among reforms is to increase funding to those schools and districts working with high-need student populations. It can be argued that the implementation of NCLB falls to women disproportionately. Estimates differ; however, according to the U.S. Census, approximately 70 percent of teachers are women. In addi-

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tion, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics, approximately 50 percent of school principals are women. Thus, a majority of those responsible for implementation of NCLB’s mandates in schools are women. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, Elementary and High School; “Girl-Friendly” Schools. Further Readings Cochran-Smith, M. “No Child Left Behind: Three Years and Counting.” Journal of Teacher Education, v.56/2 (2005). Fusarelli, L. D. “The Potential Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on Equity and Diversity in American Education.” Educational Policy, v.18/1 (2004). Hess, F. M. and M. J. Petrilli. No Child Left Behind. New York: Peter Lang, 2006. Brandelyn Tosolt Northern Kentucky University

Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) worldwide have grown tremendously in the last several decades and play an increasing role in international politics. Through the consultative status granted to NGOs at the United Nations (UN), and through the UN global conferences beginning in the 1970s, more NGOs were created. By the turn of the century, NGOs had begun to use the strategy of forming coalitions, increasingly influencing international politics and women’s lives. NGOs are not a homogenous group. They can be local, national, or international; international NGOs are often referred to as INGOs. While the term NGOs is sometimes used interchangeably with “grassroots organizations,” “social movements,” and “civil society,” NGOs differ from these. Grassroots organizations are generally locally organized groups of individuals that have spring up to empower their members and take action on particular issues of concern to them. Some NGOs are grassroots organizations, but many are not. Social movements are broader and more diffuse

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than organizations; a social movement encompasses a broad segment of society that is interested in fomenting or resisting social change in some particular issue area, such as disarmament, environmental, civil rights, or women’s movements. A social movement may include NGOs and grassroots organizations. Finally, the term civil society became popularized at the end of the Cold War to describe what appeared to have been missing in state-dominated societies: broad societal participation in and concern for governance, but not necessarily government. Civil society is thought to be the necessary ingredient for democratic governance to arise. NGOs are one part of civil society. The long list of acronyms that has accumulated around NGOs illustrates their diversity. People speak of NGOs, INGOs (international NGOs), BINGOs (business international NGOs), RINGOs (religious international NGOs), ENGOs (environmental NGOs), WINGOs (women’s international NGOs), GONGOs (government-operated NGOs—which may have been set up by governments to look like NGOs in order to qualify for outside aid), QUANGOs (quasi-nongovernmental organizations—that is, those that are at least partially created or supported by states), and many others. While some other groups are nongovernmental, and are generally included as nonstate actors, they are not usually included under the term NGO. The term usually explicitly excludes for-profit corporations, and private contractors, and multinational corporations (MNCs), although associations formed by MNCs, such as the International Chamber of Commerce, are considered NGOs. Similarly, political parties, liberation movements, and terrorist organizations are not usually considered NGOs. Recently, however, some from outside the field of international organization, especially military writers, have begun to refer to terrorist movements as NGOs, some would say in order to discredit NGOs. Peter Willetts, an authority on NGOs, argues in defining NGOs that a commitment not to use violence is a basic characteristic. NGOs in International Politics Nongovernmental organizations have existed for centuries, but there was a sizable rise in their numbers following World War II, and especially in the 1990s. Both the number of nongovernmental organizations and their involvement in national and international policy

making increased tremendously. With the advent of the UN global conferences in the 1970s, NGO interest in the UN began to skyrocket. According to the Yearbook of International Organizations, at the time of the foundation of the United Nations in 1945 there were 2,865 international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); by 2004 that number had increased to roughly 63,000. More importantly, by the 1990s, the importance of the NGO role began to be recognized. NGOs began to be recognized for their role in influencing public policy at the UN and on the ground in nation-states in human rights, including women’s rights, development, environment, and even disarmament. NGOs follow many strategies to influence international politics. The United Nations has played an important role with this. The 1945 San Francisco Conference provided for the establishment of a relationship between the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and nongovernmental organizations, formalizing the League of Nations practice of consultation with NGOs. Thus Article 71 of the United Nations Charter came to read: “the Economic and Social Council may make suitable arrangements for consultation with nongovernmental organizations which are concerned with matters within its competence. Such arrangements may be made with international organizations and, where appropriate, with national organizations after consultation with the Member of the United Nations concerned.” ECOSOC’s current policy on arrangements for consultation with nongovernmental organizations was updated in Resolution 1996/31. Similar to previous resolutions, it provides for general consultative status (organizations concerned with most of the activities of the council and broadly representative of populations in a large number of countries), special consultative status (internationally known organizations with special competence in a few of the fields of activity of the council), and roster status (other useful organizations), and allocates different rights to them in attending meetings, speaking, and receiving documents, and so forth. As of September 2009, there were 3,413 NGOs in consultative status, with 138 general, 2,166 special, and 983 roster status organizations. Women’s NGOs are represented in all three categories, with 2,328 NGOs indicating gender issues and the advancement of women as one of their fields of activity.



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ECOSOC, along with the General Assembly and the Secretary-General, wrestled with the question of NGO involvement in the UN system throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Following the passage of ECOSOC 1996/31, the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with ECOSOC (CONGO) proposed that similar arrangements be extended to the General Assembly. In June 2004, the Secretary-General’s Panel of Eminent Persons on Civil Society and UN Relationships suggested a single NGO accreditation process under the General Assembly. While the proposal has had some support from states and NGOs, it has thus far not been furthered. Historical Development of Women’s NGOs Women’s NGOs developed along with the feminist movement, with early women’s NGOs concerned both with the issue of woman suffrage as well as with issues of prohibition, slavery, and peace. Among the earliest women’s NGOs, which in 2010 continue to have ECOSOC consultative status, were the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), created in 1874, International Council of Women (1888), Young Women’s Christian Association (1894), International Council of Women (1904), International Federation of University Women (1919), Zonta International (1919), All India Women’s Conference (1926), Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women’s Association (1928), Associated Country Women of the World (1930), and the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (1930). Early women’s NGOs had, and continue to have, relatively broad both reformist and revolutionary agendas. NGOs and the UN Global Women’s Conferences NGOs were both influential in the development of the UN global women’s conferences that began in the 1970s and repeated through the 1990s, with review conferences held in 2005 and 2010, and the conferences in turn were influential in the expansion of NGOs and the NGO role in international politics. Women’s NGOs were the actual initiators of the UN women’s conferences. In 1972, a group of NGOs, under the leadership of a representative of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women, asked ECOSOC’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to call for an International Women’s Year. At the 1972 session of the CSW, 10 NGOs

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signed a statement calling for such a year (E/CN.6/ NGO/244). The Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), in particular, used its consultative status to get Romania to introduce this resolution in the CSW. It was the work of women’s NGOs, particularly the International Council of Women and WIDF, consistently lobbying governments on the subject, which insured that the proposal did not get dropped at any stage. The General Assembly subsequently declared 1975 International Women’s Year (IWY) and held the IWY Conference in Mexico City. Women’s organizations continued to contribute significantly to the series of large ad hoc or mega-conferences which would be repeated in the 1980s and 1990s, especially the women’s conferences: the 1980 Copenhagen Mid-Decade Review, at which the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women was opened for signature, the 1985 Nairobi Review and Appraisal of the UN Decade for Women, the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, and the review sessions in 2005 and 2010. They worked with states, foundations, and UN agencies, both to run the forums and to impact the intergovernmental policymaking at the official conferences. At the Commission on the Status of Women’s 10-year review of Beijing in 2005, 536 NGOs attended; at the 15-year review in 2010, 463 attended. The International Women’s Tribune Center, set up in 1976 to facilitate communication among women’s groups following the 1975 conference, continues to help sustain north–south linkages between women’s NGOs. Women’s World Banking, generated by ideas presented at the IWY, was created in 1979. DAWN, or Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era, grew from a meeting in August 1984 in Bangalore, India, and presented a southern feminist critique of development that was widely acclaimed at the Nairobi Conference. DAWN’s Website (http://www .dawnnet.org) describes it as a network of feminist scholars and activists from the global south working for economic and gender justice and sustainable and democratic development. Other key NGOs include the Green Belt Movement, founded in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya by Wangari Maathi (who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work), and utilizing tree-planting to link its

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goals of environmental conservation and community empowerment (especially for women), and highly visible internationally since the 1985 Nairobi Women’s Conference. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), cofounded by Bella Abzug and Mim Kelber in 1991 to link the issues of women and environment and influence the 1992 “Earth Summit,” brought together over 1,500 women from 83 countries to work on a strategy. The international group became the leading NGO in developing strategies for the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women and its Forum, the largest meeting of women’s NGOs held thus far, and in the 2005 and 2010 reviews. NGOs and the Millennium Development Goals When world leaders at the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, they set 2015 as the date by which broad goals were to be accomplished in reducing poverty and hunger, increasing the number of children in school, improving gender equality, reducing child and maternal mortality, combating human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS), improving environmental sustainability, and furthering a partnership for development. At the UN Summit meeting on the MDGs September 20–22, 2010, NGOs partnered with UN agencies to present roughly 80 events toward meeting the goals. Informal interactive hearings with NGOs were organized by the UN General Assembly from June 14–15, 2010, but many NGOs expressed disappointment with the lack of specifics in the final outcome document. Some NGOs took advantage of the presence of so many world leaders to argue for stronger action. The Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health took out a full page ad in the New York Times on September 22, 2010 to state: “We believe that a nation’s security, prosperity and progress are linked to the reproductive health of its women and men.” To bring attention to maternal death rates, Amnesty International installed a Maternal Death Clock in Times Square, New York, during the high-level UN meeting. In connection with the goals of maternal and child health, NGOs continue to work to promote breastfeeding and counter the marketing of infant formula: two organizations are most significant. The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), an organization begun in 1979 and present in 67 countries,

works to reduce child morbidity and mortality and improve the health of babies, mothers and families through support of breastfeeding (http://www.ibfan .org). The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, a global network formed in February 1991 to promote breastfeeding worldwide in the framework of the 1990 and 2005 Innocenti Declarations, and the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding work closely with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Women’s NGOs and the Nobel Peace Prize Women winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have formed NGOs that foster women’s work on peace. The first two women winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, Jane Addams in 1931, and Emily Greene Balch in 1946, were active in the development of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), founded in 1815, which has become significant in the development of new policy in the 21st century, continuing its work for peace and justice and challenging the root causes of oppression, especially in the development of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000. The Nobel Women’s Initiative was established in 2006 by six out of the only 12 women ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire. They believe that “. . . peace is much more than the absence of armed conflict. Peace is the commitment to equality and justice; a democratic world free of physical, economic, cultural, political, religious, sexual and environmental violence and the constant threat of these forms of violence against women—indeed against all of humanity.” The group holds meetings of women every two years in different regions of the world. Its Website supports action, in cooperation with other organizations, on disarmament and on women’s rights and justice in Iran, Israel-Palestine, Sudan and elsewhere, and urges support of Aung San Suu Kyi (another Nobel Prize winner unable to join them) and resistance to the military regime in Burma. NGO Networks and Coalitions and Their Accomplishments Nongovernmental organizations have, particularly since the mid-1990s, worked successfully in transnational advocacy networks to influence and sometimes even create international policy and new interna-



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tional regimes. Among the better known initiatives are the work of Canada and the like-minded countries in coordination with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), in which the Ottawa Process produced the Land Mines Convention. It was signed in December 1997 and put into force in record time in March 1999, and won the ICBL and its leader Jody Williams the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Other important transnational advocacy networks have included the Coalition for an International Criminal Court, which helped to develop support for the ICC, signed in 1998 and in force in 2002, as well as the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), launched at the May 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace and successful in promoting the development of the UN’s 2001 Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons. The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (CSC), founded in June 1998, worked successfully for adoption of the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into force February 12, 2002. The movement toward the establishment of the International Criminal Court represents a unique collaboration between nongovernmental organizations and the like-minded group of states, largely small and middle powers, with the strong support of the UN Office of Legal Affairs. Following years of negotiations, the UN General Assembly established a PrepCom in 1995, and authorized a diplomatic conference from June 15 to July 17, 1998, in Italy to finalize and adopt the treaty. Six NGOs in fall 1994, recognizing their inability to influence negotiations, came together to form the NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court (CICC). Founded primarily by human rights NGOs and organized by Bill Pace of the World Federalist Movement, the CICC worked to support the like-minded group, both by attempting to influence governments at home and, more directly, negotiations at the UN. Among the NGOs prominent in the CICC were Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, the European Law Students Association, and the No Peace Without Justice/Transnational Radical Party. The CICC, which began with 30 members, expanded to include 800 NGOs from all regions, including humanitarian, parliamentary, religious, and women’s groups, with the more prominent groups producing expert

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documents that influenced the negotiations and others disseminating information and building coalitions. The coalition itself did not take positions, but groups within it, such as the women’s caucus for gender justice, the victims’ working group, the faith-based working group, and the children’s group did. The Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice, formed in February 1997, grew to over 300 organizations by the time of the final conference. Most of their aims were achieved, including the inclusion of their language in a subparagraph on gender specific crimes, to include “rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization and other sexual or gender violence or abuse.” Once the court came into being in 2002, the caucus turned its concern to gender parity in the 2003 election of the 18 judges on the court; with nominations of 10 women and 33 men, the elections finally resulted on February 7, 2003, after 33 rounds of voting, in seven female and 11 male judges. The Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice concluded its work in March 2003. Recognizing the need for continued advocacy for and the monitoring of gender justice in the ICC, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice was formed in January 2004, based in the Hague. It works for gender-inclusive justice, especially in connection with the work of the International Criminal Court and promotes the rights of female survivors of armed conflict. Together with the Nobel Women’s Initiative, it organized the International Gender Justice Dialogue held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico April 19–21, 2010, to promote accountability for gender-based crimes. NGOs Working Toward Peace and Nonviolence Among the many organizations that have been created to continue work on issues such as violence against women is the Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations, created originally by roughly 60 organizations in 1996 to introduce a gender perspective into the work of the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. Consisting of lawyers, legal scholars, women’s rights activists, and NGOs on gender justice, its mandate is to promote the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes of gender violence in conflict situations, especially in Africa. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and other women’s NGOs worked closely with Bangladesh, and later Namibia, to get the Security Council to pass Resolution 1325 on Women,

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Peace and Security in October 2000 the first time the Council had taken up this linkage. NGOs have continued their work with the support of UN Security Council Resolution 1820 (June 19, 2008), which explicitly recognizes a relationship between sexual violence and international peace and security, and follow-up resolutions 1888 (September 30, 2009), and 1889 (October 5, 2009). PeaceWomen, a project of WILPF, began the Security Council Monitor in 2006 to analyze and make the content on women, peace and security in all Security Council resolutions, debates, and reports available to advocates. While it is often argued that NGOs are the voice of the people, representing grassroots democracy, a counter argument is made that NGOs have tended to reinforce rather than counter existing power structures, having members and headquarters that are primarily in the wealthy northern countries. While this may have been true earlier, since the decade of the UN global women’s conferences, there has been a rise in the numbers of southern NGOs. There has also been a rise in networks and coalitions of NGOs and their influence. Some believe that NGO decision-making provides for responsible, democratic representation or accountability; others do not. What is clear, however, is that NGOs provide different voices, and these voices have been able to change global policy in a number of areas significant for women’s lives. See Also: Green Belt Movement; International Action Network on Small Arms; Transnational Feminist Networks; Women’s Environment and Development Organization; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Further Readings Foster, Catherine. Women for All Seasons: the Story of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989. Hill, Felicity, et al. “Nongovernmental Organizations’ Role in the Buildup and Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325.” Signs, v.28/4 (2003). PeaceWomen. “Translation Initiative: Call for Translation of Security Council Resolution 1325.” http://www.peace women.org/translation_initiative/ (accessed May 2010). Schiff, B. N. Building the International Criminal Court. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Stephenson, C. M. “Women’s’ International Nongovernmental Organizations at the United

Nations.” In A. Winslow. ed., Women, Politics, and the United Nations. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 1995. United Nations Economic and Social Council. “List of Nongovernmental Organizations in Consultative Status With the Economic and Social Council as of September 1, 2009.” http://esango.un.org/paperless/content /E2009INF4.pdf (accessed October 2010). Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice. http://www.icc women.org (accessed October 2010). Carolyn M. Stephenson University of Hawaii at Manoa

Nontraditional Careers, U.S. A person can be considered employed in a nontraditional career if his or her gender only represents about 25 percent of the staff. The U.S. Department of Labor lists examples of nontraditional jobs held by women as architects, computer programmers, computer software and hardware engineers, detectives, chefs, barbers, clergy, engineers, computer and office machine repairers, construction and building inspectors (and other jobs in the construction field), railroad conductors, machinists, truck drivers, firefighters, and aircraft pilots. Throughout history, men have taken on roles in skilled trades and labor-oriented jobs like construction, agriculture, manufacture, transport, and communication, while women have performed housework, care giving, teaching, and clerical duties. A woman’s role was defined by society as being the primary care giver for her family, and men were considered the wage earners. Since at least the middle of the 20th century, women have pursued professional careers and employment requiring physical labor. Although the distribution of occupations has changed since the 1970s, and women have entered administrative and service occupations, men still hold a greater number of managerial, professional, and government positions worldwide. A woman choosing a nontraditional career may receive a higher entry-level wage, however, it may be difficult to find suitable mentors. Women in male-dominated occupations may face difficulties with ill feelings from their coworkers and the perception that they are not physically or men-



tally suited to the position—obstacles that faced many early female firefighters. Statistics from the 2008 report “Quick Stats on Women Workers” reveal that 59.5 percent of women are employed or are looking for jobs. Women make up 46.5 percent of the total U.S. labor force, 75 percent working in full-time jobs and 25 percent working part time. Thirty-nine percent work in management, 33 percent work in sales, and 21 percent work in servicerelated work, while 6 percent work in productions, construction and maintenance. Interestingly, 46 percent of employed Asians and 41 percent of caucasian women work in management, professional, or related occupations. Thirty-two percent of African American women and 33 percent of Hispanic women are employed in sales and administrative jobs. Overall, women account for 51 percent of all workers in high-paying management, professional, and related occupations. Statistics show that men work 59 percent of the total U.S. working hours and make up 52 percent of the total workforce, working for an average of 38 years compared to women, who work for an average of 32 years. According to the National Council for Research on Women, 45 percent of the U.S. workforce is composed of women, of which only 12 percent occupy science and engineering jobs in business and industry. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that less than 6 percent of the people who became pilots in the year 2000 were women. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) states that only 20 percent of information technology professionals are women. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than 33 percent of girls are involved in computer-related activities and that nearly 75 percent of future jobs are projected to require an extensive use of computers. Research shows that girls demonstrate “computer reticence,” partially because society has traditionally steered women away from working with machines. The U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, reported that the share of women in the labor force increased from 46 percent to 48 percent from 2007 to 2008. A large increase was projected for Latin and Asian American women—49 percent among Latinas, 46 percent among Asian American women—with increases projected of 21 percent among African American women and 13 percent among Caucasian women. Women earning a bachelor’s degree in the computer science field decreased from 37 percent to

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28 percent since 1984. Only 9 percent of women were recipients of bachelor’s degrees in engineering. Out of 54 percent of women who took the SAT I test in the year 1999, only 19 percent planned to go into engineering, and 23 percent of those who planned to go into computer science were young women. Women still continue to concentrate in some degree in fields that have been historically dominated by women. In 1996, women earned 75 percent of education degrees, the same rate as in 1970. Per the National Center for Education Statistics, women in engineering grew from less than 1 percent in 1970 to 16 percent in 1996. In 1999, 55 percent of young men took AP calculus, while 45 percent of women took the course. Fifty-seven percent of young men versus 43 percent of young women took AP chemistry. Forty-three percent young men versus 57 percent of young women took AP biology. Around 70 to 80 percent of the test takers were male in AP physics, according to the College Board in 1999, indicating the largest gap in gender disparity. Girls tend to be more successful in mathematics and science programs with cooperative, hands-on approaches than in programs that focus on competition and person-to-person learning. Traditionally, women are most likely to work in the education and health industries and remain underrepresented in mining, construction, science, engineering, and technology fields. Conversely, women in nontraditional industries are often overrepresented in lower-level positions and/or underrepresented in leadership positions. They concentrate more on clerical and service occupations, and in comparison to male coworkers, female professional scientists tend to stagnate at lower hierarchy levels. Hence there continues to be a gap between male and female pay rates. One of the causes of gender pay inequity is occupational segregation. Despite the fact that their skills and experience are often comparable, male industries generally pay higher wages than female-dominated industries. See Also: Equal Pay; Mathematics; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings American Association of University Women. “Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age.” (2000). http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/Tech Savvy.pdf (accessed July 2010).

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Hartigan, R. “Girls Byte Back.” Teacher Magazine (April 1999). Thom, Mary. Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women & Girls in Science, Engineering & Technology? New York: National Council for Research on Women, 2001. U.S. Department of Labor. “Quick Stats on Women Workers.” http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm (accessed July 2010). Judy Jamal Columbia University

Nooyi, Indra Indra Krishnamoorthy Nooyi is the chairperson and chief executive officer of PepsiCo, a global beverage, food, and snack company. Nooyi has been lauded for breaking the invisible glass ceiling and becoming the 11th woman to be at the top position in a Fortune 500 company. She made it to the number three position, following German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the former–British prime minister’s wife Cheryl Blair, in the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women in the world in 2009. She was also part of Time’s list of 100 most influential people. Nooyi was born on October 28, 1955, in Chennai, India, to a bank officer and a stay-at-home mother. She attended the Christian College in Madras and has a master’s degree in business management from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, as well as from Yale University—two highly ranked institutions of learning located in India and the United States. Nooyi has been heralded for displaying exemplary business acumen and sophisticated strategy by expanding the scope and focus of Pepsi’s beverages beyond U.S. territories and for making forays into the Chinese market. Her work experience includes positions with Johnson & Johnson, where she was instrumental in the launch of Stayfree sanitary napkins for women. She has also been a part of prestigious institutions, such as the Boston Consulting Group. Her credo for her company is to deliver “performance with purpose.” Nominated the 2009 CEO of the Year by the Global Supply Chain Leaders Group, Nooyi has been forthright about her commitment to socially responsible corporate leadership. She has expanded the PepsiCo

Indra Nooyi, chairperson and chief executive officer of PepsiCo., was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people.

product line with healthy drinks and food products, such as the Quaker Oats division and health-oriented beverages. Nooyi is considered the motivating force for the company’s health-conscious decisions, such as removing trans fats from their products. Drawing a salary of more than $13 million annually, Nooyi is known to be an active philanthropist. Nooyi exemplifies an ideal for maintaining a balance between work and building a globally recognized identity as an individual. Nooyi is also a wife and the mother of two girls. She has managed to remain involved in her children’s lives and gives credit to her partner for taking the supporting role that has helped her stay focused on her career. She is currently the chairperson of the U.S.– India Business Council. She has also been a champion of women’s rights and is frequently invited to speak on the topic. In her keynote address at Cornell University, Nooyi said “If women don’t speak out on women’s issues, whether it be women in the workplace or maternal mortality or little girls in Africa who are abandoned, if women don’t speak out on those issues, I don’t know who’s going to speak out on them.” She envisions a future in Washington, D.C., working alongside the political powers and devoting time to social good and social policy. If Indra Nooyi’s list of accomplishments, innate leadership skills, single-

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minded dedication, and professional competence are any indication, making it to Washington, D.C., should not be too difficult a task for this accomplished individual. See Also: Chief Executive Officers, Female; India; International Women’s Day; Working Mothers. Further Readings Cohen, Ed and Tom Rath. Leadership Without Borders: Successful Strategies From World-Class Leaders. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2007. Sellers, Patricia. “The Queen of Pop.” Fortune International (Europe), v.160/5 (2009). Shweta Singh Loyola University Chicago

North Korea The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, more familiarly known as North Korea, is located in eastern Asia, bordering on Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan. Early in the 20th century, Korea lost its independence to Japan as a result of the Russo-Japanese War. After World War II, the country split, and the northern section came under the sponsorship of Soviet communists. Early in the following decade, the United States became instrumental in foiling North Korea’s attempt to annex South Korea. Subsequently, the government adopted a policy of diplomatic and economic self-reliance. The following decades were characterized by economic mismanagement and illfounded resource allocation. Much of the country’s economic resources were directed at building up its military and gaining nuclear capability, which has aroused considerable global concern. Because the communist government tightly controls information released to international organizations, accurate details on the status of women is difficult to obtain. According to the official government position, women have continued to make considerable gains since the 1940s. However, outsiders remain convinced that women are vulnerable to incidences of violence and human trafficking that go unreported by the North Korean government. Civil libertarians contend

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that North Korean women continue to be discriminated against by laws that ban them from participating in activities that are deemed “improper.” Such activities include smoking, driving, and cycling. In some areas, women also are banned from wearing trousers. Religion and Reproduction Rights By the 21st century, 63 percent of the population lived in urban areas. Except for small groups of Chinese and Japanese, North Korea is ethnically homogeneous. The same is true of religion. Most North Koreans are Buddhist and Confucianists. A small number have endorsed either Christianity or Chondogyo (the Religion of the Heavenly Way). In reality, North Koreans have almost no religious freedom. Until the early 20th century when the Chosn Dynasty came to an end, Korean women had only limited access to social, economic, political, and educational opportunities. Reproduction was considered to be the primary role for women, who were seen only as extensions of males. In a society that honored male heirs, female children were considered undesirable. By some reports, this practice continues in some families, even though it is no longer a governmentsanctioned policy. In 1945, under the communist government of North Korea, females were granted constitutional equality. North Korea passed the Law on Sex Equality in 1946 and declared that marriage should be based on free will and mutual consent. In reality, many women continue to marry only with the approval of their parents. According to information released by Radio Free Asia, the average age North Korean women marry is 28, compared to age 30 for men. Legally, wives have equal rights to property and inheritance. In divorce settlements, mothers usually win custody of children under age three, but custody of older children may be awarded to fathers. According to social indicators, the median age for North Korean females is 34.9 years. With an overall infant mortality rate of 51.34 deaths per 1,000 live births, North Korea ranks 49th in the world. Female infants (43.6 percent of births) have a considerably higher survival rate than male infants (58.64 percent). Female life expectancy is 66.53 years, which continues to surpass that of males, at 61.23 years. North Korean women bear 1.96 children, and the country ranks 138th in the world in this area. Both males and females have a reported literacy rate of 99 percent.

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Women in Elected Office Politically, North Korean women have made significant gains in recent decades since quota regulations have increased the presence of women in elected office. However, feminists have questioned the ability of quota women to act independently. Despite the increased number of women in the work place, women are still expected to perform traditional roles assigned to Korean females. See Also: Divorce; Domestic Violence; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: North Korea.” https://www.cia.gov/library /publications/the-world-fact-book/geos/kn.html (accessed February 2010). Fleshenberg, A. “The Path to Political Empowerment? Electoral Gender Quotas in South Asia.” Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies, v.14/2 (2007). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Norway Following centuries of reluctant unions with Denmark and Sweden, Norway, which borders both the North Sea and the northern Atlantic Ocean, achieved independence in 1905. Norway is often considered to have the most favorable climate for women of any nation in the world. Some scholars believe this preference for equality dates back to Viking invasions, which were common before the acceptance of Christianity in 994 c.e. The discovery of extensive oil and gas in the 1960s led to an economic boom and further development of the social welfare state. The country is highly homogeneous, and 94.4 percent of the population is Norwegian. Religiously, 85.7 percent identify with the Church of Norway. In the 21st century, Norway ranks first on the United Nations Development Programme’s list of countries with Very High Human Development. Some 77 percent of the population is urbanized. Despite setbacks that have resulted from

global economic woes, Norway has the fifth highest per capita income ($59,300) in the world. Norwegian feminism has a long history, which dates to the publication of Henrik Ibsen’s feminist play, A Doll House, in 1880. Norway passed the Equal Status Act in 1978, and equal pay for equal work is mandated by law. However, women still earn 10 to 15 percent less than men in wages and benefits. Within the Office of Equality and Antidiscrimination, the ombudsman is responsible for monitoring gender equality. Despite its commitment to equal rights, Norway has some of the same problems that plague countries around the world, including violence against women and human trafficking. Norway has an infant mortality rate of 3.33 deaths per 1,000 live births for girls and 3.92 deaths per 1,000 live births for boys. Women have a life expectancy of 82.74 years compared with 77.29 years for men. Norwegians have a fertility rate of 1.78 children per woman. The median age for Norwegian women is 40.2 years. Literacy is universal, and Norway ranks 20th in the world in educational spending. Women have an 18-year school life expectancy, as opposed to 17 years for men. By 1991, Gro Harlem Brundtland was serving her third term as prime minister of Norway. At her insistence, the Labour Party began stipulating that at least 40 percent of party nominees be women, and other parties followed suit. In 2006, gender equality was expanded to the business community, and all publicly traded firms were required to report at least 40 percent representations on all boards by 2008 or be shut down. They complied. By 2008, 64 of 169 parliament members were women; nine of 19 ministers were women; and seven women sat on the 19-member Supreme Court. Norway recognizes the economic value of homemakers by assuming that both household and income are shared, and Norway has allowed women in combat since 1984. Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal. Despite strict enforcement of laws, incidences have continued to rise, and many more cases go unreported, partly because of the male-dominated justice system. Incidences of domestic violence also continue to rise. The government has established support programs for victims, and each of the 27 police districts funds a domestic violence coordinator. The government and nongovernmental organizations work together to fund shelters

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and manage crisis hot lines. Since January 2009, it has been illegal in Norway to purchase sexual services, but it is not illegal to provide them. Most Norwegian prostitutes are foreign-born, and many of them are trafficked into the country from Africa, Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, and South America. Sexual harassment carries both fines and prison terms in Norway. See Also: Domestic Violence; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Burk, Martha. “The 40-Percent Rule.” Ms., v.16/3 (2006). Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Norway.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/no.html (accessed June 2010). Naft, Naomi and Ann D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries, 1997–1998. New York: Random House, 1998. U.S. State Department. “2008 Human Rights Report: Norway.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eur/119097.htm (accessed June 2010). Weise, Beth Reba. “Feminism in Scandinavia.” Off Our Backs, v.30/3 (1990). WIN News. “Reports From Around the World: Europe.” WIN News, v.17/3 (1991). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Novelists, Female The novel has often been the province of men, but there have always been female counterparts to challenge the domination of the novel by male writers. Some critics, such as Franco Moretti, suggest that literary history usually oscillates between domination of the novel form by either women or men. The success or failure of women writers has often depended on the popularity of particular genres. Fewer women writers have been published in eras in which the most popular genres are traditionally masculine novels with a military, nautical, or historical slant. In comparison, female novelists

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have sometimes been confined to writing about the domestic, provincial, and sensational. One of the challenges for women writers has been how to redefine or break out of conventional female genres. When exactly women began writing in the novel form is impossible to say, though most critics define the 18th century as a crucial period for the development of European women novelists. Beyond the 18th century, the feminist critic, Elaine Showalter, defines three significant periods in the development of women novelists: the feminine novel (1840–80), the feminist novel (1880–1920), and the female novel (1920 onward). These stages represent the development of a stronger identity for women novelists and a growing sense of their project as opposed to that of men. The late 20th and early 21st centuries, however, have been defined by a new generation of powerful world writing, often originating from writers with hyphenated origins or in a postcolonial setting. There has been new recognition for this world women’s writing in the form of prizes for female novelists. Early Female Novelists, Pre-1840 Before the 19th century, female novelists did not have a sense of a female tradition, and often they were trailblazers—unique in their style and approach to the novel. One such writer is Aphra Behn, whose novels are some of the earliest ever written. Returning destitute after working as a spy for Charles II, Behn turned to writing to make a living, producing poetry, drama, and a number of novels. Behn’s novels explored the popular forms of the day, including the epistolary novel in Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684–87) and narratives about foreign places and peoples in Oroonoko; or the Royal Slave (1688). As more women began to write, early female novelists often presented themselves through the stereotype of helpless femininity—a tactic that worked to protect them from the scrutiny of male reviewers. Novels by women in this period usually presented wry social commentary on the experiences of women and the education of young women. For example, the British writer Fanny Burney depicts “the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World” in her novel Evelina (1778), whereas the Anglo-Irish Maria Edgeworth portrays the social progress of her heroine Belinda (1801), describing her many suitors and her quest for a good marriage.

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The other genre dominated by women in this period was the Gothic Romance. Female novelists combined foreignness, the supernatural, and romance to define this genre—a typical example being Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). The Gothic Romance was also put to political use by feminist writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, so that the genre’s sinister preoccupations were combined with a critique of patriarchy. Wollstonecraft’s Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman (1792) presents a loveless marriage in which the wife-heroine is eventually condemned to an insane asylum by her own husband. One of the most eponymous writers of this period was Jane Austen, whose development of a free, indirect style complemented her critique of modern socialization. Similar to other female novelists of this period, Austen was interested in writing novels about the education and development of young women, as well as the quest for a suitable marriage. This is most obvious in Pride and Prejudice (1813), which begins with the famous dictum that every wealthy young man “must be in want of a wife.” Austen, however, also pays homage to the Gothic Romance in Northanger Abbey (1818), in which Austen describes her heroine Catherine as having read Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho. Austen successfully parodies the classic Gothic themes but is always ultimately a novelist of female education and development. The Feminine Novel, 1840–80 By 1840, more female novelists were encouraged to write, though sometimes they adopted a male pseudonym. For example the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, adopted the pen names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, and George Eliot’s real name was Mary-Anne Evans. This period represents a moment when women wanted to become the intellectual equals of men. Showalter defines this period as the era of the “feminine novel,” not because the writers are any more feminine than their counterparts in other historical periods but because to be a woman in Victorian society was to be bound to the rules of 19th-century femininity. As a consequence, women novelists were often stereotyped as vain and narcissistic, and they also had to defend themselves from charges of being prurient or “unwomanly” when writing on more controversial subject matters. Critics of the time, such as John Stuart Mill and G.

H. Lewes, suggested that women would never match men’s artistry and genius in the writing of the novel. In spite of such discouragement, this era marked the rise of the bourgeois woman, and female novelists engaged with the key genres of the day. The Brontë sisters brought their unique vision to the Gothic Romance, especially in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), and Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). Meanwhile, novelists like Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–65) brought a woman’s perspective to the Industrial Novel, offering a working-class viewpoint in Mary Barton (1848) and a middle-class heroine in North and South (1854–55). The social realism of George Eliot in novels such as Silas Marner (1861), and especially Middlemarch (1871–72), proved as well that women writers could construct a complex masterpiece of a novel that illuminated the lives of both women and men. The Feminist Novel, 1880–1920 The feminist period of women’s novel writing occurred at a time of suffrage and radicalism—the first wave of the feminist movement. This was also an era when the English novel was giving way to new world writing, and the novels produced by women often represented the New Woman, a figure that demanded sexual autonomy and independence. The South African Oliver Schreiner presents this New Woman in her novel The Story of an African Farm (1883), in which the heroine Lyndall describes herself as Napoleon in a woman’s body. The Irish novelist Sarah Grand considers the hypocrisy of differing attitudes to men’s and women’s promiscuity in The Heavenly Twins (1893), and the American Elizabeth Robins presents a subversive model of womanhood in reworking her adventures in the Alaska wilderness for the novel The Magnetic North (1904). Altogether, the period of the New Woman represented the beginning of a more rigorous sexual critique, which would be performed by women writing all over the world. The Female Novel, 1920 Onward From 1920 onward, women’s experience was not only the source of women’s novels but also inspired the techniques and forms used. Virginia Woolf’s recommendation of an androgynous writing sensibility did not detract from her powerful, modernist representations of women’s interiority, such as the portrayal of



Mrs. Dalloway (1925) or Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse (1927). Dorothy Richardson was the first writer to use the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique, using it to illuminate the viewpoint of her heroine, Miriam, in the Pilgrimage sequence of 13 novels (1915–67). Similarly, in Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight (1939) and the late Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), disjointed narrative flashbacks offered a stark critique of power relations between men and women. Post–World War II With the rise of Second Wave Feminism after World War II, female novelists rigorously explored the repression of women in their everyday and domestic lives. In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), Muriel Sparks uses the technique of prolepsis (flash-forward) to show that though the teacher, Jean Brodie, is now in her prime, her sexual adventures will soon be betrayed by one of her own students. Other important works that explored the repression of women include Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook (1962), Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963), A. S. Byatt’s Shadow of the Sun (1964), and Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop (1967). What these novels share is a commitment to working through the disjointed identities of women and challenging or undermining figures of patriarchy. The 1960s, however, was also an era that ushered in a new sexual freedom, which was the inspiration for many female novelists of the time. The Irish-born Iris Murdoch wrote in The Bell (1958) about the sexual intrigues of a group of people living in and around Imber Court, a lay religious community, and in Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone (1965), the heroine becomes a pregnant, single mother after a brief and casual sexual encounter. Joyce Carol Oates also writes about sex, the pressure to marry, and illegitimacy in her novel them (1969), though she sets it in the context of the American working class and urban life. The sexual revolution of the 1960s meant that women could write more honestly and openly about relationships, and by the 1980s, the technique of studying the intricacies of human relationships was available to gay writers too, as in Jeanette Winterson’s portrayal of lesbian lovers in Sexing the Cherry (1989). Hyphenated Origins The strength of the American novel in the 20th century created possibilities for communities within the

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United States to write their stories. Particularly successful is the African American novel, which had long been championed by women writers from the time of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). Toni Morrison is significant in portraying the experience of black women, from her realism in The Bluest Eye (1970) to the more Gothic sensibility of her eponymous novel Beloved (1987). Alice Walker also gained acclaim for her portrait of the double-repression of African American women in The Color Purple (1982), and Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979) employs analepsis (a flashback) to send her confident, modern African American heroine back to the time of slavery. Perhaps following on from the African American remaking of the novel, other groups with hyphenated origins within the United States have reclaimed the novel. Chicana writing is growing, its best-known female novelist perhaps being Sandra Cisneros, whose book The House on Mango Street (1984) presents vignettes from the lives of Chicana teenagers. In The Joy-Luck Club (1989), Amy Tan, an American writer of Chinese descent, presents a moving portrait of a mother–daughter relationship and the reconciliation of Chinese American identity. The Haitian American Edwidge Danticat writes in Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) of the difficulty of life in the United States for Haitian immigrants traumatized by war and suffering. These writers bring a fresh perspective to the form of the novel and offer fascinating explorations of national and female identity. Postcolonial Women Novelists The 20th century has also seen the rise of the postcolonial novel, in which English-speaking colonies “write back” against the literary canon. The role of women in writing the postcolonial novel is particularly significant, because all too often in colonial and postcolonial discourse, women’s bodies are used in intellectual exchanges about the ownership of culture and the rape of the land. In the same year, 1982, postcolonial women writers Anita Desai and Isabel Allende published portraits of families living through the aftermath of colonialism, though at different ends of the world: Desai’s portrait of family struggles in India titled The Village by the Sea and Allende’s family saga of violence, The House of the Spirits. Women writers from all over the postcolonial world have used the novel to convey women’s experience of the

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violence and the wrongs of colonialism, from Jamaica Kincaid in Antigua to Yvonne Vera in Zimbabwe. In 1996, a new award for women’s writing, the Orange Prize for Fiction, was established in the United Kingdom. In addition, the Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to a woman on 12 occasions, including to novelists such as Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, and Toni Morrison, and the Pulitzer Prize and Man Booker Prize are now more regularly awarded to women novelists. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Lessing, Doris; Morrison, Toni; Oates, Joyce Carol; Showalter, Elaine. Further Readings Lane, Richard J. The Postcolonial Novel, Cambridge, MA: Polity, 2006. Moretti, Franco. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History. London: Verso, 2007. Showalter, Elaine. A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. London: Virago, 2009. Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists From Brontë to Lessing. London: Virago, 1977 (reprinted 1984).

these rules establish male superiority over female if examined by modern standards. However, judging by the contemporary standards, these nuns were the champions of the feminist cause for their time, because the bhikkuni order brought Buddhism closer to the ideals that were later to be known as feminist. The order had on the one hand Sumeda and Sela, who were of royal lineage, and on the other the slave girl Punnika. There were former courtesans like Ambapali and Vimala and daughters of noble families like Bhadda, Kundalkesa, and Sujata. The Brahminical religion of the Buddha’s time did not grant any parity to women. In such times, the order of the bhikkunis may be seen as a progressive step against the engendered norms of patriarchy. The nuns’ order received its orientation from the monks initially, but when the monks’ resentment and reluctance was sensed, it was felt that the nuns’ order needed to be redefined. Greater autonomy was granted to the bhikkunis, and they were allowed to teach their own disciples. Ordination of the nuns has

Zoe Brigley Thompson University of Northampton

Nuns, Buddhist The order of the Buddhist nuns, also known as theris, established by the Buddha is a landmark in women’s history as the first and the only women’s order to strive toward the most noble kind of freedom. It was in the 6th century b.c.e. when Buddhist nuns established an ideal of sisterhood, becoming the first feminist order. Buddha’s mother, Mahapajapati Gotami, was the first Buddhist nun ordained into the Dhamma, after much reluctance on Buddha’s part. It was at the insistence of Gotami that Buddha gave his consent to the bhikkuni order. Buddha prescribed eight special rules (gurudhamma) that the bhikkunis had to agree to before they were ordained. Compiled in Bhikkuni Vinaya,

Girls train to become Buddhist nuns in Thailand. Most faiths will not let women under 18 take their vows.



three levels: sramanerika (novice); siksamana (probationary); and bhikkuni (full ordination), and it is received at a slow, steady pace to acclimatize the nuns with the Sangha, or spiritual community. The actual number of theris is not known, but the Khuddaka Nikaya has 73 poems, organized into 16 chapters written by Dhamma, Ubbiri, Patacara, Kisa Gotami, Mittakkali, Samana, Mutta, and many more. This is known as Therigatha, or “Verses of the Elder Nuns.” Therigatha is a record of the position of nuns in the order and its verses reaffirm the equal position accorded to women in terms of religious attainment. Author Kathryn R. Blackstone looks upon these verses as “liberation manuals.” Through not only their verses but also their lives, the nuns proved that women are equal and also that even without rebellion, women can choose not only their own path but also guide others to a path of discipline that leads to knowledge and freedom from all suffering. The nuns’ order flourished in India for some time, and in the 3rd century b.c.e. spread to Sri Lanka. After a century, the order expanded to China and Korea as well. After almost 500 years of Buddhism, there was a bifurcation seen in the Mahayana and the Theravada streams. Although the Theravada bhikkuni order has still not been completely revived, in countries like Sri Lanka the Theravada bhikkuni survives to this today. In the Mahayana sect, the bhikkuni order is being nurtured by educated, active nuns. Today, however, the term nun in Buddhism refers to women called dasasilamatas, who undertake the 10 precepts and wear a white robe. In 1998, at Saranath in India, 11 dasasilamatas were ordained as bhikkunis, who in turn ordained 23 more dasasilamatas, and in this way the lineage is growing in Theravada countries. In July 2007, Buddhist leaders and scholars of all traditions met at the International Congress on Buddhist Women’s Role in the Sangha in Hamburg, Germany, to work toward a worldwide consensus on the reestablishment of bhikkuni ordination. See Also: Buddhism; Nuns, Roman Catholic; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Blackstone, K. R. Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha. Surrey, UK: Curzon, 1998.

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Brown, S. The Journey of One Buddhist Nun. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Gutschow, K. The Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Asha Choubey M .J. P. Rohilkhand University

Nuns, Roman Catholic The word nun is commonly used to refer to a woman who has made a visible commitment to religious life. The Latin nonna, or “tutor,” came to denote a woman under monastic vows. The Latin moniale and the Old English nunne are later versions of the same. In modern usage, the terms nun and sister are used interchangeably in popular speech, yet under church (canon) law there is a distinction between the two groups. Nuns profess solemn vows and generally maintain a contemplative life, while sisters profess simple vows and have an active apostolate often involving education or charitable work. Both solemn and simple vows are made publicly, accepted by a superior, and binding. The definition of nun and the precise form of life that nuns lived has changed dramatically throughout the past two millennia; however, the commitment and desire of religious women to participate in the ministry, mission, and life of the Catholic Church has not. When Anthony, the father of western monasticism, became a hermit, he left his sister in the care of “pious nuns.” His biography, written in the mid-4th century, provides a witness to communities of nuns in the early church. Although evidence for communities at this time is fragmented, it appears that nuns were women living in enclosed contemplative communities who chose to separate themselves from the world and dedicate themselves to the Lord. Idealization of enclosure is apparent among early religious communities. The earliest rule for women, written about 534 c.e. by Caesarius of Arles, placed particular emphasis on enclosure. Similar sentiments are echoed in other early rules, and enclosure continued to be emphasized throughout the Middle Ages. Social changes between the 12th and 14th centuries resulted in increased emphasis on enclosure, as

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well as more rigid rules governing canonical requirements for recognition as a nun. The fourth Lateran Council of 1215 asked that emerging religious groups adopt and approve rules. Despite resistance to innovation, new communities developed. Groups that were inspired by Clare of Assisi or some early Cistercian women created patterns of religious life that accepted enclosure and were otherwise compatible with the religious climate of the time. In 1298, the growing emphasis on enclosure culminated in Boniface VIII issuing the decree Periculoso, which made enclosure mandatory for all nuns. The church’s support for strict enclosure of nuns was reaffirmed by the Council of Trent and by three subsequent papal proclamations in the 16th century. However, strict enclosure was to prove difficult to regulate and to enforce. The canonical situation was complicated by the many irregular groups of religious women, including beguines and tertiary groups of Franciscans and Dominicans, which developed throughout the 13th century. The status of non-enclosed religious women was resolved canonically until Leo XIII’s bull Conditae a Christo in 1900. At this time, congregations of sisters who were under simple vows and groups of noncloistered women were given full papal recognition. Active ministry continued to cause problems in both the early modern and modern worlds. Women in what began as secular institutes or congregations with a specific charitable focus were both supported and disdained in the church and in society. The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded by Mary Ward (1585–1645), was dedicated to education and justice. Ward was dedicated to Ignatian spirituality and is now recognized as a visionary champion for religious women. However, during her life, Ward was a controversial figure who was imprisoned by the church and whose convents and schools were suppressed. It was not until more than two centuries after Ward’s death that her community was able to honour her as foundress. Feminist Spirit The radical, even feminist, spirit of early modern women was to continue. In the 19th century, nuns and sisters participated in acts of public service. These women involved themselves in tasks as diverse as working with prostitutes to help them become

more economically independent to nursing victims of cholera and pox. Through the work done by these women and by more recent scholars of women’s history, it is evident that nuns, sisters, and religious women can be considered precursors of feminism. In an age where women were seldom active in public life, religious women founded and administered hospitals, charities, and houses of education. Many communities of Catholic women have continued to be on the forefront of the women’s movement. The decree, Perfectae Caritatis (1965), issued by the Second Vatican Council, asked religious orders to return to the original intentions of their founder or foundress. After this time, many congregations of nuns and sisters began to explore questions of identity more fully. Nuns and sisters who were trained as historians began to explore the early public and social roles of their orders. By investigating the feminist past of their congregations, these women radically altered the official histories of their religious communities. Today, and throughout history, communities of nuns and sisters belong to a particular order and community. Each order has particular characteristics and work and has many communities. Each community has an individual superior, who is ultimately responsible to the governing body of her order. Nuns like the Poor Clares and the Carmelites still observe strict enclosure and live lives of contemplative prayer. Benedictine nuns do not maintain the same degree of strict enclosure. Other orders, such as the Franciscans, are often involved in ministry in the world but still maintain lives of shared prayer. Congregations of nuns and sisters can often be identified by their religious habits; however, many elect to dress in clothing that is virtually indistinguishable from that worn by the laity. Lives of Service Many congregations of nuns and sisters have returned to lives of radical service. Religious women run hospices for victims of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS), work with political refugees and with victims of human trafficking. Sisters such as the American Sister of St. Joseph, Helen Préjean, have caused controversy by ministering to prisoners who have been condemned to death. As Catholic nuns and sisters work with the marginalized, they often show greater

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openness to social problems than the institutional church. It is not uncommon for nuns and sisters to work in areas wracked by conflict. Groups of sisters often work with individuals on both sides of a conflict, often with disastrous results. A Franciscan Missionary of Mary, Maria Teresalina, died while working in Kashmir in 1947. Both this order and many others still maintain schools and hospitals in this area. Nuns and sisters maintain a connection to community, both in their order and to the universal church. Although there are no limitations on the type of employment that religious women can seek, the roles that nuns and sisters play are generally discerned by community needs. The careers of nuns and sisters range from counseling and medicine to working as professors in universities. The feminist roots of nuns and sisters often manifest themselves in issues concerning women in the church. This is particularly true with regards to women in ministry. In many areas, the decline in vocations has meant a shortage of priests. This leaves nuns and sisters to run liturgies and communion services. Although the vocation of nuns and sisters is often service rather than liturgy, there are some who wish for greater participation in the liturgy. Notably, the Benedictine nun Joan Chittester has expressed controversial views on women’s ordination and women’s participation in liturgy. The church remains committed to the religious life of enclosed and contemplative nuns. The 1999 Vatican document on enclosed life, Verbi Sponsa states that “enclosure, for nuns, is a recognition of the specific character of the wholly contemplative life in its feminine form” and that “separation from the world, silence and solitude, express and protect the integrity and identity of the wholly contemplative life.” Enclosed nuns can be found throughout the world. They often maintain close ties with houses of religious men, who provide for both their spiritual and practical needs. Since the mid-20th century, the church has seen a decline in vocations to the religious life. Religious women have commented on the need for religious expressions that are suited for the modern age. The 21st century has seen a growth in semireligious communities composed of nuns, sisters, and even lay women. Like the early communities of sisters, such women tend to be involved in social justice.

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In his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, John Paul II stated that consecrated life for both men and women was “to be sought in the special relationship which Jesus, in his earthly life, established with some of his disciples” (c. 1, par. 14). A vocation to the consecrated life takes many different forms, each of which is recognized as making a unique contribution to the church. Since the earliest days of the church, women have been involved in its spiritual life and mission. Although their characteristics have changed and evolved over time, the importance of their contribution has not diminished. See Also: Italy; Nuns, Buddhist; Religion, Women in; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings John Paul II. Mulieris Dignitatem: On Dignity and Vocation of Women. London: CTS, 2002. John Paul II. Vita Consecrata: The Consecrated Life. Vatican City: St. Paul’s Publications, 1996. McNamara, JoAnn. Sisters in Arms: Catholic Women through Two Millennia of Christianity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. The Teachings of the Second Vatican Council: The Complete Text of the Constitutions, Decrees and Declarations. Westminster, UK: The Newman Press, 1966. Verbi Sponsa: Instruction on the Consecrated Life and the Enclosure of Nuns. Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 1999. Alison More St. Bonaventure University

Nurses Nursing may be the most familiar health professional group in the world, second only to physicians. Nurses far outnumber all other groups of health workers, with an estimated 12 million nurses working worldwide. Women constitute the overwhelming majority of nurses, with estimates ranging from 89 to 97 percent in countries of the global north. According to the 2003 American Nurses Association Social Policy Statement, “nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention

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of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and population.” To achieve this range of activities, nurses operate in four domains: clinical or bedside practice (the work most commonly associated with nursing in the public imagination), nursing management, nursing education, and nursing research. Nurses work in a variety of hospital-based and community settings and in many capacities: in clinics as nurse practitioners, in colleges and universities as faculty educators and researchers, in government as policy makers, in schools as public health nurses, in hospitals as administrators and clinical nurse specialists, and in the home caring for a child with a disability or a senior recovering from a stroke. Nurses are highly educated, skilled practitioners of the art and science of nursing who contribute to individual and community health and well being, the domestic economy, and the reproduction of community values. Despite this, nurses continue to be variously misrepresented in the popular media and on the Internet as angels of mercy, doctors’ handmaidens, glorified waitresses, and “naughty girls.” Nursing as care work and individual and collective identity illustrate well the gendered, classed, and raced meanings of women’s lives. History of Nursing Nursing dates to the mid-1800s, although women’s work as healers, herbalists, and midwives predates the professionalization of care work. Florence Nightingale, who was born into a wealthy British family, wrote about being “called” to nursing. Known as the “Lady with the Lamp” in recognition of her service to injured and dying soldiers during the Crimean War and elsewhere, she established the first professional nursing school in London in 1860. Mary Seacole was a Jamaican-born woman of color who, like Florence Nightingale, traveled widely to care for populations hard hit by cholera and other epidemics and to serve for three years during the Crimean War. Unlike Nightingale, Seacole’s contributions to nursing practice were largely forgotten. Some historians and feminists claim she fell into obscurity because race and class prejudice made Seacole a less fitting role model during the Victorian era. When Seacole’s contributions were rediscovered, she became a sym-

bol for minoritized nurses and the civil rights movement. Until the mid-1950s, women learned the knowledge and skills that prepared them to be a nurse through apprenticeship. Their training typically occurred in a hospital setting under the watchful eye of a physician or senior nurse. The naturalness of these expectations was reinforced by educational institutions and religious-based hospitals, that trained nurses. Schools of nursing operated by Catholic and Mormon churches, for instance, reinforced women’s role in health and healing at work and at home. Nursing has been considered a “calling” for which an individual is chosen to serve God’s plan in a unique or special way. Historically, individual ambition, self-fulfillment, and sexual desires were constrained by the strict dictates and moral codes of behavior, the demand for faithfulness and self-sacrifice in the service of the greater needs of the sick and injured, and the good of the hospital or organization. Today, many nursing students are introduced to Nel Nodding’s ethics of care, which emphasize that the caring and moral nurse is empathetic, concerned, gentle, kind, warm, compassionate, good humored, authentic, and engaged. Education and Credentialing of Nurses Over time and in response to health-sector demands, the scope of nurses’ work increased, as has the knowledge and skills required to competently fulfill those duties. Today, nurses operate on many rungs of the professional ladder. Each step requires additional educational preparation beyond the minimum entry to practice, which in turn qualifies a nurse to engage in a wider scope of practice and in a wider variety of practice settings. Along with this added responsibility and accountability come greater autonomy and control over work and decision making; improved wages and career mobility; and greater social, economic, and political power. Depending on the country or state, a practical nurse or nursing assistant may require a few months to two years of preparation in an approved program to acquire the basic knowledge and skills deemed necessary to perform competently. Minimum entry to practice for a nurse has increased from two years of college preparation to four years of university preparation. The clinical nurse specialist, nurse anesthetist, nurse midwife, and nurse practitioner require several years of advanced training to



develop the expertise to practice in these specialist roles. Nurses may be prepared at the master’s and doctoral levels to assume work in senior administration, education, and research. The International Council of Nurses unites more than 130 national nursing associations from around the world. The goal of the federation is to promote quality nursing care by sharing information about health and social issues from a range of international perspectives and by informing health practice and policies that contribute to health and healthcare globally. One initiative is to provide credentialing services and products. Credentialing is a mechanism for ensuring that an individual has met a set of standards of professional practice set by a regulatory body, professional association, government agency, or other organization created to accredit education programs and healthcare facilities. Typically, nurses are expected to renew their credentials periodically as a way of communicating to their employers and the public that they are maintaining their knowledge and skill competencies. Minimum standards for competent practice vary from country to country, and the array of credentialing activities and services provided by credentialing associations also varies. For decades, this has meant that nurses trained in the Caribbean or the Pacific Islands, for example, did not have their credentials recognized as equivalent when they emigrated to work in Canada and the United States. This policy decision had material consequences for these immigrant nurses of color, who tended to be concentrated in less prestigious, less autonomous nursing positions as compared to their white, locally trained counterparts. The current international nursing shortage is providing the impetus for streamlining credentialing standards and practices to facilitate the international movement of nurses. Nursing as Care Work Nursing has long been considered an appropriate vocation for young women and was promoted as a normal and natural extension of women’s domestic role. The classic image of the nurse is a woman performing in a hospital, a clinic, or a community setting. Although caring is considered a fundamentally human quality, care work is typically undertaken by women and girls. Women are believed to be well suited to perform the

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instrumental, emotional, moral, and relational labor of nursing. Nursing literature has long debated whether nursing is an art, a science, or both. That debate about nursing as practice or discipline reflects the longstanding tension about the valuation of nursing labor as subordinate to the biomedical structure in which the discipline of nursing operates. The work of nurses is physically and emotionally demanding, oftentimes unrewarded, undervalued, or unrecognized, and has been associated with poor health, low levels of satisfaction, unhappiness, and depression. Nurses are expected to meet the demands of work through selfless devotion to those in their charge. However, nurses typically have divided allegiances, serving the interests of one group that is vulnerable (patients and children), while at the same time reporting to and negotiating with another group that represents their financial and social security (senior nurses and doctors). The everyday work of nursing varies significantly within each group, mirroring the social hierarchies of race, class, and gender. Some nurses (those working part-time, in settings with less social cache, or those with training outside North America, for example) have far less latitude in negotiating their work practices. Nurses are subject to direct and indirect surveillance in the performance of their duties by their clients, families, colleagues, supervisors, and their professional association. Nursing Identity The identity of nurses as individuals and as a collective is forged by institutional expectations and the care work they perform. Feminine identity as a natural caregiver is accorded varying degrees of social value, and a poorly circumscribed but wideranging set of caring practices. Historically, women were believed to be subject to their capacity as reproducers, and therefore, the natural guardians of virtue, morals, and values. By contrast, men were freed of their biology by rationality. Men exercised their power through politics, education, and culture; women exercised their power through womanly arts of human and social reproduction. Thus, nurses’ identity as caregiver came to be regarded as women’s domain and inextricably linked to her biological, reproductive capacity, while physicians’ identity became institutionalized as men’s domain.

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At times, there are calls for a revaluation of the paid and underpaid work done by nurses, work that is simultaneously invisible yet subject to surveillance, valorized yet culturally devalued. Nursing as a social institution reproduces and reflects family and community values and structures and is regulated directly and indirectly by legal, political, and sociocultural expectations. Pay equity—equal pay for work of equal value— continues to be the most serious gender issues in the area of equal opportunity. Female-dominated professions such as nursing tend to be less valued socially and financially than traditionally male-dominated professions such as medicine. Although women make up the vast majority (93 percent of staff positions in the United Kingdom [UK], for example), men tend to accept a disproportionate amount (45 percent in the UK) of advanced educational opportunities and senior management positions. Gender discrimination may be addressed by developing bias-free job evaluations; enforcing equal opportunity legislation; and tackling systemic barriers, such access to 24-hour licensed childcare facilities. Representation of Nurses The physician-dominated healthcare model in which nurses operate is reproduced in the media. Dramas about physicians and medicine have been much more prevalent over the last 50 years than dramas about nurses and nursing practice. Dr. Kildare (played by TV heartthrob Richard Chamberlain) and Ben Casey (played by Vince Edwards) were the physician leads in TV dramas of the 1960s. These shows ran for 190 and 153 episodes respectively. More recent popular and long-running TV medical shows (St. Elsewhere, M*A*S*H, ER, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice) also starred physicians with nurses featured in less central storylines. By comparison, there have been relatively few programs featuring nurses in lead roles. Julia was the first program to feature a black actress, Diahann Carroll, in the lead, playing a widowed nurse. First airing in 1968, it ran for 86 episodes. While exceptional for this reason, it was criticized for being an unrealistic and apolitical portrayal of nursing practice and African American families. Two other notable series are Nurse Jackie, which first aired in 2009 and features an emergency room nurse struggling with sub-

stance abuse and an extramarital affair, and Scrubs, which first aired in 2001 and features a caring and competent Latina nurse character in the one of the lead roles. While all these shows may have artistic merit, organizations such as the Centre for Nursing Advocacy, which is concerned with promoting public understanding of nursing practice, are less enthusiastic about the portrayal of nurses. The focus tends to be on physicians’ professional hierarchy and advancement rather than on nurses’ autonomy and expertise. Nurses are seldom represented as knowledgeable, ethical, and skilled practitioners. In other arenas, such as advertising, pornography, and the apparently benign creation of Halloween costumes, sexualized images of nurses continue to appear. Nursing Shortage The supply of nurses has not kept up with worldwide demand. This has negative implications for population health, with poorer health outcomes expected among the most disadvantaged populations. This shortage translates into increased mortality, postoperative complications, and infection rates for the poorest of the poor. A report published by the International Council of Nurses reported that the projected shortage of nurses is more acute in some regions than in others. Rural and remote regions have been historically underserved, although urban areas are now experiencing shortages as well. Third World countries tend to have more acute shortages than Europe, North America, and Australia. For example, there are 1,000 nurses per 100,000 population in Norway, compared with 10 nurses per 100,000 population in Uganda. Four challenges have been identified. First, the global population is aging, which affects both supply and demand for nursing. Supply is affected because the existing workforce, which is disproportionately composed of baby boomers, is reaching retirement age. Shift work and the physical and emotional demands of nursing labor are more challenging for the aging worker. This means that nurses are working fewer hours or leaving direct patient care positions. At the same time, the demand for nurses is increasing because the general population is living longer and requiring care for both normal conditions and chronic diseases associated with aging.

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The second challenge is that nurses are relocating within and beyond their national borders in search of more professional autonomy, more opportunity for advancement, a fairer wage commensurate with their educational preparation, and higher levels of public respect and social status. In the Gulf nations, for example, local nurses constitute only a fraction of the workforce, with many sourced from the Philippines and other Pacific Island countries. This example illustrates two points: the international movement of nurses that addresses the shortage of the host country results in a shortage in the home country; and nurses tend to move from low income to higher income countries, resulting in a loss of human resources and economic instability in an already poor nation. The third challenge is the need for organizational restructuring and health-sector reform. Although the issues may be more acute in some countries than others, gender, race, and class politics play a significant role in educational inequalities and wage disparities within and beyond the health sector and even among categories of nurses in the same locale. Collectively, these problems impact negatively on the recruitment and retention of nurses, the attractiveness of nursing as a career, and the likelihood of attracting women and men into the profession. For instance, in some parts of Africa and South America, there are persistent staffing shortages, inefficient or inadequate infrastructure, unreliable or inadequate supply of basic health supplies and medications, and gender discrimination and workplace violence. In countries such as Canada and the United States, nurses are leaving the profession earlier because of work-related stress, injury, and discontent. The fourth cause of the nursing shortage worldwide is the enormous demand of the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. War, political unrest, and environmental disasters, such as the earthquakes that hit Haiti and central Chile in 2010, also affect the adequacy and efficiency of the health sector and increase the demand for nurses to care for the sick, injured, and dying. See Also: Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Equal Pay; Midwifery; Professional Education; Representation of Women; Stereotypes of Women.

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Further Readings Buchan, Jim and Lynn Calman. “The Global Shortage of Registered Nurses: An Overview of Issues and Actions.” Geneva: International Council of Nurses, 2004. D’Antonio, Patricia. “Nurses–Wives and Mothers: Women and the Latter-day Saints Training School’s Class of 1919.” Journal of Women’s History, v.19/3 (2007). Ehrenreich, Barbara and Deirdre English. Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers. 2nd Ed. New York: The Feminist Press at City University of New York, 2010. Ingall, Athena Harris. “Professional Nurse Caring: A Review of the Literature.” St Vincent’s Health Care Campus Nursing Monograph (2001). McPherson, Kathryn. Bedside Matters: The Transformation of Canadian Nursing, 1900–1990. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996. Nodding, Nel. Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Diana L. Gustafson St. John’s, Canada

Nutrition Nutrition can be defined as the process of absorbing nutrients from food and processing them in the body for growth, replacement of tissues, and maintenance of good health. Historically, women have been responsible for cooking and providing meals for their families. Often, that food was grown in the family garden or local community. The women may not have had much formal education, but they seemed to know, almost instinctively, what was good for their families. Life was less complex earlier in time, and fewer food choices existed. The evolution of technology and modern farming techniques has caused a great deal of change in the quality of our food. Water, soil, and air pollution are depleting our soil of vitamins essential for good health, and an increase in the amounts of food additives, chemicals, sugar, and unhealthy fats in our foods has contributed to the increase in chronic diseases present in society. Therefore, it is critical that women learn

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as much as they can about their nutritional needs and the connection between their diet and their health. Although nutritional guidelines exist for the general population, there are some suggested practices specific to the health and wellness of women. Women’s bodies are unique in how they respond to the six basic nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and water. These nutrients are needed for various different body functions in varying amounts. Poor health can result from a lack of one of these essential nutrients or, in some cases, an excessive amount of them. Diseases linked to an improper diet include anemia, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. These illnesses will be discussed in more detail later.

Puberty Federal guidelines indicate that dietary recommendations are essentially the same until puberty. The age at which girls enter puberty has dropped over the years, which has been attributed to nutritional factors connected to childhood obesity. Girls with a lower intake of protein and dietary fiber have been associated with a slower onset of puberty. During puberty, there is an increased need for iron, as the girls will begin menstruating during this time. Good sources of iron include lean meat, fish, poultry, spinach, beans, and lentils. Women build bone into their 20s and need to eat a calcium-rich diet. Good sources of calcium are low-fat milk, cheese, yogurt, broccoli, spinach, kale, and oranges.

Good Nutrition for Women Eating a variety of foods and appropriate amounts of the six nutrients can boost energy, improve mood, control weight, prevent disease, and improve overall health. Nutritional tips for women of all ages include the following:

Reproduction Women of reproductive age who are pregnant or are considering being pregnant have additional nutritional needs. The nutritional habits of the woman before, during, and after pregnancy greatly affect the fetus and developing child. Overweight and obese women are at risk for infertility problems, as well as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia throughout the pregnancy. One nutrient that is essential for women in this stage of life is folic acid. Folic acid is used to aid the body in producing extra blood needed for pregnancy and helps prevent neural defects in the developing baby, such as spina bifida and anencephaly. Folic acid is often taken as a dietary supplement but can also be found in foods such as spinach, citrus fruits, and beans. Calcium is also important for women in this age group to support bone health.

• Eat predominately plant-based foods and avoid processed foods. Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables. • Eat foods rich in calcium to support bone health, such as dairy products and leafy green vegetables. Choose fat-free or low-fat milk products. • Eat lean protein. Excessive amounts of protein can cause calcium loss, which can lead to osteoporosis. • Eat foods rich in iron. Iron is especially important during menstruation. • Limit alcohol and caffeine. Caffeine can interfere with hormone levels and increase the loss of calcium. • Eat whole grains. Whole grains contain the entire kernel and can aid in the prevention of some chronic diseases. Women’s bodies are especially sensitive to nutritional requirements because of hormonal fluctuations that occur during a woman’s life. These fluctuations take place during a woman’s monthly cycle as well as throughout her life as she moves through adolescence, puberty, reproduction, and menopause.

Menopause As mentioned in both the previous sections, calcium continues to be an important nutrient for women going through menopause. Vitamin D is also important in the absorption of calcium. However, it is controversial at high doses because of the link to kidney stones and constipation. In addition to calcium, women in this phase of life should eat foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol to lower the risk of heart disease. Foods high in fiber are important to prevent colon cancer, and foods high in salt should be limited or avoided to help prevent high blood pressure. In addition, foods with an excessive amount of sugar should be avoided because they contain empty calories with no nutritional value.



Diseases Associated With Poor Nutrition Many of the leading causes of death are directly related to poor nutrition. Diseases linked to an improper diet include anemia, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Anemia is caused by a deficiency in iron and affects more than 30 percent of the world’s population and 12 percent of women in the United States. Symptoms may include fatigue, headaches, general weakness, and irregular or increased heart rate. Pregnant women with anemia and their fetuses are at risk of premature birth, low birth weight, and maternal death. To prevent anemia, one should eat iron-rich foods such as lean red meats, chicken, fish, chickpeas, soybean, kidney beans, and lentils. Cardiovascular disease—the leading cause of death in women—is directly linked to poor nutrition. Risks for heart disease include being overweight or obese; consuming too much fatty foods, salt, sugar, and alcohol; smoking cigarettes; and not exercising regularly. Heart-healthy foods include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean proteins. Hypertension is blood pressure that remains elevated above a safe level. Blood pressure levels of 140/90 or higher are considered unsafe. Over time, arteries become thicker and less elastic, resulting in arteriosclerosis, which increases the risk for heart disease and stroke. This condition, affecting approximately one in three adults in the United States, can be prevented by maintaining a healthy weight and reducing salt. Diabetes, a condition that affects how the body uses energy from food, creates a high level of glucose in the blood. Causes include the body not accepting or using the insulin it produces, the pancreas creating too little insulin, or a combination of both. Type 2 diabetes, also called adult-onset diabetes, develops slowly and usually occurs in adulthood as a result of poor diet and obesity. Approximately 10 percent of women age 20 years or older have diabetes. However, this disease is becoming more prevalent in children and teenagers as a result of increases in obesity among these groups. Although diabetes cannot be cured, it can be managed with a healthy diet, proper exercise, and medication when necessary. Diabetes also creates an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Obesity, defined as having a body mass index greater than 30 kg/m2, is the result of having too much fat in your body. In the United States, approxi-

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mately two-thirds of adults and one-fifth of children are overweight or obese. Obesity increases risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, and hypertension. Prevention includes a healthy, well-balanced diet and physical activity. Osteoporosis, affecting approximately 30 million U.S. women, is characterized by fragile bones that may fracture or break easily. To prevent osteoporosis, a bone-building diet at any age rich in calcium and vitamin D is important to form new bone cells. Foods rich in calcium include dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt), dark green leafy vegetables, and almonds. With less than half of adolescent males and one-fifth of adolescent females consuming enough calcium, half of women and one-fourth of men older than 50 years will experience an osteoporosis-related bone fracture. For those not able to eat foods containing calcium or drink milk, calcium supplements are available. Other diseases related to poor nutrition include certain cancers, scurvy (which results from a vitamin C deficiency), rickets from a vitamin D deficiency, blindness from a vitamin A deficiency, goiter (enlarged thyroid glands) from an iodine deficiency, nerve disorders and appetite disorders from a vitamin B and/or iron deficiency, and bleeding disorders from a vitamin K deficiency. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Diabetes; Diet and Weight Control; Heart Disease; Nutrition in Pregnancy; Puberty; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Alexander, L. L., et al. New Dimensions in Women’s Health, 5th Ed. Boston: Jones and Bartlett, 2010. American Dietetic Association. “Disease Management and Prevention.” http://www.eatright.org/Public (accessed April 2010). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Nutrition for Everyone.” http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone /index.html (accessed April 2010). U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Life Stages.” http://www .nutrition.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=11& tax_level=2&tax_subject=395&topic_id=1690& placement_default=0 (accessed April 2010). Jennifer J. Kane Elissa M. Barr University of North Florida

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Nutrition in Pregnancy

Nutrition in Pregnancy

Prepregnancy and Nutrition The nutritional status of the mother at the time of conception is an important determinant of fetal growth and development. Being a healthy weight before conception (body mass index [BMI], 18.5–24.9 kg/m2) is of great importance, and being underweight (BMI, less than 18.5kg/m2) or overweight (BMI, more than 25kg/m2) can affect both fertility and birth outcome. There is now evidence to confirm that folic acid, found in many foods such as green leafy vegetables, fortified cereals, and bread, is of great importance during the period from before conception to early pregnancy and can reduce the risk of neural tube defects. Women planning a pregnancy are advised to take 400 grams a day of folic acid supplement before and up to the 12th week of pregnancy to ensure that they meet this recommendation.

Studies have shown that women with a healthy prepregnancy BMI have a weight gain on average of around 12 kg (10–14 kg), which is associated with the lowest risk of complications in pregnancy and labor, and a lowered risk of having a low-birth-weight (LBW) baby (birth weight, less than 2.5 kg). Other risk factors associated with a LBW baby are smoking and use of alcohol or drugs during pregnancy. LBW is associated with increased infant morbidity and mortality, as well as an increased risk of diseases in later life, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The “Barker” hypothesis states that impaired intrauterine growth and development may be the root cause of many degenerative diseases of later life through the mechanism of fetal programming, in which a stimulus or insult at a critical period in early life development has a permanent effect on the structure, physiology, or function of different organs and tissues. A review by the World Health Organization showed that a birth weight of 3.1–3.6 kg is considered in the normal range and is associated with positive fetal outcomes for a baby born full term. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy can increase the risk of complications such as high blood pressure, and in the long term it can lead to overweight and obesity in the mother postpartum.

Nutritional Requirements and Weight Management During Pregnancy Nutritional requirements are increased during pregnancy. Additional maternal stores of energy and nutrients are required for fetal development, as well as for lactation postpregnancy. During pregnancy, women have large variations in fat deposition, energy expenditure, and physical activity; this reflects the wide variation in energy requirements in women. For women with a normal prepregnancy BMI, only a small amount of additional energy is required. This is because in pregnancy, the body adapts to the increased energy requirements and becomes more energy efficient through reduced physical activity and a lowered metabolic rate. It is only during the last trimester of pregnancy that there are increased energy requirements of an additional 200 kcal/ day. However, underweight women or women who remain active and do not reduce their activity levels may require more energy.

Key Nutrients of Importance in Pregnancy The main recommendation for pregnant women is to follow a varied, healthy, balanced diet. Nutrients for which there is evidence of increased requirements during pregnancy include protein, energy, and certain micronutrients such as thiamine, riboflavin, folate, and vitamin D. During pregnancy there are physiological adaptations thought to help meet the increased demand for certain minerals; for example, iron and calcium absorption increases during pregnancy. However, women of childbearing age are at risk of developing anemia because of poor iron stores and are therefore advised to consume iron-rich foods such as red meat, pulses, bread, green vegetables, and fortified breakfast cereals during pregnancy, and in some cases, a supplement may be required. Calcium is an important nutrient particularly during teenage pregnancy, as a rapid increase in bone mass occurs in adolescence. Pregnant teenagers have higher requirements of calcium because the

For optimal fetal growth and development and good maternal outcomes, a healthy balanced diet is of great importance before conceiving, as well as throughout the pregnancy. There are a number of key nutrients of importance in pregnancy and a number of food safety issues that need to be considered before and during pregnancy.



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maternal skeleton is still developing. Vitamin D, found in a small number of foods but mainly obtained from summer sunlight, is important for calcium absorption. A daily vitamin D supplement of 10 g/day is recommended throughout pregnancy. In addition to the recommendation regarding the importance of folic acid in reducing the risk of neural tube defects, there is also an increased requirement of folate during pregnancy to prevent megaloblastic anemia.

tant for pregnant women to avoid swordfish, shark, and marlin and to limit consumption of tuna during pregnancy. These types of fish have high levels of methylmercury, which are harmful for the developing nervous system of the fetus. Women with allergies or a strong family history of allergies (hay fever, asthma, eczema, or other allergies) are advised to avoid peanuts and food containing peanut products while pregnant and breast-feeding.

Food Safety Issues During Pregnancy It is important during pregnancy to avoid eating foods that could increase the risk of exposure to harmful pathogens that may be harmful for the fetus, such salmonella, found in raw eggs, mayonnaise, and undercooked meat; listeria, found in mold-ripened and blue-veined cheeses; and toxoplasmosis, found in raw or undercooked meat. Pregnant women are advised to avoid excessive intakes of vitamin A (retinol), which is present in high levels in liver and liver products and in some multivitamin supplements. Excessive intakes of retinol are toxic to the developing fetus and may cause birth defects. Alcohol consumption is shown to influence fertility and can increase the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome, characterized by LBW and a variety of congenital abnormalities. In the United States and other countries, it has been recommended that alcohol be avoided during pregnancy. A number of studies have shown that caffeine is associated with LBW and spontaneous abortion. It is recommended that caffeine intake should be limited to within the current guidelines of no more than 300 mg/day, which is roughly equivalent to four cups of instant coffee (190 mL/cup), six cups of tea (190 mL/ cup), eight cans of cola (330 mL), or six bars of plain chocolate (50 g). Studies have shown that oily fish is a rich source of long-chain n-3 fatty acids, which are important for optimal fetal brain and nervous system development. Epidemiologic studies show protective associations of maternal fish intake during pregnancy on atopic or allergic outcomes in infants/children. The recommendation is now limited to two portions of oily fish per week for pregnant women (and those who may become pregnant). This is to avoid the risk of exposure to environmental contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins. It is also impor-

Diet-Related Complications During Pregnancy Preeclampsia (hypertension) is a condition that can occur toward the end of pregnancy in some women. Evidence shows that obesity is a common risk factor, but further research is required to confirm whether supplementation with calcium or certain vitamins during pregnancy may help prevent this condition. Symptoms of morning sickness, nausea, and vomiting are commonly reported in pregnancy. Changes in appetite and taste can cause aversion to some foods. These changes are unlikely to have any adverse effect on the nutritional status. Some women experience pica (cravings for certain nonfood substances such as chalk) in pregnancy, but the reasons for this are unclear. Constipation during pregnancy can be common. Increasing fiber intake, drinking plenty of fluids, and taking gentle exercise like walking can be helpful to alleviate the problem. Food hygiene is important to prevent food poisoning during pregnancy, as well as avoidance of certain at-risk foods that contain harmful pathogens such as listeria. It is important to consume oil-rich fish (two portions per week) but to avoid certain fish (e.g., shark, marlin) to prevent exposure to environmental contaminants harmful for the developing nervous system of the fetus. See Also: Diet and Weight Control; Nutrition; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care. Further Readings Goldberg, G. “Nutrition in Pregnancy and Lactation.” In P. Shetty, ed. Nutrition Through the Life Cycle. Leatherhead, UK: Leatherhead, 2002. Hytten, F. E. “Nutritional Physiology During Pregnancy.” In D. M. Campbell and D. G. Gillmer, eds., Nutrition in Pregnancy. London: Royal College of Gynaecologists, 1983.

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Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board. Nutrition During Pregnancy. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1990. Mozaffarian, D. and E. B. Rimm. “Fish Intake, Contaminants, and Human Health: Evaluating the Risks and the Benefits.” Journal of the American Medical Association, v.18/296 (2006). Mukherjee, R. A., et al. “Low Level Alcohol Consumption and the Fetus,” British Medical Journal, v.330 (2005).

Picciano, M. F. “Pregnancy and Lactation.” In E. E. Ziegler and L. J. Filer, eds. Present Knowledge in Nutrition. Washington, DC: ILSI, 1996. World Health Organization. “Maternal Anthropometry and Pregnancy Outcomes. A WHO Collaborative Study.” World Health Organization Bulletin, v.73 (1995). Vasant Hirani University College London

O Oates, Joyce Carol Joyce Carol Oates has been named the current Dark Lady of American Letters (after Mary McCarthy and Susan Sontag)—a designation given to an intellectual woman writer who challenges the categorization of “woman” writer. Born on June 16, 1938, Oates was raised, along with two younger siblings, in the rural upstate New York town of Millersport. Oates’s mother was a homemaker; her father a machinist. Her paternal grandmother lived with the family and was a key supporter of Oates’s writing, giving her a portable typewriter for her 14th birthday. Oates received a scholarship to Syracuse University and earned a B.A. in 1960 as class valedictorian. While at Syracuse, she won a Mademoiselle writing prize (the same one Sylvia Plath had won a few years earlier). In 1961, she earned her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and married Raymond Smith. In 1962, both Smith and Oates taught at the University of Detroit; from 1968 to 1978, the couple moved to the University of Windsor in Canada. In 1978, they settled in Princeton, New Jersey. Smith died in 2008. Oates is currently a Distinguished Professor in Humanities at Princeton University. Since 1959, Oates has published hundreds of short stories and essays, nearly 60 novels, dozens of plays, and more than 15 collections of poetry, as well as books for children and young adults. Her novel them (1969) won the National Book Award, and three

novels, Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. We Were the Mulvaneys (1996) was selected in 2001 by Oprah Winfrey for her book club. Oates’s early novels were set in Detroit: them, Expensive People, and The Garden of Earthly Delights (1967–69) each depict the emerging class consciousness of a young protagonist. The violent sexual awakening of another teen character is illustrated in her widely anthologized story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (1966). Several novels from the 1970s focus on characters with misguided worldviews (e.g., Son of the Morning [1978]). Other works have college campus settings (e.g., “In the Region of Ice” [1970]; The Hungry Ghosts [1974]; Unholy Loves [1979]; and Marya: A Life [1986]). In the early 1980s, Oates published three novels that depict the American dream (and failure) while also subverting the conventions of 19th-century domestic gothic and romance: Bellefleur (1980), A Bloodsmoor Romance (1984), and Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984). Oates has also focused on the dualities within the female psyche, as depicted in two female characters (e.g., in Solstice [1985] and You Must Remember This [1987]) and as seen in twins, under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith (e.g., Lives of the Twins [1987] and Soul/Mate [1989]). Her favorite subjects, however, are the American family, the American dream, and the violence that seems to be inevitable in its pursuit (e.g., American Appetites [1989]; Because It Is Bitter, 1041

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and Because It is My Heart [1990]; and We Were The Mulvaneys [1996]). In 2000, Oates’ Blonde, a fictional account of the life of Marilyn Monroe, a woman not unlike many of Oates’ characters, became a best seller. Oates also started writing young adult novels at this time, including Big Mouth and Ugly Girl (2002). Oates’s reception by the literary community has been mixed. In the early 1970s, Alfred Kazin complained that because her works were too heavily plotted with unlikeable characters, her novels were not high literary art. Yet he also criticized women who dismissed Oates’s focus on working-class rather than feminist issues: he claimed that unlike many women writers, Oates was more sensitive to the violence of the American working-class experience. Harold Bloom has also hailed Oates as a major proletarian writer. Oates’s harshest critics are those who protest the violence in her work. In 1981, Oates responded to an essay in the New York Times Book Review called “Why Is Your Writing So Violent?” by noting that the question itself was sexist. Other critics have praised her for her violence, saying that she writes like a man. Many of Oates’s male characters resort to violence out of frustration. When she was a child, Oates’s father took her to boxing matches. On Boxing (1987) is a collection of essays on the topic: boxing, to Oates, explicitly reflects the drama of human struggle within one’s self and with others. Oates justifies the violence and pessimism of late-20th-century fiction in general as simply realism. Tragic art, she notes, necessarily reflects moments of crisis and also shows how some individuals have the strength to overcome such moments. Many feminist critics were slow to appreciate Oates’s fiction, perhaps because of its depiction of both men and women equally constrained by gender roles. Oates has often chafed at being called a “woman” writer, grouped with other writers simply because of her sex, and has conceded that most of her mentors have been men. It was not until the 1980s, with her feminist trilogy exploring arranged marriages, rape, and sexual abuse during the 19th century, that Oates’s work was admitted into the canon of feminist literature; an excerpt from A Bloodsmore Romance (1984) was published in Ms. magazine. Oates also expresses a feminist consciousness in her collection of essays (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities (1988), in which she explores the works of several

women writers, though the bracketed “(Woman)” again reflects her questioning of a system that does not see male writers as a category. Oates is rumored to have been shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature since at least the 1980s. See Also: Boxing; Feminism, American; Ms. Magazine. Further Reading “Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page.” http://jco.usfca.edu/index.html (Accessed November 2009). Creighton, Joanne V. Joyce Carol Oates: Novels of the Middle Years. New York: Twayne, 1992. Johnson, Greg, ed. Joyce Carol Oates Conversations 1970– 2006. Princeton, NJ: Ontario Review, 2006. Stacey Lee Donohue Central Oregon Community College

Obama, Michelle Born in 1964, Michelle Robinson Obama is the first African American First Lady in U.S. history. She is married to President Barack Obama, who was sworn in as the 44th president on January 20, 2009. They have two daughters, Malia and Natasha (Sasha), born in 1999 and 2001, respectively. Throughout her life, Obama has blazed trails and broken barriers. She has been praised for changing perceptions of African American women and of African American families. She has high approval ratings; in January 2010, 78 percent of Americans approved of the job she was doing as First Lady. Born in the South Side of Chicago six months after President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, Obama grew up in a home that stressed the value of education and hard work. Her father, Fraser Robinson, was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, living with multiple sclerosis. Her mother, Marian Robinson, stayed home to raise Obama and her older brother, Craig. Obama attended Chicago’s first magnet high school, where she was salutatorian, traveling two to three hours each day on public transportation to school.Obama



Michelle Robinson Obama, a lawyer by profession, is the first African American First Lady in U.S. history.

followed her brother to Princeton University, where she majored in sociology and minored in African American Studies, graduating cum laude in 1985. The national debate on affirmative action at the time influenced Obama’s years at Princeton. In fact, she has written that it was at Princeton that she first felt self-conscious about her race. When Obama enrolled, there were only 94 African Americans (out of 1,100 students) in her class. She wrote a muchanalyzed thesis titled “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community” for which she surveyed African American alumni to determine whether they felt more comfortable with blacks or with whites at different times in their lives—before Princeton, at Princeton, and after Princeton. Michelle Obama, after Princeton, attended Harvard Law School, from which she graduated in 1988.

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At Harvard, she joined the Black Law Students Association and worked in the school’s legal aid bureau, providing poor people with legal services. She returned to Chicago to join the prominent national law firm Sidley Austin as an associate in the intellectual property group. It was there that she met Barack Obama in 1989, when he was a summer associate at Sidley and she was assigned to be his adviser. The Obamas began dating that summer and were married in 1992. In 1991, Obama left Sidley and her career focus shifted. She served as assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago’s city government before becoming the founding executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares youth for public service. In 1996, Obama joined the University of Chicago, serving as associate dean of student services and vice president of community and external affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center. Obama resisted her husband’s entry into politics, chafing at the strain it placed on their family’s life. After her husband’s election to the U.S. Senate, she and their daughters continued to live in Chicago. When he decided to enter the race for president, she negotiated with him to quit smoking as a condition for his running. Obama reduced her professional responsibilities by 80 percent to support his campaign. She was an effective surrogate, tasked with explaining his positions on issues, humanizing her husband, and often hosting events and fund-raisers solo. At first, she only worked on the campaign two days a week, but that steadily increased, and by February 2008, she attended 33 events in eight days. Perceived as polarizing early in the campaign, she was sometimes labeled as an “angry black woman.” But by summer 2008, perceptions of her had softened as she increased her focus on the hurdles facing the middle class and empathizing with those challenges. As First Lady, Obama works to ensure that their daughters have as normal a life as possible. Her mother moved into the White House to assist with child care, and the two girls attend Sidwell Friends School. She has focused her work on supporting military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, promoting the arts and arts education, and fostering healthy eating.

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Obama recently launched a campaign to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity, with the ambtious goal of solving the epidemic within a generation. See Also: Attorneys, Female; Gardening; Nutrition; Political Ideologies. Further Readings Kantor, Jodi. “The Obamas’ Marriage.” New York Times (October 26, 2009). Mundy, Liza. Michelle: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. Obama, Michelle and Susan A. Jones. Michelle Obama in Her Own Words. Self-published, CreateSpace, 2008. Stephenie Foster Independent Scholar

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder that affects 2 to 3 percent of the U.S. population. OCD is characterized by consuming thoughts and beliefs that typically lead to the uncontrollable performance of behaviors. For a person to be diagnosed with OCD, his or her obsessions and/or compulsions must significantly negatively impact his or her life, such as an inability to work. There are four types of OCD: (1) contamination/ cleaning, characterized by overwhelming thoughts of filth and the need to remove the filth by cleaning; (2) obsessions/checking, characterized by a fanatical need to check on things (like making sure a stove is off or a door is locked); (3) symmetry/ordering, where a person visually requires items to be as symmetrical as possible and will arrange or rearrange things so that they are precisely and symmetrically ordered; and (4) hoarding, which is characterized by a compulsion to keep items that may be old, spoiled, out of date, or otherwise unused as a result of a fear that once discarded an item may be needed. Studies have found that each type is characterized by a unique distribution of symptoms. The most common obsession is fear of contamination and the most common compulsion is checking.

Symptoms that an OCD person may experience are severe anxiety, hyperventilation, sweating, accelerated heartbeat, and a tightening of the chest. OCD usually begins in late adolescence or early adulthood (33 percent of individuals experience symptoms before the age of 15) but can (rarely) develop at an earlier age. OCD affects U.S. adult men and women equally, but males develop OCD earlier than women (between 5 and 6 years of age compared to between 20 and 29 years of age, respectively). Women with OCD are more likely than men to be married with children and to have a past history of an eating disorder or major depression. Studies have found that OCD is comorbid with other psychiatric disorders; 67 percent of persons with OCD also have major depression, 25 percent also have social phobia, and 20 to 30 percent also suffer from tics. Although OCD has a 2.5 percent lifetime prevalence rate in the United States, families that have one clinically diagnosed OCD person in them are 6.2 times more likely to have another OCD person. Studies have cited both a genetic component (using monozygotic and dizygotic twin studies, and parent and non-twin sibling samples) as well as a learned environmental component. Some researchers believe that children who grow up watching siblings or parents performing compulsive behaviors, and/or hearing obsessive thoughts spoken aloud, are more likely to have OCD symptoms because they learn the behavior as a normal course of daily life. The presence of symptoms does not guarantee treatment for OCD. The average number of years between the onset of OCD and treatment is 17 years. Further, the median untreated rate is 59.5 percent for persons with OCD. Treatment plans depend on the type of OCD one is experiencing and the degree of impact on the individual’s life. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are often prescribed to mediate the effects of the anxiety experienced and also to treat depression, social phobia, or other generalized anxiety that is present in persons with OCD. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is also often initiated with an OCD person, where the individual is gradually exposed to increasing amounts of the situation that causes the obsessive thoughts but is taught new (preventative) methods by which to respond to the compulsions that follow to break the link between the obsession and compulsion. Research indicates that

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SSRIs are most effective for individuals with later onset than if they were early onset. Desensitization (flooding) therapy has also been found effective, where persons with OCD are repeatedly exposed (sometimes over a long period of time) to their obsessive triggers to desensitize them to the anxiety produced and decrease the urge to perform the compulsive behaviors. See Also: Anxiety Disorders; Depression; Health, Mental and Physical; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of. Further Readings International OCD Foundation. http://www.ocfoundation .org (accessed November 2009). Steketee, Gail and Teresa A. Pigott. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The Latest Assessment and Treatment Strategies. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2006. U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. “ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder, OCD.” http://www.nimh.nih.gov /health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd /index.shtml (accessed November 2009). Valerie R. Stackman Howard University

O’Connor, Sandra Day Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. She was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a unanimous vote of 99–0. She was sworn into office on September 25, 1981, and served on the court for more than 25 years. Justice O’Connor’s appointment to the Supreme Court was not without controversy, as she drew criticism from both conservatives and liberals. Conservatives were concerned about her lack of knowledge of constitutional matters and lack of experience in the federal court system. Meanwhile, liberals were concerned about her failure to indicate explicit support for feminist issues. Justice O’Connor’s tenure on the bench, however, alleviated some of the concerns on both sides. She gradually earned a reputation for being a moderate conservative, a free-thinker, and an effective compromiser. She became well-known for

Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, at the time a controversial decision.

her commitment to careful analysis of the facts and issues presented in each of the cases that she heard. Justice O’Connor’s conservative values lay the foundation for her beliefs about the role of the courts. She made it clear that she believed the courts’ role is to interpret the law, not legislate. She advocated for the exercise of judicial restraint, the primacy of state’s rights, the safeguarding of personal freedoms, and incremental social change. In 1982, her second year on the court, Justice O’Connor issued her first major opinion. In a sex discrimination case, she opined that male students could not be rejected from nursing school based on their gender. In her years on the bench, she shaped constitutional law in several areas, including affirmative action, voting rights, separation of church-and-state issues, the Fifth Amendment, states’ rights, and abortion. In fact, Justice O’Connor received the most attention for her opinions on cases related to abortion rights. In several cases, she was the deciding vote in upholding states’ rights to regulate and limit abortion. Many conservatives had hoped that Justice O’Connor would take an even more active antiabortion position;

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nevertheless, her opinions fell short of reversing the historic Roe v. Wade decision. Though Justice O’Connor conceded the government some regulatory control over abortion, such as with regards to informed consent and parental approval provisions, her position upheld Roe’s recognition of a personal freedom interest in a woman’s right to choose. Therefore, her influence in preserving abortion rights in the United States is without question. Justice O’Connor was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas, and spent her early years on a ranch in Arizona. Later she attended school in El Paso under the care of her grandmother. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University, both with honors. In law school, she was an editor of the Stanford Law Review. She met her husband, John Jay O’Connor III, at Stanford, and the couple had three sons. Justice O’Connor’s career took off in 1965, when she started to work part time for the Arizona attorney general’s office. In 1969, she was appointed to the state senate and was subsequently reelected to that position. In 1973, she became the first woman to serve as the majority leader of a state senate. In 1974, she was elected to a position of trial judge for Maricopa County, and in 1979, she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. Then, in 1981, she was appointed to the Supreme Court and served until her retirement in 2006. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Cowgirls; Feminism, American; United States. Further Readings Biskupic, Joan. Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Member. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. McFeatters, Ann Carey. Sandra Day O’Connor: Justice in the Balance. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006. O’Connor, Sandra Day. The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice. New York: Random House, 2003. O’Connor, Sandra Day and Alan H. Day. Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. New York: Random House, 2002. Julie Ahmad Siddique City University of New York Graduate Center

Olympics, Summer When considering the historic and current role of female athletes in the Summer Olympics, it is appropriate to begin with the modern Olympic Games, which began in 1894. The 1894 games marked the first modern Summer Olympic Games. The establishment of summer and winter Olympic Games as separate events with characteristically seasonal athletic activities did materialize until 1924. Prior to the modern Olympic Games era, the ancient Olympic Games, which began in 676 b.c.e. in Greece, did not allow women as spectators, let alone as competitors. Some scholars believe that the inception of the modern Olympic era marks the commencement of the struggle for women and their athletic place in history. Although the word modern describes the current era of Olympic Games, it is important to note that the general disposition among the men responsible for the development of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which became and remains today the governing body of the Olympic games, was that women should not compete in the Olympic Games. Barron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games and the first president of the IOC, was adamantly against female athletes’ competition in the 1894 games, and thus, female competitors were banned from competition until 1900. Coubertin leaned on his Victorian ideals, in an attempt to justify excluding women as competitors, in the 1894 games and beyond. Coubertin defended his position by publicly rationalizing that female athletes were unattractive and indecent, and then expressed his “concern” that physical exertion may lead to injury. Although women competed in exhibition events in golf, tennis, and archery during the 1900, 1904, and 1908 games, 1912 marked the first year that women were able to participate in the Olympics as true competitors and that Olympic records about women were kept. The Early Years The early years of the modern Olympic Games continued to epitomize hegemonic thought that female athletic competition was unnatural. Despite the continued resistance during the early years of the female competitors as a part of the modern Olympic Games, signs of popularity and support for female competi-



tors began to cultivate throughout Europe and North America. The first female Olympic athletes came from white, socially privileged backgrounds, and these athletes initially competed in events that were a part of their social fabric, sports like golf and tennis. Beginning in 1912, swimming and diving as well as several track-and-field events were added to the women’s competitive Olympic events. The popularity of female athletes continued to grow throughout Western nations, and eventually, the IOC could no longer ignore or defend their position to exclude female athletes from competition without being challenged. Historical documentation denotes that a “last ditch effort” to ban women from Olympic competition occurred in 1925, when a medical paper titled “Women’s Participation in Athletics” described the need to slow the advancement of female competition. The paper pointed out the physiological differences between the female and male body and, in particular, the biological and social “responsibilities” of the females and males. The report indicated that if women focused their efforts on competition and physical output, they may compromise their reproductive system and may impact the national welfare and moral. “Women’s Participation in Athletics” aimed to reinforce the 19th-century conventional belief systems that women filled a particular social and cultural role, and it was not on an athletic field or in an arena. While the medical report did not fulfill its entire objective to ban women from competition due to their “natural” responsibilities, it did result in separate Olympic events for men and women. Separate Competitive Spaces and Social Expectations After Coubertin’s retirement the preceding year, women were granted competitive access to the 1928 Olympic Games in event competitions separate from the male competitors. Separation of female and male Olympic events reinforced the notion of gender stereotyping, as female competitive events were constructed and governed by the IOC in a way that was deemed biologically and socially appropriate for women. Efforts to limit female participation to what was deemed biologically and socially appropriate seemed to overshadow the physical and competitive accomplishments of a few pioneering female athletes. Most female Olympic events adhered to rules that were

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different from the male competitors. For example, the distance that women had to cover in certain track and field events was less than their male counterparts. In addition, the time that women were expected to compete in was longer than their male counterparts. Although women were marking their place in history as skillful and adapt movers and competitors, the rules and expectations of their physical performance was negotiated among the men at the IOC and was believed to be suitable for female competitors. Continued Inequity Male dominance in the sporting world has consistently been a barrier for female competitors in all realms. Even today, women are still less represented in Olympic completions than males are. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, less than half of the competitors to represent the United States in their respective sport were female. Four years later, the imbalance seemed to have improved slightly. Throughout the past two decades, there has been an increase in the number of female Olympic athletes as well as the number of sports that these athletes compete in. The summer games of 1996, held in Atlanta, Georgia, are commonly known as the “Summer of Women.” It was the summer that Jackie Joyner-Kersee, ran her last Olympic track-and-field event. It was the summer that Kerri Strug and the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics team, often referred to as the “magnificent seven,” won the gold medal, after Strug landed her dismount on a badly injured leg and ankle and was carried off the landing mat by her coach because she was unable to walk. It was the summer that the Women’s Soccer team, led by Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers, won the first gold medal in U.S. women’s soccer history. The U.S. Softball team experienced equal success and found their way to the top of the medal stand to receive their gold medals. Standouts in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, include the U.S. women’s basketball team, which won its fourth-consecutive gold medal, and the U.S. women’s soccer team, which won its third gold medal in four Olympic Games. Jamaican Melaine Walker won a gold medal in the women’s 400-meter hurdles and set an Olympic record, Ethiopian runner Tirunesh Dibaba won two gold medals, and Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo won the gold medal in the 800-meter run, winning the first gold for Kenya in women’s ath-

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letics. Female swimmers who won gold medals and set new records include Italian Federica Pellegrini, Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, Rebecca Soni of the United States, and Germany’s Britta Steffen. American Natalie Coughlin became the first U.S. female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in a single Olympic competition, and the first woman to win a 100-meter backstroke gold for two consecutive Olympics. As women continue to progress and continuously establish new social expectations for themselves and the female athletes who will follow in their footsteps, one thing remains constant regardless of social and biological expectations: women continue to defy the odds and continue to secure their place on their field and in the arena. See Also: Greece; Olympics, Winter; Rhode, Kim; Sports, Women in; Stereotypes of Women; Swimming. Further Readings Borish, L. J. “Women at the Modern Olympic Games: An Interdisciplinary Look at American Culture.” QUEST, v.48 (1996). Hargreaves, J. “Olympic Women: A Struggle for Recognition.” In J. O’Reilly and S. K. Cahn, eds., Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2007. Hargreaves, J. “Women and the Olympic Phenomenon.” In Alan Tomlinson and Garry Whannel, eds., The Five Ring Circus: Money, Power and Politics at the Olympic Games. London: Pluto Press, 1984. Remley, M. L. “Women in the Olympics.” The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, v.65/7 (1996). Rintala, J. “Women in the Olympics-Making a Difference.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, v.59/3 (1988). Donna Duffy University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Olympics, Winter The current Olympic Games are considered to be a part of the modern Olympic era, which began in 1896. The Winter Olympic Games began as an

exclusive competitive event in Chamonix, France, in 1924 and were originally referred to as the “International Winter Sports Week.” Prior to 1924, the Winter Olympic Games were not held as an exclusive, seasonal event made up of characteristically cold weather sports. When figure skating made an appearance in the 1908 Olympic Games in London, England, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began to contemplate the notion that two Olympic events consisting of sports that were seasonally appropriate should be held every four years. Although the IOC was experiencing progress in terms of establishing two separate—winter and summer—competitive events, women were not viewed as serious competitive athletes, and women’s Olympic events were consistently not included in the competitive programming. The IOC and its original founder and president, Pierre de Coubertin, believed that women were not able to compete at a high level and that competition would be detrimental to their health. Coubertin believed that a woman’s worth should be measured by the number of children she could bear. Further, it was believed that including female athletes in the Olympic Games would upset the social structure and social expectations of women’s roles. A commonly held belief endorsed by the male power structure that controlled the Olympic Games was that women who competed at high levels looked unattractive and therefore were not the best ambassadors for their country on the international stage. The Early Years Traditionally, the female athletes who participated in the Winter Olympic Games consistently struggled to be included and to be taken seriously as athletes. In 1922, the establishment of the Women’s Olympic Games (WOG) became a reality. The WOG initially intended to challenge the ideological constraints that positioned women as “second-class citizens” in the Olympic community, and throughout the 1920s and 1930s, female athletes had their own competitive space in the women’s Olympic movement. While these games are a part of Olympic history, scholars believe that through these games, female athletes made a significant contribution to the overall feminist movement. The WOG were developed and conceptualized by Alice Milliat, a female athlete from France,



as a result of the IOC continuously failing to recognize female athletes as serious competitors. The WOG games continued to gain momentum as a significant sporting event for women and experienced an increase in female athletic participation. In 1926, the WOG were held in Gothenburg, Sweden, and 10 countries participated. In 1934, the last WOG were held in London, England, and 19 countries participated. The WOG experienced an unprecedented number of spectators, and the IOC could no longer deny that female Olympic athletes were capable of attracting crowds. Although female athletes competed in Olympic events since the 1900 games, Milliat believed that the male power structure that governed the Olympic stage continually discredited female athletes; Milliat believed that female athletes should not have to justify their athletic prowess and ability to gain access again and again to the Olympic fields and arenas. Female athletes competed in their own Olympic Games until 1934, when the Olympics Games were slowly integrated, and year after year, more and more competitive Olympic events were added for women. Social Reform and the Impact in the Winter Olympic Games Coubertin and the members of the IOC committee did not anticipate the repercussions of the social reform movement and Western industrialization that immediately changed women’s roles from passive to active. The change in women’s roles extended beyond the home and workplace and slowly made its way to the sports fields and arenas. In 1937, female athletes who represented the United States experienced unforeseen challenges in most of their athletic competitions. Female athletes from the eastern European bloc nations and more mountainous countries were better prepared to compete in the Olympic Games. Therefore, the coaches and female athletes from the United States were forced to develop new training techniques for their Winter Olympics events. Gender Stereotyping and the Events of the Winter Olympics Women have been able to break into the events of the Winter Olympic Games based on the sports characteristics that are socially identified as “female” in nature. Female athletes have been granted access to sport and competitive events in the Winter Olympic Games that

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were modified from the men’s structure and rules in an effort to maintain a sense of femininity. There are some female Winter Olympics sporting events that draw more attention than others. Figure skating epitomizes femininity in sport; it is also the perfect example of how aggressively competitive attitudes, which are typically associated with male athletic competition, are present within the women’s games. The off-ice attack on gold medal hopeful Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics is the perfect example of a “win at all costs” attitude gone amok. Kerrigan’s U.S. teammate Tonya Harding was accused of planning an attack on Kerrigan with the help of then-husband Jeff Gillooly and a hit man. The attack on Kerrigan initiated conversations about the inside world of competitive figure skating and raised questions about the embodiment of grace and beauty in the sport. Most recently, in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the women’s ski-jumping event was still not included in the competitive events, even though Lindsey Van, an American ski jumper, holds the record among men and women for the longest ski jump. Female ski jumpers have petitioned to have ski jumping for female athletes included in the Winter Olympics Fames since the 1998 Nagano games. Today, ski jumping is the only Olympic event to remain “men only.” While some argue that a lack of female ski jumpers is another obvious and current example of inequality in the Olympic Games, there is still a question about whether or not female ski jumpers will be included in the next Winter Olympic Games. Contemporary discourse suggests that Olympic female competitors are continually advocating to be taken seriously as athletes at the Olympics level, as well as in other sport and physical activity spaces. The IOC is consistently viewed as the quintessential “good old boys network” and is continually scrutinized for its lack of advocacy, support, and inclusion of female Olympic athletes. See Also: Coaches, Female; Figure Skating; Kim, Yu-Na; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Hargreaves, J. “Olympic Women: A Struggle for Recognition.” In Jean O’Reilly and Susan K. Cahn, eds., Women and Sports in the United States: A

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Documentary Reader. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2007. Kidd, B. “The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat and the FSFI in Establishing International Track and Field for Women.” Journal of Sport History, v.4/1 (1977). Laurendeau, J. and C. Adams. “‘Jumping Like a Girl’: Discursive Silences, Exclusionary Practices and the Controversy over Women’s Ski Jumping.” Sport in Society, v.13/3 (2010). Nelson, M. B. “Who We Might Become.” In Nike is a Goddess. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998. Remley, M. L. “Women in the Olympics.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, v.65/7 (1996). Rintala, J. “Women in the Olympics—Making a Difference.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, v.59/3 (1988). Story, R. “A Guide to the Olympic Gold Rush.” Women’s Sports & Fitness, v.16/1 (1994). Donna Duffy University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Oman Oman is a country in the Middle East with a long seacoast on the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman; it shares land borders with Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Oman is a Sultanage with a freely elected parliament and, in an official decree in 1970, was declared to be Arab and Islamic. The population of 3.4 million includes Arabs, south Asians, and Africans; most are Muslims, with Ibadahi Muslims predominant (75 percent). Omanis enjoy a high standard of living with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $20,300 in 2009 and life expectancies of 71.87 years for men and 76.55 years for women. Oman prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, but the laws are frequently not enforced, and Islamic law and tradition, as well as social customs, may act to put women at a disadvantage. The World Economic Forum ranks Oman low on gender equality of the 134 countries it studied. On a scale where 0 is inequality and 1 is perfect equality, in 2009, Oman received an overall score

A mannequin wearing a hijab (headscarf) in a storefront in Oman, with cosmetics in the background. Women wear hijabs, and while some women cover their faces and hands, not all do.



of 0.5928 (123rd of 134 countries). Oman received a score of 0.960 on health and survival (95th), 0.974 on educational attainment (93rd), 0.406 on economic participation and opportunity (128th), and 0.025 on political empowerment (128th). Omani women have made great gains in education. Although female literacy is only 86 percent, that figure includes many older women who grew up before universal education became the norm. Girls today are as likely as boys to attend primary and secondary school and constitute a majority in tertiary education. In 2009, women held 10 percent of ministerial positions in the Omani government and none of the seats in parliament, although women have served in parliament in the past as well as in the cabinet and on the council of Oman. Women make up just 34 percent of the labor force in Oman, and despite constituting a majority of students in tertiary education, they hold less than one-third of the tertiary teaching posts. Omani women earn 70 percent of what men earn for comparable work. One reason for the low rates of employment among Omani women is that Oman has one of the highest fertility rates in the world, at 5.53 children per woman. Abortion is permitted only to save the mother’s life, but birth control is available, and about one-quarter of Omani women report using contraception. Almost all births are attended by trained personnel, but results are less than the country’s prosperity would suggest: the maternal mortality ratio is 64 per 100,000 live births and the infant mortality rate is 10 per 1,000 live births. Save the Children ranks Oman 67th of 75 less developed countries on its Mother’s Index, 66th on its Women’s Index, and 61st on its Children’s Index. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Contraception Methods; Equal Pay; Islam. Further Readings Hausman, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. The Global Gender Gap Report 2009. Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org/en /Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20 Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed June 2010). Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe

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children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed June 2009). U.S. Department of State. “2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Oman.” http://www.state.gov /g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61696.htm (accessed June 2009). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Operation Rescue Operation Rescue is a controversial Christian organization that opposes abortion. Its nationwide actions against abortion have ranged from civil disobedience to members being involved in clinic violence. Supporters believe it is answering a spiritual calling to save “unborn children.” Opponents believe Operation Rescue has violently and criminally limited the reproductive rights of women by intimidating them and the doctors who provide their care. Founded by Randall Terry in 1986, Operation Rescue garnered attention for drawing thousands of anti-abortion protestors to its “rescues” (protests in which participants attempted to unlawfully block entrance to abortion clinics). Two notable actions included a mass protest at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta and the “Spring of Life” protests in Buffalo, New York, in 1992. Autonomous chapters of the organization arose, and Operation Rescue West of California gained prominence. Terry’s original organization, under the leadership of Flip Benham, split from the other branches and became known as Operation Save America in 1994. The former Operation Rescue West maintained the organization’s original name. Pro-choice opponents of Operation Rescue blamed the organization and others like it for espousing radical rhetoric to its members. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, there were incidents of arson and bombings at abortion clinics in several states. In 1993, Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida, was murdered during a protest outside of a clinic where he practiced. Terry was blamed by some for circulating a “wanted” flyer with Dr. Gunn’s home information on it during an earlier protest. George Tiller, a doctor in Wichita, Kansas, was also shot by antiabortion

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extremist Rachelle “Shelly” Shannon later that same year. Shannon frequently attended protests organized by Operation Rescue, and outsiders believed that she may have had a role within the organization. In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), making it a federal crime to prohibit individuals from obtaining or providing reproductive rights by the use of physical obstruction, force, or the threat of force. Opponents also filed a number of lawsuits against the organization, including a federal lawsuit alleging criminal conspiracy. However, the violence continued. In 1998, Dr. Barnett Slepian, an abortion provider in Buffalo, was shot and killed by James Kopp, a long-time Operation Rescue member. Under the leadership of Troy Newman, the group relocated to Wichita in 2002 with the intent of closing Tiller’s clinic. In 2006, Operation Rescue bought the building where Tiller’s practice was housed. That year, Operation Rescue also petitioned Kansas to convene a grand jury to investigate the death of one of Tiller’s patients who died of complications. Tiller was cleared of all wrongdoing. On May 29, 2009, Tiller was shot and killed by antiabortion extremist, Scott Roeder. Despite its public condemnation of the slaying, Tiller’s murder caused renewed media attention on the group as the name and phone number of their senior policy adviser was found in Roeder’s car when he was arrested. The adviser, Cheryl Sullinger, had once served two years in jail for her role in conspiring to bomb an abortion clinic. She says she had no involvement in Tiller’s death. Operation Rescue lost its nonprofit standing in 2006 and, after Tiller’s murder, issued a release stating that it was suffering financial difficulties and would likely close if it did not receive funding from its supporters. See also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion, Late; Abortion Laws, United States; Pro-Life Movement; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Operation Rescue. http://www.operationrescue.org (accessed June 2010). Robb, Amanda. “The Last Clinic Standing.” Marie Claire http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news /latest/last-clinic (accessed July 2010).

Solinger, Rickie, ed. Abortion Wars: A Half-Century of Struggle, 1950–2000. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Jeanette Koncikowski Buffalo State College, State University of New York, Buffalo

Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) was established by Yanar Mohammad, a prominent Iraqi feminist and advocate for women’s rights, and a few of her associates in 2003. The organization was established after the United States–led invasion of Iraq and was created in response to serious concerns about women’s wartime safety and security, as well as concerns about the political future of Iraq. Today, OFWI has established itself in Iraq as a national women’s organization dedicated to advocacy for women. Since its inception, OWFI has conducted several antiviolence campaigns, political empowerment campaigns, and other advocacy campaigns to assert women’s rights to be free from violence and persecution and to demand basic human rights for all Iraqis. OWFI’s work has had particular significance amid evidence of escalating trends in both violence against women and religious fundamentalism in Iraq. One of the organization’s primary activities is the operation of five women’s shelters across Iraq to provide Iraqi women with comprehensive services related to the prevention and aftercare of domestic violence and “honor” killings. The organization estimates that its shelter home services have prevented at least 50 honor killings and numerous other incidents of violence against women and girls. OWFI aggressively lobbies for tougher laws on violence against women and works to protect women and girls from sex trafficking and other forms of sexual victimization. Unfortunately, the rise in war widows and the poor economic conditions of many Iraqi families have resulted in a growing number of women being forced into prostitution and sexual slavery. OWFI is working to raise awareness about

Orthodox Churches



this growing problem and to provide alternatives for women in desperate situations. To spread its message across Iraq, OWFI provides training to interested parties on methods to fight intolerance and misogyny. OWFI also conducts regular advocacy campaigns in the news media via newsletters, radio, and television. In fact, Mohammed serves as the editor of the Al-Mousawat (Equality) newsletter, which regularly reports on incidents of violence against women. In 2009, OWFI launched the “Al Mousawat Radio” broadcast to reach out to even more people to further spread a progressive message to counter the fundamentalist mindset of the mainstream media and inform the public about available support services. Although OWFI is dedicated to serving the immediate needs of Iraqi women, it is more broadly committed to rebuilding Iraq according to secular principles that guarantee freedom and human rights for all. To establish a more democratic government, OWFI has vigorously campaigned to increase women’s participation in local and national politics and government civil service positions. OWFI has also called for the full participation of women in the establishment of any new Iraqi government. In 2008, Mohammed was awarded the prestigious Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize for her work. See Also: Arab Feminism; Iranian Feminism; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Arato, Andrew. Constitution Making Under Occupation: The Politics of Imposed Revolution in Iraq. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq. http:// www.equalityiniraq.com/home (accessed April 2010). Julie Ahmad Siddique City University of New York Graduate Center

Orthodox Churches Orthodox Christianity is the second largest Christian communion in the world (250–300 million people), encompassing various national and regional churches

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that are united by their shared theological vision and sacramental practices while retaining their organizational independence. Most of the original Orthodox Churches that trace their history back to the first centuries of the Christian era (e.g., the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople; the Armenian Apostolic Church; and the national Church of Greece) are associated with the ethnic groups in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. However, the last three decades has witnessed a considerable increase in the Orthodox presence in North America, Western Europe, and Australia— often referred to as the “Orthodox diaspora”—through immigration and, increasingly, through conversion. These changes in the ethnic-cultural situation of the church, along with the ongoing global political, social, and cultural transformations, present some serious challenges as well as new, exciting possibilities to the Orthodox tradition in general and to Orthodox women in particular. Growing communication between women representing different Orthodox churches worldwide, as well as their participation in the ecumenical dialogue with their Western Christian sisters, has led to an increased awareness of both the important role that women can play in the life of the Church and of the existing barriers for their fuller participation. Some of the important changes in the experiences and status of women that are currently underway in the Orthodox Church are related to the renewal and expansion of female ministries, increased access to theological education, and liturgical reform aimed at the elimination of gender-restrictive ritual practices and customs. Historic and Contemporary Roles of Women in the Church Historically, the ministry of women in the Orthodox Church has included a wide variety of vocations and roles, ranging from philanthropic work and social outreach to religious education and liturgical functions. Women serve on the parish boards and take an active part in diocesan, national, and international charity programs. They are involved in missionary and outreach activities, including such inter-Orthodox projects as the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, and Orthodox Women in the Healing Professions. The position of the priest’s

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wife (Presbytera; Matushka), with its combination of social and spiritual obligations, is regarded as an important ministry in the Orthodox Church; traditional female responsibilities such as care of home and family and organization of household devotional life are likewise seen as crucial areas of religious service. In some Orthodox churches nowadays women also take active part in public ritual practices, as choir directors, scriptural readers, and acolytes. Religious education involves women on multiple levels and in a variety of roles: women direct educational programs in the parishes, participate in conferences and workshops, and engage in producing academic and communal journals that inform their readers about the Orthodox tradition and provide a forum for the exploration of women’s issues and roles (e.g., St. Nina Quarterly; MaryMartha; The Handmaiden). The number of female students enrolled at Orthodox seminaries has been steadily increasing in the past three decades; women scholars and theologians such as Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Verna Harrison, Kyriaki FitzGerald, and the late Elisabeth Behr-Sigel have pursued successful writing and teaching careers, both at Orthodox seminaries and colleges and other educational institutions. Finally, female monasticism that had traditionally been an essential part of Orthodox spirituality and praxis is currently on the rise in the Orthodox churches worldwide; in North America alone eight new female monasteries have been established since 1970. In addition to leading contemplative life of prayer and meditation and offering spiritual counseling to the visitors, the members of these communities are often engaged in demanding professional activities, such as publication of liturgical and spiritual literature and creation of liturgical objects and icons. Seeking Fuller Participation Although women’s involvement in these traditional ministries in many national Orthodox churches and especially in the Western diaspora is steadily growing, Orthodox women today are increasingly voicing a concern regarding what they perceive as unfortunate restrictions on their full participation in the ecclesiastical and liturgical life of the church. A series of inter-Orthodox consultations organized by the World Council of Churches from 1976 to 1997 that brought together participants from different countries have

been especially instrumental in raising Orthodox women’s awareness of the existing problems and possible ways of addressing them. Their recommendations challenged a number of ritual practices and customs that continue to be perpetuated in some of the Orthodox communities, such as gender segregation in the churches, sacramental restrictions associated with menstruation and childbirth, etc. These were characterized as manifestations of historically limited and culture-specific perspectives that do not properly reflect Orthodox theology; the recommendations asked for their revision. They also advocated serious consideration of the uses of gender-inclusive language; sustained theological exploration of gender, sexuality; and “the sin of sexism"; and women’s active engagement in theological and spiritual education. Finally, they called for a fuller participation of women in the life of the church through existing lay ministries and through revival of the ordained ministry of deaconesses. As a number of recent historical studies (including the works by Orthodox women scholars) have demonstrated, the order of the deaconess flourished in the Christian East from the apostolic times well into the Byzantine period. Its members belonged to the ranks of ordained clergy and exercised various liturgical functions, such as assisting bishops in female baptism; they also had important catechetical, missionary, and philanthropic responsibilities. The restoration of the female diaconate is currently under consideration in several Orthodox churches whose members see it as an effective way of responding to the needs of the present age and of making the female presence more central in the church. The Open Question of Ordination A more controversial issue is presented by an ordination of women to the sacramental priesthood. Until recently, this possibility was categorically rejected by the majority of Orthodox hierarchs and theologians on the grounds of its incompatibility with the church tradition (no female apostles or presbyters attested in scriptural and patristic writings), liturgical symbolism (the priest is an “icon” of Christ and thus must be a man), and theological anthropology (sexual differentiation entails different spiritual “gifts” and roles). Many Orthodox women themselves likewise tended to dismiss the issue of women’s ordination

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as an “outside” question informed by secular ideas or Western feminist theology and foreign to their own convictions and concerns. However, in the past two decades a number of leading Orthodox theologians, both male and female (Bishop Kallistos Ware, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, Verna Harrison, and others) have argued for the necessity of acknowledging the validity of this question and of addressing it in a way that would be both open-minded and faithful to the authentic Tradition of the church. As Behr-Sigel and Harrison demonstrate in their works, traditional Orthodox teaching about human nature and salvation does not provide grounds for the exclusion of women from sacramental priesthood and in fact may be used to support their participation in this ministry. Behr-Sigel’s analysis also challenges an overly literalist interpretation of the priest’s “iconicity,” arguing for a more inclusive and polyvalent reading of liturgical symbolism. As many Orthodox theologians point out, faithfulness to tradition does not imply dead fundamentalism: the tradition must be received and lived anew by each generation, with a willingness to respond to “the signs of the times.” Although ordination of women to the priesthood does not appear to be an immediate possibility in today’s church, it remains a critical “open question” that stimulates both a creative reappropriation of Orthodoxy’s rich spiritual and theological inheritance and a productive dialogue with other traditions and perspectives. See Also: Christianity; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Ministry, Protestant; Priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican; Priesthood, Roman Catholic; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Behr-Sigel, Elisabeth and Kallistos Ware. The Ordination of Women in the Orthodox Church. Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 2000. FitzGerald, Kyriaki, ed. Orthodox Women Speak: Discerning the “Signs of Time.” Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 1999. Hopko, Thomas, ed. Women and the Priesthood. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999. Olga Solovieva Union College

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Orthodox Judaism Contemporary Orthodox Jewish women practice traditions that have existed for thousands of years. Yet a small but vocal minority calling themselves Orthodox feminists are confronting issues of inequality within Judaism of the 21st century. Several prominent Jewish women such as Blu Greenberg, Rachel Adler, and Judith Plaskow are promoting dialogues that they hope will lead to transformations for women. The Jewish bible consists of the Torah, which is the first five books of the Old Testament, sometimes known as the five books of Moses or the Pentateuch, and Prophets and Writings. The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussion that pertains to Jewish law, ethics, custom, and history. The Talmud includes the Mishnah, written around 200 c.e., and is considered to be the first written compilation of Jewish oral law and legal opinions and debates. Also part of the Talmud is the Gemara, written around 500 c.e., which includes a discussion of the Mishnah and the wisdom of rabbis and also expounds upon the Torah. Throughout these works, women are encouraged to be modest, submissive, and maintain forbearance in a world in which they must know their place. The Halakah is a body of religious law that includes 613 Mitzvot, or commandments, as well as laws revealed in the Talmud and written by rabbis. Customs and traditions are included in Halakah that are considered to be divinely inspired. The Mitzvot, which are given in the Torah, include 365 prohibitions and 248 positive obligations. In these religious commandments, a woman is exempted from any time-bound obligations because she must always be available to take care of her family’s needs and responsibilities. Women are also excused from many Mitzvot because they do not face all the temptations that men face in their professional and personal lives. Women, by their nature, represent sensuality and seductiveness for men. Therefore, because of these distractions, men must be controlled by more rules than women are. Thus, it is believed that women complement their husbands but basically have fundamentally different roles. Consequently, women have traditionally been discouraged from study beyond the pragmatic aspects of the Torah that relate to how a woman should run her home.

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Issues With the belief that the Torah as well as the oral law was revealed to Moses at Mt. Sinai, Orthodox Jews feel that their practices are divinely inspired. Thus, any discussions about changes or revisions are extremely difficult to initiate. Issues that are prominent among feminists include women’s exemption from the minyan, or the quorum of 10 or more adult males (including 13-yearold boys who have had a bar mitzvah) for daily prayer. The ramifications of not accepting women are great because, for example, in order to say the mourner’s prayer for a deceased mother or father, a minyan must be present. Therefore, a woman has to request that a man says the prayer for her deceased parent. Other issues are the exemption from time-bound commandments, the inability to initiate divorce, and the limited leadership positions in the synagogue. Women cannot be rabbis because that would contradict Jewish law. Women are allowed to read the Torah but are not permitted to do so in front of a congregation during a religious service. Agunah and Other Concerns One of the most controversial issues is the agunah, women who have not received an official divorce from their husbands because either the husband’s whereabouts are not known or he refuses to grant her a “get,” an official bill of divorce that releases her from the marriage. The agunah are women who cannot remarry or find if they do without a “get,” that their subsequent marriage will not be recognized and children of the new marriage will be referred to as bastards. In order to get around these requirements, feminists and others are proposing several solutions. They try to prove that the woman didn’t consent to the original marriage, or groups try to force the recalcitrant husband to issue the “get” either by revoking any professional licenses he has or sometimes even putting him in jail. Advocates for change are also trying to promote specific life-cycle rituals for girls as well as legal rights for women in religious courts, where often a woman’s testimony is not accepted even on such personal matters as divorce. Jewish Orthodox Feminists Blu Greenberg, an Orthodox rabbi’s wife, founded the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance in 1997. Since she is a believer in the divinity of Jewish law, she seeks

changes that will be acceptable within the confines of Orthodox Judaism. She wants to stay within the bounds of Halakah. Her view is that some Halakah are based on customs and thus there is a possibility for reinterpretation. And if a hierarchy serves no religious function, perhaps change is possible. She particularly resents the laws surrounding menstrual purity and impurity and the labeling of the woman a niddah, a menstruating woman, which is often a metaphor for moral impurity and debasement. Judith Plaskow is fighting for women’s ordination and new Jewish rituals such as Rosh Chodesh, a celebration of the beginning of each month in the Jewish calendar. She also disagrees with the maleness of God, so often labeled Father of Mercy, Father in Heaven, and King of all Kings. She proposes a degendering of God as well as a recovery of women’s history and a resurrection of women’s celebrations and symbols that are embedded in the goddess tradition. Rachel Adler would also like to transform the prayers and enrich the words with feminine imagery. Opposition to these changes abounds. Traditionalists claim that Greenberg, Plaskow, and Adler are undermining the family, destroying the beauty of female modesty, and mixing the sexual roles. But mainly these women are promoting a political agenda for Orthodox Judaism whose very value is the maintenance of roles, rules, and laws for thousands of years. Change, however slowly, seems inevitable. See Also: Feminist Theology; Israel; Judaism; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Adler, Rachel. Engendering Judaism. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. Davidman, Lynn. Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Greenberg, Blu. On Women and Judaism, A View From Tradition. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1998. Plaskow, Judith. Standing Again at Sinai, Judaism From a Feminist Perspective. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1990. Myrna A. Hant University of California, Los Angeles



Our Bodies, Ourselves First published in 1970, Our Bodies, Ourselves was one of the first books to provide women with comprehensive information about women’s health, sexuality, and reproduction. It challenged the medical model by presenting information about women’s health in the context of women’s life experiences. Currently in its seventh edition, Our Bodies, Ourselves continues to provide state-of-the-art information about women’s bodies from a feminist perspective. Our Bodies, Ourselves was written by a Bostonbased feminist nonprofit organization named after the book. The founders of Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS) met while attending a panel on women and their bodies at a women’s liberation conference in 1969. The women participating in the discussion quickly realized they had little solid information about women’s bodies or women’s health; at the same time, they shared similar dissatisfactions with the medical system. Given these realizations, some of the participants decided to keep meeting as a group and began researching women’s health, sexuality, and reproduction. In order to conduct their research, they sneaked into medical libraries or borrowed library cards from medical students. They wrote up what they learned in a series of papers and met weekly to discuss what they had written. Medical Data and Personal Testimonies The process of learning about their bodies, health, and sexuality was a powerful experience for the women involved, eventually leading them to share what they had learned in book form. Published by the New England Free Press under the title Women and their Bodies, the book integrated medical knowledge with women’s personal testimonies. The book’s focus was sexual and reproductive health; however, the authors also included chapters that spoke to their political concerns, including “Some Myths about Women” and “Women, Medicine, and Capitalism.” In 1971, the collective changed the title of the book to Our Bodies, Ourselves. The book was strikingly popular, and demand quickly outpaced the Free Press’s ability to produce it. In 1973, the collective began working with Simon & Schuster. The book quickly became a best seller, receiving numerous awards and widespread acclaim.

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Simultaneously, the book generated controversy. Numerous high-profile conservatives offered harsh critiques of the book’s explicit sexual content and discussions of abortion, leading some high schools and public libraries to remove the book from their shelves. Expanded and Updated To date, the English version of Our Bodies, Ourselves has sold more than 4 million copies. The subject matter of the book has expanded greatly. Among other things, topics covered in the 2005 edition include entries on alcohol, tobacco, and mood-altering drugs; bodies in motion; complementary health practices; environmental and occupational health; gender identity and sexual orientation; and infertility and assisted reproduction. With the 2005 edition, OBOS launched a companion Website offering upto-date health information, a blog, historical material about the collective, and links to relevant sites. In spite of these changes, the collective’s focus on and validation of experiential knowledge remains consistent. As they have in past editions, the authors intersperse scientific information with women’s testimonies while also encouraging readers to consider the information in terms of their personal experiences. The collective has published several books related to Our Bodies, Ourselves including Ourselves and Our Children; Our Bodies Growing Older; Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth; Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause; and Changing Bodies, Changing Lives, a book directed at teens. From early in its history, OBOS sought to make the book available to non-English speakers. In 1977, OBOS published a Spanish-language version, Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vida, and by 2007 the collective had published 20 foreign-language editions and made the book available in countries around the globe. Recognizing that women’s experiences of health and well-being are grounded in the cultures in which women live, non-English-language versions are translated and revised by health advocates from within the targeted communities with an aim to address readers’ unique needs. For example, in Asia, Buddhist nuns are provided information about easing muscle cramps caused by hours of sitting in mediation, and in pronatalist Armenia, the book emphasizes childbirth but downplays the discussion of contraception.

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Transforming Doctor-Patient Relationship Our Bodies, Ourselves was instrumental in the development of a worldwide women’s health movement, and it participated in the transformation of the doctor-patient relationship from one in which the doctor is the authority and sole source of information to one in which the doctor and patient work together and in which the patient has ultimate control. More than a simple self-help book, the authors of Our Bodies, Ourselves strive to provide the best evidence-based information presented in the context of women’s lived experiences. Simultaneously, they present health as an issue of social justice and patients’ rights. See Also: Feminism, America; Health, Mental and Physical; Women’s Health Clinics. Further Readings Ginty, Molly M. “Our Bodies, Ourselves: Going, Going, Gone Global.” WeNews (September 14, 2004). http:// www.womensenews.org (accessed November 2009). Hayden, Sara. “Re-Claiming Bodies of Knowledge: An Exploration of the Relationship between Feminist Theorizing and Feminine Style in the Rhetoric of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective.” Western Journal of Communication, v.6/2 (1997). Our Bodies Ourselves. http://www.ourbodiesourselves .org (accessed November 2009). Ruzek, Sheryl. “Transforming Doctor-Patient Relationships.” Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, v.12 (2007). Sara Hayden University of Montana

Overpopulation In the biological sciences, overpopulation is defined as a state in which the population size of a species has surpassed the carrying capacity of the environment. In this condition, natural resources like food and water will be consumed at a rate at which they cannot be replenished quickly enough. Such a state usually results in the morbidity and mortality of members of the species through famine and disease, such that their numbers are reduced to a population

size more compatible with available resources. The application of overpopulation to humans began with the publication of Thomas Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population at the beginning of the 19th century. Malthus proclaimed that because human populations increase geometrically and food production grows arithmetically, in the future the majority of humans would struggle to meet their most basic needs. He warned of an impending crisis and recommended drastic corrective measures. However, with the industrialization of Europe, the birth rate fell and offset the falling mortality rate. In the case of Europe, increased prosperity and the switch from an agricultural to an industrial way of life seemed to result in a desire for fewer children. This European model of demographic transition proved to be deficient in describing demographic trajectories in all areas of the world. In less developed countries (LDCs) in Asia, Africa, and South America, birth rates remained high despite decreases in mortality rates. Thus in the mid- to late 20th century, the majority of world population growth took place in less developed countries. The observation of dramatic population growth at midcentury in LDCs caused alarm among academic demographers and policy makers in the industrialized world. Out of this alarm grew a neo-Malthusian international population control movement. The phrase international population control movement belies its fractured nature and creates a false sense of a centralized, unified movement. Nonetheless, many major and minor agencies, from multinational aid agencies to small-scale nongovernmental organizations, were driven by similar concerns with overpopulation. And they responded by promoting the use of contraception in LDCs. Some LDC governments embraced the population-control discourse, developing and enforcing coercive population-control projects on their own. The most wellknown examples are the one-child policy in China and Indira Gandhi’s compulsory sterilization campaign in India. While effective in terms of lowering fertility, such policies have led to human rights abuses. Some feminists agree that the provision of contraceptives is a basic reproductive right, but they have criticized policies that give the decision-making power to someone other than the individual in question. In addition, the safety and acceptability of the



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Overpopulation is defined as a state in which the population size of a species has surpassed the carrying capacity of the environment. In this condition, natural resources will be consumed at a rate at which they cannot be replenished quickly enough.

use of certain contraceptives in developing countries, such as intrauterine devices and Norplant, have been challenged because of the lack of sufficient healthcare services to handle complications or removal of the devices. According to neo-Malthusians, rapidly growing populations are a major cause of poverty, and lowering fertility rates through the use of contraception would lead LDCs out of poverty to prosperity. A variety of objections to this position were formed in response. Marxists argued that if systems of production and distribution were made more efficient and equitable, the amount of resources could be sufficient for the world’s population. At the 1974 United Nations World Population Conference in Bucharest, delegates from LDCs declared that development was the best contraceptive. Countries with a tradition of

pronatalism also were skeptical of the neo-Malthusian movement. Leaders of LDCs with low population densities thought that population growth would help the economic development of their countries. Some environmentalists argued that more environmental degradation was caused by overconsumption in industrialized nations than by overpopulation in LDCs. And demographers debated the causes of fertility decline and its relationship to economic development at the national level as well as prosperity at the household level. The 1990s brought the most significant shift in discourse on overpopulation, which was consummated at the 1994 United Nations Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. Prior to this point, international health and development agencies espoused “population control”—a phrase

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that highlighted the role of the state and international agencies in providing contraception to populations and encouraging or enforcing its use. At Cairo, a feminist population agenda was successfully lobbied for that replaced this phrase and its implied goals with a less coercive approach of promoting “reproductive health” and women’s empowerment. The program of action adopted in Cairo stated that addressing gender inequities is essential to decreasing fertility rates in LDCs and that women have the right to control their reproduction. Participating countries endorsed the idea that ending discrimination against women was essential to balancing fertility rates with available resources. It should be noted that some feminists worried that this achievement was a change in language more than in actual motivations and actions of the population establishment. At the beginning of the 21st century, as fertility rates in LDCs continue to fall, demographers and policy makers in the global north are less concerned with overpopulation. New demographic concerns are emerging: aging populations, below-replacement-level fertility in several European countries, and migration patterns and their effects on ethnic compositions of wealthy countries. Governments in the north may become increasingly pronatalist as a result, and one potentially positive outcome is that policies in the workplace may become more supportive of procreation and raising children. In both a pronatalist scenario and the for-

merly described scenario of overpopulation, the challenge is the same: ensuring that women have adequate reproductive choices yet remain free of coercion that impinges upon their reproductive rights. See Also: Contraception Methods; Fertility; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Sterilization, Involuntary. Further Readings Connelly, Matthew. Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2008. Greenhalgh, Susan, ed. Situating Fertility. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Hodgson, Dennis. “Contemporary Population Thought.” In Paul Demeny and Geoffrey McNicoll, eds., Encyclopedia of Population. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003.  Hodgson, Dennis and Susan Cotts Watkins. “Feminists and Neo-Malthusians: Past and Present Alliances.” Population and Development Review, v.23/3 (1997). Lane, Sandra. “From Population Control to Reproductive Health: An Emerging Policy Agenda.” Social Science and Medicine, v.39/9 (1994). Malthus, Thomas. Essay on the Principle of Population. New York: Modern Library, [1798] 1960. Jan Brunson Bowdoin College

P Pacifism, Female Pacifism is the rejection of war or violence as means to solve disagreement. The relationship between pacifism and women, as well as pacifism and feminism, is complex. Many women are pacifist or have participated in pacifist movements. There are also specific women’s movements devoted to pacifism. Further, there are also feminist pacifist movements. Some of the most renowned proponents for female pacifism are Carol Gilligan, Betty Reardon, Birgit Brock-Utne, and Sara Ruddick. The linking of women to peace has a long historical tradition in Western societies, with female goddesses representing both birth and peace in Greek and Roman cultures. Essentialist feminists, often placed within “difference theory,” link the specific characteristics of the female body to peace, thus attributing female pacifism to biological attributes. In this view, woman’s capability to give birth and thus her connection to life makes her unqualified to conduct war. This emphasizes and glorifies women’s stereotypical roles as mothers, nurturers, and peacemakers, which are considered opposite to men as violent, aggressive, and warmongering. Standpoint feminists take a wider stance on the relationship between feminism and pacifism, as they link patriarchy, domination, and war. According to this perspective, feminism and pacifism equally aim to eliminate violence in both public and private.

Feminism and pacifism also are based on a premise of equality, focus on the concept of rights, and aim toward a unified sisterhood. Another approach, which combines difference theory and standpoint theory, is provided by the theories of maternal peace or the “ethics of care.” This perspective emphasizes maternal instincts of love, nurturing, and relations. It is argued that both men and women, whether they are parents or not, can conduct maternal politics; it is thus not limited to actual mothers’ behavior. These more or less essentialist feminist strands of pacifism have been criticized by other feminist scholars, mainly poststructuralists. It is claimed that by focusing on women as nurturing and mothering, these theories simply uphold the Cartesian dichotomies of women and men as opposites, following from binaries such as passive/active, caring/violent, nurturing/ killing. Further, it is alleged that focusing on women as mothers upholds the binarical war system, thus perpetuating war. Further, other feminists question the perceived male monopoly of violence and claim that women should participate in military forces and revolutions, as well as arm themselves through, for example, self-defense training and participation in armed conflict. Historically, women have taken part in various pacifist movements, and there have also been women’s movements working for peace. Berta von Suttner was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Jane Addams and Emily Green Balch founded 1061

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the Women’s International Committee for Permanent Peace, which was later renamed the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). In addition to international movements such as WILPF and Women in Black, national and regional organizations have excelled in working for peace. In Latin America, Madres de Plaza de Mayo has used maternalistic rhetoric when protesting against the disappeared persons after the Argentinean military coup in 1976. In similar fashion, the Russian Mothers Against the War in Chechnya has also emphasised their roles as mothers. In southern Asia, organizations such as Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia (WISPA) and Women’s Action Forum (WAF) are vocal opponents to the conflict between India and Pakistan. Aung San Suu Kyi has opposed the military regime in Myanmar since the early 1990s, a cause for which she has both spent most of the last 20 years imprisoned and received the Nobel Peace Prize. See Also: Global Feminism; Military, Women in the; Peace Movement; Women in Black; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Further Readings Pierson, Ruth Roach, ed. Women and Peace: Theoretical, Historical and Practical Perspectives. New York: Croom Helm, 1987. Ruddick, Sara. Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace. London: The Women’s Press, 1990. Snyder, Anna C. Setting the Agenda for Global Peace. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2003. Emma Brännlund National University of Ireland, Galway

Pagels, Elaine Elaine Hiesey Pagels (1943– ) is a foremost religious scholar, with a specialty in probing and interpreting the Gnostic traditions of Christianity. After growing up on a farm in Palo Alto, California, Elaine Hiesey attended Stanford University, where she received both a B.A. (1964) and an M.A. (1965). She then traveled east to attend Harvard, obtaining her Ph.D. in religious studies (1970). In 1969, she married Heinz

R. Pagels, a noted theoretical physicist, and subsequently gave birth to two children. Professionally, Pagels successfully climbed the academic ladder. In 1982, she left a position as a fully tenured professor at Barnard College, Columbia University, to become the Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University. In 1987, Pagels’s 5-year-old son succumbed to chronic lung disease. Fifteen months later, her husband was killed in a hiking accident. These events caused Pagels, an Episcopalian, to question her religious beliefs. Afterward, her ongoing journey to understand the truth of the origins and development of Christianity led her to become one of the most respected religious scholars in the world. Her contributions were recognized through the awarding of a Rockefeller Fellowship (1978–79), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1979–80), and the MacArthur Fellowship (1980–85). When Elaine Pagels was only 2 years old, two Egyptian brothers stumbled onto a ceramic jar filled with books while digging for natural fertilizer in Jabalal-Tarif. The discovery of this 4th-century treasure trove, which came to be known as the Nag Hammadi Library, proved to be a watershed in the study of the historical aspects of Christianity and provided Pagels with a wealth of material. Pagels’s studies ultimately led her to study Greek, Latin, Coptic, Hebrew, French, Italian, and German, and she participated in translating two of the documents in the 48-volume collection. Her doctoral dissertation was published as The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis (1973), an exposition of Heracleon’s Commentary on John’s Gospel. In The Gnostic Paul (1975), she presents 2nd-century Valentinian Gnostic interpretations of Paul that are based on secret oral traditions traced back to the apostle through his pupil Theudas, demonstrating that sin and redemption in Paul’s letters were read by Paul’s interpreters in both a Gnostic and an anti-Gnostic fashion. Two different pictures of Paul emerge, neither of which are exclusively correct. Advanced Scholarship and Women in Gnosticism Pagels’ analysis of the Nag Hammadi documents provided the basis for The Gnostic Gospels, which sold 400,000 copies, Pagels argued that differences between Gnostic and Orthodox Christians are bet-



ter explained by politics and organization than by theology. Gnostic texts are based on intuitive insight (gnosis) and apprehension of the divine origins of humanity. Valentinian Christian Gnostic texts convey visions of Jesus. Reviewing the book for the New York Sun in 2008, Professor Bruce Chilton notes, “No single contribution has shaped the popular impression of the significance of the find and the meaning of Gnosticism more than her book.” In the chapter titled “God the Father/God the Mother,” Pagels became the first religious scholar to correlate female divine imagery with the positive roles of women in Gnostic groups. Many women scholars and writers have subsequently explored this connection with greater methodological sophistication, arguing, for example, that there may be no connection between female imagery and women’s social roles or that they may be something altogether more nuanced. All such discussions have been forced to consider the devaluation of “femaleness” in several texts and the variety of texts considered Gnostic. Categories of “male” and “female” in myths of origins are distinct from statements about male and female relations on the one hand and more abstract descriptions of the human condition on the other. Recent discussions have questioned the value of the Gnosticism classification. Pagels also initiated debate on her analysis of Catholicism’s interpretations of the resurrection, authority, martyrdom, knowledge, and the identity of the true church. While recognizing Pagels’s contributions to her field, Chilton finds fault with her for neglecting to adequately address the role of the Roman Empire in the development of both Christianity and Gnosticism. In The Origin of Satan (1996), Pagels explores Christian and Jewish concepts of evil, arguing that to give meaning to suffering is an essential human need. In Adam, Eve and the Serpent (1988), she examines the creation stories and the development of sexual attitudes in the Christian West. In 2003, Pagels published Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, arguing that John’s Gospel knew and disagreed with teachings presented in the Gospel of Thomas. Pagels’s most controversial work may be Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity (2007), coauthored with Karen King of Harvard. The book evolved from a National Geographic Society project in which Pagels served on a team of religious

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scholars translating documents discovered in Egypt in the 1970s. It presented Judas not as a traitor but as a close friend of Jesus who was only carrying out Christ’s intentions when he betrayed his presence to Roman soldiers for 30 pieces of silver. Pagels is currently preparing an analysis of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. She has remarried and, along with her husband and two children, regularly attends an Episcopal church. See Also: Christianity; Orthodox Churches; Religion, Women in; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings: Bartlett, Thomas. “The Betrayal of Judas.” Chronicle of Higher Education, v.54/8 (May 2008). Chilton, Bruce. “The Gospel According to Pagels: Reconsiderations.” New York Sun (April 2, 2008). http:// www.nysun.com/arts/gospel-according-to-pagels /74033 (accessed July 2010). Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels (c.1979). New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Rogers, Diane. “The Gospel Truth.” Stanford Magazine (January/February 2004). Dierdre Good The General Theological Seminary

Paglia, Camille Camille Paglia is well-known both for her controversial ideas and for the signature incendiary style in which she delivers them. Born on April 2, 1947, in Endicott, New York, Paglia earned a Ph.D. in English from Yale University in 1974, where Harold Bloom supervised her dissertation. She is currently a professor of humanities at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Paglia became famous as both a popular and scholarly figure with the publication of her contentious first book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990). Here, Paglia reinterprets works from the early Greeks through the English, French, and American literary canons. Sexual Personae was rejected by seven major New York publishers before being accepted by Yale University Press.

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The sweeping 700-page text argues that paganism was never defeated by Judeo-Christianity, in contrast to the arguments of conventional histories. Instead, Paglia argues, paganism was merely driven underground and has returned during three important historical moments: the Renaissance, Romanticism, and modern pop culture. Paglia sees world history as an ongoing struggle between two principles: the Apollonian, which is associated with the male, civilization, art, order, and reason; and the Dionysian, which is associated with the female, nature, sex, chaos, and emotion. Paglia stresses the importance of biological differences between men and women. Women, in her view, are more powerful than men because women control the sexual realm and have since antiquity. She writes, “I see the mother as an overwhelming force who condemns men to lifelong sexual anxiety, from which they escape through rationalism and physical achievement.” This effort to separate from nature (the feminine) and conquer it comes directly out of male biology and is responsible for all the great achievements of Western civilization, such as architecture and science: “The male projection of erection and ejaculation is the paradigm for all cultural projection and conceptualization. . . . Women have conceptualized less in history not because men have kept them from doing so but because women do not need to conceptualize in order to exist. . . . Concentration and projection are remarkably demonstrated by [male] urination [which] really is . . . an arc of transcendence. . . . Women, like female dogs, are earthbound squatters. . . . If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.” Since the success of Sexual Personae, Paglia has commented on a wide range of charged issues in her essays and op-ed pieces; these have been collected in Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays (1992) and Vamps and Tramps: New Essays (1994). Of date rape, for example, Paglia insists that sex always carries with it the threat of violence, and women should take responsibility for their own safety by learning how to avoid or fend off unwanted sexual advances. Paglia has also authored The Birds (1998) and Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World’s Best Poems (2005). See Also: Christianity; Gender, Defined; Judaism; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined; Witchcraft: Worldwide; Womanist Theology; Women’s Studies.

Further Readings Ivins, M. “I am the Cosmos.” Mother Jones, v.16/5 (1991). Paglia, C. “A Pornographic Nun: An Interview with Camille Paglia.” Thomas J. Ferraro, ed. Catholic Lives, Contemporary America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997. Stanfill, F. “Woman Warrior,” New York, v.26/16 (1991). Christina Shouse Tourino College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University

Pakistan The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a population of 147 million, of which 51.4 percent are male and 48.6 percent are female. The majority lives in rural areas; about 48.3 percent of females reside in rural areas, as compared to 57.7 percent males. Since inception in 1947, Pakistan has had a tumultuous history. It was created as a homeland for Muslims in south Asian when the British Indian Empire crumbled and consisted of two large areas, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, divided by Indian land. In 1971, after a civil war between East and West Pakistan, East Pakistan broke loose and Bangladesh was created. Women were among the greatest victims in both this War of Partition and the Bangladesh War, wherein women of all religions and nationalities were abducted, raped, and killed. Islam has had a focal position in the history of Pakistan; it has often been used by governments and civil society agents as a tool to control women’s lives and bodies. Purdah, seclusion of women in the private domain, and izzat, honor, are central notions in Pakistani culture. These are, however, constantly negotiated and contested; Pakistan is not a homogenous society, thus social class, region, and tribal customs affect the status of women. Position of Women Today Women’s labor force participation is to a large extent invisible, at officially 19 percent of work, while simultaneously, 9 percent are recorded as unemployed. In rural areas, the labor force participation figure is 23 percent and in urban areas 11 percent. However, this does not consider the role of women working on



family-owned farms or in informal sectors. It is estimated that women’s participation in crop and livestock production is 79 percent. Women take part to a large extent in livestock management and production, as well as crop production. Urban women work in the government and industrial sectors, and male migration to jobs in the Persian Gulf has given educated women the opportunity to enter the labor force. In Pakistan, there are three kinds of educational institutions: public, private, and madrasas (religious schools). Despite attempts by various governments to reform the education system, literacy and enrollment rates remain low. Male literacy rates are 64 percent and female 42 percent. The urban literacy rate is 63 percent, while the rural rate is 34 percent. Poverty and unemployment are the main causes for low enrollment rates, as child labor, within or outside the home, is an opportunity for income. Lack of public schools for girls, in particular, has the effect that parents are reluctant to send their girls to school. Religious groups have also attempted to prevent girls from attending school, either through propaganda, threats, closing of schools, or other means. Health, Sexual Issues, and Political Activism Women’s health is often ignored, and despite policies to improve the situation, there has been little advancement. Maternal mortality rates are high, due to marriages at young age, lack of adequately skilled health services during delivery, and reduced distribu-

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tion of Tetanus Toxoid vaccination. Malnutrition is prevalent among adult Pakistani women, which poses a serious threat for pregnant women during delivery. Abortion is illegal in Pakistan, except within the first four months of pregnancy if the woman’s life is at risk. Social stigma, underreporting of illnesses, and lack of funding are some of the reason why women are less likely to seek medical care. Besides biomedicine, many people trust traditional medicine, healing, and prophetic medicine. The most prominent law regarding women was the Hudood Ordinances implemented in 1979, which introduced Islamic Shari`a law into the Pakistani penal code. It criminalized, among other acts, Zina (extramarital sex), and thus made rape victims prosecutable. This law was amended in 2006, in order to protect women who had been raped. Honor killings, dowry murders, sexual and domestic violence, and bride burning are among the gender-specific violence directed toward women. These are criminalized by the law, but women’s weak social status inhibits their legal access. Women’s political activism has taken different shapes. Prominent public figures were Benazir Bhutto, the country’s first prime minister, and Fatima Jinnah, sister of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Despite Bhutto’s elaborate rhetoric on women’s rights, her two periods in office achieved very little. Jinnah, on the other hand, founded the Women’s Relief Committee, which developed into the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA). This organization campaigns for the economic and social welfare of Pakistani women. Another organization, Women’s Action Forum (WAF), is working for equality, democracy, and peace. A majority of the political parties have women’s wings; there are also strong women’s sections in the religious parties that campaign for women’s enhancement within an Islamic structure. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, International; Bangladesh; Bhutto, Benazir; Government, Women in; Islam; Rural Women.

Despite government attempts to reform the education system, literacy and enrollment rates for girls in Pakistan remain low.

Further Readings Bhasin, Kamla, Ritu Menon, and Nighat Said Khan, eds. Against All Odds: Essays on Women, Religion and Development from India and Pakistan. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1994.

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Rizvi, Narjis and Sania Nishtar. “Pakistan’s Health Policy: Appropriateness and Relevance to Women’s Health Needs.” Health Policy, v.88/2–3 (2008). Shaheed, Farida. Imagined Citizenship: Women, State & Politics in Pakistan. Lahore, Pakistan: Shirkat Gah Women’s Resource Centre, 2002. Emma Brännlund National University of Ireland, Galway

Palau The Republic of Palau, which is made up of a group of islands located in the North Pacific Ocean, was once part of the Caroline Islands. In 1978, the people of the islands chose to become independent rather than join the Federated States of Micronesia. Palau ultimately attained independence in 1994. Tradition continues to govern many aspects of life in Palau, and women play an important role because the basic family is defined as a mother and her children. Groups of families make up clans. Ranking female members work with the other leaders to elect a meal leader for each clan. A separate council with equal status is composed of ranking female members. A council composed of clan chiefs from 16 states serves as advisers to the democratically elected president of Palau. Suffrage is universal. By 2008, 81 percent of islanders were living in urban areas. The per capita income is $8,100. Income is derived chiefly from government jobs, tourism, and U.S. aid. Ethnically, Palauans make up almost 70 percent of the island’s population. A number of religions are represented in Palau, including Roman Catholic (41.6 percent), Protestant (23.3 percent), and Modekngei (8.8 percent), an indigenous religion. The median age for Palauan females is 32.7 years. With an infant mortality rate of 11.36 deaths per 1,000 live births, female infants have an advantage over male infants (14.83). This higher survival rate continues throughout life, and females have a life expectancy of 74.54 years, compared to 68.08 years for males. In 1973, Palauan women produced an average of 7.7 children. Today, the fertility rate has declined to 1.82 children per woman. Although males (93 percent) have a higher literacy rate than females (90 percent),

females (15 years) generally stay in school longer than males (14 years). According to law, no barriers exist to prevent women from entering politics. In 2006, there were no women in Palau’s parliament. Within two years, two women had been elected to Palau’s senate, and women held 16 percent of state legislative seats. Three governors were female, and five of nine supreme court judges were female. Domestic violence is a problem that is often associated with the use of alcohol and drugs. Evidence suggests that many incidences go unreported. Rape is rare on the islands. Although prostitution is illegal, it continues to flourish. There are no official reports of problems with sexual harassment or sex discrimination, but there are reports of human trafficking into Palau. Women’s rights groups are active on the islands, and they have made health, education, drug abuse, prostitution, and traditional customs and values priorities on their agendas. See Also: Domestic Violence; Infant Mortality; Property Rights; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Palau.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/ps.html (accessed February 2010). “Pacific Women Run for Politics.” We! (February 28, 2006). United Nations. “Core Document Forming Part of the Reports of State Parties: Palau.” http://www.unhchr.ch /tbs/doc.nsf/0/ff1daab2d350d3ab802568a5005d4fad ?Opendocument (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Project: Palau.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/ eap/119052.htm (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Palestine Today, descendants of the ancient people of Palestine generally reside in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or East Jerusalem. After the British pulled out of the area in 1948, the United Nations was asked to broker a settlement between the competing claims of Arabs and

Palin, Sarah



Jews. This resulted in the land being divided among the newly created Jewish state of Israel and the Arab states of Jordan and Egypt. Through the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, Israel won control of both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The following decades were filled with occupation and strife, but by the 1990s, Israel had agreed to allow self-government in Palestinianpopulated sections of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. However, conflicts continued between Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, and the Palestinian Authority. In 2007, Hamas conducted a takeover of the Gaza Strip, leaving Palestine to maintain a fragile existence on the West Bank. As a result of decades of fighting for lands and a national identity, Palestinian women have been subjected to major instability. As Muslim women, they have also had to fight for the right to be respected as individuals. Within the West Bank, 72 percent of the population live in urban areas. Ethnically, 83 percent of the people are Palestinian. From a legal perspective, women have equal standing with males. However, according to religious laws, the rights of males predominate. Palestinians have a per capita income of only $2,900 and an unemployment rate of 16.3 percent. Poverty is widespread on the West Bank, and 46 percent of the people, mostly women and children, live below the poverty line. The infant mortality rate is 15.76 deaths per 1,000 live births. Female infants (13.93) have an advantage over male infants (17.87), and that advantage continues throughout life. Women have a life expectancy of 76.65 years, compared to 72.54 years for males. That advantage does not apply to literacy, however, and only 88 percent of females are literate, compared to 96.7 percent of males. Despite that handicap, women are more likely to pursue higher education. Palestinian women have a fertility rate of 3.22 children per female, and a median age of 20.8 years. By the 1990s, Palestinian women’s organizations began banding together to create the Action for Legal Reforms, designed to reform family codes and grant women equal rights in inheritance, marriage, divorce, and maintenance and custody of children. The plan also called for the abolition of child marriages, “honor killings,” genital mutilation, and being treated as property. According to a 2004 United Nations report, almost a fourth of Palestinian girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are married, divorced, or widowed.

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Another report revealed that 40 percent of all marriages are the result of parental decisions. Polygamy continues to be accepted by Islamic dictates, and some Palestinian males have up to four wives. In the case of divorce, mothers retain custody of sons until the age of 10 and of daughters until the age of 12. If women remarry, they forfeit custody. Women who leave their husband’s home without permission can be forced to return. Citizenship is conferred only by fathers. No laws exist to check violence against women. One 2006 report indicated that 60 percent of Palestinian women have been psychologically abused. Additionally, 23 percent have been physically abused, and 11 percent have been sexually abused. See Also: Domestic Violence; Israel; Marriages, Arranged. Further Readings CIA World Factbook. “West Bank.” https://www.cia.gov /library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html (accessed February 2010). “Palestine: Despite Democracy, Women Still Fear for Their Freedoms.” We! (2005/2006). SIGI. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in West Bank and Gaza.” http://genderindex.org/country/west -bank-and-gaza (accessed February 2010). “Women and Violence: Palestine Has Largest Number of ‘Honor Killings’ of Women.” WIN News, v.25/3 (1999). Women Watch. “Palestine.” http://www.un.org/women watch/daw/Review/responses/PALESTINE-English.pdf (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Palin, Sarah Sarah Louise Heath Palin is a social conservative, and a Republican politician. In 2006, she became the first female governor of Alaska and the youngest individual (age 42) ever elected to that position. In August 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Palin as his running mate. Palin was the first female ever nominated by the Republican Party on a presidential ticket.

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Panama Party.” She became a contributor to Fox News, and has become a popular and sought-after speaker and leader at Tea Party rallies, the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference, universities, foundations, and other political and current issues forums. See Also: Attainment, College Degree; Government, Women in; United States; Working Mothers. Further Readings Barnes, Fred. “The Most Popular Governor Alaska’s Sarah Palin is the GOP’s Newest Star.” The Weekly Standard, v.12/41 (2007). Palin, Sarah. Going Rogue: An American Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Anita M. Pankake University of Texas–Pan American

Sarah Palin is the first female ever nominated by the Republican Party on a presidential ticket.

Palin was born February 11, 1964, in Sandpoint, Idaho, the third of four children in the Heath family. The family moved from Idaho to Alaska when Palin was only a few months old. Her father taught school in a variety of communities in Alaska, finally settling in Skagway, a suburb of Anchorage. Palin studied journalism at the University of Idaho; she graduated with an undergraduate degree in 1987. Shortly after graduation, in 1988, she eloped with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin. The Palins have five children. Palin’s political career began in 1992 when she was elected to the Wasilla, Alaska City Council. In 1996 she was elected mayor of Wasilla; she served two, three-year terms as mayor (1996–2002). In 2002, Palin entered the Republican primary as a candidate for lieutenant governor, but was defeated. She was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission by the newly-elected governor, Frank Murkowski. After a brief period on the Commission, Palin resigned and raised ethics concerns about another appointee on the Commission. Her concerns prompted a federal investigation. In November 2009, Palin’s book, Going Rogue, was released, and she commenced a national book tour. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs described Palin as “the most formidable force in the Republican

Panama The Central American Republic of Panama forms a land bridge connecting Central and South America. The majority of the population are mestizo, Creole, or indigenous; Hispanic is the dominant culture; and Roman Catholic is the dominant religion. Women have entered the workforce and political arena, but the traditional view of male dominance remains largely unchallenged. Women enjoy good educational access, high literacy rates, and good medical care and overall living standards. Panama ranked 43rd of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. The traditional Hispanic concepts of machismo and marianismo provide a sexual double standard, as male sexual promiscuity is viewed as a sign of virility while there is an equally strong emphasis on female virginity and purity. Both common law and church marriages are common. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.6 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attended 91 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 18 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate was 130 per 100,000 live births. The state social security fund provides women with 14 weeks of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages, with employers



Panchita’s House: Domestic Workers Rights in Lima, Peru

covering any funding differences. The civil legal system provides for liberal divorces. Living Standards and Access to Education Show Increasing Improvement The Panamanian population is becoming increasingly urban, although there is a substantial rural population. Most Panamanians live in nuclear families, although extended families are also common. There is an effective public school system. Female school attendance rates stand at 98 percent at the primary level, 67 percent at the secondary level, and 56 percent at the tertiary level. The literacy rates for women and men are almost equal, at 93 percent and 94 percent respectively. There is a good state system of social security and public healthcare, and most have access to safe drinking water. Healthcare is becoming increasingly privatized. Life expectancy is age 68 for women and age 64 for men. Many women work outside the home in a variety of professions. About 52 percent of women participate in the labor force. Women constitute 43 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 52 percent of professional and technical workers. Government and education are primary employers of professional women, although women can be found in top-level positions in most professions. Many women also work in agriculture and service. Subsistence agriculture is dominant among rural families. A gender gap still exists in terms of average estimated earned income in U.S. dollars, which stands at $7,728 for women and $12,481 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 9.3 percent for women and 5.3 percent for men. Women enjoy public equality with men, and public social interactions are not segregated by gender. Women have the right to vote. Women hold 9 percent of parliamentary seats and 23 percent of ministerial positions. There has been a female head of state for five of the last 50 years. Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other international organizations operate in Panama. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Machismo/ Marianismo; Marriage; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Dore, Elizabeth and Maxine Molyneux. Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.

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Hausman, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. The Global Gender Gap Report 2009. Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org /en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20 Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm (accessed February 2010). Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Marcella Bush Trevino Independent Scholar

Panchita’s House: Domestic Workers Rights in Lima, Peru Panchita’s House (La Casa de Panchita) opened in 1998 as a place for domestic workers in Lima, Peru, to meet and support one another. It offers visitors a wide array of resources and activities, some of which are free of charge. Services include tutoring, English and computer classes, employment and placement in domestic services, legal advice in labor problems, consultation about sexual and reproductive health, self-esteem workshops, and recreational outings. In addition to these resources, Panchita’s House advocates for domestic workers to maintain contact with their family and friends. Panchita’s House was founded by Asociación Grupo de Trabajo Redes (AGTR), a nongovernmental organization. The aim of AGTR is to defend the rights of and empower those who experience discrimination as a result of poverty, age, gender, or culture. Specific objectives of AGTR involve defending the rights of domestic workers in Peru, where the overwhelming majority of workers (about 90 percent) are indigenous and rural young women who moved to the cities to find work and escape from poverty. Work conditions are often poor, as many workers work up to 16 hours a day with no rest days and little or no payment. Many workers are also underage, illiterate, barred from attending school, and/or fall victim to physical and sexual abuse. Since its inception, AGTR has been instrumental in introducing

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and changing laws that protect the rights of domestic workers of all ages. One such law is Law 27986, the Domestic Workers’ Act 2003, which requires— among other rights—an eight-hour work day, 15 paid vacation days a year, and either a verbal or written work contract between the domestic worker and her or his employer. In 1998, AGTR published a booklet featuring the fictional story of Panchita, a young girl from the country working as a domestic worker who overcomes many difficulties in her life. (The booklet also included information on AGTR and the services it provided.) Domestic workers who read her story declared that Panchita needed a home—this declaration eventually evolved into what is now Panchita’s House. Since 2007, Panchita’s House has also acted as an employment agency for domestic workers and employers. Anyone interested in being placed through Panchita’s House must attend job-training sessions either in full-service home care or nursing. Panchita’s House volunteers also help potential employers search, select, and contract with workers. See Also: Child Labor; Domestic Workers; Educational Opportunities/Access; Global Feminism; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Mentoring; Peru; Poverty; Social Justice Activism; Women’s Resource Centers. Further Readings Anti-Slavery International. “Child Domestic Workers: Finding a Voice.” http://www.antislavery.org/includes /documents/cm_docs/2009/a/advocacyhandbookeng .pdf (accessed March 2010). Asociación Grupo de Trabajo Redes. http://www.grupo redes.org (accessed March 2010). La Casa de Panchita. http://www.lacasadepanchita.com (accessed March 2010). Mick, Carola. “Las Empleadas Domesticas como Promotoras del Cambio Social en Peru?” http:// interpol.uasnet.mx/migracionesglobales/ponencias/ Mick_Carola.pdf (accessed March 2010). Ojeda Parra, Teresa. “Domestic Worker Victims of Sexual Violence in Lima, Peru.” http://www.dvcn.org /Documents/DomesticworkersVol1No3.pdf (accessed March 2010). Florence Maätita Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Papua New Guinea Although one of the fastest-growing developing countries in the southwest Pacific, with a total population of 6.25 million and an annual growth rate of 2.7 percent, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has one of the highest infant mortality rates, at 64 percent, due to the poor health of women and an inadequate healthcare system. Approximately 70 percent of the population are children. The vast majority of PNG’s population live in rural areas, and 87 percent of the land remains in “customary” land tenure. However, an increasing number of people are migrating to urban areas due to the deterioration of essential services. Migration is causing an expansion of unplanned settlements with inadequate services and a dependency on cash income to meet basic household needs; many young women are driven into informal survivor sex work to obtain cash to survive. Due to the influx of transnational corporations engaged in resource extraction, and the consequent uneven distribution of the benefits of “development” surrounding mine sites, land disputes often arise in which women are embroiled. Customary exchange patterns are disrupted by the influx of large compensation payments to landowner groups of men. As women are frequently not allowed to speak in public or to be involved in decision making, and men increasingly represent their own interests with little or no reference to women in their communities, women endure hardships including starvation. Women have strong social roles within church women’s groups and there is a growing nongovernment organization movement that is working toward the empowerment of women, but the pace of reform in slow. Violence against women and children is often sanctioned by culture, custom, and religion. Because it is often considered to be the most effective way to correct the behavior of women and children, violent practices are difficult to challenge and change; they have been successful tools of men’s power for many centuries. The role of adoption increases female children’s vulnerability to violence. Traditional adoptions and the practice of bride price brought families and communities together, and the well-being of the child was of paramount importance. Unregulated adoptions now extend into casual arrangements outside the

Paraguay



natal family and may not be agreed to by one of the birth parents. Such practices demonstrate the friction that is arising between aspects of modern law, the globalizing economy, and traditional ways of being. While an independent media exists, it is devoid of critical analysis, particularly of government and public-sector activities. Despite these challenges, women are becoming educated, and in the villages, the rise of “grass-skirt activism” is enabling women to raise their voices to obtain opportunities emerging from the global economy. See Also: Adoption; Domestic Violence; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Amnesty International. “Violence Against Women in Papua New Guinea.” http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/ library/pdf/ASA340022006ENGLISH/$File/ ASA3400206.pdf (accessed September 2009). Macintyre, Martha. “Petztorme Women: Responding to Change in Lihir, Papua New Guinea.” Oceania, v.74/1–2 (2003). Tickner, Jo Ann. Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992. Zimmer-Tamakoshi, Laura. “The Last Big Man: Development and Men’s Discontents in the Papua New Guinea Highlands.” Oceania, v.68/2 (1997). Helen Johnson University of Queensland

Paraguay Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America, sharing borders with Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina. The population of about 7 million is primarily Roman Catholic (89.6 percent), with 6.2 percent Protestant. The 2009 per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $4,100 is among the lowest in South America, while income distribution is highly unequal (Gini index of 56.8 in 2008, ninth highest in the world) and 32 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The World Economic Forum ranks Paraguay near the median in terms of gender equality. On the Gender

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Gap Index, where 0 signifies inequality and 1 perfect equality, overall Paraguay’s score in 2009 was 0.687, ranking 66th out of 134 countries. On health and survival, Paraguay scored 0.980 (highest in the world), while in subcategories Paraguay scored 0.997 (40th) on educational attainment, 0.669 (58th) on economic participation, and 0.102 (85th) on political empowerment. Good Literacy Rates, but Gender Gap Exists Literacy is approximately equal for men and women in Paraguay, at 94 percent and 93 percent respectively. Females outnumber males at every stage of enrollment, with about 13 percent more women than men enrolled in tertiary education. About 74 percent of women are in the labor force, as compared with 86 percent of men, but on average women earn about 60 percent of what men do. Women hold about half the technical and professional positions in Paraguay and about a third of positions as legislators, senior officials, and managers. Working mothers in Paraguay are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave at 50 percent of their salary. Women in Paraguay received the right to vote in 1961, making them the last in Latin America to do so. In 1992, the constitution was revised to incorporate gender equality. Women’s participation in politics has been aided since 1996 by a quota requiring that candidate lists must include 20 percent women. In 2009, women held 19 percent of the seats in regional legislatures (up from 5 percent in 1993), and in 2006 women held 21 percent of city council positions versus 14 percent in 1996. At the national level, in 2009 women held 14 percent of parliamentary seats and 23 percent of ministerial positions. The international organization Save the Children ranks Paraguay in the middle of 75 Tier II or less developed countries on issues of importance to women and children. The country is ranked highest on the Women’s Index (28th), lower on the Mothers’ Index (38th), and much lower on the Children’s Index (50th). Paraguay has a high fertility rate (3.8 women per children) and a young population structure (36.7 percent age 14 or younger). Infant mortality is 24.68 per 1,000 live births, among the highest in Latin America. See Also: Gender Quotas in Government; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Poverty; Roman Catholic Church.

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Further Readings Hausman, Ricardo, Laura D. Tyson, and Saadia Zahidi. The Global Gender Gap Report 2009. Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.weforum.org /en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20 Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index .htm (accessed February 2010). Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Parental Leave Parental leave is defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) as “leave granted to fathers and mothers during a period after the termination of maternity leave to enable parents in employment to look after their newborn child for a certain time, whilst giving them some degree of security in respect of employment, social security and remuneration. Parental leave is also granted to adoptive parents.” This definition states the co-responsibility of parents, both natural and adoptive. Parental leave differs from maternity leave because it is focused on the care and upbringing of young children, making both parents eligible for the benefit. The mother’s and baby’s health is the prime consideration of maternity leave, including extended or optional maternity leave. Paternity leave is distinguishable from parental leave in that it is immediately post birth and of short duration. Family leave is sometimes granted, although it need not be for childcare and is of short duration. Parental leave need have nothing to do with issues of force majure (or emergency leave for family reasons), although many countries have included this concept in their parental leave legislation. The conceptual distinctions between the above are prone to overlap. The ILO definition envisages parental leave as different from maternity leave because it can be

taken by the father and/or the mother and is an employment right. The ILO on Parental Leave The Employment of Women with Family Responsibilities Recommendation 1965 (No. 123) was adopted to protect the rights of women workers. It sought to institute measures such as childcare services and facilities, and appropriate counseling, placement, and training, to enable parents to enter or reenter employment after comparatively long absences due to family responsibilities. The International Labor Conference (1975) recommended that gender equality of opportunity and treatment could only be achieved by extending rights to all workers with family responsibilities, both women and men. This was in recognition that any change in the traditional role of women needs to include change in the traditional role of men. Such a development would be a move toward an enhanced status for the exercise of parental duties. The availability of parental leave would be a contributory factor in this development. The ILO Convention 1981 No. 156 and Recommendation 1981 (No. 165) set out the rationale for Equal Opportunities and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers with Family Responsibilities. This convention was adopted to extend the concept of a gender balance in parental responsibility. The convention applies to all workers with children and other immediate family members who need support. Article 3 states that national policies should ensure that workers with family responsibilities should not be subject to discrimination or conflict between their employment and family roles. Article 8 states that family responsibilities should not constitute a valid reason for termination of employment. Other articles invoke measures that enable workers to exercise free choice within the context of the prevailing national policies of each country. Articles reference the requirement that public authorities in each country should make available information and education designed to create a climate of opinion that is conducive to assisting workers with family responsibilities. Council of Europe Principle 4 of the Committee of Ministers Recommendation No. R (94) 14 on Coherent and Integrated Family Policies states that: “The Family must be a



place where equality, including legal equality, between women and men is especially promoted by sharing responsibility for running the home and looking after the children, and, more specifically, by ensuring that mother and father take turns and complement each other in carrying out their respective roles.” The European Social Charter (revised) was agreed in Strasbourg on May 3, 1996. In addition to protection of employed women, in relation to maternity (Article 8), Article 27 relates to “the right of workers with family responsibilities to equal opportunities and equal treatment.” The charter refers to measures for workers with family responsibilities to enable them to enter, remain in, and reenter employment. Vocational guidance and training should be made available to facilitate this. Measures should take account of the prevailing conditions of employment and social security and should develop or promote childcare services and arrangements. In addition, Article 27 sought to ensure that family responsibilities should not constitute a valid reason for termination of employment. A prime goal is “to provide a possibility for either parent to obtain, during a period after maternity leave, parental leave to take care of a child, the duration and conditions of which should be determined by national legislation, collective agreements or practice.” The COE adopted a Recommendation No. R (96) 5 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on Reconciling Work and Family Life, which acknowledges the need for a number of innovative measures that would reconcile working life and family life. The recommendation sought paternity leave for fathers of newly born children and in addition that: “both the father and the mother should have the right to take parental leave during a period to be determined by the national authorities without losing either their employment or any related rights provided for in social protection or employment regulations. The possibility should exist for such parental leave to be taken part-time and to be shared between parents.” U.S. National Legislative Provisions All developed U.S. state governments have provisions for the support of parents with newborn children. Parental leave laws can support new parents in complementary ways:

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• By offering job-protected leave, which protects at least one parent’s job for a period of weeks, months, or years at and after the birth of a child. • By offering financial support during that leave. • By providing the important right to take parental leave on a part-time basis, which enables a worker to combine leave with part-time employment. European Union The first commission proposal for a directive on parental leave dates back to 1983. However, it was not until 1995 that an agreement could be reached, which led to the formal adoption of the Council Directive 96/34/EC of 3 June 1996 on the framework agreement on parental leave concluded by the European Trade Council, the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe, and the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises Providing Public Services. The directive required member states to grant parental leave as an individual worker’s right—for both women and men. The purpose of the parental leave is to facilitate the care of the child for at least three months, or until a certain age defined by member states, which could be up to the age of 8 years. By definition, parental leave granted to each parent may be shared, but it is not transferable between parents for the purposes of increasing the parental leave entitlement of an individual parent. The directive leaves member states the option to regulate whether parental leave is granted on a full-time or part-time basis, in a piecemeal manner, or in the form of a timecredit system. The directive obliges member states to take measures that protect workers from dismissal for having applied for, or for having taken, parental leave. It furthermore guarantees the worker’s right to return to the same job, or a similar job, when the leave is over, and that the worker will keep any accrued rights. The directive anticipated that parental leave would be a right of wage earners, in full- or part-time employment within both the public and private sectors. It did not include self-employed or family workers, nor does it cover care responsibilities for other members of the family, such as elderly or sick relatives. The directive makes no specific reference to single parents or children with disabilities. The experience of countries that are compliant with “best practice” suggests that a generous, universal,

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gender-egalitarian, and flexible parental leave policy— financed through social insurance—would go a long way toward spreading the costs of caring for children more equitably between mothers and fathers, parents and nonparents, and employers and employees. See Also: Equal Pay; Household Division of Labor; Parental Leave Act; Part-Time Work; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Haas, L. “Parental Leave and Gender Equality: Lessons from the European Union.” Review of Policy Research v.20/1 (2003). International Labour Organization. Maternity Protection Database. Geneva: ILO Conditions of Work and Employment Programme. http://www.ilo.org/travail database/servlet/maternityprotection (accessed March 2010). Plantenga, J. and C. Remery. “Reconciliation of Work and Private Life: A Comparative Review of 30 European Countries.” Luxembourg: European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, 2005. http:// www.cecot.es /harmonitzacio/documentacio/estudi%20CE.pdf (accessed March 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Tecnical University

Parental Leave Act All developed world governments have provisions for the support of parents with newborn children. Parental leave laws support new parents by offering job-protected leave and financial support during that leave. The right to take parental leave on a parttime basis can be another important aspect of family leave policy. New parents in the United States may access leave through the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. The FMLA entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for specified family and medical reasons. Amendments to the FMLA by the National Defense Authorization Act NDAA for fiscal year 2008, Public

Law 110-181, expanded the FMLA to allow eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave in the applicable 12-month period for any “qualifying exigency” arising out of the fact that a covered military member is on active duty, or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty, in support of a contingency operation. The NDAA also amended the FMLA to allow eligible employees to take up to 26 weeks of job-protected leave in a “single 12-month period” to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness. FMLA applies to all public agencies, including state, local, and federal employers; local education agencies (schools); and private-sector employers who employed 50 or more employees in 20 or more work weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, including joint employers and successors of covered employers. To be eligible for FMLA benefits, an employee must work for a covered employer, have worked for the employer for a total of 12 months, have worked at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months, and work at a location in the United States or in any territory or possession of the United States where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles. While the 12 months of employment need not be consecutive, employment periods prior to a break in service of seven years or more need not be counted unless the break is occasioned by the employee’s fulfillment of his or her National Guard or Reserve military obligation, as protected under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or a written agreement, including a collective bargaining agreement, exists concerning the employer’s intention to rehire the employee after the break in service. A covered employer must grant an eligible employee up to a total of 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons: • For the birth and care of a newborn child of the employee • For placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care • To care for a spouse, son, daughter, or parent with a serious health condition • To take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition



Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

• For qualifying exigencies arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is on active duty or called to active duty status as a member of the National Guard or Reserves in support of a contingency operation A covered employer must also grant an eligible employee who is a spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a current member of the armed forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves, with a serious injury or illness up to a total of 26 work weeks of unpaid leave during a “single 12-month period” to care for the service member. Spouses employed by the same employer are limited in the amount of family leave they may take for the birth and care of a newborn child, placement of a child for adoption or foster care, or the care of a parent who has a serious health condition to a combined total of 12 weeks (or 26 weeks if leave to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness is also used). Leave for birth and care, or placement for adoption or foster care, must conclude within 12 months of the birth or placement. Upon return from FMLA leave, an employee must be restored to the employee’s original job, or to an equivalent job with equivalent pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. An employee’s use of FMLA leave cannot result in the loss of any employment benefit that the employee earned or was entitled to before using FMLA leave, nor be counted against the employee under a “no fault” attendance policy. If a bonus or other payment, however, is based on the achievement of a specified goal, such as hours worked, products sold, or perfect attendance, and the employee has not met the goal due to FMLA leave, payment may be denied unless it is paid to an employee on equivalent leave status for a reason that does not qualify as FMLA leave. An employee has no greater right to restoration or to other benefits and conditions of employment than if the employee had been continuously employed. Current U.S. policy includes a key feature of gender-egalitarian parental leave policy—the non-transferability of leave between fathers and mothers. FMLA includes strict nontransferability between parents. With the exception of a handful of U.S. states, U.S. law provides no right to paid parental leave.

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Employer-size and long-job-tenure restrictions also mean that a large proportion of working parents are either not covered or are not eligible for leave under FMLA. Current U.S. labor law and social policy places almost the entire responsibility for caring for young children—and for combining that care with employment responsibilities—on individual parents. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Household Division of Labor; Parental Leave; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Ray, R. “A Detailed Look at Parental Leave Policies in 21 OECD Countries.” Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research Briefing Paper, 2008. http://www.lisproject.org/publications/parentwork /parentleavedetails.pdf (accessed June 2010). Turk, J. “The United States’ Lack of Parental Leave Benefits: An Analysis of the Negative Impacts on Working Mothers and Recommendations.” Brandeis University Graduate Journal (2006). http://www .brandeis.edu/gsa/gradjournal/2006/pdf/jematurk.pdf (accessed June 2010). U.S. Department of Labor. “Federal vs. State Family and Medical Leave Laws.” Washington, DC: DOL, 2009. http://www.dol.gov/esa/programs/whd/state/fmla /index.htm (accessed June 2010). Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. “Family Care and Family Leave Laws.” Olympia: WSDLI, 2007. http://www.lni.wa.gov/Work placeRights/files/FamilyLeaveLawsTable.pdf (accessed June 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) formed amid national social movements whose leaders challenge oppression rooted in missionary ideology that considers humans to be drawn to the same value bases. The journey to organization

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A Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays contingent marches at San Francisco Pride 2004. PFLAG has 200,000 members and supporters in 500 chapters in the United States, providing support and advocacy for gay loved ones.

for PFLAG began when Jeanne Manford, a retired mother and school teacher in New York City, attended the 1972 annual gay pride parade in support of her son. Manford and parents like her wanted to form a community of interest, not only to support the children they loved but to serve as a catalyst for activism, designed to codify the dignity and integrity of their children in the laws of the United States. PFLAG’s support, education, and advocacy began in parents’ homes. From 1972 to 1979, support groups for families of lesbians and gays formed throughout the United States, but it was not until the 1979 National March for Gay and Lesbian Rights when these parents formed the predecessor organization to PFLAG, known as Parents FLAG and incorporated in California in 1982 as the Federation of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Inc. PFLAG

has always represented family members of bisexual orientation, and since 1998 has included transgender individuals in its mission statements and mandates. As of 2009, PFLAG in the United States has 200,000 members and supporters in 500 chapters. PFLAG’s goal has always been to restore and renew bonds of love and friendship among families and friends faced with a loved one’s disclosure of sexual orientation; its members and staff educate governments and school boards on all matters concerning sexuality; and it has advocated on behalf of LGBT individuals in discussions on family and caregiver, education, healthcare, employment, and housing policies. PFLAG began when Americans noticed the efforts of one mother who criticized hateful behavior of some police officers in New York City, and the more than 65,000 households in the United States that

Partner Rights



belong to PFLAG tie their criticisms of the repression of the American federal government and substantial numbers of Christians back to their one desire: to love and support their families. See Also: Coming Out; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Heterosexism; Homophobia; Sex Education, Comprehensive; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States; Social Justice Activism. Further Readings Bernstein, R. A. Straight Parents, Gay Children: Inspiring Families to Live Honestly and with Greater Understanding. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1995. Broad, K. L. “Social Movement Selves.” Sociological Perspectives, v.45.3 (2002). Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays. “Vision, Mission and Strategic Goals.” http:// community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=237 (accessed September 2009). Jonathan Anuik Lakehead University Orillia Campus

Partner Rights Partners are typically defined as unmarried adult cohabitants who are emotionally and financially interdependent, have reached the age of consent, do not have a different domestic partner or spouse, and are in a long-term committed relationship. Despite the financial and legal disincentives, over the past 30 years, there has been an upward trend worldwide in industrialized countries in the number of unmarried partners cohabitating. Underlying this shift in living arrangements is the broad social and cultural shift from a society in which religious ideology encouraged social conformity regarding marriage to a more secular society in which individual choice, autonomy, and freedom are encouraged. The extension of legal rights around the world to opposite-sex and samesex cohabitants has evolved unevenly and varies both among and within nations. This broad cultural shift is reflected in the 2000 U.S. census: the number of households headed by cohabitating partners doubled from 1990 to 2000.

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Cohabitating households make up slightly over 5 percent of all U.S. households and include 5.5 million people; there are minor children in 41 percent of these households. Currently, over half of all marriages are preceded by cohabitation in the United States. The growth in the rate of cohabiting couples reflects changes in the institution of marriage and concerns about its stability over the life course. Marriage, once strongly fortified by law, religion, and economics, is being replaced by cohabitation. There is a growing movement in the United States to further the separation of church and state by privatizing marriage so that the word marriage no longer appears in any laws. This would eliminate any confusion created by the fact that the word marriage currently refers to both a legal status and a religious status. The concern about cohabitation, particularly for the person with fewer resources, is that, unlike marriage, there is no obligation for the person with more resources to support their partner outside marriage by the contractual obligations of divorce should the relationship dissolve. Public policy has not kept pace with this shift in living arrangements and continues to support, preserve, and encourage marriage by reserving many rights and privileges to married persons. Cohabitants in most countries around the world are unclear about their legal rights in areas such as child custody, property ownership, healthcare access, responsibility for debt, and survivorship. Only 50 years ago, it was illegal in the United States for adults to live together as loving partners. Today, many nations in Europe, North America, and South America extend rights through civil unions and registered partnerships to unwed couples. India’s Supreme Court recently ruled that unmarried couples have the right to live together and, as part of its ruling, pointed out that “even the Hindu gods, Lord Krishna and Radha, were cohabitating lovers rather than man and wife.” In the majority of northern European countries, cohabitation is an accepted new social institution. In several Scandinavian nations, cohabitating partners share nearly the same legal rights as their married counterparts. Denmark and Sweden are currently the world’s “cohabitation leaders,” where cohabitants have the same rights and obligations in childcare, taxation, inheritance, and welfare benefits as married couples.

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Cohabitation Around the World Currently, the vast majority of nations around the world do not offer the same social and legal protections to unmarried partners that they offer to married partners. In China, for example, contraception needs for unmarried women are not being met. There are approximately 13 million abortions performed every year in China for young single women (and 10 million abortion pills sold annually to them), often because young single women know little about contraception; the state widely promotes and subsidizes contraception for married women but tends to ignore the needs of unwed women. There are no rights for unmarried same-sex partners in most Muslim-majority countries; homosexual activity in many Muslim-majority countries is considered a crime and can be punished by death, imprisonment, fines, or corporal punishment. Since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, at least 4,000 individuals charged with homosexual acts have been executed by the government. In Saudi Arabia, gays and lesbians can be publicly executed if found participating in lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) movements. On the other hand, there are some relatively secular Muslim-majority countries where same-sex partnerships are tolerated, such as Turkey, Indonesia, and Jordan. Opposite-sex couples in many Muslim-majority countries also receive few rights. Although little can be said in general about all women in Islam, sexual abstinence before marriage is often expected. This severely limits the number of unwed couples that exist. Among particular Muslims sects, in some communities, contact of any kind between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman can be interpreted as adultery and result in a vendetta or an “honor killing,” whereby a woman’s father or other male relative will kill her to protect the family’s honor before the facts of “adultery” are investigated. More than 300 women per year are victims of “honor killings” in Pakistan. If her family waits for justice (four witnesses are required to provide proof of adultery), the penalty of death by stoning has come to be accepted. What Are Partner Rights? What does the term partner rights mean? Classical liberal theorists, such as John Locke, envisioned human rights as the way to protect individuals from the power of the state (the private realm was considered apoliti-

cal and devoid of power relations). This public/private divide has raised many rights concerns. The term partner rights in the United States comes from both a structural concept of the Constitution and a substantive concept of it. By structural concept of the Constitution, one refers to the “zone of privacy” that defines privacy as “beyond the reach of government,” where citizens have “the right to be let alone.” Unfortunately, for the person who is the weaker party in the partnership and needs more state protection, the language of rights does not extend into the zone of privacy. By substantive rights, one refers to rights that may be unwritten and vaguely defined but that are protected (e.g., all rights claims for same-sex marriage are substantive due process claims and have been asserted based on the constitutional right to marry, right to privacy, and right to intimate association). Laws have evolved (beginning with common-law marriage protections) in response to legal dilemmas, such as for women abandoned by men after providing them years of carework or who were left destitute upon the death of their longterm opposite-sex partners. An important goal of family law is to protect adults in long-term relationships of emotional and economic dependence and interdependence as well as their children. This goal is not being achieved for growing numbers of cohabitants and their children around the world, especially in the areas of taxation, immigration, property ownership, survivors’ benefits, hospital visitation, and inheritance. In the United States, for example, in the case of Social Security, only “spouses” (as defined by state law) may receive survivors’ benefits; cohabitants are not allowed to file joint federal income tax returns, claim a spousal exclusion from federal gift and estate taxation, or claim one another as dependents. Domestic partners have no rights at all in Illinois, Georgia, and Louisiana yet receive nearly the legal equivalent of marriage rights in Oregon, Washington, Maine, Nevada, Maryland, and California. Unlike opposite-sex married couples, who receive more than 1,000 different federally based benefits, many or most of such benefits are not available to cohabitants because federal law does not apply to them. Married same-sex couples do not receive the same federal benefits in most states as married opposite-sex couples. Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) allows states the right not to recognize marriages between same-sex

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couples performed in other states; it defines the term marriage to be between one man and one woman; and it defines the term spouse as an opposite-sex wife or husband for federal purposes. Today, in many nations around the globe, cohabitating couples are creating formal “living together contracts” in which partners state clearly what their rights are should the relationship break down. In short, the more an unwed cohabitating relationship resembles a business contract, the more likely it will be recognized legally, and individual partners will have their rights secured. There are significant legal consequences for cohabitants with children. This is particularly important in parts of the world where the rate of births to unwed mothers is rising quickly, such as in many parts of Britain where 70 percent of all births are now to unwed mothers. In some countries, cohabitation can mean losing custody of a child after the relationship ends. Custody and visitation rights often focus on biology, which may not be a problem for heterosexual domestic partners, but because the children of same-sex parents are not biologically related to both parents, legally these same-sex parents are generally not treated the same as opposite-sex parents. In most countries, the nonbiological parent in a same-sex couple will be treated as a legal stranger to that child and can be denied visitation and custody rights. Co-parent adoption for same-sex couples is now a legal option in some countries; this can provide some remedy to the problems associated with custody and visitation rights by protecting the rights of both adoptive parents. See Also: Divorce; Fatherlessness; Marriage; Same-Sex Marriage; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States; Single Mothers. Further Readings Batalova, J. and P. Cohen. “Premarital Cohabitation and Housework: Couples in Cross-National Perspective.” Journal of Marriage and Family, v.64/3 (2002). Booth, A. and A. Crouter, eds. Just Living Together: Implications of Cohabitation on Families, Children and Social Policy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002. Bumpass, L. and H. Lu. “Trends in Cohabitation and Implications for Children’s Family Contexts in the United States.” Population Studies, v.54/1 (2000).

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McLanahan, Sara. “Family, State, and Child Well-Being.” Annual Review of Sociology, v.26 (2000). Shanley, Mary. “Unwed Fathers’ Rights, Adoption, and Sex Equality: Gender-Neutrality and the Perpetuation of Patriarchy.” Columbia Law Review, v.95/1 (1995). Thaler, Richard and Cass Sunstein. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008. Wu, Zheng. Cohabitation: An Alternative Form of Family Living. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000. Lynn Comerford California State University, East Bay

Parton, Dolly Dolly Parton is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actress, author, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She has enjoyed success in each of these areas but remains most closely identified with her country-and-western musical roots. Parton is described as an icon variously for her music, fashion, feminism, and sexuality. Parton was born on January 19, 1946, the fourth of 12 children. Her family lived in a rustic, one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. As a child, Parton taught herself how to play guitar, began performing on local radio and television shows when she was only 8 years old, and debuted on the Grand Old Opry at age 13. The first in her family to graduate high school, Parton immediately left for Nashville to pursue a musical career. There she met her famously reclusive husband, Carl Dean, to whom she has been married since May 30, 1966. Between 1967 and 1976, Parton appeared on the weekly, syndicated, country-music television program, The Porter Wagoner Show. Ultimately, the song she wrote about her professional break with Wagoner, I Will Always Love You, became one of her most influential songs. Whitney Houston’s 1992 cover of this song for the movie The Bodyguard became one of the best-selling singles of all time. Parton’s other most recognizable songs include Joshua, Just Because I’m a Woman, Coat of Many Colors, Jolene, Two Doors Down, and 9 to 5. Parton has penned more than 3,000 songs, and in 2001 she

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Part-Time Work Her “dumb blonde” image emphasizes her physical endowments, glittery costumes, and big blonde wigs. She is never seen publicly without being fully “made up;” often uses her physical appearance in her selfdeprecating stage humor; and is known famously for quipping, “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.” Yet, Parton’s public persona also conveys a genuineness that relates back to her background as being “dirt poor” and from the Great Smokey Mountains. Her sexuality, ambition, talent, spirituality, generosity, and humor have made her a complex and compelling icon for men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, feminists and traditionalists alike. See Also: Country and Western Music, Women in; Entrepreneurs; Poverty.

Dolly Parton, an American singer–songwriter, musician, actress, author, businesswoman, and philanthropist.

was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her chart success has spanned over four decades, during which she has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Parton has had 25 number one singles and 41 top 10 country albums. Parton also has enjoyed considerable success outside of music. She has acted in several films, most notably 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Steel Magnolias. In 1986, she opened the entertainment theme park Dollywood in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, which both preserves and honors her heritage. It also employs more than 2,000 residents and sees more than 2 million yearly visitors, earning Parton the title successful businesswoman as well. Parton has many philanthropic ventures, raising money for the American Red Cross, HIV/AIDS charities, and medical centers. Her Dollywood Foundation supports literacy efforts in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Parton is often called the “iron butterfly” in a nod to the seemingly contradictory interplay of her ultrafeminine appearance and her business acumen.

Further Readings Havranek, Carrie, Women Icons of Popular Music: The Rebels, Rockers, and Renegades. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2009. O’Dair, Barbara, ed. Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. New York: Random House, 1997. Parton, Dolly. Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Shannon Stettner York University

Part-Time Work The International Labour Organization’s Part-Time Work Convention of 1994 (No. 175) and the European Union Directive 97/81 of 1997 concerning the Framework Agreement on Part-Time Work concluded by the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe; the Center for Economic and Environmental Partnership, Inc.; and the European Trade Union Confederation have similar contents and define a parttime worker as an employee whose normal hours of work—calculated on a weekly basis or on average over a given period of employment—are less than the normal hours of work of a comparable full-time worker. The term comparable full-time worker means a full-time worker in the same establishment having the same type of employment contract or relation-



ship who is engaged in the same or a similar work or occupation, with due regard being given to other considerations, which may include seniority and qualifications or skills. The definition of part-time work varies considerably in national laws. Essentially, three main approaches can be distinguished: a classification based on the worker’s perception of his or her employment situation; a cutoff (generally 30 or 35 hours per week) based on usual working hours, with persons usually working fewer hours being considered to be part-timers; and a comparable cutoff based on actual hours worked during the reference week. Part-time work can take special forms, such as job sharing (one full-time job is split into two part-time jobs), work on call (a worker on an “accessibility shift” who is not required to be present at the workplace), progressive retirement (reduced working time for older workers close to retirement age), and parental leave that can be taken on a part-time basis (reduced working hours for parents). Part-Time Workers In most industrialized countries, the share of parttime workers as a proportion of total employment has increased by one-quarter to one-half over the last 20 years, although the United States is a notable exception to this trend. However, the incidence of part-time work remains low in most developing countries, as well as in countries in transition. In industrialized countries, the proportion of part-time workers is especially high among women. In many countries, the share of part-time workers is also particularly high in the service sector and among lowskilled employees. Advantages and Disadvantages of Part-Time Work Some common advantages that can result from parttime working, for employees, are that part-time work can be an entry point into the labor market for women and it can provide a better balance between work and family life. Recommendation number R(96)5 of the Council of Europe on Reconciling Work and Family Life of 1996 provides that employers be encouraged to develop flexible employment practices enabling their workers, both women and men, to meet the demands of their family responsibilities in the most satisfac-

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tory manner possible. Insofar as is possible, account should be taken of the individual circumstances of each worker in relation to their family responsibilities and the needs of the persons dependent on them (e.g., the size of their family; whether they are a single parent; or whether their dependent relatives are ill, elderly, or have a disability). A flexible and voluntary employment practice widely agreed between employers and workers should include as many as possible of the following options: • easier access to part-time work for those workers who so wish; • easier access, where possible, to options for “distance employment” such as telework or homework for those workers who so wish; • the possibility for workers to vary their working hours and the organization of their working time, while retaining the possibility of reverting to their original hours; • leave arrangements to care for family members who are ill or who have a disability; • acting as an entry point into the labor market for young people; • acting as an entry point into the labor market for disabled people; and • providing the potential for job creation. However, part-time work can entail several disadvantages for employees. First, there is the potential for gender discrimination. Part-time work can reinforce traditional family roles and offer poorer terms and conditions of work to women. Part-time work also has adverse effects on career development for women. Second, part-time work offers lower incomes because of its shorter hours and lower hourly wages than earned by comparable full-time workers. Third, lower social security benefits and limited career progression and training opportunities are available to part-time workers. Fourth, there is the potential for work intensification (i.e., working part-time hours with a full-time workload). Finally, there is the potential for irregular working hours. International and European Instruments on Part-Time Work The International Labour Organization Part-Time Work Convention grants to part-time workers the

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“same protection as that accorded to comparable full-time workers” in relation to a number of rights. It also states that measures shall be taken to ensure the equal treatment of part-time and comparable full-time workers, particularly regarding discrimination in employment and occupation; hourly basic wage rates; maternity leave, termination of employment, paid annual leave and paid public holidays, and sick leave; participation at the workplace; occupational safety and health; statutory social security schemes; and the right to organize, the right to bargain collectively, and the right to act as workers’ representatives. The convention provides that measures shall be taken to facilitate access to productive and freely chosen part-time work that meets the needs of both employers and workers. These measures shall include, inter alia, special attention in employment policies to the needs and preferences of specific groups, such as the unemployed, workers with family responsibilities, older workers, workers with disabilities, and workers undergoing education or training. The purpose of the European Union Part-Time Directive is to provide for the removal of discrimination against part-time workers, to improve the quality of part-time work, to facilitate the development of part-time work on a voluntary basis, and to contribute to the flexible organization of working time in a manner that takes into account the needs of both employers and workers. According to the directive, employers should give consideration to workers’ requests to shift from fulltime to part-time work and vice versa. In the European Union, it has also been established that discrimination against part-time workers may constitute indirect discrimination against women because nationally, and in most organizations, the majority of part-time workers are women. Indirect sex discrimination can occur when a requirement or condition is applied equally to men and women, but the proportion of one sex that can satisfy the condition is much smaller than the proportion of the other sex. Unless it can be shown that the condition is essential for the job, indirect discrimination may have taken place. The directive also stipulates that there can be no discrimination “solely because they [the workers] work part time, unless different treatment is justified on objective grounds.” To determine whether there is

discrimination against part-time workers, a comparator, or standard, against which such an evaluation can be made is required. The main principles of the directive have been integrated into national laws across Europe. See Also: Childcare; Discrimination; Parental Leave; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Booth, A. L. and J. C. van Ours. “Part-Time Jobs: What Women Want?” Discussion Paper 2010–05. Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research, 2010. http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=97350 (accessed March 2010). International Labour Organization. “Part-Time Work, Conditions of Work and Employment Programme.” http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/condtrav /pdf/infosheets/wt-4.pdf (accessed March 2010). Maxwell, P. “Discrimination Against Part-Time Workers.” Web Journal of Current Legal Issues, 1995. http://web jcli.ncl.ac.uk/articles1/maxwell1.rtf (accessed March 2010). Murray, J. “Social Justice for Women? The ILO’s Convention on Part-Time Work CELRL Working Paper No. 15.” http://celrl.law.unimelb.edu.au/assets/Work ing%20Papers/celrl-wp15.pdf (accessed July 2010). Sciarra, S., et al., eds. Employment Policy and the Regulation of Part-Time Work in the European Union: A Comparative Analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Patrick, Danica Danica Patrick is a famed auto racing driver who has gained tremendous notoriety for both her driving prowess and media presence. Her racing exploits include being a top star in the IndyCar Series and, more recently, her emergence in the world of stock car racing. Beyond auto racing, Patrick has amassed a great deal of attention for her diversified talents, including modeling, product endorsement, and media appearances.



Patrick has evolved into a national celebrity in recent years, with her fame extending beyond the United States. She has participated in IndyCar racing since 2005, and her racing credentials include being selected as the Rookie of the Year for both the 2005 IndyCar Series season and 2005 Indianapolis 500, placing third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, being the first woman to win an IndyCar race (the 2008 Indy Japan 300), and being a multiple-time selection as IndyCar’s most popular driver. Patrick currently drives in both the IndyCar Series and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Nationwide Series, the latter of which she began in 2010. Entering the world of stock car racing marked a new phase of the Danica Patrick brand. She embarked in a joint venture as driver of the #7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Impala, a part-time juncture with JR Motorsports, which is owned in part by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Her entrance into NASCAR and the Nationwide Series, including the association with NASCAR poster boy Dale Jr., will increase her visibility. Patrick is not the first or only woman to participate in the high-stakes world of auto racing. Women drivers have preceded Patrick in both IndyCar and NASCAR racing, and there are others waiting in the wings to see whether they can amass widespread success. Though the precedent has been set, the widespread crossover attention that Patrick has received is unparalleled for a woman race car driver. Patrick has a multifaceted image. Based on speed, beauty, fashion, and style, the Patrick brand thrives in multiple media venues. Whether it is through the stylistic presentation of her personal Website, appearing on GoDaddy.com commercials at halftime during the Super Bowl, serving as a model in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, winning a Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Award, or guest starring on CSI: Miami, Patrick has proven to be a highly visible crossover star. Being associated with famed management group IMG, Patrick is positioned to continue as a dominant force in the world of product endorsement and other media ventures. With sponsors such as Tissot watches, PEAK Antifreeze, Hot Wheels, and GoDaddy.com, Patrick has proven to be one of the premiere product endorsers today. Although Patrick is a highly successful crossover star, she is not without her share of critics. Critics

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have said that Patrick is more style than substance and guilty of using her looks to get ahead, and doubts have been expressed regarding her ability to compete in a “man’s world,” to name but a few critiques. Though she is not without her critics and naysayers, Patrick is a remarkable sport personality who has been positioned among the most visible and popular sport stars internationally. She has brought great attention to the IndyCar Series and has more recently provided a shot of added exposure to NASCAR. It will be interesting to see how Patrick uses her celebrity power and what the ramifications of such actions will produce. See Also: Auto Racing, Formula One; Auto Racing, NASCAR; Celebrity Women; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Danicaracing.com. “Danica.” http://www.danicaracing .com/main.html (accessed July 2010). Newton, D. “Patrick Signs With JR Motorsports.” http:// sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/nationwide/news/ story?id=4725025 (accessed July 2010). Smith, M. “Danica + Junior = Opportunities.” Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal. http://www.sports bus inessjournal.com/article/64342 (accessed July 2010). Smith, M. “Danica Patrick Signs With IMG.” Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal. http://www.sports businessjournal.com/article/61403 (accessed July 2010). Smith, M. “Patrick Makes the Most out of Making History.” Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal. http:// www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/58836 (accessed July 2010). Jason W. Lee University of North Florida Elizabeth A. Gregg Jacksonville University

Peace Movement Peace movement is a general term commonly used to describe any social movement that seeks to end warfare and promote world peace, both on a domestic and on a global scale. Peace movement activists work to raise awareness about social injustices as well as advocate against practices such as war, racial

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discrimination, and violence. These movements often stand out from specific “antiwar movements” because their objectives often tend to be global and longer term rather than targeted at a specific armed conflict. Peace movement activists often articulate their purpose in terms of social transformations, such as those found in the civil rights and women’s movements, rather than in terms of personal development common to self-help transformational movements. In the academic world, peace study scholars focus on a number of central issues, including how individuals act collectively to end war and how private citizens affect government peace policies. Women and Peace Activism Women are specifically affected by warfare due to their particular experiences of rape and forced impregnation for the purposes of ethnic cleansing, sex trafficking, and systematic violence against children and families. Given their potential roles as both victims and active agents, women occupy a unique position in peace movements and peacekeeping initiatives. On the one hand, they are perceived as victims and thus too vulnerable to directly participate in formal peacekeeping efforts. On the other hand, given their idiosyncratic experiences of war, women can be seen as powerful members of peace-building movements and energetic advocates for women’s rights during conflict and subsequent postconflict rebuilding efforts. In a process known as movement spillover, peace movement leaders often share tactics and ideologies with feminist activists, including acts such as staging peace camps at military bases, raising awareness about the connection between militarism and patriarchy, and acting as key contributors to international policy. In the last decade, women’s involvement in peace activism has risen sharply, both formally with the United Nations (UN) and in grassroots organizations. These contributions have greatly increased awareness of gendered violence in conflict-afflicted societies. Although many groups have similar goals, peace movement activism can take different forms. Today, women’s activism combines both new and traditional forms, from grassroots groups in Nepal and Somalia, participation in political institutions in Kabul and Kigali, and in more traditional forms of activism such as providing services to the sick and elderly, and ensuring the survival of the family unit.

United Nations Initiatives In 1995, the UN sponsored the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. The conference was the catalyst for a more globally conscious discussion of women’s experience in war and women’s activism for peace. Conference delegates drafted Chapter E (Women and Armed Conflict) of the Platform for Action, which called for an increased presence of women in peace-building projects. Delegates who worked on this project brought together women from Israel and Palestine, survivors of the Rwandan genocide and the Bosnian war, and South African peace activists. In 2000, a groundbreaking study was launched to investigate women’s roles and gender bias in global peacekeeping efforts. UN Special Advisor to the Secretary -General on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women Angela King spearheaded an investigative report titled “Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Multi-Dimensional Peace Support Operations.” Concentrating on previous missions in Namibia and South Africa, the project’s purpose was to define and locate areas where women were specifically discriminated against in peacekeeping efforts and to recommend improvements to the procedures of the UN’s Peace Operation units. Suggestions centered on the practice of gender mainstreaming, which refers to a specific initiative emphasizing women’s roles in peacekeeping missions, as well as support for the equal participation of women in the expansion of peacekeeping actions around the world. Study results were finalized in the Windhoek Declaration and the Namibia Plan of Action, which were presented at the fifth anniversary review conference called the “Beijing +5 Council.” The Beijing +5 Council was held in 2000 and aimed to formally recognize women’s participation in peacekeeping efforts and enhance their protection in war zones. As a result of the Windhoek Declaration, the UN Security Council recognized Resolution 1325 in 2000. This groundbreaking resolution declared the inextricable link between women’s rights, gender equality, and the desire for an increased presence of women in all peacekeeping operations. Council members acknowledged that women were to be involved equally in all efforts to maintain peace and to end conflicts globally. Resolution 1325 is the result of years of work that began with Eleanor Roosevelt and her tireless efforts to include gender equality in the



Charter of Rights and Freedoms. When the first UN Assembly was held in 1946, Roosevelt participated on the Security Council and worked to declare freedom of equality for every human being regardless of sex, race, or creed. Although the protection of women specifically from sexual violence was already part of the UN Security Council’s mandate, Resolution 1325 legally bound participating countries to enact these goals, support women’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and increase the number of women in leadership peacekeeping roles around the world. In 2000, the UN declared an “International Year for the Culture of Peace.” The plan was initiated by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and all of the Nobel Peace laureates. The declaration was a bold initiative to create cultures of peace and nonviolence and to promote a viable alternative to violence against women, discrimination and exploitation of all individuals, and war education programs. The grander objectives of this declaration included creating a vision of the future where all individuals would collectively establish a peaceful global culture. During the 2005 annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, 1,000 women peacekeepers were honored as part of the Nobel Peace Prize Initiative and the 1,000 Women Peace Activists campaign. Notable Peace Activists Cora Weiss currently presides at the Hague Appeal for Peace. She is an ardent peace supporter, notably active in the anti–Vietnam War movement and a cofounder of Women Strike for Peace (WSP) in the early 1960s, which fought to end the testing of nuclear weapons. From 2000 to 2006, she served as president of the International Peace Bureau, an organization that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910. She also serves as joint-principal of the Peace Boat’s Global University and sits on the advisory board of the Peace Child International’s Millennium Action Fund. Aung San Suu Kyi is a loyal advocate of Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD), and her efforts to promote peace, democracy, and human rights are recognized globally despite violent retaliation from Burma’s (Myanmar’s) State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). She was awarded the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament in 1990, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, and the Con-

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gressional Gold Medal in 2008. Since 1990, she has repeatedly been held under house arrest in Myanmar for her involvement with the NLD. In 2009, Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued detention and intrusive monitoring by the SPDC were declared unlawful according to the international legal standards set by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Jody Williams, jointly with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her efforts. Williams founded the ICBL in 1992 with the goal of implementing a global ban on the creation, stockpiling, and use of landmines. Along with Wangari Maathai and other Nobel laureates, Williams created the Nobel Women’s Initiative as a means of using their activist experiences and public visibility to recognize and promote the particular contributions of women peacemakers and to raise global awareness of gendered experiences of violence. Specifically, the Nobel Women’s Initiative hopes to determine the root causes of women’s experiences of violence during war, to advance women’s rights, and to promote peace on the global stage. Williams also remains an ambassador of the ICBL. Wangari Muta Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts with the Green Belt Movement (GBM), a nonprofit NGO based in Kenya. Maathai and GBM work with Kenyans to develop environmentally sound farming by promoting awareness of sustainable practices, self-sufficiency, and community solidarity. Maathai and GBM members supervise numerous projects, including tree planting and sustainable farming education programs and promote indigenous food planting. See Also: Conflict Zones; Maathai, Wangari; Pacifism, Female; Social Justice Activism; United Nations Conferences on Women; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Further Readings Anderlini, Sanam Naraghi. Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why It Matters. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007. Association of 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005. 1,000 Peace Women Across the Globe. Zurich: Scalo, 2005. The Laureates. http://www.nobelwomensinitiative.org /about-us/laureates (accessed June 2010).

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Meyer, David S. and Sidney Tarrow, eds. The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998. Olsson, Louise and Torunn L. Tryggestad, eds. Women and International Peacekeeping. Portland, OR: Frank Cass Publishers, 2001. Adriane Bilous Fordham University

Pedophilia Online Pedophilia online is a misnomer, because pedophilia is often a thought not an action. The American Psychiatric Association defines pedophilia as recurrent, sexually arousing thoughts or fantasies, urges, or behavior that last at least six months and involve sexual activity with a child under the age of 13. It is crucial to understand that all individuals who prey on children online are not pedophiles, just as all pedophiles do not commit sexual crimes against children. The Internet can still be a dangerous place that provides an opportunity for adults to exploit or victimize children. Three types of danger exist: children are solicited online to meet in person for sexual encounters, minors obtain access to pornographic Websites, and children are exploited for their depiction in child pornography. Alhough child sexual abuse and pornography have existed throughout history, the advent of the Internet added the extra danger from anonymity. Legislation to Protect Minors This is apparent in the extent of recent legislation aimed at protecting children from online predators and pornography. As early as 1988, the U.S. Congress made it illegal to possess, sell, or distribute child pornography over the Internet, and in 1996 the Telecommunications Act prohibited the use of pornographic images sent over the Internet to engage children in sexually explicit conversation or behavior. Despite legislation, the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet is still a problem today. It has become increasingly difficult to police child pornography Websites, primary due to multijurisdictional issues. Many of these sites or hosts are located outside the

jurisdiction of the United States, where different laws apply to child pornography. As such, there are millions of images of children uploaded to the Internet, with an estimated 200 million new images being uploaded daily. It has become a big business endeavor with instant availability, anonymous and private access, and the ability to access different formats (including live Webcam videos) for different interests. Users of child pornography are not usually involved in hands-on child sexual abuse or solicitation of minors for sexual encounters. Still, the Internet is often used as a facilitator for other forms of illegal activities directed at young children. These acts may include cyber-stalking, using the Internet to seek out victims or to solicit a child for sexual purposes, encouraging sex trafficking, and promoting child sex tourism. The most well known would be solicitation of a child for sexual purposes, and many prominent figures have been arrested and charged for this type of behavior. Often, the sex sting operations and subsequent arrests are televised via the MSNBC series To Catch a Predator. Typically,the sting operation involves a police officer entering an Internet chat room, pretending to be an underage child. Eventually, the “child” and an adult begin communicating and may continue to do so for varied periods of time. When the two agree to meet in person, the adult is arrested for soliciting a minor. Legislation and law enforcement tactics to reduce and prevent these crimes are well intended and are applauded by many; however, they are often based on misinformation and distorted truths about online solicitation. For instance, research suggests that the majority of online solicitations do not involve adults and that despite popular belief adult solicitation of minors is a relatively rare occurrence. That said, when it does occur, most adult-child conversations online involve nothing more than what children hear or discuss with their peers. In addition, when minors were aggressively solicited, more often than not the offender was also a minor. Nevertheless, adult solicitation of minors for sexual behavior causes harm to the child. Although Internet sex stings are well intended, the best prevention measure is to educate parents about the potential dangers of the Internet. See Also: Adolescence; Crime Victims, Female; Megan’s Law; Pornography/Erotica; Rape, Incidence of; Sex Offenders, Male.

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Further Readings Finkelhor, D., K. J. Mitchell, and J. Wolak. “Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation’s Youth.” Crimes Against Children Research Center. Washington, DC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2000. http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/pub lications/NC62.pdf (accessed October 2010). Terry, K. Sexual Offenses and Offenders: Theory, Policy, and Practice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2006. Wright, R. “Internet Sex Stings.” Sex Offender Laws: Failed Policies, New Directions. Richard Wright, ed. New York: Springer, 2009 Alissa R. Ackerman University of California

Pelosi, Nancy Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi (Democrat, California) was the first woman in U.S. history to be elected to top party leadership positions in the U.S. Congress. A member of the House of Representatives since 1987 from the 8th District in San Francisco, she was elected House minority whip in 2002, House minority leader in 2003, and Speaker of the House in 2007. As of this writing, no woman has ascended to any other top-tier leadership positions in either party in the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. Pelosi was born on March 26, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland, to a political family. Her father served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Mayor of Baltimore; her brother also served in the latter position. In 1969, Pelosi and her husband Paul settled in San Francisco. As the mother of five children, Pelosi focused primarily on raising her family and volunteering in Democratic politics. After many years of service, she was elected chair of the California Democratic Party in 1981. In 1987, Pelosi’s friend and congressional representative, Sala Burton, died shortly after winning reelection to her House seat. Before her passing, Burton persuaded Pelosi to run for the seat. Pelosi agreed, won a special election, and assumed office in June 1987. She has been reelected handily ever since. During her years in the House, Pelosi has served on several committees including the Intelligence Committee and the powerful Appropriations Committee.

Nancy Pelosi was the first woman in U.S. history to be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, in 2007.

Pelosi’s voting record in the House is considered generally to be liberal. She has supported the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, human rights in China, energy conservation and renewable energy, women’s rights, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) rights, and abortion rights. Her opposition votes have included authorization for the Iraq War, the Secure Fence Act of 2006, the Defense of Marriage Act, and welfare reform in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. However, Pelosi also supported the USA Patriot Act of 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the bank and auto industry bailouts of 2009. In 2007, Pelosi ascended to the Speakership on the strength of her record as a leading fund-raiser and party strategist. This position made her second in the line of presidential succession and the most powerful elected woman in U.S. political history. In her first speech as Speaker, Pelosi acknowledged the significance of her ascension: as quoted in her book, cited below, she noted: “This is a historic moment— for the Congress, and for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years.” Pelosi considered her rise as having

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shattered the “marble ceiling” after which anything would be possible. See Also: Government, Women in; Political Ideologies; United States; Working Mothers. Further Readings Bzdek, Vincent. Women of the House: The Rise of Nancy Pelosi. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 2008. Pelosi, Nancy with Amy Hill Hearth. Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters. New York: Doubleday. 2008. Sue Thomas Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Perpetrators, Female Historically, the reasons why females commit crimes and what female offenders need have been overlooked in the criminal justice and criminological literatures. In fact, female offenders are often referred to in the academic literature as “invisible women” or the “forgotten offenders” because academia has been focused on understanding male offending patterns. The feminist movement in the 1970s brought a renewed interest in issues impacting females in society, including female offenders. Over the past several decades, female offenders have received increased attention from researchers in the criminal justice and criminological literatures. This article devotes discussion to a description of female perpetrators in the United States and internationally, the types of crimes female perpetrators commit, risk factors for female criminality, and policy implications for female perpetrators of crime. Description of Female Perpetrators Cross-Culturally In the United States, according to the Uniform Crime Reports (2008), adult females accounted for approximately 1.9 million arrests for index crimes (e.g., murder, rape, robbery, burglary, sexual assault, larceny-theft, arson, and motor vehicle theft). Compared to males, the arrest rate is substantially lower, as adult males experienced approximately 6 mil-

lion arrests for index crimes. Specifically, females were arrested for approximately 25 percent of index crimes, and males were arrested for approximately 75 percent of index crimes. The Uniform Crime Reports (2008) state that arrest trends for adult females has increased (i.e., 11.6 percent) since 1999; however, the arrest trends for juvenile females has decreased (i.e., 7.8 percent) since 1999. In terms of race, the Uniform Crime Reports (2008) indicate that 69.2 percent of those arrested were white, 28.3 percent were black, and the remaining 2.4 percent were other races (i.e., American Indian/Alaskan Native or Asian/Pacific Islander). It is important to note that while Caucasian offenders were arrested more, a disproportionate numbers of African Americans were arrested given their population numbers in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2007), African Americans represent approximately 13 percent of the total U.S. population. Thus, with 28.3 percent of all arrests attributed to African Americans in 2008, their arrest rate is not proportionate with their population numbers. However, findings from self-report criminal surveys do not support the official statistics. Results of selfreport criminal surveys reveal that Caucasians and African Americans report similar levels of involvement in criminality regardless of gender. In regard to age, the majority of those arrested in 2008 were overage. However, researchers have long identified an age-crime curve, wherein those who commit crimes are more likely to be between the ages of 16 and 24. The relationship between age and crime is consistent for both genders. Female perpetrators of crime are more likely to commit property crimes as opposed to violent crimess. Females are more likely to be involved in robbery, burglary, and larceny-theft crimes. When females do commit a violent crime, it is usually directed at a relative or an intimate. Females are also likely to engage in drug offenses. More often than not, females are not the sellers of drugs but rather the “mules” or carrier of drugs for a boyfriend or spouse. Additionally, a female’s use of illegal drugs often contributes to her arrest. Similar to the United States, the Ministry of Justice (2010) reports that in the United Kingdom (UK), females were less likely to be arrested for committing crimes than males. However, between the ages



of 10 and 17, juvenile females were more likely to be arrested (25.7 percent vs. 20.5 percent, respectively). Moreover, those arrested in the UK are more likely to be members of a minority group. Results from the Offending, Crime, and Justice self-report survey (2008) conducted in the UK reveal that females are less likely to self-report involvement in crime than are males. When females did commit crimes, they selfreported far fewer serious offenses than males. Additionally, results from the survey revealed that the average peak age of offending for females was 14 through 17 and that minorities did not self-report more criminal involvement than their Caucasian counterparts. The Australian Institute of Criminology (2009) reports that males were responsible for most criminal activity, and females comprised approximately 23 percent of all offenders in 2007–08. For those females committing crimes, they were more likely to commit theft crimes as opposed to violent crimes such as homicide. Additionally, females had the most involvement in crime in the age range of 15 through 19. Thus, female offenders in Australia are similar in nature to their U.S. counterparts. It is difficult to determine if the characteristics of female offenders are similar for all female offenders around the world. One reason for this difficulty is the inconsistent crime statistic data collection, particularly in Third World countries; this has resulted in researchers’ providing estimates of female offenders. For example, while the Ministry of Home Affairs (2007) publishes data on crime statistics in India, it does not report these offenses by gender or race for all crime categories. In Russia, females are less likely to commit violent crimes such as homicide. Risk Factors for Female Criminality Historically, early criminologists from the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries attributed female criminality to their biology—that is, these criminals were born this way. Cesare Lombroso (1920) posited that females who committed crimes were masculine and exhibited an excess of male characteristics (e.g., excess body hair, moles, broad shoulders). Pollak (1950) claimed that female offenders were deceitful and were able to hide their crimes so well due to their biological makeup. In the United States, it was not until the 1970s that there was a renewed interest in understanding female criminality. The feminist

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movement spurred budding female criminologists to examine female offenders around the world. The renewed interest in understanding female criminality has led to a departure from biological explanations for female criminality; instead, other risk factors have been identified as contributing to this behavior. Since the departure from examining biology as the sole contributor to female criminality, researchers have been able to identify multiple risk factors for female offending patterns. In the Unites States, both physical abuse and sexual abuse have been linked to onset of female criminality. Overwhelmingly, female offenders report two to three times higher rates of sexual abuse than in the general population. Researchers have consistently identified prior sexual abuse as a risk factor for female criminality. Oftentimes, the offenders are sexually victimized by a male family member (e.g., father, stepfather, uncle, or brother) and, thus, the females run away from home and turn to the streets for survival. In order to survive, females will turn to prostitution to gain income. Given their involvement in prostitution, females will often use drugs and/or alcohol as a way to numb previous abuse and to numb their feelings about being involved in prostitution. If females are not involved in prostitution, they may become involved in the drug trade as a method to gain income. Their entry into the drug trade often leads to drug addiction or further addiction if they were not involved in the drug trade previously. For instance, Covington and Kohen (1984), in an examination of addicted and nonaddicted women, found that 74 percent of addicted women reported prior sexual abuse, compared to 50 percent of nonaddicted women. Risk factors for female offenders in Australia and the UK include experiencing violence in the home as a child and drug addiction. Besides prior sexual abuse and addiction, other risk factors for entry into female criminality include association with delinquent peers. Edwin Sutherland (1947) asserts that those who associate with other delinquents will be more likely to engage in delinquent acts. Research has found empirical support for this assertion for female offenders in the United States. The association with antisocial others has been found to be a risk factor for female offenders in other countries such as the UK. Other risk factors for female offending in the United States include poor socialization by parents,

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biology, gender inequality, poverty, and low self-control. For females in other countries, risk factors for entry into offending include poverty, inequality, and marginalization. Policy Implications With the increased attention given to female perpetrators of crime by criminologists, it is important that researchers provide gender-specific policy recommendations to those in the criminal justice system to assist female offenders. While some researchers have claimed that rehabilitation does not work, a wealth of empirical research has indicated that rehabilitation can indeed be useful in reducing recidivism rates. Additionally, female offenders have needs (i.e., mental, physical) that are different from male offenders and correctional programming should reflect that. Clearly, prior sexual abuse is a risk factor for onset and persistence in criminality for females in several countries. Thus, programming in jails and prisons should adopt specialized programs to assist female offenders in coping with their trauma. By healing wounds, female offenders may more successfully reintegrate into their communities upon release. Additionally, many female perpetrators of crime have drug and/or alcohol addictions. Thus, correctional programming should continue to offer female offenders drug and/or alcohol treatment programs. Finally, for some female perpetrators of crime around the world, marginalization and inequality are the root causes of their involvement in crime. Thus, any macro-level policy that reduces the inequality and marginalization of these women may reduce their involvement in crime. See Also: Prisoners, Female; Sex Offenders, Female; United Kingdom; United States. Further Readings Chesney-Lind, M. The Female Offender: Girls, Women, and Crime. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997. Gibson, M. Born to Crime: Cesare Lombroso and the Origins of Biological Criminology. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002. Pollak, O. The Criminality of Women. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1950. Elaine Gunnison Independent Scholar

Peru Women make up approximately half of Peru’s 29 million inhabitants. Although they hold a variety of roles within contemporary society, their rates of literacy, economic activity, formal schooling, and government positions continue to be lower than those of men. Life expectancy is 72 years for women compared with 67 years for men. Over half of Peruvians are poor, and nearly a quarter are extremely poor. Peruvian women experience varying access to resources depending on region of residence, urban versus rural location, language, and race. Although just over onethird of the country’s population lives in rural settings, the population in rural settings makes up almost 60 percent of those living in poverty. Women in rural areas have higher fertility and maternal mortality rates. Leading causes of maternal mortality include hemorrhage, toxemia, and complications related to abortion. Differences in maternal mortality rates are partly the result of the concentration of resources in urban areas and to the marginalization of rural areas, where the population is made up mostly of indigenous people. The contraceptive prevalence rate among married women aged 15–49 years is 48 percent for modern methods and 71 percent for all methods. In 2008, women had an average of 2.4 children. The dominant religion in the country is Catholicism, and abortion is illegal except in cases in which it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman. Over the last two decades, the government designed policies to address maternal and infant healthcare, as well as reproductive health. The National Program of Reproductive Health and Family Planning 1996–2000 made sterilization and reproductive health education free to all Peruvians. However, within two years of the program’s implementation, over 200 cases of forced or coerced sterilization of mainly poor indigenous women had been documented. In 2001, the National Family Planning Program underwent reorganization, and family planning and reproductive health lost priority and funding. Primary education is mandated for all Peruvians, and public schools are free, yet in practice, not all Peruvians have equal access to education. Women continue to receive less formal schooling than men, and women in rural areas have less access to schooling than women in urban areas. Peru’s two official languages are Span-

Philanthropists, Female



ish and Quechua—the most widely spoken indigenous language in the Andes—yet in practice, access to bilingual education is not guaranteed, and Spanish continues to be the dominant language within the education system. In addition to Quechua, there are several dozen other indigenous languages spoken across Peru, especially in the Amazon. Peru ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1982 and the regional Convention of Belém do Pará in 1996, thereby formally recognizing violence against women as a form of discrimination and as a human rights issue. In 1993, Peru became the first Latin American country to pass laws specifically on domestic violence. As a result of modifications in 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2003, the Family Violence Law includes physical, psychological, and sexual violence as forms of domestic violence, regardless of an individual’s class, race, or gender. Women can file complaints in the family violence sections of regular police stations, specialized women’s police stations, Women’s Emergency Centers, and the public prosecutor’s office. In 1988, Peru established women’s police stations to focus on women’s complaints of violence. Women police officers constitute 15 percent of the entire police force, but women’s police stations are staffed exclusively by women officers. In 2009, the police announced that Lima’s notoriously hectic and dangerous traffic would be directed exclusively by women police officers. It was widely publicized that the rationale behind the decision was the belief that women officers are less corruptible and more disciplined than men. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Law Enforcement, Women in; Poverty. Further Readings Amnesty International. “Peru: Denial of the Right to Maternal and Child Health.” Washington, DC: Amnesty International, 2007. Physicians for Human Rights. “Deadly Delays: Maternal Mortality in Peru.” http://physiciansforhumanrights .org/library/documents/reports/maternal-mortality -in-peru.pdf (accessed June 2010). M. Cristina Alcalde University of Kentucky

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Philanthropists, Female Philanthropy is giving for a purpose, an outcome, a change, or a social cause. Philanthropy occurs through contributions of time, volunteer efforts, or wealth. Women philanthropists give their personal earnings, inheritances, marital wealth, or family assets. Philanthropy is part of the third sector. The third sector includes nonprofit organizations and volunteer organizations. The other sectors are the public sector and the private sector. Examples of prominent U.S. women philanthropists include Oprah Winfrey, Joan Kroc, Teresa Heinz, Marian Wright Edelman, and Catherine S. Muther. Winfrey is cited by Forbes magazine as one of the seven most influential individuals in the world based on her influence on people through her prominence on television and through her initiatives, her extensive financial resources, and her powerful presence in many spheres. The Angel Network is one example of her philanthropic efforts. Winfrey’s focus is on women, children, and families with an emphasis on empowerment. According to Forbes, she is the first African American woman billionaire. Kroc, widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, used her philanthropic contributions in the promotion of peace initiatives. Peace institutes at the University of Notre Dame and the University of San Diego were established with these funds. She also contributed to National Public Radio, the Salvation Army, animal welfare, the homeless, and children’s charities. Kroc’s contributions were given “quietly.” Heinz is the head of the Heinz Family Philanthropies and chair of the Heinz Family Foundation’s Women’s Institute for Secure Retirement. Edelman established the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973. This children’s advocacy organization is a private nonprofit funded by foundations, corporate grants, and individual donations. Muther, former Cisco System senior marketing officer, founded the Three Guineas Fund in 1994. The fund combines philanthropy and entrepreneurship with a focus on social change, girls, and equity. The fund makes grants focused on innovative ideas, social change, teamwork, and results. The first women’s fund, the Ms. Foundation, was created in 1973 to support the empowerment of

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women and girls in the United States. According to its history, the foundation was established to deliver funding and other strategic resources to organizations that were elevating women’s voices and solutions across race and class in communities nationwide. The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University includes academic and research initiatives as well as a fund raising school and the Women’s Philanthropy Institute. The Center’s Website notes the focus on increasing understanding of philanthropy and improving its practice. Philanthropic Groups Worldwide Women’s philanthropy and philanthropic groups are accompanied by terms such as collaboration, teamwork, and sharing in their descriptions. The emphasis on outcomes, goals, social change, and social causes is evident in the descriptions as well. Women may give anonymously to avoid publicity. When gifts are given quietly or secretly, accurate public information about the contributions is unavailable. Women’s giving may be stimulated by personal involvement with a social cause or organization. The personal involvement may then result in the contribution of wealth to the cause or organization. The giving may be directed at a specific desired outcome. The number of philanthropic groups, institutes, and organizations reveals the extent of women’s philanthropy and wealth. Based on its Website, the Women’s Funding Network is described as more than 155 organizations that fund women’s solutions across the globe. See Also: Social Justice Activism; Winfrey, Oprah; Women’s Funding Network. Further Readings Center for the Study of Philanthropy, The Graduate Center, City University of New York. http://www .philanthropy.org (accessed July 2010). Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. http://kroc .nd.edu (accessed July 2010). Ms. Foundation for Women. http://ms.foundation.org (accessed July 2010). Shaw-Hardy, Sondra C., Martha A. Taylor, and Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz. Women and Philanthropy: Boldly Shaping a Better World. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, September 2010.

Women’s Donor Network. http://www.womendonors.org (accessed July 2010). Marilyn L. Grady University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Philippines The 1987 Philippine Constitution provides that “[the State] shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men.” This supported the passing of a number of laws to ensure gender equality and the elimination of discrimination against women, as well as the ratification of international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other covenants. The nation’s population is estimated at 92.23 million people, with women comprising 49.72 percent. The fertility rate is 3.5 children per woman, and although declining, this rate is relatively high compared with other Southeast Asian countries. There are 172 maternal deaths to live births, with 56.5 percent of babies delivered at home. More than half of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended due to low use of contraception methods. Just over half, 50.6 percent, of childbearing women are using a family-planning method, and only 35.9 percent are using modern methods. The Catholic hierarchy exerts great power over the political debate concerning reproductive rights. Abortion is forbidden and punished by law. Abortion complications are common or increasing, including deaths from unsafe abortions due to the legal restrictions. Some municipalities, like Manila, have issued executive orders banning city health centers and hospitals from providing contraception. There is no marked difference in the educational status of Filipino women and men. The illiteracy rate for men is higher than it is for females, at 11 in 100 people versus eight of 100. Women account for 56 percent of the total school graduates. Almost half, 48 percent, of women participate to the labor force, with men accounting for 78 percent of all workers. Females are predominantly employed as low-wage workers but comprise the majority of the bureaucracy, accounting for 57.6 percent of government personnel.

Photography, Women in



Without affirmative action, many women can be found in the political sphere. Women account for 21 percent of the total 240 representatives, and a women’s rights organization, Gabriela, has secured party-list representation in Congress since 2004. But women often earn political seats by belonging to a clan and are often used as “seat warmers” when their relative cannot run for the election. In Mindanao and Sulu archipelago—because of the state’s low-intensity conflict strategy in the civil war—women are broadly victimized, especially as displaced persons. Manila and Clark—a former American military base—as well as some other tourist places, are known as sexual tourism spots. These areas tend to be frequented by Japanese, American, and Australian males. Thousands of Philippine women travel abroad as sex workers or “entertainers” (mostly in Japan) and as “mail-order brides” (mostly in United States, Australia, and Japan). Of the 2 million Filipino migrants in 2008, female, were estimated to account for almost half, or 968,000. They are mainly employed as domestic workers in the Persian Gulf states and in other Asian countries, where they face much discrimination. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Conflict Zones; Domestic Workers; Mail Order Brides; Migrant Workers; Sex Workers. Further Readings Darroch, Jacqueline E., et al. “Meeting Women’s Contraceptive Needs in the Philippines.” Brief, v.1 (2009). http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2009/04/15 /IB_MWCNP.pdf (accessed November 2009). National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, “Factsheets on Filipino Women.” www.ncrfw.gov.ph /index.php/statistics-on-filipino-women/14-factsheets -on-filipino-women (accessed November 2009). G. Ricordeau University of Lille 1, France

Photography, Women in In a world full of images, it is easy to become desensitized to the power of the still photograph. It is also easy to forget that women have played an important

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role in the development of photography as it rose from a curious new discovery that began as a documentary medium and evolved to become a respected profession, an admired art form, and a popular pastime. Women have been active in photography since its inception in the 1840s. From the start, the medium was accessible to women as users of the camera and producers of photographs, not merely subjects of male-held lenses. As a new occupation, photography did not have the same social barriers to women participants as the traditional art forms did, and the profession of photographer was not off limits to women. Nevertheless, even today, women photographers are often ignored and slighted, underrecognized in historical records for their contributions to the development of photography and underrepresented in nongendered photography exhibitions and collections. In the beginning, photography consisted of heavy equipment and smelly chemicals that left dark stains on hands and clothes. Taking a picture was a laborintensive process that included arranging the shot, making the exposure, and preparing the print (which had to be done immediately or it was lost). In the 19th century, it seemed unlikely that women would be interested in such a procedure. But they were. An expensive activity, photography was only accessible to those with resources. But the rise of the middle class in the 19th century meant that more women had both resources and leisure time. Largely barred from the public sphere and serious art forms such as painting and sculpture, women found photography open to them. Whether as a hobby, a serious artistic endeavor, or a business venture, women participated fully in its development. In business situations, women often worked with their husbands as helpers or as collaborators and innovators, their contributions often going unnoted if the results appeared publicly. For instance, English photographer Harriet Taylor’s name was not included on official records of the photographs both she and her husband took of the Indian Mutiny of 1858. Despite their open participation in the new discipline, women were still on the receiving end of criticism merely because of their gender; critics accused them of being out of place, of being competent but not creative and of being mere button pushers. Also, employment compensation was subject to gender inequity: as labor, women were cheaper than men.

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Nevertheless, by 1900, more middle-class women realized they could pursue self-fulfillment outside the domestic realm through photography. In 1880, there were 271 professional women photographers in the United States. By 1910, there were 4,900, and the number was rising. Women with some artistic sensibility and a reasonable feel for business saw opportunities for themselves in an otherwise restrictive world. Photography required a relatively small financial investment; it was fairly easy to get started by studying the manuals and apprenticing in a studio. Moreover, photography was adaptable to individual schedules. Women could use their cameras in their own environments if they didn’t want to venture out into locations unconventional for their gender. Unlike other professions, where men had the advantage of access to higher education and wider opportunities, in photography, men and women started out somewhat even. In this era, women photographers tended to favor portraiture and often idealized their subjects, especially their children, posing them in carefully

constructed settings. Nevertheless, many women photographers grew adept at creating individualized portraits. From 1900 to the beginning of World War I, women were seen to provide a much-needed softer touch to society in general and to photography in particular. Believing that men were not naturally nurturing as parents, the portrait-seeking public turned to women photographers to produce images that portrayed middle-class assumptions about family and motherhood. Women were not limited to portrait photography. Many also became good landscape photographers. In Canada, women such as Geraldine Moodie and Hannah Maynard were pioneering forces. In the United States, Eliza Withington made photographic expeditions to the West and also wrote extensively about her photography experiences. In the early 20th century, the rise of illustrated magazines meant a growing need for good photography. A strong demand grew for idyllic images of rural life, prominent people, attractive women and children, architecture, and products for advertising. This

Women have been active in photography since its inception in the 1840s. From the start, the medium was accessible to women as users of the camera and producers of photographs, not merely subjects of male-held lenses.



created new opportunities for women because many magazines targeted female audiences and required domestic images such as child-care products and domestic scenes. Nevertheless, women did not limit themselves to female-oriented work. They photographed news events, racial living conditions, ethnic situations, and workplaces outside the domestic sphere, such as mines and factories. Some publications took care to assure their audiences that, while pursuing photographic assignments, female photographers were not neglecting their domestic responsibilities. However, no matter their beliefs, their philosophies of life, or their social situations, women photographers recognized the value of photography not only as a source of income but also as a documentary force, an educational tool, a life-expanding endeavor, and an art form. Women brought as much talent and dedicated work ethic to photography as did their male counterparts, but, as with so many facets of their lives, they made less money doing it and have been underrecognized for their contributions to the discipline. As photography grew during the 20th century, so did the number of photographic societies and organizations. Many did not admit women and photography as a discipline finally succumbed to prevalent social and cultural attitudes about gender. When the discipline of photography gained status as an art form, women did find recognition, but not without tension. Some claimed exclusion when male photographers did not like the competition. After World War I, most women were relegated back to the domestic arena to make room in the workforce for returning servicemen, resulting in fewer opportunities for women photographers. During the 1920s, photographic trends changed: maternal images were no longer desirable. New directions toward precision and clarity in photography reflected rising modernist values. But women photographers became adept at new techniques and made notable contributions to the various modernist movements such as Bauhaus and Dada; however, these contributions have not received the same rigorous retrospective investigation as those of their male colleagues. The rise of the 35mm camera, along with the growing news magazine industry, created more photographic employment opportunities in both advertising and photojournalism. It was tough for women to

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break into either field as photographers, both domains largely reserved for men. Nevertheless, women such as Gertrude Krull, Margaret Bourke-White, and Dorothea Lange made much progress. Later, photographers as different as Diane Arbus and Linda McCartney had much positive impact on public perceptions of the quality of women photographers’ work. However, even as second-wave feminism made gains for women’s equality in the 1970s, women photographers still had to work hard to be taken seriously. In the late 1990s, digital photography revolutionized the medium once again by releasing it from the need for chemical processing. As seen in work produced by photographers such as Nancy Clendaniel, Joyce Tenneson, and Annie Leibovitz (just to name a few), women photographers adapted well to their discipline’s ongoing changes. Today, women continue to be creative contributors in all areas of photography, from portraits to landscapes, from people and events to art, nature, and news. Over the years, women photographers have learned to draw on each other’s expertise and knowledge. As an example, in 1981, a small grassroots organization began in the United States with nine founding members. Almost three decades later, Women In Photography International (WIPI) is a global organization that works to promote the visibility of women photographers and their work. With thousands of members, WIPI holds exhibitions and workshops, offers networking and support, and promotes collaboration among professional and amateur women photographers around the world. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Leibovitz, Annie. Further Readings Chapman, H. C. Memory in Perspective: Women Photographers’ Encounters with History. Nexus Series: Theory and Practice in Women’s Photography, Marsha Meskimmon, Series Editor. London: Scarlet Press, 1997. Rosenblum, N. A History of Women Photographers. New York: Abbeville Publishing, 1994. Women in Photography International. http://www.women inphotography.org (accessed June 2010). Myrl Coulter Independent Scholar

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Physician Assistants, Female Physician assistants (PAs) are healthcare professionals who are educated according to the medical model and licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of a physician. The profession developed in response to a growing population and an increased demand for medical care. The first PAs were graduates of Duke University’s pioneering program. By design, these first graduates were male, with a single exception, and many were former military medics with experience in the Vietnam War. Conflicts between the American Medical Association and the American Nursing Association (ANA) helped to limit the number of women becoming PAs in the early years, but by the end of the first decade of the 21st century, women made up nearly 60 percent of practicing PAs. As early as 1961, Dr. Charles Hudson, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, proposed the creation of a new class of healthcare providers who would work with a physician to perform routine medical care. At the end of the decade, Dr. Ernest B. Howard, executive vice president of the American Medical Association, in an address at Boston University’s School of Medicine, proposed the recruitment of 100,000 nurses to be trained as PAs. Turf wars began almost immediately when Dorothy Cornelius, president of ANA, objected to Howard’s speaking for the nursing profession. Nurses had fought a long battle to be viewed as professionals in their own right, rather than as “doctors’ handmaidens,” and Cornelius and others in ANA were fierce in protecting their gains. It is worth noting that nurse practitioners are licensed as independent healthcare providers, without mandated physician supervision, although some states require them to have a supervising or collaborating physician to whom they can turn for advice. The first nurse practitioner program was begun at the University of Colorado the same year that the first program for PAs was introduced at Duke University. In 1965, Dr. Eugene Stead of Duke University’s School of Medicine began the first program for PAs. Bitter about the failure of an advanced nursing program he had championed, Stead reluctantly agreed to leave the program open to women, but he made it clear that he expected his first students to be men. He actively recruited former military medics, believing

that their experience made them ideal candidates for his program. Three years after Stead began instructing his first class, Joyce Nichols, an African American licensed practical nurse, became the first woman to enter the program at Duke. In 2008, 142 education programs for PAs were accredited or provisionally accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant. A decade after Nichols’s graduation in 1970, women made up 36 percent of the country’s nearly 30,000 PAs. By 2007, the total number of PAs approached 100,000, and the percentage of women in the profession had risen to 66 percent. Growing Numbers of Women PAs The number of women PAs has provoked concern about the “feminization” of the profession, but with the proportion of female to male students gaining admittance to PA programs still increasing, it appears unlikely that the picture will change. Although some of the gains can be attributable to the effects of Title IX, women PAs have cited numerous reasons for choosing the profession. Many say that it allows them to provide diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive healthcare services without the heavy investment of time and money medical school would demand. A PA can perform about 75 percent of a doctor’s tasks, but typically a PA’s education costs about one-fifth that of a physician. Although most PA programs now offer a master’s degree, PAs may begin work with only a bachelor’s degree. Upon graduation, PAs take a national certification examination developed by the National Commission on Certification of PAs in conjunction with the National Board of Medical Examiners. The return on the PA’s investment is good. Income varies by specialty, practice setting, geographical location, and years of experience, but the median income for PAs in full-time clinical practice was $85,710 in 2008. Women also report that the less-demanding schedule of a PA is compatible with family life. Female PAs most frequently choose to concentrate in practice areas of women and children’s health, but studies suggest that more are choosing nontraditional female specialties such as internal medicine and surgery. The future of PAs is promising as well. Employment of PAs is predicted to grow by 39 percent from 2008 to 2018—much faster than the average for all occu-

Physician Specialties



pations. Some countries have already incorporated the U.S. model as a means of increasing healthcare access while controlling its costs. Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Taiwan already have programs in place. The battles for PA acceptance within the medical communities in these countries appear to replicate those that were fought in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. Doctors, jealous of their position, challenge the competency of PAs and express fears for patient safety. Nurses protest that expanding the role of the nursing profession would be a better and fairer alternative. However, the admission of women into these programs no longer seems to be an issue. See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Nurses; Physicians, Female. Further Readings Holt, Natalie. “‘Confusion’s Masterpiece’: The Development of the Physician Assistant Profession.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, v.72/2 (1998). Lindsay, Sally. “The Feminization of the Physician Assistant Profession.” Women & Health, v.41/4 (2005). U.S. Department of Labor. “Physician Assistants.” http:// www.bls.gov/oco/ocos081.htm (accessed April 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Physician Specialties Occupational sex segregation is a persistent feature of the organization of work and contributes to gender inequalities in pay, status, and power. For physicians, intraoccupational sex segregation by medical specialty remains entrenched despite the rapid influx of women into medicine. Women physicians tend to be overrepresented in primary care specialties and underrepresented in surgery and surgical subspecialties. Explanations range from those focused on women’s gendered choices to those emphasizing structural and external barriers. Equalizing women’s status in medicine necessitates parity within medical specialties and more equity across specialties in terms of pay and prestige.

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Medical specialization emerged in most Western countries in the 19th century as the separate fields of medicine and surgery began to merge. With the rise of other medical specialties in the middle and latter parts of the 19th century, surgery and internal medicine were relegated to specialty status. While some argue that the advent of an information age and new technologies forced rapid specialization in medicine, others contend that the transformation of intellectual perspective—especially an emphasis on organs and specific areas of the body—was behind the shift. During the 19th century, a more complex division of labor emerged in society generally—setting the stage for highly specialized occupations. Furthermore, as bureaucratization and administrative rationality became dominant forms of organization in the professions, people were increasingly classified and categorized. Medical associations devoted to individual specializations emerged, and specialty training and licensure soon followed. In 1875, the International Medical Congress listed eight medical sections. In the United States, a 1933 meeting of physicians led to discussion on the education and certification of medical specialists. This discussion sparked the formation of the American Board of Medical Specialists (ABMS), whose mission is to oversee certification of physician specialists in the United States. In short, a national qualifying board determines who is competent to practice in any given specialty. Currently, there are 24 approved ABMS Member Boards that certify in 145 specialty and subspecialty areas. Accordingly, the number of doctors who specialize has risen dramatically, and recent research indicates that fewer than 20 percent of all U.S. medical students are choosing a primary care specialty such as family medicine, general internal medicine, and pediatrics. In 2009, the Council of Graduate Medical Education advocated for health reform that would provide financial and educational incentives to produce more primary care physicians. The letter outlines five changes recommended by the Council on Graduate Medical Education, including training in nonhospital primary care settings, reducing the income gap between primary care and subspecialty physicians, and providing support for an infrastructure to coordinate patient care and reduce administrative burden. In addition, since growth in specialty areas

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is largely driven by the workforce needs of teaching hospitals, realignment requires monitoring and regulation by the federal government. Women’s Entrance Into the Medical Profession Across the globe, one of the most dramatic changes in the profession of medicine has been the rapid influx of women. In the United States, affirmative action policies of the 1970s and 1980s opened up educational opportunities for women. In 1960, approximately 5 percent of medical students were female compared to about 48 percent in 2008. However, relative parity in medical school has not given way to parity in the active physician workforce given the skewed gender cohorts of prior decades. Approximately 27.5 percent of all active physicians are currently women—a number that will increase slowly as younger, more gender-balanced cohorts replace older, male-dominated cohorts. Despite increasing parity in the numbers of women attending medical school, gender disparities persist in medical specialization. Women continue to be underrepresented in the most prestigious and highly remunerated medical specialties, particularly surgery and surgical subspecialties. Currently, 45 percent of practicing female physicians practice in specialties beyond general primary care or primary care subspecialties, compared with 64 percent of male physicians. A glance at the number of females per specialty for resident physicians reveals internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine as the top choices for women. In terms of percentages, obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics are most likely to have women residents, with 77 percent and 73 percent female, respectively. Finally, residents in radiology are 27 percent female, compared with 31 percent in surgery and 35 percent in anesthesiology. Gender segregation in medical specialization holds across different types of healthcare systems, from the market-driven systems like the United States to welfare states like Scandinavia with gender-equality policies. Furthermore, gender segregation persists even in post-Soviet societies such as Lithuania and Russia where women physicians have dominated for more than five decades. Women comprise over 45 percent of medical students in Finland, about 31 percent in Spain, and 12 percent in Switzerland. Healthcare delivery systems and types of remuneration vary by country and influ-

ence specialty patterns, as do national variations in gendered employment patterns, state support for childcare, gendered educational systems, and variation in domestic labor. For example, women are generally not well represented in most prestigious specialties in Britain, France and Norway—and are more likely to be located in specialties with controllable hours. However, historic and relatively high levels of state support for working mothers in France, combined with recent changes in the French educational process, have resulted in incoming cohorts that are predominantly female (about 70 percent). Since women tend to score higher on exams, they are more likely than men to have access to the most prestigious specialties. Much of the available research on physician specialties hails from research conducted in Western medical settings. Only about 30 percent of medical students in Japan are female, although the rate is on the rise. Research on the changing medical profession in the developing world is scarce. Survey research indicates that between 30 and 50 percent of physicians in Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay are women. Recent evidence from Mexico shows a very rapid influx of women into medical schools; currently, about 50 percent of medical students are women. This is a result, in part, of the rapid influx of women into the labor force generally in Latin America. However, women physicians face higher rates of unemployment than do men upon completion of their training. Why is intraoccupational sex segregation so persistent, even across varied national contexts? Explanations range from those focused on individual level gender socialization (early life and throughout medical training) and the experience and persistence of discrimination. In addition is the recognition that the medical specialty hierarchy is gendered. The most prestigious specialties are characterized as masculine and appropriate for those who embody toughness, while the less prestigious specialties, such as primary care specialties, are characterized as more feminine and appropriate for those who embody a caring nature and possess good communication skills. The barriers, then, are not only overt discrimination and bias but are also cultural and symbolic—those, too, vary cross-culturally. In sum, gender equity in physician specialties will come about when structural, cultural,

Physicians, Female



and symbolic barriers are reduced. The challenge is to understand how national and local contexts influence gendered barriers. See Also: Japan; Mexico; Physicians, Female; Russia; United States. Further Readings Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. http://www.acgme.org/acWebsite/home/home.asp (accessed January 2010). Association of American Medical Colleges. http://www .aamc.org (accessed January 2010). Boulis, A. K. and J. A. Jacobs. The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Healthcare in America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. Hinze, S. W. “Gender and the Body of Medicine or at Least Some Body Parts: (Re)constructing the Prestige Hierarchy of Medical Specialties.” The Sociological Quarterly, v.40/2 (1999). Knaul, F., J. Frenk, and A. Mylena Aguilar. “The Gender Composition of the Medical Profession in Mexico: Implications for Employment Patterns and Physician Labor Supply.” Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, v.55/1 (2000). Riska, E. Medical Careers and Feminist Agendas. American, Scandinavian and Russian Women Physicians. New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc., 2001. Weisz, G. Divide and Conquer. A Comparative History of Medical Specialization. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. Susan W. Hinze Case Western Reserve University

Physicians, Female Female physicians are increasingly common in many countries in the world, and this trend of more female physicians is now also true in the United States, although this has occurred more slowly in the United States than in many European countries. Over the past 30 years, both in the United States and in Europe, women have been entering medical schools in much greater numbers. This is a positive trend

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for many women, in terms of greater equity in professional attainments and in terms of income, since physicians are among the best paid professionals in the United States. This is even truer for women, and among high-earning American women, about one in 10 is a physician. Numbers of Women in the Field and Issues by Subfield The number of women physicians has been increasing in the United States, especially from 1970 on. Prior to that date, only a small percentage of the entering medical school classes each year were women. In 1970, women were 11 percent of medical students, but by 2005 they were 48.9 percent of medical students, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Because the 1970s were an era of expansion in numbers of medical school seats, the number of new male physicians continued to grow. Beginning in the 1980s, the number of new male physicians began to decline, as the numbers of new physicians produced stabilized, at about 15,000 per year, and women continued to make up increasing proportions of medical school classes. Because many practicing physicians have been practicing since before 1985, there are still many more practicing male physicians (about 650,000) as compared to about 235,000 female physicians. While in 1970 women were only 7.6 percent of all physicians, by 2004 they were almost 27 percent. Female physicians are more diverse in terms of race and ethnicity than are men, and the representation of women is also increasing among foreign-born physicians now working in the United States. In contrast, in many European countries, and especially in Nordic countries, by 1998 women physicians were already over one-third of the medical profession, and as high as 50 percent in Finland. Within 20 years, it is expected in those countries that the medical profession will be gender balanced, according to E. Riska. By 1998, for physicians under 30, almost 60 percent or more of the physicians were women in Finland, Norway, and Denmark. Do women specialize in the same fields within medicine and have similar practices? While women can increasingly be found in all the subfields of medicine and the representation of women increased in all medical specialties between 1975 and 2005, there is

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Physicians, Female male physician employees is also increasing, as part of a general trend in the practice of medicine. Another aspect of practice in which women differ from men is in earnings. Based on the 2000 census, the gender gap in pay in medicine is larger than for most other professions, with women physicians earning an average 63 percent of the earnings of male physicians. Some past research has emphasized that these differences relate to individual choices in specialties and work patterns linked to marriage and childbearing, but some more recent research has found that even after an allowance is made for work and specialty, practice types, and a variety of other factors, earnings gaps remain. The gender gap is declining, however, but at a fairly slow rate.

The representation of women is increasing among physicians now working in the United States.

gender stratification within the practice of medicine in terms of specialty, and this is also true in European countries. One specialty (pediatrics) had a majority of female practitioners (53 percent in 2005). Four specialties (neurologic, orthopedic, thoracic, and urological surgery) all had less than 6 percent female representation. Other specialties with more than 35 percent female representation include child psychiatry, obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, general preventive medicine and physical medicine. Women are underrepresented among physician administrators and physician researchers and are more likely to work as employees rather than as physician practice owners in the United States. Some of this latter difference is probably due to more recent graduation into the profession, and the number of

Linkages With Family and Marriage One debate in recent years relates to labor force participation rates of educated women. The idea that women would not fully utilize their medical training by remaining as active physicians was one reason for discrimination against admitting women to medical schools prior to 1970. The argument was that once women married, they would not continue in practice or practice at the same rates once they had children. Recent data show clearly that, at least for female physicians, this is a false argument. All physicians have high labor-force-participation rates, both men and women, and this is true for married women also. In 2000, 99 percent of male married physicians aged 30 to 50 were working, as were 96 percent of women. Figures are almost as high for mothers of preschool children. While married women physicians with children at home under 18 years of age do work fewer hours than male physicians, both groups work more than 40 hours a week. In 2000, female physicians from 30 to 50 worked 47 hours a week, versus 55 hours a week for male physicians in the same age group. As fewer male physicians are married to nonworking spouses, long work hours may become an issue for both male and female physicians. Practice Differences and the Future Do women have a different practice style from men, and are they better for women patients? Physicians do generally set the tone for physician-patient interaction. Some sources argue that women exhibit more empathy to others in general and that this should also be true



for women physicians. Other sources see increasing similarities in how male and female physicians interact with patients, although there are some stylistic differences in communication patterns of women. In general women physicians talk to their patients more and allow the patients more time to talk to them and ask them questions. Their nonverbal communication style seems to encourage greater participation by patients. Use of preventive services also is encouraged more by women physicians, according to some research. Some studies argue that this is party because of practice patterns; that women are more likely to be primary care providers and to practice in managed care environments; and that it is these practice characteristics, rather than gender, that explain the difference in encouragement of use of preventive measures. Despite growing numbers of women physicians, women have not been moving rapidly into leadership roles in medicine, although this has started to increase in the last decade. This issue of lower representation of women in leadership positions and in medical school positions is true in most European countries as well as in American medicine, although there has been more change in Europe. If women move into top leadership positions, they may bring some changes to medicine, such as perhaps greater attention to the psychosocial needs of patients. However, it is not yet clear whether the growing numbers of women in medicine will alter the impact of medical training and the standard biomedical outlook of the profession or not, especially in the United States. See Also: Equal Pay; Health, Mental and Physical; Health Insurance Issues. Further Readings Baker, Lawrence C. “Differences in Earnings Between Male and Female Physicians.” New England Journal of Medicine, v.334/15 (1996). Boulis, Ann K. and Jerry A. Jacobs. The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Care in America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. Hoff, T.J. “Doing the Same and Earning Less: Male and Female Physicians in a New Medical Specialty.” Inquiry, v.41/3 (2004). Lorber, Judith and Lisa Jean Moore. Gender and the Social Construction of Illness, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2002.

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Riska, Elianna. “Toward Gender Balance: But Will Women Physicians Have an Impact on Medicine?” Social Science and Medicine, v.52/2 (2001). Sasser, Alicia. “Gender Differences in Physician Pay: Tradeoffs Between Career and Family.” Journal of Human Resources, v.40/2 (2005). Weinberg, Daniel. “Evidence From Census 2000 About Earnings by Detailed Occupation for Men and Women.” Census 2000 Special Reports (2004). http:// www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-15.pdf (accessed July 2010). Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld Arizona State University

Physics, Women in Physics is a discipline of natural sciences defined as “the scientific study of matter and their interactions using the electromagnetic, gravitational and nuclear forces of nature.” Historically, the percentage of women contributing to new discoveries in physics and academic teaching of physics has been considerably less than the percentage of men. Despite the modern feminist movement, the number of women in physics continues to be less than the number of men, particularly in leadership positions. As there is no rational reason for women to trail men in achieving new scientific discoveries or excel in academic teaching, the cause of this trend is attributed to existing gender biases in the perception and practice of science. Thus, increasing the number of women in physics as well as emphasising their relevance in physics have emerged as women’s issues. Women in History of Physics Hypatia (370–415) lived in Alexandria in Egypt and taught philosophy and astronomy. She is one of the earliest women scientists in recorded history. Contributions of women astronomers have been recognized for centuries. In 1786, J. K. Lalande published his “Astronomy for Ladies,” which has a history of the women astronomers. Physicist Laura Bassi (1711– 78) became the first woman to be awarded a university professorship in Europe and is known for her work in fluid mechanics and devising experiments in

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electricity. Emilie Marquise du Chatelet (1706–49) translated Newton’s Principia in French. Emmy Noether (1882–1935) is perhaps the most famous woman scientist, whose mathematical theorems gave birth to modern algebra. “Noether theorem” is used in physics to obtain conserved charges in systems with continuous symmetries. Marie Curie (1867–1934) was the first woman to receive two Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry for her work in radioactivity. Maria Goeppert-Mayer is the only other women to have received a Nobel Prize in physics, awarded in 1963 for her work in nuclear physics. Statistics of Women in Physics in Today’s World The percentage of women in physics at undergraduate and graduate levels is high (30–50 percent) in most developed countries (e.g., in the United Kingdom and the United States). The number reduces considerably for midcareer women (10–20 percent) to very low (less than 5 percent) for senior and leadership positions. This gives rise to a scissors diagram in the plot of male-female ratios in physics career graphs. The details differ in some countries. A set of illustrative examples taken from the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Women in Physics are listed below. In Australia, approximately 24 percent of undergraduate students are female, and 28.3 percent of postgraduate students are women. Selected universities in Australia have 22 percent women as academic staff, whereas women in government research labs are about 9 percent of the total. Across Canada, the percentage of women at undergraduate level in physical and life sciences and technology is 55.7 percent and 46.5 percent at graduate level. The percentage of women in full-time teaching positions in Canadian universities in mathematical and physical sciences is 14.6 percent (in 2004). In France, 25 percent of undergraduate and graduate students are women; 21 percent of faculty at French universities are female. The percentage of female graduates from the Physical Society of Japan (JPS) is 9 percent, and the percentage of women members of the JPS is 5 percent. At the undergraduate and graduate levels in Kenya, the percentage of women is below 10 percent. In Kenya, the percentage of women teaching staff is less than 1 percent. In Lebanon, 45 percent of the undergraduates

in the physics department at St. Joseph’s University are female, and 15 percent of the professors are women. In Peru, the percentage of women at NMU University is 53 percent at the undergraduate level and 14.6 percent at the graduate level. In South Africa, 33.3 percent of the students are female, whereas at the researcher level 16 percent of the members of the South African Institute of Physics are women. Some prestigious universities like Harvard University in the United States have tenured their first female faculty, Melissa Franklin and Lisa Randall, in recent years. Feminism and Physics The issue of women in physics is deeply rooted in the rise of the feminist movement in the world. The feminist movement aims for equal rights and opportunities for women in all spheres of human endeavour. In the first wave of the feminist movement, women obtained the right to vote. Scientific institutions and universities started admitting women students and hired women teachers and researchers in the natural sciences. The second wave of feminism rose as an effort to end gender biases and discrimination and is based on the idea of difference feminism. This movement is reflected in the sciences and as an effort to find sociological and cultural reasons that discourage women from pursuing a career in physics. The number of women in biological sciences has risen to be significant, as it is considered a “soft science,” whereas the number of women in physics remains low, as it is perceived as a “masculine science” requiring mathematical and logical skills, which are traditionally deemed as masculine. Similarly, women remain underrepresented in academics in countries where physics is considered prestigious, as in the United States and in Germany. On the other hand, in countries like Turkey, the percentage of women in academics is comparatively higher (30 percent) because a teaching job is not well paid and men prefer disciplines such as law, which is considered prestigious in Turkish culture. Gender Bias in Physics Conclusive physiological evidence for innate differences in the practice of science by men and women has not been found. However, there is evidence of differences induced due to social conditioning of men and women, and this is known as “gender bias.” Societal



gender biases in science teaching and practice start at a very young age. Girls are encouraged to take up feminine roles advocated by school books and toy manufacturers. The Barbie doll’s vocabulary had the words math class is tough before the manufacturers removed it due to protests by women. Physics is an exact science; the laws of physics are based on experimental data. Devising experiments is sometimes deemed as masculine in textbooks. At the undergraduate level this discouragement persists when a female chooses a career. Graduate, postdoctoral, and tenure-track positions require intense focus for career building; however, these stages coincide with a woman’s childbearing age. Provisions of good maternity benefits and day care facilities are limited in universities and research institutes in most countries. It has been found that work environments in physics departments are not femalefriendly. Women researchers are isolated in the malemajority departments and are ignored in promotions or in assigning of duties, preventing their progress to senior and leadership positions. Establishing a Gender-Sensitive Practice of Physics Several organized efforts have started to counter existing discrimination in the practice of science and encourage women to take up a career in physics. Scientists in School is a Canadian effort formed by women who interact with elementary school children to inspire them to develop an interest in science. The Indian government has announced the introduction of flexible working hours of mothers of children under age 3. The Hertha Sponer Prize, named in honour of a German female physicist, is awarded by the German Physical Society to a young female researcher. The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics has a working group focused on women that organizes an international conference for women in physics. This is a very concerted effort to bring women of all countries together to brainstorm on encouraging women in physics. The European Commission’s aim to have gender equity in science and achieve 25 percent representation of women in permanent academic positions is a very positive action. The American Institute of Physics (AIP), the Canadian Association of Physics (CAP), and the Institute of Physics (IOP) in the United Kingdom have specific working groups devoted to gender issues. These seek

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to build networks of women, to increase their visibility, and to increase awareness about existing genderbased biases. The use of site visits to assess the environment of a physics department or institute was initiated by the AIP and the IOP. This has served to increase gender sensitivity in the work environment. Affirmative action has been implemented in various Universities and research institutes in the world to encourage women in physics. Key goals of women in physics are to work toward minimizing biases, to engage in activities designed to educate the broader community about the impact of physics in daily life, and to take every opportunity to highlight positive female role models in physics. Furthermore, the images of physics and physicists that are presented in textbooks and the media must ensure that women are well represented. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; American Association of University Women; Astronomy, Women in; Education, Women in; Science, Women in Science Education for Girls; STEM Coalition. Further Readings Baki, P., et al. “Kenya Women in Physics: Societal, Cultural and Professional Challenges.” Proceedings of 3rd IUPAP International Conference in Physics, AIP Proceedings, v.1119 (2008). Beyers, N. “Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics.” http://cwp.library.ucla.edu (accessed June 2010). Foley, C. P. “Status of Women in Physics in Australia.” Proceedings of 3rd IUPAP International Conference in Physics, AIP Proceedings, v.1119 (2008). Predoi-Cross, A., et al. “Women Physicists in Canada.” Proceedings of 3rd IUPAP International Conference in Physics, AIP Proceedings, v.1119 (2008). Schiebinger, Londa. Has Feminism Changed Science?” Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. Tajima, S. and M. Nishitani-Gamo. “`Recent Progress in Promoting Gender Equality for Japanese Scientists.” Proceedings of 3rd IUPAP International Conference in Physics, AIP Proceedings, v.1119 (2008). Thibault, C., et al. “French Women in Physics: Status and Actions.’’ Proceedings of 3rd IUPAP International Conference in Physics, AIP Proceedings, v.1119 (2008). Arundhati Dasgupta Adriana Predoi-Cross University of Lethbridge

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Pilates

Pilates Pilates is a method of exercise that can be performed on a mat with specialized equipment. The exercises condition the body, strengthening and lengthening the body’s muscles. Pilates improves posture and has antiaging qualities, as it strengths the abdominal muscles, inner thighs, and upper arms without affecting the joints. The exercises place emphasis on reducing the incidence of back pain and injury. The Developer of Pilates Pilates was developed by German-born Joseph H. Pilates, who was a skier, boxer, dancer, and gymnast. Pilates developed an obsession with physical fitness, and during World War I, he designed exercise equipment to rehabilitate injured war victims. He opened his first studio in New York City, with his wife Clara, in 1926. Many of their clients were prominent dancers, including Martha Graham. His method of exercise was called Contology until after his death, when it became known as the Pilates method. Clara Pilates was a trained nurse and is credited for incorporating his concepts to benefit more ill or injured clients. Romana Kryzanowska and Eve Gentry are two famous elders who popularized the benefits of this method for ordinary people. The Pilates method emphasizes breathing with movement, body mechanics, balance, coordination, body positioning, spatial awareness, strength, and flexibility. Yoga shares similar goals with Pilates, placing emphasis on stretching and strengthening the muscles in a noncompetitive arena; however, unlike Yoga, Pilates works the body as a whole, coordinating upper and lower musculature with the body’s core. It is this holistic approach that sets Pilates apart from many other forms of exercise. Pilates views the muscles at the center of the body, including the abdomen, lower back, hips, and buttocks, as the “powerhouse.” Pilates exercises begin from this core and flow outward to the limbs. The original Pilates method included 34 exercises done on the floor on a padded mat. Pilates also invented several apparatuses, each of which has their own set of exercises. The most common apparatus is the “reformer, which has pulleys and cables that one can push or pull. The reformer enables the practitioner to stretch further and into positions unreachable on the mat alone.

Popular perceptions hold that Pilates is “just for women,” and Pilates during pregnancy has been claimed to be highly valuable and a beneficial form of exercise. However, practitioners argue that Pilates can be beneficial for almost anyone, regardless of age, gender, or fitness level. Men have played an important role in the evolution of the Pilates method. Many women who were dancers choose teaching Pilates as a second career, making the exercise even more appealing to women. Practitioners argue that this may be why Pilates is increasingly associated with feminine characteristics. Famous women who practice Pilates include Jennifer Aniston, Madonna, Vanessa Williams, Martha Stewart, Sigourney Weaver, and Martina Navratilova. See Also: Dance, Women in; Diet and Weight Control; Exercise Science; Fitness; Yoga. Further Readings Pilates, Joseph. Pilates’ Return to Life Through Contrology. New York: Presentation Dynamics, 1928. Winsor, M. and M. Laska. The Pilates Pregnancy: A Low Impact Exercise Programme for Maintaining Strength and Flexibility. London: Vermilion, 2002. Danai S. Mupotsa Monash University

Pink, Advertising and The color pink has been used in advertising and popular culture since the 1940s. Drawing upon and reinforcing gender stereotypes, the subtlety and consistency of pink symbolism has adapted to different generations and contexts to shape popular understandings of what it means to be a woman in America. From the 1940s to the 1970s, advertising created a feminine ideal packaged in pink. The color became an iconic symbol to convey a set of duplicitous traits, in which the feminine could be a source of assurance or alarm. Pink girlhood was represented as soft, pure, impressionable, and pretty, but it was accompanied with trickery, mysteriousness, and volatility. In turn, pink womanhood was characterized in terms

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of morality, emotionality, and nurturance, as well as seduction, manipulation, and secrecy. Physical attractiveness and beauty habits were crucial for both girls and women, and it was never too early to surround girls in pink accouterments (ribbons, ruffles, dresses, and jewelry). Pink also became popular from its connection with the iconic Barbie doll. Clothing and accessories for Barbie from the 1970s on were predominately pink, and a bright pink color came to be associated with the doll. The color pink gained new momentum in the form of the pink breast cancer ribbon, established in 1992 as the symbol for breast cancer awareness. The pink ribbon easily conjured feminine imagery and discourse that was already prevalent in popular culture. Focusing on goodness, morality, and woman’s domain in the private sphere, pink was used to evoke innocence, thereby rendering breast cancer a virtuous illness and a good cause. Although women’s health advocates successfully used the ribbon to promote awareness, October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month became so closely identified with a feminized version of the cause that it is now commonly referred to as “Pinktober.” Pinktober is an array of awareness and advertising campaigns that encourage people to buy pink products, while it uses the color pink to reinforce idealized versions of survivorship that are steeped in feminine stereotypes. The pinking of breast cancer has turned the illness into one of the most popular, and most advertised, causes in contemporary culture. As with other common advertising techniques, pink marketing capitilizes on the sexualization, objectification, and infantalization of women. From “Boobie-Thons” to T-shirts with statements such as, “Stop the War in My Rack”, these representations reduce women to their usefulness as sexual objects. Pink ribbon ads for teddy bears, rubber duckies, M&Ms, and Barbie dolls suggest that femininity and adulthood are incompatible. And, many pink ribbon ads depict women in their proper domestic roles— cooking, cleaning, and satisfying the needs of others with pink kitchen aids, pink vacuum cleaners, pink cosmetics, and other feminine accessories. Pink advertising is part of an ongoing cultural project that draws upon and strengthens gender stereotypes for the purpose of selling products and ideas.

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See Also: Advertising, Aimed at Women; Advertising, Portrayal of Women; Breast Cancer; Femininity, Social Construction of. Further Readings King, S. Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Peril, L. Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002. Sulik, G. Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women’s Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Gayle Sulik Independent Scholar

Plan B Unintended pregnancy is a public health problem with major significance worldwide. Plan B, a progestinonly type of emergency contraception, is an effective yet underutilized method of pregnancy prevention. Plan B is 75 to 89 percent effective in preventing pregnancies when taken within 120 hours (five days) after sexual intercourse; however, the medication is more effective the earlier it is used. Although Plan B has been controversial and wrapped up in the abortion debate, it is not effective if a woman is already pregnant and therefore does not disrupt an established pregnancy. It has been estimated that wider access and acceptability of Plan B could reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and could prevent 1 million abortions annually. This form of contraception is important in that, unlike most forms of contraception, it is effective after sexual intercourse but before pregnancy. Plan B is orally administered and consists of two white pills—one pill is taken within 120 hours of unprotected intercourse and the second pill is taken 12 hours later. In 2009, Plan B-One Step was developed, which consists of one pill that is taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse. Overall, Plan B is a safe form of contraception with very few side effects and contraindications. The mechanism of action of Plan B is the same as oral contraceptives. Plan B can work to inhibit:

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• Ovulation: can suppress hormone needed for ovulation • Fertilization: can inhibit movement of egg/ sperm • Transport: can inhibit path of the fertilized egg to uterus • Implantation: can change the endometrium so the blastocyst cannot implant Although emergency contraception has become more available in both developed and developing countries, three main barriers to access to Plan B seem to perpetuate a lack of awareness and utilization of this birth-control method. First, the public, including providers and women themselves, either do not know about it or have certain misunderstandings about Plan B. Second, some healthcare providers and professionals do not prescribe or dispense it. For example, there have been numerous accounts of doctors refusing to write prescriptions and pharmacists refusing to dispense it. Third, inadequate education is provided to women about it. In an effort to remove barriers to accessing Plan B, there has been a push for over-the-counter (OTC) access; however, in some countries this proposal has been met with great trepidation. In the United States, over-the-counter approval is for women 18 years and older, with prescriptions required for those 17 years and younger. Plan B advocates globally continue to work toward the removal of barriers to access of this important form of contraception. See Also: Contraception Methods; Planned Parenthood; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Ellertson, C., et al. “Modifying the Yuzpe Regimen of Emergency Contraception: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.” Obstetrics & Gynecology, v.101/6 (2003). Piaggio, G., et al. “Timing of Emergency Contraception with Levonorgestrel or the Yuzpe Regimen.” Lancet, v.353 (1999). Richman, A. R. “Emergency Contraception: Do We Have the Political Will to Increase Access?” Women’s Health Issues, v.14/5 (2004). Trussell, J., C. Ellertson, and L. Dorflinger. “Effectiveness of the Yuzpe Regimen of Emergency Contraception by

Cycle Day of Intercourse: Implications for Mechanism of Action.” Contraception, v.67/3 (2003). Alice R. Richman University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood is an organization committed to providing access to sexual and reproductive health education and services throughout the world. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), often referred to simply as Planned Parenthood, began with the work of American birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birthcontrol clinic in New York in 1916 and founded the American Birth Control League in 1921. Sanger was committed to making contraceptive information and devices available to women and also helped secure funding for new research that led to the development of oral contraceptives (or “the Pill”) in the early 1960s. Although Planned Parenthood thus traces its own history back to the early 20th century, Sanger’s activist and research organizations merged to officially operate under the name Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. Sanger served as president of PPFA until 1962. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) was founded in 1952 out of the Third International Conference on Planned Parenthood in Bombay, India. IPPF is now based in the United Kingdom, with regional offices in Kenya, Tunisia, Belgium, India, Malaysia, and New York City. Representatives from each of these regions form the decision-making board, or Governing Council, of IPPF. In addition to the IPPF’s Western Hemisphere program offices in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the PPFA operates as the U.S. affiliate of the IPPF. The IPPF is a nongovernmental organization that receives both government and private funding to operate sexual education and family-planning clinics in close to 200 countries. The IPPF has also had a voice in international commissions, such as those organized by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, to address issues related to population control, development, children’s issues, public health, and women’s



rights. Challenged by conservative politicians and the Catholic Church throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the IPPF lost as much as 20 percent of its funding under former U.S. President George Bush’s 2001 policy that prevented U.S. funds to any international nongovernmental organization providing abortion services; this policy was reversed by President Barack Obama in 2009, and funding was restored. Both IPPF and PPFA have been at the center of controversies and court cases involving primarily abortion rights and services. In its more than 800 clinics in the United States alone, Planned Parenthood offers a range of sexual and reproductive health services for both men and women, including pregnancy testing; birth control information and prescriptions; surgical sterilization; prevention, testing, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases; HIV tests; Pap tests; breast exams; and other cancer screenings. Planned Parenthood has also become a clearinghouse for information and education about sexuality, about sexual orientation and gender identity, and about body image and other social and psychological issues. Still, for many people, Planned Parenthood remains synonymous with abortion services, and PPFA has been at the forefront of pro-choice campaigns to influence or challenge legislation that limits abortion rights and access. Since the 1980s, Planned Parenthood has been a critic (and often target) of antiabortion activists, including staged protests outside of clinics and even violence directed at clinics and abortion providers. Planned Parenthood has also been involved in several court cases regarding abortion, arguing against attempted legislative restrictions such parental or spousal consent, mandatory waiting periods, restrictions on doctors providing abortion information to patients, or violating the privacy and free-speech rights of both patients and doctors who perform abortions by publicizing medical and personal information. In 1992, Planned Parenthood challenged the legality of a series of Pennsylvania restrictions on abortion. In Planned Parenthood (of Southeastern Pennsylvania) v. Casey, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the basic tenets of Roe v. Wade (the 1973 case that established the trimester framework for determining a woman’s access to abortion) and declared it unconstitutional for states to require married women to obtain spousal consent for abortion services. The case

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Planned Parenthood is committed to providing access to sexual and reproductive health education and services worldwide.

was only a partial victory for Planned Parenthood and pro-choice advocates, however, for the court allowed the state to impose a 24-hour waiting period for a woman requesting an abortion, to require “informed consent” in the form of doctor-provided information about the health risks of abortion, and to require parental notification and consent before a minor could receive an abortion. Planned Parenthood continues to challenge limitations on abortion access at the local and state levels. PPFA and its political affiliates have raised funds and lobbied the U.S. Congress on a range of other issues related to reproductive rights and women’s health. It has launched a major campaign to make accessible FDA-approved emergency contraception (also known as the “morning after pill”) and has advocated for healthcare reform that makes health insurance more affordable to low-income families and prevents gender discrimination by insurance companies (such as not covering pregnancy, birth control, or breast cancer screenings). Finally, Planned Parenthood has been critical of abstinence-only sex education programs

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in public schools, promoting instead a comprehensive sex education program that includes support for abstinence alongside information about birth control, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). After Margaret Sanger, Dr. Alan Guttmacher served as president of PPFA (1962–73). Both Sanger and Guttmacher were associated with eugenics movements of their day, which has attracted more controversy and criticism over Planned Parenthood’s beginnings. Faye Wattleton became the first African American president of PPFA in 1978 and served until 1992. Other presidents to date are Pamela Maraldo (1993–95), Gloria Feldt (1996–2005), and Texas Democratic activist Cecile Richards, who has been president of PPFA since 2006. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Contraception, Religious Approaches to; Contraception Methods; Pregnancy. Further Readings Davis, Tom. Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006. International Planned Parenthood Federation. http://www .ippf.org/en (accessed June 2010). Sanger, Margaret, et al. The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger, vol. 3: The Politics of Planned Parenthood, 1939–1966. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010. Tiffany K. Wayne Independent Scholar

Plumwood, Val Val Plumwood is an Australian ecofeminist philosopher and activist who participated in movements to preserve biodiversity and to stop deforestation from the 1960s until her death in 2008. Prominent in the development of radical ecosophy (a contraction of the phrase ecological philosophy, frequently used to refer to different and often conflictual concepts espoused by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess and French postMarxist philosopher and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari), she helped establish the interdisciplinary field of eco-

logical humanities, which aims to bridge gaps between the sciences and the humanities, as well as Western, Eastern, and indigenous ways of knowing nature. Plumwood was born in 1939 and was married for a time to Richard Routley, also a philosopher and a proponent of deep ecology (a branch of ecological philosophy that conceptualizes humankind as an integral part of its environment and that calls for major changes in our attitudes toward nature and the adoption of voluntary simplicity as a lifestyle). Formerly Val Routley, she changed her last name to Plumwood after their separation in the early 1980s. During her lifetime, she held positions at North Carolina State University, the University of Montana, and the University of Sydney. At the time of her death, she was an Australian Research Council Fellow at the Australian National University. The author of four books and over 100 papers, Plumwood draws upon feminist theory to critique what she calls the “standpoint of mastery,” a phrase that refers to a set of views about the Self and its relationships to the Other with respect to sexism, racism, capitalism, and the domination of nature. Her two major theoretical works are Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (1993) and Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason (2002). In Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, she argues, following the ecofeminist line of reasoning, that the current environmental crisis originates in the West’s dualistic ways of conceptualizing things. What she calls the “hyperseparation” of humans from nature is also part of the colonizing dynamic we see in the West’s relationship with the rest of the world. She counsels us to abandon these dualisms in favor of an ecological ethic founded on empathy for the Other. Although she is not opposed to spirituality, she thinks that the predominant forms of Western spirituality have located the sacred above and beyond a fallen Earth, a notion she considers misguided. In her last major theoretical work, Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason, Plumwood argues that contemporary forms of ecological denial are dangerous and can be traced back to historical warpings of reason and culture. After documenting the profound effects of such distortions upon the fields of economics, politics, science, ethics, spirituality, and the current hegemonic form of globalization, she presents a radically different vision of how our

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culture must change in order to develop a society that is ecologically rational. See Also: Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Social Justice Activism; Social Justice Theory. Further Readings Griffin, Nicholas. “Val Plumwood.” In Joy A. Palmer et al., eds., Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment. London: Routledge, 2001. Plumwood, Val. “The Crisis of Reason, the Rationalist Market and Global Ecology.” Milennium Journal of International Studies, v.27 (1998). Plumwood, Val. “Deep Ecology, Deep Pockets and Deep Problems: A Feminist Eco-Socialist Analysis.” In E. Katz, A. Light, and D. Rothenberg, eds., Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Plumwood, Val. “Ecological Ethics from Rights to Recognition: Multiple Spheres of Justice for Humans, Animals and Nature.” In Nicholas Low, ed., Global Ethics and Environment. London: Routledge, 1999. Plumwood, Val. Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. London: Routledge, 2002. Plumwood, Val. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London: Routledge, 1993. Plumwood, Val. “Paths Beyond Human-Centeredness: Lessons From Liberation Struggles.” In Anthony Weston, ed., An Invitation to Environmental Philosophy New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Danielle Roth-Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Poets, Female Sappho, a Greek poet whose work remains only in fragments, is one of the foremothers of poetry in the Western tradition. Although women have been central to the history of poetry, at various times female poets have been dismissed and minimized, sometimes with the gendered label “poetess.” In spite of this, women poets have created an impressive body of work. At the beginning of the second millennium, there is new recognition of contemporary female poets, new publishing opportunities for women poets

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exist, and critical appraisal of the work of female poets from the past continues. There are no themes or styles that define poetry by women. Female poets, like male poets, write poetry that is diverse, idiosyncratic, and defies categorization. The work of an individual woman poet is loyal only to her own vision and sensibility. For every major poetic movement, there are women engaged in its aesthetic practices. During the 20th century, women poets were major innovators, for example, in modernism, confessionalism, and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry. During the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s and 1980s, poetry was both an artistic and a political practice, shaping and promoting the goals of feminism. Today, women poets write narrative poetry, lyric poetry, epic poetry, formal poetry, and free verse, among many other types of poetry. Women poets engage with tradition and innovation, supporting a vibrant contemporary poetics. Equal representation in journals, book publishing, and anthologies is important for female poets. Women poets are represented in all major journals, though their numbers as contributors and editors vary widely. In 2007, Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young surveyed anthologies of experimental poetry for their inclusion of women; they found that while the number of women had increased during the 1990s as a result of feminist interventions, in most anthologies, the number of women included was still below 50 percent. In the Spahr and Young survey, the place in the world of poetry where women have the most equity is in book publishing at university presses. Even though there is not gender parity in book publishing, women poets are published by all major publishing houses and by small, independent poetry publishers. Established poets like Adrienne Rich, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Marilyn Hacker, Rita Dove, Alicia Ostriker, Marie Ponsot, Carolyn Forche, and Sharon Olds have committed commercial publishers. Emerging poets like Meg Kearney, Lyrae Van CliefStefanon, Christina Davis, Elizabeth Bradfield, and Sandra Beasley have published exciting first books of poetry, primarily at small, independent presses. Some of them have published acclaimed second books or have anticipated second books in press. In spite of the prominence of women poets in publishing, there remains a need for publishing dedicated to the work of women poets. New, small presses dedicated

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to publishing women poets have launched recently, including Perugia Press, Kore Press, and Arktoi Press. While women have made strides in publishing and received concomitant recognition for their work, sexist exclusion continues. Recently, however, women poets broke new barriers. In 2009, the poet laureates of the United States and the United Kingdom were both women. (Poet laureates are appointed by the government and charged with representing poetry nationally.) In May 2009, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Carol Ann Duffy as poet laureate of the United Kingdom. Duffy is the first woman to occupy the position in the three centuries. The Library of Congress appointed Kay Ryan poet laureate in the United States in July 2008. Of the 49 poet laureates (or consultants in poetry, as the position was titled between 1937 and 1986), 12 have been women (25 percent). While the history of national poet laureates is one of exclusion, more women are being appointed to these positions, providing a partial remedy. Critical Acclaim Just as poet laureateships are not an exclusive measure for the engagement of women in poetry, neither are prizes an exclusive measurement of achievement in poetry. They do provide, however, an indication of the current reception of female poets. The Pulitzer Prize for poetry has been awarded since 1918, when the inaugural prize was awarded to Sara Teasdale. Two women, Natasha Trethewey (Native Guard, 2007) and Claudia Emerson (Late Wife, 2006), have won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry during the past 10 years. Of the 19 finalists named for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry since 2000, seven were women (36 percent). Since 1950, the National Book Foundation has given the National Book Award for poetry; each year, a panel of poets selects a winner and four finalists from nominated books. Between 2000 and 2009, three women—Jean Valentine (Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 2004), Ruth Stone (In the Next Galaxy, 2002), and Lucille Clifton (Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000, 2000)—won the National Book Award for poetry. A survey of finalists reveals that of the 40 finalists, 14 were women (35 percent). The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), an organization of book critics and reviewers, awards prizes annually. Of the nine awards for poetry given by the NBCC since 2000, four have been awarded

to women, or 44 percent; women were 11 of the 32 finalists, or 34 percent. Thus, although women are recognized by award-giving institutions, there is not gender parity among prize recipients. Two prestigious fellowships in poetry demonstrate gender parity. The Witter Bynner Fellowship is awarded by the Library of Congress to two or more poets a year. Of the 20 Witter Bynner Fellowships awarded since 2000, 11 awards were given to women, for a rate of 55 percent. The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, given by the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation and accompanied by a fellowship of $100,000, was given to five women, or 50 percent of the recipients, since 2000. The five women who received the prize are Lisel Mueller, Linda Pastan, Kay Ryan, Lucille Clifton, and Fanny Howe. Thus, some strides have been made for women poets in recent years in terms of professional recognition, particularly in the realm of fellowships, but in literary prizes, women continue to be underrepresented as winners and finalists. In addition to the contemporary reception of women poets through book circulation, awards, and fellowships, literary appraisal by critics is essential to position women poets more broadly in the canon, to place them in relationship to other poetic movements, and to understand the history and significance of women’s poetry. Feminist literary criticism has been responsible for the reclamation of a number of women poets, including Anne Bradstreet, Michael Field, Angelina Weld Grimké, and Charlotte Mew, and for repositioning poets whose reputation had been influenced by sexist ideas, like Emily Dickinson. The loss of work by women poets through books falling out of print, lack of critical attention, and lack of inclusion in anthologies contributes to a cultural amnesia that erases women’s poetry. Critical work on behalf of women poets is an evolving area of inquiry, and vital work remains for the next decades. Most assuredly, the women poets writing now will be recognized in part through the labor of thoughtful and informed literary criticism. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Duffy, Carol Ann; United States. Further Readings Budy, Andrea Hollander. When She Named Fire: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by American Women. Pittsburgh, PA: Autumn House Press, 2008.

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Moore, Honor. Poems from the Women’s Movement. New York: Library of America, 2009. Sparh, Juliana and Stephanie Young. “Numbers Trouble.” Chicago Review, v.54 (Autumn 2007). Julie R. Enszer University of Maryland

Poland Christianity was established in Poland by Mieszko in 966; in 1569, Poland became a kingdom in the Union of Lublin, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which collapsed in 1795. Then, for more than 120 years, Poland was not on the map; Russia, Austria, and Prussia governed the territory. The Second Polish Republic was established following World War I, but then Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union occupation followed in World War II. Years later the socialist People’s Republic of Poland emerged within the Eastern Bloc. Polish language, education, and culture were often quashed under occupation, thus women’s significance in the family was critical to maintain the Polish cultural heritage. The Third Polish Republic was established in 1989 when communism was overthrown. Poland is a member of the European Union, North Atlanta Treaty Organization, United Nations, World Trade Organization, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Fifty-one percent of Poland’s population of nearly 39 million people is female. Poland’s population grew at a rate of 1 percent per year from 1970 to 1984, and then declined due to a lower fertility rate. In the mid-2000s, Poland’s economic crisis mimicked that of others within the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, yet Poland is one of the more robust transformed economic states. Younger generations compete for education and economic opportunity. Women’s life expectancy is approximately 76 years, compared to 68 years for men, primarily due to lifestyle behaviors associated with tobacco use and alcohol consumption. The economic and social transformation of Poland from communism to a democratic, privatized market economy has had mixed results. Gender differences continue to be accentuated, and some benefits for women, including access to subsidized childcare

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and paid maternity leave, have diminished. In the late 1970s, more than 70 percent of Polish women were gainfully employed while maintaining household duties, putting a strain on their ability to balance “women’s two jobs” because of role competition and unsatisfactory state assistance. Class issues remain predominant; lower-class women can more easily hold a coprovider status along with a domestic role, whereas this challenges the social status of upper class women. Partner relationships have been typically egalitarian, with the head of household described as that person who disposes of the income of both providers. Divorce is less common than in other former communist countries, likely because of the country’s Catholic roots. Single mothers tend to retain custody of children. Birth control was typically limited to abortion due to lack of other options; abortion was more restricted in 1993, however. Increasing grassroots democracy efforts included challenges to church doctrine on birth control in the 1990s. Women in the Workforce and Politics Education has remained the biggest predictor of women’s roles outside the home. Women tend to go on to post-secondary education more often then men. However, fewer women are educated than in other Eastern European countries. Recently, only 10 percent of women aged 30 to 39 had a college degree. Women’s workforce participation is high, yet women comprise the majority of the unemployed in the country. Women tend to make less money than men, largely due to their gender-segregated occupations and less access to private sector and state employment. They account for less than 20 percent of faculty in higher-education institutions. Growth in the number of women-owned businesses has occurred, although they compose less than 10 percent of the workforce. Women’s involvement in politics dropped from a guaranteed approximate 20 percent proportion of women in the Sejm (the Polish legislature) under communism and increased slightly in 1993 around the time of the new abortion legislation. The post-Communist women’s movement is evident in groups like the Enthusiasts and the Union for Equal Rights for Polish Women; identifiable activists, including Narcyza Zmichowska, Kazimiera Bujwidowa, and Romualda

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Baudoin; and the Polish Socialist and National Democratic Parties. The roots of this involvement can be derived from the Stalinist era, when women’s leagues were encouraged to raise membership through their “talkativeness.” Poland is a source, transit, and destination country for women trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. The government’s limited response includes victim-assistance programs and prevention efforts. Despite such issues, Polish women tend to disagree with American feminism; if anything has spoken to their experience, it is bell hooks’ black feminist perspective that designated a feeling of otherness amid gender discrimination. Polish women identify that socialism had discriminated against women and men. Like Western women, east-central European women identify conceptually as postfeminist “superwomen” who balance work and domestic realms. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Germany; Lithuania; Ukraine. Further Readings Hoff, Joan, and Christie Farnham. Editor’s Note and Acknowledgements: “The More Things Change the Worse They Become for Women.” Journal of Women’s History, v.5/3 (Winter 1994). Lobodzinska, B. “Married Women’s Gainful Employment and Housework in Contemporary Poland.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, (May 1977). Nowak, Basia A. “Constant Conversations: Agitators in the League of Women in Poland during the Stalinist Period.” Feminist Studies, v.31/3 (Fall 2005). Oleksy, Elzbieta H. “American Feminism and Pedagogy: The Case of Poland.” American Studies International, v.38/3 (October 2000). Siemienska, R. “Winners and Losers: Gender Contracts in the New Political and Economic Situation.” International Journal of Sociology, v.35/1 (Spring 2005). Sokolowska, M. “The Role and Status of Women in Poland.” Studies in Comparative Development, (Fall 1975). Velkoff, Victoria A. U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Division. Bureau of the Census. “Women in Poland.” July 1995. http://www .census.gov/ipc/prod/women_po.pdf (accessed December 31, 2009). United States Department of State. Trafficking in Persons Report 2008—Poland. June 2008. http://www.unhcr

.org/refworld/docid/484f9a3632.html (accessed December 31, 2009). Elesha L. Ruminski Frostburg State University

Political Ideologies The meaning of the term political ideology can be ambiguous, due in large part to differing understandings of the word ideology. In everyday usage, ideology has a pejorative connotation: the ideology of another person or group is seen to distort or distract from social and political realities. This usage contrasts “ideology” with “truth” and understands the former to be biased and the latter to be value neutral. Everyday usage of “ideology” differs from academic applications. In Marxist thought, ideology is linked to class. The ideology of the ruling class is thought to pervade the lower classes: the latter suffer from “false consciousness,” that is, they are tricked into accepting a social and political order that is not in their interest. In feminist thought, ideology is linked to gender. Ideology has been used to theorize how women are conditioned to accept a sexist (or patriarchal) social and political order. Political ideology and ideology are related but distinct concepts. Political ideology can be defined as a comprehensive set of ideas that attempt to make sense of the social and political world and provide a foundation for action. In other words, political ideologies have two dimensions: first, how society should be organized and function; and second, the best way to achieve these goals. Following from the second dimension, political ideologies are concerned with the justification of authority (that is, demonstrating that a particular form of authority will benefit society). To examine political ideologies is to examine the content of these ideologies and how they concretely impact people as well as assess the nature of ideology in a more abstract manner. As such, political ideologies are important to women today less because of the way ideology has been theorized in academic feminism (or elsewhere) and more because of how different political ideologies have played a significant role in women’s lives. All contemporary political ideologies are gendered, including liberalism, socialism, conservatism, nation-



alism, and fascism. In setting out how society ought to be organized and function, political ideologies involve an understanding of gender-appropriate behavior. For example, conservatism understands women’s inequality as both natural and functional. Men “by nature” are assertive, rational and logical, and women “by nature” are passive, emotional, and nurturing. Women’s inequality is functional in that the traditional division of labor—in which women are stay-at-home mothers and helpmates to their male partners—is seen to benefit society as a whole. Political ideologies also are gendered in that women are used as symbols representing ideological goals. For example, nationalism often involves an idealized figure of a woman, often a mother, representing the nation. Such images here would be the Statue of Liberty, Mother India, Mother Ireland, and Mother Russia. Finally, political ideologies are gendered in their understandings of authority. For example, liberalism understands power as existing primarily within institutions of the state, namely, the legislature and courts. As such, many abuses of power affecting women, such as domestic violence, have not always been treated seriously. In this entry, the basic ideas of each of the political ideologies of liberalism, socialism, conservatism, nationalism, and fascism will be considered along with further concrete implications for women today. Liberalism, Socialism, and Conservatism Liberalism, socialism, and conservatism have dominated political life for two centuries. Although adherents to these schools of thought accuse each other of being ideological, all can be defined as political ideologies. They all arose in Europe and North America in conjunction with several forces, including the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution, and the political revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries. They became increasingly global with 20th-century struggles against colonial rule and recent expansions of globalized capitalism. Although all remain influential, liberalism is the predominant political ideology today. The starting point of liberalism is the individual. The state grants the individual rights and liberties. Liberals understand power and politics as being conducted in the state (for example, through elected representatives). The state has two primary functions: to secure a citizen’s rights and liberties within the state and to protect its members from dangers outside the state.

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Outside of these functions, the state should intervene in individual’s lives as little as possible. Individual liberty is maximizing self-interest and acting according to one’s desires. Liberals understand differences such as gender and race as irrelevant to citizenship; equality means individuals are equal before the law. Liberal political ideology has had various and contradictory implications for women. On the one hand, it has been mobilized by feminists for women’s education, basic political rights—such as the right to vote—and the wider inclusion of women in public life. On the other hand, in the last three decades the liberal idea of minimal state intervention has translated into the “market” being understood as the main regulator of public life. This has resulted in the dismantling of health and social services upon which women tend to rely. Although quite different political ideologies, the starting point of both socialism and conservatism is not the individual but society as a whole. Both emphasize the community and collective good and critique the liberal emphasis on self-interest and individualism. Both understand society to be hierarchical; however, while socialists critique hierarchies, conservatives wish to “conserve” them. The socialist critique of hierarchy is a critique of how the capitalist mode of production exploits the working class. Socialism contends that anything contributing significantly to the production, distribution, and delivery of socially necessary goods must be controlled for the benefit of everyone. Socialism can take many forms, only one of which is Marxism. Conservatives wish to maintain hierarchy. They believe the social fabric that has carried on for generations is delicate, and as such, each person should be born, live, and die according to their station. While socialism is not hostile to women’s equality in the manner of conservatism, both socialism and conservatism have been problematic for women. Socialism tends to privilege class over other forms of oppression including gender. This is evident in the marginalization of many women within unions. On the other hand, socialists, along with left-leaning liberals, have pushed for the expansion of social services benefiting women, including affordable childcare and maternity leave. Conservative ideology understands many women’s issues as threatening the social fabric, including access to contraceptives and other reproductive rights, lesbian parenting, and affirmative action.

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Nationalism and fascism are different political ideologies with one shared belief: that people naturally fall into separate groups. Nationalism understands that all people within the group, or nation, have similar needs and desires, and as such, require a nationstate of their own. Fascism combines nationalism with militarism and totalitarian forms of authority; it is the only political ideology to reject democracy. Fascists understand people to be fundamentally irrational, defined by difference like race, gender, religion, language, and nationality, and perpetually locked in conflict. Although most closely identified with Italy and Germany up to World War II, neo-Nazism in North America and Europe is on the rise. In both nationalism and fascism, women play an important role distinguishing “us” from “them.” Most political ideologies, with the sometimes exception of liberalism and socialism, are hostile to feminism or women’s equality. At the same time, in conservatism, nationalism, and even fascism, women’s roles as mothers and “reproducers of the nation” are recognized and respected, at least rhetorically. Liberalism, socialism, conservatism, nationalism, and fascism are not the only political ideologies affecting women today. There are several other “isms” that also might be considered political ideologies, such as religious fundamentalism and environmentalism. However, the Encyclopedia contains other entries on these topics. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Childcare; Domestic Violence; Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Feminism, American; Household Division of Labor; Lesbian Adoption; Religious Fundamentalisms, Cross-Cultural Context of; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Stay-at-Home Mothers; Voting Rights. Further Readings Charles, Nickie and Helen Hintjens, eds. Gender, Ethnicity and Political Ideologies. New York: Routledge, 1998. Mathews, Donald G. and Jane S. De Hart. Sex, Gender, and the Politics of ERA: A State and the Nation. New York: Oxford University Press,, 1992. Yuval-Davies, Nira. Gender and Nation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997. Julie E. Dowsett York University

Polygamy, CrossCulturally Considered Polygamy refers to simultaneity of marital bonds with two or more partners and is thus (if only legally) distinguished from serial (sequential or successive) monogamy and nonmatrimonial, polyamorous relationships. Polygyny (a man marries two or more cowives) is much more prevalent than polyandry or group marriage, and would be a preferential system in 75 percent of ethnographic communities drawn from the mid-20th-century World Ethnographic Sample. In the contemporary West, sensitivity over polygamy is politically oscillating with that over immigrant, denominational, and ethnic minority status of the polygamist (or bigamist, in legal terms focusing on the ceremonial act of marriage rather than the polygamous state it inaugurates), inviting confrontations between de facto practice, legal climate, and collateral political sensibilities, for instance, over same-sex marriage. It brings together a range of discourses about women, often in terms of custom, rights, and identity. International Law The United Nations Human Rights Committee has occasionally reaffirmed their General Comment No. 28 (2000), according to which polygamy violates the dignity of women and should be definitely abolished wherever it continues to exist. Polygamy is not prohibited or protected under international human rights law, and legal status varies markedly across national jurisdictions. Polygamy may be illegal (as in most Western countries); recognized under civil or customary law; partially recognized for purposes of welfare benefits if legally obtained abroad (in the United Kingdom and Australia); permitted only to certain denominations and delimited by sex and number of partners (e.g. four wives permitted to Egyptian Muslim men); otherwise rendered conditional (requiring written consent from a first wife and a man’s ability to provide for co-wives); and/or regionally exempted from national bans by Shari`a (Islamic) Law (e.g., Eritrea). In the West, prosecution is rare. In Canada, for instance, polygamy is practiced by a breakaway Mormon sect in Bountiful, British Columbia, but prosecution for polygamy has not occurred



for more than 60 years, and statistics are not kept. Today polygamous unions are recognized civilly in approaching 50 (mostly Arab) countries. It is widely practised in Africa; in Burkina Faso and Togo, according to 2002 data, more than half of women would be in polygynous marriages. Cross-Cultural Practice Legal globalization has tended to abolitionism, and but also to a rise in de facto forms that hide from the legal gaze under various guises (e.g., “concubinage” in China). De facto polygyny may be interwoven with commuting across borders, thus evading, or pertaining to, multiple jurisdictions—many married Hong Kong men who cross the border regularly on business have taken second wives or mistresses in China. In de facto cases, plural marriage is not legally or ritually codified but depends on informal or customary arrangements related to domestic tasks, sexual access, kinship-based obligations, or other aspects. Many semiformalized social arrangements resist reduction to legal codification. Examples include wife sharing, “sugar daddy–

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gold digger” liaisons in sub-Saharan Africa, and enjo kosai (“compensated dating”) in Japan. Ultimately, the definition of polygamy depends on that of the family as a demarcated socioeconomic unit and of marriage as codified type of sociality both in terms of spousal union and as alliance between families or kin groups. However, it often remains delivered to an administrative, legalistic, and Western gaze. In contemporary urban African settings, especially, people move in and out of a range of conjugal relationships, with varying degrees of formality, and in which marriage is encountered more as fluid and processual than contractual. In a 2005 comparative policy assessment, Angela Campbell reviews social status, economic, and health implications of polygamy, finding such implications to vary considerably across research settings and studies and to invite careful legal maneuvering. The female experience of plural-wife (co-wife) systems differs with respect to: rivalry, hierarchy, and favoritism; economic support, companionship, task sharing, and conflict resolution; and resources for containing abuse. These differences are often compounded by

An early 1900s photograph from the Utah Quarterly Journal, of Joseph F. Smith, his wives and children. Smith was the nephew of Joseph Smith, Jr., founding prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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prohibitive legislation introducing constraints on who can act as “real wife” in the public eye, with implications for mobility and social insulation—important factors with regard to consent and potential for abuse. Legal status is a political objective for women in some countries; in nonstatutory marriages, widows may be unable to inherit property, receive insurance benefits, or gain child custody. If divorced, they may not be able to sue for support. Studies suggest that viability in plural marriages depends on a range of factors, including acceptance of polygamy as divine wish or destiny, household separation, equality in allocation of resources among non-resident families and cross-household communication patterns (if non-co-resident), and patterns of dealing with “minor” conflicts or disagreements. Some Africanists differentiate between affluent polygamy and interventive polygamy; the former motivated by the urge for social prestige and economic ambitions, and the latter as a response to family stress, particularly as a therapeutic for childlessness or sonlessness. Introduction of a second wife into a childless marriage when the problem is proved to be that of the first wife is understood to serve as relief of, rather than stress to, the first wife. However, preferential polygyny is often overdetermined given traditional valuation of female fertility, female hypergamy and male hypogamy (marrying upward or downward with respect to a partner’s socioeconomic status), male display of wealth through co-wife number, and the insurance of male progeny. It is questionable, then, that the cultural and ethical assumptions of the affluence-intervention distinction are exhaustive whether in terms of a final arbitration between use and abuse or as a continentwide teleological typology. Nevertheless, the basic administrative question remains whether the conditions for polygamous practice can be optimized or whether the institution needs to be abandoned entirely. Research suggests that higher regional prevalence of polygyny correlates with marginalization in social, economic, and reproductive decision making for married women both in monogamous and polygynous unions. In higher-polygyny environments, women’s household position and roles are seen as easily replaceable, which undermines their bargaining position relative to that of their husband’s in major household decisions. The choice to enter or leave polygamous mar-

riages is intrinsic to cultural value systems, given that evaluations of economic, reproductive, and matrimonial status determine the conceptualization of free choice as a situated possibility. Current legal debates, as a consequence, inform a perennial standoff between valuations of community, tradition, and strategic alliance on the one hand and [inter] nationalist proclamations of equality and [reproductive] autonomy on the other, a standoff characterizing feminist internationalism in general. Important here, for instance, is whether one can see polygamy as symptomatizing or even epitomizing patriarchy or whether its situational merits should be considered in relation to the question of whether it may happen to, or usually does, coincide with a wider patriarchal context. Local evaluations of such a coincidence may alternatively stress the possibilities for viable pluralism or a totalizing verdict of incompatibility with female “autonomy.” A number of demographic and biomedical factors may determine much of the course of the politicization of polygynous traditions in sub-Saharan Africa, given their association with markedly low female marriage age, large spousal age gap, high household fertility, and bride price. Polygynous countries are also on average poorer than monogamous countries. Contemporary and future politics over polygamy in minority polygamous communities revolve around excesses considered either inherent or associated with isolation, secrecy, and anxiety over expulsion, such as underage and incestuous liaisons and domestic violence. A specific problem is purging of surplus young males in communities where seniority is a marked factor in obtaining wives and where the number of young bachelors becomes a problem to community stability. Health Controlling for a set of social and biodemographic factors, it is reported that substantial risks of mortality are associated with polygyny. Polygyny’s impact, however, may differ from country to country. Polygyny has been associated with an accelerated transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), specifically human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), because it both allows multiplication of sexual partners and correlates with low rates of condom use, poor communication between spouses, and age and power

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imbalances. Recent research, however, suggests to the contrary that HIV prevalence is lower in countries where the practice of polygyny is common, and within countries, it is lower in areas with higher levels of polygyny. Female fertility may be variably affected by the interplay of marital rank, household status, and cultural norms. Men from polygynous families are more likely than their monogamous counterparts to be unemployed and to suffer from myriad psychological problems, including anxiety, depression, and somatization. According to other research they may be more likely to perceive the functioning of their families as problematic, their marriage as less satisfying, and their relationship with their children as more troublesome. See Also: Africa; Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Marriage. Further Readings Campbell, Angela. “How Have Policy Approaches to Polygamy Responded to Women’s Experiences and Rights? An International, Comparative Analysis.” Polygamy in Canada. Ottawa: Status of Women Canada, 2005. Cook, Cynthia. “Polygyny: Did the Africans Get it Right?” Journal of Black Studies, v.38 (2007). Nwoye, Augustine. “The Practice of Interventive Polygamy in Two Regions of Africa: Background, Theory and Techniques.” Dialectical Anthropology, v.31 (2007). Tertilt, Michèle. “Polygyny, Women’s Rights, and Development.” Journal of the European Economic Association, v.4 (2006). Zeitzen, Miriam Koktvedgaard. Polygamy: A CrossCultural Analysis. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2008. Diederik F. Janssen Independent Scholar

Pornography, Portrayal of Women in Pornography in the United States is a multibilliondollar industry that transcends media boundaries, from magazines to films to books to the Internet. Its popularity, however, has not come without criticisms,

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drawing a unique group of opponents that includes left-wing feminists and conservative right-wing fundamentalists working in concert to challenge pornography’s portrayal of women. From a historical standpoint that stems from the Puritanical roots of the United States, adult entertainment has a longstanding tradition of being considered taboo. Those participating in pornographic media, sometimes referred to as adult entertainment, have often been deemed as deviant, with adult entertainment actresses commonly stereotyped as sluts and whores while its actors are similarly characterized and viewed as perpetuating a misogynistic culture. From a critical perspective, contemporary pornography objectifies women by reducing them from complete human beings to a collection of body parts designed to satisfy and gratify men. Women are seen as playthings that must be subservient to their male counterparts, either physically or emotionally. They may be dressed in childlike outfits (school or cheerleading uniforms) and wear pigtails or ribbons in their hair. This infantilizing process delegitimizes any power or voice the women may have and establishes the other half of the whore/virgin dichotomy that exists in pornography. In turn, the subservience may be followed or accompanied by force which affords detractors the opportunity to link pornography with violence against women that extends beyond a mediated reality (or fantasy) and into actual reality. Furthermore, as the pornographic portrayal of women bleeds into more mainstream media, opponents contend that young women and girls are given a false sense of what it means to be popular, loved, and happy. From a legal standpoint, First Amendment scholars make certain it is known that pornography is a protected form of speech and not synonymous with obscenity, which is considered unprotected speech and defined by Miller v. California. Women, provided they are of a legal age and capable of consenting, have every right to engage in such activities if they so desire. Some third-wave feminists consider pornography to be empowering to women, affording them control of their sexuality and allowing them to be sexual for their own benefit and not assuming it is for a man. This perspective further complicates the pornography debate by pitting feminist against feminist and adding an additional critical component.

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Historical Look Even before technological advancements in the mid-19th century made it easier to reproduce photographic images, pornography as an industry had been a part of U.S. culture, albeit not without periods of marginalization. Politicians and morality watchdogs like Anthony Comstock, who was the impetus for the Comstock Act of 1873, have long fought against pornography, often calling the material obscene and a detriment to the American public. Hugh Hefner’s introduction of Playboy magazine in 1953 can be considered pornography’s introduction into mainstream culture. Hefner offered a higherquality medium than had been shown previously in pornography. His female models were portrayed as the average girl and not the destitute women who had been featured in print. Similar to Playboy, the 1972 release of the movie Deep Throat was also said to elevate the portrayal of women in pornographic films. Linda Boreman, better known as Linda Lovelace, was the lead actress in the film and played the role of the girl next door. The role of prostitutes and drug addicts common to earlier stag films was abandoned in favor of something more relatable to audiences. However, Boreman’s actual life, which included abuse and prostitution, was indicative of the stag film industry. She eventually said she was forced to perform in Deep Throat by her then-husband, Chuck Traynor, and described the film as depicting her rape. Boreman detailed her life in her autobiography, Ordeal. She died on April 22, 2002, at the age of 53. Larry Flynt’s launch of Hustler magazine in 1974 gave readers a much more explicit look at naked women, compared to Hefner’s Playboy. Flynt’s raw and detailed photographs of female genitalia were criticized as obscene and his pushing-the-envelope photo spreads condemned as objectifying women and promoting a culture of violence and misogyny, or a hatred of women. Flynt continues to publish Hustler as of 2009, along with other magazines, and has film, retail stores, and strip club holdings. Hustler magazine continues to depict women in a more hardcore fashion than Hefner’s Playboy. Flynt is reportedly worth more than three-quarters of a billion dollars. Boreman’s success in the 1970s was unprecedented at the time. Her accomplishments, however, are incomparable to the industry’s postmillennium porn

queen: Jenna Jameson. Born April 9, 1974, Jameson has successfully infiltrated mainstream media, including book publishing, television, and film, to become a popular culture icon. Her 2004 book, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, details her life in and out of the pornography industry and spent multiple weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. Misogyny Versus Empowerment As pornography has become more mainstream in recent decades, its prevalence has likewise come under more scrutiny. While one side of the pornography debate sees the destigmatization of pornography to be a liberating factor and another step away from viewing sex as a taboo subject, or the female body as innately dirty, challengers question if the increasing presence of pornography has created a desensitization toward violence, particularly sexual violence against women. This desensitization process creates a trickle-down effect that extends to nonadult entertainment, including network and basic cable television programming, children’s video games and music videos. Nelly’s 2003 “Tip Drill” video is an example of this bleeding; the term tip drill refers to a woman with an attractive body, but an unattractive face—good only for sex. In the music video for “Tip Drill,” which has been labeled by some as soft-core pornography, men and women are shown drinking and dancing, scantily clad, at a palatial home. The women, often shown topless and wearing little more than thongs, are shown in hypersexual positions with same- and opposite-sex partners, while rap artist Nelly sings, “It must be ya ass, cuz it ain’t yo face, I need a tip drill.” To further show the objectification of the women, a male actor is shown swiping a credit card down the buttocks of a woman, while at another point, dollar bills are strewn onto a woman’s crotch area as she lays on a table. Jameson maintains she held complete control over her sex activities during her career as a pornographic actress, explicitly stating what she would and would not do. In 2006, Jameson retired from performing and moved behind the camera, directing her first film, The Provocateur. She argues that her films do not mirror pornography that blatantly degrades women or portrays them in subservient or victimized roles. Instead, Jameson focuses on empowering women and allows women to be sexual for their own—and



not a man’s—pleasure. This type of feminist pornography challenges patriarchal ideologies and focuses on empowering not only the actresses involved in the film production but those viewing the finished product. This exemplifies one aspect of third-wave feminist ideology. Not one to buy into the argument of feminist pornography or the ability to empower women through adult entertainment was the late radical feminist, Andrea Dworkin. As the author of Intercourse and Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Dworkin was a vigilant crusader against pornography and claimed obscenity laws were ineffective and innately antiwomen in construction. Pornography, according to Dworkin, maintains male supremacy through the portrayal and promotion of female inferiority. She disputed the argument that pornography is a form of fantasy entertainment, pointing again toward acts of sadism against, and the objectification of, women. Dworkin died on April 9, 2005, at the age of 58. Obscenity Versus Free Speech Degradation, hyperfeminization, and hypersexualization, as well as sadism and masochism involving women, may be unattractive to pornography’s opponents, but provided they are not obscene, they are legal, according to the U.S. judicial system. The term obscene is often incorrectly utilized, with some individuals using it synonymously with pornography. This is not accurate, however. The 1973 decision of Miller v. California provides a three-prong test for determining what is obscene. The statute’s requirements include that the work: appeals to a prurient interest in sex when taken as a whole and judged by contemporary community standards by an average person; is patently offensive as defined by state law; and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Thus, while those in the adult entertainment industry may create work that some may find offensive and exploitative of women, mainstream pornographers are businessmen and businesswomen who adhere to state and federal statutes to avoid costly court battles. And when arguments occur, they are often based on what is ethically—not legally—correct. Nadine Strossen, a professor of law at the New York Law School, has been a vocal advocate for the First Amendment protection of pornography and

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served as the president of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008. Her publications include Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women’s Rights. Advocates of censoring pornography under the guise of protecting women have drastically decreased as the world entered a new millennium, yet the topic remains in the issue loop for politicians. Politicos argue that the negative portrayals and exploitation of women in pornography provide false ideals, harmful messages, and unrealistic expectations for young women who may view porn stars as icons, particularly since some, like Jameson, Nina Hartley and Stormy Daniels, have crossed into nonadult entertainment, thereby increasing their visibility to the under-18 demographic. Impact on Young Women Mainstream pornography may be legally protected by the U.S. Constitution, and its detractors may be quieter now than in the previous millennium, but there remain groups that continue to criticize pornography as detrimental not only to women but to young girls. The Massachusetts-based Media Education Foundation has produced a series of videos that challenge what it believes to be misogynistic, violent, hypersexual, and demeaning messages conveyed through the portrayal of women in not only pornography but nonadult entertainment, including video games, music videos, and popular culture in general. Documentaries like Generation M: Misogyny in Media & Culture; Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes; and Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships target high school and college-age viewers and challenge them to critically analyze media. As pornographic images become more mainstream and less shocking to the general public, the perceived objectification and hypersexualization of women in everyday media become more apparent. Furthermore, as pornography actresses move in and out of “the business” and nonindustry women experiment with the fame of pornography, how women are portrayed is becoming less the issue. Jameson has appeared in Abercrombie & Fitch advertisements, and Olympic gold-medalist Amanda Beard is just one of multiple Olympians who have posed for Playboy; she appeared in July 2007. Other Olympians include, but are not

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limited to Haley Cope and Amy Acuff, both of whom appeared in the September 2004 edition. See Also: Feminism; Pornography/Erotica; Pornography Produced by Women; Third Wave. Further Readings Calvert, C. and R. D. Richards. “Porn in Their Words: Female Leaders in the Adult Entertainment Industry Address Free Speech, Censorship, Feminism, Culture and the Mainstreaming of Adult Content.” Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, v.9/2 (2006). Paul, P. Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. New York: Times Books, 2005. Sarracino, C. and K. M. Scott. The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go from Here. Boston: Beacon Press, 2008. Stark, C. and R. Whisnant, eds. Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography. North Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 2004. Kalen M. A. Churcher Niagara University

Pornography Produced by Women In recent decades, women have been actively diversifying sexual expression in the male-dominated pornography industry by moving from in front of the camera to behind the scenes. By contributing as directors and producers of pornography, in addition to acting, women participating in the pornography industry are now able to professionally construct their visual conceptions of sexuality. Until recently, these femalegenerated conceptions have been strategically overlooked within the modern pornography industry. Due to the fact that this industry derives profit from the continued success of otherwise “masculine-centric” cultural scripts and representations including power, domination, and aggression, the omission of female fantasy within mainstream pornography had become an industry standard. However, as women began developing an interest in the production side of por-

nography, these unchallenged scripts began to shift. Keeping in mind the notion that not all women conceptualize sexuality in the same way, female pornographers project elements of female sexuality that initially draw from common experiences and interpretations, including the absence of violence, women enjoying the sexual encounter, women initiating the sexual encounter, egalitarian lovemaking, and the construction of a narrative. However, as an anti-essentialist form of expression, pornography produced by women does not follow a grand narrative; instead, each film offers a unique interpretation of sexuality, depending on various factors including the director, the production company, and funding. Historically, audiences of pornography have been exposed to a sexual construction made for and by men, but with the inclusion of women as producers of pornography, this historical construction is now being challenged and modified. While most mainstream or traditional pornography constructs an otherwise patriarchal and sexist representation of women, female pornographers claim that they construct a female sexuality that transcends oppression. It is important to note, however, that sexuality is subjective. In other words, one woman’s interpretation of female desire might not match another woman’s. Pornography produced by women, therefore, is not able to represent the sexuality of all women. Rather, it represents a progressive movement toward the inclusion of women’s voices in the pornography industry. As the number of female pornography producers continues to increase, so will the various depictions of female sexuality and desire. Some of the most notable female producers of pornography include Candida Royalle (Femme Productions), Tristan Taormino (Smart Ass Productions), Joanna Angel (Burning Angel), Madison Young (Madison Bound Productions), Shine Louise Houston (Pink & White Productions), Erika Lust (Lust Films), Veronica Hart (works for VCA Pictures), and Dana Dane (Erockatavision). Most of these women have emerged as producers as a result of their experiences as actors within the mainstream industry. For example, Royalle, who claims to be the first woman filmmaker to try to appeal to women viewers, was a successful pornography actor in the 1970s. She later established Femme Productions in 1985 as a way to address the overlooked sexual needs of women by introducing a more loving attitude toward sex and



women. While Royalle’s work falls under the category of pornography, she prefers to refer to her work as “erotica” or “adult entertainment,” due to the otherwise oppositional stance that women take toward traditional pornography. Two of her films include Eyes of Desire (2000) and The Bridal Shower (2003). While female producers of pornography continue to put female desire and sexual empowerment at the forefront of their work, their participation in the pornography industry has been challenged as part of a historical debate between feminism and pornography. While attitudes toward pornography have existed for hundreds of years, it wasn’t until the 1980s that radical feminists began publicly challenging the pornography industry’s incorporation of violence, victimization, and objectification of women. At the same time, however, liberal feminists voiced their support for sexual expression and found radical feminism’s opposition to pornography to place limitations on the construction of women’s sexual liberation. This conflict was part of the Feminist Sex Wars, a larger feminist debate that centered on women, sexuality, and representation. This conflict was never resolved, and there still exists a split within feminism regarding female participation and promotion of pornography. It is important to note, however, that while the feminist movement is not solely responsible for legitimizing female desire, it does offer a helpful theoretical framework for understanding sexuality, marginalization, oppression, and violence. The Feminist Sex Wars illustrate the fact that not all women approach sexuality, desire, or fantasy the same way. Therefore, while female participation in pornography is problematic for many, it is also liberating, helpful, and enjoyable for others. Pornography produced by women has created an opportunity for the construction of female desire in the pornography industry as well as the development of a female audience that feels represented in a more respectful and accurate manner. However, while some female pornographers feel that particular sexual acts, toys (including bondage), or settings may be particularly liberating, other women will continue to find these representations of women destructive and oppressive. As stated earlier, sexuality is subjective and therefore so is pornography, whether or not women produce it.

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See Also: Feminism, American; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in; Pornography/Erotica; Representation of Women; Sex Workers. Further Readings Baumgardner, J. and A. Richards. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000. Cornell, D., ed. Feminism and Pornography. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000. Dworkin, A. Pornography: Men Possessing Women. New York: Plume, 1991. Kipnis, L. Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America. New York: Grove Press, 1996. Milne, C. Naked Ambition. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005. Nagle, J. Whores and Other Feminists. London: Routledge, 1997. Royalle, C. How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do: Sex Advice from a Woman Who Knows. New York: Fireside, 2004. Rachael Liberman University of Colorado at Boulder

Pornography/Erotica The term pornography is a compound of two Greek words: porno, meaning prostitute, and graphos, meaning writing or depiction; erotica is rooted in the Greek word eros, meaning passionate love. The inception of modern pornography is closely tied to technological development. At the forefront of each emerging medium is the application of the technology for producing or distributing pornography, such as printing capabilities in the 18th century and then photography in the 19th century, especially the production and trade of erotic postcards in the 1890s. In the early 20th century, short “stag films” or “loops” were produced on 8mm film. The porn industry took off in the 1970s, when feature-length pornographic films such as Boys in the Sand, Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, Devil in Miss Jones, Score, and Debbie Does Dallas were given X ratings and shown in regular movie theaters. As VHS cassette tape technology was created in the late 1970s and toward the start of the 1980s, this technology became mainstream, bringing pornography into

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private homes in America. Likewise, when DVDs were created and began to replace VHS tapes in the late 1990s, porn producers embraced this new medium. The explosion of the Internet has had a profound effect on the porn industry. Today there is so much pirated pornography available that mainstream studios have given up trying to shut them down and instead provide video-on-demand options on their Websites so viewers can select and download millions of videos from a multitude of Websites onto their personal computers. In 2005, video sales and rentals were $4.28 billion and Internet sales were $2.5 billion. One year later, video sales had dropped to $3.62 and Internet sales increased to $2.84 billion a year. While China, Japan, and South Korea exceed the United States in video sales, the United States is home to about 90 percent of pornographic Websites. Currently, about 80 percent of pornography made in the United States is produced near Los Angeles, California. The major producers in the industry participate in the Adult Video News (AVN) Awards, an awards show held in Las Vegas that celebrates the achievements of producers, directors, and performers. Legal Issues Pornography has been subjected to censorship from three forces: second-wave feminists such as Catherine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, and Gloria Steinem who argue that porn is in itself degrading to women; government agencies supported by conservative politicians; and fundamentalist religious groups such as the Family Research Council. In 1970, President Richard Nixon instigated the “Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography,” emphasizing First Amendment rights to the consumption of pornography by adults and recommendations for education and restriction of access to porn by children. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan commissioned the Meese Report, a 1,960-page document describing the history of pornography, linking the industry to organized crime, and postulating about the negative social effects of pornography on society. Many objections to pornography by these groups attempt to make a causal link between pornography production and consumption and violent behavior such as rape or compulsive sexual behavior, but no empirical research has supported these claims. These groups also object that pornography is easily acces-

sible to minors on the Internet. Some attempts have been made to disambiguate “pornography” from “erotica” in an attempt to codify which materials have artistic merit and are thus acceptable to community standards and which do not. Many legal and academic theorists describe erotic media on a continuum, starting from a “love scene” in a movie that depicts sex between characters, to erotica or softcore porn that features sex as a major theme but does not show explicit penetration, to pornography that is built around a story, to hard-core pornography with little or no plot, to extreme “horror” porn produced mainly for shock value. Many proclaim that sexual stories or narratives of fantasies are erotica, since the written word contains no visually explicit element. One must question whether or not sexual expression and pleasure are as defensible a motivation as artistic or scientific exploration of human sexuality. In the United States, porn performers must be 18 years or older and sign consent forms before working. Currently, pornography producers and directors of mainstream studios follow a set of guidelines developed by attorney Paul Cambria, who represented Hustler magazine for several years. The “Cambria List,” as it is known in the industry, is a list of behaviors that are considered too extreme to show on film and may leave the producers open to obscenity charges. The list is based on prior obscenity convictions during the Bush administration, such as that of Max Hardcore (a.k.a. Paul Little) in 2008; Little was sentenced to four years in prison for charges of obscenity. Safety Concerns In the early 1980s, the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic began to come to the forefront of national consciousness, prompting new health and safety regulations and safer sex outreach. However, this trend did not reach the adult industry until more than a decade later. The Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 by Sharon Mitchell, former adult performer. AIM has become the industry safety standard, regularly testing adult performers for HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and hepatitis. All performers must now produce a negative test from AIM that is less than 30 days old before working. In 2004, four performers were found to have HIV, and



the industry briefly came to a halt. The outbreak was traced to a performer’s sexual contact with someone outside the adult industry. Several companies stated that they would be implementing a condoms-only standard, but by two years later these measures were abandoned. Most straight porn is currently shot without condoms or other safer-sex measures. In April 2010, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, an AIDS advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against nine adult talent agencies, citing unsafe labor practices for exposing employees to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Steven Hirsch, the head of major production company Vivid Entertainment, has stated that if state laws mandate condom use, the porn industry will leave California. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is currently attempting to enact stricter guidelines about “cross-contamination” on porn sets, instructing companies to use red bins labeled “biohazard” for all trash and laundry that has come into contact with bodily fluids. Feminism and Pornography Pornography has fractured modern feminism into two camps: anti-porn feminists who see pornography as entirely exploitative to women (some may favor legal intervention/regulation, others may not be in favor of legislation of pornography but still see it as a social ill) and others who see the potential for pornography to empower women. In 1978, Andrea Dworkin, Adrienne Rich, and others founded Women Against Pornography (WAP), testifying before the Meese Commission about the degradation of women resulting from pornography and demanding laws restricting the production and distribution of porn. In the early 1980s, a countermovement of sexpositive feminists emerged, and in 1982, the Feminist Anti-Censorship Taskforce (FACT) was formulated. These scholars see pornography as a complicated issue of sexual labor, which may exploit women in certain ways just as other labor industries exploit women. These feminists are likely to see pornography as a red herring: a distraction from the creation of opportunities for women such as equal access to healthcare, opportunities in education and career advancement, and representation in top levels of corporations and government.

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This debate has continued to rage for the past several decades. However, the sex-positive movement grew throughout the 1990s and 2000s, resulting in the rise in popularity of feminist pornography led by authors Betty Dodson, Susie Bright, Gayle Rubin, Annie Sprinkle, Carol Queen, Violet Blue, Tristan Taormino, and others. Taormino produces the Chemistry series that mimics popular reality television shows in which several performers spend two days living together and engaging in whatever unscripted sexual behavior they wish while a crew follows them with cameras. Taormino also conducts interviews with the performers, asking them about their sexual preferences, experiences, and desires. This links the production of pornography to feminist ideals in an entirely new way, foregrounding the sexuality of the performers themselves instead of the perceived desires of the audience and allowing them more participation in the production of the films. Good For Her, a feminist sex-toy store in Canada, sponsored the first annual Feminist Porn Awards June 5, 2006, in Toronto, Ontario. To be eligible for consideration of a Feminist Porn Award, a film or other project must meet at least one of the following criteria: (1) a woman is substantially involved with the making of the film, (2) the film depicts genuine female pleasure, (3) the project expands the range of sexual expression for women by showing something new about female sexuality. Race and Sexual Identity In the history of pornography in the United States, racial themes have echoed historical patterns of racial hegemony and have been reproduced through the eroticization of racial transgression. Porn scholars such as Mireille Miller-Young and Celine Parreñas Shimizu are complicating the experience of women in porn by studying the intersections of race and ethnicity in porn. These researchers work within the sex-positive movement to challenge the idea that “women” is a monolithic category, arguing that porn that features only white women is not empowering for all women and describing the widespread erasure of women of color in pornography. Films like Afrodite Superstar, produced by Candida Royalle, and Dangerous Curves by Carlos Batts attempt to disrupt this paradigm and celebrate the sexuality of people of color without exotification. Several directors have

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produced projects including queer women of color, such as Shine Louise Houston of Pink & White Productions, Manuela Sabrosa of Femme Productions, and Courtney Trouble of Nofauxxx Productions. In the first part of the 20th century, “sexploitation” films depicted lesbianism in porn as a transitional time of experimentation in a young girl’s life before she settled down into a heterosexual relationship. The 1968 film The King (director Looney Bear) was the first to address itself to a lesbian audience instead of portraying lesbian sex as deviant, temporary, or inferior to heterosexual activity. In 1970s mainstream theatrical releases such as Behind the Green Door, sex between women was shown as foreplay to heterosexual intercourse. In 1984, the lesbian erotica magazine on our backs was created by Nan Kinney and Debbie Sundahl, who later went on to create Fatale Video, a production company still in the business of making authentic lesbian porn. The 1990s saw an emergence of self-labeled “dyke porn” in San Francisco, portraying female-identified people with bodies of all shapes and sizes having safer sex with each other. Queer or dyke porn is abundant online as well; the Crash Pad Series created by Houston is similar in vision to Taormino’s Chemistry series but depicts transgender, queer, and female-bodied people engaged in various forms of sexual expression. Instructional/Educational A popular trend in feminist pornography has been instructional videos. Nina Hartley has been a prolific source of educational porn videos over the last two decades. Hartley entered the industry in 1984 as a performer and now produces the Nina Hartley’s Guide to… series, including over 30 instructional videos. Carol Queen, sexologist and author of several sex education books, produced one of the most popular instructional videos to date, Bend Over Boyfriend (1998), a guide for male anal penetration for straight couples. Jaiya and Jon Hanauer produce a series for New World Sex Education about sensual massage and Tantric eroticism called Red Hot Touch, as well as a guide for erotic massage during pregnancy. Tristan Taormino, feminist sex educator and author, started a line of educational videos through VividEd (a division of mainstream company Vivid Entertainment) and has produced over 10 award-winning titles.

See Also: Feminism, American; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in; Pornography Produced by Women; Representation of Women; Sex Workers. Further Readings Cornell, D., ed. Feminism and Pornography. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000. Easton, S. M. The Problem of Pornography: Regulation and the Right to Free Speech. London: Routledge, 1994. Kipnis, L. Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America. New York: Grove Press, 1996. Steinem, G. “Erotica and Pornography: A Clear and Present Difference.” Pornography: Private Right or Public Menace? New York: Prometheus Books, 1991. Williams, L., ed. Porn Studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. Emily E. Crutcher University of California, Santa Barbara

Portugal The democratic revolution of 1974 brought Portuguese women a different status and new spheres of social participation. However, the conservative residue in Portuguese society is still affecting women’s lives in terms of health, employment, and access to full citizenship. Several aspects characterize the reproductive health situation of Portuguese women. Although women’s average maternity age has been increasing, mainly as a result of their strong presence in the job market, Portugal is still one of the countries in the European Union with the highest rate of teenage pregnancy. This may be due to a dearth of information on reproductive issues as well as by the cultural importance of the Catholic Church in the country. Nevertheless, there has been a steady increase in the use of contraceptives by Portuguese women, 85 percent of whom used some contraceptive method in 2007. Another aspect affecting women’s health is availability of abortion. Until 2007, abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy was illegal except for certain specific circumstances. This made women revert to clandestine abortions, the main cause of maternal death until then. The liberalization of abortion laws had been greatly debated by political parties, nongovern-



mental organizations and the general population over the previous 10 years and involved the active struggle of many women. The official antiabortion position of the Catholic Church and the media coverage of the trials of women involved in illegal abortions in 2001 and 2004 contributed substantially to both sides of the argument. Portuguese law explicitly recognizes the right to equal opportunities at work and considers sexual discrimination a serious offence. Such a progressive law could explain why Portuguese women have a higher rate of employment within the European Union. However, their wide participation in the job market should be further justified by the rapid growth of the service sector, women’s access to higher education, and the average standard of living of the Portuguese family, which is one of the lowest in the Union. Despite the law, Portuguese women experience gender discrimination in the job market. Not only are women the majority of nonqualified workers, but women who are highly qualified are more likely to follow careers in intellectual fields. Thus they tend to be underrepresented in the higher ranks of the public sector or private companies. In addition, women suffer with unemployment more than men because they are often subject to precarious working contracts. Consequently, they are less protected by social welfare and more exposed to poverty. There also is pay discrimination: in 2004 women earned 80 percent of what men earned. Although most Portuguese women share job responsibilities with their male partners, the same does not happen in the domestic sphere, where there is still a gender asymmetry. As a result, women often balance a paying job with domestic responsibilities and family care. This situation has restricted women’s civic and political participation. Despite these drawbacks, Portuguese society is gradually changing. Important steps have been taken toward women’s emancipation and empowerment in several spheres of the public life (e.g., the 2006 parity law, concerning mixed gender representation in political party lists) and education, namely in terms of access to further education, where women are largely more represented than men. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Equal Pay; Household Division of Labor; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights.

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Further Readings Anderson, James Maxwell. The History of Portugal: (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Disney, A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807. Oxford, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Maria Luisa Coelho University of Minho, Portugal

Post-Abortion Trauma Syndrome Post-abortion trauma syndrome or post-abortion syndrome (PAS) is a term primarily used by antiabortion advocates who posit there is a relationship between abortion and adverse mental health effects in women. It is derived from the term post-traumatic stress disorder and, for women who have had abortions, is said to occur frequently and include longterm consequences such as depression, substance abuse, sexual dysfunction, and/or suicidal tendencies. As outlined below, PAS is important in the current abortion dialog because it is used to argue for more restrictive abortion access. It is important to note that the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and American Psychological Association have found no empirical support for this concept The term PAS originated in 1981 when psychologist Vincent Rue, testifying before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, used it to describe what he perceived as women’s severe reactions to abortion. In 1984, under the Reagan administration, the antiabortion president requested then Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, a known abortion foe, to report on the effects of abortion on women. Despite his personal beliefs, Koop was unable to conclude that abortion had either significant positive or negative effects on women’s health. This finding remains true almost three decades later. Neither the American Psychological Association nor the American Psychiatric Association recognizes PAS as a legitimate condition. Moreover, in 2008 the American Psychological Association released a task-

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force report indicating that while women may experience grief, sadness, or a sense of loss after undergoing one abortion, there is no evidence that these feelings are specifically caused by having had an abortion. Rather, such feelings are generally attributed to preexisting emotions or the woman’s life circumstances influencing the abortion decision. Further evaluations suggest that the studies that are done to demonstrate the existence of PAS are methodologically unsound. A recent survey by Johns Hopkins University scholars Charles, Polis, Sridhara, and Blum found flaws with most investigations conducted between 1989 and 2007 regarding the mental health effects of abortion. They identified two key weaknesses with such studies: the failure to identify what the women’s pregnancy intentions were (i.e., whether the pregnancies were unplanned or unwanted) and the erroneous attribution of cause to certain variables. Specifically, they were critical of studies that found a relationship between having an abortion and adverse mental health effects since such studies failed to explore alternate explanations for women’s emotional health following an abortion. They concluded that the higher-quality studies deduced that there is little or no difference between the mental health of women who had undergone abortions and the comparative group of women who did not terminate their pregnancies. PAS is important to the abortion debate because it is used to argue for antiabortion legislation. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court referenced negative mental health effects as justification for limiting late-term abortions. Such research also is used to implement “informed consent” laws that require women to be given certain information, including disputed medical facts, before having an elective abortion. Such misinformation, like the possibility of experiencing adverse mental health effects, could, as Weitz, Moore, Gordon, and Adler argue, adversely affect the mental health of women who seek elective abortions. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Pro-Life Movement. Further Readings American Psychological Association, Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion. “Report of the Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion 2008.” http://www.apa

.org/pi/wpo/mental-health-abortion-report.pdf (accessed October 2009). Charles, Vignetta E., Chelsea B. Polis, Srinivas K. Sridhara, and Robert W. Blum. “Abortion and Long-Term Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review of the Evidence.” Contraception, v. 78/6 (2008). Cohen, Susan A. “Abortion and Mental Health: Myths and Realities.” Guttmacher Policy Review, August 2006. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/09/3/gpr090308 .html (accessed October 2009). Stotland, Nadia L. “The Myth of the Abortion Trauma Syndrome.” Journal of the American Medical Association, v.268/15 (1992). Weitz, Tracy A., Kirsten Moore, Rivka Gordon, and Nancy Adler. “You say ‘Regret’ and I say ‘Relief ’: A Need to Break the Polemic About Abortion.” Contraception, v.78/2 (2008). Shannon Stettner York University

Postpartum Depression Postpartum depression, also known as postnatal depression, is a form of depression that occurs in the days, weeks or months after childbirth. It can have profound effects on parents, infants and wider family. The prevalence of postpartum depression has been estimated in recently delivered women at between 10 and 15 percent internationally, though far fewer women than this receive treatment. Identifying postpartum depression is a key concern for maternal healthcare professionals. Symptoms Postpartum depression can affect women in different ways. The symptoms can begin soon after the birth and last for several months. Approximately half of all cases of postpartum depression start within the first three-and-three-quarters months within the first six months after childbirth. There is some evidence to suggest that its initial onset may occur beyond six months postpartum and extend well past one year. Symptoms fall into three groups: physical, psychological, and behavioral. Physiological symptoms include difficulty sleeping, low mood for prolonged periods



of time (i.e., a week or more); tearfulness; and physical signs of tension, such as panic attacks, headaches, stomach pains, or blurred vision. A mother’s psychological symptoms can include lack of interest in herself and the new baby; difficulty concentrating; lack of motivation; feeling trapped, lonely, guilty, rejected, or inadequate; and feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope. Finally, behavioral symptoms may include irritability and becoming withdrawn. Postpartum depression can be distinguished from baby or maternity blues, which have milder symptoms, such as feeling sad, anxious, or overwhelmed, having mood swings, crying spells, loss of appetite, or trouble sleeping. These usually begin a few days after birth and end within a couple of weeks without the need for treatment, though women who suffer them are at higher risk of developing postpartum depression than women who do not. Postpartum psychosis, also known as postnatal or puerperal psychosis,

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is a rare but very severe form of postpartum depression. It develops in about 1 or 2 out of 1,000 mothers. Symptoms can include irrational behavior, confusion, hallucinations, and delusions, as well as suicidal or psychotic thoughts. Recently, men have been increasingly identified as suffering from postpartum depression though opinion is divided as to whether their symptoms should be described as such. Risk Factors The causes of postpartum depression are usually multifaceted. Stressful events during pregnancy and birth are associated with depression after birth, and include worry and anxiety about the responsibility of having a new baby, a difficult delivery, money problems, lack of support at home, relationship worries, and not having close family or friends around to help her transition into her new role. Certain groups of women are at higher risk than others, including

Symptoms of postpartum depression can include lack of interest in the new baby; difficulty concentrating; lack of motivation; feeling trapped, lonely, guilty, rejected, or inadequate; and feeling overwhelmed or unable to cope.

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women who have had mental health problems in the past like depression or previous postpartum depression; mothers who have had physical health problems following the birth; younger mothers; women whose pregnancy was unplanned; low-income individuals; those with more children; moms who are not breastfeeding; and women whose child has health problems or has died. As depression tends to run in families, genetics are thought to play a part in postpartum depression, but the exact nature of the link between the condition and genetics is not fully understood. Opinion is divided as to whether the changes in hormone levels that occur during and after pregnancy may directly cause some cases of postpartum depression or whether they cause a set of symptoms similar to postpartum depression. Diagnosis To identify possible cases of postpartum depression women may undergo a full clinical interview, but shorter screening instruments are commonly used in both clinical and epidemiological settings. These include the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), a dedicated 10-item postpartum depression screening. The EPDS is composed of 10 questions that ask mothers about their feelings over the past seven days, which are scored, summed, and compared to thresholds for caseness. Other dedicated tools such as the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) and its shorter form, PDSS-SF, also have been developed. More general screening tools commonly used include the General Health Questionnaire screening for nonpsychiatric morbidity, a 60-item questionnaire commonly found in shortened versions of 30 and 12 questions, respectively, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Healthcare professionals often ask a smaller selection (possibly just two or three) of such questions or discuss the general topics of feelings rather than directly asking all the questions from any tool. Treatment Many women do not seek or receive treatment for postpartum depression. Treatment will depend on the severity of the depression and the mother’s situation. Treatments include support and self-help, counseling for milder depression, psychological therapy for moderate depression, and antidepressants for moderate

and severe depression. Treatment to raise low levels of thyroid hormone also may be given where indicated. Women with postpartum psychosis generally require specialist psychiatric treatment and medication. Self-help and support groups may include support online and by telephone as well as face to face, providing encouragement and advice on how to cope. Some women also benefit from sessions with a trained counselor. Support from family and friends might include both talking about feelings as well as practical support and childcare. Physical exercise may help, too. Some of the symptoms of postpartum depression, such as low mood, poor sleep, difficulty concentrating, and irritability, are often reduced with antidepressants, though they do not work immediately and not all types of antidepressants are suitable for breastfeeding mothers. Many mothers are keen to continue breastfeeding because they feel that it helps them to bond with their child and boosts their self-esteem and confidence in their maternal abilities. Psychological treatment, including cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy may be considered. For moderate depression, the proportion of people who improve with cognitive behavioral therapy is similar to those given antidepressants. Psychological treatments may not be as useful for some people with severe depression because motivation is required for these treatments and people with severe depression often find motivation difficult. Psychological treatments may not be practical for women with postpartum depression because of the time commitments required. Computer-based cognitive behavioral therapy may be available or via telephone using interactive voice response systems or the Internet. Some research suggests that a combination of an antidepressant plus a psychological treatment may be better than either treatment alone. See Also: Depression; Health, Mental and Physical; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Postpartum Psychosis. Further Readings Kleiman, Karen R. Therapy and the Postpartum Woman: Notes on Healing Postpartum Depression for Clinicians and the Women Who Seek Their Help. London: Routledge, 2008.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Postpartum Depression.” http://www.womenshealth .gov/mh/conditions/postpartum.cfm (accessed June 2010). U.S. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence “Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health: Clinical Management and Service Guidance.” http://www.nice .org.uk/CG45 (accessed June 2010). Nicola Shelton University College London

Postpartum Psychosis Only experienced by one or two women out of 1,000, postpartum psychosis (PPP) is a rare and extreme form of postpartum mood disorders and is seen in women who lose touch with reality shortly after birth. Usually occurring during the first three months after childbirth, women with PPP are often misdiagnosed with postpartum depression (PPD), a less severe form of PPP. The defense attorneys for Andrea Yates—in her highly publicized 2001 case about the drowning of her five young children in a bathtub—built a case around PPP. Yates was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a Texas state mental hospital. The number of women with PPP has not changed since it was first recognized as a disorder in 1850. PPP is thought to be caused by a number of possible events, such as hormone changes after birth, low self-esteem due to postpartum appearance, lack of social and emotional support, financial strain, and a host of other factors. PPP has a 5 percent suicide rate and a 4 percent infanticide rate. Women who have a personal and/or family history of psychosis, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia are at an increased risk of developing PPP. Those who have had past experience with PPP are between 20 and 50 percent more likely to develop the condition again. There are a number of symptoms and signs that a woman is experiencing PPP, but the best course of action is to seek urgent help from a healthcare professional, since PPP can often be treated with immediate medical attention. Symptoms often develop during the first two to three weeks after birth, and can include guilt, delusions, hallucinations, illogical

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thoughts, refusal to eat or drink, insomnia, suicidal or homicidal thoughts, periods of mania, extreme feelings of anxiety and agitation, and the inability to distinguish reality from imagination. Women with PPP are often misdiagnosed as having PPD and suffer from a lack of adequate treatment. Some women are unaware that anything is seriously wrong, misinterpreting their feelings as the “baby blues,” and thus find it difficult to consult a physician. PPP is typically treated with antipsychotic medications, which may be combined with antidepressants or antianxiety drugs, and also may benefit from individual psychotherapy or group therapy. With proper treatment, women with PPP usually recover. Without proper treatment, a woman can be hospitalized for failure to adequately care for herself and her child. See Also: Anxiety Disorders; Depression; Health, Mental and Physical; Infanticide; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Postpartum Depression; Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of; Suicide Rates; Yates, Andrea. Further Readings McNamara, Melissa. “Andrea Yates Found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity; Will Be Committed to State Mental Hospital.” http://www.cbsnews.com /stories/2006/07/26/national/main1837248.shtml (accessed November 2009). Pregnancy Info.net. “Post-Partum Psychosis.” http://www .pregnancy-info.net/postpartum_psychosis.html (accessed November 2009). Valerie R. Stackman Howard University

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Female Military Since the early 2000s, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has increasingly become part of people’s consciousness around the world, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. This can be partially attributed to the impact of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A new openness about the experiences of people involved in these conflicts has brought attention to the complexities of PTSD. Individuals develop PTSD after

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experiencing a single or series of traumatic events that often involve death, threat of death, or serious physical or psychological injury, including threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others. For men in the military, the most common cause of PTSD is experience in combat, and while this can happen for women as well, the majority of women develop PTSD from experiences related to military sexual trauma (MST). Underreporting and Uneven Participation The number of veterans and people still serving in the military with PTSD is unknown. Estimates range from 5 to 10 percent of all men and 10 to 30 percent of all women veterans in the United States have PTSD, compared to 4 percent of the British military. These approximations are limited, as many are based on self-reporting to medical personnel within the government or at government supported facilities versus people seeking care via private healthcare providers as well as people who do not seek treatment. Information on women serving in the military is limited in comparison to men, partly due to the fact that women’s participation in the armed services varies around the world. For example, one report noted that Nepal claims a 30 percent participation rate, while nations such as Argentina or France record less than 10 percent of the military as being female. Traditionally, women serve in service-support positions rather than in occupations that are directly combat related. Only 10 countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland— allow women to serve in active combat roles, while the United Kingdom and the United States permit women to serve in combat arms (but not direct combat) positions. Additionally, scarce information is available regarding women involved in organizations or movements that are categorized as rebellions or resistance movements, yet these often mirror traditional military structures. Substantial research does exist on women developing PTSD due to their experience as civilians in a war zone. Similar to people who get PTSD as civilians, it is believed that most people with PTSD go undiagnosed and therefore untreated. PTSD itself has existed for centuries but was labeled and described differently than it is today. During the Civil War it was called “soldier’s heart;” in

World War I it was “shell shock,” and in World War II it became known as “battle fatigue” or “combat fatigue.” While many studies have focused on PTSD related to the impact of trauma due to accidents, various forms of violence, and natural disasters and the impact of war on civilians, the vast amount of research on the connections of PTSD related to the military focus on males in combat zones. Studies related to women’s experiences particularly connected to MST (as well as men experiencing MST) are quite recent and limited in scope. Diagnosing PTSD There are six main criteria in diagnosing an individual with PTSD. The person’s response to the trauma must involve helplessness, intense fear or horror, and a persistent reexperiencing of the event, which can occur as dreams, images, thoughts, or perceptions. Some individuals may feel or act as if the event was recurring, and this can take the form of flashbacks, illusions, or hallucinations. Additionally, individuals avoid conversations, feelings, and thoughts associated with the trauma and tend to avoid activities, places, and people that may make them recall the event; many are unable to remember important aspects of the trauma. Avoidance behavior also includes an inability or lack of interest in maintaining intimate relationships, diminished interest or participation in significant activities, and feelings of disassociation or detachment from others. Hyperarousal is another symptom: this includes outbursts of anger, an exaggerated startle response, and difficulty concentrating, sleeping, or staying awake. Many of these symptoms—intrusive recollection, avoidance or numbing and hyper-arousal—must occur for longer than one month for an individual to be diagnosed with PTSD. Lastly, these symptoms must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. If these symptoms last less than three months, a person is diagnosed with acute PTSD; if it is longer than three months, then the PTSD is considered to be chronic. Women have been involved in the military both as civilians and military personnel since military organizations have existed. Often, women serve in auxiliary units and their integration is limited to select, largely noncombat positions. In some countries, such



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as Israel, women are subjected to the draft just as men are but often are excluded due to religious regions, marital status, or if they are pregnant or have children. As of the mid-2000s women served in over 80 percent of available positions. Since the rise of feminism and shifts in culture in many industrialized nations, women have become more integrated into military structures. Due to changes in warfare, particularly in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, despite official policy many women are serving in combat zones, often as guards, construction workers, or drivers throughout Afghanistan and Iraq. MST and Low Reporting Rates While all women face potential discrimination, many who experience discrimination or MST are in positions where there are few women and are of a lower rank. MST is an umbrella term representing a range of behaviors, such as rape, attempted rape, and various forms of force and sexual harassment, including intimidation and abuse of authority. Similar to PTSD, women experience fear related to their personal and psychological safety as well as their career. Due to military structures, MST represents a deep betrayal of trust, as often the perpetrator is someone they are reliant on for their job and perhaps their safety. Research and anecdotes have shown that men often discount reports of rape or harassment, and the military structure is not designed to recognize or end sexual misconduct or gender-related violence within the ranks. Some research has suggested that approximately 90 percent of all women serving in the United States have experienced discrimination or harassment based on gender. Additionally, many women also are subjected to inappropriate behaviors or discrimination based on race or ethnicity or speculation that they may be lesbian or bisexual; this can add an additional level of fear and hostility in militaries that ban homosexuality or bisexuality. Military structures around the world have recognized PTSD; the sophistication and level of the response is largely cultural. For many countries that have strong gender integration in the military, the need for services for PTSD is recognized but reportedly low. As of 2010, the United States has the widest array of information and research available regarding PTSD for military personnel and veterans; countries such as Canada, Australia, and Britain

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reference U.S. sources for information. This is possibly due to greater need in the United States due to involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Widespread reluctance to report assault and other forms of misconduct continues, as the burden of proving these behaviors remains placed on the victim, and the stigmas associated with this can cause someone to be outcast from their fellow soldiers and can negatively impact a woman’s career. Many countries report offering education and training programs as well as counseling, but the impact of these programs is difficult to determine. For some countries, PTSD is not widely recognized, which could be an indicator of limited cases but also a lack of acknowledgment of the extent of people suffering from it. Research has shown that the main cause of PTSD in women, even if they have experienced combat on some level, is military sexual trauma. Many women have experienced MST and developed PTSD from serving in noncombat related positions throughout the entire time women have been in the military. However, research examining veterans who served before the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is sparse. Studies have found that while women are more likely to seek services for MST and PTSD, many have found military services to be a barrier to care. One example is the trend in the U.S. military in which men and women are being diagnosed as having pre-existing conditions that are attributed to causing their PTSD, thus limiting or eliminating their access to benefits or services. Many women who enter the military have experienced various forms of assault, abuse, and discrimination before joining. Knowing that they will likely have to fight for a proper diagnosis, many women simply seek help outside of the military or government-sponsored healthcare services, even though they’ve earned the benefits. Many women also face lack of full recognition of their contributions to the military, largely because most societies recognize men as veterans and tend to honor men with combat experience over others who have served. This creates yet another barrier to care and resistance to recognizing the need for treatment. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Military, Women in the; Rape in Conflict Zones; Sexual Harassment.

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Further Readings Benedict, H. The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq. Boston: Beacon Press, 2009. Herman, J. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Himmelfarb, N., D. Yeager, and J. Mintz. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Female Veterans with Military and Civilian Sexual Trauma.” Journal of Traumatic Stress, v.19/6 (2006). Hotopf, M., et al. “The Health of UK Military Personnel who Deployed to the 2003 Iraq War: A Cohort Study.” The Lancet, v.367 (2006). Kelly, M. M., D. S. Vogt, E. M. Scheiderer, P. Ouimette, J. Daley, and J. Wolfe. “Effects of Military Trauma Exposure on Women Veterans’ Use and Perceptions of Veterans Health Administration Care.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, v.23/6 (2008). Yeager, D., N. Himmelfarb, A. Cammack, and J. Mintz. “DSM-IV Diagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Women Veterans With and Without Military Sexual Trauma.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, v.21/65,69. (2006). Kristina Wolff University of Maine, Farmington

Poverty Globally as well as in America, women are more likely to be poor than men. In fact, America has the largest gap in the Western world between men and women in poverty across all racial groups. This disparity exists in spite of substantial gains made by women over the last 40 years. Almost 63 percent of American women are the primary or co-primary source of income for their family; yet an American woman is 35 percent more likely to be poor than an American man. The economic downturn that began in 2007 strained many good-paying jobs for both men and women. Women in particular were caught in a bind; the availability of lower-paying pink-collar jobs (e.g., secretarial and customer-service oriented jobs) remained strong. However, women in these positions continued to face discrimination and inadequate

social policies, ensuring that they remained trapped in a cycle of poverty. Goals Face Demographic Obstacles Women fare worse when examining their standing in the world writ large. Over half of the food in the world is produced by women, even though they own less than 1 percent of the land. Educational opportunities, including reproductive health education, escape young women, resulting in high rates of pregnancyrelated deaths. The general lack of social standing and extremist discrimination behaviors (e.g., genital mutilation, honor killings) force women into a life of poverty that is difficult, if not impossible, to overcome. To date the most comprehensive and universally agreed-upon strategic initiative to eliminate poverty is the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight goals to reduce global poverty by 2015. Adopted in 2000, the MDGs’ aim to reduce global poverty by 50 percent. Gender equity in primary and secondary education is one of the eight goals; subgoals include an increase in female workforce participation and increases in elected positions held by women globally. The MDGs’ initiative is important, not only because of its international acceptance and implementation but because it provides a largely comprehensive approach to eradicating poverty. The one area lacking in the MDGs is the growing aging population. Globally by 2045, people over age 60 will outnumber children. This population shift will produce profound changes in international policy and healthcare. Fifty-five percent of the aging population are women, and almost 65 percent of the 80-plus year-olds are women. Elderly women often find themselves in double jeopardy, suffering discrimination because of their age and their gender. Overcoming the high poverty rates for women around the world is difficult when women face immediate discrimination at birth. For example, only 26 percent of older women in China can read and write, compared to 66 percent of older men. Such lack of formative training has resulted in a higher percentage of elderly women working into their retirement years than men across the globe. International pressure prompted Japan to enact gender equity in the workplace in the mid-1980s, but it has proved largely symbolic, as a substantial pay gap remains. The Euro-



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A homeless woman in Porto City, Portugal. As they tend to be the primary caregivers for children and the elderly, women are particularly vulnerable to poverty and homelessness, especially women of color.

pean Union, particularly in Portugal and Italy, has a better track record on the pay gap, but much remains to be done. Women across the world are unable to accumulate wealth because in every advanced industrialized nation, women still earn less than men for equal work. The passage of time has done little to close the discrimination gap; in fact, the UN recently reported that global discrimination is worsening rather than abating. Gender Disparity and Ethnic Disadvantages In the United States, the poverty rate has fluctuated since the late 1950s. Although the poverty level is updated yearly to account for inflation, the method to calculate poverty levels has largely remained unchanged since 1964 when the yearly cost of food, along with family size and a few additional variables, determined poverty status. While food was the major area of expense up through the 1960s, that is no longer the case; accordingly, many scholars believe a new poverty formula should be created.

The poverty trap is particularly harmful to women; as primary caregivers for children and aging parents, women are overrepresented in single parent households, and women and people of color are over-represented in poverty figures. From 2000 to 2008, the most current data available, the poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million Americans—the highest since 1997. Women, in particular women of color, are most likely to live in poverty; in fact, women in general are more likely to be poor than men in any racial or ethnic group. In 2008, 59 percent of adults (18 years and older) living in poverty were women. Especially hard hit are single-women (including those divorced or widowed) households where over 28 percent reside in poverty, compared to 5.5 percent of married women. Compared with men and married women, single women are disproportionately more likely to live at or below the poverty level. Numerous factors account for this disparity. Overall in 2008, women earned around 77 percent of their

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male counterparts—down 1 percentage point from the prior year. Single women of color, 30 percent of African Americans, and almost 30 percent of Hispanic women, live in poverty—compared to 18 percent of Caucasian single women. Women of color make less than 70 cents per dollar made by men in general. These income disparities are largely unchanged since the 1960s. Further hampering financial security, women are less likely to receive unemployment benefits than men. Women are also more likely to suffer hiring discrimination and when hired for lower-paying jobs. In addition, pregnancy affects work-cohesion and the return to work. Being female and having children doubly increases the likelihood of living in poverty, termed the “pauperization of motherhood.” Childcare and caring for elderly parents disproportionately falls to women; termed the “sandwich generation,” many women hold full-time employment outside the home and complete a second shift of unpaid caregiving at home. And, variable child support from fathers further hampers the likelihood single women will stay out of poverty. Further, domestic violence has been shown a primary cause of female homelessness. The income disparity between men and women continues throughout the lifespan, where the risk for poverty for women more than doubles after age 65. In part, the wage gap over the collective years of working produces lower savings and pension benefits. On average, women over 65 live on 57 percent of the annual income of their male counterparts. Maleheaded households on average exist on 62 percent more income than female-headed households. African American–headed households live on 26 percent less than white–headed households in general. The marriage-income disparity continues throughout the golden years as well, where married households live on twice the income of single households. Education positively influences yearly income in all households with one major exception: full-time working women have closed and exceeded the education gap with men yet still earn less for the same work. What the Future Holds Looking toward the future highlights a mixed bag of possibilities. Recently, white and Latina women have made strides in reducing the wage gap with men. The opportunities for voice, discussed earlier, are likely to coalesce in future gains for women. It is uncertain

whether pink-collar jobs will provide higher pay even though women have gained greater access to education and the labor market over the last 30 to 40 years. Some calculations suggest that simply eliminating the pay gap would cut poverty rates in half. However, increases in nontraditional work hours place additional economic demands on women who utilize daycare and other caregiving services. A lack of access to reproductive health services presents another obstacle to some women. Although the birth control pill celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 2010, many parts of Africa have yet to receive the pill or find the $1-permonth price tag too costly. Further, the overworked woman has less time for what has traditionally been female-oriented services, such as volunteering and at-home healthcare. This growing lack of unpaid work by women trickles down through nonprofits and community-based organizations, those most likely to depend on female volunteers, negatively affecting productivity within local communities. Further, home care remains the responsibility of women even when they are engaged in paid work outside the home. Reducing the gender disparity in poverty will likely necessitate policy changes, educational opportunities, and stringent domestic violence legislation, along with increased social support services such as child care and parental leave. The opportunity for these types of policy changes has increased substantially since the 1970s, as the number of women holding elected office at state, national, and international levels has increased. Some examples in the United States include the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in the early 1990s, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993, and the Lilly Ledbetter Act in 2009. Globally, the adoption of the UN-originated Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women act has unfortunately done little to end discrimination or violence against women. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Antifeminism; Attainment, College Degree; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Equal Rights Amendment; Financial Independence of Women; Government, Women in; Household Division of Labor; Lilly Ledbetter Act; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Single Mothers; Unpaid Labor; Working Mothers.

Poverty, “Feminization” of

Further Readings Arrichi, Barbara and David Maume, eds. Families and Children: Child Poverty in America Today. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Chen, Martha, Joann Vanek, Francie Lund, and James Heintz. Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work, & Poverty. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women, 2005. Pierson, Christopher. Beyond the Welfare State: The New Political Economy of Welfare. Malden, MA: Policy Press, 2006. Royce, Edward. Power and Poverty: The Problem of Structural Inequality. Plymouth, UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2009. U.S. Census Bureau. “Poverty.” http://www.census.gov /hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html (accessed July 2010). Dana K. Bagwell Memory Health and Fitness Institute

Poverty, “Feminization” of The feminization of poverty is a concept developed and popularized by Diana Pearce and other gender scholars to capture the alarming increase in the proportion of U.S. women with minor children living in poverty in the post–World War II years. In 1960, female heads of household with no husband present were about one-fourth of poor families; by the 1980s, women with minor children were a majority of America’s poor, with three-fifths of poor families headed by women and nearly half of single-mother families classified as poor. Feminist scholars have emphasized the relationships among the family, the state, and the labor market in the feminization of poverty. They argue that the gendered division of labor—reproductive and productive work, both paid and unpaid—is deeply embedded in welfare state policies. Thus, trends in the feminization of poverty must be understood in relationship to the welfare state, which can reinforce traditional gender ideologies or offer resources that can potentially empower women. Global comparisons in welfare state policies, work inequality, and family demographics reveal that the feminization of poverty is not a universal phenomenon. Countries with family-friendly social

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and economic policies have lower rates of poverty and do not display the same trends in female poverty. Women’s Poverty in the United States Heidi Hartman’s Women, Work, and Poverty (2005), written for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), documents the changing impact of family, marriage, motherhood, work, and welfare reform on trends in women’s poverty. Marital dissolution and the burdens of single parenting have played a key role in the feminization of poverty since the 1960s. This trend has historically intersected with labormarket dynamics, particularly limited work opportunities for low-skilled women, and with increasingly restrictive welfare policies that make it difficult for poor women to escape poverty. Although the overall levels of women’s poverty have not changed substantially in the United States since the 1960s, women’s lives have changed dramatically. This suggests that the causes of women’s poverty may also be changing. Central among these changes is the employment revolution, reflected in a turn from marriage for economic security to the labor market. While most women have adjusted to the changing location of their support, a female under class remains trapped in poverty. The IWPR report concluded that improving conditions in the wage economy holds greater promise for female economic independence than a return to marriage as a primary means of support. This change, however, would need to be accompanied by increased opportunities and support for education and training of working women. In 1996, the United States passed the most sweeping welfare reform policy in its history. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) restricted social support services and welfare income for low-income women with children. Federal guidelines limited lifetime support from Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), formerly known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, to a total of five years. States were, at the same time, granted the freedom to restrict benefits further in order to conform to mandated budget cuts and reductions to welfare rolls. Ellen Reese, in Backlash Against Welfare Mothers (2005), documented that many states in the south and southwest—particularly those with high levels of agricultural, low-wage industries and large minority populations—restricted continuous

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benefits to two years and denied benefits for additional children born to a recipient under “child exclusion” or “family cap” policies. Reese attributed these strict and punitive regional practices to a politics of race, class, and gender. She wrote that low-wage employers with business interests built powerful lobbies and alliances with the white middle and working classes by mobilizing racist, classist, and sexist attitudes prevalent in these regions. The welfare reforms were exacerbated by the disproportionate number of single mothers and the demographics of women on welfare, which showed they were below the general population in education and job skills. Increasing sanctions under stricter guidelines resulted in removing women from welfare rolls and/or denying benefits outright, particularly to legal immigrants and minority women. Under PRWORA “work first” policies were implemented that require women to secure employment and/or enroll in vocational training or educational programs prior to receiving benefits. The goal is to encourage women to quickly make the transition from welfare to work. However, the low earnings from the types of jobs women are forced to take and their inability to complete education or training within restrictive time limits have clearly undermined the self-sufficiency goals of the new policies. Problems for low-income women are magnified further when TANF benefits are stopped, as women typically lose other social and economic supports such as subsidized childcare, housing, and medical services. The benefits of gaining full employment are thus offset by the losses of these other supports. Although the welfare rolls have radically declined since the passage of PRWORA, the depth and extent of the feminization of poverty have not. Between 1996 and 2002, welfare cases declined from 4.5 million families to 2.1 million families. However, most recipients who left welfare for work remained poor and were earning poverty wages. Many were forced to seek housing and support from families or homeless shelters. With declines in the economy and the increasing scarcity of both jobs and welfare, families with children comprised a growing proportion, about 40 percent, of the nation’s homeless and 59 percent of those seeking emergency food. Approximately one-third of former welfare recipients continued to cycle between welfare and work. In the same period, the depth of poverty increased sharply, by 23 per-

cent, even after adjusting for inflation. While welfare caseloads declined in this period, the poverty rates of single, working mothers and child poverty rates did not. The child poverty rates in the United States remain the highest among the industrialized countries. Clearly, while the “work first” philosophy was intended to create more self-sufficiency, it presumes wrongly that any job is better than no job. A stratum of women with children remains trapped in poverty; there are limited resources available to these women to rise above poverty levels from low-wage employment in dead-end jobs. By severely restricting benefits, PRWORA created many obstacles for welfare mothers who want to pursue the American dream through sustained education and training. Global Comparisons Between the 1960s and 1980s, Goldberg and Kremen found among seven advanced industrialized countries that economic inequality by gender was present across nations and the feminization of poverty was not. The major factors explaining this included changing demographics, labor markets, equalization policies, and social welfare. In each of the countries studied, except for Japan, there were increases in the levels of single motherhood due to changing family demographics. The occupational concentration of women in low-wage jobs and female-male earnings differentials were associated with greater increases in poverty rates among female-headed households. Insufficient governmental commitment to equalization policies, publicly supported childcare, and the underrepresentation of women in policymaking bodies were similarly related to higher levels of growth in female poverty. Unlike other countries, the United States has both high rates of female-headed households and labor market earnings inequality along with weak social support programs designed to offset the absence of economic earnings, such as paid family leave, universal family allowances, public childcare, or rent subsidies. In global comparisons, both Japan and Sweden revealed different trends in the feminization of poverty than the United States., but for very different reasons. The gender earnings gap is highest in Japan, and Japan has very minimal social assistance and income transfer programs to benefit women. However, Japan has low rates of single motherhood—about onefourth of those in the United States and Sweden. Very



few women in Japan can risk divorce, given the limited prospects for economic independence through labor market employment. Single women in Japan are at the highest risk of poverty of any of the countries studied. Should separation and divorce rates increase in Japan, as they have in other industrialized countries, Japan is ill equipped to offset the economic consequence for women and children. Sweden is perhaps the country that has shown the greatest success in severing the tie between single motherhood and poverty. American single parents, for instance, are six times as likely to be poor as their Swedish counterparts. This is due to a combination of labor market and social welfare policies in support of gender equity and families. Canada shows lower trends in female poverty than the United States, but the rates are increasing with the growth of single motherhood. Today, single-mother families comprise about 40 percent of all poor families in Canada. Like the United States, Canada has high rates of occupational sex segregation, female unemployment, and earnings differentials between men and women. While Canada has more liberal social support programs than the United States, in recent years Canada has moved toward more restrictive social welfare policies. Finally, although conclusive data is absent, in France and the socialist countries of Poland and the former Soviet Union, female poverty has not been as prevalent as it is in the United States. France has more generous social support programs than Canada, the United States, or Japan and relatively low rates of single-parent households. However, women in France have experienced consistently high unemployment rates since the 1960s. In the socialist countries of Poland and the former Soviet Union, women tend to work full time and have paid maternity leaves, yet they still work in low-paying occupations. The wage gap is wider than in Canada and France and about the same (or slightly better) than in the United States. Even though overall economic resources are lower in these countries, social programs are much more extensive than in the United States, which provide a safety net against grinding poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Future Prospects Clearly, trends in the feminization of poverty are greatest in countries that have higher disparities in labor market earnings between women and men and

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fewer social support programs that transfer earnings and benefits to single-parent families. Although the growth of single-parent households is typical in most industrialized countries, it is unlikely that a return to marriage and the traditional family will solve problems related to the growing numbers of women and children living in poverty. Only the most advanced welfare states have been successful in eliminating female poverty through family-friendly and generous government transfer programs. However, even in countries like Sweden, women experience social and economic inequality. Thus, any successful antipoverty program must be centered in policies that address the inequality of women both in the workplace and in the family. Such a perspective targets both the work and familial roles and contributions that women make to society as single heads of households. Subsidized and widely available quality childcare, paid maternity and parental leave, and part-time work with benefits and family allowances can reduce some of the burdens of parenthood. Similarly, a parent could be compensated for providing childcare as paid employment, thereby eliminating the artificial distinction between reproductive and productive work. Programs that target single parents, such as government-assured child support, also are used successfully in many countries, both to enforce childsupport payments and to subsidize inadequate child support. In the workplace, policies that enlarge women’s employment opportunities, including affirmative action and equal pay policies, are necessary to address systematic earnings inequality embedded in segregated job markets. Ultimately, the prevention of the feminization of poverty will require a combination of reformed workplace and social welfare policies. How such strategies, programs and policies are combined will vary in different countries based on their unique histories and cultures. See Also: Childcare; Children’s Rights; Divorce; Educational Opportunities/Access; Effect of Unpaid Labor on Educational Attainment; Equal Pay; Equal Rights Amendment; Gender Quotas in Government; Global Feminism; Household Division of Labor; Marriage; Parental Leave; Parental Leave Act; PartTime Work; Poverty; Representation of Women in Government, International; Working Mothers.

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Further Readings Edin, Kathryn and Laura Lein. Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. Edin, Kathryn and Maria Kefalas. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005. Goldberg, Gertrude Schaffner and Eleanor Kremen. The Feminization of Poverty: Only in America? Westport, CT: Praeger, 1990. Hartman, Heidi. Women, Work, and Poverty: Women Centered Research for Policy Change. New York: Haworth Political Press, 2005. Hays, Sharon. Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pearce, Diana. “The Feminization of Ghetto Poverty,” Society, v.1 (1983). Pearce, Diana. “The Feminization of Poverty: Women, Work, and Welfare.” Urban and Social Change Review, v.11 (1978). Pearce, Diana. “Welfare Is Not for Women: Why the War on Poverty Cannot Conquer the Feminization of Poverty,” Linda Gordon, ed. Women, the State, and Welfare. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. Piven, Frances Fox. “Ideology and the State: Women, Power, and the Welfare State. In Linda Gordon, ed., Women, the State, and Welfare. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. Reese, Ellen. Backlash Against Welfare Mothers: Past and Present. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Vicky M. MacLean Middle Tennessee State University

Pregnancy Examining pregnancy from a global viewpoint reveals marked differences in this universal event. Major differences include access to vital healthcare including contraception, prenatal care, safe abortion, and skilled birth attendants. Another stark difference is that while women are at risk of dying from complications of pregnancy and birth all around the world, lifetime risk varies drastically by country and within countries based on socioeconomic factors. To gain a

snapshot of the different experiences of pregnancy around the world, this article begins by examining global statistics on pregnancy and recent demographic trends including fertility rates, maternal age, nonmarital childbearing rates, and maternal mortality. A woman’s culture plays an integral role in her pregnancy, and thus cultural variations in advice and birthing are discussed, followed by discussion of the physical and psychological experience of pregnancy. Becoming Pregnant In 2008, there were 208 million pregnancies worldwide—40 percent were unintended. One in five pregnancies ends in induced abortion, with 48 percent of these occurring under unsafe conditions. The number of abortions has declined worldwide between 1995 and 2003, with the greatest decrease occurring in developed countries. Abortion rates are similar whether residing in developed (26 per 1,000) or developing (29 per 1,000) countries and whether abortion is legal or illegal. In developing countries where abortion is generally legal, 92 percent are safe, while 60 percent of abortions in Asia and 95 percent in Africa and Latin America are considered unsafe. There are many consequences of unsafe abortion, including 13 percent of maternal deaths worldwide (70,000 maternal deaths per year, which results in 220,000 children losing their mothers each year), and an estimated 5 million women are hospitalized each year due to unsafe abortion-related consequences such as hemorrhage and sepsis. A major factor in the high percentage of unintended preganancies is a woman’s ability to control her fertility. In 2009, an estimated 215 million women worldwide did not have access to modern contraceptives, which is critical in the ability to plan family size. In developing countries, the majority of women who have unintended pregnancies (82 percent) had an unmet need for contraceptives. Other factors associated with unintended pregnancy are maternal/paternal education, poverty status, inaccurate sex education, improper use of contraceptives, and race/ethnicity. For example, in the United States, women of color have much higher rates of unintended pregnancy. While some women are unable to prevent the number of pregnancies they have, other women are struggling with infertility. For women with financial resources or health insurance coverage, infertility



treatment is an option. Advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART) have led to an increased success rate of approximately 36 percent live births in 2006, meaning that for the majority of women who undergo ART, it will not be successful. In vitro fertilization (IVF) occurs around the world, but restrictions on the number of embryos that are allowed to be implanted differ by country, as do costs. ART success rates differ based on number of embryos, age, hormones needed, underlying cause of infertility, and ethnicity. Pregnancy that results from ART is associated with a higher rate of multiple pregnancies and consequent health issues for mothers and infants. Fertility Rates The average fertility rate worldwide is 2.6 live offspring, with ranges from a low of 1.3 in Europe and Japan to an average over 7 in some African countries. Fertility rates are highest in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In developing countries, there has been increased recognition of the socioeconomic burden of high fertility rates, and population growth is decreasing in some areas. Delayed childbirth and lower fertility rates are associated with increased schooling for girls, access to safe and reliable contraception, increased work opportunities for women, marrying at older ages, and less economic incentives for multiple children (including lower infant mortality rates). Fertility is lower in developed countries because women tend to marry later, contraception is widespread and consists of several reliable choices, abortion is legal and safe, and many educated women delay having a family to establish their careers first. In addition to lower fertility rates, maternal age at first birth has risen in many developed countries; in the United States it rose to 25, and in Switzerland it is now 29. Birth rates in older age groups have also been increasing as a result of both delaying motherhood and second marriages. In the United States, pregnancy rates in age groups technically considered of advanced maternal age (over 35) have increased sharply since 1990. The birth rates increased 57 percent for women aged 35–39, over 70 percent for women aged 40–44, and tripled for women aged 45–49. Since women’s fertility begins to decline in their 30s and fertility problems increase after age 35, in some cases these pregnancies are the result of ART. Increased maternal age is associated with a higher risk of medical problems

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including hypertension and diabetes, increased rates of miscarriages, prematurity and low birth weight of the infants, and higher rates of birth defects and chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome and autism. However, older mothers tend to have higher income and better education, which are associated with improved outcomes. Teen Pregnancy Around the world, teen pregnancy rates have declined and currently account for 1 in 10 births. Approximately one-third of these pregnancies are not planned or wanted. Rates of teen pregnancy (out of 1,000 teenage girls) range from 2.9 in South Korea to 143 in sub-Saharan Africa, and in most of Latin America one-third of girls are teenage mothers. Economically impoverished countries like Niger have higher teen pregnancy rates (233 per 1,000), while wealthy countries like Japan have very low rates (4 per 1,000). Poverty is also linked to higher rates within developed countries. For instance, in Italy the poorest area has a rate of 10 per 1,000, while the richest has 3.3 per 1,000; in the United Kingdom, over half of all teen pregnancies occur among the 30 percent most impoverished individuals. Interpretations of teen pregnancy differ by country and are dependent on cultural norms. In developing countries, there may be no social stigma associated with teen pregnancy, and it often occurs within marriage. For example, in Niger, 87 percent of girls are married by age 18 and 53 percent of them have given birth by 18. Factors associated with teenage pregnancy in developing countries include early marriage, traditional gender roles, poverty, lack of sex education, and lack of access to safe and reliable contraception and abortion. In many developed countries, teen pregnancy is seen as a social problem, and research has associated it with poorer life outcomes including higher risk of lifetime poverty. The highest rate of teen pregnancy in developed countries occurs in the United States, which has a rate twice as high as any other developed country. Japan and South Korea have the lowest rates. There has been a recent uptick in the U.S. rate beginning in 2006, reversing a pattern of decline that occurred from 1991 to 2005. Currently, one of seven American girls between the ages of 15 and 19 becomes pregnant; 80 percent were unin-

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tended, and in over half, no contraception was used. In developed countries, many factors are associated with teen pregnancy including inadequate sex education and access to contraception, family poverty, peer pressure, perception of few opportunities for success, exposure to sexualized media, increased rate of adverse childhood events, and lack of close contact with adult role models. Research also indicates that 11–20 percent of teenage pregnancy is the result of rape, and in 67 percent of teen pregnancies, the male was over the age of 20. Dating violence and histories of sexual abuse are also associated with teen pregnancy; a United Kingdom (UK) study found that 70 percent of teens who had given birth had experienced violence within their relationship. Worldwide, teen pregnancies are associated with higher rates of premature birth and low birth weight. Approximately one-third of teens do not receive prenatal care, and this lack of quality maternal care is linked to negative outcomes. Further, teenagers in developed countries often have nutritional deficiencies from poor eating habits, fast food, and dieting and, in developing countries, may be suffering from chronic malnutrition and stunted growth. There are particularly high risks for girls under 14 who may have an undeveloped pelvis, which increases the risk of obstructed labor, eclampsia, obstetric fistula, infant mortality, and maternal mortality (MM, the number of maternal deaths per 1,000 live births). Compared to 20–24 year olds, MM is five times higher for girls aged 10–14 and twice as high for teens aged 15–19. In developing countries, complications from birth/pregnancy are the leading cause of mortality among girls aged 15–19, and an estimated 70,000 teen girls die each year. Socioeconomic factors rather than age account for the increased risk for girls over 15. It is also important to note that pregnant teenage girls are at a seven times higher risk for suicide. Nonmarital Childbearing Another trend is in nonmarital childbearing in developed countries, with rates doubling and tripling in recent years. Unwed births now account for 50 percent or more of all births in Iceland (66 percent), Sweden (55 percent), Norway (54 percent), and France (50 percent). In the United States, the rate increased 21 percent between 2002 and 2007, when it reached an all-time high of 39.7 percent of births. The UK and the Netherlands have a similar rate, while in other devel-

oped countries, including Ireland, Germany, Spain, and Canada, the rate is around 30 percent. In contrast, the rate is 2 percent in Japan; this low rate is linked to the fact that belief in the traditional marriage system is very strong and birth outside marriage is socially unacceptable. The increase has occurred among all ethnicities and ages and is due to a variety of reasons, including changing beliefs about marriage, lesbian relationships, and single women intentionally becoming pregnant through ART. Although an increase has occurred among well-educated and professional women, it more often occurs among women with lower income and educational level. In the United States, percentages vary by race, with approximately 72 percent of black women, 51 percent of Latinas, and 28 percent of white women having children out of wedlock; 77 percent are over age 20. Rates of nonmarital childbearing differ significantly in developing countries. Several Central American countries have high rates of unwed births, including Guatemala (67 percent), El Salvador (67 percent), and Honduras (53 percent). In these countries, factors that explain these high rates include pronatalist attitudes and policies, high rates of male mortality, machismo, and male migration. In other countries including India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, early marriage and pregnancy occur at relatively high rates, and thus unwed birth rates are significantly lower. Maternal Mortality All pregnancies carry a risk, and 15 percent of pregnancies everywhere are life threatening. Although the global MM rate has declined 35 percent in the last 30 years, approximately every minute a women dies from complications during pregnancy and childbirth, resulting in more than half a million deaths each year. The leading causes of death include hemorrhage, sepsis/infections, hypertensive disorders, anemia, obstructed labor, and complications of unsafe abortion. For every woman who dies, there are another 20 who suffer morbidity. The majority of maternal deaths occur in developing countries, with 84 percent occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. In 2008, six countries (India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) accounted for 50 percent of the deaths. There are significant disparities in MM by country; sub-Saharan Africa has an MM of 920, whereas an MM



of 8 is reported in industrialized countries. Recently, the MM has risen in some developed countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Norway. In the United States, the rate recently doubled, and the amount of “near misses” of maternal deaths has increased 25 percent since 1998. One-third of pregnant American women have pregnancy-related complications; the majority are women of color and women in poverty. Maternal mortality is affected by numerous factors, including poverty, maternal education, maternal health, nutritional status, prenatal care, history of female genital mutilation, medical resources, and maternal age. Access to skilled prenatal and childbirth care is critical wherever one lives, including in developed countries. Lack of quality care for poor and uninsured women of color is one of the factors associated with the consistent finding that in the United States, black women have MM rates almost four times as high as white women (32.7 versus 9.5). MM can be combined with fertility rates within countries to assess lifetime risk for women. In countries with high fertility rates and high MM rates, a woman repeatedly risks maternal death with each pregnancy. The lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 76 in the developing world versus 1 in 8,000 in the developed world. The stark reality of maternal death over one’s life is even more glaring when specific country comparisons are made: in Niger, 1 out of 7 pregnant women will die, compared to 1 out of 47,600 in Ireland. Cultural Differences Pregnant women are often given advice on what to do while pregnant. Some of the advice tends to be universal, such as sleeping on the left side and drinking more water; however, there are large cultural differences, and sometimes these differences are contradictory. For example, U.S. women are told to abstain from alcohol, while women in Europe are advised to have only one glass a day. Nutritional recommendations often include avoiding certain foods and eating more of others, but the specifics vary by culture. In Sri Lanka, women are told to avoid mango, pineapple, and vinegar, while in Australia, women are told to eat 100 grams of beef every day. Advice may also include what to think about, for example, Korean women are told to focus and look only on that which is beautiful and good and avoid eating things that are broken or have blemishes because it is believed these behaviors

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will influence the shape and features of the baby. The consequences of not following some recommendations may be significant. Maternal factors associated with pregnancy/birth complications and poorer infant outcomes include behaviors such as smoking, prenatal visits, and alcohol/drug consumption. In addition, in recent years, pregnant women in the United States have been prosecuted for engaging in conduct such as consuming alcohol that would be legal otherwise. Another commonality is that all pregnant women will prepare for the impending birth in some manner;,but her culture will play a significant role in how this occurs. For example, in the United States, birth is seen as a medical event that requires frequent medical procedures and needs to occur with an obstetrician in a hospital with an epidural, while in the Netherlands, birth is seen as a natural and healthy process that does not require high-tech medical intervention, and most births take place in the home with a skilled midwife without any pain medication. The contrast can be extreme. In some European countries, women not only have frequent medical visits but may have monthly ultrasounds, while in developing countries, more than a third of pregnant women will not have any contact with health professionals before the birth, and over half of the births will take place without a skilled birth attendant. For example, in Afghanistan, where 1 in 9 women die during or shortly after pregnancy, only 14 percent of women have a skilled attendant. The presence of a skilled attendant and access to medical supplies and timely transportation to hospitals with surgical capability is critical in reducing maternal mortality. At the other end of the continuum, many pregnant women are experiencing unnecessary medical interventions. Public health organizations have raised alarm about the current epidemic of caesarian section (C-sections) occurring in developing and developed countries. The World Health Organization indicates that the optimal C-section rate is between 5 and 10 percent and rates above 15 percent are too high. Concern about high rates of C-sections are due to the numerous risks associated with this surgery, including sepsis, blood clots, surgical injury, longer recovery, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, and long-term risks such as ectopic pregnancy, placenta previa, uterine rupture, ongoing pelvic pain, and future infertility. C-section rates vary by country, accounting for 46

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percent of births in China, 35 percent in Latin America, 32 percent in the United States, 24 percent in the UK, 18 percent in India and France, 15 percent in Cambodia, 12 percent in the Netherlands, and 9 percent in Africa. Increased patient financial resources and improved medical facilities are some of the reasons for the rising rate of C-sections globally in developing countries. Reasons given for elective C-sections include fear of painful vaginal births, the mistaken belief that a C-section is safer, fear of vaginal stretching, and desire to schedule the date of birth. Cultural norms also play a role in social support at the birth. In the United States, Canada, and many European countries, the husband plays an instrumental role in the birth, while in many other cultures, birth is seen as a female event and husbands do not participate. In Russia, 70 percent of expectant mothers prefer to be alone during labor, and in Arabic, Korean, Chinese, and Indonesian cultures, female relatives are at the birth instead of the husband. Subjective Experience Although women around the world and throughout time have experienced pregnancy, from an individual perspective, pregnancy is a unique experience. Numerous factors influence the experience of pregnancy: was it intended or unintended; was intercourse desired or coerced/forced; is abortion or adoption chosen; experience with infertility treatment; history of miscarriages (20–40 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage); previous pregnancies; risk of infant mortality and maternal mortality; whether a live birth results; and demographics of the mother including age, marital status, and socioeconomic status. However, there are some commonalities among all pregnant women, the primary one being that their bodies are undergoing remarkable and uncontrollable changes. The symptoms of pregnancy vary based on the trimester and manifest differently among women and between pregnancies. Common symptoms include swollen/tender breasts, fatigue/exhaustion, nausea/vomiting, backaches, headaches, frequent urination, food cravings, sensitivity to odors, enlarged breasts, itching from stretching skin, constipation, heartburn, unpredictable allergies, changes in balance, dizziness, sudden weight gain, swollen extremities, stretch marks, darkening pigmentation, varicose veins, insomnia, and hemorrhoids.

Weight gain during pregnancy is of particular import—women who gain too little have a higher risk of having a baby that is too small, while women who gain too much increase the risk of early delivery, large babies, C-sections, diabetes, high blood pressure, and varicose veins. Malnutrition and low maternal weight gain is a serious concern in both developing countries, where chronic malnutrition can lead to anemia and stunted growth, and in developed countries that have high rates of eating disorders. Recommendations about ideal weight gain vary, although the most frequently used guidelines are from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The 2009 guidelines provide ranges of healthy weight gain based on prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) categories established by the World Health Organization. The recommendations are as follows: underweight, 28–40 pounds; normal weight, 25–35 pounds; overweight, 15–25 pounds; obese, 11–20 pounds. In Italy, women are advised to gain much less weight than in other countries (2.2 lbs per month), and other countries, including Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador, have adopted more conservative ranges than the IOM. Pregnancy also has challenges and demands that require psychological changes including restructuring, adopting new skills, goal modification, and major role alterations. Although these tasks will differ significantly based upon one’s culture, they often include (1) the physical aspect of growing a child (nutrition, physical symptoms, changes in behavior to protect the developing fetus and accommodate changing body); (2) anticipatory and preparatory work for the baby (prenatal care, diapers/clothing/baby items, preparing space and pragmatics for the child); (3) changes in personal relationships and roles with significant other, family of origin, existing children, and family; (4) changes in self-identity as the mothering role is added (both positive and negative aspects including developing relationship with unborn child, loss of autonomy, loss of time); and (5) changes in work life (ability to match needs of work tasks, assessment of goals and priorities). Women who engage in paid employment outside the home may face discrimination when pregnant including being fired, not being hired, or receiving a reduction in pay. In addition, fears may arise concerning the health of the baby, bodily changes, the birth process, financial issues, infant mortality, and/or maternal mortal-

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder



ity. Concerns about the pregnancy ending in a healthy baby and mother will vary, depending on a variety of factors, including maternal health, history of genetic disorders, and experiences with infant mortality (IM; the number of deaths of infants under 1 year old per 1,000 live births in given year). IM rates differ greatly among countries, with the highest in Angola (178.3) and the lowest in Monaco (1.78). See Also: Abortion, Access to; Adoption; Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital; Infertility, Incidence of; Working Mothers. Further Readings Bongaarts, John. “Demographic Trends.” http://www .packard.org/assets/files/population/program percent20review/pop_rev_bongaarts.pdf (accessed May 2010). Guttmacher Institute. “Facts on Induced Abortion Worldwide.” http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_IAW. html (accessed May 2010). Heron, Melonie, Paul Sutton, Jiaquan Zu, Stephanie Ventura, Donna Strobino, and Bernard Guyer. “Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: 2007.” Pediatrics, v.125 (2010). Hilfinger Messias, DeAnne and Jeanne DeJoseph. “The Personal Work of a First Pregnancy: Transforming Identities, Relationships, and Women’s Work.” Women & Health, v.45/4 (2007). Hogan, Margaret, Kyle Foreman, M. Naghavi, Stephanie Ahn, Mengru Wang, Susanna Makela, Alan Lopez, Rafael Lozano, and Christopher Murray. “Maternal Mortality for 181 Countries, 1980–2008.” http://www .thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140 -6736(10)60518-1/fulltext (accessed May 2010). Institute of Medicine. “Weight Gain During Pregnancy.” http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2009/Weight-Gain -During-Pregnancy-Reexamining-the-Guidelines.aspx (accessed May 2010). Joslin, Courtney. “Legal Regulation of Pregnancy and Childbirth.” http://ssrn.com/abstract=1558517 (accessed April 2010) Ventura, Stephanie. “Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States.” http://www.cdc.gov/ nchs/data/databriefs/db18.pdf (accessed May 2010). Susan Logsdon-Conradsen Berry College

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Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder Premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that affects 3 to 8 percent of women and involves debilitating emotional, mental, and physical symptoms that interfere with a woman’s ability to enjoy a normal life. Emotional and mental symptoms can include intense sadness, severe anxiety, panic attacks, mood swings, irritability, and anger that seem out of proportion to events in the woman’s life. Sufferers also deal with apathy or disinterest in daily activities, insomnia or hypersomnia, feelings of being out of control, decreased desire for sex, increased need for emotional closeness, and difficulty concentrating. Physical symptoms can include bloating, heart palpitations, breast tenderness, headaches, joint and muscle pain, swollen face, food cravings, binge eating, yeast infections, and diarrhea. While many women experience premenstrual symptoms, women with PMDD are thought to have abnormally sensitive reactions to their own hormonal changes. Originally named late luteal phase dysphoric disorder (LLPDD), the American Psychiatric Association renamed it PMDD in its May 1993 revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is currently considered a “disorder requiring further study” rather than a diagnosable mental illness. The Food and Drug Administration considers PMDD an illness, but it has not yet been listed as a separate disorder in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases. Controversies over the development of PMDD as a diagnosable disorder or illness have persisted for nearly two decades. Feminist critics point out that diagnosing women with PMDD represents a trend toward medicalizing women’s normal bodily processes, a phenomenon that has been occurring for centuries (e.g., hysteria as a “wandering womb”). Critics of PMDD argue that Western culture values men’s bodies and experiences at the expense of women’s bodies and experiences. Defenders of PMDD argue that the classification represents a real disorder of women’s natural physiological processes and warrants medical intervention. Treatments for PMDD also carry implications of controversy, as

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drug companies compete with more intuitive or psychotherapy-based treatments. Drug treatments include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Zoloft, Paxil, Lexapro, and Prozac and have been widely criticized as a way to earn profits for the pharmaceutical industry. Critics worry that PMDD is marketed to women to convince them they are “sick” when their bodies behave normally. Defenders of drug treatments for PMDD argue that, medically, women with PMDD differently process serotonin and thus require drug interventions. Aside from drug treatments, lifestyle changes such as regular exercise and a well-balanced diet have improved PMDD symptoms, and psychotherapy also has produced effective results. Research has shown that women typically believe that other women’s symptoms are worse than theirs, calling into question the universality of premenstrual symptoms. Western countries that value women’s bodies and advocate for more equal gender roles less often diagnose women with PMDD. This may be viewed through the lens of social and political implications of PMDD as a diagnosable disorder in some camps and as an indicator of gendered relationships, medicalization, and corporate power in others. See Also: Depression; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of; Health, Mental and Physical; Menstruation; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Premenstrual Syndrome. Further Readings Gurevich, M. “Rethinking the Label: Who Benefits From the PMS Construct?” Women & Health, v.23/2 (1995). Huston, James E. and Lani C. Fujitsubo. PMDD: A Guide to Coping with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2002. Kissling, E. A. Capitalizing on the Curse: The Business of Menstruation. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006. Offman, Alia and Peggy J. Kleinplatz. “Does PMDD Belong in the DSM? Challenging the Medicalization of Women’s Bodies.” The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, v.13/1 (2004). Breanne Fahs Arizona State University

Premenstrual Syndrome Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) refers to the cyclic recurrence of certain physical, psychological, and behavioral symptoms that begin about a week before the menstrual period and disappear within a few days after menstruation starts. Although American women commonly say that they have PMS or are “PMSing” anytime they notice a cyclic change, the term PMS should only be used to describe the experience of symptoms that are severe enough to interfere with a woman’s daily life. According to the National Institutes of Health, symptom intensity must increase at least 30 percent in the six days before menstruation, and this pattern must occur for at least two consecutive menstrual cycles for the symptoms to be called PMS. PMS symptoms vary from woman to woman, and even from one menstrual cycle to another in some women. Self-help books for women with PMS sometimes list as many as 200 different possible symptoms, but most of these have not been clearly linked to menstrual cycle–related processes. Among the more commonly reported physical symptoms are backache; bloating; edema (swelling, particularly in the hands, ankles, and feet); breast tenderness; fatigue; insomnia; constipation or diarrhea; appetite changes (e.g., cravings or overeating, loss of appetite); weight gain; acne; and changes in libido (e.g., feeling more or less sexy, increased or decreased sex drive). The more commonly reported psychological and behavioral symptoms include sadness, anxiety, irritability, mood swings, difficulty concentrating, increased sensitivity to rejection, decreased interest in work and social activities, and feeling overwhelmed. PMS was originally known as premenstrual tension, and it was first described in 1931. However, it did not become well known until the 1980s, when PMS was used as a criminal defense in England. It is interesting to consider that before 1980 few women had even heard of PMS, yet, today, the term is so commonly used in the United States and other Western countries that most women think they have it. Researchers estimate that up to 85 percent of women will report premenstrual symptoms at some point during their childbearing years, but only a small percentage (3–5 percent) of women will experience



symptoms that are severe enough to interefere with daily functioning. Some healthcare professionals and researchers have suggested that PMS is a culture-bound or socially constructed syndrome because it is not experienced in the same way around the world. For example, in China women are much more likely to complain of temperature changes than of emotional changes. PMS seems to be more common in cultures with negative and stigmatizing attitudes toward menstruation. Such a negative view leads women to consider normal physical and behavioral fluctuations to be symptoms of an illness and any stress, strain, nervousness, or unhappiness to be related to the menstrual cycle. In actuality, when most women chart their fluctuations, they find that there is not a cyclical pattern and that the symptoms are not actually severe enough to interfere with daily living. In addition, when men chart their moods and behaviors, they too find changes in energy, libido, and emotions

A small percentage of women experience premenstrual syndrome symptoms that affect their daily functioning.

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throughout the month, but their changes are obviously not caused by a menstrual cycle or considered to be a medical problem. Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments The exact causes of PMS are unknown. A hereditary link has been found; twin studies reveal that the occurrence of PMS is twice as high in monozygotic (identical) twins as in dizygotic (fraternal) twins. Other studies have suggested that: PMS may be caused by nutritional or sleep deficits or by biochemical malfunctions in neurotransmitters (seratonin, dopamine); prostaglandins (hormone-like substances that act on smooth muscle); melatonin (the substance that regulates the biological clock); the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (regulates water and electrolyte balance); or ovarian hormone ratios (estrogen, progesterone). PMS also may be more common in women who are under a lot of stress or who have experienced depression and/or trauma. The ovarian hormone hypothesis is the best known, but the fact is that none of these hypotheses has been reliably substantiated (i.e., results of studies vary considerably, and some findings could not be replicated). Because of the wide range of possible symptoms and vast differences in women’s experiences during the premenstrual phase of their cycles, it is possible that no one “cause” of PMS will ever be determined. More than 80 treatments have been suggested for PMS, but no single treatment works for everyone. Treatments range from medical interventions (e.g., hormonal treatments, painkillers, antianxiety medications, antidepressants) to lifestyle interventions (e.g., exercise, dietary supplements) and psychotherapy (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation training). During the 1980s, the favored treatments were progesterone therapy and evening primrose oil, but these have faded away with time, as they did not prove useful in the long run. Most women whose symptoms are not severe would probably benefit from stress management and other self-care activities. Those whose symptoms are severe should consult their doctors about treatments targeted toward the particular symptoms they experience most often. For example, they may need to take diuretics for water retention and edema.

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Treatments of PMS also are challenging because premenstrual symptoms can sometimes be caused by other conditions. For example, women with chronic illnesses (e.g., multiple sclerosis, migraine headaches, epilepsy, major depression) sometimes report that their symptoms get worse just before menstruation. This is referred to as PMM or premenstrual magnification of existing symptoms. According the National Institutes of Health, 50 to 60 percent of women with severe PMS have an underlying psychiatric disorder, such as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) or major depression (MDD). See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Menstruation; Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. Further Readings Chrisler, Joan C. “PMS as a Culture-Bound Syndrome.” In Joan C. Chrisler, Carla Golden, and Patricia D. Rozee, eds. Lectures on the Psychology of Women, 4th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Golub, Sharon. Periods: From Menarche to Menopause. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992. Taylor, Diana and Stacey Colino. Taking Back the Month: A Personalized Solution for Managing PMS and Enhancing Your Health. New York: Penguin, 2002. Joan C. Chrisler Jennifer Gorman Rose Connecticut College

Prenatal Care Prenatal care, also called antenatal care, refers to medical treatment of pregnant women. Though pregnancy is a normal female physiological process, rather than an illness or disease, it still introduces physical risks to the mother and the fetus; therefore, prenatal care’s primary emphasis is on reducing and/or eliminating known threats to maternal and infant health. Early documented accounts of formal medical attention to pregnant women date back to the 1st century, when the Greek physician Soranus of Ephesus recommended gentle care of pregnant women and abstinence from sexual intercourse during pregnancy.

In medieval Europe, physicians reportedly offered herbal remedies for physical discomfort in pregnancy. Early Formal Prenatal Care Programs In early-20th-century Western Europe, systematic medical programs to reduce maternal mortality began emerging and involved caring for childbearing women throughout pregnancy and childbirth. Treating primarily poor, urban-dwelling mothers, formally educated nurses with obstetric training—in today’s terms, nurse-midwives—conducted repeated home visits to check on expectant mothers’ weight and blood pressure and to measure the mothers’ abdomens for fetal growth and position. In countries such as Denmark and Great Britain, prenatal nurse visitation also incorporated educating mothers on safe hygiene in childbirth. In programs such as these, prenatal care was typically coupled with childbirth assistance provided by a trained nurse or midwife. In 1930, a larger-scale, international effort to reduce maternal mortality began officially when the League of Nations’ Health Section identified maternal mortality as a global concern. Though not a league member at that time, the United States supported a number of domestic prenatal and childbirth assistance programs for low-income mothers. For example, data from programs treating poor, ruraldwelling women in Kentucky showed that maternal mortality rates dropped to about one-tenth of typical maternal death rates in the early-20th-century United States. By the 1950s, researchers had learned that the chief causes of maternal mortality—bacterial infection, uncontrolled bleeding, and obstructed labor—were most effectively addressed with the intervention of a skilled attendant in childbirth. Thus, prenatal medicine began shifting away from focusing on maternal survival and more toward fetal development and health. The discovery of ultrasound imaging in the 1940s and 1950s and its growing use in obstetric medicine by the 1960s marked another critical point in the progressive and ongoing decoupling of maternal and fetal health. Scientific Studies and Prenatal Care Today The separation of maternal and fetal health has led to research on two major issues in prenatal care: first, how the number of prenatal visits relates to mater-



nal and infant health, and second, what the benefits of specific prenatal procedures may be. On the first matter—the relationship between prenatal visits and maternal/infant health—having from 12 to 14 prenatal visits was an accepted tradition until the 1970s, when U.S. researchers reported that mothers who attended more prenatal visits had fewer premature and lowbirth-weight babies than mothers who had fewer visits. Those studies were flawed because they failed to take into account that women attending more prenatal visits were also more often white and socially advantaged compared with women who attended fewer visits. Controlling for sociodemographic factors, a British medical team published a landmark study in 1985 indicating that reducing the number of prenatal visits from the traditional 13 to eight for first-time mothers, and fewer for multiparous mothers, did not adversely affect mothers or infants. This work triggered an accumulation of research in the United States and abroad supporting reduced visit schedules as safe and effective. In 1998, the U.S. National Institutes of Health recommended 8 to 11 “focused” visits for firsttime mothers (seven for women with prior children), rather than the traditional 13 to 14 visits. Global health organizations also have reinforced a reduced visit schedule; for example, the World Health Organization recommended in 2006 four medical checks as a necessary minimum. In the United States today, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ most recent published guidelines maintain the 13–14-visit schedule, but another widely used treatment guideline in the United States recommends up to 11 but no fewer than eight visits. In addition to research on the number of necessary prenatal care visits, research on the benefits of specific procedures has also been accumulating. There is a time lag between the time a procedure may be discovered and the time at which long-term data on its safety and efficacy become available. If short-term studies suggest that a procedure may prove more beneficial than harmful, experts may recommend or begin using the procedure. This has proved problematic in the case of, for example, pelvic X-rays, which were conducted routinely on U.S. pregnant women in the 1930s and 1940s, which were later determined to have caused higher rates of cancer in offspring. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a statement on limiting the practice in 1981.

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Promoting and supporting adequate caloric intake for pregnant women has long demonstrated cognitive benefits for offspring.

This work is particularly valuable for nations with severely limited healthcare resources. In general, only a handful of prenatal procedures have solid scientific evidence showing they prevent the most severe consequences of childbearing: maternal or infant death or disability. For example, testing mothers’ blood for Rh factor, a blood antigen, is unequivocally critical in preventing potentially disastrous consequences to the fetus. Knowing mothers’ blood type before birth can allow professionals to prepare for safe blood transfusion in the case of hemorrhage. Assessing fetal position before birth can help make labor and delivery safer. Promoting and supporting adequate caloric intake for chronically malnourished pregnant women has a long history of demonstrated cognitive benefits for offspring. Other prenatal care procedures may have less solid scientific support, such as advising women in poor relationships to seek treatment or counseling others to reduce stress, but they are nevertheless included in

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treatment protocols because experts have agreed that the practice is beneficial. Some practices, such as prescribing iron supplements, are recommended as a matter of tradition despite the absence of firm evidence confirming any benefit. Other routine practices showing no clear medical benefit in healthy pregnancies, such as ultrasound, appear to continue as a matter of presumed psychological benefit or consumer demand. Prenatal Care and Global Maternal Health Though research tends to treat prenatal care and skilled assistance in childbirth as two separate entities, in practice, maximum benefit of prenatal care can be achieved only when it is accessible to childbearing women and paired with safe childbirth procedures, similar to the structure of prenatal care programs over a century ago. Unfortunately, comprehensive prenatal care and childbirth assistance programs are both scarce and costly to women living in low-income economies, particularly for those residing in remote areas. For these reasons, maternal mortality is perhaps the most profound indicator of differences between poor and rich nations. Of the total maternal deaths occurring in 2005, 99 percent occurred in developing countries, with nearly 87 percent occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Translated into individual risk, 1,600 mothers die for every 100,000 live births in economically poor and war-torn Afghanistan, whereas only a single death occurs for every 100,000 live births in Ireland. Even within wealthy nations such as the United States, economically disadvantaged women face up to a three to four times higher maternal mortality risk. To address dramatic differences in maternal survival by national income, in February 1987, the World Health Organization and partners launched the Safe Motherhood Initiative (SMI), in which prenatal care and skilled childbirth assistance are promoted as human rights. SMI has drawn opposition stemming from deeply held traditional and cultural beliefs surrounding women’s roles and the value of maternal relative to fetal life, making the SMI mission of maternal healthcare for all childbearing women challenging to achieve. In response, for example, SMI proponents have had to adjust their approach to addressing maternal mortality caused by illegal and/or unsafe abortion, which accounts for up to 13 percent of global maternal death. Alongside such adjustments, in 1999 the World

Health Organization produced a cost analysis outlining the minimal investment needed to dramatically reduce maternal mortality and the overall economic benefit of long-term maternal survival to communities. To ensure the availability and acceptability of prenatal care and skilled birth assistance to women across the globe, cooperation among political forces, medical systems, and the women and families receiving intervention appears necessary and effective. Using a multitarget and collaborative approach, remarkable progress has been made in nations such as Sri Lanka. Despite an overall poverty rate of more than 30 percent, national and medical officials have worked together to guarantee safe, free, and culturally acceptable maternity care to women even in the remotest areas. The results of such efforts show that the 2006 maternal mortality rate of 60/100,000 births is a 100-fold reduction from the 600/100,000 rate of just 50 years ago. The dramatic improvements produced by Sri Lanka’s efforts underscore the importance of pairing prenatal care with safe and hygienic practices in childbirth and in making maternal medical services accessible. See Also: Infant Mortality; Maternal Mortality; Pregnancy; World Health Organization. Further Readings AbouZahr, Carla. “Safe Motherhood: A Brief History of the Global Movement 1947–2002.” British Medical Bulletin, v.67/1 (2003). Center for Global Development. “Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health Case 6: Saving Mothers Lives in Sri Lanka.” http://www.cgdev.org/section /initiatives/_active/millionssaved/studies/case_6 (accessed October 2009). Drife, J. “The Start to Life: A History of Obstetrics.” Postgraduate Medical Journal, v.78/919 (2002). Dunn, Peter. “Soranus of Ephesus (circa AD 98–138) and Perinatal Care in Roman Times.” Archives of Disease in Childhood, v.73/1 (1995). Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement. “Routine Prenatal Care.” http://www.icsi.org/guidelines_and _more/gl_os_prot/womens_health/prenatal_care_4 /prenatal_care__routine__3.html (accessed April 2008). Kirkham, Colleen, et al. “Evidence Based Prenatal Care: Part I. General Prenatal Care and Counseling Issues.” American Family Physician, v.71/7 (2005).

Priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican

Marsh, G. N. “New Programme of Antenatal Care in General Practice.” British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.), v.291/6496 (1985). McDuffie, Robert, et al. “Effect of Frequency of Prenatal Care Visits on Perinatal Outcome Among Low-Risk Women: A Randomized Control Trial.” Journal of the American Medical Association, v.275/11 (1996). Posmontier, B. “Antepartum Care in the 21st Century.” Nursing Clinics of North America, v.37/4 (2002). Strong, Thomas. Expecting Trouble: The Myth of Prenatal Care in America. New York: New York University Press, 2000. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. “Caring for Our Future: The Content of Prenatal Care, Report of the Expert Panel on the Content of Prenatal Care” (report NIHPub-90-3182). Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, 1989. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Statement on Use of Pelvimetry X-Ray Examination.” FDA Drug Bulletin, v.11/3 (1981). Walker, Deborah. “Evidence-Based Prenatal Care Visits: When Less is More.” Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, v.46/3 (2001). Woo, Joseph. “A Short History on the Development of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.” http://www .ob-ultrasound.net/history1.html (accessed July 2010). World Health Organization. Maternal Mortality in 2005. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2007. Elizabeth Soliday Washington State University Vancouver

Priesthood, Episcopalian/ Anglican Anglican churches are split on the question of women’s ordination. Since the 1970s, thousands of women have been ordained as priests in the Anglican Communion, and more than 20 have been ordained as bishops. The issue remains controversial, however, especially as it has led a few conservative congregations to break away from their provinces. Nonetheless, in most areas of the communion, the prohibitions against women’s ordination are continuing to be removed.

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Women Priests The Worldwide Anglican Communion is made up of 38 individual, autonomous provinces, including the Church of England and the Episcopal Church, USA (EC-USA). In 1968, the Lambeth Conference— the meeting of Anglican bishops and primates held every 10 years—decided that arguments both for and against women’s ordination were “inconclusive” and that women’s ordination would be a vivid representation of the universality of redemption. However, this position threatened the church’s relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, which strongly opposes women’s ordination. Hong Kong was the first province to allow women priests, ordaining Joyce Bennett and Jane Hwang in 1971. Following the “irregular” ordination of 11 women in Philadelphia in 1974, the Anglican Church of Canada authorized women’s ordination in 1975, as did the EC-USA in 1976 and the Church of England in 1992. By 1998, the majority of provinces were in favor of women’s ordination. Women made up about one-quarter of clergy in the EC-USA by 2004 and in the Church of England by 2008. Approximately half of students now training for ordination are women. However, as of 2008, 10 Anglican provinces allow women to be only deacons or do not allow women’s ordination at all. Bishops The first female bishop in the Anglican Communion was the Right Reverend Barbara Harris, who was consecrated as Suffragan (assistant) bishop of Massachusetts in 1989; Penelope Jamieson was elected to be the first female diocesan bishop by the Anglican Church of New Zealand later that year. Subsequent bishops included Victoria Matthews (Canada, 1995), Nerve Cot Aguilera (Cuba, 2007), and Kay Goldsworthy (Australia, 2008). As of 2008, 24 women were bishops in the Anglican Communion. Ten other provinces allow for women bishops but have not yet consecrated any. In the Church of England, legislation in support of women bishops is currently moving forward. In 2009, Los Angeles elected the Reverend Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool, an openly lesbian woman, as bishop of that city. In 2006, the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected as the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA—the first woman to lead a national church in the Anglican Communion.

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Church Divisions This issue is particularly difficult to resolve because many who oppose women’s ordination claim that the church cannot legitimately ordain women and thus that women priests and bishops are not truly ordained and administer invalid sacraments. Therefore, acceptance of women’s ordinations has not, for the most part, been mandatory; instead, concessions of “conscience,” including England’s “flying bishops,” have been made for dioceses and parishes that see women’s ordination as unscriptural. Because of this, many women seeking ordination have faced unusual obstacles, and their ordinations are not necessarily recognized by other bishops or dioceses. The ordination of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori and the 2003 ordination of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be consecrated as an Episcopal bishop, deepened the split between the ECUSA and some more conservative parishes. About 700 theologically conservative churches have seceded from the Episcopal Church to form the Anglican Church in North America—a “province” not recognized by the Anglican Communion. The EC-USA dioceses that most vocally opposed women’s ordination were Fort Worth, Texas; Quincy, Illinois; and San Joaquin, California. During 2007 and 2008, delegates in the dioceses of San Joaquin, Quincy, Forth Worth, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, voted to leave the Episcopal Church and join the Argentinabased Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. The EC-USA then reorganized the Episcopalian parishioners remaining in those dioceses, and the reorganized Episcopal dioceses of San Joaquin and Fort Worth ordained their first woman priests in 2009. Meanwhile, many provinces are working against the discrimination of ordained women by removing their “conscience clauses” (Canada) and making acceptance of women’s ordination mandatory (United States). See Also: Anglican Communion; Lesbian/Gay Clergy; Priesthood, Roman Catholic; Schori, Katharine Jefferts; Winkett, Canon Lucy. Further Readings Darling, Pamela W. New Wine: The Story of Women Transforming Leadership and Power in the Episcopal Church. Cambridge, MA: Cowley, 1994. The Episcopal Church Welcomes You. http://www .episcopalchurch.org/index.htm (accessed July 2010).

Harris, Harriet and Jane Shaw, eds. The Call for Women Bishops. London: SPCK, 2004. Vanessa Baker Bowling Green State University

Priesthood, Roman Catholic According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the priesthood still interconnects Christ and men. In 1965, Vatican II emphasized that the church was to be led by the lay people and there would be an increase in social justice advocacy. Since then, Catholic women have taken on various leadership roles within the church, such as religious education, social ministry, music ministry, and scripture lectors. More recently, girls and women have been altar servers and Eucharistic ministers. However, movements toward allowing women to be priests have not been successful. Biblical Arguments The church argues that there were no women ordained in the New Testament and that Jesus chose only men to be his apostles, who in turn then chose only men to follow them. This, according to church authorities, established the perception that only men could sacramentally represent Christ. Feminist and philosophical arguments regarding social structures of biblical times, the roots of Jewish tradition, and Greco-Roman influences have had no impact on today’s church leaders who continue to espouse the idea that only men can consecrate the Eucharist. Historical Arguments In the Didascalia Apostolorum, a 3rd-century Christian text, both widows and deaconesses are mentioned as being church officials. However, later arguments, especially those of the 13th century, dismissed these functions as not being tied to the sacrament of Holy Orders. The two best-known opponents of women in the priesthood were St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–74 c.e.) and St. Bonaventure (1217–74 c.e). Aquinas’s main argument consisted of the theological position that the female sex cannot signify eminence of degree. This is based on the multiple levels of female inferior-



ity: women are biologically inferior to men, women are socially inferior to men, and women were created to be dependent upon men. These inherent defects will not allow women to represent Christ. Bonaventure agreed that women are inherently inferior to men and endorsed the idea that Christ’s maleness required his representatives on earth, priests, to also be male. Bonaventure also argued that women were expressly forbidden to handle sacred objects, they cannot hold power, and they do not bear the image of God. These detrimental arguments continue to hold sway in today’s church, and women are still considered unfit for Holy Orders. Sacrament of Holy Orders Holy Orders is one of the seven sacraments of the church. Originally, there was a division between major Holy Orders and minor Holy Orders; however, from the late Middle Ages on, the minor ones were considered mostly ceremonial. The sacramen-

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tal rite of Holy Orders is generally reserved for men who are entering the priesthood, although deacons undergo a similar ritual. Through this sacrament, priests share in the universal mission of the church that Christ assigned to the apostles—to preach the Gospel to the congregation and perform the sacrament of Eucharist. Only baptized men are qualified to receive this sacrament. The official stance of today’s church is that Christ chose 12 men for his apostles and the apostles did the same when they chose who succeeded them in the ministry. The church considers itself bound to Christ’s choice; hence women’s ordination is not possible. However, women are allowed study to become priests, although they cannot take the final vows. Recent Papal Responses In 1976, the report of the Pontifical Biblical Commission found that there were no Scriptural grounds for

In May 1994, Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter that stated that women’s ordination is not allowed, that all conversation for pro-women’s ordination should be silenced, and that the church does not have the authority to grant priestly ordination to women.

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denying priestly ordination to women. However, in May 1994, Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter titled Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (“On Ordination to the Priesthood”). It addresses the traditional prohibition of women’s ordination. It maintains that women’s ordination is still not allowed and directs that all conversation for pro-women’s ordination be silenced. The Jesuit Order came under censure because of failure to comply with this second regulation. The letter also states that the church does not have the canonical authority to grant priestly ordination to women and that the church’s entire congregation holds this same judgment. The letter rests on the fact that the prohibition of women’s ordination is a part of the written work of God and an integral part of God’s plan. In particular, Pope John Paul II stressed that the role and presence of women in the church is necessary and irreplaceable. He relaxed his stance against female altar servers and Eucharisitic ministers and encouraged women to pursue roles better suited to them, such as religious education leaders and music ministry. This letter was followed by the papally endorsed Responsum ad Dubium issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1995). Together, these documents have officially closed discussion of Roman Catholic women’s ordination, and women continue to play no part in the decision making of the church. Several organizations, including Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), have fought continually against the discussion ban, which has never officially been reversed. However, since the matter is considered doctrinal and not dogmatic, dissenters are not classified as heretics. Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) Women’s Ordination Worldwide was founded in 1996 at the First European Women’s Synod in Gmunden, Austria. Its primary mission is “to promote worldwide the ordination of Roman Catholic women to a renewed priestly ministry in a democratic church, and to stand in solidarity with women who are ordained in the ongoing renewal of the church.” Although WOW is specifically directed toward the Roman Catholic tradition, other denominations are not excluded from participation. Originally organized as a loose network of similarly minded individuals, the movement solidified its international presence with its first conference held

in Dublin, in 2001. Despite pressure from the Vatican, the conference was deemed a success, and the organization has subsequently become a viable force across the world, with branches in numerous countries. WOW also serves as an umbrella for other organizations. In the United States, the main organization working for women’s ordination is the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC). This group was founded in 1975 and has worked solely for the rights of Roman Catholic women to be ordained. This goal reflects the prevailing beliefs of U.S. Catholics, 63 percent of whom support women’s ordination. See Also: Lesbian/Gay Clergy; Priesthood, Episcopalian/ Anglican; Roman Catholic Church; Women’s Ordination Conference. Further Readings Bonavoglia, Angela. Good Catholic Girls: How Women Are Leading the Fight to Change the Church. New York: HarperOne, 2006. John Paul II. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. May 22, 1994. http:// www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost _letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_22051994_ordinatio -sacerdotalis_en.html (accessed June 2010). Macy, Gary. The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Torjesen, Karen Jo. When Women Were Priests: Women’s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity. San Francisco, CA: Harper San Franscisco, 1993. U.S. Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 1994. Michelle M. Sauer Emily D. Hill University of North Dakota

Prison Administration Before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination on the basis of sex in employment, women were generally excluded from the field of prison administration. Those who did work in the prison system were generally confined to clerical jobs,



teaching, support positions, or working with adult and juvenile female offenders. In 1969, when women made up 40 percent of the total workforce, only 12 percent of those working in the corrections field were female. A year later, barriers that banned women from working with male prisoners were removed, and females were provided with greater opportunities for employment. Between 1985 and 2002, the number of women correctional officers rose from 13 percent to 22.7 percent. In the late 19th century, female reformers had bullied their way onto corrections boards in order to improve the lot of prisoners generally and female offenders particularly. In 1870, reformers founded the American Correctional Association (ACA). Initially, female members focused on the rights of female offenders, but as the number of women working in corrections expanded, ACA broadened its scope to address the issues of women working in the field of prison administration. By 1912, the Association of Women Members (AWM) of the American Prison Association was founded under the guidance of Maud Ballington Booth, a well-known prison reformer who had cofounded the Salvation Army in 1887. Dedicated to promoting the Public Correctional Policy on Employment of Women in Corrections, by the 1970s, the Women’s Task Force, which later became the Women Working in Corrections Committee, had evolved as a working arm of the AWM. In the 21st century, much of the work of AWA is accomplished through national conferences that bring women together to address issues of interest to women working in prison administration and furnish them with training and support. Individuals working in prison administration may be employed as correctional or detention officers or they may work in various administrative or support positions. In most cases, they work five-day workweeks and may be either on an eight-hour schedule or on rotating shifts. They are often required to work on holidays and weekends as well. Applicants for correctional officers must have at least a high school diploma or its equivalency. Many individuals employed in the field also have military experience. Those who work in federal prisons are required to have at least a bachelor’s degree and at least three years of field experience. At the administrative level, a college degree is generally required. Training is conducted according to guidelines established by the ACA. Additional train-

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ing is required at the federal level. New applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 37 and have no felony convictions. Career advancement may occur as a result of job experience, educational advancement, testing, or bidding on higher-level positions. In 2008, the median annual wage of those working in corrections was $38,380, and salaries ranged from $25,300 to $64,110. For supervisors, the median annual salary was $57,380, and salaries ranged from a low of $32,300 to a high of $86,970. Even though legal barriers to female employment have been removed and females have demonstrated over time that they are capable of handling the rigors of life in prison administration, women continue to face subtle and informal on-the-job discrimination. This is due in large part to an ingrained belief that women are physically incapable of dealing with crisis situations because of both physical characteristics and female socialization. Research into this subject has borne out the fact that women do indeed approach their jobs in prison administration with different skills than those of males. They tend to be more service oriented on the job, and they are less confrontational and more positive when interacting with male offenders. However, this difference in approach has proven quite successful for women in prison administration, and women are generally ranked high in job performance. Job Satisfaction While women in prison administration express job satisfaction equal to that of males, there is considerable on-the-job stress, and turnover is high. Much of the stress is related to hostilities exhibited toward them by male colleagues. Sexual harassment, which consists of behaviors such as swearing, unsolicited touching, intimidation, and expressions of inappropriate humor, also causes a good deal of stress. Research on women in the field of prison administration has documented the existence of a glass ceiling evoked through both intentional and unintentional male behaviors. As in many male-dominated fields, women are shut out of informal social networks that tend to advance the rise of males in any business. There is also a lack of mentoring of females in the field. In some cases, there is a tendency of males to exhibit paternalistic behaviors toward females rather than treating them as equals. Many women in prison administration insist

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that they are held to different standards of behavior than those set forth for males, making it more difficult for them to advance up the career ladder. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Law Enforcement, Women in; Prison Guards, Female (U.S.). Further Readings Carlson, Peter M. and Judith Simon Garrett. Prison and Jail Administration: Practice and Theory. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2007. Collins, Pamela A. and Kathryn E. Collins. Women in Public and Private Law Enforcement. Boston: Butterworth Heinemann, 2002. Josi, Don A. and Dale K. Sechrest. The Changing Career of the Correctional Officer: Policy Implications for the 21st Century. Maryland Heights: MO: Elsevier Science and Technology Books, 1998. Morton, Joann Brown. “ACA and Women Working in Corrections.” Corrections Today (October 1, 2005). http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources /employee-development-leadership/991754-1.html (accessed April 2010). U.S. Department of Labor. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2010–11 Edition. http://www.bls.gov/oco /ocos156.htm (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Prison Guards, Female (U.S.) Women were first hired as prison guards in the 1830s, but it was not until the mid-20th century that female correctional officers began pushing for equal opportunities in the field. At first, female officers were primarily assigned to women’s institutions, but today woman are employed at all levels of the correctional system. The fundamental basis for equality in prison work stems from Title VII, a 1972 amendment to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, declaring it is illegal to base any terms of employment on race, sex, religion, or national origin. However, there was a stipulation that stated that employment could be restricted for one’s gender, if the individual did not meet certain job requirements. In Dothard v. Rawlison

(1977), the Supreme Court ruled that minimum requirements were not job related. Thus, Title VII is hailed as pivotal for equality in hiring women in male-dominated professions. In the 1990s, the rate of women working in corrections began to increase. In the mid 1990s, it was estimated that 19 percent of correctional officers in both state and federal prisons were women. By 2005, this number had increased to 27.4 percent. Regarding jails, women account for 34 percent and 40.8 percent of guards in government and private facilities, respectively. It is difficult to distinguish employment by rank or institution, but it has been estimated that 65 percent of correctional officers in women’s facilities are female, but less than 15 percent of guards in male facilities are women. There appears to be a correlation between level of security and percentage of female staff. There are three objections to women working in male facilities. Though the issue of privacy was never an issue until women started staffing male facilities, some have argued that female officers invade the privacy rights of male inmates. In some instances women have been prohibited from working posts that have increased contact with male inmates, but the courts have favored the rights of employees over privacy concerns. Concern has been voiced, too, regarding the security of institutions where some feel women are weaker than men, but there is no evidence to support this notion. Further, it has been argued that female officers are likely to be attacked by an inmate, but research finds that females are no more likely to be assaulted than male officers. In fact, a 1996 study found that men were four times more likely to be attacked by an inmate than women and that female officers tend to relax tension and conflict, sometimes improving dress code, behavior, and language among inmates. The presence of female officers reportedly has normalized the prison environment. There are two general models used to explain why gender differences exist in job performance. The “gender model” suggests that individuals bring certain characteristics to the job, while the “job model” implies that the organizational structure influences how each individual operates. Regardless of theoretical models of behavior, studies find that both male and female correctional officers report gender differences in job performance. Male officers report that women are “soft” or “nice” and act in a maternal

Prisoners, Female (U.S.)



fashion. Some might see this as invective, but female officers stated that they were more “human-service oriented” and likely to use appropriate interpersonal skills when interacting with offenders. Courts and legislative findings often support equality for women. Consequently, women have slowly gained access to occupations within corrections institutions. Still, recent research suggests that full equity has not yet been garnered. Sexism still exists in this field, but in time female prison guards will achieve full equity. See Also: Equal Rights Amendment; Glass Ceiling; Judges, Female; Law Enforcement, Women in; Prisoners, Female (U.S.); Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Belknap, Joanne. The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice, 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007. Bureau of Justice Statistics (Law Enforcement Statistics). http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/lawenf.htm (accessed July 2010). Jenne, D. and R. Kersting. “Aggression and Women Correctional Officers in Male Prisons.” Prison Journal, v.76 (1996). Alissa R. Ackerman University of California, Merced

Prisoners, Female (U.S.) Historically, female prisoners have played a somewhat invisible role in the criminal justice system. During the 19th century in the United States, it was highly unlikely for a judge to sentence a woman to prison, unless she was a habitual offender. Prison was considered the end of the road. Until the 1870s, women were housed in the same facilities as men and were often imprisoned for public order offenses. Reform slowly occurred, and by 1873, the first female prison was established in Indiana. As new women’s reformatories were built around the country, domestic values flourished. Women could decorate their rooms and learned feminine vocations. After World War II, values did not change, and female offenders were pro-

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vided with traditionally feminine occupational and vocational trade skills. Though no new correctional model for women has been introduced since that time, in recent years more attention has been given to women in prison, primarily because the number of women being incarcerated continues to rise. In 1970, there were 5,600 female inmates in the United States, whereas in 2007, 105,500 women remained behind bars. From 1980 to 1994, the number of women in prison increased 386 percent, but when assessing the increase over three decades—from 1977 to 2007— the female prison population grew 832 percent. Still, female prisoners constitute a small portion of those behind bars. Demographic Makeup Female prisoners comprise between 5 and 7 percent of the prison and jail population in the United States and typically are incarcerated for less serious offenses. In fact, as incarceration for violent offenses decreased, the number of women incarcerated increased dramatically. Prior to the 1980s, women were more likely to be sent to prison for property crimes; since that time, women have been incarcerated primarily for drug-related offenses. Women are at least twice as likely to be sent to prison for drug offenses as men and are more likely to suffer from alcohol and drug dependencies. Despite the dramatic increase in the number of women incarcerated in the United States, today two-thirds of them are imprisoned for nonviolent offenses. Research suggests that only 35 percent of incarcerated women were convicted of a violent offense, whereas 28 percent and 25 percent were convicted of drug and property offenses, respectively. In the 1990s, it was reported that women convicted of drug offenses made up half of the growth in the prison population. As with incarcerated men, minority women are disproportionately represented in U.S. prisons. Though roughly 45 percent of incarcerated women are white, the proportion of black and Hispanic women relative to white women is higher. For instance 349, 147, and 93 out of every 100,000 black, Hispanic, and white women, respectively, are incarcerated. Challenges Facing Incarcerated Women Between 60 and 80 percent of incarcerated women have children under the age of 18, and most report

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having at least two. In 2007, 65,000 incarcerated women reported being the mothers of almost 150,000 minor children. It is also estimated that about 8 percent of women are pregnant during their incarceration. These statistics are critical because separation from one’s child is reported as one of the worst situations faced by the female offender. Once incarcerated, the woman faces the breakdown of her family while learning to cope with her new life behind bars. This is exacerbated by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, whereby states may seek to terminate parental rights when a child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months. The average prison sentence for a woman is 19 months, and almost 50 percent of incarcerated mothers reported being a single parent prior to going to prison. The formal loss of a child to the system is a very real possibility. Women who come into contact with the criminal justice system exhibit severe societal deficits. In a recent study, almost two-thirds of incarcerated women reported not having a high school diploma, and 50 percent were unemployed in the month prior to their incarceration; prior to arrest, 15 percent of women reported being homeless at least once in that year. Almost half of incarcerated women reported that an immediate family member has been incarcerated, and six out of 10 women reported growing up with one parent being absent from the home. In other studies, 24 percent of female inmates and probationers reported mental health issues and 74 percent reported regular drug use. In a recent study of female jail inmates in the northeastern and midAtlantic United States, 75 percent of women reported a history of drug or alcohol abuse, 60 percent reported committing an offense to obtain money for drugs, and 52 percent reported that they were under the influence at the time of their arrest. The women were less likely to report receiving drug treatment while in jail (35 percent) and even fewer (10 percent) received mental health counseling. Drug and alcohol issues are not the only problems faced by incarcerated women. A high-risk population, incarcerated women are more likely to be infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) than incarcerated men and are more likely to be sexually abused. These two issues are not mutually exclusive, as research suggests that women who are sexually abused are more likely to engage in risky sexual

behavior and to inject drugs intravenously. Incarcerated women are also more likely to report use of the more dangerous drugs crack-cocaine and heroin than incarcerated men. Statistics such as these suggest that many of the women imprisoned in the United States face serious challenges prior to their incarceration. It is important to understand the relationship between these types of issues and criminal behavior. Despite the challenges facing incarcerated women, often they do not receive the necessary services or treatments that are crucial to their successful reintegration into society, post-release. In a study by the U.S. Department of Justice, the number of women in acute need of services and the number for whom services were actually provided were illustrated. Over 65 percent of those in need of mental health services received treatment. With regard to substance abuse, employment, and educational needs, only half of those in acute need for treatment or services received it. While substance abuse and mental health treatment are crucial, they are often all that is provided, despite the need for various forms of rehabilitation, including family reunification and counseling, therapy aimed at dealing with prior victimization, and proper aftercare. Unfortunately, the small number of incarcerated women makes it difficult to justify the use of diverse programs for educational and vocational training and to provide specialized treatment. Not providing services may make it more difficult for women to effectively deal with the obstacles that previously landed them in prison. In addition, many women report sexual abuse while incarcerated. In a national study of sexual misconduct in prisons in 2004, women were overrepresented as victims. Though women comprise less than 10 percent of the overall prison population, 46 percent of victims of abusive sexual acts were women. It is impossible to understand the full extent of the problem because sexual abuse is severely underreported. However, states are taking action to prevent sexual misconduct by staff. By the turn of the century, 41 states had enacted legislation criminalizing sexual misconduct against inmates. The Prison Subculture The first account of the female prison subculture was by Giallambardo, who, in the 1960s found that women interacted in a different fashion than men. Whereas



men reported “doing their own time,” women were more likely to confide in staff about their everyday problems and were more likely to take an interest in each other’s lives and to take care of one another. Incarcerated women often create pseudofamilies upon whom they rely for hope and support to cope with the harsh realities and challenges of prison life. One will often hear women referring to other members of their pseudofamilies by titles including dad, mom, grandma, sister, and even cousin. Members take on caring, nurturing roles in lieu of their roles beyond prison walls. Research and Policy Unprecedented growth since the 1980s in the number of women’s prisons and prisoners has provided the impetus to study this seemingly unknown population. In fact, it was not until the 1960s that studies of female prisoners were conducted, and women were not mentioned in the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice of 1967. Very little was known about women and women’s prisons until the 1970s. As noted, this was primarily because of the small number of incarcerated women and the nonviolent nature of their crimes in comparison to men. The implications of crime prevention policies have adversely affected women for whom prison would have never been an option prior to their enactment. The war on drugs, determinate sentencing, and mandatory minimum sentencing have all increased time spent under criminal justice sanction, and because of these phenomena, over the last decade, researchers and advocacy organizations have begun giving more attention to women in the criminal justice and corrections system. Research and policy publications from organizations like the Women’s Prison Association (WPA), first established in the 1840s, highlight the special needs of incarcerated women and provide recommendations for prevention, treatment, and reintegration strategies, including access to employment, public assistance, healthcare, child care, community involvement, and policies to promote healthy family life. The WPA is an advocacy organization focused on assisting women with criminal justice histories with the reintegration process. The organization adheres to a strict research and policy agenda aimed at shedding new light on issues related to women and incarceration. Recent

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research has focused on the use of prison nurseries, the growth of the imprisonment rate, the use of state commissions and task forces, and the demographic makeup of women’s prisons. In 2009, the WPA authored a national study on prison nurseries and communitybased alternatives for incarcerated mothers. Research shows that the bond between a mother and child, early in development, provides positive outcomes to the mother and the baby. Despite this research, many babies born to incarcerated mothers are immediately placed with other family members or in foster care. The WPA recommended the use of prison nurseries to foster the relationship between mother and child and highlighted prison nurseries around the United States that utilized such a method. Prison itself will not correct unwanted behavior and may even increase criminality. Effective use of treatment and services both behind bars and in the community may be effective in decreasing and preventing future crime. See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Girl Gangs; HIV/AIDS: North America; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Perpetrators, Female; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Sexual Harassment. Further Readings Beck, Allen J. and Timothy A. Hughes. Sexual Violence Reported by Correctional Authorities, 2004. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics: July 2005. Belknap, Joanne. The Invisible Woman. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1996. Clear, Todd R., George F. Cole, and Michael D. Resig. American Corrections, 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2009. Frost, Natasha, A., J. Greene, and K. Pranis. The Punitiveness Report-HARD HIT: The Growth in Imprisonment of Women, 1977–2004. New York: Women’s Prison Association, 2004. National Institute of Corrections (NIC). Sexual Misconduct in Prisons: Laws, Remedies, and Incidence. Washington, DC: NIC, 2000. Snell, Tracy and Danielle Morton. Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991: Women in Prison. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics: March 1994. U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). Women in Prison: Sexual Misconduct By Correctional Staff. Washington, DC: GAO, 1999.

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West, Heather C. and William J. Sabol. Prison Inmates at Midyear 2008. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics: March 2009. West, Heather C. and William J. Sabol. Prisoners in 2007. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics: December 2008. Women’s Prison Association. “Addressing Women’s Incarceration: A National Survey of State Commissions and Task Forces on Women in the Criminal Justice System” (2008). http://www.wpa online.org/pdf/Mothers%20Infants%20and%20 Imprisonment%202009.pdf (accessed August 2009). Women’s Prison Association. “Mothers, Infants and Imprisonment” (2009). http://www.wpaonline.org/pdf /Mothers %20Infants %20and %20Imprisonment %20 2009.pdf (accessed August 2009). Alissa R. Ackerman University of California, Merced

Prisoners of War, Female Since its first documented usage in 1660, the term prisoner of war (POW) has commonly referred to men, and now women as well, who have been imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. Chapter Two of the 1907 Hague Convention was one of many attempts made during the 20th century to fully outline the parameters of POW categories. The 1949 and 1950 Geneva Convention (III and IV) Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War mentions very little about women prisoners. However, several articles in the treaty (13, 14, 25, and 29) call for separate housing, acknowledgment of specific hygiene and health needs, and the right to receive the same favorable treatment as men. Joan of Arc Despite being denied the right to serve in their respective militaries, women worldwide have historically found ways to aid the nation’s war efforts, often risking capture, imprisonment, even death. One of the most poignant examples in history is Joan of Arc, an illiterate French peasant teenager who successfully led French male troops in battles against England to win some decisive victories for France in the 100 Year

War. At 19, she was captured by the Burgundians in 1431, imprisoned, sold to the British, and ultimately burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, for being a religious heretic. Confederacy and Union Spies During the American Civil War of 1860–65, espionage became women’s preferred weapon of service choice. Spying for the Confederacy as well as the Union forces did not come without risks. Dr. Mary Walker, the only female Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was imprisoned in 1864 for four months by the Confederacy. Another female Union spy, Pauline Cushman, barely risked being hanged by the Confederacy after being found guilty of espionage. She was rescued by Union troops. For the Confederates, 20-year-old Confederate spy Nancy Hart was briefly imprisoned and managed to escape from her jailers. Twice imprisoned by Union forces, Washington, D.C., socialite Rose O’Neal Greenhow proved so formidable a Confederate that she earned personal praise from Confederate President Jefferson Davis. World War II World War II was the first conflict in which American military women were captured and imprisoned by enemy forces. On December 9, 1941, two days after the infamous Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese captured five American Navy nurses on Guam and imprisoned them in Japan. In 1942, 83 U.S. Army and Navy nurses were captured in the Philippines and held prisoner for three years in the infamous Japanese Los Banos Internment Camp. The German forces imprisoned Lt. Reba Whittle, a member of the Army’s Nursing Corp., who was wounded during a thwarted aeromedical evacuation mission. While in the camp, she continued her nurse’s duties, taking care of other POWS. She received the Purple Heart and the Air Medal, but it took years for the United States to formally grant her POW status. Although there are no precise numbers, French and other European women who were a part of the famed Resistance Movement also were imprisoned by the Germans. Some were executed. Desert Storm Approximately 40,000 American servicewomen deployed in support of Operation Desert Shield/ Storm fought in the Persian Gulf. Thirteen were killed



and two became POWs. Army Transportation Specialist Melissa Rathbun-Nealy was captured January 30, 1991, after she and Specialist David Lockett got lost while driving a heavy equipment transport vehicle near the border of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The military did not declare her a POW until February 12, 1991. She was the first American servicewoman captured in war since World War II. She was taken to a prison in Basra, Iraq, and held in solitary confinement until she was released three weeks later, on March 4. Rhonda Cornum, an Army flight surgeon, was on a aerorescue mission and captured when Iraqi combatants shot down the Black Hawk helicopter carrying her and seven aircrew members. Cornum was severely injured with a bullet lodged in her shoulder, two broken arms, and significant damage to the ligaments in her knees. She was held in a prison in Basra, Iraq, for eight days and released March 5, 1991, one week after the war officially ended. During her imprisonment, she was interrogated and had been sexually assaulted by one Iraqi captor. In early 1993, Congress eliminated the combat exclusion policy for women, an action that allowed women to fly combat aircraft and serve on all surface ships. Additionally, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin revoked the “risk rule,” a 1988 Bush administration mandate that had previously kept women from serving in military jobs that could put them in the direct or even indirect line of combat. Operation Iraqi Freedom On March 23, 2003, another wrong turn in the Iraqi desert caused three U.S Army women in the 507th Maintenance Company (a Fort Bliss, Texas, unit, near El Paso) to become POW during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Iraqi forces attacked the 33-person unit that got separated from other convoying coalition forces. The action ended with 11 U.S. soldiers killed and six taken prisoner by Iraqi irregular forces. Sixteen of the element’s members evaded capture and were later rescued by U.S. Marines. Specialist Shoshana Johnson, the first African American female POW, was wounded and taken by Iraqi forces, imprisoned, and kept in solitary confinement. Private Jessica Lynch, a supply clerk, was severely wounded, captured, and taken to an Iraqi hospital. Private First Class Lori Ann Piestewa also was severely injured when the Humvee she was driv-

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Garrison Commander Col. Edward Manning and Shoshana Johnson, the first female African American prisoner of war.

ing was hit by explosives and crashed into another Humvee. (Lynch was in Piestewa’s Humvee.) Piestewa was taken to the same Iraqi hospital as Lynch but did not survive her injuries. She was initially classified as Missing in Action (MIA), but her body was found later, buried in an unmarked grave with the bodies of the other male soldiers who had died in the ambush. U.S. forces later recovered their remains. Piestewa became the first Native American woman killed in combat and the first U.S. servicewoman to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Private Lynch was rescued by U.S. Army Rangers from their Iraqi hospital on April 1, 2003, although controversy surrounds the validity of the rescue. Johnson was released from captivity along with five other males from the 507th on April 13, 2003. In 2004, Iraqi POW women claimed they had been beaten and raped by American soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison. Forced Conscription and Sexual Slavery Historically, women frequently have been the primary targets of extreme inhumane physical abuse and sexual violence during military conflicts. In 1937–38, 50,000 Japanese soldiers marched into

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Nanking China and over a six week period captured, raped, and tortured 20,000–80,000 Chinese girls and women. Thousands of other young Chinese women throughout the country were forced to serve as “Comfort Women” in a notorious sex slave/prostitute system and labor pool designed to service Japanese soldiers. From May 1998 to June 2000, thousands of Eritrean women were involuntarily conscripted as soldiers and forced to serve on the front lines for Eritrea during the end of the Eritrean–Ethiopian War when it became evident that the Eritrean Army was losing the conflict. Its predominantly male force, composed of both career soldiers and conscripts, had been decimated and then plagued with mass desertions. After receiving a minimal amount of military training, many of these women voluntarily surrendered to Ethiopian forces to avoid being killed. Forced conscription and sexual slavery continues. In Darfur, rebel militia and Sudanese government forces have captured and sexually abused thousands of Dinka women, forcing them into a life of forced military conscription, labor, and sexual slavery. Women in the Congo also have been captured by rebel forces, raped, and used as sex slaves. Globally, there have been many women, military and civilian, whose imprisonment by enemy forces have not been fully documented or recognized in the annals of history. Today, combat battle lines continue to blur and disappear, and women are volunteering for military service in record numbers as more countries allow women to serve in more military combat jobs previously reserved for males. As a result, the numbers of women POWs will likely increase. See Also: Military, Women in the; Military Leadership, Women in; Prisoners of War, Female. Further Readings Bragg, Rick with Jessica Lynch. I Am a Solider Too. The Jessica Lynch Story. New York: Knopf Publishing, 2003. Cornum, Rhonda. She Went to War: The Rhonda Cornum Story (with Peter Copeland). San Francisco, CA: Presidio Press, 1992. The History Place. “Genocide in the 20th Century, The Rape of Nanking 1937-1938 300,000 Deaths.” http:// www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/nan king.htm (accessed July 2010).

The Liz Library—Military History. http://www.theliz library.org/undelete/military/prisoners.html (accessed July 2010). Ramasastry, Anita. “What Happens When GI Jane Is Captured? Women Prisoners and the Geneva Convention.” http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry /20030402.html (accessed July 2010). U.S. Department of State. “Diplomacy in Action: Sudan. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor 2005,” (March 8, 2008). http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls /hrrpt/2005/61594.htm (accessed July 2010). Elizabeth Frances Desnoyers-Colas Armstrong Atlantic State University

Professional Education Professional, or trade and vocational, education has traditionally been one of the most gender-segregated educational sectors. Professional education remains an important avenue for workforce training and economic development even as it has changed to reflect changing trends in labor needs. Professional education has been increasingly emphasized on an international level as a means for aiding development and assisting marginalized girls and women in developing countries. Although gender inequities have been reduced in the late 20th and 21st centuries, gender gaps in female enrollment in nontraditional careers remain. Gender inequities in professional education reflect and contribute to gender inequities in the labor market. Trends in Professional Education Professional education is also known as vocational, career, or technical education. Internationally, professional education is usually referred to by the phrase trade and vocational education and training (TVET). Professional education encompasses family and consumer sciences as well as training for the labor market or a specific career or trade. Professional education is centered on skills application, often through handson training or work experience. In countries such as Germany, professional education is coupled with an apprenticeship system, and in other countries, many professional education students simultaneously hold full- or part-time jobs.



Professional education programs vary internationally based on individual country educational systems and requirements. Women have access to professional education courses and programs at a variety of levels, including high schools, postsecondary trade schools, community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, and collaborative tech prep programs between secondary and postsecondary schools. Most women enroll in professional education at the high school or postsecondary trade school level. Professional training is also available through other avenues, such as the military, employers, and government or communitybased workforce programs. Common professional education fields of study include beauty, service and hospitality, bookkeeping and clerical, computer technology, nursing and health sciences, construction and related fields, art and design, media, mechanical and automotive, education, paralegal, criminal justice, real estate, travel, and interior design. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s 2004 National Assessment of Vocational Education, approximately half of the nation’s high school students and one-third of college students were enrolled in vocational courses or programs. Most vocational students enroll in order to obtain the skills necessary to become employed or advance in their chosen professions. Traditionally, professional education students were not expected to obtain bachelor’s or higher degrees, a trend that still hold true for many students. While many vocational students are enrolled in degree programs, most do not attend four-year institutions, instead earning either associate’s degrees or vocational certificates. The number of women in professional education courses or programs has been affected by overall trends in vocational education in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The rising demand for new information- or servicebased occupational skills and global economic recession has increased the number of adult workers who return to school to enhance or broaden their skills or change careers, many attending evening and weekend classes in programs designed specifically for adult students. Single parents and displaced homemakers comprise another large segment of adult professional education students. Overall, professional education enrollment has declined in some industrialized countries, such as the

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United States, most notably in the 1990s, due to the shift toward an information-based society requiring workers with more academic skills, such as critical thinking. In the United States, this emphasis could be seen in rising high school graduation requirements, reductions in vocational course offerings, and increased integration between academic and vocational education. Professional education enrollments rebounded in the 21st century. The rise of information-based skills and servicebased occupations and a decline in manufacturing in some industrialized countries, such as the United States, has affected vocational education. One outcome has been lowered enrollments in trade and industry-related courses and rising enrollments in in-demand fields such as healthcare, computers and technology, service-based industries, and childcare. Other industrialized countries, however, such as Germany, Italy, and France, maintained high percentages of professional education students and workforce participants in industry and manufacturing. Internationally, almost all countries experienced rising percentages of the workforce employed in service occupations and a concomitant rise in professional education enrollments in those areas. Other determinants of professional education offerings include funding mechanisms and levels, employment availability options and competition levels, demographic differences, and unionization levels. International Partnering Internationally, many governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have partnered with local and community-based organizations to promote technical and vocational education and training (TVET), in part driven by the ongoing success of universal primary education movements. Collaborative efforts such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC) have studied TVET trends and benefits and implemented programs and conferences designed to increase TVET access and educational quality worldwide. Other groups involved in the promotion of TVET include the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE).

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These organizations and programs have promoted TVET as an important component in the achievement of gender equity and labor market inclusion, development and sustainability goals, the reduction of poverty, and the integration of socially marginalized groups. In developing countries, the need to increase professional education enrollments overall and for women in particular is a key component to the elimination of poverty and the achievement of development goals. Technical and vocational training provide girls and women with the skills necessary to enter the workforce or become entrepreneurs, thereby increasing their family income, food security, healthcare, and savings. Studies have also shown that women who increase their earnings are more likely to reinvest those earnings into their families and communities. Gender in Professional Education and Its Impact Gender segregation was traditionally commonplace in professional education in most countries, and gender equity issues are still present. Government legislation such as the U.S. Vocational Education Act of 1976 and Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act and its updates, commonly known as the Perkins Act, addressed gender segregation and stereotyping, expanding women’s access to all fields of professional education. Although many of the legal barriers to gender equity in professional education have been removed, women and men still limit themselves to certain courses or programs due to social pressures against challenging accepted gender roles and stereotypes or the belief that women are physically unable to perform required job tasks in maledominated fields such as construction or firefighting. Women and girls in developing countries often face additional barriers to professional education, including poverty, rural residency, or physical disability. Many women and men are discouraged from pursing professional education in careers or trades that have traditionally been associated with the opposite gender, which can be viewed as threatening to traditional social gender roles. Historically, women professional education students were concentrated in such fields as family and consumer sciences or home economics, clerical and general office work, and beauty careers such as cosmetology and hairdressing. Women’s enrollments remain low in traditionally male-dominated fields such

as industrial, mechanical, and construction careers. While overall female enrollments in professional education and in nontraditional female fields of study have increased, the latter still remain low. Excpectations and Experiences A large body of research has documented the differences in male and female educational experiences in education at large, which is also applicable to professional education. Both men and women who enroll in professional education programs in nontraditional careers often encounter isolation or ridicule and feelings of nonacceptance by their fellow students. They may also be more likely to encounter sexual harassment. The low percentage of female teachers and administrators in nontraditional career programs means fewer mentors for female students and can increase their feelings of isolation. Vocational students may also suffer from lowered expectations of achievements such as obtaining a bachelor’s or advanced degree or the educational practice of tracking low-performing students into professional education and the accompanying stereotypes. The effects of gender segregation and stereotyping in professional education carry over to impact issues such as unequal pay, sexual harassment, and the glass ceiling in the workplace. In the United States, Department of Labor statistics show that more than 75 percent of the female workforce is employed in occupations traditionally dominated by women, a statistic that mirrors professional education enrollment gender statistics. Many of the careers or trades traditionally dominated by male workers also have better wages and advancement possibilities than those careers or trades traditionally dominated by female workers. Women who do enter nontraditional fields may leave due to male-dominated workplaces and feelings of not being accepted or experiences of sexual harassment. Other women considering professional education in these fields may reconsider when learning of these experiences. While gender stereotyping continues to impact women in professional education, the continued reduction of gender inequities has allowed increased numbers of women to share in the benefits of such education. High school students enrolled in vocational programs or courses were less likely to drop out and increased their academic achievement levels. Those



who earn a degree or certificate demonstrate to potential employers that they possess the skills necessary for their chosen career or trade, which often translates into easier job placements and salary benefits. The U.S. Department of Education’s 2004 National Assessment of Vocational Education study showed that professional education training correlated to higher short- and long-term earnings for both high school and postsecondary school students after they entered the workforce. Many schools also offer their students valuable assistance in meeting licensing requirements and job placements in their chosen fields. Many professional and general education programs in developing countries are addressing and reducing the gender and other inequities found in both professional education and the labor market, as well as to adapt local programs to local social and labor market needs. Professional education programs also help address the traditional gender biases in labor markets found in many developing countries, where women are disproportionately represented among the unemployed, underemployed, low wage earners, and those employed in the informal economy. Many women work as street vendors, laundresses, agricultural laborers, or in other unskilled jobs. Access to professional education and skills increases the numbers of women who are able to find better-paying skilled trades or careers or to open their own businesses. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Nontraditional Careers, U.S.; Professions by Gender; Vocational and Trade School Faculty. Further Readings Adamuti-Trache, Maria and Robert Sweet. “Vocational Training Choices of Women: Public and Private Colleges.” Gender and Education, v.20/2 (2008). Biklen, S. K. and D. Pollard. Gender and Education. Chicago: NSSE, University of Chicago Press, 1993. Freeland, Brett. International Comparisons of Vocational Education and Training. Adelaide, Australia: National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2000. “Gender Issues in Vocational Education and Training and Workplace Achievement of 14–19 Year Olds: An EOC Perspective.” Curriculum Journal, v.10/2 (1999). International Rescue Committee (IRC). “Assessment Report on Female Enrollment in Technical and

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Vocational Training, Particularly in Non-Traditional Occupations for Women.” New York: IRC, 2009. http://legacyinitiative.net/pubs/TVET_final.pdf (accessed July 2010). Jejeebhoy, Shireen J. Women’s Education, Autonomy, and Reproductive Behavior: Experience from Developing Countries. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. King, Elizabeth M. and M. Anne Hill. Women’s Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press (for World Bank), 1993. McWhirter, Ellen. “Perceived Barriers to Education and Career: Ethnic and Gender Differences.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, v.50/1 (1997). Solomon, Barbara Miller. In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985. Tembon, Mercy and Lucia Fort. Girls’ Education in the 21st Century: Equality, Empowerment, and Growth. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008. Van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana and Teresa Boyer. “Gender and Racial Differences in Vocational Education: An International Perspective.” Human Resources Abstracts, v.42/4 (2007). Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Professions by Gender Women’s experiences in the labor force have changed significantly since the 1950s. Women are no longer relegated to the domestic sphere or “pink-collar” jobs. Expanding opportunities in high-status and maledominated occupations, changing attitudes toward women’s roles in the family and workplace, increasing educational attainment, and the passage of protective and affirmative legislation have created a new structure of occupational opportunity for women. At the same time, women continue to face unique challenges at work and in their family lives. Despite improvements, women still experience discrimination and harassment on the basis of their gender. Women continue to receive unequal pay for equal work and are underrepresented among the most prestigious and highly paid professions. Race, ethnicity, and class

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compound professional gender differences, producing diversity in the experiences different women face at work and at home. Domestic Work, the Alienated Housewife, and the Shift to Paid Work Prior to modern industrialization, when the domestic sphere included a farm or small business, men and women both labored to meet their needs as a productive family unit. In addition to child rearing, cooking, and cleaning, women produced household necessities such as soap, candles, and clothes and farmed alongside their husbands and children. Industrialization and urbanization separated the workplace from the home. Many middle-class women were relegated to the private, domestic sphere to preserve morality in an increasingly capitalist society in which men went out into the public work world to singlehandedly support their families. Meanwhile, working-class, African American, and immigrant women in the United States were often compelled to work in other people’s homes as domestic servants or in factories, in sweatshops, in saloons, in brothels, or on plantations. Since morality was equated with domestic housewifery, working women’s morality and social status suffered as a result of employment. In the 20th century, middle-class and affluent women began to openly acknowledge a sense of alienation that resulted from their isolation at home and their economic and social dependence on men. In the classic feminist manifesto The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan argued that women’s self-fulfillment depends on the pursuit of a career in lieu of an unpaid and devalued domestic role. By entering semiprofessions such as social work, teaching, librarianship, and nursing and lucrative high-status professions such as law, medicine, science, and business, women would transform widespread attitudes concerning their status, abilities, and appropriate social roles. Women across the class spectrum heeded Friedan’s call to paid work. Women enrolled in college in increasing numbers, joined the paid labor force, and pushed their way into occupations formerly monopolized by men. Today, women constitute the majority of college students and at least half of the students enrolled in medical, dental, and law schools in the United States, and women’s postsecondary educational attainment rates are rising

globally. Educational parity has enabled women to increasingly participate in the paid labor force. As of 2008, women constitute nearly half of the American paid labor force. Whereas less than 30 percent of American women were employed in 1950, today approximately 72 percent of women between 25 and 64 years old work for pay, and the labor force participation rate increases to 80 percent for women with college or higher degrees. By contrast, 86 percent of men in the same age group are in the paid labor force, and 92 percent of those with at least a college degree work for pay. Today, more women work full time, and women with children are one-and-a-half times as likely to work for pay as women in the 1970s. In addition, the dual-earner couple has become the norm in marriage: in nearly 60 percent of married couples, both husband and wife contribute earnings to the household, as compared to 44 percent in the 1960s. Nevertheless, men continue to work for pay more than women, on average. While many of these trends characterize women’s workforce participation in nations around the world, women’s labor force participation rates vary considerably. Among developed nations, Canadian, U.S., Swedish, and Australian women have the highest labor force participation rates. In Europe, women’s labor force participation varies by region. For example, Norway, Sweden, and other northern European countries have high workforce participation by women; in contrast, women in Spain, Portugal, and Italy have low labor force participation and especially low full-time employment rates. Women’s labor force participation throughout Latin America varies by country. For example, in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay, 40–46 percent of women participate in the labor force, whereas women in Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay have lower rates. Except in China and Thailand, where approximately 75 percent of adult women work, women in most Asian countries have substantially lower labor force participation rates, with less than 40 percent working in the formal economy. Notably, less than a third of Indian and Korean women are in the formal labor force. In Muslim countries in the Middle East, north Africa, and south Asia, less than 40 percent of women participate in the formal labor force.



Occupational Gender Segregation and Integration The majority of men and women work in occupations with 70 percent or more of the same sex. Men are more likely than women to work in genderintegrated occupations. Women are one-and-a-half times as likely as men to work in an occupation dominated by the opposite sex. In addition to the gender segregation of occupations, men and women often specialize in distinct subfields or positions within the same occupation. Pink-collar or female-dominated semiprofessions such as teaching, nursing, social work, and secretarial work have grown with the influx of women into the workforce. The few men in these fields enjoy a professional advantage. For example, while the majority of teachers are women, the higher the level of teaching and age of students, the higher the proportion of male teachers becomes. Nearly all prekindergarten teachers are female, while the majority of college and university faculty are male. The gender composition of the professoriate varies by discipline, with relatively high proportions of women in the humanities and education and men in science, engineering, business, and law. In addition, colleges and universities that place greater emphasis on teaching than on research tend to be less gender segregated. Male educators also enjoy an advantage in promotion to leadership positions; men in all levels from elementary to postsecondary education advance into administrative positions faster and more frequently than female educators do. Men in nursing, social work, and librarianship also experience the global phenomenon of the “glass escalator,” or rapid advancement to supervisory and managerial roles. International Perspective Whereas the majority of women in the United States, Europe, and Brazil work in the service sector, the overwhelming majority of employed women in most Asian and African countries work in agriculture. While agriculture remains gender integrated, most skilled nonagricultural work in nearly all of Asia and Africa is male dominated. The percentage of women employed in nonagricultural work in these countries tends to reflect the level of national economic development. For example, in 1990, in highly industrialized Japan, women held more than a third of the nonagricultural

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jobs in the country, whereas in India less than one in nine nonagricultural jobs were performed by women. The rise of industrial manufacture in developing nations in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and of information technology centers in the Middle East to service globalized production has generated new nonagricultural employment opportunities for more women and men; however, most of these jobs are low-wage, low-skilled assembly, production, and customer service positions. In addition, primarily middle-class and urban women in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and Latin America tend to be employed in nonindustrial, nonagricultural work such as teaching, nursing, banking, and clerical positions. In the United States, men have dominated certain lower-status professions, such as law enforcement and firefighting, as well as the majority of blue-collar and manual labor occupations, such as factory work, construction, skilled trades, transportation, and sanitation. Women have made little headway into these occupations, with the exception of women’s temporary entrance into industrial manufacturing during World War II. Today, American women in factory jobs are largely limited to the textile and apparel industry, which tends to offer low pay and lack union representation. While most people are employed in occupations dominated by the same sex, the gender segregation of occupations has steadily declined since the 1950s, and women have worked their way into high-status, maledominated professions including law, medicine, and finance. Around the globe, eastern European women occupied the highest proportion of professional jobs, while east Asian and Middle Eastern women occupied less than 30 percent of professional positions. In Latin America, women’s representation in professional occupations varies greatly, with women holding more than 60 percent of professional jobs in Uruguay and Paraguay and less than 40 percent in Colombia. While women have made headway in both political and business leadership positions, they often remain underrepresented in both occupations. For example, while women’s labor force participation rates are similar in Australia, South Africa, Canada, and the United States, women’s representation in managerial, professional business, and executive positions in these countries varies considerably. South African women are two-and-half times as likely as Austra-

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lian women, twice as likely as U.S. women, and almost twice as likely as Canadian women to be corporate executives. Canada has 30 percent more female CEOs than the United States, while the United States has 30 percent more women in managerial and professional business specialties. In Latin America, women hold anywhere from nearly half of the managerial, senior official, and legislative positions in Colombia to less than 6 percent of the same positions in Peru, a nation where women hold the majority of professional jobs. Several high-status profession, such as finance and engineering, remain male dominated; yet, other highstatus, high-paying occupations, including medicine, law, and accounting, have become gender integrated in economically advanced nations such as the United States. Nevertheless, women in these professions are more likely to specialize in female-dominated subfields such as pediatrics, obstetrics, family or real estate law, and bookkeeping. These subfields are typically less prestigious and/or lucrative than maledominated subfields such as neurosurgery, litigation and corporate transactional law, and certified public accounting. Women are also more likely to assist doctors and lawyers as nurses and paralegals than to work as their peers. In addition, women who enter high-status professions that remain male dominated such as finance are disproportionately relegated to lower-paying positions within their field. The gender composition of professions is not universal; for example, the majority of doctors in the former Soviet states are women. Likewise, the majority of judges in Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, and Lithuania are women, and the majority of judges on the International Criminal Court are women. Women have also altered the gender balance in certain professions including real estate sales, bill collection, and bank telling, where women went from gross underrepresentation in 1950 to the majority by 2000. Race and ethnicity also impact occupational gender segregation. Compared to blacks, Latinos, and Asians, white workers experience the most gender segregation of occupations in the United States. White and Asian women have made the greatest strides in entering high-status male-dominated professions, while black and Latina women are more likely to work in service and office support occupations. In addition, Latina and Asian women are more likely to work in

manufacturing than white or black women. In Europe, occupational gender segregation reflects patterns of transnational migration. Women migrating into Europe are largely relegated to low-skilled, low-status occupations such as retail sales, personal service, and clerical work. Women who migrate between European nations fare better than their non-EU counterparts; however, in nearly every EU nation, native-born women enjoy a distinct advantage in terms of employment rates and securing full-time employment that matches their skills and education level. Men hold the overwhelming majority of the highly skilled, highly paid jobs available to migrants into the EU. Like women migrating to Europe, migrant women around the globe predominantly work in the service sector. Skilled migrant women frequently find work in healthcare as nurses and home health aides; highly skilled and highly educated migrant women from former Soviet states with advanced medical training find work as doctors and dentists. Unskilled migrant women with limited education typically find domestic work in childcare and cleaning. Some migrant women, particularly from eastern Europe, the former Soviet states, the Philippines, and southeast Asia, work in prostitution as part of the global sex trade. Women’s mass entry into the labor force has engendered some unintended consequences, including differences in compensation, career trajectories, workplace discrimination, and work-life balance challenges. Gendered Wage Gap Whereas women in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada earn approximately 80 cents for every dollar men earn, women in Europe earn 84 cents for every dollar men earn. European women in France, Belgium, and the Nordic and Mediterranean countries enjoy the narrowest wage gap, earning 90 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn; however, Mediterranean women tend to have low labor force participation rates, and the gendered segregation of occupations in Nordic countries is high compared to the United States. Since World War II, the gender pay gap has decreased significantly. For example, American women earned only 50 cents for every dollar men earned in 1950 compared to 80 cents today. Nevertheless, women continue to earn less than men, even when men and women are equally qualified



and employed in the same occupation. For example, 32 percent of doctors in the United States are female, but full-time female doctors earn only 61 percent of full-time male doctors’ earnings. Female-dominated occupations typically pay less than male-dominated occupations regardless of the worker’s sex. Moreover, men typically earn more than women in the same field, regardless of gender composition. Among all racial and ethnic groups, the gendered wage gap is greatest for white women in the United States. Gendered Professional Trajectories Women have made great advances in traditionally male-dominated professions such as law, medicine, business, academia, and politics, but they have not reached parity with men. For example, half of U.S. law school students are women, yet they constitute less than 20 percent of partners at major law firms and only two of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. While some notable women have made it to top positions in the corporate world (e.g., Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard), most professional women confront a “sticky floor,” or slower and fewer promotions, and a “glass ceiling,” or an informal, invisible barrier that keeps them from occupying the highest ranks in male-dominated fields, even when women have educations and experience comparable to their male counterparts. The informal male-dominated management circles often pivotal in advancement in corporations and expectations of gender-appropriate personality, degree of competitiveness, and family roles can limit women’s professional advancement. Women in maledominated, high-status professions also experience greater isolation and harassment at work; are more likely to have their authority challenged by coworkers, subordinates, and clients; and receive fewer referrals than their male counterparts. Together, these explanations suggest that informal discrimination, stereotypes, and social expectations promote persistent gender inequality in the workplace. Despite increasing opportunities in high-status, high-paying occupations, a significant number of well-educated women in elite occupations are exiting their careers to become full-time, stay-at-home mothers. The gendered division of domestic labor, work conditions, and organizational intractability contribute to the recent trend of “opting out.” Women are

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still expected to perform a greater share of domestic duties, even in two-earner couples; unpaid domestic labor compounds women’s work obligations, creating a “double shift.” Extremely long hours, productivity demands, and extensive travel also explain why successful women feel compelled to opt out of their careers to have children. While more employers are offering flexible and part-time work schedules even for professional staff, women who take advantage of “family-friendly” work arrangements often find themselves stuck on the “mommy track,” with curtailed opportunities for professional advancement. Few men take advantage of alternative work arrangements, especially in the United States, further stigmatizing family-friendly options and limiting their appeal to women accustomed to academic and professional success. Countries with policies that encourage women to take extended maternity leaves and/or work part time while they raise young children, such as Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, often have fewer stigmas attached to family-friendly work arrangements and are able to keep highly skilled, highly educated women in the workforce more effectively. Anti-Discrimination Legislation and Affirmative Action In addition to informal mechanisms that promote gender inequality in the workplace, overt and formal systems of gender inequality have limited women in occupations. Acknowledging such inequity, lawmakers have enacted legislation designed to counteract and prevent sexism and gender discrimination. Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned employment discrimination on the basis of sex, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 strengthened women’s legal claims to equal pay for equal work. For example, the height, weight, and strength requirements of certain jobs in fire and police departments have been challenged as forms of gender bias. In addition, affirmative action programs have been developed in various fields to compensate for past gender discrimination. For example, fellowships are offered to encourage women to enter science and engineering. Like affirmative action programs that target racial and ethnic inequality, sex-based affirmative action programs are still controversial, despite their apparent effectiveness in ameliorating women’s underrepresentation in professions.

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See Also: Administrative Assistants/Office Managers; Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Attorneys, Female; Business, Women in; Education, Women in; Glass Ceiling; Lilly Ledbetter Act; Midlife Career Change; Parental Leave; Part-Time Work; Physicians, Female; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Blau, Francine D., et al, eds. The Declining Significance of Gender? New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006. Solis, Hilda L. and Keith Hall. Women in the Labor Force: A Databook (2009 Edition). Report 1018. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009. http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf -databook2009.htm (Accessed April 2010). Williams, Christine. Gender Differences at Work: Women and Men in Nontraditional Occupations. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Judith R. Halasz State University of New York, New Paltz

Progressive Muslims (U.S.) American Muslims are a vibrant, diverse, and highly visible religious community in the United States. They are composed of both immigrant and nativeborn populations, express different sectarian perspectives, and represent an array of cultural and ideological positions. American Muslim woman are active members of their religious community, and American society in general, and play a vital role as representatives of their faith. A central focus of Muslim women’s activism has been to improve women’s status and participation in Muslim religious life through the recognition of their equal status as human beings before God. The majority of American Muslim women are college educated and employed, but they do not necessarily share a strong commonality of experience, given the highly diverse character of Muslims in America. Over the past quarter century, Muslim women’s involvement and leadership has grown significantly in intellectual production, community structures, and activism. An important moment for Muslim women in America was the 2006 election of

Ingrid Mattson as the president of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim organization in North America. A central organizing principle for American Muslim women has been the promotion of women’s equality in Islam. In response, some Muslim women engaged in this effort challenge women’s inequality in Islamic practice and Islamic thought by identifying the theological and social structures in the Muslim community that perpetuate injustices against women. In their recognition of God as the final authority of truth, these American Muslim women have developed progressive feminist positions through the study and interpretation of Islamic sacred texts, which they claim reveal a fundamental egalitarian principle for humanity. Independent interpretation, or ijtihad, is deemed necessary because of the limitations placed on the sacred texts by traditional Islamic interpretations premised on women’s inferiority. Progressive feminist reformulations of Islamic thought on the basis of God’s justice and equality for humanity are manifested in social action dedicated to Muslim women’s emancipation and empowerment in both the United States and the global Muslim community. Central social concerns include women’s access to spiritual education and literature and leadership roles, respect in the domestic sphere, and equality in the mosque. More moderate and conservative voices in the American Muslim community have disagreed with elements of progressive interpretations of the sacred texts and ritual practice on gender, such as the permissibility of female-led ritual prayer. American Muslim feminist activity can be roughly divided into three categories: scholarship and literature; social services for women’s education, health, and civil rights; and organizations that promote Muslim women’s voices and participation in the Muslim community and the American public. American Muslim men are also active in these projects in recognition of their own liberation through the establishment of human equality and cooperation. Key Muslim feminist scholars include Khalid Abu El Fadl, Leila Ahmed, Kecia Ali, Asma Barlas, Aminah Beverly McCloud, Riffat Hassan, Mohja Kahf, and Amina Wadud. Representative of more popular literature is the magazine Azizah, founded by Tayyibah Taylor, which promotes a positive self-image of

Pro-Life Movement



American Muslim women and brings their voices into popular media. Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights is a well-known Muslim organization that promotes progressive Islamic values of human dignity and gender equality. Karamah’s central activities include Muslim women’s religious and legal education, legal consultation, and community outreach. It absorbed the flagship North American Council for Muslim Women in 2004. The Muslim Women’s League, based in California, is also a model organization. Larger Muslim bodies in the American Muslim community have robust women-focused divisions or initiatives, such as the American Society for Muslim Advancement and Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, led by activist Daisy Khan. See Also: African American Muslims; Feminist Theology; Islam in America; Wadud, Amina. Further Readings Abdul-Ghafur, S., ed. Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005. Barlas, A. “Believing Women.” Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. Haddad, Y. Y., et al. Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. Karim, J. American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender Within the Ummah. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Wadud, A. Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam. Oxford, UK: Oneworld, 2006. Webb, G., ed. Windows of Faith: Muslim Women ScholarActivists in North America. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000. Katherine Rose Merriman Harvard University

Pro-Life Movement The pro-life movement, also referred to as the right to life movement or antiabortion movement, is copmosed of several distinct forms of activism: politi-

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cal lobbying, direct action, crisis pregnancy centers, awareness-raising campaigns, “postabortion” advocacy groups, and secular/nonpartisan efforts. Some factions within the movement are increasingly likely to address women in unplanned pregnancies as opposed to an exclusive focus on the rights of the fetus and subsequently have adopted a public health framework that downplays the religious motivations of many activists. Others groups take a deliberately secular approach. Recent developments such as the movement’s successful efforts to block public funding of abortion in federal healthcare reform legislation indicates the movement is a significant social force in the United States. Abortion rights advocates respond to these efforts with a number of criticisms that reveal the struggles over women’s rights and role in the contemporary United States. The majority of pro-life activists are white and middle or working class. Most are women, although certain types of activism are more likely to be led by men. Originally a Catholic movement focused primarily on state and federal legislation, evangelical Christians predominate in the pro-life movement today, alongside a sizable Catholic minority and some secular activists. Prior to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion in the United States, pro-life efforts were sporadic and focused on individual states that already permitted abortions. After Roe, Catholics began mobilizing in larger numbers to reverse the legalization of abortion or at least to restrict access to abortion through state and federal legislation. The largest political lobbying group in the United States today is the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). Originally a Catholic organization, NRLC leaders made a strategic decision in the 1970s to downplay the organization’s religious roots due to widespread anti-Catholic sentiment and to recruit Protestant and secular activists into the movement. As of 2010, there are more than 3,000 NRLC chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Most members, including leaders, are women, but men remain a sizable minority. At the national level, NRLC and similar organizations consistently support political candidates who oppose abortion and played instrumental roles in both instating the so-called “partial birth” abortion ban in 2003 and the passage of a conscience clause in 2005 giving medical personnel the

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legal right to refuse to participate in abortion procedures. Most recently, these groups successfully lobbied Congress to maintain various restrictions on public funding and access to abortion in the federal healthcare reform bill passed in 2010. Critics of these efforts argue that political-lobbying pro-life groups seek to impose their own moral norms on women, regardless of women’s circumstances or own sense of morality. They also argue that legally restricting abortion does nothing to prevent unintended pregnancies or to help women faced with pregnancies made problematic by financial need or a lack of support from male partners and family members. Abortion rights advocates object to the apparent dismissal of women’s ability to make key decisions for themselves. Activists in political pro-life groups respond with arguments claiming that science offers irrefutable proof that human life begins at the moment of conception, that the difficulties faced by pregnant women are not solved by abortion nor do these problems justify ending another life, and that restrictions on abortion are necessary because women do not always understand the magnitude of abortion decisions and must be protected through mandatory delays and “informed consent” stipulations prior to having abortions.

increasingly violent. Direct-action activists vandalized and even bombed abortion clinics and harassed clinic workers and clients at their homes. The violence came to a head when four clinic workers were murdered and another eight were subjected to murder attempts in 1994. In Kansas, Scott Roeder was convicted of murdering Dr. George Tiller, who worked at a clinic where late-term abortions were performed. In April 2010, Roeder was sentenced to life in prison without being eligible for parole for 50 years. With the passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) law in 1994 and the increasing use of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to prosecute abortion protesters, direct action today is less confrontational but no less controversial. Critics claim direct action interferes with women’s reproductive decision making, privileges the fetus, casts women as selfish and immoral, trivializes contextual factors of women’s lives, and distorts the safety of the procedure. In response, directaction activists argue that abortion workers deceive women about the facts of abortion, abortion kills a preborn person entitled to full rights of personhood, and direct action represents an opportunity to directly impact the number of abortions.

Direct Action Direct action activism consists of protests, picketing, demonstrations, vigils, and acts of civil disobedience at freestanding abortion clinics. Activists, who are often religiously motivated, emphasize “fetal rescue tactics” that focus on stopping abortion and saving the fetus through the use of persuasion or force. Activists, who are predominantly women, try to forcefully interact with women clients entering abortion clinics to convince them to continue their pregnancies. Strategies include the public display of posters and placards graphically depicting aborted fetuses; public sharing of narratives by women who regret their abortions; and the distribution of brochures and flyers on fetal development, the alleged medical and psychological complications of abortion, and the purported link between abortion and breast cancer. Direct action, often associated with the religious antiabortion group Operation Rescue, founded by Randall Terry, originally involved mass blockades of abortion clinics. Direct-action tactics gained notoriety in the 1980s as this part of the movement became

Crisis Pregnancy Centers Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) constitute the largest wing of the pro-life movement. There are approximately 2,500 to 4,000 local, community-supported CPCs in the United States seeking to dissuade women in problematic pregnancies from aborting. Both lay activists and leaders are overwhelmingly likely to be women. Centers offer free pregnancy tests; peer counseling by lay activists (not professional social workers or counselors); and some free goods; including maternity and baby clothing, formula, diapers, housing, and social service referrals. Approximately half of CPCs offer limited ultrasound services to pregnant clients and use sonogram images to persuade clients to continue their pregnancies. Most CPCs are evangelical organizations and consider proselytizing to clients to be part of the core mission of the center. CPCs have attracted widespread criticism from pro-choice activists and politicians who accuse centers of giving women clients inaccurate information about the medical risks of abortion, of falsely advertising themselves as full-service medi-



cal clinics offering abortion, and of using emotionally coercive tactics with clients considering abortion. In response, CPC activists argue that centers provide women with social support and material resources they are unable to obtain elsewhere and that without these resources, women would feel compelled to have abortions they do not want. Changing Public Perception Yet another contemporary approach to pro-life efforts involves mass-media efforts designed to change public perceptions of abortion. Representative efforts involve posting signs on public transportation, billboards, Websites, and television commercials aimed at reframing the abortion debate in pro-life terms. In 2010, 2,000 posters hung in New York City subways featured young women and men in pensive poses with captions explaining that abortion has a profound, long-term negative effect on those who choose to terminate pregnancies, including depression, regret, and grief. That same year, University of Florida football star Tim Tebow and his mother appeared in a Super Bowl commercial describing how his mother did not have an abortion when pregnant with Tebow, against medical advice. Two years prior, during the 2008 presidential campaign, a similar commercial aired, but the focus this time was President Barack Obama’s mother’s decision to continue her pregnancy (Obama did not participate in the ad; his mother is deceased). These efforts attempt to recast abortion as a devastating choice and continuing pregnancies despite difficult circumstances as the path to a bright future for both women and their potential children. Positioning Abortion as a Race Issue Other mass-media efforts attempt to recast abortion as a race issue. In Atlanta, the Georgia chapter of Right to Life sponsored dozens of billboards likening the disproportionate rates of abortion among African American women to genocide. The billboards refer to African Americans as an endangered species and is part of a larger campaign to cast abortion clinic workers and pro-choice activists as racists bent on reducing or eliminating the African American population. Simultaneously, many pro-life organizations are creating diversity positions and campaigns to attract African Americans to what is, by pro-life activists’ own admissions, historically seen as a white,

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conservative movement. Opponents to these massmedia campaigns argue that framing abortion as always damaging is little more than an effort to restigmatize abortion and the women who choose to end pregnancies. Efforts such as the Tebow commercial are dismissed as misleading about the life chances of marginalized women by these critics. Race-based campaigns garner the most protest, as abortion rights groups decry the characterization of African Americans as a separate species from whites and claim prolife shifts toward multiculturalism are more strategic than a sign of actual change. Pro-life activists involved in these efforts respond by arguing that they are trying to correct the movement’s historical blind spots with regard to minorities and that such efforts should be seen as sincere. Moreover, these activists may also see pro-choice objections to their efforts as further proof of the pro-choice complicity in obscuring the harmful effects of abortion. Post-Abortion Syndrome Post-abortion syndrome (PAS) counseling and advocacy groups engage in public outreach to address the purported psychological and behavioral consequences attributed to abortion. Pro-life claims that abortion causes negative emotional responses including regret, depression, and anger first appeared in public abortion discourses in the late 1980s. Although the major medical associations refuse to recognize the legitimacy of PAS and scientific evidence supports the safety of legal abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, public support for PAS continues to gain momentum. Support for PAS and the availability of postabortion counseling groups coincided with growing internal conflict among pro-life supporters, particularly women, in the early 1990s. Pro-life women argued that fetal rescue strategies ignored the needs of pregnant women and should be expanded to include more woman-focused strategies. Advocates argued the inclusion would decrease negative media attention, broaden the movement’s appeal, and counter increasing apathy among the public over the issue of abortion. Using the feminist language of womancare, the movement was able to downplay religious motivations and emphasize more secular and public health–oriented strategies into their opposition to abortion. PAS supporters argue that abortion is a public health concern because it hurts women. A key

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example, Women Exploited by Abortion (WEBA), uses narratives of women who regret their abortions to dissuade women from having abortions. Claiming that abortion clinic workers deliberately lie about the health consequences of abortion in order to hide their profit-driven motivations, WEBA and similar groups seek to change women’s understandings of abortion. These groups define abortion as the intentional rejection of motherhood (and for men, the rejection of the responsibilities of fatherhood). This rejection causes hurt and pain that can only be resolved through the reclaiming of traditional gender roles. Critics argue that PAS overgeneralizes the consequences of abortion, rests on empirical data that is methodologically flawed, fails to recognize that women experience a range of emotions including relief after an abortion, and presumes that motherhood and traditional gender roles are appropriate for all women.

to restrict or ban abortion or deliberately do not discuss or act on the issue. Critics argue that secular/nonpartisan efforts are little more than thinly veiled ploys to advance an antiabortion agenda by pointing out that these efforts did not emerge until political and legislative strategies failed to reverse Roe or to restrict abortion access to the extent pro-life activists desired. Reproductive rights advocates also express concern that these efforts will be used to restrict women’s right to abortion in the future, as some of these pro-life activists argue that practical assistance to pregnant women negates the need for legalized abortion. Pro-life activists respond that practical assistance efforts have a long history in the pro-life movement without such groups making any overt efforts toward banning abortion. Moreover, activists claim that these also are policies that should logically be supported by pro-choice groups.

Secular Focus Finally, a number of pro-life efforts focus on secular and/or nonpartisan practical efforts, often identifying the aspects of the pro-choice platform that can be incorporated into pro-life activism. These groups are officially secular (although individual activists may be religiously motivated) and do not endorse political candidates based on political party. The Nurturing Network and Feminists for Life are advocacy groups arguing that women are driven to abortion by socially unjust conditions targeting women, such as having to choose between continuing education and continuing an unintended pregnancy. Both emphasize the need to establish resources for pregnant and parenting students on college campuses and in communities, so students may finish their educations without aborting unintended pregnancies. Other pro-life groups take a single-issue approach to politics, supporting only those candidates who promise to implement policies that are logically linked to decreased abortion rates, regardless of whether the candidate identifies as prolife or pro-choice. For example, the group ProLife, Pro Obama, founded during the 2008 presidential campaign, argues that Obama’s favorable attitudes toward social welfare policies such as subsidized healthcare and child care would translate into programs alleviating the need for abortion despite his pro-choice stance. Secular/nonpartisan organizations sometimes explicitly disavow any connection to political efforts

See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, United States; Crisis Pregnancy Centers; Feminists for Life; Mothers Against Choice; Operation Rescue; PostAbortion Trauma Syndrome. Further Readings Jordon, Beth and Elisa S. Wells. “A 21st-Century Trojan Horse: The ‘Abortion Harms Women’ AntiChoice Argument Disguises a Harmful Movement.” Contraception, v.79/1 (2009). Lee, Ellie. “Reinventing Abortion as a Social Problem: ‘Post-Abortion Syndrome’ in the United States and Britain.” In Spreading Social Problems: Studies in the Cross National Diffusion of Social Problems, Joel Best, ed. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 2001. Luker, Kristin. Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Munson, Ziad W. The Making of Pro-Life Activists: How Social Mobilization Works. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Williams, Rhys H. and Jeffrey Blackburn. “Many Are Called but Few Obey: Ideological Commitment and Activism in Operation Rescue.” In Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism, Christian Smith, ed. New York: Routledge, 1996. Kimberly Kelly Jonelle Husain Independent Scholars



Prom The prom (short for promenade) is a formal dance event that celebrates student graduation from high school and commemorates the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Within contemporary U.S. and popular culture, the prom is an iconic event and a multibillion-dollar industry that plays a significant role in the lives of American teenage girls. Prom is conventionally understood as an important rite of passage for adolescent girls and maintains significant investments in notions of romance, beauty, and femininity. The prom is also a site of student resistance, cultural tension, controversy, and change; however, students (and their parents) have resisted racial segregation and/or separation in the prom setting. The prom ritual emerges from the historical tradition of a debutante ball and, as such, is signified as a particularly feminine domain despite the involve-

The prom is an important rite of passage for girls, and plays a part in future perceptions of romance, beauty, and femininity.

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ment of both adolescent boys and girls. Each year, high schools organize and sponsor the prom for its senior and sometimes junior students, with typical attendees ranging from 16 to 18 years of age. Students and teachers work together to organize the event, and preparation often begins as early as September; the event itself is held at the end of the school year in May or June to coincide with student graduation. As a school-based event, the prom is highly regulated and monitored by adults and authorities. Regulations include attendance, dress code, student conduct, and pre- or post-prom activities. American popular culture plays a large role in defining the significance of the prom to adolescent girls’ lives. Popular teen magazines and films focus on a narrative of product consumption, investment in traditional beauty standards, and normative femininity as central to the prom ritual. Adolescent girls and their families spend hundreds to thousands of dollars in preparation for prom—typical expenses include formal dress, shoes, hair, nails and makeup; body work such as tanning, teeth whitening, diet and exercise; transportation; photos; and boutonnieres, jewelry, and various other accessories. Prom is also strongly associated with notions of heterosexual romance, virginity, and rebellion. Prom night remains symbolically tied to girls’ sexuality and virginity, while the culture of prom is further associated with alcohol, drugs, and adolescent experimentation. The articulation and inclusion of social differences including sexuality, gender, and socioeconomic status continues to challenge the normative construction and regulation of prom culture. Increasingly, the institutionalization of prom and its associated rituals have come under scrutiny, particularly as high school students actively challenge the conventional boundaries of prom itself. Students resist, negotiate, and redefine prom in a variety of ways. To protest the exclusion of LGBTQ students and couples, students have collectively boycotted the prom and/or staged alternative proms. To challenge the romance narrative and assumed coupling at prom, students attend the event as singles, friends, or groups. Adolescent girls wear tuxedos, refuse makeup, or choose inexpensive or pre-owned dresses to confront beauty standards and traditional gender norms. Students also organize “anti-proms” or limited-budget proms to ensure the participation

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of all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, as well as to reject prom’s assumed culture of consumerism and financial excess. See Also: Adolescence; Cosmetic Industry; Educational Administrators, Elementary and High School; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States. Further Readings Best, Amy L. Prom Night: Youth, Schools, and Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 2000. Zlatunich, Nichole. “Prom Dreams and Prom Reality: Girls Negotiating ‘Perfection’ at the High School Prom.” Sociological Inquiry, v.79/3 (2009). Emily Bent National University of Ireland, Galway

Property Rights The importance of women’s property and inheritance rights is recognized in international legal instruments and in a growing number of national laws, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and the Beijing Platform of Action (1995). Property rights usually include the legal rights to acquire, sell, own, and transfer property; to keep and collect rents; to keep one’s salary; to make contracts; and to bring lawsuits. In the land market, property rights laws for instance, determine who can possess land and who can buy and sell property. Thus, a fundamental step to achieve gender equality is to establish equal basic rights, especially in family law, property rights, and political rights. Yet, women often face legal, cultural, and/or religious discrimination that restricts their ability to own or inherit property in both developing and developed countries. Gender inequality regarding property rights has strong and perverse ties to traditions within the family, the state, and the marketplace. Divergent Challenges and Progress Globally Property rights are not completely equal for women vis-à-vis men in any country of the world, despite the

fact that women can individually acquire, sell, own, and transfer property; keep and collect rents; and keep control over their own wages in many world areas. In fact, several countries of the developing world adopted significant reforms in these matters during the second half of the 20th century. One example is the Chinese government-sponsored Marriage Law (1950) that established standards of equal rights for women and men with respect to marriage, divorce, and custody of children. In the 1980s, Colombia and Costa Rica introduced land reform that explicitly addressed gender inequalities in inheritance and expanded considerably women’s land ownership. In 1997, Mozambique revised the Land Law, giving women a chance to become individual owners when 10 years of usufruct over land was proved. A loose coalition composed of the highest Egyptian government leaders and groups from civil society broadened women’s rights under Family Law there in early 2000. Law reforms are not enough, however, since legal and political rights alone do not guarantee equality in Europe, Asia, America, Africa, or Oceania due to cultural, political, and economic interferences. There is often a gap, at times huge, between formal and real equality in property rights for women. More often than not, property rights refer to land or family-related property and thus are linked to marriage and family laws. This is because, historically, a woman’s property has usually, though fortunately not always, been under the control of her father (or her brother, if orphaned), and when married, her husband. In many countries, the law has generally followed that of the mother countries, being England, France, or Spain, among other former colonial powers. The United States, for instance, used to follow British law, and thus women’s property was under the control of their husbands until the beginning of the 20th century, when several states introduced important reforms in women’s access to property. Dowry and Bride Price Property rights for women have often been and continue to be dependent upon marriage due to dowry and bride price arrangements. These payments mean a transfer of property (land or other goods) between families, as well as of the custody of offspring. Sometimes, such payments are returnable when or if the marriage ends.



Dowry usually refers to a payment by a bride’s family to the bride, who in turn brings it to the marriage, theoretically retaining some power over it, while in fact her husband demands control over that payment. Dowry systems are common in Europe and Asia, in contexts of intensive agriculture, where men are usually the ones to inherit the family’s property. Dowry is found in ancient Roman and Greek traditions and is known today in China, in northeastern Spain, and particularly in south Asia, where “dowry deaths” are a terrible problem, whereby a husband sometimes abuses or tortures his bride as a threat to increase a dowry obligation. Brice price, or bride wealth, refers to a payment usually valued in cattle, goat, or other animals or the equivalent in money to the bride’s father and/or other male kin. Such transactions are more typical of subSaharan Africa, in contexts of extensive agriculture and divergent family inheritance. Bride wealth in this region relates to the central role of women in agriculture, as well as the high value given to productive and reproductive rights, especially in rural areas. In Latin America, women’s movements have strongly fought to have family and civil codes revised in the 1980s and thus gain property rights. That was Guatemala’s case in 1986. However, while article 78 of the Civil Code established equal rights for men and women, article 109 kept the male as the one and only domestic authority. In such instances, as in several other areas of the word, consuetudinary or traditional law based on family and communitarian traditions and the dynamics of the labor market collide with the state legal machinery to the detriment of the women’s predicament. Collision of Family, State, and Market Women’s property rights, thus limited by customs, social norms, and even legislation, hamper their economic status and chances to overcome poverty. Ownership of land and property empowers women and provides income and security, but when that ownership is mostly based on her marital status rather than on individual rights ensured by law, women have limited say in household decision making and no recourse to the assets during crises. This is often related to other vulnerabilities, such as domestic violence and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) infection.

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In regions of conflict or war, the impact of unequal land rights has particularly serious consequences for women. Without their husbands, brothers, or fathers— in whose name land and property titles have been traditionally held—they find themselves denied access to their homes and fields by male family members, former in-laws, or neighbors. Without the security of a home or and income, women and their families fall into poverty traps and struggle for livelihoods, education, sanitation, healthcare, and other basic rights. The family, the state, and the market often collide regarding property rights. A strong system of property rights is the most fundamental requirements of a capitalist economic system and one of the most misunderstood concepts. Social critics in the United States and other areas of the Western world have complained for decades that property rights might take precedence over human rights, resulting in unequal treatment and opportunities for people. Pioneering studies over several regions of the world argue that the single most important economic factor affecting women’s position is the gender gap in command over property. More studies and continued action are needed regarding gender, women, and property rights. See Also: Children’s Rights; Marriage; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Economics, Women in; United Nations Conferences on Women; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Agarwal, Bina. A Field of One’s Own. Gender and Land Rights in South East Asia. Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Alchain, A. A. “Property Rights.” The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (2008). http://www.econlib.org/library /Enc/PropertyRights.html (accessed July 2010). De Soto, H. and F. Chenewal. Realizing Property Rights. Zurich, Switzerland: Rüffer & Rub, 2006. Lastarria-Cornhiel, Susana. “Impact of Privatization on Gender and Property Rights in Africa.” World Development, v.25/8 (1997). Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S., et al. “Gender and Property Rights: Overview.” World Development, v.25/8 (1997). Ruqadya, Margaret A., Hema Swaminathan, and Cherryl Walker, eds., Women’s Property Rights, HIV and AIDS & Domestic Violence: Research Findings from Two Districts

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in South Africa and Uganda. Cape Town, South Africa: Human Science Research Council, 2009. Sandefur, Timothy. Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America. Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2006. World Bank. Engendering Development Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice. Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2001. Soledad Vieitez-Cerdeño University of Granada

Prostitution, Legal Legal prostitution broadly refers to the ability of consenting adults to buy and sell sexual intercourse or other sexual services without incurring legal penalty. International legislative approaches to prostitution vary enormously and can be grouped into three broad categories: legalization, with associated state involvement in regulating prostitution; decriminalization, which makes prostitution neither illegal nor legal; and criminalization, in which prostitution is entirely illegal. Heated debates surrounding legal prostitution can be divided into two primary camps: those opposing prostitution as a public nuisance and/or a form of violence against women and others who recognize that prostitution is an enduring reality and a form of work with associated risks that can be minimized by state regulation of its practice. Given that the vast majority of prostitutes throughout the world are women, it has been suggested that unique socioeconomic issues associated with women’s status, vis-à-vis men, must be considered in any discussion of the subject. International Approaches to Prostitution Legislation Legal prostitution takes many forms throughout the world, and some countries vary even in their national approaches to legislation. One approach to legal prostitution advocates direct state regulation, which usually involves the construction of areas specifically designated for prostitution, or tolerance zones. These regulated areas feature a police presence to maintain order and mandate regular health checks such

An openly HIV-positive prostitute, and a member of the Brazilian sex worker project Davida, models its fashion line.

as screening of prostitutes for sexually transmitted diseases. This approach is believed to improve prostitutes’ health and safety while providing valuable tax revenue for the local and national governments. A number of countries follow this legislative pattern, including the Netherlands, Ecuador, Germany, and Greece. In those nations, both brothels and pimping are legal, provided that neither involves coercion. In Brazil, sex workers are active partners in designing national healthcare policy, particularly in regard to human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). With decriminalization, there are varying degrees of permissiveness and enforcement. Numerous countries throughout Western Europe and the Americas have experimented with decriminalization for prostitutes but not for their clients. Often considered to be a deterrent to prostitution without punishing the prostitutes, decriminalization recognizes that prostitutes sometimes (but not always) choose this line of work as a last resort. For instance, it is not illegal for adults to sell sex in Canada, but soliciting, brothel ownership, and pimping are all illegal. This focus on



demand from clients rather than the supply of prostitutes simultaneously deters potential clients without further marginalizing those who sell sex. Clients may be deterred by the difficulty in separating illegal from legal activities in decriminalized systems, as clients rarely know the full reality of the prostitute’s circumstances. In Iceland and Sweden, it not illegal to sell sex but it is illegal to pay for it. Such seemingly contradictory legislation is part of a broader philosophy that holds that prostitutes are often desperate and would not engage in such behaviors if a demand for them did not exist. All countries in the world have prostitution, but the degree to which laws are enforced even in areas where it is completely criminalized and socially stigmatized varies enormously. One of the possible penalties for prostitution in Iran includes death by stoning, yet in most other countries characterized by criminalization, prostitution is tolerated in certain areas that the police ignore as a consequence of several factors: low levels of concern with the problem; a lack of regard for the safety and well-being of prostitutes; the need for law enforcement to urgently respond to crime scenes; and the tacit understanding of police officers that the arrest, release, and rearrest of prostitutes is a wasteful, cyclical process. Experienced police officers in such situations sometimes believe that prostitution is a relatively victimless crime. Their feeling is that women who sell sex are at least, theoretically, making a choice to do so and thus must accept the consequences of their actions. In many countries, the stance that prostitution is morally and legally offensive results in the sex trade being concentrated in low-income neighborhoods that have been abandoned by businesses, middle-class families, and other indicators of social and civic well-being. India and the United States are particularly strong examples of nation’s that apply varying levels in criminal penalties to prostitution. In India, prostitution is illegal, but it also is highly visible and tolerated by the police in certain urban neighborhoods that are well known for such activity. The same is true in the United States, where prostitution is illegal everywhere except for 11 rural counties in Nevada—and only restricted to brothels. Yet it is very easy in almost any American city to find areas frequented by prostitutes and their clients, although these areas are periodically subject to crackdowns by police.

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Debates on Legal Prostitution There are two schools of thought on legal prostitution: one opposes it as a sexist and/or socially dangerous practice and the other recognizes it as a form of work in need of state regulation and harm reduction. Many national governments, including the United States, maintain laws against prostitution because it is believed to be harmful to the fabric of society, including families and communities. Most faith-based organizations also oppose prostitution on similar grounds. A significant number of feminist activists contend that prostitution itself is a violent act both in its intention of placing intimacy in the marketplace and in its consequence of making women’s bodies into marketable commodities. More radical proponents of this belief argue that legal prostitution is oriented toward protecting the health and anonymity of male clients by screening prostitutes for sexually transmitted diseases and designating certain geographic areas for the trade. They argue that legalization is tantamount to state complicity in what they believe is an essentially sexist and violent act. Governments, organizations, and individuals who believe prostitution should be legal often argue that criminalizing prostitution simply pushes it further underground, making it a more dangerous practice by raising the risk of violence, abuse and the involvement of organized crime. Some feminist activists believe that prostitution should be legal because individual women, rather than society at large, should have the right to determine what to do with their bodies. Activists for prostitutes’ rights organizations contend that the prostitutes are simply filling a service demand and should be treated like any other worker. Such rights groups find the beliefs and policies of people opposed to the legislation of prostitution offensive and patronizing because they assume that individual women are incapable of making responsible decisions about what to do with their bodies. Debates on prostitution have spurred equally vibrant exchanges between the two opposing groups on appropriate language to describe prostitution and its practice. Some feminist activists and prostitutes’ rights organizations argue that the word prostitute is a morally loaded term that should be replaced with what they believe is the more neutral description: “sex worker.” This latter phrase is thought to more sensitively describe the labor of a highly stigmatized

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community. However, some sex workers’ rights advocates outright reject the use of this term and instead embrace their outsider status by challenging prevailing social norms regarding sexuality. Health and Safety Issues One of the central arguments for the legalization of prostitution is that it minimizes risks to the health and safety of prostitutes and their clients through state regulation. Prostitutes and their clients incur a number of risks to their health and safety by choosing to engage in a paid sexual encounter with a nonmonogamous partner. Foremost among these risks is HIV/ AIDS as well as other sexually transmitted diseases that cannot be prevented through the use of condoms. While many prostitutes throughout the world now insist their clients use condoms, their ability to do so can be severely constrained by poverty, the need for drugs to feed their addiction, or control by a pimp or other third party. Prostitutes who have less control over the circumstances under which their sexual labor is carried out—including the right to use condoms— are much more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases from their clients, which are in turn spread to other clients and the general population. Mental health is another issue for many prostitutes. Intense emotional processes of separation and rationalization are necessary for women who engage in sex work because of the stigmatized nature of prostitution in almost every society in the world. Individuals who are pushed to the margins of society in this way are more likely to suffer low self-esteem and, as a result, may be less able to engage in loving relationships of equality because of the numbing and socially stigmatized behavior they engage in on a regular basis. Some prostitutes turn to self-medication through drugs and alcohol to deal with these emotional issues, thus creating a vicious spiral in which intoxication and/or addiction can make them even more vulnerable to risks to their health and safety. Legal prostitution is believed to address and reduce the frequency of abuse prostitutes endure by clients, pimps, or other authority figures. Sex trafficking, in which girls or women are forced to engage in prostitution for a third party’s economic gain, is a particularly insidious aspect of prostitution now receiving increased attention by governments because of its high potential for illicit income. Prostitutes can be

vulnerable to abuse by pimps, who support themselves economically from the earnings of the prostitute. These relationships are often described by those involved in them as romantic bonds, despite the exploitation they entail. Such complex dynamics can make it difficult for individuals to leave prostitution because their networks of emotional support are completely dependent upon those who are involved in the business. People who advocate for the criminalization of prostitution often believe that prostitution has a deleterious impact on communities, schools, and property values. For many people, prostitution is associated with drug use, violence, marital infidelity, and other undesirable social behaviors thought to damage the social fabric of society. Those in favor of legal prostitution tend to argue that criminalizing prostitution only serves to push the sex industry further underground and thus less visible to policymakers and the voting public. This invisibility in turn puts prostitutes at a greater risk of violence and abuse by both clients and the police because of their status as criminals and members of a socially stigmatized group. Overall, it is clear that there are serious consequences to public health and safety incurred by both approaches. Legal Prostitution and Gender Relations It has been argued that prostitution is a manifestation of unequal gender relations, that it is an easy metaphor for male economic power and female submission. The worldwide feminization of poverty through lower pay and higher expectations for unpaid labor such as childcare and eldercare among women have a direct correlation to the number of women who sell sex to survive. Such economic crises at the individual level often combine with regional conflicts to push poor women in many countries into sex work, at least in part because of the demand for prostitutes created by military bases and economies dominated by tourism. Many feminist scholars have argued that the universality of prostitution stems at least in part from pervasive beliefs that men must demonstrate sexual virility to be considered masculine. This is problematic, such scholars argue, because so many societies associate femininity with passive behavior and a lack of sexual desire. As a consequence of this enduring paradox, it has been argued that prostitution is a result of a system that forces women to deny desire

Prostitution in Combat Zones



while forcing men to embrace it so that both sexes fulfill their culturally appropriate roles. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Pornography/ Erotica; Prostitution in Combat Zones; Sex Workers; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Bernstein, Elizabeth. Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity and the Commerce of Sex. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Day, Sophie. On the Game: Women and Sex Work. London: Pluto Press, 2007. Kuo, Lenore. Prostitution Policy: Revolutionizing Practice Through a Gendered Perspective. New York: New York University Press, 2002. Weitzer, Ron, ed. Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry, 2nd. ed. New York and London: Routledge, 2010. Susan Dewey Indiana University Bloomington

Prostitution in Combat Zones Prostitution in combat zones is defined as the exchange of sexual intercourse or sexualized attention for money or something of value in an area experiencing war or active conflict. Strong evidence from many combat zones suggests a direct correlation between the presence of military troops and a dramatic rise in prostitution. This has been particularly marked in the 20th and 21st centuries, which have featured historically unprecedented levels of violence against civilian noncombatants. The nature of contemporary military engagement in combat zones directly impacts neighboring countries, which may or may not be embroiled in the conflict, and sometimes functions to increase the number of women forced or compelled to engage in prostitution for economic or other constraining circumstances. The presence of large numbers of unaccompanied male soldiers and associated stereotypes about male sexuality are thought to encourage

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this practice. Countries that have experienced particularly significant problems with prostitution due to their proximity to combat zones include BosniaHerzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, and Vietnam. The worldwide prevalence of this phenomenon has led to increased expressions of concern on behalf of the international community. It is difficult in combat zones to distinguish between prostitution and survival sex, which involves the exchange of sexual favors for basic items necessary for human existence, such as food or shelter. The majority of contemporary refugees are girls and women, all of whom are vulnerable to gender-based violence due to the feminization of poverty and conflict-associated chaos. It has been argued that sexual relations between soldiers and war-affected women and girls cannot be considered consensual because of inherent inequalities of status, power, and authority. Serious accusations have emerged in recent decades regarding the alleged involvement of United Nations peacekeepers and other armed forces in patronizing prostitutes who may have been held against their will. This is especially true in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many governments have adopted “zero tolerance” policies toward this behavior as a result, but reports have suggested that conflict may create a permissive environment in which soldiers sometimes operate with impunity. Part of this stems from widely held assumptions linking masculinity to aggressive sexuality, a social construct that may pressure soldiers to patronize prostitutes to demonstrate their “masculinity.” Prostitution in combat zones has had an enduring impact on many countries. An estimated 200,000 eastern Asian females, known as “comfort women,” were held against their will by Japanese forces in World War II. Victims and their advocates continue to pressure the Japanese government for official acknowledgement of military wrongdoing, without success. Approximately 50,000 children, known as AmerAsians, were fathered by American soldiers stationed in southeastern Asia. Although not all of their mothers were prostitutes, such children faced stigma in their home countries due to the political significance of U.S. soldiers’ involvement with local women. It has been suggested that the legacy of prostitution in former southeastern Asian combat zones can be

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seen in the region’s popularity as a destination for sex tourists, who plan their visits with the sole intention of visiting prostitutes. Given the conflicted debates surrounding prostitution in combat zones, the international community has begun to efforts to reduce its prevalence, particularly among destitute women and underage girls. Many proponents of restitution contend that any sexual relationships between females in positions of conflict-related vulnerability and soldiers constitute a violation of human rights. Most suggestions center upon soldiers’ demand for prostitutes’ services and include raising gender sensitivity among peacekeepers and the general public, adopting stricter policies regarding the interpretation of military misconduct, and stationing increased numbers of female soldiers and peacekeepers in combat zones to promote greater gender equality. See Also: Combat, Women in; Conflict Zones; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Prostitution, Legal; Rape in Conflict Zones. Further Readings Enloe, Cynthia. Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Hicks, George. The Comfort Women: Japan’s Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. Lowry, T. P. The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994. Susan Dewey Indiana University Bloomington

Psychological Disorders by Gender, Rates of Psychological disorders are understood as patterns of experience and behavior that deviate from the population norm and are associated with subjective distress. Various disorders also have been distinguished, such as mood disorders or substance-related disorders. It has been shown that men and women have differing vulnerabilities with various psychological

disorders. Such differences are documented in the diagnostic compendium Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition. The most typical differences are that women have about twice the risk of men of being affected by mood, anxiety, or eating disorders. Men, in contrast, have a somewhat higher risk with respect to antisocial personality and substance-related disorders. Age-Related Changes Psychological disorders can be divided into two groups: externalizing (i.e., aggressive and delinquent behavior) and internalizing (i.e., anxious and depressive behavior, physical complaints and social withdrawal) disorders. Longitudinal studies have shown that in infancy there are no significant gender differences in psychological disorders. From infancy to early adolescence, boys show higher rates of psychological disorders than girls do, and school-age boys are affected by depressive disorders more frequently than girls. In late adolescence and early adulthood, however, the pattern is reversed, and depression becomes twice as frequent among women than among men. This is in line with the general age trend of decreases in internalizing disorders with boys and increases in these disorders with girls. Furthermore, boys in elementary school and young men exhibit externalizing disorders more frequently than others. Among young men, substance-related disorders and antisocial personality disorders are especially frequent. Cultural Aspects and Risk Factors Cross-national and epidemiologic surveys have shown that gender differences in psychological disorders are relatively independent of cultural setting. Across countries in America, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific, the risk for most mood disorders (except bipolar disorder) and anxiety disorders is 1.3 to 2.6 times higher in women than men. Men have 0.3 to 0.8 times higher risks of most externalizing disorders (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity, conduct disorder, or intermittent explosive disorder) and most substance-related disorders. Rates of major depressive disorders and substancerelated disorders vary between countries that differ in their emphasis of traditional gender roles. In countries with less traditional role orientations, the prevalence



of major depressive disorders among women is lower than in more traditional countries. In less traditional countries, female and male drinking behaviors converge, and substance-related disorders among women become more frequent. There are indications that certain sociodemographic risk factors (e.g., being single, separated, divorced, widowed, or unemployed) increase the risk of psychological disorders in both genders, with a stronger effect seen on men. Other risk factors are relatively specific to one of the two genders: entering retirement is associated with increased risk for any depressive disorders in women, but not in men. In contrast, male, but not female, single parents have higher rates of substancerelated disorders and mood disorders. Possible Explanations Various explanations have been proposed to explain the gender ratios. Biological explanations suggest that gender differences in the rates of psychological disorders are based on differences in brain structure and endocrine functioning. For instance, a gender-specific hormone system is considered a starting point for the development of psychological disorders. Psychosocial explanations focus on gender-role-associated prescriptions of hiding or showing distress (internalizing vs. externalizing); risk factors such as women’s lower socioeconomic status, specific experiences of stress, negative life events, or traumatic events during childhood (e.g., sexual abuse); and protective factors such as women’s larger resources of social support and social networks. Artifact explanations suggest that differences in internalizing disorders can at least in part be accounted for by differences in reporting symptoms. With externalizing disorders, the case may be different, for they are often more obvious. At this time, however, none of the approaches mentioned seems sufficient to account for the full variation that has been observed. See Also: Anxiety Disorders; Depression; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Eating Disorders; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural. Further Readings Klose, M. and F. Jacobi. “Can Gender Differences in the Prevalence of Mental Disorders Be Explained by Sociodemographic Factors?” Archives of Women’s Mental Health, v.7 (2004).

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Seedat, S., et al. “Cross-National Associations Between Gender and Mental Disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys.” Archives of General Psychiatry, v.66 (2009). J. Röhner A. Schütz Chemnitz University of Technology

Psychology/Psychiatry, Women in Women participate in the fields of psychology and psychiatry as providers, researchers, subjects, teachers, students, critics, and consumers. Increasing numbers of women are entering the fields and taking leadership positions in professional organizations; more than half of those training as psychologists and psychiatrists today are women. Their presence has affected the mental health treatment of women and minorities. Men’s voices continue to dominate, however, especially in certain subfields of psychology and psychiatry, and critiques of the fields’ impact on disadvantaged groups (e.g., women, people of color, sexual minorities) remain strong. Early Women in Psychology and Psychiatry Throughout history and across cultures, women have been providers of emotional caretaking, empathy, and mental health services. Rather than being concentrated (and compensated) in a separate professional mental health role, this work has often come about in the course of women’s other roles, such as friend, relative, teacher, childcare provider, midwife, and healer. As the fields of psychiatry and psychology grew with and branched from their roots in philosophy and medicine, they became professionalized through academic training and credentialing. This process was generally dominated by white, educated men, leaving women marginalized in early professional psychiatry and psychology. Modern psychiatry is a medical specialty. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who study, diagnose, and treat mental disorders. With their medical degree and licensure as physicians, psychiatrists can order and interpret laboratory tests, prescribe medication, and

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conduct physical evaluations, in addition to counseling patients. As in other medical fields, women were historically excluded from many training programs and from membership in professional societies. For example, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) did not admit women as members until the 20th century. This is not to say that women had no participation in the field prior to this time, however. Many women, especially those with connections to men in the field (e.g., husbands, fathers), provided important insights and critiques that helped shape the early development psychiatry. Modern psychology is a social and behavioral science. Psychologists study the behavior and mental processes of humans and animals. Trained psychologists hold a doctoral degree (Ph.D., Psy.D., or Ed.D.) and can conduct psychological tests and engage in psychotherapy processes such as counseling and behavior modification. Again, as in other specialized fields requiring advanced degrees, women were historically excluded from training and advancement in psychology. When the American Psychological Association formed in the late 1800s, all members were white men. In the 1890s, Mary Whiton Calkins attended Harvard psychology lectures as a “guest” and even presented a thesis in 1895, but she was denied a degree. She became an Instructor of Psychology at Wellesley College, however, and went on to later become the first woman president of the American Psychological Association. Training and Advancement of Women Today Before the 1970s, fewer than 20 percent of advanced psychology degrees were granted to women. Today, women outnumber men in both undergraduate and graduate psychology programs, and 67 percent of doctoral degrees in psychology are earned by women. The American Psychological Association Task Force on the Changing Gender Composition of Psychology noted that this shift is likely a result of women’s increased access to education, as well as a decline in men’s enrollment. As in other fields, the feminization of psychology coincided with a decline in the profession’s prestige and earning power. The distribution of men and women in psychology varies by subfield. For example, women are more likely to identify their specialization as developmental psychology than experimental psychology.

Psychiatry has also seen a great increase in women’s participation since the 1970s. In the United States, 42 percent of new certifications in psychiatry and neurology went to women in the year 2000, up from 8 percent in 1970. This trend has been influenced, in part, by an increase in women patients requesting women physicians. Women are less likely than men to enter and remain in academic positions in psychology and psychiatry. One possible reason for this is that traditional academic timetables do not accommodate the childbearing and parenting expectations many women face. Private practice and other work settings may provide more flexibility. Worldwide, men continue to hold more advanced positions in the fields. Women’s Presence in Professional Organizations Although women now outnumber men entering the field of psychology and its professional organizations, men frequently comprise a disproportionate percentage of the leadership of these organizations. In the APA, more men than women hold elected “fellow” status, reserved for those with “unusual or outstanding contribution or performance in the field of psychology.” As of 2009, only 11 of the APA’s 110 elected presidents have been women. Similar trends have been noted in other professional organizations, including the Canadian Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society. In 1984, Carol Nadelson was the first woman elected to serve as president of the American Psychiatric Association, which consists primarily of medical doctors. She also holds the distinction of being the first woman editor-in-chief of the American Psychiatric Association Press. Some women have responded to concerns about women’s participation and leadership in the fields of psychiatry and psychology by forming professional organizations or subgroups dedicated to women’s advancement in the fields. These include the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP), Canadian Psychology Association/Societe Canadienne de Psychologie Section on Women and Psychology (SWAP), the British Psychological Society’s Psychology of Women Section (POWS), the Association for Women Psychiatrists (AWP), the Australian Psychological Society’s Women and Psychology Interest



Group, and the American Psychological Association’s Women’s Program Office. Prominent Contemporary Women in the Fields Despite their increased numbers in the fields, women’s contributions receive little recognition in psychology and psychiatry academic courses and textbooks. While some claim this is due to women’s lack of significant contributions, others point out that systematic bias often determines whose accomplishments are noticed and what research is recognized as influential. Many important theories and practices in modern psychiatry and psychology were developed by women. Elizabeth Loftus is an award-winning psychology professor at the University of Washington. She is frequently called upon as an expert witness on false memories and the reliability of eyewitness testimony, due to her research findings that have challenged popular psychological theories about repressed and recovered memories. Her expertise has changed the way courts view recollections as evidence in trials. Nancy Coover Andreasen holds the Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. She is a leading expert on schizophrenia and is frequently cited for her scales measuring both positive symptoms (the presence of an atypical behavior or experience such as hallucinations) and negative symptoms (the absence of a typical behavior or experience—for example, emotional numbness). Prior to her work, negative symptoms had received much less attention, despite their significant effect on the lives of those with schizophrenia. Patricia S. Cowings is a research psychologist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Ames Research Center. As a young, black woman, she struggled to be taken seriously as a scientist but was eventually selected to be the first American woman astronaut. Though she never ended up in space, her research on how astronauts adapt to new environments has provided important insights and tools for the voluntary control of body processes such as heart rate and blood pressure. These can be used by doctors and therapists to address a wide variety of medical and psychological conditions, including hypertension, motion sickness, and attention deficit disorder.

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Other prominent women in contemporary psychology and psychiatry include former American Psychological Association presidents Norine Johnson and Diane Halpern. Johnson was an early advocate of integrating children with disabilities into community schools. She has developed measures, written books, and launched businesses dedicated to the practice of feminist psychology. Halpern’s research, writing, and speaking has centered on critical thinking and sex differences in cognitive ability. She has called for improved fairness in the practice of using standardized tests for college admissions and other selection processes. Bringing Attention to Marginalized Voices Many women in psychology and psychiatry have focused their work on underrepresented populations. The annual Association for Women in Psychology’s Women of Color Psychologies Award recognizes the importance of work by and for women of color. Past recipients have included Beverly Greene, who has written prolifically on ethnic and gender identity in psychotherapy; Oliva Espin, an expert on the psychology of immigrant and refugee women; Aida Hurtado, author of books on Chicana/o identity; NiCole Buchanan, whose research has led to increased understanding of racialized sexual harassment; and Lillian Comas-Diaz, an expert in ethnocultural psychotherapy. Other women in psychology and psychiatry have focused on the experiences of people with disabilities, sexual minorities, and people of low socioeconomic status. Esther Rothblum’s clinical work and research has brought attention to the experiences of people of size, challenging the pathologizing of size diversity. Her work in this area has spanned decades, most recently including the development of The Fat Studies Reader, an interdisciplinary compilation of scholarly writings about fatness. Women as Critics of Psychiatric Practices Even before they were permitted formal participation in psychology and psychiatry, women were vocal critics of certain trends in the fields. Sigmund Freud’s theories of women’s psychosexual development, for instance, led to several critical responses from women. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Phyllis Chesler cofounded the Association for Women in

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Psychology and also published a book, Women and Madness, asserting that labels of mental health and illness are often biased along classifications such as gender and race. Paula Caplan and other feminist psychologists have written extensively on modern controversies such as whether or not “premenstrual syndrome” and “premenstrual dysphoric disorder” should be considered mental disorders. Today, the AWP continues to have an active committee on Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis. In the development of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, used by psychologists and psychiatrists to categorize mental conditions, the committee has raised concerns about eating disorder and obesity classifications, the label of gender identity disorder, and the influence of classism and racism in psychiatric diagnosis.

Caplan, Paula J. They Say You’re Crazy: How the World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1996. Chin, Eliza Lo, ed. This Side of Doctoring: Reflections from Women in Medicine. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002. Hirshbein, Laura D., Kate Fitzgerald, and Michelle Riba. “Women and Teaching in Academic Psychiatry.” Academic Psychiatry, v.28 (2004). O’Connell, Agnes N. Models of Achievement: Reflections of Eminent Women in Psychology (Vol. 3). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2001. Rutherford, Alexandra and Wade Pickren. “Women and Minorities in Psychology.” Davis, Stephen F. and William Buskist, eds. 21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2008. Warren, Wini. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Women’s Impact on Services for Women One goal of many women entering the fields of psychology and psychiatry is to improve services for women. Feminist psychology developed, in part, as a result of this desire. Psychologists such as Rhoda K. Unger have developed courses, produced textbooks, and written articles and chapters on the psychology of women and feminist psychology to correct what they perceived as a lack of representation of women’s voices in the field and a resulting harm to women seeking services. Women’s presence in the field has led to increased understanding of women’s experiences. For example, psychologist Lenore Walker’s work has produced valuable information about the cycle of abuse experienced by many in domestic violence situations. Through feminist critiques, original research, and their own practices, women in psychology and psychiatry continue to change the way women—from patients to practitioners—are treated in the fields.

Virginia Dicken Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

See Also: Attainment, Graduate Degree; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Critiques of; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Physician Specialties; Physicians, Female; Professional Education; Professions by Gender. Further Readings Bender, Eve. “Prominent Minority Psychiatrists Say ‘The Sky’s the Limit.’” Psychiatric News, v.41/22 (2006).

Psychotropic Medications In general, the term psychotropic medication is interchangeable with the terms psychoactive and/or psychotherapeutic medications, since all three terms are used to describe chemical elements that work principally on the central nervous system. In all cases, these medications change one’s perception of time, awareness of external reality, and behavior. While the drugs were created for specific purposes, they are used frequently as a means of recreation. Since psychotropics cause an individual to experience changes in perception and frame of mind, which are often seen as enjoyable, many psychotropics are misused, as people can tend to take more than they should, regardless of the potential dangers. With continued abuse, the individual could develop a physical dependency on the drug, making it harder to stop. Drug rehabilitation often necessitates a mixture of counseling, support groups, and other psychotropics, such as methadone, to sever the person’s dependency. Specific types of psychotropic medications include antidepressants: a type of medication used primarily for the treatment of depressive disorders such as



major depression, dysthymic disorder, nervousness, eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, as well as borderline personality disorder; Stimulants: medicine prescribed principally to take care of disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD; Antipsychotics: used to help deal with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia; Mood stabilizers: frequently prescribed to treat either bipolar disorder and/or schizoaffective disorder, which is a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; anxiolytics: usually prescribed to treat problems with nervousness and/or phobias; and depressants: primarily prescribed as a sedative or hypnotic. Psychotropic Medications and Health Psychotropics work by momentarily changing an individual’s brain chemistry, causing an obvious alteration in his/her frame of mind, cognition, discernment of external phenomena, and behavior. Psychiatrists often prescribe psychotropics to control the symptoms rather than to cure them, as the medical field is still unsure why psychotropic medication works. In addition, psychotropics often affect men differently than women and are not recommended for pregnant women. Psychotropics could adversely affect both mother and child. Various researchers have stated unequivocally that using psychotropics should be limited. In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning indicating that using certain antidepressants by pregnant women in their third trimester might affect the baby. In addition, another antidepressant medicine, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, could cause a miscarriage or possibly lead to a child born with birth defects. Using antianxiety medications like benzodiazepines may lead to birth defects and a bevy of other probable adverse problems for the child if ingested during the first trimester. After the baby is born, if the mother decides to breast-feed, she should know that a possibility exists that a minute amount of the substance could pass into the breast milk. Whether pregnant women should take psychotropics to treat mental illness can be a difficult decision and should be based on each woman’s unique needs and circumstances. Pregnant women and/or breast-feeding mothers need to discuss any potential risks and benefits with their doctors, and physicians should closely observe their

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pregnant patients, both before and after delivery of the child. Studies conducted in Europe and North America indicate that physicians are more likely to prescribe psychotropic medication to women than men. In fact, survey results indicate that physicians prescribed tranquilizers to only 8.5 percent of men, while prescribing them to 16.5 percent of women, largely to overcome anxiety and insomnia. In addition, male physicians are more likely to diagnose women with psychiatric problems and to treat the illness with psychotropics. One possible reason for this is that male doctors tend to view women as the “weaker sex” and more emotional and vulnerable. Culture plays a role in these viewpoints, too, with sexist attitudes regarding the vulnerable state of women leading doctors to prescribe more medication for them than men. Another likely cause is the belief that women need medication to handle their emotional needs. Some also feel that women are more apt to need psychiatric treatment. Until society as a whole soundly rejects these notions, women will continue to receive greater amounts of psychotropic medication than do men. See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in; Mental Illness, Incidence Rates of; Pregnancy. Further Readings Gitlin, M. and V. Hendtick. Psychotropic Drugs and Women: Fast Facts. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. Kohen, D. “Psychotropic Medication in Pregnancy.” Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, v.10/1 (2004). Muirhead, Greg. “Psychotropic Drugs May be Needed in Pregnancy: Maternal Psychiatric Illness, if Inadequately Treated or Untreated, May Result in Poor Compliance With Care.” Ob.Gyn. News, v.43/9 (2008). Rubin, Peter C. and Margaret Ramsey. Prescribing in Pregnancy. London: BMJ Books, 2008. U.S. National Institutes of Health. “Mental Health Medications.” http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/ publications/mental-health-medications/completeindex.shtml (accessed November 2009). Li-Ching Hung Overseas Chinese University Cary Stacy Smith Mississippi State University

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Puberty

Puberty Puberty is defined as the period of human development during which physical growth and sexual maturation occur and a child’s body becomes an adult’s body, capable of reproduction. Strictly speaking, the term puberty (derived from the Latin word puberatum, meaning “age of maturity”) refers to the bodily changes of sexual maturation, whereas adolescence, by contrast, is the term that refers to the psychosocial transition between childhood and adulthood. That said, the boundaries of puberty and adolescence overlap, thus, this entry will discuss both the physical and psychosocial characteristics of this particular stage of female development. Puberty is an experience that unites women worldwide, from all cultures and social status. Puberty in a girl tends to begin two years earlier than it does in

a boy and can start as early as 8 years old or even as late as 15, although the more common age is around 10 or 11. This means that a girl can find herself going through puberty when her best friend of the same age is not, and this can be an isolating and turbulent experience. Puberty is not something that happens overnight but rather is a process that occurs in different stages. Puberty is initiated by hormonal changes triggered by a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, which stimulates the pituitary gland, which in turn activates other glands from which comes a flood of reproductive hormones. These changes begin about a year before any of their results are visible. Both the male reproductive hormone testosterone and female hormone estrogen are present in children of both sexes. However, their balance changes at puberty, with girls producing relatively more estrogen and boys producing more testosterone.

The experience of puberty unites women worldwide, as the shame, uneasiness, embarrassment, and displeasure that a young girl feels at some point during the physical changes of puberty are almost universal.



Five Phases of Puberty The Tanner Scale, established by British pediatrician James Tanner, identifies five distinct physical stages in female sexual development. During the first stage, the prepubertal stage, which occurs generally between the ages of 8 and 11, there are no major outward signs of sexual development. However, a girl’s ovaries are enlarging, and hormone production is beginning. The second stage of female sexual development is said to occur around the age of 11 or 12, although the full age range for this stage is 8 to 14, and involves accelerated height increase, weight gain, breast growth (palpable breast buds and areolae enlargement), and the emergence of minimal coarse, pigmented hair, mainly on the labia. Stage three usually takes place at the age of 12 or 13 (full age range: 9 to 15) and brings about peak height increase, elevation of the breast contours, further enlargement of the areolae, further growth of pubic hair (coarser and darker), production of vaginal discharge, and perhaps the onset of menstruation toward the end of this stage. Other changes that can occur during stage three concern the skin, with the possible outbreak of acne vulgaris due to increased secretion of sebum and perspiration body odor, as a result of hormonal changes. During stage four, generally at 13 or 14 years old (full age range: 10 to 15), a secondary mound appears on the breast, pubic hair takes on the triangular shape of adulthood but still does not cover the entire area, underarm hair appears, and ovulation begins in some girls but does not really establish itself into a monthly routine until stage five. Once stage five sets in, typically at the age of 15 but possible anywhere between 12 and 19, physically, the girl is considered an adult. Breast and pubic hair growth are complete, and full height has, generally, been attained by this point. Menstrual periods are well established, and ovulation occurs monthly. Alongside these five stages of female sexual development are five terms that can also be said to indicate the milestones of puberty in a girl: adrenarche; gonadarche; thelarche; pubarche, and menrache. Adrenarche is an early stage of sexual development referring to the start of the secretion of androgens by the adrenal glands, occurring at around 6 to 8 years of age in girls. Gonadarche indicates that true central puberty has begun and is associated with growth in the size of the ovaries in a girl, in response to changes

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in the pituitary gland. Thelarche, which occurs in conjunction with gonadarche, refers to the beginning of breast development in a girl. Pubarche signifies the emergence and spread of pubic hair, and, finally, menarche marks the onset of menstruation. It is important to note that several other factors can play a role in the process of female sexual maturation, such as nutrition (undernourished girls often suffer from delayed menarche, whereas obesity can bring about early menarche), level of exercise (a high level can slow down puberty), stress, social factors, and ill health (all of which can hinder sexual development). The Psychosocial Consequences Given the extent of the physical changes that take place in a girl’s body during puberty, it is not surprising, therefore, that the psychosocial consequences of sexual maturation are equally substantial. In The Second Sex (1949), a groundbreaking text with regard to its detailed analysis of the female body in society, Simone de Beauvoir discusses the emotional trauma that can occur in a girl during puberty due to the dramatic transformation of her physiology, which is beyond her control. De Beauvoir describes puberty as a “crisis” that the young girl meets with uneasiness and displeasure. The young girl feels that her body is getting away from her, becoming foreign to her. She often develops a sense of shame and extreme modesty with regard to her new physical form, embarrassed to show herself naked from this point on and both astonished and horrified at what is happening to her. Furthermore, the changes that occur are painful, particularly in the case of menstruation (cramps, nausea, etc). The latter, according to de Beauvoir, is not helped by the fact that while the penis is seen to symbolize the glory of manhood, menstruation is considered a “monthly curse” and is rendered taboo in society, to the extent that, even among themselves, women are reluctant to discuss it. Due to the abhorrence that puberty has the potential to inspire, many young girls will go to great lengths to deny it, for example, refusing to eat so as to slow down the sexual maturation of the body. For a long time, it was believed that such disgust at the weight gain brought on by puberty was essentially a Western problem, but studies such as Susan Bordo’s Unbearable Weight (1993) reveal that the issue now extends to girls from cultures worldwide, even those where weight is traditionally valued (such as black

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African cultures). An additional factor contributing to young girls’ repulsion at and rejection of puberty is its connotations with sexual reproduction and the fear of penetration or perforation by the male. During puberty, de Beauvoir states, the young girl feels condemned to a physical existence that is beyond her control; her sense of inferiority is increased and she goes on toward adulthood, wounded and shamed. Although written 60 years ago, this element of taboo and humiliation surrounding the sexual development of the female body described in The Second Sex, especially where menstruation is concerned (for example, in Muslim countries menstruating women are considered “unclean”), remains very much intact in the 21st century and must be addressed if young girls are to feel at ease with their changing female bodies. Until television advertisements for sanitary products (tampons and pads) change the test liquid from blue to red, we cannot say that, even in the supposedly liberal Western world, that we are at ease with menstruation. See Also: Adolescence; Body Image; Diet and Weight Control; Health, Mental and Physical; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Menstruation. Further Readings Beauvoir, Simone de, H. M. Parshley, trans. The Second Sex, London: Penguin, 1972. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003 (1993). Simmons, R. and D. Blyth. Moving into Asolescence. New York: A. de Gruyter, 1987. Tanner, J. Growth and Adolescence. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Scientific, 1962. Julie Anne Rodgers National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico is a commonwealth politically allied with the United States since 1898, and Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917 but do not vote for the U.S. president and have only a nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress. Puerto Rico has been governed by popularly elected officials (including a

governor and bicameral legislature) since 1948. The commonwealth consists of one large island and several small islands in the Caribbean Sea, with an area of 13,790 square kilometers and a population of just under 4 million (as of July 2009). Puerto Rico was claimed for Spain by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century and was a Spanish colony for several centuries before being ceded to the United States at the conclusion of the Spanish American War. This history is seen in the population, which is primarily Roman Catholic (85 percent), and the major ethnic groups are Caucasian (76.2 percent, mostly of Spanish origin) and black (6.9 percent), with small numbers of Asians, Amerindians, and people of mixed race. Spanish and English are the official languages. Aid for Women and Children Living Below Poverty Line The Puerto Rican economy has benefited from substantial U.S. investment; in 2009, the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $17,100. Women constituted 41.5 percent of the nonagricultural labor force in 2007, including 40.5 percent of managers and legislators. In 2005, 10.2 percent of women age 15 and older were unemployed, and women and children are disproportionately represented among people living below the poverty line. The total fertility rate in 2009 was 1.6 children per woman, and the birth rate is 11.7 per 1,000 population, with a migration rate of minus 0.96 per 1,000 (Puerto Ricans are free to live and work in the mainland United States, and many leave during their working years then return for retirement), resulting in a population growth rate of 0.3 percent. Women in Puerto Rico are far more likely than men to be divorced, separated, or widowed than men. In 2000, 38.4 percent of women age 60 or older were widowed versus 12 percent of men; 20 percent of women age 30 to 39, 22.5 percent of women age 40 to 59, and 13.3 percent of women age 60 or older were divorced or separated, whereas the comparable numbers for men are 13.2 percent for age 30 to 39, 15.3 percent for age 40 to 59, and 11 percent for age 60 and over. Improvements in Healthcare and Education Puerto Rico has made major efforts to improve health services over the past decade. Today, the most

Purity Balls



common causes of death are similar to those in other industrialized countries, primarily chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Life expectancy is comparable to the entire United States at 74.9 years for men and 82.4 years for women, although infant mortality is higher at 8.28 per 1,000 live births. Almost all births are attended by skilled healthcare personnel. The maternal mortality rate has fluctuated between about 5 to 20 per 100,000 live births; in 2005, it was 17.6 per 100,000. Birth rates among adolescent mothers (age 10 to 19 years) have decreased from 42.9 per 1,000 in 1997 to 31.4 per 1,000 in 2004. From 2002 to 2004, 29 percent of induced abortions were performed on women age 15 to 19. Education is theoretically universal in Puerto Rico, but in practice more boys than girls attend primary school while more women attend secondary school and university. Literacy is about equal, at 94.4 percent for women and 93.9 percent for men. Women in Politics and Sports One woman has served as governor of Puerto Rico: Sila Maria Calderón of the Popular Democratic Party, who served from 2001 to 2005. She previously held several other government offices, including mayor of San Juan (capital of Puerto Rico) as well as secretary of state in the federal government. San Juan had one previous female mayor, Felisa Rincón de Gautier, who served from 1947 to 1969 and was the first woman to serve as governor of a capital city in the Americas. Several women currently serve in the legislature for Puerto Rico, including President Pro Tempore Margarita Nolasco Santiago; Melinda K. Romero Donnelly and Norma E. Burgo Andújar in the Senate; and Albita I. Rivera Ramirez, Liza Fernandez Rodriguez, and Jennifer Gonzalez Colon in the House of Representatives. Many Puerto Rican women have achieved success in sports and sports administration. In 2008, Natasha Sagardia became the first Puerto Rican to win a gold medal at the International Surfing Association world championship. Maria Elena Batista competed in the 1988 Olympics as a swimmer. She is currently working as a sports administrator responsible for building or upgrading many athletic venues in Puerto Rico and founding several sports schools for low-income children. Rebekah Colberg competed internationally in several sports, including softball and track

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and field, and is often called the “mother of women’s sports” in Puerto Rico for her pioneering efforts to promote female participation in sports. Ivelisse Echevarría, currently director of sports and recreation for the city of Guaynabo, carried the Puerto Rican flag in the 1996 Olympics and competed as a pitcher for the softball team. She was inducted into the International Softball Hall of Fame in 2003. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Government, Women in; Poverty; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Lewis, Linden. The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed April 2010). World Health Organization. “Puerto Rico: Health in the Americas.” http://www.paho.org/hia/archivosvol2 /paisesing/Puerto%20Rico%20English.pdf (accessed April 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Purity Balls A purity ball (also called a “purity wedding” or a “father-daughter purity ball”) is a formal event that encourages the virginity of preteen and teenage girls until marriage and is attended by fathers and their daughters. Girls are encouraged to dress up in a formal white gown (resembling a wedding gown) for the event, which usually includes a “ceremony” in which the girl pledges to remain abstinent until marriage and her father pledges to protect his daughter’s purity. Often the father will present his daughter with a “purity ring” or another piece of jewelry symbolizing his pledge to her. The event usually includes a dinner and dance, in addition to the ceremony. Purity balls are an American phenomenon and often associated with U.S. Evangelical Christian churches. The phenomenon is spreading in popularity though to other nations like Australia and to some European

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nations. Purity balls have been criticized as maintaining sexual double standards and traditional gender roles by feminist organizations. The purity ball is a derivative of the larger abstinence movement, which has been promoted by conservative or religious right organizations in the United States since the 1980s. Pastor Randy Wilson and his wife, Lisa, organized the first purity ball in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1998. The couple runs Generations of Light, a popular Christian Ministry in town, and their Colorado Springs’ Annual Father-Daughter Purity Ball has since become a well-known national event, placing the congregation as a leader in the abstinence movement. Since then, other churches and conservative organizations from around the country have held their own purity balls based upon the Wilson’s model. Feminists have criticized purity balls for maintaining a sexual double standard, in that young woman are prevented from controlling their own sexuality, instead placing the control in the hands of their fathers. They also point out that young women within these conservative movements are also not given access to information about their sexuality, including sexual health options, and are thus placed at risk for unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases when they do become sexually active. Furthermore, purity balls have received criticism for promoting traditional gender roles, where girls are groomed for their roles as wives and mothers rather than as independent young women with a world of life options to choose from. Purity balls have received a lot of attention from the press in recent years, with the New York Times, Time magazine, and Glamour magazine all covering

the phenomenon. Abstinence Clearinghouse, a South Dakota–based organization involved in the purity movement, sends out over 700 “Purity Ball Planner” booklets a year to churches and abstinence organizations, encouraging them to hold their own purity balls. However, despite the media coverage and promotion by conservative organizations, it is difficult to know exactly how many purity balls are held annually in the United States, since most are grassroots organized and can range in size. See Also: Chastity Pledges; Focus on the Family; Fundamentalist Christianity; Pro-Life Movement; Sex Education, Abstinence-Only. Further Readings Banerjee, N. “Dancing the Night Away, With a Higher Purpose.” New York Times (May 19, 2007). http://www .nytimes.com/2008/05/19/us/19purity.html (accessed July 2010). Baumgardner, J. “Would you Pledge Your Virginity to Your Father?” Glamour (January 2007). http://www .glamour.com/sex-love-life/2007/01/purity-balls (accessed July 2010). Gibbs, N. “The Pursuit of Teen Girl Purity.” Time (July 17, 2008). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article /0,9171,1823930-1,00.html (accessed July 2010). Valenti, J. The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2009. Jessalynn Keller University of Texas at Austin

Q Qatar Located on the coast of the Arabian peninsula and surrounded by the Persian Gulf, Qatar is an oil-rich country with one of the fastest growing economies in the world. A monarchy controlled by the Al Thani family, Qatar’s government rules by religious law, with councils of leading citizens. While the constitution bans discrimination against women, law and social customs restrict women’s rights and freedoms. Shari`a, or Islamic law, gives men some controls over women. In education and the workforce, Qatar women experience some equality. Women have equal access to education, although it can be harder for them to travel abroad for college, as their movement can be limited without male escorts. Women comprise 26 percent of the national workforce, primarily in teaching, health, and government sectors. Women also receive equal pay for equal work. Migrant women face significant hardships in Qatar, which has a national problem with forced domestic service and the mistreatment of domestic servants. Women are forced into labor in homes, are given no access to assistance, and are often abused and beaten. Foreign embassies have gone so far as to establish shelters for runaway maids. While Islamic law prohibits physical abuse of women, it does protect men for “crimes of honor,” or assaults on women who displayed defiant behavior or were immodest. Husbands can restrict the activi-

ties of their wives and make it difficult for a woman to travel unaccompanied. In court, a woman usually has to be represented by a male relative, and it takes the testimony of two women to equal that of one man. Shari`a law compromises the freedom of women. Yet, Qatar women do have certain guarantees to an equal education and fair wages. See Also: Honor Killings; Islam; Shari`a Law. Further Readings Abdala, Ikhlas A. “Attitudes Towards Women in the Arabian Gulf Region,” Women in Management Review, v.11/1 (1996). Alsharekh, Alanoud. Popular Culture and Political Identity in the Arab Gulf States. London: Saqi Books, 2008. Bahry, L. “Elections in Qatar: A Window of Democracy Opens In The Gulf.” Middle East Policy, v.6 (1999). Crystal, Jill. Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Peterson, J. E. “The Political Status of Women in the Arab Gulf States,” Middle East Policy, v. 33(1989). Zahlan, Rosemarie Said. The Making of the Modern Gulf States: Kuwait, Bahrain, Quatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Ithaca, NY: Ithaca Press, 1999. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

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Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah Born Dana Elaine Owens on March 18, 1970, the premier female rap star is better known by her stage name Queen Latifah. Latifah began her career in the 1980s, and is considered a pioneer. Her career has also encompassed acting and writing. She continues to be a force in today’s world as a spokeswoman for companies such as Cover Girl and Curvations. Her 1999 memoir, Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman, was a bestseller, hailed as a self-esteem manual for young women. Young Dana Owens grew up in Newark, New Jersey. At age 8, she was dubbed Latifah, which means “gentle” in Arabic, by a cousin; she adopted “Queen” later. In 1987, she began beatboxing for the rap group Ladies Fresh. At the age of 19, she produced a solo album, All Hail the Queen (1989), which incorporated techniques beyond rap, such as soul, hiphop, and reggae, and is often hailed as a feminist expression. Since then, she has gone on to produce an impressive discography: Nature of a Sista (1991), Black Reign (1993), Order in the Court (1998), The Dana Owens Album (2004), Trav’lin’ Light (2007), Persona (2009). Black Reign was the first album by a female MC to go gold, and the single U.N.I.T.Y. earned the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. Latifah has earned an additional four Grammy nominations as well. Other Talents Besides singing, Latifah also directed her talents toward acting. Early movie ventures included Jungle Fever (1991), House Party 2 (1991), Juice (1992), My Life (1993), Set It Off (1996), and Hoodlum (1997). After guest appearances on The Fresh Prince of BelAir, Latifah starred in her own TV series, Living Single, which ran on Fox from 1993 to 1998. She also hosted The Queen Latifah Show, which ran in syndication from 1999 to 2001, and continues to make occasional guest appearances on other TV series. After Living Single ended, Latifah turned her attention more fully to movies. Parts in Sphere (1998), Living Out Loud (1998), The Bone Collector (1999), and Brown Sugar (2002) led to her notable part in the movie musical, Chicago (2002), for which she earned nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress.

Other movies followed, including Bringing Down the House (2003), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Taxi (2004), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), Beauty Shop (2005), Stranger Than Fiction (2006), Last Holiday (2006), The Perfect Holiday (2007), Hairspray (2007), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), What Happens in Vegas (2008), and Mad Money (2008). Latifah also starred in an HBO movie, Life Support (2007), for which she earned a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination. Recently, Latifah has also made forays into the realm of voice-overs. She has worked on several TV shows, such as The Fairly Oddparents, but she is perhaps best known for portraying Ellie the Mammoth in Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009). She has also penned a children’s book, Queen of the Scene (HarperCollins, 2006), which sends a message of female empowerment to the younger generation. Besides singing, acting, and writing, Latifah also discovers and manages other acts. Her management company, Flavor Unit Entertainment, was responsible for discovering Naughty by Nature and Outkast, among other acts. Latifah’s own career is still going strong. She has several movies premiering in 2010, and has appeared as a guest judge on American Idol. She also signed a deal with Grand Central Publishing to release a book in 2010, and her new fragrance, Queen, was launched in November 2009. She will continue in her role as spokeswoman for Cover Girl and Curvations, sending the message that all women are beautiful, no matter their race, size, or background. See also: American Idol; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Celebrity Women; Film Actors, Female; Hip Hop; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Mizejewski, Linda. “Queen Latifah, Unruly Women, and the Bodies of Romantic Comedy.” Genders, v.46 (2007). Queen Latifah. http://www.queenlatifah.com/pages/home (accessed November 2009). Queen Latifah. Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman. New York: William Morrow, 1998. Michelle M. Sauer University of North Dakota



Queen Noor of Jordan Prior to her marriage to King Hussein of Jordan in 1978, the woman who would become Noor alHussein, Queen of Jordan, was Lisa Halaby, an American urban planner working in Tehran. Born to a Swedish American mother, Doris Carlquist, and an Arab American father, Najeeb Halaby, in Washington, D.C., on August 23, 1951, Halaby’s interest in politics was sparked by her father’s work as a government official and by the prominence of the U.S. civil rights and peace movements. She was aware of the contrast between her privileged upbringing and the poverty of others. This contrast grew to define her work, even as her personal and professional life transformed completely. After working in Tehran, Halaby intended to return to the United States to attend graduate school. Instead, after visiting Jordan, she accepted a job with her father’s Jordanian aviation company. While in Jordan she met King Hussein, and on June 15, 1978, she exchanged her American identity to become Her Majesty Queen Noor. Noor’s immediate domestic responsibilities included raising King Hussein’s children from previous marriages as well as their own four children. As Jordan’s queen, Noor chaired a national task force for children and the National Committee for the International Year of the Child, established the first Arab Children’s Congress, and initiated children’s services and programs. Noor’s appreciation for the region’s arts and culture culminated in her 1980 inauguration of the Jerash Festival for Culture and Arts and her support for the National Handicrafts Development Project. As a state leader, she broke with convention by wearing traditional dresses to official events, drawing national and international attention to Jordan’s rich heritage while promoting the importance of sustainable economies for women in the region. Noor also challenged some of the gendered norms of her office. For example, she held iftars—evening meals when Muslims break their fast during the month of Ramadan—which are traditionally prepared by women for their husbands. Instead, Noor held these events for female friends, diplomats, associates, students, and representatives of organizations. In addition to her efforts on behalf of women and children, Noor strived for a revised Western perception of the Arab world. Guiding reporters through

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the Jordanian camps for refugees from Kuwait and Iraq, campaigning to ban and remove landmines, and conducting speaking tours in the United States, Noor offered a perspective on life in the Middle East that was different from images commonly portrayed in Western news and entertainment. In 1999, when King Hussein died from cancer, Noor assumed the responsibility of chairing the newly established King Hussein Foundation. Since then, Noor has served as an advisor to the United Nations, Seeds of Peace, and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and as an advisor, board member, or trustee for a number of other women’s, refugee, environmental, and peace organizations. She also is currently president of United World Colleges, a global educational organization that brings students together from all over the world to foster peace and international understanding. Queen Noor has received numerous commendations and awards for her work, including honorary doctorates in law, international relations, and humanities. Her autobiography, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, was a New York Times best seller and has been published in many languages. See Also: Arab Feminism; Children’s Rights; Council of Women World Leaders; Islam; Jordan; Peace Movement; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Fenton, Matthew McCann. “A Revealing Talk With the American Who Became Queen of Jordan.” Biography (September 2003). Noor, Queen. Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life. New York: Miramax, 2003. Noor Al Hussein Foundation. “Her Majesty Queen Noor.” www.nooralhusseinfoundation.org/index.php?page r=end&task=view&type=content&pageid=80 (accessed December 2009). Rompalske, Dorothy. “The All-American Girl Who Became Queen.” Biography (September 1997). Wright, J. W., Laura Drake, eds. Foreword by Queen Noor. Economic and Political Impediments To Middle East Peace: Critical Questions and Alternative Scenarios. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. Emily Plec Molly Mayhead Western Oregon University

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Queer Theory Queer theory in North America grew in prominence in the early 1990s, having developed from gay and lesbian studies, which was an outgrowth of feminist studies and feminist theory in the mid-1980s. Feminist theory challenged the humanist notion of an essential, unique, and coherent self. It promoted the idea that identity is culturally constructed and inspired the shift in understanding from self to subject. The subject, as produced and constructed, is local, partial, provisional, and fluid. Queer theory insists that all sexual behaviors— that is, all concepts linking sexual behaviors to sexual identities—and all categories of normative and deviant behaviors are socially constructed. It also rejects the idea that sexuality is biologically determined. Queer theory contends that sexuality is a constructed aggregate of social codes and influences, individual tastes and activities, and institutional power. These social constructions are dialectically informed by what is considered normative or deviant in particular cultural milieus. Prominent queer theorist Judith Butler suggests that sexuality is not just a construct but a performance, something that we do as in “doing gender” rather than thinking of sexuality and gender as innate aspects of a person. Cultural practices shape beliefs that sexualities are natural, essential, and biological; however, queer theory posits that sexualities are culturally bound and historically constructed. The term queer is imbued with myriad meanings and cultural interpretations. Queer could be considered a “zone of possibilities” that defy clear articulation, as a definitive claim that queerness is antithetical to what it means to be “queer.” Queer is paradoxically inclusive and exclusive. There are no definitive limits to what it means to be queer. Queer is both a noun and a verb: one is queer; one queers a text. Queer describes the spaces between; the liminal; and the mismatches between sex, gender, and desire. Queer theory contests heteronormative metanarratives and positions against compulsory heteronormativity. “It Is Unqueer to Define Queer” The theory seeks to destabilize heterosexuality by locating and questioning the inconsistencies in this category that have been taken for granted in their stability, unity, and coherence. Queer theory works

against the trope of heterosexuality by making transparent the fragility and slippage in language. Because of this language slippage and the instability of categories, it is unqueer to define queer. Queer theory seeks to illustrate that sexuality is liminal, partial, and subjective. Queer theory contends that language is not a mirror of experience but produces experience in cultural and historical contexts. Humanist traditions suggest that one becomes or develops into a self with a unique and coherent identity; queer theory contests unity and proposes that subjects are culturally produced and thus are unstable, nonunified, and in a constant state of unbecoming. Subjectivity, according to queer theory, could best be described as a culturally informed journey not an ahistorical or predetermined destination. Subjects are located in relation to others and within specific systems of power and knowledge that privilege specific ways of being, while delineating alternative ways of being as deviant and unintelligible. Intelligibility describes the operations of rendering subjects visible or invisible. Queer theory illuminates the intelligibility of heterosexuality as reflective of power relations and knowledge constructions that privilege heteronormative sexuality and opposite sex/gender relationships. Queer theory proposes that identity and sexuality are not essential aspects of humanity and seeks to make transparent the ways that heterosexuality is propped up by homosexuality, since homosexuality is all that heterosexuality is not. Queer theory seeks not to determine sexuality but to show the ways that sexuality is determined by discursive operations of culture that privilege heterosexuality. Queer theory contests grand narratives and binaries that position man/woman, heterosexual/homosexual as exclusive categories. It argues against the stability of these categories as essential or fixed. Queer is thus antiheteronormative without fundamental logic or a consistent set of characteristics. Queer is whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. Queer is an identity without essence; queer contests what is normalized or naturalized within culture. Queer theory promotes reflexivity rather than proposing stable ideals, fixed identity or subject position. The theory invites critical analysis of subjects in cultural and historical contexts. It contests homogenized identities and politicizes subjectivity as relational, con-

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textual, and historical, arguing for the problematization of stable categories. Queer theory questions systems of oppression that naturalize particular regimes of truth and argues for investigations of sexuality and gender norms that are presumed to be intrinsic. Queer theory can be used as a strategy to denaturalize heteronormative understandings of sex, gender, sexuality, social life, and all the relations between systems of power/knowledge. It politicizes sex, gender, and sexuality in ways that disrupt or make apparent the fractures in the notions of stable or fixed identities. Because gender, sexuality, and compulsory heterosexuality are so pervasive, queer theory promotes the need for constant deconstruction as a political imperative. Like poststructural feminism that promotes the politicization and contestation of language as reflective of meaning, queer theory invites challenges to the idea that language is a mirror of experience, identity, or sexuality. Queer theory allows for and invites contradictory understanding of sexuality and gender, disrupts definitive meaning making, and promotes the interrogation of identity as prefigured or categorical. See Also: Coming Out; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Lesbians; LGBTQ; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of, Sexual Orientation. Further Readings Jagose, Annamarie. Queer Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press, 1996. Klages, Mary. Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York: Continuum, 2006. Sullivan, Nikki. A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Wilchins, Riki. Queer Theory, Gender Theory: A Primer. New York: Alyson Books, 2004. Joani Mortenson University of British Columbia, Okanagan

Quinceañeras A quinceañera is the celebration of a Latina girl’s 15th birthday. From the Spanish word quince, meaning “15,” a quinceañera marks the end of a girl’s childhood

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and entrance into adulthood and womanhood. The term quinceañera means both the celebration itself and the 15-year-old girl. For some families, the celebration of their daughter’s 15th birthday is symbolic of a girl’s freedom to date and her growing responsibilities as a young woman. Today, quinceañeras are celebrated throughout Latin America and the United States in cities with large numbers of Latino people. Some scholars believe that a girl’s 15th birthday was considered highly significant to the Aztec people who ruled present-day Mexico and parts of the western United States before the arrival of the Spanish in the early half of the 16th century, indicating that contemporary celebrations owe their origins to both indigenous and Spanish–Catholic influence. Scholars have indicated that at the age of 15, a young Aztec girl was old enough to marry; however, as scholars argue, a wedding celebration and quinceañera are not one and the same and hold different meanings to Latino people. It must also be noted that many nationalities make up the label Latino, and thus there is no single way a quinceañera is celebrated. The celebrations themselves reflect each family’s way of interpreting this special day. Although some contemporary quinceañeras may be more secularized than others, certain Roman Catholic elements, such as a Mass and blessing of the quinceañera, continue to be a part of many celebrations. Some Latino families have chosen to omit a religious ceremony from the celebration, instead organizing a reception with food, dancing, and music—not unlike many wedding festivities. Yet, although a Catholic wedding is symbolic of a couple’s freedom to engage in sexual intimacy, a quinceañera for many Latinos represents the girl’s commitment to sexual purity until marriage. To symbolize each of her 15 years, the quinceañera will often have 15 other young girls, known as damas, accompany her, in addition to 15 male escorts, called chambelanes. However, some quinceañeras may choose to not have damas accompany the birthday girl, which attests to the variation and diversity of contemporary celebrations. In some celebrations, the Mass begins with the entrance of the 15 damas and chambelanes, followed by the quinceañera, who is walked down the church aisle by her father or a male relative. Because the ceremony is often marked by religious symbolism, the quinceañera may choose

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A girl in a pastel gown celebrates her quinceañera, or 15th birthday, surrounded by some of her male escorts, called chambelanes. For many, the celebration is symbolic of a girl’s entrance into adulthood and womanhood.

to wear a white gown to mark her purity, although it is becoming more common, and even fashionable, to wear pastel colors like pink or purple. Although quinceañeras are celebrated in some fashion among Latino families, factors such as economics may influence a family’s decision not to celebrate. An elaborate ceremony and party, for example, may cost a family up to $20,000. A large number of Latino families do not celebrate quinceañeras, which indicates that the meaning behind the celebration is not universal or monolithic but is fluid. In addition, some Latino families may choose to mark the 15th birthday in other ways, such as buying a special gift or having a more intimate family party rather than in the form of a ceremony or reception.

See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Mexico; Purity Balls; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Alvarez, J. Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA. New York: Viking, 2007. Cantu, N. E., et al. Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Castro, R. G. Chicano Folklore: A Guide to the Folktales, Traditions, Rituals and Religious Practices of Mexican-Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Cristina Herrera California State University, Fresno

R Rabbis, Female In the last three decades, hundreds of women have chosen to become rabbis. This growth parallels and follows the demand for change in women’s roles in public ritual life and family laws and is due to the profound impact of feminism, especially in North America. In English-speaking countries, women call themselves rabbis, but in countries such as Germany, the woman rabbi is referred to as rabbina and in Israel often as rabba. The Orthodox ABR (all but rabbis in name) refer to themselves as maharat, a newly coined term. Women rabbis’ contribution has broadened the concept of Judaism and the image of women in general by providing female models of leadership. In 1890, Ray Frank, the “Girl Rabbi of the Golden West,” who was born in San Francisco in 1861, arranged services for the community in Spokane, Washington, on Yom Kippur of 1890. Since there was no rabbi, Frank was invited to preach. She studied at the Hebrew Union College, receiving a Bachelor of Hebrew Letters. In the 1920s, there were several women who entered seminaries with the intention of becoming rabbis, but all were refused ordination, including Helen Levinthal (1910–89), who became the first woman to complete the rabbinical course at Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise’s Jewish Institute of Religion in 1939. The first known woman rabbi ordained privately in 1935 was Regina Jonas of Germany, who died in Aus-

chwitz. In 1972, the first woman to be ordained by a theological seminary in the United States was Sally Preisand of the Reform Movement. In 1968, women were accepted into the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso was its first woman rabbi to be ordained in 1974. Amy Eilberg was already studying at Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA) when women’s ordination was approved and in 1985 became the first woman ordained as a rabbi by the Conservative Movement. The Orthodox movement in the United States does not ordain women, but in 2009, Sara Hurwitz received the title maharat (leader in halachic, spiritual and pastoral counseling, and in teaching Torah) after completing a rabbi’s full curriculum of study. Rabbinical Seminaries Ordain Women In Israel, the rabbinical seminaries began ordaining women after much debate. Some felt that Israeli society was too traditional to stomach female leadership. The first conservative woman to be ordained by the Shechter Institute in 1993 was Valerie Stessin. At least four women served in pulpits in the masorti (Conservative) movement (in Beersheba, Omer, and two in Jerusalem). Yalta is a forum that works as a support group for Conservative female rabbis and students and advocates for greater recognition. There are more Reform rabbis in Israel since they began admitting women in 1986, and Naamah Kelman made history as the first woman in Israel to be ordained as a rabbi 1197

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in 1992. Mimi Feigelson, Eveline Goodman-Thau, and Haviva Ner-David were privately ordained with Orthodox semicha (rabbinic ordination). Ner-David documented her journey in Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination and identifies herself as a “post-denominational rabbi.” In 2008, the modern Orthodox Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem started a nondenominational program to prepare women and men for rabbinic ordination in order to train them as Jewish educators, not for pulpit positions. Jacqueline Tabick was the first woman rabbi in Britain. She enrolled at the Progressive (Reform) Leo Baeck College, where she completed her rabbinical training in 1975. The Leo Baeck College has ordained more than 25 female students in 24 years. It trains rabbis to serve in Europe. In the Reform movement, the discussion for decades revolved around whether or not it was seemly for a woman to preach from the pulpit. In the Conservative movement, the issues of a woman serving as prayer leader, or conducting weddings where she might serve as a witness, were taken into account. One of the biggest arguments against women serving as rabbis in non-Orthodox settings was that of kevod ha-tzibbur (the “honor of the community”). This argument suggests that women’s participation casts shame on the males in the congregation by demonstrating superiority in knowledge over the ignorant males. Others interpret the term kevod ha-zibbur as an allusion to the sexual distraction posed by women to men. This sociological argument has been swept over by the new reality. Women are now actively participating in and leading religious activities such as daily prayer, the weekly public readings of the Torah, and teaching and studying the Torah. Women’s roles are no longer peripheral in communal life. Even in the modern Orthodox world, women are separate but equal. There are still some halakhic objections to women rabbis, such as women serving as witnesses, but the major obstacles are social convention and “the weight of tradition.” The relationship between the rabbi and the congregant has changed with the coming of women to a relationship of greater closeness and greater informality. Women tend to stay in smaller communities, they are less interested in climbing the ladder from small to bigger congregations, and they form close relation-

ships with the congregants they have. Many women rabbis prefer not to take pulpit positions and serve as educators, chaplains in hospitals, rabbis of day schools, and college campus rabbis. Some of them have senior positions in nonprofit organizations. The fact that women are redefining the pulpit impacts positively on their male colleagues, who often choose less competitive ways of life as well. See also: Lesbian/Gay Clergy; Orthodox Judaism; Religion, Women in; Women’s Ordination Conference. Further Readings Greenberg, S., ed. The Ordination of Women as Rabbis. New York: JTS, 1988. Nadell, P. Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination 1889–1985. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. Ner-David, H. Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination. Needham, MA: JFL Books, 2000. Wenger, B. “The Politics of Women’s Ordination: Jewish Law.” Tradition Renewed: A History of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTSA). New York: JTSA, 1997. Naomi Graetz Ben Gurion University

Rachel’s Network Rachel’s Network (RN) was established in 1999 by Winsome McIntosh with a grant from the McIntosh Foundation. McIntosh gathered a group of fellow women philanthropists who had committed at least $25,000 annually to environmental causes to form the “Founder’s Circle” of the organization. The founders chose “Rachel’s Network” as the name of their group to honor Rachel Carson (1907–64), whose book Silent Spring is credited with beginning the environmental movement in the early 1960s. Believing that collaboratively the group could be more effective than as individual voices, the founders determined to strengthen the representation of women on the boards of nonprofits, corporations, and government commissions and to use their power to protect the earth and the health of its citizens.



Seventeen women made up the original group. McIntosh served as president for the first 10 years. McIntosh brought to the job decades of experience on the board of the McIntosh Foundation, a family philanthropy established in 1949 by Josephine H. McIntosh, whose grandfather George Hamilton Hartford founded the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (later renamed A&P). In 2009, Lisa Renstrom, a former Sierra Club president and a trustee of her family’s foundation, Bonwood Social Investments, succeeded McIntosh, who became board chair. By the time McIntosh stepped down as president, RN had more than 90 members. Among them were foundation presidents, board directors, businesswomen, and community leaders from across the United States and representing a range of political ideologies connected by their commitment to environmental causes and to the empowerment of women in shaping the policies that addressed those causes. The diversity within the membership of RN allows the organization to use innovative ways of fostering collaboration even among unlikely partners. The Congressional Women’s Networking Initiative provides resources and events that encourage women in Congress to work together in a nonpartisan, informal setting to solve environmental problems. RN has served, since 2005, in an unofficial capacity to connect leaders in the National Association of Evangelicals, for whom “Creation Care” has become an increasingly important issue, and in the environmental community. RN also founded as a separate organization Rachel’s Action Network, a nonpartisan 501(c)(4) organization that promotes the engagement of women in the political process and campaigns for female candidates committed to environmental issues. RN has also worked closely with the Environmental Working Group (EWG), funding studies for that research and advocacy organization. Eighteen members of RN and their families went beyond funding and volunteered to participate in a 2005 Body Burden test conducted by EWG. Researchers sampled the volunteers’ blood and urine and analyzed them for toxic chemicals. Although RN member volunteers lived in various parts of the country, the study showed their toxic chemical load to be similar, with all of them testing positive for 60 percent of the 75 chemicals evaluated, including fire retardants, Teflon chemicals, fragrances, bisphenol A (found in plas-

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tics), and perchlorate—a rocket fuel ingredient. In 2007, RN funded a second EWG study that tested the umbilical cord blood of U.S. newborns. For the first time, synthetic fragrance chemicals were detected in cord blood, providing evidence that infants in the womb are contaminated with toxic chemicals used in cosmetics and other consumer products. Such studies help to build a case for improved regulation of controversial chemicals. See Also: Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Philanthropists, Female. Further Readings Doheny, Kathleen. “Household Chemicals May Show Up in Blood.” http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main /art.asp?articlekey=99927 (accessed March 2010). MacGillivray, Alex. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (The Manifesto Series). Hauppauge, NY: 2004. Rachel’s Network. “What We Do.” https://www.rachels network.org/whatwedo.php (accessed March 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined Defining rape is a complicated exercise as different definitions abound in legal, media, academic, and political discourses. Feminists are not in agreement on whether rape should be considered a sex crime or a crime of violence. A rigid definition has normative significance, so the definition of rape requires a degree of flexibility and contestation. That said, rape can be defined as the assault by a person involving sexual contact with another person without that person’s consent. This definition is not explicit about the range of sexual contact or abuse involved, nor is it explicit about the gender of the survivor/victim and perpetrator. This ambiguity lends itself to a number of factors. For instance, this definition of rape is cautious not to explicitly identify perpetrators of rape as “men” as a result of the debates concerning the multiple forms of rape, including male-to-male

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rape. Additionally, the explicit identification of “men” as perpetrators bears the potential to individualize rape, rescinding responsibility for these acts of violence from the state or patriarchal cultural practices. On the other hand, some argue that gender neutrality regarding definitions of rape assumes that rape can be desexualized and that the social norms of heterosexist and patriarchal societies can automatically change. These assumptions are deeply flawed and potentially injurious to women. Feminists have long labored for a legal definition of rape, and ongoing country-specific debates concerning the juridical definition of rape shed some insight into the complexity of a universally applicable definition of the term. The legal restrictions that regulate what does and does not constitute rape often depend on what does or does not appear to be an effect of violence. The term rape is implicitly linked with numerous and often-contested meanings and contestations about power, desire, morality, and justice and the legal laboring for a definition reflects the larger family, community, and generational debates concerning social norms and expectations. The multiplicity of definitions of rape reveal the differences between men’s and women’s understandings of what constitutes rape, and these understandings are influenced by other social factors, such as age, socioeconomic status, education, and the perceptions of a community’s general vulnerability to crime. Legal definitions often differ across and within nations, particularly when nations have two or more legal frameworks. Legal definitions of rape are also often considered too narrow. Feminist interventions aim to highlight the socioeconomic, historic, political, and cultural contexts in which definitions of rape are produced. Rape is a widespread international problem. Globally, acquaintance, date, and marital rape appear to be more common than stranger rape. Women and girls are at greater risk of being raped than boys and men. Rape statistics are heavily contested, due to underreporting and the crisis of defining rape in the first place. Rape is also a common feature of war violence, and evidence suggests that the rate of rape is higher in zones of armed conflict. Mass rape during wartime has been documented in Liberia, Uganda, Nicaragua, Japan, Peru, Cambodia, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Mozambique, and many other countries, and some would argue that rape is a feature of

all armed conflict. The social context in which rape is perpetrated impacts upon the forms that it takes and the manner by which it is perceived. Due to the public and concentrated violence of mass rape in war, greater moral outrage is expressed, as compared to rape during peacetime. This violence is relegated to the private domain, discursively constructed as a symptom of dysfunctional relationships between individual men and women, and this privatization ultimately masks the social relations of power that create the conditions for violence against women. There are several types of rape, including date rape, gang rape, marital or spousal rape, child sexual abuse, prison rape, male rape, war rape, and statutory rape. Victims/survivors of rape experience a range of consequences, including depression, guilt, anxiety, fear, sexual difficulties, and anger. Physical injuries may include sexually transmitted disease and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and pregnancy, and depend on the context and range of physical violence of the assault. Social stigmas regarding rape are a common feature in many cultures and can result in suicide. Stigma and victim blaming are also reasons why victims/survivors of rape may not pursue criminal or other recourse. Discourse on Rape Feminist discourse has challenged the notion that rape is an act of nature, positing that it is in fact a mode through which male cultural power and domination are exercised, offering the notion of a “rape culture” or “rape cultures” as cultures in which systematic dominance and control of and over women are aspects of the practice and performance of masculinity, and that, ultimately, rape is implicitly condoned. If rape emerges out of specific structural, social, and cultural conditions, this raises questions concerning the universal applicability of theories of a “rape culture” in cross-cultural analysis. Northern, northernbiased, and southern feminists have argued that rape is a weapon of intimidation and one that functions to keep all women in a state of fear, with some degree of agreement. Some researchers argue that there are some cultures in which there is no rape or in which masculinities are “anti-rape,” urging further investigations into these “non-rape cultures.” Others reveal a concern with the proposition of a “rape culture,” as it fails to capture the full myriad of hierarchical gendered



relationships within and between different cultural contexts. Some argue that identifying perpetrators as “men” solely by their gender fails to account for the manner by which women are differently vulnerable to rape and also fails to fully account for the experiences of sexual violence in various social and cultural contexts. The complexity of a universal definition of rape can be ethically, theoretically, and practically paralyzing; however, for activists internationally organizing against rape, broad perspectives may be necessary. Critical Race theorists and feminists in the United States query the degree to which black women have benefited from prevailing feminist interventions. For instance, media sensationalism of white women being raped by nonwhite men not only purports racist myths of “black peril” but also does little to reflect the reality that most women are raped by men of their own race and class. The rape of women of color, receiving much less attention and often being ignored outright, leaves the impression that women of color are not victims of rape. Identity politics in the case of feminist interventions concerning violence against women appears to depend upon a problematic elision of difference. Racism and sexism function together to coproduce dominant discourses and definitions concerning rape. Examining the early common-law practice in which women alleging rape were asked to show how they resisted male advances and were in fact put on trial themselves, legal frameworks legitimized the good woman/bad woman dichotomy. Rape law reform measures did not appear to challenge or engage with historically produced and maintained narratives that are read onto black women’s bodies, associating black femininity with hypersexuality and ultimately leading up to the oppression of black women in rape trials. Critical race feminists note that both feminist and antiracist agendas on the issue of rape are ineffective in politicizing the treatment of black women, offering intersectionality as a tool through which rape can be examined as a product of both racism and patriarchy. International Debates and Definitions There is no clear international law or agreement that defines rape or comprehensively deals with genderbased violence and violations, although rape is considered a crime against humanity in the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Geneva Con-

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vention of 1949. Generally, international conventions take the view that cultural and traditional practices are often the cause of gender-based violence. The tenor of the United Nations conference on Women continued in this grain, with a series of recommendations for governments to reconcile the conflicts that arise between women and the harmful effects of traditional practices. This tenor created a rift between northern- and southern-based feminists, as those cultural practices presented as harmful and patriarchal were often cultural practices occurring in the global south. This led to accusations of a Western, objectifying, and homogenizing gaze from southern feminists, as these discourses seemed to suggest that women’s rights and gender equality are characteristics of the Western world and Western culture. Furthermore, southern feminists argue that these conclusions failed to acknowledge the role of the combination of traditional patriarchies with the imposed colonial and postcolonial forms of patriarchy in and through which contemporary gendered cultural practices emerge in the world. Analyzing national debates, one can observe the close relationship between discourses on cultural practice and legal definitions of and punishment for rape. Many countries have both a civil and customary framework. The result can be and is often a contradiction in regard to the meaning of women’s rights. Many national constitutions claim to be committed to equality between men and women but also require that traditions be preserved. Oftentimes, it is when issues related to gendered cultural practices arise that calls for cultural preservation emerge. The “curative” rape of lesbians, for instance, is considered a practice intended to preserve “traditional” and normative sexualities in some countries. The term violence against women aims to describe a spectrum of gender-based violence, paying particular attention to gender-based violence that disproportionately victimizes women and girls, such as sexual assault or rape. The term wishes to draw attention to the manner by which certain violence or violations are due to gendered or sexual stereotypes or expectations of masculinity and femininity, considering the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, and inequality in shaping women’s experience of violence and violations such as rape. Some theorists argue that violence against women is an insidious

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and invisible global war against women. National and international legal instruments declare that rape is illegal, yet most incidences of rape are ignored and unofficially condoned. This global war on women often becomes visible during wartime, as incidences of mass rape and “ethnic cleansing” come to the fore. International structures and laws prohibit rape in domestic and armed conflict; however, these provisions are infrequently enforced, reflecting national and international complicity with violence against women. The term gender-based violence aims to locate rape within a continuum of sexed and gendered violence in the world by illuminating the conditions under which people become vulnerable to rape and how in these situations, being gendered “woman” or “man” holds particular significance in regard to who is injured, with what, and the manner by which rape is rationalized, legitimized, and normalized within different social contexts. The use of the terms gender-based violence and violence against women aims to place rape within an analytical and theoretical framework that emphasizes the complexity and plurality of violence. This violence and violations include the sexual abuse of children, sex trafficking, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, female infanticide, female genital surgery, dowry burnings, and pornography. These forms of violence are mutually reinforcing, and these terms allow us to examine both the intersections and disjunctures of gendered violence. See Also: Child Abuse, Perpetrators of; Child Abuse, Victims of; Children’s Rights; Crime Victims, Female; Critical Race Feminism; Dating Violence; Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Global Feminism; Honor Suicides; Morrison, Toni; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Rape and HIV; Rape in Conflict Zones; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Allen, B. Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in BosniaHerzegovina and Croatia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Brownmiller, S. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975. Crenshaw, K. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionalist, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review, v.43/6 (1991).

Hill Collins, P. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge, 2000. Jayawardena, K. and M. de Alwis. Embodied Violence: Communalizing Women’s Sexuality in South Asia. London: Zed Books, 1996. Mama, Amina. “Heroes and Villains: Conceptualizing Colonial and Contemporary Violence Against Women in Africa.” In M. Alexander and C. Mohanty, eds., Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. London: Routledge, 1997. McKinnon, Catherine A. Towards a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. Moffett, Helen. “‘These Women, They Force Us to Rape Them’: Rape as Narrative of Social Control in PostApartheid South Africa.” Journal of Southern African Studies, v.32/1 (2006). Mohanty, C. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Politics and Colonial Discourses.” Feminist Review (1988). Muholi, Z. “Thinking Through Lesbian Rape.” Agenda (2004). Peacock, D. and B. Khumalo. “‘Bring Me My Machine Gun’: Contesting Patriarchy and Rape Culture in the Wake of the Jacob Zuma Rape Trial.” In Pumla Gqola, et al., eds., Sexual Politics and Gender Relations: The Jacob Zuma ersus Khwezi Rape Trial in South Africa, Tshwane: HSRC Press. http://www.genderjustice.org .za/resources/organisational-documents/sonkegender-justice-network-capacity-statement /download-3.html (accessed November 2009). Stiglmayer, A., ed. Mass Rape: The War against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994. Danai S. Mupotsa Monash University

Rape, Incidence of Rape is a violent crime that victimizes women worldwide. A 2001 World Bank report estimates that one in three women throughout the world has been raped or sexually assaulted. Rape incidents lead to trauma and involve physical violence and mental anguish associated with injury, pain, fear, and humiliation. Although public awareness and research on rape have increased in the past 30 years, measuring the extent and mag-



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Underreporting of rapes by victims to law enforcement authorities is a troubling issue, and factors such as fear of the attacker, selfblame for being attacked, and embarrassment discourage victims from reporting rape.

nitude of rape incidents and their toll on victims remains difficult. Variations in research methodologies and definitions of rape complicate understanding rape’s global impact. In the United States, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program distinguishes between forcible rape (rape by force) and statutory rape (rape without force). According to the UCR, forcible rape is “carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will,” which refers to sexual intercourse forced on a female of any age. Assaults and attempts to commit forcible rape are included in this category. Statutory rape refers to nonforcible rape involving females under the age of consent, who are not considered mature enough to understand and engage in consensual sex. Age of consent laws are meant to protect young people from being manipulated and sexually exploited by adults. While ages of victims are crucial in determining legality of consensual sex involv-

ing young women, ages of consent vary according to national laws. In some societies, gender-biased legal systems make it almost impossible for women who report rape to authorities to validate their claims. For example, Islamic law requires rape victims to provide credible male witnesses. Muslim women who do not provide such witnesses are often charged with adultery. In some Latin American countries, such as Costa Rica, Peru, and Uruguay, penal codes permit rapists to be exonerated if they propose marriage to their victims and receive their consent. Underreporting of rapes by victims to law enforcement authorities is another troubling issue. UCR estimates that about 89,000 women in the United States were forcible rape victims in 2008. However, these figures do not reflect actual numbers of rape victims. Factors such as fear of the attacker, self-blame for being attacked, and embarrassment discourage victims

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from reporting rape to police or taking legal action. Assumptions that rape is often committed by strangers who randomly seek out victims are also problematic. About 80 percent of all rapes in the United States are identified as incidents of date rape or forcible rape, committed by people the victims know as friends or as current or former intimate partners such as spouses and dates. Date rape occurs frequently in settings familiar to attackers and their victims, such as homes and college campuses. Given the nature of most relationships between victims and attackers, date rapes are less likely to be reported to police, compared with rapes by strangers. Date rapes are also common in cultures outside the United States where traditional attitudes toward date rape tend to justify male actions. In Cambodia, nearly one-third of respondents in a demographic survey stated that refusing sex to husbands is not justified for reasons such as recent childbirth and knowing that husbands have human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). In Papua New Guinea, almost half of the 95 women interviewed for a study said their husbands forced them to have sex. International Scope of Rape Armed conflicts in international or noninternational war zones are another arena where women are at risk for violence in the forms of rape, sexual abuse, abduction, and forced pregnancy. Rape is often used as a military weapon against women to undermine national, political, and cultural solidarity. In 1994, as many as one-half million Rwandan women were raped by Hutu soldiers during the period of genocide. Many of these Rwandan women were killed or took their own lives after being raped. Rwandan women who survived often suffered from HIV or from fear of HIV-infection, since many Hutu rapists were HIVpositive. Military rape is also associated with forced impregnation. In the early 1990s, Serbian soldiers carried out mass rapes of Muslim and Croatian women during ethnic conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina. To carry out ethnic cleansing, their attackers raped these women repeatedly until they became pregnant. In many cases, pregnant rape victims were detained until abortion was no longer an option. Insufficient attention to rape’s prevalence throughout the world makes understanding the long-term

impact of rape on survivors difficult. Rape survivors suffer mental and physical trauma personally, but in patriarchal societies such trauma is blamed for undermining family cohesion. During the 1991 war between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now Pakistan), hundreds of thousands of Bangladesh girls and women were raped by Pakistani soldiers. After the war, many Bengali men rejected their wives and daughters who had been raped and sometimes impregnated by Pakistani soldiers. Bangladesh is an example of a society where sexual violence is regarded as shameful not just for its victims but also for their families. Instead of blaming male attackers, communities and families stigmatize female victims for loss of honor. Rape survivors endure hostility within and ostracization from their own societies. There are also concerns about HIV infection among rape survivors, since their attackers may have transmitted the virus. Transmission of HIV from HIV-infected mothers to succeeding generations is another problem, especially in countries with inadequate or minimal healthcare and medical treatments for HIV and AIDS patients. See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Rape and HIV; Rape Crisis Centers; Rape Trauma Syndrome; Sex Offenders, Female; Sex Offenders, Male. Further Readings Card, Claudia. “Rape as a Weapon of War.” Hypatia, v.11/4 (Fall 1996). George Mason University Sexual Assault Services. “Worldwide Sexual Assault Statistics.” http://www.gmu .edu/depts/unilife/sexual/brochures/WorldStats2005 .pdf (accessed May 2010). Kilpatrick, Dean G. “Rape and Sexual Assault.” National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center. http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research /sa.shtml (accessed December 2009). Sharlach, Lisa. “Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the Former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda.” New Political Science, v.22/1 (2000). Tjaden, Patricia and Nancy Thoenners. “Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Rape Victimization: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey.” U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, January 2006. http://www .ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/210346.pdf (accessed May 2010).

Rape, Legal Definitions of

U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Crime in the United States, 2005.” http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/violent_crime /forcible_rape.html (accessed December 2009). U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Crime in the United States, 2008.” http://www.fbi.gov /ucr/cius2008/index.html (accessed December 2009). U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook, 2004 (revised date).” http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/handbook/ucrhand book04.pdf#page=26 (accessed December 2009). Ayako Mizumura University of Kansas

Rape, Legal Definitions of A recent United Nations report suggests that, on average, over 250,000 cases of rape or attempted rape are reported each year worldwide, while the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that nearly 200,000 incidents of rape or sexual assault occurred in 2005 in the United States alone. Because most rape victims are women, these data suggest that approximately one in six women in the United States become the victims of actual or attempted rape each year, excluding the countless rapes that go unreported. Although rape is a serious offense punishable by law, there exists no consensus regarding the precise definition of this crime. Legal definitions of rape vary from state to state and are subject to continual debate. Conflicting understandings of exactly what constitutes “rape” highlight the inevitable difficulties that arise in any attempt to legislate the sexual encounter. English common law defined rape as the carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will. In contemporary legal usage, rape generally refers to unwanted sexual intercourse that involves the use of force and the lack of consent. Yet there is widespread disagreement regarding the meanings of “penetration,” “force,” and “consent”— the primary elements of this legal definition. Defining Rape Disagreement also prevails with respect to the manner in which a rape victim is expected to behave or respond to the perpetrator. Women who dress a

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certain way or behave aggressively are often either blamed for or perceived to enjoy rape. In addition, a range of special conditions and circumstances necessarily modify the legal definition of rape. For example, sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 18 is considered statutory rape, as the child is legally regarded as unable to consent. Rape may also be found when a person has sex with someone deemed legally incapable of consenting due to mental illness, impairment, or intoxication. Other types of rape include acquaintance rape, spousal rape, prison rape, gang rape, incest, and rape during wartime. Despite the formal legal classification of rape as a criminal offense, many cases that seem to adhere to this legal definition are either not perceived as such or not prosecuted by their victims. Rape victims often fear that they will experience additional humiliation, exposure, and violation within the legal system. This leads to the phenomenon of underreporting, which thwarts official attempts to collect accurate data regarding the incidence of sexual assault. The growing use of daterape drugs also impedes rape victims’ ability to resist or recall unwanted sex. Collectively, these issues complicate the prosecution of rape charges within the U.S. legal system and compound the emotional, legal, and psychological implications of rape for survivors. Etymologically, the word rape derives from the Latin verb rapere, to seize or take by force. The legal history of rape yields a complex and shifting patchwork of meanings rather than a linear progression of definitions. Under Roman law, rape was classified as a crime of assault. By late antiquity, rape was regarded instead as a crime against male property. Through this gradual transformation of meaning, rape came to be understood as an attack against the victim’s husband or father and as a crime that devalued women through their presumed loss of virginity. Since the 1970s, feminist scholars have sought to expose the masculinist biases of these historical as well as contemporary definitions of rape. Noteworthy are the efforts of Susan Brownmiller, Andrea Dworkin, Catherine MacKinnon, Sharon Marcus, and Susan Estrich to demystify rape as a crime of power and control rather than one motivated solely by sexual desire or passion. Through their scholarship and legal activism, these and other scholars have consistently exposed the masculinist underpinnings of traditional notions of penetration, force, and consent.

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They have also critiqued the popular characterization of rape victims as “damaged goods” as well as the primacy of penetration to legal definitions of rape. The women’s liberation movement of the 1970s also led to the establishment of the first rape crisis centers in the United States. Rape Versus Sexual Assualt Although rape is closely related to sexual assault, state laws often distinguish between the two with respect to the details of penetration. While some jurisdictions explicitly define “rape” as an act that involves penile penetration of the vagina, other jurisdictions define all nonconsensual sex as rape. Similarly, some legal definitions of rape encompass oral sex, masturbation, and penetration with any foreign object, including, but not limited to, the penis. Other definitions of rape are gender specific. In Scotland, for example, male rape was not officially recognized as a form of “rape” until 2009. Similarly, Brazil narrowly defines rape as nonconsensual vaginal sex. As a result, nonconsensual male, oral, and anal sex are not recognized as “rape,” contrary to prevalent European and American definitions. These definitional distinctions have important implications for whether or not certain forms of rape, such as gay and lesbian rape, will “count” as rape and be recognized as such under the law. Penetration-based definitions of rape are especially consequential in specific national and cultural contexts. Until 2006, for example, Pakistan’s Hudood Ordinance required four male witnesses to attest to a woman’s penetration in order to establish the occurrence of rape. Debates about the precise nature and degree of force involved in rape also contribute to ongoing ambiguities of definition. Yet perhaps the most controversial aspect of contemporary legal definitions of rape is the notion of consent. What exactly does it mean to “consent” to sexual intercourse, and what happens when initial consent is subsequently withdrawn? In an effort to resolve these questions following a surge of acquaintance rape on campus, Antioch College drafted a Sexual Offense Prevention Policy in 1993. The objective of Antioch’s policy was to highlight the imperative to obtain and recognize consent in every step of the sexual encounter. Although this effort attracted nationwide ridicule, it nonetheless highlighted the importance of subjecting familiar concepts to ongoing efforts of critical inquiry.

Rape in War Legal definitions of rape have proven no less controversial in the international sphere. Rape myths continue to inform understandings of rape worldwide, as in South Africa, Zambia, and Nigeria, where common belief holds that sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure a man of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). For centuries, rape has been used as an instrument of war. Japanese soldiers raped approximately 80,000 women during the Nanking Massacre. Rape was a common practice in Japanese “comfort stations” during World War II, where thousands of women, most of whom were Korean, were coerced into various forms of sexual servitude. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia similarly confirmed rape as a crime against humanity in 2001 and thereby challenged mainstream understandings of rape as an inevitable by-product of war. Hopefully, these significant efforts to redefine and bring new visibility to the crime of rape in the international sphere will gradually arrest ongoing campaigns of mass rape in places like Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the context of armed conflict including war, rape has been defined within the international community as a crime against humanity and an integral component of genocide if it is part of a widespread or systematic practice. Serbian soldiers raped at least 20,000 Bosnian Muslim women in mass rape camps during the Bosnian civil war in conjunction with a military campaign of ethnic cleansing. Rape was first recognized as a crime against humanity in 1992, when the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issued arrest warrants on the basis of the systematic and widespread gang rape of Muslim women by Bosnian Serb soldiers. A major breakthrough in international women’s human rights law came in 1998 in response to atrocities in Rwanda, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found that systematic rape had been used as a means of forced pregnancy and a tool of genocide during the protracted civil war. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found that the systematic rape of Tutsi women was a deliberate strategy within the Rwandan genocide. An estimated half million women were raped during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A few years later, in 2001, the International Criminal Tribu-



nal for the former Yugoslavia similarly defined rape as a crime against humanity. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the prevalence of rape is described as the worst in the world, analysts also define rape as a weapon of war. Despite increased public awareness of the widespread use of rape in the Congo, rape has continued at a staggering rate. In 2006, Congo’s parliament passed a law on sexual violence that broadened the legal definition of rape and increased the penalties against it. Yet enforcement of the new law has been weak and has led to the convictions of no senior military officers or commanders. Today, mass rape—often instigated by military officers—is endemic in the Darfur region of Sudan. Yet rape victims lack legal recourse, as the government is more likely to prosecute those who report and document the crime of rape than those who commit it. Sudanese laws, regulations, and customs offer inadequate measures with which to address rape in the region. In particular, Sudan’s legal definitions of rape often expose victims to further abuse. Rape is defined as the offense of zina, or intercourse between a man and a woman who are not married to one another. Blurred Boundaries This legal definition effectively blurs the boundaries between sex and rape. If a woman voices a rape accusation in the Sudan, she herself may be charged with zina because she has confessed to an act of extramarital sex. Unmarried women convicted of zina in the Sudan receive 100 lashes; married women are sentenced to death by stoning. In 2001, two women were sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery. If a woman chooses to prosecute for rape, many judges require the sexual act to have been witnessed by four competent men—evidence that is extremely difficult to obtain. It is virtually impossible to prosecute rape in the Sudan because Sudan grants immunity to individuals with government affiliations, including military officers. Within this climate, few women come forward to report rape or to access vital medical, legal, and psychosocial services. The precise acts and organs associated with rape vary across jurisdictions as well as national and cultural borders. Some jurisdictions define “rape” exclusively as penile penetration of the vagina. For example, rape in Brazil is defined as nonconsensual vaginal

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sex. As a result, male rape, anal rape, and oral rape are defined not as rape, but as a violation of modesty (atentado violento ao pudor). Although rape is defined primarily in relation to lack of consent within adversarial legal systems, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in its landmark 1998 ruling, used a definition of rape that did not explicitly use the word consent. Instead, it described rape as “a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive.” Rape in Marriage Historically, marriage has been construed as a form of implicit consent to sexual intercourse. Today, however, nations are increasingly contesting this understanding of marriage as a defense to rape. Most nation-states now formally recognize rape in the context of marriage. Pakistani law defines rape as sexual intercourse in the absence of a valid marriage and without the consent of the victim. Pakistani law does not recognize marital rape as a criminal offense. Yet sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16 is always construed as rape, whether or not she is a consenting partner. Female victims of rape are ostracized in Pakistani society, where rape is traditionally perceived as a source of dishonor to the victim’s family. In France, rape is defined as any act of sexual penetration committed against another person using violence, restraint, threats, or surprise. Although the law mandates up to 20 years in prison for rape, the average punishment for rapists is six years in prison. The General Civil Penal Code of Norway (2000) expansively defines rape to include a broader spectrum of unwanted sex, including sexual activity by means of violence or threat, or sexual activity with a person who is unconscious or otherwise incapable of resisting. Following conviction, rapists in Norway may be imprisoned for a maximum of 10 years. Longer sentences apply in the case of prior convictions, extreme brutality, gang rape, and serious injury or death of the victim. Whereas countries like the United States with adversarial legal systems define rape in relation to the absence of consent, investigative systems define rape in terms of force. Yet both of these legal definitions have evolved significantly over the past decade or so. States have increasingly defined rape as a gender-

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neutral offense and have broadened their legal definitions to include male rape. Norway recently convicted a woman of rape (2005) after she performed oral sex on a man who was asleep on a sofa in her apartment. Norwegian government officials explained that amendments to the legal definition of rape in 2000 permitted more expansive interpretations of “unwanted sexual contact.” Other states have similarly expanded their legal definitions of rape by opening them up to include multiple forms of penetration. See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined; Rape in Conflict Zones; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Estrich, Susan. Real Rape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. MacKinnon, Catharine. “Rape: On Coercion and Consent.” In Katie Conboy, ed., Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory, New York: Columbia University Press,1997. Stetz, Margaret. “Wartime Sexual Violence Against Women: A Feminist Response.” In Katie Conboy, ed., Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Karina Eileraas University of California, Los Angeles

Rape, Prosecution Rates of Rape Prosecution Rates are often used to judge how well a particular justice system is combating the crime of rape by measuring how many rapists have been prosecuted. It is, however, important to distinguish among unreported claims of rape; reported claims of rape, which sometimes never go to trial; prosecution rates; and actual conviction rates. The vast majority of these rape cases are perpetrated by adult heterosexual males, and most victims or survivors are women. Rape prosecution and conviction rates are very low worldwide; research from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Ghana, and Sweden has shown that the number of women reporting rape to

The vast majority of rape cases are perpetrated by adult heterosexual males, and most victims or survivors are women.

the authorities is usually below 10 percent. Sometimes crimes go completely unreported, as in the Ghana National Survey. The number of rapists finally convicted is usually a very small percentage of those who are identified and/or tried in court, and though prosecution and conviction rates vary internationally, worldwide attrition is endemic. The failure to properly prosecute rape cases and convict rapists tends to be attributed to two factors: the prevalence of “rape myths” in public opinion and the judicial system;,and the intimidating tactics of defense teams in rape cases, which refocus both the judge’s and jury’s attention on the moral fiber of the rape survivor rather than on the rapist. The situation is slightly different when rape is tried as a war crime, or a crime against humanity, though rates of prosecution and conviction are still low. Factors like the race, age, and job of the perpetrator and of the victim are significant in rape cases. In the United States, black men are far more likely to be convicted of rape than white men, and, historically, in the West, working-class and black survivors of rape have been far more likely to be disbelieved than their middle-class or white counterparts. Juries can be

Rape and HIV



influenced by the victim’s presented character, behavior, and possible drug or alcohol use. In a British poll conducted by Amnesty International in 2006, substantial numbers of respondents blamed the survivor for her own rape if she was drunk (37 percent), if she was wearing sexy or revealing clothing (26 percent), or if she had many sexual partners (22 percent). Juries are more likely to find a rapist guilty in cases where the assailant is a stranger, when a weapon is used, or when the rape survivor is physically injured. All of these responses reveal the power of rape myths surrounding women’s consent to sexual acts. Prosecuting Rape Prosecution of rape cases often depends on the ability of the rape survivor to testify in a convincing manner. This can be extremely difficult, however, in the face of hostile defense legal strategies like “whacking,” where the defense lawyer seeks to intimidate and humiliate the survivor to discredit her (or him). Such strategies reframe the rape as a pornographic scenario in which the survivor becomes a participating and willing agent, or the survivor’s character is disparaged via histories of substance or alcohol abuse, sexual trauma, shoplifting, or mental illness. The main aim is to destroy, in the jury’s mind, the image of moral purity that the rape survivor needs to be a reliable witness. While some women feel too ashamed to report rapes, the ability of the authorities to prosecute and convict rapists is questionable. Strategies for combating the failure to convict rapists are being developed; these strategies include employing specialist police teams, improving the quality of medical investigation in rape cases, clarifying the law on consent, and using expert psychological evidence that clarifies the responses of the rape survivor for the jury. Within the Anglo-Saxon model of adversarial justice, rape survivors have been known to win rape cases, even when they do not fit the feminine ideal of the cautious, sensible, middle-class housewife. These winning cases succeed mainly because of strong witness testimony and when rape survivors stand up to cross-examination and probing questions and continue to maintain their nonconsent. The Anglo-Saxon model may, however, be inadequate for rape cases, and some experts have suggested adopting instead a kind of community justice to work alongside the retributive mode.

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Beyond the context of the individual rape case, it is extremely significant that rape can now also be prosecuted as a war crime, as decreed by the Geneva Convention. This was in response to the systematic rape and impregnation of mainly Muslim women by Serbian soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Serbian-Croatian conflict in the former Yugoslavia. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda first convicted a subject accused of rape as a crime against humanity in 1998, swiftly followed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2001. The Yugoslavia Tribunal also expanded the term slavery to include sexual slavery. The prosecution rates in these cases, however, are far lower than the number of actual rapes committed in war would warrant. See also: Rape, Incidence of; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Rape in Conflict Zones; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Amnesty International. “Sexual Assault Research.” http:// www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=16618 (accessed February 2010). Bourke, Joanna. Rape: Sex, Violence, History. Berkeley, CA: Shoemaker Hoard, 2007. Child and Women’s Studies Abuse Unit. “Attrition Rates.” http://www.cwasu.org/page_display.asp?pageid=STAT S&pagekey=35&itemkey=39 (accessed February 2010). Koss, Mary P. “Blame, Shame and Community: Justice Responses to Violence Against Women.” American Psychologist, v.55/11 (2000). Larcombe, Wendy. “The ‘Ideal’ Victim V Successful Rape Complainants: Not What You Might Expect.” Feminist Legal Studies, v.10.2 (2002). Zoë Brigley Thompson University of Northampton

Rape and HIV Gender violence and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are two of the major social and health problems affecting women worldwide. HIV is the virus that causes aquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV destroys the white blood cells (CD4 cells, also known as T cells) that the immune

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system requires to fight disease. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, and it is diagnosed when CD4 cell counts fall below 200. HIV infection can initially produce no symptoms, and some people remain asymptomatic for years before developing AIDS. HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids, such as blood, semen, vaginal secretions, or breast milk. The burden of the worldwide HIV pandemic has disproportionately fallen on the developing world. Africa has been hit the hardest; approximately 75 percent of all women living with HIV today reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Women are at a greater risk of HIV transmission through heterosexual intercourse than men. Today, women constitute about half of an estimated 31.3 million adults living with HIV and AIDS, and AIDS is the third-leading cause of death for women, behind cancer and heart disease. Gender violence is an umbrella term that includes a host of violations that are predominantly committed by men and against women. Gender violence occurs worldwide. Studies have consistently demonstrated a clear link between gender violence and HIV. Rape is a particular kind of gender violence. Legal definitions of rape vary from state to state and from country to country, as well as within international law. Most generally, rape is defined as nonconsensual sexual interaction. Definitions of rape typically involve the concept of penetration. Sexual assault is a broader term that includes various forms of sexual interaction. Within international law, definitions of rape often employ the concept of invasion, which is intended to be genderneutral. When committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians, rape and sexual assault can be considered crimes against humanity. When women and girls are targeted because of their inclusion in a particular national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, rape and sexual assault can be used as a tool of ethnic cleansing and genocide. In some cases, genocidal regimes have deployed HIV-positive men as rapists to intentionally infect women and girls from the targeted national, ethic, racial, or religious group. The risk of contracting HIV through rape is unknown. Although rape and sexual assault increase a woman’s vulnerability to HIV infection, the probability of contracting HIV through a single sexual interaction is actually quite low. However, the structural inequalities that underlie gender violence have a profound effect on the relationship between rape and

HIV. In addition to contracting HIV through nonconsensual sex with an infected partner, women may be infected through other forms of gender violence. For example, gender inequality may limit a woman’s ability to negotiate HIV-preventative behaviors, such as condom use, during sexual interactions. Along these lines, many married women and women in long-term monogamous relationships become infected as a result of unfaithful partners. In addition, risk of physical and sexual violence, as well as other harmful outcomes, increases when women disclose HIV-positive status to their partners. Taking antiretroviral medication (ARV), also called postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), after rape or sexual assault may reduce the risk of HIV transmission. However, these medications must be administered as soon as possible after the assault, and they are no longer effective if more than 72 hours have passed. The medications must be taken every day for 28 days, and they may cause side effects, including headaches, nausea, and stomach problems. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rape and HIV; Rape, CrossCulturally Defined; Rape, Legal Definitions of. Further Readings Brownmiller, S. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975. Kim, Julia C., Lorna J. Martin, and Lynette Denny. “Rape and HIV Post-Exposure Prophylaxis: Addressing the Dual Epidemics in South Africa.” Reproductive Health Matters, v.11/22 (November 2003). Stetz, Margaret. “Wartime Sexual Violence Against Women: A Feminist Response.” In Katie Conboy, ed., Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Jenna Appelbaum New York University

Rape Crisis Centers Historically, feminists in various parts of the world establish rape crisis centers to cater to the specific needs of rape victims/survivors, ranging from immediate support services to long-term goals to



change the unequal social relations between men and women. Currently, rape crisis centers have also advertised their services to cater to sexually abused males. Nonetheless, females are more at risk for sexual assault, and they remain the main clients. While initially rape crisis centers rely on the fundraising efforts of its founders, which include securing grants from the government, the advocacy work has resulted in allocations for services to sexual assault victims provided for by law in certain countries. In the United States, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 2005 includes provisions for rape crisis centers to support direct services to adult and minor sexual assault victims as well as their family and household members. On the other hand, in the Philippines, the law mandates the creation of rape crisis centers in every province and city by a partnership between government agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Budgetary allocations are also channeled under the law to the various government agencies involved, for example, the Social Welfare Department. Immediate Support Services Sexual assault is a traumatic event for its victims, even in cases where there are no physical injuries. The victim may suffer from rape trauma syndrome, which impacts him or her emotionally, physically, and even financially. In cases of sexual assault, the cards are also stacked against the victim, as there is a tendency to blame women for “inviting” rape by the way they dress and behave. Similarly, minors who are sexually assaulted may find it difficult to be believed because it is their word against an adult’s. Typically, the sexual assault victim may blame herself/himself for being raped. Since sexual assault is a medico-legal case, it becomes more complicated, as the victim will have to deal with the legal system as well. With a vision to heal and lessen the trauma experienced by sexual assault victims, rape crisis centers offer immediate support services to empower and convey the message that the victim is never at fault for being sexually assaulted. However, the range of immediate support services differs from one rape crisis center to another. In cases where a particular service is not offered, the rape crisis center will provide referrals. These support services provide emotional support and information through telephone hotlines as well as online hotlines in this Internet age, face-to-

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face counseling, and support groups. Because understanding and support from family members and friends are necessary for sexual assault victims and because they are also impacted, support programs are in place for them. For sexual assault victims who are alcohol and/or drug dependent, there is a specific program to cater to their needs. When needed, rape crisis centers have personnel to accompany sexual assault victims through the medico-legal process, which includes treatment and documentation of any injury and collection of forensic evidence. Sexual assault victims are also mentally and emotionally prepared for what to expect in a trial and, when necessary, are accompanied through the court process. In addition, emergency shelters are available for those who need it. In the provision of these immediate support services, rape crisis centers strive to be inclusive, with services available in different languages. The particular needs of the client— whether due to disability, ethnicity, religion, class, sexual orientation, or displacement—are also considered to ensure effective delivery of services. Education, Advocacy, and Networking for Change The educational dimension of rape crisis centers has three main components. First, it works toward increasing awareness among the public of the facts of sexual assault cases and debunks the myths. Some of the facts are that men can control their sexual urges if they exercise their choice to do so and that not only women who are sexily dressed are raped; women who are decently dressed, children, and the elderly have been targets for sexual assault perpetrators. These facts question the tendency to blame the victim in crimes of a sexual nature and direct the responsibility back to whom it belongs—the rapist who committed the crime. In other words, there is awareness rising to change public opinion and garner support for sexual assault victims. Sexual assault victims are encouraged to come forward and report the incidence of rape rather than feeling ashamed or guilty and enduring the violation in silence. Second, the educational dimension focuses on prevention. Among the information provided are precautionary measures for safety, what to do in the event of an attack, self-defense classes, and esteembuilding programs. Specifically, for children there are

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educational programs for differentiating between a “good” and a “bad” touch and where they can get help if sexually abused. There is also a program on Internet safety for parents and older children to guard against pedophiles on the prowl on networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Third, the educational dimension focuses on gender-sensitized services and policies to lessen the trauma experienced by sexual assault victims as they go through the medical process and the legal system. Personnel from rape crisis centers are part of the resources to facilitate an understanding of the dynamics of rape and related ethical issues not only for their new staffs and volunteers but also for other service providers in the medical and the legal systems. Complementing the educational dimension are advocacy and networking. Rape crisis centers are typically part of a network to campaign and lobby government to enact and amend policies and laws so that they are sensitive to the needs of sexual assault victims. Consequently, there are now sexual assault units in place in hospitals and police departments to handle such cases. Furthermore, in some countries like Bangladesh, Canada, Malaysia, Namibia, South Africa, Thailand, and the United Kingdom, the concept includes establishing the one-stop center (even though it may be named differently) for sexual assault victims. At the one-stop center, typically located at hospitals, sexual assault victims have access to medical services; counseling; and, should they choose to report it, the police. Follow-up services related to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), are also provided. Advocacy and networking are also important for rape crisis centers to highlight best practices, pool resources for research to support advocacy work, and respond collectively to practices that work against the interest of sexual assault victims. Both the immediate support services and long-term nature of educational and advocacy activities aim to lessen the stigma of rape and to increase the incidence of reporting as well as the prosecution and conviction rates of rape casaes. The broader vision of the rape crisis center is to have a violence-free society where both females and males can live in an environment that fosters respect for each other’s bodies and spaces.

See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Rape, Incidence of; Rape, Prosecution Rates of; Rape and HIV; Rape Trauma Syndrome. Further Readings Pittman, Karen J. The Internal Dynamics of Rape Crisis Centers. Baltimore, MD: Urban Institute, 1984. Scott, Ellen Kaye. “How to Stop the Rapist? A Question of Strategy in Two Rape Crisis Centers.” Social Problems, v.40/3 (1993). www.jstor.org/stable/3096884 (accessed November 2009). Zilber, Tammar B. “Institutionalization as an Interplay between Actions, Meanings, and Actors: The Case of a Rape Crisis Center in Israel.” Academy of Management Journal, v.45/1 (2002). Suat Yan Lai University of Malaya

Rape in Conflict Zones Rape in conflict zones is a weapon of war that is used to degrade, humiliate, and dehumanize civilian populations. History demonstrates that sexual violence during times of war is not a new phenomenon. However, the recent conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur, Liberia, and other parts of the world have brought increasing attention to the ways in which rape is used as a weapon of terror and, consequently, represents a barrier to peace. During times of conflict, some military leaders encourage the use of sexual violence as a military strategy intended to increase the morale of troops, to demoralize the enemy, and to lay claim to the “spoils of war” (in this case, the women of the enemy). Although rape is the most common form of such violence, other forms may include forced prostitution, sexual slavery, forced sterilization, and forced impregnation. Perpetrators are typically armed military personnel; however, it is not uncommon for enemy civilians and even those charged with protecting and providing aid to civilian populations to commit rape during times of war. Women and girls are most often the victims— although men and boys may also be affected, particularly those who are prisoners of war—and targeted



not only because they are female but often because of their race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation. Rape may be committed by an individual or by groups (gang rape). It may involve vaginal or anal intercourse; it may also involve the use of objects such as guns, knives, sticks, bottles, or pipes. It is common for a woman to be raped in front of family members or members of her community as a means of terrorizing both the woman herself and those forced to witness the rape. After raping a woman, and in an effort to inflict as much physical damage as possible, some perpetrators will discharge a gun into the woman’s vagina. Perpetrators may also kill victims after raping them. Some rapes are committed with the express intent of impregnating victims (who then may be forced to continue the pregnancy to term) or infecting them with HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases. Rape victims in conflict zones range in age and may include infants, adolescents, adult women, and the elderly. Victims suffer physical and psychological harm, both immediately and long term. They are often stigmatized within their communities and punished for adultery or for having sexual relations outside of marriage. Perpetrators are rarely brought to trial or punished. International bodies (such as the United Nations) and nongovernmental organizations have attempted to address the issue of rape in conflict zones in a variety of ways. Key strategies include prevention, increasing awareness, providing additional support and services for victims, and strengthening laws in an attempt to bring perpetrators to justice. Such efforts have helped to draw attention to sexual violence as a war crime, a threat to security, a form of torture, and an act of genocide. Still, the cultural stigma and silence that continues to surround rape and other forms of sexual violence has meant that such efforts have had limited effect. See Also: Conflict Zones; Prostitution in Combat Zones; Rape, Incidence of; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Rape and HIV; Sexually Transmitted Infections; United Nations Development Fund for Women; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Barstow, Anne Llewellyn, ed. War’s Dirty Secret: Rape, Prostitution, and Other Crimes Against Women. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2001.

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Carpenter, R. Charli. Born of War: Protecting Children of Sexual Violence Survivors in Conflict Zones. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2007. Greer, Gill. Rape: The Oldest and Newest War Crime. http://www.ippf.org/NR/exeres/AD977915-0C90-4 BFB-90EE-27D4DEBC704B.htm (accessed June 2010). Nordland, Rod. “More Vicious than Rape.” Newsweek, (November 13, 2006). http://www.newsweek.com /id/44653/page/1 (accessed June 2010). United Nations. “Stop Rape Now: UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict.” http://www.stoprapenow .org (accessed June 2010). Jillian Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

Rape Trauma Syndrome Rape trauma syndrome (RTS) includes the acute or immediate phase of disorganization following rape; an intermediate and often superficial appearance of adjustment; and a long-term, nonlinear process of reorganization typically including flashbacks and periods of regression. RTS was first identified in two phases by Ann Burgess and Lynda Holmstrom, who found physical and emotional reactions to a life-threatening experience to characterize the acute phase and lifestyle changes, such as moving and job switches, along with sleep disturbances and generalized phobias to characterize the reorganization phase. Rape Crisis Movement In the 1970s and 1980s, a rape crisis movement brought RTS to public awareness through education and advocacy aimed at increased reporting and countering public stereotypes and self-recriminations associated with rape. Community centers with trained volunteers helped victims cope with the criminal justice system and work toward reorganization of their lives. Public education placed blame for rape on the perpetrator and on a society that engenders a rape culture. Lectures, magazine articles, films, and public service announcements were aimed at building public support and understanding among family and intimates who often wanted nothing more than for the victim to put the rape behind her and move on with her life.

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The media disseminated information and publicity surged as researchers, clinicians, and criminal justice practitioners studied rapists, rape victims, and the social, psychological, and legalistic aspects of rape. As the rape crisis movement achieved a degree of success and feminists took up other causes, both publicity and interest in rape waned by the early 1990s, leading some to conclude prematurely that the problem was solved. The concept of a rape trauma syndrome has its roots in crisis theory, defining a crisis as: (1) a hazardous, threatening event; (2) an inability to respond with adequate coping mechanisms; and (3) temporary disruption of one’s typical pattern of functioning. Implicit in the definition is the notion that the trauma resulting from rape will be time limited because crises are time limited. Individuals recover, reorganize, and are able to resume some semblance of their life prior to the crisis. This explanation of the problem was preferable to the previously popular psychoanalytic theory of women’s subconscious “rape wish” but had its drawbacks, most notably that victims were expected to recover from the crisis and get on with their lives. Feminists embraced the rape-as-crisis explanation while simultaneously engaging in public education that placed responsibility on men as perpetrators and on a society where men were socialized to be aggressive and to exercise control while women were socialized to be “feminine,” sometimes to the point of accepting themselves as sex objects and thus accepting the blame for rape. Revisions in the Rape-as-Crisis Model Research subsequent to Burgess and Holmstrom’s work has led to revisions and reconceptualization of rape trauma syndrome as comprised of at least three stages and as more than a temporary crisis. While most survivors effect a reorganization of their lives, this often entails acceptance of an altered post-rape life. One of the earliest empirical works to document the fact that rape is a “prolonged crisis” was that of Joyce Williams and Karen Holmes, who found that survivors, whether by a few months or years, still manifested symptoms of rape trauma. They suffered from health issues, their functionality (work, school, travel) was impacted, and they experienced feelings of generalized discomfort toward men. Those who

achieve some resolution of the rape and the accompanying sense of disempowerment do so by incorporating the experience into their lives and moving ahead as survivors, not as victims. See Also: Rape, Incidence of; Rape, Legal Definition of; Rape, Prosecution Rates of; Rape Crisis Centers. Further Readings Burgess, Ann Wolbert and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom. Rape: Victims of Crisis. Bowie, MD: Robert J. Brady, 1974. Roberts, Albert R. Crisis Intervention Handbook: Assessment, Treatment, and Research. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Warshaw, Robin. I Never Called it Rape. New York: Harper and Row, 1988. Williams, Joyce E. and Karen A. Holmes. The Second Assault. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. Joyce E. Williams Texas Woman’s University

Reality Television Reality television, a wide-ranging genre purporting to depict the “real” lives, experiences, and/or circumstances of its subjects, is rooted in shows such as Candid Camera, which first appeared in 1948 and lasted through 1992; the British documentary Up Series (1964–2005); and 1970s game shows produced by Chuck Barris, including The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show. Current reality television programs appear in varying forms, generally falling into broad categories such as the “docudramas” or “docusoaps” that chronicle the supposedly candid experiences of “ordinary” individuals (such as The Real Housewives) or celebrities along with their friends and families (for example, The Osbournes). Celebrity reality shows are vehicles meant to elevate the star of the show—and/or his/her family—to a higher level of fame/fortune through book deals, fashion lines, and record contracts marketed through the Internet. Non-celebrity individuals who appear on reality shows often attempt to parlay their appearances on reality television into securing recognition and renown, by appearing on more reality



shows and/or starring in their own program. Moreover, individuals who are somewhat “infamous” for their outrageous and/or controversial behavior will often successfully transform their public personae into a reality show, such as “Octomom” Nadya Suleman. Competition shows are another major category of reality television, in which groups and/or individuals use their talents to compete for entry into as well as recognition in a designated field and/or to win a monetary prize by successfully competing in extreme physical challenges. Another popular group of reality television shows are the “makeover” shows, of which perhaps Bravo’s Queer Eye (originally titled Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) is the most well known. Queer Eye paved the way for the genres of makeover, home- and self-improvement and dating reality shows, some of which combine aspects of the makeover, self-improvement, and the competition reality genre. Yet another group of reality television programs focus on personal/family issues and crises, including rehabilitation for drug/alcohol addiction, unplanned teenage pregnancy/motherhood, and dealing with out-of-control children. Still other reality shows combine aspects of lifestyle change/selfimprovement with documentary and competition, while many of the competitive shows require that cast members live together in a group setting. The phenomenon of reality television, whose influence has increased exponentially throughout the world at the onset of the 21st century, arguably since the competition program Big Brother first appeared in 1999 in the Netherlands, is a pervasive element of broader global popular culture since the late 20th century. Subsequently, reality television took the world by storm. The current success of reality television is undeniable: 21st-century American reality shows such as Survivor and American Idol—both based on similar, earlier UK programs—have remained top-rated shows. Stereotypes of Women in Reality Shows Reality shows often pander to and capitalize upon stereotypes, particularly of women. Some of the most notorious reality TV personalities who are vilified in the blogosphere and in tabloids include, among others, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth; Wendy Pepper; Heidi Montag; Tila Tequila; Kim Zolciak; and the late Jade Goody, who in 2003 received the title of “fourth worst Briton” in the British TV station Channel 4’s list

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of “100 Worst Britons.” Women on reality television shows are often represented in an unflattering light as embodying female archetypes such as the “bad” girl (Bad Girls Club); leading double and/or hidden lives (Secret Lives of Women); and playing into the stereotype of the inability of women to form sustainable and supportive friendships (most of The Real Housewives). Other female tropes and stereotypes embraced and exploited by reality television include “bridezillas”; “cougars”; mistresses; ditzes; desperate housewives trapped in loveless marriages and filling emotional voids through conspicuous consumption and cosmetic surgery; frigid career women incapable of successful romantic relationships and/or marriages; “gold diggers”; stage mothers pushing very young children to compete in beauty pageants; incompetent mothers of problem children. The presence of the wedding industry in reality television, in particular, reinforces stereotypes of the predatory bride demanding an outlandish, fantasy “princess” wedding at all costs. The prevalent use of the term famewhore—and the act of “famewhoring”—when referring to those seeking a place on reality television demonstrates how enmeshed reality television is with misogyny and stereotypes of women. Despite capitalizing upon and reinforcing pernicious stereotypes of women, marriage, and motherhood, as well as projecting negative attitudes toward female aging, many of the most successful reality shows air on channels specifically targeting a female demographic (WEtv, Lifetime, Bravo, and Oxygen). The success of reality television in the 21st century can be understood as a true Warholian moment, in which everyone is entitled to 15 minutes of fame. It also invokes and reflects the Baudrillardian theories of the hyperreal, simulation, and simulacra, as it promotes Jean Baudrillard’s claim that reality occurs only on television. See Also: Banks, Tyra; Beauty Pageants (Babies/ Young Children); “Bridezillas”; Celebrity Women; Cho, Margaret; Cosmetic Surgery; “Cougars”; Diet and Weight Control; Diet Industry; Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies; Goody, Jade; MTV; Palin, Sarah; Suleman, “Octomom” Nadya; Wedding Industry. Further Readings Brandt, Jenn. “Here’s to Not Being Fake: Bravo TV’s The Real Housewives and the Construction of the

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Postfeminist Heroine.” In Marcelline Block, ed., Foregrounding Postfeminism and the Future of Feminist Film and Media Studies. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010. Carter, Bill. “Bravo’s Chief Reaches Out to the Prosperous Urban Woman.” New York Times (March 31, 2008). Glynn, Kevin. Tabloid Culture: Trash Taste, Popular Power, and the Transformation of American Television. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Marcelline Block Princeton University

Religion, Women in The multiplicity of women’s issues in religion depends on a complex relationship of variables, such as the specific religious tradition in question, the variance of locations in which it is practiced, the multiple ethnicities of practitioners, the differences in social class among believers, and individual or communal economic issues. One way to approach this complex and changing relationship is through addressing issues that speak to important cross-cultural themes that affect many women. For example, Hinduism provides an interesting context for looking at sexuality and gender since the Hindu pantheon includes many goddesses and addresses sexuality in many of its texts. Closely related to sexuality and gender is the idea of the human body as a site of signification. A discussion of veiling, practiced by many Muslim women, addresses this idea in a religious context. Personal and communal identity is a vital component of religious traditions. There is a significant discussion in contemporary media on issues of women’s spiritual authority and the continued refusal of the Catholic Church to ordain women priests. An increasing number of women find that the religions they have participated in have not offered them a fulfilling spirituality because of their inherent patriarchal structures. Many of these women have found spiritual solace in the Earth-based traditions of Paganism. Although the examples in this entry are in no way exhaustive of the issues encountered by women in religious traditions, they are representative of the ways scholars approach the general subject of women and religion.

Sexuality and Gender Most living religious traditions have rules and strictures that speak to how human sexuality is properly expressed, embodied, deployed, and experienced. These strictures commonly focus on women’s sexuality in reference to that of men, and imply that a woman’s social status is dependent upon her sexual behavior. One common stereotype that emerges from these rules is the female as temptress whose sexuality must be held in check by complying with normative models portrayed in religious imagery and texts. Hinduism presents an interesting example for an examination of images of women’s sex roles and how those same rules determine her social role as a woman. Scholars generally divide Hindu goddesses into one of two categories: goddesses who are consorts of gods and speak to the domestic role of women, and goddesses who are independent and seen as fierce, terrifying, and sexual. One example of the ideal gender embodiment for Hindu women is the goddess Parvati, second wife of Shiva. Parvati is described as virtuous, maternal, and her sexual fidelity to Shiva is never questioned. Parvati’s central purpose is to domesticate Shiva so he may enter the householder stage. Householder is one of the stages on the Hindu path to moksha, the liberation a person from the cycle of reincarnation. The goddess Parvati teaches that a woman’s purpose is to serve her husband, care for their children, and maintain the family home in a way that facilitates the husband’s path to enlightenment. During and after the British occupation of India, many of the social structures particular to Western culture were either adopted by or forced upon Hindus, causing significant transformations in the social landscape. These transformations included a more noticeable division of public and private realms; this division inevitably binds women to the private sphere of the household in light of the gender roles assigned to her sex. In rural areas of India, where a majority of the country’s population lives, women are still expected to embody the traditional role displayed by Parvati, while women who live in urban centers are more likely to look toward fierce and independent goddesses like Kali and Durga for spiritual inspiration. The Body In the context of religious traditions, proper presentation of the body speaks to outward signs of identi-



fication, and those outward signs typically signify the moral codes that govern that body. Perhaps the most pervasive signification of Muslim women in the global media is the veil. It is easy to assume that Islamic women who cover their body in accord with the laws of modesty found in the Qur’an are forced to do so by an oppressive patriarchal system bent on denying women full human status. It is important to note that not all Muslim women, or men for that matter, encourage or approve of veiling. In fact, the Qur’an also has prescriptions for men’s modest apparel. Finally, it is significant to note that many Muslim women in the contemporary world see veiling as liberating. While it is true that in some Islamic countries, women’s basic human rights are affected by interpretations of Islam’s holy book the Qur’an and its accompanying hadith, scholars have pointed out there may be reasons other than strict interpretations of religious law that motivate women in the contemporary world to embrace hijab—the idea of modest dress. For Muslims, the bodies of both women and men have what is called awrah, sometimes translated as nakedness or shame. Exposition of these parts of the body in public is considered a sin. Although there is no consensus among Muslims as to what exactly the specific parameters of this concept are, women’s bodies are thought to have more awrah then men’s. Furthermore, the extent of awrah of the female body differs among schools of Islamic thought, and thus dress can range from full body and face coverings to just a veil covering the hair, to wearing modest, everyday clothing. For many women today wearing the hijab is not necessarily connected to the insistence that this patriarchal system insists on the oppression of women through the denial of their feminine bodies. Many women who live in Muslim dominated areas wear the hijab because it allows them to move freely in public without being harassed. Here, the covered body is thought of as liberated, albeit in terms of negotiation, giving them access to education and jobs. Some Islamic women feel that wearing the veil frees them from sexual objectification and the harsh, socially constructed ideals of beauty in much of Western culture. Identity Among present-day Native Americans, religious identity is thoroughly intertwined with both cultural traditions and historic interactions with modernity. This

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reality is even more marked among Native women. Prior to contact with Euro-Americans, American Indian tribal traditions often allocated very important positions of authority and sacred power to the female sphere, and much of the nature of Earth-centered spirituality draws connections between the sacred nature of the universe and the bodies of women. Both menstruation and childbirth are seen as microcosms of the larger cosmos, thus women provide tangible and present connections to the sacred. This reality is evident in the fact that the Apache puberty rite for girls, the Sunrise Ceremony, remains the largest ritual complex in nearly all Apache communities. The Sunrise Ceremony, also called the Isanaklesh Gotal, not only ushers a girl into womanhood, but draws the community into an intimate relationship with perhaps a key holy figure—the goddess Isanaklesh. Isanaklesh is in fact the creatrix of the Apache people, bringing them into being using her own skin and minerals associated with the four directions. The ceremony consists of four days of rituals designed to instruct the girl in Apache sacred culture, test her dedication through a grueling schedule, and reiterate the Apache sacred system through songs, dances, and performances of the creation narrative. The sing concludes after the initiate, who has danced all night long, runs toward the rising sun, then back again, symbolizing her transformation into a woman. The young woman is said to embody Isanaklesh upon her completion of this run, and she in turn blesses the community using the traditional form for such blessings—corn pollen—symbolizing fertility. Authority The highest authority on religious matters in the Catholic Church is the Pope, whose power is based on the doctrine of Apostolic succession. This doctrine states that Jesus Christ, understood in Christianity as God incarnate, conferred full sacramental authority upon his apostles, in effect naming them the first bishops of the Church. That same sacramental authority is passed today through ordination into the priesthood, a ritual carried out primarily by bishops and sometimes the Pope. It is sacramental authority that allows a Catholic priest to perform the sacred rites of the Catholic Church through which its followers attain salvation. In light of this, feminist scholars have pointed out that salvation in the Catholic Church can

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only be attained through men. This puts women into a position of both dependence and subordination that ultimately maintains the patriarchal structure of Catholic Christianity. It is hardly surprising, then, that one of the most contentious issues in the feminist encounter with Catholicism is the subject is the demand for the recognition of women’s ordination. Although the majority of Protestant Christian churches do ordain women today, a few still maintain a strictly male priesthood. In response to the call for women’s ordination, the Roman Catholic Church has argued that they do not have the authority to change what they cite as divine revelation as well as historical precedent. In response, many critics argue that the continued discrimination of women is based on an outdated social system that characterized women as incomplete persons, in fact, as deficient men, and that the Catholic Church should align itself with contemporary laws regarding human rights. Feminist Theology Feminist theology developed as a mode of critical inquiry in the social activism and scholarly work of women engaged in second wave feminism. There is no one feminist theology, but the discourse can be generally divided into two streams of thought. One mode of feminist theology focuses on reforming and reconstructing living religious traditions by working within them to make women’s experience as central to the tradition as men’s experience has been. Another equally important approach to feminist theology works from the starting point of women and celebrates their differences from men as meaningful. This latter approach also involves breaking with major world religions and creating, or recreating, more women-focused religious traditions. Although these ways of thinking about religions through a feminist paradigm differ greatly in terms of how to take action, they do have some common starting points. Feminist theologians recognize that women’s religious experience is fundamentally different from that of men. In light of this, scholars have pointed out that there is no way to build a complete theology for humans without including women, since roughly half the human race identify themselves as women. A theology, regardless of tradition, that does not include this basic fact of human existence simply cannot claim to be comprehensive. Furthermore, the

absence of women’s experience in religions is often pointed out as a form of patriarchy because it subordinates women’s religiosity to that of men. Theology built around men’s experience of religion is androcentric—a discourse that situates the male experience as central to one’s world view—and results in figuring the male experience as the normative mode of human being. One of the ways feminist theology confronts androcentrism is at the level of language. Feminist theologians, most famously Mary Daly, claim as their own right the naming of reality: this includes the divine and women’s experience with it. At a very fundamental level, using gendered language, such as masculine pronouns when referring to the divine, has the effect of presenting a gendered image in the mind regardless of claims of neutrality. Additionally, this use of masculine pronouns reinforces the male model of experience as the generic human experience. Feminist theologians who work from within a particular religious tradition approach their work on many different levels. For instance, influential feminist scholars such as Judith Plaskow, Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, and Rosemary Radford Reuther have critiqued and reconstructed major world religions. Plaskow has worked in the tradition of Judaism to critique and reconstruct Jewish history in the Torah, in the Five Books of Moses, to include Jewish women’s experience. Reuther is a Christian feminist who argues that the Christ of biblical texts can be separated from the patriarchal hierarchy of the church. The method she prescribes is to look at the Jesus of the synoptic Gospels—the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the New Testament—which, she argues, are well-suited to feminist theology. Finally, women who have found the religions they practice unchangeable have looked to history, often to the traditions of Paganism, to create their own spiritual systems. As feminist theology grew around second wave feminism, whose earliest work was done predominantly by white, middle-class women in the United States, the United Kingdom, and western Europe, many women found they could not identify with the experiences of these scholars and activists because of the distinctiveness of their own situations. This critique has lead to a growing discourse of multiple feminisms and feminist theologies that originated, and are still being developed, by women in many different social, religious, economic, and ethnic contexts.



Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of

Paganism Paganism is an overarching term that encompasses many different practices and beliefs. Although this term was used in a derogatory sense throughout Christian history to denote nonmonotheistic religions, it has taken on a new and more positive meaning today. As it is often referred to, Neo (new) Paganism includes revitalizations of past practices and modern religious movements that incorporate different elements of spirituality to create alternative religious traditions. These traditions tend to favor individual experience over inflexible doctrine and dogma, and most Pagan traditions share a belief in more than one goddess or god as well as a reverence for nature. This reverence takes the form either of pantheism, an understanding that the ultimate divine and nature are identical, or panentheism, the belief that the ultimate divine permeates all of nature, but also extends endlessly beyond the material world to encompass totality. A significant aspect that attracts women to Pagan traditions is the concept of veneration and respect for the natural world. One of the most salient features of the major of world religious traditions, at least as they are practiced on the ground today, is a dualism that attaches women to the material aspect of the world, and affords men a “higher” distinction by associating them with the immaterial or transcendent realm. With Earth-based traditions, women’s bodies are celebrated as creative forces for the divine. The immaterial realm, while still imagined, takes on less prestige than it does in religions that focus considerable amounts of attention on salvation and the afterlife. Most rituals and practices of Neo Paganism are based on the cycles of the natural world and the that people can interact with the power inherent in nature—the immanent divine. See Also: Buddhism; Chinese Religions; Christianity; Hinduism; Indigenous Religions, Global; Islam; Judaism; Native American Religion; New Age Religion; Priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican; Priesthood, Roman Catholic; Progressive Muslims (U.S.); Roman Catholic Church; Wicca; Witchcraft: Worldwide; Womanist Theology; Women’s Ordination Conference. Further Readings Bagley, Kate and Kathleen McIntosh. Women’s Studies in Religion: A Multicultural Reader. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

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Castelli, Elizabeth A. and Rosamond C. Rodman. Women, Gender, Religion: A Reader, 1st ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. Fisher, M.P. Women in Religion. New York: Longman, 2006. Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Feminist Theologies: Legacy and Prospect. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007. Sharma, Arvind and Katherine K. Young. Feminism and World Religions. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. Kate S. Kelley University of Missouri

Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of When originally coined in the late 19th century, the term fundamentalism referred to a strand of theologically conservative Protestantism in the United States. Today, the term religious fundamentalism applies to conservative religious groups across the globe that protest or reject some aspects of modernity and secularization, and, in some cases, Westernization. Fundamentalist religious groups tend to hold traditional views on gender, sexuality, and the family. Since the emancipation of women and the diversification of family forms and sexualities are among the hallmarks of modernity and secularization, religious fundamentalism is often portrayed as an archaic, patriarchal, and oppressive regime. Defining Fundamentalism The word fundamentalism is often used by the media and in political discussions to refer to politicized forms of religiosity and to groups that take religion seriously. References are typically critical of attempts to enhance the role of religion in public life. However, students of religion vary in their definitions of fundamentalism and in their assessments of whether attempts to enhance the role of religion in public life threatens democratic political culture. There is also disagreement to what extent fundamentalism compromises women’s interests. These debates are a product of the history of the term as well as observers’ own range of intellectual and political perspectives on the role of religion in the modern world.

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Fundamentalism was originally used in reference to a conservative strand of Protestantism that developed in the United States in the late 19th century. The original movement was a theologically conservative and culturally separatist group that opposed attempts to modernize Christianity. The term remained confined to this context through the 1970s. The late 1970s and 1980s saw an influx of conservative religious movements around the globe in a process that has been termed the resurgence of religion. The 1979 Iranian Revolution, the emergence in the 1980s of a politically active form of conservative Christianity in the United States, and the rise of politically engaged and theologically conservative religious movements on all continents defied the accepted wisdom that modernization and secularization are inseparable processes. Scholars sought to explain the resurgence of religion and to identify the features common to conservative religious groups. Some observers view fundamentalist groups as antimodern, an attempt to return to an authentic and unchanging social order that preceded modernity. The notion that fundamentalism and modernity clash with one another is a product of this perspective. The dominant view is that fundamentalist groups are modern movements that emerge within and respond to modern conditions. There is also disagreement whether fundamentalist religiosity represents historically accurate and culturally authentic patterns. The dominant view is that despite claims for authenticity, a return to a timeless tradition, and cultural purity, fundamentalist groups engender new forms of religiosity. For example, studies find that veiling had not been a central feature of all Muslim and Arab societies. Moreover, the way women veil (headscarf or a full body covering; in private or public)—and their reasons for doing so—do not necessarily correspond with historical forms of veiling. The most comprehensive study of fundamentalism, the Fundamentalism Project, brought together historians, sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists who contributed dozens of case studies on movements from seven religious traditions and numerous geographical locations. The Fundamentalism Project identified nine ideological and organizational features that characterize fundamentalist groups and defined fundamentalism as a modern global phenomenon that is premised on the inerrancy

of sacred texts and aims to gain political power while defending religious tradition against the eroding forces of modernization and secularization. The Fundamentalism Project’s findings and definitions are held in high regard, and most subsequent definitions view fundamentalism as an ideology rather than a theology and emphasize scriptural literalism. However, some disagreements persist. First, the application of the term fundamentalism outside Western Christianity is still the subject of controversy. Some critics note that the Fundamentalism Project’s emphasis on the commonalities between very diverse phenomena, geographical locations, and religious groups disregards key differences. Of particular concern is the difference between Western conservative religious movements and those that emerge in postcolonial contexts, in which the legacy of European colonization and its impact on local culture, society, and religion are related to the emergence of politicized religiosity. Second, critics note that despite the emphasis on fundamentalism as a global phenomenon, in popular discourse fundamentalism is often associated with Islam as an irrational, morally inferior, and violent religion that oppresses women. These critics prefer terms such as Islamicization or political Islam. A third line of criticism points out that the notion of religious resurgence is based on a faulty reading of the historical record about religion’s demise. Far from a universal phenomenon, religious demise was experienced primarily by Western Christianity. Therefore, the lines between the old forms of religion and newer conservative and politicized movements are more blurry outside Western Christianity. These critics prefer to label the current phenomenon a reinvention rather than revival of religious traditions. In this, critics agree with one of the main findings of the Fundamentalism Project: fundamentalist groups are highly selective in their use of religious tradition. Women and Fundamentalism Women’s emancipation is a hallmark of modernity, as is the diversification of family forms and sexualities. Consequently, a key feature of religious fundamentalist groups’ protests and rejections of modernity is apparent in their traditionalist views on gender, family, and sexuality. Despite the controversies about the definition of religious fundamentalism, commentators agree that religious fundamentalism impacts



women’s lives. However, observers diverge on the extent of these implications, explanations for women’s involvement with such movements, and interventions that may improve the lives of women who are members of fundamentalist religious groups. Some critics, and especially feminist critics, hold that fundamentalism is a patriarchal and oppressive political and cultural system that is detrimental to women’s interests, livelihoods, and dignity. In this view, fundamentalist regimes are akin to other patriarchal configurations of economic and political interests that favor men. By identifying women and sexuality with political, cultural, and religious goals, religious fundamentalism legitimizes a patriarchal social order that happens to be based on religion. Under this view women’s acquiesce can only be explained as a form of oppression or false consciousness, and interventions from outside groups—or nations—are welcome. Other commentators point out that while fundamentalism limits women’s opportunities and regulates their bodies, these regulations and limitations must be understood within particular historical and cultural contexts. One claim is that given the structural forces that shape their lives, women are simultaneously oppressed and empowered by their religion. For example, veiling allows women access to public spaces that are typically reserved for men. Second, commentators note a gap between religious prescriptions and lived realities. The process of adaptation provides women with opportunities to subvert and resist religious prescriptions through imaginative interpretations and practical realities. For example, although fundamentalist Christian women in the United States say that they support male headship and traditional gender roles, the realities of their lives are such that they work outside of the home and participate in financial decision making. Finally, research indicates that women strategize and appropriate religion to further a variety of ends, such as economic opportunities, domestic relations, political ideologies, and cultural affiliation. For example, for many women the veil has become a symbol of national belonging and cultural affiliation in the face of colonial legacies. Similarly, women use religious rationales to avoid unattractive employment or potential partners. Under this perspective, women’s acquiesce to fundamentalist regimes does not necessarily indicate oppression but a strategic

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choice within a given set of cultural and political circumstances, and interventions that aim to improve the lives of women who are members of conservative religious groups must be a product of indigenous efforts to improve women’s lives. See Also: Arab Feminism; Evangelical Protestantism; Fundamentalist Christianity; Iranian Feminism; Islamic Feminism; Orthodox Judaism; Religion, Women in; Secularity Law, France; Taliban. Further Readings Antoun, R. T. Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2001. Emerson, M. O. and D. Hartman. “The Rise of Religious Fundamentalism.” Annual Review of Sociology, v.32 (2006). Marty, M. E. and R. S. Appleby, eds. Fundamentalism Comprehended. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995. Moallem, M. Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: Islamic Fundamentalism and The Politics of Patriarchy in Iran. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Orit Avishai Fordham University

Representation of Women The first decade of the 21st century offers a complicated set of contradictions for analyzing representations of women in the media. These tensions come from changing ideas in feminist inquiry. Newer ideas accept and even celebrate displays of femininity, sexuality, and beauty through revealing clothes, styled hair, and makeup as forms of empowerment. Older ideas disregard the personal choices behind these displays as just reinforcing oppressions through dominant media. These tensions do not reduce readings of a representation but instead encourage negotiated ones. These multiple readings allow reconsiderations and appropriations of old stereotypes and revisions of them. Mainstream films of the early part of the 21st century in some ways reify traditional stereotypes and roles, while at the same time adjusting to allow the

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feminine a degree of power. With the current industry releases dominated by blockbusters, action films, and the science fiction and fantasy genres, women appear to have few heroic places within those narratives. Women’s Film Roles Women more often serve as love interests or damsels in distress, such as Mary Jane Watson in the SpiderMan franchise (2002, 2004, 2007) and Pepper Potts in the Ironman franchise (2008, 2010). Other women hold token places in male-dominated science fiction and fantasy worlds, such as in the Harry Potter series (2001–09), with Hermione; the X-Men series (2005, 2007); the Fantastic Four series (2000, 2003, 2006); and Watchmen (2009). Woman-centered action films, however, cast women in strong lead roles. These women wield weapons, engage in hand-to-hand combat, and defy death through series of challenges, all while wearing tight clothing that accentuates both musculature and curves. In Tomb Raider (2001, 2003), Angelina Jolie wore a padded bra one cup size smaller than her character’s cup size in the original video game. Close-up shots emphasize the tight clothing and the exposed skin on Jolie’s body. The prostitutes in Frank Miller’s Sin City (2005) also show this contradiction: Although they dress for attracting men, these women also use machine guns to stop an attack in their territory. Uma Thurman’s Bride character in the Kill Bill series (2003, 2004) manages to slay an entire room of martial experts with a sword and other weaponry. Michelle Yeoh also demonstrates martial arts skills in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Other examples of these characters include Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux (2006) and Milla Jovovich in the Resident Evil (2002, 2004, 2007) series. In general, these representations show women adopting traditionally male violence and methods to defend and assert themselves. “Chick flicks” represent a popular genre wherein women also obtain lead roles. In these films, the main character is often an intelligent woman with a career, her own life, and supportive friends, but who desires someone to love and someone to love her. These women often embody and even enjoy traditional ideas of consumer-based femininity, such as through expensive clothing, jewelry, and salon visits, often with their friends. The narrative arcs of these films

focus on the female lead finding, losing, and finding love again, usually ending with some kind of marriage or other coupling. Examples of chick flicks include Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Legally Blonde (2001), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and Sex and the City (2008, 2010). The latter film features four fashionconscious friends pursuing love and new shoes along with their careers in New York City. All four celebrate different aspects of femininity, from home decorating to shopping, along with their independence, but the men in their lives often play important roles in their careers and other decisions. This assertive, strong woman also appears in a newer-emerging genre that focuses on white men who embody a man-boy or man-child stereotype. These men exhibit immaturity, irresponsibility, and even ignorance of their actions and lives. The women in these films demonstrate the opposite, showing maturity, confidence, responsibility, and accomplishment. To get the right man, however, she must teach the man-child how to grow up and must be patient with him while he figures out how. This role shifts some of the leadership responsibilities to the woman in the relationship, but ultimately they return to the male after he matures. Examples of this kind of film include Talladega Nights (2006), Knocked Up (2007), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008). Precious (2009) provides an example of a new direction for women’s roles in film. Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Precious focuses on an unlikely lead character: an overweight, pregnant Harlem teenager who is molested by her father and abused by her mother. Claireece “Precious” Jones struggles with living, and she gets enrolled in a special program where she finds some love and support, even as the rest of her life crumbles around her. After her abusive father dies, she finds out she is human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive, although, thankfully, her unborn child is not. This film offers none of the uplifting, happy endings that chick flicks and other films provide, nor does it offer the coupling ending. Its bleakness represents a reality not often seen on screen. Overall, contemporary films offer opportunities for women to assert more confidence, strength, and choice. In some the feminine remains a choice, but even if not chosen, it still becomes part of a complex association with the masculine.



Women on Television The last decade of television saw an increase in programming and networks targeted primarily at women. Following the success of Lifetime, other networks such as Oxygen and Women’s Entertainment began to offer similar programming appealing to women. Overall, women gained stronger roles in various shows, particularly dramas, while at the same time situation comedies and reality shows often reinforced traditional women’s roles. The amount of dramatic programming that featured women in leading roles or strong women as part of ensembles has increased. Shows such as Ally McBeal (1997–2002), Judging Amy (1999–2005), and Strong Medicine (2000–06) showed women as a lawyer, a judge, and doctors working within high-pressure environments while at the same time juggling issues with children and significant others (or lack thereof ). The West Wing (1999–2006) featured several strong women in prominent political roles never previously held by a woman in real life, but the show regularly puts limitations on their abilities to succeed, both professionally and personally. The Law & Order (1990– ) franchise regularly casts women as lawyers, detectives, forensic scientists, and even police chiefs, but these women still work under male supervisors among primarily male casts. Olivia Benson on Law and Order: SVU (1999– ) regularly pushes the boundaries for investigations of rape cases, only to meet resistance from her male partner and superiors. Unlike in dramas, situation comedies sometimes reinforce the dominant stereotypes for women’s roles. The man-child or man-boy becomes a key masculine stereotype within these shows, and the wives, often of different ethnic backgrounds such as Italian or Hispanic, must maintain their patience and their households. The King of Queens (1998–2007) often found husband and Italian wife butting heads over the husband’s antics, and Patricia Heaton’s character on Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005) regularly lost her patience and temper with her bumbling husband. These women retain strength for the household and the family, but overstepping certain bounds results in their seeming bitter and opening them up for mockery from their husbands. Sex and the City (1998–2004) offered representations of four strong, single women trying to find the perfect careers, perfect clothes, and perfect men.

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Though the main character, Carrie, sustains herself through her writing career, she still seeks men for relationships and goes through a series of boyfriends before finally marrying Mr. Big. Miranda, the lawyer, asserts a greater degree of confidence in her career, but at one point her employers assume she is a lesbian and set her up with another lesbian. This moment demonstrates the lines women characters must remain behind in order not to appear too masculine. Other shows have taken up themes of polygamy and homosexuality, with mixed results in terms of gender stereotypes. In HBO’s Big Love (2006– ), for example, one man marries and has families with three women. While he retains the role as head of household, the three wives develop a pecking order that still works under their husband. Showtime’s The L-Word (2004–09) follows a group of lesbian friends who live in Los Angeles. It gains support for showing positive representations of lesbians, but it also draws criticism for its emphasis on glamour, and its overly melodramatic story lines. Reality programming offers a division between positioning women on equal planes as men and reinforcing stereotypical gender roles. Multiple “game show”– or competition-type reality shows divide their contestants with equal numbers of men and women—including American Idol (2002– ), So You Think You Can Dance (2005– ), and Survivor (2000– ) —superficially suggesting that both sexes are on equal planes. Other shows reinforce women’s traditional roles and beauty expectations, such as seeking a man in The Bachelor (2002–) and Joe Millionaire (2003), becoming more beautiful in What Not to Wear (2003– ), and maintaining households and raising children, as in Jon and Kate Plus 8 (2007–2009), Wife Swap (2004– ), and Little People Big World (2006– ). Only a few reality shows represent experiences primarily from women’s points of view, though again from traditional viewpoints. The Bachelorette (2003– ) offers another take on the finding a spouse theme, and The Girls Next Door (2005– ) represents the glamorous and objectified life of being one of Hugh Hefner’s girls. Hefner chooses these girls, but they also choose to display themselves according to standards, such as dying their hair blonde. Although the visibility for women on television has increased and the niche markets for women’s programming also has increased, women’s overall

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representations remain divided. On one hand, the representations of women flaunting their sexuality and femininity, such as in The Girls Next Door, Sex and the City, and even the dating shows, could demonstrate an empowerment through ownership of their own identities. In contrast, these representations in other shows, particularly in their stereotypes of women as homemakers and as in their seeking affirmation through getting a man, reaffirm the traditional representations of women throughout television and other media. Women’s Documentary Unlike fiction filmmaking and television, documentary productions provide a prominent place for representations of women. The recent decade saw increased documentary production in both mainstream and independent venues, but unlike Hollywood and television, documentary represents real women and their stories. Some recent documentaries balance social issues with those stories, but in general, the women represented remain the primary subjects. Some male directors bring forward women’s stories in their documentaries. Bob Ray’s Hell on Wheels (2008), about contemporary roller derby revived by a team in Austin, Texas, showcases the women’s power and sexuality in the sport. David Schisgall’s more serious Very Young Girls (2007) focuses on girls as young as 12 and 13 years old who have been forced into prostitution, and the efforts made to help them. Most of the women’s stories, however, are brought forward by other women, who make up about half of all documentary makers. Some of these women work in mainstream venues, such as Barbara Kopple and Liz Garbus for HBO. Two-time Oscar winner and veteran documentary maker Kopple, along with Cecilia Peck, tells the story of the Dixie Chicks in Shut Up and Sing (2006). The group’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, disparaged then-president George W. Bush during a European performance, and news of her statement caused an uproar among the group’s U.S. fans, with demands for apologies, boycotts of concerts, and burning of CDs taking place in response. The directors weave the band’s story with interviews and raise questions about working full time in music and trying to raise families at the same time. Liz Garbus’s work focuses on multiple issues, including women and girls within the prison system.

The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002) follows the final days of Wanda Jean Allen, who was charged with murder and sat on Oklahoma’s death row hoping for an appeal or a stay of execution. Garbus represents Allen, whose low IQ bordered on retarded, with sensitivity and deep emotion and without highlighting the sensational nature of her case. In Girlhood (2003), Garbus follows Shanae and Megan through their years in juvenile detention and through their attempts at reintegrating into society. Her access to these girls again shows emotional depths bordering on melodrama, particularly through the troubled relationship of Megan with her estranged mother. Other documentary makers balance stories with key social issues and institutions that affect women directly. Similar to Girlhood, Girl Trouble (2004) follows three girls and their experiences in the juvenile justice system. Lexi Leban and Lidia Szajko address the limitations and failings of the system, at the same time focusing on Lateefah Simon’s efforts at the Center for Young Women’s Development. Directed by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, Lioness (2008) represents women who served in ground combat during the Iraq War despite official orders disallowing it. Still other women documentary makers focus on issues of race, such as Yvonne Welbon’s Sisters in Cinema (2003) and Cyrille Phipps’s Seen But Not Heard: AIDS and the Untold War Against Black Women (2008). Other documentary makers address global women’s issues unseen in mainstream media, calling attention to the stark realities faced by women around the world. Lisa F. Jackson’s The Greatest Silence (2007) tells stories about women who suffered rape and mutilation during the war years in the Congo. Directed by Mary Olive Smith and Amy Bucher, Walk to Beautiful (2008) follows five Ethiopian women who suffer from obstetric fistulas and their journeys to get help with a health problem largely invisible in Western nations with developed healthcare systems. God Sleeps in Rwanda (2005), directed by Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman, follows five women rebuilding their lives after the 1994 genocide. Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter (Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, 2008) documents Mrs. Goundo’s fight to remain in the United States to prevent her daughter from undergoing a clitorectomy in her home country. Overall, documentary directors bring forward representations of women unseen in other media.



Representation of Women in Government, International

Women and New Media New digital technologies present possibilities and challenges to women’s representations. Until recently, the pornography industry provided the primary representations of women most viewed online, but with social media use recently eclipsing that dominance, more women partake the opportunity to represent themselves. Social media offer multiple outlets for representations, including Facebook, Flickr or PhotoBucket, YouTube or Vimeo, Twitter, MySpace, blogs, and personal Websites, frequently in combination. Some women write their own blogs about various topics and associate with collectives such as BlogHer. Others, such as performers Lady Gaga and Tila Tequila, combine Twitter and home pages to further their images and promote their shows and songs. Sex-positive educators such as Annie Sprinkle use Websites to inform and educate through self-representation and humor. Some even upload their own videos and documentaries, such as Abiola Abrams’s Knives in My Throat. Although these women gain some opportunity to retain control over the images, words, and ideas that compose their representations, they also face a more immediate response, either support or backlash, from other social media users. Representations of women across the media show a complex intersection of changes. These representations can demonstrate degrees of greater power and agency, sexuality, and femininity. They also can affirm limits of this empowerment, particularly through labels of homosexuality and through limits in potential development. These representations vary through medium and format, with documentary forms and new media outlets offering greater degrees of freedom of expression than the more traditional television and film outlets. Women makers also find more opportunities in the former set than the latter set. Overall, however, how all these representations get decoded—as empowering, as disempowering, as negotiated—lies primarily with the audience. See Also: Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Celebrity Women; Feminist Publishing; Film Directors, Female: International; Film Production, Women in; Representation of Women in Government, International; Representation of Women in Government, U.S.

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Further Readings Akass, Kim and Janet McCabe, eds. Reading Sex and the City. London: I. B. Taurus, 2004. Brunsdon, Charlotte and Lynn Spigel, eds. Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader, 2nd ed. New York: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill, 2008. Ferriss, S. and M. Young, eds. Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies. New York: Routledge, 2008. Hurd, Mary G. Women Directors and Their Films. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Johnson, Merri Lisa, ed. Jane Puts It in a Box: Third Wave Feminism and Television. London: I. B. Taurus, 2007. Lotz, Amanda D. Redesigning Women: Television After the Network Era. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Schubart, Rikke. Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970–2006. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. Tadiar, Neferti X. M. and Angela Y. Davis, eds. Beyond the Frame: Women of Color and Visual Representation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Heather McIntosh Northern Illinois University

Representation of Women in Government, International As of November 2009, women accounted for only 14 of the world’s heads of government and 18.6 percent of all parliaments. Following the September 2008 elections, Rwanda led the world with the largest number of women in government, with 56 percent of its lowerhouse seats filled by women. No other country has achieved this percentage of female governmental representatives. The Nordic countries as a region, however, lead the world, with 42.5 percent of the parliamentary seats filled by women. Two factors may contribute to higher numbers of women in parliaments worldwide: the system of government and constitutional and/or party rules, which promote gender equity, including quotas. Rwanda uses a proportional system with quotas to elect its parliament. Nearly one-third of its seats are elected by a “women’s only” ballot. The Nordic countries also rely on a proportional system and if quotas are implemented, they are done so voluntarily at the party level.

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Representation of Women in Government, International

Proportional Systems Proportional systems increase women’s levels of representation, not only in parliaments but in the highest levels of political leadership. According to Table 1, two of the 14 women identified are from the Nordic region. The majority of the women in Table 1 were elected directly to the top position through a plurality/majority (P/M), usually a two-round system (TRS). With P/M, the person who receives the required threshold of votes wins the election. It’s a winner-takes-all scenario. By contrast, with proportional systems (PR), multiple seats are filled, and the percentage of votes won by a party indicates the percentage of seats that party will fill in the legislature. All but two of the women leaders in Table 1 are from

countries that rely on some form of proportionality to fill parliamentary seats. All but three have quotas (required or voluntary) in place at some level. Thus, a correlation exists between proportional systems, which increase women’s representation at the parliamentary level, and women elected at the highest levels of government. Often these women have worked their way up the party ranks, secured the party’s nomination for president, and collaborated with other parties to develop a winning coalition. P/M systems institutionalize disadvantages for women’s political representation since they ascribe to the winner-take-all arrangement and usually are composed of single-member districts (one elector per district). In some cases, winners only need to win a

Table 1: Recent Women Presidents and Prime Ministers, as of October 2010

Name

Position

Country, Year

Parliamentary Election System (as of 2005)

Quotas

Pres. Election System (as of 2005)

Sheikh Hasina Wajed

Prime Minister

Bangladesh, FPTP (P/M) 1996–2001; 2009–

Yes, constitutional level

—

Mary McAleese

President

Ireland, 1997–

STV (PR)

Yes, party level

AV (P/M)

Tarja K. Halonen

President

Finland, 2000–

List PR

No

TRS (P/M)

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

President

Philippines, 2001–2010

Mixed (FPTP and List PR)

Yes, national and party level

FPTP

Luisa Diogo

Prime Minister

Mozambique, 2004–2010

List PR

Yes, party level

TRS

Angela Merkel

Chancellor

Germany, 2005–

Mixed (FPTP and List PR)

Yes, party level

—

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

President

Liberia, 2006–

FPTP

Yes, national level

TRS

Michelle Bachelet

President

Chile, 2006–2010

List PR

Yes, party level

TRS

Emily de Jongh-Elhage

Minister President

Nederlandse Antillen, 2006–2010

List PR

No

—

Pratibha Patil

President

India, 2007–

FPTP

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Executive President

Argentina, 2007–

List PR

Nino Burjanadze

Acting President

Georgia, 2007–2008

Mixed (FPTP and List PR

Dr. Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri

Acting President

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

Prime Minister

Yes, national and party level Yes, national and party level

— TRS

No

TRS

South Africa, 2008 List PR

Yes, national and party level

—

Iceland, 2009–

Yes, party level

FPTP

List PR



Representation of Women in Government, International

plurality of the votes cast rather than a majority. P/M systems are the most popular worldwide, functioning in nearly half of the nation-states and territories that have direct elections. P/M systems provide a major barrier for high levels of women’s representation in government because there is only one seat to be filled rather than multiple seats; no mechanism exists for including candidate diversity on the ticket. First Past the Post (FPTP) is the most often used P/M structure, functioning in roughly one-quarter of countries worldwide, including the United States. In this system, the candidate who secures the largest number of votes wins. The Two-Round System (TRS) is found in a large number of countries that elect presidents directly, and it is the second most often used P/M system. Roughly 20 national legislatures use TRS. As the name suggests, two rounds of voting may be used, though specific rules for how this occurs vary from country to country. Generally, the first round functions as a FPTP election. If no candidate receives the specified threshold of votes, a second round is held between the top two candidates. Proportional representation (PR) systems attempt to assure that if a party wins a certain percentage of the vote, that party fills that percentage of the seats available. Usually this means that parties put forward lists on which citizens vote. More countries and territories use List PRs than any other single electoral system, including nearly two-thirds of new democracies. One advantage for women in PR systems, which list the candidates, is district magnitude; the more seats available, the more likely a party will include a diversity of candidates on the list. List PR systems operate using one of two types of list systems: closed and open lists. In closed-list systems, the party determines the candidates and the order of candidates on the list. Many closed-list systems require that candidates are ordered so that at least one woman must be listed for every two men. Sometimes lists alternate one woman, one man, according to the voluntary party rules in some Nordic countries. Depending on the percentage of votes the party secures, legislative seats are filled by going down the list, from top to bottom, based on the percent of the vote won by the party. Open-list systems, used by many European democracies, allow voters to indicate their preference for individuals on the party list. An

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individual vote also is a vote for a party. While the party still determines the list, candidates are ordered randomly, and the candidates who secure the highest number of preference votes will fill the percentage of seats won by the party. Proportional representation systems are twice as likely as P/M structures to elect women to office. For example, Germany elects its parliament using a mixed system. In 1994, 13 percent of the winning candidates on the P/M vote were women. On the PR portion of the ballot, 40 percent of the winning candidates were women. Similarly, in New Zealand in 1999, 24 percent of the P/M winners were women; 40 percent of the PR winners were women. Government Quotas One of the greatest benefits to women’s representation has been the implementation of quotas, most likely to be found in proportional systems. In addition to Rwanda, India designates a group of “women’s only” seats, guaranteeing approximately one-third of the seats reserved for women. Requiring a certain percentage of the ballot to be female generally accelerates women’s representation, but women must be strategic when lobbying for quotas. Quotas of 20–30 percent seem to provide women with increased political opportunities and, with time, increase the number of viable female candidates. Higher quotas, though, do not return a comparable benefit to women. Quotas do not always translate into political power; some women have argued against their implementation because being elected to a “reserved” seat results in further political marginalization. The Nordic countries as a region (Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Denmark) lead the world in women’s political representation, ranging from 38 percent in Denmark to 47 percent in Sweden. Each country uses List PR but does not have a formalized quota system at the national level. The high levels of women’s political representation can be attributed to sustained pressure by women’s groups, which have urged political parties to voluntarily implement quotas. In doing so, the parties focus on their initial recruitment strategies to get more women involved in the process and into the electoral pipeline. Once involved, these women have the visibility and garner the experience they need to eventually be nominated by their party.

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Representation of Women in Government, U.S.

Women are still underrepresented in politics worldwide. The electoral system and party rules, including quotas, impact the level of visibility and viability that women may achieve in politics. The Nordic countries provide an example of a region achieving a high level of women’s political representation. Getting women into the pipeline through the party structure and parliamentary elections provides the first step to reaching the goal of parity. See Also: Council of Women World Leaders; Denmark; Finland; Gender Quotas in Government; Government, Women in; Heads of State, Female; Iceland; Norway; Representation of Women in Government, U.S.; Sweden. Further Readings Amy, Douglas J. Real Choices/New Voices. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Inter-Parliamentary Union. Women in National Parliaments. http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm (accessed November 2009). Jones, Mark P. and Patricio Navia. “Assessing the Effectiveness of Gender Quotas in Open-List Proportional Representation Electoral Systems.” Social Science Quarterly, v.80/2 (June 1999). Reynolds, A., B. Reilly, and A. Ellis. Electoral System Design: The New International IDEA Handbook. Stockholm, Sweden: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2005 (Reprinted 2008). Rule, Wilma. “Parliaments of, by, and for the People: Except for Women? Electoral Systems in Comparative Perspective: Their Impact on Women and Minorities. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Kristina Horn Sheeler Indiana University, Purdue University Indianapolis

Representation of Women in Government, U.S. In 2009 in the United States, women comprised 16.8 percent of Congress. At a state level, the percentage is slightly higher, with women holding nearly onequarter, 22.9 percent, of elected offices. These numbers have risen significantly over the past 20 years, when women held only 5 percent of the elected offices

at a national level and 14 percent of elected offices at a state level. However, given that women comprise over half the population, these numbers still raise a number of questions about the representation of women in government. First, does having women in office matter? Second, why are women a significantly smaller number of elected officeholders than men? And third, what obstacles, if any, do women face when running for office? This entry first discusses whether or not it is important to have women in office. Next, it will review the hypotheses that provide explanations for why women are less politically involved and effective than men. Finally, this article will discuss the various hurdles that women sometimes must overcome when running for office. Descriptive Representation Descriptive representation occurs when groups are represented by people who share similar physical traits or background experience. The alternative, substantive representation, argues that it is possible for elected officials to adequately represent the interests of their group even though they share very few characteristics. Many scholars debate that descriptive representation leads to increased participation among the group that is descriptively represented. People will be more likely to become actively involved in politics when they view their representative as responsive to their concerns. Additionally, the greater the number of descriptive representatives a group has, the more power they have to focus on issues that are a significant concern for their group. Some research shows that women are more likely than their male counterparts to vote for legislation that pertains to women’s issues. Other researchers, however, argue that there is little support that descriptive representation is any more effective than substantive representation. The Gender Gap The gender gap states that differences in policy preferences and party preferences exist between men and women. Women are more likely to associate with the Democratic Party and support more liberal social policies than men. Conversely, men are far more likely to be members of the Republican Party and are more concerned with masculine issues such as foreign policy and defense. There are many hypotheses for what causes the gender gap. The attitude hypothesis argues that



Representation of Women in Government, U.S.

party positions on specific issues determine which party voters support. Based on this theory, it follows that if women are more focused on social issues than their male counterparts, they would be more likely to side with the party that traditionally is viewed as more capable of handling social issues, or the Democratic Party. Some posit that the gender gap results from issues men and women find more important during any given election. A third explanation states that the main reason for the gender gap since 1980 has been the movement of men from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. Thus, the gap is not a result of changing attitudes among women but rapidly changing attitudes and values among men.

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Political Participation In many measures of political participation, women and men participate equally. Both groups vote at roughly the same rate, protest at equal rates, and are equally involved in local politics. In other areas of politics, however, women are far less likely to be involved than men. These areas include making campaign contributions, holding positions of leadership and running for office. Many theories seek to explain why these differences exist. One explanation is based on socialization and encouragement. Women are less likely than men to view themselves as capable of holding office, and require more encouragement from others before deciding to run. Parties, however, are less likely to give women encouragement to run, which limits the number of women running for office. Another explanation is based on resources. Because women have less time and money than men, they are less able to participate in some levels of political activity, such as making contributions or belonging to a political organization. Women also tend to have lower levels of education than men and are less likely to participate in fields that frequently lead to politics, such as law. Therefore, the type of job one holds, in addition to other leadership positions, provide one with the opportunities needed to develop good social skills. Since women have less of these opportunities than men, this may partially explain their lower levels of political participation.

women face in the United States. Of the obstacles that women must overcome during the campaign, two of the most difficult are stereotypes and the type of media coverage. When it comes to stereotypes, women face a distinct disadvantage. Voters typically prefer candidates whom they perceive as competent, strong leaders, and assertive. All of these traits are stereotypically associated with male candidates. Conversely, female candidates are more likely assigned traits of compassion, kindness, and accessibility. Images of women as weak leaders may decrease their ability to win elections. Along the same lines, women also are associated with liberal issues, such as education, poverty and welfare, whereas men are associated with issues that may have a broader appeal, like defense, the economy, and foreign affairs. Because women are associated with issues that affect a smaller number of people, they may not hold the same broad appeal as their male counterparts. In addition, voters view competence on traditionally male issues as more important in the higher offices. If women are not seen as capable of representing a wide range of interests, it could make it more difficult for them to win votes on Election Day. Media coverage also may impede the ability of women to be elected to office. On average, women receive far less campaign coverage than do their male adversaries. In addition, when women do receive media coverage of their campaigns, it tends to be more negative than positive, with a greater emphasis on horse-race coverage and viability than issue coverage. When reporters cover stories, they tend to focus on issues that are frequently associated with women, even if that issue is not central to the candidate’s campaign. This type of coverage can lead to skewed opinions of a candidate and assign more concern for an issue than is actually the case. It may lead to perceptions of female candidates as concerned with only a narrow range of issues, which could translate to a lack of votes on Election Day. The situation is exacerbated when little information is available on a candidate, forcing voters to rely more on visual cues than substance, such as name or photo in lieu of researching the candidate’s positions on important issues.

Women as Candidates How women are treated as candidates may significantly explain the lack of descriptive representation

See Also: EMILY’s List; Gender Quotas in Government; Glass Ceiling; Government, Women in; League of Women Voters; National Organization for Women; National

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Women’s Political Caucus; Representation of Women; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Box-Steffenmeier, Janet M., Suzanne De Boef, and TseMin Lin. “The Dynamics of the Partisan Gender Gap.” American Political Science Review, v.98/3 (2004). Carroll, Susan J. “Political Elites and Sex Differences in Political Ambition: A Reconsideration.” The Journal of Politics, v.47/4 (1985). Huddy, Leona and Nayda Terkildsen. “The Consequences of Gender Stereotypes for Women Candidates at Different Levels and Types of Office.” Political Research Quarterly, v.46/3 (1993). Kahn, Kim Fridkin. The Political Consequences of Being a Women. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Mansbridge, Jane. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes.’” Journal of Politics, v.61/3 (1999). McDermott, Monika L. “Voting Cues in Low-Information Elections: Candidate Gender as a Social Information Variable in Contemporary United States Elections.” American Journal of Political Science, v.41/1 (1997). Sanbonmatsu, Kira. “Gender Related Political Knowledge and the Descriptive Representation of Women.” Political Behavior, v.25/4 (2003). Swers, Michele. 2001. “Understanding the Policy Impact of Electing Women: Evidence From Research on Congress and State Legislatures.” PS: Political Science and Politics, v.34/2 (2001). Angela L. Bos Heather Madonia College of Wooster

Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights Since antiquity, cultures have developed and adopted technology and practices to promote or inhibit reproduction in response to their sociophysical environments and needs. Although most cultures have historically been pronatalist, this attitude has been highly dependent on intersections of class, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and disability, among others. The inherently iniquitous nature of society

along these interstices has meant that reproductive rights, despite their fundamental nature, have not been a universal phenomenon. Even in the 20th century, the focus on women’s reproductive health issues was more demographic than human rights– oriented. The language of reproductive “rights” is relatively new, owing its birth to the U.S. civil rights movements of the 1960s leading to the “sexual revolution” that gave women more freedom regarding their reproductive and sexual lives. Recognizing the absence of any explicit reference to reproductive rights in international charters, the 179 participating countries of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994, and the subsequent Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, sought to address this oversight. Using language from preceding charters such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the definition and assurance of reproductive rights was specifically spelled out during these conferences. The definition of reproductive rights may be framed within all reproduction-related issues from preconception to pregnancy and postreproductive health. Within this spectrum lie many considerations, including whether, when, and on what terms to engage in reproductive processes, and access to all appropriate information, reproductive technology, and healthcare options without discrimination or coercion, at all relevant lifestages. Because sex is typically central to reproduction, reproductive rights discourse usually includes sexual health and rights, which encompass the freedom to engage in or deny sexual activity, control its terms, and exercise one’s sexual preferences. In addition, as women are the crucial end links in reproduction, gender equity issues and sexual politics are an important part of the reproductive rights discourse. Finally, international and intranational geographic variations in reproductive and sexual health and rights (RSHRs) are the rule rather than the exception, as women’s overall life experiences are embedded in their socioeconomic-political contexts and determine many of their choices, both voluntary and imposed. Thus, RSHRs encapsulate biological processes, political considerations, and sociocultural practices/mores related to procreation, sexuality, and gender, as framed within the twin principles of right to reproductive health and right to self-determination.



Global Scenario Within Sociocultural Contexts The constitution of the World Health Organization defines health not just as the absence of disease but also as overall mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing and acknowledges this to be a basic human right. Reproductive health is the most basic and mandatory of women’s rights. Reproductive rights within the reproductive health principle seek foremost to address access to basic and reproductive healthcare to ensure safe pregnancy and motherhood, and prevention of diseases of the reproductive system, including human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and other sexually transmitted diseases. Rights within the reproductive self-determination principle overlap with the rights within the reproductive health principle to encompass access to contraception and abortion, all relevant information regarding such aspects, and the right to reject the abuse of methods of fertility control. However, more than half a million women die annually as a result of the lack of these services, either during or after pregnancy or in an effort to terminate it. Less than two-thirds of the poorest women in middleand low-income countries have access to antenatal care, and less than a third have access to skilled birth attendants at delivery—services that are near-universal in developed countries. Therefore, the lifetime risk of maternal death for women in the developing world is much higher, at 1 in 73, with sub-Saharan Africa presenting the worst odds, at 1 in 22. Comparatively, this risk is 1 in 7,300 in developed regions. Other basic reproductive health services are also inadequate, leading to immensely high maternal morbidity and chronic disability numbers between 10 and 15 million, characterized by sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, obstetric fistula (vaginal-rectal or vaginalbladder tissue tear), severe anemia, damage and dysfunction, and chronic infections frequently resulting in infertility. Fully 99 percent of maternal mortality and an overwhelming proportion of morbidity and disability occur in developing countries. Contraception and Abortion Today, contraception is available by numerous traditional and modern methods, yet it remains out of reach of many. The global level of contraceptive prevalence by any method is 68 percent, but this figure is only 30 percent in the least developed countries of

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the world. As a result, the burden of fertility (number of births per women) is higher for women in such areas, where services and relief are most required, yet most inaccessible; for example, in Niger, the average number of children per woman during her lifetime (total fertility rate) is 7.2. Over 200 million women in middle- and low-income countries face an unmet need for contraceptives, resulting in unwanted pregnancies and abortions—the latter causing 13 percent of all maternal deaths worldwide. The flip side of fertility prevention can also be dark: cultural contexts and iniquitous social structures can sometimes lead to abuse, even in the 21st century. In Slovakia, for example, systemic ethnic bias led to instances of Roma women being subject to forced sterilizations, sometimes without any knowledge that they were undergoing the procedure, until a safeguarding law was passed. Similarly, sex-selective abortions, sometimes forced, still take place in countries like India that display high son preference, despite laws banning them. The topic of contraception and abortion is highly controversial and is the subject of heated debate in many parts of the world. Religion often plays a central role in these debates. Typically, most religions tend to be pronatalist, with both contraception and termination of pregnancy seen as contrary to religious teachings. Catholicism and Islam are examples of religions with very high levels of pronatalism, reflected in the reproductive rights and policies of many states where they are predominant, as in countries of South America and North Africa/Middle East, respectively. Industrialized nations are also not immune to such controversy: Decades after the ruling in favor of the plaintiff to the (limited) right to abortion on the basis of the “right to privacy” in the case of Roe v. Wade in the early 1970s in the United States, the issue and the decision rendered remain highly contested. Religious conservatism was also responsible for the delayed approval of Emergency Contraception (Plan B or “morning after” pill), which drew resistance in the United States and continues to do so in other parts of the world. Globally, the levels of reproductive rights accorded to women are characterized by high differentials. Developed countries typically possess both the resources as well as the constitutional setup to accord women a high degree of reproductive rights in terms

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On the Brooklyn Bridge during the march for Women’s Rights in 2004. As women are the crucial end-links in reproduction, gender equity issues and sexual politics are an important part of the reproductive rights discourse.

of healthcare, as well as self-determination. Scandinavian countries are traditionally leaders in rankings that factor in women’s reproductive rights. Among developed countries, the United States is unique in that many indicators of reproductive rights, such as maternal and infant mortality, maternal morbidity, and access to care and contraception, all belie a lack of investment in women’s health and rights. However, the consistently worst-performing countries in such indices are mostly located in Africa, followed by South Asia. Causes for such low reproductive health and rights are profoundly linked to economic and sociocultural factors. Economic barriers arise on both the individual and national scales: Many developing nations do not possess the financial, infrastructural, or skilled human resources to provide adequate and/or universal healthcare. Thus, women have to access them per their own, often-limited, resources. For instance, access to the above-mentioned antenatal and delivery care improves drastically for women in the uppermost

income quintiles, with just over 90 and 80 percent served, respectively. Sociocultural barriers to RSHR include pervasive discrimination against women, often reflected in early marriages; condonement of abuse; and lack of investment in women’s health, education, and empowerment. Early marriage is widespread in much of Africa and Asia (except China), constantly placing adolescents and young women at unnecessary risks associated with childbearing (higher mortality and morbidity and particularly obstetric fistula) and earlier exposure to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. This practice, as well as the violence and abuse that are also common in many parts of the developed and developing world, adversely affects women’s levels of autonomy regarding sexual encounters and in general. Sexual Health and Rights The International Conference on Population and Development guaranteed the right to a safe and healthy sex life, free of coercion, as a major compo-



nent of reproductive health. However, the patriarchy and heteronormativity present in most cultures often translate into stigma, discrimination, and violence against women and persons not conforming to mainstream sexual lifestyles. As mentioned earlier, widespread violence and abuse compromise sexual health and rights not simply because of the risk for sexually transmitted diseases and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) or unwanted pregnancies but also as an imposition on the integrity of one’s body, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, rape and sexual violence have become a weapon of choice in areas of war and conflict. Because of women’s role as gatekeepers of a culture, sexual coercion over them is seen as a type of conquest, leading to serious breaches of sexual rights. Another violation of the security of the body is the cultural practice of female genital mutilation/cutting, in which all or part of the external female genitalia may be excised, often with rudimentary tools and without anesthetics. Practiced widely in Africa and West Asia/the Middle East, with prevalence rates between 5 percent (Uganda) and almost 100 percent (Guinea and Mali), female genital mutilation/cutting renders women more prone to infections and reproductive complications, severely disabled or in discomfort, and very often traumatized. With migratory movements, some prevalence is also appearing in other parts of the world, such as Australia and the United Kingdom. Sexual health and rights overlap considerably with reproductive health rights, including issues such as access to contraception and negotiating safe, noncoercive sex, and protection from harmful practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting. Some scholars note that such intersections between sexual and reproductive rights has lead to sexual rights being subsumed by reproductive rights. They argue that sexual health and rights should extend to cover not just protections from disease and abuse but also promotion of sexual rights encompassing aspects of pleasure and eroticism and the assurance of such rights for nonmainstream expressions of sexuality. In addition, under the human rights rubric, there are other concerns that must be addressed. In most cultures of the world today, reproduction and motherhood is a social institution in itself. Domi-

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nant discourses of motherhood idealize it as central to women’s sense of identity and ascribe to it noble attributes of nurturance and selflessness. This is at odds with “discourses of deviancy” that attach to those who do not conform to the mainstream model of the fecund, healthy female who is ready to sacrifice self-interest to the larger interests of child and society. Childless women (by choice or otherwise), lesbians, and HIV-positive women are typical targets of such discourses, and the protection of their rights to choose whether or not to bear children is sometimes overlooked in the more typical concerns of RSHR. Given that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals have been critiqued for not overtly including reproductive rights in their targets and goals, an expanded definition and assurance of RHSR may be necessary. Some ways of addressing these oversights are addressed in the section on policy directions. Population Control Perspectives The perspective of population control throws greater complexity into the area of reproductive rights. Fears of a world overrun by an uncontrollably growing population have consumed general populace and development practitioners alike, sometimes resulting in draconian policies. The motivations behind some of these policies can be described as population pressure on limited resources at best, or racism and eugenics at worst. As mentioned, until the International Conference on Population and Development, most population control policies did not consider human or reproductive rights but rather population numbers, often leading to coercive programs in many countries, such as China. Since then, efforts have been made to promote human rights and the “user’s perspective” in fertility-control programs. However, the perspective has shifted yet again, and fertility control, particularly in the world’s poorest regions, is deemed essential for sustainable development. International development and aid agencies tend to precede human development agendas with a population-control agenda, but there is adequate evidence to show that the causal relationship is stronger in the reverse. Women’s educational levels have been shown to be the most important development indicator in lowering fertility levels, as evidenced by Kerala state in India, raising more policy implications.

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Policy Directions Apart from the obvious policy directions of universal reproductive health and expanding reproductive and sexual self-determination to fulfill the mandates of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Conference on Population and Development, and Millennium Development Goals, other areas still need to be fully addressed by comprehensive policies. The lack of appropriate care often leads to related problems such as infertility, which in turn is stigmatized by most societies, particularly in the developing world. It is also emotionally injurious to many women. Reproductive health rights should thus encompass access to basic healthcare and the provision of technology and medical aid to address infertility. The increasing feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic also means guaranteed provision of antiretroviral therapies for HIV-positive women and for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of the virus. Expansion of RSHR must also extend to marginalized sexualities and women in general, who often suffer from RSHR violations in iniquitous personal or societal settings and institutions such as marriage. Men’s frequent control over women’s sexuality and reproductive choices has often been the cause of low RSHR outcomes. Therefore, men’s cognizance of their critical role is extremely valuable in the promotion and fulfillment of RSHR needs. Population policies must also seek to address gender equity and empowerment issues first to ensure RSHR, which in turn can lead to better population outcomes. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care; Pro-Life Movement; Roe v. Wade; Sterilization, Involuntary. Further Readings Arendell, Terry. “Conceiving and Investigating Motherhood: The Decade’s Scholarship.” Journal of Marriage and Family, v.62/4 (2000) Center for Reproductive Rights. “Gaining Ground: A Tool for Advancing Reproductive Rights Law Reform.” http://reproductiverights.org/en/document/gaining -ground-a-tool-for-advancing-reproductive-rights-law -reform (accessed January 2010).

Ehrenreich, Nancy, ed. The Reproductive Rights Reader: Law, Medicine, and the Construction of Motherhood. New York: New York University Press, 2008. Knudsen, Lara M. Reproductive Rights in a Global Context: South Africa, Uganda, Peru, Denmark, United States, Vietnam, Jordan. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009.” http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/state -of-the-worlds-mother s-report/state-worlds-mothers -report-2009.pdf (accessed January 2010). United Nations Population Fund. “State of the World Population 2008, Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights.” https://www.unfpa.org /webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications /2008/swp08_eng.pdf (accessed January 2010). Vandana Wadhwa Boston University

Reproductive Cancers Cancer is a group of more than 100 related diseases named after the part of the body from which they originate. Reproductive cancers begin in the reproductive organs in both females and males. Female reproductive cancers, also known as gynecologic cancers, include two types of uterine cancer, ovarian, cervical, vaginal, vulvar, and fallopian tube cancers, and cancerous hydatidiform moles. Reproductive cancer occurs when a cell’s genetic material changes, becomes damaged, and is not controlled by the body’s immune response, causing abnormal cell growth to proliferate and invade nearby tissue. If the cancer metastasizes, it then spreads to other parts of the body. Risk factors for reproductive cancers include family history, infection, exposure to ionizing radiation and certain chemicals, and hormones and lifestyle influences, as well as social determinants of health such as lack of access to income, resources, and healthcare. The primary methods of treatment include surgery, radiation and chemical therapies. Success rates for treatments vary by overall health status, type, site, and stage of cancer. It is important to note that mortality rates from cancer are higher in low- and middle-income countries.



Types of Uterine Cancer There are two types of uterine cancer: endometrial and sarcoma. Endometrial cancer, beginning in the lining of the uterus, is the most common type. It usually occurs after menopause in women whose risk factors include family history, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and exposure to high levels of estrogen, especially without the balancing effects of progesterone, and exposure to radiation therapy in the pelvic area. The most common symptom is abnormal vaginal bleeding. Diagnosis is made by transvaginal ultrasound and endometrial biopsy. If treated early, and the cancer has not spread beyond the uterus, the survival rate is high. Uterine sarcoma, beginning in the connective or other tissue of the uterus, occurs in only about 5 percent of uterine cancers. Symptoms are similar to that for endometrial cancer, and risk factors include exposure to radiation therapy and the use of tamoxifen to treat breast cancer. Treatment for both is similar and includes hysterectomy, or removal of the uterus—the most common treatment—followed by radiation, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy if the cancer has metastasized. Cervical cancer begins in the lower part of the uterus that extends into the vagina. It is the fifth most common cancer in women worldwide and the first and second most common in middle-income and developing countries. This slow-growing cancer has few symptoms in earlier stages and is, therefore, usually diagnosed in middle age. Later-stage symptoms include abnormal bleeding and discharge, low back pain, and pain during intercourse and urination. While the predominant risk factor is the very common sexually transmitted human papillomaviruses (HPV), which is highly preventable with the use of condoms, most women with HPV do not get cervical or other reproductive cancers. The synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES), used on pregnant women primarily from the late 1930s to the early 1970s—and “dumped” for profit by pharmaceutical companies into third-world nations for use by pregnant women after it was banned in developed countries—also is known to cause cervical and vaginal cancer. This is particularly true in young girls and younger women. Regular PAP tests and pelvic examination used to detect precancerous changes make cervical cancer highly preventable and, when found early, extremely treatable. Treatment involves removal of the cancerous tissue, which may be accom-

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panied by chemotherapy or radiation. Recently, health agencies have recommended that girls between the ages of 9 and 26 get the HPV vaccine to reduce their risk of cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancers. Cancers of the vagina, or the birth canal, and vulva, or external genitals, are both relatively uncommon and most likely to occur in women over the age of 60. The primary symptom for both cancers is abnormal bleeding, and the primary treatment is surgical removal or radiation therapy. The HPV vaccine is now used as a preventative for both, while regular screening increases the probability of early stage abnormality being found in time for effective treatment. Ovarian Cancer Ovarian cancer develops from different kinds of ovarian cells. It can be especially virulent because symptoms may not present until the cancer is large or has spread. While ovarian cancer is the second most common reproductive cancer, it is the most fatal. Ovarian cancer is more likely in developed countries because high-fat diets and oral contraceptive use increase risk. Other risk factors include family history, with 5 to 10 percent of cases being related to a specific gene also found in breast cancer. The disease is most common among women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, older women who had a child late in life, or women who did not have children, as well as females who began menstruating early and those whose menopause began late. Symptoms include discomfort similar to indigestion, enlarged abdomen, bloating and gas, and backache. Diagnosis is by imaging techniques, and treatment is usually surgery, the extent of which is dependent on the stage of the cancer. Ovarian cancer in advanced stages is likely to recur. Having similar risks and treatments to ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, which is unlikely to originate in the fallopian tubes, is rare. In about 20 percent of cases, a hydatidiform mole, an abnormal fertilized egg, or molar pregnancy becomes cancerous. Symptoms include feeling pregnant and may include nausea, vomiting, and bleeding. If this cancer spreads, women may experience other symptoms. A positive pregnancy test, an unusually large uterus, and no fetal heartbeat make detection easy. The cure rate is virtually 100 percent if the cancer has not spread and 60 to 80 percent if it has spread. Treatment includes removal of the cancerous mole and may be followed by chemotherapy.

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Currently, the most controversial issue around reproductive cancers is widespread use of the HPV vaccine. Some argue that the vaccine has not been adequately tested and may have unintended harmful consequences, leaving many questions unanswered. In addition to issues of safety and efficacy, another concern is whether reliance on the vaccine will reduce safe -ex practices and screening procedures. Important to note is that most research and funding for cancer causes and treatments fall into a biomedical model of medicine with little attention paid to social determinants beyond lifestyle issues or the broader conditions that promote or restrict health. Consequences of globalization, war, environmental disasters and climate change, and allocation of global resources need to be taken into serious account to reduce worldwide cancer rates when considering prevention forms. Reproductive cancers are no exception and have further stigmatizing effects because of relationships drawn to women’s sexual practices and disease. Because reproductive cancers often have devastating consequences for fertility and reproduction, the quality of both women’s health specifically and the health of nations generally should be matters of serious concern.

Salani, Ritu and Robert E. Bristow. Johns Hopkins Patients’ Guide to Ovarian Cancer. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 2009 Deborah Davidson York University

Revirginization

See Also: Birth Defects, Environmental Factors and; Breast Cancer; Cancer, Environmental Factors and; Cancer, Women and; Health, Mental and Physical; Infertility, Incidence of; Our Bodies, Ourselves; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care; Poverty; World Health Organization.

Revirginization is the act of regaining one’s virginity, after having had sexual intercourse once or many times, through spiritual or surgical means. As conceptions of virginity are highly influenced by religion, motivations for revirginization are often religious in nature. Women may also seek revirginization to comply with familial or cultural expectations. Both spiritual and surgical revirginizations are gaining popularity in the United States and can be seen in many other countries today. The label virgin is traditionally much more important for women than it is for men, and in most societies, including the United States, it is understood primarily, and often exclusively, in terms of women. Definitions of virginity vary according to location and culture, but most include the lack of experience of sexual intercourse and the presence of internal cleanliness and purity. As virginity is seen in both spiritual and physical terms, revirginization can take both spiritual and physical forms.

Further Readings Hasan, H. Cervical Cancer: Current and Emerging Trends in Detection and Treatment (Cancer and Modern Science). New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2009. The International Gynecologic Cancer Society. http:// www.igcs.org/ (accessed December 2009). Muggia, Franco and Esther Oliva. Uterine Cancer: Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (Current Clinical Oncology). New York: Humana Press, 2009. National Women’s Health Network. http://www.nnewh .org (accessed December 2009). Nicolopoulou-Stamati, P. Cancer as an Environmental Disease. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004. Palefsky, Joel and Jody Handley. What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about HPV and Abnormal Pap Smears. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2002.

Spiritual Revirginization Spiritual revirginization gained popularity in the United States in the early 1990s. The idea that virginity can be regained through spiritual means requires virginity to be thought of as a state of mind or intention, as opposed to a physical, experiential fact. Women working toward becoming a born-again virgin are often religious, most often Christian, and are seeking an innocence that they possessed before being sexually active. Virginity here is defined as the possession of a childlike heart and/or a pure sense of being that is lost when women “give” their virginity away. Women seeking this form of revirginization are often not looking to lose their virginity again. Spiritual revirginization is achieved through prayer, thought, and meditation.



Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

Physical Revirginization Physical, or surgical, revirginization is called hymenoplasty or hymenorraphy and involves reconstructing the hymen. As the hymen is often ruptured during a female’s first vaginal intercourse, an intact hymen is seen as proof of virginity to many men and women. There are two types of hymenoplasty—one involves sewing together a torn hymen and the other uses an artificial hymen implant. Implants are made to resemble the natural hymen to the extent that some are inserted with a bloodlike solution to be expelled when the implant breaks during intercourse. Hymenoplasty is more commonly used by women whose lives combine or alternate between two cultures—one that includes premarital sex and another that demands a virgin marriage. Women use the surgery as a means to negotiate between differing societal expectations, although this negotiation does not provide a means to combine cultures into one unifying identity but rather separates ideals and behaviors into stages according to location or life stage, such as the young woman who engages in sex acts in college in the United States but undergoes revirginization surgery before returning to her home country for her marriage, for which she is expected to be a virgin. Unlike spiritual revirginization, which many women seek for personal reasons, surgical revirginization is often sought as a gift for a woman’s husband, as the fulfillment of a requirement of her family, or as a means to avoid the social consequences of sex before marriage. The procedure costs approximately $2,000 to $5,000. See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Marriage. Further Readings Alexander, Brian. “Born-Again Virgins Claim to Rewrite the Past.” MSNBC.com. http://www.msnbc.msn.com /id/23254178 (accessed June 2010). Bernau, Anke. Virgins: A Cultural History. London: Granta, 2007. Keller, Wendy. The Cult of the Born-Again Virgin: The New Sexual Revolution. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1999. Katy N. Kreitler University of San Francisco

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Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is an independent political and social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and social justice for all people in Afghanistan. For over 30 years, it has been actively supporting the most needy women and girls in life-threatening circumstances. RAWA has been doing its extraordinary work by running literacy classes, schools, orphanages, and small business projects while publicly advocating for women’s human rights. RAWA’s work is courageous, vital, and inspirational. Its main objective is to increase the number of Afghan women in political and social activities and to contribute to the struggle for the establishment of a government based on secular and democratic values in Afghanistan. Founded in 1977 by a 20-year-old student and activist named Meena, RAWA’s goals were to aid and empower Afghan women and to further the peaceful creation of a free and secular Afghan democracy. RAWA’s founding leader and her two colleagues were brutally murdered by the Soviet occupying forces in 1978. Since then, RAWA’s activists have focused on women’s rights and human rights as they have responded to one brutal regime after another: the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the consequent rise of fundamentalist jehadis (1992), the Taliban (1996), the return of jihadi warlords to positions of power in the interim, and now transitional governments in 2001 and 2002. RAWA believes that democracy and freedom cannot be given but rather it is the duty of the country and people to fight for it. RAWA’s work in Afghanistan is aimed primarily at supporting women and girls who are victims of war and atrocities committed by belligerent groups. They provide psychosocial support, trace missing females or their family members, and assist families in evacuation and resettlement and supply them with basic living necessities. However, RAWA’s main focus is on girls’ education, as they believe that knowledge is a great power that will raise women’s awareness about women’s human rights, their place in society, and the importance of their engagement in the social and political problems that Afghanistan faces. RAWA

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also believes that education must go beyond providing basic literacy skills, so they have created diverse educational opportunities available for everyone to achieve enlightenment and raise awareness. Despite political oppression and grave security risks, RAWA’s appeal, courageous work, and influence grew worldwide. In 1981, to spread the news, aims, and objectives of its work, RAWA launched a bilingual magazine Payam-e-Zan (woman’s message). RAWA’s efforts, in Afghanistan and among Afghan refugees in Pakistan, are carried out by some 2,000 core women members and thousands of male supporters, without a paid staff or even an office. The organization has been able to document some of the most shocking images of fundamentalist atrocities, from limb amputations to public executions, and they have been able to spark some of the most profound changes in mindsets in a society in which many have been taught that a woman is worth literally only half of a man. RAWA has been carrying out its struggle for human rights and social justice for over four decades and has gained much support and sympathy from around the world. See Also: Afghanistan; Islamic Feminism; Pakistan; Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of; Taliban. Further Readings Brodsky, Anne. With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. London: Routledge, 2003. Mehta, Sunita. Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future: Women for Afghan Women, New York: Palgrave MacMillian, 2002. Skaine, Rosemarie. The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002. Olivera Simic University of Melbourne

Revolve Revolve is a publication of the complete New Testament in the form of a large glamour magazine, targeted at teen girls. Full of quizzes and Q&A advice, the

“Biblezine” appeals by making the Bible seem exciting and relevant. Since its initial publication in 2003, Revolve has been followed by several similar products—as well as harsh criticism from more conservative Christians who see Revolve and its allies as giving bad advice and weakening the Bible’s authority. Revolve: The Complete New Testament is published by Thomas Nelson. Targeted at high school girls who are intimidated by the Bible, Revolve uses the New Century Version (NCV), a translation chosen for its “readability,” and mimics the format of popular teen magazines. Like typical niche study Bibles, Revolve includes informative sections such as “Bible Basics.” However, the text is also interspersed with familiar magazine features such as quizzes, “Guy 411” sections, “Blab” columns to answer readers’ questions, “Beauty Tips” to help girls achieve “inner beauty,” and interviews with popular Christian recording artists and speakers. Nearly a million young readers have been drawn to Revolve because it is written in a language they can understand, helps relate the Bible to their daily lives, and is nonthreatening to carry in public. Since 2003, Revolve has been republished in annual new editions, as well as several offshoots, including Revolve Devos, a collection of daily devotionals; Revolve: Psalms & Proverbs and other Wisdom Books; and Revolve Study Guides for the books of Mark and James. There is also a Revolve Journal; a Spanish-­ language edition, En Órbita; and Revolve Spin: An Audio Devotional for Teens. Besides these magazineformat publications, the Revolve Devotional Bible (2006) is a NCV Bible that includes daily devotionals and study sections as well as typical Revolve features discussing relationships, culture, and spirituality. The Revolve Tour is a related evangelical outreach event. After Revolve’s successful debut, Thomas Nelson Publishing has launched several other similar “BibleZines.” These include Magnify: Old Testament Stories for kids and the New Testaments Blossom and Explore for middle school girls and boys. The male counterpart to Revolve is Refuel. For women in their 20s, Becoming discusses relationships, fitness, and beauty in editions featuring the New Testament and the Wisdom Books; Align is the counterpart for young men. The New Testament Biblezine for adults, Divine Health, includes features about healing and health. Some more conservative Christian critics and parents have challenged Revolve for compromising

Rhode, Kim



“God’s Word” by making the Bible too comforting, too conformed to worldly culture, or without authority and power. Critics also critique the Biblezine for offering weak advice to impressionable girls and embracing cultural relativism, ecology, and feminist values instead of offering God’s word as the answer to girls’ questions. According to critics, Revolve is also dangerous because it advises girls to minister to unsaved friends by showing them God’s love and praying for them, not by trying to convert them directly or warning them about Hell. The NCV itself is criticized as being inaccurately translated. See Also: Adolescence; Christianity; Evangelical Protestantism; Feminist Theology; Women’s Magazines. Further Readings Friedlin, Jennifer. “New Biblezine for Young Women Markets Beliefs.” We News (July 11, 2004). http://www .womensenews.org/story/arts/040711/new-biblezine -young-women-markets-beliefs (accessed July 2010). Revolve 2010: The Complete New Testament. New Century Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc., 2009. Tennant, Agnieszka. “Ten Things You Should Know About the New Girls’ Biblezine.” Christianity Today (September 1, 2003). http://www.christianitytoday .com/ct/2003/septemberweb-only/9-15-21.0.html (accessed July 2010). Vanessa Baker Bowling Green State University

Rhode, Kim Four-time Olympian Kim Rhode won her first gold medal in International Double Trap at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the youngest person to ever be on an Olympic shooting team, turning 17 years old just two days before the opening ceremonies. She won two more Olympic medals, a bronze (2000) and a gold (2004), before Double Trap was eliminated from the shooting roster in 2004. Switching to International Skeet, a difficult task for any star athlete, she returned to the 2008 Games in Beijing and won the silver. Other highlights from Rhode’s career include eight World Cup gold medals in International

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Skeet (2007) and International Double Trap (1996–98, 2000, 2003), two gold medals at the Pan American Games in International Double Trap (1999, 2003), and 11 Ladies National Championships in International Skeet (2007–09) and Double Trap (1995–98, 2000– 03). She’s also broken numerous records, including the Olympic Double Trap record in 1996 and the World Record in International Skeet at the 2007 World Cup in Santo Domingo. For her outstanding achievements, USA Shooting, the national governing body for the Olympic shooting sports, awarded her Female Athlete of the Year seven times (1997–98, 2002, 2004, 2007– 09), and Time magazine identified her as one of the 10 “Best Sports Phenoms of 1996.” Rhode was known in the competitive shooting world long before she became an Olympian. Born in Whittier, California, on July 16, 1979, and raised in El Monte, California, the young Rhode accompanied her parents on hunting trips before she could talk and began shooting, with her dad’s assistance, before she was tall enough to clear the length of a shotgun. She harvested her first doves when she was 7 years old and began her competitive career in American Skeet at the age of 11 years. At 12 years of age, Rhode was the first girl to break 100 straight, and at age 13 years she was the youngest to win the 1993 Ladies World Championship in American Skeet. Although she clearly demonstrated Olympic potential, Rhode was too young to live at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Instead she practiced at her home range, the Oak Tree Gun Club in Newhall, California, and once or twice a week at the Prado Olympic Shooting Park in Chino, California, site of the 1984 Olympic shooting games. After her first gold medal, the owner of the Oak Tree club built her a practice bunker for International Double Trap and gave her a key, allowing her 24-hour access. When Double Trap was cancelled, the bunker was turned into an International Skeet field. In 2009, Rhode retired her four-time Olympic shotgun, an MX-12 Perazzi, and began shooting with a MX2000 Perazzi. She continues to practice four to six hours a day, six to seven days a week, and shoots 500 to 1,000 rounds per session. To this day, her father, Richard, is her coach, and her mother, Sharon, keeps the schedule. For Rhode, hunting and sports shooting are pleasurable family events, and the shooting range continues to be her second home.

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See Also: Olympics, Summer; Shooting Sports, Women in; Sports, Women in. Further Readings International Olympic Committee. http://www.olympic .org (accessed July 2010). Kelly, Caitlin. Blown Away: American Women and Guns. New York: Pocket Books, 2004. Team USA. http://shooting.teamusa.org (accessed July 2010). Nancy Floyd Georgia State University

Rice, Condoleezza Condoleezza Rice is an academic and government official who was the second woman and the first African American woman to hold the post of U.S. Secretary of State (2005–09). Prior to becoming secretary of State under President George Bush, Rice served as a national security adviser (2001–05). She describes herself as a moderate Republican. Currently, Rice is the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and professor of political science at Stanford University. As secretary of state, Rice initiated several innovative policy moves, which included dedicating her department to “Transformational Diplomacy.” This focused on building and sustaining democratic, wellgoverned states around the world (and the Middle East, in particular). Among the strategies implemented were the relocation of American diplomats to such hardship locations as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Angola. Affected diplomats were required to become fluent in two foreign languages. Rice also created a high-level position to “de-fragment” U.S. foreign aid. Rice was born November 14, 1954, in Birmingham, Alabama. She was an only child to John and Angelena Rice, both of whom were well educated. They provided their daughter with a comfortable middleclass existence. Although she grew up in a segregated Birmingham during the civil rights movement, Rice had a relatively sheltered childhood. She mastered the piano at 3 and was told that she could have had a career as a concert pianist. She skipped first and sev-

enth grades and entered college at age 15. Intelligence, hard work, and determination propelled her through her childhood. After Rice’s mother died in 1985, her father moved to California to be closer to her. Rice holds three degrees: a bachelor’s in political science, having graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Denver in 1974; a master’s from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She was hired as an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University in 1981 and worked there from 1981 to 1999. From 1993 to 1999, Rice also served as Stanford’s provost. She was the first woman and the first African American to hold this position. As an African American woman, Rice held the highest position in a presidential cabinet, yet she has often been criticized for her inattention to “black issues.” Though she grew up in the segregated South, she was never really directly involved in the civil rights movement. Rice’s parents tried to shield her from racial discrimination, but she was still very much aware of the civil rights struggle and the problems of Jim Crow laws in Birmingham. Rice credited the positive attitude of her parents and friends for their influence when she stated, “They refused to allow the limits and injustices of their time to limit our horizons.” Rice also asserted, “My parents had me absolutely convinced that, well, you may not be able to have a hamburger at Woolworth’s but you can be president of the United States.” See Also: Government, Women in; United States; Women’s History Month. Further Readings Biography.com “Condoleezza Rice.” http://www.biography .com/articles/Condoleezza-Rice-9456857 (accessed July 2010). Bumiller, Elisabeth. Condoleezza Rice: An American Life. New York: Random House, 2009. Kessler, Glenn. The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy. New York: St. Martin’s, 2007. Rice, Condoleezza. Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family. New York: Crown Archetype, 2010. Anita Pankake University of Texas, Pan American



Ride, Sally Sally Ride (1951– ), the first U.S. woman in space, is the founder, president, and CEO of Sally Ride Science (SRS). Part of the mission of SRS is to make a difference in girls’ lives and in society’s perceptions of their roles in technical fields. Ride is concerned about the underrepresentation of women in the sciences. Her efforts focus on middle-level students, since girls often lose interest in the sciences at this time in their lives. Ride wants to bring the excitement and fun of science to young people. A key goal is to encourage women to pursue their interests in science.

Sally Ride was the first U.S. woman in space, and has continued her career winning numerous awards and honors.

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The Website for Sally Ride Science details the company’s extensive array of activities. Accordingly, SRS hosts programs, events, and workshops, as well as providing curriculum, resources, trainings, and publications, to further the interest in science. Sally Ride Science Festivals include opportunities for girls, their parents, and teachers to attend workshops, hear a featured speaker, meet scientists and engineers, and have fun at a street fair. Hands-on activities, music, and food are part of the festival. Festivals are held throughout the United States on university campuses. Sally Ride Science sponsors TOYchallenge. This event is designed for fifth- to eighth-grade girls and boys. The challenge is to create a new toy or game. Through the hands-on process of creating the toy, participants learn about science, design, and engineering. Science camps are another aspect of Sally Ride Science. Camps for girls in the middle grades provide opportunities to discover, explore, and experience hands-on science and to make new friends. Sally Ride Science publications are designed for upper elementary and middle school students, parents, and teachers. Classroom kits of supplemental science materials that include activities and nonfiction science career books are available as well. Awards and Achievements Sally Ride received a bachelor of science in physics and a bachelor of arts in English in 1973, a master of science in physics in 1975, and a doctorate in physics in 1978 from Stanford University. She was mission specialist on STS-7, aboard space shuttle Challenger that launched on June 18, 1983, and on STS 41-G, aboard space shuttle Challenger in 1984. Dr. Ride was training for a third mission, but it was suspended due to the space shuttle Challenger accident. Her time in space included 147 hours for the first mission and 197 hours for the second mission. Dr. Ride created the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Office of Exploration for long-range planning and prepared the Leadership and America’s Future in Space report during her time at NASA. She joined the faculty of the University of California in San Diego in 1989 as a professor of physics and director of the University of California’s California Space Institute. She served as the president of Space.com, a Website focused on all aspects of space. She created NASA’s

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EarthKam project. This project allows middle school through college students to take pictures of natural phenomena on Earth from cameras aboard the NASA space shuttles. The photos are then downloaded to the Internet, and the images of Earth from space are then available to students. She is the author or coauthor of the following books: Mission Planet Earth: Our World and Its Climate—and How Humans Are Changing Them (2009); Mission: Save the Planet: Things YOU Can Do to Help Fight Global Warming! (2009); Exploring Our Solar System (2003); The Mystery of Mars (1999); The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space (1994); Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System (1992); and To Space and Back (1986). Her awards include induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, Astronaut Hall of Fame, California Hall of Fame, and National Aviation Hall of Fame. She received the NCAA’s Theodore Roosevelt Award, the highest honor presented to a former student-athlete, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the Women’s Research and Education Institute’s American Woman Award. See Also: Astronauts, Female; Physics, Women in; Science Education for Girls. Further Readings Ride, Sally and T. O’Shaughnessy. Mission Planet Earth: Our World and Its Climate. New York: Flash Point, 2009. Riddolls, Tom. Sally Ride: The First Woman in Space. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2010. Sally Ride Science. https://www.sallyridescience.com (accessed January 2010). Marilyn L. Grady University of Nebraska

Robinson, Mary Mary Robinson was the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002 and converted the ceremonial office into a bully pulpit for human rights. She also helped make human rights a central focus of the world. From 1990 to 1997, as the first female president of Ireland, Robinson trans-

formed that figurehead post into a forum that brought the excluded Irish—especially women, economic exiles, sexual minorities, the poor, and disabled—to the focus of national policy. She used her high profile as a lightning rod, visiting catastrophically violent sites like Somalia—where she was the first head of state to visit the area after the genocide—Bosnia, and Rwanda, describing with plain words and raw emotion the details to the international press corps. Born Mary Bourke in County Mayo in 1944, the daughter of two physicians, she was educated at Trinity College, University of Dublin, and Harvard Law School, where she won a fellowship in 1967. In the United States, she was influenced by the antiwar and civil rights movement and came to view the law as a vehicle for social change. As a lawyer, she argued landmark labor and women’s cases before both the Irish courts and the European Court. In her roles as senator and then president, Robinson dared to change the antediluvian Irish divorce, contraception, abortion, and equal pay laws and helped facilitate peace with Northern Ireland. Even with her public service career, Robinson balanced a successful marriage and three children while advocating, governing and traveling. Ireland became the “Celtic Tiger,” one of the world’s wealthiest countries where former immigrants returned, during her tenure as president. As the commissioner of Human Rights, Robinson created a more effective and professional staff even though her budget was a mere 2 percent of the UN’s operating costs. She protested the lack of money to effect necessary changes and raised voluntary funds from states and foundations. She refused to ignore the suffering of millions and the numerous violations caused by violent political oppression, torture, exclusion, racial discrimination, and religious persecution—even more so when the daily denial of rights flowed from poverty, lack of food, clean water, sanitation, shelter, and education. Robinson shook up the UN and the powerful alliances and nations like the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for targeting bombs at civilians, and she chastised China for jailing political dissidents and for the erosion of workers rights. Robinson spoke out against growing corporate influence, the erosion of human rights provoked by the war on terror, and the reaction to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York. Her outspo-

Rock Music, Women in



ken, open criticism of the United States prevented her from serving the remaining three years of her full second term. She is currently the President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, a nongovernmental organization she founded, as well as the honorary president of Oxfam International and one of Nelson Mandela’s circle of Elders.

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three on VH1’s 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll’ list compiled in 1999. Joplin broke the conventions associated with her contemporary female singers; she sang in a raspy voice rather than a pretty, sweet-sounding tone, and often performed dressed like her male contemporaries. It was also in the 1960s, as the second wave of feminism was brewing and gaining momentum, that female singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Grace Slick, Carole King, and Joan Baez started to emerge. These women held spots five, 10, and 27 on the VH1 list respectively. More typically feminine in appearance than Joplin, these four women all used their music to express their politics, whereas overwhelmingly most female singers of their time were singing about love—usually the unrequited type. Singer-songwriters were liberated from some elements of the largely male-dominated industry, needing only their acoustic guitar and voices to produce music; however, gaining a notable fan base involved negotiation with the larger industry and usually meant acquiring a full band and a manager, all of whom would likely be male. In this scenario, the female singer-songwriter would struggle with not being marked by the public as another band with a female singer that was created more by the industry as a novelty than by the musicians themselves in the name of art. Maintaining authorial control within a patriarchal system of producers and record labels that sought to control public images and music based on what would generate the most revenue was, and still is, a challenge faced by many musicians.

The music industry historically has been, and still is, male dominated, making it a difficult battlefield for women who wish to enter. Prior to the mainstream emergence of rock music in the 1950s, female singers can frequently were found in genres like jazz, however, the numbers of women who played instruments were far fewer. Similar trends can be seen in rock music, a sound that brings to mind the spirit of rebellion. It is often associated with youth or popular culture, through the use of, at least, powerful guitar and vocals but also often features drums and bass, and is most often associated with masculinity. At the height of her popularity in the early 1960s, Janis Joplin was one of the earliest recognizable women in rock music who was featured as number

The Late 1960s and Early 1970s The rock genre as a whole really began to flourish in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the rising popularity of bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. It is during this period of time and in this culture that the image of “women as groupies” emerges. Groupies are fans who chase rock stars who are often presumed to be sexually available. The 1970s, however, with second wave feminism almost at full force, brought forth singer-songwriter, poet, and now intellectual Patti Smith. Smith sang of her personal experiences and played with both masculine and feminine qualities in her appearance. The advent of punk music and aesthetics created more room for female musicians. Bands like Crass,

See Also: Ireland; Social Justice Activism; Somalia; United Kingdom; United Nations Conventions. Further Readings Boyle, K., ed. A Voice for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Goodman, A. “Interview Democracy Now With Mary Robinson.” http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3 /9fmr_irish_president_mary_robinson_joins (accessed March 2009). Horgan, J. Mary Robinson, A Woman of Ireland and the World. Lanham, MD: Roberts Rinehart, 1997. Siggins, L. The Woman Who Took Power in the Park, Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, 1990–1997. Edinburgh, UK: Mainstream Publishing, 1997. Spillane, M. “Leader Like Robinson Hard to Find.” National Catholic Reporter (April 13, 2001). Rosalyn Fraad Baxandall State University of New York, Old Westbury

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which weren’t exclusively composed of females, would use the political agenda of punk rock to question gender-role stereotypes and relations. In was in this culture that iconic female rock figures like Joan Jett and Siouxsie Sioux emerged, numbers 32 and 96, respectively, on VH1’s list. These women sang songs focused instead on how they saw society at large and their place within it, using music as a tool to express opinions while embodying their artistic and musical talents in the tradition of female singer-songwriters prior. This manifested itself in more aggression than previously seen from female front women and themes of equality that provided inspiration to other female punk rockers. The sentiments in punk lyrics coincided with the upfront, offbeat sexual and shocking punk style of dress that challenged conventional ideas of femininity. Like most genres that gain momentum, however, punk was also picked up by the media and music industry at large and became yet another way to package performers for mainstream consumption. The 1980s Starting in the 1980s, women began to be seen in rock bands other than as the lead vocalist. The bassists of popular bands the Pixies, Kim Deal, and Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon, are both female. Both women are featured in the 90s of VH1’s list but are two of the few women featured who are not vocalists. Also in the 1980s, a lot of popular rock music contained themes of blatant sexism and, in some more extreme cases, glamorized violence against women. Lyrics from two popular songs that exemplify this are “I used to love her, but I had to kill her,” by Guns N’ Roses, and “You’re All I Need” by Motley Crue, originally written as a straight love song by Nikki Sixx, but upon discovering his girlfriend was unfaithful to him, it was modified into a song about a boy killing his girlfriend. One of the first manifestations of third wave feminism was in the form of Riot Grrrl music. Riot Grrrl started largely as a reaction to popular misogynist rock music from the 1980s, a good example of this being the song “Suck My Left One” by Bikini Kill, a band that became iconic of the movement. Riot Grrrl seeks to challenge the white- and male-dominated rock canon. Sexuality and Rock Two all-female bands present prior to the late 1970s that were popular and highlight the relationship

between women in rock music and sexuality, as demonstrated through their band names, were The Shaggs and Fanny. The media attention both these bands received was centered on their sex. Fanny, prior to 1975, produced albums that rarely featured themes of sexuality. However, as their sales dwindled, their focus changed and they began writing material that would capitalize in a market where their sex would sell as fantasies of heterosexual male desire. Like almost all other facets of culture, throughout all decades, women in rock music have been met with critiques of their sexuality and how it is represented in their public appearances, music videos, day-today dress, and lyrics. With female rockers, sexuality and its representation in their work is one of the first things worth noting and thus inherently questioning whether sexuality is a valid vehicle to sell music. Regardless of the feminist debates surrounding this, and what the greater implications are for women more generally, female and feminine sexuality is an important tool for the patriarchal music industry. Female musicians get trapped in a sexual binary and are either criticized for trying to be too masculine or are seen as being too feminine, and thus it is presumed an impossibility that their image is something that they have produced. Rather, they have fallen prey to the false consciousness and fantasy of the larger male-dominated music industry network of producers and label owners who are looking to capitalize on heterosexual male fantasies. Some of Blondie’s early promotional material featured her in a short black dress with a sultry stare and caption reading, “Wouldn’t you like to rip her to shreds?” VH1’s list of Greatest Women in Rock and Roll is based on popular vote, the implication being that fans elect their favorite female artist based on musical talent; however, many other lists exist on-line and in magazines of “hottest women in rock music.” These are just a few of the multitude of examples that demonstrate the emphasis placed on the sexuality of female musicians. In the contemporary context, there might be a few performers who have mostly escaped this tricky binary, or at least shifted its focus a little. Ani DiFranco, who graced VH1’s list at number 90, follows the tradition of the 1960s female singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. DiFranco’s first audiences in the 1990s were mainly queer-identified women, a fan base she has largely

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retained since her climb to more mainstream popularity. She still sings about menstruation and abortion alongside more conventional topics considered more suitable for the larger music community. DiFranco proudly sports a queer sexuality like the majority of her fan base, thus making it difficult to oversimplify her image and music in a purely heterosexual economy. DiFranco’s sexuality is still subject for discussion alongside her music, there was some outrage from her fans when she became romantically involved with a man. However, her music and image nonetheless challenge the conventional consumption of women in music. Further, music festivals that feature exclusively female performers like Lilith Fair, founded in 1997 by Grammy singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, challenge the idea of female entertainer as exclusively a sexual commodity. These festivals feature a wide array of artists and rock musicians showing multiple dimensions of women in rock music, such as Erykah Badu, Tracy Chapman, the Indigo Girls, Queen Latifah, Sinéad O’Connor, and Liz Phair, all of whom were also featured on VH1’s list. In 1997, Women Make Movies produced a documentary film, Righteous Babes, about feminists in rock music. The title of the movie is borrowed from the record label owned by DiFranco and features an in-depth discussion of sexuality and the commercial music market, largely at the expense of the very commercially marketable, and thus very successful, Spice Girls. See Also: Lady Gaga; Madonna; Nicks, Stevie; Queen Latifah; Stereotypes of Women; Third Wave; Women Make Movies. Further Readings Gear, Gillian G. with Yoko Ono. She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll (Live Girls). New York: Seal Press, 1992. Reddington, Helen. The Lost Women of Rock Music: Female Musicians of the Punk Era. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2007. Whiteley, Sheila. Women and Popular Music: Sexuality, Identity and Subjectivity. New York: Routledge, 2000. Mary Shearman Simon Fraser University

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Rodeo Women have participated in the rodeo since it originated in the late 19th century. By the 1920s in the United States, women participated in many of the same events as men. However, women’s opportunities in the rodeo decreased in the 1930s, and it was not until the rise of all-women’s rodeos in the 1940s that the situation began to change. At that time, women formed their own organizations, and since the 1980s have worked to increase their participation and recognition in the rodeo. Early rodeos included female riders in roughstock events like bronc riding. The Cheyenne Frontier Days, one of the most well-known competitions, did not specifically mention female contestants. Because of this, women were neither officially barred nor admitted. As such, women participated freely in some events yet struggled to gain admittance to others. For instance, one rider was able to take part in bronc riding in 1901 only after she petitioned the board. By the 1910s audiences expected to see cowgirls like Vera McGinnis, Tad Lucas, and Lucille Mulhall compete and perform in many events, including trick riding, relay races, bronc riding, and steer wrestling. This changed in the 1930s, when the role of women in rodeos was limited dramatically. In 1929, a champion rider was thrown from her horse and killed in the bronc riding competition at the Pendleton Round-Up. Because of this, the rodeo committee eliminated the bronc riding competition for all women. Other rodeos soon followed suit. At the same time, the Great Depression reduced the prize money in women’s events, and rodeo also began to professionalize. Female competitors were refused membership to these new organizations, received no voting rights, and lacked the ability to safeguard their purse size and control their involvement in different events. Seeking a Comeback By the 1930s, the governing bodies of rodeo largely accomplished their goal of eliminating most events for women by relegating them to a showier, more superficial type of competition. While women were no longer encouraged to participate in many rodeo events, particularly not roughstock events, not all women were willing to accept these limited options. In the 1940s, several all-women’s rodeos were held throughout the

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By the 1910s, audiences expected to see cowgirls like Vera McGinnis, Tad Lucas, and Lucille Mulhall compete and perform in many events, including trick riding, relay races, bronc riding, and steer wrestling.

West. These rodeos held competitions in bronc riding, calf roping, barrel racing, and team calf tying. In 1948, the Girls Rodeo Association (GRA) was formed, and in 1981 the group’s name was changed to the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA). Today professional cowgirls are members of the WPRA, but can compete only in barrel racing at Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) rodeos. Other rodeos do permit women to compete in some other events, such as team roping, and the WPRA also holds its own rodeos and includes a division for roughstock competitions. Despite these options, women still face limitations in events and prize money. The WPRA set an ultimatum in 1980 that required PRCA rodeos to offer equal prizes for all competitors. This has been met, but women still struggle to compete in the all-around competitions and to receive lucrative endorsements, often reserved for male roughstock riders. Women in other countries, including Australia, Canada, and Mexico, face similar restrictions, and many have formed their own rodeo

organizations in order to combat this discrimination and provide a place for competition. See Also: Cowgirls; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Sports, Women in; United States; Xtreme Sports. Further Readings Englander, Joe. They Ride the Rodeo: The Men and Women of the American Amateur Rodeo Circuit. New York: Collier Books, 1979. Laegreid, R. Riding Pretty: Rodeo Royalty in the American West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. LeCompte, Mary Lou. Cowgirls of the Rodeo: Pioneer Professional Athletes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Riske, Milt. Those Magnificent Cowgirls: A History of the Rodeo Cowgirl. Cheyenne, WY: Wyoming Publishing, 1983. Elyssa Ford Arizona State University



Roe v. Wade Roe v. Wade (1973) and Doe v. Bolton (1973) are two U.S. Supreme Court cases that use the judicially created right to privacy to affirm a woman’s right to an abortion under certain circumstances. Although Doe focused on the constitutionality of a liberalized Georgia abortion statute that permitted abortion in cases where the mother’s health was in jeopardy, the fetus would be born with a birth defect, or the pregnancy was caused by rape, Roe arose out of a challenge to a Texas statute passed in 1960 prohibiting all forms of abortion. Road to the Supreme Court Norma McCorvey—known in court by the pseudonym Jane Roe—was an itinerant circus worker who was unable to care for her first child. When she became pregnant again, she attempted to seek an abortion at an underground facility in Dallas but found it to be an unsatisfactory option. Unsure of what to do, she consulted with an attorney known for handling adoptions, who referred her to another lawyer, Linda Coffee. In December 1969, McCorvey agreed to work with Coffee and her colleague, Sarah Weddington, to challenge the Texas statute. Weddington and Coffee filed suit against the state of Texas, represented by Dallas County attorney Henry Wade, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. A three-judge panel heard the case in June 1970; its final decision upheld the enforcement of the statute. The attorneys appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Roe v. Wade, along with Doe v. Bolton, was accepted for review. The American Civil Liberties Union was deeply invested in litigating Doe, and much of their expertise and resources were used in preparing attorney Margie Pitts Hames for oral argument. However, the two young Texas attorneys responsible for Roe also were in need of legal guidance. Although they had passion for the abortion issue, neither attorney had prepared a brief for the Supreme Court, let alone argued a case before this body. Recognizing the problem that could result from this inexperience, veteran abortion attorney Roy Lucas attempted to take over oral arguments in the case, even though he had also never appeared before the court. Although Lucas might have brought more experience to the courtroom than Weddington, interest

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groups with a stake in the abortion issue, including the National Organization for Women and the National Abortion Rights Action League (now simply NARAL), believed that a woman’s voice was necessary in oral arguments. Thus, the American Sociological Association opened its personal library, containing volumes of research on abortion litigation and history, to Weddington. In addition, the association coordinated an amicus curiae effort in which groups’ briefs complemented each other and presented a variety of facets of the same argument. The organizational efforts and interest group involvement of the pro-choice lobby strongly contrast with the efforts of the pro-life lobby. This lobby did little to promote the participation of any pro-life interest groups, or even the governments of the 44 other states with laws restricting abortion procedures. The pro-life Nixon administration also chose not to file an amicus curiae brief. By December 1971, when the court heard oral arguments on the cases for the first time, it was uncertain how the seven sitting justices would decide Roe and Doe. When the court heard the cases for the first time in December 1971, there were only seven justices on the court because justices John Marshall Harlan and Hugo Black had recently retired and the Senate had not yet confirmed their eventual replacements. By the time the court heard the case for the second time, in 1972, justices William H. Rehnquist and Lewis Powell, who participated in the final decision, had filled these seats. Arguments did not go well for either side, and conference was particularly contentious. The justices decided by 4–3 vote that the court had jurisdiction in the case; they were then forced to examine the question of whether women had a right to obtain an abortion. On examining this question, the justices reached a 5–2 decision that the Texas and Georgia abortion laws should be struck down—a woman’s right to have an abortion fell within the right to privacy enumerated by the Court in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Although Chief Justice Warren Burger was a member of the minority, he defied Supreme Court mores and assigned the writing of the court’s opinion to Justice Harry Blackmun. Burger believed that although Blackmun was in the majority, he would write a narrowly drawn decision. Blackmun, however, was previously employed as counsel for the Mayo Clinic— an experience that ingrained in him strong feelings

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about the right of doctors to make medical decisions. These feelings, and Blackmun’s methodical personality, made the task of writing the opinion in Roe quite difficult. Although he spent five months laboring over the text, after a late May visit from Chief Justice Burger, Blackmun withdrew his work, telling the other justices that the difficult subject required more research. He requested that Roe be reargued during the court’s next term, and the other justices assented. Blackmun spent the summer of 1972 in the library of the Mayo Clinic, researching the medical history of abortion. At the library he discovered doctors’ trimester approach to pregnancy. By the time the justices reheard the case in October 1972, Blackmun’s new opinion had already begun to take shape. Blackmun initially concluded that abortion should be legal until the end of the second trimester. However, Burger expressed concern with this conclusion, and as a result Blackmun recast his opinion into a three-trimester approach, which was enumerated in the court’s opinion handed down on January 22, 1973. During the first trimester, Blackmun wrote, a woman had an absolute right to an abortion in consultation with her physician. During the second trimester, the state could regulate abortion procedures only in the interest of the woman’s health. During the third trimester, the state’s interest in potential life allowed it to prohibit abortion except in the case of the life and health of the mother. Aftermath of the Decision Following the court’s decision in Roe, pro-life groups, largely funded by the Catholic Church, began to organize across the country. Especially in state legislatures, these groups, including Americans United for Life and the National Right to Life Committee, lobbied for legislation that restricted women’s access to abortion procedures. These laws, enacted in 32 states, led to a torrent of litigation filed by pro-choice groups. From 1973 to 1989, the court heard more than 10 cases surrounding such restrictions. One of the most notable of these decisions was Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989). The court’s decision in this case did not overrule Roe, but neither did a majority of the court specifically affirm a woman’s right to an abortion. Webster, instead, gave state governments increased authority to regulate when, where, and how abortion procedures could be

performed. These regulations resulted in more litigation, culminating in the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. In Casey, the court’s plurality opinion again upheld Roe but continued to chip away at its central holding. Following Casey, the court appeared to be uninterested in hearing cases regarding the constitutionality of restrictions on abortion procedures. Thus, pro-life groups turned their efforts to securing the free speech rights of abortion clinic protestors and enacting a ban on partial-birth (late-term) abortions. Although the court declared a state law banning these procedures unconstitutional in 2000, in 2007 it upheld a nearly identical federal partial-birth abortion ban. This decision has raised questions for many commentators about the court’s willingness to discard Roe, especially if presented with the proper case. Roe has been the subject of much legal analysis. One of its most vocal critics has been Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who at the time Roe was decided was a litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project. Ginsburg has publicly criticized the court for legalizing abortion using the judicially created right to privacy. She and many other legal commentators believe that this makes reproductive freedom much more tenuous than if the decision had been grounded in the equalprotection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Other legal scholars have criticized Roe for being the right decision at the wrong time—a case decided before the public and the government had fully embraced its central holding. Still others have noted that the court’s decision may be an example of judicial activism run amok. These observers believe that the court should have used greater legal reasoning to make its decision and should not have made specific policy prescriptions regarding when and where abortion should be legal. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, United States; McCorvey, Norma; NARAL; Planned Parenthood; Women’s Health Clinics. Further Readings Balkin, Jack M. What Roe Should Have Said: The Nation’s Top Legal Experts Rewrite America’s Most Controversial Decision. New York: New York University Press, 2007.

Roller Derby

Greenhouse, Linda and Reva Siegel. Before Roe v. Wade: The Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling. New York: Kaplan, 2010. Hull, N. E. H. and Peter Charles Hoffer. Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001. McCorvey, Norma and Andy Meisler. I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice. New York: Harper Perennial, 1995. Alixandra B. Yanus High Point University

Roller Derby Roller derby first appeared in 1935 in Chicago, as a marathon skating event invented by Leo Seltzer; it was taken on the road later that year as the “Transcontinental Roller Marathon.” By 1937, the skating marathon morphed into a team sport consisting of

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coed teams and is considered the first sport where women and men played by the same rules. From the 1950s to the 1970s, roller derby was televised and many participants made a career out of this sport. But by the mid-1970s, roller derby began to lose its popularity and was no longer televised, and many of the professional leagues were dissolved. Today roller derby is primarily an amateur sport, although there are several professional leagues as well, and currently there are two types of roller derby: banked track and flat track. Banked-track roller derby began in the 1930s; as the sport evolved, so did the newer version, flat-track roller derby, which emerged in 2001. Structure of the Modern Sport and Leagues Today there are more than 400 amateur roller derby leagues worldwide. Both types of roller derby, banked track and flat track, are played on an oval track with two teams consisting of blockers, a pivot, and a jammer. Blockers wear solid-color helmet covers, and their role is to assist their jammer through the pack

New Hampshire’s Skate Free or Die! women’s flat-track roller derby team. Derby players wear expressive and creative outfits and use alter-ego skater names like Raggedy Antics (center), Empress Explosiva, and Dirty Kat Box.

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of players while preventing the opposite team’s jammer from moving through the pack. The pivot wears a striped helmet cover and sets the pace for the defense, calling out plays for the rest of the team. The jammer wears a helmet cover with a star on it and is responsible for moving through the pack to score points for the team. Once making it through the pack once, a jammer receives one point for each opponent passed legally in bounds. The jam ends when either the time limit for the jam ends or the lead jammer calls off the jam by placing hands on hips. Today, roller derby is a sport dominated by women’s leagues, especially within flat-track roller derby. These all-female teams and leagues are brought together under the umbrella of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), which was established in 2004. The goal of this organization is to assist women in developing athletic ability and sportsmanship. In addition to playing within these leagues, women are primary owners, managers, and/or operators of the leagues and the WFTDA. In order to be considered for membership, a league must demonstrate the following: the league is composed of only female competitors, at least 51 percent of the league is owned by league skaters, the league is managed by at least 67 percent of league skaters, the league utilizes democratic principles, and the league participates in at least four competitions a year. Currently, the WFTDA consists of 78 leagues from across the country, as well as an additional 24 apprentice league members. WFTDA sponsors tournaments and national championships each year. See also: Business, Women in; Sports, Women in; Team Owners, Female; Xtreme Sports. Further Readings Bay City Bombers. “America’s Roller Derby Roots.” http://www.baycitybombers.com/history.html (accessed July 2010). Mabe, C. The History and All-Girl Revival of the Greatest Sport on Wheels. Golden, CO: Speck Press, 2008. Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. “The Latest.” http://wftda.com (accessed July 2010). Carrie L. Cokely Curry College

Roma “Gypsy” Women Linguistic evidence suggests that the Roma people are of northern Indian origin and migrated between 800 c.e. and 950 c.e. toward Europe, where they settled after 1100 c.e. In the European Union (EU), the umbrella term Roma refers to people who describe themselves or are perceived as Roma, Gypsies, Travellers, Manouches, Ashkali, and Sinti, as well as other groups. The term has slowly replaced the other one, “Gypsy,” which was perceived as an exonym having a negative connotation. Roma people are the largest ethnic minority in the European Union (EU) and it is estimated that there are possibly over 10 million Roma in Europe. Many Roma people live also in non-EU countries of the Balkan area (e.g. Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Fyrom, and Albania), in Turkey, and in Russia. Settlements of Roma can be found in the United States and in South America as well. Allegedly, Roma people have been in the Americas since Columbus transported them in 1498. During the colonial period, some European nations (Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) shipped “their Gypsies” overseas, especially as slaves to their American colonies (e.g., Spanish Louisiana, Antilles, the Caribbean) and to the southern plantations in Central and South America. New migration streams of Roma people toward the United States were generated by the collapse of communist regimes and by the rising of new anti-Roma waves. Roma women have been impacted by the persecution and discrimination against their ethnic minority and have been the target of various forms of violence motivated by ethnic grounds, for example, forced sterilization. Incidentally, they have been confronted also with restrictions within their minority, by marrying at an early age and by being traditionally confined to the household and childcare. Their situation has been changing along the years, and many Roma women have reached leading positions and advocate for Roma rights. Roma “Gypsy” Women’s Rights Looking at Roma women’s rights, they have been often challenged both within their minority (so called in-group discrimination) and in the society at large (so called out-group discrimination), in which they



may suffer from multiple discrimination because of both gender and ethnic origin. As far as the situation within their minority is concerned, traditionally Roma women are exposed to early marriages, which are in many cases arranged by their families. Consequently, they are also exposed to early and numerous pregnancies as well as, due to the lack of adequate sexual education, to multiple abortions. The Roma minority is still patriarchal and the relation between men and women is quite unbalanced, with the role of women subordinated and restricted to the household, which might prevent them from access to education and job opportunities. Nonetheless, in many Roma groups, Roma women are the trait d’union, or liaison, between their communities and the rest of the society, because they typically work outside their community or are in the street begging (Mangel in Romani), while at the same time, are the main care providers within their minority. Coming to the out-group discriminations, Roma women are disadvantaged in almost all fields of society. First of all, as a result of bad housing and living conditions and limited access to healthcare structures, their life expectancy is lower than non-Roma women in many countries. Due to pervasive prejudices and stereotypes, Roma women have difficulty accessing education and job opportunities and are often pushed to informal economy. In the last decades, the situation of Roma women has been changing a lot, both inside and outside their minority. On the one hand, many programs are promoting education for Roma as a tool for emancipation and empowerment; on the other hand, many Roma women themselves have started networking and joining their efforts to advocate Roma women’s rights. For example, the Network Women’s Program’s “Roma Women’s Initiative” (RWI), promoted by the Open Society Institute, served the purpose of engaging a core group of committed Roma women’s activists. The RWI is also involved in the “Decade of Roma 2005–2015,” which is a synergy among European governments aimed at improving the social inclusion of Roma people. In this framework, the Regional Campaign “I am a Roma Woman” was launched in April 2010, the International Day of the Roma, under the “Empowerment of Roma Women” three-year regional project. The campaign was implemented by

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CARE International NWB within the Roma Inclusion Decade, in partnership with several Roma women’s nongovernmental organizations. It echoes the campaign “I am a European Roma woman” launched by a group of Roma activists for the 2009 International Women’s Day. Famous Roma “Gypsy” Women Many Roma women became famous in many fields, ranging from art, science, and education, and more recently European politics. Despite the spread stereotype, which still portraits Roma women just as excellent flamenco dancers and musicians, they reached outstanding positions in many other areas. Although it is impossible to give a full account of these women, some examples include Micaela Flores Amaya (also credited as “La Chunga” or “The Barefoot Dancer”), who was born in Marseille but grown up in Barcelona, and was both a talented cinema actress and painter. Pablo Picasso admired her work and described it as “shining naïf.” In Sweden, Swedish Roma sisters Rosa and Katarina Taikon became famous artists: the former, a renowned silversmith, has shown her silver jewelry in several exhibitions and museums; the latter was a writer and actress. She wrote the Katitzi book series, which was also filmed, and was an activist for Roma’s rights. Philomena Franz became famous for her literary production of Romani tales and for the organization of literary readings at schools and universities in Germany after surviving the Holocaust. In August 1995, she was awarded the “Federal Cross for Merits” by the German government for her “activities endeavouring after understanding and conciliation.” Lívia Járóka was the first Romani woman elected to the European Parliament in 2004, and committed herself to the enhancement of Romani people throughout Europe. In 2006, she was nominated MEP of the Year for Justice and Fundamental Human Rights and elected to the World Young Leaders Forum (associated with the World Economic Forum). In the same period, another Roma woman, Viktória Mohácsi, joined the European Parliament by replacing a party colleague. In 2008 in Rome, she was awarded the “Premio Minerva” for her advocacy of human rights. See Also: Gender, Defined; Glass Ceiling; Global Feminism; Representation of Women.

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Further Readings Decade of Roma http://www.romadecade.org (accessed April 2010). Gropper, Rena C. Gypsies in the City: Culture Patterns and Survival. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1975. Hancock Ian F., The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution Ann Arbor, Michigan: Karoma, 1987. Open Society Institute. Network Women’s Program. “Roma Women’s Initiative” http://www.soros.org /initiatives/women/focus_areas/g_romani_women (accessed April 2010). Sutherland Anne, Gypsies: The Hidden Americans. New York: Free Press, 1975. Barbara Giovanna Bello University of Milano

Roman Catholic Church Forty-five years after the close of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), ecclesial roles for Roman Catholic women have both evolved and remained the same. Some of the major concerns facing Roman Catholic women today include religious roles within ministry and reproductive rights. In preparation for the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII issued Il Tempio Massimo, or Letter to Women Religious, in which the individual vocations, whether cloistered or not, were affirmed while strongly encouraging religious women who work in the areas of education and social service to obtain higher education degrees that would complement and support their particular vocations. In 1965, the council document Perfectae Caritatis, Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life, encouraged religious women to situate themselves and their vocations in the social milieu to which they belonged. Each religious community was to adjust rules and customs to accommodate the needs and demands of particular ministerial vocations. The pursuit of higher education degrees appropriate to their work was again affirmed. Even the religious habit was updated in order to meet the environmental demands of time and place with the occupational needs specific to each. In 1972, the Leadership Con-

ference of Women Religious, composed of approximately 90 percent of U.S. female Catholic religious communities, endorsed feminism as important in the work of social justice and the structure within their own communities. Emerging from this, the theological discipline of feminist theology began to call into question the lower status of women based on the Genesis account of Creation. Since 1968, the number of women entering into religious vocations has seen a significant decline in numbers worldwide, while a growing number of laywomen participate professionally in new and expanded ministerial roles. In response to the sharp decrease of vocations to the priesthood, women increasingly fill nonordained roles in the form of parish life directors (PLDs). While sacramental ministry continues to be the reserve of the priest, PLDs, who are mostly women, fulfill the pastoral, administrative, and day-to-day needs of parishes that do not have a resident priest. Women and Lay Ministry A renewed theology of the priesthood emerged from the Second Vatican Council, opening new possibilities for the nonordained, or laity. Depending upon one’s point of view, the growing participation of laity, particularly women, is attributed to the growing shortage of priests or, as many professional lay ministers argue, the growing participation of laity as foundational to their baptism. Yet the reality of the priest shortage has created a crisis for the institutional church in its inability to provide for the sacramental ministry of parishes. Since then, the council and the number of women (and men) preparing for ministry has increased dramatically, while the number of priests and religious women has witnessed a sharp decline. Currently, there are more women in graduate programs in theology and ministry in Catholic institution than there are candidates for the priesthood. Out of necessity, bishops are relying on these theologically educated women for parish ministry, which takes multiple forms, including serving as pastoral associates. While sacramental ministry continues to be the domain of the priest, pastoral associates, who statistically comprise more women, fulfill the pastoral, administrative, and day-to-day needs of parishes that do not have a resident priest. To be considered as a pastoral associate, the applicant must hold a Master’s degree in divinity, or in pastoral, theologi-



cal, or religious studies. Given the high percentage of women serving as pastoral associates, there is an emerging schism regarding collaborative ministry between women and the priests they work with. Women find it difficult to be recognized as professionals, reporting high frustration at their exclusion from decision-making processes in their areas of expertise. The National Council of Catholic Bishops has called for further study in the ways that women, as lay ministers, can exercise leadership in parishes, and for the possibility of linking authority to baptism rather than ordination. The relationship between Roman Catholic women in lay ministry in the United States to women in a global context has not been significantly researched in a systematic manner. Instead, individual experiences from Third World women participating in lay ministry report instances of discrimination and injustice stemming from gender-based myths and stereotypes that exclude them from church leadership. There continue to be collective efforts at reform: for example, the 2002 conference of Ecclesia of Women in Asia, “Gathering the Voices of the Silenced,” was held in Bangkok, Thailand. As Asian Catholic women, the forum brought together diverse women in lay ministry, addressing a range of topics from theological method to women in church structures. While it would not be accurate to categorize the experience of all Third World women in Catholic lay ministry as monolithic, there continues to be a double standard with gender discrimination for women in a global context with regard to authority and contributions. The ordination of women in the priesthood continues to be theologically resisted by the magisterium, in spite of popular belief among the laity and among some practictioners that it is expedient to do so. In 1976, Pope John Paul II rejected women’s ordination in “Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood.” Three declarations are given in defense of an all-male priesthood: (1) Jesus did not count women among the 12 apostles; (2) church tradition has always excluded women from the priesthood; and (3) the priest, as a male, is representative of Jesus as a male. In response to the exclusion of women to the priesthood, the WomenChurch movement endorses the equitability of all its members in order to forego a hierarchal church structure. Conversely, the Women’s Ordination Movement

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continues to ordain women using the identical Rite of Ordination to the Priesthood reserved for men. In so doing, they have experienced the backlash of excommunication. The Vatican’s latest decision to list women’s ordination in the same category as pedophile priest and rapists with regard to both as delicta gravioria, or seriously grave sin, has created outcry among feminist Catholics and progressive theologians. Women and Sexual Abuse in the Clergy New documentation has come forth in what has been described as the church’s next wave of scandal: the sexual abuse of young girls, women, and women serving in religious positions by priests. Beginning in 1970, the church changed its position and welcomed girls as altar servers, thus making adolescent girls as venerable as boys to predator priest. Experts in the area of children’s sexual abuse argue that disclosure of abuse is typically delayed for about 30 years, which means that women abused as children are just starting to come forward. While a study commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops found that boys were overwhelmingly the likeliest targets of predator priests, new information is countering the bishop’s claims. According to experts, priests are more likely to abuse females, especially adult women, with four times as many priests becoming involved in a sexual relationship with an adult woman than with children. Typically, underreporting of abuse is more evident in populations of young girls and women. Female victims, it is argued, are scrutinized differently than males. While the focus of the sex abuse scandal has been on homosexual behavior by priests, and therefore judged as more deviant in nature, abuse by heterosexual priests, on the other hand, casts female victims as the temptress or seductress. Interview techniques differ according to gender as well. For females, questions shift responsibility to them by suggesting their attire or manner gave mixed signals to the priest. Additionally, studies indicate that for female victims, the likelihood of revealing the abuse may impact their current relationships. Opinions differ as to whether women as both ordained and nonordained (laity), as nonsubordinated feminine presences, would have been able to reduce the numbers of sexual abuse cases. The Womenpriests movement favors an end to mandatory celibacy, with canonical recognition of women to the priesthood being a tangible effort that

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would increase transparency and structural change in the present male-dominated ecclesial hierarchy. Reproductive Rights An important and controversial issue that Catholic women face is reproductive rights. In 1968, the papal letter Humane Vitae written by Pope Paul IV, affirmed the teachings of the 16th-century Council of Trent, rejecting the use of all artificial contraceptives. Dissent from the laity came mainly in the form of ignoring the decree. Considered by moral theologians as a watershed event, it was the first time in modern history that an official teaching from the pope was byand-large ignored by many Catholics. Official teaching regarding sexual desire or pleasure, especially for women, was superseded by the intended purpose of sex as procreative. In 1973, the advocacy group Catholics for Choice was formed for Catholics who believe women, as agents, are able to follow their conscience when it comes to matters of sexuality and reproduction. Due in part to strong lobbing efforts by the Catholic hierarchy, public policy regarding reproductive rights in developing countries continues to affect poor women by denying them access to reproductive healthcare. Currently, over 40 million people live with the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) virus. In the wake of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, withholding condoms through official church teaching has called into question the ethical morality of such a policy. See Also: Catholics for Choice; Feminist Theology; Machismo/Marianismo; Priesthood, Roman Catholic; Religion, Women in; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Women’s Ordination Conference. Further Readings Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. http://cara .georgetown.edu (accessed July 2010). Fox, Zeni. The New Ecclesial Ministry: Lay Professionals Serving the Church. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1997. Johnson, Elizabeth A. ed. The Church Women Want: Catholic Women in Dialogue. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2002. Macy, Gary. The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press: 2008.

National Association for Lay Ministry. http://www.nalm .org (accessed July 2010). Rausch, Thomas P. Catholicism in the Third Millennium. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003. Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Catholic Does Not Equal the Vatican. New York: The New Press, 2008. Cynthia Bond Claremont Graduate University

Romance Novels Romance novels are defined as novels that narrate the story of a courtship and have a happy ending. These novels are regarded specifically as a woman’s genre. Its readership consists largely of women, and it is written mostly by female authors. The core of the book is the relationship between the hero and the heroine. The story tells the courtship of these two characters, who overcome all the obstacles that separate them, and in the end they find happiness in each other’s arms. The novel’s primary focus is on the presentation of the characters’ emotions. The story is usually told from the heroine’s point of view, either in first or third person. The narrative is driven forward by the barriers between the two lovers. According to Pamela Reggis (2003), the story unfolds through several main elements: the meeting, the barrier, the attraction, the declaration, the point of ritual death, the recognition, and the betrothal. At the beginning, there is the meeting between the two main characters, which includes setting the social scenery of the novel. Their meeting also discloses the barriers separating them. In novels written in the 18th and 19th centuries, the barrier mainly lies in their different social status. In novels written in the 20th and 21st centuries, the barrier changes from external reasons such as social and economic status to internal reasons. One or both of the characters typically have some emotional reason that makes their union impossible. There are several scenes in which the hero and heroine’s attraction to each other is disclosed to the reader. This attraction is expressed in the declaration by one of the characters. The happy ending seems to be the farthest from realization at the point of ritual



death, when hero and heroine’s communion becomes impossible. This ritual death, however, leads to the recognition of their inseparableness, which is marked by the betrothal. Romantic novels’ plot follows this pattern of elements with different variations. The variations have led to the development of several subgenres. Some of the main subgenres are contemporary romance, historical romance, romantic suspense, science fiction romance, paranormal romance, erotic romance, and fantasy romance. Development of the Genre Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, published in 1740, tells the story of the courtship between Pamela, a maid, and Mr. B, the master for whom she works. In the end, Mr. B marries Pamela and turns her into a lady. This novel is considered to be one of the first romance best sellers, since it was an instant success at the time of its publication. The genre flourished in the 19th century, when novels such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Charlotte Brönte’s Jane Eyre (1847) demonstrated the importance of the genre in the literary field. While Jane Eyre introduced the orphaned heroine among the set characters of romance novels, E. M. Hull’s The Sheik (1919) introduced another one of the iconic images of the romance hero, the alpha male who is tamed by the heroine. The other kind of romantic hero is the sensitive one who has to healed by the heroine. Inspired by Austen’s novels, Georgette Heyer (1902–74) wrote historical romances set in the Regency period (1811–20). The historical period was used by Heyer only as a backdrop to the story. The heroine was out of place in this world, as her behavior and thinking was more characteristic of the 20th century than of that period. Heyer was a very prolific writer, as she wrote one or two historical romance per year. At the beginning of the 20th century, this prolificness became characteristic of the romance writers, who usually produce one novel per year. Some of the most renowned romantic writers of the 20th century were Mary Stewart (1916– ), who wrote romantic suspense; Janet Dayley (1944– ), who Americanized the popular romance novel by writing romances set in the West; and Jayne Ann Krentz (1949– ), whose novels focus on the taming of the dangerous alpha male. Jennifer Crusie (1949– ), a pseudonym for Jennifer Smith, wrote more than 15

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novels published in about 20 countries. She won the Romance Writers of America prize twice, in 1995 and 2005. Rosemary Rogers (1932– ) and Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (1939–2007) wrote best-selling historical romance novels. Marketing From the beginning of the 1980s, the market of the romance novels began to boom. This boom was supported by the marketing strategies of three publishing houses that became the main distribution sources of romance novels. The first to realise the potential of the romance novels’ market was Mills and Boon, established in 1908 in Great Britain by Gerald Mills and Charles Boon. By the 1930s, Mills and Boon started publishing hardback romance novels. The Canadian company Harlequin was founded in 1949 as a paperback reprint house. Among others, they republished many Mills and Boon titles. Another brand name is Silhouette, formed in the 1980s, which publishes lucrative paperback romances. Romances are marketed in two formats: single title and category. The format is defined by the length of the novel and its distribution. The category romance cannot exceed 200 pages; it is distributed in series and has only a single print run. A single title romance can be as long as 350 to 400 pages; when particularly successful, it is reprinted several times. Subgenres exist in romance publishing, often closely related to other literature genres, including historical, science fiction, paranormal, and Christian themes. Critical Reception The genre of romance novels has been the source of a long standing critical debate. It is dismissed by some critics on the ground of lack of literary value, and criticized by feminists for its treatment of the subject of women’s emancipation. According to some feminists, romance novels ensnare their heroines and women readers into the heteronormative narrative. This narrative suggests that the heroine’s quest of happiness has to end in finding the “right” man and consolidating that relationship. Reflecting a heterosexist family ideology, romance novels define monogamy, marriage, and motherhood as the most valuable things in a woman’s life. Tania Modelski (1982) considers that Harlequin heroines “can achieve happiness only by undergoing a complex process of self-subversion.”

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With the development of cultural studies, popular culture has become part of academic analysis. The changes in the academic framework contributed to a shift in the interpretation of romance novels. Since they were so popular, critics became interested in the act of reading romance novels as a social and cultural phenomenon. Janice A. Radway (1984) examined the culture of romance reading, focusing on the habits and motivations of its women readers. In her conclusion, she defines romance reading and writing “as a collectively elaborated female ritual.” Through this ritual, women try to explore their social condition as defined by their gender and try to envisage a world in which their needs and dreams would be considered important. Radway recognizes the importance of romance novels in women’s lives; her conclusion suggests that these novels are used by women as a source of escapism and/or a way to come to terms with the social requirements imposed on women. The popularity of romance novels is one of the arguments used by the defenders of this genre, such as Dixon Jay (1999), Pamela Regis (2003), and Deborah Phillips (2006). In their view, the romance genre is all too easily disregarded as not serious enough to study. According to Regis, the importance of romance novels is not only assured by its sale numbers but also by being an old genre that includes masterpieces such as Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and A Room With a View. Moreover, the happy ending is not a heterosexual entrapment but rather the celebration and the realization of the heroine’s freedom. The heroines of the 20th- and 21st-century novels are independent, witty, wilful, and strong heroines who are equals to their heroes. Therefore, these novels do not represent the oppression of women but rather contribute to their emancipation. See Also: Heterosexuality; Marriage; Novelists, Female; Pornography/Erotica; Stereotypes of Women; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Dixon, Jay. The Romantic Fiction of Mills and Boon, 1909– 90s. London: UCL Press, 1999. Modleski, Tania. Loving With Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women. New York: Routledge, 1982. Phillips, Deborah. Women’s Fiction 1945–2005: Writing Romance. London: Continuum, 2006.

Radway, Janice A. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984. Regis, Pamela. A Natural History of the Romance Novel. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. Zita Farkas Independent Scholar

Romania Romania is an eastern European country and has been a member of the European Union since 2007. The nation has a population of 21.5 million. As of the late 1990s, more women than men were enrolled in universities, and the proportion of women in science, mathematics, and computing exceeded 50 percent. The participation of women in male-dominated professions is increasing, but gender segregation of work and a 10 percent gender pay gap remains, according to the United Nations Development Fund for Women. The gender employment gap for Romanians aged 25–39 years is 1 percent. The social model for women is that they are expected to fulfill three roles—that of a mother, a wife, and a career woman. Consensual partnership and single motherhood also are relatively accepted roles. Women initiated 36 percent of new businesses in Romania in 2006, being overrepresented both as employers and as employees of small enterprises. Gender-based affirmative actions are uncommon, and there is no governmental commitment to gender mainstreaming. The most acknowledged gender-based discrimination remains sexual harassment, with victims (and not the alleged perpetrators) having the liability of proving the crime. The political sphere in Romania is predominantly masculine, with severe underrepresentation of women in parliament (9.4 percent) and government (14 percent). The few female leaders have not proposed any systematic advancement of women’s agendas. With a small upper class, a growing lower class, and a problematic middle class, Romania struggles with rising poverty in addition to corruption, underemployment, and high living costs. The average annual income in 2008 was $600. Severe disparities are seen between rural and urban areas and between Romanians and

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Roma. Almost half of Romania’s women live in villages with poor infrastructure, severe demographic declines, and orthodox values. The public healthcare system is experiencing a severe crisis, with health status indicators below the average for the European Union. Romania has a maternal mortality rate within the second quintile and the highest cervical cancer mortality rate in Europe. The Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was received with hesitation because of the caution expressed in regard to its adverse effects. Abortion is decreasing but still widely accepted (performed at a rate of 26 out of 1,000 women in 2006). In 2005, Romania had the second rate of teenage mothers, after the United Kingdom. Since 2002, many women (often highly qualified) have migrated for work in the European Union. Their remittances are important contributions to their families and to the state budget. In 2009, Herta Muller won the Nobel Prize in Literature. She is a German, born in Romania, who emigrated to Germany in 1987 as a consequence of political persecution. Her novels recall her experience of repression during Communist rule in Romania. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Equal Pay; Migrant Workers; Representation of Women in Government, International; Reproductive Cancers; Teen Pregnancy.

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through placement of objects into the uterus. RU-486 is known as a medical abortion rather than a surgical abortion because it works without the direct placement of tools into the woman’s body. The embryo is expelled, simulating miscarriage, which may occur anywhere—it is not limited to the confines of a medical environment. A lengthy battle took place before RU-486 gained final U.S Food and Drug Administration approval in 2000. RU-486 is also known as mifepristone; this name is gaining popularity in the United States. RU-486 works by divesting the uterus of progesterone, making the womb inhospitable to the prolongment of pregnancy. The abortion process using RU-486 is lengthier than that of traditional methods, including vacuum aspiration or dilation and curettage, as a result of multiple steps in the abortion process and medical appointments. The process begins with an ultrasound confirming less than 49 days of gestation. Then RU-486, or antiprogestin mifepristone, is taken. Forty-eight to 72 hours later, the woman takes prostaglandin either at home or at a medical facility, orally, by injection, or by suppository. The woman later expels the embryo, usually within a few hours of taking the prostaglandin. A final appointment, generally scheduled within two weeks of the second step,

Further Readings Gallagher, T. Modern Romania: The End of Communism, the Failure of Democratic Reform, and the Theft of a Nation. New York: New York University Press, 2008. Klepper, Nicolae. Romania: An Illustrated History. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2003. Surdu, Laura and Mihai Surdu. Broadening the Agenda: The Status of Romani Women in Romania. New York: Open Society Institute, 2006. Maria-Carmen Pantea Babeş Bolyai University

RU-486 RU-486 is a steroid abortifacient, taken in the first seven weeks after conception to terminate pregnancy. RU-486 causes abortion through pill form rather than

RU-486 is known as a medical abortion because it works without the direct placement of tools into the woman’s body.

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is necessary to ascertain the success of the process. There are many possible adverse effects, including uterine contractions, diarrhea, headaches, back pain, heavier bleeding, nausea, abdominal cramps, and fatigue. Rarer complications include excessive bleeding requiring blood transfusion. At this time, the longterm adverse effects of RU-486 are unknown. Since its introduction to U.S. markets in 2000, use of RU-486 has steadily increased, while the overall abortion rate has decreased. Doctors who may not give surgical abortions may be willing to prescribe the RU-486 regimen rather than making women seek out abortion specialists. A slow adoption of RU-486 as a method of abortion in the United States is similar to the pattern established in European nations allowing RU-486. First approved for use in France in 1988 by the Ministry of Health, considerable setbacks delayed the use of RU-486 in the United States. Final Food and Drug Administration approval was contingent on knowing manufacturing information, which was impossible because most U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies did not want to upset the pro-life community. Eventually, the Danco Group, a small pharmaceutical company, agreed to back RU-486. Mifepristone is currently produced in China by Shanghai Hualian under the patent Mifeprex. As a result of the increasingly murky situation regarding access to contraceptives and emergency contraceptives at pharmacies across the country, Danco Group distributes Mifeprex to doctors and clinics only. According to the Guttmacher Institute, an estimated 22 percent of all abortions in the first seven weeks are through medical and not surgical abortion. See Also: Abortion; Abortion Laws, United States; Abortion Methods. Further Readings Guttmacher Institute. “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States.” (2008). http://www.guttmacher.org /pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html (accessed July 2010). Lader, L. A Private Matter: RU-486 and the Abortion Crisis. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995. Quindlen, Anna. “On Their Own Terms.” Newsweek, v.153/7 (February 16, 2009). Jessica Wall Indiana University Bloomington

Running/Marathons Women’s long road to securing a place alongside men in running competitions began centuries ago and has been marked by successes, challenges, and controversies. Nevertheless, key 20th-century struggles to gain formal entry into elite races have paved the way for millions of recreational runners to enjoy the benefits of running. The Long Road to the Start Line The early history of women’s participation in running events is marked by struggles to achieve the right to participate alongside men in the sport. As early as 1919, requests to the International Olympic Committee to include women’s track-and-field events in the Olympic Games were denied because of assumptions that physical activity and competition were harmful to women’s biological and psychological health. The earliest track-and-field competitions were subsequently held as separate women-only events, such as one sponsored by the Fédération Féminine Sportive de France, in which five countries competed in 1921. In 1926, succumbing to popular pressure, the International Olympic Committee changed its decision and permitted women’s entry into five track-and-field events, including three running events: 100 meter, 800 meter, and 4×100 meter relay. This experiment with women’s running had mixed results. When some women suffered heat exhaustion and collapsed after the 800-meter race, concerns about women’s physical ability to perform distance running resurfaced as matter of debate. All running events longer than the 200-meter race were subsequently removed from the Olympic program. In 1960, however, the 800-meter event was reinstated. Going the Distance: Women and Marathons Formal restrictions on women’s entry into the marathon persisted well into the 20th century, notably longer than similar restrictions on shorter events. However, formal barriers to elite running competitions did not deter women from training and participating in long-distance events. In 1966, Roberta Gibb became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, although she did so unofficially after her formal entry request was denied on the basis that women were not physiologically capable of running longer than 1.5 miles—a

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recommendation set by the American Amateur Athletic Union. The next year, Katherine Switzer obtained formal entry into the Boston Marathon by using her first initial and last name. Switzer was discovered partway through the marathon by race coorganizer John Semple, who darted into the race and tried to remove her bib number. Switzer finished the race, and the ensuing controversy garnered widespread public support of women’s running. Women were officially permitted to compete in the Boston Marathon in 1972. Bolstered in part by the second wave feminist movement that opposed sexual discrimination in all areas of life, including sport and fitness, women were actively pursuing equal rights at races throughout the 1970s. Women-only races also reemerged during this period, this time as a source of celebration rather than exclusion, and the first International Women’s Marathon was held in Waldniel, West Germany, in 1974. The international lobby for women’s long-distance running reached an important milestone when the International Olympic Committee Executive Board ruled that the women’s marathon would be included in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. American Joan Benoit won this race. Ensuing Controversies in Recreational Running Cultures Although women from all over the world now compete and excel in running events, the most notable trend is the recent popularity of the sport among recreation enthusiasts. In addition to its cardiovascular benefits, running is thought to promote friendship and self-enhancement at the community level. Women’s races have also attained widespread corporate sponsorship, and popular races worldwide are key platforms from which to raise funds for a variety of women’s charities. Yet some of these developments have come under criticism in recent years. The commodification of running has resulted in steep entry fees for races and growing apparel, magazine, and sporting goods industries that market expensive products and services, which may pose barriers to participation in the activity for low-income women, and on a global scale, women may be differentially situated with respect to the production and consumption of these commodities. Another lingering issue is the images used to market such products, which often promote unhealthy body types for women.

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See Also: Fitness; Health, Mental and Physical; Olympics, Summer. Further Readings Davis, P. and C. Weaving, eds. Philosophical Perspectives on Gender in Sport and Physical Activity. New York: Routledge, 2010. Hargreaves, J. Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sports. London: Routledge, 1994. Lenskyj, H. Out of Bounds: Women, Sport and Sexuality. Toronto, Canada: Women’s, 1986. Lovett, C. Olympic Marathon: A Centennial History of the Games’ Most Storied Race. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. Radcliffe, P. Paula: My Story So Far. Leicester, UK: Charnwood, 2006. Tricard, L. Mead. American Women’s Track and Field: A History. 1895 Through 1980. London: McFarland, 1996. Sandra Ignagni York University

Rural Women Despite global urbanization, more than half of the world’s population, including the overwhelming majority of poor women and men, live in rural areas. Around 56 percent of the population in the lessdeveloped countries and 72 percent of the population in the least-developed countries live in rural areas. Women play a significant role in rural areas. According to International Labour Organization (ILO) data, in 2008, 35.4 percent of the total number of employed women worked in agriculture. ILO Convention 141 of 1977 and Recommendation 149 of 1975 concerning organizations of rural workers and their role in economic and social development define rural workers as any person engaged in agriculture, handicrafts, or a related occupation in a rural area, whether as a wage earner or as a self-employed person such as a tenant, sharecropper, or small owner–occupier. Gender inequalities are widespread in rural labor markets, in which women and men often work in different combinations of employment; for example, as employers; self-employed farmers; permanent/

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full-time, seasonal, temporary/casual, and piece-rate workers; and unpaid family workers. Women often work in the lowest-paid and most precarious forms of employment and experience the effects of the so-called “sticky floor” on the bottom rungs of their occupations. Rural women face occupational health, safety, and environmental hazards. Many of those killed, injured, or made ill are women workers. They are especially at risk because they are often employed on a part-time or casual basis and receive less training and instruction. They also often do repetitive work, which can result in musculoskeletal problems, and face reproductive hazards as a result of exposure to pesticides. Rural women also generate nonagricultural income through cottage industries. They often work long hours in difficult circumstances, combining agricultural work and domestic work, including caring for children, the elderly, and the sick. The imposition of many care responsibilities onto girls/daughters tends to perpetuate cycles of impoverishment and gender disadvantage. In general, in rural areas women are responsible for fuel and water collection. The lack of infrastructure in many rural areas increases women’s work and the demands on their time. The overload of work women undertake is reflected in a sharp rise in the incidence of child labor. Despite the contribution of women in supplying a large proportion of the agricultural labor in many parts of the world—in some cases producing up to 80 percent of food crops—women continue to have less access to financial, physical, and social assets in comparison with men. This result is the frequent denial of women’s basic human rights. Education for women and girls in rural areas remains a problem. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reports that 72 million children of primary school age are not enrolled in school, of whom 54 percent are girls. There is a lack of public healthcare services for women, as well as social security protection and other social and economic benefits. Women have less of a voice in public decision making and fewer opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills. Rural women own less than 10 percent of property in the developed world and 2 percent in the developing world. Although they are the heads of family in a fifth of rural homes (and in some regions, of a third of such homes), they only own around 1 percent of the land. A large body of literature has debated the “feminization” of rural labor markets, as war, sick-

ness, death from human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and male emigration have increased the proportion of women working in agriculture. In many countries, the situation of women living in rural areas continues to deteriorate because of the lack of development, migration to towns, aging of the population, and lack of education and training opportunities for women. The inequalities and discrimination faced by rural women are exacerbated by the confluence of crises: the financial and economic crisis, the threat of climate change, and the fuel and food crises. Rural women with disabilities, older rural women, and indigenous women often face multiple discriminations and are among the most vulnerable. International Instruments Related to Rural Women In 1921, the ILO adopted Convention 11 concerning the Rights of Association and Combination of Agricultural Workers, extending to agricultural workers the same rights of association as for industrial workers. ILO Convention 141 of 1977 provides independent organizations of rural workers an effective means of ensuring the participation of rural workers without discrimination in economic and social development and in the benefits resulting there from. ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of 1989 adopts special measures to ensure equal treatment in employment and provides protection against sexual harassment and abuses in the workplace. ILO Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention 184 of 2001 represents an important step forward. Article 20 states that hours of work, night work, and rest periods for workers in agriculture shall be in accordance with national laws and regulations or collective agreements. Article 21 states that workers in agriculture shall be covered by an insurance or social security scheme against fatal and nonfatal occupational injuries and diseases, as well as against invalidity and other work-related health risks, providing coverage at least equivalent to that enjoyed by workers in other sectors. The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 1979 is unique among human rights treaties in that it specifically addresses the circumstances of rural women—Article 14 is entirely about this population. It recognizes the particular problems faced by rural

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women, as well as the significant roles that women play in the economic survival of their families, and calls on states’ parties to ensure the application of the entirety of the convention to women in rural areas. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006 specifically calls on states’ parties to ensure the equal rights and advancement of women and girls with disabilities and makes several references to the rights of people living in rural areas. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007 recognizes the human rights of indigenous peoples and calls on member states to ensure that indigenous women and children enjoy full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence and discrimination. The United Nations General Assembly has addressed the situation of rural women in a number of other resolutions, in which it has emphasized the extreme vulnerability of this group as a result of the global economic downturn and stressed the importance of sound gender-sensitive agricultural policies and strategies. In its resolution on the improvement of the situation of women in rural areas of February 12, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly called on member states and United Nations entities to ensure that the rights of older women in rural areas are taken into account with regard to their equal access to basic social services, appropriate social protection/social security measures, and economic resources, as well as their empowerment through access to financial services and infrastructure. In the same resolution, the United Nations General Assembly established an annual International Day of Rural Women on October 15, which was observed for the first time in 2008. In his message, the secretary-general urged all countries to put the needs of rural women at the top of the global agenda, so as to pave the way for a more secure global future. The United Nations selected October 15 because it is the eve of World Food Day, thus linking this recognition of rural women with their critical role in food production and food security. See Also: Business, Women in; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Microcredit; Migrant Workers; Unpaid Labor. Further Readings Fontana, M. and C. Paciello. Gender Dimensions of Rural and Agricultural Employment: Differentiated Pathways

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Out of Poverty: A Global Perspective. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2009. International Labour Organization. Every Child Counts: New Global Estimates on Child Labour. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, 2002. International Labour Organization. Global Employment Trends for Women. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, 2009. United Nations. “Improvement of the Situation of Women in Rural Areas.” Report of the Secretary-General (A/64/190), July 29, 2009. Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Russia The lives of women in the Russian Federation in the 21st century are shaped by multiple legacies (demographic, ecological, economic, and social) bequeathed by 70 years of communism in the country’s recent past and by Russia as a country, making the difficult and simultaneous transitions from an industrial to a postindustrial society and from a centrally planned economy to market capitalism. Although literacy and employment rates for Russian women are among the highest in the world, the gendered wage gap between men and women and the degree to which women are underrepresented in politics in Russia are also very high. Reproductive and child health, trafficking of women, domestic violence, and questions of family stability also remain important issues for Russian women, as does the work/family balance and lack of affordable childcare. Demographic trends in Russia significantly affect women, particularly in regard to patterns of marriage and fertility and in the way that the Russian government formulates policy toward its female citizens. Mortality rates have exceeded birth rates in Russia since 1992, and there has been an annual decrease of .5 percent in the Russian population from 2000 to 2006. Although Russian women do outlive Russian men (average female life expectancy is 72 years, and average male life expectancy is 59 years), life expectancy for Russian women is 7 to 12 years lower than rates in other developed European countries, and mortality rates for Russian women are more than

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twice as high as those for other countries with a similar gross domestic product. The extremely low life expectancy for Russian men means that although the ratio of working-age women (16 to 54 years of age) to working-age men (16 to 59 years of age) in Russia is quite normal (954 women to 1,000 men in 2008), in the postworking-age cohort, women outnumber men by the incredible ratio of 2,600 women to every 1,000 men (in 2008). Similar to other developed European countries, Russia has fertility rates that are below the population replacement levels—in Russia’s case, 1.3 births per woman per year, which is 1.65 times lower than replacement level. The average maternal age at time of first birth is also growing in Russia. Partially as a consequence of the Soviet period of Russian development (1919–91), with its formal legal commitment to education and gender equality, educational and literacy rates for women in Russia are among the highest in the world: 99.2 percent of Russian women older than 18 years are literate, and the combined gross enrollment ratio for women in primary, secondary, and tertiary education in Russia was 93 percent in 2005 (the rate for male students was 85 percent). An impressive 82 percent of women in Russia complete some form of tertiary education, and women outnumber men in tertiary education by a ratio of 1.36 to 1. The high education achievement of Russian women does not translate into economic success, however. As a result of both the legacy of the Soviet push for full employment for women and the dire economic straits of most families during the transition to capitalism, nearly the same number of women as men are formally employed in the Russian economy, and the number of women participating in the informal economic sector has also continued to grow throughout the 2000s. Despite high rates of employment, the gender wage gap in Russia is quite high and is growing. In 2002, the average woman’s wage was 33.5 percent less than the average man’s; in 2005, the average woman’s wage was 39.2 percent less than the average man’s wage. Although the absolute number of unemployed women and women living in poverty decreased in the 2000s, women remained the majority in both these groups (constituting 66.3 percent of the formally registered unemployed in 2004 and nearly 60 percent of those living below the poverty line in the same year). The main cause of the gender wage gap in Russia is the

sexual segregation of occupations: Women predominate heavily in four of the five least prestigious and most poorly compensated occupations in Russia (the arts and cultural sector, the educational sector, the public catering and trade sector, and the healthcare and social service sector), and nearly twice as many men as women are employed in the more lucrative and prestigious sectors of science and engineering and top management and business, and as heads of public authorities. Research suggests that latent gender discrimination during hiring and firing reinforces this occupational segregation. A survey conducted in 2000 by the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Russian Federation found that large majorities of both men and women believed potential employers in all sectors preferred male candidates over women. Social, Health, and Family Concerns Low remuneration for paid employment and proportionally higher rates of poverty and unemployment have led to higher rates of social problems for women in Russia. State maternity and child allowances that are far below the European average further complicate the economic and social situation of women in Russia, as does the severe shortage of governmentsubsidized child care (more than 1 million children are currently on waitlists for government child care in Russia). Thus, working Russian mothers face significant difficulties in trying to meet their work and family obligations—a situation exacerbated by the fact that patriarchal attitudes about the division of childcare and domestic labor in Russia mean that women report spending approximately twice the time per week on these tasks than men do. One troubling indicator of the toll that economic and social insecurity and the burden of the “second shift” of home responsibilities take on Russia’s women is the fact that between 1990 and 2002, the rate of female deaths caused by alcoholism tripled. Furthermore, the number of alcohol-related female deaths in Russia, which account for 17 percent of total female mortality, is five times as high as the European average. Although maternal mortality rates in Russia have decreased from 54 per 100,000 women in 1985 to 23 per 100,000 women in 2003, these rates are still more than twice the European average. Domestic violence is also a significant problem in Russia, where the post-

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Soviet government has still not ratified a statute defining and criminalizing domestic violence. As scholar Janet Elise Johnson points out, although credible data are not readily available, even the Russian government estimates that between 12,000 and 15,000 women are killed in domestic violence incidences per year— a staggering number when we consider that in the United States, which has roughly twice the population of Russia, the analogous number is 1,200 women. Women in Politics During the Soviet era, quotas ensured elevated levels of female participation in party and state governing organizations. With the collapse of communism, the political landscape in Russia took on a decidedly less gender-egalitarian character. Since the Russian Federation emerged in 1992, only one of Russia’s 89 federal subjects has had a female governor, and only three women have led regional parliaments during the same period. Women hold roughly 10 percent of the legislative seats in both the federal and regional bodies, but they make up over 75 percent of the clerical and administrative staff in these bodies. Women’s preoccupation with economic survival and family concerns, an increasing (and increasingly true) perception that politics in Russia is too corrupt and violent for women to participate in, and traditional preferences for strong (read: masculine) leaders help keep down levels of female participation in politics in Russia. Women in Russia find themselves facing multiple challenges as the country transforms itself economically, politically, and socially. The high rates of female education and female economic participation offer a good base from which Russian women can continue to strive for increased social and political equality. See Also: Economics, Women in; HIV/AIDS: Europe; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Johnson, Janet Elise. Gender Violence in Russia: The Politics of Feminist Intervention. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. Kuehnast, Kathleen and Carol Nechemias, eds. Post-Soviet Women Encountering Transition: Nation Building, Economic Survival, and Civic Activism. Washington, DC, and Baltimore, MD: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.

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United Nations Interagency Thematic Group on Gender in the Russian Federation and the Institute of Society and Gender Policy. “Monitoring Women’s Rights in Russia Federation: Thousand of Women’s Stories.” http:// www.undp.ru/publications/1000_istoriy.pdf (accessed November 2009). Katherine Graney Skidmore College

Rwanda Rwanda is a small, land-locked country just south of the equator in the Great Lakes region of central Africa. It is bordered by Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. Known as the “Land of a Thousand Hills,” Rwanda is about the size of Maryland (approximately 10,200 square miles) and has a current population of 10.7 million, growing at an annual rate of 3 percent. Rwanda’s population density is among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 90 percent of Rwandans earn their living through agriculture, and approximately 60 percent live below the poverty line. Average life expectancy for men is 55 years and 58 years for women. The human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) adult prevalence rate is 3 percent. Rwanda has three official languages: Kinyarwanda, English, and French. Rwanda became a German colony in 1898. After World War I, Belgium administered Rwanda as a United Nations Trust Territory. In 1935, Belgian colonialists instituted a system of national identification cards: Rwandans with 10 or more cows were registered as Tutsi (approximately 14 percent), and those with less as Hutu (approximately 85 percent). A third group, the Twa, made up about 1 percent of the population. Although these three groups spoke the same Bantu language and frequently intermarried, Tutsi were known as cattle herders, Hutu as cultivators, and Twa as hunter-gatherers and craftsmen. On July 1, 1962, Rwanda was granted formal independence. The first president, Gregoire Kayibanda, was a Hutu. Juvenal Habyarimana, also a Hutu, took control in a bloodless coup on July 5, 1973. In late 1959, muyaga (“wind of destruction”) swept through Rwanda, and

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Women in Rwanda harvest geranium plants, hoping to sell the distilled oil to the international perfume industry. More than 90 percent of Rwandans earn their living through agriculture, with 60 percent living below the poverty line.

tens of thousands of Tutsi were killed. Many Tutsi fled to neighboring countries. On October 1, 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), predominately Tutsi who had escaped in 1959, invaded from Uganda, igniting a civil war. On 4 August 1993, the Arusha Peace Agreement was signed. On April 6, 1994, the presidential jet was shot down as it approached the Kigali airport. All of the passengers were killed, including President Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira. Within hours of the crash, roadblocks had been established throughout the streets of the capital city Kigali, policed by soldiers and interahamwe (Hutu militias), with instructions to kill anyone who “looked” Tutsi. At the same time, the Presidential Guard and interahamwe traveled from house to house, killing Hutu opposition members and individuals whose names appeared on their target lists. The genocide

quickly spread beyond the capital, arriving at various regions at different times, ultimately engulfing the entire country. Over the course of a mere 100 days, an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed. The vast majority of the violence was committed with crude instruments, such as machetes and clubs, by ordinary Rwandan men and women. Violence committed during the genocide was perpetrated in gender-specific forms. Sexual violence was rampant, used as a tool of a genocidal campaign against Tutsi women and girls. Rape and sexual assault were often committed in public, by many men at a time, and in especially violent ways, using instruments such as sticks, guns, and other sharp objects. Women were also taken by interahamwe, members of the Rwandan Armed Forces, and civilians, kept as slaves, and forced to serve as their “wives.” Over the course of the three-month-long genocide, at least 250,000



Rwandan women were raped. Many of these women survived the genocide only to discover that they had been infected with HIV/AIDS. A generation of children was also conceived through rapes committed during the genocide. Today, genocidal rape survivors face a host of medical, psychological, and social consequences. Many remain stigmatized, live in isolation, and experience high levels of trauma. After the genocide, in 1994, the United Nations established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to try those considered most responsible for the genocide. In a landmark 1998 decision (Prosecutor v. Akayescu), the ICTR became the first court to recognize rape as an act of genocide. In 2000, the Rwandan government instituted the gacaca (“justice on the grass”) court system to try more than 100,000 alleged genocidaires who had been languishing in lethally overcrowded prisons. In the country’s 2003 amended Constitution, Rwandan women were granted at least 30 percent of posts in decision-making bodies. In order to meet

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this mandated quota, separate parliamentary elections were held for women in 2008. In a historically and geographically unprecedented outcome, women gained 56 percent of parliamentary seats. As of 2010, Rwanda is the country with the world’s highest percentage of female parliamentarians. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rape and HIV; Rape in Conflict Zones. Further Readings Gourevitch, P. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda. New York: Picador, 1999. Larson, C. As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation From Rwanda. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009. Zinzer, S. A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. Jenna Appelbaum New York University

S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis is a small (162-mile) island nation in the Caribbean Sea. The population of 40,131, as of July 2009, is predominantly black and Christian (Anglican, other Protestant, and Roman Catholic). Although the economy is heavily dependent on tourism and services—the sugar industry, previously a mainstay of the economy, was closed down in 2005—and is somewhat handicapped by the nation’s small size, citizens enjoy a standard living similar to many European countries. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP) as of 2009 was $18,800, the 64th highest in the world, and life expectancy is 72 years for women and 69 years for men. The fertility rate is above replacement levels (2.26 children per woman), so although net migration is negative (minus 1.15 migrants per 1,000 population), Saint Kitts has a positive population growth rate of 0.847 percent. Education and Childcare Educational expenditures comprise over 9 percent of the national budget, one of the highest percentages in the world. Education is provided through the tertiary level, and the literacy rate is close to 100 percent. Labor-force participation for both women and men is over 80 percent, although men are more than twice as likely to be employers (as opposed to employees). About half of households are headed by single women. Women held no seats in the unicameral National

Assembly as of 2007, although in recent years they have held as many as 13 percent of the seats. Saint Kitts and Nevis has a high standard of maternal care and childcare, as reflected in near-universal prenatal care and births assisted by skilled personnel and high rates of childhood vaccination. The birth rate is 17.67 per 1,000 population, and infant mortality is 13.94 deaths per 1,000 live births. Abortion is legal only to save the women’s life or preserve her mental or physical health, or if the pregnancy was a result of rape. Family-planning services are available at healthcare centers, and over half of women in Saint Kitts report using contraception. However, teenage pregnancy remains a concern, and in 2001–05, the teenage motherhood rate was 19.1 percent. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is also a concern, and women are about 60 percent more likely than men to be infected, with infection rates highest in the 25 to 44 age group. See Also: Abortion, Access to; HIV/AIDS: North America; Single Mothers. Further Readings Pan American Health Organization. “Saint Kitts and Nevis.” http://www.paho.org/hia/archivosvol2/paisesing /SaintKittsandNevisEnglish.pdf (accessed May 2010). Richardson, Bonham C. Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1983.

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United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Saint Lucia After almost two centuries of controversy between England and France, the British ultimately established ownership of Saint Lucia in 1814. Slavery was abolished two decades later; however, this Caribbean island remained agricultural, chiefly producing bananas, mangos, and avocados. In 1979, Saint Lucia gained its independence and became more urbanized (28 percent). By the 21st century, the chief industry was tourism. Currently, 80 percent of the workforce is employed in services. The island has a per capita income of $10,900 and is ranked 69th on the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) list of countries with Very High Human Development. The island is relatively homogeneous in both ethnicity and religion. More than 82 percent of islanders are black, and more than 67 percent are Roman Catholic. Saint Lucia ranks 66th on the UNDP Gender Empowerment Measure, and the women of Saint Lucia generally enjoy equal rights with males. The government has consistently expressed support for women’s rights, and at the national level, the Gender Relations Division has been charged with protecting women’s rights. Domestic violence continues to be of major concern in Saint Lucia. Through the efforts of activists, Saint Lucia passed the Domestic Violence (Summary Proceedings) Act in 1995. In 2004, the act was amended to further reduce violence against women by addressing the issues of marital rape, stalking, and sexual harassment and allowing victims of rape and sexual abuse to receive compensation. The median age of women on the island is 30.8 years. Women have a life expectancy of 79.3 years as compared with 73.8 for males. The fertility rate is 1.8 children per woman. Saint Lucia ranks 134th in the world in infant mortality (13.43 births per 1,000 live births). At 90.6 percent, female literacy is slightly higher than that of males (89.5). Saint Lucia ranks 29th

in the world in spending on education; and overall, female Saint Lucians are better educated than males, attending school for at least 14 years and outnumbering males at the tertiary level. As might be expected in a country that is predominately Roman Catholic, women on the island have only limited control over their reproductive lives. Abortion is illegal except when a mother’s physical or mental health is at risk, or in cases of rape or incest. Women were granted the right to vote in Saint Lucia in 1951, but it was not until 1979 that a female was elected to Parliament. In 2003, a woman was elected to Saint Lucia’s highest elected position. Between 1999 and 2005, 55 percent of legislators, senior officials, and managers were female. During that same period, 53 percent of professionals and technical workers were female. In 2007, 18.2 percent of all Parliamentary seats were held by females, and just over 8 percent of cabinet-level officials were female. Despite their majority in such positions, the ratio of estimated female-to-male earned income was only 0.5. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Domestic Violence; Government, Women in; Sexual Harassment; United Kingdom. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Saint Lucia.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/st.html (accessed June 2010). Ellis, G. Saint Lucia Helen of the West Indies (Caribbean Guides). Walpole, MA: Hunter Publishing, 1994. Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines The early history of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was marked by battles between France and Britain over control of the island and by internal resistance to colonization. By 1783, Britain had succeeded in



colonizing the island. It became a member of the Federation of the West Indies for two years in the 1960s before becoming autonomous in 1969 and declaring independence in 1979. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which ranks 91st on the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) list of countries with Very High Human Development, has a per capita income of $18,100. By the 21st century, 47 percent of this Caribbean island’s population lived in urban areas. The island is heavily dependent on the banana crop and tourism. While 57 percent of the labor force is employed in services, another 28 percent works in agriculture. About 72 percent of all female workers are employed in the service industry. With an unemployment rate of 15 percent, the government is facing major difficulties, and women suffer disproportionately from this phenomenon. Those with a secondary education are twice as likely as males in that group to be unemployed. The majority (66 percent) of Saint Vincentians are black. The island is more diverse from a religious perspective, with the majority declaring themselves either Protestant or Roman Catholic. The median age for women is 28.9 years, and women have a life expectancy of 75.5 years, as compared with 71.8 years for males. The fertility rate is 1.98 children per woman. With an infant mortality rate of 15.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ranks 126th in the world. At 96 percent, female literacy is equal to that of males, and both females and males attend school for approximately 12 years. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ranks 14th in the world in educational spending. Women continue to earn considerably less than males on the island. In 2005, for instance, the estimated earned income for females was only $4,449, as compared with $8,722 for males. Women received the right to vote in 1951, but the first woman was not elected to Parliament until 1979, when the island became independent. By the 21st century, 18.2 percent of the seats in Parliament were filled by females, and women made up one-fifth of the island’s ministers. Problems With Violence Against Women Teenage pregnancy and violence against women continue to concern female activists. Domestic violence is particularly prevalent in common-law relationships, and the most likely victims are females between

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the ages of 13 and 34. Incest is also a problem on the island. Many feminists see all of these problems as consequences of low self-esteem among females who are taught to subjugate themselves to males. In 1984, the island passed the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act and followed it up in 1995 with the Domestic Violence Act. However, anyone convicted under these acts faces civil rather than criminal charges. See Also: Domestic Violence; Government, Women in; Teen Pregnancy; Marriage; United Kingdom. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006 International Women’s Rights Action Watch. “Country Report: St. Vincent and the Grenadines.” http://www1 .umn.edu/humanrts/iwraw/publications/countries/st _vincent_and_grenadines.htm (accessed June 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Same-Sex Marriage There are an array of international policies that variously legitimize same-sex partnerships, and consequently same-sex family formations, through extending the rights of lesbians and gay men to marry or to live as a legally recognized couple. N. Naples (2007) outlines the different types of relationship policies that can be utilized by same-sex couples, beginning with registered partnerships or civil unions, which include substantively similar—or the same—rights as marriage. Evolution of the Institution The first national recognition of same-sex partnerships came in Denmark in 1989, allowing registered partnership, as opposed to “marriage.” More recently, sexuality has also been high on the United Kingdom (UK) legislative and policy agenda, with fresh legislation that explicitly addresses sexuality within the context of equality issues, including same-sex partnership (e.g., The Civil Partnership Act, 2004). These

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moves are mirrored across time and place with countries bringing in policies from full marriage (Belgium, 2003; Canada, 2005; Netherlands, 1998; Portugal, 2010; South Africa; Spain, 2005; Sweden, 2009) to civil unions and registered partnerships (including France’s pacte civil de solidarité in 1999 and New Zealand’s Civil Union in 2004). The United States now stands apart from Canada and many European countries on same-sex marriage, passing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, upholding and “defending” marriage for heterosexuals only. The recent Proposition 8 debates suggest a wider differential “mapping” of same-sex rights in the United States Proposition 8 was a California ballot proposition passed in the November 2008 general election. The measure added a new section (7.5) to Article I of the California Constitution. The new section reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” The ProtectMarriage.com organization sponsored the initiative that placed Proposition 8 on the ballot, also attracting the support of a number of political figures and religious organizations. Arguably, it is paramount that current theoretical considerations of sexuality resonate with new legal and international policy landscapes, in which debates are happening in many parts of the world including, for example, Ireland, Japan, Poland, South Korea, and Uganda. With increasing international legal recognition of same-sex relationships, commentaries and controversies have been born out of the celebration and condemnation of legally recognized, monogamous coupledom, now extended to same-sex partners. Questions on the propriety of gays and lesbians engaging in such normative practices have created a number of thought-provoking stances. Conflict comes from varied corners and many authors, discussing different international contexts, and have explored the resurgence of Christian right-wing discourses in, for example, the United States and the UK, where the “homosexual” is represented as a threat to “normal” family relations. The conjuring up of “real,” “chosen,” and “pretend” families endlessly occurs, evident too in political and media discourses. However, who gets constituted as “real,” “pretend,” or “failing” also rests upon other, intersecting hierarchies, where familyvalues rhetoric often endangers the rights and inter-

ests of varied disadvantaged groups, including poor single mothers as well as lesbians and gays. Along with the perhaps anticipated outrage from various evangelical Christian groups, aghast at the appropriation of a sacred traditional convention, there has been opposition from those who believe that gays and lesbians have no place within an institution (even as a facsimile of an institution), that is seen as reinforcing firmly conservative, heteronormative family values. Nevertheless, there has been an international growth of confidence and visibility, inspiring a claiming of rights even as these have been accompanied by a strong assertion of traditional “family values” (specifically in the United States and the UK); often victories remain somewhat problematic, both in terms of their legislative framing and substantive effects. Yet, following such gains, much has been said of the move away from the family and the state as a repressive site, where lesbians and gays seek to escape its injustices, toward an active uptake of state-sanctioned relations, welcoming the blessings and privileges afforded. Issues of Citizenship Before interrogating this in a bit more detail, it is important to situate the material and symbolic importance of formal inclusion, in terms of legal rights, as well as in the subjective sense of belonging facilitated in being included as a full citizen with similar (if often not equal) rights to their heterosexual counterparts. Status categories (gender, sexuality, class, race) are used to define and negotiate different levels or degrees of citizenship, where social institutions (family, state, labor market) are implicated in defining the boundaries of citizenship—and in recognizing or rejecting rights. There are practical benefits to be accrued in increasing legal entitlements, offering a material and symbolic validation of partnering and, often relatedly, parenting. In the U.S. context, the protections and benefits extended to married couples under federal law is commonly cited as a reason for same-sex marriage. Such policies themselves materialize families, offering new possibilities for societal recognition, legal recourse, and access to welfare services. Some commentators have argued that the mainstreaming and extension of marriage to lesbians and gays would “normalize” lesbian and gay relations and will thus solve the all-political concern and that, as such, same-sex marriage is the only reform that truly



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The first national recognition of same-sex partnerships came in 1989, when Denmark allowed registered partnerships as opposed to “marriages.” More recently, gay rights have also been high on the legislative and policy agenda in the United Kingdom.

matters. Claims are also (re)made on marriage as a bedrock offering material and emotional stability to its members, also judged in the “best interests” of children. Nonetheless, same-sex marriage may offer the most appeal, acceptance, and assets to those already closest to the mainstream. Far from “queering” citizenship, the fight for same-sex marriage and equal rights can in fact uphold rather normative frameworks. Moving the debate on the meanings of same-sex marriage from the theoretical to the empirical level, Shipman and Smart explore the reasons why samesex couples in the UK have marriage commitment ceremonies and what meanings such ceremonies might have in legitimating same-sex relationships in the eyes of their (heterosexual) families and in wider society. K. Hull (2006) also notes that in the raging controversies and widespread media coverage in Canada, the United States, and beyond, the voices of ordinary same-sex couples are sometimes difficult

to hear. Much contemporary research now interrogates the ways individuals interact with and utilize the law, in which the pursuit of same-sex inclusion may offer a profound threat to legal institutions and to society more generally and meanings and boundaries are up for grabs. Institutional possibilities—and constraints—are important in everyday negotiations enforcing a (re)consideration of the practicalities and promises in doing and being a family, as sanctioned in changing legal contexts. Yet, developments in sexual citizenship may only extend to certain citizens and may in fact cement exclusions, renewing and heightening boundaries of (un)acceptability between the “dangerous queer” and the “good homosexual,” who preferably resides in a “gay nuclear family,” living a homonormative lifestyle. Such distinctions press at whether citizenship struggles inevitably constitute an impossible bid for respectability or a realistic claim on being and becoming “normal.”

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Writing before the introduction of the UK Civil Partnership, J. Weeks et al. note that none of their respondents wanted to mirror heterosexual coupledom, or establish a new norm of couple commitment that created new divisions within the nonheterosexual world. Perhaps challenging notions of a sweeping homonormativity, lesbian and gay movements may at once involve both assimilation and transformation, oscillating between a “moment of transgression” and a “moment of citizenship.” Many see the dualism between assimilation or transformation as a false one, setting up a weighty expectation of revolutionary potential as against stagnant failure. There are tensions and complexities in establishing ways of belonging within heteronormative frameworks, and such tensions displace the binary of assimilation/transformation stances and the notion of “model” and “paradigm” that they imply. More simply, lesbians and gay men continue to be positioned as threats to the sanctity of the heterosexual order and must complexly situate their citizenship struggles within this positioning. Such a fraught negotiation involves striving to become part of the mainstream and self-positioning as different. Issues of Identity Focusing on same-sex marriage specifically and sexual citizenship more generally inevitably leads to a re-visitation of issues of sameness/difference, which have dominated debates on lesbian and gay partnership and parenting, highlighting who gets included, even incorporated, into the good citizen/family and who remains excluded. Lesbian and Gay Parenting: Securing Social and Educational Capital explores the uptake, negotiation, and refusal of civil partnerships in the UK, where such legal consolidation may be seen as actively materializing family, making that which was sidelined and undervalued included and recognized. Legislative changes enforce a reconsideration of family, especially for lesbian and gay families who are faced again with the weight of success (anticipated by supporters); and with the burden of failure (endlessly declared by the less enthused). Such negotiations are indeed complex, as lesbian and gay families seek to survive and thrive, and indeed capitalize on such legislative changes. Herein lies a consequential sexual and class difference between those who can afford to conceptualize such changes as beneficial, particularly in relation to finances but also in

relation to social status, respectability, and esteem— and those who cannot. To have a new currency is perhaps as much a mobilization and mainstreaming of class privilege as it is of sexual status. See Also: Fundamentalist Christianity; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Heterosexism; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; Marriage. Further Readings Duggan, L. “The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism.” In R. Castronova and D. D. Nelson, eds., Materializing Democracy: Toward a Revitalized Cultural Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Hull, K. Same-Sex Marriage. The Cultural Politics of Love and Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Lewin, E. Recognising Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Naples, N. “Sexual Citizenship in International Context: Towards a Comparative Intersectional Analysis of Social Regulation.” In Nick Rumens and Alejandro Cervantes-Carson, eds., Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. Richardson, D. “Locating Sexualities: From Here To Normality.” Sexualities, v.7/4 (2004). Shipman, B., et al. “‘It’s Made a Huge Difference’: Recognition, Rights and the Personal Significance of Civil Partnership.” Sociological Research Online, v.12/1 (2007). Sullivan, A. Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality. New York: Knopf, 1995. Weeks, J., B. Heaphy, and C. Donovan. Same Sex Intimacies: Families of Choice and Other Life Experiments. London: Routledge, 2001. Yvette Taylor Newcastle University

Samoa The Independent State of Samoa is an archipelago of islands, nine of which are inhabited. There is a high population growth rate, offset by a high emigration

San Marino



rate. More than 90 percent of the population is ethnic Samoan and Christian. The culture emphasizes traditional Samoan social values, known as fa’a, and Christian beliefs. There are no legal or religious obstacles to equality, and many women enjoy good educational opportunities. Key women’s issues include domestic violence and a lack of employment and political opportunities. Samoan families are generally extended in nature, with membership based on heredity, land, and titles. The fertility rate is high, at 4.16 births per woman, and the infant mortality rate is 24.22 per 1,000 live births. Family members are expected to provide for each other’s welfare. Domestic abuse is common and usually handled at the village level without police involvement. All family members are responsible for teaching children traditional values such as deference, politeness, and obedience to elders. Children begin chores at a young age. Education is valued and available through both public schools and missionary schools. Both genders receive an average of 12 years of education. The state supports the National University as well as nursing, teacher training, and trade schools. Many Samoans pursue higher education abroad. The literacy rate is equal at close to 100 percent for both men and women. The population is mostly rural. There is government healthcare available at a nominal cost, but many residents combine Western-style medicine with traditional medical practices, often distinguishing between Samoan and non-Samoan illnesses. An increasingly Westernized diet has led to growing rates of diabetes. The state provides a social security system with a small old-age pension. Life expectancy for women is 75 years; for men it is 69 years. The main employers are agriculture and industry, although there is also tourism and its related service industries. Traditional labor is divided by gender. Child labor, underemployment, and the exodus of skilled workers are problems. Women have become increasingly visible in modern Samoan public life. Suffrage is universal, and the constitution provides for equality, but women are still largely excluded from public offices. There is a state Women’s Affairs Ministry. Nongovernmental organizations, most religiousbased, include the Mothers’ Club, Federation of Women’s Committees, South-East Asia and Pan-Pacific Women’s Association, and Mapusaga O Aiga Samoa.

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See Also: Christianity; Domestic Abuse; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Indigenous Women’s Issues. Further Readings Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Lockwood, Victoria S., ed. Globalization and Cultural Change in the Pacific Islands. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004. Mead, Margaret. Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization. New York: HarperPerennial Modern Classics, 2001. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

San Marino San Marino is the third-smallest state in Europe (61 square kilometers) and is a landlocked country completely surrounded by Italy. The population of 30,167 (as of July 2009) is primarily Sammarinese (native of San Marino) and Italian. Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion. Italian is the national language, and San Marino is heavily influenced by political, social, and cultural trends in Italy. Citizens of San Marino enjoy a high standard of living, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $41,900 (16th highest in the world) and life expectancies of 77.4 years for men (highest in the world) and 84.5 years for women. Literacy is almost universal at 95 percent for women and 97 percent for men. Women have legal equality in San Marino. Women age 15 or older are employed at a higher rate (91.9 percent) than men in the same age group (86.9 percent), and women outnumber men in tertiary education. Women received the right to vote in 1960 and the right to serve in political office in 1973. Several women have served as heads of state (Captains Regent: two serve at a time and are elected for sixmonth terms), including Rosa Zafferani (1999, 2008), Fausta Morganti (2005), Valeria Ciavatta (2003–04), and Maria Domenica Michelotti (2000). Women also serve in the San Marino Cabinet, including currently

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Ciavatta (secretary of the Interior and Civil Protection) and Antonella Mularoni (secretary of state for Foreign and Political Affairs and Economic Planning). Women also hold about 11 percent of the seats in the national parliament. Abortion in San Marino is legal only to save the mother’s life. However, neighboring Italy allows abortion on demand, so women who can afford to pay can easily seek an abortion there. The fertility rate is 1.36 children per woman, and a low birth rate of 9.68 per 1,000 population, coupled with San Marino’s long life expectancy and high rate of emigration (10.4 per 1,000 population, seventh highest in the world), mean the country has an aging population (median age in 2009 was 41.5 years, with only 16.8 percent age 14). Maternal and child care is of a high standard, with extensive prenatal care services and infant mortality of 5 per 1,000 live births. In recent years, there has not been a single case of maternal mortality. See Also: Abortion, Access to; Government, Women in; Italy; Roman Catholic Church.

rifice. Santería offers spiritual opportunities for initiated female and male practitioners (santeras and santeros) that are somewhat more egalitarian than many other religions. Known to practitioners as la Regla de Ocha (“The Rule of the Òrìshàs”) or la Religión Lucumí, Santería developed from the 16th to 19th centuries as African slaves brought the baKongo, Dahomey, and Yorùbá beliefs and rituals of their homelands to sugar plantations in the Caribbean. These beliefs included spirit possession, animal sacrifice, and communication with spirits and ancestors through drumming- and danceinduced trance. Despite their forced conversion to Catholicism, many African slaves maintained their native traditions by nominally converting and combining old and new practices, as demonstrated in the fusion of African deities (orishas) and Catholic saints (santos) that gives Santería (“Way of the Saints”) its name. The orishas are male and female spirits who intervene in human affairs to bring messages and healing from the spirit world; in return, santeros and santeras provide the orishas with offerings and prayers.

Further Readings Eccardt, Thomas. Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2004. United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). World Health Organization. “Highlights on Health in San Marino 2005.” http://www.euro.who.int/document /e88392.pdf (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Santería Santería is an orally transmitted religion that combines indigenous African traditions with elements of Roman Catholicism. Developed in Cuba, Santería has spread to Latin America and the United States. The religion emphasizes a reciprocal relationship between practitioners and orishas (“humanlike spirits”), expressed through religious rituals involving trance, spirit possession, dancing, and animal sac-

Santería involves trance and spirit possession. Practitioners may have altars at which to pray, like the one shown here.

São Tomé and Principe



These spirits are manifestations of the supreme creator deity, Olódùmarè. Religious practices in Santería are typically not shared with the uninitiated. Santería recognizes both priests (babalorishas) and priestesses (iyalorishas), who may become possessed or “ridden” by an orisha during some religious rituals (bembés). Santeros and santeras are called by and serve specific orishas. The priest or priestess functions as the padrino (“godfather”) or madrina (“godmother”) for a new initiate. During initiation, the initiate is “married” to his or her orisha in the asiento ceremony. Three of the most important orishas are female: Oya (ruler of winds, associated with St. Theresa), Oshun (ruler of water, associated with Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba), and Yemaya (ruler of seas and lakes, associated with Our Lady of Regla). The religion’s highest spiritual achievement is becoming a priest of Ifá, the divinatory aspect of Santería. Ifá divination (idafa) is performed by a Babalawo, an initiated priest. This role is not generally available to women in contemporary Santería, although women may have been initiated into Ifá priesthood in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and women continue to be initiated into Ifá priesthood in Nigeria and some other parts of the world. Women often lead the ilé, the “house” that serves as a ritual center for an extended family of Santería practitioners. Women have been influential in the history and development of Santería, and they continue to experience significant opportunities for spiritual advancement within the religion. See Also: Candomblé; Cuba; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Indigenous Religions, Global; Religion, Women in; Voodoo. Further Readings Baba Eyiogbe, F. “The World of the Orishas and Santería.” OrishaNet. http://orishanet.org (accessed March 2010). Clark, Mary Ann. Where Men Are Wives and Mothers Rule: Santería Ritual Practices and Their Gender Implications. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2005. Murphy, Joseph M. Santeria: African Spirits in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993. Zohreh Kermani Harvard University

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São Tomé and Principe The West African islands of São Tomé and Principe were founded by the Portuguese, who exploited the islands for their slave-grown coffee and sugar. The islands became independent in 1975, but the road to democracy has been rocky. The population of 212,679 is made up of mestico descendants of Angolan slaves; Forros descendants of freed slaves; servicais laborers from Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde; the children of servicais; and Europeans. Most São Toméans are Roman Catholic (70.3 percent), and Portuguese is still the official language. Despite constitutional and legal guarantees of equality, São Toméan women are discriminated against. To combat this, the Gender Equality Institute of the Office of Women’s Affairs has sponsored a number of seminars and workshops to educate the public about that discrimination. Although two women have served as prime ministers, in 2008, women were vastly underrepresented in positions of leadership. Only two women sat in the 55-member national assembly, only four sat in the 14-member cabinet, and only one sat on the three-member supreme court. Opportunities for women are limited in large part because of family responsibilities. Violence against women continues to be a major social problem in São Tomé and Principe. The economy of São Tomé and Principe is still heavily agricultural, and most of the workforce is engaged in subsistence farming and fishing. However, more than 60 percent of the people are now urbanized. With a per capita income of only $1,400, 54 percent of the population lives in poverty. The nations’ massive foreign debt has been somewhat mitigated by international debt- and poverty-relief programs. São Toméan social indicators reflect extensive poverty. The islands rank 70th in the world in infant mortality (37.12 deaths per 1,000 live births). Female infants (35.35 deaths per 1,000 live births) have an advantage over male infants (38.84 deaths per 1,000 live births) that continues throughout life, resulting in a life expectancy of 70.04 years for women and 66.65 years for men. Roughly half the population is younger than 15 years. Women have a median age of 17 years compared with 15.9 years for men. São Toméan women have a fertility rate of 5.33 children each and the 11th highest population growth in the world. São Toméans have a high risk of contracting bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A,

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typhoid fever, malaria, and rabies. Although 92.2 percent of men are literate, only 77.9 percent of women older than 15 years are able to read and write. Both men and women generally attend school for 10 years. Domestic violence is a major problem in São Tomé and Principe, and incidences have increased in recent years. Most cases go unreported because of the tendency to treat domestic violence as a family problem. The Office of Women’s Affairs has established a hotline and a counseling center, but victims are sometimes unable to contact the hotline because of the nation’s unstable telephone system. Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal; in general, however, only cases involving children or violent assault are prosecuted. The government is working with nongovernmental organizations to raise public awareness of violence against women. Prostitution is illegal, but it has become a pervasive problem, particularly in areas that cater to foreigners. No measures have been taken to address the problem of widespread sexual harassment. See Also: Domestic Violence; Poverty; Rape, CrossCulturally Defined. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Sao Tome and Principe.” https://www.cia.gov/library /publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tp.html (accessed June 2010). Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Tripp, Ail Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Sao Tome and Principe.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl /rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119020.htm (accessed March 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Sarkozy, Carla Bruni Carla Bruni Sarkozy is a former model and singer and the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. An Italian heiress whose exploits have been media fodder

since she was 19 years old, Bruni Sarkozy has become even more of a celebrity since her 2008 marriage to Sarkozy. She was one of the most successful models of the 1990s, reportedly earning more than $7 million annually. Her debut album, Quelqu’un m’a dit (Someone Told Me) sold 2 million copies. However real her accomplishments, her romantic escapades with rock stars, businessmen, and academics made her a focus of media attention—attention that increased when she was first photographed with France’s newly divorced president at Disneyland Paris. The international press covered the glamorous couple’s courtship, their wedding, and their official travels, commenting on Bruni Sarkozy’s style and liberal sexual values. More recently, they have commented as freely on the couple’s rumored affairs and troubled marriage. Carla Bruni Tedeschi was born in Turin, Italy, on December 23, 1968, into a wealthy industrialist family in which arts were as important as business. The man whom she knew as her father, Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, was an accomplished composer; he also ran his family company, CEAT, which manufactured cables and tires. Her mother, Marisa Borini, was a concert pianist. Her biological father was a violinist. When young Carla was 5 years old, the family moved to Paris to escape the threat of kidnapping by a Marxist revolutionary group. At age 19 years, Bruni Sarkozy signed with a modeling agency and soon became the Guess? Jeans girl, later working with top houses including Christian Dior, Chanel, and Versace. By 1990, she was among the highest-paid models in the world, eventually appearing on 250 covers. Her liaisons with men like Mick Jagger, Donald Trump, and French writer JeanPaul Enthoven made her the darling of the tabloids. While living with Enthoven, she had an affair with his son—a philosopher 10 years her junior. The affair produced a son, born in 2001. By 2003, Bruni Sarkozy had begun a second career as a singer. Someone Told Me, her first album, was a critical failure but a commercial success, selling over a million copies in France alone. It stayed on the European Billboard charts for 30 weeks and earned Bruni Sarkozy a nod as best female vocalist at the Victoires de la Musique, the French equivalent of the Grammy Awards, in 2004. Her second album, No Promises, released in early 2007, included songs inspired by poets W. B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Wal-

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First Lady Michelle Obama meets with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of French President Sarkozy at the Palais Rohan (Rohan Palace), April 3, 2009, in Strasbourg, France, in this official White House photo.

ter de la Mare, Christina Rossetti, and others. It was less successful than her first album. By the end of the year, her affair between with Nicolas Sarkozy was attracting far more attention than her music. The twosome holidayed in the Middle East, with journalists and photographers recording the romance. In January, the French president was dropping hints about a wedding, and on February 2, 2008, French radio announced that Sarkozy and Bruni had wed. The French have strong privacy laws and a sophisticated tolerance for personal scandal, but the growth of American- and British-style celebrity press has meant the new first lady’s frankly expressed preference for polygamy received media attention, along with details about her fashion sense. From Twitter gossip to accusations of a plot to destabilize the president’s administration, word about the status of the Sarkozy marriage stirred rumors and speculation in 2010. See Also: Celebrity Women; Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies; France; Italy; Supermodels.

Further Readings Badiou, Alain. The Meaning of Sarkozy. London: Verso Books, 2010. George, Lianne. “The Love Affair Is Over.” Maclean’s, v.121/29 (2008). Trebay, Guy. “The French President’s Lover.” New York Times (January 13, 2008). http://www.nytimes. com/2008/01/13/fashion/13bruni.html?ref=europe (accessed April 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Saudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is controlled by fundamentalist Muslims, has created one of the most restricted environments in the world for women. When the country held its first-ever local elections in 2005, only men older than 21 years were allowed to

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vote. At 90 percent, Arabs form a considerable majority in Saudi Arabia, and all Saudis are officially Muslim. The situation for Saudi women has often been compared with that of aborigines living in South Africa under apartheid. Since Saudi women are considered what some women’s rights groups have called “perpetual minors,” they are answerable to mahrams—male guardians—who may be husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, or other male relatives. Saudi women have virtually no freedom of movement. Those younger than 45 years can travel only by permission, and they must be accompanied by male chaperones. Though women older than 45 years technically have the legal right to travel without permission, airport officials usually demand that they show permission to travel outside the country. Saudi women are also forbidden to drive automobiles. They cannot even seek out medical care for themselves or their children without their mahram’s permission. After they reach puberty, all females appearing in public are required to wear both abayas, black cloaks that cover their bodies, and niqbas, which cover their heads. Mosques are generally reserved for men, and female access to public facilities such as parks, museums, and libraries is limited. Only 5 percent of the Saudi workforce is female, and those few who do work are segregated from male workers. Females must also obtain the permission of male guardians before becoming educated. Schools in Saudi Arabia are segregated by sex after the age of 6 years, and the first school for girls was not established until 1960. Today, the female literacy rate (70.8 percent) is considerably lower than that of men (78.8 percent). The median age for females is 19.9 years. The infant mortality rate is 11.57 per 1,000 live births, with females (9.91) maintaining an advantage over males (13.15) that continues throughout life, resulting in a female life expectancy of 78.48 years compared with 74.23 years for males. In 1975, a royal decree was issued banning all contraceptives in Saudi Arabia. In 2009, the fertility rate was 3.83 children per woman. Marriages, Family, and Children Although forced marriages were officially banned in 2005, the practice continues. In general, marriage contracts are negotiated by potential husbands and the brides’ mahrams. According to United Nations reports, 16 percent of Saudi females between the ages

of 15 and 19 years have been married, divorced, or widowed. Polygamy is still practiced, although the custom is on the decline. Although men can have up to four wives, women are limited to one husband. Men may obtain divorces by denouncing their wives three times, but women are forced to petition courts for divorce decrees. Women who commit adultery may be subjected to death by stoning. Inheritance laws limit women to only half what male heirs inherit. According to Islamic law, Saudi fathers have sole guardianship of all children. In practice, mothers may obtain custody of sons until age 7 years and daughters until age 9 years. Guardianship of older children may be assigned to paternal grandparents rather than to mothers. Children born to Saudi mothers and foreign fathers are not considered citizens. No laws exist in Saudi Arabia to protect women against domestic violence, and honor killings are common. Foreign-born women are particularly vulnerable to violence and suppression. There is some evidence that female genital mutilation continues to occur among Shia Muslims of the Eastern Province and among the Bedouin groups. Because the daily life of Saudi women is governed by purdah, which forbids them from appearing in public without a male escort, outside contact is circumscribed, and contact with nonrelated males is banned entirely. In 2007, a Saudi court sentenced a 19-yearold victim of gang rape to 90 lashes for appearing in public without a male chaperone. When her lawyer objected, his license was suspended and the victim’s penalty was raised to 200 lashes. The men who raped her were given prison terms of varying lengths. The victim’s husband subsequently reported that she was suicidal and asked the court to revoke her sentence. See Also: Domestic Violence; Islam; Marriages, Arranged; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Saudi Arabia.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/sa.html (accessed June 2010). DeSantis, Marie. “The Middle East Crisis: Democracy, Kings, and Sexual Apartheid in Saudi Arabia.” Off Our Backs, v.20/9 (1990). FreedomHouse.org. “Saudi Arabia: Women’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa.” http://www.freedom

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house.org/template.cfm?page=384&key=174&parent= 16&report=76 (accessed February 2010). Isis International. “Saudi Arabia: Women’s Civil Rights Yet to Materialize.” http://www.isisinternational .org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article &id=926:saudi-arabia-womens-civil-rights-yet-to -materialise&catid=22:movements-within&Itemid =229 (accessed July 2010). Keddie, Nikki R. Women in the Middle East: Past and Present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. Seelhoff, Cheryl, et al. “Saudi Arabia: Raped Woman Sentenced for Being With a Man.” Off Our Backs, v.37/2/3 (2007). Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Saudi Arabia.” http://genderindex .org/country/saudi-arabia (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

School Fee Abolition Initiative (Kenya) Families’ inability to pay school fees is one of the largest barriers to children’s educational attainment in countries with high poverty rates, such as Kenya. The United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Bank launched the School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) in 2005 as one strategy toward achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015, as well as the United Nations Education for All goals. Millions of primary school-age children cannot afford to attend school. The abolishment of school fees is key to ensuring that no child is denied a quality basic education on the basis of their family’s inability to pay. Kenya was one of the first countries to abolish school fees under SFAI, along with Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Kenya has served as a sustainable model for other countries preparing to initiate similar programs. A Political Attempt at Solving the Problem Mwai Kibaki was elected Kenyan President in 2002 with a platform that included the abolition of school fees. Most of the children who were previously

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denied educational access in Kenya as a result of the inability to pay school fees were from poor rural families. Other disproportionately affected groups included girls, orphans, child laborers, and the disabled, who are generally marginalized and tend to suffer more from poverty’s negative effects. Some parents could not afford to send any of their children to school, whereas others could only send some of their children or had to pull them out of school before they completed their primary education. Kibaki abolished school fees before the start of the 2003 school year, resulting in immediate chaos but long-term successes. The Kenyan government placed management of education resources in the hands of the schools themselves, which used government funds to establish their own bank accounts. Shortly after Kenya abolished school fees, the country’s 18,000 public schools saw an enrollment increase of approximately 1.3 million students. Public schools became overwhelmed with large class sizes, unprepared teachers, and a lack of basic supplies and sanitation needs. Privateschool enrollments also began to surge as many parents transferred their children from public schools. Kenya’s results showed that although the abolition of school fees dramatically increased educational access, it did not address all barriers to educational attainment, and more planning is needed for the process to run smoothly. SFAI and its partner nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), constituencies, and research institutions studied Kenya’s experience in school fee abolition and its aftermath to create a sustainable model for the development of inclusive and sustainable education systems. Problems that remained included poor-quality education, overcrowded classrooms, lowered financial resources as fee revenues were lost, continued discrimination, health epidemics such as human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and war and violence. The Kenyan government and international NGOs provided schools with millions of dollars in emergency grants to lower class sizes, purchase needed supplies, and train teachers in child- and gender-friendly methods of instruction. Kenya’s successes have included a 28 percent increase in school-enrollment rates since 2002, lowered rates of repetition, and higher percentages of students completing their primary educations.

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Sharing Information for Furthering Success As a pioneer in the SFAI, Kenya has shared information on its successes and failures to aid other countries in shaping their own programs to meet the challenges that come with abolishing school fees. Kenya’s experience provided invaluable information that the SFAI program used to guide technical and financial assistance provided to other countries. Kenya shared its experiences at a 2006 SFAI workshop in Nairobi titled “School Fee Abolition: Building on What We Know and Defining Sustained Support.” In 2009, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Bank, in cooperation with other NGOs, established a guide for the implementation of school fee abolishment. See Also: Attainment, Elementary School Completion; Educational Opportunities/Access; Global Campaign for Education; Kenya. Further Readings Chinyama, Victor. “Kenya’s Abolition of School Fees Offers Lessons for Rest of Africa.” http://www.unicef.org /infobycountry/kenya_33391.html (accessed July 2010). International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Abolishing School Fees in Africa: Lessons From Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Mozambique. Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank/United Nations Children’s Fund, 2009. Sobaniam N. W. Culture and Customs of Kenya. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Schori, Katharine Jefferts Katharine Jefferts Schori is the head of the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA). At her 2006 installation as presiding bishop, she became the first woman to lead any branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the first woman in the United States to lead a major Protestant denomination. Her short term of service in the church prior to her election, her gender, and her support of the ordination of

gay clergy and same-sex marriage increased fears of a rift both within the ECUSA and between that body and the 77 million worldwide Anglican Communion. Schori has not wavered in her progressive allegiances, even in the face of conservative groups such as the diocese of Pittsburg leaving the ECUSA. Born Katharine Jefferts in Pensacola, Florida, on March 26, 1954, Schori was the first of four children. The Jefferts were Catholic, and Katharine attended parochial school until she was in the fifth grade, when the family moved to New Jersey, where they converted to Episcopalian and enrolled their children in public schools. Schori’s father was a Navy pilot and a physicist, her mother a microbiologist and virologist, and Schori decided from an early age that she would be a scientist. She received a B.S. from Stanford University, where she majored in biology, and in 1974, she entered Oregon State University in Corvallis, where she received a master’s degree (1977) and a Ph.D. (1983), both in oceanography. By the time she completed graduate work, she was married to Richard Miles Schori, a mathematician, and the mother of one daughter. She worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service, but she began considering the priesthood in the mid-80s. It was not until 1991 that she entered the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, in Berkeley, California. Three years later, at age 40, she completed a Master of Divinity degree and was ordained as both a deacon and a priest in the Episcopal Church. Schori served as assistant rector at her church, the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, Oregon, where her fluency in Spanish aided her pastoral work with congregants who were native speakers of Spanish. In 2001, she was elected bishop of the diocese of Nevada, the ninth woman to serve as bishop in the ECUSA. She used her skills as a licensed pilot to travel within Nevada, working to establish close ties to minority church members. In 2003, she supported the controversial consecration of the openly gay V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. At the 2006 General Convention of the ECUSA, Schori was the lone female among the seven candidates for the next presiding bishop. On November 4, 2006, she became the 26th person and first woman to head the ECUSA. At the Lambeth Conference in July 2008, a gathering of the worldwide Anglican Communion from which many had demanded Schori be excluded, she compared the

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battle over women bishops and homosexual clergy to birth pangs and insisted that the changed Episcopal body will prevail over the threat of schism. See Also: Anglican Communion; Ministry, Protestant; Priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican; Religion, Women in. Further Readings Episcopal Church. “Our Presiding Bishop.” http://ecusa .anglican.org/78694_ENG_HTM.htm (accessed March 2010). Moyers, Bill. “Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.” http:// www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06082007/profile3.html (accessed March 2010). Schori, Katharine Jefferts. Gospel in the Global Village: Seeking God’s Dream of Shalom. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2009. Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Science, Women in The relationship between women and science is a complex one. For a very long time, women were excluded from scientific institutions. However, historians such as Margaret Rossiter tell us that since antiquity, many women have engaged in scientific enquiry. Well-known examples include Hypatia of Alexandria, an astronomer and mathematician who lived in the fourth century, or Hildegard von Bingen, who contributed to the development of medical sciences and cosmology in the 12th century. Historical Female Exclusion The emergence of modern science in the 16th and 17th centuries was based on the exclusion of women. Apart from a minority of upper-class women who were tutored, it was not before the 20th century that women were allowed to access advanced levels of education or to enter scientific institutions. In the 20th century, in the Western world, women started accessing higher education on a wider scale. However, as recalled in the work of Londa Schiebinger, this was not a steady process. In the United States, after women gained access to graduate schools at the beginning of

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the 20th century, their numbers in postgraduate programs increased quickly before decreasing between the 1930s and 1960s, only regaining their 1920s level in the 1970s. However, although women were allowed into institutions of higher education, social opprobrium continued to restrict their freedom to engage in scientific inquiry and in the production of knowledge. They were, for a very long time, excluded from the science academies where men gathered. For example, although the Royal Academy in London was founded in 1662, it was only in 1945 that a woman first joined the institution. Similarly, although the Académie des Sciences in Paris was founded in 1966, it was only in 1979 that a woman became its first elected member. Even Marie Curie, who won two Nobel Prizes—one in physics, the other in chemistry—had her application to the Paris Academy rejected. In the 1970s and 1980s, partly under the influence of the women’s liberation movement, concerns were raised about the experience of girls in schools. Although in most of the Western world curricula were becoming less gender differentiated and the proportion of women entering higher education and the labor market was increasing, subject choices remained strongly gendered, with girls much less likely than boys to enroll in science courses (except for biology) and, subsequently, to enter science as a field of employment. This concern remains these days, although in some parts of the world it has been overshadowed by concerns about the lower performance of boys in literacy in schools (sometimes known as the “boys’ underachievement debate”). The situation of women in science is on the agenda of many governments and international organizations, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the European Commission. The rationale for promoting women in science chiefly relates to social justice concerns (i.e., that boys and girls should be given equal opportunities) and to economic matters (i.e., that the waste of women’s talents represents a barrier to competitiveness in the global economy). Such concerns have led to various initiatives, including the collection of gendered data on the participation of women in science, the creation of awards for women scientists, the development of mentoring programs and networking opportunities for women scientists, the funding of research about gender and science, and the establishment of committees of experts,

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such as the Helsinki Group on Women and Science or the United Kingdom Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. Women in Science: Current Patterns The metaphor of a leaky pipeline is often resorted to when describing the situation of women in science today. This illustrates the fact that at all stages of science education, women drop out at a higher rate than men. In most countries, this happens as soon as the study of science ceases being compulsory—the proportion of girls among those studying science decreases dramatically with age, as girls tend to disproportionately drop the subject in post-16-years’ education. After they enter higher education, the proportion of women studying science declines further, including at the postgraduate and doctoral levels. The 2006 report published by the European Commission reveals important variations across countries in terms of the proportion of women among science postgraduates. In 2003, women represented 36 percent of science, mathematics, and computing Ph.D. graduates in the United States and 40 percent in the European Union. However, this proportion was much lower in Japan (20 percent) and much higher in a number of countries where women represented the majority of Ph.D. graduates in the field (e.g., in Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia). There are also important differences across science subjects. Overall, women’s levels of participation tend to be lower in computer science and physics and higher in life sciences. For example, in the United States, the proportion of women among Ph.D. graduates is 21 percent in computer science, 28 percent in physical science, and 46 percent in life science. Similarly, in the European Union, women represent, respectively, 19 percent and 33 percent of Ph.D. graduates in computer science and physical science, but 54 percent of Ph.D. graduates in life science. The same patterns can be observed among women employed as scientists. In most countries, the proportion of women among employed scientists tends to be lower compared with their proportion among science students. In 2003, in the European Union, women represented only 29 percent of employed scientists and engineers, although this figure is slowly improving. As for the proportion of women among science students, there

are important cross-national variations. For example, the proportion of women among researchers is only 12 percent in Japan but 53 percent in Latvia. In general, proportions of women among scientists tend to be higher in eastern Europe compared with western Europe (except for the Czech Republic). However, in these countries, the higher proportion of women scientists is usually associated with fewer opportunities for women to progress up the career ladder (except for Romania) and a crucial lack of resources for research. As in most professions, the levels of participation of women scientists also tend to decrease as they progress through the ranks. This is sometimes described as a glass ceiling. In the European Union, in 2003, women represented only 9 percent of full professors in science and engineering compared with representing 40 percent of Ph.D. graduates in this field. Similar patterns can be observed in most of the Western world. Women in science also tend to have lower levels of responsibilities. For example, within research funded by the European Commission, women represent only a minority of scientific coordinators of research consortium. Barriers and Business Although most studies of women in science concentrate on higher-education institutions, 2003 data show that it is in the private (business enterprise) sector that women’s participation is the lowest. For example, in the European Union, women represent 35 percent of scientists working in the higher-education sector but only 18 percent of scientists in industry. Further, women working in industrial research tend to be concentrated in marketing and communication rather than in areas perceived as core, strategic ones, such as research and development. Some studies have also considered whether women scientists may face particular barriers in securing research funding. A study by Wennerås and Wold, published in 1997, determined that women had to be 2.2 times more productive than men to secure financial support. The study was recently replicated, but this time no gender bias was identified, possibly as a result of the policies implemented in the aftermath of the publication of Wennerås and Wold’s findings. Besides, most studies find that success rates for men and women are equivalent once rank is controlled



for. However, a number of studies in both the United States and the European Union have determined that men’s and women’s behavior differs when it comes to applying for funding. They show that women tend to seek and secure funding for smaller research projects and submit fewer applications. More generally, markers of esteem tend to be disproportionately allocated to male scientists. Since its creation in 1901, only two physics Nobel Prizes, four chemistry Nobel Prizes, and 10 medicine or physiology Nobel Prizes have been awarded to women. Scientists such as Rosalind Franklin and Jocelyn Bell are often referred to when illustrating the lack of acknowledgement of the work of women scientists. Rosalind Franklin’s work on the structure of DNA is thought to have been insufficiently credited. After her death, the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins, who had drawn on her work. Similarly, Jocelyn Bell had discovered the first radio pulsars when she was a postgraduate student. The 1974 Physics Nobel Prize, however, famously went to her supervisor. Women are also less likely to be elected to or co-opted onto management and strategy-making bodies, research committees, and evaluation panels. In particular, available evidence shows that scientific boards are overwhelmingly composed of men. There are, however, considerable cross-national variations in this area, with only 7 percent of women on scientific boards in Cyprus and Poland but 48 percent in Norway and 47 percent in Sweden and Finland. Theoretical Perspectives In the past, common explanations for women’s low levels of participation in science have drawn on biological essentialist theories. Such explanations go back to Aristotle yet still permeate discourses of women in science; for example, through discourses of brain lateralization. A social essentialist version of these theories tends to explain women’s low levels of participation in science by their specific (“feminine”) abilities supposedly inherited from gendered role socialization. As with biological essentialism, social essentialism draws on a deficit model, with women lacking the qualities required to become a scientist. In these accounts, women’s aptitudes and skills, whether thought of as ingrained in women’s biology or in their social experiences, have sometimes been

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constructed as inadequate for the conduct of scientific investigation, as women are sometimes seen as lacking rationality and objectivity. In the recent period, there has been a shift toward more complex organizational approaches to women in science. Rather than focusing on women as the “problem,” studies have focused on the construction of science as masculine. One strand of this work explores the association between masculinity and doing science in the context of schools and its influence on students’ subject choices. Another strand focuses on the association between masculinity and doing science in the context of science organizations and its influence on women scientists. Studies about the study of science in schools have shown that when asked to draw a scientist, a majority of children from both sexes tend to draw a man (although boys are more likely to do so than girls). As evidenced by the work of Jocelyn Steinke and colleagues, the pattern applies to small children as well as to undergraduates, including science undergraduates. A number of studies have shown that the construction of science as masculine (and of scientists as “mad,” “geeky” men) is influenced and reinforced by peers, parents, and stereotypical career advice. In particular, most recent research, such as those conducted by Elizabeth Whitelegg and colleagues, has shown that representations of scientists in popular culture often adhere to a masculine construction of science and scientists, sending the message that science is not an appropriate pursuit for girls and women. As a result of this, girls who study science and women scientists may face tensions between the pursuit of their scientific interest and their gender identity. Other works have taken a more organizational approach to the study of women in science and focused on the occupations of women in science. Scholars argue that science organizational cultures are biased toward men. Although science work may not be thought of as a vocation, it usually requires long working hours. It also requires spending significant periods of time away from home to attend conferences, conduct observations, or develop collaborations. Writing publications also can be a very lengthy process, yet publishing is a major aspect of science work and a key criterion for career development. Because women are often the main persons responsible for childcare in heterosexual partner-

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Jackie Grebmeier, a National Science Foundation–funded researcher at the University of Tennessee, prepares sediment samples taken from arctic waters as part of the Western Shelf-Basin Interactions research project.

ships, they may face particular difficulties in combining the demands of science work with a family. Career breaks in particular may be problematic, as there is a need to keep up to date with science developments, and opportunities for part-time work may be limited and hinder career development, as they clash with the culture of working long hours. In addition, laboratory work and team work in particular fields of science limit opportunities for working at home and occasionally require coming in the laboratory at weekends. It is also notoriously difficult to gain permanent employment as a scientist. It is not unusual for a scientist to take several postdoctoral positions, often in different countries. As a result, scientists often do not get a permanent position before being well in their 30s—that is, in the usual childbearing years. For women who are in a partnership with

another scientist, finding two jobs in the same institution or region may represent an added complication, with men’s careers more often taking priority. Finally, it has been argued that women as a minority in a male-dominated workplace may experience isolation and a lack of career guidance and access to support and network, as well as have difficulties in envisioning a future for themselves. Women have been excluded from science institutions for a very long time and remain to this day marginalized. They are underrepresented among students of science and even more so among scientists, especially in the higher ranks of the profession. However, this picture also hides important differences across subjects and countries, which suggests that women’s marginalization, in science as elsewhere, is not inevitable.

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See Also: Astronomy, Women in; Biology, Women in; Chemistry, Women in; Mathematics, Women in; Physics, Women in. Further Readings European Commission. “She Figures 2006: Women and Science. Statistics and Indicators.” Brussels, Belgium: European Commission, 2006. National Academy of Sciences. Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering. Washington, DC: National Academies, 2006. Rossiter, M. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. Schiebinger, L. “Women in Science: Historical Perspectives.” In C. M. Urry, et al., “Women at Work: A Meeting on the Status of Women in Astronomy.” Meeting held at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, September 8–9, 1992. http://www.stsci .edu/institute/conference/wia (accessed July 2010). Steinke, J., et al. “Assessing Media Influences on Middle School-Ages Children’s Perceptions of Women in Science Using the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST).” Science Communication, v.29/1 (2007). Wennerås C. and A. Wold. “Nepotism and Sexism in Peer Review.” Nature, v.347 (1997). Whitelegg, E., et al. (In)visible Witnesses: Investigating Gendered Representations of Scientists, Technologists, Engineers and Mathematicians on UK Children’s Television. Bradford, UK: UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2008. Marie-Pierre Moreau University of Bedfordshire

Science Education for Girls For over a century, the nexus of gender issues and educational policy and practice have taken on a cyclical nature—most recently in the early1990s when the American Association of University Women (AAUW) outlined the ways U.S. schools “shortchanged” girls, especially in math and science, and the ways curriculum and teacher-student interactions encouraged the silencing of females. Thereafter, in the late 1990s, the

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focus switched to boys who, it was argued, were not receiving an equitable education due to the feminization of the teaching profession; the perceived inability of female teachers to understand, reach, and teach boys; and the overemphasis on meeting the needs of female students. Persistent Achievement Gap Despite the fact that many people think concerns about girls’ development in math and science is a thing of the past, recent research reiterates prior barriers, albeit subtle, that still exist in today’s schools. Many researchers admit that blatant barriers women and girls experienced in the 1960s and 1970s have diminished significantly, but girls and women still lag behind men in participation in science, technological, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields. Some explain the gender gap by pointing out cognitive differences between men and women. While cause-effect relationships are difficult to ascertain, some contend that girls still face an unintended culture in elementary and secondary classrooms that indicates they do not belong in math, science, or technological fields. Other researchers point to the cumulative effect of numerous long-term societal influences that socialize females to appropriate gender roles that do not include interest, achievement, and future careers in STEM. Gender Stereotyping Versus Role Models and Mentoring Stereotyping also continues in secondary schools’ occupational training programs. For example, boys enroll in advanced computer science and design coursework while girls are more likely to register in word processing and bookkeeping courses. Also, many girls refrain from taking science coursework, because they are discouraged from doing so by parents and/or school counselors. Moreover, many girls have experienced courses that are taught in a dry, abstract style with a chilly classroom climate. Comparative studies on the effects of the approachability of faculty, peer attitudes, and teacher quality on achievement in science may provide additional insights toward understanding why the science achievement of girls and minorities seems especially sensitive to these variables. Studies have found that girls in secondary schools who are encouraged by parents, teachers, or friends to learn more about science and computers, face course

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requirements that oblige them to take computer science and have friends who are taking upper-level STEM coursework are more likely to enroll in science and computer science courses. Guidance counselors play a major role in encouraging or inhibiting girls’ participation in advanced science and technology: Providing female students with role models and career information that enables them to envision themselves as professionals in a science discipline is just one technique that shows promise toward increasing girls’ participation and achievement in science. Curriculum and Pedagogy Feminist researchers have analyzed classical science teaching because it emphasized male-centric concepts such as domination, atomism, hierarchy, order, and detachment. In addition, classic science teaching emphasized the positivist pursuit of ultimate truth through testing and proving hypotheses resulting in decontextualized scientific knowledge. Instead, many feminists forwarded the notion of teaching science in a more gynocentric manner. In other words, it is believed that schools should approach the teaching and learning of science in a more holistic, contextualized way that views the researcher and researched in terms of interaction and mutual respect. Instead of viewing proper science teaching and learning in either-or terms, Lesley H. Parker (1997) suggests looking at the former dualisms of science as complementary rather than oppositional concepts. The conviction is that merging perspectives that were formerly considered “male” or “female” will open the field to diversity of thought and attract the interest in and achievement of science by a greater variety of the student population. For example, rather than disputing or proving then choosing between a male-centric science that is atomistic and a gynocentric science that is holistic, one might approach teaching and learning science holistically as well as atomistically. Likewise, instead of viewing male-centric science in terms of “domination” and gynocentric science as “mutual respect and interaction,” teachers could lead students to view science according to both perspectives. In addition, the science discipline could be conveyed as consisting of order as well as law; nonhierarchical continuums of difference as well as dichotomies and polarizations; involvement as well as detachment; understanding as

well as predicting; and knowledge contextualized in history and contemporary society as well as nonhistorical and decontextualized scientific knowledge. Science Achievement Internationally According to TIMSS 2007 International Science Report, at the fourth grade, Singapore was the top performing country, followed by Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, the Russian Federation, Latvia, England, the United States, Hungary, Italy, and Kazakhstan, which also performed very well. Science achievement varies greatly among the U.S. states. For example, Massachusetts, followed by Minnesota, was outperformed only by Singapore. The Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario also performed very well. In eighth-grade science in 2007, Singapore and Chinese Taipei had the highest average achievement, followed by Japan and Korea. England, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hong Kong SAR, and the Russian Federation also performed well. Among the U.S. states, Massachusetts’ results were similar to that of the four top Asian countries (Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Japan, and Korea) while Minnesota had achievement similar to England, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hong Kong SAR, and the Russian Federation. Average science achievement for girls was higher than for boys on average across 37 countries at both the fourth and eighth grades. The difference in achievement between boys and girls at the fourthgrade level averaged a three-point difference. Girls had higher science achievement than boys in six countries, and boys had higher achievement than girls in eight countries, while the difference in average achievement was reported as insignificant in more than half the countries. At the eighth grade, girls had higher average science achievement than boys in 14 countries, and boys had higher achievement than girls in 11 countries, amounting to an average six-point difference between the sexes. Internationally, research has shown higher science achievement for both boys and girls is associated with several factors, including (1) higher levels of parental education; (2) free access to computers and Internet in the home; (3) positive student attitudes toward science and higher levels of confidence; (4) attending a school where there are robust resources and fewer

Secularity Law, France



students who are economically disadvantaged; (5) a majority of teachers report more positive working conditions; and (6) over 90 percent of students speak the language of the test at home. See Also: Computer Science, Women in; Engineering, Women in; Mathematics, Women in; Science, Women in; Single-Sex Education; STEM Coalition. Further Readings Clegg, A., ed. Girls and Science. Geneva: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Section for Science and Technology Education, Division of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education, 2006. http://www.unesco.org/ en/gender-and-education (accessed June 2010). Hanson, S. Swimming Against the Tide: African American Girls and Science Education. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2008. The Jossey-Bass Reader on Gender in Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2002. Margolis, J. and A. Fisher. Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. Martin, M. O., et al. “TIMSS 2007 International Science Report: Findings From IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study at the Fourth and Eighth Grades.” Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Boston College, 2008. Parker, L. H. “A Model for Gender-Inclusive School Science: Lessons From Feminist Scholarship.” In Catherine Marshall, ed., Feminist Critical Policy Analysis: A Perspective From Primary and Secondary Schooling. Washington, DC: Falmer Press, 1997.

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isters the cultural and political discord—and mainstream resistance—triggered by the “integration” of minority populations within the national body politic. It also highlights the female body as a particularly contested site of national belonging and state regulation. Separation of Church and State The headscarf debate has its origins in the French republican ideal of secularity, or laicite, which mandates the strict separation of church and state. This ideal was first tested at the national level in 1989, when three Muslim girls were suspended from a public middle school for refusing to remove their headscarves, and culminated in 2004 with the adoption of a law on secularity that bans the wearing of “conspicuous” signs of religious affiliation in public schools. Although the law prohibits Jewish yarmulkes, Sikh turbans, and large crosses in addition to the Muslim headscarf, it

Katherine Cumings Mansfield University of Texas

Secularity Law, France Popularly dubbed l’affaire du foulard, this debate highlights the gray areas that often arise when cultural and religious practices cross national borders. The French headscarf debate tests the limits of national tolerance for “difference” by raising salient questions about how nation-states should manage the transnational flow of cultural and religious practices. In particular, it reg-

By transforming the headscarf into a symbol of difference, the headscarf ban has enlarged a cultural and political divide.

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disproportionately targets girls who wear the hijab. The law distinguishes between “conspicuous” and “discreet” religious symbols, including small crosses, stars of David, or small Qur’ans. French Muslim girls have devised several tactics to circumvent the ban, including shaving their heads and wearing bandanas instead of headscarves. Similar bans are under consideration or in effect in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. By transforming the headscarf into a symbol of radical or inassimilable difference, the headscarf ban has enlarged the cultural and political divide between the mainstream French state and its increasingly visible Islamic immigrant population. The ban reflects an understanding of certain religious practices as incompatible with the ideals of French republicanism and modernity. It also incorporates prevalent Western understandings of the headscarf or, more broadly, the veil as a monolithic symbol of patriarchal oppression, cultural tradition, and Islamic fundamentalism. The incendiary potential of the French law on secularity with respect to France’s “Islamic problem” is evident in a June 2008 legal case. Faiza Silmi, a Muslim immigrant whose husband and children are French citizens, appealed an earlier ruling to obtain French citizenship. France’s highest administrative court denied her appeal on the grounds that her “radical” practice of Islam (particularly her wearing of the niqab, or full-body veil) was incompatible with the democratic values of the French community. Silmi was denied French citizenship on the basis of “insufficient assimilation.” This case marks the first time that the French judiciary has evaluated an immigrant’s capacity for assimilation based on private religious practices such as veiling. It highlights the delicate balance between the civic ideal of republican secularity and the individual right to freedom of religion guaranteed by the French Constitution. The ruling in Silmi’s case received almost universal support in France across the political spectrum and within the Muslim community. Yet critics fear that it will set a dangerous precedent, allowing for increasingly arbitrary interpretations of what constitutes “radical Islam.” The full political effect of the Silmi ruling remains to be seen. In July 2009, the French Parliament established a committee to determine whether the wearing of headwear such as the burqa and niqab is compat-

ible with France’s republican tradition of equality between the sexes. Soon after, Fadela Amara, French minister of urban affairs, called for a ban on the burqa in France to combat the spread of radical Islam. Assimilation Issues Opponents of France’s headscarf ban suggest that it fails to address the real problems faced by immigrants, including discrimination, harassment, and isolation. Perhaps the best evidence of these claims was the wave of riots among the suburban Muslim population in Paris in 2005. Critics regard the headscarf ban as a human rights violation and as a sign of increased intolerance for ethnic and religious difference since the early 1990s. The headscarf ban coincides with the rise of xenophobic sentiments and conservative immigration policy in Europe. Although many critics perceive the headscarf ban as the result of increasing Islamophobia post 9/11, such sentiment predates the contemporary war on terrorism. It represents part of the legacy of French colonialism and, especially, the Algerian revolution. It also reveals the contentious status of women as symbols of national identity. French law on secularity promises to impact the evolving face of the French republic for years to come, as it welcomes a growing number of members—and critics—into its fold. See Also: Algeria; Islamic Feminism; France; Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of; Veil. Further Readings Bennhold, Katrin. “A Veil Closes France’s Door to Citizenship.” New York Times (July 19, 2008). Eshet, Dan. “What Do We Do With a Difference?: France and the Debate over Headscarves in Schools.” http:// www.facinghistory.com (accessed October 2009). Islam, Shada. “Headscarf Ban Misses the Point.” Yale Global Online Magazine. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/ print/1443 (accessed November 2009). Khosrokhavar, Farhad. “Ce Que la Loi sur le Burqa Nous Voile.” Le Monde. http://www.lemonde.fr (accessed August 2009). Meyer, L. and G. Reddy, eds. “The French Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Transnationalism.” Feminist Studies, v.32/2 (Summer 2006). Scott, Joan Wallach. The Politics of the Veil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Self-Defense, Armed

Winter, Bronwyn. Hijab & the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarf Debate. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2008. Karina Eileraas University of California, Los Angeles

“Security Moms” Security mom is a term used to describe a voter group that was originally thought to be a demographic critical to the reelection of President George W. Bush in November 2004. This term is often traced back to a February 10, 2003, article in Time magazine in which journalist Joe Klein highlights an observation made by then-Senator Joe Biden: “When I was out campaigning last fall, this was all women wanted to talk about. Not schools, not prescription drugs. It was ‘What are you doing to protect my kids against terrorists?’ Soccer moms are security moms now.” Reminiscent of the soccer moms of the early 1990s, security moms could be described as a group of women voters who were concerned about their family’s safety in the post–September 11 world. This group was rarely explicitly defined in media coverage, although they were typically described as married, female swing voters who had children and were sometimes characterized as white, suburban, and Republican. The conventional wisdom during the campaign was that these women saw George W. Bush as the best candidate to address their concerns, yet there was significant skepticism raised within the media that questioned the legitimacy of this argument. Academic scholars have since concluded that this voter bloc did not actually exist. Women with children do not have different issue priorities than women without children. Moreover, women with children were no more likely to vote for Bush in 2004 than they were in 2000. Married women voters were not chiefly concerned with terrorism, as had been suggested during the campaign. In sum, the academic literature examining this voter group does not offer any support to the existence of the security moms voter group. The discussion of a voter group that does not exist may have significant implications for the voting populace. Susan Carroll posits that the extensive talk of

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security moms during the 2004 presidential campaign actually deflected attention away from women’s issues. More broadly, media coverage of voter groups that do not actually exist may impact the issues on which campaigns choose to focus. This could in turn lead campaigns to address issues that are incongruent with those of most concern to the general public. See Also: Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Journalists, Broadcast Media; Journalists, Print Media; National Organization for Women (NOW); Palin, Sarah; Representation of Women in Government, United States; Soccer Moms; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Carroll, Susan J. “Security Moms and Presidential Politics.” In Lois Duke Whitaker, ed.,Voting the Gender Gap. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Elder, Laurel and Steven Greene. “The Myth of ‘Security Moms’ and ‘NASCAR Dads’: Parenthood, Political Stereotypes, and the 2004 Election.” Social Science Quarterly, v.88/1 (2007). Klein, Joe. “How Soccer Moms Became Security Moms.” Time. http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/ article/0,9565,421149,00.html (accessed January 2010). Morin, Richard and Dan Balz. “‘Security Mom’ Bloc Proves Hard to Find.” The Washington Post. http://www .washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63197 -2004Sep30.html (accessed January 2010). VandeHei, Jim. 2006. “Republicans Losing The “Security Moms.’” The Washington Post. http://www.washington post.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/ 08/17/ AR2006081701484.html (accessed January 2010). Angela L. Bos Abbey Smanik College of Wooster

Self-Defense, Armed Self-defense serves as a legal justification in which the action taken was the “right” or “good” thing to do, given the circumstances of the situation. To advance a claim of self-defense, the danger to the individual must be imminent, and the force used must be both necessary and proportional. The individual must

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reasonably believe that the amount of force used is necessary, without being excessive, to prevent great bodily harm or death. The instrument used in armed self-defense can take a lethal form, such as a gun or knife, or nonlethal form, such as pepper spray or handheld stun gun. However, these two categories are not exclusive. Self-defense can also be unarmed, in which an individual learns an array of techniques, specifically martial arts, to distract his or her attacker long enough to be able to escape. The social, cultural, religious, and political context of a country can influence the use and form of self-defense by women. Some countries, such as Cameroon and Uganda, have a religious and social context that restricts women’s rights and movement. In these types of traditional patriarchal countries, women’s inferior status is to some degree accepted, both among women and men. Women in traditional countries may not have the opportunity to engage in self-defense, given the acceptance of violence against women. Furthermore, women in these countries may be killed or exiled by their own families for engaging in self-defense against an abusive partner. In contrast, women in the United States are afforded greater independence and autonomy, as well as many of the same opportunities and rights as men. Moreover, the United States has a high prevalence of firearm ownership, as well as a culture that approves of firearms. In certain states, citizens can apply to carry a concealed weapon, with some states allowing citizens to carry multiple concealed weapons. The right to carry a concealed firearm is not cross-national. Thus, women in the United States will have a greater opportunity to engage in self-defense as well as use a lethal instrument than women from a traditional country. It should be noted that firearm ownership is not a phenomenon unique to only developed countries and that women in a number of developed countries do not readily support the use of firearms for self-defense. Clearly, the context of the country a woman lives in, not just the state of the country’s development, shapes the availability and use of armed self-defense. Victims and Imminent Harm Women are more likely to be victimized by someone they know, such as an intimate partner or acquaintance. Therefore, the majority of females who use selfdefense do so against a nonstranger. In spite of these

findings, the self-defense justification in the criminal justice system does not resemble the experience of most women. To be acquitted on the basis of selfdefense, the jury must find that a reasonable person would have believed there was imminent harm. However, a woman’s perception of “imminent harm” can differ from a man’s perception, especially if the woman has been subjected to years of physical and/or psychological abuse. The legal system has allowed for evidence to be presented in cases of women’s self-defense that would allow for an explanation of women’s behavior when she responds violently in selfdefense against an abusive partner—a legal defense better known as the Battered Women’s Defense. There have been numerous critiques of the utility of the Battered Women’s Defense. Shana Wallace, as part of her attempt to transform the Battered Women’s Defense into something resembling international law on self-defense, advanced the claim that the legal system must move beyond the temporal order of imminent harm in self-defense claims by battered women. In other words, instead of determining whether there was a confrontation before the use of self-defense, the legal system should consider the probability of an attack, the lack of alternatives available, and the magnitude of threatened harm. It is important to take into consideration that women can also engage in self-defense against strangers. These types of scenarios can include stranger sexual assault as well as the castle doctrine. The castle doctrine, applicable in a certain number of states as well as Israel, Ireland, and Italy, allows an individual to use lethal force against an intruder who enters their home. Depending on where a woman lives, a woman can engage in justifiable armed self-defense against an intruder. Lethal armed self-defense is not the only option—women also can use a number of nonlethal forms of self-defense against an attacker. Even though the instruments are called nonlethal, it is possible for these instruments to cause death or serious injury. For example, a knife wound can lead to death or could be used to make a surface wound to ward off an attacker. This is just one example that highlights the complexity of understanding the form women’s armed self-defense takes. Social and Cultural Contexts Again, the use of nonlethal forms of self-defense will be influenced by the social and cultural context of the



country a woman lives in. In most states in the United States, it is legal for individuals older than 18 years to carry pepper spray. In Hong Kong, pepper spray is classified as “arms,” making an individual subject to fines and imprisonment for carrying the spray if he or she does not have a license to carry it. The law on the use of stun guns also differs crossnationally. Certain states and cities in the United States do not allow citizens to own personal stun guns. Other developed nations, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, also restrict the ownership of personal stun guns. The country a woman lives in once again influences the available means of nonlethal armed self-defense. Armed self-defense also is not restricted to items created specifically for self-defense. Everyday objects, such as baseball bats and lamps, can be used in self-defense. An exhaustive list of items cannot be created, as most household items can be used by an individual as an improvised weapon. Women’s use of armed self-defense can take a variety of forms that are clearly influenced by where a woman lives, as well as her religious and cultural background. For instance, a Muslim woman may find it entirely unacceptable to carry a concealed firearm in a country that allows citizens to because of her religious and cultural upbringing. To obtain a rich and insightful understanding of the options available to women, one must consider the context as well as the individual’s religious and personal beliefs. Researchers and practitioners must acknowledge women’s unique position in society when she advances a self-defense claim within the legal system. Women are uniquely situated in society and influenced by social, cultural, and religious contexts. One must also consider that the majority of women know their attacker before engaging in armed self-defense. These unique interactions present a dynamic view of women’s use of force. See Also: Domestic Violence; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; Self-Defense, Unarmed. Further Readings Hanna, C. “The Paradox of Progress: Translating Evan Stark’s Coercive Control Into Legal Doctrine for Abused Women.” Violence Against Women, v.15 (2009). Stark, E. Coercive Control: The Entrapment of Women in Personal Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

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Wallace, S. “Beyond Imminence: Evolving International Law and Battered Women’s Right to Self-Defense.” University of Chicago Law Review, v.71 (2004). Brittany E. Hayes City University of New York

Self-Defense, Unarmed Unarmed self-defense involves protecting one’s physical and psychological safety against assault, without the use of weapons or external devices. Assault can be verbal or physical (with sexual assault considered a type of physical assault). The same is true for selfdefense; verbal self-defense techniques might include the use of clear directive language, de-escalation, lying, and getting others’ attention and assistance. Physical self-defense techniques include using one’s body to strike, kick, or hit another person, as well as a strong and confident body posture, hand gestures, and facial expressions. Self-defense is one way that women can protect themselves against violence, and there is a critical need for protection, since violence against women is a global health problem. Increasingly, self defense is seen as a viable strategy for combating violence. Self defense training is offered or encouraged for women in multiple countries, including, but not limited to, Turkey, China, Israel, South Africa, Australia, and the United States. Recent news stories that have highlighted self defense training for specific populations, such as for older women in Kenya and female sex workers in India, underscore that bodily integrity should be a right of all women. However, women, and women’s resistance, are embedded in cultural contexts. Legal battles for women’s rights to protect themselves from sexual violence are taking place worldwide, from Iran to the United States. The options women have—or do not have— available to them differ depending on where women are positioned physically, socially, and structurally. Resistance, then, is not just about individual choices, awareness, and motivations, but about the individual, cultural, and legal contexts in which women live. Historically, strategies for preventing sexual violence have focused on avoidance, requiring women to

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curtail their own behavior in an attempt to avoid victimization. Women are advised to seek out male protection and to avoid “provocative” or revealing clothing, “unsafe” areas, and walking alone, especially at night. Some organizations (e.g., the U.S. National Rifle Association) suggest women carry firearms as means of self-protection. More typically, women are advised to carry whistles, horns, mace, or pepper spray as methods of thwarting an attacker or gaining outside assistance. These strategies are designed to reduce the risk of stranger assault, yet the data indicate that the greater risk for women is from an acquaintance or intimate partner; clearly, these strategies will do little in reducing that risk. However, feminists, women’s health advocates, and others have suggested that these prevention efforts are misguided. Instead, they argue that the best, most effective means of preventing sexual violence is to target those who perpetrate it—namely, men. While women can, and do, perpetrate sexual violence, the data indicate that men are the most likely perpetrators. Focusing prevention efforts on perpetrators places the onus for stopping violence on those committing it, rather than relying on those who might be victimized to try and avoid it. Regardless, neither avoidance nor primary prevention provides strategies for women when a sexual assault is imminent. The relative dearth of information about what women might do in the face of assault communicates that once an assault is attempted, there is little that women can do to stop it. In fact, women are more likely to be advised what not to do than what to do (e.g., don’t fight back because he’s bigger/stronger/might get angry/might hurt you). Yet women do defend themselves in the face of imminent assault, and do so effectively. Reviews of the data on resistance over the last few decades indicate that unarmed self-defense—where women resist verbally and physically without a weapon—is an effective method of thwarting rape and sexual assault. In addition, the more forcefully women resisted, verbally or physically, the less likely the assault is to be completed. Yet there is little recognition or acceptance that women can defend themselves safely and effectively. There are several reasons for this. First, our cultural constructions of sex and gender position men as larger, stronger, and more physically and sexually aggressive than women, who are positioned as smaller, weaker, and less aggressive; this is consistent with many wom-

Self-defense is one way women can protect themselves against the worldwide problem of violence against women.

en’s and men’s experience of themselves and their bodies in a gendered world. From this perspective, there is no reason to acknowledge or accept the data on women’s effective self-defense, because of the belief that women could not possibly fight off a (presumably) larger, stronger, more aggressive male assailant. Related to this perspective is the belief that fighting back will “make things worse,” that self-defense increases women’s risk of injury (beyond the sexual assault itself ), in addition to having no chance of success. The data, however, suggest otherwise. Although some earlier studies reported women’s risk of injury increased when they fought back, more recent work has concluded that there were no differences in injury rates between women who fought back and women who did not. This is not to say that women never experience additional physical injuries during a sexual assault but rather that the injuries women may sustain are not necessarily due to their resistance. Others express ambivalence about self-defense—or at least, about promoting self-defense as a strategy for violence prevention. Some suggest that the use of (or training in) self-defense is problematic, in that women are using violence as a way to combat violence. Other feminists and antiviolence advocates voice concerns that promoting self-defense is tantamount to telling victims what they “should” have done differently, thereby blaming them for their own victimization. In response, U.S. feminist self-defense advocates assert that first, defensive use of aggression is different



Self-Employed Women’s Association of India

from the perpetration of violence, and second, selfdefense is a choice, not a “should.” That self-defense can be an effective means of thwarting assault does not mean it is the best or only choice for anyone in any particular situation; self-defense advocates trust that women make the best choices for themselves in the face of violence. To do that, women should have all choices available to them, including self-defense. While formal training is not required for effective self-defense—indeed, the number of women in North America with self-defense training is small compared to the number of women who have defended themselves—training offers significant benefits. Women who participate in self-defense training are more likely to believe they would be able to resist an assault than women without such training. In addition, selfdefense training is linked to increases in assertiveness and self-esteem. Furthermore, self-defense training has been found to reduce trauma-related symptoms when used as a clinical intervention for trauma survivors. Although there is limited data comparing the efficacy of different self-defense programs, which can vary greatly, some programs are explicitly feminist, and they share some commonalities: head female instructors; accurate data about the effectiveness of women’s resistance; education about gender socialization; and an understanding of the physical and emotional challenges that self-defense training poses. Providing information about the efficacy of women’s resistance is critical. When assault is imminent, knowing that self-defense is a viable and safe option makes it a choice worthy of consideration. To deny women that choice—whether by dismissing the data on its effectiveness, promoting myths about injury, suggesting it is a means of participating in rather than resisting violence, or focusing on “protecting” those who were raped or assaulted—is to limit women’s options for maintaining their own physical and psychological safety. See Also: Dating Violence; Rape, Incidence of; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Self-Defense, Armed; Sexual Harassment; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Brecklin, Leslie R. “Evaluation of Outcomes of SelfDefense Training for Women: A Review.” Aggression and Violent Behavior, v.13/1 (2008).

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de Becker, G. The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence. New York: Dell Publishing, 1997. Hollander, Jocelyn. “’I Can Take Care of Myself ’: The Impact of Self-Defense Training on Women’s Lives.” Violence Against Women, v.10 (2004). Jill Cermele Drew University

Self-Employed Women’s Association of India The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a collective organization of women working in the informal urban and rural economy in India. Formed in 1972 in Ahmedabad, a prominent city in the state of Gujarat in western India, SEWA has extended itself across India through the formation of SEWA Bharat. SEWA has emphasized that what women require is not welfare but a strengthening of their position as workers in society. Thus, the exclusion of women who lacked a recognizable employer from the framework of traditional trade unions has been challenged by SEWA. A shift in nomenclature from informal to self-employed also is one of SEWA’s contributions to providing visibility to the range of women’s work. The fact that SEWA members comprise the poorest and most insecure segment of workers makes such organizing an especially significant imperative. SEWA is led by Ela Bhatt, a lawyer and social activist, previously associated with the women’s wing of the Textile Labor Association (TLA, locally known as Majoor Mahajan) in Ahmedabad. The TLA is a trade union based on Gandhian principles that sought to address capital-labor conflicts through peaceful negotiations. The formation of SEWA was propelled in part by the closure of textile mills in Ahmedabad in 1968 and a realization that the responsibility of providing for the family had now fallen on women. In 1981, TLA and SEWA separated from one another, partly due to the contrast between SEWA’s links to international development and the TLA’s dependence on local political power. Political differences also came to the fore as SEWA has been outspoken in opposing religious and caste-based violence in

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Gujarat, especially since SEWA’s members span the spectrum of caste and religious identities.

Self Employed Women’s Association. http://www.sewa.org (accessed December 2009).

Expanding Into the Rural Areas While initially focused on urban women workers, SEWA became involved with rural women in 1976, since it was found that women comprised the majority of landless agricultural laborers. SEWA has organized rural women into cooperatives, which ensures both the creation of job opportunities as well as increases women’s bargaining power. In the process, SEWA’s strategies became differentiated into the establishment of unions in urban contexts, where work was already available, and the establishment of rural cooperatives, where opportunities for work had to be constructed. Besides providing visibility and collective strength to women in the informal sector, SEWA also sought to link them to financial services, in the process becoming an important part of demonstrating the creditworthiness of the poor, especially of poor women. Since SEWA’s members were not welcome in existing banking institutions, the Mahila SEWA Sahakari Bank was formed in 1974. The rising international stature of microcredit initiatives as a strategy of poverty alleviation can partly be traced to Bhatt’s proposal in the First United Nations Conference for Women held in Mexico City in 1975. That proposal called for women’s banking to be part of women and development initiatives, which was followed by the establishment of Women’s World Banking in 1980. SEWA has thus been successful in augmenting women’s economic participation and power within both national and international contexts.

Pratyusha Basu University of South Florida

See Also: India; Microcredit; Poverty, “Feminization” of; United Nations Conferences on Women. Further Readings Bhatt, E. We Are Poor But So Many: The Story of SelfEmployed Women in India. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, 2006. Jhabvala, R. “Self-Employed Women’s Association.” In Sheila Rowbotham and Swasti Mitter, eds., Dignity and Daily Bread: New Forms of Economic Organizing Among Poor Women in the Third World and First. London: Routledge, 2004. Rose, K. Where Women Are Leaders: The SEWA Movement in India. New Delhi: Vistaar Publications, 2002.

Self-Mutilation Self-mutilation is the deliberate attempt to inflict damaging pain or harm to one’s body. Forms of selfmutilation include cutting, scratching, punching, burning, biting, and pinching. Women practice selfmutilation at higher rates than men and may do it for gender-specific reasons. Self-mutilation has been found throughout diverse groups of women, spanning differences in age, race, ethnicity, and class. While the practice is deliberate, it is often a compulsion that is difficult for women to control. Adolescent women are the most likely group to practice self-mutilation, especially in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States. Research suggests that up to four times as many adolescent women have selfmutilated than their male peers. The UK has one of the highest rates of self harm in Europe at about 400 per 100,000 of the population. British south Asian women are more likely to self-harm than their white counterparts, and they account for more than 170,000 hospital visits each year. The specific practice of cutting, often done by damaging the body with sharp objects such as knives, razors, or scissors, is widespread in teenage girls. Cutting is not new to the 21st century, but it is growing in frequency. There is little anthropological literature on self-injury across cultures and statistical analysis is insufficient. Many women hide their activities and may experience shame surrounding their participation in self-harm. This makes it difficult to acquire accurate measurements of the rate of, and reasons behind, women’s self-mutilation. Self-injury is sometimes practiced for religious reasons and is culturally sanctified. Religious mutilation myths in India and Scandinavia have inspired some women to engage in mutilation rituals. In Siberian and Australian Aborigines culture the path to becoming a Shaman entails ritual self-torture. Finger mutilation occurs in Africa. The Dugum Dani tribe in New Guinea has a ritual where young girls cut off

Senegal



their fingers at funerals to prevent sickness. The Hottentot tribe symbolizes marriage or engagement with removal of part of the finger. Self-mutilation might be used as a coping strategy for women who have not been taught how to deal with overwhelming emotions in a less harmful way. Women may self-mutilate to cope with sudden traumatic life events, such as a death in the family or a parental divorce. They may also use it as a way to cope with past traumatic experiences, like sexual and physical abuse. In Afghanistan, self-mutilation among women has dramatically increased as a response to increased poverty and violence in the region. Women as young as 6 are sold into lives of slavery, and many women commit self-immolation—setting themselves on fire—or severe self-harm as a response to this oppression. Most women who self-harm do it repeatedly, and evidence suggests that the practice has an addictive quality to it. Women can become accustomed to the “high” they get when they self-mutilate. Theories suggest that women can become addicted to the natural “feel good” chemicals released by the body to counteract pain. Self-mutilation also may be caused by an imbalance of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, in the brain. Some people may cut because they know others who cut themselves; this is known as the “contagion factor.” Self-mutilation may be practiced by women who are suicidal, but there are many women who self-harm without the intent of suicide. The motivation for self-mutilation may be different for women than for men. The socialization of men and women into appropriate gender roles influences the practice. Women may self-mutilate to relieve emotions they do not know how to handle because they do not feel it is socially acceptable to express anger. Women are often socialized to put the feelings of others ahead of themselves. This can lead some women to believe that injuring oneself is superior to injuring another. Self-mutilation can be a reaction to feeling powerless or silenced in society, which is a common experience of women across cultures. The relationship between low self-esteem and self-mutilation has also been documented. Women may punish themselves, and their bodies, because they feel they deserve it. Victims of sexual abuse have high rates of self-mutilation and may feel the need to punish themselves for what they perceive to be their responsibility in their abuse. Women with eating disorders are also at risk

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for self-injurious behavior, and these patients should be screened for signs of this behavior. Women with substance abuse issues also are a high-risk group for self-mutilation. Studies agree that the most common place cutters self-mutilate is their arms and wrists, but women also target parts of their bodies connected to being female such as breasts, genitals, and the face. Many women hide their activities and may experience shame surrounding their participation in self-harm. This makes it difficult to acquire accurate measurements of the rate of, and reasons behind, women’s self-mutilation. Some researchers argue that gender differences are overstated. Some feminists criticize the association between women and self-mutilation, claiming that this association is connected to a history of constructing women as mentally inferior to men in the field of psychology. Gender variance can be partially explained by the difference in the way men and women self-harm. Men may be more likely to self-injure in ways that are less noticeable. Single episodes of self-mutilation are rare and may not be reported in statistics. See Also: Adolescence; Child Abuse, Victims of; Depression; Health, Mental and Physical. Further Readings Fox, C. and K. Hawton. Deliberate Self-Harm in Adolescence. London: Jessica Kingsley, 2004. Levenkron, S. Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998. Ross, S. and N. Heath. “A Study of the Frequency of SelfMutilation in a Community Sample of Adolescents.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, v. 31 (2002). Nicole Richter Wright State University

Senegal Senegal is the westernmost country on the African continent. A former French colony, it is a secular republic with a legal system adapted from the French model and is known to be one of the most stable democracies in Africa. The United Nations Human Development Index ranks Senegal 166th of 182 countries with data.

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A cooperative in Senegal found that powdering local baobab fruit and jujubes increased their value. A Senegalese woman processes baobab fruit kernels into a powder for sale in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

The legal code relating to family matters contains an option allowing Muslims, who constitute the majority (more than 90 percent) of the population, to follow a version of Sharia law in relation to marriage, divorce, family authority, child custody, and inheritance. The principle of the equality of men and women before the law is enshrined in the constitution, and in 1981, Senegal ratified, without reservation, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Women nonetheless experience de facto and de jure discrimination. For example, the provisions of the Islamic law of succession, recognized by the Family Code, favor men by assigning to a daughter half of the inheritance allotted to a son. As men alone are legally considered household heads, and may thus claim tax benefits for dependents, women-headed households face discrimination, as they are taxed at a higher rate and are not entitled to the child allowances paid to men and not women. The population of almost 14 million people is predominantly rural. Some traditional practices common

in rural areas such as early marriage and female genital surgery expose women and girls to reproductive and health problems. Despite the existence of a minimum legal age for marriage (16 years for women and 18 years for men), it is still quite common for girls in rural areas to marry as soon as they have reached puberty. However, urban-educated Senegalese women are increasingly marrying at a later age—a trend encouraged by the government. Civil marriage, as opposed to religious marriage, is more common in urban areas than in the countryside, as it is a condition for the receipt of social welfare benefits, which rural households do not receive. Polygamy is legal (a Muslim man may take up to four wives, and about half of Senegalese women live in polygynous marriages), and before entering into a civil marriage, a husband must declare whether the union will be monogamous or polygamous. Urban Rural Divide In Senegal, the urban–rural divide is evident in the domains of education and employment, despite con-

Serbia



stitutional protections. In the countryside, women perform much of the subsistence farming and child rearing and have limited educational opportunities. In urban areas, women meet with less discrimination and are more active in government, political life, and business. Overall, women lag behind men in educational opportunities, with the disparity in literacy rates (49.1 percent of adult men are literate as opposed to 28.2 percent of women) reflecting this. According to the 2005 Demographic and Health Survey, 28 percent of Senegalese women have undergone some form of female genital surgery. The practice has been outlawed in Senegal since 1999, but the ban is largely unenforced for practical reasons, similar to the parts of the Family Code opposed to by religious leaders. However, Senegal is the site of the massive Tostan grassroots project, which has reportedly led to abandonment of the practice in over 3,700 villages, with continued, rapid spread. The Senegalese government, in partnership with this and other community actors, is currently finalizing a national plan to bring about the complete abandonment of female genital surgery by 2015. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Shari`a Law. Further Readings Balonze, John, ed. Street Children in Senegal. Netcong, NJ: Gyan Publishing, 2006. Creevey, Lucy. “Islam, Women and the Role of the State in Senegal.” Journal of Religion in Africa, v.26/3 (1996). Ross, Eric S. Culture and Customs of Senegal. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. Máire Ní Mhórdha University of St. Andrews

Serbia After the tumult of the 1990s, with the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Kosovo War, and the reign of Slobodan Milošević, the independent state of Serbia is now trying to regain some stability and develop its economy. Serbia is now a parliamentary democracy, and women have the same legal rights as men. However, Serbia’s

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transition from socialism to capitalism has come at the expense of women, as poverty, new gender ideologies, and economic development compromise women’s status. Under the socialist system, the normative gender ideology promoted equality in all aspects of public and private life. However, to appeal to Western investors, Serbia has adopted a more patriarchal ideology. With the slogan “Mothers of the Nation,” Serbians campaign for a woman’s right to stay at home and be a housewife and mother, instead of fighting for wage equity. In many regards, Serbia is ignoring women’s issues for the sake of economic growth. Women’s economic status has suffered in recent years. Although women make up 55 percent of the workforce, they are likely to be the first to lose their jobs, especially high-level positions. Women also are impeded from becoming business owners, with poor access to entrepreneur loans. Women earn 60 percent of university degrees, but 90 percent of those are in education—a traditionally female occupation with lower wages. The socialist welfare system provided women with a safety net, but in the transition to a capitalist economy, Serbia has experienced a feminization of poverty, with more and more women and female heads of household unable to support themselves or their families. Compounding that problem, women make up 58 percent of the refugees that still exist. There are no laws to protect women from discrimination, and few resources to address women’s issues, and as a result, Serbian women have experienced a recent rise in domestic violence and sex trafficking. The Serbian Victimology Society estimates that onethird of women have been physically abused, and half of Serbian women suffered from psychological violence. Statistics are difficult because the majority of women refuse to report the abuse, believing nothing will be done and being fearful of repercussions. High poverty levels have led to an increase in sex trafficking, and Serbia has become a waystation in the sex-trade business, as traffickers import and export women through the country. Although there are some signs of hope for Serbian women, such as the creation in 2004 of the Council for Gender Equity, the new independent country of Serbia has not made women’s status a focal point of their development. The transition to democracy and capitalism altered the gender ideologies and economic welfare of Serbian women.

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See Also: Domestic Violence; Educational Opportunities/Access; Poverty; Sex Workers. Further Readings Bracewell, Wendy. “Women, Motherhood, and Contemporary Serbian Nationalism.” Women’s Studies International Forum, v.19/1-2 (1996). Ramset, Sabrina P. Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999. Zarkov, Dubrakva. The Body of War: Media, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Break-Up of Yugoslavia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Sex Education, Abstinence-Only Abstinence-only sex education promotes sexual activity in the context of marriage. In the United States, this form of sexuality education became commonplace in the mid-1990s, after President Bill Clinton signed the Welfare Reform Law that provided federal funding for states agreeing to promote abstinence-only curricula. State support for this form of sex education has decreased somewhat since 1999. Abstinence-only sex education is controversial; critics believe that abstinence-only sex education is shortsighted and fails to properly educate schoolchildren. Proponents of abstinence-only sex education assert that students should be discouraged from engaging in sexual intercourse before marriage. Sex education refers to a disbursal of sexuality related information to a select audience. In the United States, elementary and secondary schools are the most common providers of formal sexual education. The curriculum is typically composed of biological, social, and psychological information related to human development, interpersonal relationships, and sexual knowledge. The specific information provided to students varies widely depending upon the students’ age as well as the ideological beliefs of the teacher, the school, and the larger society. There are two predomi-

nant ideological forms of sex education in the United States: abstinence-only sex education and comprehensive sex education. Abstinence-only sex education promotes abstaining from sexual contact during the teenage years and before marriage. This type of sex education includes information regarding conception and emphasizes the failure rates of contraceptive devices. Abstinence-only sex education does not include critically important information on sexual health, in particular regarding pregnancy prevention or sexually transmitted disease (STD) protection. The federal government does not require public schools to teach sex education; however, many states mandate the practice of sexual education in schools. In the year 2009, sex education was mandatory in 21 states and the District of Columbia. It was not required in other states; however, there was some form of school-sponsored sex education in 48 states. States’ individual school districts further elucidate and deploy sex education policies. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s administration implemented the Adolescent Family Life Demonstration and Research Program; this program encouraged adolescents to abstain from engaging in sexual activity. In 1996, the U.S. government passed additional legislation encouraging schools to promote abstinence-only sex education. This law, referred to as Title V of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law, granted $50 million a year for five years to establish programs that solely promoted abstinence-only education. In its first year, 49 states participated in the program. California was the only state that did not choose to partake in the Title V program. By 2009, participation had dropped to 25 of 50 states. Title V–sponsored sex education taught the following: • The social, psychological, and health gains that can be achieved by abstaining from sex • To remain abstinent until they are married, and to encourage sexually-active teens to become abstinent • That the only way to avoid pregnancy and STDs is to remain abstinent • That the appropriate avenue for sexual activity is monogamous marital relationships • That nonmarital sexual activities can produce harmful physical and psychological effects



• That having babies outside of marriage will negatively affect the child, parents, and society • How to reject sexual advances and to avoid drugs and alcohol • That they should become self-sufficient before becoming sexually active Critics of abstinence-only sex education point to research demonstrating that this form of sex education is ineffective in reducing rates of teens’ sexual activity. A 2007 meta-study published in the British Medical Journal found that abstinence-only programs are ineffective in changing teens’ sexual behaviors. Critics also argue that teens who undergo abstinenceonly education are more likely to have unprotected sex, are more likely to become pregnant, and are more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases than students exposed to comprehensive sex education. A 2007 study by Mathematica Policy Research showed that students in abstinence-only programs were not more likely to abstain from sex, delay having sex, or have fewer sexual partners than students who received no sex education. Comprehensive sex education proponents argue that by withholding information on human sexuality, abstinence-only education does not give youth the information they need to properly protect their health and well-being. President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget did not renew the Title V grant program, and as of 2010, a five-year, $375 million grant was designated for 28 programs that were proven to lower pregnancy rates among participating youth. See Also: Adolescence; Puberty; Sex Education in the Home; Sex Education, Comprehensive; Sex Education, Cross-Culturally Compared. Further Readings Irvine, Janice. Talk About Sex: The Battles Over Sex Education in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. McClelland, S. and M. Fine. “Embedded Science: Critical Analysis of Abstinence-Only Evaluation Research.” Cultural Studies, Critical Methodologies, v.8/1 (2008). Santelli, John. “Abstinence Only Education: Politics, Science, and Ethics.” Social Research, v.73/3 (2006). Underhill, Kristin, Paul Montgomery, and Don Operario. “Sexual Abstinence Only Programmes to Prevent HIV

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Infection in High Income Countries: Systematic Review.” British Medical Journal, v.335 (2007). Patricia Drew California State University, East Bay

Sex Education, Comprehensive Comprehensive sex education is a common form of sexuality education curricula taught in U.S. elementary and secondary school systems. These programs teach youth about social, physiological, and psychological aspects of sexuality. Comprehensive sex education also incorporates information about contraception and sexually transmitted disease prevention. Additionally, sex education frequently includes information about sexual orientation, sexual desire, and abortion. Public opinion about comprehensive sex education is divided. Proponents assert that students need a wide array of sexuality-related information to make informed choices and protect themselves from potential consequences. Critics argue that comprehensive sex education is overly permissive and fails to discourage teenagers from engaging in sexual intercourse. There are many sex education curricula characterized as comprehensive. While individual lesson plans differ, curricular goals are often shared. Comprehensive sex education typically includes multiple components. Many aspects of the curricula are not controversial, including discussions of factual information about psychological, social, and biological human development from puberty through adulthood. Students are taught about body changes associated with adolescence, including menstruation. The curriculum also highlights information about conception, pregnancy, and sexual-refusal skills. This factual information is similar to the lessons included in abstinence-only programs. Comprehensive sex education also incorporates information that is not featured in abstinence-only curricula. The curriculum acknowledges that some students are sexually active or will become sexually active during their teenage years. Lessons include information about ways to lessen risks of sexual

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activity, including use of contraceptive devices and condoms. A Broader Perspective Comprehensive sex education also incorporates discussions of abortion, sexually transmitted infections, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and often mentions sexual orientation as well as acknowledging the existence of homosexuality and heterosexuality. Comprehensive sex education is occasionally referred to as abstinence-plus sex education. In this variation, the curriculum encourages students to abstain from sexual intercourse during their teenage years and before marriage. However, the curriculum continues to include information regarding birth control and sexually transmitted disease protection. Sex education is commonly taught in elementary and secondary schools. In 2002, 58 percent of high school principals characterized their schools’ sex education programs as comprehensive; 34 percent characterized their programs as abstinence-only. Most principals indicated that their schools’ comprehensive sex education programs primarily advocated abstinence among teenagers. There are no federal regulations mandating the presence or content of sex education in schools. Individual states and school districts create sex education policies. In 2009, 21 states and the District of Columbia mandated that sex education be taught in the public schools. These states further outline the types of information that are included in school curricula. Many other states that do not require sex education courses in their schools have outlined the coursework if sex education becomes part of a school district’s curriculum. Fifteen states require that contraception information be included as part of a sex education curriculum. Additionally, 35 states require that schools provide sexually transmitted infection/ HIV education. While there is currently federal funding for abstinence-only education, there is no similar federal funding for comprehensive sex education. Accomplishing Change Research has demonstrated that youth exposed to comprehensive sex education act differently than other teens. Teens taught comprehensive sex curricula are more likely to delay their sexual initiation

and are likely to have fewer sexual partners than other youth. Research additionally indicates that comprehensive sex education leads to higher rates of condom and contraception usage. Girls who have undergone comprehensive sex education are less likely than their peers to become pregnant. Finally, teens with comprehensive sex education training are less likely to contract sexually transmitted infections than their peers. There are many supporters of comprehensive sex education, including the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association. Proponents of comprehensive sex education argue that the curriculum has several benefits. They believe that it is productive to encourage youth to refrain from sexual activity, while still providing all students with sexuality-related information that will be useful to them throughout their lives. Advocates argue that teenagers need a wide array of information to protect their personal health and their well-being. Advocates believe that students who have access to comprehensive sex education are better able to advocate for themselves and make knowledgeable decisions. Supporters also argue that it is important to note that more than half of high school seniors have had sexual intercourse, and that these teens need factual information regarding contraception and sexually transmitted infection protection. Critics of comprehensive sex education include the Heritage Foundation, the Abstinence and Marriage Education Partnership, and some religious groups. Opponents believe that a comprehensive sex education curriculum is damaging to youth on many fronts and that it provides students with mixed messages about the meaning of sexuality and the proper context for sexual activity. Critics believe that students should be discouraged from having sexual relations as teens and outside of the context of marriage. They assert that discussions of successful contraceptive and sexually transmitted infection protection devices encourage students to engage in youthful and premarital sexual activity. Critics also state that sexually active teens often regret their early sexual experiences and report higher levels of depression than abstinent peers; schools should not discuss contraception or provide neutral messages about sexual activity, as sex-



Sex Education, Cross-Culturally Compared

ually active teens may become pregnant or contract sexually transmitted infections; and comprehensive sex education does not sufficiently promote abstinence as a preferred behavior for teens. Gender Expectations Feminist academic researchers in the disciplines of sociology, gender studies, psychology, and education have brought attention to commonplace gender expectations in sex education curriculum. These researchers have noted that comprehensive sex education curriculum often provides different messages about sexual activity, desire, and responsibility for females and males. Teenage boys are often expected to be sexually active and desirous but are not responsible for negative sexuality outcomes, such as pregnancy. In contrast, teenage girls are not depicted as desirous. Girls are often shown to be sexual gatekeepers and responsible for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection protection. Feminists contend that gender-based sexuality expectations legitimize men’s sexuality and delegitimize women’s sexuality. Feminist researchers are actively revealing and contesting gendered messages in sex education curriculum to challenge gendered double standards for teenage sexuality. See Also: Adolescence; Puberty; Sex Education, Abstinence-Only; Sex Education, Cross-Culturally Compared; Sex Education in the Home. Further Readings Alan Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on Sex Education in the United States.” http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb _sexEd2006.html (accessed November 2009). Fields, J. Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. Fine, M. “Sexuality, Schooling, and Adolescent Females: The Missing Discourse of Desire.” Harvard Educational Review, v.58/1(1988). Kaiser Family Foundation, “Sex Education in the U.S.: Policy and Politics.” http://www.kff.org/youthhivstds /upload/Sex-Education-in-the-U-S-Policy-and-Politics .pdf (accessed November 2009). Martin, K. A. Puberty, Sexuality, and the Self: Boys and Girls at Adolescence. New York: Routledge, 1996. Rose, S. “Going Too Far? Sex, Sin and Social Policy.” Social Forces, v.84/2 (2005).

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Tolman, D., ed. “Through a Lens of Embodiment: New Research From the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy, v.3/4 (2006). Patricia Drew California State University, East Bay

Sex Education, CrossCulturally Compared Appraising sex education across cultures is increasingly challenging given often-dissonant, overarching structures of sponsorship. Below is an overview of the global needs and frameworks, cultural challenges to these, and contemporary politics of definition that continue to make sex education for girls and young women a hot topic. Urgency and Health Needs An estimated 4.4 million abortions are sought annually worldwide by women 15 to 19 years old. At the same time, some 10 percent of births worldwide are to teenage mothers, who experience higher rates of maternal mortality than older women. In Asia, 32 percent of unsafe abortions occur among females 15 to 24. Realities such as transactional and crossgenerational sex in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America heavily impact female decision making about family planning, health-risk containment, and abuse prevention. Contemporary data shows that more than 60 million marriages, mostly arranged, involve girls under the age of 18 years: approximately 31 million in South Asia, 14 million in sub-Saharan Africa, and 6.6 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. One girl in seven in developing countries (excluding China) marries before age 15, according to 2007 estimates, and 38 percent marry before age 18. Early marriages, especially those before puberty, increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and cervical cancer, problems related to pregnancy, labor and delivery, and infant mortality. Researchers suggest that school-based sex education may be essential in changing awareness, attitudes, and practices leading to risky sexual behavior in marriage.

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The Impact of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) has been a major drive for gender-minded attention to sex education worldwide given the evident feminization of the pandemic. In 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that more than 2 million people aged 10 to 24 were newly infected with HIV annually, two-thirds of them female. Globally, women constitute half the total number of people living with HIV, but in sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion rises to 61 percent. T h ree-quarters of infected 15- to 24-year-olds in Africa, or almost 5 million people, are female. SubSaharan young women are an estimated two to seven times more likely to be HIV positive than their male peers. Apart from higher biological risks, women have less access to education and economic opportunities, making them dependent in relationships and within their families. This may result in a woman having limited power to refuse sex or negotiate condom use or a woman resorting to bartering or selling sex. According to review research, the impact of education on HIV vulnerability may not differ remarkably between men and women. Sexual decision making in general may be more dramatically dependent on general degrees of educational and socioeconomic opportunity and empowerment than by thematically dedicated projects. A range of sexual-health-related issues, such as prostitution and trafficking, virgin rape in southern Africa, and war-related sexual violence against girls and women, require education of boys and young men, appropriate legal measures, medical infrastructures, community awareness, and international policy. Global Frameworks Sex education worldwide is conceptualized in accordance to the vista of reproductive health (RH). This was defined by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), convened under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) in Cairo, Egypt, 1994. One of the primary goals of the program of action was to make family planning universally available by 2015 as part of a broadened approach to reproductive health and rights, involving expanded access to education. RH was the deal-maker or breaker at the UN Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000 to achieve approval of the Declaration at the

General Assembly. The rubric of RH had to be, and was, omitted under pressure by what was critically called an “unholy religious pact” by the U.S.-backed Holy See. RH is largely considered code language for abortion, and conservative Islamic states oppose family-planning services for adolescents and the very ideas of sexual health and sexual rights. However, the 2005 UN World Summit in New York reinstated RH in its outcome document against all expectations, although it was ensured that the terms sexual, sexuality, and rights were not used. Several current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include targets either directly requiring or indirectly contributing to improvements in sex education for girls and women. They are monitored (www. mdgmonitor.org) by indicators including primary education attendance, gender disparity in primary and secondary education, condom use, proportion of population aged 15–24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS, contraceptive prevalence rate, and adolescent birth rate. A comprehensive review of ICPD at the midpoint to 2015 (ICPD+10 in 2004) confirmed earlier observations that many countries lagged behind in RH indicators or are not anywhere near the projected goals. At the 2006 High Level Meeting on AIDS, all UN member states pledged to increase the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect themselves from the risk of HIV infection, including the provision of full access to comprehensive information and education. UNAIDS, the joint UN Program on HIV/ AIDS, aims to expand access to sexual and reproductive (SRH) healthcare programs and integrate HIV into these, as well as promote campaigns and community dialog to change harmful gender norms. In its platform of action, the last (Fourth) World Conference on Women (Beijing, China, 1995) specifically stressed the need to remove barriers to education for women, particularly pregnant adolescents and young mothers, and recognized that adolescents in many developing countries have limited access to comprehensive SRH information and services. The WHO maintains it is critical that sex education be started early, particularly in developing countries, because girls in the first classes of secondary school face the greatest consequences of sexual activity. Beginning sex education in primary school also reaches students who are unable to attend sec-



Sex Education, Cross-Culturally Compared

ondary school. The International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition (ISRRC) urges its member states to ensure that all girls have access to gendersensitive and comprehensive sex education, in and out of school, based on scientific evidence and within a human rights framework. Organizations such as International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) join in urging governments, specifically the United States, to implement comprehensive sex education. Resistance to these objectives, however, can be readily seen in the mixed reception of a draft of proposed UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) International Guidelines on Sexuality Education in 2009. Worldwide sex education, particularly in Africa, continues to be heavily influenced both by the Vatican’s position, as summarized in the 1995 Pontifical Council for the Family pamphlet The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education Within the Family. Reaffirming 1983 guidelines from the Congregation for Catholic Education (Educational Guidance in Human Love), it naturalized the domestic setting as educational, maternity, and same-gender educators. Further global influence is evidenced by what is known as the Mexico City Policy or “global gag rule,” a ban on U.S. funding for international health groups to engage in a range of educational activities involving the provision of advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion. The ban, originally instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, oscillates with Republican administrations adopting and Democratic administrations rescinding it. The ban was last revoked by President Barack Obama in January 2009. Local/Cultural Challenges Since 2002, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has systematically aimed to explore needs for culturesensitive approaches to SHR, as indicated in publications such as Culture Matters (2004), Cultural Programming (2005), and Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights (2008). Case studies find that strong religious and traditional norms restrict the open discussion of sex across large parts of the world, norms that usually show highly gendered conceptions of body, decorum, and life course. Western-styled curricula may not cover such gendered issues as polygyny, transactional sex, AIDS orphans, genital cutting, and avoidance

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rules (“taboos”). They also may not be effective in the everyday juggling of cultural models, including generational relationships, kinship, and gender, that characterize contemporary developing countries. Teachers may cite religious doctrine and absence of curriculum, as well as fears of promoting promiscuity, of parental prosecution, and of being ostracized by community factions. These factors are now prioritized in international initiatives, many of which analyzed in research journals such as Culture & Sexuality, Culture, Health & Sexuality, and Sex Education (published as of 1997, 1999, and 2000, respectively). Notwithstanding the international push to professionalize and institutionalize sex education, the ethnographic record is testimony to a variety of semiformalized and nonformalized contexts that prove important spheres of socialization that are considered exploitable for curricular ends. In various African contexts, themes pertinent to sex are traditionally recited in stories, legends, riddles, and proverbs. A major pan-African factor is the replacement by formal-institutional education of “traditional,” usually gender-segregated socialization contexts known as puberty or initiation rituals. While the latter commonly included detailed, comprehensive, and realistic coverage of married life and often formed one of the few intergenerational transmission points, institutional curricula and teachers have been slow to “take over.” In some areas, designated gender- and kinshipbased lines of communication have eroded, leading to a dependency on schools. In other areas, contemporary research finds that 90 percent of adult respondents report undergoing formalized initiations, often at puberty. Information about sex and marriage has traditionally been passed on to young girls by aunts such as the senga, or father’s sister, in rural Uganda. This role has equivalents throughout eastern and southern Africa, and research has suggested such institutional roles are associated with beneficial health outcomes. The information can be disseminated as a model, and where eroded it may respond to affirmative stimuli, enhanced by formal training, and regularly monitored with regard to good practices. This move toward the professionalization of rituals will enhance existing cultural controversy over these events. Women’s rights activists suggest rituals may reiterate male-centred values and practices.

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Traditionalists may insist on their continuity as part of a more general reclaiming of precolonial cultural identity—an often paradoxical “invention of tradition”—while church-based sponsors, in continuity with missionary work, judge events in terms of promotion of promiscuity and immorality. The result may be total governmental rejection. In 2009, for example, an Indian parliamentary Committee on Petitions resolutely rejected Western-oriented school programs, arguing that “our country’s social and cultural ethos are such that sex education has absolutely no place in it.” Part of the information gap is arguably being closed in some regions by public events known as “virginity testing.” Considered a human rights violation by Amnesty International and criminalized in many countries, virginity testing survives in a range of countries, particularly Turkey, India, and KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, under fiat of local authorities. In South Africa, reemergence of virginity testing is legitimized by periodic examinations that have a pedagogical effect, is part of a centuries-old custom, and is affixed to public events with a broad pedagogical scope. These tests may, conversely, serve to ensure daughters fetch a higher lobola, or traditional payment made by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. A 2005 Children’s Bill outlawed virginity testing under the age of 16, paving the way for national laws. Participation in sex education for many girls worldwide is limited as a result of early school dropout. Effective delivery of sex, relationship, and HIV education may be specifically hampered in some settings by sexual harassment or abuse of schoolgirls by teachers and nonteaching staff, reported in a number of sub-Saharan African countries and undermining the credibility of institutional education. It has been reported that female students may be marginalized and bullied by male pupils in projects involving peer education. Governmental action may be drastic given suspicions against school-based programs. In 2005, Swaziland’s King Mswati III ended a five-year sex ban he imposed on the kingdom’s teenage girls a year earlier; since 2001, the girls were ordered to wear large woollen tassels signaling their chastity. Defining Sex, Gender, and Education Sexuality and procreation are possibly the most questionable of anthropological universalisms and the most embattled of administrative globalisms. This

may be particularly true if the discussion centers on of the subject of needs, rights, and human fulfillment. Feminist presence in the house of anthropology has addressed the vista of sexuality quite variably and with increasing complexity over the past four decades, but the issue, if anything, continues to epitomize the gulf between programmatic and formulaic internationalisms on one end and qualitative anthropology’s cultural relativism on the other. Sex education today is marked by the globalization of an administrative biomedical paradigm that precariously interfaces with often-contradictory local and global infrastructures of sponsorship. While major debates in the United States are narrowly occupied with outcome differences between abstinence-based and comprehensive education programs, studies have found that significant variation exists in youths’ definitions of “having sex,” abstinence, and virginity, with major implications for research organized around the rubrics of sexual debut, harassment, abuse, and sexualization of girls. For instance, a 2007 Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls signaled a vital role for formal education, specifically media, literary, athletic programs (with a focus on body competence and away from body appearance), and comprehensive sex education, to tackle a proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising and merchandising in the United States. The report’s concept of sexualization, however, was largely based on predefined notions of “exposure” rather than on girls’ perspectives and audience response. It also assumed, but did not examine, that both the phenomenon and concern for it are “exported” worldwide and internationalizing its “scope” would be advisable. Another example entails a movement to ritualize abstinence, often in tandem with abstinence-focused education. Started in 1993 by the Southern Baptist Convention, “virginity/abstinence pledging” now claims more than 2.5 million pledgers worldwide in dozens of countries. In 1996, chastity rings were introduced to signal premarital abstinence; the pioneering “Silver Ring Thing,” an evangelical-Christian program based in Pennsylvania, currently sponsors events in eight countries. Approximately 16 percent of teenage girls in America, and 10 percent of teenage boys, would have taken a virginity pledge. However, some studies found that half of adolescents who took virginity pledges denied having taken them the



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following year. Regardless, most recent studies and meta-reviews suggest that abstinence-only curricula, virginity pledging, chastity rings, and purity balls have either no or counterproductive effects. Given that the idea of sexuality pertains to strategic interplay of moral, administrative, and empirical idioms, it is generally accepted that what should qualify as adequate, comprehensive, age-appropriate, or gender-appropriate content for curricula seems largely indexical to the variously competing or strategically allied internationalisms that have a stake in defining sexuality’s ethical contours and horizons. Some might argue with the French-thinker Michel Foucault that sex education does not inform youth of an entitled sexuality but instills it as a regulatory grammar of selfhood, with the implication that it is a vital instrument in the defining of female nature, womanhood, reproductive roles, and normative heterosexuality—whether as human, transcultural, international, or local projection. Thus, the idea of a bounded sexuality is continuously reaffirmed through education as a way of delimiting the mobility of bodies, identities, and pleasures, and it is evident that any disclosure or informational exchange, from virginity tests to textbooks, further entrenches gendered concerns for moral “health” and ethical “integrity.” Observing current globalization of legal and sexological discourse, understanding sexuality in this light is of manifest importance in envisioning which revelatory acts, including which sex acts, will in future decades be elevated to the realm of “proper education” and which will be categorized as “normal experience” and/or “abuse.”

by www.Cosmogirl.com reported that 11 percent of girls aged 13–16, 22 percent of girls aged 13–19 and 33 percent of women 20–26 had sent/posted nude or seminude photographs of themselves electronically. This was only slightly more than for their male peers. Efforts to decriminalize consensual sexting between teenagers are to emerge.

Continuously Adapting The stakes of sex education are continuously recalibrated around developing technologies. In the AngloAmerican world, Internet-based peer socialization has reintensified old vigilance regarding sexual predators, exposure, and self-exposure. European girls are warned about immigrant “loverboys.” Clearly, minors require continuous updating about shifting legal thresholds with such innovations as Webcamming and “sexting”—a contraction of sex and texting via mobile phones—increasingly since 2005. Girls seem to be overrepresented in the number, or at least coverage, of minors being charged for producing and circulating sexually explicit material of themselves. A 2008 survey of 1,280 respondents co-commissioned

Diederik F. Janssen Independent Scholar

See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Sex Education, Abstinence-Only; Sex Education, Comprehensive. Further Readings American Psychological Association (APA), Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Washington, DC: APA, 2007. Francoeur, R., et al., eds. Continuum Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality. New York: Continuum, 2004. Janssen, D. Growing Up Sexually, 3 Volumes. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, 2004. Obermeyer, C. M. Cultural Perspectives on Reproductive Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. “International Guidelines on Sexuality Education: An Evidence Informed Approach to Effective Sex, Relationships and HIV/STI Education.” Draft, June 2009. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). “Culture Matters: Working With Communities and FaithBased Organizations: Case Studies From Country Programmes.” New York: UNFPA, 2004.

Sex Education in the Home Sex education in the home is often talked about as a new concept, being portrayed by both conservative and liberal organizations as essential. Advocates of sex education in the home in the United States often cite need based on the proliferation of sexual activity by younger children or the abundance of sexual misinformation that is available—even though parents admit this observation is made intuitively and not

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from research reflecting sexual attitudes and behaviors. Although sex education in the home is wide reaching and can apply to adults and children, the phrase is often interpreted as meaning sex education from parents to children. Other than parents, children and adults have many other options for sex education in the home: traditional media outlets such as television or print publications; new media outlets such as Internet sites or Web pages; talk between friends and family members; and even observation of romantic or sexual activity. Adults often educate themselves and each other through literature or disclosure of sexual needs or desires to partners. Parents and guardians often cite concerns about misinformation and child safety as key reasons for initiating conversations about sex. Women report being expected to facilitate such talks more than men, in part because men usually handle such talks with males and women usually discuss these issue with other females. When an exception is made, it is usually the mother who will discuss sex with her sons. There are many reasons for parents to talk about sex with their children. For women, the reasons include the onset of menstruation, a first boyfriend, and becoming a teenager. For men, the occasions may include discovery of pornography, a first girlfriend, or becoming a teenager. Talks may occur with younger children after they inquire about where babies come from or after they see adults engaged in sexual acts. Many times, though, these conversations are less direct, filled with elements of myth or fantasy, or provide simplified forms of information. Sex Education in the Home: Conservative and Liberal Approaches Labeling parent-child sex education approaches as conservative or liberal often distorts or unfairly and artificially dichotomizes the attitudes and beliefs most parents carry about sex and its role in their culture. Often, too, most guides for parents simplify sex education information into conservative or liberal categories. Conservative literature often points out the need for traditional values in sex education in the face of liberal school systems and sex-saturated media outlets. Similarly, liberal literature frequently points out the need for honest discussions about sex in the face of school systems that have been co-opted by insufficient and ineffective conservative approaches and media outlets that are saturated with

unhealthy messages about sex. Each form of literature often carries recurring themes about the importance of sexual education. Conservative literature tends to encourage dialog between parents and children about sex, often suggesting religious faith be a part of these conversations. To this end, parents are encouraged to tell their children to consult them before engaging in sexual activity. Abstinence also is encouraged, as birth control and other contraceptives are never fully protective. Like conservative literature, liberal-facing materials often encourage an open dialog. Instead of a focus on faith, there is a concentration on feelings. Discussion of various forms of birth control and contraceptives also is encouraged, as is affirmation of sexual feelings and desires being a normal part of life. Liberal literature also is more likely to encourage parents to acknowledge that experimenting with sexual activity is likely and encourages communication about knowing one’s limits and responsibilities. Despite most literature about parent–child sex education being aimed at a conservative or liberal audience, many studies demonstrate general apathy toward the causes being advanced by such literature. Additionally, critics and sex educators cite limitations to both approaches, including lack of recognition of the full spectrum of sexuality. While neither the conservative nor the liberal literature tends to examine same-sex feelings and attractions, the possibility of same-sex attraction being validated or encouraged in public schools is often listed as a reason conservative parents should consider talking about sex with their children. Both liberal and conservative approaches also encourage parents to act as role models, noting that conversations about sexual responsibility will only hold with children if they see their parents modeling sexual responsibility as well. A lot of literature also highlights the idea that sexual conversations between parents and children may be awkward, but research suggests such claims may be overstated. Mechanisms for Sex Education in the Home When it comes to parents talking about sex with children, a variety of aides and options are available to facilitate discussion. While most people report not using any of these mechanisms, many parents do. These materials are readily available and can be purchased through Internet outlets. Two particular tools



for sex education discussions that continue to increase in popularity are children’s storybooks aimed at introducing children to sexualized bodies and reproductive sex acts and virginity rings or pledges aimed at young women. Storybooks such as Peter Mayle’s Where Did I Come From? have been around for decades and use playful illustrations and colorful comparisons to help children understand sex and sexuality in frank but sensitive terms. For instance, in the case of Mayle’s book, an orgasm is compared to a sneeze from the genitals; sex is compared to jumping rope; and sperm and ova are turned into characters to explain how they function. Some of these books contain candid drawings of the various body parts, while others describe sexual processes and help children to understand how their own bodies will grow and change over time–as will their attitudes about boys or girls. The emergence of such books have placed women in a more central role as sex educators, since women tend to read storybooks to children more than men. Another tool for facilitating sex education discussions are virginity rings or pledges. The pledges are often prewritten contracts that can be purchased online or through many religious organizations that teens or preteens are asked to sign. These pledges usually acknowledge a commitment to religion, parents, and self-respect. A ring is often worn by the signer as a reminder of their promise; if the child engages in a sexual act, then the ring should be removed. Ideally, though, the ring will remain until marriage. Typically, young women are asked to sign these contracts, sometimes in conjunction with a dance or purity ball, where many young women all sign at once and celebrate the occasion with their fathers as their dates. This is not exclusive to women; some young men sign these pledges and wear the rings as well. Despite tools of all kinds being used to help facilitate talks, most parents report they discuss sex with their children based on unexpected incidents, such as a sudden graphic representation of sexuality on a television program, or after being discovered by their child while engaging in sexual activity with a partner. The biggest regret many parents report is a defensive or stern tone related to sexuality. Many also regret orally attacking a child about his or her behavior when they find evidence that may suggest engagement or consideration of sexual activity.

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Adult Education

Of course, adults educate each other about sex in the home, too. While this can happen in conversation at parties or in casual conversations with friends, sex partners also will educate each other about sexusually in conjunction with their own sexual needs or desires. Sometimes a partner will confide that sex has become routine, and so a video or description of different sexual positions, games, or toys can be used to add spice to a sexual relationship. Sex education also comes in the form of sexual practice. When engaging a new sexual partner, one not only begins a learning process about how to please that individual but likely will learn new tricks or techniques that, if enjoyed, can be shared with future partners. This form of active education may be especially true if partners are engaging in a new form of sex not yet experienced; one partner may teach another how to perform oral or anal sex; how to use a certain toy; or even how to engage in a particular fantasy. Although sex education is often thought of as something that occurs at a given point in one’s life, for most individuals it is something that will continue for as long as he or she is sexually active. Women, in particular, become more open to learning about their own sexual thoughts, feelings, and desires as they mature and social inhibitions are shed. See Also: Contraception, Religious Approaches to; Contraception Methods; Heterosexism; Pornography/ Erotica; Purity Balls; Sex Education, Comprehensive. Further Readings Altman, Dennis. Global Sex. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Bailey, Kristen, ed. Sex Education. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Bleakly, Amy, et al. “Public Opinion on Sex Education in U.S. Schools.” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, v.160/11 (2006). Luker, Kristen. When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex—and Sex Education—Since the Sixties. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Mayle, Peter. Where Did I Come From? New York: Little, Brown, 1984. Jimmie Manning Northern Kentucky University

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Sex Offenders, Female Until recently, little was known about female sex offenders in the United States; today, the literature is nascent but growing. The primary reason for the lack of knowledge about female sex offenders is that their offenses go largely unreported. Increasing awareness regarding this population stems from highly publicized cases in which young female teachers have engaged in sexual relations with students. These cases do not represent the majority and may perpetuate myths about a subject in which researchers still have much to learn. Female-perpetrated sex crimes are relatively rare, though this phenomenon may be skewed. Sex offenses are among the most underreported of all crimes, and female-perpetrated sex crimes may be reported less often than those committed by males. Nevertheless, official criminal justice statistics suggest that less than 10 percent of sex crimes are committed by women. However, one recent study suggests that upwards of 20 percent of all sexual abuse events are committed by women. One to 6 percent of arrests and 2 percent of those incarcerated for sex crimes are women. Victimization surveys, which seek to address the limitations of official statistics, suggest that over 60 percent of female and 27 percent of male victims report sexual victimization by a female. While the National Crime Victimization Survey reports that female-perpetrated offenses account for 6 percent of offenses in which the offender acted alone, 40 percent of offenses involving multiple offenders included a woman. These statistics are similar to those found in other societies as well. Official statistics from the United States are similar to those in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada; approximately 6 percent of cases known to Australian authorities were perpetrated by female sex offenders. In other parts of the world, the percentage of female sex offenders known to authorities is much lower. In 2008, only 1 percent of all accused sex offenders in South Africa were women. Need for Information and Understanding Because there is a dearth of information available, it is difficult to assess whether official statistics account for a reflection of reality or simply a lack of understanding about sexual abuse by women. If it is true that femaleperpetrated offenses are more prevalent than statis-

tics suggest, many factors may be at play. For instance, women are seen as nurturing caregivers, simply unable to harm a child. Conversely, the shame and guilt associated with abuse by a female may be so great that victims choose not to report. Unfortunately, female perpetrated sex crimes are often not seen as criminal because of the belief that male victims would not become aroused if they were not willing participants. This narrow belief suggests that women only commit sex crimes against adult males and does not account for the broad spectrum of abuse that might occur. Professional biases might also account for the lack of information. Law enforcement officials are often trained with the assumption that men are offenders and women are victims. This may affect the ways in which law enforcement agencies react to allegations of sexual abuse committed by women. The extent to which harm is caused may be minimized, the seriousness of the offense may be undermined, or the allegation itself may be seen as unfounded. Societal views about gender stereotypes also affect the medical field. When an allegation of abuse is reported to medical personnel, it is possible that the individual might assume the offender is male. If this information is voluntarily provided, the abuse is often seen as less harmful. Common Characteristics Researchers acknowledge some common characteristics of this population as a whole. These women tend to have a history of victimization and abuse, mental health and substance abuse issues, and difficulties maintaining intimate relationships. Female sex offenders tend to commit incestuous offenses and often report having been the victim of incest as children themselves. Women who commit sexual abuse may have longer offense histories because they are thought to begin abusing at a young age and because their acts rarely become known to the authorities. Often, their behaviors are seen as normal caretaking behaviors. These characteristics do not suggest that all female sex offenders are alike. In fact, there is much heterogeneity within the population. Three typologies have been created, but they are not mutually exclusive, nor do they account for all female sex offenders. Teacher/Lover. These women often report marital discord or relationship issues with age-mates. They



often suffer from cognitive distortions or thoughts that neutralize the potential harm they cause. For instance, many of these women believe that they are teaching the victim about sexuality or romance and therefore do not consider the behavior abuse. Predisposed. Women in this category tend to experience deviant sexual fantasies, have histories of sexual abuse, and have a tendency to abuse their own children. They often suffer from psychological problems. Male-Coerced. Individuals in this category often report feeling powerless and fear being alone. Thus, they often end up in male-dominated relationships, report various forms of abuse at the hands of their spouse, and often the male partner begins abusing children first before coercing the woman to engage in the abusive acts as well. In part because of the heterogeneity within this population and partially because of the dearth of research on female sexual offending, assessment of risk and treatment protocols are lacking around the globe. Though assessment tools have been validated on both adult and adolescent female sex offenders, nothing is said about the etiology of sexual deviancy in this population. Though gender-specific treatment programs are not common, the Center for Sex Offender Management suggests that the trend in gender-responsive treatment protocols is growing. For instance, programs serving the female sex-offending population are reporting that they are more likely to address prior victimization and trauma, intimacy skills, and family reunification. Yet, as of late 2009, no accredited treatment programs for female sex offenders existed in the United Kingdom. Due to cultural attitudes about the extent to which people believe women can abuse, it is extremely difficult to ascertain estimates of sexual abuse by women worldwide. Unfortunately, this hinders the facilitation of treatment and assessment protocols around the globe. See Also: Megan’s Law; Perpetrators, Female; Rape, Incidence of; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Rape, Prosecution Rates of; Sex Offenders, Male; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Center for Sex Offender Management. Female Sex Offenders. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2007.

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Denov, M. Perspectives on Female Sex Offending: A Culture of Denial. Hampshire, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2004. Dowden, C. and D. Andrews. “What Works for Female Offenders: A Meta-Analytic Review.” Crime and Delinquency, v.45 (1999). Hunt, L. “Females Who Sexually Abuse in Organizations Working With Children: Characteristics, International, and Australian Prevalence Rates: Implications for Child Protection.” Child Wise (2006). Oliver, B. E. “Preventing Female-Perpetrated Sexual Abuse.” Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, v.8 (2007). Vandiver, D. and G. Kercher. “Offender and Victim Characteristics of Registered Female Sexual Offenders in Texas.” Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, v.16 (2004). Alissa R. Ackerman University of California, Merced

Sex Offenders, Male Since the end of the 20th century, public attention regarding sex crimes has increased dramatically. The impetus for this increase was a collection of highly publicized cases in which young children were abducted, raped, or even murdered by someone with whom they were not acquainted. This entry will provide information regarding the types of sex offenders, legislation aimed at preventing new sex crimes, treatment, and myths about the sex offender population Male sex offenders constitute a heterogeneous group of individuals whose offenses range from noncontact crimes such as exhibitionism or viewing child pornography, to contact offenses including child molestation, sexual assault, and rape. Regardless of the offense, sex offenders commit crimes for various reasons, many for nonsexual reasons. In recent years, researchers have come to understand more about the etiology of offending behavior, suggesting that many male sex offenders exhibit poor social skills and low self-esteem. In addition, researchers have created typologies to classify offenders based on common characteristics. Typologies are important because they aid in identifying people who may be predisposed to offending and to ascertain what treatment might be effective and for whom.

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Rapists Many rapists have a negative view of women. They often identify with a hypermasculine role as well. Most rapists are classified into four distinct categories: sexual, sadistic, power, and opportunistic rapists. Most experts agree that the majority of rapes are more based on nonsexual needs than sexual ones. Statutory rape occurs when an individual over the age of consent engages in sexual activity with someone who is a minor. The age of consent varies considerably around the world. In some countries, the age of consent is as young as 12, while in others it may be as high as 20. The global average age of consent is 16. Statutory rape laws raise interesting questions about the fine line between rape and consent. When a 16-year-old engages in sexual relations with a 17-yearold who is above the age of consent, did the older of the two take advantage of the younger? Romeo and Juliet laws have simplified the issue. These laws serve to reduce or eliminate the criminal penalties associated with sexual relations when the only issue is the legal inability to form consent. These laws generally apply when there is a limited age difference between the two parties and the younger party is over the age of 14. Child Molesters Many child molesters exhibit similar characteristics to rapists. They often have low self-esteem and feelings of vulnerability and may have difficulties with adult relationships. A premise in regards to a typology involves the fixated-regressed continuum. Fixated offenders are thought to have a sexual attraction to children and suffer from what is known as a paraphilia, or persistent and intense sexually arousing fantasies or urges that involve children, or nonconsenting people, or nonhuman items and often involves suffering or humiliation. Pedophilia is the persistent and intense attraction to prepubertal children, and ephebophilia is an attraction postpubescent adolescents. Fixated offenders typically exhibit paraphilic behaviors beginning in adolescence, and many have a high rate of recidivism. Only a small minority of child molesters suffer from pedophilia, but pedophilic behavior, when committed by a fixated child molester, tends to occur over long periods of time. In contrast, the majority of child molesters are regressed, meaning their primary sexual attrac-

tion is to age-mates, but their offenses stem from environmental stressors. Often their offending behavior does not begin until adulthood and tends to manifest itself with children to whom they have access. These individuals are less likely to reoffend, once treated. Child Pornography and Child Prostitution With the increased popularity of the Internet, access to pornography has become effortless. In the United States, possession, purchase, distribution, and production of child pornography are all illegal. Most Internet-based child pornography originates from Websites hosted around the globe, making it increasingly difficult to police. However, in 2008, a global cyber-policing effort, spanning five countries and three continents, uncovered one of the largest child pornography rings to date. In a secret chat room, offenders were trading images of over 400,000 children. From this global raid, 22 individuals were arrested worldwide, and 20 children were rescued from dangerous situations. As evidenced by this global effort, child pornography is a worldwide issue, and as the Internet grows, law enforcement strategies will revolutionize the way such issues are handled. Child prostitution has also become a national and international concern. Research on this subject is still lacking, but in the United States alone, it is estimated that upwards of 300,000 children are at risk of becoming exploited for child prostitution. Though seen as a social problem in the United States, in other parts of the world, sex trafficking and child sex tourism make the issue of child prostitution a pandemic. Though the number of child prostitutes varies and is difficult to estimate, estimates from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and other research shows that the numbers are quite high. For instance, in Cambodia, approximately one-third of all prostitutes are under the age of 18, while in Thailand about 40 percent of all prostitutes are children. In Peru, approximately 500,000 children are child prostitutes, and in Brazil there are estimates of child prostitution that range from as low as 250,000 to as high as 2 million. It is estimated that 1 million children per year worldwide are drawn into the sex tourism industry. Usually, the patrons of the child sex tourism industry are men who travel specifically to engage in sexual activity with minors. These men come



from all income brackets, and most originate from North America and western Europe. International efforts to stop the child prostitution industry have been unsuccessful. While some countries have written legislation making these acts illegal, they are often unenforced, especially when the perpetrator is from a foreign country. There is some evidence to suggest that law enforcement officials, corrupted by the industry, procure children for prostitution and often protect the brothels and pimps for whom these children work. The United States has passed legislation targeting sex tourists when it can be proven that the individual had the intent to engage in sexual acts with minors while traveling abroad. Noncontact Offenses Voyeurism and exhibitionism are common noncontact acts most often committed by men. Voyeurism is the act of watching or spying on someone without their consent and when they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, whether during undressing, bathing, or engaging in sexual activity. Although research suggests that voyeuristic acts can be traced back to biblical times, it is only in recent years that legislation specifically targeting this behavior has been passed. Canadian legislation passed a law criminalizing voyeurism in 2005. Nonconsensual voyeurism became illegal in the United Kingdom in 2004, and the U.S. federal government passed the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act of 2004, although many U.S. states had unlawful surveillance statutes long before this time. It is difficult to estimate the prevalence and incidence of voyeurism, mostly because it is often unknown to victims. Exhibitionism Exhibitionism is the showing of one’s genitals or private parts to a person or people who do not consent. While it is extremely difficult to estimate the number of exhibitionists, some researchers suggest that it is one of the most common sexual offenses. Interestingly, outside of North America and western Europe, it appears that exhibitionism is extremely rare, if nonexistent. However, research has yet to determine why this is the case. Myths About Male Sex Offenders It is often believed that sex offenders have a very high recidivism rate. This myth often provides the

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justification for blanket community-based policies. However, researchers estimate that the average reoffense rate for another sex offense is less than 20 percent over five years and is lower than typical recidivism rates for non–sex offenders. Because sex offenders are not all the same, recidivism rates differ depending on the sample one studies. A recent meta-analysis found that rapists had a higher reoffense rate (19 percent) when compared with child molesters (13 percent) after five years. Recidivism rates also vary by victim characteristics. One study found that individuals with extra-familial male victims have a higher re-offense rate (35 percent) than for incest offenders (9 percent). In addition, many people believe that sex crimes are increasing each year, but in actuality the rate of known rapes has decreased slightly each year since the early 1990s. It is often thought that sex offenders only commit sex crimes, but this is often not the case. In fact, research suggests that sex offenders are generalists in their criminal behavior; this would include sexually based and other crimes. For instance, a national study found that 12 percent of incarcerated rapists had previous sex crimes on their record, whereas 61 percent had a conviction for another type of felony. Community Protection Laws Regardless of the many myths surrounding this population, policies have been in place since the early 1990s that aim to protect communities from sex offenders. These laws were initially designed to target dangerous, repeat offenders, but over time the number and scope of individuals mandated to abide by such policies has dramatically increased. It is important to note that community protection laws in the United States differ significantly from those in use in other countries. While many countries utilize sex offender registries for law enforcement purposes, the United States is the only country known to emphasize community notification. Registration laws require registered sex offenders to report their address and other demographic information to local and/or state law enforcement. Community notification laws were created after citizens argued that registration was not enough to protect children. As such, state and local law enforcement agencies are required to provide notification to the public when certain sex offenders move into or reside

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in a neighborhood. Passive notification includes the Internet sex offender registries that are available online for every state. Active notification requires officials to notify communities, whether via the newspaper, knocking door-to-door, sending out letters, or placing flyers in the community. Recent legislation also includes the use of residency restrictions that deny sex offenders from living within a certain distance from places where children congregate. These sites may include schools, parks, daycare centers, malls, churches, and even school bus stops. Distances vary from 500 feet to 2,500 feet. Many sex offenders are also mandated to global positioning system (GPS) tracking allowing officials to know their whereabouts at all times. These community protection laws are rightfully justified but cost millions of dollars to enforce. Despite the well-intentioned goals of this type of legislation, there is mixed empirical evidence to suggest that it reduces recidivism. Treatment Sex offenders who attend and complete communitybased treatment are less likely to re-offend than individuals who do not. Today’s treatments include cognitive-behavioral and relapse-prevention techniques, but effectiveness depends on factors such as type of sex offender, type of treatment, and the community agencies involved in the effort. Individuals who drop out of treatment are at an increased likelihood of offending. Research on this population is nascent but growing. From what researchers have learned over the last two decades is that, while some sex offenders are extremely dangerous, the majority are not likely to reoffend, especially when provided with communitybased treatment. Current legislation is intended to assist in the prevention effort, but results on effectiveness are mixed. The field of research is still growing, but it has come a long way in understanding the etiology of offending behavior. See Also: Megan’s Law; Rape, Incidence of; Rape, Legal Definitions of; Rape, Prosecution Rates of; Sex Offenders, Female. Further Readings Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. “Reducing Sexual Abuse through Treatment and

Intervention With Abusers.” Beaverton, OR: Policy and Position Statement, 1996. Center for Sex Offender Management. “Myths and Facts about Sex Offenders.” http://www.csom.org/pubs /mythsfacts.html (accessed July 2010). Greenfeld, L. “Sex Offenses and Offenders: An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault.” Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997. Hanson, R. et al. “Predicting Relapse: A Meta-Analysis of Sexual Offender Recidivism Studies.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, v.66 (1998). U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Human Trafficking— FBI Initiatives.” http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/civilrights /trafficking_initiatives.htm (accessed July 2010). Alissa R. Ackerman University of California, Merced

Sex Workers Sex workers are individuals associated with the multibillion-dollar sex industry that encompasses live sex shows, sex shops, strip clubs, escort services, phone sex, sex tourism, massage parlors, exotic dancing, prostitution, and pornography. The sex industry is a malleable and changing sector that is influenced by political, economic, cultural, and geographic contexts. Sex work occurs in a wide range of venues that represent different activities and relationships, with differing degrees of danger, coercion, and consent. Therefore, a simplistic definition of sex work as an activity of selling sex in exchange for money, drugs, or other agreed-upon commodities fails to represent its complexity. The language used in reference to sex work varies and reflects larger societal discourses. Sex work has been described as a health issue, a sin, female oppression, exploitation, domestic violence, a choice, a crime, a lethal form of violence against women, a human rights violation, and a form of employment. Sex workers operate globally; however, because activities related to sex work are outlawed in many countries, accurate figures on numbers of individuals involved, income, types of activities, and migration patterns are imprecise. Despite the visibility of one segment of sex workers (prostitutes, who are street



workers), the majority is largely an invisible, nonhomogenous, marginalized population. The literature on sex work allots disproportional attention to some actors such a prostitutes and less to customers, managers, or transgendered workers. Sex Work Discourses The subject of sex work and sex workers is contested and diverse because the issues related to sex work and sex workers are represented by ideological and conceptual differences that shape the competing discourses. The oppression/abolitionist discourse represents sex work as a form of violence against women and the abusive exercise of men’s power over women that is characteristic of patriarchal societies. Proponents contend that genuine consent is never given for engaging in sex work because sex workers are coerced by “third parties” who exploit them for personal financial gain. Women advocates who hold this perspective object to the term sex work because it serves to mask the

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harassment, exploitation, and brutality that characterizes the relationships in this context. For this group, the term sex work implies vocational choice that misrepresents an essentially oppressive relationship as an employer–employee relationship; therefore, they oppose decriminalization of sex work. Advocates argue that although legal support of sex work might normalize the “sale of sex,” it would neither reduce the trauma and stigma faced by sex workers nor legitimize women in the sex trade. For example, they point out that in countries where prostitution is legal, contempt for women in the sex industry remains evident and acceptance of sex work does not translate to inclusion and respect of sex workers. Furthermore, by co-modifying and exploiting women and children, decriminalization would provide an enabling environment for traffickers. Their advocacy agenda supports the penalization of third parties as an important step in the abolition of the sex industry.

Sex workers demonstrating for better working conditions at the 2009 Marcha Gay in Mexico City. Despite the visibility of prostitutes who are street workers, the majority of sex workers are largely invisible, nonhomogenous and marginalized.

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Libertarian and sex workers themselves coined the terms sex work and sex workers to redefine the selling of sexual services from a psychological or social characteristic of women to a form of employment for men and women. Representing sex work as a form of employment is a necessary beginning step in advocating for human and labor rights of sex workers at a local, national, and global level. When the selling of sexual services is considered work, then those involved are empowered to articulate their needs within the legitimate context of workplace rights. Viewed from the perspective of agency, sex workers in various countries have created organizations that fight for human rights and challenge stigmatization and discriminatory laws. Because this group views sex work as a means of making a living, they support the decriminalization of sex work and argue that the selling of sexual services is not significantly different from the selling of, for example, legal or health services. The positioning of sex work as a contract for service, as inevitable, and as an exercise of free will by women in search of a vocation has resulted in many societies globally decriminalizing prostitution. Numerous arguments in support of the legalization of prostitution are offered in the literature. Criminalization drives prostitution underground and limits the ability of women to establish safe places to procure and to provide services. Decriminalization, on the other hand, facilitates societal control of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and provides safer working conditions with reduced police harassment and diminished stigma associated with women in prostitution. However, both the oppressive/abolitionist and libertarian discourse are unidimensional and fall short of representing the complexity of sex work. Sex workers operate in varying structural conditions, encounter a range of working conditions, and have various experiences in relation to satisfaction, subordination, and personal agency. Why Individuals Engage in Sex Work Historically, social and psychological theorists focused on discovering why women engage in sex work. Much of the work has been done in the area of prostitution, which is generally understood to be an abnormality precipitated by dysfunctional childhood environments. Key antecedents for women entering prostitution were broadly explored in 1980s, when female sex workers were described as possess-

ing a psychological paralysis produced by past circumstances that resulted in immobility, victimization, and feelings of hopelessness. These antecedents include poverty, childhood physical and sexual abuse, race, ethnicity, and lack of sustainable options. The racialization of prostitution is evident in indigenous First Nations women in Canada, Karen women in Thailand, and Mayan women in Mexico. Nevertheless, causal links among these factors have not been verified as necessary or sufficient reasons for females entering the sex trade. Unanswered questions remain, for it is noted that many others exposed to similar life circumstances do not engage in prostitution-related behaviors. Increasingly, sex work has developed a transnational character. Many women enter the sex trade willingly as migrant sex workers. Due to cultural, social, and employment barriers in their home countries, sex workers choose to travel globally to improve their economic status. For some, engaging in sex work offers escape from oppressive, poverty-defined home environments and an opportunity to support family members in their home countries. However, some advocates of sex workers question whether individuals freely choose sex work, because when economic opportunities within a home country are limited, transnational sex work is not a choice based on credible options but an alternative that is measured against other oppressive alternatives. Another aspect of migrant sex work is trafficking. Trafficked sex workers are individuals who are transported for profit, without their consent, and kept in sex work and/or other forms of labor by threats, blackmail, or abuse. Although reliable statistics on this group are impossible to obtain, trafficking is widely considered to be a modern-day form of slavery that is a human rights violation. Advocacy Although female sex workers are often portrayed as the “othered women” who live outside societal prescriptions of acceptable reproductive and family roles, contemporary feminists guard against denouncing sex workers because it imposes an ethnocentric bias on circumstances that are foreign to most middle-class Western feminists. Instead, advocates call for strategies that ensure safety and human rights. Attention directed to sex workers has historically been oriented toward health or social problems associated with sex

Sexting



work. Women with intense and high exposure to their clients are at high risk for rape and physical assault. Health issues include their susceptibility to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Also, women in prostitution report a profound sense of worthlessness and experience psychological symptoms such as dissociation, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, flashbacks, numbing, and irritability. Fear of arrest and social contempt are factors in these women’s reluctance to seek shelter and medical help. Women who attempt to exit sex work face numerous barriers. These include a lack of emergency services such as shelters and detoxification facilities, as well as a dearth of long-term supports such as safe long-term housing, addiction recovery centers, vocational training, peer support, outreach, and treatment for debilitating mental health issues. Women who are visible minorities frequently encounter a paucity of culturally sensitive advocacy services. Migrant sex workers face additional barriers related to immigration laws. However, regardless of the perspective, there is consensus that sex workers are an “at-risk” population who should minimally be guaranteed full human rights and supported with employment and vocational training that offers viable alternatives. See Also: Prostitution, Legal; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Bloch, A. “Victims of Trafficking or Entrepreneurial Women? Narratives of Post-Soviet Entertainers in Turkey.” Canadian Woman Studies, v.22/4 (2003). Bowen, R. From the Curb: Sex Workers Perspectives on Violence and Domestic Trafficking. Vancouver: British Columbia Coalition on Experiential Women, 2006. Raphael, J. Listening to Olivia: Violence, Poverty, and Prostitution. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2004. Trepanier, M. “Trafficking in Women for Purposes of Sexual Exploitation: A Matter of Consent?” Canadian Woman Studies, v.22/4 (2003). Weitzer, R. “Sociology of Sex Work.” Annual Review of Sociology, v.35 (2009). Constance Anne Barlow Janki Shankar University of Calgary

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Sexting As a consequence of advances in mobile technologies, people were provided the ability to send text messages via cellular telephones. As mobile technologies continued to evolve, the “texting” of images and video became readily available as well. While most messages are benign, the act of sending sexually explicit messages, images, or videos via cellular telephone has been dubbed “sexting.” The practice can be dangerous because the images are explicit and sent in real time. New technologies present opportunities to disseminate widely one’s private conversations or images, a practice in which the original party has no control. Although sexting is legal among consenting adults, the behavior among teenagers has become a significant concern. In some instances, sexting is seen as high-tech flirting, whereas in other, more disturbing scenarios, the purpose is unequivocally to harass and bully others. In either case, parents, school administrators, and law enforcement are concerned, and multiple cases have resulted in the charging of teenagers under child pornography statutes. The bringing of formal charges has stirred considerable debate over the most appropriate way to handle the issue. In 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania district attorney arguing that child pornography laws were now being utilized to prosecute the individuals they were designed to protect. In at least three states, prosecutors have charged teens for sexting. In Pennsylvania, six students were charged after three female students sent nude images to three male students. In Ohio, a female student was adjudicated an “unruly child” after texting a nude image of herself to her former boyfriend who then circulated the image around school after an argument. An Indiana teen was charged with a felony after sending an image of his genitals to female classmates. Many are concerned that the problem has progressed beyond the control of adults. However, others are not convinced. While it has been suggested that one in five high school students has sent an explicit photo, one researcher believes these claims are out of proportion. As part of the Digital Youth Report survey, C. J. Pascoe interviewed 80 teens, and stated that her findings did not equal what many others believe.

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Regardless of the actual amount of sexting that occurs, some school administrators and lawmakers believe that legislation has not caught up with advances in technology, and many do not believe that the act of consensual sexting should result in the teens having the label sex offender placed on them. Efforts to streamline the two have begun, and numerous states have initiated changes in legal statutes to decriminalize the use of sexting among teens. In 2009, Vermont, Ohio, and Utah began changing legislation to decriminalize consensual texting among teens. See Also: Adolescence; Crime Victims, Female; Megan’s Law; Pedophilia Online; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in; Pornography Produced by Women; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings American Civil Liberties Union. “ACLU Sues Wyoming County D.A. for Threatening Teenage Girls With Child Pornography Charges Over Photos Of Themselves.” http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/aclu -sues-wyoming-county-da-threatening-teenage-girls -child-pornography-charg (accessed January 2010). Associated Press, “Utah Lawmakers OK Bill on ‘Sexting.’” http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5823252 (accessed January 2010). Irvine, Martha. “Porn Charges for ‘Sexting’ Stir Debate.” Associated Press. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id /29017808 (accessed January 2010). The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com. “Sex and Tech: Results From a Survey of Teens and Young Adults.” http://www .thenationalcampaign.org/sextech/PDF/SexTech _Summary.pdf (accessed January 2010). Alissa R. Ackerman University of California

Sexual Harassment Sexual harassment is now understood as a social problem embedded in notions of intimidation and power between individuals in the workplace. These defining characteristics properly frame sexual harassment outside of any discussion of innocent misun-

derstanding, misplaced expressions of attraction, or simple gender differences. In the earliest articulations of sexual harassment, before a definitive legal standard was set in the mid1980s, incidents of sexual harassment were most often described in terms of the power differences attributed to males and females in the public sphere of the labor market as well as the domestic sphere of home and hearth. Within this theoretical frame, sexual harassment most often becomes an issue whenever a woman’s work is adversely impacted by employers, coworkers, or even subordinates who inappropriately regard her as an object of sexual attention rather than a colleague in the workplace. The study of sexual harassment from a social science or humanities standpoint tends to differ from the legal standpoint because of these particular details. The issues of accountability and personal agency differ across these fields, and the consequences under the law are much more concrete in application, certainly, than the more philosophical-oriented discourses often found in purely academic literature and research. Nonetheless, sexual harassment continues to be largely defined and understood as an issue of discrimination of men toward women, and under the law, it is, more often than not, interpreted using male experience as a reference. Over the years, however, sexual harassment has come to be more properly understood as a twisted implementation of power directed against an individual regardless of gender or sexuality, thus making it clear that sexual harassment occurs whenever inappropriately sexual conduct complained of is sufficiently “severe, pervasive, and unwelcome” in nature as it occurs in the workplace or under the auspices of a relationship governed by workplace dynamics, as was articulated in the landmark case Meritor v. Vinson in 1986. Sexual Harassment in Law and Public Policy On a national level, the public debates surrounding political celebrities such as former Senator Robert Packwood, former U.S. President William J. Clinton, and current presiding U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas shed light on what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace, or at least which behaviors are not considered appropriate for the workplace and could lead someone to be sanc-



tioned for such behavior. Sexual harassment in the workplace is a specific form of sex discrimination that specifically violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Claims of sexual harassment in schools must be asserted under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that schools have an obligation under Title IX to prevent and address harassment against students, whether perpetrated by peers or by employees of the school system. In those instances where the plight of female sexual harassment victims has been purposefully given consideration, the focus has quite often been on the issues of credibility and consent on the part of the female victim rather than a pointed examination of the behavior of male offenders and the institutions that have been socially constructed, such that they may be said to foster incidents of sexual harassment. This is why so much of the research and writing on this subject uses the language of individuals having been “targeted” for sexual harassment. This language emphasizes both the unequal power dynamics inherent in sexual harassment as well as the purposeful nature of the offense. Thus, the overriding theme in most of the literature to be found on sexual harassment shares the common theme that sexual harassment is behavior that is unwelcome or unsolicited, sexual in nature, and is deliberate or repeated. The “Reasonable Woman” Standard One question that has arisen on this issue is whether we should focus on the woman’s view or that of the alleged male offender in cases assessing complaints of sexual harassment. This is called the “reasonable woman” standard, as set forth by the Ninth Circuit Court in the case Ellison v. Brady in 1991. This standard advances the argument that sexual harassment can only be accurately understood from a woman’s perspective, which is necessarily different from a man’s perception of how this behavior is actually experienced, moving attention away from any defense asserting how well intentioned or innocuous the behavior at issue was. The “reasonable woman” standard has been criticized for several reasons, one of which is that there is no universal understanding of a woman’s experience and, therefore, this standard cannot be fairly applied in all cases of sexual harassment.

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In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, the Supreme Court of the United States outlined two circumstances when sexual harassment may be legally recognized. The first is called “quid pro quo” sexual harassment. This involves a grant or denial of benefits rendered based upon an employee’s response to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and so forth. To successfully make this claim, a woman who has been sexually harassed must be able to demonstrate a substantive connection between some type of negative occupational result and her refusal to submit to a supervisor’s sexual advances. Hostile or Abusive Working Environments The second circumstance that may give rise to a claim of sexual harassment is an employee’s contention that “discrimination based upon sex has created a hostile or abusive working environment,” as stated in Meritor. As such, sexual harassment can be perpetrated by either coworkers or supervisors, because to commit this type of harassment, the actor need have no greater power in the workplace than the victim. Donald Petersen and Douglas Massengill have explained that there is no direct threat by a supervisor that the victim will lose a position, pay, or benefits in a hostile environment harassment claim. Meritor is most celebrated, then, for the Court’s ruling regarding hostile environment sexual harassment. This landmark case shifted the burden to respondents accused of sexual harassment having to explain their behavior without forcing complainants to provide tangible evidence beyond the complaint of having their working environment tainted to such an extent that he or she was unable to properly perform his or her duties of employment. This change in the standard of proof would seem to have been made with an understanding that occurrences of sexual harassment are, more often than not, a subjective assessment of events because the behavior at issue is most likely to occur in circumstances in which there may be few witnesses to the incident(s) except the perpetrator and the victim and individuals may differ as to how one should interpret the events at issue. The Court’s ruling was quite specific in articulating the standard of workplace dynamics that were unacceptable, therefore successfully shifting the focus back to how individuals are to behave toward one another in the workplace, eschewing the personal relationships of the respondents at issue.

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This case also presented a clearly articulated standard of behavior for employers to enforce and effectively implement to avoid being held liable for the behavior of their employees under the auspices of their employment contracts. Legal doctrine since 1990 has further clarified the standards articulated in Meritor by finding employers liable for the action of coworkers that result in hostile environment working conditions for both female and male workers (Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 in 1998; Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742 in 1998, and Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. 523 U.S. 75 in 1998. More recently in 2002, the Ninth Circuit case of Rene v. MGM Grand Hotel, Inc., considered the issue of same-sex claims of sexual harassment predicated on the basis of sexuality. Medina Rene claimed that he had been sexually harassed by male coworkers because he was gay. Although this case was summarily dismissed by a district court judge, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed this decision, ruling that “Title VII forbids offensive touching (a physical assault of a sexual nature) whether the attack is performed by members of the same sex or by members of the opposite sex.” This court also held, however, that “a person’s sexual orientation is irrelevant to the analysis.” The U.S. Supreme Court chose not to consider this case in 2002. Sexual Harassment in Academic Research Most existing research on sexual harassment in the labor market focuses largely upon gender and power dynamics as they manifest themselves within the workplace. The elements of gender, class, race, age, marital status, and occupation emerge as particularly relevant to any serious study of sexual harassment in the labor market as well. One explanation for sexual harassment behaviors posits that such incidents are extreme expressions of gender dominance in the workplace. This explanation for sexual harassment is based upon gender socialization that characterizes men as aggressive or dominant and women who are expected to be submissive or nonassertive as agents in the workplace. According to this perspective, sexual harassment is about power—gaining power or retaining power over subordinates by those in positions of authority. Moreover, this theoretical framework highlights the means by which men in privileged positions have reinforced their privilege and, as Irene Padavic and James Orcutt

have argued, “maintained dominance over women at work and in society more generally.” In short, sexual harassment is intended as a pejorative check on women’s agency in the workplace. The second explanation for sexual harassment one will find in much of the research and writing on this topic utilizes the theoretical framework of sex-role spillover. This explanation, first articulated by Barbara Gutek, advances the theory that a woman is perceived only in relation to her socially prescribed gender role in whatever occupation she may be pursuing, particularly in the face of male-gendered occupational norms. The sex-role spillover explanation of sexual harassment locates the main crux of this social problem in the carryover into the workplace of gender-based, and therefore female-subordinating, expectations. In this context, men perceive women solely in terms of their gendered status in society and, therefore, experience resentment because women are perceived as violating the public sphere dominated by men, having wrongfully left their proper role in the domestic sphere. One manifestation of this ideological stance is occupational segregation, that is, women are relegated to occupations that accentuate their ascribed status as caretakers in society. This theoretical explanation for sexual harassment behaviors is most applicable to the hostile environment harassment scenario because it highlights the ways in which the actual performance of a woman’s job is made more difficult by the very occupational beliefs and practice we have sanctioned as acceptable organizational practices and policies, which arguably exist apart from the workers themselves. Each of these cases provide evidence that women who are in male-dominated professions are most likely to be targeted for sexual harassment because they have most encroached upon the public sphere (in comparison to those women in traditionally female occupations in the public sphere) that has, heretofore, been dominated by men and constructed with the values and identity politics of male values in mind. The current literature on sexual harassment that takes place within specific organizations and differing workplace environments seeks to answer questions related to institutional forces that may foster or inhibit incidents of sexual harassment. Several studies also seek to identify those factors endemic to organizational structure that may perpetuate conditions which allow sexual harassment behaviors to flourish;



for example, the gendered nature of particular jobs or the workplace setting overall. Survey studies of sexual harassment are largely based upon scenarios described to students and/or employees that seek to ascertain what scenarios, in their collective opinion, constitute sexual harassment. Studies such as this have established that (1) women are more apt to be sensitive to and distinguish acts of sexual harassment from mere gender discrimination than men, (2) women are likely to identify more serious forms of sexual harassment than men, and (3) that both of these seem to be the case regardless of age. Sexual harassment continues to be a social problem that receives prolific treatment in the legal arena and in scholarly studies of the workplace. There is still much to be learned about sexual harassment as we seek to find ways to curtail its occurrence in the workplace, in schools, and in public policy considerations. We should continue to ensure that academics and lawyers continue to work in concert as we seek to understand all of the facets which both foster discourage the targeting of persons for sexual harassment. See Also: Bullying in the Workplace; Sex Offenders, Male; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States. Further Readings Baird, Carol L., et al. “Gender Influence on Perceptions of Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment.” Psychology Reports, v.77 (1995). Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742 (1998). Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, 67 U.S.L.W. 4329 (1999). Ellison v. Brady, 924 F.2d 872 (9th Cir. 1991). Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998). Flax, J. The American Dream in Black and White: The Clarence Thomas Hearings. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District, 524 U.S. 274 (1998). Gutek, Barbara A. Sex and the Workplace. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 1985. Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17 (1993). Henson v. Dundee, 682 F.2d 897 (1982). Jones v. Clinton. U.S. District Court, Arkansas, Western Division (1997).

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Juliano, Ann C. “Did She Ask for It: The ‘Unwelcome’ Requirement in Sexual Harassment Cases.” Cornell Law Review, v.77 (1992). Kohlman, Marla H. “Spotlight: Anita Hill, Feminist Praxis Today and Yesterday.” In Karen O’Connor, ed., Gender and Women’s Leadership: A Reference Handbook, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2010. MacKinnon, Catharine A. and Reva B. Siegel. Directions in Sexual Harassment Law. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986). MGM Grand Hotel, LLC v. Medina Rene, 538 U.S. 922 (2003). Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. 523 U.S. 75 (1998). Padavic, Irene, and James D. Orcutt. “Perceptions of Sexual Harassment in the Florida Legal System.” Gender & Society (October 1997). Paludi, M. and C. A. Paludi, Jr. Academic and Workplace Sexual Harassment. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Petersen, D. and D. Massengill. “Same Sex Sexual Harassment: Is It Actionable Under the Civil Rights Act?” Journal of Individual Employment Rights, v.5.2 (1996). Rene v. MGM Grand Hotel Inc, 305 F.3d 1061 (2002). Stockdale, Margaret S. “What We Know and What We Need to Learn About Sexual Harassment.” In Margaret Stockdale, ed., Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996. Marla H. Kohlman Kenyon College

Sexual Orientation Sexual orientation typically describes an individual’s emotional and/or physical attraction to others with respect to sex or gender. Generally accepted to refer to an individual’s exclusive attraction to men, women, or both, academic studies often reflect that sexual orientation is better represented as a dynamic continuum in which individuals may be attracted to a particular person in a given situation regardless of gender. Women who date and/or have sex exclusively with other women often identify as “lesbian,” although sometimes the more general “gay” is used. Women who are attracted to both men and women consider themselves

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“bisexual,” although they may also identify themselves as straight or lesbian, depending on the situation. Ideas regarding female sexual orientation vary around the world. There’s also a greater acceptance for women’s various sexual identities. Still, scores of conservative activists stand in staunch opposition to rights based on sexual orientation, especially in Western cultures where ideas of sexuality are more open to debate. Many cultural critics and feminist scholars contend attacks made on alternative sexualities are based on gender biases toward women. Because discrimination regarding nonheterosexual identity is often viewed as a form of social control over women and their sexuality—or, in the case of men, a form of control aimed at keeping them from behaving in a womanly manner—some sex researchers have recently advanced arguments that women’s sexual experiences and desires are key to understanding sexual orientation from a scientific perspective. The History of the Idea of “Sexual Orientation” When the term sexual orientation was first coined in an anonymous German pamphlet in 1869, it referred to a particular type of man who was oriented toward sex with other men. Although homosexuality existed prior to the argument presented in the pamphlet, it was not widely held that “homosexual” was an identity category similar to race or sex. Instead, same-sex activity was either not conceived of at all or was seen as something any person was capable, depending on the culture. The term lesbian is believed to have originated in 1890, but not as an identity category. It was, rather, an adjective for a type of erotic stimulation in which some women engaged. By the 1920s, the word became commonly used as an identity category, especially in Western cultures. This reconceptualization of homosexuality was largely accepted by mental health communities in Europe and the United States and was processed as a mental disorder for men. Women’s sexuality was largely ignored, as females were not seen as having any kind of sexual orientation—even though gender identity disorders, conceived of as biological females unnaturally behaving as men, were recognized. The idea of female sexuality began to change in the 1920s in many parts of the world, and notions that women have sexual orientations, whether they are negatively or positively accepted, continue to advance today.

While a variety of cultural events around the world have continued to advance the rights of nonstraight individuals, perhaps one of the most significant advances in sexual identity understanding came when the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its list of disorders in 1973. This action was encouraged, in part, by studies from Dr. Alfred Kinsey demonstrating that same-sex sexual behavior was more common than previously believed. Dr. Kinsey’s findings had worldwide implications and mild effects on public policy in the United States, which is still viewed by many European countries as old-fashioned in its sexual beliefs. Women and Sexual Orientation Around the World Cultural perceptions of women and their sexual orientations—if women are considered by a culture to have a sexual orientation at all—continue to vary. For example, in many Middle Eastern countries, homosexual acts by men are considered crimes punishable by death. In comparison, people in these cultures are largely unaware that lesbianism exists and often have a hard time conceptualizing the notion of two women living together and being life partners. Still, this can vary widely by country. For instance, in Pakistan, women are allowed to have intimate relationships with other women so long as they don’t intrude upon their wifely duties; women are expected to take a husband. In some African nations, such as Nigeria, Kenya, and Cameroon, women are allowed to marry other women, but it is understood that one of the women in the relationship will take on a masculine role. In other African countries, such as Lesotho, same-sex sexual behavior is not seen as sexual at all since a penis is not involved. While sexual orientation in some African nations result in violence against lesbian women, including rape, other countries on the continent are quite progressive on the subject and accepting of the women. In fact, the South African government was the first country in the world to acknowledge sexual orientation as a protected classification. In most Asian countries, homosexuality is strongly discouraged and is often hidden, even where it is legal. Homosexuality, though, is seen largely as a male construct, with India and China both particularly resistant to the idea that women



Sexual Orientation: Scientific Theories of Causation

may have nonheterosexual leanings. Japan, however, has acknowledged lesbianism on a social level since the 1920s. Many citizens in Japan and India, though, believe sexual orientation to be a symptom of Western imperialism. Japanese feminist movements often debate the necessity or obligation of including sexual orientation as part of their mission. Attitudes and perceptions toward women’s sexual orientation in South America vary widely across the continent, although some cultures acknowledge dual genders that may lead to dual sexual attractions. Western Cultures and Conceptions of Sexual Orientation Historians and social scientists tend to agree that the meaning of “sexual orientation” seems to be in flux in Western cultures. Social and political movements aimed at sexual equality continue to represent sexual orientation as a fixed-identity category. In stark contrast, scholars are generating research findings suggesting sexual orientation, especially for women, is not a simple matter. Queer activists advance similar arguments about sexual relativity and fluidity, even if they are not always based upon the same evidence generated by scientists. Still, all three groups would likely agree that sexual orientation is a social construct used to make sense of other people than it is a true representation of attraction, desire, and relational tendencies. Some advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) rights argue this is a dangerous stance, especially since conservative movements that seek to prevent same-sex relational rights posit that homosexuality is a choice and against religious doctrine. Cultural critics have noted that similar arguments derived from religious doctrine have been used to justify racism and sexism. The current debate that continues in Western cultures is viewed as important to sexual orientation worldwide, since Western countries are seen as driving movements regarding sexual orientation. In many Third World countries, notions of diverse sexualities are introduced through activists or philanthropists visiting their nations. Western countries generate virtually all research about sexual orientation and gender identity, influencing social and political forces in other cultures. Feminist scholars have argued that too much of this

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research is male focused and that it does not address the antiwoman biases that accompany rejection of nonheterosexual orientations. The scholars believe that the topic of female sexual desire has been and continues to be stifled, minimized, confused, or understudied. These contentions play out in many cultural practices, including “lesbian chic”—the idea that two women having physical relations is stimulating to heterosexual men—or “heteroflexible assumption”— masculine ideas that women can be turned straight or that lesbians, more so than gay male behavior, is temporary or the result of emotional angst. Cultural critics largely agree, however, that the next few decades will likely see many prejudices and assumptions fade as acceptance of diverse sexual orientations becomes more prominent worldwide. See Also: Bisexuality; Coming Out; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Heterosexuality; Lesbians. Further Readings Altman, D. Global Sex. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Diamond, L. M. Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2008. Drushel, B. and K. German, eds. Queer Identities/Political Realities. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge, 2009 Garnets, L. D. and D. C. Kimmel, eds. Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Experiences, 2nd Ed. New York: Columbia University, 2003. Miller, N. Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History From 1869 to the Present. New York: Advocate, 2008. Jimmie Manning Northern Kentucky University

Sexual Orientation: Scientific Theories of Causation Although causal theories of sexual orientation generally fall into two categories, biological/genetic and social/environmental, sexual orientation, as a complex, multidimensional construct, cannot be

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explained fully by either alone. Most theories are constrained by their operational definitions of sexual orientation (e.g., self-identification, sexual attraction, and/or sexual activity); evidence that sexual orientation is fluid, especially for women; and their emphasis on explaining homosexuality rather than heterosexuality, often grouping homosexuality and bisexuality together. Although women’s sexual orientation has been the focus of scholarship, theories tend to focus on men’s sexual orientation. Genetic Theories There are some interesting genetic theories about sexual orientation. These include homosexual men report more brothers who are homosexual than do heterosexual men and homosexual women report more sisters who are homosexual than do heterosexual women. Moreover, homosexual relatives of homosexual men and women tend to be from the maternal side, suggesting that homosexuality is X-chromosome linked, and some research reports greater maternalline fecundity for homosexual than heterosexual men. Twin studies report sexual orientation concordance rates of 20–60 percent; concordance rates for monozygotic twins reared separately are similar to those for monozygotic twins raised together. Biological theories highlight the relationship between prenatal hormones like androgens on early sexual differentiation of the brain and later sex-typed behavior such as gender nonconformity and homosexual orientation. Specifically, high prenatal androgen exposure is thought to be associated with homosexuality in women and heterosexuality in men, whereas low androgen exposure is associated with homosexuality in men and heterosexuality in women. Possibly the most studied are people with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), which involves excessive prenatal testosterone production and consequent genital masculinization in genetic females. Longitudinal research demonstrates that girls with CAH display more maletypical toy preferences, play, and behaviors than nonCAH girls. One review of 18 studies from 1968 to 2007 found that homosexual and bisexual orientations were greater in women with CAH compared to non-CAH control groups, although most CAH women identified themselves as heterosexual. When orientation was specified as erotic imagery and sexual activity, greater homosexual and bisexual erotic imagery was evidenced

in CAH compared to non-CAH women. Other conditions investigated include Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and 5α-Reductase Deficiency. Parental Influence Prenatal androgen influence on sexual orientation also has been investigated indirectly by testing for differences on physiological markers associated with prenatal androgen exposure. Markers include 2D:4D finger-length ratios, handedness, dermatoglyphics, autoacoustic emissions, and waist-to-hip ratios. For example, although ethnicity, height, method of measurement, and hand are important moderating factors, generally speaking, homosexual Caucasian women tend to show smaller right-hand 2D:4D ratios (typical of heterosexual men) than their heterosexual counterparts, and homosexual Caucasian men tend to display larger 2D:4D ratios (typical of heterosexual women) than their heterosexual counterparts. A review of 20 studies found that both homosexual men and women display higher rates of nonrighthandedness than heterosexual men and women, respectively, although the relationship appears stronger in women than in men. Moreover, homosexual men show higher rates of nonrighthandedness and extreme righthandedness than heterosexual men. This relationship is complicated by recent evidence of an interaction between handedness and the fraternal birth order effect (i.e., homosexual men tend to report a larger number of older brothers than do heterosexual men). Here, nonrighthandedness and homosexual orientation appears restricted to men with no or few older brothers, whereas the presence of older brothers increases the odds of homosexual orientation predominantly among men with moderate righthandedness. Explanations include the role of androgen receptor gene deficiencies associated with men’s nonrighthandedness and the maternal immune system on homosexual orientation. According to this theory, the mother’s immune system enacts a reaction against male-typical differentiation of the fetus’s brain, specifically, the hypothalamus, which increases homosexual orientation for each successive male fetus. Early postmortem studies demonstrate smaller interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus in homosexual than heterosexual men, a site animal research suggests is important in sexual behavior.



Social and Environmental Theories Social/environmental theories of sexual orientation range from psychoanalytic to social learning in nature. Dr. Sigmund Freud believed that all humans were bisexual to start but early experiences with parents influenced later homosexual or heterosexual orientation, primarily because of a domineering mother or an absent dominant father. More contemporary advocates emphasize external stressors, inadequate parenting, or same-sex role modeling as causes of homosexual orientation, although there is little evidence to supports this view. There also is little evidence that parental sexual orientation influences a child’s preferences. Learning theories stress rewards and reinforcement for early same-sex sexual encounters, especially at the time when sexual exploration occurs. More contemporary social theorists stress the role of gender nonconformity as a significant predictor of adult homosexual orientation, which has been linked to genetic and biological factors, as noted above. Daryl Bem’s Exotic Becomes Erotic theory suggests that biological factors such as prenatal hormones influence childhood temperament rather than sexual orientation and that temperament leads to conforming or nonconforming gender behavior. Gender-conforming children feel differently from opposite sex peers, and gender-nonconforming children feel differently from same-sex peers, which generates significant arousal that later becomes erotic in nature. Retrospective research demonstrates that homosexual men and women report feeling differently from same-sex peers in childhood, and personality research suggests varying degrees of gender nonconformity among homosexual and bisexual people. However, this inversion hypothesis is rejected by other social environmental theories, especially those explaining women’s sexual orientation. Here researchers opt for a multiple-pathways perspective, drawing attention to the exclusivity of gender and sexuality, the indirect role of biology, the influence of higher education on homosexual experiences, lifespan changes, and sociocultural forces that determine how women’s sexuality is experienced. See Also: Bisexuality; Coming Out; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Heterosexuality; Lesbians; Sexual Orientation.

Sexual Orientation and Race

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Further Readings Bem, Daryl. “Exotic Becomes Erotic: A Developmental Theory of Sexual Orientation.” Psychological Review, v.103/2 (1996). Ellis, Lee and Ashley Ames. “Neurohormonal Functioning and Sexual Orientation: A Theory of HomosexualityHeterosexuality.” Psychological Bulletin, v.101/2 (1987). Peplau, Leticia and Linda Garnets. “A New Paradigm for Understanding Women’s Sexuality and Sexual Orientation.” Journal of Social Issues, v.56/2 (2000). C. Werhun University of Winnipeg

Sexual Orientation and Race Sexual orientation and race are social identities that matter. Both identities often influence perceptions of who a person is and what a person does or should do. Both can motivate discrimination from others, and both are contextual. For example, a woman may pass as straight in one place and time, bisexual in another, and as a lesbian in another; Hispanic in one context, Native American in another, and Caucasian in another. Sexual orientation and race also intersect in complex and indefinite ways. For instance, “gay” is sometimes referred to as a “white” label denoting sexual orientation. One reason for this denotation is that, in the United States, “gay marriage” and economic equality are often positioned as the most pressing issues for all same-sex desiring persons. However, these are often the most pressing issues for privileged, often white, gay persons. Consequently, other issues are overshadowed and disregarded because of the focus on marriage and economic equality—issues like racism, religion, homophobia, immigration, and homelessness. A White Label Another reason gay is sometimes considered a white label is that for many white people, sexual orientation is contingent upon object choice—for example, a man intimate with another man must be gay; with a woman, straight; and with men and women, bisexual. However, members of other races, particularly African American, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern populations,

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treat sexual orientation as not stemming from object choice but rather the position played in an intimate sexual encounter. For instance, a man who sexually penetrates a man is not necessarily gay (or homosexual), particularly because the man assumes an active, dominant role. However, the man being penetrated may be considered gay, because he assumes a passive, feminized role. Among these races, the dominant and masculine “penetrator” is, or could easily identify as, heterosexual. What makes this view of sexual orientation and race fascinating is that a man’s self-identification of sexual orientation—“I am heterosexual”— can be conceived of differently by persons of different races based on his intimate acts with others (e.g., for some races, the penetrator is gay because of object choice; for other races, the penetrator is heterosexual because of role played). In this example, there are also devaluing assumptions about sex and gender as gayness is marked by passivity, femininity, and weakness, whereas the penetrator is “safe” from such ascriptions by being masculine and dominant. Coming Out Coming out of the closet—disclosing a same-sex sexual orientation—can function differently depending on race as well. Coming out often happens when a person says, “I am gay or a lesbian,” when a person engages in intimate affairs with another person of the same sex, or when a person assumes a particular position in a sexual act. However, the statement “I will never get married [to someone of the other sex]” might indicate, for others, that the person possesses same-sex desire, for example, a woman who says “I will never get married” can indicate, for others, that she is a lesbian. And such assessment may be tied to race: it seems that white women—the founders of feminism—have created social spaces in which they can live free of being attached to men. However, women of other races (e.g., Hispanic, Middle Eastern) may still be perceived as being tied to men and the institution of marriage, not only out of religious and cultural obligation but also because feminism is predominantly a white philosophy and movement. The Afro-Latino phenomenon of “machismo” illustrates ways in which sexual orientation and race can intersect as well. This phenomenon stems from racial and ethnic contexts that position men as the undisputed authorities of familial units, as the ones who

make decisions, serve as the sole financial contributors, and exert authority over other family members. These men must also be heterosexual—that is, able to love, marry, protect, and/or procreate with someone of the opposite sex. A man who does not demonstrate such traits or who does not find persons of the opposite sex attractive may thus be marked as weak and inferior. Consequently, same sex–desiring men who reside in such Afro-Latino contexts may have different experiences of sexual orientation than men who do not come from similar situations. The machismo phenomenon implicates women as well. In Afro-Latino contexts, women may be relegated to a necessary-but-secondary role in a family. They may not have a legitimate voice in decision making, be able to work outside the home, or be able to refuse servicing men. Additionally, women—should they be unable to marry a man or demonstrate maternal characteristics (e.g., childrearing)—may be evaluated as selfish by choosing to not contribute to family lineage or inferior by not being able to establish a relationship with a man. See Also: Bisexuality; Coming Out; Critical Race Feminism; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Heterosexuality; Lesbians; Sexual Orientation; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States. Further Readings Asencio, M., ed. Latina/o Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010. Battle, J. and S. L. Barnes, eds. Black Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010. Hawley, J. C., ed. Postcolonial, Queer: Theoretical Intersections. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Lester, T., ed. Gender Nonconformity, Race, and Sexuality. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002. Yoshino, K. Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights. New York: Random House, 2006. Tony E. Adams Gerardo Moreno Northeastern Illinois University



Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States

Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States The discriminations faced by homosexuals and bisexuals in many member countries of the European Union (EU) are highlighted by the Council of Europe and other organizations. A turning point in the fight against discriminations happened in 1997, based on sexual orientation in Europe, due to the fact that, thanks to the amendments to the EC Treaty, this ground of discrimination was introduced in the EU-binding legislation (specifically the Council Directive 2000/78/EC of November 27, 2000, establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation). The implementation of this Directive in the 27 member states should grant minimum standards of protection against direct and indirect discriminations based on sexual orientation. In implementing the above-mentioned directive, member states went, in many cases, beyond the areas of employment, banning discriminations also in the access to public goods and services, housing, and social benefits. Nonetheless, a recent study on homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, accomplished by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency following the request from the European Parliament, elicits that still many differences occur in treatment and protection by the law for homosexuals and bisexuals. For example, due to the fact that samesex couples are still excluded from having marriage rights in many EU member states, unequal treatment of same-sex couples often occurs. This discrimination urges the EU institutions to clarify the situation regarding the rights and benefits provided for spouses and partners under the 2004/38/ EC Free Movement Directive of April 29, 2004, on the right of citizens of the European Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States; the 2003/86/EC Family Reunification Directive of September 22, 2003, on the right to family reunification; and the 2004/83/EC Qualification Directive of April 29, 2004, on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third-country nationals, stateless persons as refugees, or as persons who otherwise need international protection and the content of the protection granted.

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In spite of the harmonization of EU antidiscrimination laws in all member states, the freedom of expression of homosexuals is still restricted in some countries, where gay marches were not authorized by politicians, as happened in Poland in the early 21st century. In non-EU-eastern European and Balkan countries, the situation of sexual orientation– based legal discrimination is very controversial and could be ameliorated by the entry into the European Union, because antidiscrimination laws are a key element of the acquis communautaire. Homosexuality has gradually become legal since the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and, where existing, so-called sodomy laws have been abolished (e.g., Russia). Same-sex marriages are banned in all these countries. In some of them (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia) some discriminations based on sexual orientation have started being punished by governments. Africa In Africa, there are very different legislations across countries. In most African states, homosexual acts are illegal and punished with imprisonment, while only a few of the remaining ones do not discriminate toward homosexuality and consider it legal. For example, in 1996 South Africa passed the first constitution in the world protecting sexual orientation and, in 2005 marriage rights were extended to same-sex couples. Moreover all antihomosexual discriminations are explicitly banned in South Africa, Mozambique, Réunion, and Mauritius. In South Africa and in Réunion, homosexuals are also allowed to serve in the military. On the contrary, almost in the same period, the Nigerian government discriminated against both same-sex marriage and any form of advocacy of gays and lesbians, making the situation of homosexuals’ defenders very critical. In addition, in North Africa there has been an increasing criminalization of homosexuality over the last several years. It is worth noting that male homosexuality is sometimes the only punished case or, at least, it is punished harsher than the female one or a different evidence system is applied. Nongovernmental organizations point out that discriminations in these countries happen in almost every field of life, and harassment by the police is also worrying. Even if penalties are harsher in those

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countries where a restricted version of the Shari`a is enforced (up to 14 years of prison and even death penalty and lashes), in many states the discriminatory laws are secular and have colonial origins. The same remarks can be made for the Middle East states as well, for example, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, where homosexual acts can still be punished with the death penalty. Asia In south Asia, India and Nepal do not consider homosexuality as a crime anymore, respectively since 2009 and 2007. Additionally, the Nepalese Supreme Court extended discrimination laws to homosexuals. In east Asia, with the exception of North Korea, homosexuality is legal, but antidiscrimination laws are nonexisistent. An attempt to introduce sexual orientation among the protected discrimination grounds failed in South Korea in 2007 under the pressure of the Protestant church. The Americas In most parts of Central and South America, homosexuality is legal. In some states only male homosexuality is punished, as, for example, is the case in Jamaica and Belize. Even if same-sex marriages are banned in almost all countries, a more tolerant attitude is slowly coming into being. This happened, for example, in Uruguay, which was the first Latin American country to recognize same-sex relationships by law at the national level in 2008. Many states (e.g., Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay) have introduced national sexual orientation–based antidiscrimination laws. The quick overview provided above can offer an understanding of the current situation regarding same-sex–based legal discrimination. It leads to the conclusion that in many countries, homosexuality is still considered illegal and punished harshly in instances where so-called sodomy laws persist and public order regulations are (mis)used for prosecuting homosexuals. This is particularly the case for male homosexuality. Regarding female homosexuality, a side effect of these legislations is the practice of forced marriages. When examining the legislations of the rest of the countries, where same-sex orientation is not criminalized and they do not have explicitly legal–based discriminations, only a minority of them has enforced pieces of law banning direct and indirect

discriminations. It goes without saying that this gap makes it extremely difficult to enforce equality and to effectively tackle discriminations based on sexual orientation. See Also: Sexual Harassment; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation– Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States. Further Readings European Union Fundamental Rights Agency. “Homophobia and Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation in the EU Member States Part I - Legal Analysis, 2008. http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite /research/publications/publications_per_year/2008/pub _cr_homophobia_0608_en.htm (accessed June 2010). Human Rights Watch. “Together, Apart. Organizing around Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Worldwide.” 2009. http://www.hrw.org/en/reports /2009/06/10/together-apart (accessed June 2010). Barbara Giovanna Bello University of Milano

Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States Since the late 19th century, American federal and state governments, the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, psychiatrists, and social conservatives have attempted to restrain same-sex desire, known pejoratively as sodomy and homosexuality. Homosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals were oftentimes under investigation by police, psychiatrists, and courts. Only late in the 20th century did supportive communities overturn harmful labels and challenge the legal punishments and social stigmas imposed by unsupportive heterosexuals. In early-20th-century Times Square in New York City, working- and middle-class men nurtured shortterm sexual relationships, but their intimacy was threatened when the mayor and councilors ordered police to arrest men caught in same-sex liaisons. The



Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: United States

encounters were considered sodomy and were illegal in the state. Although culprits were rarely convicted, gays faced loss of employment and emotional ties to their families if their names appeared in the newspaper. Psychiatrists researched same-sex sexuality, and from 1880 to 1920, homosexuality was diagnosed as gender inversion—those who acted on homosexual impulses were deemed deficient in their understanding of gender norms. Gender inversion gave way to a discourse of homosexuality as a mental illness in the 1920s; psychiatrists listed it as a disorder until 1973. Sodomy had been illegal in the Army and Navy since 1889, but before World War II, only a handful of convictions had been handed down—the military had to convene a court martial in cases of suspected sodomy, and the accused were innocent until proven guilty. From 1943 until the end of World War II, however, soldiers caught or suspected of homosexuality were sent immediately to military hospitals, were dishonorably discharged, and lost their veterans’ benefits—47,000 personnel were discharged in this manner. In the 1950s Cold War political climate, the federal government considered homosexuals vulnerable to blackmail and involvement with communists. Similar to what the military had done in the 1940s, the federal government terminated suspected homosexual civil servants. The police waited in notable gay meeting places or cruising areas in cities to arrest individuals engaged in same-sex activity, and although a charge for cruising rarely went to trial or was convicted, it did result in an arrest record, which could lead to dismissal from employment, eviction by unsympathetic superintendents, and severance of emotional ties to family and friends. In the 1960s, the police and mafia controlled gay bars and restaurants through a system of bribes and payoffs. These spaces were thus vulnerable to raids, especially during elections, when politicians seeking election or reelection ordered these ghettos “cleaned up” as part of a larger agenda of “getting tough on crime and criminal behavior.” As with being arrested in the park, an arrest in a gay bar endangered one’s career and family ties. Resistance to state sanctions was steadily growing, however, culminating in the June 28, 1969, raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The raid triggered organized resistance from patrons and led to an unprecedented number of public displays of solidarity in the following year.

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Support Through Activism In the aftermath of Stonewall, LGBT individuals forged activist ties, working to decriminalize sodomy in state laws, pass laws prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment, and lobby for investigation of police forces and liquor authorities. The justice system, however, resisted attempts by lesbians and gays litigating in divorce proceedings to seek custody and visitation rights, and in 1977, the first public rumblings of resistance to LGBT activism occurred after the passage of Miami’s Gay Rights Ordinance. Singer Anita Bryant entered antigay activism with her “Save the Children” campaign, designed with the immediate purpose of repealing the statute and, in the long term, preserving the nuclear, Christian, and heterosexual family. She found support from Jerry Falwell’s recently formed Moral Majority, whose members considered lesbian and gay rights activists and feminists to be moral threats. Evangelical Christian author and psychologist James Dobson established Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council in 1977 and 1983, respectively, to monitor and report on policy options for “nuclear, Christian families.” Bryant, Falwell, and Dobson thought of homosexuality as sexual behavior only and not deserving of legal protection. Whereas lesbians and gays and their feminist allies believed in a sexual revolution liberating Americans from fixed gender roles and sexual identities, their opponents believed that such propositions hurt children. Republicans looked increasingly to Evangelical Christians for support, and Bryant, Falwell, and Dobson contributed to successful campaigns to repeal gay rights ordinances. The defeat of Jimmy Carter’s Democrats in 1980 resulted in a new era of social conservatism. In response, lesbians and gays concentrated on accessing benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples, such as renter’s succession rights, hospital visitation rights, and healthcare benefits. The human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) crisis, coupled with an average 7,000 reported incidents of homophobic violence per year, underlined the need for such rights. Changing the Political and Social Climate The election of Bill Clinton’s Democrats in 1992 failed to substantially change the political and social climate. Instead of lifting the ban on lesbians and gays in the military, the Democrats adopted a compromise, “Don’t

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Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States

Ask, Don’t Tell,” policy. Court rulings in Hawaii and Alaska in favor of marriage equality were stalled by the passage in Congress of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. At the state level, however, Vermont, Maryland, Alaska, Oregon, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Washington overturned previous bans on secondparent adoptions by lesbian and gay couples. Despite a Republican government in Washington, D.C., civil unions or marriage equality was achieved in Vermont in 2000 (civil unions) and 2009 (marriage); Massachusetts in 2004 (marriage); New Jersey (civil unions), California (marriage), and Connecticut (repeal on ban of same-sex marriage) in 2008; Maine in 2009 (marriage); and the District of Columbia (marriage) and Hawaii (civil unions) in 2010. The States of Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island recognize as married those with licenses from outside of their respective jurisdictions. However, the challenges to equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people under the laws of the United States remain. In the 2008 presidential election, voters in California narrowly repealed samesex marriage, and on November 3, 2009, voters in Maine repealed same-sex marriage in a referendum by a vote of 300,848 to 267,828. The District of Columbia is the only jurisdiction prohibiting a parent’s sexual orientation from being a consideration in a child custody case, and the state of Minnesota is the only jurisdiction prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Thirty-eight states allow dismissal from employment because of sexual orientation or gender identity, 42 states have laws defining marriage as between one man and one woman, and 30 state legislatures have amended their constitutions to prohibit same-sex marriage. Seven states prohibit second-parent adoption for same-sex couples. Opponents to LGBT equality insist that children raised by same-sex couples would not learn acceptable gender roles and believe that decisions on marriage and adoption rights should be made through referenda or votes in state legislatures. Moderates prefer civil unions or “everything-but”-type legislation. Often, opponents believe that lesbians and gays do not aspire to long-term, committed relationships. Lesbians and gays were an invisible minority in American society that came to be noticed by police and psychiatrists early in the 20th century. Despite attempts by psychiatrists and the various agents of the American governments to restrain same-sex desire,

those who became part of a homosexual minority struggled to define themselves as members acceptable to the heterosexual majority. As medical theories of illness gave way to acceptance of homosexuality as a normal variation of human sexuality, social conservatives resisted what they considered to be an assault on Christian families in the United States. As governmental objection to same-sex relationships is easing, the socially conservative Christian forces strive to restrict LGBT equality by depicting homosexuality as a choice and a curable illness. Such fallacies have slowed but not ended the path to sexual equality in the United States. See Also: Heterosexism; Homophobia; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; Same-Sex Marriage. Further Readings Bérubé, A. Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two. New York: Free Press, 1990. Cahill, S. Same-Sex Marriage in the United States: Focus on the Facts: Post-2004 Election Edition. Toronto: Lexington Books, 2004. Cahill, S. and S. Tobias. Policy Issues Affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Families. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007. D’Emilio, J. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Moats, D. Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage. Toronto, Canada: Harcourt, 2004. Wolfson, E. Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry. Toronto, Canada: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Jonathan Anuik Lakehead University, Orillia

Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States Social discrimination can be defined as unfavorable treatment of individuals or groups on arbitrary grounds related to gender, age, race, religion, sexual



Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States

orientation, or disability. Excluded individuals and communities thereby suffer distinct disadvantages by comparison with the rest of the population. Documented Violations The following violations based on sexual orientation have been documented in all parts of the world: a violation of right to education because of an unsafe climate created by peers or educators in schools; violence, bullying, or harassment in private and public life; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in the course of police activity; arbitrary arrest of individuals suspected of having a homo/bisexual identity; violation of the right to a fair trial because of the prejudices of judges and other law enforcement officials; violation of rights to free expression and free association because of a homophobic climate in which the people discriminated against live; restrictions on the right to practice religion; the prohibition of the right to work; refusal of the right to social security, assistance, and benefits; denial of the right to physical and mental health services because of the prejudices of some medical practitioners; a lack of adequate training for healthcare personnel regarding sexual orientation issues or the general assumption that patients are heterosexuals; and the prevention of the right to equal access to goods, housing, and other facilities. A joint International Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Youth and Student Organization (IGLYO) and ILGA-Europe project confirms that young LGBT people are particularly discriminated against. Research by Stonewall also demonstrates that women are more likely to experience lower economic well-being than men as a result of lower pensions and fewer opportunities to access education, employment, and training. This is exacerbated in the case of women who live together. LGBT persons also may risk multiple discrimination on two or more grounds: access to key social benefits, such as employment, healthcare, education, and housing; and social marginalization and social exclusion. International and European Instruments on Sexual-Orientation Discrimination International and European human rights law has been slow to provide protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Several European Union (EU) laws offer protection from discrimination

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based on sexual orientation. The European Parliament (EP) passed several (nonbinding) resolutions on sexual orientation, the first, adopted in 1984, calling for an end to work-related discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. On May 1, 1999, the provision in Article 13 of the Treaty of Amsterdam introduced the first international treaty, which explicitly refers to discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation. This was further strengthened with the passage of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU Article 21. EU institutions have acknowledged that social exclusion occurs in a variety of fields and that it is not limited to employment (European Council 2002, 14164/1/02 REV 1). However, EU policies have tended to focus mainly on employment-related and incomerelated exclusion. There is limited attention given to the interaction between exclusion and discrimination in education and health. In 2000, the European Commission adopted the Employment Equality Directive 2000/78, establishing equal protection against discrimination based on various grounds, including sexual orientation in employment. EU law regards discrimination against transgender persons as a form of sex discrimination. This principle was established by the Court of Justice in 1996, where it was held that the dismissal of an individual following gender reassignment was unlawful discrimination on the grounds of sex (Case C-13/94, P v S and Cornwall County Council [1996] ECR I-2143). Gender-identity discrimination is the term now generally used to describe discrimination against transgender persons. Social inclusion was put on the European Social Policy Agenda at the Nice European Council in December 2000. The fight against poverty and social exclusion was introduced to the EU agenda as one of the central elements of the Lisbon Strategy launched at the European Council in March 2000. However, little attention has been paid to the exclusion that LGBT people experience in the context of European social policy and, in particular, the EU social inclusion strategies. Nondiscrimination and equality are fundamental components of the United Nations (UN) instruments. However, the UN has long been silent on this issue. Some progress has been made. In its 1994 decision in Toonen v. Australia, the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) held that the references to “sex” in Articles 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and

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Political Rights should be taken to include sexual orientation. With this case, the Human Rights Committee created a precedent within the UN human rights system in addressing discrimination against lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights prohibited discrimination for “race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” In its General Comment No. 20 on Non Discrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 2, para. 2), adopted in May 2009, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights prohibition list includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The committee states that “other status,” as recited in article 2(2), includes sexual orientation within its definition. The International Labour Organization (ILO) does not itself prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation but permits state parties to add additional grounds. In May 2007, the ILO issued a major report “Equality at Work: Tackling the Challenges,” under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which was adopted in 1998. For the first time, the ILO specifically addressed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, both in its press release and, more fully, in the report itself. The report’s wording was cautious and descriptive. National Legislation and the Situation in Practice Although in a large number of states around the world, LGBT persons are not protected under antidiscrimination legislation, EU member states have made many commitments to combating discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation within the EU. However, informal controls are the hardest to change, since even after legal barriers are removed, mistrust and bias continue to exist. Even though in EU member states that recognize the rights of LGBT persons, such people are denied in practice basic civil, political, social, and economic rights. A survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in 2007 shows that 18 out of 27 EU member states already provide quite comprehensive protection against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. However, the social situation remains worrying. A joint IGLYO

and ILGA-Europe project of 2007 shows that LGBT people continue to face discrimination and exclusion across Europe in all spheres of life. Some EU member states establish public agencies to investigate sexual orientation–based discrimination, and some of them can initiate legal action for the benefit of the victim. See Also: Sexual Orientation; Sexual Orientation– Based Social Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States. Further Readings Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. “Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.” http://assembly.coe.int /Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc09/EDOC12099.pdf (accessed July 2010). Dymski, G. A. “Poverty and Social Discrimination: A Spatial Keynesian Approach.” 2004. http://www.econ omiaetecnologia.ufpr.br/textos_discussao/texto_para _discussao_ano_2004_texto_02.pdf (accessed July 2010). Stonewall. “Social Exclusion.” www.stonewall.org.uk/ what_we_do/research_and_policy/2880.asp (accessed July 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States Discrimination based on sexual orientation is typically understood as acts that harm lesbian women or gay men. These acts or behavior often involve gay and lesbian people being treated differently because of their sexual orientation. Social discrimination includes double standards of treatment, when gay or lesbian people are treated worse than heterosexual people. In these cases, lesbian women and gay men would not have confronted discrimination if they were heterosexual. Moreover, these discriminatory acts often stem from prejudice, or negative ideas, about lesbian women and gay men. Social discrimi-



Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States

A rainbow-colored banner with the phrase “All Are Welcome” shows an acceptance of homosexuality at this church.

nation, which can occur in many settings, differs from legal discrimination to the extent that it is not part of U.S. law. Nevertheless, social discrimination can have significant effects on lesbian women and gay men. Discrimination in the Workforce Most scholars have examined sexual orientation– based discrimination in the workforce. In the United States, federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on characteristics such as race, religion, gender, and national origin, but not based on sexual orientation. Thus, it is legal to fire someone for being gay or lesbian in many U.S. states. As of 2010, 29 states do not have statutes forbidding employers from firing an employee because of his or her sexual orientation. As a result, some gay and lesbian people decide to keep their sexuality hidden out of fear that they may be fired or denied promotion. Some stud-

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ies suggest that gay and lesbian people tend to be the most satisfied with their jobs when they are allowed to be open about their sexuality; that is, when they do not feel they have to conceal it from others. Discrimination against gay and lesbian people in the workforce can also occur at the time of hiring. Some studies indicate that lesbian women and gay men are less likely than heterosexual people to be hired for certain jobs. Furthermore, some of these studies suggest that lesbian women and gay men are less likely than their heterosexual counterparts to be promoted. As a result, in some occupations gay and lesbian people make, on average, less money than heterosexual people. These income differences vary considerably based on the occupation, but lesbian women and gay men generally tend to make less than their heterosexual counterparts. Thus, the workplace discrimination confronting gay and lesbian people often has detrimental effects, possibly including forms of harassment, in which gay and lesbian people confront a hostile work environment. Workplace harassment can take on many forms, but it generally involves behavior that makes it more difficult for gay and lesbian people to enjoy being at work. This behavior, which can be perpetrated by coworkers as well as superiors, often leads gay and lesbian people to quit their jobs and move to a more accommodating workplace. Verbal harassment of gay and lesbian people sometimes involves homophobic language such as the words fag or dyke. Many gay and lesbian people consider these words offensive verbal attacks on their sexual orientation. Other lesbian women and gay men have used these words as a way of reclaiming them to reduce their power. Although discrimination against gay and lesbian people has most frequently been examined in the workforce, it occurs in other settings as well. Many gay and lesbian people face rejection from their families on “coming out”; that is, when they tell others of their sexual orientation. In these situations, family members sometimes respond by rejecting the gay or lesbian person’s identity, either by verbally attacking the gay or lesbian person or by refusing to acknowledge their sexual identity. In some cases, parents have told their gay or lesbian children to leave the home. These forms of discrimination have resulted in relatively high rates of homelessness among gay and lesbian youth.

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Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States

Discrimination in the Military Recently, discrimination against lesbian women and gay men in the military has received a considerable amount of attention. Throughout American history, military service personnel have been removed from duty for identifying themselves as gay or lesbian. Considerable attention has also been devoted to violence against lesbian women and gay men. These forms of violence are often now considered a “hate crime,” as they are motivated by prejudice or “hate.” Matthew Shepard, a gay man from Wyoming who was murdered in 1996, is the most well-known incident of hate crime, but other gay and lesbian people have also experienced violence because of their sexual orientation. Many studies, for example, suggest that gay and lesbian youth are more likely to be bullied than heterosexual adolescents. Discrimination against gay and lesbian people can have lasting psychological effects. When a gay or lesbian person is fired, for example, they may suffer not only a loss of income but also a loss of self-worth. In other cases these psychological effects may be shortlived, as some lesbian women and gay men are able to recover from the discrimination they confront. Defining the Discriminatory Behavior In most cases, acts of discrimination against lesbian women and gay men are perpetrated by people who identify as heterosexual. At times, discrimination based on sexual orientation can occur against people who identify as heterosexual. In these cases, a person who identifies as heterosexual may be mistakenly perceived as gay or lesbian and then experience discrimination as a result. Most typically, however, discrimination based on sexual orientation involves a heterosexual person discriminating against a gay or lesbian person. It involves, in other words, a heterosexual person treating lesbian women or gay men as inferior to heterosexual people. Scholars have generally defined sexual orientation–based discrimination as behavior that is intentionally designed to harm gay or lesbian people. In these cases, discrimination involves the actions of one person or a group of people who cause harm to a gay or lesbian person. Other scholars, however, have tried to define discrimination more broadly. These scholars have argued that discrimination against gay and lesbian people exists at the societal, rather than the individual, level. A societal-based understanding

of discrimination means that heterosexual people are granted privileges based on their sexual orientation, whereas gay and lesbian people are disadvantaged based on theirs. For instance, in the United States, gay and lesbian people are not granted the same rights as heterosexual people with regard to adoption, marriage, and hospital visitations. Discrimination, in other words, is institutionalized—it is built into the organization of society. Scholars who have defined discrimination in societal terms have used the terms heterosexism, heterocentrism, and heteronormativity. These three terms have slightly different meanings, but all three signify a society in which heterosexuality is constructed as ideal. These understandings of discrimination contend that U.S. society establishes heterosexuality as normal and homosexuality as immoral and unnatural. Gender Differences in Discriminatory Behavior Scholars exploring sexual orientation–based discrimination have also outlined important gender differences. These scholars argue that lesbian women experience different forms of discrimination than gay men. That is, lesbian women confront forms of discrimination unique to their position in society. For instance, lesbian women are often more likely than gay men to confront forms of sexual harassment in the workforce or to be passed over for a job promotion. Moreover, lesbian women also sometimes face discrimination based on their gender. Discrimination against gay men, in contrast, often reinforces the cultural devaluation of femininity. In other words, gay men frequently experience discrimination when they are perceived as feminine. In this sense, sexual orientation–based discrimination encourages men to perform gender in traditionally masculine ways. Discrimination has also been shown to vary considerably based on race and social class. Gay and lesbian people who are black or Latino, for instance, may confront forms of discrimination that their white counterparts do not. Social class further complicates this picture, as middle-class gay and lesbian people do not face many of the challenges confronting poor lesbian women and gay men. In the United States, some attempts have been made to address discrimination against lesbian women and gay men. For instance, to address workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, the



Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States

Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been introduced in the U.S. Congress. This law would broaden employment protections for gay and lesbian people by banning sexual orientation-based discrimination at the national level. See Also: Bullying in the Workplace; Coming Out; Hate Crimes; Heterosexism; Homophobia; Homosexuality, Religious Attitudes Toward; Lesbians; LGBTQ; Sexual Harassment; Sexual Orientation; Sexual Orientation– Based Legal Discrimination: United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States. Further Readings Badgett, M. and V. Lee. Money, Myths, and Change: The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Croteau, J. M. “Research on the Work Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People: An Integrative Review of Methodology and Findings.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, v.48/2 (1996). Herek, G. M. “Hate Crimes and Stigma-Related Experiences Among Sexual Minority Adults in the United States: Prevalence Estimates From a National Probability Sample.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, v.24/1 (2009). Levine, M. P. and R. Leonard. “Discrimination Against Lesbians in the Work Force,” Signs, v.4/1 (1984). Doug Meyer Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States Under international law, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Yet lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people still face deep-rooted prejudice and widespread discrimination and violence. The range of violence or abuse is limitless and includes women being raped to “cure” their lesbianism, sometimes at the behest of their parents; individuals prosecuted because their private and con-

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sensual relationship is deemed to be a social danger; loss of custody of their children; individuals beaten by police; individuals assaulted and sometimes killed on the street; regular subjection to verbal abuse; bullying at school and in the workplace; denial of employment, housing, or health services; denied of access to the armed forces; denial of asylum when they do manage to flee abuse; individuals raped and otherwise tortured in detention; individuals threatened for campaigning for their human rights; individuals driven to suicide; and individuals executed by the state. An article published by the Integrated Regional Information Networks in 2005 stated among other things that honor killings by Iraqis against a gay family member are common and that the killers are given some legal protection. The reports published by Human Rights Watch in 2009 and the U.S. State Department in 2010 detail torture of men accused of being gay in Iraq. The reports published by the International Lesbian and Gay Association in 2007 and the U.S. State Department in 2010 found that eight countries today still retain capital punishment for homosexuality: Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Nigeria, and Uganda. All are predominantly Muslim countries. A survey published in 2009 by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights shows that LGBT persons experience discrimination and homophobic and transphobic bullying and harassment across the European Union. There are several accounts of attacks on LGBT venues in a number of member states, from criminal damage to premises of LGBT nongovernmental organizations or community sites to harassment or assaults on LGBT persons at venues. A report prepared by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe in 2009 shows that homophobic and transphobic attitudes are deeply rooted in most Council of Europe member states, with the consequence that LGBT people, as well as human rights defenders working for the rights of LGBT persons, face strong prejudice, hostility, and widespread discrimination all over Europe. Serious Consequences for the Young Homophobia and transphobia have particularly serious consequences for young LGBT people. There is evidence that LBT women are particularly affected by some forms of gender-based violence, such as rape,

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Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: Outside United States

sexual violence and harassment, and forced marriages. The Agency for Fundamental Rights survey reveals that lesbian and bisexual women are more likely than gay or bisexual men to experience assault within private settings. Homophobic or transphobic hate crimes and hate speeches affect LGBT persons in various ways. Violence and discrimination affects health and can affect social inclusion and economic well-being. The fear of homophobia and transphobia also contributes to the “invisibility” of LGBT persons in many social settings. Many transgender people barely, if at all, participate in social and public life, and many others who do participate are so traumatized and frightened by the hostility they face that they are unable to live their life in peace and dignity. Their image in the media, curricula, and arts is made up of misconceptions, ignorance, and lack of knowledge. Violence against LGBT individuals may occur either at the hands of individuals or groups or as part of state enforcement of laws targeting people who are perceived to violate heteronormative rules and who contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual behavior. Behind much of the discrimination and violence faced by LGBT people is lack of knowledge and understanding about sexual orientation, strong prejudices, and a refusal by some leading politicians, opinion leaders, and religious leaders to accept that LGBT people are entitled to the same human rights as other humans. This underpins a high degree of homophobic and transphobic discourse in the public sphere and gives legitimacy to those state actors— police, prison officers, public prosecutors, judiciary, local authority officials, and even ombudspersons— who fail to uphold, or who even attack, the rights of LGBT people. Hate speech in the media and Internet is also of particular concern. Underreporting and nonreporting of crime is a major problem with regard to the LGBT community, and therefore there is a significant lack of data on sexual orientation–based crimes. Victims of hate crimes, driven by homophobia or transphobia, often face cultural or social obstacles to the reporting of attacks and threats. International and European Instruments on Sexual Orientation–Based Violence International and European organizations emphasize the universality of human rights and fundamental freedoms. However, until very recently, no legal

protection on the basis of sexual orientation could be found at the international level. Notwithstanding the mass execution of homosexuals during World War II, there is virtually no mention of this victim group in the judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Nor did homosexuals find protection in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984); or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998). Since April 1993, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recognized in several advisory opinions that gays and lesbians qualify as members of a “particular social group” for the purposes of the 1951 convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. In its publication “Protecting Refugees,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees states: “Homosexuals may be eligible for refugee status on the basis of persecution because of their membership of a particular social group. It is the policy of the [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] that persons facing attack, inhuman treatment, or serious discrimination because of their homosexuality, and whose governments are unable or unwilling to protect them, should be recognized as refugees.” National Legislation The legal position of homosexuals varies significantly from country to country, from constitutionally entrenched freedom, to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, to laws that make homosexual acts punishable by death. Nonetheless, a clear trend exists within human rights law toward greater protection of homosexuals as a group. The International Lesbian and Gay Association’s research found that 78 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, continue to consider male-to-male relationships illegal. Female-to-female relationships are not illegal in 44 of these countries. In contrast, in a large number of Council of Europe member states, although homosexuality is not illegal, LGBT persons are not protected under antidiscrimination or hate-crime legislation. In addition, LGBT persons sometimes experience a lack of appropriate protection from law enforcement officials. A European Union Agency for



Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States

Fundamental Rights (FRA) study shows that 18 of 27 European Union member states already provide quite comprehensive protection against discrimination and harassment on grounds of sexual orientation. The social situation, however, is worrying. In recent years, a series of events in European Union member states, such as banning pride marches, hate speeches from politicians, and intolerant statements by religious leaders, have sent alarming signals and sparked new debate about the extent of homophobia and discrimination against LGBT persons in the European Union. See Also: Coming Out; Hate Crimes; Sexual Harassment; Sexual Orientation; Sexual Orientation–Based Legal Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States. Further Readings Council of Europe. “Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.” Report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, 2009. http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents /WorkingDocs/Doc09/EDOC12087.htm (accessed April 2010). European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). “Homophobia and Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the EU.” http://www.fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/ FRA_hdgso_report-part2_en.pdf (accessed April 2010). Gontek, Ines. “Sexual Violence Against Lesbian Women in South Africa.” Master’s Thesis in African Studies, Cologne, 2007. http://ilga.org/ilga/static/images/ oldsite/SexualViolenceAgainstLesbianWomeninSouth AfricabyInesGontek.pdf (accessed April 2010). Human Rights Watch. “They Want Us Exterminated.” http://www.hrw.org/en/node/85049/section/3 (accessed April 2010). Ottosson, D. “State-Sponsored Homophobia: A World Survey of Laws Prohibiting Same Sex Activity Between Consenting Adults.” http://ilga.org/statehomophobia /State_sponsored_homophobia_ILGA_07.pdf (accessed April 2010). PinkPaper.com. “U.S. State Dept. Reports on LGBT Life in Nearly Every Nation.” http://news.pinkpaper.com/ NewsStory.aspx?id=2620 (accessed June 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

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Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States Sexual orientation–based violence against lesbians and bisexual women is perpetrated on interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels. The pervasiveness of violence targeting lesbians and bisexual women reflects the ideological nature of hate-based violence more generally. In expressions of hate violence or discrimination, the perpetrator targets members of marginalized communities in order to uphold their interpretations of social norms. Lesbians and bisexual women have traditionally been positioned as a threat to heterosexuality, a cornerstone of traditional society. This leaves them personally open to harm and with less access to prevention efforts or direct services meant to address violence in mainstream situations. Mainstream society’s normalization of heterosexuality has required that any other form of sexual orientation be labeled as different and less than. Cultural institutions responsible for reproducing heterosexuality as the norm have created a variety of labels to describe the sociocultural derision of lesbians and bisexual women including: sinful, broken, abnormal, sick, childish, a phase, a lifestyle, and dangerous to the family, society, and children. Such acts of marginalization separate out lesbians and bisexual women and leave them open to harm simultaneously based in and justified through this stigmatization. Bullying and Violence The violence against lesbians and bisexual women is inclusive of violence against women more generally, upholding the argument that heterosexism, homophobia, and biphobia are deeply connected to misogyny, the hatred of women. Heterosexism is the maintenance of heterosexuality as the normative and singularly desirable form of sexuality. Homopbobia is the irrational fear of lesbians and gay men that frames them as a threat to heterosexuality. Biphobia is the irrational fear of people who are not solely attracted to members of the opposite sex. Thus, while sexual assault is more prevalent against women than men, lesbians and bisexual women face both a greater risk of sexual assault as women and homophobic, biphobic, and/or heterosexist revictimization as well.

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Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States

Violence against lesbians and bisexual women often begins early and continues across their lifespan. The dread of the potential for one’s daughter to be lesbian or bisexual is enough for family members to heavily monitor any gender or sexuality nonconformity. Intrafamilial violence takes many forms for lesbian and bisexual women, especially for those who are either gender nonconforming or who come out at an early age. Intrafamilial violence toward lesbians and bisexual women takes on many forms, from ridicule and disowning a child to sexual assault aimed at “fixing” her, to kicking her out of the home. For girls who do not subscribe to the lessons of enculturation, there is also a range of socially supported encouragements to conform, from stigmatization to reprimands to forceful correction of behaviors and desires. Young girls who transgress the boundaries of heterosexuality face extreme pressure to conform when they are bullied in school settings. Bullying is a form of hostility targeting an individual deemed less than or socially deviant by their peers. For example, it is a way to reinforce both gender and sexuality norms. This phenomena is also extending into the workplace, where adults target coworkers in much the same fashion as schoolyard bullies. In states without equal protection in employment, even the rumors that a woman is a lesbian or bisexual may be enough to lead to termination. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a pattern of behavior in which one partner exerts power and control in order to maintain dominance in a relationship. The myriad tactics used by abusers reflect the power dynamics of each individual situation. Such tactics include physical harm; verbal, emotional, and economic abuse; threats regarding immigration, parental and HIV status, and pet abuse, as well as any of the forms of identity-based discrimination prevalent in society. For lesbians and bisexual women, these are compounded by the potential for discrimination outside the violent relationship. If a woman is forced to keep her sexual orientation private for fear of losing a job, a home, or friends and family, the resulting isolation makes it virtually impossible for her to speak about any samesex relationship with those most able to provide support. When there are few to no witnesses to violence or no one to check in with, abusers have an easier time perpetrating violence. In states where there are

no protections for lesbians or bisexual woman with children, states may award sole or primary custody to the other parent or relative based on the assessment that a lesbian or bisexual woman is an unfit parent due to her sexual orientation. In situations where the police are called, the assessment of IPV is often not correctly made, leaving the victim open to further harm. Sexual Assault Sexual assault is any unwanted sexual act that a person is forced to either perform or receive. Though sexual assault is rightfully framed as violence in the form of power and control, many of the state legal definitions of sexual assault set the parameters using gendered terms realted to men harming women. Many of the mainstream victim’s services were designed with little to no regard to the experiences of a woman sexually assaulted by another woman. For many lesbians and bisexual women who experience sexual assault by another woman, it is often within the context of domestic violence, when sexual assault is used as a form of power and control. Lesbian and bisexual women also face sexual assault by men. Some experience these attacks while in dating or marital relationships with men. Others may experience such violence in attacks meant to “cure them” or “change them.” Interpersonal violence such as domestic violence and sexual assault are rarely spoken about either within lesbian and bisexual communities or in the mainstream. For lesbian and bisexual women, societal marginalization is so significant that to bring interpersonal violence into the open for many feels like potentially exposing the lesbian and bisexual communities to even further stigmatization. Underreporting makes it difficult to assess the prevalence of such violence. Seeking Help When lesbian and bisexual survivors of violence do try to access victims services, they are often met with responses that revictimize them. There are numerous points at which this revictimization can occur in the process of seeking services. Outreach may not be designed to attract lesbian or bisexual women to services. Intake forms may not reflect the lives or experiences of these women. Well-intentioned



but culturally insensitive victims assistance providers sometimes ask inappropriate questions or make harmful assumptions. Occasionally some service providers also intentionally harm lesbian or bisexual survivors of violence when they try to force their homophobic, biphobic, or heterosexist views on survivors by, for instance, blaming a survivor’s sexual orientation for the violence rather than locating the responsibility in the acts of the perpetrator. If a survivor lodges a complaint based on the unfair treatment, they may further risk not receiving services through being falsely accused of noncompliance or being difficult to serve. Another site of institutional violence toward lesbian and bisexual women survivors of violence is the structural inequalities inherent within the heterosexist construction of options for victims of violence. For instance, most law enforcement officials are not adequately trained to assess for intimate partner violence between two women. Most domestic violence counselors and advocates are not able to make the determination of who is the primary aggressor in an IPV situation. The most extreme expression of violence experienced by lesbians or bisexual women is murder. Murders of lesbians or bisexual women, as with other hate motivated murders, are often extraordinarily violent, involve more than one attacker, and quite often are preceded by sexual assault. The “overkill” is said to be the expression of an attacker’s desire to erase the entire existence of his or her victim. It is an attacker’s way of sending a message of hate to entire communities. Over the last 30 years, with the strengthening of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) antiviolence movement, there have been shifts in cultural attitudes. The passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in 2009 expanded protections to LGBTQ victims of violence. Yet several state-sanctioned obstacles to safety remain. The Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and state-specific DOMAs prevent same gender marriage, which means that over 1,000 rights are withheld from same-gender couples who wish to marry. Many of these rights serve as protection from a variety of forms of discrimination and oppression. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulation in the armed forces has kept lesbian and bisexual women from speaking about their relationships and thus from

Sexually Transmitted Infections

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accessing potentially vital support services. With such state-sanctioned and enforced discrimination, it becomes that much more difficult overall to establish the sociocultural argument that lesbians and bisexual women have the right to be safe and deserve access to services in times of need. See Also: Bullying in the Workplace; Sexual Harassment; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States. Further Readings Billies, Michelle, et al. “Naming Our Reality: Low-Income LGBT People Documenting Violence, Discrimination and Assertions of Justice.” Feminism & Psychology, v.19 (2009). Girschick, Lori B. Woman-to-Woman Sexual Violence. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2002. Hardesty, Jennifer L., et al. “Lesbian/Bisexual Mothers and Intimate Partner Violence: Help Seeking in the Context of Social and Legal Vulnerability.” Violence Against Women (December 2009). Patzel, Brenda. “What Blocked Heterosexual Women and Lesbians in Leaving Their Abusive Relationships.” Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, v.12 (2006). Todahl, Jeffrey L., et al. “Sexual Assault Support Services and Community Systems: Understanding Critical Issues and Needs in the LGBTQ Community.” Violence Against Women, v.15 (2009). Kim Fountain Independent Scholar

Sexually Transmitted Infections More commonly known as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), sexually transmitted infections (STIs) carry a heavy burden of disease for women. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the term STI replace the term STD, as it better reflects the asymptomatic nature of most infections. Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common STI, with more than 40 types that can affect

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Sexually Transmitted Infections

the skin of the genitals. Most do not develop symptoms, and untreated HPV in women can cause cervical cancer, genital warts, and cancers of the vulva, vagina, and anus. HPV is transmitted through vaginal and anal sexual contact. Preventing HPV-related diseases includes regular cervical cancer screenings and pap exams. There is also now a vaccine for girls aged 11 through 26 years to reduce the risk of developing certain types of HPV and cervical cancers. There is no such vaccine for men yet. Gonorrhea is the second most common STI in the United States. Chlamydia and gonorrhea commonly co-occur but are separate infections. Also known as “silent” STIs because a majority of women never experience symptoms, both gonorrhea and chlamydia can cause painful urination and pain during sexual activity; bleeding between periods; itching of the genital area; a foul odor; and white, yellow, or green discharge. They are often mistaken for a vaginal infection. Symptoms usually appear one to three weeks after infection. In 2008, the rates for women were 119.4 compared with men at 103.0 cases per 100,000. Among all women in 2008, those aged 15 to 24 years had the highest rates. Both chlamydia and gonorrhea, if left untreated, can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can later lead to serious health problems for women such as tubal infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and chronic pelvic pain. One million women develop PID annually. Caused by two different viruses (HSV-1, which often causes sores around the mouth and lips, and HSV-2 which causes genital sores), the herpes simplex virus (HSV; genital herpes) is untreatable but manageable. Often appearing as one or more sores on or around the genitals or rectum, the blisters break open, leaving painful open sores may take two weeks to a month to heal and often lay dormant until another cyclical outbreak. Symptoms can also be flulike and include swollen glands and feverishness. HSV is transmitted from these open sores and from skin that does not appear to have a sore, but most people are unaware of their infection. Genital HSV-2 is almost two times more common in women than men. Syphilis Syphilis in the primary stage is marked by the presence of one or more sores, which appear between 10 and 90 days after contact but are often pain-

less. Lasting three to six weeks, the sore will often heal without treatment. The second stage of syphilis is characterized by skin rash mucous membrane lesions, fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph glands, among other symptoms. Without treatment, syphilis can progress to a dormant phase (where no signs or symptoms are present), and later a tertiary stage. About 15 percent of people progress into the third phase, where syphilis damage can happen to major internal organs, including the brain, and can lead to paralysis, numbness, gradual blindness, dementia, and even death. Untreated STIs that lead to PID cause an estimated 100,000 (1 in 10) women to become infertile every year. PID occurs when bacteria move upward from a woman’s vagina or cervix to her reproductive organs. Sexually active women (with multiple sexual partners) of childbearing age are at risk, and women younger than 25 years are more likely to develop PID than those older than 25 years. The most lethal STI is human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and poverty is a significant risk factor for infection and inadequate treatment. HIV is transmitted in bodily fluids like blood, semen, and vaginal fluids and by sharing needles. People infected with HIV are vulnerable to other infections. HIV disproportionately affects minority women. Between 1999 and 2002, 71.8 percent of all women with HIV were African American. In addition, studies have found that the presence of STIs facilitate the transmission of HIV. Most STIs are often treated with a single dose or multiple doses of antibiotics; however, some strains of gonorrhea are now becoming resistant to antibiotics. STIs such as syphilis can be successfully treated with antibiotics only in early stages, and viruses such as HSV, HPV, and HIV cannot be cured. Complications in Pregnancy Pregnancy can be complicated by most STIs and can be passed to infants through vaginal delivery. This is rare for HPV but more common with gonorrhea, chlamydia, HSV, and syphilis. Pregnant women with HIV can take a combination of drugs that are designed to prevent transmission to a fetus. STIs such as HIV and syphilis can cross the placenta and infect an unborn baby, and infants can contract gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HSV as they pass through the birth canal. HIV is unique in that a child can also be infected after birth

Seychelles



through breastfeeding. STIs can lead to early labor and uterine infections after delivery, low birth weight, neonatal sepsis, blindness, deafness, stillbirth, and other conditions. Throughout the world, women are plagued by STIs. In 1999, WHO estimates that 340 million new cases of curable STIs were reported (syphilis, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, and chlamydia) in adults 15 to 49 years of age. In developing countries, STIs and associated complications are among the top five disease categories for which adults seek healthcare, WHO reports that in women of childbearing age, STIs (excluding HIV) are second only to maternal factors as causes of disease and death. Global prevalence estimates of curable STIs in 1999 are highest for persons in south and southeastern Asia at 48 million, followed by those in sub-Saharan Africa, at 32 million. Women, on average, become infected at rates higher than men. For example, chlamydia was estimated to affect 50 million women in 1999 compared with 48 million men; 23.96 million of these women were in south and southeastern Asia, and only 8.24 million were in sub-Saharan Africa. Gonorrhea affected a total of 33.65 million women in 1999 compared with 28.70 million men; 15.09 million of these women were in south and southeastern Asia. Syphilis affected 6.47 million women in 1999, the lowest rate of a curable STI, yet only 5.29 million men were affected; again, the highest percentage of women by region were in south and southeastern Asia. Although rates of new cases of syphilis are lower in other regions, WHO states that incidence rates are reaching epidemic levels in eastern Europe and central Asia. A new health program is being implemented to reduce the number of children born with congenital syphilis, as rates are rising for nearly every country in the European Union, WHO states, indicating that pregnant women are not sufficiently screened and tested. Women at a Higher Risk For every measured curable STI, except trichomoniasis, women had higher rates of infection than men, and women in south and southeastern Asia had higher rates than women in sub-Saharan Africa, WHO reports. This regional trend is reversed for HIV rates in 2005; the highest incidence for HIV was in Africa, at 1,935 per 100,000 persons, and 246 per 100,000 per-

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sons in southeastern Asia. Higher prevalence rates of HIV were also seen in Africa (21,721 per 100,000) than in southeastern Asia (3,274 per 100,000). All women, including pregnant women, should be regularly tested by a healthcare professional for STIs and HIV. Reducing the risk of contracting an STI and HIV includes safer sex practices and minimizing the number of sexual partners. See Also: Health, Mental and Physical; Infertility, Incidence of; Infertility, Treatments for; Pregnancy. Further Readings Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Sexually Transmitted Diseases.” http://www.cdc.gov/std (accessed November 2009). Committee on Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Institute of Medicine. The Hidden Epidemic: Confronting Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1997. Holmes, King, et al. Sexually Transmitted Diseases. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007. World Health Organization Department of HIV/AIDS. “Global Prevalence and Incidence of Selected Curable Sexually Transmitted Infections.” http://www.who.int /docstore/hiv/GRSTI/000.htm (accessed May 2010). Valerie R. Stackman Howard University

Seychelles Seychelles is a small, 283-square-mile island nation in the Indian Ocean, which became independent of Great Britain in 1976. The population of 87,476 (as of July 2009) includes French, African, Indian Chinese, and Arab citizens, reflecting the Seychelles’ location between African and Asia and its lack of an indigenous population. The island nation has served as a transit point for trade from at least the 16th century. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion, accounting for 82.3 percent of the population, with Anglicans the next largest religion represented, at 6.4 percent. Seychelles enjoys a high standard of living, with a per capita gross domestic product of $19,400 in 2009 (61st highest in the world and among the

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highest in Africa). Life expectancies are 68.33 years for men and 77.85 for women. The nation has a high debt load, which may imperil the government’s ability to continue to provide its many services. Officially, women are equal to men in Seychelles, including in employment and inheritance. However, human rights investigations have revealed that domestic violence against women and children is a continuing problem: laws prohibit domestic abuse, but police rarely intervene unless a weapon is involved, and often cases are dismissed in court or the perpetrator receives a light sentence. Rape of girls under age 15 also is reported as a problem not sufficiently dealt with by legal authorities. Prostitution is illegal, but prostitutes generally are not subject to arrest unless other crimes are involved. Seychelles instituted free public education in 1981, and currently the literacy rate is 92.3 percent for women and 91.4 percent for men. About 90 percent of women are in the labor force, similar to the male percentage. Ten women served in the 24-seat national assembly as of 2007, and two served in the cabinet. Seychelles has had only three presidents since independence, none of them female. By tradition, Seychelles has a matriarchal society, and single mothers are the norm. The fertility rate is 1.93 children per woman, and infant mortality is 12.3 deaths per 1,000 live births, among the lowest in Africa. Abortion is legal to save the mother’s life or to preserve her mental and physical health, and in cases of rape or fetal impairment. See Also: Government, Women in; Roman Catholic Church; Single Mothers. Further Readings Scarr, Deryck. Seychelles Since 1770: History of a Slave and Post-Slavery Society. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000. United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer. aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). United States Department of State. “2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Seychelles.” http://www .state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100502.htm (accessed June 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Shari`a Law The term Shari`a is usually translated as “Islamic law.” However, it encompasses a broad range of issues, from daily worship practice to humanity’s relationship with the divine to family and criminal law. Shari’a is drawn from several sources. The Qur’an is the primary legal source, and the Sunnah, the example set by the prophet Muhammad, is secondary. There is also a centuries-long tradition of Islamic legal interpretation and scholarship. Today, many Muslim women live in countries that make provisions for Islamic law or Islamic courts within the legal system. In most cases, states that provide for Islamic law in some capacity do so only for family-law matters for Muslims. In recent decades, many states have enacted reforms to address gender inequities in the law. In countries where Islamic courts handle disputes among Muslims, women often bring the majority of cases forward. Usually, these claims involve family matters like marital disputes and divorce claims. Many types of divorce are permitted in Islamic law. Divorce by male unilateral repudiation, which in classical law does not need the approval of the wife or a legal authority, is well known, but women may seek divorce in court on various grounds, which differ according to legal school. Ethnographic research in places like Kenya, Zanzibar, and Yemen shows that women are often successful in winning their claims in court. In the 7th century, the advent of Islam brought many new legal rights for women. Polygyny was restricted, and women could inherit property and initiate divorce. However, in light of modern standards, classical Islamic law has notable inequities. For example, men inherit a greater share of property than their sisters, can marry up to four wives, and can divorce with greater ease than women. Since the mid-20th century, many states have taken measures to remedy such inequities to reflect modern values. Reforms have often aimed at equalizing men’s and women’s rights in divorce, and with the advent of formalized legal codes, men’s right to divorce through unilateral repudiation has often been restricted. Legal reform in Morocco, Tunisia, and Malaysia, for example, required all divorces to take place in the courts. Several countries have aimed to restrict polygyny in an effort to enhance gender justice, and Tunisia abolished the practice entirely, arguing that although it may have been con-

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marriage, but another states that no man could possibly treat multiple wives equitably. Earlier modernist scholars made similar arguments about polygymy. See Also: Islam; Islamic Feminism; Progressive Muslims (U.S.); Secularity Law, France. Further Readings An-Na’im, A. Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book. London: Zed Books, 2003. Esposito, J. L. and N. J. DeLong-Bas. Women in Muslim Family Law. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003. Mir-Hosseini, Z. Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law, Iran and Morocco Compared. London: I. B. Tauris, 2000. Stiles, E. An Islamic Court in Context: An Ethnographic Study of Judicial Reasoning. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Welchman, L., ed. Women’s Rights and Islamic Family Law. London: Zed Books, 2004. Erin Stiles University of Nevada, Reno

The Qur’an is the primary source for Islamic law, and the examples set by the prophet Muhammad are secondary.

sidered acceptable at one point in Islamic history, the practice was not appropriate in the modern period. In recent years, scholars and feminist organizations have campaigned for greater gender equity through the framework of Islam. Scholars have argued that the Islamic sacred sources stress gender equity, and activists have used this as a foundation to struggle for public policy ensuring women’s rights. For example, Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian organization promoting Muslim women’s rights, has recently argued that restricting polygyny is religiously correct. Although according to most interpretations of Islamic law, Muslim men may marry up to four wives, the organization interprets verses of the Qur’an that deal with polygyny (4:3 and 4:129) as discouraging the practice: One verse requires equal treatment of wives in a polygynous

Shepard, Judy American gay rights activist Judy Shepard is the mother of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old gay college student whose 1998 murder captured national attention and energized debate on hate crimes legislation. Shepard and her husband, Dennis, created the Matthew Shepard Foundation in their son’s memory, but she has been the face and the voice of the organization, serving as its executive director from 1999 to 2009. She continues to serve as board president and to travel across the United States speaking passionately of the need for social justice and acceptance of diversity. From Homemaker to Activist Born Judy Peck in Glenrock, Wyoming, in 1952, Shepard was the daughter of the town postmaster and a post office senior clerk. While a student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, she met Dennis Shepard. The young woman who planned to be

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a teacher and the oil rigger married and moved to Casper, Wyoming, where Dennis had a job with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Matthew, the first of two sons, was born to the Shepards in 1976. Seventeen years later, Dennis Shepard’s work as a safety engineer for Aramco took the family to Saudi Arabia. Shepard and her husband were still in Saudi Arabia five years later when the call came with the news that Matthew had been beaten, tied to a fence, and left for dead near Laramie. Less than a week later, Matt was dead, and Shepard’s transformation from quiet homemaker to gay rights activist had begun. Matthew Shepard was not the first victim of antigay violence, but the combination of his youth, the brutality of his murder, and the ordinariness of his family galvanized public sentiment. Memorials were held across the country, and contributions poured in to help cover medical costs. The Shepards used the contributions as seed money for the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Shepard began making speeches, calling for hate crime legislation to be extended to include sexual orientation. Soon the self-described introvert was making as many as 50 speeches a year, eventually racking up 250,000 frequent-flier miles annually as she spoke to crowds about her son’s death and his life, as well as about the need for social acceptance and legal protection for gays and lesbians. Five times Congress approved a bill providing for that protection, and each time the proposed legislation was defeated. After a decade as a crusader, Shepard published her memoir, The Meaning of Matthew, in September 2009. In the book, Shepard recounted in straightforward fashion her family’s life, the unimaginable horror of Matt’s murder, and her years of activism. On October 22, 2009, Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extended hate-crime status to include a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation or identity, or disability. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on October 28, 2009.

Loffreda, Beth. Losing Matt Shepard. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Shepard, Judy. The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed. New York: Hudson Street Press, 2009.

See Also: Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Hate Crimes; Sexual Orientation–Based Violence: United States.

Preservation of All Lifeforms The author of more than 300 papers in scientific and technical journals, Shiva has also written several books, including Soil Not Oil (2008), Earth Democracy (2005), Water Wars (2002), Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply (2000), Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (1997), Monocultures

Further Readings Haygood, Will. “Honor Thy Son: Out of Tragedy, Judy Shepard Became Mother of a Movement.” The Washington Post (July 13, 2003).

Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Shiva, Vandana Vandana Shiva is a feminist environmentalist and philosopher of science whose work combines scientific and economic research with the principles of grassroots activism and social justice movements to resolve environmental problems at the local and global levels. Born November 5, 1952, in Dehradun, India, to a farmer mother with a love for nature and a forest conservationist father, Shiva demonstrated an early concern for environmental activism and social justice. During the 1970s, she participated in the Chipko movement—a nonviolent struggle by female peasants in India to prevent the cutting of trees and reclaim their traditional forest rights. After receiving a B.S. in physics, Shiva pursued a master’s degree in philosophy at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and then completed her doctoral degree in quantum theory physics at the University of Western Ontario in 1979. When her sister, a physician, informed her of the health effects of nuclear radiation on lifeforms, she began to question why her science education had not exposed her to such knowledge, prompting her eventual critiques and analyses of the worldview and assumptions of mainstream science. She later went on to undertake research in science, technology, and environmental policy at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.



of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology (1993), and Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development (1988). In these works, she argues for the wisdom of many traditional practices in agriculture. She also promotes the ideals of partnership and cooperation and believes that other definitions of freedom, knowledge, and progress are needed to liberate both women and the environment from the restrictive definitions held by Western cultures since the Enlightenment period. She asserts that women’s liberation will not take place unless there is a simultaneous struggle to preserve and liberate all lifeforms on earth from the dominant patriarchal and capitalist structures. In her mission to put her ideas into practice, Shiva founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in 1982. Nine years later, she started Navdanya (“nine seeds”), a farm and organization whose mission is to save seeds, protect indigenous knowledge, and promote diversity while empowering women and children. With the creation of Bija Vidyapeeth (“Seed University”), an organic farm and center for holistic living, Shiva inaugurated a series of monthlong courses to disseminate knowledge and initiate dialogue about holistic living. Through her assistance to grassroots organizations of the Green movement in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria with campaigns against genetic engineering, she has also contributed intellectual and activist support to contemporary essential debates about intellectual property rights, biodiversity, biotechnology, bioethics, and genetic engineering. Awarded the Right Livelihood Award (more commonly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) in 1993 and the Global 500 Award of the United Nations Environment Program, Shiva is one of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization and the ecology advisor to several organizations, including the Third World Network and the Asia Pacific People’s Environment Network. She also serves on the boards of many organizations, such as the World Future Council and Slow Food International. Through her efforts to create a new paradigm for scientific research and to work in novel ways with communities, Shiva has had a profound effect on contemporary environmentalist thought and action. See Also: Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and;

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Environmental Justice; Navdanya; Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Further Readings Mies, Maria and Vandana Shiva. Ecofeminism. London: Zed Books, 1993. Shiva, Vandana. Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: South End, 1997. Shiva, Vandana, ed. Close to Home: Women Reconnect Ecology, Health and Development Worldwide. Philadelphia, PA: New Society, 1994. Shiva, Vandana. Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2005. Shiva, Vandana, ed. Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2007. Shiva, Vandana. Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology. London: Zed Books; Penang: Third World Network,1993. Shiva, Vandana. Soil Not Oil. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2008. Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. London: Zed Books, 1988. Shiva, Vandana. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2000. Shiva, Vandana. Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit. Cambridge, MA : South End, 2002. Shiva, Vandana and Ingunn Moser, eds. Biopolitics: A Feminist and Ecological Reader on Biotechnology. London: Zed Books, 1995. Danielle Roth-Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Shoemaker, Carolyn Carolyn Shoemaker is an observational planetary astronomer who has discovered more than 30 comets and 800 asteroids, more than any other astronomer. She received wide recognition and media attention in 1993 after she codiscovered a comet that would impact Jupiter in July 1994. Shoemaker’s discovery allowed both amateur and professional astronomers to witness the event, providing important insight into what would happen if a comet hit Earth. The Jupiter comet was named Shoemaker-Levy 9 after Shoemaker and her husband, astronomer and geologist Gene

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Carolyn Shoemaker at the 18-inch Schmidt at Palomar Observatory in a 1986 photo taken by her husband, Gene.

Shoemaker, and their colleague, amateur astronomer David Levy. Since 1980, Shoemaker has been a visiting scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Center for Astrogeology in Flagstaff, Arizona, where her husband was founding director. She has conducted regular observations at Palomar Observatory in California and is a research professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Shoemaker’s career achievements are all the more remarkable because she does not hold an advanced degree in astronomy and came to the field only later in life after raising a family. Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker was born June 24, 1929, in Gallup, New Mexico. She received a bachelor’s degree from Chico State College in California in 1949 and a master’s degree in history and political science in 1950. She was a schoolteacher and then, after marrying Gene Shoemaker in 1951, a stay-at-home

mother of three children. Carolyn had accompanied her husband on many research trips and helped him as a field assistant for his work mapping and analyzing impact craters. After her children were grown, Shoemaker began working with her husband at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). She used a stereoscope to review photographs of the night sky, looking for comets and Earth-approaching asteroids, spending as many as 100 hours to find one comet. The couple moved to Arizona, where Gene Shoemaker founded the USGS Center for Astrogeology and his wife worked as a visiting scientist. Gene Shoemaker was killed in a car accident in 1997 while the couple was on a research trip together in Australia; since then, Shoemaker has continued her astronomical observations for USGS. Shoemaker was awarded an honorary doctorate in science from Northern Arizona University in 1990. She was named a Cloos Scholar of earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University in 1990. In 1996, she received an Exceptional Achievement Medal from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); that same year Shoemaker was named both a Woman of Distinction by the National Association for Women in Education and a Distinguished Alumna of California State University, Chico. For her collaborations with her husband, she was corecipient of the Rittenhouse Medal of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society in 1988 and the James Craig Watson Medal for astronomy from the National Academy of Science in 1998. See Also: Astronomy, Women in; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Levy, David H. Impact Jupiter: The Crash of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. New York: Basic Books, 1995. U.S. Geological Survey. “Carolyn Shoemaker.” Astrogeology Science Center. http://astrogeology.usgs .gov/About/People/CarolynShoemaker (accessed June 2010). The Woman Astronomer. “Carolyn Shoemaker: The Comet Hunter.” http://www.womanastronomer.com /carolyn_shoemaker.htm (accessed (June 2010). Tiffany K. Wayne Independent Scholar



Shooting Sports, Women in Sports shooting arose from target practice, which was developed to hone hunting, self-defense, and military skills. Similar to the evolution of many sports, shooting was seen as a masculine activity, thus making it difficult for women to initially participate. Yet women have proven themselves to be outstanding shooters since the late 1800s, as past newspaper accounts have documented. Today, women around the globe excel in all levels of competition, including the Olympic games. Women first participated in the Olympics in 1968, competing alongside men in open events. At the 1976 Olympic Games, American Margaret Thompson Murdock became the first female shooter to win an Olympic medal, the silver, in the 50m rifle 3 position event, and in 1992, Chinese shooter Shan Zhang won the gold in International Skeet. This was the last year women competed against men. By 1996, all shooting events had become segregated, and rules for the women’s events were changed, making it impossible to compare their scores with those of men. The Impact of Religious Beliefs Some women are prohibited from participating because of the national religious beliefs held by their home countries. The first Islamic Countries Women Sport Games were organized in 1993 to accommodate Islamic restrictions on body and hair covering for women, which prevented Islamic women athletes from participating in the Olympics. Men could attend the awards ceremonies, but the competitions themselves were women only, which allowed women to wear the gear necessary for full mobility during competition. Even although the outfit was less an issue for shooters because they could easily remain concealed, it was not until 1996 that Iran, a Muslim country, allowed its female citizens to participate in the Olympics. Lida Fariman was Iran’s female shooting representative that year. Similar to other Olympic athletes, female shooters may be supported by their family, community, government, and national sports organizations, and/ or through commercial endorsements. Star shooters are given resources with hopes they will bring home medals for their country. For example, American Kimberly Rhode was supported by her family, her

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local gun club, commercial endorsements, and USA Shooting, the governing body for Olympic shooting sports; in 1996, at age 17 years, she won a gold in Double Trap. The People’s Republic of China has a 60-year history of supporting its athletes; at the 2008 games, Chinese female shooters brought home gold medals in three of the six shooting matches: Wenjun Guo (10m air pistol), Ying Chen (25m pistol), and Li Du (50m rifle 3 positions). Du also won a gold medal in the 10m air pistol in 2004. Although still not a popular sport with most women, shooting is one of the few sports in which women can compete equally with men in many types of competitions. This is because shooting requires talent, skill, and mental acuity more than muscles. Evidence of this can be seen among military women, who demonstrate outstanding firearm skills and may be placed on coed shooting teams. This was the case for American Spc. Liana Bombardier, member of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit. Bombardier won the Service Rifle National Long Range Rifle Championship in 2003—a first for women in the competition’s 100-year history. For shooters as well as other female athletes participating in traditionally male sports, prejudice remains. Issues of masculinity and homosexuality, along with social, cultural, and religious values, continue to play a role in encouraging or denying female shooters competitive opportunities. Whether competing with a shotgun, handgun, or rifle, competitive women shooters face formidable expenses: a quality firearm, ammunition, a place to practice, and thousands of hours of practice time are minimum requirements. In those countries where female shooters have found support, they have succeeded. See Also: Cowboy Action Shooting; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Olympics, Summer; Olympics, Winter; Rhode, Kim; Sports, Women in; Title IX. Further Readings Birrell, S. and C. L. Cole. Women, Sport, and Culture. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1994. Hargreaves, Jennifer. Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity. New York: Routledge, 2000. Hargreaves, Jennifer. Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sports. New York: Routledge, 1994.

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Hartmann-Tews, I. and G. Pfister. Sport and Women: Social Issues in International Perspective. New York: Routledge, 2003. Pagán, Paula J. Randall. “Woman Wins National Rifle Championship,” Soldier (November 2003). USA Shooting. http://www.usashooting.org (accessed July 2010). Nancy Floyd Georgia State University

Showalter, Elaine Elaine Showalter, professor emeritus at Princeton University, revolutionized the field of feminist literary theory with the publication of A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing (1978), “Toward a Feminist Poetics” (1979), and “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness” (1981), among other seminal texts. With Feminist Poetics, she established the field of gynocriticism—a mode of literary theory that seeks to examine women as writers by interrogating the history, themes, genres, structures, and other features of literature by women. Education and Career Elaine Cottler was born in 1941 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father worked in the wool business and her mother was a housewife. Her parents disowned her when she married English Showalter in 1962. The Showalters have two children: Michael Showalter and Vinca Showalter LaFleur. Showalter earned her bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College, a master’s degree from Brandeis University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in 1970. In her essay “Twenty Years on: ‘A Literature of Their Own’ Revisited,” Showalter recounts receiving her Ph.D. the same month that she gave birth to her second child. She began teaching at Princeton University in 1984 and retired in 2003. Her Ph.D. thesis, The Double Critical Standard, formed the basis of A Literature of Their Own, her foundational extension and reworking of the feminist literary theory set up in Virginia Woolf ’s A Room of One’s Own (1929). As Showalter imagined it, gynocriticism functions as an attempt to create a female framework for

analyzing women’s literature rooted in female experience and liberated from male literary history. She explains in “Toward a Feminist Poetics” that studying stereotypes of women, sexism in male-authored literary criticism, and the limitations of women’s roles in literary history only reinscribes these inequalities and neglects the lived experience of women writers, readers, and subjects. Her project engendered a tremendous interest in recovery work and led to the canonization of many forgotten female authors. Moreover, gynocriticism provided a much-needed corollary to the images of women criticism typical of Mary Ellmann and Kate Millet. Showalter’s writing, along with Ellen Moer’s Literary Women (1976), helped identify clear trends and trajectories in women’s literary history; they also opened up and enriched the study of women’s lives and experiences by suggesting ways of dismantling literary and cultural hierarchies. However, gynocritics’ emphasis on biological essentialism led many feminist literary theorists (notably Toril Moi) to critique it; Margaret J. M. Ezell also exposed many of the sedimented biases toward 19th-century literature in Showalter’s work as well as in Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s roughly contemporaneous study The Madwoman in the Attic (1979). Some of Showalter’s other major works of feminist literary theory include The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830–1980 (1985), Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin-deSiècle (1990), Sister’s Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing (1991), Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (1997), and Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (2001). She has also written academic novels and articles for popular publications, ranging from the Guardian and the Nation to People magazine. See Also: Feminism, American; Feminism on College Campuses; Working Mothers. Further Readings Allen, Carolyn J. “Feminist(s) Reading: A Response to Elaine Showalter.” Writing and Sexual Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. Jacobus, Mary. “Reading Woman (Reading).” Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

Sierra Leone

Showalter, Elaine. A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. New York: Vintage, 2010. Showalter, Elaine. “Twenty Years On: ‘A Literature of Their Own Revisited’.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction, v.31/3 (1998). Emily Bowles Lawrence University

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone is a small country located on the West African coast that is home to approximately 6 million people and is continually ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2002, Sierra Leone emerged from a 10-year civil war that ravaged the country and resulted in over half of the population being displaced. Over 80 percent of all refugees were women and chil-

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dren. From 1991 to 2002, Sierra Leone was embroiled in bloody civil war, which greatly affected the lives of the nation’s women. Throughout the war, women were abducted, were victims of sexual violence, and were forced into conscription. Between 50,000 and 64,000 women were victims of sexual violence, such as rape and sexual slavery, and many were forced into unwanted marriages. When returning to society, former refugees and soldiers lacked basic healthcare, education, food, shelter, and clothing. Before the outbreak of civil war in Sierra Leone, women were viewed as second-class citizens in the eyes of the law and social norms. Polygamy is practiced in many parts of Sierra Leone, which can cause conflict within the family and expose women to increased risks of sexually transmitted diseases and human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Genital mutilation is also practiced in Sierra Leone. Women in urban areas of Sierra Leone have been making strides in education and political reform, but

This primary school was completely destroyed during Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war. Rebel soldiers used it as a base and training ground, and used its books and wooden furnishings as fuel for fires.

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the uneven distribution of schools has caused this movement to grow slowly. Most schools are located in the south and in urban areas, leaving women in rural settings uneducated. There has been an emphasis on the education of women in Sierra Leone by local governments, the United Nations (UN), and associated organizations. After the war, hundreds of nongovernmental organizations emerged to institute rehabilitation and reintegration projects. Many of these projects targeted young women with the intention of improving their economic and emotional status and increasing their knowledge of health and reproductive issues. In an effort to create peace and stability in Sierra Leone, UN peacekeeping forces have had a large presence in the country; as a result, there has been an increase in prostitution. Women working as prostitutes are often faced with sexual violence, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and lack of proper reproductive healthcare. Large-scale efforts to protect women from physical and sexual violence have proved fruitful over the past few years. In 2007, after efforts made by woman’s groups, three “gender bills” were made into law. The Domestic Violence Act, the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act, and the Devolution of Estates Act offer women in Sierra Leone the protection of the law, which was not available previously. See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Rape in Conflict Zones; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights. Further Readings Coulter, Chris. Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers: Women’s Lives Through War and Peace in Sierra Leone. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. Lamin, Sylvester Amara. Women and Development in Sierra Leone. Baltimore, MD: Publish America, 2007. McKay, Susan and Dyan Mazurana. Where Are the Girls? Girls in Fighting Forces in Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone and Mozambique: Their Lives During and After the War. Montreal, Canada: Rights & Democracy, 2004. Steady, Filomina Chioma. Women and Collective Action in Africa: Development, Democratization, and Empowerment, With Special Focus on Sierra Leone. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006. Meggan A. Houlihan Ball State University

Sigurðardóttir, Jóhanna Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (Icelandic), or Johanna Sigurdardottir (as generally printed in the English press), became prime minister of Iceland in 2009—the first woman to hold that position in the country’s history and the world’s first openly homosexual head of state. Iceland’s longest-serving member of parliament, Sigurðardóttir brought three decades of legislative experience to her new position, along with a reputation for championing social issues such as gender equality and rights for the disabled and elderly. A member of the Social Democratic Alliance party, she won support across the political spectrum. Polls gave her a 73 percent approval rate at a time when Iceland was in the midst of an economic meltdown and government ministers were scorned as contributors to the crisis. Sigurðardóttir was born in Reykjavik in 1942. She worked as a flight attendant for what is now Icelandair and became involved with trade unions early in her professional life, serving as president of the Board of the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association in 1966 and 1969 and as president of the Board of Svölurnar, Association of Former Stewardesses, in 1975. She married Torvaldur Johannesson, a banker, in 1970, and the couple had two sons, born in 1972 and 1977. She and Johannesson divorced, and in 2002, she wed Jonina Leosdottir, a writer, in a civil ceremony. Although the international press headlined Sigurðardóttir’s sexual orientation, it is a nonissue in Iceland, which decriminalized gay sex in 1940 and made same-sex marriages legal in 1996, one of the first countries to do so. An Impressive Political Career First elected to parliament in 1978, Sigurðardóttir was reelected eight times. She served as minister of Social Affairs and Social Security four times between 1994 and 2009. Her refusal to use the official limousine and driver provided to all ministers set the tone for her service. She is credited with pushing through policies that widened housing opportunities for Iceland’s poor and strengthened the social welfare system. When her bid to become leader of the Social Democratic Party in 1994 failed, she briefly formed her own party but returned to the Social Democrats in 2000 and rejoined the government as social affairs minister in 2007, where she remained until 2009. Her persistence in pushing for

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the rights of the less privileged earned her the sobriquet “Saint Johanna.” When Iceland’s conservative-led government collapsed in 2008 in the wake of a failed banking system, double-digit unemployment, and rising public anger with elected officials, the new coalition government of Social Democrats and Left-Greens named Sigurðardóttir as acting prime minister. In April elections, her coalition won a strong mandate, and she was sworn in as prime minister on February 1, 2009. Promising to return to Iceland’s social welfare roots, Sigurðardóttir announced a plan to replace the central bank’s directors and to pursue membership in the European Union. The latter goal is not without controversy because of the history of disputes with the United Kingdom, a European Union member, concerning fishing rights and territorial waters, but Sigurðardóttir was not swayed in her commitment to European Union membership as Iceland’s best hope for economic recovery. She has also acted on her belief in an egalitarian government. Arguing that women were “untainted” by the errors of former leadership, she set up a government that is 50 percent female. Forbes named her to its 100 Most Powerful Women list for 2009. Her formidable strength on national and international issues suggests the title is well earned. See Also: Flight Attendants; Iceland; Heads of State, Female; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Books LLC. Icelandic Women in Politics: Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Valgerður Sverrisdóttir, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir. Books LLC, 2010. Byers, David. “Johanna Sigurdardottir, World’s First Openly Gay Leader, to Take Power in Iceland.” Times Online (January 29, 2009). http://www.timesonline .co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5610520.ece (accessed August 2010). McDonald, Alyssa. “Gordon Brown Went Beyond What Was Justified.” New Statesman. http://www.newstates man.com/europe/2010/01/gordon-brown-iceland -interview (accessed July 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

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Sikhism Sikhism is a monotheistic religion established primarily in the 15th century in the Punjab region of southern Asia and has approximately 25 million followers worldwide. The term Sikh originates from the Sanskrit words Sisya and Siksa, meaning “disciple” or “learner” and “instruction,” respectively. Punjabi and Gurmukhi are the primary languages used in Sikhism and by the Sikh people. Pillars of Practice and Scripture Sikhism has three foundational pillars: Naam Japna, Vand Chakna, and Kirat Karni. Naam Japna is the recitation of God’s name through meditation or singing hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Holy Scripture. Vand Chakna is the concept of sharing with others, including a mandatory donation of 10 percent of one’s earnings. This concept is further practiced in Sikh Gurdwara’s, the place of worship, where a free kitchen is open to all. Working hard and truthfully is the idea of the third pillar, Kirat Karni. Additionally, Sikhism teaches equality among all of humanity, preaches overall truthful living, demands social justice, and denounces superstitions and blind rituals. The Guru Granth Sahib is a collection of religious teachings in the form of hymns or shabads, prayers, and poems, describing the ethereal qualities of God and the importance of remembrance. The Guru Granth Sahib consists of 1,430 pages composed by six of the 10 Sikh Gurus, as well as numerous saints and poets from various religions whose views were deemed consistent with the Gurus’ message. The open acceptance of a non-Sikh’s work into the Holy Scripture was a social breakthrough at its time. This scripture even incorporated words of the lowest social caste, the untouchables, thereby raising them to the level of saints and denouncing the caste system. The Guru Granth Sahib is the written embodiment of the 10 Gurus and is thus considered the final Guru of the Sikhs. Once a Sikh is ready to fully embrace the teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib, he or she will participate in the Sikh version of the baptism ceremony, known as Amrit Sanchar. A Sikh is required to wear five articles, known as the Five Kakkars. These include Kesh, unshorn hair; Kara, a steel bracelet; Kanga, a small comb; Kirpan, a dagger (that is legally required in the United States to be less than four inches

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long); and Kachera, a specially designed undergarment. All these guidelines are outlined in the Sikh Rehat Maryada, a more recently compiled code of conduct of the principles taught by the Gurus. The democratic nature of Sikhism is seen in the ability of Sikhs to create their code of conduct, in that religious rules can made or changed by the Sikhs as long as they do not go against the teaching of the Guru Granth Sahib. Position and Achievements of Sikh Women “From woman, man is born; Within woman, man is conceived; to woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad? From her, kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all.” (Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji [SGGSJ], p. 473) Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first of the 10 Sikh Gurus, taught his disciples the importance of equality among race, ethnicity, age, and gender. As can be seen in the above quotation, women are to be held in equally high stature as men in Sikhism, as women are the means by which men exist and all of humanity continues. Salvation within Sikhism is defined as achieving spiritual enlightenment, in which the soul is merged with the light of God. “In all beings is the Lord pervasive, the Lord pervades all forms male and female” (SGGSJ, p. 605). Thus, it can be seen that this enlightenment is not only for a man, but a woman can achieve this highest form of salvation as well. There are numerous examples of Sikhism’s emphasis on women’s equality. However, women are not always equally treated in society, due to strong cultural norms within Sikh households. Women are often overly protected and men given more free reign, due to what is thought to be the vulnerability of women. Another example of this inequality is the reported cases of infanticide in the highly Sikh-populated Punjab region of India. Though prohibited by the teachings of Sikhism, female infanticide is prominent in that region.

A Sikh preacher addressing an audience in the Golden Temple, the most sacred shrine of the Sikhs, in Amritsar, India.

When looking at high-level Sikh leaders, very few if any women have infiltrated the ranks within the religious hierarchy despite being involved in lower-level processes, such as voting. Women are equals when attending services, performing hymns, and even leading congregations. However, the religious-governing bodies have tended to be dominantly male. Today, we are seeing numerous Sikh women gain ground in various fields, from politics to sports, science, and even music. In 1999, Jagir Sekhon was elected to be mayor of the London Borough of Greenwich, making her the first woman Sikh mayor in Britain; Balwinder Kaur Bhatia and Harpreet Kaur Gill were the first Sikh women to represent India in the 1980 Moscow Olympics; Dr. Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian woman to go into space; and Snatam Kaur Khalsa is

Singapore



a New Age Grammy Award nominee for her spiritual music. On a smaller scale, Sikh women have become a facet of American society, impacting lives by their work in medicine, engineering, law, and much more. If applied correctly, the teachings of Sikhism promote complete equality between men and women in all aspects of life, from day-to-day differences to salvation. Unfortunately, all too often, these teachings are overshadowed by cultural and societal norms leading to inequality and sexism among Sikh’s. Sikh women today are strengthening themselves and their presence by using Sikhism’s religious teachings of equality to make an impact in the world. See Also: India; Pakistan; Religion, Women in; Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of. Further Readings Cole, W. Owen. Understanding Sikhism (Understanding Faith). Edinburgh, UK: Dunedin Academic Press, 2004. Samra, Mandeep Kaur. Modern Sikh Historiography. Anand Parbat, Delhi, India: K. K. Publication, 2004. Virdi, Manprit Kaur. “Silence: Resistance or Acquiescence? Sikh Women’s Perspectives on Canadian Law.” SocioLegal Studies, Master’s Research Paper. Toronto: York University, 2010. Mandeep Kaur University of Texas, Austin Jasmeet Kaur Independent Scholar Parminder Singh Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Singapore Singapore is a small island nation-state with a population of close to 5 million people. It is a former British colony that gained its independence in 1965. Singapore is a multiethnic and multireligious society: the three major ethnic groups are Chinese (75 percent), Malay (13 percent), and Indians (9 percent). The country has four official languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. English is the language of administration and commerce and is widely spoken all over the island. Commonly described as one of the

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“Asian Tigers” or “Little Dragons,” Singapore is among the Asian “miracle economies” that transformed from “Third World” to “First World” in 30 years. It has one of the highest gross domestic products in the world, and its major industries are electronics, financial services, petroleum refining, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. State power is extremely strong, and the government has been controlled by the People’s Action Party since gaining its independence from Britain. At first glance, Singaporean women appear to enjoy a high level of autonomy, independence, and state protection. This level of protection comes from the groundbreaking Women’s Charter, a bill passed in 1961 that legalized important civil and social rights for the nation’s women. The Woman’s Charter outlawed polygamy and legally allowed women to own property, stand for public office, conduct business in their own names, and participate in all forms of social, economic and political activity. Singaporean women receive high levels of education and form 42.1 percent of all economically active residents. All women receive at least 10 years of mandatory education, and Singaporean women comprise 53.1 percent of university graduates. The nation’s women are strongly encouraged to participate in the country’s workforce. Since the 1970s, the government has made several attempts to entice mothers to return to work after they have given birth. Discrimination in the Home Despite advances in education, government, and business, Singaporean women still face discrimination at home. In this society there is the persistent belief in traditional family values, which position men as the head of the household. While possessing the same legal and political rights as men, Singaporean women still generally continue to believe that their primary responsibility is in the home rather than in their careers. This domestic image of women accounts for the lack of women in powerful positions, both within the government and in important civil and corporate bodies. There are no full female ministers in the Singapore parliament. Women’s issues are only represented in the “Women’s Desk,” a subsidiary of the Family Policy Unit within the government’s Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. In the private sector, only 27.5 percent of people in managerial and executive positions in the country are

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women. At the top level, only 14.7 percent of women are chief executive officers, managing directors, or director generals. In addition, because tradition holds that men should be the head of the household, 61 percent of women choose to remain economically inactive to fulfill the role of housewife/homemaker. Women also consistently earn less than men, and less than half of the top income bracket earners are women. Older women between the ages of 55 and 64 find it much more difficult to find employment than men. However, this scenario is rapidly changing. In 2006, 23.4 percent of parliament members were women, a large improvement over the 16.13 percent in the previous parliament. The Singapore government also is actively creating policies to ameliorate the conditions of life for older women. This situation is likely to further improve as Singaporean women become more educated and as the state begins to shift its policies to include more women in positions of power. See Also: Equal Pay; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Government, Women in; United Kingdom. Further Readings Heng, Geraldine. “State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality and Race in Singapore.” In Andrew Parker, et al., eds., Nationalisms and Sexualities. London: Routledge, 1991. Holden, Philip. “A Man and an Island: Gender and Nation in Lee Kuan Yew’s The Singapore Story.” Biography, v.24/2 (2001). Trocki, Carl. Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control. London: Routledge, 2006.   Adeline Koh Independent Scholar

Single Mothers A number of different terms have been used to refer to households where only one parent, usually the mother, cares for dependent children: unmarried mothers, lone mothers, single mothers, one-parent families. “Lone parent” usually implies living alone without a partner but with dependent children. “Sin-

gle parent” is more suggestive of marital status, that is, never married. Among one-parent families, the term lone mother today still constitutes a central factor, both for historical and sociodemographic reasons. First, the one-parent figure has historically coincided with that of the “unmarried mother.” The considerable numerical disproportion between “lone” mothers and fathers in favor of the former should also not be forgotten. This may be explained by multiple factors: the tendency to give custody to the mother in case of separation or divorce; the higher death rate among men; the higher rate of second marriages among divorced men than women; the tendency of children born outside wedlock to live with their mothers. The families composed of one parent do not, however, constitute a static reality: we may rather speak of plural experiences, historically molded and colocated at the crossing of complex, contrasting trends that are worth illustrating and commenting upon. Difficulty of Simply Defining Lone Parents Lone parents are generally defined in the research as families consisting of one parent, who is not a cohabitant, who is either living alone or with others, and who has dependent children. Although grouped together under a “single” definition, these families in reality vary greatly, due to the different existential and relational forms that may create them: widowhood, procreation outside wedlock, separation in fact, legal separation, or divorce. Similarly, there is a great variability in the factors that may bring about the end of the condition of single parenthood: for example, marriage, cohabitation, children gaining independence, or children leaving the family nucleus. With this variety of transitions around the condition of single parenthood, a standard international definition does not exist to define this figure with precision. In particular, there are three aspects that create ambiguity in pinpointing a criterion enabling the clear definition and thus facilitating the quantification of the phenomenon in a comparative view: • the marital status of the parent (bachelor/ spinster, married, separated, or divorced); • the composition of the family: the presence or absence of a member of the family of origin, of a relative, of a partner. This variety strongly



questions the very concept of single parenthood (ie., may a parent actually exist “alone?”). • the definition of a “dependent” child (until what age may a child actually be considered dependent on the family of origin?). The strong differences existing between the various national differences make the data sources highly heterogeneous and often difficult to compare. Differences in Lone Mother Households A second observation: lone mothers are often presented as a homogeneous group, sharing similar disadvantages and existing as a group distinct from other women and from two-parent households. This conflation facilitates the social construction of lone motherhood as a social problem. Lone mothers are still constructed as deficit families in social and educational policies. They are positioned within a discourse that places lone-mother families as a threat to the moral order. And yet, lone-parent families are increasingly diversifying today, and the variations in age and generation, gender, ethnic group, and sexual orientation must not be underestimated. A transition is in fact taking place between the old lone parenthood, due to widowhood, to the new lone parenthood, stemming from the voluntary conclusion of the family union and from births outside wedlock. This transition reveals interesting aspects for both the social sciences and for social policies. Lone parents belonging to different groups are necessarily bearers of diversified needs: if lone widowed and probably elderly mothers, living with adult children, may pose a problem of dependence on their children, the problem arising from divorced or unmarried mothers is closely linked to the burden of family responsibilities and dependence of young children. The experience of lone parents may, moreover, take on very different meanings according to the point in the life course at which it occurs. Young lone mothers, for example, embody significant contradictions, mixing the needs of adult life and those of adolescence. They accelerate and, at the same time, overlap the events that accompany the transition into adult life. They have considerably anticipated the reproductive function: motherhood precedes the completion of their education, their entry into the labor market and the estab-

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lishment of an autonomous household. This “wrong” sequence of events is the cause of their vulnerability. As far as gender is concerned, while lone mothers are more numerous than lone fathers, on the other hand the number of lone fathers is constantly increasing. The past 15 years have seen a marked increase in the number of lone fathers in the United States and in the interest shown to this population by social science researchers. In 2000, 11 percent (approximately 179,000) of lone parents were men in the United Kingdom. In Germany, the percentage of lone fathers increased from 13.6 percent of all lone parents in 1991 to 19.5 percent in the year 2000. Being lone mothers and fathers also appear to be experiences that may vary greatly from one culture to another and from one ethnic group to another. This is because the individual perception of this condition, its duration, and the form of help and support networks activated, for lone mothers in particular, may vary considerably. But the spaces of everyday living questioned by the growing presence and diversification of oneparent families and households do not end here. We are speaking of the changes that have profoundly affected traditional gender balances and that have at the same time influenced the composition of oneparent families and households. We also mean the increasingly complex crossings between lone parenthood, changes in gender identity, and plurality of sexual desire and orientation that have further diversified the reality of these families: nonheterosexual, transgender, and transsexual lone parents. It should be acknowledged that research on lesbian and gay parents and their children, though no longer new, is still limited in extent. Extended Families and Social Isolation A further significant point for reflection is found in the idea that the parent is truly, actually “alone.” While on the one hand, common sense suggests that the lone mother or father lives only with her/his children, lone parenthood turns out to be a much more complex condition. These nuclei may benefit from the presence of a member of the family of origin, a relative, or a partner. In other words, lone mothers and fathers may form a family as such and be part of an extended family—for example, that of the family of origin—living with friends/acquaintances, and so on.

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Studies on teenage lone mothers carried out in Italy show that this group—although very small in number—cannot be considered as homogeneous regarding its needs. On the contrary, we may hypothesize its polarization, in terms of the variable “distance” from the family, into two segments with strongly differentiated needs. On the one hand are women who live with their family, with a high degree of protection and help; on the other hand are young women who cannot rely on any family support, for example, lone migrant mothers. Research studies carried out in France reveal that, in the case of some communities (e.g., central African, Caribbean) the word monoparentalité is highly unsuitable. They are often extended families, in which the generations live together and tend to mix (the mother helping the daughter, the elder brothers and sisters taking care of the younger ones), and in which—also due to the frequently poor financial means—the networks of family, relatives, and friends may be active in enabling the lone mother to work. Community membership may, on the other hand, also bring negative effects to bear on the life courses of lone parents. There are also forms of concealed mono-parenthood in some cultures where being a lone mother is considered blameworthy and a stigma. This situation may often be kept hidden from the eyes and opinions of others. Rather than of “lone” mothers and fathers, therefore, we may speak of forms of social isolation—the absence of contacts with other people in everyday life—which may affect some of these families. Economic Disadvantages Considered A further, important common factor in international statistics is that one-parent families constitute a disadvantaged group in terms of financial, personal, and time resources. These nuclei equally reveal a greater dependence on the welfare systems (which is generally seen in a longer duration of the periods when making use of social benefits). However, the discursive construction of the “single mother on welfare” does not match reality. Lone mothers do not constitute a disadvantaged group in themselves; that is, there is no causal relationship or inevitable association between the condition of lone parenthood and the condition of poverty. As far as the mothers are concerned, their disproportionate vulnerability to

deprivation stems from the interaction between economic disadvantages and gender inequalities in the labor market, in the family and care section, and in the welfare systems. The biographies of lone mothers are in fact closely intertwined with a complex interacting of factors that, starting from the low recognition of women’s unpaid work in the nonmonetary economy, reach the limits deriving from the gender division of work, the assumption by social policies of women’s dependence on their male partner and the lack of women’s income following widowhood, separation or divorce, as well as due to the failures and delays on the part of divorced husbands in contributing financially to the upkeep of their former wives. Regarding lone fathers, we must mention the growing financial difficulties encountered after separation or divorce in coping with their obligation to maintain their former wives and children. The problem linked to the high costs of renting and the lack of public-funded housing should also not be forgotten, in that it may considerably affect the quality of their lives. Lastly, the transition into lone fatherhood also has to be dealt with. A study in the United Kingdom by Gingerbread on 115 lone fathers shows that the main support during the transition into lone fatherhood came from their children’s grandparents and friends and neighbors. Twenty-two percent said that no one had supported them. The main support they would have liked was a group or individual to talk to, to counter their social isolation and the pressure of sole responsibility for their children. For these reasons also, the children in one-parent families do not seem to be very numerous. For example, Italian data relating to 2003 show that, in the majority of cases, there is only one child (68.2 per cent), while there are few with three or more children. The situation is very different for couples with children: 45.1 percent have one child and 43.8 percent have two. The reasons for this difference may be due to various factors: in the case of unmarried mothers, they probably tend not to repeat the difficult experience of bringing up children outside a couple relationship, while in the case or separated or divorced persons, the existence of a more conflicting couple relationship and a shorter period of living together is likely to have influenced this decision. The number of children

Single-Sex Education



in families with one parent is also affected by the factor of the parents’ age. Widowed mothers, generally older, have a larger number of children than others, because they are likely to have concluded their procreative capacity before the death of their husband. See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Daguerre, Anne and Corinne Nativel, eds. When Children Become Parents. Welfare State Responses to Teenage Pregnancy. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press, 2006. Duncan, Simon and Rosalind Edwards, eds. Single Mothers in International Context: Mothers or Workers? London: UCL Press, 1997. Edin, Kathryn and Laura Lein. Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. Ford, Reuben and Jane Millar, eds. Private Lives and Public Responses: Lone Parenthood and Future Policy. London: Policy Studies Institute, 1998. Kiernan, Kathleen, et al. Lone Mothers in Twentieth Century Britain: From Footnote to Front Page. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998. Klett-Davies, Martina. Going it Alone? Lone Motherhood in Late Modernity. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2007. Standing, K. “Lone Mothers and ‘Parental’ Involvement: A Contradiction in Policy?” Journal of Social Policy, v.28/3 (1999). Elisabetta Ruspini University of Milano-Bicocca

Single-Sex Education Single-sex schools have been utilized throughout history for very different purposes. For example, socalled first-generation single-sex schools came to existence as male-only institutions expressly because males were thought to be the sex that was capable and deserving of education. Eventually, all-female academies were born to prove that women, too, were capable of learning and also deserved a share of societal attention in the education sphere.

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However, it was not until the advent of the Common School Movement, started by Horace Mann in the 1830s, that students of the working class and poor were deemed fit for education. During this time, public schools became coeducational—not for any philosophical reason, but due to efficiency and budgetary concerns stemming from the numerical growth of willing students. Single-sex schools continued, mostly in the form of private, oftentimes parochial institutions. In modern times, so-called second-generation single-sex schools have reinvented themselves as a medium for affirmative action and a remedy to social disadvantage. For example, Detroit and Milwaukee school districts attempted to establish single-sex academies for boys of African heritage yet met rigorous resistance. Attempts to establish single-sex schools for girls were also met with threats of litigation from civil rights groups. The most famous case was the Young Women’s Leadership School (YWLS) in New York City. Besides being a focus of recent popular culture, single-sex schooling has received legitimacy in the policy environment with changes to Title IX in conjunction with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). After Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas introduced the amendment to NCLB, schools offering gender-separate classrooms have increased from four in 1998 to 228 in 2006, with 44 of those schools entirely single sex. While political will reflects support for expanding parental school choice, current policy discourse continues to assume balkanized positions between those believing single-sex schools are a violation of civil rights and those purporting that such schools are a remedy to a multitude of problems youths face in urban society. Effects of Single-Sex Schooling To date, none of the exhaustive reviews of the literature have turned up a significant body of evidence demonstrating negative effects of single-sex schooling. A limited number of studies indicate mixed or ambiguous results. Research citing positive effects indicates encouraging changes in attitude, selfesteem, academic engagement, higher achievement, and greater gender equity. Overall, findings are especially convincing for low-income and working-class students and particularly persuasive concerning African American and Hispanic students.

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For example, girls who attend single-sex schools experience higher levels of self-esteem and confidence. This is an important consideration because a feeling of confidence is a variable cited most often in predicting female mathematics achievement. While more research is needed to ascertain possible causeeffect relationships, there is a general consensus that girls in single-sex schools prefer math and physics and perceive them as less masculine than their coeducated peers. Similarly, boys from single-sex environments exhibited stronger preferences for music and art when compared with other boys in coeducational environments. Studies also show that girls who attend single-sex schools are provided more opportunities to serve in leadership positions in their schools, whereas in coed environments, girls might be members of clubs, but the boys take the leadership roles. Overall, girls who attended single-sex schools evidenced more open attitudes and exhibited more flexible behaviors when it came to gender characteristics. Both boys and girls who attend single-sex schooling options experience a school culture strongly geared toward academic achievement and as such, spend significantly more time on homework than students who attend coed schools. Studies of adult women who attended all-girls’ schools growing up indicate higher academic aspirations and attendance at more selective universities than might be predicted by their high school grades and achievement test scores. In addition, these young adult women were more apt to be politically engaged on their college campuses and have plans to attend graduate school. A sustained effect of single-sex secondary education was the lessstereotypic opinions women have of gender roles into their adult lives. Single-sex schools seem to promote more collaborative environments as well as higher levels of order and calm. Male and female students in singlesex environments consistently report higher levels of confidence and peace than those in coed settings. Additional research is needed to further explore the school or classroom-level characteristics that seem to promote a more orderly, caring milieu. It may be that the practices that materialize in a single-sex school can be transferrable to a coed setting. There is still much to learn about single-sex schooling. Overall, the majority of research literature rec-

ommends that the limited research results—positive, negative, or ambiguous—be utilized for developing a future research agenda rather than as definitive evidence that unequivocally endorses increasing singlesex options in the public sector. See Also: Educational Opportunities/Access; No Child Left Behind; Science Education for Girls; Title IX. Further Readings Datnow, Amanda and Lea Hubbard. Gender in Policy and Practice: Perspectives on Single-Sex and Coeducational Schooling. New York: Routledge, 2002. Salomone, Rosemary C. Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. Shmurak, Carole B. Voices of Hope: Adolescent Girls at Single Sex and Coeducational Schools. New York: Peter Lang, 1998. Katherine Cumings Mansfield University of Texas at Austin

“Singletons”/Single by Choice The terms singleton and single by choice reflect the move in recent decades toward singleness as a positive social identity, particularly for women. Wider economic and social changes in recent decades have led to diversity in partnership practices and increasing numbers of people experiencing periods of singleness. These changes also give rise to the possibility of claiming singleness as chosen. Academic research on singleness suggests this may not be experienced unequivocally as a clear-cut choice, and in part this is a result of the ongoing stigmatization of singleness. The single-by-choice movement campaigns against discrimination and for equal rights for single people. The term singleton reflects the move in recent decades toward a positive identity for single people, particularly women. It was popularized in the novel Bridget Jones’ Diary, which was part of increasing attention being paid to single women in popular culture from the mid-1990s (e.g., Sex and the City, which was first broadcast on HBO in 1998). A Time cover



story in 2000 referred to the increasing numbers and visibility of single women as “a major societal shift.” The meanings of singleness vary in relation to specific time and place, reflecting wider social changes such as the delay and decline in marriage. Defined as unmarried (never-married, divorced, and widowed), “single” includes those in cohabiting relationships as well as single parents. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 43 percent of all adult U.S. residents in 2009 were unmarried. “Single by choice” refers to those who do not wish to be in a romantic relationship. Although historical research demonstrates that remaining single is by no means new, the ability to claim this status as chosen is situated in particular contemporary circumstances. Economic and social transformations of the 20th century, alongside political movements that challenge traditional sexual and domestic relations, have contributed to changes in the status of women and provided both the material means and a cultural context in which choosing singleness is, for some women, a possibility. Undesirable Status Recent academic studies on the meanings of singleness for women, however, find that this remains a tensional location, with women equivocal about claiming singleness as chosen. In part this is because of the dominant cultural narrative of the centrality of marriage and family. Long-standing stereotypes of singleness present this as an undesirable status, for which single women are to be pitied: choosing singleness challenges dominant heteronormative discourses that privilege marriage and/or coupledom. Backlash responses are evident in the depiction of single women as selfish careerists or commitment-phobics who risk loneliness and isolation in old age, as well as in political concerns over the societal consequences of the demise of the traditional nuclear family. Bella de Paulo has coined the term singlism to capture the ongoing stereotyping and discrimination experienced by single people, with access to various legal rights and benefits dependent on marital status. The emergence of a single-by-choice movement, illustrated by various campaigning groups and activities (e.g., the American Association of Single People, as well as Unmarried and Single Americans Week) is a political response to singlism. The concept of single

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by choice reflects a political moment of contestation over the basis on which individuals are afforded rights and recognition in respect of their partnership status. Increasing diversity in personal relationships may lead in the longer term to an undermining of partnership status as a category of difference and the basis on which individuals are afforded such rights. See Also: Childlessness as Choice; Heterosexism; Marriage; Partner Rights; Same-Sex Marriage. Further Readings De Paulo, Bella. Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After. New York: St. Martin’s, 2006. Reynolds, Jill. The Single Woman: A Discursive Investigation. New York: Routledge, 2008. Simpson, Roona. Contemporary Spinsterhood in Britain: Gender, Partnership Status and Social Change, Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM, 2009. U.S. Census Bureau. “Unmarried and Single Americans Week 2009.” http://www.census.gov/Press-Release /www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special _editions/014004.html (accessed November 2009) Who Needs a Husband?” Time (August 28, 2000). http:// www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601000828,00 .html (accessed November 2009). R. Simpson University of Edinburgh

Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (1938– ) was elected Liberia’s first woman president in November 2005, the first democratically elected and currently serving woman to head any African nation. As president, Sirleaf recalls in her memoir, no one expected her to win; the odds were long. But this was not the first time Liberia’s “Iron Lady” would overcome the odds. As her biography attests, her route to the presidency included many odds-defying moments, including her upbringing, education, and an adult life filled with fear, arrest, and exile. Yet, she ran for office “to bring motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency,” according to an interview with the BBC. As a result,

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Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson prominent family with political and economic connections, Sirleaf’s mother was afforded great educational opportunities, even studying abroad for a year. When Sirleaf was a child, her mother opened a school in which Sirleaf was educated. Her mother was a traveling Presbyterian minister. As a child of a lawyer and political official, teacher and minister, she became the beneficiary of a childhood that prepared her well for adult challenges. She had a unique connection to her indigenous roots as well as the opportunities that education and political awareness provided. As she explains in her memoir, she draws strengths from both worlds. Sirleaf ’s education includes a degree in accounting and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. A rather unconventional route for an African woman, she did experience the dangers of a traditional life as well. She married James Sirleaf when she was only 17, living under his controlling and abusive hand, and quickly had four sons before seeking a divorce.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2007.

Shirleaf represents two extremes, which enable a remarkable understanding of Liberian culture to which she devotes her presidency. As a child, Sirleaf’s father was taken in as a ward by an American family of settlers working in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Though Sirleaf’s lineage can be traced to the Gola chief in the village of Julejuah, this dual-family background embodies many of the struggles that the Republic of Liberia experienced in embracing its own independence. As a ward for the McGrity family, Carney Johnson, as he was known, experienced the benefits of education and employment that would not have been available to him in the home village. He apprenticed with a practicing lawyer, was introduced to the world of politics, developed a successful law practice, and served in the Liberian legislature, the first indigenous man to be elected to the Liberian House of Representatives. Sirleaf’s mother was a light-skinned woman of German and African descent, born in a farming village in Liberia. Taken in by the Charles Dunbar family, a

Political Career Sirleaf ’s political life started as head of a division at the Treasury Department after returning to Liberia in 1965. Her efforts to challenge corruption and financial mismanagement started at this time and continued during her leadership as Liberia’s minister of finance in 1979 in the William Tolbert administration. However, in the 1980 military coup in which Samuel Doe seized power, Tolbert and members of his cabinet were assassinated; Sirleaf narrowly escaped danger and went into exile in Kenya, where she served as director of Citibank in Nairobi and later in the World Bank. In 1984, when Doe unbanned political parties and declared himself leader, Sirleaf returned to Liberia to campaign against him in the 1985 elections; she was arrested and served nearly a year in jail before being exiled once again. During the 1990s, Sirleaf served as assistant secretary general of the United Nations. In 1997. she returned to Liberia to seek election against Charles Taylor, a man whose rebellion she at one time supported, but received only 10 percent of the vote to his 75 percent in a field of 14 candidates. While international observers declared the election fair, Sirleaf ’s life was threatened, and she was charged with treason for contesting him. By 2003, Taylor handed over

Slasher Movies



the presidency to his deputy, accused of inciting violence and unrest. Opposing groups signed a peace accord, and a transitional government was put in place, with Sirleaf serving as head of the Government Reform Commission. Sirleaf was finally elected president of Liberia in 2005 after a runoff election with her closest challenger. In her inaugural address, she paid homage to her “illiterate grandmothers” while she pledged a “fundamental break with the past.” The many contradictions of her life’s journey would culminate in a “new era of democracy,” during which she pledged economic renewal, an end to corruption, and reconciliation for the country. See Also: Liberia; Representation of Women; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings BBC News. “Profile: Liberia’s ‘Iron Lady.’” (November, 23 2005). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4395978.stm (accessed November 2009). Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson. This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson and Elisabeth Rehn. Progress of the World’s Women 2002 Volume One: Women, War, Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in PeaceBuilding. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women, 2003. Kristina Horn Sheeler Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Slasher Movies A group of horror films known as slasher movies usually foreground a psychopathic, mass murderer who threatens, stalks, and finally kills his victims in a gruesome, terrifying way, using such weapons as knives, machetes, chainsaws, and razors, hence the term slasher. With precursors including the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho and Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, the slasher escapes easy classification/definition,

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since it encompasses and incorporates elements from—as well as overlaps with and influences— numerous other film genres: rape-and-revenge; exploitation; Italian films of the 1960s and 1970s by Dario Argento and Mario Bava; pornography and “torture porn”; splatter; and supernatural horror, since slashers often feature a villain who resurrects, is immortal, and/or is undead. Evolution of the American Type Classic American slashers such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper), Halloween (John Carpenter), Friday the 13th (Sean Cunningham), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven) are franchises that have inspired numerous sequels and remakes, each featuring the same killer. These works have also successfully crossed over into adaptations for television, books, video games, and graphic novels. In slasher films, the killer’s victims are generally— but not exclusively—female, often groups of adolescents or college students who are away from parental or adult supervision on a university campus or in an isolated setting, such as a summer camp or a country house in a rural location. Killers are usually males; iconic examples of slasher villains are Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street), and Michael Myers (Halloween)—all of whom have become major pop culture figures—although there are some notable exceptions. In the first film of the Friday the 13th series, the killer is Pamela Sue Voorhees, mother of protagonist Jason, who, after his mother’s murder, subsequently becomes the mass murderer in the following films in this series. The slasher reached its zenith in the 1970s and early 1980s, with blockbuster films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), and Friday the 13th (1980) and their subsequent sequels, as well as other popular slasher films of this era. The American slasher film generally declined in terms of popularity in the mid-1980s, although it saw a revival in the mid-1990s with Wes Craven’s Scream film cycle starting in 1996, which inaugurated successful slasher franchises throughout the 1990s and 2000s, culminating in the “torture porn” slasher franchises such as Saw (2004, James Wan), Hostel (2005, Eli Roth), and their sequels, as well as other cinematic variations upon them.

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Critics and the “Final Girl” Critics, academics, and film theorists have analyzed the slasher film, considering how it represents, objectifies, and/or victimizes its female characters, as well as female spectatorship of slasher films, as in the work of Isabel Cristina Pinedo. Carol J. Clover’s concept of the “Final Girl” is a cornerstone of slasher movie criticism. According to Clover, the Final Girl is the last remaining female (a girl or young woman) who overtakes the killer. Unlike the killer’s other female victims, the final girl is usually a tomboy, bookworm, and/or virgin; she may have a personal connection to the killer; and she often has a gender-neutral and/or masculine name. Yet in her fight against the killer, she takes on elements of his monstrosity—which most likely were already present within her—by using his own weapon to vanquish him. For Clover, slasher spectatorship blurs boundaries of gender and subject positions, from male villain to the final girl, thereby raising important questions about the slasher film’s vexed relationship to feminism and its constructions of gender.

Schneider, Steven Jay and Daniel Shaw, eds. Dark Thoughts: Philosophic Reflections on Cinematic Horror. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003. Wyrick, Laura. “Horror at Century’s End: Where Have All the Slashers Gone?” Pacific Coast Philology, v.33/2 (1998). Marcelline Block Princeton University

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See Also: Dating Violence; Menstruation; Pornography/ Erotica; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in; Self-Defense, Armed; Self-Defense, Unarmed; Stereotypes of Women; Third Wave.

Slovak Republic (SK) represents a parliamentary democracy of the central European region, with a population of 5.4 million and Bratislava as the capital. The nation was created in 1918 as Czechoslovakia. Women suffrage was enacted in 1920. After World War II, the country became a part of the Communist Bloc. As the women’s movement was subject to control by the Communist Party, the second wave of feminism never took place. Transition to democracy occurred in 1989. In 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, respectively. In 2004, SK joined the European Union.

Further Readings Baumgartner, Holly Lynn and Roger Davis, eds. Hosting the Monster. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2008. Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” Representations, v.20 (1987). Cowan, G. and M. O’Brien. “Gender and Survival vs. Death in Slasher Films: A Content Analysis.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, v.23/3,4 (1990). Creed, Barbara. The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge, 1993. Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence and American Modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Gill, Pat. “The Monstrous Years: Teens, Slasher Films, and the Family.” Journal of Film and Video, v.54/4 (2002). Pinedo, Isabel Cristina. Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. Rockoff, Adam. Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978 to 1986. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2002.

A nun in Bratislava, Slovakia. The current Slovak women’s movement is influenced by the Catholic Church.

Slovenia



The current Slovak women’s movement is influenced by the Catholic Church and is represented mainly by few nongovernmental organizations. Women rights have a high standard that is required for all European Union (EU) members by the common EU law. In 2004, the broad Discrimination Act was enacted. However, instances of discrimination against women still occur, mainly due to gender, sexuality, age, and ethnicity (i.e., Roma minority). The most serious form of discrimination in the SK was the coerced sterilization of Roma women. The Communist regime took a systematic approach to the sterilization throughout the 20-year period of 1970 to 1990. After 1990, sterilizations became rare and concerned cases of uninformed women who signed approval documents for the procedure without being aware of the consequences of their acts. Motherhood rights of Slovak women are still not fully protected. In 2009, the Abortion Act was amended and required all applications be reported to the authorities, including women’s personal details. Households typically depend on incomes of both partners. Perception of childcare as the domain of women is strong in the countryside, and employers are unwilling to hire women with children. There is a commonly accepted perception that men are the main economic provider. The proportion of unemployed mothers is increasing. Every third woman with three or more children is currently unemployed, the highest percentage in the EU. Part-time job arrangements are similarly underdeveloped in Slovakia. In 2008, only 4.2 percent of women and 1.4 percent of men had parttime jobs. The gender pay gap is 23.6 percent. Women represent 19.3 percent of all members of the parliament. In presidential elections, woman candidates generally receive strong voter support, although, without success so far. See Also: Fertility; Part-Time Work; Roma “Gypsy” Women; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Henderson, K. Slovakia: The Escape From Invisibility. London: Routledge, 2002. Kirschbaum, S. J. A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Slovak National Centre for Human Rights: “Report on the Observance of Human Rights Including the

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Observance of the Principle of Equal Treatment in the Slovak Republic 2008.” http://www.snslp.sk (accessed November 2009). Petra Zářecká Masaryk Univerzity, Czech Republic

Slovenia Despite the fact that women’s equality is commonly accepted in the Republic of Slovenia (RS), inequality persists. In 2001, a referendum was presented to voters that asked them to decide if a single woman should have the right to medically assisted conception. Following a heated public debate that exposed lingering prejudices and stereotypes, the referendum failed. The majority determined that single women need a man’s active participation in conception and that a single woman cannot provide a proper upbringing for her child. Despite these feelings, currently about one-half of all children in the RS are born to unmarried mothers. Women account for more than half of Slovenia’s 2 million people, and their average life expectancy exceeds men’s by seven years, to 82 years, and they represent nearly half of the country’s active population. More than 90 percent of women are employed full time. Women’s participation in the workforce has become a traditional value in this region. All periodic attempts aimed at returning women to the home, which are backed by some political parties as well as the Catholic Church in Slovenia, have been futile. Women’s intensive participation in the Slovenian labor market is connected to their education level. Women in the RS have a somewhat higher average level of education than men; among the EU countries, the RS ranks first, with 94 percent of women aged 20 to 24 who have finished at least secondary school. Women constitute a majority among students at Slovenian universities. Nevertheless, Slovenian education is characterized by an exceptionally high gender polarization in the choice of students’ studies; women show a strong preference for the humanities and social sciences and much less for science and technology. This also is reflected in strong gender polarization of the occupational structure. The RS is characterized by a comparatively high degree of

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feminization in education, healthcare, social services, and judicial administration. Women dominate in service industries such as trade, catering, tourism, and financial intermediation. They also formed the major labor force in the processing industry; however, most of this sectors’ enterprises have been shut down in the past decade, leaving their strictly specialized and poorly educated workers unemployed. The areas least accessible to RS women are concentrated in social and political power. The cases of women who have succeeded in attaining top managerial positions are extremely rare. There are other occupations in which women are faced with these “glass ceilings,” even those in which women represent the majority of employees. Within different levels of state politics, women have comparatively fewer opportunities now than in the era of socialism. The Slovenian Parliament is one of few with a small number of female representatives, only 13 percent. No improvement is expected. Following the municipal elections of 2006, only seven of 210 mayors in the RS are women. In the RS, women continue to be the ones doing most of the unpaid household work and taking sick leaves to take care of family members. Compared with their male colleagues, women are paid less for their work. The average difference in earnings is 8 percent; the differences, however, tend to increase with better paying and professionally more challenging employment. In the Slovenian language, the word poverty is a feminine gender noun; the risk-of-poverty rate is greater in women than in men. It is older, single, inactive, and unemployed women in particular that face the greatest risk. See Also: Gender Quotas in Government; Household Division of Labor; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Professions, by Gender. Further Readings Cox, John K. Slovenia: Evolving Loyalties. London: Routledge, 2009. Luthar, Oto, ed. The Land Between: A History of Slovenia. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. http://www .stat.si/doc/pub/dejstva_zenske_moski_en.pdf “Men and Women in the RS,” (accessed December 2009). Sabina Žnidaršič Žagar University of Primorska, Koper

“Snowflake Babies” “Snowflake babies” is the term used by some groups, such as Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which coined the term to refer to embryos that are frozen in liquid nitrogen that remain unused after the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF), and are then donated or put up for “embryo adoption” to select heterosexual couples. These frozen embryos are known as snowflake babies for two reasons. First, those using this term understand that from the moment of fertilization, like snowflakes, no two embryos are alike. And second, using the term babies, they understand personhood as beginning at the moment of fertilization. The status of embryos, however, is a highly contentious issue and one of significant social and reproductive consequence to women for the 21st century. IVF is a procedure used by couples experiencing infertility or by same-sex couples wanting a child. In IVF, eggs are surgically removed from ovaries and mixed with or injected with sperm for fertilization in laboratories. While multiple eggs are removed for IVF, not all of the fertilized eggs, or embryos, are used in the procedure to implant them into the uterus. To prevent the gestation of multiple fetuses during one pregnancy, the number of embryos implanted into a womb depends on the age and health of the woman and the health of the fertilized eggs, or embryos. Disadvantages and Failures Not all of these embryos are healthy. It is the healthiest embryos, sometimes referred to as the “prettiest” embryos, that are transferred to the uterus, usually between days two and six after fertilization. These embryos are composed of approximately between four cells and 100 cells. When it is decided that the remaining frozen embryos are no longer wanted by those from whom they have been retrieved, organizations such as Nightlight Christian Adoption, using language of adoption for embryos, try to arrange for “adoption” by select couples. While such adoptions are encouraged by these organizations, it is important to note that, especially for couples experiencing infertility, using leftover embryos from couples who themselves have compromised fertility does not provide the best chance of achieving a good pregnancy outcome.

Soap Operas, Cross-Culturally Considered



Practical and ethical concerns over both IVF and embryo adoption procedures are being debated. There are already hundreds of thousands of embryos that remain frozen in tanks and that require monitoring and storage expenses. While some of these embryos are under the active control of their genetic originators, others are left unused, many not viable or optimal for their intended use. Options for frozen embryos include keeping them frozen, destroying them, donating them for stem cell or other research, or donating them for implantation—each of which has practical, legal, social, and moral consequences in need of careful consideration. See Also: Abortion, Ethical Issues of; Adoption; Lesbian Adoption; Pregnancy; Pro-Life Movement; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Suleman, Nadya “Octomom.” Further Readings Brakman, Sarah-Vaughan and Darlene Fozard Weaver, eds. The Ethics of Embryo Adoption and the Catholic Tradition: Moral Arguments, Economic Reality and Social Analysis. The Netherlands: Springer, 2007. Cahn, Naomi. Test Tube Families: Why the Fertility Market needs Legal Regulation. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Horsey, Kirsty and Hazel Biggs, eds. Human Fertilisation and embryology: Reproducing Regulation. London: Routledge,, 2007. Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Medical Advisory Secretariat. “In Vitro Fertilization and Multiple Pregnancies: Health Technology Policy Assessment.” Ontario: Ontario Medical Advisory Secretariat, 2006. https://ozone.scholarsportal.info/bitstream/1873 /420/1/269307.pdf (accessed November 2009). Deborah Davidson York University, Canada

Soap Operas, CrossCulturally Considered Even though soap operas are typically considered a women’s genre, soap operas are often watched and enjoyed by both men and women around the world. Soap opera as a genre was created for radio during the

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1930s in the United States. Soap and detergent companies such as Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers sponsored these early radio programs. Since then, soap operas gradually became one of the most profitable, influential, and successful programming in U.S. broadcasting history and are also a popular genre around the world. Most of these early shows were aired everyday for 15 minutes. These early soap operas mainly targeted housewives and focused on the issues of family, love, and relationships. Furthermore, they usually centered on a primary family and followed its everyday affairs and issues. Because of their continuous nature, these shows often ended with a climax to invite or encourage the audience to tune in and listen to the next episode. In the United States in the 1950s, daily soap operas successfully transferred from radio to television. Guiding Light, which originated in radio, made its way to television in 1952. Most of the longest-running daytime soap operas, such as Guiding Light (CBS), As the World Turns (CBS), and Another World (NBC), were created by the legendary Irna Phillips in the 1950s and 1960s. Other widely popular shows (Search for Tomorrow, The Edge of Night, The Secret Story, and Love of Life) were created in the 1950s. Due to the success of early soap operas, several other daytime series were created in the 1960s to attract audiences from different cultural and economic backgrounds. The Doctors and General Hospital (ABC), centered in fictional hospitals, were created, and Day of Our Lives (NBC), Another World (NBC), One Life to Live (ABC) and others made their first appearances. ABC’s One Life to Live (OLTL), created by Agnes Nixon, one of Irna Philips’s protégées, focused on the issues of class and introduced nontraditional (ethnically and racially diverse) characters. Prior to OLTL, soap operas mainly focused on upper-middle-class and upper-class families and their elegant and complicated lives. Current Issues and Society Some of the most popular U.S. soap operas were created in the 1970s. Nixon created the widely acclaimed All My Children in 1970 for ABC. Another Phillips protégée, William J. Bell, who also wrote for Another World and Days of Our Lives for several years, created his first show, The Young and the Restless, in

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1973. In addition, Ryan’s Hope (ABC), another widely acclaimed show, was created. These newer shows reflected some of the societal dynamics of the 1970s and portrayed characters that reflected on cultural issues like alcoholism, rape, abortion, racial tension, interracial relationships, and women’s roles in society. Acclaimed characters, such as Julie Horton (Days of Our Lives) and Erica Kane (All My Children), represented the changing role of women in U.S. society. They were independent and successful in a predominantly male world. Bell’s The Young and the Restless extensively focused on a younger cast and followed their complex lives. Most of these shows were 30-minute episodes but were able to tell multiple interrelated stories about the lives of their characters. Due to their open-ended nature, they often created suspenseful climaxes to attract their audiences. Several other shows, such as Santa Barbara, Capitol, Loving, The Bold and the Beautiful, Generations, and Port Charles, were created during the 1980s and 1990s to reflect current trends and contemporary issues. As a genre, soap operas also appeared in other countries in different formats. In Mexico and Latin American countries, they are known as telenovelas. These shows, unlike their U.S. counterparts, often air once or twice a week. They differ from U.S. shows in that respect but also mainly focus on families and romantic relationships, crime, and contemporary societal issues. Daytime series are also popular in European countries, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Ireland, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the world. Both U.S. soap operas and telenovelas are widely popular in other parts of the world and are considered profitable cultural exports. Female Characters in Soap Operas Until the 1970s, women were often portrayed in traditional roles, such as housewives, nurses, and secretaries. During 1970s and 1980s, more independent and successful female characters were created. Clearly, soap operas were influenced by the changing societal roles of women and the feminist movement. Starting in the 1980s, daytime series incorporated female doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople. Still, some of the female representations remained problematic, and women often faced violence or physical

abuse. Story lines have focused on the psychological outcome of domestic abuse, rape, hostile workplaces, and women’s health issues such as breast cancer awareness and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Ethnically and racially diverse strong female characters were also introduced to the shows. Recently, soap operas worldwide have introduced the subject of same-sex relationships and issues of homosexuality. See Also: Celebrity Women; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural. Further Readings: Mateliski, Marilyn J. Soap Operas Worldwide: Cultural and Serial Realities. Jefferson, NC: McFardland & Company, 1998. Nochimson, Martha. No End to Her: Soap Opera and the Female Subject. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Simon, Ron, et al. Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera. New York: Harry Abrams, 1997. Ahmet Atay University of Louisville

Soccer, Children’s Although soccer dates back to Greek and Roman times, it was not until the 1800s that soccer was introduced to the United States. From what was then commonly known as a boys’ or men’s college sport, soccer now sees no gender boundaries. Children’s soccer, better known as “youth soccer,” gained momentum both recreationally and competitively in the 1990s. The growing popularity of the sport in the United States is credited to the 1994 FIFA Men’s World Cup and the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cups, which were all held in the United States. Today, youth soccer is considered one of the most popular sports for boys and girls in America. Children’s soccer is both an outdoor and indoor sport. This relatively low-cost sport requires players to pay a registration fee, and purchase shin guards, a ball, soccer cleats, socks, and a uniform. The United States



Youth Soccer Association, the largest member of the United States Soccer Federation, currently has more than 3 million players registered between the ages of 5 and 19. The American Youth Soccer Organization boasts more than 650,000 players; the Soccer Association for Youth registers over 150,000 players. In addition to these major youth soccer groups, there are many other organizations that support youth soccer, such as the YMCA, CYO, and local parks and recreation leagues. From kicking the ball around during recess to playing on organized soccer teams, millions of children between the ages of 4 and 19 play youth soccer each week. Youth soccer not only includes millions of players, but there are also large numbers of coaches and parents who dedicate their time to the development of young players. From coaching children on the field to fund-raising to working the concession stand, to cheering on athletes on the field, parents and coaches volunteer their time to nurture children into wellrounded athletes. Children’s soccer is also a family-oriented sport. Many soccer families can be seen with their soccer decals on their vehicles, toting their outdoor chairs around and sharing a meal purchased at the concession stand. In is not uncommon to see parents sporting their “Soccer Mom” or “Soccer Dad” sweatshirts around on game day. From Preschool to Tomorrow’s Pros Youth soccer in the United States ranges from recreational soccer to competitive travel soccer. With their short hems down to their ankles and their shin guards up to their knees, children in the younger age groups (4 to 6 years) are often accompanied on the field by their coaches. At this young age, players often need to be coached as to which direction to kick the ball on the field. Young soccer players can often be seen picking daisies on the game field or sighting high-flying objects like birds or planes during active game time. It is at this stage that young players first begin to develop their focus on the game. The intention of recreational soccer is to introduce the players to a fun form of exercise, the development of teamwork, and a positive, sports-minded attitude. As children grow older and begin to refine their ball skills and strategic play (positioning, attack, defense and ball possession, etc.), the game of soccer

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becomes more competitive. From the middle school ages, many children go on to play high school soccer. What used to be a male-dominated sport has become one of the most popular high school sports for young women. Today over 40 percent of soccer players are female. With millions of children playing soccer in recreational and competitive soccer, youth soccer in the United States continues to be a strong foundation for the future of high school, collegiate, amateur, and professional soccer. See Also: Soccer, Professional; Soccer Moms; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Litterer, Dave. “Women’s Soccer History in the USA: An Overview.” The American Soccer History Archives. http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/womensover view.html (accessed December 2009). Soccer Association for Youth, USA. http://www.saysoccer .org (accessed July 2010). U.S. Youth Soccer. US Youth Soccer Website. http://www .usyouthsoccer.org/index.html (accessed July 2010). Christine Pease-Hernandez Slippery Rock University

Soccer, Professional Traditionally, soccer has always been identified as the “world’s game” because of its universal popularity, recognition, and access. Pettus tells us that soccer is also known as the “people’s game” because it is the only game that can be commonly found in a large arena being watched by thousands of cheering fans, as well as on local parks and recreation fields being played by 5-year-old children. Although men’s soccer teams have received a tremendous amount of media attention, accessibility, and continual growth, the rise in popularity of women’s soccer is only a few decades old. Not until the success of the 1999 U.S. women’s soccer team, with players like Mia Hamm and Brandy Chastain, did women’s soccer become recognizable and acknowledged in the male-dominated soccer world.

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The Early Years and the Inception of Women’s Soccer In 1918, the Committee on Women’s Athletics was charged with establishing the rules for many of the emerging popular sports for women. In reality, the committee was responsible for modifying the rules of the men’s game to ensure that the rules of the women’s game maintained a certain level of propriety and that women would not look like warriors while playing soccer. At the competitive level, men’s soccer has always had a reputation for being an aggressive and fast sport. In fact, there is some evidence suggesting that soccer, or a game very similar to soccer, was used in Ancient Greek and Roman times to prepare young warriors for battle and military training. In the end, the committee determined that playing time for the women’s game should be shortened and the length and width of the field should be reduced in size, so that the women did not have to run as far and for as long. The controlling male influence feared that soccer, along with any other form of prolonged physical activity for women, would pose as a safety risk and health hazard for women. Beyond the physical concerns and unfounded safety risks, a concern also existed that the emotional stressors of participation and competition would prove to be overwhelming for women, ultimately causing them to collapse. Of course, we now know that these claims are false, and that physical activity, on the soccer field or otherwise, is a beneficial endeavor for women in many realms. The Move to the Suburbs The late 1950s saw the rise of suburban living. On arrival in the suburbs, people found open fields and space to play sports. The 1950s also experienced a major increase in the organization of youth sport, and soccer leagues were formed throughout many communities. In the 1960s the American Youth Soccer Organization was established to determine rules and standards for participation for boy and girl players. Girls were provided with opportunities to play in community leagues with rules that encouraged a less aggressive style of play, and the girls’ game was shorter in duration than the boys’ game. At this time, there was not a future for girls’ soccer much beyond the community leagues, even though the boys who participated in organized community leagues could look forward to playing in high school and beyond.

It was not until the passage of Title IX, an educational reform act demanding equitable resources and opportunities regardless of gender, did opportunities for girls and women to participate in soccer beyond their community field increase. Title IX and the Growth of Women’s Soccer at the Collegiate Level Title IX was a major piece of legislation passed in 1972 that opened many doors for girls and women in the many sport and physical activity arenas. Five years after the passage of Title IX, opportunities for women in soccer at the collegiate level increased, and community programs continued to grow. Interestingly, women’s soccer at the collegiate level found its initial home at Ivy League colleges and universities, which created some questions about which girls were playing soccer in the United States and how accessible the “people’s game” actually was. Today, girls make up 40 percent of the soccer players in the United States and the quintessential “soccer mom,” in her minivan full of young soccer players, continues to dominate the cultural landscape of youth soccer. The Significant Impact of One Man Anson Dorrance, a former men’s soccer player at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNCCH), took over as the coach of the women’s team at UNC-CH and began to shape his team and, unknowingly, the overall game of soccer for girls and women. Dorrance became aware that he was going to have to recreate the “culture” of performance expectations for his female athletes by breaking down socially accepted stereotypical gender expectations of how women were supposed to perform on the field as athletes. Dorrance knew that girls and women in sport and physical activity settings were historically encouraged to be less competitive and less physical in their styles of play. Through years of work and advocacy and the establishment of a women’s championship game for collegiate soccer players with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Dorrance’s coaching efforts have manifested into a sport space for women that is respected and admired by many. The UNC-CH women’s team was one of the first competitive soccer programs at the collegiate level and continues to set the performance standard for all other collegiate soc-

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The German Potsdam women’s team, winners of the Union of European Football Association’s Women’s Cup Final in 2005.

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Further Readings Hargreaves, J. “Olympic Women: A Struggle for Recognition.” Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2007. Markovits, A. S. and S. L. Hellerman. “Women’s Soccer in the United States: Yet Another American ‘Exceptionalism.’” Soccer and Society, v.4/2 (2003). Pettus, E. “From the Suburbs to the Sports Arenas.” Nike Is a Goddess. New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1998. Shugart, Helene A. “She Shoots, She Scores: Mediated Constructions of Contemporary Female Athletes in Coverage of the 1999 U.S. Women’s Soccer Team.” Western Journal of Communication, v.67/1 (2000). Sokolove, M. Warrior Girls. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2008. Donna Duffy University of North Carolina, Greensboro

cer programs, as well as creating a culture of soccer superiority that young girls continue to admire. One Defining Game, and History Was Made In 1999, the U.S. Women’s Soccer team, also known as the “Girls of Summer,” defeated China to win the World Cup in front of 78,481 spectators—the largest crowd to ever watch a women’s soccer game. In addition, it was one of the first times that girls and boys, women and men, arrived at a women’s soccer match carrying signs and banners and covered in paint spelling out the women’s soccer players’ names and jersey numbers. The women of the 1999 World Cup women’s soccer team became the most significant and recognizable role models for young female soccer players, and they provided a different sport perspective for these young athletes. No longer were young female athletes looking at professional male athletes as the “standard.” Many argue that this game solidified the notion that girls and women can successfully compete at the highest level and created national enthusiasm for both soccer and, more important, girls and women as creditable athletes and as important role models for female athletes. See Also: Soccer, Children’s; Soccer Moms; Sports, Women in; Title IX.

Soccer Moms The term soccer mom generally refers to a married, middle-class suburban women with children. Literally, a soccer mom is viewed as driving her children to and from their soccer games in her minivan. Metaphorically, a soccer mom is a woman who is devoted first and foremost to her family’s needs and, as a result, puts her children’s desires and activities above her own, even if she also has a job. In the early 1980s, the term soccer mom was used by mothers who were raising money for their children’s soccer team. However, the term gained media prominence in Susan Casey’s 1995 Democratic campaign for the Denver City Council. When Casey was asked about the term after it became introduced a year later in the 1996 presidential campaign between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, she insisted that she meant no gender stereotype. Rather, Casey was simply trying to describe her dual responsibilities as an accomplished woman and mother and to suggest she could manage both. By 1996, however, soccer mom became the term Republican strategists used to describe what was believed to be a primary swing vote in the presidential campaign. Republican strategists, in fact, believed that part of the reason why soccer moms needed to be reached

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was because they were just too busy, too “harried,” with working and mothering to have time to pay attention to politics. Thus, then and now, the primary description of soccer moms is stressed women who are attempting to juggle both their domestic and professional responsibilities. The soccer mom was also a very important political shift from the news discourse of Year of the Woman that dominated the 1992 presidential political campaign to “women as mothers” that dominated the 1996 presidential campaign. In fact, this change between the presidential campaigns shifted media from discussing women as political power wielders (as in Year of the Woman) to discussing women as a group of swing voters defined primarily by their family and mothering obligations. In other words, there was an important shift from seeing women as accomplished public women and mothers to primarily as mothers, regardless of their professional lives/roles. As a result, this shift also suggests a soccer mom is unquestionably a mother first, with all other roles as secondary. Consequently, the soccer mom worked to obscure and diminish women’s public success in the service of seeing them most importantly as private women, whose primary work was as mothers in the home, even if a woman actually had a job. Political Weight and Power As soccer mom has become a staple of the contemporary lexicon, it continues to be considered a voting demographic, and the term emerges periodically in political campaigns and discussions both in local and national campaigns. While soccer moms were primarily considered Democrats in the late 1990s and early 2000s, today, more and more soccer moms are associated with Evangelical Christianity and are considered to be both more conservative and Republican. Soccer mom has also become a label for a consumer group that is often targeted in advertising campaigns, particularly for both SUVs and minivans. As such, soccer mom has become a label promoted and used by advertisers to sell products, and consequently, the label has become entrenched in an ideology of consumerism that equates mothering with consumption and conflates personal choices with product consumption and lifestyle choices. Finally, in some media coverage, the term soccer mom has taken on negative connotations. Specifi-

cally, soccer moms are often accused of forcing their children to attend too many after-school activities or play on too many sports teams, while they are also seen as hyperparenting or overparenting their children instead of allowing them to “just be children” or enjoy their childhood. See Also: Childcare; Christianity; “Security Moms”; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Peskowitz, Miriam. The Truth behind the Mommy Wars: Who Decides what Makes a Good Mother. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2005. Vavrus, Mary Douglas. “From Women of the Year to ‘Soccer Moms’: The Case of the Incredible Shrinking Women.” Political Communication, v.17 (2000). D. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein Boston University

Social Justice Activism Social justice activism involves individual or group action that is intended to achieve economic, environmental, political, or social change. There are two primary beliefs that relate to and support social justice activism. The first is that some groups suffer disadvantages as a consequence of their gender, race, class, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, language, age, nationality, or religion. The second belief is that individuals or groups can be agents of change and can challenge or disrupt barriers that deny equitable opportunities and circumstances for all to thrive and achieve in a world free from oppression. Feminism is rooted in women’s social justice activism, as women have been integral to social justice movements throughout history and around the globe. They have campaigned for the legal rights of women, while also promoting sexuality and reproductive freedoms. Furthermore, 21st-century feminist activism has focused on economic, professional, and educational equity, including women’s rights to achieve political power at all levels. Middle-class white women from Western Europe and North America led early feminist movements,



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which primarily focused on gender equity for white women. This focal point created enough tensions between both white women and black women that it catalyzed the development of black feminism. Black feminism recognizes that gender, race, and class oppression are inextricably linked. Women’s movements that endeavor to challenge or disrupt gender and/or class oppression yet ignore race can end up discriminating through racial bias. Be that as it may, feminist social justice activism in the 21st century not only has focused on the issues that appear to limit or oppress white women; it also has concentrated on being inclusive of other marginalized identities, including race, class, gender, and ethnic backgrounds. Moreover, in the 21st century, activists of marginalized identities outside Western Europe and North America, including former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, southeast Asia, and parts of Latin America, have participated increasingly in women’s social justice activism. Additionally, women around the globe have formed cross-racial partnerships that move beyond racial and ethnic barriers to accommodate intersections of collective identities that foster resistance to patriarchal forms of power and domination. For example, STITCH is a network of U.S. women working with Central American women to advocate for fair wages and just treatment in the workplace in Central America. Likewise, Women for Women International is a global women’s movement that works toward eliminating gender inequities and economic, political, and social injustice. On March 8, 2010, the centennial anniversary of International Women’s Day, Women for Women International sponsored a campaign, Join Me on the Bridge, where thousands of women around the globe stood united in an unprecedented manner to honor the resilience of women survivors of war, genocide, massive rape and torture, and displacement. Together, women across the globe connected banners of fabric on which they painted their visions for a peaceful, prosperous future, free from war.

resources, the level of support, and other issues, activism in women’s sociopolitical movements in the 21st century continues to be associated with the development of a social justice consciousness. Feminists pedagogy began with the telling of women’s individual stories of “making the personal political.” Consequently, consciousness-raising activism and widespread education is frequently the first step that feminist activists take toward social change. Women activists have written books, journal articles, pieces in magazines, and newspapers, and they have produced visual art, films, and music to expose oppression and to educate the masses. They have relied heavily on the media and other communication technologies to educate and organize individuals and groups to take action. In some respects, media and communication technologies have made many forms of social justice activism much easier to initiate. Feminists have used Websites, YouTube, blogging, Facebook, and podcasting to raise awareness. The Internet, in particular, has served as a tremendous outreach tool, connecting women and others across the globe. Democracy in Action is an organization that backs social justice agendas by offering small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations access to online organizing engines. Similarly, the Independent Media supports the global social justice movement by providing (on its Website) up-to-the minute reports, photographs, and audio and video footage of global social justice challenges. In the 21st century, consciousness raising remains a key strategy toward social change among feminist social justice activists. Through consciousness raising, people learn more than the fact that there is injustice in the world. They learn about various forms of social injustice—where it is, how it happens, what makes the situation(s) unjust, and who is advantaged and who is disadvantaged. Social justice activists may identify strategies or tactics upon which they and other social justice activists might reflect and use to challenge and disrupt the injustices that some groups suffer as a consequence of being dominated by those who have political, economic, and social power.

Consciousness-Raising Activism Social justice activists characteristically use a repertoire of protest strategies to expose and resist oppression. Despite the fact that strategies and tactics have changed over time and location, based upon

Economic Activism Women activists have frequently used their spending power in struggles for social, economic, and political change. Activists have supported those companies and businesses that promote a just global economy.

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On the other hand, activists have boycotted companies and organizations to raise awareness about the influence of business practices on employees, neighborhoods, and the planet. A boycott is a form of social justice activism in which individuals voluntarily abstain from using, purchasing, or doing business with an individual or organization as an expression of political protest. Whether activists are protesting the inequitable treatment of women at a retail chain (e.g., Walmart’s exclusion of contraceptive coverage in insurance plans and its gender discriminations in pay, promotion, and compensation) or mobilizing against sweatshops, boycotts can help raise awareness in communities and can help get the attention of the company or business being targeted. Likewise, labor unions, at times, have acted collectively against economic social injustices, with strikes playing a significant role in social justice activism. In the 21st century, teacher strikes in the United States continue to be a major strategy that unions use to obtain higher wages and benefits for teachers, who are disproportionately women employees. Through collective economic action, based upon the businesses we as consumer activists choose to support and those we chose to avoid, we are empowered to create a just global economy that ensures that all workers are paid equitably and are treated with respect. Environmental Activism Women, even more so than men, tend to have great concern for the environment. Consequently, women have played important roles in environmental forms of social justice activism. Winona LaDuke (Anishinaab) for example, is an internationally renowned environmental activist who began speaking out about these issues at an early age, addressing the United Nations at the age of 18. In the 21st century, LaDuke continues to devote herself to Native American and environmental concerns, as well as political and women’s issues. Similarly, Rita Arditti helped to found the Women’s Community Cancer Project, whose mission was to raise awareness concerning environmental exposures that contributed to cancer in women. Connecting her feminist, environmentalist, and biology backgrounds, Arditti criticized the medical world for being male-dominated and influenced by major chemical producers. Rachel’s Network is a 21st-century environmental activist organization that builds coalitions among

women who are concerned about the environment, health, and women’s empowerment. Named in honor of author and scientist Rachel Carson, Rachel’s Network draws attention to pressing environmental issues while promoting women as impassioned leaders and agents of change dedicated to the stewardship of the earth. In the 21st century, women’s environmental social justice activism has been largely recognized in a few key areas, particularly in green consumerism and in local government. Green consumerism concerns the intentional purchase of products and services that consumers feel do not contribute to the destruction of the planet. This may entail minimal harm to or exploitation of human beings, animals, and the natural environment. Art- and Craft-Themed Forms of Social Justice Activism Art- and Craft-themed forms of social justice activism are prominent today. These forms include photography, video, installation, painting, printmaking, sculpture, fiber, and metals. An exhibition titled “A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art” highlights 16 female, first- and secondgeneration contemporary artists, who make the personal political through an assortment of art forms that highlight various facets of oppression related to their gender and identity (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, national origin, or sexual orientation). Many feminists are reclaiming traditionally feminized arts-related activities, such as knitting, sewing, quilting, and other crafts as forms of activism. Through this reclamation, contemporary women who identify themselves as feminists strive to embrace domestic arts to highlight traditionally female-dominated art forms that have been marginalized and undervalued. A common form of art- and craft-themed activism is the “knit-in,” where knitters take possession of a public space and knit, while involved in the act of protest. That public space could be a bus, a park, or a public building, among others. Activists, such as the Penn State Knitivism Club at Pennsylvania State University, have used the knit-in to highlight the genocide in Darfur; bring attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in Uganda; and raise awareness of sexual violence.



Craftivism, similar to knitivism, is a 21st-century addition to the arts and crafts lexicon in which craft is joined with activism. While acts of resistance or protest are expressed through crafts and other creative endeavors, craftivism is also centered on ideals of environmentalism and sustainability. When purchasing new materials, many craftivists select products that are green or fairly traded, such as homespun yarns and organic fabrics. Especially common within the movement is the use of thrifted, vintage, and repurposed materials and products, so as to promote reuse and minimize waste. Social Justice Activism: What It Has Accomplished In the 21st century, there is greater awareness of social injustice. Moreover, in many cases (through social justice activism) there are more government policies and laws that prohibit various forms of social injustice, such as sexual harassment, discrimination in pay, promotion and compensation, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Whereas women’s social justice activism has profoundly shaped the political, economic, and social landscape around the globe, contemporary feminism has moved beyond being simply a “women’s movement”; it has become a social justice movement in which men and women activists, in many cases, employ strategies of resistance that challenge oppression and enable social justice to flourish. In the 21st century, men and women representing all identities and backgrounds are engaged in social justice activism as planners, organizers, teachers, researchers, advocates, and foremost players, supporting or opposing feminism, homosexuality, women’s reproductive rights, legalized abortion, and antiracism. While social, political, and economic circumstances for many of the oppressed have improved, oppression in its multiple forms is still pervasive throughout the world. Given the gravity of societal injustice and the energetically changing social justice activism around the globe, this has increasingly warranted the formation of coalitions and alliances between various organizations, communities, and countries, including, Haiti, China, Korea, the United States, Rwanda, and other African countries. Moreover, the continuing transformation of social injustice and its contemporary manifestations, from forced child labor to racial

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disparities in healthcare, will necessitate evolving social justice strategies and partnerships among those who confront and challenge systemic oppression, in all its forms, to create more just societies. See Also: CODEPINK; Ecofeminism; Granny Peace Brigade; LaDuke, Winona; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide; Peace Movement; Plumwood, Val; Rachel’s Network; Social Justice Theory; Transnational Feminist Networks; Womanism; Women in Black; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Further Readings Barndt, Deborah. Wild Fire: Art as Activism. New York: Sumach Press, 2006 Bumgardner, Jennifer, Amy Richards, and Winona LaDuke. Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004. Dell, Pamela. Protecting the Planet: Environmental Activism (Green Generation). Mankato, MN: Compass Point Books, 2010. Ferree, Myra and Aili Tripp. Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Glickman, Lawrence B. Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Leafgren, Sheri, Brian D. Schultz, Michael P. O’Malley, and Larry Johnston. The Articulation of Curriculum and Pedagogy for a Just Society: Advocacy, Artistry, and Activism. Troy, NY: Educator’s International Press, 2007. Seidman, Gay W. Beyond the Boycott: Labor Rights, Human Rights, and Transnational Activism. New York: Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 2009. Wanda B. Knight The Pennsylvania State University

Social Justice Theory Social justice theory addresses the oppressions that arise from the many “-isms” of institutionalized prejudice. The 21st century’s ideals of social justice challenge the social and political contexts of the

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20th century, situating being female in the broader construction of multidimensional and intersecting identities. As a conceptual framework, social justice theory recognizes lived experiences, identity politics, and hierarchies of oppression as legitimate sources of knowledge. Moreover, social justice theory allows the combination of theory and practice to create praxis, resulting in the ontological necessity for solutions to injustice. However, in this age of instant communications and globalization, multiple ontologies arise with disagreement over what is just for whom. A single unifying theory of social justice, applicable throughout the world, remains elusive.

combination of theory and practice to promote and achieve social justice. Feminist pedagogy recognizes lived experience as a valid source of knowledge. Dominant social groups have long controlled the ideas of truth and fairness that lead to justice, but by allowing everyone a voice, and listening to those voices, knowledge and alternate paradigms of truth and fairness leading to alternate theories of justice are created. The implication of alternate sources of knowledge is a rewritten history and future in which everyone can recognize themselves represented or missing in the social, political, and cultural arenas of justice.

Modern Justice Approaches Theories of justice in the last century were rooted in hegemonic tradition. This century looks beyond these traditional social, political, and cultural visualizations of justice by asking us to consider the question, Justice for whom? Social justice impels more than an equal distribution of goods or a balancing of rights and wrongs. Modern justice approaches must take into account the multidimensional and intersecting identities of individuals to end oppression. Therefore, justice may be different for different people, depending on their particular position in the public sphere and on their geographical sphere. Multiple dimensions of identities intersect and create identity politics that require recognition of the many ways a person experiences the social, political, and cultural justice of the world. Social justice theory accounts for institutionalized oppression allowed and experienced for being other than a member of the dominant social group. Sexism, racism, classism, ableism, ageism, heterosexism, and anti-Semitism are only a few of the many institutionalized forms of oppression that social justice theory analyzes through identity politics. Moreover, lived experiences serve as a critique for hierarchies of oppression that promote one form of institutionalized prejudice over another. Oppression can be experienced as one or many identities. Social justice theory includes the practice of social justice. This combination of theory and practice together is known as praxis. Praxis can manifest in many forms of resistance to injustice. Feminist pedagogy rooted in the academy, and social justice movements rooted in the community, are examples of this

Injustice Resistance Movements Coalitions of resistance to injustice are found in modern social movements including but not limited to the women’s, civil rights, human rights, women’s health, reproductive justice, and environmental justice movements. These movements and the many activist groups and individuals associated with them share the methodological assumption of identity politics and work toward solutions to ending the many forms of oppression. In the last century, women’s rights, civil rights, and human rights movements were concerned with particular inequalities of voting, representation, and access to justice. Women achieved the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America in 1920, but in the 21st century, that right is still denied to women around the globe. Activists also achieved great success in the United States with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, ethnic and indigenous oppressions continue within, across, and beyond those borders. Moreover, human rights movements continue to work toward realizing the mandate of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the courts and communities of the world. The women’s health, reproductive justice, and environmental justice movements work toward a social justice that includes human rights and civil rights concerns but expands the idea of justice to the environment around and within our bodies. Global Theory Globally, social justice theory is the realm of debate over what is just for whom, where. Multiple ontolo-

Solomon, Suniti



gies for social justice may be necessary to cease social, political, and cultural oppressions throughout the world. Modern communications systems and economic globalization continuously redefine identity politics and compel a reimaging of what is right and wrong, fair and true, or just and unjust. See Also: Chicana Feminism; Critical Race Feminism; Ecofeminism; Environmental Justice; Feminism, American; Feminist Jurisprudence; Global Feminism; Iranian Feminism; Islamic Feminism; Social Justice Activism; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Adams, Maurianne, et al. Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2010. Capeheart, Loretta. Social Justice: Theories, Issues, and Movements (Critical Issues in Crime and Society). Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007. Fraser, Nancy. Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World (New Directions in Critical Theory). New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. Shell Gosztyla State University of New York, Albany

Solomon, Suniti Suniti Solomon is an Indian microbiologist who diagnosed that country’s first case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 1986. She founded the nonprofit YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education in 1993, which offers HIV and sex education, counseling and testing services, and outpatient and inpatient services for over 12,500 persons living with HIV. Solomon has published extensively on HIV epidemiology and has participated in international conferences on the subject. Retired from her duties as a professor at Chennei Medical College in India, she continues her work with HIV patients as doctor, researcher, and counselor. The only girl among eight children born into a Chennai-based Maharashtrian Hindu family in the leather trade, Solomon first became interested in medicine when a health officer visited the Gaitondes home to administer the smallpox vaccine.

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She received an M.D. in microbiology from Madras (now Chennei) Medical College, where she met her husband, a cardiac surgeon. For nearly 10 years, the Solomons traveled in Britain, the United States, and Australia, where Suniti continued her training. The couple returned to India in 1973 and began work in a government-run hospital. Solomon was on the faculty of Madras Medical College when she became interested in tracking the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) virus in India. Because the lack of an openly gay community in India made it impossible to replicate studies that had first identified the virus in the United States, Solomon and one of her graduate students checked blood samples from 100 female sex workers in Madras. Six of them tested positive, and Solomon had found her life’s work. Initial Denial and Failure to React For seven years, she could refer her HIV patients only to the Tambaram Sanatorium, built in 1928 as a refuge for patients with tuberculosis. With no concerted efforts to educate the public about the disease, cases of AIDS began to increase. Today, according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 5.13 million people in India are HIV-positive or are afflicted by AIDS—the second-largest population after South Africa. In 1993, Solomon renovated a building that the United States had built to house lepers and founded the YRG Centre for AIDS Research and Education, which is dedicated to using education, counseling, and testing to raise HIV awareness. Later, a virology laboratory and a 26-bed inpatient facility were added. The number of patients cared for at the clinic has increased tenfold since 1993. With the help of drugs that have become less expensive and more readily available, patients are living longer, but the problems that confront them are no less disturbing in a country where the stigma against HIV patients is still strong. Solomon also has become increasingly committed to gender issues as they relate to HIV. The percentage of Indian women in the affected population has grown from 10 percent in the 1990s to 50 percent. Solomon argues that although long-term goals of empowering women must be met, addressing the immediate need for information and healthcare for women in a culture that denies them access to such services without the permission and financial support of men is crucial to halting what she calls the “feminization of

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AIDS.” Solomon currently serves as the president of the AIDS Society of India. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; HIV/AIDS: Asia; HIV/ AIDS: Europe; HIV/AIDS: North America; HIV/AIDS: Oceania; India; Physicians, Female. Further Readings Chandrasekaran, Anupama. “Freedom to Live With HIV: Suniti Solomon.” http://www.livemint.com/2009/08/ 14210824/Freedom-to-live-with-HIV--Sun.html?h=B (accessed April 2010). Narain, Jai P., ed. AIDS in Asia: The Challenge Continues. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004. YRG Care. “Dr. Suniti Solomon.” http://www.yrgcare.org /overview/dr.suniti.htm (accessed March 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Solomon Islands The Solomon Islands archipelago consists of more than 900 islands. There are 10 provinces, including Honiara, the capital city. The majority of Solomon Islanders are Melanesian. On gaining independence from Britain in 1978, Solomon Islands inherited the Westminster system of government. “Customary law,” known as kastom, which varies across the archipelago, is a recognized source of law under the constitution. The Christian churches are also extremely important in Solomon Islands societies. Women’s roles in the family, tribe, community, and church are highly regarded and respected. These roles also were important in their roles as mediators and peacemakers in conflict. More recently, an assessment of women in employment showed that more women are now working in the public and private sector. Despite these gains, a key emerging issue for women is their exclusion from decision-making processes. There are no women members of Parliament, only five women in provincial governments, five women permanent secretaries and some women directors of divisions within the public service. When linked to the broader socioeconomic context of development, weak management systems and mechanisms,

and high levels of violence against women, the need to empower rural women and to provide policy and legislative reform at the national government level exists. Solomon Islands women face significant challenges in acquiring substantive gender equality. Women’s challenges are framed by the demands of globalization, capitalism, and modernization, which have created significant social change in the past decade. Conflict accompanies social change, particularly between the norms created by modern human rights discourse and the norms of kastom, tradition, and Christianity. The need to support women as they adapt to the cash economy and, at the same time, for broader society to adapt to women’s changing social roles is increasing, but significant problems are evolving as a consequence. There is a need for an increased engagement of local women with expertise and experience to influence and drive social change and to make informed decisions about the creation of social change that is locally appropriate. It is clear that the country is in need of supporting changes that will advance the status of women, but such changes need to be couched within legal frameworks that will ensure change of attitudes toward women as equal citizens. Although Solomon Islands women’s development paths will evolve at their own pace and with their own version of progress, there are concerns, nonetheless, about the quality of women’s lives in the communities while they wait for their government to more effectively represent their interests and their rights as citizens. See Also: Christianity; Equal Pay; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Solomon Islands.” https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bp.html (accessed July 2010). Glenn, R. W. Counterinsurgency in a Test Tube: Analyzing the Success of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2007. U.S. Department of State. “Solomon Islands.” http://www .state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2799.htm (accessed July 2010). Ruth Basi Afia Maetala Ministry for Women, Youth, and Children Affairs



Somalia In 1960, British Somaliland merged with Italian Somaliland to create Somalia. The decades after that were generally filled with turmoil, and in 1991 the clans of northern Somalia created the Republic of Somalia, which is located in East Africa along the shores of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. The new republic was subsequently plagued with internal strife, border disputes, and famine. Somalia, which is not recognized by other countries, is the fourth-poorest country in the world, with a per capita income of only $600 and a poverty rate of 71 percent. More than 70 percent of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, and 37 percent of the population is urbanized. Early in the 21st century, some stability was restored as a result of a national plan to establish a representative government under a new constitution. Eighty-five percent of the population is Somali, and all Somalis are Sunni Muslim. Somalia has a large nomadic population, as well as large groups of refugees who relocate to avoid famine and clan warfare. The women in these groups are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and violence. Patriarchy is practiced according to Somali-styled Islamic law, which devalues women, who are required by law to wear the veil. Major problems include violence against women, systemic discrimination of women, and the prevalence of female genital mutilation. Women’s rights groups actively promote equal rights and greater female political participation. Marriage and Women’s Rights A married woman is considered the property of her husband and his tribe. Early marriages are arranged by either parents or tribal chiefs. At times, girls have been sold in marriage to ensure family safety. Polygamy is common. Women have few rights in divorce cases, but they may be awarded custody of girls younger than 15 years and boys younger than 10 years. Honor and revenge killings are common. In cases of wrongful death, a woman’s life is considered only half as valuable as that of a man. Female inheritance is limited to half that of male heirs. In the past, few women owned property because of the practice of passing land from father to son, but this has changed in response to a rise in the number of woman-headed households.

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Amid political and economic turmoil, large numbers of women have been forced in the role of breadwinners. This new role has led to a redefinition of the roles of Muslim women. They have formed study groups to educate themselves by reading the Qur’an and determining its application to their lives in the 21st century. This new insight led to a campaign to end the universal practice of infibulation, a form of female genital mutilation. Women in Politics The quota system requires that women fill 12 percent of parliamentary seats, yet in 2008, there were only 23 women in the 275-seat Parliament, and the only woman in the cabinet was the minister for Gender and Family Affairs. A female held that same position in the Somaliland government, in which two women sat in Parliament. For the first time, two women also sat in the Puntland Parliament. Somalia ranks sixth in the world in infant mortality (109.19 deaths per 1,000 live births). Female infants (99.79 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a considerable advantage over males (118.31 deaths per 1,000 live births). That advantage continues into adulthood, resulting in a female life expectancy of 51.53 years and a male life expectancy of 47.78 years. However, there is little difference in the median ages for women (17.6 years) and men (17.5 years). With a fertility rate of 6.52 children per woman, Somalia ranks fourth in the world in fertility. Somalis have a 0.5 percent human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) adult prevalence rate and a high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, dengue fever, malaria, Rift Valley fever, schistosomiasis, and rabies. Educational levels and literacy are extremely low for both men (49 percent) and women (25.8 percent). Violence against women is a pervasive problem, and the fact that there is no national judiciary means that justice is unevenly applied. Women are raped by police, members of the military, and rival clans. Rape laws are not generally enforced, and there are no laws against domestic violence or spousal rape. Rape victims are considered “impure,” and families may try to mitigate social disgrace by turning to tribal chiefs to negotiate settlements with perpetrators. Although illegal, prostitution is prevalent.

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See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Mutilation, Geographical Distribution; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Honor Killings; Rape, Cross-Culturally Defined. Further Readings AFROL News. “Somalia.” http://www.afrol.com/Cat egories/Women/profiles/somalia_women.htm (accessed February 2010). Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “Somalia.” https://www.cia .gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos /so.html (accessed February 2010). McGown, R. “Somalia: Redefining Social Roles: The Extraordinary Strength of Somali Women.” Women and Environments International Magazine, v.58/59 (2003). Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Somalia.” http://genderindex .org/country/somalia (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Somalia.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/119024.htm (accessed March 2010).

Annika Sörenstam plays the 2008 LPGA Championship, prior to announcing it would be her final season on the LPGA Tour.

Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Sörenstam, Annika Annika Sörenstam is one of the greatest female athletes in history and the most successful and famous woman golfer in 21st-century history. Before she retired from professional golf in December 2008, Sörenstam won 72 Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournaments and 17 European tournaments—a total of 89 golf tournament wins around the world. Based on her talent and success, Sörenstam is the first player in LPGA history to cross the $20 million threshold of career earnings, and in 2001, her score of 59 in an official LPGA tournament was and still is the lowest score in female golf history. Her fame as a woman golfer parallels the fame of male golfers Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 9, 1970, to Gunilla and Tom Sörenstam, Sörenstam was a natural athlete, who started playing golf at age 12. In 1987, she

became a member of the Swedish National Golf Team, and in 1990 she played golf as a freshman at the University of Arizona. The following year, Sörenstam won seven collegiate titles and was the first non-American to win the NCAA U.S. National Golf Championship. In 1992, after winning the World Amateur championship, she became a professional golfer. During the next 16 years, Sörenstam rewrote the LPGA and Ladies European record books, and her success has improved women’s golf. Sörenstam’s dominance, talent, and determination in the sport enabled her to set a multitude of scoring records and earn 10 Major wins from 1995 to 2006. She won a record eight Player of the Year awards; six Vare trophies (awarded to the LPGA player with the lowest average strokes per round for the season); and three Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year awards in 2003, 2004, and 2005. She also earned one-third of all LPGA records. In 2003, not only was Sörenstam inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame based on her tremendous LPGA win record, but she also made interna-

Sotomayor, Sonia



tional headlines when she played in the Colonial Golf Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, becoming the first woman since Babe Zaharias qualified for the 1945 Los Angeles Open to play against men in a PGA event. As an elite athlete, Sörenstam successfully transitioned from professional golfer to entrepreneur the last few years of her career. In April 2007, she opened her Annika Academy golf instruction and training center near Orlando, Florida. In addition to helping others improve their golf abilities, she continues to design golf courses around the world. On a personal note, Sörenstam and her husband, Mike McGee, had a baby girl named Ava on September 1, 2009. Sörenstam’s dedication, strong work ethic, mental toughness, competitive spirit, and near flawless golf technique have made her a hero for men and women around the globe. See Also: Business, Women in; Golf; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Annika Sorenstam. “About.” http://www.annikasorenstam .com/about.htm (accessed June 2010). Savage, Jeff. Annika Sörenstam. Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue Editions, 2005. Sörenstam, Annika. Golf Annika’s Way: How I Elevated My Game to Be the Best—and How You Can Too. New York: Gotham Books. 2007. Yvonne Doll U. S. Army Command and General Staff College

Sotomayor, Sonia Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America Sonia Sotomayor is a woman of many “firsts.” In 1992, at the age of 38 years, Sotomayor became the first American of Puerto Rican descent to be appointed to the federal bench in New York State, when she was commissioned as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The youngest judge in the court and the first Puerto Rican woman to sit as a judge in a U.S. federal court, she served there until 1998, when she was confirmed to occupy a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Sotomayor was the first Latina to serve on that court, hearing appeals

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in more than 3,000 cases and writing approximately 380 majority opinions in her 10 years on the appellate bench. President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court on May 26, 2009. Following partisan hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she was confirmed with a vote of 68–31 on August 6, 2009, by the full Senate. Sotomayor became the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court when she was sworn in on August 8, 2009. Education and Career Beginnings Sotomayor was born in Bronx, New York, on June 25, 1954, to Puerto Rican immigrant parents, Juan Sotomayor and Celina Baez Sotomayor. Spanish was her first language. She lived in the Bronx housing projects, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 8 years, and mourned the death of her father at age 9 years. Raised as a Catholic, she attended highly regarded Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, where she was active in student government, participated on the forensics team, and graduated as valedictorian of her class. Sotomayor earned her B.A. summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, she also won the M. Taylor Pyne Prize— the top honor that Princeton awards undergraduate students. Entering Yale Law School in the fall of 1976, Sotomayor distinguished herself as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and also as managing editor of the student-sponsored journal Yale Studies in World Public Order. She was granted her J.D. in 1979 and was admitted to the New York Bar the following year. Sotomayor married Kevin Noonan in 1976; the couple divorced in 1983. They had no children. During her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Sotomayor was repeatedly called to explain a remark that she made in a 2001 lecture she delivered at the University of California–Berkeley. In that address, she spoke about the ways in which gender and national origin might make a difference in how judges rule. She quoted a comment, attributed to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, that “a wise old man and a wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases” and then referenced herself, remarking that although she might not fully agree with the statement, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a

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better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Sotomayor’s comments were criticized as evidence of liberal, racially biased attitudes that she might bring to bear on the Supreme Court. She took great care to distance herself from the remark and others like it, asserting, “I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judgment.” The “wise Latina” statement was merely “a rhetorical flourish that fell flat,” she argued, and she assured her detractors that she would rule based on the law, not on racial bias. High-Profile Cases Sotomayor rendered several high-profile rulings before her Supreme Court appointment. In March 1995, in Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc., she issued the ruling that ended the 1994 baseball strike. In that same year, in Dow Jones v. Department of Justice, she supported the Wall Street Journal’s bid to obtain and print a photocopy of the last note left by Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster before his suicide. In a 2002 abortion-related decision, in Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, Sotomayor ruled for the Bush administration’s practice of withholding public funds from nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote abortion in foreign countries. A 2008 employment discrimination case heard in the Second Circuit, Ricci v. DeStefano, occasioned a controversial ruling in which Sotomayor voted with the majority in a ruling that allowed the city of New Haven to discard the results from a test for firefighters because no African Americans had scored high enough on the exam to qualify for promotion. The ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court in 2009 in a 5–4 decision, stating that certain New Haven white firefighters had been victims of racial discrimination when their promotions were denied as a result of the test’s invalidation. See Also: Attorneys, Female; Ginsburg, Ruth Bader; Judges, Female; O’Connor, Sandra Day. Further Readings Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, 304 F. 3d 183 (Second Circuit 2002). Dow Jones v. Department of Justice, 880 F. Supp. 145 (S.D.N.Y. 1995).

Ricci v. DeStefano, 530 F. 3d 87 (Second Circuit; June 9, 2008; per curiam). Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc., 880 F. Supp. 246 (S.D.N.Y. 1995). Sotomayor, Sonia. “A Latina Judge’s Voice.” (Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture), in “Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation.” Berkeley La Raza Law Journal (Spring 2002). “Sotomayor’s Notable Court Opinions and Articles.” New York Times (July 10, 2009). Supreme Court of the United States. “Biographies of Current Justices.” http://www.supremecourtus.gov (accessed July 2010). Mary L. Kahl State University of New York, New Paltz

South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country located on the southern extremity of the continent of Africa. The country is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, and has Lesotho, a small, mountainous country, landlocked within its borders. South Africa has a lengthy coastline fringed by both the warm Indian Ocean and the cold South Atlantic Ocean, and although the climate is generally temperate, temperature varies throughout the country. South Africa is home to more than 50 million people and is recognized for its diversity of language, culture, and religion (earning it the nickname of “The Rainbow Nation”) but also for its tumultuous political past. Following nearly 300 years of colonial rule, the policy of apartheid, which determined rights and privileges to all citizens based on racial classification, was endorsed by the ruling white minority from 1948 until 1994. This policy relegated all individuals who were classified as non-white to the status of second-class citizen. Embodied within the policy of apartheid was the ideology of segregation, referred to as separate development, which meant that access to public transport, state schools, hospitals, residential and public facilities, and indeed even cemeteries was defined on the basis of race. Women classified as black or African



faced a double-pronged oppression: By virtue of race and gender, African women were subjugated and denied access to urban areas in which their husbands frequently worked as migrant laborers, and they were regularly denied access to employment on the grounds of both race and gender. Despite the demise of apartheid and the remodeled South African constitution of 1996 being heralded as one of the most democratic and progressive constitutions in the world, in that it recognizes 11 official languages and provides legal protection for women from rape, domestic violence, and discrimination, momentous changes in the nation’s legislation have not brought about significant changes to the majority of South Africa’s population. Notwithstanding cultural and linguistic heterogeneity, patriarchy is a dominant cultural standard throughout South Africa, and although in the contemporary era the gendered sta-

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tus quo has theoretically been leveled, many women still face widespread discrimination, persecution, and violence. Shared cultural norms of many groupings within South Africa specify that women belong to the lineage into which she has married, and practices such as “bridewealth” (the payment of cattle, or in the contemporary era other material commodities, from the family of the groom to the family of the bride) and “levirate” (a man’s wife being required to marry her deceased husband’s brother) ensure continued control over women and their fertility. The Impact of HIV/AIDS In South Africa, the dawn of democracy coincided with the rise of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). South Africa presently has the highest absolute number of people living with HIV of any nation in the

Young women from the Zulu tribe in South Africa. The country is called “The Rainbow Nation” because of the diversity of language, culture, and religion represented by the more than 50 million people living there.

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world, and approximately 25 percent of all pregnant women are infected with HIV. HIV/AIDS rates are showing no sign of abating, and the local epidemic has placed insurmountable care challenges on the shoulders of women. In South Africa, as is typical in the entire sub-Saharan African region, HIV/AIDS is a gendered disease, with women more likely to contract the disease than their male counterparts as a result of their biological makeup, coupled with sociocultural and economic vulnerability. The growing number of orphaned and vulnerable children in need of care as traditional prime-age caregivers succumb to the disease has thrown the effectiveness of the extended family safety net as the first line of defense against the disease into question. In accordance with the National AIDS Plan of 1994, male condoms were distributed en masse in the 1990s in an attempt to curb the spread of the disease, but this wide-scale distribution did not amount to mass usage. As women’s vulnerability increased against the backdrop of the nearly 40 percent unemployment rate and the increasing HIV/AIDS rate of the country, new gender-sensitive protection schemes are being sought, such as the introduction of the female condom and microbicides. At the same time, women are rising to the challenge and devising localized community initiatives and support networks in an attempt to meet the increasing care challenges placed on them in the era of HIV/AIDS. See Also: Childcare; Foster Mothers; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Migrant Workers. Further Readings Campbell, J. “Women in South Africa: International Violence and HIV/AIDS: Intersections and Prevention.” Journal of Black Studies, v.35/4 (2005). Crewe, M. “Reflections on the South African HIV/AIDS Epidemic.” Society and Transition, v.33/3 (2002). De la Porte, S. “Redefining Childcare in the Context of AIDS: The Extended Family Revisited.” Agenda, v.75/2 (2008). Kingdon, G. and J. Knight. “Unemployment in South Africa: The Nature of the Beast.” World Development, v.32/3 (2004). Susan de la Porte University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

South Korea The Republic of Korea, which borders both the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, broke away from the northern section of the country after what is now known as North Korea became communist in the wake of World War II. With the help of the United States and the United Nations, South Korea managed to fend off communist encroachment in the early 1950s and established a path of democracy and economic prosperity. By the early 21st century, 81 percent of the population had become urbanized, and South Korea had become one of the 20 largest economies in the world, with a per capita income of $27,700. Nevertheless, 15 percent of the population lived in poverty, and a disproportionate number were women and children. Although the number of women in the labor force has continued to expand, many female workers are relegated to entry-level jobs. South Korean society is heavily traditional, and women face entrenched discrimination in both their personal and public lives. Other problems of major concern are rape, violence against women, and human trafficking. Korean society is highly homogeneous, with the only significant minority group being 20,000 Chinese. There is more diversity in religion, with Christians (26.3 percent) and Buddhists (23.2 percent) dominating. Korean is the official language, but most Koreans also learn English at the middle and high school levels. The Ministry of Gender Equality, which was established in 2001, has been charged with protecting women’s rights. This agency has engaged in campaigns to raise public awareness of women’s issues, ranging from gender equality to violence against women. Nevertheless, a report issued by the United Nations Development Programme reveals that South Korea has been losing ground on the Gender Empowerment Index, dropping from 68th in the world in 2007 to 72nd in 2008. Divorce carries considerable stigma in South Korea, but Family Law reforms instituted in 1989 recognized the rights of divorced women to maintain property interests and greater contact with their children. A 2005 ruling by the Supreme Court held that married women had the same property rights as males and daughters had equal inheritance rights as sons. Reproductive rights are strongly debated in South Korea, and feminists argue that abortion rights have



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for women. As a result, most men are literate (99.2 percent), but only 96.6 percent of women older than 15 years are able to read and write. Because of the legal requirement that political parties generate a proportional slate that is 50 percent female and a geographical slate that is 30 percent female, women are regularly elected to office. In 2008, there were 41 females in the 299-seat National Assembly. Two of 13 justices on the supreme court and two of 15 cabinet ministers were female. Efforts to address the needs of women led to the passage of the Sexual Equality Employment Act of 1999, which was followed by an upsurge in the number of gender discrimination and sexual harassment cases reported to authorities.

On average, South Korean women attend school for 15 years, have 1.21 children, and live to an average age of 82.

been based on government efforts to control population growth, with access becoming more widespread whenever the government attempts to curtail growth and becoming more restricted when growth is encouraged. Education and Politics South Korea has an infant mortality rate of 4.02 deaths per 1,000 live births for female infants and 4.49 deaths per 1,000 live births for male infants. The female advantage continues throughout life, with women having a life expectancy of 82.22 years compared with 74.45 years for men. South Korean women give birth to an average of 1.21 children each. The median age for women is 38.5 years compared with 36 years for men. Men have a considerable advantage over women in the realm of education, with a school life expectancy of 18 years for men as opposed to only 15 years

Violence and Sexual Harassment In 1998, in response to rising incidences of domestic violence, the national legislature passed the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Victim Protection Act. Yet almost a third of married women become victims of domestic violence. Some shelters are government subsidized, and the government has increased support for victims. Although rape is illegal, there are no specific laws dealing with spousal rape. Sexual harassment is also a widespread problem, and the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and the Korean Institute of Criminology report that 17.9 percent of women become victims of some sort of sexual crime in their lifetimes. However, most of these crimes go unreported because of the social stigma attached to sex crimes. During World War II, scores of Korean women were forced into prostitution to satisfy the sexual appetites of Japanese soldiers. Today, those “comfort women” receive allowances of $387 from the Korean government. Despite efforts to control it, prostitution is still widespread, particularly in the capital city of Seoul. In 2008, the government passed the Act on the Prevention of the Sex Trade and Protection of Victims Thereof in an effort to deal with the growing problems of trafficking and sexual tourism. In recent years, there has been considerable talk of Korean unification. A study released in 2001 by Younghee Kim and Youngah Change predicted that in the case of unification, women would be particularly vulnerable to contradictory views on women’s rights in the areas of abortion, adultery, and head-of-family

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recognitions because of North Korea’s more restrictive positions on the rights of women. See Also: Abortion Laws, International; Domestic Violence; North Korea; Prostitution; Sexual Harassment.

on marriage, the family, and women in the ministry. Voting members at these annual meetings are official “Messengers,” most of them pastors, who represent “friendly cooperating” congregations.

Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Faith and Message The essence of Southern Baptist doctrine is contained in its “Faith and Message” (F&M), first written in 1925 and revised in 1963 and 2000. According to the SBC Website, this is the only “consensus statement” of doctrinal beliefs approved by the SBC. The latest revisions were the work of a 15-member committee composed of 10 white males, two white females, one Asian, one African American, and one Hispanic, a diverse committee in comparison with those of the past. Faith and Message consists of 18 articles, ranging from affirmation of the Bible as God’s inerrant truth to the last, and newest, on the family. Each article is followed by scriptural references suggesting biblical support. The 2000 revisions to the F&M reflect the culmination of what has become known as a “fundamentalist takeover” or a “conservative resurgence” that began in the late 1970s and was virtually completed over the next 20 years. Fundamentalist leaders replaced liberal or moderate agency heads and trustees of affiliated colleges, universities, and seminaries with those in concurrence on the major issues of the conservative movement, beginning with the inerrancy of the Bible.

Although Baptists have been in America since colonial days, it was not until 1845 that a group of males from what would become the Confederate States organized the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in Augusta, Georgia. They split from other Baptists over cultural issues, most notably slavery, and subsequently grew to become the largest protestant Christian denomination in the United States composed of some 42,000 churches and over 16 million members in local congregations. The Southern Baptist Convention is both more and less than a religious denomination: more in that it represents the bureaucratic agencies, staff, and media of the denomination and less in that Baptist doctrine bestows autonomy on the local church. Recent annual meetings of the SBC have been marred by very public doctrinal disagreements over the inerrancy of the Bible and position statements

The Southern Baptist Convention and Women Not until 1918 could women serve as Messengers, and not until 1929 were they allowed to address the Convention. However, women’s progress toward equality in the SBC was interrupted by the conservative resurgence. Three F&M articles are particularly revealing of the roles of women in the SBC. Revised article VI on the church states that, “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” While local churches may choose to ordain women, few will defy the SBC by “calling” them as senior pastors, leaving them to serve as missionaries, assistant pastors, ministers of youth or education, or chaplains in various institutions. Article XV on the Christian and the Social Order was revised to affirm the sanctity of all human life, “. . . from conception to natural death.” Article VXIII on the Family, new in the 2000 F&M,

Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Korea, South.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/ks.html (accessed April 2010). Kim, Younghee and Youngah Chang. “Laws Related to Women in Preparation for Unification of North and South Korea.” Korean Women Today, v.67/7 (2001). Kim, Youngok and Huynjoo Min. “The Polarization of the South Korean Female Labor Market.” Women’s Studies Forum, v.23/41–47 (2007). Online Women in Politics. “Women’s Rights in Korea.” (2001). http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/women sit/kr-w-sit.pdf (accessed April 2010). U.S. State Department. “2008 Human Rights Report: Republic of Korea.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls /hrrpt/2008/eap/119044.htm (accessed April 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Spain



proclaims, “Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman,” and then seemingly affirms the equality of husband and wife—but not without qualification. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. The scriptural citation in support of this statement is in the New Testament book of Ephesians, chapter 5 and, although not cited, is followed closely by an admonition for servants to obey their masters. Some SBC agency employees were asked to sign a statement affirming their support of the revised F&M, in some cases creating divisions within families and exacerbating divisions within the SBC. The Future for Southern Baptists The increasing politicalization of the SBC and the heavy-handed conservative takeover of agencies, institutions, and resources have not been without costs. Growth has slowed as churches struggle to win new converts and to diversify their aging, white, and middle-class congregations. The Baptist Alliance formed in 1987 and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship formed in 1991 have claimed some churches and individuals with their more moderate positions on the Bible and on social issues. See Also: Christianity; Fundamentalist Christianity; Marriage; Ministry, Protestant; Religion, Women in Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of. Further Readings Ammerman, Nancy T. Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995. Cline, Austin. “Southern Baptist and the Role of Women.” (1998). http://atheism.about.com/od/baptistssouthern baptists/a/baptistwomen.htm (accessed October 2009). Fletcher, Jesse C. The Southern Baptist Convention: A Sesquicentennial History. Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 1994. Leonard, Bill. “When the Denominational Center Doesn’t Hold: The Southern Baptist Experience.” The Christian Century (September 22, 1993).

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Southern Baptist Convention. Official Website of the Southern Baptist Convention. http://sbc.net (accessed October 2009). Joyce E. Williams Texas Woman’s University

Spain In 1983, the Institute of Woman (Instituto de la Mujer) was created to promote gender equality. There are many associations—public and private feminist associations, organizations and independent groups that constitute a rich feminist movement—working to improve the position of women in Spain and to combat discrimination in the country in the wake of its move into democracy in 1978. Spain is home to 46 million people, 49.5 percent of whom are men and 50.5 percent are women. Life expectancy is 77.6 years for men and 84.1 years for women. Citizens age 85 and older are twice as likely to be women. Approximately 29 percent of households consist of two members, 24.6 percent are composed of four people, and 5.9 percent have more than five members. Women have an average of 1.4 children, a rising number, and enter motherhood at 29.3 years on average. Abortion, legal since 1985 and now under revision, is 11.5 per thousand women and continuously growing. A Ministry of Equality (Ministerio de Igualdad) has recently been created to pass public policies on gender equality and to ensure gender mainstreaming in all areas of social, economic, and political affairs, with very promising perspectives. It is still soon to evaluate the impact that those and other state actions are having on Spanish women. Several new laws have been approved to guarantee gender equality, such as Ley Orgánica 3/2007 Para la Igualdad Efectiva ee Mujeres y Hombres, Plan Estratégico Para la Igualdad de Oportunidades Entre Mujeres y Hombres (2008-2010), and Ley Orgánica 1/2004 de Medidas de Protección Integral Contra la Violencia de Género. The later, aimed at eliminating violence based on gender, has been one of the most important legislative advances in contemporary Spain, despite the many challenges yet to face.

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According to the Observatory on Violence Against Women, that law and other institutional measures have not reduced the number of female deaths, and the number of claims continues to grow. Women commit fewer crimes than men. Nine out of 100 convicted people are women, and only 7.7 percent of prisoners are women. Regarding education, 48.5 percent of enrolled pupils in compulsory education are girls, but this rate increases to 51.5 percent in secondary school and/ or vocational training. The enrolment of women in college is 54 percent, 62.6 percent in adult education (2006–07). Even though 48.7 percent of women win awards and successfully complete their studies, they don’t necessarily get jobs. Women teachers represent 62.4 percent of all teachers, but only 36.9 percent are college professors. Female professors represent just 14.4 percent of the teaching staff in colleges and universities, of which only 12 percent have been awarded an honorary doctorate. At the Royal Academies of Science, Language, Arts, and so on, only 6.4 percent of members are women. Women’s access to employment was higher than men’s between 2002 and 2007, yet the female employment rate continues to be 55.4 percent compared to men’s at 71.9 percent. The annual salary for women was 83.2 percent of male wages before taxes in 2006. The global economic crisis has had an impact on both men and women. However, women occupy more part-time jobs to help meet a family’s needs, and 94 percent of women leave their jobs and become homemakers, mostly due to childcare constraints. The healthcare system in Spain covers all citizens and instances. The presence of women in politics, power, and decision making has improved considerably in recent years. Women occupy 36.3 percent of the seats in Parliament and 28 percent in the Senate. On the national level of government, half are female ministers in the national Parliament, but only 32 percent of senators are women. Six out of 10 judges are female, although just 7.9 percent become magistradas (judges of highest court). Spain ranks 16 out of 179 in the Human Development Index, being the GenderRelated Development Index (GDI) of 11 (among a total of 136 countries). See Also: Domestic Violence; Educational Opportunities/Access; Representation of Women.

Further Readings Instituto de la Mujer (España, 2009). http://www.inmujer .migualdad.es/MUJER/mujeres/igualdad/index.htm (accessed November 2009). Morant, I. Historia de las Mujeres en España y América Latina. Valencia, Spain: Ediciones Cátedra, 2006. Twomey, L. Women in Contemporary Culture: Roles and Identities in France and Spain. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2003. Amalia Morales Villena University of Granada

Sports, Women in Historically, sport and physical activity were positioned as masculine undertakings designed to demonstrate the virility of the participants in an effort to determine the worthiness of a man as a provider, protector, and warrior. Women were not allowed to watch the events, let alone compete in the events. As social and political changes surfaced in the European nations and early America during the 19th century, women began to test the boundaries of sport and physical activity participation, eventually gaining access and opportunity. Women and the Ancient Olympic Games During the first Olympic Games in 776 b.c.e., women were not allowed to participate in or attend the Olympic Games. Women were deemed a distraction for the male participants, and therefore were prevented from any participation or spectatorship in the games. However, as a result of the success and popularity of the 776 b.c.e. games, the Heraea Games were created in the 6th century b.c.e., in honor of the Greek goddess Hera, as an athletic event specifically for women. Like the male events, the Heraea Games consisted of track-and-field type sports. In order to compete in the events, female participants were required to dress like men. Interestingly, males were not allowed to watch the female athletes compete. In the ancient world, there was a fear and long-held belief that if a male watched a female compete in athletic events, the male may perceive the female’s athletic prowess as unattractive, resulting in fewer marriages and con-



sequently fewer children born to carry on Greek values and beliefs. It was not until 1900, when the Olympic Games were held in Paris, France, that women began to compete with men in the Olympic Games. Nineteen women representing various nations were among the first Olympic female competitors in the 1900 games, including Helen de Pourtales from Switzerland, who competed in yachting; Elvira Guerra from France, who competed in equestrianism; Charlotte Cooper from Great Britain, who competed in tennis; and Margaret Abbott from the United States, who competed in golf. Interestingly, Abbott was the first American female to earn a medal in the Olympic Games in golf, typically identified in 1900 as a male-dominated sport. Before Title IX: A Shift in Attitudes Gaining access and creating opportunities for girls and women in physical activity and sporting settings became a figurative “race” for equality. As women

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began to advocate for the institutionalization of their rights and freedoms in the athletics world, as well as other parts of their lives, they were faced with oppressive and biased attitudes that continued to act as barriers to their participation. Prior to 1870, organized sport and physical activity opportunities for women were simply recreational in nature. In theory, these recreational opportunities were noncompetitive, unorganized, and without specific rules and guidelines. However, it is believed that women infused a competitive spirit into their physical efforts, as a result of natural instinct. In the mid-1800s and early 1900s, women began to form their own clubs and organize competitions among each other. Women’s teams organized informal “play days” with other local universities, sororities, and groups. Interestingly, the female players on each team were responsible for organizing the entire event. Support from organized athletic sectors was nonexistent. These competitions were not widely

There was a time when women were not allowed to watch sporting events, much less compete in them. In the mid-1800s and early 1900s, women began to form their own clubs and organize competitions among each other.

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recognized, because the competitions were intramural in nature and because women as athletes were disregarded as unimportant and unattractive. Gaining Momentum Throughout the women’s suffrage movement, women challenged the general beliefs and attitudes regarding women’s capabilities not only on the field but in the classroom, in the workplace, and in governmental institutions. Through actions and words, women demanded the same freedoms and opportunities that were afforded to men and boys. Through years of hard work, advocacy, and sacrifice, women gained access. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment passed, giving U.S. women the right to vote and become a part of the governmental system, which afforded women a voice and some degree of power to influence the decisions that were made on a broad level that impacted their lives. This first wave of feminism impacted women’s access to sport and physical activity. As a result, women made moderate strides in gaining further access to resources and opportunities related to their sport and physical activity experience, especially for women attending college. Women who attended college in the early 1900s were generally from wealthy, positioned families. The sports that were popular at the time were defined by the upper class and consequently reflected their values and traditions. Early forms of sport and physical activity were positioned based on socioeconomic status. Generally speaking, sport and physical activity for women were individual in nature and included horseback riding, yachting, croquet, tennis, and swimming. As women sought more opportunities, they were allowed limited access to local clubs, primarily attended by men. During their club time, women were not allowed to participate with the men and were provided with certain times on various days when they could participate in sports and physical activities. Sport and Physical Activity as a Health Hazard? A belief began to emerge that participation in sport and physical activity was hazardous to a women’s health. It was once believed that women should conserve their energy and that it should only be expended on necessary household chores and child rearing. In addition, a belief from the ancient Olympic games remained steadfast: it was thought watching women partici-

pate in sport and physical activity was unattractive. It was believed that participation in sport and physical activity could impact a woman’s ability have and carry a baby to full term. Dr. Edward Clarke published Sex in Education; A Fair Chance for Girls in 1874, in which he continued to question women’s aptitude for physical activity. Clarke believed that physical exertion and brain activity must be limited at the onset of menstruation. Regardless of the type of sport, women were encouraged not to exert themselves; women’s sports and physical activity were positioned by society as meant for enjoyment and recreation only. Today, we understand that there are many physical and environmental factors that contribute to a women’s daily energy level and that a healthy approach to physical activity is a requisite to living a long, healthy life. The Impact of Title IX on Access and Opportunity As a part of the civil rights movement, women experienced feminism on a larger scale and began to move toward greater equality in many aspects of their lives. In 1972, Title IX, an educational reform act that mandated equal access for all minority groups, including women, was passed. In essence, the bill legislated that any organization or institution that received federal monies was required to adhere to new governmental policies that required equal access and resources for all groups of people, and that no person could be discriminated against or denied access based on their race or gender. While Title IX experienced some significant “growing pains” as it was applied and adopted, Title IX did allow women and girls more access and opportunities in the sport and physical activity arena, as well as the broader educational realm. A report by the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) published in June of 2007 indicated that female participation levels in collegiate sports experienced steady growth in the 1990s and has leveled off in the 2000s. Data collected by the WSF indicated that participation in intercollegiate activities increased by 25,000 athletes from 1995 to 1996. Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, it is well documented that women and girls have experienced greater access to sport and physical activity opportunities. Unfortunately, women and girls are still faced with various institutions and organizations failing to completely comply with and adhere to Title IX, which results in continuous challenges.

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It can be argued that Title IX has been the most significant piece of legislation for American women and girls since the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. As the historic impact of Title IX continues to be understood and responsibility applied, women and girls should continue to advocate for their equal rights and access to resources. A close examination of sport and physical activity trends indicates that women and girls still face barriers as they continue to seek equal access and opportunities. However, if history does repeat itself, it is clear that women will continue to gain momentum and not only advocate for their own rights and greater access, but they will also continue to pave the way for future generations of female athletes. See Also: Basketball, College; Boxing; Coaches, Female; Figure Skating; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Golf; Gymnastics; Olympics, Summer; Olympics, Winter; Little League; Running/Marathon; Soccer, Children’s; Soccer, Professional; Swimming; Tennis; Title IX; Women’s National Basketball Association. Further Readings Acosta, R. V. and L. J. Carpenter. “Women in Sport.” In Donald Chu, Jeffrey O. Segrave, and Beverly J. Becker, eds., Sport and Higher Education. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1985. Bell, R. “The History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX.” The Sport Journal, v.10/2 (2007). Clarke, E. Sex Education; or, a Fair Chance for Girls. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1874. Hult, J. S. “The Story of Women’s Athletics: Manipulating a Dream 1890–1985.” In D. M. Costa and S. R. Guthrie, eds., Women and Sport: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1994. Hultstrand, B. J. “The Growth of Collegiate Women’s Sports: The 1960s.” The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, v.64/3 (1993). Ladda, S. “The National Association for Girls and Women in Sport: 110 Years of Social Justice and Change.” The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, v.80/7 (2009). Motley, M and M. Lavine. “Century Marathon: a Race for Equality in Girls’ and Women’s Sports.” The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, v.72/6 (2001). Donna Duffy University of North Carolina, Greensboro

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Sports Announcers, Female When Lesley Visser took over the color commentator duties in the fourth quarter of a preseason National Football League (NFL) game between the Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints, the longtime female sports announcer made history. No woman had ever been given the color announcing job before in an NFL game, making Visser’s November 3, 2009, appearance special. Although Visser’s achievement was lauded among women’s groups, female sports announcers face multiple obstacles in earning opportunities and respect in sports broadcasting, especially in mainstream men’s sports coverage of football, basketball, and baseball. Stereotypes Permeate Decision Making Women are largely denied the opportunity to work in the broadcast booth for men’s sports, where announcers give play-by-play commentary and “color” analysis. They also face cultural stereotypes that position them as lacking the knowledge and credibility to speak authoritatively to an audience about a game. The structural barriers work in harmony with negative cultural attitudes to preserve a status quo in which women are marginalized and devalued in sports and sports-related professions, including sports announcing. Ongoing demographic research published by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida has shown the extent to which women are excluded from this profession. For example, in 2008, women occupied 3 percent of all NFL sports broadcasting positions, the same number as in 1996. In the 2008–09 season, women made up 8 percent of National Basketball Association (NBA) announcers and just 2 percent of those on TV during 2008 Major League Baseball (MLB) broadcasts. Further, in the 2008 Summer Olympics, NBC employed just one female play-by-play announcer, Andrea Joyce—and she covered rhythmic gymnastics, a sport open only to female competition. Scholars argue that one reason women do not receive opportunities in this and other sports-related professions is the stereotype that women are not naturally suited for sports. In many Western cultures, sports are positioned as something that comes “natural” to boys and men, and thus often viewed as a male

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domain; women, on the other hand, are seen as outsiders. This is troublesome in televised sports, where a play-by-play announcer describes the action and a color commentator explains certain plays and strategies. Both jobs require an authoritative presence; if women are perceived as lacking competence, those making hiring decisions may decide women are not capable of doing the job and audience members may question the validity of their commentary.

prestigious broadcast booth. Still, in a society where patriarchal ideology positions men and men’s sports as superior, working in women’s sports is viewed as a kind of second-class status, and it remains to be seen what the future holds for women in this profession.

Struggling to Advance From the Sidelines When women do appear on television as part of a men’s sports broadcast, they nearly always work as sideline reporters, covering softer, off-the-field news, which in many ways replicates women’s “outsider status” in the context of sports. Well-known personalities such as ESPN’s Erin Andrews, Fox Sports’ Andrea Kremer, and CBS’s Visser have all made careers at this position. Although sideline reporters are a visible part of the broadcast, scholars argue that they are not central to the production’s success, giving the job a lower-status connotation. Further, most female sideline announcers must meet unwritten rules about Western standards of youthful beauty and sex appeal, making the position more about aesthetics and less about reporting acumen. Some scholars argue that women may be left out from high-profile positions because they are not getting the necessary training at smaller TV stations to prepare them for a leap to national and regional broadcasts. Demographic information substantiates that claim; according to the Radio Television and Digital News Association’s 2008 edition of an ongoing census of women in sports broadcasting at local TV stations, women made up just 8 percent of local TV sports anchor positions and about 19 percent of sports reporters. There are women, however, who are challenging the status quo. Pam Ward has provided play-by-play for select college American football games for ESPN since 2000, and Beth Mowins received a similar opportunity from ESPN in 2005. Suzyn Waldman is the color analyst on the YES Network for New York Yankees baseball games. Ward has also called the play-by-play for the Women’s National Basketball Association games, and it is when women’s sports are broadcast on television that women may have the best opportunity to move from the sideline to the

Further Readings Etling, Laurence and Raymond Young. “Sexism and the Authoritativeness of Female Sportscasters.” Communication Research Reports, v.24/2 (2007). Finder, Chuck. “The Big Picture: Ward Does Play-by-Play as Well as Boys.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (November 7, 2002). http://www.awsmonline.org/newsletters/ newsletters_winter03.pdf (Accessed November 2009). Papper, Bob. “2008 Women and Minorities Survey.” Radio Television Digital News Association. http://www .rtdna.org/pages/media_items/the-face-of-the-work force1472.php (Accessed November 2009). Skerski, Jamie. “From Sideline to Centerfold: The Sexual Commodification of Female Sportscasters.” In Tom Reichert and Jaqueline Lambiase, eds., Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing. London: Routledge, 2005.

See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Sports, Women in; Stereotypes of Women; Visser, Leslie; Women’s National Basketball Association.

Erin Whiteside Penn State University

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition In 1964, the popular men’s sport magazine, Sports Illustrated (SI), published its first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (SISI). Each subsequent year, the magazine has dedicated an issue featuring beachwear rather than sports news. Although the first SISIs primarily focused on fashion and contained mostly travel and tourism advertisements, over the years the issue became less and less about fashion and travel and focused more on the sexual appeal of the models sporting the swimsuits in exotic locations. The SISI’s targeted consumers consist predominately of heterosexual males. The SISI is extremely popular and usually outsells regular issues



of SI. There are varying opinions on the merit of the issue, as fans classify it as art and critics consider it a form of pornography. In addition, the overall message of the issue implies that it is just for fun and celebrates the expression “boys will be boys.” The SISI has been slow to incorporate diverse ethnicities of featured swimsuit models. For instance, it was not until 1990 that a women with very dark skin was selected to model for the special issue. Since 2001, the SISI has incorporated advanced photography techniques and swimsuit designs that go beyond conventional standards. Many of the models sport body paint only rather than a fabric bathing suit. Body paint can be misleading, because it encourages the viewer to consume the images as they would art; however, researchers have argued that when women are body painted, they become predominately objects and experience higher levels of sexualization. Sexualization and the Advertiser The swimsuit models in the SISI represent varying degrees of sexualization. For example, if the model wears a very revealing bathing suit, typically her body positioning and pose are not sexually suggestive. However, if a model wears a bathing suit that is more modest and not as revealing, she is positioned in ways that heighten her sex appeal. The advertisements that are commonly found throughout the SISI elevate the sex appeal and sexualization of the issue. Specifically, advertisements contain subliminal messages about sexual activity and how to achieve improved sexual experiences. The most commonly advertised products in the SISI are condoms, alcohol, and automobiles. SI generally does not focus or cover women’s sport in depth, except during the Winter and Summer Olympics. Furthermore, few elite female athletes have been selected for the cover of the SISI. Those athletes who have appeared, including Anna Kournikova and Venus Williams, have been photographed and captured in highly sexualized poses, further raising questions about the trivialization of women athletes and women’s sport. Moreover, elite male athletes’ wives and professional cheerleaders have been more frequently featured in the SISI than elite women athletes. Overall, critics argue that the SISI is more about sexy models than sport. In 2007, SI revised its subscription policies, and subscribers can now opt out of receiving the SISI.

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The SISI remains very popular, however, and interested consumers can purchase a DVD of the making of a particular issue. To keep up with the Internet age and maintain a high profile among a Web-based society, the SISI has put significant effort into the design of its Website. The Website provides opportunities for consumers to watch videos, order swimsuit calendars, visit the SISI Hall of Fame, get to know the models better, and even receive swimsuit applications on their smart phones. See Also: Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Pornography, Portrayal of Women in; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Creedon, Pamela J. Women, Media and Sport: Challenging Gender Values. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994. Davis, Laurel R. The Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity in Sports Illustrated. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. http://www.sports illustrated.cnn.com/vault/swimsuit/home/index.htm (accessed November 2009). C. Weaving St. Francis Xavier University

Sports Officials, Female Despite the recent advancement of some female sports officials to the ranks of the professional leagues and amateur world championships, female sports officials still lag behind their male counterparts in terms of numbers and opportunities for advancement. Advocates of gender equity in sports anticipated that an increase in the number of schoolsponsored teams and increased participation opportunities for women at all levels of sport would result in increased job opportunities for female coaches, athletic administrators, and sport officials. While job opportunities did increase at all levels of sports with the passage of Title IX legislation in 1972, most of those positions were filled by males. Prior to 1972, girls’ and women’s sports were primarily coached, administered, and officiated by

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women. As early as the 1920s, the Committee on Women’s Athletics (CWA) wrote and administered the rules of sport for girls and women. After 1972, with the demise of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), CWA’s successor, and the takeover of women’s sports by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), female administrators, coaches, and officials were often relegated to secondary roles in women’s sports. For most sports, officials and referees officiating is a part-time job or even volunteer work that is generally undertaken in addition to their primary career. Thus, the number of sports officials at various levels is difficult to determine, as well as the number that have advanced to the highest ranks. A report by the NCAA on gender equity in college coaching and administration indicated that while 88 percent of the 1,127 female officials who responded to the gender equity survey were satisfied with their positions, 35 percent were dissatisfied with their opportunities for advancement. Furthermore, time (28 percent) and family (25 percent) commitments were cited by female officials as the most commonly perceived barriers to female representation in intercollegiate athletics officiating. Female Officials Who Overcame Gender Barriers Notwithstanding these perceived barriers and the lack of gender equity efforts in officiating, some women have advanced to the highest levels of officiating. For example, Marcy Weston served as an AIAW and NCAA official for 20 years (1964–84), was the NCAA secretary-rules editor for the Women’s Basketball Committee (1985–98), and was the NCAA national coordinator of women’s basketball officiating from 1984 until 2005. She also became the chair of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) board of directors. The association awarded her its highest achievement award, the Gold Whistle, in 2008. Weston’s successor as NCAA national coordinator is Mary Struckoff. Struckoff previously coached, was a high school athletic administrator, and officiated at the high school and collegiate levels. Other females who have broken the gender barrier in sports officiating in the last several decades include Pam Postema and Ria Cortesio. Postema umpired for six years in the Triple AAA Pacific Coast League, worked Major League Baseball (MLB) spring-training

games in 1988, and then was released by minor-league baseball following the 1989 season. She filed a federal sex discrimination lawsuit against baseball that was settled out of court. In 2007, Cortesio became the first female since Postema to officiate a MLB springtraining game. Later that year, after umpiring for nine seasons in the Double A minor leagues, Cortesio was released by minor-league baseball. Currently there are no female umpires in professional baseball. Gwen Adair was the first women to referee a world title fight. On June 5, 1998, she officiated a junior middleweight match between Pedro Ortega and Luis Campas at Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana. She refereed more than 100 amateur boxing bouts and earned her professional license in 1980. Adair refereed for 20 years and is currently a boxing judge. She has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame, the California Boxing Hall of Fame, and the California Boxers Association Hall of Fame. Perhaps the female officials who have received the most media attention in the past decade are Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner. These women were the first females to officiate regular season games at the highest level of a men’s professional sport league. In 1997, the National Basketball Association (NBA) hired Palmer and Kantner as full-time NBA referees. Palmer, who previously officiated at various levels of women’s basketball, also became the first female to officiate an NBA playoff game in 2006. She is still an NBA official and in 2009 was named the coordinator of women’s collegiate basketball officials for the West Coast Conference. Kantner, who also refereed women’s collegiate basketball before becoming an NBA referee, was fired by the NBA in 2002. Kantner is currently supervisor of officials for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Next Generation These women and other female officials have paved a path for the next generation of female officials. In the past several years, female officials have begun breaking barriers at the highest levels of amateur, collegiate, and professional sport leagues. Sarah Thomas became the first female official in NCAA Division 1A football in 2007. She then became the first female to be part of an officiating crew for a postseason bowl game between Marshall University and Ohio University in 2009. Also in 2009, Kim Winslow became the first female to ref-

Sri Lanka



eree an Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts bout. Amy Fearn became the first female to referee an English Football League men’s professional soccer match in 2010. Leah Wrazidlo is a top ice hockey official in USA Hockey’s Officiating Development program. In 2009, she officiated several men’s junior hockey games and has worked at several International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women’s World Championships. She was also chosen by the IIHF to officiate women’s hockey games at the 2010 Winter Olympics. See Also: Basketball, College; Sports, Women in; Title IX; Women’s National Basketball Association. Further Readings Lieber, Jill. “NBA’s Only Female Ref Doesn’t Back Down.” USA Today (November 7, 2005). http://www.usatoday .com/sports/basketball/nba/2005-11-07-palmer_x.htm (accessed February 2010) National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). “Gender Equity in College Coaching and Administration.” Indianapolis, IN: NCAA, 2009. Reid, Cathy. “Recruiting Female Officials.” Australian Sports Commission. http://www.ausport.gov.au/sports officialmag/roles_and_responsibilities/recruiting _female_officials (accessed June 2010). Corinne M. Daprano University of Dayton

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka is an island nation off the coast of India in the Indian Ocean. The nation has been subject to outbreaks of civil warfare since the 1980s and has about 460,000 internally displaced people. The population of about 21 million is primarily Sinhalese (73.8 percent), with 8.5 percent Tamil. Buddhism is the predominant religion (69.1 percent), with minorities including Muslims (7.6 percent), Hindus (7.1 percent), and Christians (6.2 percent). Per capita gross domestic product was $4,500 in 2009 and is unequally distributed—the Gini index measurement of the inequality of income stands at 49, the 28th highest in the world, with 23 percent of the population living below the poverty line. In 2009,

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the World Economic Forum rated Sri Lanka as 16th highest (i.e., most equal) out of 134 countries in terms of gender equality. On a scale where one indicates perfect equality and zero means inequality, Sri Lanka got a score of 0.740 overall, with subscores of 0.960 for health and survival (1st in the world), 0.930 for educational attainment (68th in the world), 0.594 on economic participation and opportunity (99th), and 0.169 on political empowerment (6th). The literacy rate is lower for women than it is for men, 89 percent versus 93 percent, but women outnumber men in current school enrollment at both the primary and secondary levels. Women are less likely to be in the labor force than men, 46 percent versus 79 percent), and earn about 72 percent of what men do for comparable work. However, women hold a disproportionate number of professional and technical positions relative to their labor force participation. Women held only 6 percent of seats in Parliament and a similar percentage of ministerial positions in 2009, but a woman has served as head of state: Chandrika Kumaratunga was the president of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005. Sri Lanka is a source and destination for human trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude as well as internal forced labor. Save the Children ranks Sri Lanka 54th on its Mothers’ Index, 51st on its Women’s Index, and 63rd on its Children’s Index. Infant mortality is 18.57 per 1,000 live births. See Also: Buddhism; Heads of State, Female; Poverty; Trafficking, Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Sri Lanka.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/ce.html (accessed February 2010). United Nations Statistics Divisions. UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info. http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). Winslow, Deborah and Michael D. Woost, eds. Economy, Culture, and Civil War in Sri Lanka. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

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Starhawk

Starhawk Starhawk, whose birth name is Miriam Simos, is an American Wiccan, writer, teacher, ecofeminist, and social justice activist. Starhawk was born on June 17, 1951, in St. Paul, Minnesota. She holds a B.A. in fine arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.A. in psychology from Antioch West University. She lives part time in San Francisco in a collective house and part time in the woods of Sonoma County, California. From the publication of her first book in 1979, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, Starhawk has been central to the revival of earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion. Today, she is a leading voice of the neo-pagan movement. In The Spiral Dance, Starhawk explores the historical growth, suppression, and 20th-century reemergence of the ancient Goddess-worshipping religion, Wicca. Next, she outlines the three pillars of her thealogy (a feminist approach to theism), which are that Goddess is immanent in the world; what affects one of us affects all of us; and Goddess religion is lived in community. Together, these thealogical imperatives require compassion, continuous striving for justice, and focus on common struggles rather than individual salvation. A large portion of the book is devoted to the practice of Wicca. The Role of Wicca in Social Change and Justice In subsequent work, Starhawk has emphasized the role of social change in Wicca with a particular emphasis on feminist transformation of patriarchal power over individuals, institutions, and policies. Consistent with many feminist theorists, Starhawk decries “power over” and urges the embrace of “power-with.” Ultimately, she calls for a transformative understanding of the social constructions “male” and “female.” For more than three decades, Starhawk has traveled internationally to speak, teach, and advocate for and about Wicca, respect for and care of the Earth, feminist action, nonviolence, antiglobalization, and other social justice issues. The foundation of Starhawk’s appeal as a teacher and guide are her prolific and varied output of materials about the meaning of a Wiccan life—including 11 books; a blog called Dirt Worship; contributions to films such as Signs Out of

Time on the work of renowned scholar of Goddess cultures Marija Gimbutas; Wiccan songs and chants; contributions to spiritual and political conversations on Beliefnet and Newsweek’s blog, On Faith; and a call to action for the women’s peace organization. Starhawk is also a cofounder of Reclaiming, an activist branch of modern Paganism, and a coteacher for Earth Activist Trainings, which are intensive seminars on permaculture design, political organizing, and Earth-based spirituality. Starhawk’s work has been translated into 11 languages and has won several awards, such as the 1988 Media Alliance Meritorious Achievement Award for nonfiction for Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery; the 1994 Lambda award for Best Gay and Lesbian Science Fiction for her novel The Fifth Sacred Thing; the 2003 Nautilus Award for distinguished literary contributions to spiritual growth, conscious living, and positive social change for Webs of Power: Notes From the Global Uprising; and the 2010 Silver Nautilus Award for The Last Wild Witch, a children’s book. Starhawk’s archives are maintained at the library of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. See Also: Ecofeminism; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Feminist Theology; Religion, Women in; Wicca/Goddess Spirituality. Further Readings Starhawk. The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004. Starhawk. The Last Wild Witch. Portland, OR: Mother Tongue Ink, 2009. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1979. Starhawk. Truth or Dare: Encounters With Power, Authority, and Mystery. San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 1988. Starhawk. Webs of Power: Notes From the Global Uprising. Victoria, BC: New Society Publishers, 2002. Starhawk, et al. Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition. New York: Bantam, 1998. Sue Thomas Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation



Staša Zajovi´c, Stanislava A long-standing activist, Staša Zajović was born in 1953 in Niksic, Yugoslavia. She holds a degree in Romance languages from the University of Belgrade and is fluent in Italian, Spanish, and English. Since her student days, she has been a civil rights activist and heavily involved in the first feminist initiatives in the former Yugoslavia. In 1991, inspired by the Women in Black of Israel and Palestine, Staša Zajović established and cofounded Women in Black in Belgrade. Since this time, she has continued to be a strong feminist and antimilitarist voice in Serbia. She is an initiator, organizer, or active participant in all antiwar actions, performances, peace marches, and other street actions undertaken by the Women in Black against war, nationalism, militarism, and fundamentalism. In cooperation with like-minded organizations, she has also participated in numerous antimilitarist, peace and feminist demonstrations, campaigns, networks, coalitions, conferences, meetings and seminars. As a coordinator of Women in Black in Belgrade, she has organized weekly peace vigils in Belgrade and across Serbia and Montenegro. Dressed in black and silent, Women in Black condemned the war and the crimes committed in the interest of Serbian nation. Coordinator for Many Causes Staša Zajović is the author of numerous articles, essays, and papers in local, regional, and international media and various other publications on women and war, politics, reproductive rights, nationalism, and antimilitarism. Throughout the years, she has organized many educational activities focused on women’s human rights, women’s peace politics, interethnic and intercultural solidarity, women and power, and women and antimilitarism. She is the initiator and coordinator of various educational programs, such as the Traveling Women’s Peace Workshops on Power and Otherness Education for Democracy, Law in our Everyday Life (Street Law), and Transitional Justice— A Feminist Approach. She initiated several women’s network groups, such as the Women’s Peace Network, The Coalition for a Secular State, The International Network of Women’s Solidarity against War/International Women in Black Network, and the Network of Conscientious Objectors and Anti-militarism in Serbia. Her guiding principles are the need for truth and

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justice for crimes committed in “our name” and solidarity with people around the world who are interested in promoting nonviolence, civil society, and peace. She supports and encourages civil disobedience as a core human right and freedom and believes that justice is “too important to be left to politicians because it depends on each of us.” Staša Zajović is also dedicated to building a culture of responsibility for war, and punishment of war crimes is one of her core aims. She wants to see the government in Serbia be held responsible for its actions and accountable to its people. Together with Women in Black, Staša Zajović is constantly under threat and is often attacked by the hooligans and extreme nationalists in her country. Staša Zajović has been nominated for and won a range of prizes and awards. Among these are the Millennium Peace Prize, Honorary Citizenship of Tutin, and nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize campaign in 2005. See Also: Peace Movement; Women in Black; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Further Readings Women Living Under Muslim Laws. “Serbia: The Harassment of Women in Black Belgrade Continues.” http://www.wluml.org/node/90 (accessed June 2010). Zajović, Staša. “Birth, Nationalism, and War.” http://www .hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/039.html (accessed June 2010). Zajović, Staša. “Bratunac: Yet Another Site of the Crimes Committed in Our Name.” Secularism s a Women’s Issue. http://www.siawi.org/article383.html (accessed June 2010). Olivera Simic University of Melbourne

Stay-at-Home Mothers The concept of stay-at-home motherhood is largely a 20th- and 21st-century construct. Historians argue that the beginning of stay-at-home motherhood dates back to the 1920s and 1930s. Today, external idealized expectations, financial concerns, and

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women’s own desires can lead to feelings of guilt over whether they choose to devote themselves to full-time motherhood or combine mothering with working outside of the home. Such conflicts for mothers, both personally and politically, distract from the continued public/private dichotomy and the dual burden of work and care that many contemporary mothers, whether staying at home or in paid work, continue to struggle with. In such conflicting circumstances, women are striking (sometimes poor) bargains to meet dual demands of work and home. The Stay-at-Home Ideal By the 1940s, many mothers suffered the same pressures as mothers today in terms of both the double bind and the double shift. At this time, many women of child-bearing age were well educated and/or equipped with skills relevant to the workplace, but they were also living in a culture where it was considered best for mothers to stay at home with their children. Mothers who worked outside of the home often, as do working mothers today, cited financial necessity as the reason for undertaking paid labor, saying that they would stay a home if they could. The child-rearing manuals of the 20th century that became popular from the 1950s onward emphasized the “good” or “ideal” mother as the one who was responsible and devoted and who put her children before anything else, including her own sexual and intellectual identity. The first responsibility of this good and ideal mother was to her child(ren), and she was expected to be grateful for her lot and to find motherhood completely fulfilling. Childcare manuals were presented as scientific tracts, written by officials in various levels of government and members of the medical, nursing, and psychological professions— people whose knowledge of children was (and is) frequently based on a professional, rather than a parental, relationship. Although different countries have had their particularly influential experts, mothers were increasingly spoken to by experts from an orthodoxy that stressed the mother’s responsibility for the psychological well-being of the child. For example, pediatricians such as Benjamin Spock and social psychologists such as Penelope Leach all have argued that consistent nurture by a single primary caregiver

is absolutely crucial. Daycare centers, preschools, spouses, and babysitters may help out, but they are incidental to the bond the child really needs with an individual adult—usually the biological mother. The portrayal of so-called “good” and “bad” mothers in the media also helps to define appropriate behavior and appropriate feelings surrounding this experience. One example of a so-called bad mother is the mother who “selfishly” puts the interest of her own careers before the care of her children and her male partner: Stay-at-home mothers are, in addition to the care of their children, expected to provide both emotional and physical support to men to enable them to fulfill their role as breadwinners, which involves working outside of the home and supporting one’s family financially. Thus, just as the concept and expectations of the stay-at-home mother are built on gender stereotypes, so are the concept and expectations of the male breadwinner role that complements it. Therefore, fathers who challenge the norm face similar negative sanctions to mothers who do likewise. The media frequently feature famous/celebrity mothers, with a variety of supermodels, pop singers, actors, footballers, politician’s wives, and other celebrities attracting attention. Many of the articles focus on the time mothers give to their children, and these women are often held up as good and ”not-so-good” examples of motherhood to others. One of the most famous women of the late 20th century—Princess Diana—was celebrated worldwide for being a devoted mother, and although she was not a stay-at-home mother as such, she did have more to do with her two sons’ upbringing than many, if not all, previous British royal mothers. She chose their schools and clothes and planned their outings while negotiating her public duties around their timetables. To many, the Princess of Wales was a role model who was admired for her beauty and her high-profile charity work, not least her involvement in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) issues and the international campaign against landmines. However, her mothering role was perhaps most admired, and she has been described as “a mother before all else.” Challenging Expectations Since the 1970s and the rise of Second Wave Feminism, women have questioned their roles as wives and



mothers. In the 1970s and 1980s, feminists argued that the home was a site of oppression for women. As women often earn less than men, when a couple do decide that one of them should stay home to care for their children or to care for dependent elderly relatives, it is usually the women who leave paid work outside of the home. This can trap women into financial dependency and into feeling they have less right to spend the family income. In support of this, there is evidence that women put their own needs last behind other members of the family, and when money is short, it is women who go without food, clothes, and other necessities. Thus, mothering at home has formed part of, rather than been a challenge to or subversion of, traditional Western family ideology. The dominance of this ideology has been eroded in many Western countries in recent years, but a residual and powerful idea remains that mothers will still stay at home to care for their children, especially in the preschool years, to provide “intensive mothering” for their children. Today, the home is perhaps more usefully viewed as a site of conflict rather than of oppression—conflict between parents over the sexual division of labor, between paid and unpaid work, between mothers at home and mothers at work, and between a bipolar political agenda and policies. Above all, however, there is conflict within for many women: between notions of selfhood and motherhood and of good and bad mothering, complete with accompanying anxiety and guilt. Such conflict is often played out in the public domain in various guises internationally. For example, in the United Kingdom, there are public debates about the worthiness of different groups of mothers staying at home, such as “government-funded” teenage mothers versus wealthy, upper-middle-class, older “yummy mummies.” There are the “mommy wars” that rage in the United States between working moms and stay-at-home moms (and as such, maternal vs paid child care), and there is the persistence of mothering at home in Australia, where approximately 50 percent of mothers stay at home with preschool children. In Sweden, there is the take-up of maternal (and paternal) leave (i.e., the state enables mothers to stay at home). In Asia, there are the “new Victorians”—comprising an increasing idealization of mothers at home in countries such as

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Singapore and Hong Kong along class lines: the leisured mother at home assisted by a (foreign worker) maid. Overall, worldwide, although 40 years ago stay-at-home mothers were the norm, today they are the exception, and there are now fewer stay-at-home mothers than ever. Arguably, at least women now have a choice, but rising house prices and financial instability worldwide erode the choice for many, and rising childcare costs make it too expensive for some to undertake paid labor. See Also: Childcare; Domestic Workers; Equal Pay; Focus on the Family; Homeschooling; Stereotypes of Women; Working Mothers. Further Readings Arnup, K. K. Education for Motherhood: Advice for Mothers in Twentieth-Century Canada. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1994. Bock, G. and P. Thane. Maternity and Gender Politics: Women and the Rise of the European Welfare States, 1880s-1950s. London: Routledge, 1994. Dr. Spock. http://www.drspock.com/home/0,1454,,00 .html (accessed December 2008). Focus on Families. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson /families (accessed June 2010). Freeman, T. “Loving Fathers or Deadbeat Dads? The Crisis of Fatherhood in Popular Culture.” S. Earle and G. Letherby, eds., Gender, Identity and Reproduction: Social Perspectives. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2003. Groskrop, V. “Is This the End of the Stay-at-Home Mother?” The Guardian (May, 26, 2008). Hays, S. The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. Marshall, H. “Childcare and Parenting Manuals.” In A. Phoenix, et al., eds. Motherhood: Meanings, Practices and Ideologies. London: Sage, 1991. Reid Boyd, E. “‘Being There’: Mothers Who Stay at Home, Gender and Time.” Women’s Studies International Forum, v.25/4 (2002). Woodard, K. “Representations of Motherhood.” In S. Earle and G. Letherby, eds. Gender, Identity and Reproduction: Social Perspectives. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2003. Elizabeth Reid Boyd Edith Cowan University Gayle Letherby University of Plymouth

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Steinem, Gloria For many Americans in the 1970s and 1980s, Gloria Steinem was the public face of feminism. A journalist and political activist, she is best known as the founding editor of Ms. magazine—a position she held from 1972 until 1987. For over 40 years, she has lent her energies to innumerable initiatives on behalf of women’s rights and social justice. Born March 25, 1934, into a middle-class but downwardly mobile family in Toledo, Ohio, Steinem grew up under difficult circumstances. After her parents divorced when she was 11 years old, she found herself charged with caring for her mother, who suffered from bouts of mental illness. The experience of living alone with her mother in impoverished conditions—at times, their home was infested with rats— profoundly affected Steinem. As she later explained, “At home it felt dangerous. I felt safer outside.” Steinem attended Smith College, where she majored in political science and graduated magna cum laude. During her senior year, she became engaged, and her life seemed poised to follow the typical course of a 1950s coed. Instead, however, Steinem abruptly broke off the relationship and made plans to travel to India on a fellowship. Waiting for her visa to clear in London, she discovered she was pregnant; with the reluctant help of a doctor, she managed to obtain an abortion. Steinem then went on to India, where she studied and traveled for over a year, gaining exposure to the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. She has described her time in India as a turning point in her life—a time when she acquired a heightened awareness of discrimination and inequality. After returning to the United States in 1958, Steinem began working for the Independent Research Service, a nonprofit educational foundation that encouraged young Americans to participate in International Communist Youth Festivals to help counter Soviet-backed propaganda. Funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, the program was part of the government’s attempt to fight communism through cultural means. At the time, Steinem did not perceive the link to the agency as problematic, but the connection would return to haunt her. In 1960, Steinem moved to New York and began forging her way as a freelance writer. She acquired a reputation as a glamorous girl-about-town, but she

American feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem at a 1972 news conference for the Women’s Action Alliance.

initially struggled to land serious assignments. In 1968, her writing took a more political turn when she cofounded and became a columnist for New York magazine. By then, Steinem had become involved with a number of left-wing protest movements and political campaigns. Among many other activities, she marched with Women Strike for Peace, lent her support to Cesar Chavez’s campaign on behalf of migrant farm workers, and championed George McGovern’s presidential campaigns. Steinem was actually somewhat slow to warm to the cause of feminism. As a self-supporting woman concerned with issues of poverty and racism, she found little to embrace in Betty Friedan’s 1963 manifesto, The Feminine Mystique, which focused on the plight of suburban housewives. In 1969, however, Steinem experienced an emotional epiphany when



she attended a speakout on abortion sponsored by a radical feminist group, the Redstockings. Soon thereafter, she wrote her first explicitly feminist column, “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation.” Throughout the 1970s, Steinem engaged in a whirlwind of feminist activity. She frequently delivered talks on women’s issues, always insisting that she be paired with an African American woman speaker. (Dorothy Pitman Hughes, Florynce Kennedy, and Margaret Sloan all shared the stage with her.) In 1971, she helped to convene the National Women’s Political Caucus, an organization committed to increasing the number of women who hold political office. The following year, Steinem cofounded Ms. magazine, a publication that played a critical role in helping feminism reach a more mainstream audience. She also established the Ms. Foundation for Women, which has supported such initiatives as the Take Our Daughters to Work Program. Surrounded by Controversy Despite her tireless efforts and personal generosity, Steinem proved a controversial figure within feminist ranks. The more experienced Friedan resented how the media—dazzled by Steinem’s photogenic image—anointed her the leader of the feminist movement (Newsweek, for instance, featured Steinem on its cover as early as 1971, before she had much of a track record as a feminist), and many younger, more radical feminists suspected her of diluting the movement’s radical essence. In 1975, members of the Redstockings revived the issue of Steinem’s connection to the Central Intelligence Agency and essentially accused her of being a government agent. In truth, what Steinem really infiltrated was mainstream culture. “Because of her beauty,” the communications scholar Susan Douglas has argued, she could “smuggle radical critiques of the status of women into mainstream discourse and gradually get them accepted.” In 1983, a collection of Steinem’s articles, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, became a best seller. As feminism faltered in the 1980s, Steinem experienced personal and health difficulties that led her to become more introspective. In 1992, she published Revolution From Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, which many reviewers criticized as a retreat from social activism and a regrettable foray into pop psychology. In the 1990s, she also drew criticism for her credulous sup-

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port of recovered memory therapy—a movement that many psychologists and psychiatrists have questioned. In 2000, Steinem drew headlines when, at age 66 years, she married David Bale, a South African entrepreneur and political activist. (Bale died only three years later.) Though Steinem had in the past denounced the institution of marriage, she convincingly defended herself from charges of capitulation: “If I had married when I was supposed to get married, I would have lost my name, my legal residence, my credit rating, many of my civil rights. That’s not true anymore. It’s possible to make an equal marriage.” Steinem herself deserves a sizable share of the credit for those changes. As of 2010 and in her 70s, she remains a powerful advocate for women and the dispossessed. See Also: Feminism, American; Feminist Publishing; Journalists, Print Media; Ms. Magazine. Further Readings Heilbrun, Carolyn G. The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996. Ladensohn Stern, S. Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing, 1997. Steinem, Gloria. Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles: Breaking the Boundries of Gender. New York: Touchstone, 1995. Steinem, Gloria. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, 2nd Ed. New York: Holt, 1995. Steinem, Gloria. Revolution From Within: A Book of SelfEsteem. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993. Rebecca Jo Plant University of California, San Diego

STEM Coalition Formed in 1999, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition advocates for financial and political support of STEM programs at all educational levels. STEM education is seen as a vital component for sustaining scientific and technical innovation, economic and community development, and global competitiveness. Increasing diversity in STEM fields for women and minorities is essential to these goals.

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Coalition Activities The STEM Education Coalition supports policies that increase federal funding for STEM programs. The coalition has more than 1,200 members and includes individuals, universities, professional societies, community organizations, and the private sector. The STEM Coalition is cochaired by the American Chemical Society and the National Science Teachers Association. The STEM Education Coalition recognizes that STEM education programs in the United States are not keeping pace internationally. The coalition identifies several areas for improving STEM education in the United States, including increased funding for teacher professional development, improving the technological infrastructure in schools, supporting after-school programs, funding research and development, and building partnerships between the public and private sector. In the past few years, the STEM Educational Coalition has been influential in ensuring that every major education law included provisions for supporting STEM education. For example, in 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) included funding for STEM teacher professional development, scholarships for students to obtain STEM degrees, and outreach efforts that engage minority youth in hands-on STEM learning. The No Child Left Behind Act (Public Law 107-110), passed in 2002 and reauthorized in 2007, provides increased funding for educational technology. Gender and STEM Education In recent years, much of the economic growth in the United States has come from the science and engineering sector, yet women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in these fields. STEM educators have identified a “leaky” pipeline that contributes to the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. In middle school, studies suggest that there is an achievement gap between girls and boys on math and science test scores. At the high school level, girls are less likely to enroll in advanced math and science courses, which are the prerequisites for pursuing STEM degrees in college. At the college level, female students make up only 20 percent of engineering undergraduate degrees and 17 percent of computer science degrees. According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, women comprise only 24 percent of jobs in the technical

workforce. The coalition supports gender equity by lobbying for increased funding for STEM educational initiatives, such as after-school programs that increase girls’ interest in STEM careers. Additionally, several member organizations conduct specific activities related to gender equality. See Also: Education, Women in; Engineering, Women in; Mathematics, Women in; No Child Left Behind; Physics, Women in; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls. Further Readings Burke, Ronald J. and Mary C. Mattis, eds. Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Upping the Numbers. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2007. Williams, Mary F. and Carolyn J. Emerson. Becoming Leaders: A Practical Handbook for Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers, 2008. Wilson, Steven H., ed. Science, Engineering and Technology in the United States. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2009. Carolyn Cunningham Independent Scholar

Stereotypes of Women Stereotypes may be described as the result of cognitive procedures leading to the process of categorization, one of the most important tools our mind has to organize knowledge and deal with the complexity of reality. At the same time, however, stereotypes are the expression of values and are used to express a general idea of a certain social group, as if this agreement were preexistent, regardless of the stereotype. Stereotypes freeze the characteristics of a social group and block its potential for development during an interaction or narration. Stereotypes therefore offer a false simplicity of reality, since they condense a large amount of information and connotations. To be truly valid, they need to collect a wide consensus, and hence, once they are stated, they become the expression of the values of a society. It is through stereo-



types that we obtain our understanding of a particular social group. For these reasons, the analysis of gender stereotypes provides invaluable data to understand what we expect from women and men and what we mean by “female” and “male” behaviors. Gender Stereotypes Gender stereotypes (stereotypes of women and of men) are shared hypersimplified images or representations of reality that influence collective thinking by filling with specific contents the convictions and ideas of a determinate social group regarding men and women and the relationships between them. Among these, we find “Men are better at repairing/maintaining things in the home; women are better at housework”; “Little boys are stronger and livelier than little girls”; “Boys do not cry.” Men and women are also perceived as complementary; that is, biologically destined to an eternal relation of attraction (“What is a woman without a man?; And a man without a woman?”; “Women and men reciprocally complete each other”; “Men are naturally attracted by women; women are naturally attracted by men”). Furthermore, bodily features are synonymous with differences in skills and aptitudes. Hence the idea of the “naturalness” of a system of gender relations marked by an unequal distribution of material and symbolic resources. And so we have women who are “good at” caring work, and “rational,” “dynamic,” and “stronger” men who successfully devote themselves to economic activities and supporting their families. The social construction of fatherhood and motherhood is also outlined, sustained, and strengthened by many commonplaces: “Children must stay with their mother”; “Women are made to be wives and mothers”; “Women are fulfilled when they become mothers, men in supporting their family”; “Fathers are not very suited to caring activities.” It can be easily understood that these stereotypes have driven female and male apart and often set them against each other. This rigid conception of the manwoman relation has also created an often very burdensome constraint—for both sexes. A key example is that the rejection of femininity continues to constitute one of the main organizers of hegemonic masculinity. Whatever race, social class, age, ethnic group, or sexual orientation one belongs to, being a man means above all “not being a woman.” Antifemininity (together with

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the principle of the “natural” subordination of female to male) is at the heart of the contemporary and historical idea of masculinity, so much so that virility is described more in negative terms (what a man is not) than in positive ones (what he is). We also mention a continuing ambivalence toward women in positions of power and authority: women have been limited by gender-coded lines drawn between their roles in the public and private sphere, in the home and the polis. This dichotomy—historically constructed around male and female biological features—also ensured the conditions for the development and survival of industrial society, characterized by standardized life courses and families with a single, stable wage earner, where the salary of the male breadwinner was assimilated to a family wage. Talcott Parsons clearly theorized the separation of roles between women and men and the differentiation of the sexual roles in the family. Mother and father are representatives and bearers, for their children, of two distinct, complementary codes. The husband-father is the instrumental leader, assigned with the management of social relations and the financial support of the family and its members; he is the figure who indicates limits and duties, who exercises authority, who favors the interiorization of the rules of social living. The wife-mother instead has the role of expressive leadership centered on internal relations within the family and its affective function. She is the parent with the task of ensuring the immediate satisfaction of children’s needs, tending to yield to their demands. For structural-functionalists, the biological-sexual difference essentially corresponds to a difference in aptitude that reserves different specific scopes to men and women, functional to the maintenance of order and equilibrium in society. And the family is interpreted as a functional necessity, because without it, the human species would die out. Stereotypes and Socialization The stereotypes of men and women, closely interrelated to the social construction of gender identity, are conveyed with the concurrence of all the agencies of socialization: family, schools, peer groups, organizations, the media, and the workplace. The process of acquiring gender identity (the recognition of the social implications accompanying the belonging to one of the two biological sexes) already begins before birth. The little boy/girl already exists in

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the parents’ imaginary, when they wonder which sex it will be, whether it will look like its mother or father, what it will be when “it grows up.” Knowing that the child in the womb is a girl or a boy offers parents, relatives, brothers and sisters, and friends the chance to choose the most suitable colors for its layette, furniture, and furnishings and to buy “suitable” toys. The established rules are rarely broken, and the implicit social rules are generally respected. All of us must have had to buy a present for an expected baby: who opted for a pink dress or a doll for a boy? How many of us have sought to question the culturally shared gender identity (what we think is “right,” “suitable,” “appropriate” for a boy or a girl) through “unsuitable” actions, attitudes, and gifts? After the birth, parents and relatives are concerned to dress the baby in such a way as to make its gender belonging clear, since they do not want to be constantly asked whether the baby is a boy or a girl. This question arises spontaneously in case of ambiguity, in order to better guide our verbal and nonverbal communication. As soon as the child’s gender is clear, it will be treated differently according to whether it is a boy or a girl: the child will respond to these stimuli with different feelings and by behaving differently. The school system is also not exempt from stereotypes linked to femininity and masculinity. While schooling seems to be based on a pedagogy that is defined as “neutral,” in reality, it distinguishes between “feminine” and “masculine” aptitudes and skills. In line with the models characterizing the other agencies of socialization, the institutional training system today still demands of young women demonstrations of “femininity” and compliancy and offers young men a strong training, oriented to autonomy and the development of technical, logical, and rational skills. The prevalent forms of learning in school educational and professional training systems are still essentially constructed to highlight traditional values and behaviors linked to feminine and masculine roles. This tendency becomes particularly evident when dealing with scientific knowledge and access to the new technologies, which constitute an essential requisite for finding a good job. Regarding the choice of a school, pupils at agrarian, industrial, nautical, and aeronautical technical and professional institutes are mainly male, while those specializing in business, tourism, and social services mainly tend to be girls,

as do those at classical and language lyceums and in teacher training. This might surprise us if we think of the introduction of the same, shared courses for boys and girls (that ought to provide them with the same experiences and the same objectives). Stereotypes and Choices Gender stereotypes also play a highly important role in the field of professional choices and collocations. Various studies on young people and families regarding choices made at the end of secondary school clearly show the differing parental influence regarding the planning for the future of sons and daughters and, in particular, the working and professional strategies. Girls are given more space in the dimension of “expressive” motivations; the instrumental aspect prevails, however, for boys. The analysis of some interviews highlights that the factors considered important for women’s work are “fulfillment” and “individual interests,” while “earning” and “financial stability” are mentioned above all by the parents of boys. In reality, while the emphasis placed on individual self-fulfillment for girls may be seen as a sign of openmindedness, we may also consider that it tends to repropose a model of female identity that is at least partly traditional. We may hypothesize that girls are “free” from having to produce much income not so much because it is not useful, or not important, but in that it is taken for granted that theirs will be the “second” income in the family, complementing the “real” earnings produced by male work. We may ask the following question: how many and what changes have taken place in time within the culturally constructed meanings of sexual differences? Various research studies carried out in very different local contexts show a significant continuity in time of the use of stereotypes linked to sexual belonging. Men continue to be perceived as strong, rational, logical, and independent; women are specularly described as dependent, calm, ready to listen and show affection, and good at caring work. The separation between masculinity-production and femininity-reproduction also seems to be very clear: women can carry out caring work better than men. The conviction also arises that the nature of human gender is characterized by essential differences: what is man is not woman, and vice versa. Lastly, while it is true that men and women are distin-



guished by what concerns personal characteristics, interpersonal relations, and intellectual inclinations, on the other hand, some changes are emerging. We are speaking of the growing complexity of the significants linked to “being a woman,” a trend that seems to reflect the intense process of diversification in female identities (as in the growing inclusion of women in the job market and their considerable investment in education) and that is not perceivable in the case of men, an identity perceived as more stable in time. Younger Generational Thinking Some studies show that among the younger generations, something is changing between the two genders, although at different speeds. While some very traditional stereotypes (“it is right that the man should be the boss in the home”) are not frequently shared, others continue to have a strong appeal (for example, seeing the man as the wage earner or the connection between motherhood and women’s self-fulfillment), although with interesting differences between boys and girls. Young men are more attached to traditional values (such as the family) and, at the same time, continue to be imprisoned in the model of “work at all costs” (the man “must” work), showing a more limited planning capacity than their female peers. Women instead show a greater distancing from stereotyped perceptions and also growing expectations linked to an image of autonomy and everyday and professional independence. These tendencies are definitely linked to the strong increase in women’s education, but at the same time, the greater freedom and creativity regarding expectations of a professional future are available for girls also because a social image of women’s work still seems to be widespread, considering it as secondary compared to that of men. Although a considerable number of young women today seem to identify with gender-relational models based on emancipation and sharing of responsibilities, motherhood—and the social recognition linked to the production of this event in a life course—continues to occupy an important place in the trajectories of their identity construction. See Also: Antifeminism; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, CrossCultural; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Toys, Gender-Stereotypic.

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Further Readings Broverman, I. K., et al. “Sex Roles Stereotypes: A Current Appraisal.” Journal of Social Issues, v.28/2 (1972). Dyer, R. The Matter of Images. Essays on Representation. London: Routledge, 1993. Garlick, B., et al, eds. Stereotypes of Women in Power: Historical Perspectives and Revisionist Views. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. Ruspini, E., ed. Changing Femininities, Changing Masculinities. Social Change, Gender Identities and Sexual Orientations. Sociological Research Online, v.12/1 (2007). http://www.socresonline.org.uk/12/1/ contents-html (accessed June 2010). Williams, J. E. and D. L. Best. Measuring Sex Stereotypes: A Multinational Study. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990. Elisabetta Ruspini University of Milano, Bicocca

Sterilization, Involuntary Sterilization refers to the permanent interference of the ability of an individual to reproduce, most often through surgical methods. Sterilization is considered involuntary when an individual is either unable to provide consent, has been denied the opportunity to provide consent, or has been deceived or coerced into providing consent. Many countries throughout the world have a history of forced or involuntary sterilization programs. Currently, mentally retarded individuals continue to be legally sterilized without consent. Modern methods for female sterilization include tubal ligation, hysteroscopic sterilization and hysterectomy. Both tubal ligation and hysteroscopic sterilization methods entail closing off the fallopian tubes to prevent eggs from traveling to the uterus. Though considered permanent sterilization, in some cases, the procedures can be reversed. Hysterectomy refers to the surgical removal of the uterus. It is irreversible and, generally, not used for contraceptive purposes. For much of the 20th century, interest in involuntary sterilization was for eugenic purposes. Eugenicists believed that physical disabilities, mental defects and social ills such as poverty, promiscuity, criminality, and drug or alcohol abuse were hereditary. Those

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with these genetic predispositions were believed unfit to reproduce, and sterilization was touted as a means to humanely eliminate social problems from society. Involuntary sterilization was argued to benefit society as a whole by reducing the economic and social drain caused by undesirable populations. By the 1930s, eugenics programs were adopted by as many as 30 U.S. states and by countries around the world, including Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, and China. Evidence reveals that, most often, victims of these sterilization programs were poor and women from minority groups. After World War II brought attention to the eugenics practices of Nazi Germany, public support for forced sterilization programs waned. With the exception of China, most countries abandoned wide-scale sterilization programs by the 1970s. Despite abandonment of formal programs, practices of involuntary sterilization continue. Recent

reports highlight the forced sterilization of poor and indigenous women in Peru and Brazil in the late 1990s as well as Roma women in the Czech Republic and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive women in Namibia. Much of the concern surrounding involuntary sterilization today focuses on issues of “informed consent.” Generally, there are three requirements for informed consent: the decision for sterilization must be voluntary, the decision for the procedure must be made by a woman who is intellectually competent, and it must be made with complete knowledge and understanding of the facts, including alternative options. Determining if consent is voluntary or coerced is complicated. In some cases, coercion may be blatant (e.g., a physician refusing to deliver a baby or perform an abortion unless the woman consents to sterilization). In other cases, coercion may be more subtle. There is evidence to suggest that healthcare providers

China’s one-child policy forbids couples from having more than one child. In 2002, China outlawed the use of physical force to make a woman submit to an abortion or sterilization, but it is not strictly enforced.



vary the kinds and amount of information they provide, as well as the quality of services offered, based on the social characteristics (e.g., race, class, age, type of insurance, etc.) of their patients. Qualitatively different interactions between healthcare providers and patients may explain why, in the United States, for example, African American women and women with public or no health insurance are more likely to undergo sterilization than white women or women with private insurance. Taking Advantage of the Vulnerable An additional form of coercion, inducement, also may exist. Inducement exists when a vulnerable person is offered an incentive to effect a decision that would not be offered if she were in a more defensible postion. For example, in California, Florida, Illinois, and Minnesota, community groups such as Project Prevention post billboards in poor, minority areas offering cash to women who obtain long-term birth control or sterilization. Economically vulnerable women may be susceptible to such inducements. Additionally, residing in a jurisdiction eager to prosecute women whose children are born drug-exposed also may make sterilization increasingly attractive for those suffering from addictions. For the mentally retarded, involuntary sterilization continues to be legal. In the United States, most states have safeguards, such as a judicial review, in place to ensure that sterilization of the mentally retarded is not abused. Before an individual can be sterilized, it must be demonstrated that sterilization is necessary, that it would serve the best interests of the mentally retarded person, and that less intrusive forms of contraception are unacceptable. Similar to programs in the past, involuntary sterilization of the mentally retarded is not without controversy. Debates center on how best to determine the capacity or competence of the mentally retarded and on how much the guardian or caretakers’ needs should be taken into consideration. With regard to capacity, mental retardation itself does not constitute incompetence, and the functional capacities of an individual may vary from one task to the next. Answering questions of how to measure capacity and who is in the best position to measure such capacity (e.g., parents/ guardians, physicians, and judges) often proves challenging. In addition, tensions may arise when what is

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considered the best interest of the mentally retarded person differs from the interests of the caretaker or guardian. In jurisdictions without safeguards in place to reduce the abuse of sterilization, differing interest of parents or guardians and the mentally retarded individual are of paramount concern. See Also: HIV/AIDS: Africa; Poverty; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Sterilization, Voluntary. Further Readings Brantlinger, Ellen. Sterilization of People With Mental Disabilities: Issues, Perspectives, and Cases. Westport, CT: Auburn House Publishing, 1995. Diekema, Douglas. “Involuntary Sterilization of Persons With Mental Retardation: An Ethnical Analysis.” Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, v.9 (2003). Reilly, Phillip. The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the United States. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. Elyshia Aseltine University of Texas at Austin

Sterilization, Voluntary Voluntary sterilization is one of the most cost-effective methods of family planning. These methods include occlusion of the Fallopian tubes in women or the vas deference in men. Rates of sterilizations are influenced by several external factors, such as geographical area and accessibility of the procedure. It is important that anybody who accepts this permanent method of birth control makes a voluntary and informed decision. Comprehensive counseling includes that clients should understand that these methods are permanent. Consent should be signed by the client only. Other family-planning methods, including long-acting reversible contraception, should be discussed. Long-acting reversible contraception is a method that requires administration less than once per cycle. These methods include intrauterine copper devices, levonorgestrel-intrauterine systems, progestogen-only injectable contraceptives, progestogenonly subdermal implants, and combined hormonal

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vaginal ring. Long-acting reversible contraception methods combine reversibility with high effectiveness, as they do not rely exclusively on compliance or correct use. These methods should be considered an option if the client had previous menstrual abnormalities that were well managed on contraceptives. It is important to discuss male sterilizations, which are more effective than female sterilizations, and with fewer complications. Sterilization does not prevent sexually transmitted infections, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The client needs to make a voluntary choice and has the right to change his or her mind any time before the procedure. A medical history and clinical examination should be performed to decide which procedure would best fit the specific client. World Health Organization medical eligibility criteria should be used to determine eligibility in medical conditions. The client should be advised to continue her current method of contraception until her first menstruation after the procedure, and in the case of transcervical procedures, to continue for three months, until tubal occlusion is confirmed. Procedures Interval tubal sterilizations can be done any time during the menstrual cycle or postpartum within the first 48 hours or after six weeks. The choice of a laparotomy or laparoscopy depends on the facility where the procedure will be done, as well as the equipment available and experience of the surgeon. Laparoscopy The laparoscopic method is the preferred method for interval sterilizations. It requires special equipment and skills and can be done in a day theater using local or general anesthesia. Minor complications are less common than with laparotomy. Carbon dioxide is most commonly used to insufflate the peritoneal cavity through a Veress needle, but nitrous oxide may be better when using local anesthesia. Different methods to occlude the tubes include coagulation, silastic rings, or mechanical clips. Unipolar coagulation can be associated with serious complications including bowel injury. Bipolar coagulation is associated with less complication but is less effective and has a higher incidence of ectopic pregnancies. Silastic ring applications results in more

technical difficulties and a bigger area of the Fallopian tube undergoing sclerosis. Minimal tubal damage is caused by mechanical clips. Laparotomy Sterilizations can be done during a caesarean section, postpartum, or as an interval method. A minilaparotomy, which is less invasive, is usually done. The incision in the skin is about 4 cm in size, and a uterine elevator is used in the interval period for easier access to the tubes. Several methods to occlude the tubes are described. In the Viennese method, the tube is tied at two places about 1 cm apart with an absorbable suture. Plain or chromic catgut should not be used because of the risk of adhesion formation. The tube is divided between the two ligations. The Pomeroy technique, Parkland’s Hospital method, and Irving method are variations on this operation. A small segment of tube is removed when using the Parkland’s Hospital method. In the Irving method, the proximal end of the divided tube is buried in the posterior aspect of the uterus, and the distal end of the divided tube is buried in the broad ligament. Care is taken to prevent any hemorrhage. The Viennese method has a very low fail­ure rate and destroys only a small section of both tubes—this improves the chances of later tubal reanastomosis, if ever necessary. Transcervical Procedures These procedures are done in an office setting without any anesthesia. It requires special equipment and skills. The advantage is these procedures can be performed on women with high risk to anesthesia and expected difficult procedures. Several methods such as electrocoagulation and cryoagulation were abandoned earlier because of their high failure rates and serious complications. Chemical agents have been tested but are not widely used because of concerns of efficacy and possible carcinogenic effects. Several methods using mechanical occlusive material with hysteroscopy, which is very promising, have been developed lately. Male Sterilization Vasectomy is a simple operation that can be performed under local analgesia as an outpatient procedure. Morbidity of the operation is low. Vasectomy is not immediately effective because spermatozoa may

Steroid Use



remain in the epididymis for some time. The patient must rely on other methods of contraception until azoospermia has been confirmed on two occasions. Vasectomy has no effect on sexual performance or testicular function. See Also: Caesarean Section, Rates of; Childlessness as Choice; Pregnancy; Sterilization, Involuntary. Further Readings Dowbiggin, Ian R. The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Kluchin, Rebecca M. Fit to Be Tied: Sterilization and Reproductive Rights in America, 1950–1980 (Critical Issues in Health and Medicine). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009. Schoen, Johanna. Choice and Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public Health and Welfare (Gender and American Culture). Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 2005. Petrus Steyn Stellenbosch University

Steroid Use Anabolic steroids are derivatives of the hormone testosterone. Scientists at the University of Chicago isolated testosterone in 1927 from bull testicles, and by 1935, Yugoslavian researchers had discovered how to produce synthetic testosterone. Many physicians in the 1930s promoted the use of synthetic testosterone to restore youth in older men and reinvigorate the body. Today, physicians prescribe steroids to stimulate muscle growth, bone development, and appetite, particularly among patients suffering from cancer and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Doctors also prescribe steroids to stimulate male sex characteristics and puberty in boys. Steroid use is also common among healthy men and women for cosmetic purposes to build muscles or decrease body fat. However, in addition to producing anabolic effects, prolonged high doses of testosterone produce unwanted androgenic effects including acne, increased body hair growth, and long-term effects

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such as liver damage, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and changes to the left ventricle of the heart. In women, steroid use causes irregular menstrual cycles, deepened voices, and enlargement of the clitoris. Most people associate steroid use with bodybuilders attempting to sculpt a muscular physique and athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs to achieve superior athletic performances. The earliest recorded steroid use by athletes at the Olympic Games was at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, where athletes from the Soviet Union, competing for the first time since Russia participated in the 1912 games, dominated the weightlifting events. Two years later, a Russian physician allegedly revealed the team had used steroids in Helsinki. Steroid use was prevalent in the heavy sports by 1968. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) appointed a medical commission in 1967, one of the committee’s first tasks was to address the use of steroids in sport. A ban on steroid use ensued, but scientists did not discover a reliable test for steroid detection until 1973. Women Athletes and Steroid Use Two of the biggest doping scandals in sport involve women athletes. A program of systemic, statesponsored doping in East Germany, in effect between 1972 and 1989, facilitated athletic success in many women’s sports. Officials and coaches of the German Democratic Republic’s sports schools administered steroids in tablet form to athletes as young as 10 years old, telling children the pills were vitamins, and conducted experiments to determine optimal doses for facilitating athletic performance. Many young women consumed high doses of the steroid oralTurinabol unbeknown to their parents. Evidence released after the collapse of the communist German state revealed that East German athletes, in addition to athletes from the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries, consumed large doses of steroids, despite none of the athletes producing positive drug tests in competition. East Germany developed tests to detect steroids and routinely tested its athletes before competitions; athletes testing positive withdrew from events rather than risk detection. Widespread steroid use reappeared in the 1990s when, fueled by a topical testosterone known as dehydrotestosterone (DHT), Chinese athletes skyrocketed

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to success in the women’s swimming and athletics events. Despite the women’s extremely muscular builds, Chinese coaches claimed their athletes’ success was due to rigorous training and the use of traditional Chinese herbs. However, numerous positive tests for DHT uncovered an extensive doping network motivated by coaches’ and clubs’ desire to win prize money and endorsement contracts. Another prominent steroid scandal in women’s sports involved American sprinter Marion Jones. Following her success winning five medals at the Olympic Games in 2000, Jones secured multiple sponsorship and endorsement deals. Although she denied using steroids throughout her career, evidence obtained in the BALCO investigations linked Jones to steroids. She eventually acknowledged her steroid use; served a prison sentence for perjury; and, at the IOC’s insistence, returned her Olympic medals. Even though many people still associate steroids with masculinity and male athletes, steroid use remains a problem in women’s sports. See Also: Body Image; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; Swimming. Further Readings Beamish, Rob and Ian Ritchie. Fastest, Highest, Strongest: A Critique of High-Performance Sport. New York: Routledge, 2006. Roberts, Paul K. Steroid Use and Abuse (Drug Transit and Distribution, Interception and Control Series). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Biomedical Books, 2009. Roleff, Tamara L. Steroid Abuse (Hot Topics). Farmington Hills, MI: Lucent Books, 2010. Sarah Teetzel University of Manitoba

Stewart, Martha Caterer, author, lifestyle expert, Martha Stewart has been all of the above and more. She is one of the most successful and controversial female entrepreneurs of the 21st century. Born in 1941, Martha Kostyra spent most of her childhood in Nutley, New Jersey. An excellent student, she was one of the first women in

her high school to take advanced mathematics. Stewart was involved in several extracurricular activities and was credited with planning one of the best proms in Nutley High School history. Schooling and Early History Throughout high school, Stewart worked part-time jobs to save for college. This eventually led her to a career in modeling in New York City. Her all-American looks even earned her a spot in an early Lifebuoy soap commercial. Her hard work paid off, and with a partial scholarship, Stewart began attending Barnard College in 1959. At the age of 19, Stewart met law student Andy Stewart. The two were married, and she left school to work full time as a model to support Andy’s last years at Yale. In 1961, she was chosen as one of Glamour magazine’s 10 best-dressed girls. In 1963, she and Andy traveled to Europe, a trip that she credits with expanding her world view of art, architecture, and history. It inspired her to return to Barnard to study those subjects. Her exposure to European cuisine and love of cooking motivated her to test every one of Julia Child’s recipes. After graduating from Barnard, Stewart set her sights in a new direction. She chose Wall Street, passed her brokerage exam, and became a stockbroker. Between 1968 and 1971, a time when women were still working to expand career opportunities, Stewart was commanding a six-figure salary. Although Stewart enjoyed this work, she had not forgotten her love of food, art, and the finer things. She and Andy purchased a run-down farmhouse in Westport, Connecticut, and the experience of rehabilitating that home inspired her to perfect the art of entertaining. Taking the Publishing World by Storm Stewart began catering in 1975 and eventually landed her first publishing contract for the book Entertaining. One of the most expensive cookbooks to be published at that time, it made Martha Stewart a household name. She established herself as an authority on catering, cooking, entertaining, and hosted her first PBS special in 1986 called Holiday Entertaining with Martha Stewart. Although both men and women follow her, not everyone agrees with her signature phrase, “It’s a good thing.” She is often criticized for her over-the-top

Studio Arts, Women in



approach to entertaining, once referred to as “Marie Antoinette, dressed as a milk maid.” Her response to accusations of being out of touch with everyday people was to became a Kmart spokesperson in 1987. Negative Publicity Shortly thereafter she experienced a messy public divorce. Stewart launched her first of many magazines, Martha Stewart Living, one of the most profitable starts in magazine history. This led to her syndicated television show in 1993, and in 1995 she bought back her magazine from Time Warner and founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO). On October 19, 1999, Stewart rang the opening bell on Wall Street as MSLO went public. Naturally, she catered the entire affair to celebrate the valuing of her empire at nearly $2 billion. In 2001, Stewart was named the third most powerful woman in America by the Ladies Home Journal. In 2004, Stewart was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale and served five months in prison. Immediately after her release she began a comeback campaign to rehabilitate her image and her business, and by 2006 she appeared to achieve both with the company’s return to profitability. Julia Child once said she admired Stewart because Stewart was a self-made woman. Stewart’s ambition, determination, and success have certainly earned her a position as a significant woman in American history. See Also: Celebrity Women; Crafting Industry; Entrepreneurs; Journalists, Print Media; Reality Television. Further Readings Allen, Lloyd. Being Martha: The Inside Story of Martha Stewart and Her Amazing Life. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2006. Byron, Christopher M. Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2002. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. “Martha Stewart Official Website.” http://www.marthastewart.com (accessed November 1, 2009). Meachum, V. Martha Stewart: Successful Business Woman. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1998. Erika Cornelius Smith Purdue University

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Studio Arts, Women in The start of gender discrimination cannot be pinpointed, but the unequal application of resources and opportunities between men and women seemingly has permeated human society from the time the sexes were defined. Women were considered the weaker of the two sexes, and it was once widely thought that women were less capable than men of producing intelligent—let alone brilliant—works of art. Even when women were sparingly admitted to arts fellowships, the idea of the “woman artist” was somewhat oxymoronic. Women were presumed to be better in domestic arts, and studio arts were deemed the realm of men. A studio is an artist’s workroom. An atelier (French for “studio”) today refers to a collective in which artists learn and improve under the guidance of a teacher who mentors them to higher levels of skill. (Sometimes the term is used to describe a house of fashion design. Earlier connotations of the word referred to an artist and his assistants, who together produced art under the chief artist’s name.) Studio art, then, is work produced in studios or ateliers—drawings, paintings, prints, sculptures, photographs, film, digital images, texts and performance, glass and metal works, and sound. The term excludes artistic works created in other settings, such as classrooms or factories. Most colleges and universities that offer degrees in studio arts offer the studio experience (a place where you work alone and daily on your art), guidance in preparing a portfolio, attention to exposing one’s work to juries and other reviewers, and often some art history, but academic art departments expect that majors sample several of the art forms named above, seldom allowing a concentration in just one. The atelier experience does not offer a degree but, instead, allows the student to concentrate on developing skills in a single art form. Why Focus on Women’s Studio Arts? To be able to do or view women’s art required activism. Compared with the opportunities available to men to practice, teach, and obtain funding for arts and art histories, women’s opportunities were severely restricted. Women make up just over one-half of all visual artists and 53 percent of degree-holders of art, yet men dominate U.S. art departments (holding 80 percent of the positions), female artists earn a third

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of male artists’ earnings, and grants for arts activities are overwhelmingly offered to men (73 percent). Of the curated exhibits in art museums, 85 percent are devoted to men’s art—women’s work is displayed in only 15 percent of these, and minority women’s in .003 percent. Of works actually acquired by museums, only 4 percent of these are women’s artistic creations. Activists have long used both protest and philanthropy in creative and unrelenting ways to address the long-term imbalance in the recognition of and support for men’s and women’s arts. Organizations were formed to address this inequity through activism and philanthropy. Arguably the oldest and more prominent of these organization is The Pen and Brush Club, organized in the late 1800s by sister painters Janet and Mary Lewis to promote women painters and sculptors (as well as writers, composers, and performers). Founded by artists in 1971, the Women In the Arts Foundation has used protest, documentation of discrimination, and testimony in Washington, D.C., to fight for greater equality for women artists (the organization’s founding documents are housed in the Smithsonian Institution). The Women’s Caucus for Art came together in 1972 under the leadership of Ann Sutherland Harris—an art historian who founded this strongly feminist organization fighting for gender equality in the arts. The D.C.-based National Museum of Women in the Arts is dedicated solely to recognizing the work of women artists through exhibitions, educational programs, and a library/research center, and it produces Women in the Arts magazine—the only U.S. magazine exclusively promoting women’s achievements in visual, literary, and performing arts. What Sources Educate About Women’s Art and Women Artists? There is neither an agreed-on women’s artistic canon nor a single historical trajectory of women’s arts that can be pointed to as the established register of uniquely important literary, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional arts created by women. Yes, women toil at art, but women artists as a rule do not collectively dialogue to unify their work into a tradition or body of singular “women’s arts.” The women’s/feminist movement sparked both activism and scholarship on women artists, and the rise of Inter-

net access has made the Web a place for organizing and disseminating collected material. Thus, notable efforts to codify a body of women’s studio arts contributions and place searchable databases on publicly accessible Internet sites deserve recognition. One such effort is the Women Artists Archives National Directory, whose Rutgers University organizers have created databases on archived papers and data on women who have been actively producing art at least since 1945. They hold no archives themselves but collect information on archives, committing those data to three databases: a repository of organizations working on women’s arts, a collections database describing the archival source material held about particular artists or artists’ organizations, and the entity database, a collection of basic information about artists and their personal and professional histories. As of the writing of this article, however, the site reports a failure to be able to updated as a result of cuts to the budget. The Varo Registry of Women Artists (began in 1996 and named for surrealist female painter Remedios Varo) provides Web pages for participating artists’ images and personal statements. Another group providing online resources is the Women in the Arts Foundation. The most prominent academic journal focusing on women’s art is n.paradoxa, and it does so in a global and feminist fashion. As for physical sites, the Washington, D.C.–based National Museum of Women in the Arts reports being “the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to recognizing the contributions of women artists.” Begun in the 1960s by collectors Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay, the museum maintains Clara, a directory of female artists, and holds archives on the women artists listed in the Clara database. Some argue that in the 1970s and 1980s, women made great strides in the art world, but others, such as the Guerrilla Girls, an organization of feminist arts activists, might argue that progress is far from sufficient. Since 1985, their campaign has used street theater, posters, and other humorous and visible modes of focusing attention on sex biases in the arts. From Where Has Women’s Art Come? Where Is It Going? In times gone by, the rare successful woman in studio arts had close connections to sufficiently prominent others in the art world or to the Christian church

Sudan



(predominantly, nuns). For example, 16th- and 17thcentury artists Catharina van Hemessen, Marietta Robusti Tintoretto, Lavinia Fontana, and Teresa del Po learned from or were apprenticed to their artist fathers, and when history speaks of Camille Claudel (lover to Rodin) and Sofonisba Anguissola (court painter to King Phillip of Spain), it tends to focus on their colorful lives but not their talents as artists in their own right, nor their significant contributions to the world of art. During the Renaissance, the rise of humanism (belief in the dignity of all people) was the likely cause of increased freedom of women to pursue studio arts, although women were not in equal measure welcome to pursue careers as artists (rather than craftswomen). With the rise of academies for the training and promotion of artists, women’s exclusion was calculable. In the Renaissance and Baroque periods, women were rarely accepted into academies compared with men; women were not welcome to paint nudes, as the models were mainly male, and painting nudes is considered even today a crucial part of training. Thus, female artists’ self-portraits are important records in the history of women’s art, for they show the artists using themselves as models, portraying their female selves as educated figures and not detached muses, and depicting the female nude as more than an object meant for subjugation by men’s sexual eye. More opportunities for women opened in the late 19th century, as evidenced by the opening of Female School of England’s Royal College of the Art and the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, which overwhelmingly displayed art made by men but had a Women’s Pavilion displaying art from 1,500 women’s artists in 13 countries. In the 20th century, women’s art and artists became more widely known still. For example, photographers Dorothea Lange and Annie Leibovitz became wellknown for capturing the American social landscape (albeit from quite different vantage points). However, the quest for equality in women’s work in the arts has a Western (i.e., North American and European) bias, largely ignoring all but the most popular women artists of color (such as Frida Kahlo, Faith Ringgold, and Kara Walker), who have reached acclaim sufficient enough to have their work displayed in iconic galleries open to the public. The November 2001 conference “Women Artists at the Millennium” gave rise to a book of the same name, and it exemplifies one of

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the more recent attempts to redress the inequalities that give rise to the underrecognition of artists who continue to fill varied categories of “other.” See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Chicago, Judy; Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago); Fiber Arts, Women in; Guerrilla Girls; Holzer, Jenny; Kngwarreye, Emily; Leibovitz, Annie; Photography, Women in; Walker, Kara. Further Readings Armstrong, Carol and Catherine de Zegher. Women Artists at the Millennium. Boston: MIT Press, 2006. Barlow, Margaret. Women Artists. New York: New York Universe, 2008. Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Frostig, Karen and Kathy A. Halamka. Blaze: Discourse on Art, Women and Feminism. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2009. The Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin, 1998. Reckitt, Helena and Peggy Phelan. Art and Feminism. London: Phaidon, 2006. Rosen, Randy, et al. Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move Into the Mainstream, 1970–1985. New York: Abbeville Press, 1989. Showalter, Elaine. A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers From Ann Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. New York: Vintage, 2010. Vilna Bashi Treitler Baruch College

Sudan In the 21st century, Sudan has become the most politically troublesome spot in the world, and human rights abuses there are well documented. After attaining independence from Britain in 1956, two separate civil wars erupted over domination of the south by northern Muslim Arabs. Together, war, famine, and human rights abuses have cost the lives of more than 2 million people. The situation has reached crisis status in western Darfur, where a separate conflict has displaced

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Sudan women, it has no relation to actual practice. In addition to systemic discrimination, major problems for Sudanese women include enslavement, violence, and female genital mutilation. In 2008, women filled approximately 70 of 450 seats in the National Assembly, and three women sat in the cabinet.

USAID-supported vocational classes in Sudan gave women the skills to earn income as seamstresses.

200,000 and left 400,000 dead. Even though per capita income rose to $2,300 in 2009, economic health was threatened by inefficient infrastructures and an unemployment rate of 18.7 percent. Sixty percent of the labor force is engaged in agriculture, much of which is subsistence farming. Forty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Less than half (43 percent) of Sudanese live in urban areas. More than half the population is black, but there is a large Arab minority (39 percent). Seventy percent of the population is Sunni Muslim, and one-fourth of Sudanese adhere to indigenous beliefs. The 5 percent who are Christian live mostly in southern Sudan and Khartoum. Sudanese law is based on Shari’a law, which mandates a subservient position for women. Girls are considered less valuable than boys from birth. Despite the fact that the constitution grants equal rights to

Human Rights Abuses Sudanese women are segregated from men in daily life. To travel, females need permission from husbands or male guardians. Women have no right to own property, and widows receive only an eighth of their late husbands’ estates. One-third of the remainder is allotted to daughters, and two-thirds to sons. Some groups allow men to take wives on a trial basis, lasting up to four years. If a man chooses not to continue the marriage after that, he simply returns his wife to her family. He is required to pay a set sum for children born during the marriage. Women abandoned in this way are free to marry again without stigma. Mothers have almost no legal rights, and divorced mothers maintain child custody only until girls turn 8 years old and boys turn 6 years old. Arranging marriages for young girls is still common. Women can only marry non-Muslim men if they convert to Islam. Since 1991, women employed in government offices and all female teachers and students are bound by Islamic dress codes that require them to be entirely covered except for face, hands, and feet. The Sudan ranks 14th in the world in infant mortality, with a rate of 82.43 deaths per 1,000 live births. Female infants (82.37 deaths per 1,000 live births) have only a slight advantage over male infants (82.48 deaths per 1,000 live births). The survival advantage is greater for adult women, who have a life expectancy of 52.4 years compared with 50.49 years for men. The median age of 19.2 years for women is somewhat higher than that of men (18.9 years). Sudanese women have a total fertility rate of 4.48 children. The Sudanese have a very high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, malaria, dengue fever, African trypanosomiasis, schistosomiasis, meningococcal meningitis, and rabies. Avian flu has also been identified. Female educational opportunities are limited, and barely half of those women older than 15 years can read and write; however, 71.8 percent of men are literate.



Although prohibited, female genital mutilation is still common, and Sudan uses the severe Pharaonic type of female genital mutilation, which is generally performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 7 years. More than 90 percent of girls in the north have been subjected to this procedure. Health problems resulting from the practice, which is often conducted under unsanitary conditions by ill-trained paramedical personnel, include urinary problems, infections, and death. Human rights reports document the enslavement of women and children in Darfur, where Popular Defense Forces under the command of Sudan’s president are committing daily atrocities. Women are regularly gang raped and tortured. The international community, including the American Anti-Slavery Group, is heavily involved in the effort to help these women. The Swiss-based Christian Solidarity International human rights organization has purchased many women and returned them to their homes, but scores of women remain unaccounted for. Domestic violence and rape are major concerns, but no specific laws protect women from violence. Women who file charges against attackers are often accused of lying. Unmarried pregnant women who state they have been raped are subject to arrest and charges of adultery, which is a capital offense. In parts of southern Sudan, rape is considered socially acceptable, but families may demand payment if pregnancy results. Spousal rape is not illegal. Sexual harassment is not against the law, but harassers may be charged with gross indecency. Prostitution is a growing problem. See Also: Domestic Violence; Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Islam; Rape in Conflict Zones; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Sudan.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/su.html (accessed June 2010). Hanson, Jessica and Anna Stanley. “Slavery, Violence Against Women Continue Worldwide.” National NOW Times, v.33/1 (2001). Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Sudan.” http://genderindex .org/country/sudan (accessed June 2010).

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Tripp, Aili Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Sudan.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/119026.htm (accessed June 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Suicide and Race Suicide and suicide attempts are intentional self-harm. Individuals who think about and plan suicide are at risk for completing suicide. Women have much lower rates of completed suicide but are eight times more likely to attempt suicide than men. Suicide deaths and attempts vary among groups of women according to their race and ethnicity; mortality from self-inflicted harm is highest among American Indian, Alaskan Native and white women and lowest among black, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander women. Strategies to reduce risk are most effective if they provide culturally appropriate interventions to the needs of a particular group. American Indian/Alaskan Native Women (Non-Hispanic) The U.S. government recognizes 564 Native American tribes, each with a unique culture. American Indian and Alaskan Native women have a suicide rate of 15.1 per 100,000, the highest among U.S. women. Suicide is among the top 10 leading causes of death for five age groups of American Indians and Alaskan Natives. It is a leading cause of death for girls ages 10 to 14 and young women ages 15 to 24; in both age groups, suffocation is the leading cause. For women ages 35 to 44, suicide is the fifth-leading cause of death, primarily from poisoning. Many deaths also result from firearms. Young Indian women have suicide rates two or three times higher than women in the general population. American Indian/Alaskan Native women face high rates of unemployment, alcohol and substance abuse, and domestic violence. Further, mental and physical health facilities available on reservations may lack the resources to address the individual and community needs that result in high levels of suicide.

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Suicide and Race

Asian American and Pacific Islander Women (Non-Hispanic) Asian and Pacific Islanders are a diverse group. Some have been in the United States for generations, while others are recent immigrants. The suicide rate for women in this group is 5.7 per 100,000. Self-inflicted harm is among the top 10 leading causes of death for all age groups between 10 and 64 years with suffocation the most common method used. This is the only racial/ethnic group in which drowning is a leading cause of suicide. Asian American women born in the United States report higher suicide ideation and attempts than the general population. In this group, women ages 18 to 34 are the most vulnerable to thinking about and planning suicide. Black Women (Non-Hispanic) The suicide death rate for black women, including African American and Caribbean females, is 5.0 per 100,000 in the United States. For women 10 to 34 in this group, suicide is among the top 10 causes of death. Among older black women, most suicides result from firearms, with handguns used four times more often than rifles or shotguns. Risk has been relatively low for black youth in the United States, but the rate has risen dramatically in recent years. African American girls are more likely to attempt suicide than Caribbean girls. Suicide risk for African American women may be reduced by strong extended family ties and by religious beliefs, but few studies exist to validate this hypothesis. Hispanic and White Women (Non-Hispanic) Women who identify themselves as Hispanic represent many different countries. Hispanic women in the United States have a suicide rate of 4.9 per 100,000, the lowest rate among the groups included in U.S. statistics. Suicide is among the top 10 causes of death for females ages 10 to 44, with suffocation, poisoning, and firearms the leading means of self-inflicted harm. Hispanic girls are more likely to have thought about or attempted suicide than other girls of the same age. They may be torn between the conflicting demands of their parents and American culture with few acceptable resources to help them meet their mental health needs. Among white women, the suicide rate is 13.9 per 100,000 and is a significant cause of death in several

age groups. For white girls 10 to 14, suicide is the thirdleading cause of death, with suffocation accounting for almost three-fourths of the total. For young women 15 to 24, suicide is the second-leading cause of death; suffocation, firearms, and poisoning comprise nearly all these cases. For women 25 to 64, poisoning, firearms, and suffocation are responsible for high death rates. In the majority of cases of firearm and poisoning deaths, the specific means are unspecified. The largest increase in suicide deaths in recent years has been among white women 45 to 54. International Statistics and Responses Globally, suicide rates vary by race and ethnicity. Indigenous populations often have higher suicide rates than the rest of the population; this is evident in both Canada and Australia. Whites in most countries have about twice the suicide rate of other races. Suicide rates are highest in eastern European countries and lowest in Latin America. Little reliable research exists on ethnic variations in less developed countries. In almost all parts of the world women attempt suicide more than men, but men are more likely to complete suicide. Suicide-prevention strategies must take cultural characteristics, such as language, history and heritage, and religion, into account to adequately reach a target population. Because suicide is often a result of mental health problems, especially depression, accessible and affordable resources that individuals trust must be available. Limiting access to firearms also will reduce risk for women contemplating suicide. See Also: Suicide Bombers, Female; Suicide Methods; Suicide Rates. Further Readings Carr, Alan. Depression and Attempted Suicide in Adolescents. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2002. Krug, Etienne G., Linda L. Dahlberg, James A. Mercy, and Zwi, Anthony, & Lozana. “World Report on Violence and Health.” Chapter 7. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. http:// webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html (accessed July 2010). Rebecca Reviere Howard University



Suicide Bombers, Female Terrorist groups have used suicide bombers to carry out deadly attacks against their targets of choice for many years. The use of female suicide bombers is a fairly recent phenomenon. The first known terrorist attack by a female bomber occurred in Lebanon on April 9, 1985, when Sana’a Mehaydali, a 16-yearold member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), drove a bomb-laden truck into an Israeli Defense Force convoy, killing two Israeli soldiers. Since then, several other terrorist groups have used female bombers to carry out suicide missions. Some of these groups include the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Chechen rebels, Al Aqsa Martyrs, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and, most recently, Hamas. The use of female bombers has been growing internationally, and female bombers have carried out attacks in Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey. The most prolific user of female bombers has been the LTTE, a group that has used female bombers in roughly one-third of its 200 attacks. Suicide bombing is a lucrative tactic used by many terrorist groups because, although it is a low-cost operation that does not require significant investment, it may result in mass casualties and extensive physical damage to infrastructure. Furthermore, since the bomber is expected to die as a result of the attack, there is little risk that he or she will be interrogated and will surrender information that could endanger the organization. Also, terrorism, and especially suicide terrorism, has serious psychological effects on the general public that could influence desired policy changes or, at the very least, increase awareness for a particular cause. Traditionally, most terrorist groups used only males for suicide bombing missions. In fact, some religious leaders even opposed the use of females. For example, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, publicly opposed the use of females in suicide bombings in 2002 and suggested that women should play only a supporting role in terrorist activities. In recent years, however, terrorist groups have been more inclined to use females as bombers. In 2004, Yassin acknowledged that some terrorist missions required the use of females for strategic reasons since women were able to obtain easier access to potential

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targets. Therefore, the use of women for suicide bombing missions may be due to their ability to circumvent security measures that tend to focus on males. The Advancement of Women Today, female suicide bombers are considered psychologically and physically as capable as men to carry out their assigned missions. Similar to their male counterparts, women have driven bomb-laden vehicles, carried bomber “bags,” and strapped massive explosives on their bodies. Women have even carried explosives in prosthetic devices that mimic the look of a pregnant stomach. Terrorist groups have realized that the tactical use of females has resulted in some important strategic advantages. In addition to obtaining easier access to targets, female bombers seem to garner more media attention and exposure, resulting in an enhanced psychological effect. Furthermore, allowing women to participate increases the total number of potential combatants and enlarges the pool of possible recruits. In addition, the use of female bombers tends to encourage recruitment and increase male participation in suicide attacks. In a sense, the use of females appeals to men’s sense of chivalry and desire to protect females from violence by volunteering to serve in their place. Since the use of women is a relatively new phenomenon, there only have been a small number of female bombers to date. In fact, female bombers account for only about 15 percent of suicide attacks worldwide. Because of the small numbers of female bombers and the the fact that suicide attackers die means that there is little data available to help explain who becomes a bomber and why. Enough is known, however, to discredit the stereotypical notion that all suicide bombers are poor, uneducated, self-destructive sociopaths. Rather, female bombers seem to come from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. Some are widows and others have never been married; some are unemployed and others are professionals; some are poor and others are middle class. Despite the considerable limitations on what is known about female bombers, one fact is clear: female bombers, much like their male counterparts, tend to be young. On average, female suicide bombers are between 21 and 23. Sixteen-year-old Sana’a Mehaydali

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was the youngest known female bomber, and 37-yearold Shagir Karima Mahmud, a member of SSNP, is believed to be the oldest. The recruitment methods used to select women for suicide missions seem to be similar to the methods used to recruit men. Many suicide bombers, both male and female, have experienced the loss of family members or close friends, and recruiters take advantage of their grief, anger, and thirst for revenge. Recruiters use systematic indoctrination to transform youthful innocence and enthusiasm into a sense of commitment to the group’s particular cause. Beyond religious and patriotic motivations, suicide bombers often receive large sums of money and enhance their family’s social status and their personal reputation. While many women willingly choose to participate in suicide bombing missions for those reasons, some may be used by terrorist groups unwittingly. There have been reports of terrorist groups using mentally challenged women for some attacks in Iraq. See Also: Conflict Zones; Perpetrators, Female; Religious Fundamentalisms, Cross-Cultural Context of; Terrorists, Female. Further Readings Bloom, Mia. “Mother. Daughter. Sister. Bomber.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, v.61/6 2005. Kronin, Audrey K. “Terrorists and Suicide Attacks.” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress (2003). http://thebulletin.metapress.com/content /t52xq81673464kj5/061006015-SD01.pdf (accessed January 2010). Zedalis, Debra D. “Female Suicide Bombers.” Carlisle, PA: United States Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2004. http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute .army.mil/pdffiles/PUB408.pdf (accessed January 2010). Julie Ahmad Siddique City University of New York Graduate Center

Suicide Methods Approximately 30,000 individuals in the United States commit suicide every year, and over half a million attempt suicide. Many more think about it. Globally,

about 1 million people kill themselves yearly. Men are at least four times as likely to die from suicide as women, yet women attempt suicide significantly more often than men. The methods that individuals use to kill or to attempt to kill themselves vary according to availability and familiarity, acceptability, and intention. Women typically use less violent methods than men unless they are intent on death. Women in the United States, and in most parts of the world, are most likely to die from self-inflicted harm from poisons, hanging, and firearms. American men are most likely to die from gunshots. Since suicidal individuals often act on impulse, methods that are harder to find and to use present lower risk. Prevention strategies depend on targeting individual decision making and understanding the means of self-inflicted harm. Having valid data is an important step in the solution. Poison and Firearms The 10 categories of self-poisoning include painkillers, tranquilizers, narcotics, alcohol, gases, organic solvents, and pesticides. Women have ready access to drugs and, since many drugs are slower acting, have a chance to reconsider their choice to die. Further, they are easy to use and relatively nonviolent. Women in the United States and Europe use poisons more than other means to attempt or complete suicide. In both cases, drug overdoses are most likely responsible for death, but the type of drug is usually unspecified on the death certificate. Carbon monoxide poisoning is more common in industrialized countries and is usually a result of breathing fumes from a running car in a small, sealed space. Carbon monoxide poisoning in Hong Kong has increased from burning charcoal in an enclosed space. Pesticide poisoning is more common for women in Asian countries and in rural areas. Guns are a main cause of violent death in the United States, several other countries in the Americas, and in some European countries. They are a significant cause of suicide death for women in the United States, and black women are at particular risk. Individuals usually shoot themselves in the head or the chest. Firearm suicide is more frequent in countries where firearms are common in private households. When guns are available, individuals have access to



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a lethal and quick method of inflicting harm; this is especially problematic if the suicide attempt is impulsive. Of all types of firearms, handguns are responsible for the largest number of suicide deaths. Hanging, Strangulation, and Suffocation Women in the United States and around the world have high rates of suicide by suffocation, particularly hanging and suffocation with a plastic bag. Among girls ages 10 to 14 years, hanging is the most common means of suicide. Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaskan Natives are most likely to die by suffocation among ethnic groups in the United States. Hanging is used when no other means is available; it requires some preparation and determination and is a violent way to die. The proportion of hangings typically decreases as either pesticide suicide or firearm suicide increases. Other Categories Other methods of suicide are less common. Drowning and submersion, for example, are more frequent in areas with ready access to water, such as coastal regions. Drowning as a method of suicide is rare among American women. It is only among Asian/ Pacific Islander women that drowning is a significant cause of death. Death by explosive materials has increased. The wars in the Middle East have spawned a rash of suicide bombers, some of whom are women. Women move more easily through checkpoints and markets and can camouflage the explosive with bulky clothing or false pregnancies. Self-immolation (death by fire) is found more often in India, perhaps as a legacy from the early practice of sati and the availability of kerosene for cooking. Sharp objects are used more often in suicide attempts than in completed suicide. Cutting one’s wrists is in this category. Deadly single-vehicle, single-occupant crashes are more common for men than women. Classifying these deaths is problematic; it is often unclear if the death was intentional or accidental. Jumping from high places such as buildings, cliffs, and bridges is rare in the United States. It is more common in areas with many tall buildings, such as Hong Kong. Deaths can occur when someone jumps or lies in front of a moving object. Individuals may drive a car onto the track and wait for the train. These suicides are more common in areas with developed

Women attempt suicide significantly more often than men, with drugs being an accessible, relatively nonviolent method.

train or subway systems. The method of suicide can also be left unspecified on the death certificate. Prevention and Reporting Suicide is a preventable form of death. Successful prevention strategies target the individual, such as developing suicide hotlines, and the specific means of suicide, such as installing tall fences around high bridges. Suicide methods are categorized by The International Classification of Disease—10th Edition. Many deaths, however, are not coded as suicides because of the stigma; the suicide rate is probably much higher than reported. Some methods, such as shooting and hanging, are reported more accurately than others. Monitoring suicide rates and methods is crucial for developing strategies for prevention. See Also: Honor Suicides; Suicide and Race; Suicide Bombers, Female; Suicide Rates; Suttee.

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Further Readings Ajdacid-Gross, V., M. G. Weiss, M. Ring, U. Hepp, M. Bopp, F. Gutzwiller, and W. Rössler. “Methods of Suicide: International Suicide Patterns Derived From the WHO Mortality Data Base.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, v.86/9 (2008). Granello, Paul F. and Juhnke, Gerald A. Case Studies in Suicide: Experiences of Mental Heath Professionals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. Stone, Geo. Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001. Rebecca Reviere Howard University

Suicide Rates Every year, nearly 1 million people globally die from self-inflicted harm. It is the 13th-leading cause of death worldwide. Between 10 to 20 million attempt suicide, and many more think about ending their lives. Suicide and suicide attempts are not equally distributed across the population; rates vary across many dimensions. These substantial variations reflect differences in acceptability of suicide, availability of methods, and community norms. Suicide has an impact far beyond the individual death; families, friends, and communities suffer. In most countries, women have lower suicide mortality rates but more suicide attempts than men. Gender Differences In the United States, men outnumber women in suicide deaths four to one, but women attempt suicide at least 10 times more often. Suicide is the seventhleading cause of death for men in the United States and the 16th for women. Women in China, especially rural areas, have suicide rates equal to men. Women and men typically differ in their approach to suicide. Men use more lethal means, mainly firearms; women are more likely to die by hanging/suffocation or to use poisons, particularly drugs in the United States and Europe. An overdose gives an individual time to reconsider and is often considered a cry for help rather than a serious attempt. However,

when women intend to kill themselves, they do, usually with firearms in the United States. It is unclear why women have lower suicide completions. Their higher levels of seeking help or their concern for their loved ones and the needs of their children may be protective. Globally, risk increases with age; in general, elderly men have the highest rates of suicide. The suicide rate among young people is increasing at a faster pace than among the elderly, but experts argue that this may indicate more accurate reporting. There has been a sharp increase in suicide among American girls ages 10 to 19 and among black youth. Women in the United States are most at risk for suicide death between the ages of 35 and 54. Other Factors Race and ethnicity also impact suicide, although data on minority women are slim. In the United States, suicide rates among black, Asian American, and Hispanic women are lower than among white and American Indian/Alaskan Native women. Globally, indigenous populations have relatively high rates of suicide. Married people are less likely to die by suicide than those who are single, divorced, or widowed. Having young children in the home and being pregnant are protective forces. The exception is the increased suicide risk among women with postpartum depression. Interpersonal crises, however, or a family history of suicide increase risk for later suicide. Psychiatric illness is a major risk factor for suicide. Major affective, anxiety, substance abuse, and psychotic disorders predispose women to think about, attempt, and carry out suicide. Individuals with serious depression are particularly vulnerable to suicide. Paradoxically, women have higher rates of major depression than men yet kill themselves at lower rates. Women who are clinically depressed, however, are more likely to die from suicide than women in the general population. Depression that is more severe and more chronic is related to higher suicide risk in both women and men. The feelings of hopelessness associated with depression make other solutions to perceived problems unimaginable. Risk increases when the depressive episode begins to set in or to lift. Previous attempts are a major risk factor for later suicide. Alcohol and drug abuse are related to increased risk of suicide. Women who are alcoholic are sig-



nificantly more likely to attempt suicide than nonalcoholic women. The exact relationship between the substance use and death is not always clear. An individual may drink to excess to make suicide easier, or increased depression resulting from alcohol use may be to blame. Countries in the Soviet bloc have higherthan-average rates of alcohol-related suicides. Individuals who have experienced traumatic events such as job loss and economic problems, loss of a spouse, or imprisonment may be overwhelmed with depression and isolation. Ending one’s life might seem the only solution. Evidence suggests that differences in brain chemistry may also be different for those who complete suicide. Individuals who have been diagnosed with a chronic illness, such as cancer, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), or tuberculosis or who have uncontrolled pain are at risk for suicide. Physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill individuals is legal only in the Netherlands and Oregon and only under certain conditions. Research in several countries, including the United States, has established links between domestic violence and suicide attempts for women. Estimates suggest that from 26 to 40 percent of all victims attempt suicide. Heightened stress from physical, sexual, and psychological abuse leads to mental health problems that are linked to suicide risk. More highly educated women are more likely to kill themselves than women with less education. Women physicians, for example, both in the United States and Finland, have higher suicide mortality than women in other professions or in the general population. Suicide rates are similar for female and male physicians. Country/Community Risk of death by self-inflicted harm varies by country and community. Reported suicide rates are higher in eastern European countries and lower in predominantly Catholic and Muslim countries. Asia accounts for 60 percent of the world’s suicides. Reliable data are not available for suicide rates in Africa. Culture also plays a role in suicide acceptability. Whether suicide is seen as a sin, a taboo, a pathway to glory, or a rational alternative to one’s problems influences the decision to end one’s life. Rates are also related to religious beliefs. Some areas have relatively high suicide rates; slums, areas with high numbers of migrants, commu-

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nities facing natural disasters, and agricultural communities with recent crop failures are examples. In regions with political violence, suicide bombers may be revered, and increasingly, women are recruited or forced into this decision. Those who volunteer for these missions are radicalized but not mentally ill. Theory and Validity of Reporting Émile Durkheim was the first to study suicide statistically; he discovered that patterns were not random through a population and developed his theoretical classification scheme. He proposed four categories of suicide: (1) individuals were overly integrated into a group and thus willing to sacrifice for the group (altruistic suicide), (2) individuals were isolated from the group with no sense of belonging (egoistic suicide), (3) individuals were faced with rapid social change (anomic suicide), and (4) individuals were in overly repressive environments (fatalistic suicide). Suicide rates are calculated by dividing the number of suicide deaths in a population by 100,000. The accuracy of these statistics varies, particularly in countries with poorly developed vital registration systems. Stigmatization and cultural attitudes toward suicide may influence reporting, and suicide may be deliberately miscoded on a death certificate. Making international comparisons is problematic. Quality data are important for prevention efforts. See Also: Suicide and Race; Suicide Bombers, Female; Suicide Methods. Further Readings Bertolote, José Manuoel and Alexandra Fleischman. “A Global Perspective in the Epidemiology of Suicide.” Suicidology, v.7/2 (2002). Chaudron, Linda H. and Eric D. Caine. “Suicide Among Women: A Critical Review.” Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, v.59/2 (2004). Durkheim, Émile. Suicide. New York: Free Press, 1951. World Health Organization (WHO). “Suicide Prevention: Emerging From the Darkness.” Geneva: WHO, 2003. http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section1174/ Section1199/Section1567/Section1824.htm (accessed October 2010). Rebecca Reviere Howard University

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Suleman, Nadya “Octomom”

Suleman, Nadya “Octomom” Known throughout the United States as the “Octomom,” Nadya Suleman came to international attention after delivering octuplets. Early news of her pregnancy and delivery was heralded as a medical miracle. Soon, however, fierce public outrage surfaced and ethical debates began when it was discovered that Suleman already had six children and was unmarried, unemployed and receiving public assistance. Suleman was born in California as an only child to parents Edward and Angela Doud. She married young and soon separated from her husband after being unable to conceive a child. While working as a technician in a psychiatric hospital, Suleman saved her money, often working double shifts, to pay for expensive in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. During a riot at the hospital, Suleman was hurt and suffered a lower-back injury. She received disability payments for the sustained injury, which she also used to finance her IVF treatments. In 2001, she received her first IVF treatment from Dr. Michael Kamrava and gave birth to her first child. Between 2002 and 2006 she had five more children through in vitro fertilization, including a set of twins, for a total of six children. In 2008, she had her final IVF treatment, hoping for one more child. She was implanted with her final six embryos and each survived, with two splitting into twins, for a total of eight children. All 14 of Suleman’s children share the same donor, a friend who remains unnamed. Upon learning that Dr. Kamrava knowingly implanted more than the recommended number of embryos with full knowledge of Suleman’s situation, many in the medical community called for an investigation into his practice and tougher IVF laws. The controversy surrounding Suleman’s decision to continue having children was heightened by her television appearances. She stated that her longing for a large family was to fill a void she felt in her own life. Much of the public has decried her decision as selfish, considering one of her children has autism, she was receiving federal food stamps and the student loan money she was using to supplement her income had ended. Suleman has defended her decision to intentionally become a single mother to a large brood, often stating that children are gifts from God and her remaining embryos deserved a chance

at life. She intends to continue pursuing her master’s degree in psychology and viewed receiving food stamps as a temporary resource. She continued to assert that she is a loving mother to her children and would be able to provide for them emotionally and eventually financially. Suleman was offered and accepted a reality television contract, produced by European production company Eyeworks. American networks were hesitant to produce the show due to her damaged public image. While Suleman has been demonized in mainstream American media, there also have been calls to help her and celebrate the miracle of the octuplets’ birth, as they are the longest surviving octuplets in the world. She has received help from her family, community, and church, and she accepts donations on behalf of the children via her Website. See Also: Celebrity Women; Infertility, Treatments for; Reality Television; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Single Mothers. Further Readings Johnston, Josephine. “Judging Octomom. (Ethics of In Vitro Fertilization).” The Hastings Center Report (March 11, 2010). Otto, Sheila and Winifred J. Ellenchild Pinch. “Ethical Dimensions in the Case of the ‘Octomom’: Two Perspectives.” Pediatric Nursing (January 9, 2010). The Responsibility Report. “Octomom. The Mother of Responsibility?” http://www.responsibilityproject .com/blog/octomom-the-mother-of-irresponsibility -/?src=keyword_s=ggl_K=Octuplets_C=Parenting _G=OctupletMom_Octuplet_M=Broad#fbid=Z4rg7 snLjIP (accessed August 2010). Leesha M. Thrower Northern Kentucky University

Supermodels Supermodels are extremely well-paid fashion models who usually also hold celebrity status in Western culture. They often are successful high-fashion models who then gain more mainstream popularity through commercial modeling including makeup campaigns



and cover shoots for fashion magazines. Most supermodels can be recognized by their first names. Many people can be credited with coining the term supermodel. Similarly, there is no agreement as to who the first supermodel was; those frequently considered here are Twiggy, Gia Carangi, and Lisa Fonssagrives. Janice Dickenson claims to have coined the term and by that definition, a hybrid of “superman” and ”model,” she claims also to be the first supermodel. Fonssagrives was featured on more than 200 covers of Vogue throughout her career, which led to the magazine’s prominence in creating future supermodels. In the 1980s, couture houses began signing exclusive modeling contracts, and thus models were endorsing products with their names as well as appearances. By the 1990s, supermodels became prominent media figures alongside other media superstars. Supermodels appeared on talk shows, were cited in celebrity gossip magazines, were featured in blockbuster movies, and were romantically involved with film stars. With this mainstream popularity, their wages grew. Linda Evangelista is famously quoted as having said that she “did not wake up for less than $10,000 a day.” Though many models were referred to as supermodels in the 1990s, including but not limited to Christie Brinkley, Helena Christensen, and Elle Macpherson, only the “big six” were officially recognized as such by the fashion world: Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington. In the late 1990s, possibly due the fact that supermodels had been dominating the face of advertising, popular singers, actors, and other entertainers began to replace supermodels on magazine covers and in ad campaigns. In the early 2000s, models like Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum took to reality television shows— widely popular America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway, respectively—as chances for “super” status in the modeling world were fewer. America’s Next Top Model often features a “supermodel,” seemingly earning this title here through designer campaigns and cover presences, as a guest judge in the last segment of the show. Prominent designer Karl Lagerfeld has described both shows as trashy, despite being a photographer on the French version of America’s Next Top Model and noting that the show has yet to produce any supermodels. Presently, few companies employ or assist in creating supermodels; one exception, however, is Victoria’s

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Secret. The lingerie company’s Angels line employs high-profile models with multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts. Besides Banks and Klum, other Angels are Alessandra Ambrosia, Adriana Lima, Doutzen Kroes, Miranda Kerr, Marisa Miller, and Gisele Bündchen, who has been the highest-paid model since 2005. Criticism The image of the supermodel has been criticized for conforming to a Western beauty standard, encouraging an unhealthy body image, ageism, and racism, which in part may also be a factor in the demise of the supermodels from the 1990s who were largely born in North America. Prominent models who have emerged since 2000 have largely come from non-English-speaking countries. Supermodel Kate Moss is probably most famous and notorious for her slender figure and party lifestyle. Unlike the other supermodels of her time—like Crawford, Schiffer, and Campbell, who were known for their height and curvy figures—Moss, who started modeling at 14, popularized the “waif ” figure as Twiggy had when she was modeling in her teens in the 1960s. Though many models exhibit unattainably thin figures for the average woman, Moss receives mass amounts of criticism for normalizing unhealthy eating habits, like those associated with anorexia. Recently, she is reported as living by the phrase nothing tastes as good as being thin/skinny feels, once again drawing attention to her potential dangerous influence. See Also: Advertising, Aimed at Women; Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Banks, Tyra; Body Image; Celebrity Women; Diet and Weight Control; Eating Disorders; Representation of Women; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Dickinson, Janice. No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World’s First Supermodel. New York: Harper Collins, 2002. Halperin, Ian. Beautiful and Bad: Inside the Dazzling and Deadly World of Supermodels. New York: Kensington, 2001. Halperin, Ian. Shut Up and Smile: Supermodels and the Dark Side. London: Mainstream Publishing, 2000. Mary Shearman Simon Fraser University

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Suriname

Suriname Considered a Caribbean country, Suriname is actually located in South America. A former Dutch colony, Suriname declared itself an independent republic in 1975 and in 1991 democratically elected its first president. Its population of 493,000 is multiethnic and multicultural; however, 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Legally, women in Suriname have equal access to education, employment, and property, yet traditional social customs often prevent women from taking full advantage of their rights. Sex trafficking is a significant problem for Suriname, which further compromises women’s rights and status. With its many ethnicities and cultural influences, some Suriname cultures are matrifocal, while others are patriarchal. In some areas, custom has families marrying off their daughters at age 15, which prevents the girl from finishing her education. While a free education is open to all, girls who live in the cities have a much greater chance of going to school. About 85 percent of urban children attend school, but only 50 percent of rural children have the opportunity. Discrimination and Violence Against Women In the workforce, women experience wage and employment discrimination. Women earn less than men for the same jobs, and 60 percent of women work in traditionally feminine jobs, such as administrative and secretarial work. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as the National Women’s Movement and Women’s Business Group have tried to help women develop their own businesses to further women’s economic opportunities. Violence and sexual abuse is a major issue for women. There are no domestic violence laws. The NGO Stop Violence Against Women reports that violence against women is a common problem, and the organization is working to develop networks with police and local communities to address the needs of the victims and arrest the perpetrators. A 2003 Trafficking in Persons Report explained that sex trafficking goes largely ignored by the government, which makes Suriname a popular destination for sex traffickers. Both Suriname women and migrant women are victims of the sex trade. Poverty forces families to sell their children into the trade, or send them to work

Suriname’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk (right) is welcomed by her Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim.

in the cities, where they are promised a real job but are kidnapped and forced into prostitution. See Also: Domestic Violence; Poverty; Trafficking, Women and Children; Sex Workers. Further Readings Mohammed, P. and C. Shepherd, eds. “Gender in Caribbean Development.“ Papers presented at the Inaugural Seminar of the University of the West Indies Women and Development Studies Project. Kingston, Jamaica: University Press of the West Indies, 2002. Momsen, J. Women and Change in the Caribbean. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.

Suu Kyi, Aung San

Sedoc-Dahlberg, B., ed. The Dutch Caribbean: Prospects for Democracy. London: Gordon and Breach, 1990. Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

Suttee Suttee is epistemologically the feminine of sat, or true, and hence it is a generic term for a chaste woman; sati is the more popular spelling. The term has come to denote the custom of widow immolation on her husband’s funeral pyre, by force or by her own volition. The custom was begun by the Aryans when they settled in northern India. With the advent of the Mughals, the custom became more popular when, in order to save their honor, the war widows of the Rajput families performed collective immolation— suttee (also known as jauhar). There were norms laid down for the ritual, and in Yallajeeyam, one finds instructions about the methods and practitioners of the custom. What began as a means to save their honor came to be used as an instrument by the patriarchs to get rid of the possible claimants of the property left behind by their husbands. It is notable that this ritual was performed more frequently in the royal and elite families than by the poor. Property, social honor, and acute apathy to widows were considerations that seem to have played an important role in instigating the suttee incidences. These issues were more relevant among the landed gentry, as the poor had nothing to safeguard. Also, since submission and surrender have been hailed as women’s virtues in these patriarchal societies, the women who performed suttee were deified by the community. Devlis, or honor stones, were inscribed to mark their glory. Medhatithi and Banabhatta criticized this custom severely and likened it to suicide, which is considered a sin and hence forbidden by the Vedas. In 1812, after the self-immolation of his sister-in-law, Raja Ram Mohan Roy started agitation against this custom. In 1829, the practice came to be formally banned in William Bentinck’s regime in the Bengal Presidency lands. Rajasthan followed suit when in 1846 Jaipur banned the practice. Nepal continued to practice suttee until the 20th century, and the Indonesian island of Bali enter-

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tained this practice until the beginning of 20th century, when eventually the Dutch colonial rule banned it. Stray incidents of suttee have been reported even after the 1987 commission of the Sati (prevention) Act, when Roop Kanwar’s immolation invited a lot of hue and cry. As late as 2008, a 75-year-old woman performed suttee in Chattisgarh in Raipur district. It takes a long time to change mindsets, and these rare incidents, despite strong legislation, are a result of engendered beliefs. However, it needs to be mentioned that Manusmriti, which is the ancient law book of the Aryans, does not propagate suttee at all. It was because of the various distorted situations that such distortions crept into the tradition. Selfishness, lust, and the desire to control seem to be the reasons behind suttee. See Also: Hinduism; India; Suicide and Race; Suicide Methods; Suicide Rates. Further Readings Datta, Vishwa Nath. Sati: A Historical, Social and Philosophical Enquiry Into the Hindu Rite of Widow Burning. Silsden, UK: Riverdale, 1988. Hawley, John Stratton. Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1994. Major, Andrea, ed. Sati: A Historical Anthology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007. Asha Choubey M.J.P. Rohilkhand University

Suu Kyi, Aung San Born on June 19, 1945, in Rangoon, Burma (today known as Myanmar), Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world’s most prominent female politicians, is Burma’s pro-democracy leader. General secretary of the opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), she represents the fight for human rights and freedom for Burma’s people. At the age of 2, Suu Kyi’s father, commander of the Burma Independence Army, was assassinated. Subsequently, Suu Kyi, the third child in her family, lived with her mother, Daw Khin Kyi, who became a prominent public figure, and her two older brothers.

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A Theravada Buddhist, Suu Kyi was educated in English Catholic schools in Burma and later received a degree in politics in India. In 1972, she married Michael Aris, an expert in Tibetan and Himalayan studies, who she met at Oxford University while earning a B.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics followed by a Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1985. Aris, with whom Suu Kyi had two sons, died from prostate cancer in London in 1999. Political Life In 1998, the violent military suppression of popular demonstrations following the resignation of General Ne Win, Burma’s military dictator since 1962, led Suu Kyi to the front line of Burma’s political stage. On August 15, Suu Kyi sent an open letter to the government requesting multiparty elections, following which, on August 26, she made a public address to a mass audience calling for democratic government. Shortly after, Suu Kyi became general secretary of the newly formed NLD. In defiance of a state ban on

political gatherings of more than four people, Suu Kyi pursued a speech-making tour throughout Burma. From January to July 1989, Suu Kyi continued campaigning. On February 17, the military junta issued an official prohibition against Suu Kyi’s standing for election, and Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest on July 20. Despite detention, on May 27, 1990, Suu Kyi was elected prime minister as leader of the winning NLD, which won 82 percent of the votes and 394 of 492 seats. Her detention prevented her from assuming office. Over the past 20 years, Suu Kyi has been placed under house arrest multiple times, with many international figures including United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and several governments, appealing for her release. She has made brief public appearances and engaged in meetings with UN diplomats. The trespass of an American man, John William Yettaw, onto her property in May 2009 led to the trial of Suu Kyi and her two maids in August 2009 and a sentence of another 18 months of house arrest. Even while detained, she remained a global figure in the fight for human rights, authoring over 10 books and receiving multiple awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She issued public statements, including the keynote address to the NGO Forum at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. In November 2010, Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after 15 straight years, drawing a cheering crowd of thousands. She spoke to supporters, saying that “People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal.” See Also: Heads of State, Female; Human Rights Campaign; Myanmar; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Suu Kyi, Aung San. Voice of Hope: Conversations. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1997. Suu Kyi, Aung San, with introduction by Michael Aris, ed. Freedom From Fear and Other Writing, 2nd ed. New York: Penguin, 1995. Wintle, Justin. Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Prisoner of Conscience. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2008.

Famous Buddhist monk Thamanya Sayadaw with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi after her release from her first house arrest.

Ramona Vijeyarasa University of New South Wales



Swaziland A small, landlocked kingdom in Southern Africa, between Mozambique and South Africa, Swaziland has a population of 1.18 million. It is a developing economy, based on manufacturing, agriculture, and service industries. About 75 percent of the population lives on subsistence farming, and 60 percent makes less than $1.25 a day. Women head one-third of Swazi households. The population is 60 percent Christian, 30 percent indigenous religions, and 10 percent Muslim. Swaziland’s national adult human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence is more than 40 percent (nearly 50 percent among young women). Together with Botswana and Lesotho, Swaziland is intimately tied to South Africa’s mining economy; these four countries show the highest HIV prevalence in the world. The National Emergency Response Council on human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in 2004 estimated that over 60,000 children have lost parents, giving rise to child-headed households—more than 15,000 without a living adult, and with children as young as 8 years old caring for their siblings. The growing effect of HIV/AIDS on families, and young women particularly, has continued to grow. On a positive note, Swaziland holds the secondlowest rate of teenage births worldwide (closely followed by industrialized countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands) and has recently approved (in April 2009) free primary education in public schools for all children. The literacy rate for women between 15 and 24 years of age is 89 percent (87 percent for men). Regarding political representation, only 11 women were in Parliament in 2004 (as opposed to three in 1995). Recent amendments to the Constitution of Swaziland provide equal legal rights to men and women and grant married women several rights, such as to own property, to hold a passport, to open a bank account, or to ask for a bank loan. Women previously could only do that with their husband’s permission, as they were legally considered minors. Nevertheless, Swazi women are for the most part under the permanent guardianship of their husband, with no independent right to manage property or to keep custody of children that commonly belong to the father. Part of the problem is that

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married women do not own land; instead, they obtain usufruct rights through marriage in Swaziland, as in several African countries. Thus, a dual system allows the coexistence of customary law and civil laws, greatly undermining gender equality—especially in cases of violence against women or marital abuse. Customary law largely determines rural people’s lives—those of women in particular—which is an enormous challenge for social transformation toward gender equity. Gender Equality Public Policies Women’s organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and gender activists such as the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse and Hlobisile DlaminiShongwe fight violence against women with numerous campaigns and actions. According to the National Survey on Violence Experienced by Female Children and Youths in Swaziland, conducted by the government, United Nations agencies, and nongovernmental organizations, nearly half (48.2 percent precisely) of Swazi women experienced some form of sexual violence between infancy and age 24 years. Swaziland’s membership in the Southern Africa Development Community has favored reform. Within the community’s gender machinery, it is worth mentioning the Southern African Research and Development Centre, the Gender Unit, and the Gender Advisory Team, all of which were created in the 1990s to develop gender equality public policies and to promote research and actions on gender issues in coordination with major international development agencies, such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women. Along the same lines, support for the Platform for Women’s Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa led the Southern Africa Development Community in setting up a land desk to advocate for national land policies that protect women’s interests and rights. See Also: Children’s Rights; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Aphane, Mary-Joyce D. “Multiple Jeopardy: Domestic Violence and Women’s Search for Justice in Swaziland.” Mbabane, Swaziland: Women and Law in Southern Africa, 2001. Buseh, Aaron G., et al. “Cultural and Gender Issues Related to HIV/AIDS Prevention in Rural Swaziland:

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A Focus Group Analysis.” Health Care for Women International, v.23/2 (2009). Hlanze, Zakhe and Lolo Mkhabela. Beyond Inequalities: Women in Swaziland. Harare: Southern African Research and Development Centre, Women in Development Southern Africa Awareness–University of Western Cape, 1998. Soledad Vieitez-Cerdeño University of Granada

Sweatshops The “sweatshop” concept, which originated during the Industrial Revolution in 19th-century England, refers to a workplace where workers were employed for piecework under a subcontracting system. In this system, business owners had no contracts with the sweatshop workers individually. Instead, they hired middlemen to manage workers and workshops on their behalf. The middlemen, whose contracts were based on the piecework factory workers performed, pressured workers to make their productivity rates as high as possible. The subcontracting system also enabled middlemen to earn more by maximizing the margin between what they received for contracts and what they paid workers. The lower the workers’ wages, the greater the profits for middlemen. Thus, profits were derived from the “sweat” of workers exploited by business owners represented by middlemen who invested as little money as possible in labor. Sweatshop laborers were the weakest members of their society, coming from the most desperate and vulnerable classes. They were often children and women who had no bargaining power for living wages. Sweatshop workers were forced to work excessively long shifts for minimal wages. They endured hazardous conditions, often without safety protections or any knowledge of the danger. This inhumane treatment of factory labor was a central principle of sweatshops, which were geared to maximizing profits at the workers’ expense. Globalization and Women In contrast to how sweatshops emerged in response to demands for cheap labor during the Industrial

Revolution, today’s sweatshops are consequences of globalization. Free-trade agreements are key factors in globalized relationships between developed countries such as the United States, Canada, and Japan and various developing nations. These agreements lifted or lowered barriers such as taxes, labor laws, and environmental restrictions, which contributed to expansion of market access and foreign investment. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States and Mexico was ratified to increase trade through the development of export-oriented industry in Mexico. On one hand, NAFTA helped reduce chronically high unemployment in Mexico. Newly developed export processing zones (EPXs) such as maquiladoras attracted multinational corporations (MNCs), creating sweatshop employment for local citizens. On the other hand, NAFTA failed to address wage standards, safety regulations, and health concerns that affect factory workers. While trade agreements brought economic growth and market expansion, they also fostered global exploitation of sweatshop workers, especially women. Similar to their 19th-century counterparts, contemporary sweatshop workers are employed under subcontracting systems instead of being directly hired by corporations. According to a 2007 study, approximately 60 percent of factory workers in Mexico’s electronics industry were employed by temporary agencies. As more women were brought into the global economy as cheap labor, sweatshops became predominately female. Women are considered more suitable than men are for repetitive tasks, such as sewing garment pieces and assembling small parts, because of their presumed “feminine qualities” of patience, dexterity, and obedience. Young, uneducated women with little or no knowledge about basic rights for workers or working experiences are especially preferred. They were less likely to unionize or challenge the company for better treatment. Consequently, young female workers tend to be victimized by profit-oriented corporate strategies such as violations of human rights and safety standards. Most victims of industrial disasters such as fires and factory explosions are young female workers. An industrial fire that occurred in a toy factory in Thailand in 1993 was one of the worst industrial disasters in capitalist history, causing 188 deaths and 469 causalities. Most of the dead were rural



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Hazardous working conditions such as unsafe equipment, toxic chemicals, poor ventilation, high noise levels, strong fumes, polluted air, high production quotas, and long periods of machine-paced repetitive motion lead to a wide range of health problems.

women who came to the city in search of jobs, some as young as 13 years of age. Special Pressures on Young Women Some exploitative, discriminative practices are gendered and specifically target female workers. Even though young women are recruited, pregnant women are excluded from being hired. Pregnancy discrimination takes various forms: pregnancy testing for job applicants, sporadic pregnancy monitoring through humiliating means, and forced resignation when discovered to be pregnant. Women are vulnerable to sexual harassment by factory managers or supervisors, who use sex to intimidate and punish female subordinates. Sexual abuse and violence, including propositions and rape, are common in gendered power relationships. Hazardous working conditions such as unsafe equipment, toxic chemicals, poor ventilation, high noise levels, strong fumes, polluted air, high pro-

duction quotas, and long periods of machine-paced repetitive motion lead to a wide range of health problems. Reproductive health problems are gender specific. These include irregular menstruation, premature pregnancies and miscarriages; and babies born with birth defects, disabilities, or low birth weights. Long-term effects of exposure to hazardous workplaces are also serious concerns. When factory workers demand higher wages and better working conditions, MNCs that own sweatshops shift production to other countries or regions. Nike, for example, first moved production from the United States to Taiwan and South Korea, and later to Indonesia, Vietnam, and China in pursuit of the lowest production costs. Sweatshops are not unique to developing counties. They also operate in industrial countries like the United States. According to the Department of Labor, half the factories in the U.S. garment industry failed to follow basic labor laws. Violation of labor laws lead to exploitation of factory workers, which resembles

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conditions for sweatshop workers in developing countries. Similar to the identities of sweatshop workers in developing countries, most garment factory workers in the United States are women. Many of these young and uneducated women are recent immigrants, some are undocumented workers, primarily Asians and Latinas. They tend to lack English language skills, knowledge of their rights as workers, and resources to protect themselves from exploitation. See Also: Environmental Issues, Women and; Global Feminism; Health Insurance Issues; Human Rights Campaign; Management Styles, Gender Theories; Maquiladoras; Migrant Workers; Sexual Harassment; Unions. Further Readings Abell, Hilary. “Endangering Women’s Health for Profit: Health and Safety in Mexico’s Maquiladoras.” Development in Practice, v.9/5 (1999). Foo, Lora Jo and Nikki Fortunato Bas. “Free Trade’s Looming Threat to the World’s Garment Workers.” Sweatshop Watch (October 30, 2003). http://digitalcom mons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000 &context=globaldocs (accessed June 2010). Greider, William. “These Dark Satanic Mills.” In David M. Newman and Jodi O’Brien, eds., Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2004. Paterson, Kent. “Temping Down Labor Rights: The Manpowerization of Mexico.” Corpwatch (January 6, 2010). http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15496 (accessed June 2010). Webster University. “Woman and Global Human Rights: Women and Sweatshops.” http://www.webster.edu /~woolflm/sweatshops.html (accessed June 2010).

Ayako Mizumura

University of Kansas

Sweden Formerly a major military power, Sweden opted for neutrality in both World Wars. With a healthy economy and no need for a post-war military build-up, Sweden was able to focus on building an extensive social wel-

fare system. By the early 21st century, only 15 percent of the population lived in rural areas, and 1 percent of the Gross National Product was derived from agriculture. Despite a recession that began late in 2008 and a 9.3 unemployment rate, Sweden ranks 27th in the world in per capita income ($36,800) and is seventh on the United Nations Development Programme list of countries with very high human development. Sweden’s indigenous population consists of Swedes with Finnish or Sami minorities. From a religious perspective, Sweden is largely Lutheran, 87 percent. Women’s rights started early in Sweden, in the 18th century, but it was not until 1919 that Swedish women regained the right to vote in national elections. By that time, women were already playing a significant role in party politics. The first women took their seats in Sweden’s Parliament following the 1921 elections. As the 20th century progressed, equality for women became an inherent part of life in this northern European country, and Sweden became known as one of the most female-friendly nations in the world, charging the equal opportunity ombudsman with monitoring women’s rights. Despite its progressive stance on women’s rights, Sweden, like virtually every other country in the world, has a problem with domestic violence and human trafficking. Sweden has one of the lowest infant mortality rates (2.75 deaths per 1,000 live births) in the world. Female life expectancy is 83.26 for females and 79.59 years for males. The median age for females is 42.6 years. Women have a fertility rate of 1.67 children. Sweden, which has a 99 percent literacy rate for both males and females, ranks 21st in the world in educational spending, and girls stay in school longer than boys, 17 years versus 15 years. After decades of steadily gaining in representation, women experienced a sharp decline in the 1990s. The Support Stockings, a feminist group composed of women from all fields, responded by opening public debate on women in politics. After the 1994 elections, women accounted for half of all government positions. By the beginning of the 21st century, Sweden had the highest percentage of women in Parliament in the world, 43 percent, and half of cabinet ministers were female. In 2007, women filled 165 of 349 seats parliamentary seats and 10 of 22 cabinet seats. As a result of its gender equality policies, Sweden topped the list in the 2007 Global Gender Gap Report.

Sweet Honey in the Rock



At that time, 79 percent of Swedish women worked outside the home. Relative wage equity exists in Sweden, but many women work only part time. Sweden has instituted a generous family leave policy that allows both mothers and fathers to take a year’s leave at 80 percent of their salaries. Additionally, parents with school-age children may opt for six-hour workdays. Sweden also provides tax support for mothers who stay at home with their children. To cope with violence against women, the government strictly enforces all rape laws, including those dealing with spousal rape. Punishment is more severe for repeat offenders and for those in close relationships with their victims. The government provides extensive support for victims, including providing new identities and homes to keep them away from their abusers. Funding for domestic violence services is shared by national and local governments. In 2004, some legislators developed the idea of funding programs for victims by levying taxes on all males. Sweden also has a problem with trafficking. Some women are forcibly brought into the country, and others are trafficked through Sweden into Asian countries. See Also: Domestic Violence; Infant Mortality; Trafficking, Women and Children; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Biswas, Ranjita. “Sweden: His and Hers: The Swedish Balance.” Women’s Feature Service (January 5, 2009). Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Sweden.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/sw.html (accessed June 2010). Douglas, Carol Anne and Palmer Gibbs. “Sweden: Lawmakers Propose Tax on Men.” off our backs, v.34/11–12 (November–December 2004). Smith, Beverley. “Public Recognition for Women’s Unpaid Labor.” WIN News, v.29/2 (Spring 2003). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Sweden.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eur/119107.htm (accessed June 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

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Sweet Honey in the Rock Sweet Honey in the Rock is an a cappella ensemble of African American women based in Washington, D.C. The group’s musical and vocal repertoire encompasses many genres, including African American spirituals, congregational songs, gospels, blues, hymns, lullabies, and chants, as well as the more modern sounds of jazz, hip-hop, rap, and reggae. Thematically, Sweet Honey addresses issues relating to the worldwide struggle for justice, working against racism, war, and homophobia and for the rights of women, children, and differently abled persons. Sweet Honey was founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon as an ensemble that included Reagon, Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson, and Mie. The first song Reagon taught the group was one she had heard growing up in southwest Georgia, based on a passage in Psalm 81:16 about honey emerging from rocks to reward the faithful. When Reagon heard the quartet’s harmonized chorus, she named the group accordingly. Approximately 25 different women have sung with the group since it started, but its founding principles of activism, education, and social change have remained constant. From its initial four singers, the group expanded to five, and then added a sixth—a sign-language interpreter—in 1980 to facilitate communication with members of the deaf community. Reagon served as the group’s artistic director and chief composer/arranger until her retirement in 2004. The group’s achievements are remarkable, considering that initially its members held full-time jobs and sang part time. For instance, Reagon worked with the Smithsonian Institution in various capacities for 25 years, serving as researcher for the Festival of American Folklife, director of the Program in African American Culture, and curator in the National Museum of American History’s Division of Community Life. She became a distinguished professor of history at American University in 1993 and also taught at Spelman College. Maillard is an actress who has performed professionally on and off Broadway, in Hollywood films, and on television programs. Robinson left Sweet Honey for a career in the theater and then founded another a cappella quintet, Street Sounds, before returning to Sweet Honey in 2004. Ysaye Maria Barnwell, who joined the group in 1979, holds a doctorate in speech pathology and is a composer in her

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Sweet Honey in the Rock live at Ravinia in July 2006. The group’s musical and vocal repertoire encompasses many genres including African American spirituals, congregational songs, and chants, as well as the more modern sounds of jazz, hip hop, and rap.

own right. Aisha Kahlil (joining in 1981) and her sister, Nitanju Bolade Casel (joining in 1985), have had extensive careers in African dance, choreography, and jazz improvisation. Sweet Honey has performed on six continents around the world, averaging 40–50 concerts per year. Since its founding, the group has released some 25 LPs, CDs, and DVDs, receiving two Grammy Awards for its work. Album titles—such as Go in Grace, Raise Your Voice, The Women Gather, Freedom Song, Sacred Ground, Still on the Journey, All for Freedom, Feel Something Drawing Me On, and We All . . . Everyone of Us—confirm the group’s commitment to issues of justice and freedom for all.

Pérez, Marvette. “Interview With Bernice Johnson Reagon.” Radical History Review, no.68 (1997). Reagon, Bernice Johnson, ed. We Who Believe in Freedom: Sweet Honey in the Rock—Still on the Journey. New York: Anchor Books, 1993. Sweet Honey in the Rock. http://www.sweethoney.com (accessed November 2009).

See Also: Arts, Women in the; Black Churches; Ecofeminism; Hip Hop; LGBTQ.

The Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) organizes and regulates swimming races in the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and individual medley events, as well as competitions in diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, and open-water swimming. Since 1908, FINA has recognized and verified world records, established and

Further Readings Barnwell, Ysaye Maria, ed. Continuum: The First Songbook of Sweet Honey in the Rock. Southwest Harbor, ME: Contemporary A Cappella, 1999.

James I. Deutsch Smithsonian Institution

Swimming



modified the rules for each discipline, and organized the aquatics events at the Olympic Games and FINA world championships. Women have accomplished many feats in the sport of swimming but have faced many challenges as well. Bathing emerged as a popular leisure activity in the early 1800s to enhance cleanliness and good health. Consequently, cities and private clubs built numerous baths and indoor pools, and swimming became an acceptable recreational pursuit for women in most areas of the world. Strict rules and social norms separated women and men at public swimming facilities because mixed bathing contravened acceptable standards of behavior. In many countries, public swimming facilities remained segregated by sex until the 1950s. The cycling craze of the 1890s facilitated the growth and acceptance of women’s swimming. The invention of the safety bicycle enabled women to travel to the water to swim without their husbands and families, which led to dress reform, greater independence, and an increased number of recreational activities for women. Competitive Sport Competitive swimming emerged as a sport in the mid-1800s, but women, often the unmarried daughters of swimming instructors, did not begin entering swimming races until the 1870s. Prior to this time, women’s roles in swimming involved passively watching and supporting the male competitors. Carnivals known as swimming galas, where participants demonstrated “scientific swimming” techniques, were popular at the end of the 19th century. Combining swimming, dance, and gymnastics, swimming galas were considered less rigorous and physically demanding than competitive swimming and, therefore, more appropriate for women to participate. In 1907, Annette Kellerman of Australia performed “water ballets” throughout the United States in a glass tank filled with water, and many spectators found her sleeveless and legless attire controversial. At that time women’s swimming costumes were designed to preserve women’s modesty, not facilitate ease of movement through the water. Charlotte Epstein, considered the mother of American swimming, fought for bathing suit reform as well as the addition of women’s water polo events and longer swimming races equal to the men’s distances. Advo-

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cates from the National Women’s Life Saving League campaigned for women to be permitted to swim without stockings. The popularity of sunbathing in the 1920s, the rationing of fabrics during World War II, and the introduction of the bikini in Paris ultimately led to relaxed social expectations regarding women’s swimming attire. The size of swimsuits reappeared as an issue of contention in 2008 after swimmers wearing full-body, highly engineered bathing suits that increase swimmers’ buoyancy and reduce their drag through the water set numerous world records. As of 2010, competitive swimsuits must not extend beyond the neck, shoulders, and ankles and cannot be more than 1mm thick. Olympic Games The Olympics included women’s swimming events for the first time at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. Men competed in swimming events at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and at each Olympic Games thereafter. FINA did not achieve gender parity in the number of men’s and women’s events included on the swimming program at the Olympic Games until 1996 in Atlanta. The swimming events at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing included 17 women’s and 17 men’s events in the pool; however, the women competed in the 800m freestyle while the men compete in the 1,500m freestyle. In Beijing, swimmers competed in women’s and men’s 10km open water swimming events for the first time. At the 2008 Paralympic Games, the swimming program included 11 women’s events, 12 men’s events, and four relays for competitors in several classifications. For most of the 20th century, swimmers from Australia and the United States dominated the women’s swimming events at the Olympic Games and FINA world championships. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, women from East Germany achieved unsurpassed success in the pool, and athletes from China dominated women’s swimming in the 1990s. While none of the East German swimmers tested positive for banned substances, files made public after the reunification of Germany show that swimmers were systematically given anabolic steroids without their consent. A large number of positive drug tests from female Chinese swimmers in the 1990s led to China’s suspension from the 1995 Pan Pacific swimming competition. FINA’s subsequent investigation concluded

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that doping in women’s swimming in China stemmed from the economic opportunities created by success rather than a system of state-controlled doping. Several women made significant contributions to swimming and are well known throughout the world. American Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Her time of 14 hours and 39 minutes in 1928 broke the men’s record by almost two hours and demonstrated that women’s bodies could handle long-distance swimming. Other well-known swimmers include Australian Dawn Fraser, East German Kristin Otto, and American Dara Torres. Fraser won three consecutive gold medals in the 100m freestyle at the Olympic Games in 1956, 1960, and 1964 and held the world record in the event from 1956 until 1972. Otto won six gold medals in 1988 at the Olympic Games, but her remarkable feat is now thought to have been fueled by the East German doping program. In 2008, Torres competed in her fifth Olympic Games and, at 41 years old, became the oldest woman to win an Olympic swimming medal. See Also: Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; Steroid Use; Torres, Dara. Further Readings Colwin, C. M. Breakthrough Swimming. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2002. Silver, M. Golden Girl: How Natalie Coughlin Fought Back, Challenged Conventional Wisdom, and Became America’s Olympic Champion. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2006. Torres, D. and E. Weil. Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life. New York: Broadway Press, 2010. Sarah Teetzel University of Manitoba

Switzerland Switzerland is a landlocked country in central Europe sharing borders with France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Swiss citizens enjoy a high standard of living with a 2009 per capita gross domestic product of $41,600

(18th highest in the world) and low unemployment of 3.7 percent. Literacy is nearly universal for both men and women, and life expectancy is the 10th highest in the world at 78.03 years for men and 83.83 years for women. The country is multicultural, with four national languages, and the population is primarily German (65 percent), with the largest minorities French (18 percent) and Italian (10 percent). The population is mostly Roman Catholic (41.8 percent), Protestant (35.3 percent), and Muslim (4.3 percent). Women in Switzerland only received the right to vote in 1971 and the country is in some ways caught between a culture that dictates traditional sex roles and a modern world in which they are less relevant. Currently, the World Economic Forum rates Switzerland as one of the most gender equal in the world. On a scale from zero (inequality) to one (total equality), Switzerland had an overall score of 0.743, 13th highest in the world in 2009. In educational attainment, Switzerland scored 0.979 (88th highest in the world). In health and survival, the country scored 0.978 (59th); in economic participation, 0.685 (48th); and in political empowerment, 0.169 (12th). Women in the Labor Force Seventy-five percent of Swiss women are in the labor force, as compared to 87 percent of men. Women’s income overall is about 66 percent that of men. Women constitute 29 percent of Switzerland’s Parliament members and 43 percent of government ministerial positions. Ruth Dreifuss was the first woman elected President of the Confederation (head of state) in 1999. Other women prominent in Swiss government include Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, since 2007 head of the Department of Justice; Doris Leuthard, since 2006 head of Economic Affairs; and Micheline Calmy-Rey, since 2002 head of Foreign Affairs. Swiss women enjoy a high level of support for maternity childcare and gynecological concerns, although less than that provided by some other northern European countries. Maternity leave pays 80 percent of salary for 98 days, and family allowances are paid to parents with children, generally up to age 16 or 19. The level of support and age qualifications is set by each canton or territory. However, childcare is a problem, as it is handled separately by each canton and the number of places is generally considered insufficient.

Syria



Abortion is available on demand, and 82 percent of Swiss women have reported using contraceptives. All births are attended by skilled health personnel, and the infant and maternal mortality ratios are low at four per 1,000 live births and five per 100,000 live births, respectively. Save the Children ranks Switzerland 14th out of 43 More Developed Countries on its Mothers’ Index, 16th on its Woman’s Index and 17th on its Children’s Index. See Also: Childcare; Equal Pay; Infant Mortality; Government, Women in; Maternal Mortality; Parental Leave; Representation of Women in Government, International. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Switzerland.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/sz.html (accessed June 2010). History of Switzerland. “The Long Way to Women’s Right to Vote in Switzerland.” http://history-switzerland .geschichte-schweiz.ch/chronology-womens-right -vote-switzerland.html (accessed June 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2005 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Switzerland.” http://www .state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61678.htm (accessed June 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Syria Syria is a Middle Eastern country that shares borders with Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon, as well as with a Mediterranean Sea coastline. The population of approximately 21.8 million is primarily Arab (90.3 percent) and Muslim (74 percent Sunni Muslim, 16 percent other Muslim). The legal system is based on French and Ottoman civil law, while the family court system is based on Islamic law. In 2009, Syria increased the punishment to men convicted of “honor killing” of female relatives suspected of illicit sexual behavior. The World Economic Forum rates Syria as one of the most unequal countries in the world with regard to gender. On the Gender Gap Index, which ranks coun-

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tries on a scale of zero (unequal) to one (equal), Syria received an overall score of 0.607, ranking it 121st out of 134 surveyed countries. On health and survival, Syria scored 0.976 (68th in the world) and on educational attainment Syria received a 0.931 (105th). In addition, on economic participation and opportunity, Syria scored 0.461 (120th), and on political empowerment it received a 0.060 (116th). Only 22 percent of Syrian women are in the labor force, as opposed to 80 percent of Syrian men. Women earn an average of 68 percent of what men receive for comparable work. Women constitute about 15 percent of Syrian professional and technical workers and 40 percent of legislators, senior officials, and managers. Women hold 12 percent of the seats in the nation’s parliament and about 6 percent of ministerial positions. Literacy is lower for women (73.6 percent) than for men (86 percent), although currently most girls, 92 percent, attend elementary school. Save the Children ranks Syria near the bottom of Tier II or Less Developed Countries on issues relating to women and children’s health and welfare. In 2009, Syria ranked 58th out of 75 countries on the Mothers’ Index, 62nd on the Women’s Index, and 55th on the Children’s Index. Syria has a total fertility rate of 3.12 children per woman, and 93 percent of births are attended by skilled personnel. More than half of married Syrian women report using contraceptives. Infant and maternal mortality are both high at 12 per 1,000 live births and 130 per 100,000 live births, respectively. Maternity leave is provided for 50 days at 70 percent of wages. Syria’s population includes about 305,000 internally displaced persons from the Golan Heights, 1.0 to 1.4 million Iraqi refugees, and about 500,000 Palestinian refugees. Syria is a Tier 3 country regarding human trafficking, meaning that the government has not made significant efforts to deal with the problem. Syria is both a destination and transition country for women and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation, and legal foreign workers within Syria have been forced into conditions of involuntary servitude. See Also: Contraception Methods; Honor Killings; Honor Suicides; Islam; Representation of Women in Government, International; Shari`a Law; Trafficking, Women and Children.

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Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Syria.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world -factbook/geos/sy.html (accessed June 2010). Lawson, Fred. Demystifying Syria (SOAS Middle East Issues Series). London: Saqi Books, 2010. Leverett, Flynt. Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2005.

Rubin, Barry. The Truth About Syria. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Sinjab, Lina. “Honour Crime Fear of Syria Women.” BBC News (October 12, 2007). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi /middle_east/7042249.stm Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

T Tajikistan The central Asian republic of Tajikistan has had a diverse history. Despite conflicts designed to prevent a Bolshevik takeover of central Asia after 1917, the Soviets gained control in 1925. Four years later, they established the Tajik SSR. A five-year civil war broke out in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. While most former Soviet republics have become economically vulnerable, Tajikistan is the poorest among them with a per capita income of only $1,800. Sixty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Nearly 80 percent of the population is Tajikand, and 85 percent of Tajikistanis are Sunni Muslims. Since the post-Soviet return to traditionalism, there has been little separation of church and state. Even though women have a constitutional right to equality, in practice, they are not treated equally. Female status continues to fall, leaving women vulnerable to a variety of ills including poverty, exploitation and abuse. Despite their dependence on males, many women have become single mothers resulting from abandonment, or because male heads-of-household were killed in the civil war. Women in Tajikistan Society By some estimates, 90 percent of all Tajikistani husbands have more than one wife. Women are extremely vulnerable to societal factors that allow human trafficking and girls as young as 13 years old are forced

to marry. Women’s groups report that as many as 70 percent of wives are abused by their husbands and inlaws. Because women are economically dependent, they have limited opportunities for escape. Consequently, there is a high rate of suicide among abused women. Due to a tradition of arranged marriages, even women of high social standing have little say in whom they marry; often, they have only brief contact with potential spouses. Many marriages are informal agreements, leaving wives without legal protection. Except in the case of a legally married first wife, wives in polygamous marriages have no legal rights at all. There is only limited access to employment in Tajikistan, and at least half of the labor force works outside the country. Wives are allowed to work only when their husbands agree. Nearly 75 percent of the population continues to live in rural areas, although only 23 percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture. The median age for Tajikistani females is 22.4 years. With an infant mortality rate of 35.91 deaths per 1,000 live births, females have a considerably higher survival rate than male infants, whose mortality is 45.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. That advantage continues into adulthood, and females have a life expectancy of 68.52 years compared to 62.29 years for males. Tajikistani women have a fertility rate of 2.99 children per woman. Tajikistan ranks 132nd in the world in educational spending. The female literacy rate is 99.2 percent only slightly lower than the 99.5 percent of males. Girls 1433

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Take Back the Night greater inclusion of women in all aspects of society and seeking greater attention to the violence women face at the hands of family, associates, and strangers, this often annual event combines direct action tactics with support and education.

Shaodat Sharipova and her six children received emergency heating from a USAID-backed effort in Tajikistan.

goes to school for only 10 years compared to 12 years for boys, and few women pursue higher education. See Also: Domestic Violence; Polygamy, Cross-Cultural; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Tajikistan.” http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/ti.html (accessed February 2010). Oates, Lauryn. “Tajikistan: A Fundamental Concern.” Herizons, v.21/1 (Summer 2007). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Tajikistan.” http://genderindex.org/country/tajikistan (accessed February 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Take Back the Night Take Back the Night marches are a centerpiece of college and university-based feminist organizing in the contemporary United States. Growing out of 1970s national and transnational activism supporting

History While U.S. women have long been involved in public protests in support of feminist as well as other goals, the late 1960s and 1970s saw an increase in specifically feminist organizing. One strand of this activism focused on sexual assault and the sexual exploitation of women in the pornography industry. Maria Bevacqua traces the concept of Take Back the Night to a pamphlet titled Stop Rape published in 1971 by Women Against Rape (WAR) in Detroit, Michigan. A few years later, a prominent anthology called Take Back the Night dedicated to “the thousands of women in this country and abroad who recognize the hatefulness and harmfulness of pornography, and who are organizing to stop it now” emerged chronicling the movement. For its editor Laura Lederer and many other 1970s organizers, taking back the night meant demanding that women be safe not only from sexual assault but also from prostitution and other forms of sex work that they linked to violence against women. In 1976, a group called Women Against Violence in Pornography and the Media (WAVPM) was formed. The San Francisco–based group’s first action was a march down Broadway, a recognized porn strip, to protest pornography and live sex shows. Six hundred women attended the march. Marches continued throughout the early 1980s, eventually moving from the impoverished Tenderloin district to North Beach, an area attracting a wealthier clientele. In 1978, they sponsored a conference called “Feminist Perspectives on Pornography,” including a Take Back the Night March sometimes described as the first. However, archival documents identify marches in Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, and London in October 1978, prior to WAVPM’s November 18, 1978, event. Bevacqua also identifies a 1977 memorial speech called “Take Back the Night” given by Anne Pride at a march sponsored by the Pittsburgh Alliance Against Rape. These events may have been modeled after international protests that began in Belgium in 1976 during the International Tribunal on Crimes



Against Women. Since 1977, events called Take Back the Night or Reclaim the Night have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Italy, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Like other institutions stemming from the women’s liberation movement including consciousness-raising groups, music festivals, rape crisis centers, and feminist bookstores, Take Back the Night was designed to provide a place for women to speak the truths of their lives in a culture privileging male perspectives and experiences. Central aspects of Take Back the Night marches include a nighttime procession temporarily taking streets often unsafe for women, speak-out sessions, speakers and musicians addressing violence against women, information about services, and onsight support for those in need. Other U.S. marches during the 1970s also targeted sexual violence and sometimes addressed other forms of social exclusion. On April 28, 1979, in response to the murders of 11 black women in the Boston area, between 400 and 500 people, mostly women, marched from Boston Common to then-mayor Kevin White’s home in Mount Vernon Square. The event was organized by a coalition including the Combahee River Collective and other women of color organizations and emphasized the confluence of racism and sexism much more than most early Take Back the Night marches in the United States. Contemporary Marches Continued concerns about sexual assault influence many university groups and a few communities to organize annual Take Back the Night marches in the United States. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month for many schools and organizations and marches often occur as one part of the month’s programming. Take Back the Night marches ideally provide a forum for translating private emotions of grief and rage into a collective, political response. Controversies about inclusion are endemic to Take Back the Night. Concerns about gender are particularly salient due to Take Back the Night’s roots in the 1970s and 1980s movement for women’s rights. However, as observed by many scholars and activists, race and gender cannot be separated. Writing about Reclaim the Night marches in the United Kingdom, for example, Kum-Kum Bhavnani and Margaret Coulson describe demonstrations moving

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through black neighborhoods, insinuating that they are the loci of violence while demanding greater police presence, a request that ignores histories of police brutality against people of color. Racism positions women from different backgrounds in different relationships to social power and discussions of violence against women that do not address other forms of violence do not adequately challenge social structures that affect many women (and people of other genders). Justifying the exclusion of some people (in this case, men) is always interwoven with intentional and unintentional exclusions of others (in this case, transgendered people and people of color). The exclusion of men is also based on a binary understanding of gender in which men perpetrate violence and women experience it. This framework ignores the experiences of transgender people, men survivors of sexual violence, women perpetrators, and people in same-sex relationships. Contemporary marches grapple with how to best connect to Take Back the Night’s history while addressing the needs of current survivors. Many are inclusive of transgender people and most have spaces where men are welcome. However, questions about inclusion continue to structure conversations about this now annual event. See Also: Dating Violence; Rape Crisis Centers; Social Justice Activism; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Bevacqua, Maria. Rape on the Public Agenda: Feminism and the Politics of Sexual Assault. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2000. Bhavnani, Kum-Kum and Margaret Coulson, “Transforming Socialist Feminism: The Challenge of Racism.” In Kum-Kum Bhavnani, ed., Feminism and “Race.” Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. Lederer, Laura, ed. Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography. New York: Willliam Morrow, 1980. Take Back the Night. “A History of Take Back the Night.” http://www.takebackthenight.org/history.html (accessed November 2009). Vance, Carole S., ed. Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. London: Routledge, 1984. Elizabeth G. Currans College of William and Mary

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Taliban

Taliban Taliban originally designated the militant Islamic movement that opposed the mujahideen warring factions involved in the civil war that followed the retreat of the Soviet army from Afghanistan in 1989. Since their gradual and ongoing overthrow from late 2001 forward, the term describes a loose alliance of insurgents who have been continuously fighting against Afghan government forces and their Western allies. Despite formal differences and compromises with modernity that include the use of advanced technology and the integration of global capitalism, all groups covered by the term Taliban are united in their defense of personal patriarchal privilege and a uniquely repressive attitude toward women. Taleb (plural Taliban) is an Arabic word meaning pupil/student of Islam and the eponymous movement indeed originated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan, where hundreds of thousands of destitute orphans from refugee camps in Pakistan were given rudimentary board and lodging and schooled in rigorous Saudi Wahhabi Islam as well as extreme antiWestern propaganda. These institutions were funded by Saudi Arabia with the support of Pakistan’s proFundamentalist premier, Zia Ul-Haq, both allies of the United States in their fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The religious and political indoctrination including extreme misogyny paved the way for the Fundamentalist movement that was to control Afghanistan; these students in the madrassas were ideal candidates for recruitment by Al-Qaeda. Initial Acceptance Motivated less by political power than by a desire to rid the country of the anarchy, violence, and lawlessness engendered by competing warlords, the Taliban, basing themselves on Fundamentalist Qur’anic principles, were well received by Afghan populations exhausted by war and strife. These had been alarmed by the Communist attempts at gender equality and so were relieved by the Taliban’s reactionary views on women. As a Pashtun movement, the Taliban were welcomed in Pashtun areas at a time when this community (over 40 percent of the total population) had been ousted from power for the first time in Afghan history by the feuding warlords. After having gained control of Kandahar (1994), Herat (1995), and then

Kabul (1996), with financial assistance coming from Osama bin Laden, they declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, occupying 95 percent of the country, save part of the northeast. During their reign, the Taliban promoted an unique form of ultrapuritanical Political Islam, strongly influenced by Saudi Fundamentalism and harsh Pashtun customary law. Music, dancing, films, images, photographs, Western fashions, and alcohol were made illegal. The cult of local saints, folk practices, and women’s regional costumes were banned, as was the cultivation of opium poppies and the sale of the resin. Ethnic cleansing against the Hazaras was instituted. Punishments took the form of public amputations and executions (by shooting or stoning), all of which sent shock waves through Afghan society, which had hitherto practiced its own folk version of Islam. Pre-Islamic works of art were destroyed as idols, hence the notorious dynamiting of the Bamyan Buddhas and the wholesale destruction of artifacts in the Kabul Museum. Women were completely excluded from public space, from the workplace to the school and even hospitals if men were present. The application of what became a veritable gender apartheid was in the hands of the Department of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, whose zealots policed women’s activities: in hospital wards, in private homes where secret literacy classes were held, in the street where the sound of a woman’s heel hitting the pavement was enough to bring the whip down. One result of this policy is that a whole generation of Afghans—boys and girls—was deprived of schooling and basic healthcare, because both primary school teachers and nurses (as well as many often Soviettrained doctors) were female. The Taliban were overthrown by American military action, in retaliation for the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. Nevertheless, Talibaninspired insurgency remains powerful, supported by counterparts in Pakistan and the North-West frontier Province (NWFP), financed by Al-Qaeda and drug trafficking. These neo-Taliban present themselves as the legitimate face of “true” Afghanistan in the face of foreign occupation, the defenders of Holy Islam on a permanent jihad (holy war) against Western unbelievers. For this reason, they defend poppy cultivation

Tamang, Stella



to support Afghan rural communities’ opposition to U.S. antinarcotics policies. Many of their commanders are directly involved and partake in the globalized drug economy. Likewise, they use modern technology and the media, Websites, videos, even songs for propaganda purposes. Despite promises to build schools for girls, the level of health and education remains abysmal in the areas they dominate, where about 98 percent of women remain illiterate. The neo-Taliban are impeding polio vaccination and other medical care in the provinces under their control, something that is also happening in Taliban areas in Pakistan. Nevertheless, these insurgents are not united; internal strife over narcotics and smuggling, the degree of opportunistic compromise with the government, shifts of alliances with Al-Qaeda, ISI local warlords or U.S. and NATO forces cannot be solved by mullahs, even though the Qur’an is remodeled at will to fit the most extreme situations, including suicide bombers, a concept abhorrent to Afghan mentality. Even if the Taliban edicts have disappeared, severe discrimination against women has remained as a guarantee of ruthless male domination. This is what unites all the strains of neo-Taliban and most of their rural opponents. Customary practice, presented as Qur’anic law, ensures that women never even get the rights Islam entitles them to, that is to say, a share of inheritance and a minimal say in their lives. In this country, which remains 80 percent rural, marriages are routinely arranged and often forced on girls under 16; extreme violence against women goes unpunished. Maternal and infant mortality figures have barely changed since the fall of the Taliban government. See Also: Afghanistan; Islam; Wahhabism. Further Readings Porter, Patrick. Military Orientalism, Eastern War Through Western Eyes. London: Hurst, 2009. Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban, Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001. Skaine, Rosemarie. The Women of Afghanistan Under the Taliban. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2001. Carol Mann University of London

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Tamang, Stella Stella Tamang is well known as an innovative activist for women, indigenous populations, and religious minorities, both in her native Nepal and internationally. Her work to promote both social justice and peace has animated ideals and values with practical and applied principals. Through her work as an educator she has developed programs that combine education and practical skill building as a means of overcoming poverty and social dependence. Tamang’s promotion of peace emphasizes the importance of women’s voices in changing attitudes toward violence. As an activist for peace, justice, and nonviolence, Tamang started Milijuli Nepal and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, which is based in the Netherlands. She was recognized as one of the 1000 PeaceWomen who were jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace prize in 2005. Stella Tamang was born in Nepal in 1948. She is a member of the indigenous Lama community, and as a Buddhist in a nation that was, until 2008, a Hindu kingdom, Tamang understood the political implications of minority status. Her parents migrated to Burma in search of work when she was a child, affording her an opportunity to study and learn English. These events were key to Tamang’s own academic achievement as the first woman in her community to study at university. Through her advantages, she recognized the need for literacy and education as a means to social and political equality. This is particularly important in Nepal, where poverty and years of civil war have kept half a million children out of school—more than 60 percent of them girls. In 2001, the overall literacy rate for women was 42.5 percent compared with 65.1 percent for men. Education and Career Tamang began her career as an educator by developing schools for disadvantaged children in her own community. Her first school continues nearly 40 years later as a low-fee secondary school with about 900 students. Designed to meet a different need, the Bikalpa Gyan Kendra (alternative learning center) employs a philosophy Tamang calls “learn and earn” to combat the exploitation of indigenous Tamang girls in the sweatshop-based carpet industry in Kathmandu. Young women are taught skills they can take

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back to their villages, providing practical economic opportunities and maintaining their dignity and independence while preserving Tamang culture. The residential school program includes sustainable agriculture, market gardening, traditional handicrafts, and basic business skills. Tamang is the founder of a number of organizations in Nepal that seek to unify indigenous women who have been politically marginalized. In a nation that denies many women legal access to land, Tamang’s work ensures they have a voice not only in national women’s movements but also in decision making at the national level. Tamang is a strong advocate for indigenous peoples worldwide, taking a leadership and organizational role in many committees and international meetings within the United Nations (UN) and beyond. Most notably she has taken a leadership role in the Commission of the Status of Women, organized by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the UN. She is also founder and chairperson of the South Asia Indigenous Women’s Forum (2002), providing a forum in which indigenous women from all over Asia can work together to lobby and advocate at national, regional, and international levels. Tamang is married to an advocate for indigenous rights in Nepal and has three children, one of whom is a peace activist. See Also: Alternative Education; Education, Women in; Nepal; Sweatshops. Further Readings Dhakal, Sanjaya. “Nepalese Women Under the Shadow of Domestic Violence.” Lancet, v.371 (2008). “Nepal’s Overburdened Women.” Economist, v.358/39 (2001). Peace Women Across the Globe. “Stella Tamang.” http:// www.1000peacewomen.org/eng/friedensfrauen_bio graphien_gefunden.php?WomenID=196 (accessed March 2010). United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples. “Indigenous Women Today: At Risk and a Force for Change.” http://www.unclef.com/hr/indigenousforum /women.html (accessed March 2010). Jill Allison Memorial University of Newfoundland

Tanzania Tanzania, a sub-Saharan, east African country, has a total population of 41 million. Women make up roughly 52 percent of the population and have an average life expectancy of 53 years of age. The acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in Tanzania affects life expectancy and infant mortality, resulting in lower population growth. Women account for 80 percent of the labor in rural areas and 60 percent of the food production, yet 60 percent of women live in poverty. Women farm small plots, sell produce, and provide the basic needs (food, clothing, and medical care) for their families. However, rural African women rarely have rights to their husband’s income and are often expected to pay for incidentals (such as children’s school fees and uniforms) on their own. Many women do not have reproductive rights (i.e., decision making with regard to family planning and birth control). Women also often have migrant spouses who form second families and return home infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Domestic violence between intimate partners is also a primary concern among many African-ethnic women and has been shown to have a correlation with lower rates of education among women. Women have limited access to education, and this accessibility is often determined by where they live (rural versus urban areas), their socioeconomic status (rich versus poor), and the effect of speaking standardized versus unofficial languages, resulting in a 62 percent literacy rate for women. Often when girls have accessibility to education, family instances of HIV/AIDS may require them to stay home and care for their ailing parents or siblings, work to offset family debt and provide income for sustenance, or divert funds to medical bills resulting from the disease. In addition, girls are shown to be three times more likely to contract HIV and are more often coerced into engaging in sexual intercourse with older men—oftentimes teachers. Teenage pregnancy among girls is also a factor of inequality, as well as discrimination and harassment. In some instances, girls are expelled from school if they are pregnant. In other circumstances, it has been reported that girls are seen as a barrier to education or as a distraction.



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politics and economics. More women are involved in co-op farms and encouraging others to embrace “selfreliance,” and women are also able to join the National Servicemen Corps, which provides intensive training enabling women to serve in nation-building efforts. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Educational Opportunities/Access; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Rural Women.

Advances in Tanzanian education include practices to expand opportunities for women in primary and secondary schools.

Further Readings Evans, R. Poverty, HIV, and Barriers to Education: Street Children’s Experiences in Tanzania. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002. Mbilinyi, M. Searching for Utopia: The Politics of Gender and Education in Tanzania. Women and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998. Stamback, A. Education Is My Husband: Marriage, Gender and Reproduction in Northern Tanzania. Women and Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998. Stromquist, N. “Women and Illiteracy: The Interplay of Gender Subordination and Poverty.” Comparative Education Review, v.34/1 (1990). Jennifer Jaffer Independent Scholar

Education and Poltics Notable advances in education include current practices to further expand educational opportunities throughout Tanzania, both at a grassroots level and at formal primary and secondary schools. There is also an effort being made to differentiate needs and delivery methods between urban versus rural training opportunities, providing focus on business, economics, and health. Some of the projects underway include school rehabilitation, teacher improvement, and gender sensitization workshops aiming for increased support of girls in school. Women play a more prominent role in the development of government policy and formation of organizations focused on women’s issues. The country’s leaders are taking action and are including women in decision making by guaranteeing that a set percentage of seats in both local government and parliament will be held by women, resulting in the concerted effort to encourage women to play a more assertive role in

Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri Kiri Te Kanawa is an internationally acclaimed lyric soprano of Maori descent. She was still in her teens when she began winning vocal competitions in her native New Zealand and in neighboring Australia. In the nearly four decades since her 1971 debut, she has appeared in many of opera’s most coveted roles, entertaining audiences in Paris, Milan, Salzburg, and Vienna, as well as appearing regularly at London’s Covent Garden and New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She also has a long history as soloist with renowned orchestras and substantial success as a recording artist. More recently, she has devoted the greater part of her time to mentoring a new generation of opera stars. Born in 1944 to an unmarried Anglo mother and a married Maori father, Te Kanawa was adopted at birth by Nell and Tom Te Kanawa of Gisborne, New

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Zealand. Her ambitious mother recognized Te Kanawa’s musical gift and had her singing—mostly show tunes—from an early age. In 1956, the family moved to Auckland so that Te Kanawa could study at St. Mary’s Girls’ School. She was 19 years old when she won second place in New Zealand’s Mobil Song Quest. Fame came suddenly when she recorded her country’s first gold album. At age 21 years, she claimed first prize in the Mobil contest and earned a scholarship to study at the London Opera Centre. In London, she studied with Vera Rozsa—her first operatic training. Her singing of Elena in La donna del lago at the Camden Festival in 1969 brought her recognition as a promising talent, and her debut in a major role at Covent Garden as Mozart’s Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro soon followed. She moved from success to success, debuting at the Metropolitan Opera as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello. The vibrancy of her voice and her undeniable physical beauty and stage presence led to her performances in some of opera’s most glamorous soprano roles: Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, and Amelia in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Perhaps her most famous role, and one she identifies as a favorite, is Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she was one of the world’s leading sopranos. Crossover Successes Te Kanawa’s fame has never been limited to opera houses. In 1981, she sang at the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer before one of the largest live television audiences for any singer in history. A year later she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire. Crossover success followed with albums of Kern, Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin, plus the world premiere of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio. She gave open-air concerts; released albums of classical music, Broadway musicals and Maori songs; and advertised Rolex watches. Millions of moviegoers heard her sing Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro over the credits of the Merchant-Ivory film A Room With a View. Continued Success In the late 1990s, everything changed. Te Kanawa married Desmond Park in 1967. The couple adopted two children in the 1970s, and he became her manager in

the 1980s. In 1997, their 30-year marriage ended amid scandal. Her response was to distance herself from opera and turn her attention to recitals and solo concerts. She also developed an interest in helping younger singers. She has raised large sums for her own Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation to help New Zealand singers, and she teaches and mentors young singers at the Metropolitan’s Young Artist Development Program and the Solti/Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy. See Also: Adoption; Classical Music, Women in; Mentoring; New Zealand. Further Readings Fingleton, David. Kiri Te Kanawa: A Biography. New York: Atheneum, 1983. Singer, Barry. “The Good Life.” Opera News, v.69/5 (2004). Taylor, James C. “Kiri Te Kanawa Emerges With a Song in Her Heart.” Los Angeles Times (June 14, 2009). http:// articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/14/entertainment /ca-kiri14/2 (accessed April 2010). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Teachers’ Unions Collective action taken by workers in a particular industry to achieve common goals is at the heart of the unionization process. However, before a union can exist, there must be an industry for which to advocate. This was not always the case. The notion of free public schooling in the United States is as commonplace today as it was controversial over 150 years ago. At the beginning of the country, education was for the elite, not the masses. Women and minorities were systematically denied educational access, and when opportunities were available, they were not equitable. This created an additional barrier for women and minorities to overcome before being allowed to advance in and admitted to not only teachers’ unions but into the profession itself. These issues were compounded on a global scale. In Belgium, during the onset of the 20th century, the International Committee of National Federations of Teachers in Public Secondary Schools was formed.



While teachers faced similar discrimination struggles worldwide, some of the unions in the United States were hesitant to merge with international unions they felt could be influenced by communistic government control. International unions struggled with the large amount of teacher issues. Finally, the largest group to form, Education International (EI), was given birth in 1993, by the merging of two groups: International Federation of Free Teachers’ Unions and World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Professions. The EI expects that those entering its union have female representation, as one of the organization’s aims is “to give particular attention to developing the leadership role and involvement of women in society.” In the United States, the state of Massachusetts was the first to form school laws, institute qualifications for teachers, and expand school infrastructure via the auspices of a newly established board of education in 1837. According to Charles Kerchner and Julia Koppich, as teacher organizations were established, they supported an industrial-style form of union advocacy with emphasis on the separateness of labor and management, on adversarial relationships, and on protection of teachers. Although female teachers have dominated the elementary school levels since the late 1800s and constitute nearly half of the high school teaching staffs across the country today, women systematically were not afforded opportunities for advancement in the teaching profession; many were denied educational opportunities, entrance into the more “elite” secondary and postsecondary employment pool when qualified, and admittance into some unions once established in the profession. Union messages seemed well suited to the plight of the early female teacher as her rate of pay was disproportionately lower than her male counterparts, her marital status kept her from acquiring work, and she faced rudimentary sanitary conditions and crowded classrooms on a daily basis. Currently, two of the largest and most prominent educational organizations in the United States are the National Education Association (NEA), founded in 1857 (formerly the National Teachers Association, NTA), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), founded in 1916. Each organization targeted distinct groups of teachers. While the NEA drew mostly from rural areas, the AFT primarily drew

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membership from urban city centers. AFT, unlike the NEA, directly affiliated itself with the Association of Federated Labor (AFL) and the labor movement. While the American Federation of Teachers came about during a time of global labor movements, the National Education Association by comparison was more conservative in its approach and focused on its development as a professional organization with special attention to educational research. Women were initially denied full entrance into the NEA (allowing two “honorary” female members during its founding), but the organization was nonetheless slightly ahead of the bureaucratic curve of the U.S. government. For example, prior to the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, the NEA elected its first female president, Ella Flagg Young, in 1910. While AFT had female founders and organizers—most notably Margaret Haley—from its inception, a female president would not be elected until the 1930s. In 1997, Sandra Feldman became the second female president and the 15th overall AFT president. She resigned in 2004 for health reasons and died in 2005. Her legacy is a testament to previous organizers. It was not until collective bargaining rights were acquired by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in New York that teachers’ unions were catapulted into major prominence. Through it all, women have been a cornerstone of leadership in these endeavors, but unlike the labor market of the 1960s and 1970s, women now have additional options in their career pursuits. Current Union Issues Today, issues of charter schools and teacher tenure/ seniority are at the forefront of work-related issues for teachers and professors. During a July 2009 AFT conference, where EI general secretary Fred van Leeuwen was in attendance, one of the hot topics discussed by AFT president Weingarten was the need for collaboration among professionals for overall school improvement. President Randi Weingarten believes charter and public schools should be held to the same accountability standard and stated, “[these schools] should not be pitted against each other.” Other areas of concern are tenure practices at secondary and postsecondary institutions, where women do not often garner the same tenure percentage levels as their male counterparts. Each union (national or international)

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has its hands full, as creating effective change over large areas with varying political climates proves difficult. The collective action dilemma continues, but now people can organize on a global scale more readily with the advent of modern technology. See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Administrators, College and University; Educational Administrators, Elementary and High School; Unions. Further Readings American Federation of Teachers. http://www.aft.org (accessed April 2010). Education International. “About Us.” http://www.ei-ie.org /en/aboutus (accessed April 2010). Kerchner, Charles Taylor and Julia Koppich. “Negotiating What Matters Most: Collective Bargaining and Student Achievement.” American Journal of Education, v.113/3 (2007). Malin, Martin H. and Charles Taylor Kerchner. “Charter Schools and Collective Bargaining: Compatible Marriage or Illegitimate Relationship?” Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, v.30/3 (2007). National Education Agency. http://www.nea.org (accessed April 2010). Sonia Adriana Noyola Del Mar College

Team Owners, Female With a few notable exceptions that include New York Mets owner Joan Payson and Cincinnati Reds majority owner Marge Schott, women have historically been absent from the world of sports-team ownership. After a failed attempt to keep the Giants baseball team in New York in 1957, Payson became the cofounder and majority owner of the New York Mets. She was the first female in American history to buy a sports franchise for a major-league team. When Schott purchased a minority share in the Cincinnati Reds in 1984, it was only the second time in history that a female had been approved as a franchise owner. Because the world of sports has long been dominated by males, women have also been shut out of positions as presidents and general managers.

Generally, women who have become involved in sports-team ownership have done so as a result of family connections. Georgia Frontiere, for instance, became the owner of the Los Angeles Rams as a result of the death of her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom. Likewise, Joan Kroc inherited the San Diego Padres from her husband, Ray Kroc, the man who built McDonald’s into a fast-food empire. Other women who entered the field through their relationships with particular males were Violet Bidwell of the Chicago Cardinals, Grace Comiskey of the Chicago White Sox, and Jackie Autry of the California Angels. It is not only women who have worked to break down barriers in the business of sports-team ownership. National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner David Stern, who exerted pressure for the formation of women’s sports leagues, believes the inclusion of women at all levels of various sports is important to attracting women consumers to the field of sports. Women’s Sports Teams a Key Factor As a rule, it is predictably women’s sports that have proved most welcoming to female team owners. In 2005, Shelia Johnson, a spa owner who cofounded the Black Entertainment Network (BET) with her exhusband Robert Johnson (who owned the Charlotte Bobcats), became the first female to own a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team. As a member of a group of financial backers known as Lincoln Holdings LLC, which purchased the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, Johnson also became the first African American woman in history to become part owner of three professional sports teams, since Lincoln Holdings also owns the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals and has a minority interest in the NBA Washington Wizards. Johnson is most actively involved with the Mystics, serving as team president, managing partner, and governor. She sees her involvement as a major gain for African American women and believes that her participation will open doors for other African American women interested in owning sports teams. After Johnson entered the field, Michelle Williams, a member of the singing group Destiny’s Child, bought a minority share in the Chicago Sky. Elsewhere, four Seattle businesswomen took over the WNBA’s Storm in an effort to keep the franchise in Seattle after that



city’s men’s basketball franchise had moved to Oklahoma City. Two years after her husband Garry died of cancer in 2007, Atlanta businesswoman Kathy Betty decided to buy the Atlanta Dream, the local WNBA team. She announced that her move was motivated by both her interest in sports and her desire to provide the young people of Atlanta, particularly young women, with positive role models. She believes that encouraging woman-to-woman networking is necessary in teaching women to become more aware of their power to influence the business world. Betty’s interest in basketball has long been evident through her support of Georgia Tech’s basketball program. While still a definite minority in the field of sportsteam ownership, women have become more of a presence in the 21st century. Denise DeBartolo York owns the San Francisco 49ers with her husband John, but it took a lawsuit against her brother Edward to win that status. Kathy Goodman and Carla Christofferson own the Los Angeles Sparks, a WNBA team. When the Rickets family, consisting of a sister and three brothers, bought the Chicago Cubs, Laura Rickets became the first openly gay sports-team owner in American history. Women in countries other than the United States have also become involved in the business of sports-team ownership. In India, Priety Zinta, the adopted daughter of Shandar-Amrohi and the granddaughter of movie mogul Kamaai Amrohi, is co-owner of the King XI Punjab, an Indian Premier League cricket team. Zinta is best known for her participation in the Hindu-language film industry commonly referred to as “Bollywood.” See Also: Business, Women in; Philanthropists, Female; Sports, Women in; Sports Announcers, Female; Sports Officials, Female; Widows; Women’s National Basketball Association. Further Readings Carter, Ivan. “BET’s Sheila Johnson Becomes Part Owner, President of Mystics.” Washington Post (May 25, 2005). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content /article/2005/05/24/AR2005052400946.html (accessed July 2010). Swartz, Kristi E. “Atlanta Businesswoman Kathy Betty to Buy WNBA Team.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (October 29, 2009). http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta

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-business-woman-kathy-betty-177579.html (accessed April 2010). Weiner, Evan. “Women Owners Slowly Gaining Traction.” New York Sun (June 13, 2008). http://www.nysun.com /sports/women-owners-slowly-gaining-traction /79969 (accessed July 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Teen Pregnancy Also referred to as adolescent pregnancy, teen pregnancy is generally defined as a teen woman conceiving before the age of 20. The bulk of research looking at rates of teen pregnancy examines information from the 20th century forward, and although cross-national comparisons remain difficult to make, national data are often separated between “developed” and “developing” countries. Additional variables included, if available, are race and ethnicity, educational level of the pregnant teen, economic level of the pregnant teen, her living situation (e.g., living with the child’s biological father and/or her biological parent or parents), access to sex education and contraception, and access to healthcare and sources of nutrition. Two major concerns stand out in the research: teen pregnancy as a social problem and the health of pregnant adolescents and their children. Statistics on Teen Pregnancy Similar to most issues that emphasize rates, figures, and statistics, data for teen pregnancy rates across the globe are difficult to obtain. Each nation determines which demographic information it collects, not all hospitals maintain records, and many academic studies rely upon self-reported information. Importantly, a distinction exists between the teen pregnancy “rate” and teen pregnancy “births,” since, depending upon the nation in question, end-of-pregnancy rates may be as high as one in two. Pregnancy ends through various means, including abortion (legal or illegal) and miscarriage, physical abuse, lack of nutrition, and unknown biological reasons. Reliability of the data proves an additional challenge to researchers who study the impact of adolescent pregnancy and the

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overall health of teen woman and their children. A glance at the research shows that reports vary greatly, reporting either significant differences or little to no differences in maternal and infant health of women giving birth before age 20 compared to women giving birth after 20. Regardless of the challenges in calculating teen pregnancy birth rates, researchers have established an early-21st-century world average for adolescents of 65 births for every 1,000 women giving birth. Rates range as low as five or less in Japan and Switzerland, to under 45 in Turkey and 50 in the United States, to a regional average of 140 in sub-Saharan Africa. Meta-analyses can often point out potential biases in the data sources, methods, and comparisons. After careful consideration of the multiple studies, the World Health Organization developed a reading of the concerns commonly said to face pregnant teens and their children. Hypertension, though often studied, does not appear to increase in women under 20

any more than women over 20, and while anemia rates vary throughout the world, these rates more likely vary due to sources of nutrition rather than pregnancy. Malaria, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and iodine deficiency continue to be great threats in many regions of the globe, not only to pregnant teens but also to their children. Importantly, these three issues threaten the bulk of the population in particular areas and are not specific to teen pregnancy, although a lack of proper levels of iodine in teens can lead to decreased brain development in the fetus. Preterm births, low-birthweight-babies, and infant mortality do appear to be higher in the adolescent birth population, but the latter two may stem more from preterm births, as women over 20 who have preterm births also have higher rates of low birth weight and infant mortality than do their counterparts. Maternal death is higher among pregnant teens, particularly in developing nations where overall maternity care is somewhat low or difficult to acquire.

Unintended teen pregnancy in the United States is a persistent social issue for society as a whole. The United States has the highest rate of pregnant underage girls, followed by Hungary, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.



Unsafe abortions may also contribute to the high rate of maternal death in teens, afraid or unsure of how to inquire about safe abortions, if available. Studies do confirm high rates of physical and sexual abuse of teen mothers, before, during, and after conception and birth, and rates of physical abuse and neglect are often high in the children of teen mothers. A Social Problem? Teen pregnancy rates in most developed nations have been declining overall since the 1950s, with contemporary rates lower than 1950s rates. Between 1975 and 1995, some developed nations, including the United States and Great Britain, declared teen pregnancy as one of the major issues facing their societies. Even in the 1990s, when politicians raised concerns, many did, and still do, question the validity of notions such as “epidemics” of teen pregnancy, not simply because of the historically low rates. Concerns stem instead from social morality that deems young women as unfit mothers or of discriminatory practices due to the overrepresentation of women of color and immigrant women in the statistics. Regardless of developed or developing nation status, most countries continue to encourage marriage before the birth of a child. In cultures where young women are married soon after menarche (the age of first menstruation), the age of first marriage and first pregnancy likely occur to an adolescent woman. Although it remains impossible to note all countries, India, Bangladesh, and Niger often encourage young women to marry close to the age of 15 when menarche occurs, thus contributing to the high rate of births among teen mothers. In developed nations, where the rate of marriage has increased over the last 50 years in individuals in their mid- to late 20s, many still raise concerns about the high rate of teen births, even as these nations’ understandings of acceptable familial structures continue to shift toward unmarried cohabitation and single parenting. This acceptance, however, does not seem to extend to women who are under the age of 20 when they deliver children, even as the United States, for example, sees approximately half of all births to unmarried women. Globally, subcommunities within each nation that have higher rates of immigrants, minority racial or ethnic populations, poverty or low socioeconomic status, and little educational experience lead

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to higher rates of teen pregnancy. This confluence of rates has created a great deal of commentary for many decades. In welfare states, researchers attempt to determine the cost savings of delaying pregnancy until after the age of 20. Communities attempt to discern how raising the standard of living could reduce the cycle of teen pregnancies within communities, even though other studies suggest that daughters of teen mothers show a decrease in the cycle. Others argue that majority populations demonstrate a fearfulness based upon discrimination when they decry teen pregnancy because of the high rate of racial and ethnic minority women who are teens and pregnant. Amid these arguments, it is known that raising the level of safety; access to safe and reliable contraceptives, sex education, and healthcare; and access to educational opportunities would certainly improve the standard of living for the community, even if they do not decrease the rate of teen births. Additional discussions about teen pregnancy in the 21st century include increased length of adolescence (with some statistics using 10–19 as the age group designation), decreased age for puberty and menarche in girls across the world, and increased numbers of teens within the general population (with recent figures in the United States, for example, higher than during the post–World War II “baby boom”). In conjunction with increases in HIV infection and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates, many advocate increased access to holistic sexual education and contraception, with some arguing that decreased rates of teen pregnancy in areas such as the Netherlands and France indicate a direct link between honest and thorough sexual education combined with contraception access and decreased teen pregnancy rates. Studies remain mixed on the latter argument, however, suggesting that cultural beliefs about sexuality, economic and educational levels, and young women’s desire to be mothers play as big of a role as sex education and contraception. See Also: Adolescence; Marriage; Pregnancy; Sex Education, Cross-Culturally Compared; Single Mothers. Further Readings Daguerre, Anne and Corinne Nativel, eds. When Children Become Parents: Welfare State Responses to Teenage Pregnancy. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press, 2006.

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Hamilton, B. E., J. A. Martin, and S. J. Ventura. “Births: Preliminary Data for 2008.” National Vital Statistics Reports, v.58/16 (2010). Lee, Yookyong. “Early Motherhood and Harsh Parenting: The Role of Human, Social, and Cultural Capital.” Child Abuse & Neglect, v.33 (2009). Moore, Ann M., Kofi Awusabo-Asare, Nyovani Madise, Johannes John-Langba, and Akwasi Kumi-Kyereme. “Coerced First Sex Among Adolescent Girls in SubSaharan Africa: Prevalence and Context.” African Journal of Reproductive Health, v.11/3 (2007). Samandari, Ghazaleh and Ilene S. Speizer. “Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Reproductive Outcomes in Central America: Trends over the Past Two Decades.” International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, v.36/1 (2010). Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2004.” http://www.savethechildren.org/publications/mothers /2004/SOWM_2004_final.pdf (accessed August 2010). Singh, Susheela, Jacqueline E. Darroch, and Jennifer J. Frost. “Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Adolescent Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Behavior: The Case of Five Developed Countries.” Family Planning Perspectives, v.33/6 (2001). World Health Organization (WHO). “Adolescent Pregnancy: Issues in Adolescent Health and Development.” Geneva: WHO, 2004. http://libdoc.who .int/publications/2004/9241591455_eng.pdf (accessed August 2010). Rita Jones Lehigh University

Tennis Tennis is a sport that is played either between two players (singles) or two teams of two players (doubles). Tennis is an Olympic sport and has players at all levels of society and at all ages around the world. It is a popular spectator sport with a global audience. The game as we know it dates back to 16th-century France. It spread to Europe, becoming popular in England in the 19th century, before spreading around the world. In 1884, women competed alongside men at Wimbledon. During the 1920s, women’s tennis emerged as a popular spectator sport; French player

Suzanne Lenglen is credited for popularizing tennis, as she was the first to reveal her calves and forearms, instead of wearing the concealing garments that were more conventional at the time. In 1970, U.S. player Billie Jean King, with eight others, formed the Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit. In 1973, King founded the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and that year Wimbledon and the US Open offered equal prize money to men and women for the first time. Lucrative television contracts coupled with high-end sponsorship has pushed the prize money and earnings of women tennis players to the tens of millions. Sony Ericsson became the tour’s worldwide title sponsor in 2005. This $88 million, six-year deal was the largest and most comprehensive sponsorship in the history of tennis and of women’s tennis. The tour includes 2,200 players representing 96 nations and competing for over $86 million at 53 events in 33 countries and four Grand Slam tournaments: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. There are five tiers of WTA events, and Futures tournaments organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) form the lower levels. A Progressive Sport Still Wrestles Image Concerns Sport has been an area that has traditionally excluded women, limiting their ability to participate. However, tennis is stereotypically represented as a sport for women. Most sports have distinct competitions for both men and women, but in few instances is the parallel staging of events as explicit as it is in tennis. The competition within both gender classes typically attracts much attention; still, commentators contend of women’s tennis that “it is a different game.” The most notable organizational difference between a Grand Slam tennis game for men and women is that in the former it takes three winning sets, as opposed to two, to win the match. When compared to the coverage given to women in other sports, tennis fares well. For example, the US Open Women’s final for the last years of the 1990s received higher television ratings in the United States than that of the men. Examinations of global media on sports reveal that women tended to not only be underrepresented but trivialized, stereotyped, devalued, and marginalized. For example, a 2000 study in the United



Kingdom found that only 5.9 percent of sports media coverage focused on women’s sport, and one-third of that coverage was devoted to tennis player Anna Kournikova, even though she had never won a tournament on the professional women’s circuit. The institutional and cultural practices of tennis have historically promoted images of a racialized femininity, constitutive of the middle-class standard of white, heterosexual womanhood embodied in the likes of Chris Evert or Maria Sharapova. There appears to be a “panic” in tennis when women’s bodies do not conform to these conventions. For example, Chris Evert, describing the athletic ability of sisters Venus and Serena Williams said that it was difficult for the “women who aren’t Amazons” to compete with them. Martina Navratilova’s muscular athletic body challenged normative ideas of acceptable femininity in sport. Commentators also noted that her unpopularity was because, since 1978, Navratilova has been an “out” lesbian. Other famous female players of the U.S. Open era include Margaret Court, Monica Seles, Justine Henin, Evonne Goolagong-Crawley, Hana Mandlikova, Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario, Virginia Wade, Jennifer Capriati, Tracy Austin, Mary Peirce, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Kim Clijsters. Chinese tennis player Zheng Jie, Venus Williams (U.S.), Tatiana Golovion (France) and Vera Zvoraneva (Russia) have been named as Promoters of Gender Equality, as part of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The program also has a fund for women and leadership; it offers mentoring, scholarships, and fellowships for women and girls. The program draws from the history of the WTA and its players in their quest for gender equality and emerged from discussions following the tour’s season-ending tournament in Madrid in 2005. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition; Sports, Women in; Williams, Venus and Serena. Further Readings Douglas, Delia D. “Venus, Serena, and the Women’s Tennis Association: When and Where ‘Race’ Enters.” Sociology of Sport Journal, v.22/3 (2005). Forman, Pamela J. and Darcy C. Plymire. “Amelie Mauresmo’s Muscles: The Lesbian Heroic in Women’s

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Professional Tennis.” Women’s Studies Quarterly, v.33/1–2 (2002). King, Billie Jean and Starr, Cynthia. We Have Come a Long Way: The Story of Women’s Tennis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998. Danai S. Mupotsa Monash University

Terrorists, Female Female terrorism is the threat or use of force against civilians in order to create a climate of fear and advance a political agenda. Political violence targeting noncombatant populations occurs in civil wars, revolutionary wars, nationalistic wars, armed resistance, guerrilla warfare, and peasant wars. Terrorism is described as a form of “asymmetric warfare.” Guerrilla organizations employ terrorist tactics but limit the targets of their attacks to military and government personnel. In recent years, female terrorism has become synonymous with civilian-directed suicide attacks conducted by women. This terrorism-suicide bombing linkage obfuscates the fact that most female terrorism has involved women and girls witnessing or directly participating in terrorist acts such as torture, murder, kidnapping, hijacking, rape, physical/psychological deprivation, destruction of community infrastructure (e.g., cropland, water systems, roadways, humanitarian efforts, health clinics), mutilation, human sacrifice, drug use, and cannibalism. Inside the “Typical Recruit” There is no single profile for a female terrorist. Female terrorists originate from a vast list of ethnicities and races; they can be secular or religious, fanatical or unemotional, single or married, childless or mothers, girls or women, educated or uneducated, from poverty or from wealth. Most female suicide bombers are socially functional and lack suicidal tendencies. Women become involved in terrorism for political and non-political reasons, including (1) exposure to war, or living under occupation; (2) experience of trauma, such as the murder, torture, or kidnapping of another person;

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(3) exposure to and purposely seeking out radical organizations; (4) internal desire for meaning in the face of lived chaos; (5) religious adherence to a violent ideology; (6) participation in nationalist groups; (7) network links to terrorist organizations through marriage or family; (8) suicide bomber friend or relative; and (9) personal crisis such as childlessness, lack of employment or education (due to war), or the loss of a beloved. Some young women and girls enter militant groups because of an ideological orientation to the cause; to get out of poverty, to gain food and shelter, or to attain otherwise unavailable educational, employment, or personal opportunities; to earn valuable skills; to break free of an oppressive family dynamic that may include sexual abuse or imbalanced domestic responsibilities; to obtain protection; to reunite with family; to increase confidence and experience through intelligence gathering, propagandizing, or liaison work; or even to seek adventure in an environment perceived to be free of gender-based strictures. Tamil Tiger female militants in Sri Lanka, for example, seek to defend Tamil life and their communities from perceived transgressors and to die a purposeful death. Naxalite women in West Bengal seek to dismantle India’s caste-based society, implement land reforms for the poor, and enfranchise the poor. The socalled Black Widows of Chechnya perpetrated their attacks because agency in militancy assuaged them of their feelings of powerlessness. Women in al-Qaeda and white supremacist operations are often introduced to terrorist networks through their marriages to radical men. A high percentage of young women and girls involved with terrorism and militancy do not participate willingly. Many are “recruited” through physical force, abduction, being born into the militant organization (born of an abducted mother), seized by another group, or gang-pressed. Psychological trauma after a loss can make women vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations which sell “martyrdom” as a way to overcome grief, survivor guilt, and feelings of disempowerment. Radical groups provide straightforward solutions to emotional pain and a strong sense of purpose through intelligible ideological positions. Experiences of camaraderie (brother/sisterhood), self-empowerment (arming oneself ), promises of paradise, the possibility of great glory, and concrete answers amid overwhelm-

ing turmoil can justify revenge, militant activity, and/ or self-sacrifice. Real and Propagandized Effects of Female Bombers Female suicide bombers are highly useful for organizations seeking tactical advantage: stories of female martyrs inspire potential operatives, elicit global media attention, and cause greater unease in victim populations, compared to male counterparts. Although there were many female suicide bombings in the 1980s, the contemporary debate on female suicide bombings was sparked primarily by the bombings of Hawa Barayev in June 2000 in Chechnya that killed 27 Russian special forces operatives, and Wafa Idris in January 2002 in an Israeli shopping district. Not only did Barayev and Idris receive the backing and logistical support to carry out their acts from religiously based resistance movements (the Chechen rebels and al-Aqsa Brigades, respectively), but after an initial period of hesitation, Islamic jurists gave them first tacit and later overt support through fatwas (edicts) claiming their legitimacy as martyrs of Islam. The fatwa endorsement of Barayev effectively sanctified suicide bombings, which has had the concomitant effect of perpetuating cycles of feminine violence. “Contagion theory” is used to better understand the popularization of suicide bombings as an ideal path to martyrdom. Public approval is critical to the continued use of female suicide bombers. For example, there was widespread condemnation of the suicide bombing by Reem al-Riyashi, because she was a mother of two small children. Public discourse on female terrorists tends to accentuate only certain elements of their reality. The narratives are often reductionist. Some narratives benefit militant recruitment of women and include idealizations about the female terrorists’ profound beauty, purity, intelligence, heroism, and piety. Other narratives define women terrorists as social outcasts, defective socially or personally, suspicious, manipulated, exploited, undisciplined, bored, naive, a family burden, masculine tough, or having been forcibly recruited. Feminist accounts sometimes position the female warrior as a new form of liberated actor who uses aggression to achieve equality. Most of the frames that employ gender clichés (that separate the feminine and their violence or that claim the feminine violator

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is liberated), and are used to describe or justify women’s involvement in terrorism, potentially undermine the real political grievances and political agency of feminine violence. In fact, gender stereotypes about the apparent “softness” of women are utilized by radical women to avoid detection at security checkpoints and deliver maximum damage. Mixed Messages for Martyrs The female terrorist is often a side note within literature on terrorism. Despite the temporary symbolic value of militant women to radical causes, and the ritual celebration of their acts within organizations, most female terrorists are treated like second-class soldiers and martyrs. Female terrorists complicate the world but are downplayed because armed women violate traditional gender order (war is treated as a man’s game) or because the idea of killer women leads to sensationalism or condemnation; women’s violence in isolated events appears to lack consistency and persistence; women have not pierced through power hierarchies of militant organizations; and male decision making appears to control female militant activity. Scholars predict that militant organizations will continue to employ white converts to Islam and young girls and pregnant women as suicide bombers, tandem bombings (simultaneously or sequentially), and multiple targets. The use of pregnant women sends a profound statement of determination but could result in public backlash over the destruction of an innocent child. See Also: Combat, Women in; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Guerrilla Fighters, Female; Suicide Bombers, Female; Wars of National Liberation, Women in. Further Readings Alison, Miranda. “Women as Agents of Political Violence: Gendering Security.” Security Dialogue, v.35/4 (2004). Berko, A. On the Way to Heaven: the World of Female and Male Suicide Bombers and Their Dispatchers. Tel Aviv, Israel: Yediot Ahronot Books and Hemed Books, 2004. Ness, Cindy D. Female Terrorism and Militancy: Agency, Utility, and Organization. London: Routledge, 2008. Melissa Finn York University

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Thailand Due to deindustrialization, globalization, and emerging transnational networks, women in Thailand have experienced recent shifts in identity, as well as altered relations to family and work in the public sphere. In particular, the feminization of migration (both internal and external) has had an enormous impact on the social position of women in Thai society. Migratory transformations have primarily occurred in informal sectors, such as domestic labor, the sex industry, factory labor, and other forms of informal labor such as the selling of food and clothing, and have increased women’s autonomy by fostering their participation in waged work. Although male migrants from China and their Sino-Thai children are often credited with Thailand’s increased economic development, Ara Wilson has shown that women constitute the backbone of a vast range of global-local marketplaces and Thai industries. Thai women share a considerable amount of power in business and in politics, however, they are disadvantaged relative to Thai men. For example, although women secured equal voting rights in 1933 and 300,000 more women than men voted in 1995, women nonetheless make up only a small percentage of Thailand’s elected officials. And although women’s participation in village councils has increased in the 21st century, women’s overall participation and inclusion remains low relative to men’s. Given Thailand’s accession to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and ratification of the 1975 International Labour Organization’s Convention on Equality of Opportunity for Women Workers, Thai women are somewhat protected by labor laws, particularly in the case of maternity leave and equal pay for men and women. However, employers of unskilled or semiskilled laborers frequently ignore or circumvent these requirements. Further, employers’ tendency to construct women as well suited to menial tasks also creates a system in which women have less access to high-skilled, higher-paying positions in a range of industries. Sex Workers and Mainstream Concerns The country’s sex industry has been at the center of contentious debates originating both within and

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outside of Thailand, in which sex workers are positioned as either exploited victims or as agents who rationally and freely choose their work. Recently, however, numerous scholars have complicated this dichotomy, noting the larger systemic and global dynamics that impact and are impacted by Thai sex workers. In fact, sex tourism, often credited for the spike in prostitution in Thailand, makes up a relatively small portion of the larger Thai sex industry. Although Thailand has a global reputation for sexual labor, the majority of Thai women have no connection whatsoever to this industry. Often stigmatized and characterized as transmitters of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), women who do work in Thailand’s sex industry have nonetheless benefitted from increased access to free condoms and clients’ compliance with condom use. Thailand has a middle-aged population (15–64 years: 70.3 percent; 65 years and over: 8.5 percent; median age for male: 32 years; median age for female: 33.7 years) of approximately 65.5 million, with the total fertility rate at 1.64 children born to every woman. In response to Thai women’s need for affordable access to safe abortions and other reproductive health services, nongovernmental organizations such as the Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights Foundation of Thailand have recently emerged. See Also: Business, Women in; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Economics, Women in; Government, Women in; Migrant Workers; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Sex Workers; Traffic in Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Thailand.” http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/th.html (accessed June 2010). Mills, Mary Beth. Thai Women in the Global Labor Force: Consuming Desires, Contested Selves. Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999. Wilson, Ara. The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo Tracy Royce University of California, Santa Barbara

Thatcher, Margaret Political leader Margaret Hilda Thatcher (neé Roberts, born October 13, 1925) was the first woman to lead a major Western democracy. The British prime minister between 1979 and 1990, Thatcher won three successive general elections as leader of the Conservative Party. An intensely controversial figure in Britain, she is renowned for her right-leaning reforms of United Kingdom (UK) economic and foreign policy. During her time in office, she achieved a high international profile, being associated in particular with the Ronald Reagan administration. Thatcher had a profound and lasting impact on British politics. Many critics claim that her economic policies were socially divisive and extremely destructive to core institutions and national infrastructure. Conversely, her proponents argue that Thatcher’s trade union reforms, privatization and deregulation agenda, and her tough stance on tax and spending provided the foundation for a period of unparalleled economic prosperity in Britain toward the end of the 20th century. Reform and Policy Agendas Although she was the first female political leader of a Western democracy, Thatcher did not perceive herself as a feminist. She neither actively advanced the political careers of female colleagues nor did she pursue a markedly female-friendly policy agenda. By occupying the most powerful position in Britain for over a decade, Thatcher changed perceptions and expectations of the role women might play in the public sphere. She was married to wealthy businessman Denis Thatcher from 1951 until his death in 2003. They had two children, twins Carol and Mark. Remarkably, for the era, as the mother of young children, she continued to train and then work as a tax lawyer, relying on a nanny for childcare. Despite her personal experiences, Thatcher did not seek reforms in familyfriendly or work-life reconciliation policy when she was in government. The daughter of a grocer and town councilor in Grantham, a small town in England, Thatcher attended a local state school and then Somerville College at the University of Oxford (1943–47). As a university student, she read chemistry and became politically active, later getting elected president of the

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Political Career as “Iron Lady” Nicknamed the “Iron Lady” by the Soviets, a moniker to which she took much pleasure, Thatcher worked with the Reagan administration during the last years of the Cold War. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, her “Thatcherite” ideas proved influential in the reconstruction of post-communist central and eastern Europe. Other events of note during her terms in office included the Falklands War in 1982; the year-long miner’s strike in 1984–85; the introduction of the Community Charge or “poll tax”; and the introduction of a national curriculum in schools. Thatcher narrowly survived an assassination attempt by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1984. Pushed from power by her own party in 1990, Thatcher was made a member of the Upper Chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords in 1992, and granted the title Baroness Thatcher. She retired from public life in 2002.

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher remained an intensely controversial figure in Britain long after her term ended.

Conservative Association. In her mid 20s, Thatcher twice ran for election unsuccessfully. In 1959 things changed and she was elected to Parliament. That election began a 30 year career of representing the constituency of Finchley, in north London. In 1975, Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative Party and thus head of the opposition. This achievement gave Thatcher the unique distinction of being the first woman to lead a Western political party, and it launched a national and international career. Between 1959 and 1975, Thatcher held various government posts, the most notable of these was Education Secretary. It was during this time that she earned the moniker Thatcher the Milk Snatcher for her policy to stop free milk for school children. Early on in her premiership, Thatcher faced the challenges of recession and high unemployment. Influenced by Keynesian economic thinking, she instigated reforms collectively referred to as “Thatcherism.” She pursued a policy of economic liberalization, which extended to the selling and opening up to competition of state assets.

See Also: Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Heads of State, Female; Political Ideologies; United Kingdom. Further Readings Campbell, John. Margaret Thatcher: Grocer’s Daughter to Iron Lady, London: Vintage, 2009. The Margaret Thatcher Foundation, http://www .margaretthatcher.org (accessed December 2009). Thatcher, Margaret. The Downing Street Years: Memoirs of the Premiership. London: HarperCollins, 1993. Vinen, Richard. Thatcher’s Britain: The Politics and Social Upheaval of the 1980s. London: Simon & Schuster UK, 2009. Alison Smith Koslowski University of Edinburgh

Third Wave The term third wave feminism, coined in the early 1990s, is a term for a dynamic, sometimes contentious, body of thinking and activism within contemporary feminism. It defies easy definition, including even in terms of when to mark the origin of third wave ideas. In general, however, third wave feminism is viewed as the “next wave of feminism” that followed

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second wave feminism. Although there is an origins dispute, there is no doubt that from the early 1990s to the present, the third wave has become a global, more diverse inquiry into social systems of sex, race, and gender inequality and differences than occurred during second wave feminism. Even though there is no single approach, three core strands of early third wave thinking/activism— postfeminism, power feminism, and Girlie feminism—are often included under the label third wave feminism and remain important today. Among the three strands, core sensibilities exist, even if various methods and ways of thinking are used. First, third wave feminists take the achievement of the second for granted in the sense that most (but not all) third wavers were raised after the successes of second wave feminism and, as a result, tend to assume women’s equity and emphasize and organize around diversity, multiplicity, and contradiction. Indeed, third wave feminism celebrates difference in terms of identity construction, in which signifiers such as race and binary gender are rejected in favor of ambiguity and multiple subject positions. Third wavers are also committed to a politics of difference rather than commonality, such that they embrace contradiction so that apparently inconsistent political viewpoints coexist in the name of third wave feminism. As a result, and unlike much second wave politics, third wave feminists organize around differences or diversity among women rather than via a unified concept of women. Today, primarily under the rubric of “intersectional analyses,” much third wave feminism continues to develop ways of thinking that recognize the intersection of various multiple, shifting bases of oppression, primarily around race, class, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability, and aim to create coalition politics based on interlocking—yet always shifting and changing—forms of oppression and axes of identity. Beginnings Initially, the early 1990s was considered the beginning of the third wave. However, recent academic work suggests that third wave ideas began to appear in writings and discussions focused on the intersections of feminism and racism in the mid-1980s, primarily by women of color. These early writings called for a “new subjectivity” or feminist “voice”

that honored race in response to the overwhelming focus on white women’s issues in much of the mediarepresented second wave feminism and the failure to attend to race by many white second wave feminists. This focus was articulated initially by some of the key activists in the second wave: Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, bell hooks, Chela Dadoval, Audre Lorde, Maxine Hong Kingston, and other feminists of color. Focusing on race continued, mostly in academic circles, until the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearings. The Hill–Thomas hearings, conducted by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate professor Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment by Thomas, was televised live in October 1991. Although the hearings had no legal significance and Thomas was eventually confirmed, many mark the hearings as the symbolic beginning of a new discussion of gender inequity and sexual harassment in America, which continued long after the hearing was over in both academic and popular circles. As a result, 1991 is often credited with initiating a new conversation—a third wave conversation—about feminism and feminist ideas in both popular and academic circles. There is little dispute that by 1992 the term third wave feminism came into the public consciousness, or at least that of the political left, when Rebecca Walker, daughter of Alice Walker, founded the Third Wave Direct Action Corporation in 1992 with Shannon Liss. This organization became the Third Wave Foundation in 1998. The nonprofit institution cultivated young women’s leadership. At the same time, key third wave texts—including one that Walker edited—were written in the early 1990s and are now recognized as central to the development of third wave feminism. Thus, there is no dispute that, in the early 1990s, feminism resurfaced both within media and academic circles, and many women, especially young women, became reengaged with a new kind of feminism. By 1995, two key third wave intellectual explorations were published: Rebecca Walker’s To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism and Barbara Findlen’s Listen Up: Voices From the Next Generation of Feminists. In these works, the mostly young authors reveal that the feminism they articulate is organized around a new set of issues and indicate a real shift in emphasis, concern, and demands



among women who had grown up within second wave feminism’s successes. Walker, for example, explicitly argues she and the authors of To Be Real are expanding what constitutes feminism and feminist practices. Even though both Walker and Findlen’s texts emphasize their differences from the second wave, they do not reject feminism outright and, in fact, embrace a feminist understanding grounded in generational continuity—a continuity based on the notion of a “next generation” emerging. Moreover, even though many early third wavers eschew theory, the focus of the authors is postmodernist, in that third wavers privilege diversity over commonality, the individual over the collective, and difference over similarity, and they explore everyday forms of power instead of the large-scale structural power that was the primary focus of the second wave. As a consequence, feminist academics now view 1991–95 as the early phase of third wave feminism and place Walker and Findlen’s text as a foundational text of that phase. Equally important, recent academic scholarship on the third wave suggests that subsequent anthologies repeat the framework of the 1995 collections in their focus on differences over commonality and individuality over the collective, whereas cross-generational dialogue has become more common. The early phase of third wave feminism also saw the development of three additional strands of thinking and activism—postfeminism, power feminism, and Girlie feminism—that also continue to be important to contemporary thinking. In terms of postfeminism, the early phase was marked by debate about whether or not the terms third wave and postfeminism were synonymous. Contemporary scholars now recognize that part of the debate stems from the contradictory uses of the term postfeminism. Indeed, some scholars then and now use it to mean “after” feminism, as a way to signal the end of the particular era and tactics associated with second wave feminism, whereas others—particularly the media—use the term to indicate the “death” of feminism, or that feminism is no longer necessary because of the successes of second wave feminism. Some of this definitional confusion continues today; however, some academic feminists, particularly outside of the United States, argue that “postfeminism” can and should be employed as a term that indicates

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continuity and connection between second wave and contemporary feminisms in the same way that the equally contentious terms “postmodern” and “poststructuralism” are used to indicate, simultaneously, both a connection to and ongoing development of a body of intellectual ideas over the last 40 years. Power Feminism In addition to postfeminism, both “power feminism” and “victim feminism” emerged under the rubric of third wave feminism. Naomi Wolf coined both terms in her 1993 book Fire With Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century. Primarily critiquing academic writing, Wolf argued that it was time to move away from what she argued was the “victim” feminism of the second wave—feminism that focused exclusively or too much on the victimization women face in their personal and professional lives. Rather than be victims, Wolf claims that women as a group do hold significant social power—in part because of the stereotypes of women being less violent, gentler, and so on. Thus, she argues for a form of “power feminism” that would motivate women, especially younger women, to claim their individual power and achieve as much as men within current social and political structures. Contemporary work continues to debate and explore the ideas and politics of power feminism for the contemporary context. Girlie Feminism Yet another strand of early third wave feminism that continues to be important today is “girl power feminism” or “Girlie feminism.” By the early and mid1990s, both scholars and the media began to discuss how the successes of second wave feminism were affecting girls’ lives. In particular, as both focused on girls doing better at school, girls as “sassy” and unafraid, and girls as more confident, the idea of “girl power” emerged. As young women began to embrace the idea of girl power, a celebratory and optimistic form of third wave feminism developed. Girlie feminism has some similarities with power feminism in that it centers on the idea of young women doing whatever they want, as long as it is done with a fierce, optimistic attitude. In addition, Girlie feminism intersects feminism with feminine culture, focusing particularly on rebelling against the idea that, as women do not want to be exploited sexually,

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they are not sexual, and the belief that girls and power do not mix. Thus, Girlie feminism reclaims models of heterosexual power relations as pleasurable, rather than demeaning, and embraces standard tropes of feminine sexuality. As with the other early strands of third wave feminism, Girlie feminism continues to be important in the contemporary context. Intersectionality A more recent development in third wave feminism is intersectional analysis. Intersectionality explores how race, sex, (non)ability, and class intersect rather than work as discrete or separate categories that are sometimes (or not) added onto gender. Third wave intersectional analysis is sometimes viewed as a new standpoint or location for critique by contemporary feminism, whereas others employ intersectionality as “gender maneuvering,” in which there is a deliberate attempt to challenge and play with the ways that gender is thought to organize people’s lives and activities. As a result, intersectional analyses see various components of identity as interdependent and codeterminative rather than additive and discrete. Moreover, because much of the early work on third wave feminism was critiqued for being too individualistic and unconcerned politically, contemporary work focuses on coalitional politics built around intersectional identities. Today, many third wavers recognize that identities are complicated and are constantly shifting and changing within different contexts and intersections; however, when used critically and reflectively, a coalitional politics can emerge. Thus, as with the past, third wave feminism today is neither monolithic nor a single-issue feminism, and it continues to be known for its debates and controversies rather than consensus. See Also: Critical Race Feminism; Feminism, American; Feminism on College Campuses; Feminists for Life; Global Feminism; Transnational Feminist Networks. Further Readings Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards. Mainfesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Dicker, Rory and Alison Piepmeier, eds. Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century. Lebanon, NH: Northeastern University Press, 2003.

Henry, Astrid. Not My Mother’s Sister: Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. Heywood, Leslie. The Women’s Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third-Wave Feminism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. Heywood, Leslie and Jennifer Drake, eds. Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Wolf, Naomi. Fire With Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century. New York: Random House, 1993. D. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein Boston University

Thomas, Helen Reporter Helen Thomas covered 10 presidents and nearly 75 years of what she calls Washington’s “kitchen sink” beat. The former dean, and doyenne, of the White House press corps, whose seniority allowed her to end presidential press conferences with “Thank you, Mr. President” until the George W. Bush administration rescinded that honor, is also the author of several books and was a newspaper columnist for Hearst Newspapers since stepping down as White House bureau chief for United Press International in 2000. Thomas retired on June 7, 2010. Born in Winchester, Kentucky, on August 4, 1920, Thomas was the seventh of nine surviving children. Her father had immigrated to Kentucky in 1892 from a part of Syria now known as Lebanon, followed by her mother, as his bride, in 1902. In 1924, the Thomas family followed relatives to Detroit, where Thomas’s father bought a grocery store. Thomas attended public schools in Detroit and graduated from Wayne State University in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in English. Shortly after graduation, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit a cousin and decided to stay. She took her first journalism job as a copy girl, earning $17.50 a week at the Washington Daily News. A few months into the job, she was assigned local stories as a cub reporter, until her Detroit roots, which had led her to join a union and then participate in a strike, got her fired. The United Press quickly hired

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Thomas to write wire stories and start her days at 5:30 a.m. Thomas continued working the “dawn patrol” until, in 1955, she convinced her bosses she deserved the beat that today defines her: Washington and the White House. Thomas was president of the National Woman’s Press Club in 1959–60 and became the first woman officer of the National Press Club in 1971, after the club had excluded women for 90 years, when she became financial secretary. Also in 1971, Thomas married her competition—Associated Press reporter Douglas Cornell. About five years into their marriage, Cornell developed Alzheimer’s disease; he died in 1982. In 1974, United Press International promoted Thomas to White House Bureau Chief—a position she held until stepping down in 2000 to protest the acquisition of UPI by News World Communications, the “media arm” of Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. Since then, Thomas has covered the White House as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. She has written several books about press and politics, a memoir, and a children’s book. Thomas has been honored with journalism awards from Ohio University, the University of Texas, Columbia University, and Wayne State University. In addition, Thomas has received lifetime achievement awards from the International Women’s Media Foundation and the Society of Professional Journalists. She has received the William Allen White Journalism Award, the National Press Club Fourth Estate Award, and the Bob Considine Award. Brown University, George Washington University, Michigan State University, and St. Bonaventure University have recognized Thomas with honorary doctorates. See Also: Lebanon; Journalists, Print Media; Syria. Further Readings Helen Thomas. http://www.helenthomas.org (accessed June 2010). Thomas, Helen. Front Row at the White House: My Life and Times. New York: Scribner, 1999. Thomas, Helen. Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President: Wit and Wisdom From the Front Row at the White House. New York: Scribner, 2002. Carolyn Edy University of North Carolina

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Tibetan Women’s Association The Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) was established in Lhasa on March 12, 1959. After the Chinese Communist Party took political control of Tibet, the TWA followed the Dalai Lama to India and was not reinstated until September 10, 1984. As of 2010, the TWA was the exiled Tibetan community’s second-largest nongovernmental organization. Its headquarters are located in Dharamsala, India, and it has more than 30 offices throughout India and numerous overseas branches in, for example, New York, London, Quebec, Ontario, Vancouver, Minnesota, Colorado, Kathmandu, Zurich, Victoria, Calgary, Pokhara, Tashiling, Phokhara Tashi, and Palhkiel. The TWA handles issues of Tibetan religion, cultural selfidentity, social welfare, political pursuits, educational needs, ecological protection of the natural environment, human rights, women’s rights, and so on. Tibetan feminist activism is interlocked with the well-known issues of Tibetan human rights. Birth control policies, sterilization, abortion, and sex workers in Tibet, for example, concern the TWA. On March 9, 2009, the president of the TWA, B. Tsering, had a meeting with Taiwanese feminists and discussed the lack of protection for Tibetan women who were pregnant for the second time and protection for their children. Although the Chinese communist government claimed there would be no punishment for non-Han women’s second-time pregnancies, many Tibetan women who are pregnant for the second time are actually compelled to have an abortion, even in the fifth or seventh month of their pregnancy. In addition, more and more women in current Tibet have become sex workers, which lowers Tibetan women’s social status overall and hinders Tibetan women’s empowerment. Because of Tibet’s unique background, the TWA is different from most feminist activist organizations that wrestle with a male-centeredness that tortures women within the same society. The TWA’s current goal is not internal battles against Tibetan men but collaborative projects with Tibetan men’s organizations to fight against Chinese communist power. For instance, it joined the boycott against the Chinese governmental organization of the Olympics in 2008— its target being the Chinese central administration,

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not sports. Most exiled Tibetans regard Chinese communists as invaders and request Tibetan independence, and the TWA struggles for both Tibetans’ own nation state and gender egalitarianism. The TWA’s counterpart is Tibetan fulian (Tibetan Branch of the All-China Women’s Federation) in terms of attitudes toward Chinese communist domination. Contrary to the TWA, the Tibetan fulian praises communist contributions and disagrees with exiled Tibetans on their pursuit of Tibet’s independence, although its responsibility is also Tibetan women’s welfare and rights. See Also: China; Contraception Methods; India; Nepal; Sex Workers. Further Readings Butler, A. Feminism, Nationalism, and Exile Tibetan Women. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 2003. Ezung, E. Women in Exile: Tibetan Women Refugees’ Experiences in India. New Delhi: WISCOMP, 2005. “NGO Alternative Report on Tibetan Women: The Status of Tibetan Women, 1995–2000.” Dharamsala: Tibetan Women’s Association, 2000. Tsering, T. The Road to Beijing: The Tibetan Women’s Association Campaign Strategies for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Dharamsala: Tibetan Women’s Association, 1995. “Violence and Discrimination Against Tibetan Women.” San Francisco: Tibet Justice Center, 1998. Ya-chen Chen Clark University

Title IX Title IX, part of the 1972 Education Amendments Act, is a United States law that prohibits gender discrimination in “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In 1988, Congress affirmed that it applies to entire institutions, not only to specific programs that receive funding. Women and girls have made dramatic gains as a result of Title IX, but those gains have not created equality, nor have they been uncontested. Title IX was designed to remedy gaps in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which exempted

education from gender equity guarantees, but its farthest reaching impact has been on sports. Although women’s athletic opportunities likely would have increased in the wake of the women’s movement, Title IX greatly facilitated that expansion. In 1971, 7 percent of high school athletes were female, fewer than 30,000 women played college sports, and their institutions allocated only 2 percent of athletic budgets to them. Female athletes confronted stereotypes that sports desexed them, and they were expected to subdue competitiveness in favor of feminine grace. By 2008, 41 percent of high school athletes were girls. In 2005, 166,728 women played college sports, and they received 35 percent of athletic budgets. These numbers represent a tremendous expansion of opportunity but not equity. Two out of every three dollars spent on college sports still go to men, and women’s participation falls short of proportional representation at college and high school levels. In 1979, the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare established athletics compliance guidelines known today as the “three-prong test.” Educational institutions must demonstrate one of the following: that male and female athletic participation is proportional to the student body; a history of program expansion for the underrepresented sex; or that the underrepresented students’ interests are fully met by the school’s offerings (since 2002, controversial student-interest surveys are permitted to gauge interest). Schools that fail to comply face lawsuits and complaints filed with the federal government. Controversies A major controversy surrounds how institutions achieve proportional representation, the most common compliance measure. The National Collegiate Athletic Association initially saw proportionality as attainable, because when Title IX took effect, men far outnumbered women in colleges. Today, women make up over half of college students; proportionality is harder to achieve without deeper changes. Critics argue that Title IX takes away men’s opportunities. Particularly when low-profile sports such as wrestling and gymnastics are cut, critics blame the creation of new women’s sports. The reality is more complicated. Most college sports are non-revenue producing, so women’s teams mean more pressure on athletic budgets.

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Pitting men’s minor sports against women’s sports, however, encourages the stereotype that sports really are men’s domain and that women are less entitled to play. It also diverts criticism away from football programs in which budgets have ballooned since the 1970s. Football is often protected by the myth that it produces revenue for institutions, but only one in five football programs recuperates its costs. Americans have yet to fully confront the question of where expensive commercial football programs fit into the educational missions of colleges and universities. As women’s sports grew in funding and prestige, women lost some control over their programs. Athletic associations run by and for women folded, and the overall percentage of female coaches and administrators in women’s sports decreased as men sought these jobs. Moreover, racial equity issues are often overlooked in celebrating Title IX. Commonly added sports such as soccer, water polo, and lacrosse, due to their popularity in suburban high schools, tend to draw mainly white women. Finally, like men’s sports, women’s sports increasingly focus on specialization and commercial market success, a phenomenon that increases sports’ profiles but diminishes the role of athletics as a tool to teach students of all levels. Beyond Sports Title IX applies to all educational programs, including science, mathematics, and technology. Due in part to Title IX, the gender gap in these fields has been closing since the 1970s. In 2008, a National Science Foundation study showed no gender gap in math standardized test scores for girls and boys. Still, women’s participation in these fields lags behind men’s. Similarly, advances in high school vocational and community college career-training programs have been limited. Title IX has created institutional awareness and procedures for preventing and punishing sexual harassment. Because sexual harassment can deprive students of educational opportunity, the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that students can seek monetary damages from their institutions if they fail to take reasonable measures to protect them from sexual harassment. Title IX has also improved women’s educational employment conditions, leading to an overall growth of women in academia and to a near leveling of salaries in K–12 education. Girls and women have made significant gains under Title IX, but gender inequity in educa-

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tion remains. The law has legitimized women’s claims to full access, but that will come only with increased institutional and national enforcement. See Also: Mathematics, Women in; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls; Sexual Harassment; Sports, Women in. Further Readings American Association of University Women. “Title IX Athletic Statistics.” http://www.aauw.org/act/laf /library/athleticStatistics.cfm (accessed July 2010). Carpenter, L. J. and R. V. Acosta. Title IX. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2005. Festle, M. J. Playing Nice: Politics and Apologies in Women’s Sports. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education. “Title IX at 35: Beyond the Headlines.” Washington, DC: National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, 2008. Suggs, W. A Place on the Team: The Triumph and Tragedy of Title IX. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Ware, S. Title IX: A Brief History With Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Jennifer Helgren University of the Pacific

Togo Togo is a west African country with a small coastline (56 kilometers, on the Gulf of Guinea) and shares land borders with Benin, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. Per capita Gross Domestic Product of Togo is $900—among the lowest in the world—and 32 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Togo’s population of about 6 million is almost entirely African (99 percent), with small minorities of Europeans and Syrian-Lebanese. Most follow indigenous beliefs (51 percent), with 29 percent Christians and 20 percent Muslims. Togo is the site of many human rights violations, including restrictions on the press and on freedom of assembly, unprosecuted rape and domestic violence against women, sexual harassment (including

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harassment of female students), trafficking in persons, female genital mutilation (outlawed but estimated to be practiced on about 6 percent of girls), forced labor, and discrimination against women. Although the law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender and the current government has taken steps to address these problems, serious concerns remain. Women dominate commerce and market activity in urban areas, but in rural areas they have few economic opportunities. A husband may control his wife’s earnings and restrict her right to work, and under traditional law, women have no rights to maintenance after divorce or inheritance in the case of their husband’s death. Education is free and compulsory, but only about 41 percent of girls finish primary school and 9 percent finish secondary school; female literacy is estimated at 46.9 percent. Togo provides a poor standard of healthcare and social services for most of its citizens. Life expectancy is 57.4 years for men and 61.99 years for women and, coupled with a high population growth rate (2.754 percent—20th highest in the world), results in an extremely young population (median age, 18.7 years). Infant mortality is high, at 56.84 per 1,000 live births, as is total fertility, at 4.79 children per woman. An estimated 3.3 percent of adults are infected with human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS)—more than half of them women. The international organization Save the Children rates Togo low on many measures relating to the health and welfare of women and children: overall, Togo ranked 25th among 40 Tier III or Least Developed Countries on the Mothers’ Index, 29th on the Women’s Index, and 16th on the Children’s Index. See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Terminology and Critiques of; Poverty; Traffic in Women and Children. Further Readings United Nations Statistics Divisions. “UNdata: A World of Information: Gender Info.” http://data.un.org/Explorer .aspx?d=GenderStat (accessed February 2010). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Togo.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/119029.htm (accessed February 2009). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University

Tonga Unlike other Pacific Islands, the kingdom of Tonga is a constitutional monarchy. Following a period of membership in the Polynesian kingdom, Tonga became a British protectorate in 1900 and joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970. In the 21st century, threefourths of this archipelago of islands still lives in rural areas, and agriculture generates a fourth of the gross national product. With a per capita income of only $4,600, nearly a fourth of the population lives in poverty. Many women have to work more than one job to support their families. In this highly traditional society, women have low status. Suffrage is universal for anyone 21 and over, but only a few women have managed to defy tradition and achieve positions of leadership. Most women who have done so have connections to Tongan nobility. Tongan inheritance laws favor males, and even an illegitimate male child is allowed to inherit rather than a widow or daughter. A widow who inherits must cede all claims to her inheritance if she remarries or has sexual intercourse. Tonga is heavily dependent on foreign aid and on remittances from Tongans who work abroad. Young people are particularly susceptible to the 13 percent unemployment rate. Tonga ranks 99th on the United Nations list of countries with very high human development. The islands are divided ethnically between Polynesians and Europeans, and the religious orientation tends to be Christian. The median age for females is 22.8 years. Tonga’s infant mortality rate is 11.58 deaths per 1,000 live births. Women have a longer life expectancy than males, living to an average 74.41 years compared to 68.18 years for men. Tonga ranks 112th in the world in fertility, and women give birth to 2.25 children on the average. Literacy is nearly equal for women and men, with a rate 99 percent. Both females and males receive approximately 13 years of schooling. Domestic Violence and Sexual Harassment There have been reports of rising rates of rape in Tonga, but there are no laws against spousal rape. Domestic violence also is on the rise, but most cases go unreported. Abused women can turn to the National Center for Women and Children and the Free Wes-

Torres, Dara



leyan Church for help. Neither prostitution nor sexual harassment is illegal in Tonga. Women’s rights groups are active in Tonga, and they work closely with organizations from other Pacific islands, but Tongan women don’t feel they receive essential support from their own government. Following the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, the government created a women’s unit within the prime minister’s office. In 2003, Tonga adopted a National Policy on Gender and Development, which was designed to guarantee equal wages and improve the lives of Tongan females. See Also: Domestic Violence; Property Rights; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Tonga.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/tn.html (accessed June 2010). Henry, Alice. “Women’s Work.” off our backs, v.22/3 (March 31, 1981). United States Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Tonga.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt /2008/eap/119060.htm (accessed June 2010). “Women’s Fight for Economic Justice: A Critical Look at UN and Government Goals, Conventions and Policies: The Case of Tonga.” IWTC Women’s Globalnet, v.281 (August 30, 2005). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Torres, Dara Dara Torres is a world-renowned athlete who has been described as the fastest and oldest woman in American swimming. In 2008, 41-year-old Torres distinguished herself by competing successfully at the Beijing Olympics, 24 years and one child after her initial Olympic appearance. In doing so, she shattered the age barrier in a field dominated by youth, and inspired older athletes to return to competition. Torres is best known as a record-setting Olympic champion swimmer. Born in the United States in 1967, Torres began competing internationally at

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age 14 and won her first Olympic gold medal three years later. She earned 28 National Collegiate Athletics Association All-American swimming awards, the maximum possible, as an athlete at the University of Florida, where she also completed a degree in Communication. She is the first American swimmer to compete in five Olympic games, winning medals in each competition. With four gold, four silver, and four bronze medals, Torres also shares the record for the most Olympic medals won by a female swimmer. Over the course of her lengthy career, she has set numerous American and Olympic records, including a world record for the 50-meter freestyle. In 2009, she won the national title in this event for the 10th time since 1982. Outside the Pool Torres has complemented her athletic career with professional activities outside the pool. In 2009, she published a self-help book based on her success in challenging the age barrier, Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life. As a fashion model, she has walked the runway and appeared in magazines. In 1994, she became the first athlete to be included in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, challenging the conventional physical beauty standards promoted by the influential publication. She has also worked as a television commentator for national networks including ABC, Fox, ESPN, TNT, and the Discovery Channel. Torres has emerged as a role model not only for her athletic prowess and longevity but also for her ability to persevere in the face of adversity and conventional barriers. Over the course of her career, Torres overcame an eating disorder, the loss of her father to cancer, the demands of single motherhood, and two divorces to reemerge as a world-class swimmer. She has demonstrated that middle age may present new challenges for athletes, but it does not prevent them from competing successfully against the inexperience of youth. Torres’s professional and personal life experiences reflect the multiple roles women are expected to play in contemporary Western society as well as the importance of questioning gender, age, and beauty norms. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; Swimming.

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Further Readings Mullen, P. H., Jr. Gold in the Water: The True Story of Ordinary Men and Their Extraordinary Dream of Olympic Glory. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2001. Premier Management Group. “Dara Torres.” http://www .DaraTorres.com (accessed June 2010). Torres, Dara with Elizabeth Weil. Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life. New York: Broadway Books, 2009. USA Swimming. “Dara Torres Profile.” http://www.usa swimming.org/DesktopModules/BioViewManaged .aspx?personid=10e6c9c4-0e67-465f-be5f-051652fe33 0c&TabId=1453&Mid=6519 (accessed June 2010). Judith R. Halasz State University of New York, New Paltz

Toxic Waste, as Women’s Issue Toxic waste, also called hazardous waste, may take many forms, from nuclear radiation to air, wind, ground, and water pollution, and is caused by the careless use or accidental spills of toxic chemicals. These and other forms of waste often result in the destruction of our forests and waterways and pollute the atmosphere and soil. Toxic waste began as a byproduct of the commercial and manufacturing activities of industrialization but has since expanded and is now a problem among other industries as well, including medical, agricultural, and military industries. Toxic waste is often hazardous to the environment and human health and can increase mortality and morbidities for those who are exposed. Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, spawned new concerns for how environmental degradation may affect our health and well-being. Carson, a scientist, writer, and ecologist, wrote Silent Spring to inform the public about the potential lasting harmful effects of the haphazard use of synthetic chemicals on humans, animals, and our environment. She stressed the importance of diversification of plant and animal species as a way to avoid overuse of pesticides and advocated strongly for people’s right to know about environmental contamination. During the 1970s and 1980s, many industries advanced their use and

production of hazardous chemicals but often failed to ensure public safety. Specifically, nuclear accidents at the Three Mile Island power station in Pennsylvania in 1979 and at a Chernobyl power station in the Ukraine in 1986 released massive amounts of radioactivity into the environment. These events increased fear about the dangers of nuclear power, and people living in the aftermath of these disasters face social, psychological, health, and economic problems. Daily life for women living near Chernobyl changed drastically after the incident as a result of food contamination and concerns for their children’s health. Although long-term effects from exposure are still being investigated, there has been a significant increase in thyroid cancer among children. In another incident, the transnational American company Union Carbide set up a pesticide-producing plant in Bhopal, India, in 1970. An explosion at the plant on December 3, 1984, killed thousands of people in ghastly ways within a few hours and has killed approximately 20,000 people since then as a result of their exposure to the toxins. The local water and soil are still so heavily contaminated with lead, mercury, and organochlorines that birth defects, reproductive disorders, and other disabilities continue to affect each generation. Women continue to experience severe reproductive health problems, including menstrual irregularities, miscarriage, premature menopause, increased rates of cervical cancer, and pelvic inflammatory disease, among others. Long-Term Exposures Although these events were all catastrophic accidents, there also exists a history of less prominent, long-term exposures that have been revealed as a result of activist pressure and investigations. For example, the Stringfellow Acid Pits were designated by the state of California in 1955 as a disposal site for toxic chemicals from corporations across California. In 1978, the pits became flooded from heavy rains, and the existing dam was not expected to be able to hold up, so the state approved the release of 1 million gallons of contaminated water into the surrounding communities, and children playing in the giant puddles were directly exposed to the polluted waters. A variety of health-related effects associated with exposures from this waste site are still being researched.



A similar catastrophe occurred in Love Canal, a bluecollar neighborhood near Niagara Falls, New York. A mile-long area, originally made into a canal trench, was purchased by a chemical company that used it as a waste dump and then later sold it for $1 to the city of Niagara Falls. In 1954, a school was built on the site. Almost 25 years later, Lois Gibbs, a resident of Love Canal, became concerned with her children’s health. On further investigation, Gibbs discovered that her neighbors were experiencing an extraordinarily high incidence of miscarriages, reproductive cancers, stillbirths, birth defects, and other rare diseases. Gibbs believed that there was a direct link between the toxic waste site and the health problems experienced by her own family and neighbors. State authorities dismissed her complaints, so Gibbs organized the women in her community to demand relocation. The New York State Health Department finally began to investigate and subsequently discovered that chemicals had exuded into the soil and groundwater. Woman’s Role in Toxic Waste Events These events and others were brought to light through the work of women who lived in these communities and became activists when the health of their families was at stake. Toxic waste is a women’s issue in the context of women’s socially and culturally defined roles as mothers and subsistence workers. Across the globe, taking care of family is still primarily women’s work, and thus, when toxic waste becomes a human health threat, women are often the first to notice and the first to mobilize. The same roles that lead women to become concerned with toxic waste also put women at higher risk for dangerous exposures because women often work more intimately with toxic substances. Overexposure to occupational chemical hazards is often the result of weak enforcement of lax safety regulations that include lack of protective gear and proper cleaning facilities, inability to read and/or understand labels on the chemical containers, and reuse of the chemical containers for storing food and water. Traditionally, environmentalism has been viewed in the United States as a white, middle-class issue; however, environmental degradation is very much a class and race issue because waste sites are often relegated to poor, minority communities. Furthermore, Indian reservations in the United States are particularly vulnerable because they do not have stringent

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environmental regulations, and because of the high poverty levels on the reservations, leaders can be bribed to accept toxic waste on their land. Toxic waste activism is often community based and commonly grows out of women’s subjective experiences within their communities. Governmental resistance, and the increasing demands for scientific research to investigate the health effects of exposure to toxic waste, keep toxic waste at the forefront of women’s issues in the 21st century. See Also: Brockovich, Erin; Cancer, Environmental Factors and; Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Justice; Gibbs, Lois; Rachel’s Network; Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Further Readings Carson, R. Silent Spring. Boston: Mariner, 1962. Colborn, T., et al. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story. New York: Plume, 1997. Krauss, C. “Blue-Collar Women and Toxic-Waste Protests: The Process of Politicization.” In Richard Hofrichter, ed., Toxic Struggles: The Theory and Practice of Environmental Justice. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2002. Sarangi, S. “The Bhopal Aftermath: Generations of Women Affected.” In Miriam Jacobs and Barbara Dinham, eds., Silent Invaders: Pesticides, Livelihoods and Women’s Health. London: Zed Books, 2003. Schettler, T., et al. Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Seager, J. Earth Follies: Coming to Feminist Terms With the Global Environmental Crisis. London: Routledge, 1994. Erica H. Anstey University of South Florida

Toys, Gender-Stereotypic The distinctions we use to separate men from women, and the qualities that go into what we call “masculine” and “feminine,” are arbitrary and culturally defined. Gender roles are perpetuated and learned through gender socialization, and toys may be considered a

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type of gender socializing agent. ������������������ Socialization connects the different generations to one another. Socialization constitutes the set of processes through which the values, norms, and practical know-how of a society are handed down from generation to generation. It is the expression of the value system characterizing the various societies and plays a role of great importance in the formation of identity and of male and female roles. On it depends the success of the transformation process of the biological characteristics into behaviors appropriate to them; from “nature” in “conformity and adaptation.” By gender, we in fact mean the process of social construction of the biological characteristics (sex). Definition, representation, and motivation of appropriate behaviors are connected with the social expectations linked to the status of a man or a woman. The process of gender differentiation is supported and made legitimate by the whole system of values of each society and by all the agencies of socialization: family, school system, peer groups, means of communication and working, associative, religious, and political experiences. Shaping the Young Younger and older boys and girls are encouraged to behave in different ways. They learn to walk, speak, and act in the prescribed way for their gender according to the expectations of the social groups and culture they belong to. Insufficiently compliant behavior is generally more tolerated in little boys, while little girls are expected to behave more “gently” from the early years of their lives. Boys are in fact considered physically and verbally more aggressive, physically stronger and risk seeking. Masculinity places emphasis on personal fulfilment achieved through qualities such as independence, willingness to risk, and daring. Little girls, on the other hand, are perceived as weaker, gentler, and more inclined to listen and perform care work. These perceptions are reflected in the parents’ behaviors, when, for example, they seek to give differentiated toys as presents. Model cars, trains, planes, soldiers, construction games for boys; dolls to dress and undress, soft toys, toy kitchens, and little dollhouse sets for the girls. Parents themselves will encourage sons and daughters to take part in activities connoted by specific gender characteristics. Boys are more likely than girls to be given tasks concerning repairs and maintenance in the home and the acquisi-

tion of skills outside the home environment; girls are more called on to collaborate in cleaning tasks, washing, and preparing meals. Gender socialization, through toys, teaches and reinforces stereotypical gender roles: “Boys are better at math”; “Boys can run faster than girls”; “Boys invent things, girls use the things boys invent”; “Boys fix things, girls need things fixed.” It is widely accepted that toys for boys tend to be cars, trains, action games, and toys that focus on respect for their physical abilities. Girls’ toys are associated with physical attractiveness, nurturance, and domestic skill. The toys rated as most likely to be educational and to develop children’s physical, cognitive, artistic, and other skills are typically rated as neutral or moderately masculine. A second key point: people might think that toys are more androgynous these days. But go into any toy shop and you will find separate aisles, and even separate floors, for girls and boys. Toy stores divide toys into “boys” and “girls” sections; furthermore, toy packaging exhibits significant color differences. The store aisles contain plenty of pinks, yellow, whites, lavenders, reds and pastels for girls; conversely, the boys’ aisles have an array of blue, the most popular “boy” color, as well as green, red, black, gray, and brown. Also, inventory may reveal sexism. Female sections are usually much bigger than the male side, possibly feeding into the stereotype that women seek more material objects then men. Gender-neutral toys seem an exception rather than a rule. While toys are gender stereotyped for all age groups, there seems to be more flexibility in the gender stereotyping of toys for infants and toddlers. Differences by Age Cohort A study designed to compare how 5- to 13-year-old children’s leisure activity preferences (participants consisted of 120 children, 60 boys and 60 girls from a private school in Nebraska) revealed that sex was a significant factor in determining toy category selection. Boys preferred manipulative toys, vehicles, and action figures, which tend to encourage manipulation, construction, and active exploration. In contrast, girls preferred dolls, stuffed animals, and educational toys, which tend to encourage the development of verbal rather than visual-spatial skills. A second study carried out in Italy at the national level, shows that the preferences expressed by boys



and girls for the different types of games highlight uniformity but also singularity and differences that tend to widen as the children grow. Children aged from 3 to 5 years prefer traditional toys: dolls for the girls (88.4 percent), toy cars and trains for the boys (73.5 percent), although both share a love for construction games, puzzles, and drawing, games involving movement and the manipulation of materials such as plasticine. With the passing of years, interest increases for games of movement, especially with girls. Between 6 and 10 years, gender differences reemerge: 70.6 percent of girls continue to love drawing; among their male peers this preference falls to 47.5 percent. Moreover, 71.6 percent of boys like playing football and, again among the boys, video games are popular (65.2 percent). The same data reveal that 23.7 percent of girls aged 3 to 5 and 27.1 percent of those aged 6 to 10 prefer role games (e.g., mothers and daughters, sellers and customers), while the percentages for boys of the same age are 10.8 percent and 11.4 percent. Lastly, 43.6 percent of girls between the ages of 3 and 5 and over a third of those in the 6 to 10 age group play at miming household tasks, as compared with 13.9 percent (age three to five) and 8.6 percent (6 to 10 years) among boys. Technology continues to be a “male” territory: already in the 3 to 5 age group the boys who love playing with video games and computers account for two-and-a-half times the number of girls (25.6 percent against 10.4 percent). Between the ages of 6 and 10, the use of computer games rises decisively, involving 65.2 percent of boys and 38.7 percent of girls. Play Patterns and Social Skills Several studies have looked at the way in which girls and boys play with toys and why. One of the key things that makes a child play with a gender-stereotypical toy is the way they have seen adults interacting with the same toys. Boys and girls are probably guided toward a certain type of game by the same attitudes shown by their parents and relatives, who have in mind (and have in their turn been socialized by) precise gender models, which sons and daughters have to match up to. Through the ceaseless alternation of daily interactions, in which gender differentiation appears, and in reactions to the adoption of behaviors considered more or less appropriate to sexual identity, adults hand down the same system of roles, values, and rules

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handed down to them, which their children have to respect in order to be socially accepted. These values find confirmation in the peer group with which children compare themselves; they have also received them from their grandparents, parents, and relatives, and in their own turn demand them to be respected. Due to the stereotypical activities based on gender that society expects children to abide by through the toys they choose, boys and girls become limited only to their own gender, not allowing them to explore different roles. Play with gender-stereotyped toys may indeed foster differential social and cognitive skills in boys and girls. Girls restricted to traditionally girlie toys run the risk of growing up believing that appearance, nurturing, and domestic skills are more important than anything else in life. Boys, on the other hand, if they play solely with boys’ toys like soldiers and competitive games, could grow up with the gender conditioning that aggression, violence, and competition are both fun and not to be condemned. Thus, from an educational development perspective, it is widely accepted that both boys and girls will benefit from playing with a wide variety of different toys and games, whether they are traditional boys’ toys or girls’ toys. See Also: Barbie Dolls; Bratz Dolls; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Campenni, C. Estelle. “Gender Stereotyping of Children’s Toys: A Comparison of Parents and Nonparents.” Sex Roles, v.40/1–2 (1999). Cherney, Isabelle D. “Gender-Linked Differences in the Toys, Television Shows, Computer Games, and Outdoor Activities of 5 to 13-Year-Old Children.” Sex Roles, v.54/9–10 (2006). Idle, Tracey, et al. “Gender Role Socialization in Toy Play Situations: Mothers and Fathers With Their Daughters and Sons.” Sex Roles, v.28/11 (1993). Owen Blakemore, Judith E., Sheri A. Berenbaum, and Lynn S. Liben. Gender Development. London: Psychology Press, 2008. Elisabetta Ruspini University of Milano, Bicocca

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Track and Field, Women in Like they have in many other sports, women have made a strong showing in the area of track and field— definitely over the past century, and even more so since 2000. Though women have carved a significant place for themselves and their talents on the track, in the jumping pits, and while throwing a shot or discus, some female track-and-field athletes struggle with self-perception, use techniques similar to male athletes to alter their bodies, and sometimes face difficult and hurtful accusations about their gender because they behave or look like men. Scholars and researchers find the discussion about women, gender, and track especially interesting since men and women are both associated with the sport (in comparison to sports like basketball or ice skating, which are most closely identified with men and women, respectively). Though women in track and field are often viewed as “masculine,” and they face pressures common to male athletes, women have continued to flourish in the sport. Body Image, Reshaping Actions, and Controversy In “Exploring Women Track and Field Athletes’ Meanings of Muscularity,” Amber D. Mosewich worked with eight women while probing the women’s perceptions of themselves and their varying degrees of muscularity. Mosewich observed that these women found themselves confronted with the stereotypical expectations associated with the female body, one that is slender and agile, rather than muscular and strong, like those of the athletes involved in Mosewich’s study. Men, who are encouraged to be muscular and robust—especially as athletes—do not face the same questions and concerns about self-image and self-acceptance as female track-and-field athletes whose bodies do not align with the stereotypical representation of women. Scholars have also recently examined how female track-and-field athletes, like their male counterparts, use various supplements to control body weight, muscle, and tone. The report “Enhancing Appearance and Sports Performance: Are Female Collegiate Athletes Behaving More Like Males?” by Susan M. Muller, Teena R. Gorrow, and Sidney R. Schneider, examines how women athletes, including those in track and field, do indeed use supplements and specific behav-

iors to mold their bodies into top form, a trend most often associated with male athletes. Muller, Gorrow, and Schneider assert that many contemporary athletes do not simply participate in a sport because they enjoy it but because they desire fame, whether from securing a contract with a professional team or product endorsements. According to the study, only 42.4 percent of men took dietary supplements to improve their bodies and performance, but over twice as many women (99.1 percent) engaged in this behavior. Only 9.6 percent of men in the study took supplements specifically used to lower their amount of body fat, whereas over three times as many women (33.8 percent) turned to supplements to decrease their body fat. These statistics imply that women feel more concerned with losing body fat, and quickly, than their male counterparts. A controversy that has recently rocked women’s professional track and field concerns Caster Semenya, a female athlete from South Africa. As Ariel Levy examines in her feature “Either/Or,” published by the New Yorker, fans and officials alike have questioned Semenya’s true gender. She has the genitalia of a woman, but, according to medical reports, does not have a uterus or ovaries; some doctors claim she has testes that never descended. In turn, Semenya has more testosterone than her fellow athletes, which, as Levy says, provides her with an obvious advantage. Doctors and officials have waged very political debates about Semenya’s gender. Semenya’s situation remains noteworthy because of the discussions it has generated, focused on gender, determining gender, and what traits make a person— undeniably—either a woman or a man. Semenya’s case, even more significantly, has raised questions about protecting athletes’ human rights, which were sorely violated in Semenya’s case. Media Bias of a Subtle Form When asked which sports most television viewers prefer to watch, many say male sports since they appear faster paced and more aggressive than female sports; the same holds true for track, but several scholars believe they have discovered why viewers find women’s track-and-field events less entertaining than the men’s. In the article “‘Naturally’ Less Exciting? Visual Production of Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Coverage During the 2004 Olympics,” Jennifer Greer,



Marie Hardin, and Casey Homan argue that, because of the way in which the competition between the female and male competitors is presented, viewers’ perceptions are influenced to believe the men’s events are more stimulating to watch. The authors observed that men’s track-and-field events vary the camera angles, types of shots, and even special effects much more frequently than in the coverage of the women’s track-and-field events, thus portraying the men’s events as more engaging and exciting. The choices made by the media, as noted by Greer, Hardin, and Homan, raise important questions about the representation of women’s sports—track, in particular—especially in the medium of television. International female track-and-field athletes proved themselves in various recent competitions, most notably the Olympics held in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), and Beijing (2008). Gold medal winners in Sydney include Pauline Davis-Thompson (Bahamas), Cathy Freeman (Australia), Maria de Lurdes Mutola (Mozambique), Nouria Mérah-Benida (Algeria), Gabriela Szabo (Romania), Derartu Tulu (Ethiopia), Olga Shishigina (Kazakhstan), Irina Privalova (Russia), Liping Wang (China), Naoko Takahashi (Japan), Heike Drechsler (Germany), Yelena Yelsina (Russia), Tereza Marinova (Bulgaria), Stacy Dragila (United States), Yanina Karolchik (Belarus), Ellina Zvereva (Belarus), Trine Hattestad (Norway), Kamilla Skolimowska (Poland), and Denise Lewis (Great Britain). The following women won gold medals in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics: Yulia Nesterenko (Belarus), Veronica Campbell (Jamaica), Tonique Williams-Darling (Bahamas), Kelly Holmes (Great Britain), Meseret Defar (Ethiopia), Xing Huina (China), Joanna Hayes (United States), Fani Halkia (Greece), Mizuki Noguchi (Japan), Athanasia Tsoumeleka (Greece), Yelena Slesarenko (Russia), Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia), Françoise Mbango Etone (Cameroon), Yumileidi Cumbá (Cuba), Natalya Sadova (Russia), Olga Kuzenkova (Russia), Osleidys Menéndez (Cuba), and Carolina Klüft (Sweden). Beijing female track and field gold winners were Shelly-Ann Fraser (Jamaica), Veronica CampbellBrown (Jamaica), Christine Ohuruogu (Great Britain), Pamela Jelimo (Kenya), Nancy Jebet Lagat (Kenya), Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia), Dawn Harper (United States), Melanie Walker (Jamaica), Gulnara Galkina-Samitova (Russia), Constantina Dită-

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Tomescu (Romania), Olga Kaniskina (Russia), Tia Hellebaut (Belgium), Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia), Maurren Maggi (Brazil), Françoise Mbango Etone (Cameroon), Valerie Vili (New Zealand), Stephanie Brown Trafton (United States), Aksana Miankova (Belarus), Barbora Špotáková (Czech Republic), and Natalya Dobrynska (Ukraine). See Also: American Girl Dolls; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Running/Marathons; Steroid Use; Sports, Women in; Title IX. Further Readings Greer, Jennifer D., Marie Hardin, and Casey Homan. “‘Naturally’ Less Exciting? Visual Production of Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Coverage During the 2004 Olympics.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, v.53/2 (June 2009). Levy, Ariel. “Either/Or.” The New Yorker, v.85/39 (November 30, 2009). Mosewich, Amber D. “Exploring Women Track and Field Athletes’ Meanings of Maculinity.” Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, v.21/1 (2009). Muller, Susan M., Teena R. Gorrow, and Sidney R. Schneider. “Enhancing Appearance and Sports Performance: Are Female Collegiate Athletes Behaving More Like Males?” Journal of American College Health, v.57/5 (2009). Tricard, Louis Mead. American Women’s Track and Field, 1980-2000: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Trafficking, Women and Children Human trafficking constitutes a form of modern-day slavery and one of the most severe forms of human rights abuses in the 21st century. It is one of the fastest growing forms of international crime and poses a significant threat to the safety and well-being of individuals throughout the world. Trafficking refers to the transfer, relocation, or transportation of human beings for the purposes of economic gain or other forms of exploitation and through the use of threat,

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coercion, fraud, abduction, or deception. It is typically done for purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labor and domestic servitude. Trafficking is a phenomenon associated with increasing globalization and is perpetuated by the ever-present global inequalities of gender, race, and economics. Trafficking victims are denied their basic human rights and are often kept locked up and isolated, thus restricting their opportunities for escape. Victims who are trafficked into sex work are at high risk for violence as well as human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and other sexually transmitted diseases. As with most forms of criminal activity, it is difficult to collect accurate data about human trafficking. However, advocacy organizations and governments alike assert that the overwhelming majority of individuals who are trafficked are women and children—including both female and male children—and it is estimated that approximately half of all individuals trafficked each year are under the age of 18. Data indicates that internationally between 1 and 2 million individuals are newly trafficked each year, while millions more remain captive within the trafficking system. In addition, tens of thousands of individuals are trafficked domestically each year, including from one state to another or from a rural area to an urban one (or vice versa) within the same state. Victims who disobey their captors are often beaten, tortured, or even killed. Recent years have witnessed increased efforts by governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and media sources to combat trafficking. However, there remain significant challenges not only in respect to raising awareness about this problem but also in prosecuting traffickers and assisting victims. A Global Problem Trafficking is most often a means of securing individuals for participation in various types of forced labor. It may be carried out by small networks of individuals, with each one responsible for a different aspect of the process of luring or abducting a victim, transporting them, or overseeing them once they arrive at their final destination. However, trafficking is most often carried out as part of organized crime activities. It is one of the largest criminal industries in the world, ranking third behind arms dealing and the drug

trade, and generates billions of dollars in profits each year. Human trafficking is a global phenomenon and impacts nearly every country in the world—wealthy and impoverished, small and large, democracies and republics, and even monarchies. Internationally, there are distinct geographic patterns that emerge in regard to both the origins of trafficked individuals and their destinations. Victims of international trafficking are most often lured or taken from poor nations or conflict zones (referred to as “source” countries) and then pass through other “transit” countries before reaching their final destination. At present, the most common origins of trafficked individuals include Asia, Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, Russia, eastern Europe (particularly Belarus, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova), Mexico, parts of South America (especially Brazil and Colombia), and the Caribbean. Victims may be sent nearly anywhere in the world. However, known trafficking routes demonstrate that primary destinations for trafficked individuals tend to be industrialized, relatively prosperous nations, including those in Western Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America (particularly the United States). Trafficking of Children Children constitute a significant portion of trafficking victims. Trafficking has been defined as a form of child abuse and a clear violation of children’s rights under international doctrines such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Governments and NGOs have reported that although the majority of child victims are adolescents, even infants and toddlers are regularly trafficked. The majority of child victims are trafficked into sex work. Indeed, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has helped create a global demand for child sex workers, particularly as many believe them to be “pure” and free from the disease. It has become increasingly apparent that children are also trafficked via the international adoption system. While developing nations serve as the primary source countries for child victims who enter this system, Western Europe and North America serve as the primary destinations. Other trafficked children are forced to provide cheap labor for various services and industries (especially domestic and agricultural work as well as mining) or forced to serve as child soldiers during times of war. There have been documented



cases of child victims being sold as brides and others being used as human sacrifices. Traffickers frequently prey upon poverty-stricken and war-torn areas and may obtain child victims in a number of ways. Parents who are living in abject poverty might simply sell their child to traffickers to obtain much-needed income. Children who are living on the streets or in orphanages may be abducted or lured by the promise of toys, food, money, new parents, or a stable home. Efforts to Combat Trafficking In recent years, there have been increased efforts to combat trafficking. International entities such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the European Union have been vocal opponents of trafficking and have provided forums where member states can share information about trafficking, including as it pertains to trafficking patterns, the prevalence of trafficking, and strategies for combating this problem both domestically and internationally. Individual countries have overwhelmingly supported such efforts, and by 2008, 80 percent of countries throughout the world had passed their own antitrafficking legislation. Many states have passed similar legislation. In addition, NGOs and media sources have helped raise awareness about trafficking of adults and children alike. NGOs have been especially active in antitrafficking efforts. In addition to disseminating information about the problems associated with human trafficking, promoting antitrafficking legislation, and setting up hotlines for reporting cases of trafficking, they also have been at the forefront of victim services. Such services have included identifying and rescuing victims, supplying them with basic necessities including food and shelter, providing healthcare and counseling, offering legal assistance, helping them obtain social service benefits, and job training/rehabilitation. Despite these gains, there is a lot left to do to eradicate human trafficking. First, while awareness campaigns have been somewhat effective, they tend to equate human trafficking with sexual exploitation and forced sex work. While it is true that many victims are trafficked for the sex trade, many others are forced to work as domestic servants or in agriculture, mining and factories. Thus, awareness campaigns must expand their scope. Second, while it is common for victims who are forced into sex work to be arrested

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and prosecuted under antiprostitution laws, arrest and prosecution rates for traffickers remain alarmingly low. Traffickers who are convicted often receive only minimal fines or jail terms. Third, efforts must be expanded to provide support and services for trafficking victims. While many countries and states have agreed to such services and support them in principle, few have devoted the resources necessary to establish and maintain appropriate and timely assistance for trafficking victims. Finally, and most significantly, it is imperative to combat the ideologies and inequalities that give rise to trafficking in the first place. See Also: Adoption; Child Abuse, Perpetrators of; Child Abuse, Victims of; Child Labor; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Prostitution, Legal; Rape, Incidence of; Sex Workers; Sexually Transmitted Infections; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Academy for Educational Development. “Human Trafficking.org: A Web Resource for Combating Human Trafficking.” http://www.humantrafficking.org (accessed June 2010). Ebbe, Obi N. I. and Dilip K. Das. Global Trafficking in Women and Children. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008. Hynes, H. P. and J. G. Raymond. “Put in Harm’s Way: The Neglected Health Consequences of Sex Trafficking in the United States.” In J. Silliman and A. Battacharjee, eds. Policing the National Body: Race, Gender, and Criminalization. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2002. Kara, Siddarth Ashok. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. King, Gilbert. Woman, Child for Sale: The New Slave Trade in the 21st Century. New York: Chamberlain Brothers, 2004. The Project to End Human Trafficking. http://www.end humantrafficking.org (accessed June 2010). Strategic Global Initiatives. “Stop Child Trafficking Now.” http://www.sctnow.org (accessed June 2010). Zhang, Sheldon S. Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings: All Roads Lead to America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. J. Duquaine-Watson University of Texas at Dallas

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Transgender

Transgender There are two strands of meaning associated with the term transgender. The first describes a person interested in acquiring some or many of the physical characters of the opposite sex without necessarily questioning his/her biological genitals. These people desire to express in behaviors and in interpersonal relations their feelings apart from their anatomical structure and without planning the physical alteration of their body. The term also takes on a second, more generic meaning, and this may lead to some confusion. It may describe individuals who show a different behavior from what is often considered socially appropriate for their gender. In other words, it refers to all identities or practices that cross over, cut across, move between, and combine socially constructed sex/gender boundaries. Crossdressers and drag kings and queens are included as transgender people just as intersex persons are sometimes also transsexuals. Transgender people experience the many nuances separating the “ideal” models of man and woman in their everyday lives. The term crossdresser, which has taken the place of the unsuitable word transvestite, is generally associated with a person who feels an affinity and interest in some female or male prerogatives, such as gestural expressiveness and clothing. These persons may change their bodies by removing body hair and/or taking hormones; they do not change their sexual characteristics because they wish to “appear” to be women or men. In the past, the adoption of male clothes by women, for example, was a way to enjoy all those privileges, rights, and freedoms, which men could exclusively access. On the other hand, it was not only women in men’s clothes who attracted the attention of medical doctors and researchers but also men who assumed feminine attitudes, clothes, and desires. While cases of individuals willing to live their entire lives in a guise opposite to that of their own gender were already frequent in modern times, the phenomenon seems to have increased at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This was a historic moment marked by rapid changes brought about by industrialization and urbanization, coupled with the start of the consumer society. Examples of this include drag queens, men who make use of showy female clothes; and drag kings, females who dress up in male clothes. The message

Dr. Camille Cabral, a transgender activist at a demonstration for transgender people in Paris, October 1, 2005.

drag kings and queens convey may be very complex. They are men and women who, by transforming their bodies as a form of art and as part of an artistic performance, take over the rules determining masculine and feminine and put them on show, performing them. Through their shows, they deconstruct the genders, mix them and confuse the boundaries, showing what genders really are: undefined and constantly changing. Transgender Characteristics

Intersex persons display mixed sexual and reproductive characteristics. Within intersexuality a distinction should be made between the cases concerning primary sexuality and those related instead to secondary sexual characteristics. Primary sexual characteristics refer to the type of gonads and genital structures (ovaries or testicles); secondary sexual characteristics refer to the bodily and physiological differences. Intersexuality regarding the primary sexual characteristics is called hermaphrodism, while



intersexuality depending on secondary sexual characteristics is called pseudo-hermaphrodism. It is extremely rare for an individual to have both testicles and ovaries present. Cases of male and female pseudo-hermaphrodism are more common and are conditions marked by a physical appearance typical of the “opposite” sex, whose features appear normal. Male pseudo-hermaphrodism, for example, is when a genetically male man has external genitals and secondary sexual characters that are ambiguous or female. For this reason pseudo-hermaphrodism may be the cause of erroneous gender attribution of sex at birth. Medial Technology Although the anomaly has been known from ancient times, hermaphrodites were not taken into consideration by medicine for a long time. The development of medical technology changed the situation. The gender clarification progress made by surgery generated many problems for intersex people, who were increasingly forced to undergo operations for gender correction. The criteria chosen were strongly “genital” based: if a person had grown up as a girl, with breasts and other secondary female sexual features, but also had two testicles, she was consequently coopted into the male ranks. Intersexuality is not a sexual disorder, however. It refers, instead, to individuals born in an “intermediary” sex compared to what is culturally considered necessary to socially construct men and women. Moreover, the various degrees of intersexuality are not an illness or a deformity; they are simple bodily variations. Discrimination and Intolerance Transgender or transsexual people have to cope with many discriminatory processes. Social institutions are often intolerant of gender diversity. Many areas of social and economic life��������������������������� —�������������������������� such as the right to motherhood or fatherhood—should be reviewed to ensure full citizens’ rights for nonheterosexual people and to reduce the power of heteronormativity. In many countries, heterosexuality and marriage have long been protected by law and given access to various rights under social security. Also, there has been a general lack of attention, and a lack of comparative research, to the complex intersection between forms of social disadvantage such as gender and sexual orientation. These

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obstacles have profound impacts on homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual people’s lives. See Also: Bisexuality; Coming Out; Drag Kings; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Reassignment Surgery; Heterosexism; Heterosexuality; Homophobia; LGBTQ; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Sexual Orientation. Further Readings Halberstam, J. “Mackdaddy, Superfly, Rapper: Gender, Race, and Masculinity in the Drag King Scene.” Social Text (1997). Hines, S. Transforming Gender. Transgender Practices of Identity, Intimacy and Care. Bristol: The Policy Press, 2007. Hird, M. “Gender’s Nature: Intersexuals, Transsexuals and the ‘Sex’/‘Gender’ Binary.” Feminist Theory. v.1/3, 2000. Roen, K. “But We Have To Do Something: Surgical Correction of Atypical Genitalia.” Body and Society, v.14 (2008). Ruspini, Elisabetta, ed. “Changing Femininities, Changing Masculinities. Social Change, Gender Identities and Sexual Orientations.” Sociological Research Online, v.12/1 (2007). Elisabetta Ruspini University of Milano, Bicocca

Transnational Feminist Networks A transnational feminist network (TFN) brings together women from three or more countries around a specific set of grievances and goals, such as women’s human rights, health, or economic justice. As fluid and nonhierarchical structures that span local and global spaces, such networks are connected to globalization processes and engage extensively in cyberactivism. Four types of contemporary TFNs are discussed: those that target the neoliberal economic policy agenda; those that focus on the danger of fundamentalisms and insist on women’s human rights, especially in the Muslim world; women’s peace groups that target conflict, war, and empire; and networks engaging in feminist humanitarianism and international solidarity.

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Globalization is a multidimensional process entailing economic, political, cultural, and geographic aspects, in which the mobility of capital, peoples, discourses, and organizations takes on an increasingly transnational or global character. TFNs are both a response to “globalization-from-above” (neoliberal capitalism, the increasing power of institutions of global governance, growing inequalities, and persistent poverty) and a contributor to “globalizationfrom-below” (a more people-oriented form that would institutionalize economic justice, peace, and human rights). The growth of TFNs was assisted by the United Nations Decade for Women (1976–85) and by the revolution in information and computer technologies, both of which allowed transnational feminist activists to mobilize and engage with the world of public policy. Transnational feminist organizing and advocacy had appeared in the 1980s, but it was not until the mid-1990s that it came to the attention of feminist scholars. Preparations for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, to take place in Beijing in September 1995, gave resources to existing women’s groups and provided the impetus for the formation of new ones. The Road to Transnational Feminism Women’s groups have been working together across borders since the early 20th century. In midcentury, however, their discourses, priorities, and strategies diverged sharply, reflecting ideological differences as well as the economic gulf between rich countries and the developing or postcolonial world. In the 1970s, feminist groups encompassed liberal, radical, Marxist, and socialist ideologies, and these political differences constituted one form of division within feminism. The Cold War cast a shadow on feminist solidarity in the form of the east–west divide. Many First World feminists saw legal equality and reproductive rights as key feminist demands and goals, whereas many Third World feminists emphasized underdevelopment, colonialism, and imperialism as obstacles to women’s advancement. Disagreements came to the fore at the beginning of the first and second United Nations world conferences on women, which took place in Mexico City in 1975 and in Copenhagen in 1980, respectively. A shift began to take place in the mid-1980s, during preparations for the third United Nations world

conference on women, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. What enabled this shift were three critical economic and political developments both within states and regions and at the global level. First was the transition from Keynesian economics, with its emphasis on government intervention for full employment and citizen welfare, to neoliberal economics, with its emphasis on free markets, privatization, and trade and financial liberalization, along with a new international division of labor that relied heavily on (cheap) female labor. The second factor was the decline of the welfare state in the global north and the developmental state in the global south, which placed a heavy burden on women’s reproductive or domestic roles. The third factor was the emergence of various forms of fundamentalist and right-wing religious movements that threatened women’s autonomy and human rights. The new economic and political realities led to a convergence of feminist perspectives: for many northern feminists, economic issues and development policy became increasingly important, and for many southern feminists, increased attention was now directed to women’s legal status, autonomy, and rights. This was accompanied by the formation of a number of TFNs that brought together women from global north and global south alike to respond to economic pressures and patriarchal movements. Many of the women who formed or joined the TFNs were scholar-activists involved in the women-and-development research community. The networks they created in the 1980s, such as DAWN, WIDE, and Women Living Under Muslim Laws, engaged in policy-oriented research, advocacy, and lobbying around economic justice and women’s human rights. With support from United Nations agencies and Western-based foundations, more TFNs were formed in the years preceding and following the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. By this time, TFNs had formed a broad agenda that included a critique of unjust economic policies, as well as an insistence on women’s full citizenship, reproductive rights, bodily integrity, and autonomy, no matter what the cultural context. This agenda is inscribed in the Beijing Conference Declaration and Platform for Action, with frames that resonate globally and are adopted by women’s groups throughout the world: women’s human rights, gender justice, gender equal-



ity, an end to the feminization of poverty, and an end to violence against women. Feminism Against Neoliberalism In the latter part of the 1990s, alarmed by the global reach of neoliberalism, feminist scholar-activists began addressing issues of globalization and the new global trade agenda. TFNs such as DAWN, WIDE, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, the Marche Mondiale, and others participated in the critique of neoliberalism, arguing that new rules of global free trade undermined national laws protecting workers and the environment. Transnational feminists also argued that employment losses and dislocations brought about by new international trade agreements would be disproportionately borne by women. Feminism Against Fundamentalisms When Islamist movements demanded stricter application of Islamic laws and norms, the implications for women were especially significant: women would be veiled in public, and in the family they would be placed under the authority of male kin or husbands. In response, antifundamentalist feminist networks were formed by expatriate Iranian and South Asian women residing in Europe and the United States. These included Women Living Under Muslim Laws, the Sisterhood is Global Institute, and the Women’s Learning Partnership. Established in 1984 by a group of women from Muslim-majority countries, Women Living Under Muslim Laws has become a well-known international solidarity network with publications, exchanges, and an Alert for Action system. Feminism Against War and Imperialism One of the world’s oldest peace organizations, and indeed the oldest TFN, is the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, founded in 1915 by 1,300 women activists from Europe and North America opposed to what became known as World War I. Late-20th-century globalization was accompanied by a new wave of conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and central Africa involving serious women’s human rights violations. Women’s groups responded by forming new networks such as Women in Black, Medica Mondiale, Women Waging Peace, and Women for Women International. These organizations underscored the spe-

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cific vulnerability of women and girls during wartime, the pervasive nature of sexual abuse, and the need to include women’s voices in peace negotiations. In addition, they produced research to show that women’s groups had been effective in peace building in Northern Ireland, as well as in Bosnia and central Africa. In the new century, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq galvanized women across the globe to support existing peace organizations and/or build new ones. In 2002, another group to emerge from this context was U.S.-based Code Pink: Women for Peace. Its mission statement identifies it as “a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education and other lifeaffirming activities.” In 2007, six women Nobel Peace Prize winners formed the Nobel Women’s Initiative, with a view toward ending militarism and conflicts and bringing about peace and stability in the Middle East and elsewhere. Feminist Humanitarianism Although almost all TFNs may be regarded as internationalist and solidaristic, inasmuch as they are concerned about the plight of “sisters” across borders and boundaries of nationality, religion, and class, not all engage in humanitarianism as operational work. Feminist humanitarianism consists of moral support and material assistance for those in conflict zones or repressive states and is characteristic of MADRE, Medica Mondiale Kosovo, Women for Women International, and Code Pink. During a 2004 visit to Iraq, Code Pink took $650,000 in medical supplies and other aid for the Fallujah refugees who were forced from their homes when the Americans destroyed their city. Though ignored by the U.S. media, the mission garnered enormous attention from Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiyya, and Dubai and Iranian television, which witnessed an example of American compassion. MADRE began its work in the early 1980s, during the war in Nicaragua, when the United States sponsored the conservative Contra rebels. Partnering with sister organizations in Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Palestine, Sudan, Iraq, and Haiti, among other countries, MADRE has consistently provided aid for women and children. Working in partnership to provide emergency aid to displaced women and families in Darfur, it sent about $500,00 worth of clothing and

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bedding to small refugee camps in 2005. MADRE has worked with its feminist partner the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq to address the problem of “honor killings” that spiked after the invasion. MADRE also has supported the creation of women’s shelters for victims of domestic and community violence in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Erbil, and Nasariyeh, run largely by volunteers from the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq. Strategies and Achievements Similar to other transnational social movements, TFNs create, activate, or join global networks to mobilize pressure outside states. Working alone or in coalitions, TFNs mobilize pressure outside states via e-petitions, action alerts, and appeals; acts of civil disobedience; other forms of public protest; and sometimes direct action. Second, TFNs participate in multilateral and intergovernmental political arenas. They observe and address United Nations departments, and they consult United Nations agencies and regional commissions. By taking part in and submitting documents to intergovernmental organization meetings, and by preparing background papers, briefing papers, and reports, the TFNs increase expertise on issues. By lobbying delegates, they raise awareness and cultivate supporters. The purpose of such interaction is to raise new issues, such as gender and trade, women’s human rights, and violence against women in war zones, with a view toward influencing policy. Third, TFNs act and agitate within borders and visà-vis states to enhance public awareness and participation. They work with labor and progressive religious groups, the media, and human rights groups on social policy, humanitarian, development, and militarization issues. They link with local partners, take part in local coalitions, and provoke or take part in public protests. Fourth, TFNs network with each other in a sustained process of internetworking and Internet-working. As such, their virtual advocacy or cyberactivism spans local, national, regional, and transnational terrains. Policy successes have followed from their activism. TFN lobbying led to the insertion of important items in the final Vienna Declaration of the 1993 Conference on Human Rights, such as the assertion that violence against women was an abuse of human rights and attention to the harmful effects of certain traditional or customary practices, cultural prejudice,

and religious extremisms. The declaration also stated that human rights abuses of women in situations of armed conflict—including systematic rape, sexual slavery, and forced pregnancy—were violations of the fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. TFNs working on conflict and peace also inspired United Nations work on women, peace, and security. In October 2000, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1325, calling on governments (as well as the United Nations Security Council itself ) to include women in negotiations and settlements with respect to conflict resolution and peace building. TFN advocacy has influenced intergovernmental organizations and the World Bank. Gender budgets, gender audits, gender mainstreaming, and gender equality are mechanisms and frames promoted by TFNs that now have been adopted by multilateral agencies, international nongovernmental organizations, and even governments. Transnational feminism is characterized by a critique of social and gender inequalities and a set of strategies to enhance women’s rights within the family and society. The strategies involve networks engaged in research, lobbying, and advocacy, as well as public protest and cross-border humanitarianism and solidarity, for women’s human rights and gender equality. The Internet has facilitated feminist advocacy and solidarity campaigns, helping women connect and share information, plan and coordinate activities more rapidly, and mobilize effectively and extensively. See Also: Association for Women’s Rights in Development; Global Feminism; MADRE; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide; Peace Movement; United Nations Conferences on Women; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Further Readings Antrobus, Peggy. “Bringing Grassroots Women’s Needs to the International Arena.” Development, v.3/65–67 (1996). Enloe, C. Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Ferree, Myra Marx and Aili Marie Tripp, eds. Global Feminism: Transnational Women’s Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Transsexuality

Helie-Lucas, M. “Women Living Under Muslim Laws.” In J. Kerr, ed., Ours by Right: Women’s Rights as Human Rights. London: Zed Books/Ottawa: North–South Institute, 1993. Keck, Margaret and Kathryn Sikkink. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. Lycklama À Nijeholt, et al., eds. Women’s Movements and Public Policy in Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. London: Garland, 1998. Moghadam, V., ed. From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women’s Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2007. Moghadam, V. Globalization and Social Movements: Islamism, Feminism, and the Global Justice Movement. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Moghadam, V. Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Naples, N. and M. Desai, eds. Women’s Activism and Globalization. London: Routledge, 2002. Wichterich, C. The Globalized Woman: Notes From a Future of Inequality. London: Zed Books, 1999. Valentine M. Moghadam Purdue University

Transsexuality The (somewhat criticized and challenged) terms gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder indicate a sense of inappropriateness about one’s assigned sexual body and the associated gender role. On the one hand, it is a state of discomfort and malaise regarding the biological sex, giving rise to a feeling of inadequacy and extraneousness. On the other hand, it also means experiencing extraneousness regarding the gender identity allotted to one’s sex. By gender identity, we mean the sexual perception of oneself and of one’s behavior, acquired through personal and collective experience, which makes individuals able to relate to others (as bearers of a recognizable, clear, and shared gender identity). In other words, it is the recognition of the implications of one’s belonging to a sex in terms of development of attitudes, behaviors,

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and desires that more or less conform to cultural and social expectations. The lack of harmony may be understandable if we think that the concept of “normality” lies in the matching of sexual characteristics and gender identity; in the “staticness” of gender; and in the polarization between two genders (male and female), considered the only “natural” categories. Gender identity is usually perceived as a stable characteristic that will not encounter changes in time. The relationship between sexual characteristics and gender has historically developed within a schema considered natural, permanent, and compulsory, according to consolidated models and predefined life destinies. The most evident outcome of the widening of the space between gender and sex is transsexuality, the sign of a discrepancy between gender identity and anatomic sex, with the consequent need and desire to draw as close as possible to the body to which one “feels” one belongs. While the transgender person does not desire to permanently modify his/her body, the transsexual seeks a correction to physical forms, to adapt them to the gender identity they feel is their own. Transsexuality may therefore be defined as a phase of change, a transition—the way taken to reach the “opposite” sex, the state of transition from one gender to the other. It may also represent a way of living one’s gender identity, a feeling of “having always known” that it may persist throughout an entire life or be “discovered” only in adulthood. The “ultimate” outcome of this process is the surgical operation for the reconstruction of a physical morphology enabling the harmonization of the body with the perception of one’s gender identity. An individual of the male sex may undertake an approach toward the female sex, or an individual of the female sex may proceed toward the male pole. We, in fact, speak of MtF (male-tofemale) and FtM (female-to-male) transsexuals, two acronyms used to indicate the departure and arrival point and to underline the transition (from-to). According to some, however, transsexuals do not change sex because the chromosomes remain the same and it is not possible to guarantee the reproductive function. It would therefore be more correct to speak of a gender change (i.e., a transformation of men to women and women to men). The term transsexual recently entered official lexis—first, in the strictly scientific and academic

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one, to later become, in the last few decades, common usage—by replacing the inadequate term transvestite. The term was introduced by the American psychologist David Cauldwell in the late 1940s and was taken up by the American sexologist and gerontologist Henry Benjamin to describe the persons undertaking a process to adapt their physical body to the perception they have of themselves through hormone, aesthetic, and surgical treatment. No precise terminology existed previously to describe the transition from one sex to the other, and transsexuals were frequently “mistaken” for homosexuals by scholars of psychology and psychiatry. Clinical environments finally became aware of the problem with the impetus exercised by the considerable increase in requests for sexual reassignment surgery, increasing from the late 1950s. In the wake of the first operations and the sensation they aroused, the first centers for the study of transsexuality were established in the United States in the 1970s. Transsexuality is a complex, many-sided, multiform condition. One may enter transsexuality for very different reasons, at different moments in one’s life course. There are transitions that start, proceed differently in various directions (MtF or FtM), stop, start up again, and may be concluded with a surgical sexual reassignment. There are persons who recognize themselves in the transition and enhance the thousand and one nuances found in the transition from one gender to the other. They are thus not only individuals “trapped” in the wrong body but those that combine the concepts of male and female in new, original ways, experimenting nomadisms, hybridizations, and contaminations between being “men” and “women.” Transsexuality is also socially constructed: by medico-psychiatric discourses, expert opinions, fears and stereotypes, and the absence of educational and training strategies. The significance we attribute to changes in the body is far more important than the changes that are actually produced. The sex change has often assumed exaggerated proportions in the public imaginary: the fantasies and fears aroused by this process—often perceived as wrong, incomprehensible, and unnecessary, in that it is applied to “healthy” bodies—conceal the meaning of this change, the richness of this experience, and the teaching that may stem from it.

See Also: “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender, Defined; Gender Reassignment Surgery; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Homophobia; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Sexual Orientation; Transgender. Further Readings Denny, Dallas. Gender Dysphoria: A Guide to Research. London: Routledge, 1994. Garfinkel, Harold. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1967. Hausman, Bernice Louise. Changing Sex: Transsexualism, Technology and the Idea of Gender. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995. Prosser, Jay. Second Skins: The Body Narratives of Transexuality. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Elisabetta Ruspini University of Milano, Bicocca

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, an island nation in the Caribbean Sea, is among the most prosperous Caribbean countries with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $23,300 in 2009. The largest ethnic groups in Trinidad’s population of about 1.2 million are South Asian Indians (40 percent) and Africans (37.5 percent), while the principal religious groups are Roman Catholic (26 percent) and Hindu (22.5 percent). The World Economic Forum rates Trinidad and Tobago as one of the most equal countries in the world with regard to gender. On a scale from 0 (inequality) to 1 (percent equality), overall Trinidad’s score was 0.73 and ranks 19th out of 134 countries. On education, Trinidad scored 0.99 (58th), on health and survival 0.98 (1st), on economic participation and opportunity 0.59 (44th), and on political empowerment 0.17 (27). Literacy is almost universal (98 percent for women), education is free through the tertiary level, and more than 50 percent of tertiary students are female, although women constitute only one-third of the professors at that level (versus a majority of teachers at the primary and secondary levels). Sixty percent of women are in the labor force, and women make up over 50 percent of the professional and technical

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workers. However, women earn only about 67 percent of what men do for comparable work. Women hold 27 percent of the seats in Parliament and hold 36 percent of the ministerial positions. Notable women in Trinidad’s politics include Karen Nunez-Tesheira (Minister of Finance), Hazel Manning (Minister of Local Government), Esther Le Gendre (Minister of Education), and Christine Kangaloo (Ministry of Science, Technology, and Tertiary Education). Women are entitled to 13 weeks of maternity leave at 100 percent of wages for the first month and 50 percent thereafter. All births are attended by trained personnel, and prenatal care is nearly universal. The infant mortality rate is 33 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality ratio is 45 per 100,000 live births. Save the Children rates Trinidad in the midrange of Tier II or less developed countries on factors relating to maternal and child health and welfare: 33rd out of 75 countries on its Mothers’ Index, 38th on its Women’s Index, and 37th on its Children’s Index.

in New York, Boston, Vancouver, Rome, Paris, and other cities. In the early years of her career, she was also an award-winning screen actress who starred in major films, most notably in Volker Schlondorff ’s Coup de Grace. Von Trotta’s film Rosenstrasse (2002) was premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was widely discussed during its run in New York City the following year. Among von Trotta’s other films are The Lost Honor of Katarina Blum (co-directed with Schlondorff ) and Rosa Luxemburg, for which Barbara Sukowa won “Best Actress” at the Cannes Film Festival in 1985. Born in Berlin in 1942, von Trotta is the most important woman director to emerge from the New German Cinema. Her first solo feature was The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1977), though von Trotta hit her stride only with the films that followed in rapid succession over the next several years, from Sisters to Sheer Madness and—her masterpiece— Marianne and Juliane.

See Also: Government, Women in; Parental Leave; Roman Catholic Church.

Themes and Fullness of Characters Though a number of her films have much to do with politics, and others work upon a much more intimate, even domestic canvas, von Trotta has always been deeply engaged with the psychology and the struggles of women: as wives, friends, sisters, activists, journalists, lovers. The films are marked by a scalding intensity and ask haunting questions about betrayal, dependence, and violence. Without question a German filmmaker operating from a complicated sense of what it means to be German in the wake of the Nazi period, von Trotta is also invested in the broadest human questions of guilt and identity. Though admirers have described her as a feminist filmmaker, von Trotta has rejected the epithet, arguing that her films have no ideological agenda and that her interests are too various to be accommodated in a narrow conception of her work. Often, in fact, her male characters, though clearly of secondary importance, are richly complicated and appealing, their motives by no means reducible to the rage for power or control. Alert to the myriad ways in which human beings manage to hurt one another and, often in the same motion, to destroy themselves, von Trotta refuses to portray women simply as helpless victims or to suggest that every aspect of human relations can be

Further Readings Hausman, R., et al. “The Global Gender Gap Report 2009.” Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. http://www.we forum.org/en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20 and%20Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index .htm (accessed February 2010). Lewis, L. The Culture of Gender and Sexuality in the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University

Trotta, Margarethe von Margarethe von Trotta is one of the world’s leading film directors, who won the Venice Film Festival Award for “Best Director” for her film Marianne and Juliane in 1981 and has been honored by film festivals

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explained by “patriarchy.” Even where her women are enmeshed in struggle and given over to suffering or sacrifice, she typically accords to them an extraordinary thoughtfulness. Those who are too weak or neurotic to survive are typically juxtaposed with other women who are distinguished by their brilliance and durability. Von Trotta has identified Ingmar Bergman as her “favorite filmmaker,” and there is no question that her work commands the kind of serious attention few other directors deserve. In every one of her films, we feel that matters of the utmost importance have been engaged by an artist who is uncompromising and who handles her material—the personal and the political—with an extraordinary combination of tenderness and delicacy but with no trace of sentimentality. The enormous power of von Trotta’s films has much to do with the director’s sheer intelligence and craft but also with her insistence upon shaping encounters of piercing concreteness while refusing to pretend that we will ever fully understand what matters most to us as human beings. See Also: Film Directors, Female: Europe; Film Directors, Female: International; Film Production, Women in; Germany; Terrorists, Female; Further Readings Andac, B. “Senses of Cinema: Margarethe von Trotta.” November 2002. http://archive.sensesofcinema.com /contents/directors/02/von_trotta.html (accessed July 2010). Berardinelli, James. “The Promise (Review).” In Reel Views 2. Boston: Justin, Charles & Co., 2005. European Graduate School. “Margarethe von Trotta: Biography.” http://www.egs.edu/faculty/margarethe -von-trotta/biography (accessed July 2010). Robert Boyers Skidmore College

Tunisia Tunisia is commonly considered a leading country in both the Arab and Muslim worlds, as far as women’s rights are concerned. Thanks to the policy initiated

by Habib Bourguiba, the militant leader who played a major role in the struggle for the country’s independence and ruled over it for 30 years (1956–87), women in Tunisia now enjoy the same schooling and work opportunities as men. Under favorable laws, they have been granted the chance to live an active and emancipated life. Government institutions and organizations have been created to help them progress in their career and personal life. Promising Statistical Changes In the field of education, 99 percent of 6-year-old girls went to school in 2007. Compared to 32 percent of the total secondary school population in 1975–76, the rate of female students in 2006–07 was 53 percent. In 2004–05, the rate of female students in higher education reached 59 percent. These rates explain the high rate of female employment, which was as high as 25 percent of the total active population in 2007. Women are particularly active in the field of education, as they represented, for instance, 40 percent of university staff in 2007, compared to 22 percent in 1991–92. In 2007, there was a woman minister and five women secretaries of state. Various sociological and political forces account for such rates. Women’s rights in Tunisia were reinforced by Bourguiba’s “Code of Personal Status” (1957), which included a number of revolutionary laws breaking with some Muslim laws and customs. One such legislation is the prohibition of polygamy and the redefinition of the contractual nature of marriage and the equal rights of both partners. The code also set a minimum age for marriage and made the bride’s consent compulsory. The condition of women in Tunisia continued to improve in the post-1987 period, which corresponds to president Ben Ali’s rule, known as the Change. Ben Ali’s government enhanced women’s rights through the creation of a number of institutions, such as the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood and the Elderly Affairs (created in 1992 under the name Ministry of Women and Family Affairs); the National Women and Family Council; and Women’s Research, Study, Documentation and Information Centre. A number of associations were also created to ensure women’s welfare, like the National Union of Tunisian Women. In the field of health, Tunisian women benefit from special health programs. Since the 1960s, the government reinforced a family-planning policy and tried

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to combat maternal and child mortality; it created health centers to promote family health and offer a wide range of preventive and therapeutic measures to women. Both maternal and child mortality rates have declined in most parts of the country except in the Western regions. Infant mortality rates (under 1 year of age) declined from 41 percent in 1990 to 18 percent in 2007. Under-5 child mortality rates equally declined from 52 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2007. The neonatal mortality rate was 13 percent in 2004. The maternal mortality rate is 70 per 100,000. Thanks to the family planning policy, more and more women use contraceptive measures, so that the lifetime births per woman are 1.9. Tunisia has today an annual population growth of 1.09 percent; it is thus far below other northern African countries like Algeria and Morocco. Despite the huge progress Tunisia has made on the level of legislation and social improvement, Tunisian women still suffer from persistent gender inequalities caused by a number of cultural factors like social status, traditionalism, and patriarchy. Gender equality is largely maintained by women’s access to education and their urban mode of life. In this respect, rural women are far more discriminated against, exploited as underpaid labor hands and curbed in the traditional role of submissive housewives and childbearers. In both rural and urban areas, there is also a large gap between political effort to reform laws on the one hand and the static, sexist, and patriarchal mentality on the other hand. Women lose ground in the field of gender equality since the mentality of judges and police officers have not changed in line with the newer legislation, and they remain largely cooped up in a patriarchal mindset while applying the laws. For instance, domestic violence is still largely tolerated as a private family problem in spite of the existence of a harsh law making it punishable through a two-year imprisonment and a fine. Inheritance laws are still subject to Islamic Shari`a rules and compel female inheritors to receive half the amount of their male counterparts. Women in Tunisia today face two opposed and coexisting currents: a modernizing current that made huge steps in the direction of gender equality and a traditionalist current fed by fundamentalist ideologies and pulling women and society back toward sexism, discrimination, and gender inequality.

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See Also: Algeria; Arab Feminism; Islam; Government, Women in; Marriage; Maternal Mortality; Morocco; Rural Women; Shari`a Law; Working Mothers. Further Readings Nordhagen, E. M. “Tunisia Gender Profile.” Afrol News. (June 2000). http://www.afrol.com/features/13250 (accessed May 2010). Pace, E. “Habib Bourguiba, Independence Champion and President of Tunisia, Dies at 96.” New York Times. (April 7, 2000). http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/07/world /habib-bourguiba-independence-champion-and-pres ident-of-tunisia-dies-at-96.html (accessed July 2010). United Nations Children’s International Emergency Fund “Tunisia: Background.” http://www.unicef.org/info bycountry/Tunisia.html (accessed July 2010). Lamia Tayeb Higher Institute of Human Sciences

Turkey The Republic of Turkey is a Eurasian country established in 1923 as the successor state to the Ottoman Empire. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the country underwent a modernization and Westernization project with various social, legal, and political reforms. Women obtained the right to vote and to be elected in municipal elections in 1930 and in parliamentary elections in 1934. Approximately 70–75 percent of the population is Turkish, 18 percent is Kurdish, and 7–12 percent belong to other ethnic groups. The official language is Turkish, and the most widely spoken minority language is Kurdish. As to religion, 99.8 percent of the population is registered as Muslim, whereas 0.2 percent is registered as Christian or Jewish. The secularist heritage of the country represented by the army and the rise of political Islam rendered the female body a major field for this contest of power, as reflected in the headscarf ban. Gender Equality Gender equality is protected by law in Turkey, but sexual orientation and transgender equality are not protected. Turkey signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in

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1986. Despite recent advancements in the constitution, the civil code, the criminal code, and the labor act, the implementation and realization of women’s rights has been a challenge. Besides, there are laws and regulations that discriminate on the basis of gender. Political customs and patriarchal family structure also prevent women from enjoying their rights as equal citizens. Despite the long history of women’s political participation, the ratio of women in the national parliament in 2010 is 9.1 percent. Tansu Çiller was Turkey’s first female prime minister between the years 1993 and 1996, but the country has never had a female president. There are currently no female governors, and only 16 of 155 ambassadors are female. Female life expectancy is 74.19 years, and the median age of women is 28.4 years. The fertility rate of women in Turkey is 2.1. The infant mortality rate has decreased from 44.2 per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 25.78 per 1,000 live births in 2010. Violence against women, particularly domestic violence and violence in the name of honor, is still a pressing issue. The problem of violence is intensified by the absence of adequate support mechanisms. Turkey ranks 102nd in the world in educational expenditures. The literacy rate in the country is 88.1 percent, and there is a significant difference between male literacy at 96 percent and female literacy at 80.4 percent. Since boys’ education is attributed more importance and girls’ domestic labor is desired, more girls quit elementary school than boys. Turkey is a middle-income country, ranking 98th in world income, with a per capita income of $11,200. The Gender Related Development Index of Turkey is 0.763, and it ranked 79th of 157 countries in 2009. Sixty-nine percent of the population in Turkey live in urban areas. The gap between female and male employment rates has risen since the mid-1990s. Current labor force participation rate is 71.3 percent for men and 24.8 percent for women. Share of women in wage employment in nonagricultural sectors is only 19.9. See Also: Domestic Violence; Financial Independence of Women; Honor Killings; Representation of Women in Government, International; Veil. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Turkey.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/tu.html (accessed June 2010).

Turkish Republic Prime Ministry Directory General on the Status of Women. “National Research on Violence Against Women in Turkey 2008.” http://www.ksgm.gov .tr//tdvaw/Statistics.htm (accessed May 2010). Turkish Statistical Institute. “Census of Population; Social and Economic Characteristics of Population.” http:// www.turkstat.gov.tr/Kitap.do?KT_ID=11&metod =AnaKategori (accessed June 2010). United Nations Development Programme. “UNDP Turkey and Gender in Development.” http://www.undp.org.tr /Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=86 (accessed May 2010). Rustem Ertug Altinay New York University

Turkmenistan A former member of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan is located in central Asia along the Caspian Sea. Since independence was declared in 2001, the country has been struggling with a 60 percent unemployment rate, but further development of oil and gas reserves is eventually expected to improve the $6,700 per capita income. Almost half of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, mostly in cotton production. Roughly half the population lives in urban areas. At present, nearly a third of Turkmens live below the poverty line, and government corruption depletes what resources are available. In this homogeneous society, 85 percent of the population identify themselves as Turkmens. Because 89 percent of the populous is Muslim, this politically authoritarian country has a highly traditional culture in which a woman’s status is essentially defined by reproduction. The government exercises strict control over the dissemination of information concerning the status of women. Although the constitution guarantees gender equality, in reality women have no legal right to protest discriminatory treatment. When the Soviet Union gained controlled of central Asia in the 1920s, it launched a campaign of raskreposhchenie zhenshchin to free women from those restrictions and bring them into the agricultural and industrial workforce. Reform efforts included preventing arranged marriages in which young girls were basically sold into marital slavery,

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Violence against women also continues to flourish, and women have little recourse against such actions. Turkmen law guarantees women the right to own and inherit property, but male rights predominate. Women are often forbidden from traveling outside the country, and movement within Turkmenistan also may be limited. When outside their homes, women are often subjected to security checks. See Also: Domestic Violence; Marriages, Arranged; United Nations Development Fund for Women.

To counter Turkmenistan’s high level of road fatalities, youth are trained on responsible driving, road safety, and first aid.

the veiling and seclusion of women, polygyny, and limiting educational opportunities for females. The campaign met with violent resistance. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, religious and cultural traditionalism again determined the proper roles for women. The length of compulsory education for girls was dropped from 11 years to 9, and many girls began marrying at the legal age of 16. In rural areas, many of those marriages were arranged by parents who forced their daughters into marriage. According to social indicators, the median age for women in Turkmenistan is 24.8 years. The country ranks 58th in the world in infant mortality, with 45.36 deaths per 1,000 live births. Females have a life expectancy of 70.95 years compared to 64.94 years for males. Turkmenistan has a fertility rate of 2.22 children per female. Female literacy is 98.3 percent compared to 99.3 percent for males. In 2005, 94 percent of females 15 years and over were in the workforce. However, they were generally limited to fields such as education and healthcare, which are considered suitable to women. The limited data that is available indicates that women are discriminated against in both hiring and wages. Women received the right to vote and stand for election in 1926, but no women were elected to parliament until 1990. By 2005, only 5 percent of legislators were female.

Further Readings Blackwell, Carole. Tradition and Society in Turkmenistan: Gender, Oral Culture, and Song. Richmond, VA: Curzon Press, 2001. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Turkmenistan.” https://www.cia.gov/library /publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tx.html (accessed June 2010). Keller, S. “Trapped between State and Society: Women’s Liberation and Islam in Soviet Uzbekistan, 1926–1941.” Journal of Women’s History, v.10/1 (Spring 1998). NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women. “Turkmenistan.” http://www.niew.gov.my/niew/index .php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=52 &Itemid+60&lang=en (accessed February 2010). Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Turkmenistan.” http://gender index.org/country/turkmenistan (accessed June 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Tuvalu Tuvalu has come to epitomize the approaching catastrophe of worldwide climate change and sea-level rise. Although the island nation has a population of just under 12,000, Tuvalu has become a “poster child” for encroaching environmental disaster, a case that has been well documented through films and newspaper, magazine, and journal articles. The nation is an island group made up of nine coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, about half way between Hawaii and Australia. Tuvalu means “eight

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standing islands,” and refers to eight islands that have supported the population for at least several hundred years. These islands are Funafuti, Nanumaga, Nanumea, Niutao, Nui, Nukufetau, Nukulaelae, and Vaitupu. Altogether, Tuvalu is composed of nine atolls and reef islands, and has a land area of just 26 square kilometers and a population of 11,600 people. It is an isolated and culturally distinct nation that gained independence in 1978 from the British and has been a member of the United Nations since 2000. Tuvalu natives are 96 percent Polynesian and 4 percent Micronesian. The median age of men in Tuvalu is 22.4 years and 26.0 years for women. Women have a higher life expectancy rate than men, with women living to an average of 66.5 years versus men at 62.3 years. The fertility rate in Tuvalu is 3.14 children born per woman. Tuvalu has an infant mortality rate of 38.6 deaths per 1,000 live births for males and 32.22 deaths per 1,000 live births for females. Men and women both attend school for an average of 11 years. The country has poor soil and is highly dependent upon imported food and fuel. Subsistence farming and fishing are the primary sources of income. Approximately 15 percent of adult males work abroad on merchant ships, and their remittances contributed nearly $2 million to the economy in 2007. Economic and Environmental Shocks Since independence, Tuvalu has been characterized by its vulnerability to environmental and economic shocks, even though the government has engaged in sound and innovative policies, and the country has displayed enduring social stability. Therefore, Tuvalu has taken a leadership role in discussions of global climate change, seeking to raise public awareness through speeches at the United Nations, leadership in regional organizations, and high-profile participation in global policy conferences. Tuvaluan leaders demand that the world acknowledges the sustainability challenges that Tuvalu faces, the effect of global climate change, accept responsibility for the rising sea levels and altered weather patterns that Tuvalu is experiencing, and that worldwide leaders take steps to act. Sustainability challenges in Tuvalu include managing the pressure on biophysical and social systems from population growth, high population density, changing aspirations, and internal migration to the main administrative center on Funafuti.

Climate change is likely to interact in complex ways with other socioecological imperatives in Tuvalu. In its summary of research into climate change impacts, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that small island states such as Tuvalu are likely to face exacerbated coastal erosion and land loss, increased flooding, increased soil salinization and saltwater intrusion into groundwater, increased frequency of coral bleaching in reef systems, and other impacts on biophysical systems. If climate change trends continue, Tuvalu could become uninhabitable within the next half century, perhaps the first nation of environmental (climate) refugees. While media has portrayed Tuvalu as an appealing victim of global warming, it should be noted that the men and women of Tuvalu have played an active and resilient role in ensuring the future economic and environmental sustainability of their nation. See Also: Climate Change as a Women’s Issue; Fertility; Infant Mortality. Further Readings Allen, F. “Will Tuvalu Disappear Beneath the Sea? Global Warming Threatens to Swamp a Small Island Nation.” Smithsonian, v.35 (2004). Barnett, J. “Titanic States? Impacts and Responses to Climate Change in the Pacific Islands.” Journal of International Affairs, v.59 (2005). Pollock, E., producer/director. “Tuvalu: That Sinking Feeling.” PBS Frontline/World Rough Cut. (2005). http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/12 /tuvalu_that_sin_1.html (accessed July 2010). Dara Nix-Stevenson University of North Carolina at Greensboro

“Two-Spirit” Cross-cultural comparative studies have shown that genders, sexes, and sexualities are not always fixed into binary categories such as femininity and masculinity, female and male, or homosexuality and heterosexuality. In Native American cultures, both historically and presently, more than two gender, sex, and sexuality categories are marked and insti-



tutionalized. Two-spirit is a contemporary designation for Native Americans who are transgender, intersex, lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and has served to replace the term berdache, which was primarily used by anthropologists to describe gender variant and nonheterosexual people and practices within Native American cultures. The term two-spirit was coined in 1990 at the third annual spiritual gathering of Native American lesbian and gay peoples, which took place near Winnipeg, the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada. Twospirit indicates the presence of both a feminine and masculine spirit within one body and may be used to refer to traditions wherein multiple gender, sex, and sexuality categories are institutionalized within Native American tribal cultures. The English phrase two-spirit is not meant to be translated into Native American languages; to do so may change its common meaning. The decision by Native Americans to use the label two-spirit was deliberate, with a clear intention to maintain cultural continuity with past native cultures and to distance themselves from non-native lesbians and gays. Two-spirit is a generic term for Native Americans who are not heterosexual or who are ambivalent in terms of gender or sex, although not all Native Americans who identify as “transgender,” “intersex,” “lesbian,” “gay,” or “bisexual” also identify with the two-spirit label, and some reject the term altogether. Two-spirit people have been previously termed berdache by social scientists in the disciplines of anthropology, history, sexology, sociology, and psychology, and by other writers on the subjects of sexuality and gender. The earliest use of the term berdache dates back to the 1700s, when such individuals were condemned. The word berdache originally came from the Persian bardaj, and spread to Italian, via the Arabs,

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as bardasso and to Spanish as bardaxa or bardaje by the early 1500s. At about the same time the word bardache appeared in French and referred to the passive homosexual partner. The term has also been translated as “kept boy” or “male prostitute.” With this etymology, the term berdache has been generally established as derogatory, insulting, and inappropriate. Berdache has been used in anthropological writings not to refer to “kept boys” or “male prostitutes,” but to describe what was perceived as cross-dressing, homosexuality, intersexuality, and transgenderism, as institutions that were viewed positively in Native American cultures. This sometimes idealized or romanticized view of purportedly positively sanctioned Native American gender or sexual categories do not fit the experiences of many contemporary transgender, intersex, lesbian, gay, or bisexual Native Americans who have had to leave their reservations or communities because of persistent transphobia and homophobia. See Also: Coming Out; Gay and Lesbian Advocacy; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles; Homophobia; Intersex; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: Outside United States; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States; Transgender. Further Readings Dancing to Eagle Spirit Society—Two Spirited People. “The Way of the Two Spirited People.” http://www .dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/twospirit.php (accessed March 2010). Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, eds. Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Cathy Borck City University of New York

U Uganda The Republic of Uganda has one of the world’s fastest-growing populations. Women have civil and legal equality with men, but social and cultural expectations keep them largely in traditional roles. Rural women subject to customary laws have severely restricted rights, and women’s lives in general are negatively affected by domestic violence, female genital mutilation, human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/ AIDS) epidemic, and poverty. Uganda ranked 40th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Male dominance, the exchange of bride wealth, and polygyny are still common practices. On average, women marry in their early 20s. The 2009 fertility rate was 6.5 births per woman, and skilled healthcare practitioners attend 42 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 78 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate was 550 per 100,000 live births. Infants are often born prematurely, with low birth weights. Employers provide women with eightweeks of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages for the first month. There is a government population policy to curb high growth rates, but only 24 percent of married women use contraceptives. Extended families, based on clan and kinship group, are important for access to resources such as land. Most women are economically dependent

on men, as women subject to customary law do not have legal inheritance rights or retain child custody on divorce or widowhood, and their children are not considered citizens if they marry a foreigner. Women and girls perform all domestic chores, and men make household decisions. Women are expected to accede to their husband’s decisions and show deference toward men in both public and private life. Domestic abuse, rape, and other forms of violence against women, as well as female genital mutilation, are common problems. Women are primarily responsible for subsistence agriculture and meal preparation, as well as childcare. Female school attendance rates stand at 96 percent at the primary level, 18 percent at the secondary level, and 3 percent at the tertiary level. Many children cannot attend school because of the need to work or because of high school fees. There is a gender gap in the literacy rates, which are 64 percent for women and 81 percent for men. Social problems include widespread poverty, lack of opportunities, poor sanitation, malnutrition, lack of safe drinking water, government neglect, political instability, periodic violence, and human rights violations. Public Health Issues A deteriorating public health service has led to difficulty in controlling outbreaks of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tetanus, measles, and whooping cough. Many Ugandans have to travel great distances 1483

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In Uganda, the antenatal clinic sees an average of 145 pregnant women per day. Here, a head midwife at the clinic gave a health education talk to pregnant women, which included how to prevent malaria during pregnancy.

to find healthcare, leading to a continuing reliance on traditional medicine in rural areas. Women are prominent among traditional healers. Life expectancy is age 44 years for women and age 42 years for men. Many workers must hold multiple jobs to survive, and 84 percent of women participate in the labor force. Women make up 39 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 35 percent of professional and technical workers. Key employers include subsistence agriculture, service, the military, and education. A gender gap still exists in terms of the average estimated annual earned income, which stands at $735 for women and $1,042 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 3.9 percent for women and 2.5 percent for men. Women have the right to vote, and the national government in the past has pledged to end gender discrimination. Women hold 31 percent of parlia-

mentary seats and 28 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. Both foreign and indigenous nongovernmental organizations have worked to alleviate poverty, provide social services, and provide political representation for women and other disadvantaged groups. These include the National Association of Women Organizations of Uganda, the Ugandan Association of University Women, and the African Women’s Leadership Institute. See Also: Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Polygamy, CrossCulturally Considered. Further Readings Dunson, D. H. Child, Victim, Soldier: The Loss of Innocence in Uganda. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.

Ukraine

Imam, A. “Uganda,” in Wendy Chavkin and Ellen Chesler, eds. Where Human Rights Begin: Health, Sexuality, and Women in the New Millennium. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. Kyomuhendo, G. Waiting: A Novel of Uganda’s Hidden War (Women Writing Africa). New York: The Feminist Press, 2007. Mutibwa, P. Uganda Since Independence. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1992. Marcella Bush Trevino Barry University

Ukraine Ukrainian writer Maria Matios wrote: “Nowadays a Ukrainian woman is a giant holding life on her shoulders.” These words reflect the everyday life of today’s Ukrainian women. While women constitute 54 percent of the Ukrainian population, they comprise 55 percent of persons with higher education and half of the labor force. After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, it committed itself to international standards and norms of gender equality. The country participates in the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Actions, and the United Nations Millennium Declaration. In 1996, Ukraine was among the first to introduce a gender equality clause (24) in its constitution. In 2005, the Equality Law was adopted, and 2007 was celebrated as the Year of Gender Equality in Ukraine. However, despite the formal commitment of the state to gender democracy principles, the country has gradually yielded this position. Women in Politics According to the Global Gender Gap (GGG) Report, Ukraine ranked 48th in the world in 2006, then slipped to 57th in 2007, and then slipped again in 2009 to 61st. The GGG specific indices show that while the employment rate of women in the country is relatively high—33rd place overall in 2009—the level of their political participation is disproportionately low, 117th place. During the years of independence, women held just 9 percent of the seats in the nation’s

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parliament. In 1994, women represented 5.7 of the seats. In 1998, the percentage of female representatives rose to 8.1 percent before slipping to 5.1 percent in 2002 and then rising to 8.4 percent in 2006. Twice in recent years, a woman has held the Prime Minister position: in 2005, and again in 2007–09. However, females are seriously underrepresented at the highest level of decision making. Currently, there is only one female minister in the nation’s Cabinet of Ministers, and among civil servants of the first and second ranks, women constitute only 14.7 percent. Although Ukrainian legislation prohibits wage discrimination, on average women earn one-third less than men. This inequality has made women more vulnerable to poverty. In part, the wage gap results from the “vertical” professional segregation or glass ceiling faced by women. Other forms of discrimination in the labor market also are widespread and sexual harassment in the workplace is quite common. Job advertisements routinely specify age and gender requirements, even though this is prohibited by the Equality Law. The nation’s loan-giving institutions are reluctant to give loans to women. Despite this fact, women comprise 31.7 percent of sole proprietors in Ukraine, and they control 26 percent of small businesses, 15 percent of mediumsize businesses, and 14 percent of large businesses. In 2005, women constituted 70 percent of the unemployed and 38 percent of the self-employed. Women workers are concentrated in low-wage jobs and perform the vast majority of unpaid domestic and care work, which limits their opportunities for professional advancement and income growth. Work/Life Conditions Women who live in rural settings have a more challenging situation, in part because of poor infrastructure in villages. In these villages, the burden of hard physical labor is almost entirely borne by women. Females predominate in major sectors of rural economy, even in the areas of manual labor. These women are saddled with the triple burden of private farming combined with domestic and care work. Senior rural women constitute a group of particular poverty risk because many of them live alone, without any family support. Many Ukrainian women seek employment abroad, induced to do so by Ukraine’s work/life conditions: poor salaries in traditionally female occupations, higher

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rates of unemployment that also tend to last for longer periods of time that they do for men, higher rates of poverty, and a glass ceiling that limits their careers. All of this gives voice to ����������������������������������� a “silent female revolt” or a “second gender revolution” in the Ukraine in recent years. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Equal Pay; Glass Ceiling; Rural Women. Further Readings Canadian Urban Institute. Gender and Youth Assessment Report. Regional Governance and Development, 2005. Tolstokorova, A. “Gender Equality in Ukraine: Between Declarations and Reality.” In Clara Sarmento, ed., Eastwards /Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the 21st Century? Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “Gender Analysis of the Ukrainian Society.” Kiev: UNDP, 1999. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “Gender Issues in Ukraine: Challenges and Opportunities.” Kiev: UNDP, 2003. Alissa Tolstokorova Independent Scholar

Unions Unions, often known as trade unions or labor unions, are organizations of workers who join together in an effort to promote their common interests related to employment. Unions typically occur between workers who share similar employment conditions, such as working for a common employer or sharing a common task in occupation, and come together to engage in collective bargaining. Women have had significant impact on both the history and the contemporary functioning of unions in the United States and other countries, and their history includes both women’s organizations and female leadership in general trade unions. The first trade unions were developed simultaneously with the Industrial Revolution in European countries. Although unions of laborers were illegal in

most of Europe from the 14th to the mid-18th centuries, by the 19th century laborers in England, France, Germany, and other western European nations developed strong unions often tied to political parties related to socialist or democratic ideals. Similar organizations emerged during this period across most of North and South America as well as Australia, but as in Europe, these unions were largely created by and for male workers. However, women were employed as laborers in these countries as well, and would soon be represented by their own unions. For example, by 1875, British women workers in textiles and manufacturing had developed their own organization, the Women’s Trade Union League, as an umbrella organization to support the concerns of female workers across occupations. The First U.S. Unions In the United States, the history of unions began in the early 19th century when workers who shared occupations in the same cities banded together to create “strikes,” in which workers would collectively refuse to work until certain conditions had been met by employers. In 1927, several of these trade unions located in Philadelphia joined together in an agreement to support one another in negotiations, calling themselves the Mechanics Union Trade Association. Although most occupations were reserved for male workers, one example of a trade union composed of women workers during this early period was the Collar Laundry Union, established in New York City in 1863. The first labor organization to transcend regional boundaries was the National Labor Union (NLU) in 1866, the result of a federation of many trade associations. The founder of the Collar Laundry Union, Kate Mullaney, became the first assistant secretary in the NLU, and the organization included in their agenda the rights of working women. The NLU dissolved in 1873, but the Knights of Labor (KOL) soon emerged as an important national union that offered membership to skilled trade union members as well as general laborers. The Knights of Labor opened membership to women workers in 1883, and these members formally established the Woman’s Work Department in 1885 to give specific attention to this issue of concern to the union. In 1881, a faction of KOL members became dissatisfied with organizational policy and formed the



American Federation of Labor (AFL), led by Samuel Gompers. The AFL was structured as a loosely affiliated group of individual trade unions that each retained the authority to negotiate with workers and employers in their own field. The AFL functioned to obtain goals that were basic for all of these organizations, including raising wages and shorter work hours. AFL membership and leadership opportunities were open to women, and the rights of working women were a concern of the organization. In 1892, the AFL appointed Mary Kenny O’Sullivan as its first female general organizer; Kenny O’Sullivan was a woman from the Irish working class who labored in a bindery before organizing the Chicago Women’s Bindery Workers Union. The National Women’s Trade Union League Despite the strength of the AFL, factions within that group spawned the creation of two additional unions that were significant in the development of worker’s rights: The national Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), formed in 1903, and the Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO), formed in 1935. The WTUL membership was composed of women trade unionists, and their primary function was to support the concerns of women workers. They assisted in the formation of women’s unions in cities and in trades that previously had none, and they also publicized and supported strikes by women’s trade union members. Kenny O’Sullivan, a cofounder of WTUL, served as the first secretary of the organization, and Jane Addams, the philosopher and social justice advocate who operated Hull House in Chicago, served as its first vice president. Additionally, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a longtime WTUL member and fundraiser. The Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO), formed in 1935 after the mass production industries were excluded from the AFL, was led by John L. Lewis, the founder of one excluded union branch. The basic industries unionized through the CIO included iron and steel production, automobile manufacturing, electrical and radio, and shipping. The CIO was extraordinarily successful in obtaining its goals through strikes, and by 1940 the organization boasted membership of several million workers. In 1995, however, the CIO reunited and merged with the AFL,

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creating the AFL-CIO, an organization with chapters around the world. The modern AFL-CIO is a collective of international trade unions that agree to affiliate with the organization. The union policy and action is determined by members, who elect delegates who represent them in union discussions and elect union officers. There are three top union officers, including the president, the secretary/treasurer, and the vice-president; in 2009 women held two of these positions: Liz Shuler as the secretary/treasurer and Arlene Holt Baker as the executive vice-president. In 2009, the AFL-CIO Executive Council released a statement on the charter rights of working women; the document reaffirmed the union’s continued commitment to issues related to women workers, including access to employment, maternity protection, and integration of women in trade unions. The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) is an organization that was developed in 1974 as a collective of women workers affiliated with the AFLCIO, so it is a women’s organization that exists within the union culture. The primary goals of the CLUW include strengthening the role of women in union leadership, organizing women workers who remain unorganized, and including protection from violence and sexual harassment at work. See Also: Bullying in the Workplace; Domestic Workers; Equal Pay; 9to5; Sexual Harassment; Sweatshops; Teachers’ Unions. Further Readings Fonow, Mary Margaret. Union Women: Forging Feminism in the United Steelworkers of America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. Munro, Anne. Women, Work and Trade Unions. New York: Routledge, 1999. O’Farrell, Brigid. Rocking the Boat: Union Women’s Voices, 1915–1975. Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. Pidgeon, Mary Elizabeth. Toward Better Working Conditions for Women: Methods and Policies of the National Women’s Trade Union League of America. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, 1953. Jennifer Adams DePauw University

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United Arab Emirates Established as a federation in 1971, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seven semi-autonomous emirates or territories under an emir’s rule. In the first half of the 20th century, the UAE remained a traditional society. Yet, with the discovery of oil, it has become a modern and diverse society with a free market. The UAE has no democratically elected institutions and no rights of free speech, press, or religion. However, the women in the UAE have more rights than any other Middle Eastern women. The UAE constitution guarantees women equal rights in terms of legal status, inheritance and property rights, and education. The 2007–08 United Nations Report ranked the UAE 29th among 177 countries for the Gender Empowerment Measures. The advancement of women began with the discovery of oil in the 1960s, as economic opportunities enabled more women to enter the workforce. By 2003, women comprised 22 percent of the overall labor force. While women still only hold 1 percent of high executive positions, as of 2007 they held 66 percent of government jobs. In 2008, UAE appointed its first female judge and registrar. During the first Gulf War, UAE women demanded they be allowed to enter the military. While there is virtually no coeducation in the UAE, women comprise 74 percent of university students and are some of the most literate in the Arab world. Much of women’s progress is due to their organizational efforts. In 1973, the wife of UAE President Sheikh Zayed, Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, started the Abu Dhabi Women’s Society. She then united various women’s groups throughout the emirates, forming the General Women’s Union. Known as the “Mother of UAE,” Sheikha Fatima currently runs the Family Development Foundation. While Islamic law, Shari`a, is upheld in family life, men are prosecuted for abuse and rape. Men can have up to four wives and can dictate female conduct within their homes. Fornication is illegal, and single pregnant women can be jailed and have their baby removed from their care. However, the government dictates the law in civil society, which gives women equal rights and legal status. Women can obtain divorces and child custody and have rights to their own property. Women’s legal status, economic

opportunities, and educational rights make the UAE one of the most liberal countries in the Arab world. See Also: Arab Feminism; Islam; Shari`a Law. Further Readings Al-Shamsi, Marian Sultan Abdulla and Leon C. Fulcher. “The Impact of Polygamy on United Arab Emirates’ First Wives and their Children,” International Journal of Family & Child Welfare, v.1 (2005). Krause, Wendy. Women in Civil Society: The State, Islamism, and Networks in the UAE. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Mustafa, Mohamed M. Attitudes Towards Women Managers in the United Arab Emirates: The Effects of Patriarchy, Age, and Sex Differences.” Journal of Managerial Psychology, v.20 (2005). Obermeyer, Carla Makhlouf. “Islam, Women and Politics: The Demography of Arab Countries, Population and Development Review, v.18/1 (March, 1992). Schvaneveldt, Paul L., Jennifer L. Kerpelman, and Jay D. Schvandeveldt. “Generational and Cultural Changes in Family Life in the United Arab Emirates: A Comparison of Mothers and Daughters.” Comparative Family Studies, v.36 (2005). Monica D. Fitzgerald Saint Mary’s College of California

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (known generally as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a European sovereign state and a member of the European Union. Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy now led by Queen Elizabeth II. As a Western parliamentary democracy, Great Britain saw its first and, as yet, only female prime minister come to power in 1979, with the election of Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservative Party. As of 2010, the most recent census was taken in 2001, and the total UK population stood at just under 59 million. Boys outnumber girls, while women outnumber men. In 2008, the average total fertility rate stood at 1.96 children per woman, the highest since 1973. The



average age that a woman gives birth to her first child continues to rise, with women aged 30–34 having the highest fertility of any age group. In many ways, the lives of men and women in the UK have become more similar than during any other historical period. Many women go to college or university, work, socialize with men, and play an active role in all areas of public life. While remaining relatively uncommon, more men also are taking on the role of stayat-home childcare providers, as well as engaging in other domestic duties formerly ascribed to women. However, there remain notable differences between men and women, particularly after children are born, not the least of which includes labor market participation, childcare, wages, wealth, home ownership, health, and drinking habits. Women in Government The UK is a centrally governed unitary state consisting of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Some powers are devolved to the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government ,and the Northern Ireland Assembly. There is no equivalent English body. The central government is located at Westminster in London, England. Devolution has had important positive consequences for female political representatives in the UK. The percentage of women representatives in these devolved bodies is generally higher than in the central government, where fewer than 20 percent of the members of Parliament are female. The introduction of political party short lists has increased the number of female representatives due in part to the introduction of new electoral systems incorporating proportional representation. Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952. Fulfilling a largely ceremonial role, the monarch is politically neutral. In addition to her role in Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth is the queen regnant of other sovereign states including Canada and Australia, as well as the Head of the Commonwealth and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The laws of succession to the throne currently discriminate against female children, but there are calls for the type of reform recently seen in Denmark that ensure that the firstborn would succeed the throne, regardless of gender. The Queen is generally held in high regard by the British public, even by those who do not generally support the continuation of the monarchy.

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Religion Christianity is the main religion in the UK, representing approximately three-quarters of the population, although the number of subjects attending church on a regular basis is much smaller than in the United States. The Church of England, the biggest UK church, voted to open the door to female bishops in 2009, although this remains controversial and a female bishop has yet to be appointed. Female clergy and vicars were admitted in 1992. People with no religion form the second largest group, representing about 15 percent of the population. Other religions include Islam (2 percent), Hinduism, Sikhism, and Judaism (each with less than 1 percent of the total), and Buddhism. Women and Independence The UK was the world’s first industrialized country as well as the foremost colonial power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the height of its empire in 1922, the UK was the largest in history, encompassing almost a quarter of the world’s land surface. One enduring if more trivial consequence for today’s British women is the cultural ease females enjoy in independent travel, often undertaking a “gap year” before beginning their university studies. While the UK’s global influence has declined, it remains one of the richest economies in the world. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, G8, G20, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). As with many such member states of the organizations listed above, gender equality agendas are relatively well developed. The UK is a recognized nuclear weapons state and a member of the United Nations Security Council. Women are fully integrated into the British Armed Forces, although they remain excluded from around 30 percent of jobs, particularly close combat and frontline roles. All parts of the Armed Forces maintain that the sexual orientation of personnel is irrelevant and that homosexuals can serve openly. Unlike homosexuality between men, homosexuality between women has never been illegal in the UK and is commonly associated with Queen Victoria’s supposed inability to conceive of its existence. However, since the decriminalization of sexual activity

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between males in 1967, British law has moved toward greater support of lesbian as well as gay rights. Discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity is generally illegal. Same-sex couples are able to adopt and to enter into civil partnerships. Civil partnership grants the same rights and responsibilities as civil marriage. In education, girls generally outperform boys at school, and more women than men enter full-time undergraduate higher education. Subject segregation by gender remains at all levels of the education system, which is part of the explanation for the continuing wage gap in the labor market. Men and women are likely to follow very different career paths. More than 90 percent of female employee jobs are in the service sector. The more male-dominated manufacturing and agricultural sectors have decreased substantially in the last decades of the 20th century, while the service sector increased. More men are employed, 80 percent versus 70 percent for women. This is explained largely though not exclusively, by motherhood, as males and females without dependent children exhibit more similar employment rates. For women, becoming a mother has a substantial, often negative, impact on employment. Many mothers do continue to work, although they may work part-time rather than full-time. Almost half of women’s jobs are part-time, compared to about one in six jobs for men. Part-time work in the UK is often associated with more negative employment conditions and limited opportunities for promotion. Mothers and Maternal Rights All mothers are eligible for some form of maternity allowance for a period following the birth of a child. Mothers are eligible for either statutory maternity pay (SMP) from their employers or maternity allowance if they do not meet the eligibility requirements for SMP. Statutory maternity pay can be paid for up to 39 weeks after the birth of a child. For the first six weeks, it is paid at 90 percent of average gross weekly earnings with no upper limit. For the remaining 33 weeks, women are paid at the standard rate of approximately $200 pounds per week, which is about a quarter of the average median weekly wage. Maternity allowance is paid at the same rate. After maternity leave, parents can have a difficult time finding childcare that is both high quality and

affordable. This difficulty often influences a woman’s decision to stay at home rather than return to work. Grandmothers also are an important source of childcare for very young children. The government does provide some minimal contribution to childcare costs via working tax credits; in addition, there is a universal child benefit paid to parents for all children under the age of 16. Children can begin to attend state-funded nursery for 12 hours per week when they are 3 years old and then go to school full-time (approximately 9:00 am–3:00 pm) beginning at age 4 or 5 years. The most common family size is two children. Marriage is the most common form of relationship in the UK, although both cohabiting and births out of wedlock are increasingly common and are generally considered socially acceptable. The average age of first marriage in 2005 was 29 for women. There also has been a sharp increase in solo living. About one-quarter of families with dependent children are lone-parent families, and of them, the vast majority, nine out of 10, are headed by lone mothers. Gender Gap The gender pay gap remains substantial but looks to be steadily declining over time. In 2009, the pay gap was 12 percent for full-time employees, as measured by the median hourly pay excluding overtime. The gender pay gap for all employees stood higher, at 22 percent, according to various estimates. In addition to the gender pay gap, women do not fare so well in another important indicator of wealth in the UK home ownership. When it comes to home ownership, men outpace women. Women are far less likely to be among the top earners in any given hierarchy. For example, women are far less likely to hold top jobs in business. They hold around 10 percent of FTSE—an independent company jointly owned by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange—100 directorships. (The FTSE 100 is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalized UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange). Similarly, they are far less likely to hold positions of power in politics, civil service, the judiciary, and other public sector jobs. Life expectancy has increased for both men and women during the past century. The average life expectancy at birth for females born between 2004 and 2006 in the UK is 81.3 years, and 76.9 years for

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males. The most common cause of death for females is cancer, followed by circulatory disease. There has been an increase in the number of women exceeding recommended alcohol limits and a subsequent rise in the number of alcohol-related disease and deaths in women. Women still consume far less alcohol than do men. Smoking is almost equally common among men and women, with slightly more males smoking in all age groups other than the 16–19 age group, where more girls are smoking than boys. Maternity death and infant mortality rates are very low. Obesity is an increasingly common health problem in the UK for both men and women, although women are slightly more likely to be affected. There are targeted state-funded screening programs for breast and cervical cancers. See Also: Childcare; Denmark; Heads of State, Female; Representation of Women in Government, International; Thatcher, Margaret; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Breen, R. and L. P. Cooke. “The Persistence of the Gendered Division of Domestic Labour” European Sociological Review, v.21/43–57, 2005. Hansen, K. and D. Hawkes. “Early Childcare and Child Development.” Journal of Social Policy, v.38 (2009). Lovenduski, Joni. Feminizing Politics, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2005. National Statistics Online. “UK Snapshot.” http://www .statistics.gov/uk/glance (accessed December 2009). The UK Government Direct.gov Public Services. http:// www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights /LivingintheUK (accessed December 2009). Alison Smith Koslowski University of Edinburgh

United Nations Conferences on Women The United Nations has long constituted an arena in which issues of gender justice can be addressed. In particular, the four United Nations (UN) women’s conferences, and the UN Decade for Women, have drawn attention to gender inequality. They have

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allowed women to voice their concerns and organize around these issues, thereby leading to more coherent strategies in overcoming the inequities faced by women all over the globe. The lasting effects of this activism and increased political presence are felt by women today.Women are able to benefit from specialist agencies dealing with gender inequality, gendermainstreaming, heightened awareness of men’s roles in redressing gendered imbalances of power, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the general highlighting of women’s concerns as human issues. Also, one of the most recent documents to emerge from the conferences, the Beijing Platform for Action, outlines specific targets for governments to achieve, forming both concrete points of reference for activism and measures of women’s progress for the future. The UN and Women’s Conferences The United Nations was established in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II, and was enthusiastically endorsed by women’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Its first human rights document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, enshrined gender equality by prohibiting discrimination against people on the basis of sex or any other essential trait. In 1947, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was created to promote legal, and later economic and social, equality for women. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that women gained a more prominent place on the UN’s agenda. In 1975, the UN International Women’s Year (IWY) was declared, and the first global UN conference on women was held in Mexico. This conference brought together women from all over the world, and for the first time, committed governments on a global scale to ending inequality between women and men. These commitments were not legally binding, but the scale of the event and the impact it had outside of the narrow political purview of the state-system was substantial. Women could network, exchange ideas, and make their concerns heard. And yet, many conference attendees felt disenfranchised by the composition of the delegations, which were often spearheaded by men or wives of male politicians. Charges of false representation and elitism were accompanied by impromptu gatherings outside of the official conference proceedings, collectively called the

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Tribune. This alternative space marked the beginning of simultaneous conferences, one official, the other voicing NGOs’ concerns. While the latter realm was usually deemed more authentic, the coexistence of the two conferences meant that issues important to NGOs increasingly found their way into the official proceedings. Soon it became apparent that a mere women’s year was far too limited to tackle the many grievances of female inequality; hence, the International Women’s Year was extended into the UN Decade for Women (1975–85). On top of this, two further conferences were held: one in Copenhagen in 1980, and another in Nairobi in 1985. These were intended to keep track of the progress women were making over the decade. The number of women attending these conferences grew, as did the profile of each of the global conferences. Again, there were official proceedings, as well as alternative NGO actions, now called the Forum. The Forum was a vibrant arena for women to organize workshops and talks, to stage events, and to explore each other’s commonalities and differences. The 1980 Copenhagen conference showed that the various concerns of women could not simply be subsumed under the umbrella term of “women’s issues.” While women could forge solidarities, disparities were also highlighted at the conference, particularly in relation to questions surrounding nationalist causes, Israel-Palestine, and apartheid. The 1985 Nairobi conference was significant as it seemed to ameliorate the rift, to some extent, that appeared to exist between women from the global north and south. Also, the Forum took place before the actual conference, which meant that women’s NGOs wielded more influence over its outcomes. A fourth global women’s conference took place in Beijing 10 years later, in 1995, to take stock of developments since Nairobi. This conference had unprecedented numbers of attendees, with 189 governments participating in the formal conference and more than 30,000 women attending the NGO Forum. Also, for the first time, men outside of the initial male-led delegations attended the conference. The Impact The conferences caused a surge in women’s organizing and often succeeded in making governments take women seriously. In addition to the establishment of

research institutes on women, other female-centric programs began. These included women’s studies courses were offered in universities; gender-disaggregated data was collected; women’s organizations were formed or revitalized; and governments set up specialist agencies for women. Such agencies were referred to as “national machineries for the advancement of women,” and were first called for during the 1975 Mexico conference. By 1997, more than 100 countries had set up national machineries with the aim of increasing women’s status within their borders. A welcome addition to the masculinist state-system, these agencies are still largely operational today. Despite such positive developments, women’s concerns were still being sidelined. There was growing disquiet around a new concept, “gender-mainstreaming,” by the time of the fourth women’s conference in Beijing. While this initially surfaced as a feminist theoretical concept, the Beijing Platform for Action agreed upon in 1995 gave the concept official force. Gendermainstreaming recognizes that policies and legislation impact differently on women and men, and stipulates that these gendered effects should be taken into account in all areas of policy formation—be it political, economic, or social. Not only have many governments adopted gender-mainstreaming strategies, but international organizations such as the International Labor Organization, the World Bank, and, of course, the UN have endorsed their application. In many instances, gender-mainstreaming is now the task of the national machineries introduced by states since 1975. Gender-mainstreaming is far from being uncontroversial, as some view it as a bureaucratization and co-opting of women’s interests, while others find it ineffective, a mere equality window-dressing exercise. Mainstreaming has already been instrumental in bringing to the fore women’s concerns in other, less explicitly female contexts. For example, the UN Conference on Environment and Development (or Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, included a section on women in its Plan of Action. One of the Most Significant Results Perhaps the most significant factor resulting from the UN Decade for Women was the creation of a human rights instrument dealing explicitly with women’s inequality. This instrument is called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination



against Women (CEDAW). In the wake of the first UN women’s conference in Mexico, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) developed CEDAW in 1979 as an international piece of legislation to counter women’s subordinate status. This is significant, particularly when we consider that the conferences’ plans of action were nonbinding, whereas CEDAW is a binding treaty. Currently, 185 countries, or more than 90 percent of the UN members, are party to the convention. It addresses a range of women’s inequalities in terms of healthcare, employment, forced marriage, and maternity, among others. Countering the tendency to treat women’s rights as subordinate, the Beijing Platform for Action also calls upon women’s rights to be understood as human rights. This is in direct opposition to a relegation of women’s rights to the private sphere, away from enforcement or accountability. Domestic violence, for example, had been treated as a private issue rather than a violation of human rights, as states and government agencies often absolved themselves from

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responsibility to uphold women’s rights. An understanding of women’s rights as human rights counters this by putting the rights of women on a par with men’s rights. It is important to note the growing awareness of men’s roles in ending gender inequality. This was aptly captured by the Beijing conference, as governments were called upon to “encourage men to participate fully in all actions toward equality.” The Beijing Platform for Action is thus the first instance of the formal recognition that gender inequality is not merely a matter of “women’s issues,” but rather a concern for human equality. The Platform contains targets for activists and political leaders to rally around, and to measure women’s progress in such areas as poverty, health, education, or the myriad other areas in which women experience inequality. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Government, Women in; Human Rights Campaign; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide; United Nations Conventions.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attends the 30th anniversary event for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, organized by the UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality.

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Further Readings Antrobus, P. The Global Women’s Movement—Origins, Issues and Strategies. London: Zed Books, 2004. United Nations. “Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.” http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing /platform/index.html (accessed October 2009). West, Lois A. “The United Nations Women’s Conferences and Feminist Politics.” In Mary K. Meyer and Elisabeth Prügl, eds., Gender Politics in Global Governance. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Clara Fischer Trinity College

United Nations Conventions Since the founding of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, efforts to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment, and women’s rights have been at the foundation of several key conventions agreed upon and ratified by UN member states. While they are often referred to as “soft laws,” conventions are international treaties of sorts; they are negotiated norms, setting global standards for state behaviors, and when protocols are attached, rules for monitoring and compliance may apply. In regard to women’s global status and human rights, most UN member states have voluntarily agreed to the following international conventions that eliminate various discriminations against women and protect their bodily integrity: Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949); Convention Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value (1951); Convention on the Political Rights of Women (1952); Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (1957); Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (1958); Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960); Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1962); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979); Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1994). Although UN member states sign international conventions voluntarily and often attach reservations

The United Nations strives to eliminate discrimination against women and to protect their bodily integrity.

and interpretations that strictly limit the conventions’ effectiveness in order to preserve state sovereignty and prerogatives, conventions are treaties with contractual force and are major standard-setting documents. Over the years that the UN has existed, member states have increasingly recognized and supported an international women’s rights agenda through progressively broader and more inclusive conventions that often have begun as less-comprehensive “declarations” that, nonetheless, also have some moral power. The advocacy and inspiration for the initial declarations and the succeeding conventions have more often than not emanated from women’s international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working through the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). As a functioning commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the CSW, currently



made up of delegates elected from 45 UN member states, was established in 1946 to prepare reports and recommend actions regarding women’s political, economic, social, and educational rights and to address problems of discrimination against women. While the influence of the CSW within the UN global governance system has varied over the years, women’s NGOs, especially those accredited with “consultative status,” have maintained steady pressure on the CSW and other UN agencies and member governments to address women’s needs and concerns. The conventions listed above record some tangible results of their activism. Major Milestone: CEDAW Perhaps the most significant and far-reaching convention on women to date, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was the product of years of organizing among constituent members of the global women’s movement who prodded UN member states to deal with discrimination against women in a comprehensive way. CEDAW began its life as a declaration that was drafted by the CSW in 1965 and adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1967. Its emergence as a convention, however, coincided with the UN International Women’s Year (1975) and the subsequent UN Decade for Women (1976–85) that focused several global conferences on the themes of women’s equality, international development, and peace, and also saw established new UN bodies: the United Nations Voluntary Fund for the Advancement of Women (UNIFEM) to fund women’s development, and the International Research and Training Institute for Women (INSTRAW) to conduct research and collect data on global women’s status. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979, CEDAW was introduced at the opening ceremony of the mid-decade World Conference on Women at Copenhagen in 1980, where 64 nations signed it on the spot. CEDAW has been hailed as the “international women’s bill of rights,” with enforceable women’s human rights claims. It defines the range of discriminations against women and national actions to eliminate those discriminations in terms of abolishing discriminatory laws; establishing new laws to require gender equality and to recognize women’s political, civil, social, educational, and reproductive rights;

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and establishing institutions and protocols to protect women from trafficking and exploitation. States that agree to be bound by the terms of CEDAW must submit compliance reports to the CEDAW Committee, the specially designated UN monitoring agency made up of independent experts, at four-year intervals. The Committee also accepts independent reports from human rights NGOs and complaints from individuals who thus have gained an important legal instrument with which to fight against gender discrimination. The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women, drafted by a committee of experts convened by the CSW in 1991, also represents a significant step toward global recognition that the age-old practice of violence against women is a legitimate human rights violation. The declaration, drafted with critical input from international women’s NGOs who provided background research and persuasive documentation and analysis, defined violence or threat of violence against women as it occurred in any sphere, public or private, as a violation of women’s human rights. It was adopted by the CSW in 1992 and was included on the agenda of the UN World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993. The UN General Assembly adopted the landmark declaration in 1994. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Human Rights Campaign; Trafficking, Women and Children; United Nations Conferences on Women. Further Readings Fraser, A. S. and I. Tinker, eds. Developing Power: How Women Transformed International Development. New York: The Feminist Press at City University of New York, 2004. Meyer, Mary K. and Elisabeth Prügl, eds. Gender Politics in Global Governance. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality. “International Instruments and Treaty Bodies.” http://www.un.org/womenwatch/directory/ instruments_treaties_1003.htm (accessed June 2010). Karen Garner State University of New York, Empire State College

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United Nations Development Fund for Women

United Nations Development Fund for Women The United Nations Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM (abbreviation for Fonds de développement des Nations unies pour la femme), is the women’s fund at the United Nations (UN) that directs resources to women’s human rights, gender equality, and empowerment issues. UNIFEM is important to women’s status in the 21st century because of its past, current, and future efforts to expand opportunities and resources for women around the world. The fund was established in December 1976 as the UN Voluntary Fund for the Decade for Women (UNVFDW), directly following the First World Conference on Women held in Mexico City in 1975. Although initially created in 1984 only for the UN Decade for Women, the UNGA reestablished UNIFEM as a separate entity in autonomous association with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to assist the UN’s overall system of generating development. A five-member Consultative Committee (CC) meets once each year to offer guidance to UNIFEM on program and policy issues. The president of the UNGA designates five member states to serve a three-year term on the CC. Members as of 2010 included Estonia (chair), Chile, the Republic of Korea, Norway, and Sudan. UNIFEM’s work is framed by two international agreements: the Beijing Platform for Action, passed during the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), also known as the women’s bill of rights. These rights were more recently affirmed by the UN through the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals for 2015, which support fighting against poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, and gender inequality, while building partnerships with organizations to support development. UNIFEM’s activities are supported by two resolutions passed by the UN Security Council: 1325 (passed in 2000) on women, peace and security; and 1820, that passed in 2008, on sexual violence in conflict. The first director of UNIFEM was Margaret Snyder of the United States (1978–89). She was followed

by executive director Sharon Capeling-Alakija of Canada (1989–94); Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore (1994–2007); and the fourth and executive director as of 2010, Inés Alberdi of Spain (2007– ). UNIFEM also appoints Goodwill Ambassadors to represent the fund and its efforts around the world. These include Hon. Phoebe Asiyo of Kenya, Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Talal of Jordan, Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand, and actress Nicole Kidman of Australia, among others. Goals and Activities The goals and activities of the fund rely on the premise that every woman deserves the right to live her life without violence or discrimination. UNIFEM’s overarching goal is to support existing international commitments to advance gender equality, but especially in the implementation of these commitments on a national level. To support this goal, UNIFEM works in the following areas: supporting women’s economic security and human rights; stopping and preventing violence and abuse against women; educating to reduce human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) among women and girls; and promoting gender justice in nation-states. UNIFEM’s other, larger goals include gender equality and recognition of women’s human rights, to empower women to be the political and social actors of development around the world, in turn building fair societies for both men and women. To achieve these larger goals, UNIFEM works with national governments in areas including land and inheritance rights, finding respectable work for women, supporting women migrant workers, and ending violence and abuse against women. It attempts to transform institutions to hold them accountable to these larger goals of gender equality and recognition of rights. UNIFEM also has actively supported women in electoral and constitutional procedures in various countries. The fund offers technical and financial assistance to various women’s rights organizations, governments, and scholars. In turn, it connects these groups with the UN system to unite national and international political action and create an impetus for social change on a larger scale. UNIFEM’s program

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offices and connections to various groups make it a critical source of support for extending women’s rights through expanding women’s empowerment, especially in the areas of education, employment, and political participation. The fund also works with incorporating gender equality into budgets. It supports local and national initiatives to include gender in budgeting processes and activities in more than 40 countries around the globe. UNIFEM strengthens the voices of women’s rights advocates who strive to change the discriminatory practices toward women around the world. See Also: United Nations Conferences on Women; United Nations Conventions; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Heyzer, Noeleen. “Working Towards a World Free From Violence Against Women: UNIFEM’s Contribution.” Gender and Development. v.6/3 (1998). Spindel, Cheywa. With an End in Sight: Strategies From the UNIFEM Trust Fund to Eliminate the Violence Against Women. New York: United Nations Development Fund for Women, 2000. United Nations Development Fund for Women. http:// www.unifem.org (accessed December 2009). Rebecca A. Kuehl University of Minnesota

United States American women have made such remarkable gains in the past half century that people often refer to the United States as a postfeminist society. Women like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi occupy powerful, high-profile positions in the government. For the first time in history, roughly half of American wage earners are women. Women also constitute nearly 60 percent of college graduates and half of all those who obtain professional and advanced degrees. Yet in many other respects, the designation postfeminist appears decidedly premature. Today, American women are living in a society where they are presumed to enjoy equal

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rights and opportunities, despite the stubborn persistence of sexual inequality in numerous realms. Women and the Workforce Women’s relationship to paid labor has changed dramatically since 1950, when only 34 percent of all females age 16 and older participated in the workforce. Then, a large majority of Americans, including women themselves, disapproved of the notion of married women working outside the home. Although racist norms and dire economic need resulted in particularly high workforce participation rates among African American women, the majority of American women prior to the 1950s sought jobs only if young, single, or compelled by circumstances. Between 1950 and the late 1990s, women’s workforce participation rose steadily, cresting at 60.1 percent in 1997 and remaining fairly stable since then. As of 2008, there were 72 million women, or 59.5 percent of females over age 16, in the labor force. However, while men and women are working today in roughly equal numbers, women still do not perform as much paid labor as men, for they are much more likely to work part-time. Today, about one-quarter of all female workers hold part-time jobs, and women make up two-thirds of all part-time employees. Though working women have made significant gains, they have yet to achieve parity in the workplace. In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, women workers earned only 58.9 percent as much as men. They made virtually no progress toward reducing the wage gap until the 1980s, when a younger generation of women, with higher levels of education and professional training, began entering the workforce in large numbers. Many of these women, who came of age during the heyday of second wave feminism, intended to work consistently until retirement and hoped to pursue careers rather than jobs. Since the 1980s, the wage gap has continued to narrow, though at a markedly slower pace. In 2008, women still earned only 77 percent of what men earned, and the national median income for women was less than $36,000 a year, as compared to more than $46,000 for men. These differences cannot be attributed to lower levels of education; male high school graduates earn more, on average, than do women with an associate’s degree.

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Today, many women work in professions that traditionally excluded or marginalized them. In 1970, fewer than 8 percent of all physicians were women; by 2005, that number had increased to more than 25 percent, and women currently make up almost half of all medical school students. The legal profession has followed a similar trajectory. However, within such prestigious professions, women still remain clustered in the lower ranks. For instance, in 2006, women comprised only 18 percent of all partners in law firms. The corporate world has remained particularly resistant to change; as of 2008, women comprised a mere 15 percent of corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies, and only 12 of these companies had a female chief executive officer. Moreover, although an elite group of women has succeeded in breaking down barriers, the majority of women still hold positions that have historically been designated “women’s work.” In 2007, the top five jobs categories for women were, in descending order: secretary, registered nurse, elementary or middle school teacher, cashier, and retail salesperson. American women also continue to encounter serious difficulties combining the roles of worker and mother. In 1993, Congress finally enacted the Family Medical Leave Act, which allows employees to take off up to 12 weeks for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for an ailing family member, or to cope with health problems of one’s own. But in contrast to 163 other nations, the United States has yet to implement a national system of paid maternity leave. Moreover, unlike many wealthy countries, the United States does not provide for publicly funded or subsidized childcare (President Nixon vetoed comprehensive daycare legislation in 1971). The situation is especially bleak for poor children and their mothers who, since the passage of major welfare reform legislation in 1996, have faced stringent work requirements and lifetime limitations on assistance. Women, Wealth, and Poverty Commentators often measure improvements in women’s economic status by focusing on the narrowing of the wage gap. The situation looks much less rosy when the emphasis is shifted to questions of poverty and wealth. In this regard, the United States has greater disparities between the sexes than any other industrialized country. In 2007, 13.8 percent of females were

poor, compared to 11.1 percent of men. The poverty gap between women and men widens significantly between the ages of 18 and 24, when many women assume childrearing responsibilities: 20 percent of all women in this age range, compared to 14 percent of men, are poor. Economists have long documented dramatic racial inequalities in regard to wealth, defined as one’s assets minus one’s debts. But the “gender wealth gap” has drawn attention only recently. Sociologist Mariko Chang has pointed out that, although women ages 18 to 64 now earn 77 percent of what men make, they have only 36 percent as much wealth. The wealth gap hits black and Latina women particularly hard. Shockingly, women of color own only a penny compared to every dollar owned by men of color, and only a fraction of a penny to every dollar owned by white women. Almost half of all single black and Hispanic women have zero or negative wealth, meaning that their debts exceed their assets. Attention to wealth exposes marked inequalities that tend to be obscured by the contemporary focus on the wage gap. According to Chang, even the complete closure of the wage gap would not result in economic parity between the sexes, so long as women disproportionately shoulder the financial burdens of childrearing, and so long as they are less likely than men to hold jobs with “wealth-building” fringe benefits, such 401(k) plans. Women in Politics Today, American women vote at higher rates than men and are more likely to lend their support to Democratic Party candidates. This was not always the case. From the time women gained the franchise nationally in 1920 until 1980, they had somewhat lower rates of voter turnout than men. Moreover, in the 1950s and early 1960s, women voters tended to be slightly more conservative than their male counterparts. The 1980 election, however, in which women and men cast ballots at roughly equal rates, witnessed the rise of a new “gender gap” that has persisted to the present day. This gap can in part be attributed to the fact that women are more likely to support public programs designed to guarantee healthcare and social services. This gender gap was particularly striking in 1996, when 54 percent of women, as compared to 43 percent of men, voted to reelect Democrat Bill Clinton—a



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A woman practicing an autopsy in the late 1880s at the Women’s Medical Clinic in New York City. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to graduate from medical school and a pioneer in educating women in medicine, established the clinic in 1868.

spread of 11 percentage points. Similarly, only 43 percent of women, as compared to 53 percent of men, voted for Republican George W. Bush in 2000. In the most recent presidential election, the gap was somewhat less pronounced, with 7 percent more women than men voting for Democrat Barack Obama. If American women are well represented at the ballot box, they are still badly underrepresented among the ranks of elected officials. As late as 1992, only three women served in the Senate—an all-time high. That year, however, many Americans watched the televised confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas; the spectacle of male senators grilling law professor Anita Hill, who alleged that Thomas had sexually harassed her, helped to fuel a push for more women in Congress. Dubbed the “Year of the Woman,” 1992 witnessed the election of 24 new women to the House of Representatives and five to the Senate—the largest increase in women’s representation in U.S. history.

Yet as of 2010, women still held less than one-fifth (17 percent) of all U.S. Congressional seats. Among all nations, the United States ranks an unimpressive 69th in terms of female representatives serving in national legislative bodies. The situation at the state level is only marginally better, with women holding roughly 24 percent of all legislative seats. Moreover, despite Hillary Clinton’s historic and nearly successful campaign in 2008, the major parties have yet to nominate a woman as a presidential candidate. Women’s Health and Reproduction American women’s longevity and overall health differ widely according to such factors as race, class, and region. The average life expectancy for a female born in the United States today is 80 years. While this is longer than any previous generation, the nation ranks only 38th in terms of life expectancy: Japan, France, Great Britain, Chile, and South Korea all boast higher rates. Moreover, the life expectancy

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rate of African American women is roughly four years less that of white women. The issue of maternal mortality in the United States is a particularly pressing concern, for rates of maternal death actually increased from a low of 6.6 per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 13.3 in 2006. This means that, on average, more than two women die every day in the United States due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately half of these deaths are preventable. American women have a greater lifetime risk of dying of pregnancyrelated complications than do the women in 40 other countries. Again, black women are at especially high risk: they are nearly four times more likely than white women to die of pregnancy-related complications. Part of this increase may be linked to the sharp rise in caesarean, or C-section, births. (The death rate for even routine, nonemergency caesareans is twice that of vaginal deliveries.) The World Health Organization recommends that the percentage of C-sections in a given nation should not exceed 15 percent. In 1965, caesarean deliveries accounted for only 4.5 percent of American births; today, they make up nearly a third. While this rate is still lower than that of some nations, including Brazil and China, it is higher than that of most developed nations. In the United States, rising caesarean rates can be at least partially attributed to obstetricians’ fear of lawsuits, as well as their growing willingness to induce labor for reasons of convenience. In the past three decades, the rate of abortion in the United States has declined fairly steadily, from a high of 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age in the early 1980s to 19.4 in 2005. Today, about 20 percent of all pregnancies in the United States end in abortion. Here again, race and class play a significant role: African American women obtain roughly 37 percent of all abortions in the United States, though they make up only 13 percent of the population. Poor women also have higher rates of abortion. Fortytwo percent of women obtaining abortions in 2005 had incomes below the federal poverty line, and 75 percent said they could not afford another child. In Germany, where women enjoy access to governmentfunded healthcare (including contraception) and child allowances, the abortion rate is less than half of what it is in the United States

The legal right to abortion remains highly contested and potentially subject to reversal. Since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973, federal and state laws have restricted access to abortion in numerous ways, such as barring public funding, insisting on parental notification for minors, imposing waiting periods and counseling sessions, and restricting access to late-term abortions. As of 2010, at least four of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices would likely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if given the opportunity. Marriage and Motherhood One of the most striking developments in recent years is a gradual decoupling of marriage and motherhood. Changing sexual mores, the rise of cohabitation, and the movement for same-sex marriage have challenged traditional views. Compared to prior generations, Americans today are much less likely to see marriage as an institution centered primarily on the bearing and rearing of children. A 2007 Pew survey found that just 41 percent of Americans believe that children are “very important” to a successful marriage, down from 65 percent who held that view in 1990. Moreover, many women no longer view marriage as a necessary precondition for childbearing and rearing; today, four out of 10 children are born to unmarried mothers. Patterns of marriage, divorce, and childrearing are more sharply divided along class lines today than in the past, however. College-educated women are far less likely to bear children outside of marriage, or to have a marriage that ends in divorce, than less affluent women and women with less education. In some important respects, motherhood is a less central role than it was for generations past. A smaller proportion of women are assuming the responsibilities of motherhood. Childlessness among women is at an all-time high, having doubled in the past 30 years (In 2008, 20 percent of women ages 40 to 44 had no children.) The likelihood of remaining childless was greater for highly educated women; 27 percent of women with professional or advanced degrees had no children, as compared to 18 percent who had only a high school education. American women are also bearing fewer children than in most periods in U.S. history. In recent years, the total fertility rate in the United States has hovered around replacement level (2.1 children per woman). While this is up from a



record low of 1.7 in 1976, and higher than the total fertility rates of most European and many Asian countries today, it is still historically quite low. Hispanics currently have the highest birthrates, followed by blacks, Asians, and whites. Large numbers of American women are also delaying childbirth; today, more children are born to women in their 30s than to women in their 20s. However, even if women are bearing fewer children and doing so later in life, the maternal role has in other respects intensified in modern times. Remarkably, the fact that women are bearing fewer children and working more outside the home does not mean that they are devoting less time to childrearing than mothers in the past. On the contrary, during the past two decades, time spent on childrearing in the United States has risen sharply, particularly for college-educated mothers—a fact that some researchers attribute to the increasing competitiveness of elite universities and colleges. Media The media is another realm in which severe gender imbalance persists, especially at the highest levels of decision-making. As of 2007, women owned only six percent of commercial broadcast television and radio stations, and they remain a distinct minority of news reporters and commentators. Of all stories carried on national network news, just over 25 percent are reported by women. Among daily U.S. newspapers, women make up only about a third of all reporters/ writers and syndicated opinion columnists. The lack of women on Sunday talks shows—a forum that wields disproportionate influence within the D.C. Beltway— is particularly egregious. A 2005–06 study of the four broadcast network Sunday news shows found that male guests outnumbered females on average by a ratio of four to one. Hollywood has proven especially difficult for women to penetrate, though Kathryn Bigelow broke through one glass ceiling in 2009 when she became the first female director to win an Academy Award for Best Picture for The Hurt Locker. A study of the 100 top-grossing films of 2007 found that women made up only 2.7 percent of the directors, 11.2 percent of the writers, and 20.5 percent of the producers. According to the study’s author, Stacy Smith, this dearth of women behind the scenes helps to explain the startling fact that female characters constituted less than

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30 percent of all speaking parts in these films. Smith has discovered similar imbalances in male and female characters in films directed to children. The ratio is less dramatic but still notable in children’s television shows, with male characters appearing at roughly twice the rate of female characters. Even as contemporary film and television continue to privilege male characters, they propagate a message that Susan Douglas has identified as “enlightened sexism.” According to Douglas, since the early 1990s, the media has portrayed women as having achieved full equality. Popular television shows featuring women as surgeons, lawyers, judges, or highpowered politicians reinforce the notion that feminism’s work is done. Yet at the same time, numerous reality shows and other cultural fare portray women in wholly retrograde and demeaning ways—as appearance-obsessed and materialistic manhunters. The media, Douglas convincingly argues, thus offers a highly distorted image of the complexities of women’s current status in the United States. Encouraged to believe they can achieve anything, young women are also pressured to conform to a “hyperfeminine ideal of hotness and beauty.” In short, the illusion of full sexual equality is endlessly recycled, while the mundane reality of persistent discrimination—evident in everything from paychecks to politics to healthcare—too often goes unremarked and unaddressed. See Also: Abortion Laws, United States; Chief Executive Officers, Female; Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Divorce; Equal Pay; Film Directors, Female: United States; Film Production, Women in; Lily Ledbetter Act; Maternal Mortality; Parental Leave Act; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Professions by Gender; Representation of Women in Government, U.S.; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Same-Sex Marriage; Welfare; Working Mothers; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Amnesty International. “Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA.” March 12, 2010. http:// www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/019/2010 /en (accessed July 2010). Boushey, Heather and Ann O’Leary, eds. The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2009.

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Cawthorne, Alexandra. “The Straight Facts on Women in Poverty.” Center for American Progress. October 2008. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/10 /women_poverty.html (accessed July 2010). Chang, Mariko Lin. Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done about It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Collins, Gail. When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 2009. Douglas, Susan J. Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work Is Done. New York: Times Books, 2010. Gibbs, Nancy. “What Women Want Now.” Time, October 14, 2009. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages /article/0,28804,1930277_1930145_1930309-2,00 .html (accessed July 2010). Media Matters for America. “Sunday Shutout: The Lack of Gender and Ethnic Diversity on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows.” May 14, 2007. http://mediamatters.org /reports/200705140001 (accessed July 2010). Ramey, G. and V. A. Ramey. “The Rug Rat Race.” National Bureau of Economic Research. (August 2009). http:// www.nber.org/papers/w15284 (accessed July 2010). Smith, Stacy L. “Gender Oppression in Cinematic Content? A Look at Females On-Screen & Behind-theCamera in Top-Grossing 2007 Films.” http://www .thegeenadavisinstitute.org/downloads/2007Films _GenderReport.pdf (accessed July 2010). Rebecca Jo Plant University of California, San Diego

Unpaid Labor The notion of unpaid labor has been traditionally associated with domestic housework and raising a family in the privacy of the home. This labor was (and still is) highly gendered, often undertaken by women, while men would most likely take up the role of household “breadwinner.” Paid work is visible in the public eye, whereas unpaid work has remained invisible. Until recently, accounting for unpaid labor was not considered to be important by statisticians, economists, or policy makers, as it was considered to be irrelevant to market-based economies. Given this, unpaid labor

has been largely omitted from world history. What stands to count as labor, and how it comes to accumulate value, is a highly contentious issue. Certain individuals’ labor and their efforts are recognized by others, made visible, and subsequently rewarded with economic and cultural benefits. Other individuals find that their labor is not recognized and is made invisible—and thus goes unpaid and unrewarded. Unpaid labor in the household ranges from cleaning, collecting and producing edible food, and managing financial outgoings, to caregiving and maintaining family and community relationships. The motives described for why many more women undertake this kind of work are often associated with altruism, family responsibilities, or empathy. Empathy especially is regarded as a particularly naturalized feminine attribute, and so efforts expended in this kind of labor are viewed to be done willingly and are not considered by some to count as work. As this work is often regarded as part of women’s natural role, it is made invisible, given no market value and little social status. Work is traditionally regarded as a productive activity that is attributed a market value and is exchanged for a wage in a capitalist system. For Karl Marx, this allocation of market value to human productive capacities and the extraction of profit after goods are sold underpin the labor process. This labor process is viewed to be exploitative, because most individuals must sell their labor to those who own the means of production and offer the best wages. These wages are governed by economic forces of labor supply and demand for particular kinds of goods and services. As economies develop and industries change, the value of certain labor capacities fluctuates. For example, in highly industrialized economies, paid labor was predominantly undertaken by men. Labor in coal mines and ship building was regarded as highly masculine work that could only be done by men. This meant that paid work was viewed as a male remit, while women were expected to stay at home to undertake household duties and depend on men to subsist. Paid work was attributed a highly valued status within society, usually unavailable to women. However, as demand for products such as coal and ships began to cease and was replaced by servicesector and knowledge-based economies, the value of masculinized labor decreased. This transition is called postindustrialization.



Postindustrial economies require different skills from the labor force. For instance, flight attendants, beauticians, and customer-service operators all provide embodied care-work that is consumed by the customer almost immediately. This service work is temporal and often intangible. Attributes needed to carry out this kind of embodied service work—empathy, altruism, and often beauty—are highly gendered and attached to women’s bodies. This demand for feminine attributes in service-based economies overturned traditional notions that paid work was a male remit. From the 1980s onward, more women than ever before began to take up paid labor in postindustrial economies. This is known as the “feminization of the workplace.” Controversies and Criticisms Understanding what stands to count as “work,” and how value comes to be attached depending on the body undertaking the labor, has been fundamental to the gender equality agenda raised in the 1960s and forcefully purported by the International Women’s Movement. Controversy has been raised over the view that unpaid work is somehow irrelevant to how we measure and understand market-based economies. This effacement of such work has meant that it has remained unrewarded. In addition, feminists have sought to challenge heterosexual norms that rest on biological determinism. These norms position women as natural caregivers. This “naturalness” attached to women’s work is often used to justify little or no pay. As such, roles drawing on empathy or care work are afforded little value because the effort required to undertake them has been erased by embedded social norms and practices. For many feminists, women are not naturally more empathetic or caring; this activity requires effort as much as anything else. This kind of intangible labor is now being recognized by scholars as “emotion work.” Men do undertake emotion work, but the effort taken to do this is recognized and rewarded, whereas it is not for many women. Opportunities and Choice More women are entering the labor market to work in service sectors, exchanging their labor for a wage. Moving from unpaid labor in the private arena to paid work in the public arena has arguably afforded women greater social status and economic rewards for their

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productivity. However, this movement between unpaid, devalued labor in the home and valued, paid work in legitimated sectors does not challenge the structured inequalities embedded in these work practices. Some feminists also argue that a greater influx of women into the labor market has challenged the gendering of job roles and instills greater equality. Women now work as mechanics, engineers, and politicians—careers that have been traditionally masculinized. Similarly, men now work in what were traditionally viewed to be feminized roles, such as teachers, nurses, and hair stylists. However, in postindustrialized societies, many women are still paid significantly less than men to do the same work. This is also segmented further regarding social divisions such as race, class, and sexuality. Despite controversies surrounding unpaid labor, it is now widely believed that women have greater opportunities and freedom as a result of undertaking paid labor. However, others have argued that paid work has increased the burden women have to bear, as they still remain responsible for the majority of household and care work in the home. Many households now also require two incomes in order to maintain a certain standard of living, with some members holding down several jobs at any one time. In order to do this, the work in the home has become commoditized. Dual earners now employ cleaners and nannies on low pay so that they can exchange their own labor for greater economic benefits. This argument demonstrates that so-called opportunities for women are unevenly distributed. Future Challenges In postindustrial economies, emotion work remains unpaid labor. Even though emotion work is used to make customers and clients feel welcome in a restaurant or comfortable in a hospital for example, this labor is often overlooked in service-sector job specifications. Instead, it is the functional and tangible aspects of these jobs that are used to measure the skill required to fulfill that role. Cleaning bedsheets and dinner plates are thus justified as low-skill jobs, whereas the emotion work done to care for a patient or customer is “naturalized” and effaced. Many women therefore predominantly cluster in low paying, part-time, unstable service-sector work. Moreover, because providing a service is difficult to measure, regulate, and control,

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often a lot of these low-paid roles are subject to tightly standardized expectations regarding performances. Feminists continue to disagree as to whether women are benefiting from paid employment. For some feminists, women have been afforded greater opportunities and freedom than ever before, becoming upwardly mobile and independent. However, others state that these opportunities are unevenly distributed among men and middle-class women. Other feminists also state that women have increased their burden by being expected to undertake both paid and unpaid labor. Labor in the household remains predominantly women’s responsibility and is still significantly undervalued. The valuation of work that women do still falls short of what men are paid to do the same activity. Women still have very important challenges to assert if their work is to be seen, recognized, and fairly and equally rewarded in the future. See Also: Domestic Workers; “Femininity,” Social Construction of; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Stereotypes of Women; Unions; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Adkins, L. Gendered Work: Sexuality, Family and the Labor Market. Bristol, UK: Open University Press, 1995. Bradley, H. Gender and Power in the Workplace: Analysing the Impact of Economic Change. Houndsmill, UK: Macmillan Press, 1999. Glucksmann, M. A. “Why ‘Work’? Gender and the Total Social Organization of Labor.” Gender, Work and Organization, v.2/2 (1995). Hochschild, A. The Managed Heart: Commercialisation of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. McDowell, L. Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Skeggs, B. Formations of Class and Gender: Becoming Respectable. London: Sage, 1997. Taylor, Y. Working-Class Lesbian Life: Classed Outsiders. Houndsmill, Basingstoke and Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Walby, Sylvia. Gender Transformations. London: Routledge, 1997. Michelle Addison Newcastle University

Urban Planning, Women in While traditionally the professions involved in planning and building cities (architecture, engineering, planning, development, and construction) have included very few women, by the beginning of the 21st century this had begun to change. In the United States, women accounted for about a third of the membership of the American Planning Association (APA) by 2000, while nearly half of graduates from U.S. planning programs were female. The APA established a technical division on women and planning in 1979, which quickly became the largest division in the organization. The division regularly sponsors sessions at the national meetings and conducts research relevant to women. In 2005, membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute in the United Kingdom was around 28 percent female, while the Gender Equality Duty that came into force in Britain in 2007 requires public authorities to remove gender discrimination, including planning built environments that are gender equitable. The EuroFEM network had achieved some successes in infusing considerations of gender into the European Union structural policy. However, many practicing female planners are still relatively junior, and most have been trained by men, so the consequences of the “feminization of planning” are still largely nascent. Cities Planned and Built by Men Females constitute at least half of the population of most cities, yet it is argued that cities in much of the world have been planned and built by men whose ideals of efficiency, order, and even aesthetics may differ from those of women. Since in most societies, domestic and childrearing roles remain gendered and women continue to shoulder “reproductive” work disproportionately, their concerns with housing, transportation, safety, and open space differ from those of men. Because the majority of women, including mothers, are also in the workforce in many countries, the spatial planning of urban areas can facilitate or frustrate combining work in and outside of the home. In the last few decades, there have been feminist critiques of conventional urban planning that have reverberated in academia, if less so in the “real” world. An issue of particular concern to feminist planners is that of providing housing that supports the combination



of caregiving with paid employment. Innovations such as co-housing, which combines private living/ sleeping accommodations with communal kitchen, dining, recreational, and laundry spaces, are appearing in Europe and North America. Because women have lower incomes and higher rates of poverty than men, the provision of affordable housing is more critical to women, feminist planners are more likely to support financial subsidies, zoning to enable multifamily developments in suburban single-family areas, and ordinances that allow varied household compositions (such as unrelated individuals sharing units). In general, feminist planners favor mixed-use zoning so that residential units are spatially integrated with commercial and institutional uses, reducing distances traveled to work, school, and shopping. Transport, Safety, and Community Services Mobility and transportation needs and preferences are often gendered. In most countries, males are more likely to have driver’s licenses and access to cars than women are. While this difference is more pronounced among older populations, and younger women are learning to drive at similar rates as young men, nevertheless women are more dependent on public transportation. Feminist planners (of both genders) strive to provide reliable public transit that is accessible both financially and physically to young mothers with the impedimenta of small children and older women with infirmities. In the United States, where many suburban developments were built without sidewalks, transforming neighborhoods into more pedestrian-friendly places is a goal supported by many, including the organizers of “walking school buses,” which encourage children to walk to school. Another issue with gendered implications is safety and freedom from street crime. The extent to which policing systems (especially the increasing intensity of remote surveillance systems in cities) make women safer from assault in the streets is a subject of current debate, but women in many places are working for “safe houses,” women’s centers, and like spaces. As women have increasingly joined the paid workforce, many have inevitably reduced their involvement in the volunteer community work that provides essential services. This requires that planners and policymakers substitute paid labor for social capital, which

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in turn creates employment opportunities for women (and men). While to date most planners focusing on women’s issues have been primarily concerned with North America and Europe, increasingly conditions in developing world cities are examined through gendered lenses. Public health, especially the provision of clean water and sanitation, is often critical to women and children’s survival while women’s work in the informal economy can be aided with microloan provision. Design From Other Quarters It can be argued that most of the women most influential in the design of cities were not professional planners. Women such as Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ada Louise Huxtable, Jane Jacobs, and Rachel Carson had lasting influences on the ways in which cities were built and services provided, but they are not thought of as urban planners. The work of leading women designers (Denise Scott Brown, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Zaha Hadid) is not particularly feminist in orientation, and clearly men are capable of planning places conducive to women’s needs. The planning profession has made progress toward gender equity in pay and promotion, family leave, and related policies, but it is likely that complete gender parity will take some years to achieve. See Also: Architecture, Women in; Business, Women in; Engineering, Women in; Environmental Justice; Microcredit; Working Mothers. Further Readings Burgess, Gemma. “Planning and the Gender Equality Duty—Why Does Gender Matter?” People, Place and Policy Online, v.2/3 (2008). Fainstein, Susan and Lisa Servon. Gender and Planning: A Reader. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. Petrie, Pattsi and Dory Reeves. “Gender and the Built Environment Database.” Gendersite. http://www .gendersite.org (accessed November 2009). Reeves, Dory and Pattsi Petrie. Women in the Planning Profession: Making the Built Environment Better. Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). Washington, DC: IWPR, 2005. Briavel Holcomb Rutgers University

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Uruguay Uruguay is a South American country sharing borders with Argentina and Brazil. Its gross domestic product (GDP) of $12,600 per capita in 2009 is among the highest in South America, but income distribution is unequal (the Gini index of 45.2 is 42nd-highest in the world) and 27.4 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Life expectancy is 80 years for women and 71 for men. The population of about 3.5 million is predominantly white (88 percent) with 8 percent mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian) and 4 percent black. Roman Catholicism is the most common religion (47.1 percent). The World Economic Forum rates Uruguay in the middle third of countries with regard to gender equity. On a scale where 0 indicates inequality and 1 perfect equality, overall Uruguay received a score of 0.69 and a rank of 57th among 134 countries. On educational attainment, Uruguay received a score of 1.0 (1st in the world), on health and survival a score of 0.98 (1st), on economic participation and opportunity 0.59 (62nd), and on political empowerment 0.17 (58th). Female literacy is almost universal (98 percent), and women constitute a majority in tertiary education. Women are less likely to be in the labor force (64 percent, versus 85 percent for men) and although they are overrepresented among professional technical workers, women earn only about 57 percent as much as men, and have almost twice the unemployment rate of men at 12.4 percent versus 6.6 percent. Women are active in politics, although primarily at the lower and middle levels; at the national level, they hold 12 percent of the seats in Parliament and 29 percent of ministerial positions. Employment Discrimination Women are equal to men under the law but face discrimination because of traditional attitudes and tend to be segregated into particular jobs and hold a disproportionate share of lower-paying jobs. Rape, particularly spousal rape, and domestic violence remain problematic in Uruguay, as does human trafficking for forced labor and sexual exploitation. Mothers are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave at 100 percent of wages. All births are attended by trained personnel, 94 percent of women receive four or more prenatal care visits, and childhood immuni-

zation rates are over 90 percent. The infant mortality rate is 13 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate is 20 per 100,000 live births. Contraceptives are used by 77 percent of married women, and the total fertility rate is 1.9 children per woman. Save the Children ranks Uruguay high among Tier II or less developed countries on issues relating to the health and welfare of women and children, and it ranks sixth out of 75 countries on the Mothers’ Index, fifth on the Women’s Index, and second on the Children’s Index. See Also: Domestic Violence; Prostitution, Legal; Roman Catholic Church; Trafficking in Women and Children. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Uruguay.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/uy.html (accessed February 2010). Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 2009). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Uruguay.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/ wha/119176.htm (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan is a landlocked central Asian country that won its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2009, the per capita gross domestic product was $2,800, with one-third of the population living below the poverty line. The leading ethnic group is Uzbek (80 percent) with minorities including Russian (5.5 percent), Tajik (5 percent), and Karakalpak (2.5 percent). Islam is the most common religion (88 percent), followed by 9 percent Eastern Orthodox. In 2009, the World Economic Forum ranked Uzbekistan in the middle range of countries on gender equality. On the Gender Gap Index where 0 means inequality and 1 means perfect equality,



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A family displays their new harvest of grapes in Pop Rayon of Namangan Oblast, Uzbekistan. A USAID program introduced new techniques for growing fruits in Uzbekistan, helping generate higher incomes for rural families.

Uzbekistan scored 0.691 overall, 58th among 134 countries. On health and survival, Uzbekistan scored 0.997 (64th); on educational attainment, the country scored a 0.941 (73rd); on economic participation and opportunity, Uzbekistan received a 0.769 (ninth) and on political empowerment it got a 0.079 (97th). Ninety-six percent of Uzbek women are literate and about 90 percent of girls attend primary and secondary school, versus 92 and 93 percent, respectively, of boys. About 8 percent of girls are enrolled in tertiary educational institutions, compared to 11 percent of boys. A smaller proportion of women than men, 62 percent compared to 73 percent, are in the labor force, and women earn about 60 percent of men’s wages. Women hold 18 percent of the seats in parliament and 5 percent of the nation’s ministerial positions. Uzbek women have a longer life expec-

tancy than men, 61 versus 58 years, both of which are low by international standards. Uzbekistan provides a high standard of maternal and child health services given its limited resources. Maternity leave is provided for 126 days at 100 percent of salary. Prenatal care and delivery in a health facility assisted by trained personnel is almost universal, and midwives play a large role in delivering this care. Abortion is available on demand, and 65 percent of married women report using birth control. The infant mortality rate is 38 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate is 24 per 100,000 live births. Save the Children ranks Uzbekistan in the upper third of Tier II or less developed countries on services to women and children, ranking it 22nd among 75 countries on it Mothers’ Index, 22nd on its Women’s Index, and 32nd on its Children’s Index.

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See Also: Islam; Midwifery; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Uzbekistan.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/uz.html (accessed August 2010). Hiro, Dilip. Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz. New York: Overlook, 2009.

Kamp, Marianne. The New Woman in Uzbekistan: Islam, Modernity, and Unveiling Under Communism. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008. Khalid, Adeeb. Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Melvin, Neil J. Uzbekistan: Transition to Authoritarianism. London: Routledge, 2000. Sarah Boslaugh Washington University

V Vagina Monologues, The Originating from several interviews with women, The Vagina Monologues was written by playwright Eve Ensler. Early performances of The Vagina Monologues were performed by Ensler herself before being opened up to college campuses and communities throughout the United States and Canada. Ensler’s work expanded into V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women, which remains active today. Ensler began interviewing over 200 women about their vaginas and their experiences as women. The information and stories from these interviews were transformed into poetry for theater. A wide range of stories and information is included in the publication: There is a piece on the rape of Bosnian refugees in 1993, titled, “My Vagina Was My Village”; there are pieces on birth, menstruation, and facts on genital mutilation; and there are also sections based on the answers to questions such as, “What does a vagina smell like?” and “If your vagina got dressed, what would it wear?” Women and girls of all ages were interviewed. Interviews with women between the ages of 65 and 75 years were much different than the others because women from this generation rarely talked about their vaginas, as it was considered a taboo subject. The Vagina Monologues met resistance in its opening days. During this time the word vagina was not said openly, and radio stations and television broadcasts refused to say the word on air. An example of

this is Cable News Network’s (CNN’s) 10-minute segment on The Vagina Monologues that never mentioned the word vagina. Despite this resistance, The Vagina Monologues and the V-Day movement opened up the use of the word. The Cardinal Newman Society, a group involved in Catholic identity on Catholic college and university campuses, also provided opposition to the V-Day movement. The society attempted to halt performances of The Vagina Monologues in Catholic higher education. Ensler’s Intentions Originally, Ensler performed The Vagina Monologues by herself. After the performances, she would listen to her women viewers’ stories about rape, incest, and domestic violence. She then made it one of her top priorities to find a way to stop violence against women— this led to the birth of V-Day. The first V-Day occurred on February 14, 1998, when 2,500 people attended the V-Day performance of The Vagina Monologues at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, and many others waited outside hoping to get a seat. Ensler performed the piece with popular actresses such as Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Winona Ryder, Calista Flockhart, and many more. The event sold out, and raised well over $100,000 to stop violence against women. With the success of the first V-Day, it was decided that awareness needed to be raised on the local level, and it was then that the V-Day College Initiative was born. 1509

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The V-Day College Initiative would allow colleges and universities to put on productions of The Vagina Monologues on V-Day as long as the proceeds went to local organizations working to stop violence against women. Karen Obel, director of the V-Day College Initiative, sent letters to potential performers at colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. Some expressed interest in the initiative, whereas others found The Vagina Monologues highly controversial and declined the invitation to perform. Despite this, in 1999, the piece was performed by more than 65 schools. By 2007, the campaign had expanded to include 700 college campuses, 400 cities, and 58 countries. The initiative continues today, with thousands of events. The V-Day movement includes over 120 countries all over the world, and to date, it has raised awareness to millions of people and has raised over $50 million to stop violence against women. V-Day Global Causes Every year, a particular cause is chosen for global focus. V-Day has supported groups such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, which seeks to liberate women from the Taliban, and the Center for Women War Victims. V-Day has also worked with Planned Parenthood to help their preexisting programs work toward ending violence against women. A main focus of the movement to date has been helping women and girls who are being raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Teach-Ins are being hosted to raise awareness of these conditions. In addition, the V-Day movement is working on creating “The City of Joy” in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The City of Joy” seeks to provide resources for women so they can recover from abuse and become involved in their community to help other women facing the same challenges. See Also: Domestic Violence; Ensler, Eve; Rape in Conflict Zones. Further Readings Ensler, Eve. The Vagina Monologues: V-Day Edition. New York: Villard, 2001. Obel, Karen. “The Story of V-Day and the College Initiative,” in The Vagina Monologues: V-Day Edition. New York: Villard, 2001.

Steinem, Gloria. “Foreword.” In The Vagina Monologues: V-Day Edition. New York: Villard, 2001. V-Day. http://www.vday.org (accessed November 2009). Kayla S. Canelo California State University

vanden Heuvel, Katrina Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States, is a political journalist who has spent most of her 30-year career working for the Nation, where she began as an intern. A self-described liberal, vanden Heuvel is a frequent political commentator on television news shows, appearing on MSNBC, CNN, and PBS, and writer for national publications such as the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe. She is the cofounder of Vyi I myi, a Russian-language feminist newsletter that she coedited for many years, and she has written and edited several books. Vanden Heuvel grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with politics and entertainment as her birthright. She was born October 7, 1959, in New York City to lawyer, author, and politician William vanden Heuvel and author and editor Jean Stein, daughter of the founder of MCA Entertainment, Jules Stein. Her sister, Wendy vanden Heuvel, is an actress who teaches theater in New York. Vanden Heuvel attended the preparatory Trinity School (now Trinity Pawling) and Princeton University. In college, she interned at the National Lampoon, published a New York Times op-ed about energy independence, and took a year off to intern at the Nation. After graduating summa cum laude from Princeton in 1981, she worked for two years as a production assistant at ABC television. She then returned to the Nation as an assistant editor and has worked there ever since, becoming acting editor in 1994, editor-in-chief in 1995, and publisher in 2005. Vanden Heuvel was among a group of investors, including Paul Newman, E. L. Doctorow, and the Nation’s former editor-in-chief, Victor Navasky, to purchase the Nation in 1995.

Vanuatu



In 1988, vanden Heuvel married Stephen Cohen, who, at the time, was a professor of politics and director of Russian studies at Princeton University and today is a Russian history professor at New York University. The couple lived in Russia for several months each year from 1985 until 1991, the year their daughter, Nika, was born. In addition to her daughter, vanden Heuvel also has, from Cohen’s previous marriage, two stepchildren and several stepgrandchildren. Vanden Heuvel belongs to the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on boards for the Correctional Association of New York, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, and the World Policy Institute. She has been recognized for her public service by the Association for American-Russian Women, the Correctional Association, and the Liberty Hill Foundation. In addition, she has received the following awards for her work as a political journalist: the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Voices of Peace Award, New York Civil Liberties Union’s Callaway Prize for the Defense of the Right of Privacy, New York University’s Olive Branch Award, and Planned Parenthood’s Maggie Award. See Also: Feminist Publishing; Journalists, Print Media; Political Ideologies; Russia. Further Readings vanden Heuvel, Katrina. Dictionary of Republicanisms: The Indispensable Guide to What They Really Mean When They Say What They Think You Want to Hear. New York: Nation Books, 2005. Vidal, Gore, Victor Navasky, and Katrina vanden Heuvel. The Best of the Nation: Selections From the Independent Magazine of Politics and Culture. New York: Nation Books, 2000. Carolyn Edy University of North Carolina

Vanuatu The Republic of Vanuatu is an archipelago of islands located in the South Pacific. Language patterns today reflect the mixed Anglo-French heritage of the

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islands. Upon achieving independence in 1980, the nation’s name was changed from the New Hebrides to Vanuatu. Three-fourths of the population resides in rural areas, and 70 percent live off of small-scale agriculture. The per capita income of $4,800 is subsidized by substantial foreign aid from Australia and New Zealand. Vanuatu ranks 126th on the United Nations Development Program’s list of countries with very high human development. More than 98 percent of the population is ethnically Ni-Vanuatu. The islands are more diverse in religion, but the majority of citizens are either Protestant or Roman Catholic. There are more than 100 local languages spoken in Vanuatu. Although the constitution grants women equal rights with men, cultural restrictions prevent women from taking an active role in either economics or politics. Local customs also discourage female ownership of land. The first female was elected to the country’s parliament in 1987, but by 2008, only two women sat in parliament, and none were in the cabinet. The ombudsman, a constitutionally created position designed to handle perceived injustices, is female. With an infant mortality rate of 49.45 deaths per 1,000 live births, Vanuatu ranks 52nd in the world in this category. Female life expectancy is 65.66 years,. as compared to 62.37 years for males. The median age for females is 24.1 years. Females have a fertility rate of 2.5 children per woman. Approximately threefourths of Vanuatu citizens are literate, and the nation ranks sixth in the world in educational expenditures. Females, however, generally obtain only 10 years of schooling compared to 11 years for males. Feminist Activism In 1995, Vanuatu ratified the United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) while attending the Beijing Conference on Women. That same year, the National Council of Women sponsored a series of seminars designed to educate women about their political rights. By that time, women had begun speaking out about domestic violence. Activism that grew out of a 1992 regional workshop led to the creation of the Women’s Center, which counsels all parties involved in domestic violence. However, the Center’s activities are limited by lack of funding. Women’s groups have used the media and protest

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marches to call public attention to domestic violence. In 2008, Vanuatu passed the Family Protection Act, which included punishment for domestic violence. No laws exist to combat sexual harassment, which is also considered a major problem. See Also: Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Domestic Violence; Property Rights; United Nations Development Fund for Women. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Vanuatu.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/nh.html (accessed June 2010). Tahi, Merilyn. “Vanuatu’s Women’s Center.” Women in Action, v.2 (June 30, 1995). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Vanuatu.” http://www.state.gove/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /eap/119062.htm (accessed June 2010). “Women and Human Rights: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997; Vanuatu.” WIN News, v.24/2 (Spring 1998). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Vegetarian Feminism Vegetarian feminism, also known as feminist vegetarianism or vegetarian ecofeminism, is a theoretical perspective that focuses on the connection between meat eating and the oppression of women. Leading scholars in this area assert that women are demeaned and dehumanized by being placed in the same category as meat. Women, for instance, are frequently compared to animals such as being called “cougars” or “sex kittens.” Because of this connection between animals and women, vegetarian feminism is a women’s issue. Vegetarian feminism is encompassed in the broader social and political movement known as ecofeminism. Ecofeminists see connections between environmentalism and feminism, linking the subordination and oppression of women to the degradation of nature. According to the philosophy of ecofeminism, the societal mentality that leads to the

oppression of women is the same mentality that leads to environmental abuse. Ecofeminism calls for an end to all forms of oppression and asserts that in order to eliminate the subordination of women, nature, too, must be liberated. Many vegetarian feminist scholars note a disconnect among individuals about the meat that they consume. As long as individuals do not think about the harm done to animals in the step before the meat gets to their plate, they will not see the connections between their eating habits and the harm being done. Furthermore, by eating meat, animals are reduced to objects. A similar process occurs with the treatment of women as sexual objects. If, for instance, viewers of pornography do not acknowledge the harm being done to women in the making of pornography, they are refusing to recognize that women are human beings. Pornography can, in the view of feminist vegetarianism, be a way of consuming women sexually. Vegetarian feminists also point out that in some poor nations women are denied the ability to eat meat in order to preserve meat sources for men, hence serving to increase the prestige of both meat and men. In other countries, women are allowed to eat meat but only if it is dispensed by their husbands or other men. Around the world, non-meat items and vegetables are often viewed as women’s food, whereas meat is viewed as masculine or for men. Exclusion From the Earth’s Destruction By refusing to eat meat through the practices of vegetarianism or veganism, individuals can disavow themselves from the patriarchal destruction of the Earth and animals and raise their feminist consciousness. Vegetarians avoid eating meat but do consume dairy products. Vegans avoid consuming meat along with any animal product. Furthermore, many vegans do not purchase clothing or use personal products that utilize animal products. According to vegetarian feminism, meat-eating is a symbol of dominant patriarchal culture. Existent within the heterogeneous group of ecofeminist scholars is a debate about whether feminists should be vegan or whether vegetarianism would suffice. Major feminist vegetarian scholars include Linda Vance, Josephine Donovan, Carol J. Adams, Marti Kheel, Val Plumwood, and Karen J. Warren.

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See Also: Animal Rights; Ecofeminism; Nutrition; Political Ideologies.

became a commonplace article of clothing among Muslim upper-class women.

Further Readings Adams, Carol J. The Sexual Politics of Meat. New York: Continuum, 1990. Gaard, Greta. Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. Plumwood, Val. Environmental Culture. Oxfordshire, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2007. Plumwood, Val. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. Oxfordshire, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2007.

Origin and Religious Meaning Although wearing the veil is attributed to teachings of the Qur’an, it is not explicitly prescribed in the book. There are two Qur’anic passages most frequently quoted regarding veiling: Surat Al-’Ahzab— “O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused”; and Surat An-Nur—“Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what they do. And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of ] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their women, that which their right hands possess, or those male attendants having no physical desire, or children who are not yet aware of the private aspects of women. And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed.” Neither of these passages contains an explicit requirement for the veil. Still, they are quoted both by those in favor of the veil and those who oppose it. It is argued that veiling gradually came to be regarded obligatory with the development of fiqah (Islamic jurisprudence). In most contexts where veiling is viewed as a religious requirement, it starts with puberty, yet families may also veil their daughters prepuberty. The Arabic word for veil, hijab, also means “screen” or “curtain.” Physical veiling of a woman’s body is just a part of a more complicated network of rules and regulations governing the gendered order of the society and subjectivity. Hence, the veil is of high importance for women’s rights not only because it is a way of regulating the visibility of the female body, but also because it is an embodied regulation of women’s social and political participation in the broadest

Jessica Sippy Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Veil The veil is an article of clothing worn by women to cover part of the head or face. Veiling is one of the most debated contemporary issues concerning Muslim women’s rights, secularism, immigration, and multiculturalism. In Islamic contexts, the term veil refers to a variety of articles, many of which cover the hair, ears, and neck. The khimar is a longer headscarf. The niqab and chadri are veils that cover most of the face except for an opening for the eyes, covered by a concealing net or grille. The boshiya is a Gulf-style full-face black veil that covers the face of the person completely, leaving no opening for the eyes. Although it is commonly associated with Islam, the veil predates the religion. The oldest known text mentioning the veil goes back to the 13th century b.c.e. in Assyria, where it was used to regulate the social status—and particularly sexual availability— of women. Different styles of veil were also used widely in classical Greece, in the Sasanide Empire, in the Byzantine Christian world, and in the Christian Middle East and Mediterranean regions for various purposes. According to Leila Ahmed, during Muhammad’s lifetime, his wives were the only Muslim women required to wear the veil, and that tradition started only in the later years of his life. After Muhammad’s death and the Muslim conquest of the lands where upper-class women veiled, the veil

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sense. For this reason, it is usually an important topic for feminists with different political agendas, both in and outside the Middle East. The regulatory powers of the veil do not transcend time, space, and individuals, and the veil does not have an “essential” meaning. Although it can be a tool of oppression and women’s subordination, as it is often conceptualized to be, it can also be a tool of resistance or, as defended by liberal Muslim feminists, a sign of identity or even a vehicle for women’s political participation. To understand the significance of the veil, it is necessary to avoid overgeneralizations and focus on individual cases within their social, political, and historical contexts. Muslim Stereotyping The veil is a major element in the stereotyping of Muslim women, and Muslim culture in general. Muslim women’s dress has created controversy in the West as well as in Muslim countries, particularly Turkey, a secular country where the majority of the population is Muslim. In Europe, veiling, and Islamic dress in general, is regarded as a symbol of a value of conflicts and a failure of integration on the part of Muslim immigrant communities. Defenders of the veil include feminists of Muslim background, such as German-Turkish sociologist Necla Kelek and Somalian-Dutch activist and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Since September 11, 2001, the discourse of security has also played a significant role in shaping the debate around Muslim dress. Security and social order have been presented as the grounds for the ban on burqas in public places in parts of Belgium. In Germany, 16 states impose restrictions on veiling. In France and Turkey, the emphasis is on the principle of secularism. Public employees are not allowed to veil, and veiling can also be a ground for expulsion from educational institutions for students. In Turkey, Istanbul University notoriously established “persuasion rooms” to convince students to take their headscarves off to be able to continue their education. The ban has been extended to cover Turkish students attending universities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In Egypt, the government attempted to ban wearing the niqab at the University of Cairo and university exams, but the bans were overturned later. In Malaysia, headscarves are allowed in public institutions, but public employees

are not allowed to cover their faces. There are also countries where veiling is obligatory. In Afghanistan, the burqa was obligatory under the Taliban. In Iran, women are required to wear loose-fitting cloaks or coats and cover their hair in public. In Saudi Arabia, all women are required to wear abaya, a full black cloak, and niqab. Usually, both in contexts where the Islamic attire is banned and those where it is obligatory, the participation of women who are directly affected by the regulations in public debates or in policy-making procedures tends to be limited. In both cases, women’s agency over their bodies is violated. See Also: Arab Feminism; Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies; Iranian Feminism; Islam; Islam in America; Islamic Feminism; Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq; Progressive Muslims (U.S.); Secularity Law, France. Further Readings Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992. Nurmila, Nina. Women, Islam and Everyday Life: Renegotiating Polygamy in Indonesia. London: Routledge, 2009. The Qur’an. http://quran.com (accessed April 2010). Shirazi, Faegheh. Velvet Jihad: Muslim Women’s Quiet Resistance to Islamic Fundamentalism. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009. Zuhur, Sherifa. Revealing Reveiling: Islamist Gender Ideology in Contemporary Egypt. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. Rustem Ertug Altinay New York University

Venezuela The Republic of Venezuela is located along the northern Caribbean coast of South America. The population is mestizo, Creole, and indigenous; the dominant culture is Hispanic; and the dominant religion is Roman Catholic. Although women share legal equality, they are generally behind men in economic and political opportunities and attainments. The tra-



ditional Hispanic practice of machismo and marianismo emphasize traditional gender roles, which place women’s value in the domestic sphere. Women’s status is also affected by the strong social emphasis on physical beauty and the heavy influence of the beauty pageant industry and soap operas known as telenovelas. Venezuela ranked 69th of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 Global Gender Gap Report. Gender Gap and Social Problems Marriage and family are emphasized. The average age of marriage is in the early 20s. The 2009 fertility rate was 2.6 births per woman. Skilled healthcare practitioners attend 95 percent of births. The 2009 infant mortality rate was 18 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality rate was 57 per 100,000 live births. Women receive 18 weeks of paid maternity leave at 100 percent of their wages. About 70 percent of married women use contraceptives. Nuclear families are common, although the importance of extended kinship relations is also emphasized. Women are expected to perform most domestic and childcare responsibilities, while men are expected to support the family. Family members are expected to support one another. Public education is free and compulsory through grade 12. There are also a large number of respected but expensive private and Catholic schools. Female school attendance rates stand at 90 percent at the primary level, 74 percent at the secondary level, and 41 percent at the tertiary level. The literacy rate for both genders is equal at 93 percent. Social problems include illegal immigration, discrimination based on skin color, crime, sexual harassment, and public unrest. Medical care is good overall when compared with other South American countries. There is a public healthcare system and there are good numbers of both public and private healthcare facilities. Problems include understaffing, long wait times for treatment, and the expense of private care. Common medical problems include heart attacks and cancer. Traditional medical practices such as herbal remedies still exist, mainly in rural areas. Life expectancy in 2009 was age 67 for women and age 62 for men. Traditional religious practices include the cult of Maria Lonza, a historical and venerated Venezuelan traditional healer who is honored with a statue in the capital city of Caracas.

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Currently, 55 percent of women participate in the labor force. Women constitute 41 percent of the paid nonagricultural workforce and 61 percent of professional and technical workers. Key employers include tourism, agriculture, service, education, and industry. A gender gap still exists in terms of average estimated earned income of $7,781 for women and $14,397 for men, and unemployment rates, which stand at 8.1 percent for women and 7 percent for men. Women have the right to vote. Women hold 19 percent of parliamentary seats and 21 percent of ministerial positions. There have been no recent female heads of state. See Also: Beauty Pageants; Indigenous Women’s Issues; Machismo/Marianismo; Soap Operas, Cross-Culturally Considered. Further Readings Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Venezuela.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications /the-world-factbook/geos/ve.html (accessed June 2010). Dinneen, Mark. Culture and Customs of Venezuela. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Hepburn, Stephanie and Rita J. Simon. Women’s Roles and Statuses the World Over. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. Marcella Bush Trevino Independent Scholar

Veterinarians, Female For centuries, most veterinarians were male, but the gender balance among veterinary students began to shift as more and more women entered the profession. The number of applications from prospective female veterinary students rose from five percent in 1970 to approximately 75 percent by the early 21st century. On the other hand, between 1991 and 2002, the number of male veterinarians fell by 15 percent. In 2002, officials from Tufts (62 percent), the University of Wisconsin–Madison (75 percent), and the University of California Davis (81 percent) reported that females made up the majority of graduating veterinary students. By 2005, according to the American

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Veterinary Medical Association, females made up the majority of all veterinarians in the United States. In 2009, there were 44,802 female veterinarians in the United States as compared to 43,196 male veterinarians. However, male veterinarians continued to be more likely than females to own their own practices. The Major Effect of Title IX Opening up the field of veterinary medicine was a direct result of the women’s movement, which was in its heyday in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s. Under pressure from feminists, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which stipulated that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” At the time, there were fewer than 500 practicing female veterinarians in the United States. As a result of Title IX, however, veterinary schools were no longer allowed to show preference for males over females when admitting students to veterinary programs. At the same time, new medical breakthroughs made it less likely that veterinarians would contract diseases from animals in their care. Salary Differentials and Other Considerations Another reason for the rise in the number of females and the drop of males within the field of veterinary medicine is generally explained by the fact that the salaries of veterinarians are lower than those of individuals engaged in other fields of medicine where males dominate. In the 1970s, when males still made up the majority of veterinarians, salaries were only slightly lower than those of physicians. Despite the fact that training programs are somewhat comparable to those of physicians, by the early 21st century, veterinarians were averaging $70,000 to $80,000 a year as compared to physicians, who averaged $150,000 annually. It has been posited that males choose to be physicians rather than veterinarians because they have families to support and need the higher salaries. An additional factor is the fact that male veterinarians are more likely than female veterinarians to choose higher-paying specialties over relatively low-paying fields such as working with zoo animals. Many females choose veterinary medicine because of the flexibility

in scheduling that is available, and many females with families opt for part-time work, which is generally not an option for physicians. Between 1991 and 2001, the amount of money that Americans spent on pet care rose from $6.9 billion to $11.1 billion. Some veterinarians are concerned that the shift toward female dominance of the veterinary profession may eventually cause problems, because female veterinarians are less likely than males to choose to look after farm animals rather than domestic pets. Routine veterinary work, such as administering shots to farm animals, is often left to assistants. Health Concerns Despite the fact that practicing veterinary medicine is now much safer than in the past, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health identifies specific risks associated with the practice of veterinary medicine: radiation, waste anesthetic gases, pharmaceuticals, mercury, bacteria, viruses, animal bites, strenuous physical activity, and stress. As a result of such warnings and the findings of numerous studies, there has been continued concern about the reproductive health of female veterinarians. For example, an Australian study of pregnant veterinarians printed in the British Medical Journal: Occupational and Environmental Medicine in 2008 revealed that exposure to radiation and pesticides doubled veterinarians’ chance of miscarriage. See Also: Animal Rights; Animal Trainers, Female; Business, Women in; Physicians, Female; Title IX; Work/Life Balance. Further Readings Bertram, D. J., et al. “Veterinary Surgeons and Suicide: A Structured Review of Possible Influences on Increased Risk.” The Veterinary Record, v.166 (March 2010). Montemurri, Patricia. “Female Veterinarians Outnumber Men as Barriers Fall Away.” The Happy Kennel (March 26, 2010). http://www.thehappykennel.com/female -veterinarians-outnumber-men-as-barriers-fall-away (accessed July 2010). Shirangi, A., L. Fritschi, and C. D. J. Holman. “Maternal Occupational Exposures and Risk of Spontaneous Abortion in Veterinary Practice.” British Medical Journal: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, v.65 (April 3, 2008).

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Smith, David M. “Pay and Productivity Differences Between Male and Female Veterinarians.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, v.55/3 (April 2002). Zhao, Yilu. “Women Soon to be Majority of Veterinarians.” New York Times (June 9, 2002). http://www.nytimes .com/2002/06/09/science/09VET.html (accessed July 2010). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Vietnam The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a communist country in Asia bordered by China to the north, Cambodia to the southwest, and Laos to the northwest. Vietnam underwent market liberalization, or doi moi, also known as renovation, in 1986. Vietnam had a population just shy of 87 million people as of July 2009. Women in Vietnam continue to face a number of challenges, such as political underrepresentation, inequality in access to education and the formal labor market, restrictions in reproductive choice, and violence. Vietnamese women comprise approximately 25 percent of the National Assembly. However, women are underrepresented at senior levels of decisionmaking, with only one female minister in place as of November 2009. There is no gender gap in primary or secondary education at an aggregate level. However, ethnic minority women have lower literacy and education participation rates. While the proportion of women and men participating in the workforce is almost equal, women work longer hours than men, reflecting dual responsibility for reproductive work and caregiving. Women dominate the informal labor market. Vietnam achieved a sharp decline in infant mortality over the 17-year period between 1990 and 2007. In 1990, there were 223 deaths per 100,000 live births, down to 75 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2007. This trend is slowing. Infant and maternal mortality rates are higher among ethnic minorities. Vietnam has one of the highest abortion rates in the region. Sex-selective abortion is illegal but continues to be practiced. According to state policy, couples are limited to only two children, and there is a strong prefer-

A Vietnamese community gives bicycles to girls to eliminate one of the obstacles that prevent girls from attending school.

ence for sons. Nationally, Vietnam has a gender ratio at birth of 111 males to 100 females. Health Issues and Violence Women face increasing risk of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) transmission and are now more likely to contract HIV from their partners than through sex work or intravenous drug use. Young, unmarried women face barriers when accessing reproductive health services, including social stigma associated with sex before marriage. Violence perpetrated by men against women remains a persistent problem. Women and girls are trafficked both within Vietnam and to other countries, including China, Cambodia, Thailand, Macau, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan as well as to various European nations. A high number of Vietnamese women migrate for marriage to Korea, China and Taiwan. The Vietnam Women’s Union, the de facto national women’s bureaucracy, is one of the largest women’s

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mass organizations in the world. The Women’s Union has strong links to women at the village level, although it is an under-resourced entity and lacks strong influence at the governmental level. Laws on gender equality and on domestic violence prevention and control were enacted by the government in November 2006 and February 2007, respectively, but are not yet fully implemented. See Also: Domestic Violence; Mail Order Brides; Migrant Workers; Traffic in Women and Children. Further Readings Jamieson, Neil L. Understanding Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). “Vietnam Population 2008.” Hanoi: UNFPA, 2008. World Bank. “Vietnam: Aiming High.” Joint Donor Report to the Consultative Group Meeting. Hanoi: World Bank, 2006. Ramona Vijeyarasa University of New South Wales

Villa-Komaroff, Lydia Lydia Villa-Komaroff is a renowned molecular biologist and neurobiologist who is committed to encouraging the education and success of women and minorities in the sciences. She was one of the first Mexican American women to receive a Ph.D. in the sciences and has served as a role model for other minority women through her distinguished career in academia, government, and business. She was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America by Hispanic Business Magazine in 2003. Villa-Komaroff’s research focuses on growth factors in brain development and the flow of genetic information in the nervous system. As a researcher at Harvard University in the 1970s, she worked in the lab of Nobel laureate Walter Gilbert as part of a team that used new DNA cloning techniques to synthesize proteins in bacteria. They developed a patented process to produce a synthetic insulin that is used by many diabetics today. This was the first time that a human hormone had been created synthetically from bacte-

ria, and the work led to other research breakthroughs for Villa-Komaroff in human insulin production and cell development in the brain. Background and Education Lydia Villa was born August 7, 1947, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, the first of six children born to a violinist father and a social worker mother. Her parents were both the first members of their families to get a college education, and Lydia was inspired to study science by an uncle who was a chemist and a grandmother who shared her love of nature. In high school, she had the opportunity to participate in a National Science Foundation summer program for minorities. She enrolled at the University of Washington at Seattle, but transferred to Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, when she followed her future husband to the East Coast for his career. She gained valuable experience working summers at the National Institutes of Health and received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Goucher College in 1970. She went on to earn a doctorate in cell biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1975, where she completed dissertation research on the poliovirus. Because of her experiences as a Latina, Villa-Komaroff has been particularly committed to the education and retention of women and minorities in science careers. She has served on national committees related to minority education in science and technology, and was one of the founding members of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Career Milestones Villa-Komaroff has held several research and teaching positions, including professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (1978–85), a neurosciences researcher at Children’s Hospital of Boston (1985–95), professor of genetics and neurology at Harvard Medical School (1985–96), and professor of neurology and vice president of research at Northwestern University (1996–2002). She served as vice president of research and chief operating officer of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT (2003–05), and in 2005 became chief scientific officer of Cytonome, Inc., a biotechnology firm that develops products for cell research. She has

Vincent, Norah



also served as a consultant or advisory committee member on genetics and neurological studies at the National Institutes of Health. In addition to several honorary degrees, VillaKomaroff has received numerous awards and recognition for work. In 1992, she received the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award, and in 2008 she was named National Hispanic Scientist of the Year by the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). In 1995, she was the subject of a public television program, DNA Detective: Molecular Biologist Lydia Villa-Komaroff, which aired as part of a series on Discovering Women in science. See Also: Biology, Women in; Science, Women in; Science Education for Girls. Further Readings DiversityWorking.com. “The Legacy of Lydia VillaKomaroff Hispanic Scientist, Educator and Leader.” http://www.diversityworking.com/generalDiversity/ lydiavilla.php (accessed June 2010). Hall, S. Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Powerful Latinas.com. “Lydia Villa-Komaroff.” http://www .powerfullatinas.com/lydia-villa-komaroff (accessed June 2010). Tiffany K. Wayne Independent Scholar

Vincent, Norah Norah Vincent is an American freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, the Village Voice, and many other journals. In 2003, Vincent gave up her work as a nationally syndicated opinion columnist to research and write Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey Into Manhood and Back Again (2006), an account of her 18 months spent living as a man. She followed the best-selling Self-Made Man with Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Looney Bin (2008), in which she reported on her stays at three mental institutions to which she voluntarily committed herself.

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A feminist and a lesbian, Vincent grew up in the Midwest, the youngest child and only girl among the three children of an actress and a lawyer. She received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Williams College. From 1999 to 2001, Vincent wrote the “Higher Ed” column for the Village Voice; from 2001 to 2003, she served as a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank established after September 11, 2001, to study terrorism. She wrote a biweekly column for Salon.com in 2001 and a quarterly politics and culture column for the national gay and lesbian newsmagazine the Advocate. Vincent was a syndicated columnist for the op-ed page of the Los Angeles Times when she turned to immersion journalism and began research for Self-Made Man. Self-Made Man For a year and a half, Vincent lived most of her life as Ned Vincent. She cut her hair in a buzz cut, wore rectangular glasses, and applied a fake five o’clock shadow to make her face look more masculine. Her height (5 feet, 10 inches) was an advantage, but she also lifted weights to add muscle bulk. These preparations, along with a sports bra two sizes too small to bind her breasts, a padded jock strap, and baggy men’s clothing completed her transformation. Several months of training with a Juilliard voice teacher taught her how to sound like a man. As Ned Vincent, she participated in an all-male bowling league, entered a monastery, and joined a male therapy group. The result was a book that earned a spot on the New York Times best seller list, won accolades from critics for its revelations about gender identity, and left Vincent depressed from the stress of undercover investigation. Her depression was severe enough to prompt her to commit herself to a mental institution. That experience gave her the idea for her next book. Her research for Voluntary Madness took her first to a large, public, urban hospital that she found dehumanizing, then to a small, private hospital in the rural Midwest that was aesthetically and hygienically superior to the public hospital, and finally to an upscale, private hospital in the South that uses a mix of cognitive, behavioral, and New Age therapies. Vincent’s indictment is broad enough to include drug companies, insurance companies, and members of the medical profession with “too close” ties to either.

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See Also: Drag Kings; Lesbians; “Masculinity,” Social Construction of; Mental Health Treatment, Bias in. Further Readings Norah Vincent. “Interview.” http://www.norahvincent.net /interviews/index.html (accessed March 2010). Vincent, Norah. Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey Into Manhood and Back Again. New York: Viking, 2006. Vincent, Norah. Voluntary Madness: Lost and Found in the Mental Healthcare System. New York: Penguin, 2009. Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Violence Against Women Act The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 is considered a landmark piece of legislation because it was the first comprehensive federal legislation to specifically address violence against women and enact provisions to protect women from violence in the United States. The legislation was the culmination of years of activism by women’s groups and victims’ advocates to increase awareness about violence against women and, particularly, domestic violence. The bill was originally sponsored by Representative Pat Schroeder (D-CO) and Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) and was signed into law by President William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton on September 13, 1994, as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Congress reauthorized VAWA in 2000 and 2005 and is expected to reauthorize VAWA again in 2011. Shift in Federal Approach VAWA represented a shift in the national perspective on violence against women. It indicated that the federal government would no longer tolerate violent crimes committed against women, especially violent crimes committed by their intimates. The legislation included provisions to make domestic violence and sexual assault more serious crimes, to create new penalties for gender-related violence, and to encourage women to come out of their silence and report victimizations to authorities.

VAWA emphasized active collaboration between criminal justice agencies, community organizations, and victim service providers. The legislation provided approximately $1.6 billion toward the establishment of special programs including a National Domestic Violence Hotline, specialized law enforcement and prosecution units for domestic violence and sexual assault, and funding for battered women’s shelters, rape crisis centers, and other victim services. VAWA also expressed particular concern about underserved and vulnerable populations, such as Native American women and noncitizen immigrant women, and included special provisions for their needs. In 2000, Congress established the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). A unit of the Justice Department, OVW is responsible for developing new federal policy initiatives related to violence against women and for administering the numerous grant programs authorized in VAWA legislation. VAWA provides funds through 12 signature grant programs. A brief description of each program is provided below. Research indicates that VAWA programs may have resulted in reductions in violence against women in the United States and justifies continuance of VAWA programs in the future. VAWA Grant Programs The STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grants program provides funds to states to strengthen law enforcement responses to violence against women and to enhance victim services. The Grants to Indian Tribal Governments program provides funds to enhance law enforcement responses to violent crimes against Native American women, enhance victim safety, and develop prevention programs. The Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders program provides funds to encourage state, local, and tribal governments to treat violence against women as serious crimes. The Rural Grant program provides funds to enhance services for rural victims and to develop coordinated strategies to prevent violence against women and child abuse. The Legal Assistance for Victims Grant program provides funds to strengthen civil and criminal legal assistance for victims. The Campus Grant program provides funds to strengthen the response to violence on college campuses and to enhance col-

Virgin Islands, U.S.



laboration between college campuses, local criminal justice agencies, and victim advocacy organizations. The State Coalitions Grant program provides funds to increase coordination among federal, state, and local entities engaged in violence prevention and victim support. The Grants to Tribal Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalitions program provides funds to increase awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault against American Indian and Alaska native women and to enhance criminal justice responses to such violence. The Enhanced Training and Services to End Violence and Abuse of Women Later in Life program provides funds to support training and services that address elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The Education, Training and Enhanced Services to End Violence Against and Abuse of Women with Disabilities program provides grants for prevention of violence against persons with disabilities and direct services to such victims. The Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program provides funds to create safe environments for supervised visitation with noncustodial parents. The Transitional Housing Grant Program provides grants for transitional housing, short-term housing assistance, and related support services for victims who are in need of housing assistance. See Also: Crime Victims, Female; Domestic Violence; Elder Abuse; Elder Care; Rape, Prosecution Rates of; Rural Women; United States. Further Readings Boba, Rachel and David Lilley. “Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Funding: A Nationwide Assessment of Effects on Rape and Assault.” Violence Against Women, v.15/2 (2009). National Council for Research on Women (NCRW). “NCRW Big Five: The Violence Against Women Act.” http://www.ncrw.org/sites/ncrw.org/files/VAWA_0.pdf (accessed July 2010). U.S. Department of Justice. “The Violence Against Women Act: Commemorating 15 Years of Working Together to End Violence.” Office on Violence Against Women Website. http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/vawa15.htm (accessed July 2010). Julie Ahmad Siddique City University of New York Graduate Center

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Virgin Islands, U.S. The U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) is an insular area of the United States (acquired from Denmark in 1917) composed of a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea with a total area of 1,910 square kilometers and a population (as of June 2009) of 109,825. USVI residents are U.S. citizens but do not vote in U.S. presidential elections and have only a nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress. The USVI are governed by a locally elected territorial governor, a lieutenant governor, and a unicameral legislature. The economy is based on tourism (80 percent of gross domestic product [GDP] and employment) with a small agricultural and manufacturing sector. Most residents are black (76.2 percent) with minorities of whites (13.1 percent), Asians (1.1 percent), and the rest mixed or other races. The predominant religions are Baptist (42 percent), Roman Catholic (34 percent), and Episcopalian (17 percent), and the most common languages spoken are English (74.7 percent), Spanish or Spanish Creole (16.8 percent), and French or French Creole (6.6 percent). The standard of women’s healthcare and maternal and child healthcare is generally high and improving. Reported rates of mammography are only slightly lower than those reported in the United States: in 2008, 68.9 percent of all women over age 40 and 73.9 percent of all women over age 50 in the USVI reported having a mammogram in the last two years (up from 61.3 percent and 67.3 percent in 2006), and the figures are similar to those for the United States (76.0 percent and 79.5). Currently, 82.5 percent of women over age 18 in the USVI reported having a pap test within the past three years, as compared with 82.9 percent in the United States. Virtually all births are attended by trained personnel, and infant mortality is 7.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, among the lowest in the Caribbean. Birth control is readily available, and in 2002 over 75 percent of women from the ages of 15 to 49 reported using some form of contraception, primarily modern methods. The total fertility rate in the USVI is 1.9 children per women, and the birth rate is 11.95 births per 1,000 population (for women age 15 to 19 years, it is 30.6 per 1,000). Life expectancy at birth is slightly higher than in the United States, at 76.02 years for men and 82.26 years for women. However, a negative migration rate of minus 5.49 migrants per

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1,000 population results in a slightly negative population growth rate of minus 0.029 percent. In 2006, 53.2 percent of women age 15 or older were in the labor force and they constituted slightly less than half (46.2) percent of the total labor force. No woman has served as territorial governor of the USVI (elected locally since 1970), but Donna Christian-Christensen has held the position of Representative to the U.S. Senate since 1997 and one woman currently serves in the UVSI 15-member legislature: Nereida Rivera O’Reilly. Several USVI women have achieved distinction in sports. LaVerne Jones-Ferrette competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and posted the fastest time of the 2009–10 indoor track season in the 60 meters dash. Anne Abernathy competed in the luge in six Olympics, and is the oldest athlete to compete in the Olympic Games. In 1988, Seba Johnson was the first Black athlete to compete in the Olympics in skiing and in 2002 Dinah Browne became the first Black athlete to compete in the luge in the Olympics. See Also: Contraception Methods; Government, Women in; Olympics, Summer; Olympics, Winter; Sports, Women in. Further Readings Freeman, C. High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy: Women, Work, and Pink-Collar Identities in the Caribbean. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. National Institutes of Health, National Network of Libraries of Medicine. “U.S. Virgin Islands.” http:// nnlm.gov/sea/states/vi.html (accessed July 2010). Underwood, S., et al. “Promoting Breast Health Among Women in the U.S. Virgin Islands: A Focused Study of the Needs of Caribbean Women.” Journal of National Black Nurses Association, v.8/2 (2007). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University

Virgin Mary The Virgin Mary is a prevalent yet enigmatic figure in Christian tradition. Although little information about her life is included in the canonical gospels, there is

a tradition of popular Mariology that permeates all periods of Christian history. All Christian denominations agree that Mary is the human mother of God; however, controversies exist over details regarding her particular role in salvation history. Aspects of Mariology have been explored and approached by theologians interested in Catholic doctrine, ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, gender, and the role of women in Christian churches. Mary in Scripture and Devotion Although Mary is mentioned in all four canonical gospels, only the gospel of Luke presents a detailed portrait of Mary. The relative silence of the other four evangelists is the reason often cited for the ambivalence with which Mary is regarded in many Christian traditions. However, the biblical accounts allude to her intercessory role, her mercy, and her virginity. The remaining details of her earthly life have been supplemented by noncanonical writings and apocryphal texts. Although traditional theology holds that Mary’s honor is due to her willingness to submit to God’s will, popular piety has traditionally portrayed Mary as a powerful advocate and influential figure in the heavenly court. From as early as the 4th century, Christians invoked Mary as an advocate and protectress. Although neither role is explicitly biblical, both have scriptural basis: Mary is an advocate because the crucified Christ gave her as a mother to his beloved disciple; she is an intercessor, as she successfully asked her son to transform water into wine at the wedding of Cana. Both Marian roles have remained popular throughout history. Marian shrines such as Lourdes and Fatima are resplendent with signs of miraculous healing. In some societies, particularly in Latin American cultures, it is common for supplicants to place small charms known as milagros either to seek the Virgin’s intercession or, later, for favors obtained. Mary in Theology and Dialogue The Roman Catholic Church recognizes four Marian dogmas: her perpetual virginity, her role as the Mother of God (Theotokos), her Immaculate Conception, and her bodily Assumption into heaven. Each of these dogmas deals as much with the person of Christ as with his mother. Mary’s title of Theotokos, confirmed by the council of Ephesus in 431 c.e., emphasized that Christ was both fully human and fully divine from the



moment of conception. The 553 council of Constantinople referred to Mary as aeiparthenos, or “evervirgin.” The two Marian dogmas that were defined in the modern world, her Immaculate Conception, or being conceived without original sin (1854), and her Assumption, or bodily presence in heaven (1950), were both discussed as early as the fourth century and debated throughout the Middle Ages. A so-called fifth dogma, the idea of Mary as coredemptrix, has been debated in Catholic circles. This has never been made part of the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the prayers most frequently associated with the Virgin Mary is the Magnificat, which praises God for raising the humble and feeding the poor while casting the mighty from their thrones and sending the rich away empty. That this prayer advocated social transformation has been seen as the basis for Mary’s role in dialogue and in liberation theology. Together with her title “Queen of Peace” and her role in advocating for her children, this has made the Virgin the focus of dialogue and transformation. There is no single Protestant view of Mary. While her role is often dismissed for not appearing in detail in scripture, the reformer Martin Luther said she should be honored above all women. Since the 1960s, Catholic and Lutheran theologians have discussed Mariological issues. In 2004, Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches issued a joint statement on Mary and Reconciliation. Groups such as the Anglican-Roman-Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) have explored Mary’s role in the doctrine of both churches. In addition to ecumenical dialogue, many interfaith discussions have focused on the role of Mary. The Second Vatican Council’s document of interreligious dialogue, Nostre Aetate, mentions that Mary is honored in Islam, and acknowledges her roots with the title “Daughter of Zion.” Mary and Feminism Both conservative and liberal thinkers have acknowledged the implications that the role of the Virgin Mary has for women. In his statement on the dignity of woman, “Mulieris Dignitatem,” John Paul II speaks of Mary as having attained union with God, and expounds on her relevance for the essential dignity of the female person. This statement has met with mixed reactions from groups representing women in the Church.

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Historically, Mary has been honored for her dual roles as both virgin and mother. While both have been viewed as ideal feminine roles, their mutual exclusivity renders Mary a model that no woman could ever emulate. Since the 1980s, Mary has become a popular focus for feminist theology. In particular, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has used feminist biblical exegesis and liberation theology to transform traditional images of Mary. See Also: Christianity; Religion, Women in; Representation of Women; Roman Catholic Church. Further Readings Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler. Jesus: Miriam’s Child, Sophia’s Prophet: Critical Issues in Feminist Christology. New York: Continuum, 1994. Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the State of New York. The Teachings of the Second Vatican Council: The Complete Text of the Constitutions, Decrees and Declarations. Westminster: The Newman Press, 1966. Pope John Paul II. Mulieris Dignitatem: On the Dignity and Vocation of Women. London: Catholic Truth Society, 2002. Rubin, Miri. Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. Alison More The Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University

Virgin of Guadalupe The Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the few apparitions of the Virgin Mary that the Catholic Church regards as legitimate. Her basilica in Mexico City is a major international pilgrimage site, the focal point of which is the iconic image of the Virgin. In this image, the Virgin wears a crown atop her head and a cloak; she looks down with her hands clasped; she stands on a crescent moon as an angel holds her up. This image is significant especially for Mexican Catholics, who refer to her as the Queen of Mexico (La Reina De Mexico). December 12 is the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. According to historical accounts, the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego, a peasant who had

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Virgin of Guadalupe it. Almost five centuries later, the image is still evident with no signs of deterioration.The Virgin of Guadalupe became a national symbol during Mexico’s War of Independence from Spain (1810–21). Some ecclesiastics identified her as the “Revelation’s Woman of the Apocalypse,” while soldiers placed her image on reeds and hats as they fought. Rebels continued to use the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on banners during the Mexican Revolution (1910–20). The use of her image in such conflicts signifies her role as the ultimate martyr and “supernatural mother” who will lead Mexico to victory. Many scholars consider the Virgin of Guadalupe to be the “first mestiza,” highlighting how she is a synthesis of Spanish colonial, Catholic, and indigenous/Aztec cultures. With such ethnic differences throughout Mexico, researchers generally contend that it is the Virgin that unites everyone. The Virgin of Guadalupe is not just an image of liberation for Mexicans, but she is also a symbol of hope for Mexican and Mexican American (Chicana) women and Chicana feminists. They have reinterpreted this icon as one that epitomizes feminine power, sexual strength, and a break from patriarchy. See Also: Chicana Feminism; Machismo/Marianismo; Mexico; Mujerista Theology; Religion, Women in; Roman Catholic Church; Virgin Mary.

The Catholic icon of the Virgin of Guadalupe is depicted in a 16th-century painting of unknown provenance.

recently converted to Christianity. While on his way to Mass on December 9, 1531, she appeared before him on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City and declared herself to be the Virgin Mary. She told him to relay a message to the Archbishop of Mexico about her desire to have a church built on the site of their meeting. On December 12, the Virgin reappeared and instructed Juan Diego to pick roses to deliver to the skeptical archbishop. When Juan Diego met the archbishop, the roses spilled from his cloak, revealing an image of the Virgin. Juan Diego’s cloak is still on display at the basilica that was constructed on the site of the 1531 encounter. For centuries, scholars have discussed the authenticity of the cloak and the image on

Further Readings Brading, D. A. Mexican Phoenix: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Image and Tradition across Five Centuries. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Castillo, A., ed. Goddess of the Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997. Favrot Peterson, J. “The Virgin of Guadalupe: Symbol of Conquest or Liberation?” Art Journal, v.51/4 (1992). Kurtz, D. V. “The Virgin of Guadalupe and the Politics of Becoming Human.” Journal of Anthropological Research, University of Mexico, v.38 (1982). Messmer, Marietta. “Transformations of the Sacred in Contemporary Chicana Culture.” Theology and Sexuality, v.14/3 (2008). Wolf, E. R. “The Virgin of Guadalupe: A Mexican National Symbol.” The Journal of American Folklore, v.71 (1958). Florence Maätita Southern Illinois University Edwardsville



Visser, Lesley Lesley Visser is a U.S. sports journalist who has spent more than 30 years shattering barriers and establishing a name as one of the best in the business. She entered sports journalism at a time when media credentials made clear women were not welcome in the press box. She endured demeaning language, graphic gestures, and patronizing labels, but her persistence and professionalism eventually won over most of her critics and earned her an enviable list of firsts in an industry that remains male-dominated even in the 21st century. Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1953, Visser displayed an early interest in sports. Her parents, a schoolteacher and an engineer, encouraged her interest, and by the time she was 12, she was already dreaming of becoming a sportscaster. She enrolled in Boston College, where she served on the cheerleading squad and the newspaper staff. During her senior year, a Carnegie Foundation grant open to women planning to enter fields dominated by men allowed her to intern in the sports department of The Boston Globe. She graduated cum laude in 1975 and was hired by the Globe, covering mostly high-school football games at first. By her second year, she was assigned an NFL beat. Because locker rooms were still inviolate male territory, she interviewed athletes and coaches in weight rooms and parking lots. She covered other sports for the Globe as well, including NCAA basketball, the World Series, and the U. S. Open and Wimbledon tennis tournaments. Awards and Recognition CBS Sports hired her in 1982. The switch from print to broadcast journalism was awkward at first, but good advice and her own knowledge and love of sports soon ensured her success. She became a regular on The NFL Today with Greg Gumbel and Terry Bradshaw, who had once mistaken her for an autograph seeker. She also covered basketball (both college and NBA games), the Winter Olympics, and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. She represented CBS News at the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to speculate about the effects of a newly united Germany on sports. She joined ESPN and ABC Sports in 1984, adding Triple Crown horse races, skiing competitions, and Special Olympic to the sports she

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covered. Four years later, she became the first woman to report from the sidelines for Monday Night Football. In 2000, ABC fired Visser; her replacement was two decades younger than the seasoned sportscaster. Visser returned to CBS Sports in August 2000. She is the only sportscaster in history who has worked on the network broadcast of the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympics, U.S. Open, and World Figure Skating Championship. In 2004, the International Olympic Committee made her the first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch. Her recognition by the Pro Football Hall of Fame as the 2006 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award made her the only woman to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That same year the American Women in Radio and Television, Inc. presented her with the Gracie Allen Award, which celebrates programming created for women, by women, and about women; she was the first woman sportscaster to be so honored. In 2009, the American Sportscasters Association named Visser its number one female sportscaster. See Also: Journalists, Broadcast Media; Journalists, Print Media; Sports, Women in; Sports Announcers, Female. Further Readings Lesley Visser. http://www.lesleyvisser.com (accessed June 2010). The Paley Center for Media. “She Made It: Women Creating Television and Radio: Lesley Visser, Television Sportscaster, Journalist.” http://www.shemadeit.org /meet/biography.aspx?m=105 (accessed March 2010). Ricchiardi, Sherry. “The Pioneers.” American Journalism Review, v.26/6 (2004). Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Vocational and Trade School Faculty Vocational and trade school faculty members teach a wide variety of subjects that are most often related to specific subjects such as practical nursing, cosmetology, or welding. They may also teach general courses

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such as basic computing or English as a Second Language. Those who teach specific skills often help prepare their students to take tests that certify them as qualified to practice in particular fields. Just as in other professions, women tend to be attracted to those fields related to nurturing. Before 1972, when Title IX of the Educational Amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was passed, female applicants for positions in vocational and trade schools were often passed over in favor of men; once the federal government began denying federal funds to schools that discriminated against women and minorities, however, numerous opportunities opened up for women. Initially, women continued to be relegated to teaching classes that were commensurate with gender stereotypes. Over time, this changed, and women began teaching subjects that had long been reserved for men. This change was partly a result of socialization that had long been geared toward teaching women that there were no biological factors that rendered them incapable of repairing automobiles or unclogging drains. However, the majority of vocational and trade school faculty members continue to teach classes that are considered “gender appropriate.” Scholars such as Amy Nix and Donna M. Sayman suggest that to break down the barriers that prevent female vocational teachers from pursuing teaching careers in subjects other than those considered gender appropriate, teachers and counselors at the secondary level must rid themselves of gender biases that are passed on to students deciding on future careers. Trade School Requirements and Criteria In the United States, requirements for teaching vocational and trade school classes are established at the state level. Overall, the median annual salary for vocational teachers is $49,851, but salaries are comparably lower for part-time teachers, and one in three vocational and trade school teachers is employed part-time. Women are more likely than men to fall into that category because of family commitments. Because states establish their own criteria for vocational and trade school teachers, requirements for such teachers vary greatly. In general, applicants must possess professional competence in their chosen fields, and they may need a college degree before

being allowed to teach the nonvocational courses required for students seeking four-year degrees. Although most states only require baccalaureate degrees, a few stipulate that these teachers hold master’s degrees. On a global basis, most countries have established specific criteria for teaching in vocational schools or becoming professional “trainers.” In 2002, Henrik Faudel, author of a report analyzing vocational education in transitional democracies interested in becoming members of the European Union, concluded that a country’s specific requirements often directly affected women’s entry into the profession. Slovenia, for instance, required a university degree plus a period of training. Bulgaria required only a degree in the relevant field of study. Lithuania required only that vocational teachers have a degree one level higher than that of their students. Because of easy access to the profession compared with teaching at the college/university level, more women began entering the field. In Bulgaria, for instance, 70 percent of vocational teachers are now women. In comparison, 68 percent of vocational teachers in Slovakia are female, as are 60 percent of those teaching in the Czech Republic. The overall findings revealed that as a result of women dominating the field of vocational education, the profession has begun to be marked by comparably low salaries and a loss of prestige. See Also: Alternative Education; Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Equal Pay; Gender, Defined; Midlife Career Change; Nontraditional Careers; Professions by Gender. Further Readings Bix, Amy. “Creating ‘Chicks Who Fix’: Women, Tool Knowledge, and Home Repair, 1920–2007.” Women’s Studies Quarterly, v.37 (2009). Faudel, Henrik. “Teachers and Trainers in Vocational Education and Training in the Future Member States.” http://www.see-educoop.net/education_in/pdf/voca -future-members-oth-enl-t05.pdf (accessed April 2010). Sayman, Donna M. “The Elimination of Sexism and Stereotyping in Occupational Education.” Journal of Men’s Studies, v.15 (2007). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar



Volleyball See Beach Volleyball/Volleyball.

Voodoo Voodoo is a religious system that is practiced by millions in the contemporary societies of Africa, the Caribbean, South America and New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Voodoo is an amalgamation of West African cultural and religious practices. The term voodoo is often understood as vodou, vodon, or vodun. The word voodoo translates to the word spirit. African Diaspora religions comparative to Voodoo include Candomblé, Lucumi, and Macumba. The traditions and beliefs of Africans residing in such places as the Congo, Angola, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria feature prominently in voodoo ceremony or practice; specifically, the Congolese, Yoruba, Fon, Ibo, Bantu, Diola, and Bambara influences in voodoo are profound. The voodoo pantheon

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includes divinities present among the Yoruba and Fon, such as with the following: Legba, Ogoun, Zaka, and Ezili, among others. Voodoo evolved from the African oral tradition and was brought to various parts of the Americas by African slaves in the 16th century. This religion does not include a primary holy text or prayer book, nor does it have a uniform set of rituals or rites. There is evidence of syncretism in voodoo. The integration of African, European, and indigenous beliefs in the Americas are present within the historical development of voodoo, as we find that voodoo altars will frequently have Catholic figures displayed and some Catholic saints have become loa (voodoo spirits), such as with St. Peter and St. Lazarus. An estimated 80 million people in the world today practice voodoo. Religion and Practice Voodoo is a religion with one supreme god, known by different names in various parts of the world, and a contingent of spirits known as loa or Iwa. Practitioners of voodoo contend that their one supreme god is so

This fence on Rosalie Alley in the Bywater section of New Orleans has been painted with typical artwork representing voodoo markings. Many people from the French Caribbean settled here, especially refugees from the revolution in Haiti.

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powerful that it is necessary to communicate through spirits. Communication between the loa and humans occurs through means of spirit possession. There are a series of holidays, celebrations, and rituals associated with the loa. There are thousands of loa in the Voodoo pantheon, including spirits of nature, divine ancestors, agriculture, fertility, war, evil, and death. In the voodoo faith, the priesthood is open to both men and women. Male priests are known as houngan and female priests are known as mambo. A voodoo priest who practices petro Voodoo (“black magic”) is known as a bokor. Other officials include la place (master of ceremony who works closely with the priest), houngonikor (director of music and dancing), hounsis (group of servers, typically female), and serviteurs (committed practitioners of voodoo). The role of the priest includes healing, performing rituals, pacification of spirits, telling fortunes, reading dreams, and invoking protections. Voodoo ceremonies are defined by elaborate rituals, dances, and spirit-possessed trances. Priests take part in the service by receiving offerings and granting requests. While the ceremonies are in session, an array of specific items such as candles, food, money, and ceremonial rattles cover the alter. The loa are summoned by the priest or bokor and are said to arrive by possessing a horse. These loa can exist in the ritual space and may possess the bodies of worshipers. Symbols appropriate to the loa are present in the ceremony. Voodoo belief states that there are two parts of the human soul, described as “little good angel” (tibon-ange) and “great good angel” (gros-bon-ange). The gros-bon-ange is considered to be the life force of the body that must return to the cosmos after one’s death. The gros-bon-ange must be satisfied through ritual sacrifice to ensure that the ti-bon-ange has a peaceful rest. Practitioners of voodoo believe that if the gros-bon-ange is not satisfied, the spirit will remain earthbound forever and this contributes to natural disaster and illness. Women and Voodoo The religion of voodoo has been described as democratic by some and referred to as egalitarian by others, particularly when compared to Western religions such as Christianity. As Christianity evolved with the decline of the Roman Empire in 476 c.e, it became increasingly patriarchal (while some may

argue that women played an important role in the development of the early Christian church, the faith ultimately became a reconstructed patriarchy, as many have observed). This is not the case with the religion of voodoo. The adherents of voodoo revere a supreme creator god called Mawu (sometimes Mawu-Lisa) that is typically understood as gender-neutral. In Dahomey mythology, Mawu is a creator goddess associated with the moon, while in some African narratives Mawu is the twin sister-wife of the male deity known as Lisa and often associated with the sun. The term voodoo, as aforementioned, is associated with the words God or spirit in Dahomey [now Benin]. Mawu is sometimes described as an aspect of the same androgynous deity. Women play active roles as priests, practitioners, devinators, and spirits. Women may be trained and elevated as priests in the voodoo religion. They serve as the important hounsis (serving ladies dressed in white) who participate in spirit possession and take part in an important aspect of the voodoo ceremony: the animal sacrifice. The hounsis are responsible for the washing, feeding, and care of the animal. Both the hounsis and the serviteurs, as serious practitioners of the faith, become possessed by the loa during voodoo religious ceremonies. The voodoo pantheon includes female loa such as Erzulie (spirit of beauty) and Ayida (sexuality). Voodoo may be understood as having a matriarchal structure that has allowed for the emergence of women in important leadership roles such as with Sanité Dede and Marie Laveau in 19th-century New Orleans. Sanité Dede, who came to New Orleans from Santo Domingo as a slave in 1822, became teacher and mentor to Marie Laveau. According to legend, Dede purchased her own freedom through the practice of voodoo. Marie Laveau (1801–81) is known as the most influential “Voodoo Queen” in North American history. She was a free woman of color who lived in New Orleans and was able to gain the respect of the white elite there through her practice of voodoo. She served as a herbalist and spiritual advisor to the people of New Orleans from all classes. Voodoo is a religion that offers important roles for women, with its emphasis on spirit possession, healing, and ecstatic worship. Women have historically occupied integral positions within the voodoo tradition that have allowed them to advance in leadership

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and power. The alternative roles for women within the voodoo religion as praise dancers, servers, and masters of the trance have offered women avenues of self-expression and leadership that are not evidenced in any Western faith. See Also: Candomblé; Indigenous Religions, Global; Religion, Women in; Witchcraft: Worldwide. Further Readings Baer, H. A. “The Limited Empowerment of Women in Black Spiritual Churches: An Alternative Vehicle to Religious Leadership.” Sociology of Religion, 54/1 (1993). Fandrich, Ina J. “The Birth of New Orleans’ Voodoo Queen: A Long-Held Mystery Resolved.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, v.46/3 (2005). Hurston, Zora Neale. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica. New York: HarperPerennial, 1990. Largey, Michael. Vodou Nation. Haitian Art, Music and Cultural Nationalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Hettie V. Williams Monmouth University

Voting Rights The furtherance of women’s rights is a first stage in the demand for political equality. It generally comes prior to women running and being elected to national political office and holding major appointed posts. The right to vote is a major precursor of women’s rights and came surprisingly late to many nations around the world, even in the West. Individual women demanded the right to vote for themselves as early as the 1600s. The modern movement for women’s suffrage originated in France in the 1780s and 1790s, where Antoine Condorcet and Olympe de Gouges advocated women’s right to vote in national elections. Women’s voting rights became an issue in the 19th century, especially in Britain and the United States. Women’s organizations made the fight for the right to vote their most fundamental demand because they saw it as the defining feature of full citizenship. The philosophy underlying women’s right to

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vote was the belief in “natural rights.” Women should enjoy individual rights of self-government, rather than relying on indirect civic participation as the wives, mothers, sisters, or daughters of male voters. Entry of Women Into Political Life Women everywhere did not attain voting rights until the 20th century. Many men—and some women— believed that women were not suited by circumstance or temperament for the vote. Western political philosophers insisted that a voter had to be independent, unswayed by pressure from employers, landlords, or an educated elite. Women by nature were believed to be dependent on men and subordinate to them. Many thought women could not be trusted to exercise the independence of thought necessary for choosing political leaders responsibly. The entry of women into political life challenged the assignment of women to the home and might lead to disruption of the family. Politicians feared that enfranchised women might vote them out of office. Priests and ministers held that women should confine their influence to home and children. Socialist and labor parties feared that women might vote for conservative candidates. Specific interests, such as textile companies and the liquor, brewing, and mining industries, did not want to enfranchise women because women might vote for legislation damaging to their businesses. By the early years of the 20th century, women had won the right to vote in national elections in New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902), Finland (1906), and Norway (1913). In Sweden and the United States, they had voting rights in some local elections. World War I and its aftermath accelerated the enfranchisement of women in the countries of Europe and elsewhere. In the period 1914–39, women in 28 additional countries acquired either equal voting rights with men or the right to vote in national elections. These countries included Soviet Russia (1917); Canada (1918); Germany, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia (1919); the United States and Hungary (1920); Great Britain (1918 and 1928); Burma (now Myanmar; 1922); Ecuador (1929); South Africa (1930); Brazil, Uruguay, and Thailand (1932); Turkey and Cuba (1934); and the Philippines (1937). In a number of these countries, women were initially granted the right to vote in municipal or other local and/or

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provincial elections; only later were they granted the vote in national elections. Immediately after World War II, France, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, and China were added to the group. Full voting rights for women were introduced in India by the constitution in 1949. Women received full voting rights in national elections in Pakistan in 1956. After that the total number of countries that gave women the right to vote had reached more than 100. This was partly because nearly all the countries that gained independence after World War II guaranteed equal voting rights to men and women in their constitutions. By 1971, Switzerland allowed women to vote in federal and most cantonal elections, and in 1973, women were granted full voting rights in Syria. Oman gave women voting rights in 2003, and Kuwait gave women voting rights in 2005. Countries that Disallow Women to Vote Despite continuing United Nations (UN) and state government efforts to the contrary, there are still countries where women are not allowed to vote or where the right to vote is conditional. This is a major indicator of the state of human rights in those nations. In these countries, there is usually a profound gender power imbalance, and women are unable to speak up about issues of concern. In addition, in these states women’s rights in general are usually restricted, making women’s lives challenging and difficult. There are six jurisdictions around the world where women are not allowed to vote. In two of these, no one is allowed to vote because the country does not currently have an electoral system. The two nations in which women are not allowed to vote because of the lack of an electoral system are Brunei and the United Arab Emirates. In Brunei, neither men nor women have had the right to vote or to stand for election since 1962 because the country is governed by an absolute monarchy. In the United Arab Emirates, changes to the way in which the country is run are beginning to take place. A limited number of citizens cast ballots in 2006. Voting rights are expected to cover all citizens by 2010. The United Arab Emirates has stated on numerous occasions that women will be given the right to vote along with all other citizens, and several women ran for office in the 2006 elections. The two nations with partial voting rights are Bhutan and Lebanon. In both of these countries, women

are not allowed to vote by convention. In Bhutan, each household is permitted only one vote. Although this applies to both men and women, because of traditional values, this vote is usually placed by the male of the household. In Lebanon, proof of elementary education is required for women but not for men. Voting is compulsory for men but optional for women. Women must have proof of education at least at the elementary level; men have no education requirements. Women’s right to vote should not be subject to restrictions or conditions that do not apply to men or that have a disproportionate impact on women. For example, limiting the right to vote to persons who have a specified level of education, who meet a minimum property qualification, or who are literate may violate the universal guarantee of human rights. It is also likely to have a disproportionate impact on women, thereby contravening the provisions of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In Saudi Arabia and Vatican City, women are not allowed to vote by law. The only elections held in Vatican City are papal conclaves, which traditionally include a body of all-male cardinals. In Saudi Arabia, women’s rights are severely restricted. The first local elections ever held in the country occurred in 2005. Women were not given the right to vote or to stand for election. Heavy criticism by international bodies such as the UN of countries where women are not allowed to vote might lead to an expansion of voting rights and elimination of practices that disenfranchise women. Women’s voting rights (suffrage) movements are active mainly in Islamic countries. The movement today is mainly aimed at Saudi Arabia, where noncitizen women, such as migrants and expatriates, in general, do not have voting rights. International and Regional Instruments on Women’s Voting Rights Voting rights for everyone were introduced into international law in 1948 when the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As stated in Article 21 “(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives . . . (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and



genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.” Voting rights for everyone or citizens also is enshrined in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (1950), the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the Charter of the Organization of American States (1948), the African (Banjul) Charter on Human and People’s Rights (1981), European Union Directive 94/80/EC on the Right to Vote and to Stand as a Candidate in Municipal Elections, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (2000), the 1992 Council of Europe Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level, and many other international and regional human rights documents. The first international instrument that recognized the right for women specifically to vote is the UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women, adopted in 1952. It provides that “women shall be entitled to vote in all elections on equal terms with men, without any discrimination” (Article 1). Articles 2 and 3 provide for women to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies, established by national law; and to be entitled to hold public office and to exercise all public functions established by national law, on equal terms with men, without any discrimination. Women’s right to vote is also explicitly stated as a right under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the General Assembly in 1979. CEDAW is the key international human rights document that seeks to ensure the enforcement of the human rights of women on an equal basis with men. Article 7 of CEDAW sets out women’s right to vote. The convention obliges states’ parties in constitutions or legislation to take appropriate steps to ensure that women, on the basis of equality with men, enjoy the right to vote in all elections and referenda and to be elected. These rights must be enjoyed both de jure and de facto. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women provided additional guidance in the implementation of the convention in 1997 in its General Recommendation No. 23. The recommendation states that “It is the Government’s fundamental responsibility to encourage these initiatives to lead and guide public opinion and change attitudes that discriminate against women or discourage women’s involvement in political and public life.”

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It also recommends that “Measures that should be identified, implemented and monitored for effectiveness include those designed to achieve a balance between women and men holding publicly elected positions; ensure that women understand their right to vote, the importance of this right and how to exercise it; ensure that barriers to equality are overcome, including those resulting from illiteracy, language, poverty and impediments to women’s freedom of movement; assist women experiencing such disadvantages to exercise their right to vote and to be elected.” On the other hand, although it does not specifically address women, the Council of Europe appeals to member and observer states to sign and ratify the 1992 Council of Europe Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level, and to grant active and passive electoral rights in local elections to all legal residents. Also, its Parliamentary Assembly adopted Resolution 1459 (2005) and Recommendation 1714 (2005) on abolition of restrictions on the right to vote. Difficulties for Women in Exercising Voting Rights Women continue to experience difficulties in exercising the right to vote. Women frequently have less access than men to information about candidates and about party political platforms and voting procedures for various reasons: because this is information that governments and political parties fail to provide; illiteracy; and lack of knowledge and understanding of political systems or about the impact that political initiatives and policies will have upon their lives. Failure to understand the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities for change conferred by franchise means that women are not always registered to vote. Women’s double burden of work and domestic duties, as well as financial constraints, will limit women’s time or opportunity to follow electoral campaigns and to have the full freedom to exercise their vote. In many nations, traditions and social and cultural stereotypes discourage women from exercising their right to vote. Many men influence or control the votes of women by persuasion or direct action, including voting on their behalf. In some countries, progress is denied by women’s lack of freedom of movement or right to participate in community affairs, or a lack of confidence in and support for female candidates by the

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electorate. In addition, some women consider involvement in politics to be distasteful and avoid participation in political campaigns. Also, nomadic women, residents of nursing homes, and imprisoned women might face special difficulties in exercising the right to vote. Women represent half of all electorates, yet they do not wield political power or form blocs that would promote their interests, change government, or eliminate discriminatory policies because of the various factors referred to above. See Also: Brunei Darussalam; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Gender Quotas in Government; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates.

Further Readings Brahmachari, R. “Arab Women: Victims of Islamic Gender Apartheid, Part I.” (2009). http://www.islam-watch.org /Brahmachari/Arab-Women-Victims-of-Islamic -Gender-Discrimination1.htm (accessed June 2010). DuBois, Ellen Carol. Harriot Stanton Blatch and The Winning of Woman Suffrage. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997. DuBois, Ellen Carol. Woman Suffrage and Women’s Rights. New York: New York University Press, 1998. “Women’s Suffrage.” http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics .org/suffrage.htm (accessed June 2010). Kadriye Bakirci Istanbul Technical University

W Wadud, Amina Amina Wadud (1952– ), a professor of Islamic Studies, African American Muslim activist, feminist, scholar, khatibah (reader/lecturer), imamah (leader), and mother of five children, began her transition to Islam in 1972. For the past three decades, Wadud has led, instructed, and helped form the intellectual backbone of the Muslim feminist movement that works toward greater gender parity in Islam and woman-inclusive readings of the sacred text of Islam, al-Qur’an, and the hadith literature (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad). Amina Wadud earned a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan in 1988. After completing her Ph.D., she taught at Qar Younis University in Libya, the International Islamic University in Malaysia, and the Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States. She is currently a visiting professor at the Center for Religious and Cross Cultural Studies at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Feminist Activism by Reinterpreting Islam An important component of Amina Wadud’s activism is the effort to open up spaces for new traditions within the Islamic faith. In one well-known event, Wadud led a mixed congregation of women and men in prayer in March 2005 as a female imamah (largely unprecedented in Islamic history). The event was

sensationalized by global media and Muslim conservatives more fixated on the symbolic significance of a Muslim woman leading Muslim men than on the substantive content of khutbah (pre-prayer sermon) delivered or the conditions of historical and intellectual exclusion or marginalization of women in Islamic scholarship, exegetical analysis, devotional life, leadership roles, and public face/voice that motivated reclamation of the prayer space in the first place. Amina Wadud’s formative and original work, Qur’an and Woman: Re-Reading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective (1992), advances the radical claim that the oppression of women in Muslim societies is based profoundly upon the exclusion of women’s participation in Qur’anic exegesis. From a pro-faith perspective, Wadud investigates the extent to which the 1,400-year history of Qur’anic interpretation had been influenced by the historical context and individual experiences of the male interpreters, the locale of revelation (e.g., the particularities of a patriarchal Arabia in the seventh century), the limitation of women’s role in Islamic history to ahadith transmitters (as sufficient unto itself ), and a reliance on literal interpretations of the text. The strategy of Qur’an and Woman is to develop a “symbiotic” relation between revelation and reader, to understand textual context, syntactical structure, and language usage that will allow for a more just social order. 1533

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Gender Equality Within Islam Wadud’s book Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam (2006), builds upon the theory of Qur’an and Woman, numerous articles and lectures, and Wadud’s social and political activism to advance a theoretical and practical framework for the achievement of greater gender justice. The text deals explicitly with the ways in which Muslim women have advanced the gender jihad (struggle); for example, through forums, networks, and sisterhoods, and the many limitations they face as they work collectively and individually toward various unified and separate goals. Some of the innovative theories and concepts advanced and/or developed in Inside the Gender Jihad include (1) a system of Islamic ethics informed by women’s experience that places social justice upon the realization of the (a) Tawhidic paradigm (the unity of creation and Creator, the inherent oneness of all), (b) taqwa (moral consciousness), and (c) khalifah (moral agency); (2) the Hajar paradigm (which revisits the oppression of antiquated notions of motherhood); and (3) Khaled Abou El Fadl’s notion of the “conscientious pause” with regard to the hudud ordinances of Islamic restrictions and punishments. See Also: Feminist Theology, Islam; Islam in America; Islamic Feminism; Womanist Theology. Further Readings Barazangi, Nimat Hafez. Women’s Identity and the Qur’an: A New Reading. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004. Wadud, Amina. Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam. Oxford, UK: OneWorld Publications, 2006. Wadud, Amina. Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text From a Woman’s Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Melissa Finn York University

Wahhabism Wahhabism refers to an austere 18th-century reform movement arising in the central Arabian oasis settlement of Najd. Through ties to the rising Saudi mon-

archy, Wahhabi adherents established their doctrine in Arabia and built networks of affiliated Muslims in Europe, the Americas, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, and elsewhere. Although Wahhabi stances are rejected by substantial numbers of the Muslim public, Wahhabism continues as a prominent strand of thought into the 21st century. Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahhab (1703–92), the movement’s figurehead, came from a clerical family and was educated in a mainstream school of Sunni Muslim thought; however, in his preaching, he favored more antagonistic positions over recognized doctrines. For instance, Abd al-Wahhab preached that the majority of Muslims globally had neglected primary religious duties and could therefore be treated as apostates, a policy referred to as takfir. Wahhabis are known for their policy of “enforcing the right and forbidding the wrong,” a religious duty resting with the individual Muslim in his or her public and personal relations. In the first decades of the 19th century, the territory controlled by the Wahhabis intermittently extended to the Hijaz region that contained the primary pilgrimage sites for Muslims worldwide. Here, Wahhabi followers destroyed centuries old tombs and monuments dedicated to Muhammad (c.570–632) and prominent early Muslims. The spread of Wahhabi political control met with resistance from local elites as well as external pressure from the Ottomans; however, settlement by settlement, Wahhabi followers consolidated the territory of modern-day Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Abd al-Wahhab’s political ally Abd Aziz b. Muhammad b. Suhud (1765–1803). The Wahhabi-Saudi alliance remains influential, with portions of the Kingdom’s resource wealth funding Wahhabi-leaning proselytizing efforts on a global scale. Wahhabism also bears a close relationship with Salafism, a trend of reformist thought originating in the late 19th century that stressed the duty of contemporary Muslims to return to select forms of conduct described in normative textual accounts attributed to the earliest generations of Muslims. Although scholarship on Wahhabism is abundant, as of this writing no major published scholarly work is devoted to analyzing the role of women in contemporary Wahhabism. On the part of antiterrorism watch groups as well as self-labeled “progressives” and “moderates,” close attention continues to be paid to the deployment of Wahhabi doctrine in militant ide-

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ologies and like aversions toward non-Sunni Muslims and non-Muslims in general. Transnational feminists are quick to highlight women’s restricted participation in the public sphere, vis-à-vis men. Research on Wahhabi thought and the corresponding life worlds of female affiliates is complicated in that Wahhabi sympathizers do not commonly self-refer as “Wahhabi.” See Also: Islam; Religious Fundamentalism, CrossCulturally Context of; Religion, Women in; Saudi Arabia. Further Readings Ayoob, Mohammed and Hasan Kosebalaban, eds. Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism and the State. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009. Sharify-Funk, Meena. Encountering the Transnational: Women, Islam, and the Politics of Interpretation. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008. “Wahhabiyyah.” In P. Bearman, et al., eds., Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2009. Celene Lizzio Harvard Divinity School

Walker, Alice Alice Walker was born February 9, 1944, to sharecroppers Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker in Eatonton, Georgia. Throughout her writings, Walker remains rooted in her Southern childhood as she addresses social, cultural, and political issues. At times critiqued for her realistic portrayals of poor black life in the south and her negative depictions of African American men, Walker has emerged as a prominent, prolific writer as her poetry, prose, and fiction explore patriarchal and socioeconomic oppression, feminism, and civil rights. Walker has received the Pulitzer Prize for her groundbreaking novel The Color Purple, as well as a Guggenheim fellowship and an award for fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other accolades. Walker’s novels include Meridian; The Third Life of Grange Copeland; The Color Purple; The Temple of My Familiar; Possessing the Secret of Joy; By the Light of My Father’s Smile; and Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. Walker came to attention in 1995 with

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the film version of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Color Purple, which portrays the story of a young woman in rural Georgia coming to self-awareness and recognition of her self-worth as a woman after being raped by her stepfather. Such feminist themes are also seen in Possessing the Secret of Joy, which explores the effects of female genital mutilation on women’s lives, and By the Light of My Father’s Smile, which delves into women’s spirituality and sexuality through the lives of two sisters. Paths to Self-Knowledge Walker’s concern with female genital mutilation grew from her belief that such practices permanently damage women’s sexuality, as well as affect women’s overall physical and mental health. In 1993, Walker, in collaboration with Indian filmmaker Pratibha Parmar, developed a documentary film, Warrior Marks: Female Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women, about female genital mutilation. Walker does not limit herself to women’s lives, however, as seen for example in The Third Life of Grange Copeland. There, Walker’s story depicts the effects of poverty and race on a father and son, George and Brownfield Copeland, as the novel exposes the cycle of anger, violence, and loss created by a political and social system that opposes them. Like her novels, Walker’s prose and poetry center on self-exploration, strategies for survival, and paths to self-knowledge and empowerment with an intense interest in the struggles of African American women. Through her poetry, Walker explores a range of themes, including love, loss, and revolution. Her poetry is often confessional and delves into female consciousness as she integrates personal experiences and emotions into her work. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, one of Walker’s best-known essay collections, includes her famous essay of the same title that discusses the black woman writer and her journey to self-expression. Through that discussion, Walker presented her concept “womanist.” In Living by the Word, she broadens her concerns to include the environment and our connection to the land, as well as furthering her discussions of the effects of race, gender, and sexuality on people’s lives. Walker has long been active in the Civil Rights movement, ever since her years at Spelman College in the 1960s. Her activism resonates throughout her

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writings as she examines the lives and experiences of African American men and women and their search for identity, self-worth, and survival in the face of economic and racial oppression. A prolific novelist, poet, and essayist known for her realism and accessible prose style, Alice Walker’s writing is firmly planted in the American and African American literary canon. She has sold more than 10 million copies of her books, which speaks to her influence, and her writings have been translated into more than two dozen languages across the world. See also: Female Genital Surgery, Types of; Feminism, American; Rape, Incidence of; Womanism; Womanist Theology. Further Readings Christian, B. T. “Alice Walker.” The History of Southern Women’s Literature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002. McMillan, L. “Telling a Critical Story: Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.” Journal of Modern Literature, v.28/1 (2004). Walker, Alice. Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2010. White, E. Alice Walker: A Life. New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. Jeannette Riley University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

Walker, Kara Kara Walker is one of the most significant artists of her generation. Born in 1969 in Stockton, California, she is an African American woman at the forefront of the contemporary art scene. Praised by the art world for her daring confrontation of difficult topics, Walker is credited with more than 40 major solo exhibitions around the world, showing at some of the most prestigious art museums in the United States, including the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. Walker first gained national recognition in 1994; in 1997, when she was only 28 years old, she became one of the youngest recipients ever of the MacAr-

thur Foundation Achievement Award. Also in 1997, she was nominated by Time magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World of Artists and Entertainers.” One of the most prolific contemporary artists of her era, Walker has created works using drawing, writing, painting, shadow puppetry, silhouettes, prints, watercolor, and projected installation. Although she has a devoted audience, responses to her art alternate between great praise and tremendous condemnation, in equal measure. From her small drawings to her signature large-scale blackon-white cut-paper silhouettes, Walker has generated a body of artwork that fearlessly explores racial inequality in the United States. Best known for her black cut-paper silhouettes, which she has uniquely developed, Walker portrays disturbing scenarios that transgress the boundaries of the conservative 18th- and early-19th-century genteel Victorian silhouettes concerning family and romance. Her stark black-and-white, vintage-like silhouettes have a distinctive air of Victorian modesty, yet she deliberately undermines and subverts their propriety through stereotypic representations of historical and fantastical people engaged in situations that reflect a range of race, gender, and class-based, sexually explicit, cataclysmic, entangled relationships between masters and slaves in the U.S. antebellum south, including miscegenation, sexual abuse and rape of black women, lynchings, and other power relationships and their brutality. The silhouette gives way to avoid the disquieting and frequently difficult-to-view grotesqueness of her black-on-white narratives and forces the viewer to rely on visual cues, drawn from uniformly black featureless profiles, to discern differences among the races and to fully understand the scope of her subject matter. When Walker was 13, her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from high school, she pursued undergraduate studies in painting/printmaking at the Atlanta College of Art, where she received her BFA in 1991. She obtained her MFA in painting/ printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Art and Design in 1994. Influenced by Andy Warhol; conceptual artist Adrian Piper, who integrated issues of race and gender into her conceptual art; and painter Robert Colescott, who incorporated themes of race in his

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paintings, Walker has earned international acclaim and has received numerous grants, fellowships, and awards for her provocative, controversial body of work that has continued to link past and present entangled black and white histories. See Also: Art Criticism: Gender Issues; Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Entrepreneurs. Further Readings Shaw, Gwendolyn DuBoise. Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. Walker, Kara. Kara Walker: After the Deluge. New York: Rizzoli, 2007. Walker, Kara. Kara Walker: Bureau of Refugees. Toronto: Charta/Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 2008. Wanda B. Knight Pennsylvania State University

Walters, Barbara Barbara Walters is a U.S. journalist who has worked in television for more than 50 years. She began working in television in the 1950s, first as a writer and later on camera. As the first woman to cohost the ABC news program, ABC Evening News, in 1976, she became the first woman network evening-news anchor. ABC paid her $1 million annually for that position, the highest salary of any network newscaster at that time. She went on to cohost the ABC news magazine 20/20 for more than two decades. Also in 1976, she began the “Barbara Walters Specials,” interviews with the famous and infamous that made her a cultural institution. In the late 1990s, she created The View, an award-winning daytime talk show that she also coproduces and cohosts. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 25, 1931, Walters grew up familiar with the entertainment industry. Her father, Lou Walters, owned the Latin Quarter, a chain of nightclubs in New York City, Boston, and Miami, where Milton Berle, Sophie Tucker, and Frank Sinatra performed. Walters once said that her background made her aware of the humanness behind the glitter of celebrity.

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When her father lost his money, she became a news writer, first for a series of local stations and later for CBS News. She joined the Today staff in 1961 as a writer and was soon an on-camera reporter. Although she had become the show’s cohost with Hugh Downs by the mid-1960s and, as part of the NBC news team, was the only woman to cover President Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972, she was not given the title of co-host until 1974. Even then, she was not allowed to interview guests until all male interviewers had completed their questions. Network Success She left Today after 15 years to coanchor ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner. Reasoner, whose salary was considerably less than his new coanchor, was resentful offscreen and cool onscreen. Ratings flagged, and critics labeled Walters’ news coverage “infotainment.” In 1978, despite her coup the previous year in capturing the first joint interview with Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Walters was removed from the news desk. She became a correspondent on the news magazine 20/20 and eventually cohost, a post she held for 25 years. The “Barbara Walters Specials” began in 1976,

Barbara Walters (left) interviewing President Gerald Ford (center) and Betty Ford (right) at the White House in 1976.

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capitalizing on Walters’ skill as an interviewer. Over more than 30 years, she interviewed six U.S. presidents and other heads of state including Boris Yeltsin, China’s Premier Jiang Zemin, Margaret Thatcher, and, perhaps most famously, Fidel Castro. She became even more famous for her interviews with entertainers, from legends of the industry such as Sir Lawrence Olivier and the Hepburns, Katharine and Audrey, to 21st-century stars like George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Other notable subjects included John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, and White House intern Monica Lewinski. In 1997, The View, a Walterscreated talkfest for women, aired. The hosts of the Emmy Award–winning show, who include Walters, have been recognized by Time and Forbes as among the most influential women in U.S. culture. See Also: Celebrity Women; Equal Pay; Journalists, Broadcast Media. Further Readings Biography.com “Barbara Walters.” http://www.biography .com/articles/Barbara-Walters-9523127 (accessed June 2010). McLeland, Susan. “Walters, Barbara: U.S. Broadcast Journalist.” The Museum of Broadcast Communications. http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php ?entrycode=waltersbarb (accessed March 2010). Walters, B. Audition: A Memoir. New York: Knopf, 2008. Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Wars of National Liberation, Women in In their close association with nationhood, women and their bodies come to represent nation, the body politic. This symbolic identification has led to justifications of violence, including violence against women in warfare, while permitting considerable control to be exerted over women’s reproductive capacities (for example, denial of birth control and reproduction for national population “enlargement”). Virtuous women-as-nation function as mythical signifiers of nationalist culture, and as delimit-

ers of ‘“us” and “them.” While this symbolism may taint nationalist causes as inherently disempowering, many women have found fruitful engagement in nationalist movements, as they constitute an arena not only for nationalist, but also for feminist, activism. Indeed, public sphere agitation against colonial rule is often coextensive with agitation against gender inequality. This is rarely instantiated, though, as women find themselves marginalized in the aftermath of wars of independence, as their contributions to national liberation are downplayed or denied. Women’s relationship to violence is also important in this context, as women are viewed as innately pacifist, despite their often active role in physical combat. Women and Nation While the nation is commonly identified with the nation-state, it is important to note that this nationalizing of the state is a modern phenomenon. It presupposes that the boundaries of nation and state are identical, thereby homogenizing rather disparate groups and members of states, who do not necessarily identify with the dominant “nation,” who may not have a state, or who live across several states. For this reason, nations are better understood as imagined, or constructed, communities. Women have played a central role in such constructions, especially symbolically. The nation has traditionally been identified as female, and has been closely linked to women’s reproductive capacities. In fact, the word nation comes from the Latin natio, meaning “to be born.” Accordingly, women have been viewed as reproducers of the nation, as nation and motherhood have become fused (e.g., in Ireland, nation as “Mother Ireland”). This female embodiment of nation has often found expression in violence against women, or nations, justified as protection against pollution by other men. This protection of “our” nation-as-woman necessarily means the creation of an “other,” of women who are different to “our” women, and who do not represent “our” nation. In this sense, women come to be markers of national identity—as violence against women and others, indeed, women-as-others, is understood in terms of male, national honor. In the creation of national communities, nationalisms frequently draw upon nostalgic, invented accounts of the past in order to define their own future-directed progressiveness and to create cul-



tures of nationalist consciousness. While women have been designated the romanticized, static, and passive realm of the past, the forward-looking and active aspect of nationalism has usually been reserved for men. It is because of this, perhaps, that women are viewed primarily as symbols, rather than as agents, by nationalisms. And yet, women have been active promoters of nationalist causes. Indeed, despite the questionable depictions of women as reproducers of the nation, and the attendant notions of purity and chastity such depictions hold, women have been involved in nationalist movements to a large and underestimated extent. Women and Anticolonial Nationalism Colonialism exported the modern state system. However, anti-colonial elites rarely challenged this imposition, aiming to take over, rather than dismantle the state. Of course colonization is itself gendered, as the actual “dirty work” of colonialism, while sanctioned and even endorsed by women, is usually carried out by men. The symbolic also plays a role here, as xenophobic, racist, and sexist representations of colonial subjects intersect to justify imperialist exploits. This is not to assert, however, that the patriarchal state structures of many postcolonial countries of today are mere remnants of colonial masculinist power. The great opportunities for gender equality, posed by the upheavals of nationalist movements, are often lost as women find themselves sidelined in the aftermath of war. Promises of female emancipation are thus swiftly forgotten, as new male elites replace colonial rulers. Hopes of participating in the creation of new systems of governance are thereby dashed, despite women’s participation in the events leading to independence. Such participation and agitation variously consists in nonviolent resistance, espionage, and actual physical fighting, as well as less visible work, such as nursing and more traditionally “female” support work. This active engagement often results in women being propelled, for the first time, into the public sphere, where nationalist and feminist demands frequently become conflated. Hence, feminist and nationalist organizations often overlap, as many women view a rejection of colonialism not only in terms of national liberation, but also in terms of women’s liberation. Disempowering symbolisms of a feminized nation therefore have to be counter-

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balanced by nationalism’s potential for disseminating feminist ideas, organizing women around those ideas, and engaging women in sustained activism for gender equality. The physical violence this sometimes entails, however, creates tensions as essentialist assumptions about women as nurturing and nonviolent clash with women’s active involvement in armed struggle. This perhaps, is also a contributing factor in the disenfranchising of women (or even the backlash against women) postwar, as women’s contributions to independence are written out of history, and their right to participate in the creation of political structures is denied. Women therefore inhabit positions within nationalist movements, and in the aftermath of nationalist wars, which are often simultaneously empowering and disempowering, and which are marked by contradictions and inconsistencies. See Also: Combat, Women in; Conflict Zones; Critical Race Feminism; Guerrilla Fighters, Female; “Femininity,” Social Construction of. Further Readings Herbert, Melissa S. Camouflage Isn’t Only for Combat: Gender, Sexuality, and Women in the Military. New York: New York University Press, 2000. Lyons, Tanya. “Guerrilla Girls and Women in the Zimbabwean National Liberation Struggle.” In Jean Allman, Susan Geiger, and Nakanyike Musisi, eds., Women in African Colonial Histories. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. Yuval-Davis, Nira. Gender & Nation. London: Sage, 1997. Clara Fischer Trinity College Dublin

Water, as Women’s Issue To understand the different ways that women and men use water, integrated water management is now focusing on gender. Integrated water management has arisen because previously uncoordinated approaches have resulted in environmental degradation from the overexploitation of, and unequal distribution of benefits from, water resources. Approaches that use community participation have failed to address these

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problems, mainly because communities are seen as a collection of people with a common purpose. However, there is competition for supplies when and in places where resources are scarce, and the least powerful people in a community—that is, poor women and men—go without. In most societies, unequal power relations between men and women create a further disadvantage for women. The disadvantage occurs because women and men are defined and relate to each other in different ways in different societies; these relations are known as gender relations. Gender relations are constructed by a range of institutions such as the family, legal systems, and the economic market, and operate as hierarchical relations of power between women and men. Although the hierarchies are often accepted as “natural,” they are socially determined relations, are culturally based, and are subject to change over time. Integrated water management has created a paradigm shift in the management of water resources. The global environmental crisis, growing poverty in urban and rural areas, and continued gender inequalities

require a different approach to water use and management. Access to a basic water supply is a fundamental human right, yet water supply services and infrastructure are economic activities. Thus, water use for sanitation and domestic purposes, which tends to be the responsibility of women, must be incorporated into assessments of the economic value of the use of water. However, women often have no rights to land and water, which affects their livelihoods. In addition, although it is desirable for water supply to be paid for, it is also important to take into account people’s ability to pay. If charges for domestic water supply have to be paid, both women and men should be involved in determining the rates. Even though women in many societies do not have access to cash, they are still expected to pay for water and sanitation more than men, because they are the main users and it is considered their responsibility. Government Responsibility or Privatized Governments are usually responsible for ensuring that the water supply needs of the whole population

Women readying water vessels in an Ethiopian village. Having water available for sanitation and domestic purposes tends to be the responsibility of women, and they often have difficulty obtaining and affording adequate quantities of water.

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are met, but there has been a move toward the privatization of water services. Companies solely interested in making a profit from water will not be concerned about low-income households, domestic water users, and those who use water sources for their basic necessities of life—all categories in which women are heavily represented. Planning water projects that can operate at the lowest levels of society is most important to ensure that decisions are supported by those who implement water projects in their communities—often women. As female-headed households tend to have less bargaining power in communities than male-headed households, however, a specific effort to include them is needed. Thus, campaigns to reduce water wastage should target women, and men and women’s skills and knowledge should be acknowledged as crucial for effective, efficient management of water. Research shows that water services are better sustained and used by communities if institutions and policies enable women and men to initiate the service, make informed decisions about the type of management and financing systems needed, and build capacities to maintain and manage the service so that burdens and benefits are equitably shared. Research also shows that failure to take gender differences and inequalities into account can result in failed projects. A study by the International Water and Sanitation Centre of community water supply and sanitation projects in 88 communities in 15 countries found that projects designed and run with the full participation of women are more sustainable and effective than those that do not involve women as full partners. Without specific attention to gender issues and initiatives, projects can reinforce inequalities between women and men. New Resources Projects and programs often bring new resources such as training, tools, and technology, and a person’s gender can influence whether they can take advantage of them. In addition, using participatory monitoring and evaluation processes that have gender-sensitive indicators can result in detailed knowledge about who in the community has benefited, who bears the costs, and what motivates different groups to act. They have the capacity to enable communities to self-manage, rather than use monitoring and evaluation as a policing instrument.

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See Also: Environmental Issues, Women and; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Household Decision-Making. Further Readings Ahmed, S., ed. Flowing Upstream—Empowering Women Through Water Management Initiatives in India. Ahmedabad: Foundation Books, 2005. Coles, Anne and Tina Wallace. Gender, Water and Development. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2005. Division for the Advancement of Women and UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “Women 2000 and Beyond: Women and Water.” New York: United Nations, 2005. Gender and Water Alliance. “Gender and Water Development Report: Gender Perspectives on Policies in the Water Sector.” Delft, Netherlands: Gender and Water Alliance, 2003. Zwarteveen, Margreet. “Water: From Basic Need to Commodity: A Discussion on Gender and Water Rights in the Context of Irrigation.” World Development, v.25/8 (1997). Helen Johnson University of Queensland

Waters, Alice Alice Louise Waters was born on April 28, 1944, the second daughter of Margaret and Charles Waters of Chatham, New Jersey. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, at the height of the Free Speech Movement. In January 1965, Waters and a friend, Sarah Flanders, went to study in Paris and discovered the delicious variety and low price of French restaurant meals. Alice Waters was changed forever. The friends traveled around the Mediterranean and found food that was locally grown, gloriously fresh, boldly seasoned, and deliciously prepared, without the fuss of French grande cuisine. Waters returned to Berkeley in 1966, determined to open a cafe that served the food they had eaten abroad. After graduation, Waters worked as a waitress and wrote a food column. She became a teacher at the local Montessori school and received Montessori certification in 1969. In 1971, Waters found a restaurant space in a small house in Berkeley, California. Family and friends

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invested time and money in the enterprise, and ownership was shared. The restaurant was named after the old sailmaker, Panisse, in Marcel Pagnol’s film The Fanny Trilogy. Chez Panisse opened on August 18, 1971. Ms. Waters and her chef, Victoria Kroyer, had no culinary training and the staff lacked experience. One hundred twenty meals were served the first night, and customers had to be turned away. The restaurant was a great success but was a financial failure, as income was unable to cover expenses. Fiscal difficulties lasted for years. The restaurant finally became financially stable in the 1980s. Waters’s first book, The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook, was published in 1982, and eight more books followed. All are coauthored, but her name is prominent on each cover. It is notable that when Chez Panisse first opened there were no farmer’s markets in most American cities. Waters had to search for fresh and humanely raised ingredients, and she cultivated friendships with small suppliers of such products. Even in the beginning, she was committed to the use of very high quality, carefully grown, organic ingredients. Local farmers, orchardists, ranchers, hunters, anglers, and foragers were the sources for food at Chez Panisse. Fame Waters and her restaurant achieved national fame in 1984, when a New York Times article hailed the start of a fresh, new, California food movement, with Alice Waters and her restaurant at the center of it. A year later, the Times referred to the food of Chez Panisse as “The New American Cuisine.” Today, Waters is known as a passionate advocate for her philosophy of food. Her work has brought her many honors, including Chef of the Year from the James Beard Society, and the Vice Presidency of Slow Food International. She is an outspoken advocate for home gardens, even in the White House. She established the Edible Schoolyard Project, a curriculum designed to teach children to grow, harvest, and cook fresh and healthy food at school. She built such a schoolyard at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, and she has begun a campaign to promote these schoolyards across the country. Alice Waters returned from France eager to lead what she calls The Delicious Revolution. Today, in large part because of her work, Americans are more

aware of where their food comes from, how it is grown, how it is processed and prepared, and how it should taste. See Also: Gardening; Health, Mental and Physical; Locavorism/Slow Food Movement; Obama, Michelle. Further Readings Burros, Marian. “Alice Waters: Food Revolutionary.” New York Times (August 14, 1996). http://www.nytimes .com/1996/08/14/garden/alice-waters-food-revo lutionary.html?pagewanted=all (accessed August 2010). Chez Panisse Foundation. http://www.chezpanisse foundation.org (accessed August 2010). Chez Panisse Restaurant. “About Alice Waters.” http:// www.chezpanisse.com/about/alice-waters (accessed August 2010). MacNamee, Thomas. Alice Waters and Chez Panisse. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Una Bray Skidmore College

Wedding Industry The wedding market first emerged in the 1920s in the United States. Current Western standards for most aspects of the wedding reception were set at that time, especially those regarding the wedding jewels, the gowns, and the catering. Standards and traditions of the American wedding have been broadly exported through cinema, television, and media coverage of celebrities’ weddings. Wedding market materialization results from economic development and cultural globalization. For example, weddings became a substantial market in Japan in the 1970s and in China in the 1990s. The primary wedding market consists of all sectors providing products and services for the wedding ceremony itself, the wedding reception, and pre-wedding rituals such as bachelor and bachelorette parties and rehearsal dinners that many couples offer to their guests. Wedding ceremonies usually require the officiant’s remuneration. Additionally, couples may hire the venue and decorate it. Receptions provide larger opportunity for the wedding industry. Whereas it is



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common for grooms to rent suits or tuxedos, brides usually buy gowns and various accessories, and resort to the beauty shop for hairdressing and other related services. Other significant expenses involved in wedding ceremonies include catering, decorations and flowers, the wedding rings, invitations, music, limousines, wedding photography, wedding insurance (that covers garment replacement, lost rings, severe weather, and so on). Despite their growing popularity, wedding planners or wedding coordinators are hired for approximately less than 20 percent of American weddings.

and the average wedding costs approximately $27,800. The primary American wedding market earned estimated revenues of $40 billion, including $14 billion for jewelry items. The wedding industry provides a wide variety of places to celebrate a wedding or spend a honeymoon. Las Vegas is ranked as the number one city where couples from all over the world plan to wed, with around 120,000 weddings a year. The other most popular destinations for weddings and honeymoons are Istanbul, Turkey, Hawaii, the Caribbean; and Europe. Additionally, so-called Disneymooners spend their honeymoons in Walt Disney resorts all over the world.

Secondary, Tertiary, and Specialized Markets The secondary wedding market includes travel agencies that organize honeymoon travels, departmentstore wedding services with wedding gift registries, and bridal magazines. This type of magazine appeared as early as 1934 (So You’re Going to Be Married) and is now prosperous, with many local and national titles (Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, The Knot, and so on). Wedding advice is also given by numerous books and Websites. The tertiary market includes services and products that use wedding imagery. One may cite as example bride dolls, movies focusing on marriage, and reality TV shows that have proliferated in recent years (A Wedding Story; Rich Bride, Poor Bride; The Bachelorette, etc.). The wedding industry is highly specialized, with sectors like celebrity weddings, intermarriages, and vow renewal ceremonies. In the United States and some other Western countries such as the United Kingdom, same-sex weddings comprise a growing market that is exceptionally profitable. Typical consumers are high-income earners and are usually older than heterosexual brides and grooms. Growing divorce rates do not jeopardize the wedding industry; a new development is the creation of “divorce ceremonies,” which often include returning the wedding rings. Moreover, second weddings are a lucrative sector since “encore brides” or remarrying divorcées may be likely to overspend. Peak months for the wedding industry are May and June. Reliable statistics for the wedding industry are difficult to find and are often questionable, since they are produced by the industry itself. There are about 2.5 million weddings every year in the United States,

Traditions Real and Faux Some marriage traditions, such as the unity candle ceremony and the Apache wedding prayer, have been created by the wedding industry. The first one dates back only to the mid-1960s and the latter, which is nowadays frequently recited during ceremonies, has no connection to Native American culture. It was written for Broken Arrow, a Western movie. In many countries, the wedding industry has successfully imported these American traditions. For example, in Japan since the 1970s, the candle service, the flower presentation, and the wedding cake ceremony are commonly performed. The wedding ring for men can be considered as another of the wedding industry’s innovations that has been popularized, especially in postwar years. It involves matching his-and-her rings and doublering ceremonies symbolizing marriage as the perfect matching of partners. The tradition of the diamond engagement and wedding rings dates back to the 1930s. It is commonly perceived as the result of an extraordinarily effective marketing campaign by jeweler DeBeers. According to an alternative account of this phenomenon, diamond engagement ring sales rose in the 1930s in response to the disappearance of the “breach of promise to marry” legal action. Until then, a woman jilted by her fiancé could sue for financial compensation for “damage” to her reputation. Since a large proportion of women lost their virginity while engaged, diamond rings were a symbol of the groom’s financial commitment and were supposed to prevent men from seducing and abandoning women. Diamond engagement rings as a new tradition reinforced

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prejudices prizing male initiative (and therefore female passivity), and requiring men to be a good providers. Women are the main target of wedding marketing, given that they are the chief purchasers. Marriages are actually largely considered women’s most significant achievement, and they are therefore seen as the proper organizers of these family-oriented events. Interestingly, most sectors of the wedding industry are femaledominated. Since the mid-1990s, the stereotype of the “Bridezilla” (a combination of “bride” and “Godzilla”), a selfish and spoiled bride, through its popularity, underlines how the wedding industry contributes to recasting notions of masculinity and femininity. See Also: “Bridezillas”; Divorce; Mail-Order Brides; Marriage; Same-Sex Marriage. Further Readings Boden, Sharon. Consumerism, Romance, and the Wedding Experience. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Brinig, Margaret F. “Rings and Promises.” Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, v.6/1 (1990). Charsley, Simon R. Rites of Marrying: the Wedding Industry in Scotland. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1991. Edwards, Walter. Modern Japan Through Its Weddings: Gender, Person, and Society in Ritual Portrayal. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990. Freeman, Elizabeth. The Wedding Complex: Forms of Belonging in Modern American Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra. Packaged Japaneseness: Weddings, Business and Brides. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997. Howard, Vicki. Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Ingraham, Chrys. White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 1999. Mead, Rebecca. One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. New York: Penguin Press, 2008. Otnes, Cele C. and Elizabeth H. Pleck. Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Gwénola Ricordeau University of Lille

Weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to the act of repeatedly lifting dumbbells, barbells, or kettlebells, or the use of resistance training machines to aid in the development of muscle mass and strength. It can also refer to several sports related to weightlifting, which include Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and bodybuilding. Weightlifting as a recreational activity for women is generally tied to weight loss, weight control, and fitness. In the past, women have been discouraged from lifting weights because of social and cultural beliefs that physical activity was harmful to female physiology. In more recent times, cultural norms have discouraged women from performing strength training that includes heavier weights because of a misconception that lifting will contribute to excessive muscle mass or that lifting will make one become “manly.” Because of this misconception, many women perform many sets of exercises with low weights to conform with feminine ideals of a “toned” body, with “sculpted” or “shapely” muscles. Terms such as toning and sculpting have been used to market strength training to women to make weightlifting fit within the ideals of normative Western femininity. This marketing has contributed to fitness products for women that are made in pastel colors and that reinforce the idea that women cannot or should not lift heavier weights or build muscle mass. Powerlifting The involvement of women in international competitive powerlifting began in 1980 with the Women’s World Championships through the International Powerlifting Federation. The sport is composed of the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. Competitions are divided between 10 weight classes (from 44 to 90 kg and above) and between age divisions. Training for powerlifting usually involves low-repetition sets using higher weights, which results in more strength gain compared to high-repetition sets with lighter weights, which are usually used for either muscle endurance or the building of muscle mass, as in bodybuilding. Olympic Weightlifting Women’s weightlifting was first introduced in the 2000 Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia. The two lifts judged are the clean-and-jerk and the snatch. Aside from the difference from powerlifting in terms

Welfare



of the types of lifts performed, Olympic weightlifting differs in that the lifts performed test explosivity and power more than absolute strength, as in powerlifting. There are seven weight classes in Olympic weightlifting, ranging from flyweight (48 kilograms) to super heavyweight (75 kilograms and above). This style of competitive weightlifting is supervised by the International Weightlifting Federation. Bodybuilding Bodybuilding is the aesthetic branch of weightlifting. Bodybuilding for women began in late 1977 with the development of the U.S. Women’s Physique Association and continued with competitions such as the Ms. Olympia and the Women’s World Bodybuilding Championships. The sport began an aesthetic that reinforced traditional societal norms of feminine beauty, favoring a less muscular body type than seen in men’s bodybuilding. Over the history of the sport, the aesthetic ideals have created a split in the sport. For women with more extreme and defined musculature, bodybuilding is still an avenue to demonstrate their physique. For women who more closely fit within cultural norms of female muscularity, an alternate avenue of aesthetic competition involves fitness contests. Fitness contests focus more on muscle tone and symmetry than muscle size and typically include two rounds: a dance and gymnastics routine and a swimsuit round. See Also: Diet and Weight Control; Fitness; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; Title IX. Further Readings Heywood, L. Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women’s Bodybuilding. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998. International Powerlifting Federation. http://www.power lifting-ipf.com (accessed April 2010). International Weightlifting Federation. http://www.iwf.net (accessed April 2010). Schuler, L. The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess. New York: Avery, 2007. “Sculpted Trend Spurs Women to Pump Iron.” Associated Press. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13956966 (accessed April 2010). Candice Buss University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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Welfare Welfare generally refers to government support programs, and can be defined in several ways. It is normally considered the variety of public programs available to help those at lower income levels, including programs such as cash assistance, food stamps, childcare assistance, housing programs, and medical assistance (Medicaid). It is often conceived of more specifically as government cash assistance to the poor. Public welfare programs in the United States have a history of fraught relationships with women. The first major programs coming about in the early 20th century were exclusive, limited only to white, widowed mothers, otherwise considered the “deserving” poor. Earlier programs were equally selective, but were individually run by states and local charities. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was formally established in 1935 in limited form, with states having the ability to decide who received benefits. Minority women as well as those who were divorced or never married were categorically denied benefits as a suspect and immoral class. Traditionally, aid was also denied if the father was living in the home, which tended to discourage marriage and cohabitation among poor couples. The Civil Rights movement in the 1960s brought the hard-fought expansion of coverage to minority women. It was also during that period that other public aid programs began, such as the food stamp program (currently known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and health insurance for the poor and elderly (Medicare and Medicaid). However, these non-cash supports were tied to cash assistance, so if the cash ended because of outside employment, then the food stamps and medical care did as well. The result was increasing numbers of poor, unemployed single mothers receiving welfare. Welfare Reform President Clinton oversaw a vast restructuring of the welfare system in 1996. AFDC became Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), and brought about a number of changes. Work was to be required for a family to receive benefits; legal immigrants were entitled to virtually no assistance; food stamp benefits were reduced; and a recipient was limited to 60 months (five years) of benefits throughout his or

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her lifetime, with a few exceptions. The reform also brought increased focus on family formation issues, including reducing nonmarital childbearing and teen parenthood. There was increased funding for childcare assistance, although critics argued it was still vastly insufficient. As a condition for receiving cash assistance, single mothers were required to cooperate with the state in pursuing fathers for child support. Sanctions became common, where assistance was reduced or cut off for failure to cooperate in child support enforcement or work requirements. Women, Welfare, and Poverty Women have always been overrepresented in the poverty population, and that trend continues today, as they make up 57 percent of the poor. Increasing numbers of single mothers, combined with the persisting gender pay gap, contribute to the problem. While one in four families is headed by single mothers, in three times as many cases, single-mother families are more poor than single-father families. These figures are significantly worse for minority mothers. Women make up a staggering 90 percent of adult TANF recipients, nearly all of them head of household. Nearly half participate in work activities in any given month. Each state has discretion in administering its TANF program, which inevitably leads to a great deal of inconsistency in both benefit amounts and qualification standards. Benefit amounts for a family of three with no income range from $170 per month in Mississippi to $786 in California (as of 2006), this is reduced if the family has income. The average family payment in 2006 was $372. In addition, the maximum amount a family can earn through employment and still qualify for any assistance can be as low as $269 per month (Alabama), which means that a family can be well below the poverty line and still not qualify for any assistance. Most states have raised their benefit amounts very little or not at all since 1996, despite increasing inflation. As a result, one in three recipients reports facing a critical hardship, defined as an immediate threat to health and well-being such as eviction, lack of food, or lack of needed medical care. Welfare and Work Corresponding with the time period in which increasing numbers of minority women were permitted to receive welfare benefits in the 1960s, the media and

the public became ardently concerned with welfare fraud. In 1976, President Reagan coined the term welfare queen, pejoratively used to describe promiscuous women with many children who do not want to work and instead manipulate the system to receive benefits indefinitely. The term has been a catchphrase used in efforts to decry the welfare system ever since. Experts claim, however, that such fraud cases are rare, and the stories presented are often exaggerated. The term has been shown by studies to carry strong race and gender connotations. Under TANF, most welfare recipients are required to engage in work activities a minimum of 30 hours a week. Single mothers are often required to work immediately, although some states allow mothers of very young children—typically under 12 months—to receive benefits without working for a limited time. In any case, a mother is never allowed more than two years on assistance before working, regardless of the presence or age of her children. While these requirements have increased the percentage of welfare recipients who work, they have also led to hardship for some mothers. Childcare, for example, is often substandard and expensive. TANF recipients are normally eligible for childcare assistance, although states are not required to provide it to them. When states face budget deficits, some have chosen to reduce funding for the program, thus removing some families from assistance and placing many others on wait lists. Many states that do provide assistance also require a co-pay from the recipient. In addition, families who leave TANF due to increased earnings have no guarantee of receiving childcare assistance for any amount of time; states have broad discretion here as well, even when childcare is clearly unaffordable for the family. This leads some families to return to welfare because they cannot afford to work. A mother that cannot find “appropriate” childcare for her child under 6 is exempt from the work requirements, although the definition of “appropriate” varies widely. Only a handful of states will even consider whether the childcare is available during the mother’s work schedule. Thus, a very small percentage of families are able to utilize this exemption. Women who have or are currently experiencing domestic violence may also encounter hardship under TANF. Studies show that TANF recipients are twice as likely to be victims of such crimes, at a rate of two



White House Council on Women and Girls

out of three. Working may be difficult when a woman is stalked or harassed at work, is physically injured, is recovering from trauma, or is seriously concerned about her safety and that of her children. Studies show that violence often increases when mothers attempt to work or seek education. Most states have adopted the Family Violence Option (FVO), under which TANF caseworkers provide referrals for domestic violence victims. Women may also be exempt from pursuing child support from their abuser if doing so would place her or the children in danger, and they may receive an extension of the 60-month lifetime limit as well as the required work activities. However, research indicates that TANF recipients are not adequately screened or informed about any services or waivers, and application of the program is highly inconsistent and arbitrary. Although the majority of TANF recipients report experiencing domestic violence, only about one percent of them receive services under the FVO. Welfare recipients also exhibit much greater rates of physical and mental health problems, which also pose a significant barrier to work. A disproportionate number of them (40 percent) have children who are chronically ill or disabled. While these children are particularly in need of benefits, the mothers must work to receive them. However, their jobs are not likely to offer paid sick leave to care for the children when issues arise (nor are most childcare facilities equipped to properly handle chronically ill or disabled children). This therefore greatly impacts a mother’s ability to obtain and keep a job. Welfare and Children With the newly created TANF program also came a new and fervent intervention by the states into the child-bearing decisions of recipients. States were given the option to adopt a “family cap,” wherein they deny an increase in a family’s TANF grant if the family grows, if the child was conceived while the family was on assistance. The purpose of the plan was to limit the fertility of women on welfare, but studies show limited results. Twenty-three states have adopted the family cap nevertheless. Critics argue that the result is punitive for the children involved—they are made to suffer by the policy despite being blameless themselves. Significant amounts of money were set aside under TANF for pregnancy prevention programs, especially

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targeted at teens and unmarried women. Abstinenceonly sex education programs were widely promoted, although research indicates their success was limited. Marriage-promotion programs were also widespread, but they were not without controversy. Some argued that pushing marriage on poor women increases divorce and domestic violence, that poor individuals are likely to remain poor when married, and that poverty leads to instability in marriage. Rules regarding child support were also altered; in addition to being required to cooperate in enforcement, women also were to receive only a small amount of their child support. The states kept the rest to recover costs. Research suggests, however, that allowing families to retain all of their child support leads to a variety of positive results for children and families, including decreased conflict between the parents. See Also: Childcare; Domestic Violence; Health Insurance Issues; Poverty; Poverty, “Feminization” of; Single Mothers; Widows; Working Mothers. Further Readings Currie, J. M. The Invisible Safety Net: Protecting the Nation’s Poor Children and Families. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. Hancock, A. M. The Politics of Disgust: The Public Identity of the Welfare Queen. New York: New York University Press, 2004. Hays, S. Flat Broke With Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Smith, A. M. Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Deborah Anthony University of Illinois Springfield

White House Council on Women and Girls The White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG) was established by Executive Order 13506 on March 11, 2009, by President Barack Obama. It lies within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. The council was created not only

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to coordinate how federal agencies and executive offices address issues that affect women and families and to evaluate their role in eradicating the disparities between men and women that persist in America. In January 2001, President George W. Bush disbanded the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives, which President Bill Clinton had established in June 1995. Before the creation of the CWG, leaders from 50 women’s groups signed a letter urging President Obama to resurrect and expand the Office for Women’s Initiatives by creating a new cabinet-level office on women. Instead, the CWG includes all cabinet and cabinet-level secretaries in its membership, with a senior-level official from each agency and office appointed to manage the council’s work. Designees from the Office of First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden also participate in the council. Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement Valerie Jarrett chairs the CWG, and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Tina Tchen serves as its executive director. The council is intended to play an advisory role, issuing detailed recommendations to the president for interagency action and ensuring that individual agencies examine how current and proposed policies and pending legislation affect women. Council Concerns Particular concerns of the council include improving the economic status of women, especially by encouraging women-owned businesses and fighting wage inequality; decreasing domestic violence and sexual assault in the United States as well as abroad; improving women’s healthcare; promoting the involvement of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math; and encouraging work/family balance. One of the council’s first tasks was to complete a federal interagency plan compiling its findings and recommendations. Once approved, the plan will be made publicly available and reviewed and updated periodically. Since its inception, the council has been involved in commemorating the 37th anniversary of Title IX and the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act. The CWG worked with the vice president to appoint the first White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, observed World Day Against Child Labor by participating in a roundtable discussion on

the theme “Give Girls a Chance—End Child Labor,” and on August 26, 2009, Women’s Equality Day, launched a Website to provide information on its work and to solicit public input. Individual agencies have also been encouraged to create Web pages detailing their progress on issues of importance to women and girls. See Also: Business, Women in; Chemistry, Women in; Engineering, Women in; Entrepreneurs; Equal Pay; Health, Mental and Physical; Management, Women in; Mathematics, Women in; Obama, Michelle; Physics, Women in; Science, Women in; Title IX; Violence Against Women Act. Further Readings Boushey, Heather and Ann O’Leary, eds. “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything.” Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2009. Collins, Gail. When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 2009. Council on Women and Girls. http://www.whitehouse .gov/administration/eop/cwg (accessed June 2010). Hagan, Oliver, Carol Rivchun, and David Sexton, eds. Women-Owned Businesses. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1989. Women Watch. “Education and Training of Women and the Girl-Child.” http://www.un.org/womenwatch /forums/review/education/unicef_bg_info.html (accessed March 2010). Kathryn C. Oleson Sianna Ziegler Reed College

White Supremacy White supremacist groups believe that white people are superior to those of other races and perpetuate this belief via efforts to maintain and grow a pure white race and hinder, or at times commit violence against, racial minorities. There are currently at least several hundred known racist groups in the United States, including but not limited to racist skinhead, neoNazi, and Christian Identity groups. Although white supremacist thought centers heavily around concepts



of masculinity and hate groups are led primarily by men, women have always played a role in racist movements to varying degrees. They are believed to have participated actively in extremist groups in the United States since the early 1900s and to have been recruited for membership since at least the 1980s. Women are not often placed in positions of formal leadership in these groups but participate in the movement as organizers, recruiters, and fighters. Compared with other periods in history, women are currently being recruited at higher rates and are more active within groups now than ever before. Gender Roles White supremacist groups tend to think of men and women as inherently different and tend to have clearly established roles for each gender. For many racist groups, men retain their masculine image by protecting and controlling “their” women. Women rarely take on leadership roles in these groups. Traditionally, white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have considered women’s primary purpose to be bearing and rearing a new generation of racists and tending to the home and family, while husbands fight for the cause, thus reinforcing women’s traditional roles in American society. However, more genderprogressive groups expect their women members to fight alongside their men and even perform criminal acts of violence with the group. Advancing the white race necessitates that white women frequently and exclusively reproduce with white men. This makes women within the movement indispensible to the cause and makes enemies out of all women who are not white mothers of white babies, such as lesbians, women in mixed-race partnerships, single women, white women who have abortions, and childless women. Groups also perpetuate racist stereotypes about nonwhite women—often displaying them as ugly, savage, and sexually promiscuous—and present white women as symbols of beauty and purity. Aside from being wives, mothers, and symbols of piety, women participate in racism in other traditionally feminine ways such as spreading racist rumors or planning community events. Women often keep their groups connected and thriving by organizing functions, hosting social events, making and fostering networks of racists, recruiting new members, and otherwise fostering a sense of solidarity. Women who

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take on traditional gender roles make the movement more accessible to outsiders by making racist women and families seem normal. Women in Leadership Roles In recent years, there has been a trend in white supremacist groups to use women in more nontraditional ways—even in leadership roles—in addition to their traditional duties. Some hate groups rely on women to carry out planned acts of violence, as women are less likely to be suspected as criminals. Many racist groups are also sexist, or at least antifeminist. Most racist groups see feminism as a major threat to the furthering of the white race, as it encourages women to seek roles other than that of wife and mother and to take control of their sexuality and reproduction; however, at various points in history, feminism has been used to further the racist agenda, such as during the women’s suffrage movement, when it was believed that racist women’s votes would help maintain racist legislation. A number of hate groups have women-only networks, subgroups, and publications. See Also: Christian Identity; Hate Crimes; Ku Klux Klan; Sexual Orientation–Based Social Discrimination: United States. Further Readings Ferber, Abby L. Home-Grown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism. New York: Routledge, 2004. Fredrickson, George M. White Supremacy: A Comparative Study of American and South African History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Roberts, K. White Supremacy: Behind the Eyes of Hate. Bloomington, IN: Trafford Publishing, 2006. Katy N. Kreitler University of San Francisco

Wicca/Goddess Spirituality Wicca is a fast-growing, neopagan religious tradition popular with both men and women in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Many feminists are drawn to the goddess traditions within Wicca, as it honors the female deities as well as, or

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Typical Wiccan items utilized in the Autumn Equinox Mabon Ritual are a wooden pentacle, burning incense, fall leaves, and a handwritten book of shadows. Wiccans celebrate eight yearly festivals known as Sabbats.

instead of, the male deities. Practitioners of Wicca may refer to themselves as Wiccans, Witches, or use the more general term of Neopagan. There are no firm figures about participation in the religion because church membership is not required. In addition, because this religion is scorned by practitioners of most established Western religions, Wiccans are less likely to identify themselves on surveys. Religious organization runs from established churches, to loosely linked small groups called covens, or from Eclectic Wiccans who, estimated to be the largest group, self-identify that they are witches. They may meet in covens or be solitary practitioners of the traditions. At the heart of the faith is a belief in the dual Goddess and God, although there is no theology that all Wiccans universally follow. The Goddess is often referred to as the Triple Goddess, embracing the Maiden, Mother, and Crone, while the God is called the Horned God. They represent a balance of the universe and each

complements and encompasses the other. Many Wiccans choose to worship the Goddess over the God, yet acknowledge him as an important deity. Yearly Festivities Wiccans celebrate eight yearly festivals known as Sabbats. The four Greater Sabbats fall between the solstices and equinoxes, on what are known as the crossquarter days, and the four Lesser Sabbats fall on the days of these astrological events and take their names from Celtic pagan traditions. The New Year begins in the autumn with the Greater Sabbat of the Dead, or Samhaim (pronounced sa-win), on October 31 when those who have died are honored. The Yule marks the winter solstice, followed by the Greater Sabbat of Imbolc (sometimes called Candlemas) in the spring. Ostara is the Lesser Sabbat marking the spring equinox. Falling on May Eve is Beltane, the Greater Sabbat that celebrates the consummation of the God and Goddess and the fertility of the earth. The summer

Widows



solstice is celebrated by the Lesser Sabbat of Midsummer (sometimes called Litha). At the beginning of August is the first of the harvest festivals, the Greater Sabbat of Lughnasadh (pronounced lu-na-sa), after which comes the Lesser Sabbat marking the autumnal equinox of Mabon. In addition, the full moons are celebrated to honor the Goddess. All of the festivals celebrate the cycle of nature and the witches’ place in it. Ritual and magic are an important aspect of Wicca. Rituals are often celebrated within sacred circles by covens or by solitary witches in a purified circle. Wiccans follow the Wiccan Reed (or sometimes Creed) that states “An ye harm none, do what ye will.” The use of magic for revenge is also limited by the Three-Fold Law; what one does will come back to one three-fold. The movement was popularized by Gerald Gardner in the 1950s. Gardner claimed that he was initiated into a magical tradition whose roots lie in the pagan religions of pre-Christian Europe. After the repeal of the last of the Witchcraft Acts in Britain in 1951, he began to publish books on witchcraft. His books laid the foundation for much of modern Wicca, including the basis of the religion in nature and a polytheism with a focus on the Goddess and God. Although many do not believe that Gardner was really the recipient of ancient knowledge as he claimed, but, rather, that he created many of the traditions from bits and pieces culled from history and folklore, he remains an important figure in the development of modern Wicca. The Goddess Movement The Goddess Movement is a spiritual movement that grew out of feminist movements in the 1970s. In this movement, the participants’ beliefs in the Goddess are not uniform—some followers believe in a primal Goddess, others are drawn to one or more of the ancient female deities. Followers of the movement share many similarities with Wicca and may, or may not, identify themselves as witches. The Goddess Movement traditions are much more political than other Wiccan movements, with a strong emphasis on fighting inequality. Ecology is also important, as the earth is viewed by some as the mother. In the 1970s, as the feminist movement grew in the United States, writers claimed that witchcraft was the original religion of Europe before Christianity, which was steeped in patriarchy, arrived and usurped women’s power. Women’s wisdom and healing traditions

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were labeled as witchcraft, and their practitioners persecuted, thereby increasing men’s dominance. Zsuzsanna Budapest founded Dianic Wicca, which focuses on women’s innate forces. The Goddess is celebrated without her male counterpart, and men are not allowed to join. Dianic witches celebrate the eight Wiccan holidays and follow many rituals similar to other Wiccan practitioners. Dianic witches and followers of the Goddess Movement seek to reclaim the role of the Goddess from the oppression of the patriarchal society characterized by the male Christian God. Another American writer and activist, Starhawk, brought the Goddess traditions to a larger popular audience with her 1979 book The Spiral Dance. Starhawk rejected Budapest’s separation of women from men, and those in her tradition allow both men and women into covens and honor both the God and the Goddess. See Also: Feminist Theology; New Age Religion; Religion, Women in; Starhawk. Further Readings Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. Greenwood, Susan. Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2000. Magliocco, Sabina. Witching Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Orion, Loretta. Never Again the Burning Times. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1995. Salomonsen, Jane. Enchanted Feminism. London: Routledge Press, 2002. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess: 20th Anniversary Edition. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Jocelyn H. DeHaas Eastern Washington University

Widows A widow is a woman whose husband has died. The word widow comes from Sanskrit, meaning lonely or solitary. Widow is one of the only words in English for which the feminine form is the root word and the

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masculine constructed with a suffix. This is significant because after a husband dies, we continue to associate widows with their husbands. It is quite common to hear a woman referred to as John’s widow, but the converse, Mary’s widower, sounds awkward. This entry describes how women experience widowhood in North America in terms of income, relationships, and living alone. It then looks briefly at widowhood in other parts of the world. Demographic Aspects of Widowhood According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 11,288,000 widows in the United States in 2003. Its 2005–07 American Community Survey reported that 32 percent of women over 65 were widows. By the age of 65, the proportion rises to 44 percent. As Anne Martin-Matthews observed, widowhood for women is an expectable event. There are large numbers of widows for two reasons. First, women on average outlive men by about five years. Second, wives are, on average, two years younger than their husbands. Older widows are unlikely to remarry, both because there are so many more single older women than men, and because most do not want to remarry. Widows are likely to experience a sharp decrease in their income and may experience poverty for the first time in their lives. Men’s pensions often disappear when they die, and older widows are unlikely to have their own pensions. This situation may improve in the future because of women’s increased labor-force participation. Nonetheless, women make less than men and are more likely to have interrupted work careers and to work part time in order to care for children or other relatives. Widows often grieve deeply when their partners die. They report experiencing shock and numbness in the early days of widowhood and appreciate large turnouts at their husbands’ funerals. Widows’ Relationships Older widows have to negotiate relationships with adult children, friends, and men. They report close relationships with their children, who sometimes become overprotective, particularly their sons. Widows work to maintain a sense of reciprocity with their children. Widows almost universally report losing friends. They often think that these friends had really been their husband’s rather than their own friends.

Widows believe that it is their responsibility to keep up appearances when around their friends, that is, not appear too sad or talk about their husbands too much. Widows often become friends with a group of widows and socialize together. Many feel uncomfortable being single women among couples and describe society as a “couples’ world.” Finding friends is especially challenging for young widows, because they have few age peers who share their experience. Increasing numbers of divorced and ever-single women may alleviate this situation. Widows may find relationships with men challenging. They often worry about sending the wrong message about interest in remarriage and about changed mores regarding dating and sexual intimacy. Widows often do not want to remarry, because they want to remain loyal to their husbands and/or because they do not want to take care of another man. Widows who do not want to remarry often continue to wear their wedding ring for protection. Particularly in Europe, widows may establish couple relationships called “living apart together” or LAT, which is exclusive and intimate but does not involve living together. Widows often have to learn new skills, including how to live alone. They may need to learn how to manage their finances, make decisions, and do household repairs. They often discover new abilities and acquire a heightened sense of competence. Most widows come to enjoy living alone and report that they enjoy their own company. For many, it is the first time in their lives that they are not involved in caring for or nurturing others. In a study by Veronica Doyle, in Canada, women described their experience of living alone as “my turn now.” Widowhood in the Developing World Being a widow has varied, cross-cultural meanings. In many traditional cultures, widows experience a “social death.” The most well-known practice is suttee. Suttee was once common in India, where a woman was supposed to be burned on a funeral pyre with her deceased husband. This ritual was outlawed in the 19th century, but there are still reports of its taking place today. In places where women have very low status, widows often lose their children and the property they owned with their husbands. Thus, widows are among the poorest people in the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, widows whose husbands died of

Williams, Venus and Serena



acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) may be blamed for the death and/or accused of witchcraft. See Also: Aging, Attitudes Toward; Marriage; Poverty, “Feminization” of; “Singletons”/Single by Choice; Suttee. Further Readings Owen, Margaret. A World of Widows. London: Zed Books, 1996. Sprinkle, Patricia Houck. Women Home Alone: Learning to Thrive. Help for Single Women, Single Moms, Widows, and Wives Who Are Frequently Alone. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996. van den Hoonaard, Deborah K. The Widowed Self: The Older Woman’s Journey through Widowhood. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001. Deborah K. van den Hoonaard St. Thomas University

Williams, Venus and Serena Venus and Serena Williams are recognized worldwide as two of the greatest female tennis players of all time. They are recognized for their unorthodox power game combining strength, endurance, and forceful ground strokes along with powerful serves. Venus has recorded a serve of 128 miles per hour. Venus and Serena are towering figures on the court— Venus stands over six-feet tall. The sisters have won multiple Grand Slam titles between them, and both have been ranked the number one female player in the world. Venus was born June 17, 1980, in Lynwood, California, to Richard and Oracene Williams; Serena was born a year later, on September 26, 1981. Richard, a security business owner, and Oracene, a nurse, homeschooled their children as devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. Richard, a self-taught tennis player, encouraged and trained all five of his daughters to play tennis. The two youngest of the Williams’ five daughters, Venus and Serena, excelled in the sport of tennis. The family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, when Serena was 9 years old so that the girls could attend the Rich Macci tennis academy. Venus played junior tennis until 1991 and turned pro in October 1994. Serena entered the pro tour a year later, in 1995.

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Athletic Achievements Within five years of becoming a pro on the tour, Venus began to dominate women’s tennis. In 2000, she won the women’s gold medal in singles (and doubles with Serena) at the Sydney Olympics and won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Venus Williams was the first African American woman to win Wimbledon since Althea Gibson won in 1978. In 2002, Serena defeated Venus in the French Open, U.S. Open, and Wimbledon. Serena has been ranked number one on five separate occasions. She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history. Venus has won more than 40 career titles in singles including several Grand Slams, has won Wimbledon five times, and has 16 doubles titles (many of these with Serena). Serena has won a total of 24 Grand Slam titles (12 in singles and 10 in doubles; two in mixed doubles). Serena has been ranked by Tennis Magazine as the 17th best player in the past 40 years. She won five of the six Grand Slam tournaments she entered between the years 2002 and 2003. In the 23 professional matches that the sisters have played against one another, Serena has won 13. The sisters have been recognized several times for their athletic achievements. Venus was named Woman of the Year by Ms. magazine in 2001. They have also been strong advocates for equal pay in sports. Venus wrote an essay on the eve of Wimbledon in 2006 arguing for equal pay for all competitors. This very public protest led the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to increase the salaries of female competitors, making their prize money equal to males at both Wimbledon and the French Open. See Also: Equal Pay; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; Tennis. Further Readings Aronson, Virginia and Elaine K. Andrews. Venus Williams. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Williams, Serena and Daniel Paisner. On the Line. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2009. Williams, Venus and Serena Williams. Venus and Serena: Serving From the Hip: Ten Rules for Living, Loving, and Winning. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Hettie V. Williams Monmouth University

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Winfrey, Oprah Oprah Gail Winfrey (1954– ) is an African American television host, producer, actor, and philanthropist. Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to unmarried parents. Her childhood with her mother and her grandmother was characterized by poverty and domestic abuse. As a teenager, Winfrey ran away from home. When she was 14, her mother sent her to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. After winning a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, she studied communication. In 1970, she won the first Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant and started her broadcasting career at a local radio station. After working as a news anchor and host at Nashville’s WLAC-TV and Baltimore’s WJZ-TV, Winfrey was transferred to WLS-TV in Chicago to host a morning talk show. In 1985, she starred in Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of The Color Purple, and she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Independence in Business and Performance In 1986, Winfrey established Harpo Productions, and her show became nationally syndicated as The Oprah Winfrey Show. The same year, she started dating her current partner, Stedman Graham. In the early seasons of the show, Winfrey followed Phil Donahue’s footsteps in dealing with sensational social issues. Soon, her show became more popular than Donahue. One reason for this success was Winfrey’s popularity among the female and African American audiences in a field dominated by white males. Another reason was her affective performances. As opposed to the journalistic toughness of other talk show hosts, Winfrey displayed an emotional character. She would combine emotional displays with confessional performances, such as telling her experiences of childhood sexual abuse on live broadcast. Through these performances, Winfrey showed that she could empathize with the audience and their problems, and in turn, the audience empathized with her, leading to immense success. Winfrey’s generous philanthropic work and giftgiving practices on the show have also contributed to her image as a caring individual. Another important element in Winfrey’s show has been the use of the “empowerment” discourse, which has been criticized by Janice Peck for favoring private initiatives and indi-

Oprah Winfrey (left), Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama on the campaign trail in December 2007.

vidual self-empowerment while deflecting attention from social inequality. Winfrey’s style as a talk show host has been adopted by other talk show hosts all around the world. In 1994, in view of the exploitative turn in the talk show genre, the The Oprah Winfrey Show adopted a less tabloidoriented format. Despite an initial fall in the ratings, this change of format gained the show and Winfrey the respect of viewers, resulting in a later increase in popularity. The show is currently broadcast on more than 200 television stations in the United States, and watched in approximately 140 countries worldwide. She is planning to end the show in September 2011. Philanthropy and Worldwide Reach In 2005, Winfrey was listed in BusinessWeek as the 32nd most philanthropic person in the United States, becoming the first African American on the list. She is also known as the most philanthropic celebrity. She established The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2007. She invested $40 million in this project, for which she was praised by Nelson Mandela.

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In the 2008 presidential election, Winfrey supported Barack Obama. She organized a fundraiser and joined Obama in a series of rallies. Winfrey’s support is thought to be a major cause for the difference in the popular vote between Obama and Hillary Clinton. Winfrey owns Harpo Productions, O Magazine, and co-owns the Oxygen Network. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, and she is often considered among the most influential women in the world. See Also: Celebrity Women; Child Abuse, Victims of; Domestic Violence; Film Actors, Female; Film Production, Women in; Media Chief Executive Officers, Female; Philanthropists, Female; Poverty; Women’s Magazines. Further Readings Garson, Helen S. Oprah Winfrey: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Illouz, Eva. Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Independent News & Media. “Mandela Cheers Oprah’s New School.” Independent Online (January 2, 2007). http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=105 &art_id=iol1167724874160B243 (accessed May 2010). Peck, Janice. “The Secret of Her Success: Oprah Winfrey and the Seductions of Self-Transformation.” Journal of Communication Inquiry, v.34/1 (2010). Rustem Ertug Altinay New York University

Winkett, Canon Lucy Canon Lucy Winkett (1968– ) is a forward-thinking, energetic woman determined to bring an end to the culture of gender exclusivity in the Church of England. Her appointment as the first woman to the clerical staff of St. Paul’s was a hugely important, and highly controversial, event in the Church of England. She studied history at Selwyn College Cambridge and studied singing at the Royal College of Music. Prior to ordination, she trained as a soprano and lived in a L’Arche community, a place where people over the age of 18 with learning disabilities live and work together with their assistants, people who

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live with and engage in the life of the disabled. This unique experience most certainly influenced Winkett’s views on life. Following a two-year curacy at Little Ilford St. Michael, Chelmsford, she was appointed to the college of minor canons at St. Paul’s Cathedral of the Diocese of London in 1997. This appointment created a historic moment, as the tradition of ordaining female priests in the United Kingdom (UK) had only begun in 1994. Her appointment to St. Paul’s as the first woman priest to serve as Precentor, the first liturgical singer, provided an opportunity for Winkett to use her full professional skills as well as engage in an influential role as an advocate for gender inclusivity for the church. Her responsibility for the liturgical and musical life of the Cathedral engaged her creative and academic life. In the Public Spotlight Winkett has demonstrated great courage in discussing issues of war, and has encouraged the church to condemn those who misuse power for their own benefit. She continues to support women moving into the public spotlight and claiming their use of authority, and her thoughts on gender focus on a definition of gender that embodies both female and male. Winkett believes that in general, men of faith speak from a male perspective. In a 2008 landmark decision, the Church of England approved a vote that paved the way for the ordination of female bishops into the church. Many UK Anglicans believe that Winkett is a possible candidate for ordination as one of the first female bishops in the Church of England. Her latest book, Our Sound Is Our Wound: Contemplative Listening to a Noisy World—the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2010, describes not only the sounds we hear but also the sounds we make. In addition, she commented on the songs of angels, making this engaging book one that many Christians will use during the Lenten season to prepare for the celebration of Easter. Among her other interests, Canon Lucy is a contributor to British Broadcasting Company (BBC) Radio 4’s Thought for the Day. She is a regular speaker at Greenbelt Arts Festival, a festival that is firmly rooted within the Christian tradition of embracing all regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, background, or belief. She writes a monthly column for Third Way

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magazine, which focuses on varied current affairs written from a Christian perspective. She is one of the founding advisors to the public theology thinktank Theos. Theos provides diverse perspectives to the secular culture and public opinion. In addition, she combines her cathedral ministry with chairing the governors of the new Church of England Academy in north London, an educational facility that caters to the educational needs of children. Canon Winkett is instrumental in leading multiple retreats supporting her beliefs on culture, gender, and religion. Her hobbies include modern art, cycling, cinema, the theater, and reading. See Also: Christian Identity; Christianity; Religion, Women in; United Kingdom; Womanist Theology. Further Readings Gledhill, Ruth. “Church of England Votes to Ordain Women Bishops.” The Times. (2008). http://www.times online.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4289994.ece (accessed July 2010). L’Arche. http://www.larche.org.uk (accessed July 2010). Winkett, Lucy. “It’s Our Duty to Be There.” Guardian. (October 5, 2009). http://www.guardian.co.uk /commentisfree/belief/2009/oct/05/church-warremembrance (accessed July 2010). Winkett, Lucy. Our Sound Is Our Wound: Contemplative Listening to a Noisy World—The Archibishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2010. London: Continuum International, 2009. Shirley J. Mills University of Texas, Pan American

Witchcraft: Worldwide Worldwide, the term witchcraft takes on different connotations. In America, most of the European Union, South Africa, and Australia, the term witch has been used by women as a source of empowerment and individual religious expression to separate themselves from mainstream religions. In other parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabic peninsula, witches and the practice of witchcraft are met with severe opposition, litigation,

and execution. In both connotations, witchcraft is most generally seen as an opposition to mainstream religious and political forces. The social situations of each country determine the way in which the mainstream population reacts to self-identified or perceived witches. In most cases, the term witch is synonymous with an outsider or someone affiliated with esoteric magical knowledge that can be used for good or for harm. Witchcraft entails a number of different practices, from healing spells to casting curses. Witches may be sought for help or may be blamed for communal misfortune. In all cases, the use of magic is seen as an alternative to mainstream practices. The potential for magic to go awry or to be used for malevolent purposes engenders a fear of witches in many communities. Witchcraft is seen as an active form of religion in which magic is employed to achieve specific ends; this is sometimes in direct opposition to traditional socioreligious structures, in which religion is used to build ties in and among communities. Witchcraft is generally practised in countries and areas with a history of colonialism. Because witchcraft is an alternative to the mainstream religiopolitical system, which generally operates on a model of patriarchal hierarchy, witches tend to be women. Men who participate in witchcraft sometimes bend or break traditional gender roles as a result of their power to operate outside of traditional religious narratives. As a result, people who self-identify as or who are called witches worldwide tend to disproportionately be women, members of the queer community, or members of an oppressed ethnic group. Witchcraft’s role as an alternative to the mainstream gives it dual existence as a place of power and a place of discrimination. Depending on the country and socioeconomic circumstances, witchcraft is tolerated, embraced, or punished. It is also important to note the social differences between those who self-identify as witches and those who are labeled witches by others. North America, Australia, and the EU In North America and England, witchcraft, also called Wicca or sometimes Paganism, has been emphasized as a desirable religious alternative to traditional patriarchal religions, such as the Abrahamic religions and mainstream Eastern religions. Although witchcraft in these two areas claims religious ties to



a pre-Christian indigenous European religious past, modern witchcraft was founded in England by British civil servant Gerald Gardner in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Witchcraft in the United States came into being as the result of two people: Raymond Buckland, a disciple of Gardner’s who immigrated to New York in 1963, and Z. Budapest, a lesbian separatist who started the first-known feminist coven in the United States in 1970. In both the American and English forms of witchcraft, practitioners reject the traditional hierarchical structures of mainstream religions, focus on “practical magic” (spirituality directed toward achieving specific ends rather than emphasizing group solidarity), and reject gender stratification. By doing so, witches in England and North America have created a religion aside from mainstream socioreligious groups, one in which solitary practice is valued as much as group practice. Women in English and American witchcraft are viewed as spiritual equals or, in some traditions, spiritually superior to men. In other parts of the European Union, witchcraft has functioned in a similar way, by reclaiming older, indigenous traditions in an effort to find a religious tradition less focused on patriarchy and hierarchy than mainstream religions. In Italy, the strega tradition has begun to gain ground, despite being practiced in an overwhelmingly Catholic country. Underground movements in other countries have shown an overall dissatisfaction with the patriarchal model of the Catholic Church and a desire to worship a form of feminine divinity. In Australia and South Africa, witchcraft has taken much the same path. Practitioners seeking to worship a feminine deity and participate in practical magic have begun to reclaim what they consider to be a European indigenous tradition, in which women are empowered, worshipped, and free to express their sexuality without fear of retribution. Latin and South America In South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and parts of the southern United States, witchcraft is seen largely as a part of everyday life. Due to the social influence of African diaspora and indigenous herb lore, witchcraft manifests itself as having the potential to equally harm and help members of the community. Curanderos, santeros, Vodun priestesses,

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and practitioners of Candomblé may justifiably be called “witches,” although they may not necessarily identify as such. By utilizing elements of African culture, in which practical magic and spells play a large part, and indigenous knowledge of the pharmaceutical properties of native plants, witchcraft in Latin and South America entails both benevolent and malevolent aspects. Broadly speaking, witches in Latin and South America may equally be men or women and exist largely outside of mainstream socioreligious structures such as the Catholic Church. However, they frequently support and help members of the mainstream community without fear of discrimination, and it is not uncommon to see botánicas and “witch doctor shops” alongside churches and city halls in these parts of the world. Africa In sub-Saharan Africa, the term witch takes on a more malevolent tone than it does in most Western societies. In Uganda, Liberia, Guinea, and in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the term witch is frequently applied to women in the community who are believed to have brought harm to others. Indigenous witch doctors and Christian witch hunters alike are employed to find, try, and deal with witches throughout many parts of Africa. Ironically, they often employ magical means to determine who is and who is not a witch. Witchcraft is seen as a way of life in Africa, with “legitimate” witches seeking to heal or eradicate “harmful” witches, who curse and damage communities. In 2009, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) called on the Human Rights Council, the African Union, and the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights to “eliminate the twin scourges of those practicing witchcraft and those claiming to find and cure witches.” The greatest problem in African witchcraft is the use of human body parts in certain potions and spells. In African witchcraft, the eyes and genitals of children and others can be used to make very powerful magic, leading to an increased traffic in children across African borders. Unpopular or socially stigmatized women are often accused of witchcraft and put to death for a range of crimes, from cursing crops to stealing a man’s virility.

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Arabic Peninsula In the Arabic peninsula, witchcraft and forms of fortune-telling are punishable by death. As of this writing, TV host Ali Sabat is awaiting execution in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft. However, since witchcraft is most generally associated with indigenous religions acting in opposition to mainstream, often colonial, religions, the instances and history of witchcraft in Islam are comparatively small. Asia As in the Arabic Peninsula, the definition of “witchcraft” in Asian countries differs greatly from definitions prevalent in Westernized societies. Rather than seen as part of a particularly subjugated or empowered counterculture, practitioners of magic and shamanism often function as members of the mainstream community. The Indian subcontinent and the surrounding Hindu-Muslim regions to the north have integrated forms of witchcraft such as snake charming, herbology, fortune telling, and charms into their caste systems over the course of their histories. The most notable examples of this caste-based witchcraft are the Bedey and Sapera castes in Bangladesh and India. Castes such as these utilize snake charming and forms of indigenous folk magic to secure a living yet live largely on flatboats that float from town to town, as they are seen as a lower caste in the Indian system. Women in these castes typically tell fortunes, dance, or make charms for villagers they visit in exchange for money. Although they are of a lower caste, many of the methods they utilize are also common to Hindu priestess work, such as exorcisms, blessings, and charm making, and their low caste standing should not be seen as a result of their practice of witchcraft. On the Asian continent, witchcraft does not refer to a set of practices or religious beliefs, as it does in Western societies, but is a term applied to only malevolent practices or people intent on causing harm to a member of the community. Folk magic exists in various forms throughout all levels of public life, except in those ruled by colonialism from the West. Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, and the South Asian islands all maintain some form of indigenous shamanism in their cultural belief system and often are integrated into colonial systems of belief (such as native pos-

session rituals in Indonesia, which take place during Christian religious festivals). These practices only become a form of witchcraft when a colonial religion, such as Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism, comes to power and declares such practices to be taboo. Herbology, folk magic, fortune telling, and charms are still maintained in Asian cultures yet are declared as “witchcraft” or “old-fashioned” in instances where they come into contact with newer, colonial cultures. This is consistent with the history of European and American witchcraft; in fact, the words heathen (one who lives on the heath, or in the country) and pagan (country dweller) came into common parlance as a result of Mediterranean colonization into the European subcontinent. As new systems of power arise, the native ways of folk magic become viewed as witchcraft. Typically, this also includes an oppression of women and disempowered men in the native community, who, while excluded from the new system of power, continue to find empowerment in the previously prominent native religions. With the advent of colonialism and subjugation of the native culture comes a subsequent disempowering of women and men associated with native beliefs. In colonized cultures, witchcraft becomes an alternative to the mainstream religiopolitical system, which is usually patriarchal in nature, thereby leading to a double subjugation of native religion and women. See Also: Candomblé; Indigenous Religions, Global; Religion, Women in; Roma “Gypsy” Women; Santeria; Starhawk; Wicca/Goddess Spirituality. Further Readings Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today. Boston: Beacon Press, 1979. De la Torre, Miguel A. Santeria: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2004. Eliade, Mircea. Patterns in Comparative Religion. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1971. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1976. Austin J. Buscher Claremont Graduate University



Womanism Womanism or womanist, as it was originally coined in 1983, was crafted by novelist Alice Walker in her book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose to define expressions of black feminism and the feminism of other women of color. Since its creation, Walker’s definition of womanist has come to encompass many contours and dimensions. In theory, womanism affirms and articulates a standpoint emanating from the social change experiences of black women and other women of color such as the Combahee River Collective and the Black Women’s Health Project, as well as the undertakings of Harriet Tubman to negotiate passage on the Underground Railroad. Although Walker’s original dictionary-style definition of womanism commented on the uniqueness of black women’s experiences, expressed some of the similarities and differences between black women and other women of color, and addressed the relational bond shared between black men and women, the instructive wisdom resides in what it did not define. This ambiguity forms the enduring and defining feature of womanist thought. This ambiguity has provided fertile ground from the mid-1980s forward for women of color from a host of disciplines to use the term for articulating and theorizing their existence in the world. Seminal works that have adopted the term and utilized it to represent theoretical, political, and spiritual frameworks that differ in significant ways from feminism, yet are not wholly incompatible with it, include that of Patricia Hill Collins, Elsa Barkley-Brown, Layli Phillips, Rochelle Brock, Chela Sandoval, and Gloria Anzaldúa. Four Dimension of Womanist Theory Womanism encompasses philosophic and cultural elements central to both Afrocentric and feminist theories. Collins argues that womanist thought does not seek to raise consciousness but rather seeks to affirm and rearticulate a consciousness that already exists. She characterizes four dimensions of womanist theory, known as the Afrocentric feminist epistemology, which includes (1) concrete experience as a criterion of meaning, (2) use of dialogue in assessing knowledge claims, (3) an ethic of caring, and (4) an ethic of personal responsibility. Embedded

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within these four dimensions are the intertwining realities of race, class, and gender that human beings experience in society on a daily basis. In fact, it is possible to illustrate these intersections with a triangle such that race, class, and gender form the intersecting lines of the reality and the womanist perspective views these realities from within the triangle. BarkleyBrown has further likened the womanist perspective to polyrhythmic reality, as reflected in the symmetry of African American women’s quilts. The concept of polyrhythmic reality suggests that human beings have multiple realities and different understandings of them that either enhance or retard their ability to engage in critical reflective learning at a particular time. Consequently, polyrhythms or intersecting realities are experienced simultaneously by everyone at all times. This concept represents a departure from Western, linear notions of the world and reality, since polyrhythms are characteristic of the aesthetic sense as reflected in African American art, music, dance, and language. According to Barkley-Brown, the symmetry in African American quilts does not come from uniformity as it does in Euro-American quilts. Instead, the symmetry is reflected in diversity. This concept of polyrhythms is analogous to the womanist perspective proposed by Walker in 1983. Although womanism helps us to understand and grapple with our polyrhythmic realities in theory, it is in no way meant to be the only method for doing so in practice. Core Themes Phillips, in expanding on Collins’s Afrocentric feminist epistemology, identifies five core overarching themes that are indicative of womanism. They are (1) antioppressionist (i.e., simultaneously rejecting all forms of oppression, named and unnamed, including but not limited to racism, sexism, classism, and other “isms”); (2) vernacular (i.e., grassroots in orientation, with street-level sensibilities); (3) nonideological (i.e., open and dialogic in a way that rejects firm party lines, upholds common values, and creates an inclusive politics); (4) communitarian (i.e., concerned with the wellness of the whole group, and is perceived as successive levels ranging from the family to networks of like women and other identity-based groups and, ultimately, all humanity); and (5) spiritualized (i.e.,

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affirming the reality and importance of an invisible spiritual dimension—distinct from religion per se— and its role in human life and affair. Among this characterization of womanism, the spiritualized realm is the most unique in that its social change potential requires a type of cognitive mobility that Sandoval refers to as “differential consciousness.” Differential consciousness permits movement among and between divergent logics (cultural, religious, ideological, etc.) and conceptual schemes (cosmologies, value systems, ethical codes, etc.), and its hallmark is a higher-order coordinating mechanism (the differential) that enables them to collectively make sense and work together. It requires the ability to make positive connections between elements that might have seemed unrelated before. Thus, it is associated with creativity, ingenuity, and improvisation. For that reason, Anzaldúa, like Sandoval, theorizes that those who embrace conocimiento (critical consciousness) refuse to accept differential consciousness as a devalued form of knowledge and instead elevate it to the same place occupied by science and Western linear notions of the world and reality. A form of spiritual activism that resonates with Barkley-Brown’s notion of polyrhythms, conocimiento is reached via creative acts like writing, art making, dancing, healing, teaching, meditation, and spiritual activism (mental and bodily). Philosophical and Cultural Elements of Afrocentric and Feminist Theory For Brock, Layli Phillips, working within the perspective of womanism provides the space to interrogate ontological questions of existence and being. How do I understand my realities as an objectified other? Where do I fight the battle for my selfhood? Where is my fight/struggle as a human being, teacher, scholar, activist, and mentor? What can I learn from the historical exploitation of my sisters, and how does this knowledge influence/shape my pedagogy? These are all ontological questions asked in search of the “why” of an antioppressionist, vernacular, nonideological, communitarian, and spiritualized self. Such querying of the self affirms and articulates what Brock has come to define as a pedagogy of wholeness that incorporates philosophical and cultural elements of Afrocentric and feminist theory: (1) legitimizes African stores of knowledge; (2) positively exploits and scaf-

folds productive community and cultural practices; (3) extends and builds on the indigenous language; (4) reinforces community ties and idealizes service to one’s family, community, nation, race, and world; (5) promotes positive social relationship; (6) imparts a worldview that idealizes a positive, self-sufficient future for one’s people without denying the self-worth and right to self-determination of others; and (7) supports cultural continuity while promoting critical consciousness. In theory and practice, womanism envisions and enacts a world committed to the survival and wholeness of an entire people, female and male. See Also: Feminism, American; Walker, Alice; Womanist Theology; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Barkley-Brown, E. “African-American Women’s Quilting: A Framework for Conceptualizing and Teaching African-American Women’s History.” In M. Malson, E. Mudimbe-Boyi, J. O’Barr, and M. Wyer, eds., Black Women in America: Social Science Perspectives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Collins, P. H. Black Feminist Thought. New York: Routledge, 1991. Phillips, L. “Womanism: On Its Own.” In L. Phillips, ed., The Womanist Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. Sheared, V. “Giving Voice: An Inclusive Model Of Instruction—A Womanist Perspective.” New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, v.61 (1994). Walker, A. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. New York: Harvest Books, 1983. Dara Nix-Stevenson University of North Carolina

Womanist Theology Womanist theology is both afrocentric and femalecentric. While Womanist theology is typically associated with black women, the term is sometimes applied to women of other ethnicities and underrepresented populations. The core principles of womanist theology focus on the female black religious experience and include questioning and exploring traditional



religious documents and practices. Womanist theology has come under scrutiny since the beginning of the 21st century, since most of the founding studies concerning the theology focus primarily on black Christian women in the United States. Womanist theology concerns black women and their corresponding religions from around the world, and many scholars argue that dozens more religions practiced by black women deserve analysis so that the breadth and depth of Womanist theology is fully realized. The term womanist comes from Alice Walker’s 1983 book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. Walker’s term has been largely adopted and refers to examining black women’s typical roles as marginalized, and promotes moving their issues to the forefront. Womanist theology, then, analyzes the roles and experiences of black women in various religions; in particular, Womanist theology concerns itself with patriarchal and sexist patterns in religious institutions and practices. This theology remains closely related to feminist theology, black theology, and survivalist theology. Survivalist theology typically refers to poor women who use the Bible as an instrument of hope to survive the deplorable conditions to which they are confined. Survivalist theology includes the experiences of African slaves who depended on the Bible for comfort and who were “colonized” by their slave owners. Similarly, the phrase to decolonize the African mind often appears in Womanist theology reflections. Layli Phillips’s collection The Womanist Reader (2006) provides a detailed chronicle of the developments in Womanist theology from the 1980s to the present. In the 21st century, scholars and critics have assessed Womanist theology negatively for not being inclusive, which is a founding tenet of the theology (that aims to explore the beliefs, roles, and experiences of women who have traditionally been excluded). Black American Christian women’s experiences continue to form the core of Womanist theology, and in turn critics have described trends in Womanist theology as Christocentric. Monica Coleman, in Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology, argues that the current focus on black Christian women in Womanist theology is misleading because so many other influences shape those women’s experiences. Black women of all faiths require attention, especially those in Africa and Central America (since many

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black women were displaced to these areas from Africa throughout world history). Marginalized Groups Though the majority of black women in America and Europe practice Christianity, making them the focus of Womanist theology ignores the experiences of other black women. Other major religions practiced by women in Africa include Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. Traditional African-derived religions practiced by women throughout the world are the Maasia religion, the Akan religion, and scores of other religions based on indigenous African belief systems. There are also a wealth of religions practiced by black women in Latin American, which include Vodou (in Haiti) and Palo (also known as Las Reglas de Congo)—a theology in Cuba and the Dominican Republic that slaves originating in Africa developed. One branch of religion practiced by black women, the Jamaican Kumina religion, received attention in 2004. Dianne Stewart’s article “Womanist Theology in the Caribbean Context: Critiquing Culture, Rethinking Doctrine, and Expanding Boundaries” focuses on black women practicing Kumina and also argues that the focus of Womanist theology must become international to truly appreciate and understand the implications of Womanist theology. Womanist theology brings attention to members of marginalized groups, most specifically black Christian women in America. Though this underrepresented population has found strength and power in Womanist theology, many black women of different faiths remain ignored. Only through exploration of the experiences of black women who are Jewish or Islamic, or members of indigenous African religions, and other faiths can Womanist theology realize its full potential. See Also: African American Muslims; Black Churches; Christian Identity; Christianity; Critical Race Feminism; Evangelical Protestantism; Feminist Theology; Fundamentalist Christianity; Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Hinduism; Indigenous Religions, Global; Judaism; Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Mujerista Theology; Native American Religion; New Age Religion; Orthodox Churches; Orthodox Judaism; Religion, Women in; Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of;

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Roman Catholic Church; Sikhism; Walker, Alice; Wicca/ Goddess Spirituality; Womanism. Further Readings Baker-Fletcher, K. Dancing With God: The Trinity From a Womanist Perspective. St. Louis, MO: Chalice, 2006. Coleman, Monica. Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008. Grant, Jacquelyn, ed. Perspectives on Womanist Theology. Atlanta, GA: ITC Press, 1995 Hunt, Mary E. “Unfinished Business: The Flowering of Feminist/Womanist Theologies.” In Rosemary Radford Ruether, ed., Feminist Theologies: Legacy and Prospect. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007. Mitchem, Stephanie Y. “Finding Questions and Answers in Womanist Theology and Ethics.” In Rosemary Radford Ruether, ed., Feminist Theologies: Legacy and Prospect. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007. Mitchem, Stephanie Y. Introducing Womanist Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002. Patterson, Sheron C. New Faith: A Black Christian Woman’s Guide to Reformation, Re-Creation, Rediscovery, Renaissance, Resurrection, and Revival. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000. Phillips, Layli, ed. The Womanist Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. Stewart, Dianne M. “Womanist Theology in the Caribbean Context: Critiquing Culture, Rethinking Doctrine, and Expanding Boundaries.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, v.20/1 (2004). Sweeney, Hyacinth. “The Bible as a Tool for Growth for Black Women.” Black Theology in Britain: A Journal of Contextual Praxis, v.3/5, 2000. Wimbush, V. L. African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures. New York: Continuum, 2001. Karley Adney University of Wisconsin, Marathon County

Women in Black Women in Black (WiB) is a transnational network of feminist antimilitarist women working for peace with justice and struggling against militarism and violence. Through its silent vigils held on a regular basis in pub-

lic places, WiB supporters protest against militarism, war, and violence in their black outfits. WiB was founded by a group of women in Israel in 1987 after the breakout of the First Palestinian Intifada to protest Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. Groups such as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an association of Argentinean mothers who protest the “disappearance” of their children during the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 (known as the “Dirty War”), and the Black Sash, a nonviolent women’s movement protesting against apartheid in South Africa, inspired the formation of WiB. The first WiB vigil was held in Jerusalem, with consequent vigils taking place in more than 40 sites throughout Israel. The weekly vigils were held in public places, like bus stops or busy road intersections, where women carried placards saying “Stop the Occupation.” In a short time, the WiB vigils proliferated in 30 countries around the world on five different continents. Although the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained a significant theme in the vigils, issues like nuclear weapons, racism, and violence against women were also a part of the agenda of local WiB groups. Protests and Vigils Since the Oslo Accords, held between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993, promised hope for the resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, WiB activity lost momentum with the prospect of peace. When the tension increased after the Second Palestinian Intifada, taking place in 2000, WiB resumed its protests by holding vigils in six different locations in Israel. On the intensification of Israel’s implementations in the West Bank and Gaza, WiB invoked a day for protest in 2001, to which WiB groups in 150 different places and 24 countries responded. The September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States also prompted WiB’s mobilization against the “war on terror”: The international network of WiB issued a statement appealing for “justice not vengeance” and also protesting against the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the military intervention in Afghanistan. WiB’s commitment to peace and justice has been recognized through several prizes. In 2001, the international WiB movement was awarded with the Millennium Peace Prize for Women, given by the United Nations Development Fund for Women. In the same year, the international movement represented by the

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Israeli and Serbian WiB groups was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. See Also: Bat Shalom; CODEPINK; Granny Peace Brigade; Pacifism, Female; Peace Movement; Transnational Feminist Networks. Further Readings Cockburn, C. From Where We Stand: War, Women’s Activism, and Feminist Analysis. London: Zed Books, 2007 Halman, S. and T. Rapoport. “Women in Black: Challenging Israel’s Gender and Socio-Political Orders.” The British Journal of Sociology, v.48/4 (1997). Women in Black UK. “A Short History of Women in Black.” http://www.womeninblack.org.uk/History.htm (accessed November 2009). Senem Kaptan Sabancı University

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Goals of the Association The association emphasizes education, communication, representation, and cooperation among members. Members are asked to become educated on agricultural matters facing their individual communities and to conduct professional correspondence with elected officials regarding these matters. If necessary, members of WIFE can be asked to testify at both state and national hearings regarding topics directly affecting their agricultural communities. The group believes in the sustainability of natural resources, and members directly oppose any legal action that would become troublesome to the agricultural industry, culminating in a loss of revenue and/or jobs. WIFE believes in cooperation between agricultural and nonagricultural organizations to create and enhance understanding of common interests. Membership into WIFE is not limited to women. The organization invites individuals involved with, or interested in, agriculture who agree with WIFE’s objectives to join, regardless of sex, race, color, creed, or national origin.

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See Also: Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and; Environmental Justice.

Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE) is a nonprofit, grassroots agricultural organization whose motto indicates it is dedicated to policymaking and improving production profitability in agriculture. The organization was founded in December 1976 in Sidney, Nebraska, and WIFE is now a complete entity of its own, composed of state associations and local chapters. WIFE describes itself as an energetic group that positively pursues its objectives and promotes all agricultural commodities. WIFE’s fundamental belief is that U.S. agriculture is the country’s most vital renewable industry. The group asserts that improving profitability on U.S. farms is necessary to improve living conditions for both rural and urban populations. The organization believes profitability is the singular method to maintain farm production capabilities. To ensure profitability, WIFE insists on educating those who produce food. The organization promotes conscientious use of natural resources and thus supports new industries that help to sustain the economy, such as timber, mining, and oil production.

Further Readings Atkeson, Mary Meek. “Women in Farm Life and Rural Economy.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v.143 (1929). Devine, Jenny Barker. “The Answer to the Auxiliary Syndrome: Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE) and Separate Organizing Strategies for Farm Women, 1976–1985.” A Journal of Women Studies, v.30/3 (2009). House Committee on Agriculture, “Most Recent News.” http://agriculture.house.gov/index.shtml (accessed April 2010). Lobao, Linda and Katherine Meyer. “Restructuring the Rural Farm Economy: Midwestern Women’s and Men’s Work Roles During the Farm Crisis Period.” Economic Development Quarterly, v.9:1 (1995). Osterud, Grey. “The Intellectual Legacy of Mary Neth’s Work on Farm Women and Rural Communities.” Agricultural History, v.83/4 (2009). Smith, Ron. “WIFE Wives Want U.S. Public to Understand Farm Economics.” Southwest Farm Press. http://south westfarmpress.com/mag/farming_wife_wives_us (accessed March 2010).

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U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. “Welcome.” http://ag.senate.gov/site (accessed April 2010). Wells, Betty L. “Creating a Public Space for Women in US Agriculture: Empowerment, Organization, and Social Change.” Sociologia Ruralis, v.38/3 (2002). Wells, Betty L. and Bonnie O. Tanner. “The Organizational Potential of Women in Agriculture to Sustain Rural Communities.” Community Development, v.25/2 (1994). Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE). “About WIFE.” http://www.wifeline.com (accessed March 2010). Jennifer L. Burkett University of Southern Mississippi

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies (WMM) is a feminist multicultural and multiracial nonprofit media arts organization that is dedicated to the production, exhibition, promotion, and distribution of films made by and about women. Primarily a catalog and Internetbased educational video distribution service, WMM also offers filmmakers production assistance services such as tax-exempt status and fiscal sponsorship for media projects. WMM acts as an umbrella organization that collects and administers grant monies and donated contributions to film projects. Additionally, the organization provides low-cost workshops on fundraising, film budgeting, proposal writing, film festivals, producing and production management, distribution, and marketing. Run by a staff of women, WMM is overseen by an all-women board of directors of feminist filmmakers and academics. Based in New York City, WMM began in 1969 as a film production training workshop for women, first advertised through flyers posted in beauty parlors, Laundromats, and supermarkets in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The flyer called for “Mothers, secretaries, Wives, seamstresses, big sisters, muchachas, waitresses” to “Come make your own movie.” WMM was cofounded by Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige, filmmaking teachers with the Young Filmmaker’s Foundation, who funded these initial workshops through a $9,000 grant from the New York

State Council on the Arts. This grant allowed them to focus on technical training and putting cameras into women’s hands. In their first year, they produced five short films with women age 16 to 65. In 1972, after a number of successful workshops, they incorporated WMM as a nonprofit educational organization and forever changed the course of women’s media making in the United States. Expands Into Distribution and Film Festival Sponsorship Through the 1970s and early 1980s, hundreds of women participated in WMM training programs, and 70 films and videotapes were produced during that time period. During the late 1970s, in response to the lack of distribution and exhibition opportunities for women’s films, WMM launched its own distribution service. WMM began screening women’s films in New York and then sponsored two international women’s film festivals initially. Since the 1980s, WMM’s distribution of films and videos has grown into the organization’s largest service area. The WMM collection, advertised online and through mail-order catalogs shipped to community centers, colleges, and universities, includes more than 500 films by both established and emerging independent global media makers, with a sliding-fee scale ranked for community members, colleges, and libraries. To date, WMM is the largest distributor of films by and about women in the world. WMM supports women working in film and video by providing audiences access to films that “traditional” distributors may reject because of sensitive and taboo topics such as abortion, sexual assault, and violence against women. WMM has helped to expand audiences for women’s media through women’s film festivals and college classrooms. Once only a workshop offered to women in New York, WMM has rapidly grown into an internationally recognized resource for women filmmakers; WMM is now “the” source for production and distribution of feminist filmmaking globally. WMM films have garnered top prizes at prestigious film festival and have won many of the most prestigious media awards in the film industry. See Also: Film Directors, Female: International; Film Directors, Female: United States; Film Production, Women in.

Women’s Cable Networks

Further Readings “Debra Zimmerman and Women Make Movies.” Center for Social Media. http://www.centerforsocialmedial .org/artists/debra_zimmerman_and_women_make _movies (accessed May 2010). Dougherty, Ariel. “The Intersections of Women Centered Media.” Global Media Journal. http://lass.calumet .purdue.edu/cca/gmj/fa08;gmj-fa08-dougherty.htm (accessed May 2010). Gibbs, Lisa. “Women Make Movies.” Independent Magazine. http://www.independent-magazine.org /node/541 (accessed May 2010). Women Make Movies. http://www.wmm.com (accessed May 2010). Rachel Raimist University of Alabama

Women’s Cable Networks In the late 20th century, a number of American cable networks were developed that specialized in television programming and content aimed specifically at upscale female audiences. These target audiences are based on a narrowly defined conception of the tastes, lifestyles, and consumption practices of contemporary woman. The evolution of women’s cable networks took place within a particular historical, socio-cultural, and economic moment, facilitated by the second-wave feminist movement and the expansion of cable television during the 1980s. Television’s Response to Second Wave Feminism Second wave feminists helped reshape media images of women in popular culture, especially television, through their demands for greater gender equality in all spheres of life (e.g., education, work, family). Feminists achieved success not only in these areas but also within the realm of representation, as their influence on society and culture were reflected in the growing number of images of financially independent career women (e.g., Cagney and Lacey and Ally McBeal). Previously, television images of women were limited to that of housewife and mother. The changes brought on by feminism empowered large numbers

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of women to pursue high levels of academic and professional achievements, which in turn established the working woman with a disposable income as a desirable commodity audience to be sold by television producers to advertisers. During the 1980s, the television industry, like many American industries at the time, underwent a process of deregulation that loosened many of the restrictions around ownership. These changes facilitated an unprecedented expansion in viewing choices, often referred to as the multichannel universe, and signaled the move from mass broadcasting to market segmentation and niche audiences. For instance, whereas broadcast networks such as NBC or CBS focus on attracting and maintaining the widest audience possible, especially during the primetime or evening schedule, cable networks are in the business of narrowcasting. Cable networks target a particular niche audience or demographic, often one that is not well served by mainstream television broadcasters (e.g., children, gays and lesbians, ethnic minorities). The idea that women, in particular, are viewed as a niche audience within the cable television industry has been criticized because women make up more than half the population (approximately 51 percent). However, the coveted female viewer within the television and advertising industry has changed little over the years. She is 18–34 years old, collegeeducated, with a household income of approximately $50,000. Cable networks campaign hard to attract this demographic because advertisers pay the most money for these female audiences, which in turn shapes the quality and quantity of stories told about and for women. The Big Three Women’s cable networks have grown steadily since the 1980s, but the three most successful are Lifetime, Oxygen Media, and WEtv (Women’s Entertainment Television). Premium-subscription cable networks such as HBO and Cinemax have developed niche sister channels (e.g., HBO Signature, WMax), while others such as SOAPnet specialize in TV formats traditionally popular with female audiences (e.g., soap operas). Lifetime, the longest running of these cable networks, was launched in 1984 and has undergone

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many changes throughout the years in an attempt to establish and solidify its brand identity. One of Lifetime’s strategies included the creation of the popular campaign slogan, “Television for Women.” The network is also well known for producing female-driven movies of the week and dramas. Oxygen Media, launched in 2000, branded itself as the thinking woman’s cable network in an attempt to compete with Lifetime and gained even more attention when it was revealed that a number of high-profiled women working in the entertainment industry, such as Oprah Winfrey, were working behind the scenes. As of August 2010, $75 million have been invested in launching Winfrey’s OWN cable network, although the launch date was not yet known. Early on, the network also focused on integrating Internet content and television, a strategy now used by most television networks to expand audience participation and brand loyalty. WEtv was originally launched in 1997 as Romance Classics, then rebranded in 2001 as WE: Women’s Entertainment, and then again in 2006 as WEtv. The company airs older films proven popular with female audiences and focuses on creating original content utilizing unscripted—or reality—television formats most often dealing with stereotypical feminine concerns (e.g., marriage, dating, and fashion). While each cable network establishes its brand and constructs its ideal female viewer differently, the experiences of white, heterosexual, upper-middleclass women tend to dominate content and production. This challenges the notion that cable television for women contributes to a plurality of voices, which would ultimately empower the female viewer. See Also: Advertising, Aimed at Women; Reality Television; Representation of Women; Winfrey, Oprah. Further Readings Banet-Weiser, Sarah, Cynthia Chris, and Anthony Freitas, eds. Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Lotz, Amanda. Redesigning Women: Television After the Network Era. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Meehan, Eileen and Jackie Byars. “Telefeminism: How Lifetime Got its Groove Back, 1984–1997.” Television and New Media, v.1/1 (2000). Natasha Patterson Simon Fraser University

Women’s Colleges Women’s colleges are higher-education institutions that admit only women. At one time, women were not allowed to attend higher-education institutions; only males had this privilege. Women’s colleges were developed to provide a higher-education option for women. Early Development of Women’s Colleges The precursors to women’s colleges in the United States were seminaries. Some of the early schools for girls focused on the domestic arts, religion, etc. It was not until 1821, when Emma Willard opened the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York, that a women’s institution offered a curriculum on par with that offered in men’s colleges. The Troy Female Seminary’s curriculum included mathematics, science, modern languages, Latin, history, philosophy, geography, and literature. Graduates of the Troy Female Seminary opened their own schools based on the Troy model across the nation. Another pioneer, Catherine Beecher, was one of Willard’s students. As an advocate of higher education for women, she founded the Hartford Female Seminary in 1823. Two other seminaries that influenced the development of higher education for women were the Ipswich Female Seminary and the Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, which later become Mt. Holyoke College, both located in Massachusetts as well. Oberlin College signaled the beginning of the era of the collegeeducated woman when, in 1837, they awarded the first baccalaureate degree to a woman. By 1890, there were more girls than boys graduating from high school. Women’s colleges were most influential in the east and south. In the midwest and the west, coeducation was the norm as the public land grant institutions were founded. In these regions, women’s colleges were not founded as an access remedy but rather as another educational option for women that would prove to be more integrated than the separate and isolating experience women were enduring at larger public universities like the University of California, Berkeley. Another format for offering higher-education opportunities to women was to attach or “coordinate” a female college to an institution for men. This allowed women access to higher education without having to admit them to men’s colleges.



At the peak of their development, there were nearly 300 women’s colleges operating throughout the United States. Among the earliest, most long lasting and influential was a group of seven, singlesex, liberal arts schools in the Northeast that came to be known as the Seven Sisters. Four of these opened following the Civil War: Vassar (1865, New York), Wellesley and Smith (1875, Massachusetts), and Bryn Mawr (1884, Pennsylvania). Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith were all endowed institutions and each was based on the Mt. Holyoke model, the original “Sister.” All four were private. Two other colleges—Radcliffe College, founded in 1879 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Barnard College, begun in 1889 in New York City—were each affiliated with or attached to an established university serving only male students: Radcliffe was associated with Harvard University, and Barnard with Columbia University. The Seven Sisters often drew on each other’s alumnae for faculty and consulted each other on matters of policy. The official affiliation of the seven institutions originated at a conference held at Vassar College in 1915 to discuss ways to increase revenues. Subsequent conferences led to the name “Seven Sisters” being associated with the group. One explanation for the name relates to a Greek myth about the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea nymph Pleione. Another explanation credits the name as being generated from the schools’ parallel to the men’s colleges’ Ivy League. Whatever the origins, the seven schools continued to work together in revenue generation but also expanded their efforts to include admissions requirements, academic standards, and common goals. While for five of the colleges this is still a defining characteristic and significant goal, two of them, Radcliffe (which merged with Harvard) and Vassar (which became coeducational in 1969), are no longer women’s colleges. Nevertheless, the term Seven Sisters and their collegiality continues to inspire and encourage young women to pursue excellence in their education and subsequent careers. The Purpose and Benefits of Women’s Colleges A major reason for the original reluctance to include women in higher education was the fear that intellectual endeavors would take away from the primary duties of marriage and motherhood. Thus, much controversy arose over whether or not women should

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It was not until 1821 that a women’s institution offered a curriculum on par with any offered in men’s colleges.

be educated “beyond their sphere.” The concern was voiced as, “What damage might be done to families if women were allowed access to higher education?” This thinking represented a serious barrier in women’s struggle to achieve access to higher education. The perspective resulting from this controversy was that the purpose for women attending higher-education institutions was to enrich their lives and intellect so they might in turn be moral women and consequently better serve as wives and mothers in raising and supporting the next generation. Women’s colleges emerged in all shapes and sizes. Some had religious affiliations; others operated independently. Some schools were specialized in the curricula offered (e.g., liberal arts, vocational training) or the students served (e.g., black women, and Catholic women). These early educational institutions served different purposes such as teacher training, finishing schools for well-to-do young women, and places for rigorous higher education for women excluded from prestigious men’s colleges. Because of these various differences in locations, programs, clients, and results, questions arose about the equity of the quality of education provided to women. Attending a single-sex institution or a coeducational college determined the type of higher-education experience women had. The heyday for women’s colleges occurred in the late 1880s to the early 1900s. Some argued that single-sex institutions were better

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for women. At a minimum, single-sex institutions guaranteed that women would be welcome at college and offered them an educational environment qualitatively different from the coeducational experience. Research on women’s colleges over the past 50 years has revealed several advantages. Among the findings are that women’s colleges provide female students with a warmer and more favorable climate; higher self-confidence; more involvement both inside and outside the classroom; and more satisfaction as alumnae. Another finding shows that attending a women’s college also leads to higher occupational aspirations. The assertion has been that women’s colleges are organized in such a way that the subordination and devaluing of women has been eliminated. While the growth of coeducational practices has obliterated the original need for single-sex education, many advocates point to the issues of climate, involvement, and satisfaction with women’s educational experiences as reasons that such options should remain a part of the higher-education landscape. Women’s colleges suffered a decline in the 1960s and 1970s. These two decades saw a massive national shift among both men’s and women’s colleges toward coeducation. When coeducational opportunities began to increase, the number of women’s colleges began to decrease. However, even at admissions, three men for every woman were accepted; and women were most often majors in the “female-oriented” subjects such as literature, romance languages, teaching, nursing, and social work. Still, all women’s colleges were affected by this shift to coeducation. Starting from the 1960s, only 116 of the 223 women’s colleges in existence at that time survived into the 1980s. The singlesex colleges that did persist, however, experienced new life in the 1980s; during that time, enrollment in women’s colleges increased. The marketing campaigns for these colleges focused on the noted alumnae (e.g., Julia Child, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Katharine Hepburn, Margaret Mead). This was intended to demonstrate the success of those who attended such institutions. This newer message seemed to shift perspectives regarding women’s colleges.

single-sex institutions. Though few in number today, those that have survived have emerged with the clear mission of providing a women-centered education not available in a coeducational setting. Additionally, these surviving colleges gave new emphasis to fields previously dominated by males, such as science and math, and gave attention to developing women as leaders in all fields. The fight for equity for women in higher education remains. Advocates continue to emphasize the need for the specialized environments, inferring that coeducational institutions are not doing the job of educating women. According to one college president, “If women’s colleges did not exist today, we would have to invent them.” The remaining singlesex colleges for women are thriving today, evidencing that they meet a need for educating women in a unique environment for the fulfillment of both the individuals and our society as a whole.

Women’s Colleges Today Most all of the original women’s colleges have gone coeducational—as has been the case with men’s colleges. Mt. Holyoke is among the few that remain

The philosophy underpinning the ethos behind the creation of cooperatives can be found in the writings and activities of Robert Owen, Louis Blanc, and Charles Fourier, among others. After some early

See Also: Education, Women in; Educational Opportunities/Access; Feminism on College Campuses; United States. Further Readings Langdon, E. A. “Women’s Colleges Then and Now: Access Then, Equity Now.” Peabody Journal of Education, v.76/1 (2001). McClelland, A. E. The Education of Women in the United States: A Guide to Theory, Teaching and Research. London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992. Phillip, M. C. “For Women Only.” Black Issues in Higher Education (October 21, 1993). Solomon, B. M. In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985. Anita Pankake University of Texas, Pan American

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19th-century experiments, consumers’ cooperation took permanent form with the establishment in 1844 of the Rochedale Society of Equitable Pioneers in England. The cooperative movement has since had considerable growth throughout Great Britain and the Commonwealth, where local cooperatives have been federated into national wholesale and retail distributive enterprises and where a large proportion of the population has membership. In the United States, the cooperative movement also began in the 19th century, first among workers and then among farmers. Other examples of cooperative organizations can also be found in the Scandinavian countries, Israel, the People’s Republic of China, Russia, and France (Shepherd, 2010). Forms and International Outreach The main types of cooperatives include those of farmers (e.g., in Latin America), wholesalers, and consumers (e.g., in Great Britain or France), as well as insurance, banking and credit (e.g., in the United Kingdom or in the United States), and rural electrification cooperatives (e.g., in China). There has been increasing international collaboration among the various kinds of cooperatives and a growing trend toward the establishment of international cooperative distribution in which people organize for wholesale or retail distribution, usually of agricultural or other staple products. Traditionally, membership is open, and anyone may buy stock. Goods are sold to the public as well as to members, usually at prevailing market prices, and any surplus above expenses is turned back to the members. Money is saved through direct exchange of goods from producer to consumer. Producers’ cooperatives are manufacturing and distributive organizations commonly owned and managed by the workers, as in China. Another development in such cooperatives has been the acquisition of failing manufacturing plants by labor unions, which run them on a cooperative basis. Agricultural cooperatives usually involve cooperation in the processing and marketing of products and in the purchase of equipment and supplies, as in Russia or in Israel. Actual ownership of land is usually not affected, and in this way the agricultural cooperative differs from the collective farm. Agricultural cooperatives are often linked with cooperative banks and credit unions, which constitute another important type

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of cooperative. There is also cooperative activity in insurance, medical services, housing, and other fields. Fighting Poverty, Improving Lives Cooperatives enable the state to provide community-based initiatives the necessary support and resources without inhibiting their individual identity. When evaluating economic growth in the context of reducing poverty, inequality, and social justice, cooperatives create direct opportunities for the poor to earn enough to sustain a decent level of living. It is a uniquely appropriate institutional base to reach the poor and involves individuals’ participation in their own development. Case studies in Africa, Latin America, and India show that the cooperative movement can alleviate poverty both by providing the basic needs of the poor and by tackling some of the causes of poverty. It can contribute to solving housing needs, improving access to capital, mobilizing savings, developing women’s potential in generating income, and improving health and nutrition. The extent to which cooperatives can achieve these aims depends on a clear definition of their role in national development and favorable government policies, adequate planning, and reduced political interference. For example, present statistics indicate the existence of 12 million rural women in Iran. This segment of the country’s population is instrumental both in agricultural production and rural handicraft manufacturing. These women are contributors to Iran’s national income, and they are active in all stages of agricultural production. They account for 100% of the workload involved in specific areas of production. However, despite their endeavors in the development of rural society, the female presence in rural institutions and their access to formal credit available from the banking system are indeed very limited. In addition, even in cases where rural women are members of a cooperative, in practice their contribution in discussions and decision making is limited by certain cultural restraints. The establishment of rural women’s cooperatives under their own management is an effective method for facilitating their access to the means of production and, hence, personal and household income. These organizations have pioneered in paving the way for their involvement in moving the national agenda for rural development forward.

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Achievements in the Face of Government Misgivings Generally speaking, cooperatives aim to raise the living standards and economic conditions of the women involved and their families. They also give legal status to women in the environment of their activities, while providing a forum for women’s cooperation and exchange of ideas so as to resolve outstanding problems. Cooperatives also facilitate women’s access to available credits, markets, and decision-making centers, while organizing necessary training programs for the women involved. Women’s cooperatives have a record of considerable achievements, some of which are seen in the integration of rural women into the development processes of villages and the improvement of self-confidence among members of cooperatives, as is the case in many nations in Africa. Furthermore, in Asia and in Africa, other accomplishments can be listed in the implementation of projects in sericulture, apiculture, packaging, processing industries, carpet weaving, and other handicraft production, and in the active participation in a number of seminars, conferences, and exhibitions. Women’s cooperatives in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have been instrumental also in organizing training courses in farming techniques, product renovation, nutrition, family planning, environmental awareness, sanitation, women’s rights, and establishing nursery schools in some of the cooperatives. The outstanding difficulty some women’s cooperatives are still facing is a lack of managerial skills among members of boards of directors and other essential functionaries. Another problem is posed by unwarranted government intervention in the cooperatives’ affairs, as some governments consider women’s cooperatives as nongovernmental organizations, and therefore they believe that they should be run as completely autonomous units. Nevertheless, despite these existing pitfalls, women’s cooperatives are continuing their efforts undaunted. This is a testimony that women’s cooperatives have bright future prospects for attaining even greater benefits and achievements in improving women’s lives worldwide, empowering women, and helping their families. See Also: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity; Business, Women in; Fair Trade; Financial Independence

of Women; Green Belt Movement; Poverty; Rural Women; Women in Farm Economy. Further Readings Antrobus, P. The Global Women’s Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies. London: Zed Books, 2004. Besant, A. The Law of Population. London: Freethought Publishing, 1884. Davies, M. L., ed. Life as We Have Known It by Cooperative Working Women. London: Virago Press, 1977. Knowlton, Charles. Fruits of Philosophy. Austin, TX: American Atheist Press, 1980. Shaw, G. B. “Annie Besant and The Secret Doctrine.” The Freethinker, v.67 (December 14, 1947). Shepherd, L. J., ed. Gender Matters in Global Politics. London: Routledge, 2010. Webb, C. The Woman With the Basket, History of the Women’s Co-Operative Guild 1883-1927. Reading, UK: Co-Operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927. Nicoletta Policek University of Lincoln

Women’s Environment and Development Organization The last decade of the 20th century witnessed women’s increasing engagement in the issue of the environment, which was traditionally perceived as a male-dominated policy area. A number of women’s organizations emphasizing the role played by gender in environmental politics were founded and became active during this period. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), established by former U.S. Congresswoman Bella Abzug and journalist Mim Kelber in 1990, became one of the prominent organizations working on this issue. WEDO purports that women’s perspectives should be incorporated into policies and programs regarding issues that have traditionally excluded their contribution, such as environment, development, and population. It contends that, for the provision of economic, social, and gender equality—and the achievement of a healthy environment—women’s decision-making powers, both in governmental and nongovernmental arenas, have to be strengthened.



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and developmental issues, and to achieve economic, social, and gender equality, WEDO has established three major programs: Economic and Social Justice, Gender and Governance, and Sustainable Development. Four areas of activity—climate change, corporate accountability, women’s political participation and leadership, and UN reform—are covered by these main programs. In 2006, WEDO was awarded the Champion of the Earth award by the UN Environmental Program for its work in the area of sustainable development. See Also: Ecofeminism; Environmental Activism, Grassroots; Environmental Issues, Women and. Mayor Ed Koch of New York, Congresswoman Bella Abzug (center), and President Jimmy Carter during a meeting in 1978.

WEDO strives to organize women from all over the world, including activists, grassroots leaders, and policymakers, to make their voices heard and their perspectives included in local, national, and international decision-making processes. One of the objectives of WEDO is to organize conferences that would bring women from different corners of the world to discuss gender roles in environmental politics. In November 1991, WEDO organized the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet, where more than 1,000 women from all around the world participated and issued a strategy for the United Nations (UN) Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The congress produced a document, the Women’s Action Agenda 21, which was negotiated throughout the UNCED process and was eventually included in the Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration in June 1992. Since the early 1990s, WEDO has been working on mobilizing women to make their voices heard at various conferences and forums. The UN is the major target of WEDO’s advocacy work. Both WEDO’s and the UN’s location in New York City provided WEDO with the necessary proximity to pursue lobbying activities to create awareness for the presence of women’s voices in UN decisions and documents. To incorporate women’s perspectives in the decision-making processes regarding environmental

Further Readings Cohen, Robin and Shirin Rai. Global Social Movements. New York: Continuum International, 2004. Eaton, Heather and Lois Ann Lorentzen. Ecofeminism and Globalization: Exploring Culture, Context and Religion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Gaard, Greta Claire. Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Women’s Environment and Development Organization. http://www.wedo.org (accessed November 2009). Zeynep Selen Artan The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Women’s Funding Network Significant to the context of being female in the 21st century is the increasing support for the human and economic rights of women and girls. Funds that support women in the United States were started in the 1970s by women such as Gloria Steinem and were catalyzed in the 1980s by philanthropists such as Helen LaKelly Hunt, Abigail Disney, and Tracy Gary to further energize the women’s movement. These women spent their inherited wealth creating empowering opportunities for women and girls across the globe. The Women’s Funding Network was formally established in 1985, one of more than 60 women’s funds in the United States that fund women’s projects across

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the globe. The network gave member women’s funds financial resources, connections, and other services by holding annual conferences that brought them together, transforming their ideas into more concrete possibilities for change. From the network’s inception, member funds worked to end domestic violence by coordinating a conference and research paper on the issue. The Women’s Funding Network also was a strong presence at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1994. By 2000, the network had brought together 94 funds, with $200 million in assets. In the past decade, women’s funds formalized their shared values, including a commitment to a democratic vision of philanthropy and a commitment to long-term social change in the lives of women and girls, by “fixing systems not symptoms,” as LaKelly Hunt explains. As of 2009, 146 members of the Women’s Funding Network award grants of more than $60 million per year, with assets of $465 million. The intention is to create lasting change in women’s human and economic rights, as well women’s access to education and healthcare in communities everywhere. The network opts for projects with the greatest potential for a lasting effect on issues from poverty to women’s political representation. See Also: Philanthropists, Female; Steinem, Gloria; United Nations Conferences on Women. Further Readings Christy, Janet W. Capitalizing on Being Woman Owned: Expert Advice for Women Who Have or Are Starting Their Own Business Including Marketing Research, Planning, Government Support, and Tax Breaks. Pompton Plains, NJ: Career Press, 2006. Clift, Elayne. Women, Philanthropy, and Social Change: Visions for a Just Society. Lebanon, NH: Tufts University Press, 2007. Damen, Margaret May and Niki Nicastro McCuistion. Women, Wealth and Giving: The Virtuous Legacy of the Boom Generation. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley/VCH, 2009. Women’s Funding Network. http://www.womensfunding network.org/about (accessed June 2010). Carolyn Johnson Columbia University Teachers College

Women’s Health Clinics The history and emergence of women’s health clinics in the United States is embedded in the history of the women’s movement and particularly the women’s health movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This history tells a story of women acting collectively (1) to critique control of their reproductive health and normal physiological processes by the male-dominated medical and legal professions and for-profit market forces; and (2) to seize control of their bodies through the development of women-operated and women-centered health clinics to educate and empower women, neutralize medicalization, and optimize women’s healthcare choices. Women’s clinics sought to shift the balance of power between physicians and women by connecting women consumers with midwives, nurse practitioners, and community counselors who shared feminist philosophies and values. By the 1980s and 1990s, women-controlled health clinics declined in numbers, as they were absorbed into professional medical agendas and for-profit industries. Women’s Health Movement and Clinic Innovations Sandra Morgen (Into Our Own Hands) estimated that by 1976 about 50 women-controlled health clinics operated across the United States, particularly in large cities and in centers located near university campuses. Although these clinics were a small portion of all of the women’s health organizations, most were fertile soil for movement innovations such as contraception, pregnancy and abortion counseling and services, self-help education, well-woman gynecological visits, midwifery referrals and services, prenatal and postnatal counseling, and political advocacy of issues related to women’s health. Many of these early clinics were members of the Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers, a national collective providing abortions and self-help gynecological services. A 1995 survey by Carol Weisman and colleagues found that clinics founded before the 1980s were informed by feminist ideology, in contrast to those founded later by hospitals or private physician groups. Today, surviving grassroots organizations struggle to maintain autonomy in cultural and legal environments that restricts the practices of freestanding clinics, legitimize the medicalization of women’s bodies



and normal reproductive processes, and support the interests of powerful medical and pharmaceutical organizations. This trend continues despite growing evidence that alternative women’s clinics provide safe, effective, holistic, and satisfactory services. Planned Parenting, Contraception and Abortion Clinics Between 1969 and 1973, prior to the Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortions, a collective in Chicago known by its code word “Jane” (The Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation) provided 12,000 safe but illegal abortions through an underground clinic. Initially, Jane provided referrals to doctors sympathetic to women’s needs for safe abortions, but over time the collective’s members learned to perform the procedure by assisting doctors in a make-shift storefront clinic. Taking control of the process allowed the volunteers to maintain a safe and supportive environment and to bring down the costs of abortions. Such clinics developed at a time when blind obedience to medical authority was the rule, thus challenging the imbalance of power between doctor and patient. Although Jane disbanded after the legalization of abortions, the controversy over abortion rights and increasing restrictions on funding for abortion, as reflected in the 1976 Hyde Amendment (prohibiting public funding for abortions), insured the continued growth of feminist-oriented clinics, especially those that aimed to lower the cost for women with few economic and/or social resources. Today, freestanding clinics have become an easy target for anti-abortion activists, and in some regions access to abortion has regressed to pre-1973 levels. Although much of the media and political attention has spotlighted abortion, historically contraceptive use was also restricted by legal measures. It was not until 1965 that the Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut ruled that married couples could legally access contraception in every state. In 1972, the Eisenstadt v. Baird ruling stated that birth control advocates could legally provide packages of birth control foam to women without fear of a felony conviction. Collective Empowerment and Self-Help Gynecology In the 1960s and 1970s, “self-help” became the mantra of the women’s health movement but was manifested

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in different forms for women of different race/ethnic and social class backgrounds. The Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, a small group of primarily middle-class white women, began to educate themselves about women’s reproductive health in the form of a weekly reading group. They later became an international force, and their widely distributed book Our Bodies, Ourselves became synonymous with the women’s health movement. Similarly, in the early 1970s, Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman took self-help to a new level by traveling throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, teaching women to conduct cervical selfexamination by using a speculum and mirror and demonstrating the procedure with their own bodies. They further developed and taught the technique of menstrual extraction, using a cannula and handpump to empty the content of the uterus. The procedure could be used both to relieve menstrual cramping and to control fertility. The idea of cervical self-examination sparked a grassroots social movement, and Downer and Rothman created and distributed the movie SelfHelp Clinic, disseminating their message more rapidly. The message that the self-help gynecological clinic could restore power to women to take back their bodies from medical control was promoted nationwide by Downer. Collective awareness reached new levels in 1972 when Downer was arrested, charged, and ultimately acquitted of practicing medicine without a license. Clearly the self-help movement was born and, as noted by Morgen, it contained all of the important elements of a successful movement: oppression, resistance, and victory. The self-help movement was manifested in a different form among African American women who were part of the National Black Women’s Health Project, officially organized in 1984 with Byllye Avery at its helm. Although Avery began work in Florida, providing gynecological services through an alternative birthing center, her vision for a more holistic approach to women’s health soon significantly broadened as she spearheaded a nationwide black women’s health movement. In this context, black women, according to Avery, were able to break “the dangerous conspiracy of silence” surrounding oppressions such as sexual and physical violence, incest, unwanted sterilizations, high infant mortality, and the absence of informed consent in medical practice. By the 1990s,

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the National Black Women’s Health Project had received funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to set up three community centers in Atlanta; it has today grown to 96 self-help groups in 22 states and international groups in Kenya, Barbados, and Belize. Freestanding Birth Centers and Midwifery Another important development in women’s clinics grew out of the women’s health birthing movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Alternative birth centers provide a homelike environment by promoting natural childbirth with only limited intervention when medically indicated. The growth of birthing clinics was particularly sparked by the alarming increases in rates of Caesarean sections in the 1980s after the introduction of continuous fetal monitoring, spinal epidurals, labor inductions, and synthetic hormones to manage labor. Birthing centers are typically run by certified midwives with the cooperative backup of physicians holding hospital privileges. The Farm Midwifery Center located near Summertown, Tennessee, is one of the most successful of the freestanding alternative birthing centers that developed from grassroots social movements; it came about under the leadership of Ina May Gaskin in 1971. Jennifer Block (Pushed) notes that by 2007, the communecum-birthing center had attended more than 3,000 births with no maternal deaths and a neonatal mortality rate of 0.39 percent, far below the national average. Block found that in 2007 there were approximately 175 independent birthing centers in the United States, typically run by midwives in collaboration with backup physicians and hospitals. Increasingly, hospitals and private physician groups are establishing birthing centers, as this market has proven to be highly profitable. There are two types of midwives in the United States: certified nurse midwives (CNM) and certified professional midwives (CPM). CNMs are licensed in all 50 states, typically train in hospital protocol, and work under the supervision of an obstetrician-gynecologist. CPMs, also known as direct entry or independent midwives, are certified in 22 states but are not recognized by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as legitimate maternity care providers. CNMs most typically work for hospitals or private physician practices, whereas CPMs more typically work in birthing centers or work independently from their home offices and attend out-of-hospital home

births. Despite evidence that midwife-attended births and home births are as safe as physician-attended hospital births, increasingly independent or directentry midwives have been forced to take their practices underground, due to state legislation prohibiting them from attending births. Professional Agendas and Institutionalization In 1995, Weisman and colleagues estimated that there were about 3,600 women’s health centers in the United States, most offering reproductive health services. However many of the women’s health centers, particularly those established since the 1980s, are in no sense alternative healthcare providers. Most of the newer centers are controlled by hospitals or private physician practices, target middle-class clients with health insurance, and focus on specific diseases (e.g., breast or ovarian cancer) or maternity services. Over time, the early efforts of the women’s health movement and the philosophy of self-help and empowerment have been co-opted by market-driven and medically managed services. Based on three decades of observations, S. Ruzek and J. Becker differentiate surviving grass-roots organizations established in the 1960s and 1970s from those developed later that are highly professionalized, disease focused, and largely for profit. Surviving grassroots organizations tend to have maintained a social movement orientation with an emphasis on affordable services, social justice, and social change. In modern-day women’s centers, leadership has shifted from one of volunteers to highly trained professionals, women physicians, and scientists. Much of the early questioning of medical authority and the medicalization of women’s reproduction is absent in these professionalized organizations. Attitudes toward biomedicine have also shifted, with early demands for evidence-based medicine and adequately tested drugs and procedural devices now giving way to professional emphases on ensuring women (compared to men) an equitable share of treatment. Older organizations and their advocates for women’s health question relationships with corporate sponsors and strive to maintain ownership and control. Many of the women’s centers that are financially supported by large corporations have more resources and stability but are also limited in promoting competitor’s products, services, or alternative therapies.



Finally, grassroots clinics have maintained a commitment to lay authority and control over health and healing and support midwives, nurses, and counseling professionals in an environment where consumers remain central to decision making. Clearly, the early women’s health movement leaves an important legacy in the women’s health clinic, which has influenced powerful social institutions such as organized medicine, pharmaceuticals, and regulatory agencies. Women today have access to more information about their bodies, reproductive health, and alternative healthcare options. In many sectors women are encouraged and empowered to direct their own health. But as medical care is dominated by market forces, the partnership of surviving grassroots women’s health movement activists with newer professional service providers will be increasingly important in healthcare reform efforts. Global Issues Increasingly, women’s health advocacy has become international in scope, particularly as feminists have sought to expand the services of women’s health clinics to developing countries. In 2001, life expectancy for women varied widely, from a high of 85 years in Japan (80 years in the United States, 73 years in Saudi Arabia) to a low of 47 years in Ethiopia (63 years in India, 53 years in Haiti). In the United States, there are approximately 11 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births compared to four in Austria, five in Denmark, 83 in Mexico, and 680 in Haiti. Maternal deaths can be reduced with increases in women-centered healthcare services, particularly quality prenatal and maternity care. Variations in health outcomes for women worldwide are closely correlated with per capita income in each country and the distribution of wealth across populations. Health outcomes are also correlated with the availability of public health services: access to clean food and water, access to basic healthcare such as family planning, immunization,s and wellchild programs, and the availability of routine and emergency maternity care and health education. Among organizations and programs focused on women’s health, one example is the Global Alliance for Women’s Health (GAWH), founded in 1994. It advises the United Nations on neglected health issues of women worldwide, gathers information on women’s health status internationally, and develops healthcare

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policies responsive to women’s unique experiences. The mission of the GAWH emphasizes women’s health across the life course and at all policy levels through health education, program development, and advocacy. Its stated goals are to promote and implement women’s healthcare research and service improvements through developing local, national, and international partnerships, both public and private. See also: Abortion, Access to; Abortion Laws, United States; Abortion Methods; Childbirth, Home Versus Hospital; Childbirth, Medication in; Childbirth Methods, Cross-Cultural; Doulas; Maternal Mortality; Midwifery; NARAL; Pregnancy; Prenatal Care; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Sterilization, Involuntary. Further Readings Block, Jennifer. Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007. Kaplan, Laura. The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Looker, Patty. “Women’s Health Centers: History and Evolution.” Women’s Health Issues, v.3/2 (1993). Morgen, Sandra. Into Our Own Hands: The Women’s Health Movement in the United States, 1969–1990. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Ruzek, S. B. and J. Becker. “The Women’s Health Movement in the United States.” Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, v.54 (1999). Turkel, Kathleen Doherty. Women, Power, and Childbirth: A Case Study of a Free-Standing Birth Center. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1995. Weisman, C. S. Women’s Health Care: Activist Traditions and Institutional Change. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Pres, 1998. Vicky M. MacLean Middle Tennessee State University

Women’s History Month Women’s History Month is a national recognition and celebration of the significant role of women in U.S. history and contemporary society. It is held in March

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Women’s History Month celebrates the role of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton (left) and Susan B. Anthony (right).

and provides an opportunity to educate the general public about women’s accomplishments and influence in the United States. Women’s History Month has its origins in International Women’s Day, which was first celebrated on March 8, 1911, in Europe. Unfortunately, with the economic depression of the 1930s, women’s issues, woman suffrage among them, decreased in popularity and remained so until the 1950s and 1960s. It was the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s that regenerated interest in women’s issues and history. In 1978 in California, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women began a Women’s History Week celebration. The week was chosen to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8. The response was positive, with numerous schools hosting their own Women’s History Week programs. The next year, leaders from the California group shared their project at a Women’s History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. Other

participants not only determined to begin their own local Women’s History Week projects but also agreed to support an effort to have Congress declare a national Women’s History Week. Three years later, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution, cosponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Representative Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), establishing National Women’s History Week; that was followed by a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980, as the first National Women’s History Week. Over the next five years, joint resolutions of Congress designated a week in March as Women’s History Week and authorized the president to issue a proclamation informing the country of this recognition and urging the study of women’s contributions to U.S. history. In 1987, after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9, which designated the month of March as Women’s History Month. This law requested the president to issue a proclamation calling for observation of this month with appropriate activities and ceremonies.  Subsequently, an annual presidential proclamation was announced to celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States. Recognizing the Accomplishments Women’s history isn’t just for women, although many women find that studying women’s history helps them realize that women’s place is everywhere. Women’s History Month honors and celebrates the struggles and achievements of women throughout the history of the United States. Every year, during the month of March, hundreds of thousands of events are held throughout the country to acknowledge and recognize the amazing accomplishments of women. Under the guidance of the National Women’s History Project, educators, workplace program planners, parents, and community organizations in thousands of U.S. communities have turned National Women’s History Month into a major celebration. The program has also encouraged schools to introduce new curriculum and communities to recognize women who have been pivotal in their own communities. See Also: International Women’s Day; Representation of Women; Science, Women in; Sports, Women in; Studio Arts, Women in; Track and Field, Women in; Women’s Studies.



Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Further Readings “March-Women’s History Month.” NEA Today, v.25/6 (March 2007). Snodgrass, Maryy Ellen, ed. Celebrating Women’s History. New York: Thomas Gale, 1995. U.S. Library of Congress. “Women’s History Month.” http://www.loc.gov/law/help/commemorative-obser vations/women_history.php (accessed May 2010). Anita Pankake University of Texas, Pan American

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a transnational nongovernmental organization campaigning for demilitarization, disarmament, peace, and social justice. WILPF’s main office is based in Geneva, Switzerland, with a United Nations (UN) office in New York and national sections in 37 countries. WILPF, the oldest women’s peace organization in the world, was founded in 1915 by approximately 1,300 women from 12 countries who convened in The Hague, the Netherlands, in an International Congress of Women to protest against the atrocities of World War I. The decision of the congress was to set up an International Women’s Committee for Permanent Peace, which would form two groups of envoys to convey the resolutions of the congress to the heads of states. The envoys invoked a conference at which the neutral states would become mediators between the belligerent ones, but they did not receive any answer. The women thus decided to hold a second congress to produce resolutions about the postwar peace treaty. It was at this point that the congress participants decided to establish a permanent organization for working toward peace—which was to become WILPF—with Jane Addams as its first president. Fighting for Peace After its foundation, WILPF stood up against U.S. military intervention in Latin American countries,

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took on an active role in disarmament in Europe, and supported the League of Nations as a medium for peace. In 1948, WILPF became one of the first nongovernmental organizations to be given consultative status within the UN through the Economic and Social Council. Two of the founding members of WILPF, Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch, were awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 and in 1946, respectively, in recognition of their efforts toward peace. During the 1990s, WILPF campaigned against the Gulf War, the violent nationalist aggression in Yugoslavia, and the genocide in Rwanda. One of WILPF’s major achievements has been the acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security in 2000. The resolution was the first of its kind to incorporate a gender perspective into security issues, taking into account women’s experiences during wartime and emphasizing women’s decision making in peace processes. In the 2000s, WILPF continues to campaign for total and universal disarmament, sustainable peace, human rights, and economic and social justice while also trying to create sensitivity to issues of peace and security in the UN. WILPF operates through the triennial international congress of members, the main decision-making body, to which national sections send a number of elected delegates. The international program decided on during the congress sets a three-year plan for WILPF’s activities, which are coordinated by the International Secretariat in Geneva and implemented by national sections. WILPF’s International Program and Plan of Action for years 2007–10 prioritizes challenging militarism, investing in peace, strengthening the UN, and building WILPF for its 100th anniversary. See Also: Bat Shalom; CODEPINK; Granny Peace Brigade; Pacifism, Female; Peace Movement; Transnational Feminist Networks; Women in Black. Further Readings Cockburn, Cynthia. From Where We Stand: War, Women’s Activism, and Feminist Analysis. London: Zed Books, 2007. Foster, Catherine. Women for All Seasons: Story of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.

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Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. “Brief History of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.” http://www.wilpf.int.ch/AboutUs /index.htm#briefhistory (accessed November 2009). Senem Kaptan Sabanci University

Women’s Magazines Magazines have been a popular media source for women, both historically and in modern times. They have not only provided enjoyment and relaxation for their female readers, but have also supplied useful information to women throughout the decades, including health information, relationship advice, and cultural recommendations. Popular genres include fashion, lifestyle, and fitness publications, with an increasing diversification into niche markets such as bridal, pregnancy, beauty, ethnic, celebrity, food, and parenting titles. Women have been active in both the mainstream and independent magazine markets. In fact, the magazine industry within the United States and Britain is the only media industry in which women have dominated—and continue to dominate—as media producers, including in powerful positions like senior editors, art directors, and publishers. The beginning of the 21st century continues to see magazines as popular among women, although the advent of the Internet has meant that many women have shifted their reading practices to include online magazines and publications. Most major print publications have corresponding online homes where readers are encouraged to visit and participate in more interactive elements, like message boards, quizzes, and polls. Additionally, other media companies have sought to attract new women readers with comprehensive online “destinations” that cover a host of “women’s interest” topics. An example of this type of online magazine is iVillage, which is owned by American media giant NBC and covers topics including health, entertainment, parenting, and home/gardening. One genre of women’s magazine that has flourished in the past decade is the celebrity gossip magazine. While not exclusively read by women, the publications that fall into this genre, including American titles

such as US Weekly, Star, InTouch Weekly, and People magazine, and well as British titles like Hello!, primarily market to women and include traditionally “feminine” topics such as fashion and beauty sections. The rise of the celebrity gossip magazine is often credited to Canadian media executive Bonnie Fuller, who successfully refashioned Us Weekly in 2002 from sagging circulation figures, followed by another well-received transition of Star from tabloid to glossy in 2004. While the reasons for the continuing success of this genre in the United States as other types of magazines are faced with shrinking profits is unclear, it seems as though a revitalized interest in celebrities in general and the ease in which women can “zone out” with these magazines may be contributing to their popularity both at the newsstand and online. The content of women’s magazines has shifted dramatically throughout the decades, reflecting the changing roles and status of women within their respective societies. For example, in the 1950s, American women’s service magazine Ladies’ Home Journal focused on teaching women how to be good housewives, offering instruction on proper meal preparation and cleaning tips. Feminists eventually targeted the publication, conducting a sit-in at the magazine’s offices in March 1970, demanding the redirection of the editorial policy to be more supportive of feminism. Some American women’s magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, became known during this time for promoting women’s sexual agency, although Ms. magazine was the only publication that explicitly embraced a feminist agenda. Thus, while magazines have changed with social norms, there is still debate as to whether mainstream women’s magazines are indeed “feminist.” While most contemporary women’s lifestyle magazines, such as Glamour or Marie Claire, will incorporate feminist ideas into their publications, such as the importance of women having a fulfilling career or celebrating women’s achievements in public life, most magazines steer clear of adopting the feminist label. Body Image Concerns Women’s magazines continue to be controversial for many women for several reasons. A major criticism of women’s magazines is their use of very skinny models in editorial spreads and advertisements and the negative effect this has on women’s self-esteem and body image. There is indication, however, that some



of this criticism might be paying off. In October 2009, Germany’s highest-circulating women’s magazine, Brigitte, announced that it would no longer use models in its editorial spreads, citing concerns from readers that models were increasingly “too skinny.” While other women’s magazines have yet to make an equally bold statement, there is a general trend among magazines to include more “real women” in their editorial content. For example, in November 2009, the American edition of Marie Claire launched a monthly column titled “Big Girl in a Skinny World,” written by a plus-size aspiring stylist and detailing style tips for larger women. Despite these positive changes, there is no sign that advertisers will stop using ultrathin models, and women’s magazines remain dependent on their advertisers’ dollars. Mainstream women’s magazines have also been criticized by feminist media scholars who have argued that they consistently take an individualist approach to women’s problems, offering solutions that often encourage the woman to change themselves rather than to critique the power imbalances within society and the larger institutional structures that created them. This consistent focus on the individual, coupled with an emphasis on consuming products as a solution to one’s problems or to empower oneself, has led scholars like Rosalind Gill to deem women’s magazines as indicative of a postfeminist sensibility that celebrates women while doing little to change the political realities that affect women’s lives. Magazines remain a popular media choice among women, continuing to set fashion and lifestyle trends, and a source of relaxation and enjoyment. While the Internet has challenged their rule of the media marketplace, most women’s magazines have adapted to the changing media climate by recreating their publication online in order to carry their readers into the online world. Magazines have incorporated feminist-oriented content into their publications; however, women’s magazines are still criticized for their continued use of unhealthy, thin models and focus on the individual rather than viewing women as a political group. See Also: Advertising, Portrayal of Women in; Blogs and the Blogosphere; Body Image; Fashion Industry, Theoretical Controversies; Feminist Publishing; Journalists, Print Media; Media Chief Executive Officers, Female; Ms. Magazine; Stereotypes of Women; Supermodels.

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Further Readings Gauntlett, David. Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2008. Hunter, Jean E. “A Daring New Concept: The Ladies’ Home Journal and Modern Feminism.” National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Journal, v.2/4 (1990). Zuckerman, M. A History of Popular Women’s Magazines in the United States, 1792–1995. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. Jessalynn Keller The University of Texas at Austin

Women’s National Basketball Association Before the launch of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1997, women’s basketball failed to capture a substantial, profitable audience in the United States. However, its popularity increased exponentially with the rise of women’s college basketball in the 1990s. The success of exceptional college programs and the undeniable skill level of their players became the springboard for the WNBA. Women’s College Basketball In 1995, the sports world was buzzing when the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team defeated the University of Tennessee for the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s national championship and recorded an undefeated season of 35–0. After this historical match, Connecticut’s and Tennessee’s women’s basketball programs became household names. The extraordinary players on both teams changed the face of women’s basketball and challenged the perception that female athletes are not as capable and competitive as their male counterparts. Plans for the WNBA were well under way before 1995, however, spearheaded by Val Ackerman, who would become president of the WNBA from 1997 to 2005. The athletic achievements and talent of college players like Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo, and Nikki McCray catapulted women’s basketball into the national spotlight. While women’s college basketball triumphed in a male-dominated sport and gained mainstream notoriety in the United States, basketball

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fans were gearing up for the 1996 Summer Olympics. This international sporting event showcased the best basketball players in the world, and both the men’s and women’s U.S. basketball teams won gold. The emphatic celebration of millions of fans at this accomplishment was yet another indication that the United States was ready for a professional women’s basketball league. WNBA Debuts on Television In the summer of 1997, the New York Liberty and the Los Angeles Sparks took to the court in the WNBA’s ceremonial game. Three major television networks (NBC, ESPN, and Lifetime Television) signed on to broadcast the game to millions of homes around the world. At the time of the WBNA’s conception, the league was composed of eight teams. Although it had to compete with the American Basketball League (ABL), a professional basketball league for women begun in 1996, the financial backing of the National Basketball Association (NBA) allowed the WNBA to take center stage, and by its second season, it was the sole source for professional women’s basketball. During the WNBA’s first four years, the Houston Comets’ trio of Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson dominated the league by winning four straight WNBA championships. The trio also made great historical strides individually. Cooper took the title of most valuable player in each of the first two seasons. Swoopes was the first female basketball player to acquire a major endorsement deal when Nike released Air Swoopes, the female version of Michael Jordan’s famous Air Jordan sneakers. After the Comets’ impressive championship run, the Los Angeles Sparks, led by center Lisa Leslie, captured the next two WNBA championships. By 2000, the league had doubled in size, with eight new teams. However, despite its success, not every city was able to produce an enthralled audience and thereby lost the financial backing of the NBA. In 2002, the NBA sold the WNBA teams to their NBA team counterparts or third-party investors. This transaction ended the Portland Fire and the Miami Sol teams. As of 2010, there were 13 WNBA teams. With an influx of talented players drafted into the WNBA every year, professional women’s basketball has become a premier sporting event with millions of devoted fans around the globe. While the WNBA is stronger than ever with extraordinary players like

Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, DeWanna Bonner, and Cappie Pondexter, there are still a number of gender inequities apparent in comparison to the male organization of the NBA. By far the most striking inequality is player salaries. According to the NBA’s official Website, the salary cap for an entire team for the 2009–10 season is $57.7 million; whereas, the salary cap in the WNBA for the same season is $803,000. Furthermore, the minimum earnings for a first-year player in the WNBA is $34,500, while rookies in the NBA earn a league minimum of $457,588. As a result, numerous WNBA players supplement their income by playing basketball overseas during the WNBA off-season. Despite the persistence of gender inequities, the success of the WNBA has given elite women basketball players a stage on which to display their superior skill level to an American audience and has left no room for doubt about the athletic ability of women as professional athletes. See Also: Equal Pay; Olympics, Summer; Sports, Women in; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Grundy, P., et al. Shattering the Glass: The Dazzling History of Women’s Basketball From the Turn of the Century to the Present. New York: The New Press, 2007. National Basketball Association. “NBA Salary Cap Set for 2009–10 Season.” http://www.nba.com/2009/ news/07/07/salarycap.ap/index.html (accessed November 2009). “Players Union and League Agree on New CBA.” USA Today (January 27, 2008). http://www.usatoday.com /sports/basketball/wnba/2008-01-27-new-cba_N.htm (accessed November 2009). Bettina L. Love Northern Kentucky University

Women’s Ordination Conference The Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), established in 1975, is the oldest organization dedicated to securing women’s ordination in the Roman Catho-



lic Church and their representation in the Synod of Bishops. Importantly, WOC has never sought simply to insert women into the existing church hierarchy but works toward a “renewed priestly ministry” and more egalitarian church structure. Increasingly allied with national and international coalitions, WOC currently focuses on educating Catholic leadership and the public on the need for structural change in the church, supporting women who feel called to the priesthood and strategizing with other faith-based feminist groups. Major Controversies In 1975, Mary B. Lynch and about 30 others planned a small gathering in Detroit; nearly 2,000 attended, including 280 women who self-identified as having been called to the priesthood. The next year, the Vatican declared that the Roman Catholic Church was not authorized to ordain women to the priesthood; this position, affirmed by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, was declared “infallible,” officially silencing any further discussion. Nonetheless, WOC (coordinated for more than a decade by Ruth Fitzpatrick) has acted as a prominent voice of protest. WOC’s most significant internal debate regarded the purpose and value of priesthood and the true nature of a “renewed priestly ministry.” Speaking on the 1995 conference theme “Discipleship of Equals,”

The founding of the Women’s Ordination Conference was influenced by other Christian communions to ordain women.

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Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Diana Hayes encouraged participants not to join the Church’s “kyriarchy” (a system based on dominance) but to engage in alternative priestly ministries in their communities. These ideas sparked a wider vision, although WOC also continued its commitment to ordination. WOC faces continued controversy because of its support for “irregularly” ordained “womenpriests.” In 2002, seven women were ordained as Catholic priests on the River Danube in Austria; although excommunicated, they claim to be part of the Church’s apostolic succession, and two of them officiated at the 2005 ordination of nine women priests on the Canadian St. Lawrence Seaway. There are now more than 50 ordained Catholic women priests, bishops, and deacons. Moving Forward The Young Feminist Network was formed as a WOC subgroup in 1995, and several younger women have since joined WOC’s leadership, including 25-yearold Aisha S. Taylor, who became executive director in 2007, and Erin Saiz Hanna, who took the helm in 2009 at age 29. WOC is also attracting growing numbers of women of color and women from the international community and has increased its commitment to racial justice. Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), an international coalition, was formed in 1996; Andrea Johnson, then WOC’s executive director, served as its first coordinator. At WOW’s first international conference in 2001, keynote speaker American Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister attended in defiance of Vatican orders. Another outgrowth of the WOC is the WomenChurch Convergence. Formed in 1983, this coalition also includes local women-church and social justice groups and larger organizations such as the Roman Catholic Womenpriests and the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual. Other organizations concerned with equality in ordination include CORPUS, Call to Action, FutureChurch, Dignity, and the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church. In 1991, WOC joined these groups and more than 30 others as the coalition Catholic Organizations for Renewal. See Also: Feminist Theology; Priesthood, Roman Catholic; Religion, Women in; Religious Fundamentalism, Cross-Cultural Context of; Roman Catholic Church.

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Further Readings Chaves, Mark. Ordaining Women: Culture and Conflict in Religious Organizations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler. Discipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklsia-logy of Liberation. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1993. Women’s Ordination Conference. “A Voice for Women in the Church.” http://www.womensordination.org (accessed July 2010). Vanessa Baker Bowling Green State University

Women’s Resource Centers Women’s Resource Centers emerged as a response to concerns raised by students, faculty, administrators, and staff about gender inequalities on college and university campuses. The first documented Campus Women’s Center was established at the University of Minnesota in 1960; Women’s Resource Centers now exist at over 400 higher-education institutions in the United States, including public and private institutions providing two- and four-year degree programs. Women’s Resource Centers share many commonalities, such as advocating for institutional and individual level change and equity, improving women’s positions and conditions within the academy, and advancing educational success for women students. Women’s Resource Centers broadly include multiple mission emphases, including, but not limited to, educating a community about gender and gender equity issues; recruiting and retaining students; providing professional development for students, faculty, staff, and administrators; providing support, advocacy, and referrals for any number of personal and/or professional issues; conducting prevention programming for violence against women and responding to victims of assault; and performing research on women, girls, and gender. Women’s Resource Centers also exhibit diversity, as each one is often a local-level response to a particular institution’s needs. For example, although some Women’s Resource Centers are housed in divisions of student affairs, others report to academic

affairs or other sectors of the institution. Similarly, Women’s Resource Centers may support a number of different populations. Some centers provide services and support solely to students, whereas other centers provide services to faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumnae, and community members. Themes and Trends The history of Women’s Resource Centers is formally and informally documented in the personal oral histories of those women who organized the first Women’s Resource Centers, in plays and poems about the experiences of women in higher education, through the creation of Websites, and in multiple other venues. One can broadly categorize the pieces that exist as attending to the following themes: structures of Women’s Resource Centers, challenges and struggles faced by Women’s Resource Centers, and action/ activist practices of Women’s Resource Centers. The literature concerning Women’s Resource Centers begins amid the bodies of knowledge describing the challenges women in the academy face and the parallel challenges in opening and establishing a place/space to center women. For the past three decades, the literature has described the processes of establishing Women’s Resource Centers in the early 1970s and the struggles surrounding their emergence. More recent pieces describe contemporary strategies for opening Women’s Resource Centers amid the closure of several decades-old centers. Furthermore, a great deal of the literature addresses the topic of organizational structures and functions. These pieces illustrate the vast heterogeneity among Women’s Resource Centers, including reporting lines, previous experiences of staff and leaders, and missions and objectives. In addition, structural nuances reflect the dedication of the leaders of Women’s Resource Centers to ascertaining the needs of their constituents when developing their missions and programming by conducting needs assessments of their campuses and the needs of Women’s Resource Centers nationwide. The struggles and challenges that Women’s Resource Centers face are another predominant theme in the available literature. For example, the struggle to maintain adequate levels of funding and/ or sponsorship for Women’s Resource Centers is a significant area of emphasis for scholars and prac-



titioners, as are the challenges associated with reliance on soft monies (i.e., state/federal/private granting agencies). In addition to inadequate resources, another challenge often discussed is Women’s Resource Centers having to overcome stereotypical perceptions of militant, unfriendly activists to establish credibility. This includes negotiating the millennium generation’s negative or apathetic attitudes toward feminism, which may in turn explain reports of poor attendance trends at Women’s Center events. Stereotypical images of Women’s Resource Centers, their staff, and their purpose also contribute to the increased likelihood that Women’s Resource Centers may face unsupportive administrative structures— an issue also discussed in the literature describing strategies for opening Women’s Resource Centers. Action and Activism Interestingly, the third predominant theme in the body of literature addressing Women’s Resource Centers emphasizes action and activism conducted at and through Women’s Resource Centers. Women’s Resource Centers have often led the proactive and reactive efforts to reach gender equity on college campuses by responding to any number of issues that disproportionately affect women in American society. Significantly, Women’s Resource Centers have led campus cultures to recognize and address the persistence of sexual harassment and intimate partner violence among the women in a campus community. Programming initiatives also include an emphasis on overcoming societal discriminations within the academy and society at large by targeting outreach efforts to vulnerable and/or underrepresented populations, such as black and Latina/o students, lesbian and bisexual women, nontraditional students, female institutional administrators, and women in mathematics and computer science. Grounding their action in a model of collaboration with a variety of constituents has long been a significant aim of Women’s Resource Centers. These collaborations often include partnerships with Women’s Studies Departments. In addition, many Women’s Resource Centers have sought innovative partnerships to expand their program offerings, such as outdoor recreation departments and seemingly unlikely departments such as athletics, to expand their sphere of influence. Other collaborations have sought to

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engage communities beyond the university by offering resource and referral provision through the service of Women’s Center volunteers; writing collectives made up of diverse women; and creative entertainment, such as theater performances. Women’s Resource Centers Today Women’s Resource Centers continue to emerge on college and university campuses, despite and because of the numerous measures the academy has instituted to achieve gender equity for students, faculty members, and employees in higher education. Decades of history have emphasized the actions taken by and supported by Women’s Resource Centers, such as organizing students against intimate partner violence, creating women-centered or women-only programming, and lobbying for pay equity for faculty and employees. The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education created Standards and Guidelines for Women Student Programs and Services to assist in evaluating the effectiveness of campus Women’s Resource Centers. The council has identified guidelines and areas of learning specifically for students who interact with Women Student Programs and Services. For example, the purpose of Women Student Programs and Services is articulated as promoting an environment that is safe and equitable for women and that Women Student Programs should enhance the educational environment and educational advancement of women students. Women’s Resource Centers continue to be challenged by a variety of obstacles, from stereotypical biases to resource shortages. Yet Women’s Resource Centers continue to situate their work as vital to the campus learning environment while providing necessary support services. The campus Women’s Resource Center persists as a valuable asset to the college or university and beyond. See Also: College and University Faculty; Educational Administrators, College and University; Feminism on College Campuses; Take Back the Night; Title IX. Further Readings Arcana, Judith. “Witness/Praise for Campus Women’s Centers.” NWSAction, v.17/1 (2005). Davie, Sharon L., ed. University and College Women’s Centers: A Journey Toward Equity. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.

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Dean, Laura, ed. CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education, 6th Ed. Washington, DC: Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education, 2006. Ferree, Myra Marx and Beth B. Hess. Controversy and Coalition: The New Feminist Movement Across Three Decades of Change. New York: Twayne, 1995. Jennifer Wies Eastern Kentucky University

Women’s Review of Books Established in 1983 by editor Linda Gardiner, The Women’s Review of Books is an academic journal encompassing new books emerging from women’s studies and creative writing by women. Its unique perspective and coverage have made it essential reading for feminists and scholars working in interdisciplinary fields. The Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College has recognized the Review’s importance, given the mainstream media’s failure to bring forward the work of women writers and reviewers. Gardiner started the publication to fill a gap. Most book reviewers in the 1980s were men. They reviewed books written by men and published by major houses. Women reviewers, as well as books written by women, were absent from book review sections in national newspapers, journals, and specific review periodicals such as the New York Review of Books and London Review of Books. When the Review began, it was possible for the journal to cover all the books within its scope. Titles from both major publishing houses and independent presses were included. Besides literary and political reviews, the Review contained advertising, plus original illustrations, photography, and poetry. Lengthy letters to the editors created a lively forum for readers to engage, clarify, and criticize each other. Twice-yearly issues focused on specific themes. Feature essays and indepth reviews averaged 1,500 words, in which works by or about women were given critical analysis and review. Classified ads announced available tenure track positions. Noted writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Ursula Le Guin, Marge Piercy, and Francine Prose wrote for the Review, as did scholars including Angela Davis, Arlie Hoschild, and Gerda Lerner. It

showcased a mix of emerging and prominent feminist voices in its reviews and articles. The Review’s last page included a bibliography of books of note received by the editor that were not included in the issue. In the more than two decades of the journal’s existence, the amount of books published within its focus increased to the point that the Review could not cover each one. The bibliography serves scholars and readers with current awareness of publications in women’s studies. Near Demise and Relaunch By 2004, the Review’s declining subscribership hovered at 5,500. The Review’s content was considered too narrow and specialized to appeal to a broad audience. The Review published issues each month except during August, until 2004 when it was suspended due to a financial deficit that it had struggled to surmount for several years. Neither the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College or the College itself had supported the Review, other than providing space for its offices. Two years later, in January 2006, the Review resumed as a bimonthly with a new partner, Old City Books of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which handled advertising, subscription fulfillment, and production; editorial offices remained at Wellesley College. Redesigned in part to appeal to a broader audience, Amy Hoffman was its editor and its only paid staff as of 2010. The Review was reinvigorated because coverage of women writers had not improved in the mainstream media; in fact, it had worsened. Women’s voices were largely silenced, given their near-total absence from opinion writing in the LA Times and other national media outlets. The Review is available online at http://www.wcwonline .org/womensreview and in full text through various vendors, and also in print by subscription. See Also: Feminism, American; Feminist Publishing; Poets, Female; Women’s Colleges; Women’s Studies. Further Readings Frieda’s Feminist Book Blog. “Women’s Review of Books.” January 28, 2006. http://feministbook.blogspot .com/2006/01/womens-review-of-books.html (accessed July 2010). Gardiner, Linda. “Elegy for Edinburgh.” The Nation (August 20, 2001). http://www.thenation.com/ node/22768 (accessed July 2010).

Women’s Studies

Pool, G. Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007. Rebecca Tolley-Stokes East Tennessee State University

Women’s Studies Women’s studies is a multidisciplinary field devoted to exploring women’s issues across diverse populations within local, national, and transnational contexts. The discipline is a relatively modern addition to the backdrop of the academy, its early roots traced to women’s exclusion from civic and academic life where, centuries ago, women’s college attendance was regarded as experimental. Today, women’s well-staked ground in higher education contextualizes the origin and advancement of contemporary feminist thought and the subsequent charting of the Women’s Studies field. From the Ferment of the Sixties Women’s studies as an academic rubric unto itself emerged in the latter part of 1960s, growing out of faculty and student activism common to feminism’s second wave—a movement defined by women’s fight for reproductive freedoms and sexual, family, and workplace parities. The late 1800s to 1920s suffrage movement, known as feminism’s first wave, is an earlier precursor to women’s political struggle for equality that is fundamental to the discipline’s historical formation. Mapped as riding the tails of american and ethnic studies, women’s studies—originally termed female studies—first appeared in 1970 at San Diego State College, now San Diego University. Richmond College, then part of the City University of New York, quickly followed suit, as did numerous colleges and universities worldwide. Beginning as scattered courses cropping up in established disciplines such as philosophy, english, and most prominently history, women’s studies is now a discrete field with certificates of concentration and degrees awarded at the bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. levels. With only a handful of Ph.D. programs, interest exceeds space. The University of Maryland, for example, often receives over 100 applications for six Ph.D. slots. From its 1960s

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inception into the academy to its current expansion in identity—from strictly women to, on many campuses, women and gender, or just gender studies; and branches of research, from solely women, to at many institutions, women, gender, sexuality, masculinity, queer—women’s studies has and continues to push against the traditional disciplinary boundaries defining academia. Despite more than 900 women’s studies programs or departments operating in institutions around the globe, women’s studies remains a celebrated but contested space of knowledge. Some of women’s studies’s contested ground reflects a pedagogical base that challenges age-old educational doctrines rooted in masculine thought. Central to women’s studies’ scholarly conception is opposition to patriarchal knowledge produced through male-oriented worldviews known to isolate women from their own realities. Corrective in measure, women’s studies advances feminist knowledge devoid of masculine-based epistemologies that have marginalized or excluded women’s perspectives. Informed through branches of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and the arts, women’s studies provides a lens into the historical, social, psychological, and biological construction of sex and gender identity, and it extends a feminist platform to analyze the complex and intersectional dimensions of person and place studied through diverse theoretical orientations, such as liberal, radical, queer, eco, Marxist, psychoanalytic, postmodern, and black feminist thought. Sexual identity, gender variance, violence against women, female genital mutilation, women’s embodiment, politics of difference, and reproductive technologies illustrate some of the thematic rudiments distinct to women’s studies curricula. The intersectional dimensions of race, class, gender, and ability also form the crux of women’s studies knowledge. With its intradisciplinary and multidisciplinary reach, most present-day academic disciplines draw on women’s and/or gender-based constructs. Unique Positions in the Discipline Women’s Studies’ grounding in the academy brought unique professorships in the discipline, many beginning as research specializations affiliated with longstanding departments that offered women’s studies courses. Scores of these posts have transitioned to

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stand-alone tenure track positions offered through interconnected disciplines or women’s studies departments unique unto themselves, although many institutions rely on part-time faculty to teach what remain auxiliary women’s studies courses. Paralleling these teaching and research configurations came the 1977 founding of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), an organization dedicated to advancing gender, class, and race-based teaching, learning, research, and service initiatives. There are countless more professional organizations, many clustered by region and/or defined by feminist politics, that hold affinity with Women’s Studies. The National Organization for Women (NOW), a bastion for liberal feminist causes, and the American Association of University Women, a mainstay in an educational equity arena, are two Western examples. The Worldwide Organization for Women’s Studies (WOWS) and Women’s International Studies Europe (WISE) are two agencies that steward international feminist educational concerns. In knowledge dissemination, an array of scholarly journals have grown out of women’s studies, and as an extension to these, many specialized research spheres that center on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and queer identity, sex-work, masculinity, girl studies, and women’s global human rights. Recently, Internet blogging has transformed the women’s studies’ information landscape, extending a site for virtual discourse on the social and political matrix distinctive to women and/or gender considerations. Feminist press as text, film, and electronic media are further modes of knowledge transmission unique to the women’s studies field. Progress Made Known for its scholarly vitality in the context of academic policy, women’s studies engenders both disciplinary progress and organizational pause. Much of women’s studies progress is attributed to the field’s expansive knowledge base produced by a talented range of feminist scholars, while some of its organizational pauses are attributed to the academy’s residual skepticism of a field that challenges phallocentric thinking. These pieces of growth and variability mark women’s studies’ evolving course and the feminist agency this prevailing branch of knowledge has introduced. Here, women’s studies offers a criti-

cal lens into a dichotomy of contrast that shapes its historical and contemporary landscape. Autonomy versus integration, sustainability versus inventiveness, and subversion versus authority are key tenets central to women’s studies’s disciplinary conception, and even more prominent to a modern-day discourse that bears on its identity and place within structures internal and external to the academy. Resource driven, this study in opposites reverberates among institutions nationwide and in a global context: women’s studies seeks autonomy while it also desires integration into the disciplines; it reaches for sustainability at the departmental level yet secures ground through creative intersections; it uncovers knowledge on women’s marginality but relies on this contested space as a platform of power and expertise. Regardless of setting, resting at the fulcrum of women’s studies is the construction of subject, which, unto itself, introduces paradox in that the various dimensions of personal and social identity bring sameness and contrast, and unity and division, with a range of less discrete gradations in what we know as an expansive span of self. While at surface inspection, from the lens of empirical science, this duality in disciplinary identity and contribution is potentially conflict ridden, women’s studies’ power share resides in its diversity, both in examining the complexity of subject, and, more so, in its rigorous scholarship contributions that enrich our understanding of self and place in education and society. In blending feminist theory with praxis, thereby integrating scholastic knowledge with lived experience, women’s studies transgresses the very disciplinary constraints in which it has staked a legitimate and rising claim. As women’s studies continues to evolve, efforts to deconstruct a gende -binary are balanced with preserving the rich, women-centered scholarly focus fundamental to the field’s historical origins and philosophical core. Women’s studies’ first and now second generation of graduates, working in industry, education, and civic-minded vocations, evidence the discipline’s formative and enduring social and political overlay. No longer experimental, women’s place in the academy and knowledge advanced through women’s studies continue to forge strategic ground. How should women’s studies catalog itself? Is masculinity studies part of women’s studies? Does gender studies erase women? These are imminent questions poised

Women’s Thrift Cooperatives



for new and rising scholars. Feminism’s third wave, a postmodern space defined by its diversity of identity and wide-ranging radical to conservative feminist standpoints, bears on women’s studies’ future disciplinary direction and its progressive research and teaching scope. See Also: American Association of University Women; Ecofeminism; Education, Women in; Feminism on College Campuses; Feminist Publishing; Gender, Defined; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Global Feminism; LGBTQ; National Organization for Women; National Women’s Studies Association; Queer Theory; Reproductive and Sexual Health Rights; Transgender; Womanism. Further Readings Bates, Ülkü Ü., Florence L. Denmark, Virginia Held, Dorothy O. Helly, and Hunter College Women’s Studies Collective. Women’s Realities, Women’s Choices: An Introduction to Women’s Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Boxer, Marilyn Jacoby. When Women Ask the Questions: Creating Women’s Studies in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Davis, Kathy E., et al., eds. Handbook of Gender and Women’s Studies. London: Sage, 2006. Ginsberg, Alice E. The Evolution of American Women’s Studies: Reflections on Triumphs, Controversies, and Change. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Luebke, Barbara F. and Mary Ellen Reilly. Women’s Studies Graduates: The First Generation. New York: Teachers College Press, 1995. Wiegman, Robyn, ed. Women’s Studies on Its Own: A Next Wave Reader in Institutional Change. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Barbara LeSavoy State University of New York, Brockport

Women’s Thrift Cooperatives Women’s thrift cooperatives (WTCs) are selfmanaging and self-financing microfinance institutions (MFIs) whose membership consists entirely of women. An outgrowth of the Hyderbad-based,

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nongovernmental organization (NGO) Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) in India, WTCs were formed after the CDF attempted to promote the involvement of women in existing cooperatives but encountered resistance from men in those organizations. After a number of attempts to work through another organization in the late 1980s to establish thrift cooperatives for women, the CDF embarked upon its own efforts to promote the formation of WTCs. With a focused attention on the districts of Karimnagar and Warangal in the state of Andhra Pradesh (located on the southeastern coast of India), the CDF helped to establish the first women’s thrift cooperative in 1990. Although they represent a type of MFI, WTCs are different from the most well-known MFIs, such as Grameen Bank and Acción International in that they are savings-led institutions. Thus, in WTCs, in contrast to other MFIs, all money lent out to borrowers originates solely from member savings. Another key characteristic that differentiates WTCs from the more well-known institutions is their focus on the building of cooperatives through interactions between the technical assistance provider (CDF) and the women who form and run them, as opposed to MFIs, which are normally constructed top down by professionals who work for NGOs, in order to offer credit to a market of borrowers. Membership To become a member, a woman must reside in the WTC’s service area and may join after paying the initial membership fee and the first month’s thrift amount. Once a member, she must be current on her monthly thrift payment to maintain her borrowing privileges, which are limited to three times her thrift saving balance if she is a member of a Joint Liability Group (JLG) and up to 75 percent of her thrift amount if she is not. Only one member of a JLG can borrow in any given month, though all members of the group may have loans out simultaneously. To be eligible for other loans, all members of the group must be in good standing on their thrift and loan payments. Additionally, all members must sign the loan application for any one member, and, as such, they are the formal guarantors of the loan. As with other MFIs, women’s thrift cooperatives were created in the hopes of providing financial services to low-income people who have traditionally

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lacked access to banking and other related services to help them improve their economic status. Recent research reflects a division of opinion as to whether such institutions are actually capable of eradicating poverty on a wide and meaningful scale, but it is generally agreed that WTCs have been quite effective at empowering women, increasing their potential for positive collective action at the political level, as well as improving their traditional status in families and in their communities. See Also: Fair Trade; Microcredit; Nongovernmental Organizations Worldwide; Social Justice Activism; Women in Farm Economy; Women’s Environment and Development Organization. Further Readings Premchander, Smita, et al. Multiple Meanings of Money: How Women See Microfinance. New Delhi, India: Sage, 2009. Stuart, G. “Caste Embeddedness and Microfinance.” John F. Kennedy School of Government Working Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. Stuart, G, and S. Kanneganti. “Embedded Cooperation: Women’s Thrift Cooperatives in Andhra Pradesh.” John F. Kennedy School of Government Working Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. Danielle Roth-Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Working Mothers Although it is more than 30 years since equal opportunities laws were enacted in Britain and the United States, there is still a marked correlation between motherhood and discrimination in the labor market. This entry explains how working mothers have historically been constrained by expectations that “good” mothers should focus on childcare and housework rather than paid work. It explains how today’s working mothers are still oppressed by what is termed the Institution of Motherhood. This is because social views on the maternal role remain persistently unchanged. In addition, the entry observes how many working mothers are treated unfairly in their jobs, are unsup-

ported by their employers, and are paid less than men in equivalent roles. Historical Overview of Working Motherhood During the 1970s, the issue of motherhood and employment was at the center of political and feminist debate. Mothers felt torn as they responded to new opportunities in the labor market while attempting concurrently to meet the social ideals of the good mother. In 1977, in her seminal text Of Woman Born, the American feminist scholar Adrienne Rich highlighted the debate on working motherhood from a personal perspective, observing how the vision of the perfect mother at home, no matter how idealistic, made working mothers’ lives a misery. In the 1970s, on both sides of the Atlantic, while the debates about mothers’ right to work were raging, governments began to implement new laws and policies relating to equal opportunities and equal pay for women. This legislation was supposed to protect women from being treated unfairly at work, either due to their gender and/or because they were mothers. However, during the period when the equal opportunities laws were enacted, the notion that mothers should be encouraged to go out to work—and the idea that employed women should be paid the same as men—were seen as highly controversial. This controversy was due to assumptions that women’s destiny was motherhood and that motherhood was incompatible with paid work. In the 1950s and 1960s, an image of the ideal housewife and mother was perpetuated within popular culture. Women who fit this image were seen to be heterosexual, married mothers, whose central focus was their children and their home. These idealized notions of motherhood were reflected in the work of the American sociologist Talcott Parsons. Caroline Gatrell has argued that Parsons’s vision of the nuclear family was influential in Britain and the United States because it presented family life as encapsulating the gendered division of labor—an ideal that the governments and industrialists of the time found very attractive. Fathers went out to work while mothers were anchored firmly in the home, raising children, doing the housework, and boosting the economy by shopping for food and domestic goods. Thus, prior to the 1970s, maternal work was understood only in terms of reproductive and household labor. The “correct” way of performing the work of motherhood was



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thus socially defined and, as Rich observed, it did not include paid employment or work-orientation because these characteristics were associated only with men. During the 1950s and 1960s, employment opportunities for women with dependent children were thus very limited. Not only was it seen as unsuitable for mothers to engage in paid work, but it was unlikely that they would be treated equally with men if they did so. Prior to the enactment of antidiscrimination legislation in the 1970s, it was legitimate to dismiss a working woman if she married or if she became pregnant. It was also legal to pay a woman less money than a man for doing an equivalent job—a phenomenon known as the gender pay gap. The Institution of Motherhood Nevertheless, during the 1960s, the number of employed mothers began to creep up. As more women entered the labor market, the women’s liberation movement started to campaign for equal pay and conditions for women and especially mothers. In particular, feminist scholars Betty Friedan and Rich challenged the idea that women should be tied to the home once they had children. While these scholars celebrated motherhood as central to the identity of many women, they expressed anger at the social ideal of the stay-at-home mother, which implied that good mothering excluded the possibility of paid work. Rich, in particular, regarded the Institution of Motherhood as a purely social construction. Rich argued that the Institution of Motherhood had been established by a patriarchal society to ensure that men had access to job opportunities and financial security, while mothers remained dependant on men and trapped at home. Rich and other writers on motherhood during the 1970s and the early 1980s have since been criticized for debating issues that were pertinent to highly educated middle-class mothers but less relevant to mothers with fewer social opportunities. It is certainly true that, during the 1960s and ’70s, many working-class women had no choice but to combine motherhood with employment—often for low wages and limited career opportunities. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge how feminist scholars like Rich made significant contributions to the equal opportunities agenda, pressing forward the idea that mothers should be entitled to equal opportunities within the labor market.

Working mothers have been constrained by expectations that “good” mothers should focus on childcare and housework.

Over the past 30 years, partly in response to the feminist agenda, antidiscrimination and equal pay legislation has been enhanced for the purpose of protecting employed women. Since the 1980s, the percentage of mothers in paid work has risen sharply across all occupations. Although this remains classed and for well-educated women, opportunities to participate in paid employment are still greater than for those who are poorly qualified. However, while women’s employment has increased since the 1970s, with enhanced job opportunities for mothers, as well as the possibility of flexible working, it is still, usually, men who hold the most prestigious posts within the labor market. This is especially the case in the professions that were previously open only to men, for example, medicine, academia, finance, and law. Working Motherhood Today Although there are many more working mothers now than in the 1970s, the Institution of Motherhood

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identified by Rich continues to haunt women. Regardless of arguments supporting the notion of equal opportunities for mothers, Arlie Hochschild and Gatrell have both observed how women with children continue to be criticized (and even vilified) for combining motherhood with paid work. This is because, even today, working mothers are often regarded as failing to meet the standard of the ideal mother, whose central focus is her home and her children. Contemporary criticism of working mothers is often especially harsh when children are in their infant years. Furthermore, while today’s mothers should, in theory, receive the same pay as fathers in equivalent jobs, in practice, a gender pay gap continues to exist. In the United Kingdom (UK), this is around 17 percent for full-time women employees and, as Padavic and Reskin note, is even higher in the United States, at around 20 percent for full-time female workers. Despite 30 years of antidiscrimination laws, therefore, the treatment of employed women is thus still often unfair. This unfair treatment is seen to be related first and foremost to motherhood, which has been consistently linked to workplace discrimination against women. Discrimination against working mothers occurs before children are even born, beginning as soon as women become pregnant. In the UK, up to 30,000 women experience pregnancy discrimination each year due to an inaccurate belief, on the part of employers, that motherhood is incompatible with employment. Despite research by Karen Lyness et al. that shows how employers’ assumptions about pregnancy and low work orientation are inaccurate, impending motherhood is nevertheless associated by employers with a reduction in women’s workplace commitment. The unfair treatment of pregnant women at work continues once children are born. Mothers, especially those who work part time, are seen as less work-orientated and less competent than previously. Employers make further assumptions that mothers may be absent from work, due to fears that infant children may become ill. Such assumptions often result in lowered employer commitment to working mothers, who may be passed over for promotion, downgraded, and placed firmly on the “mommy track,” where exciting new projects are unavailable and career options are usually limited.

The Challenges of Combining Motherhood and Employment Unfair treatment at work is not the only challenge facing working mothers today. The day-to-day practicalities of managing childcare and infant nutrition alongside employment place mothers under tremendous pressure. This is because, when children are very young, childcare is often scarce and costly. Furthermore, despite widespread publicity encouraging mothers to breastfeed beyond the first year of infants’ lives, organizations make little attempt to support breastfeeding mothers. Few employers offer breaks for breast pumping or feeding, and few provide suitable accommodation for breastfeeding infants or expressing milk. This means that mothers’ ability to combine breastfeeding with paid work may be class related, since women in higher-paid roles may have access to their own office space, a privilege which is not usually available to women in lower-paid jobs. Thus, as Gatrell has observed, mothers in workingclass or junior roles, should they continue breastfeeding on the return from maternity leave, may be left with no alternative other than to express milk in the lavatory area. This denial, on the part of employers, of the needs of what Gatrell terms the maternal body, means that pregnant women and mothers often feel excluded and marginalized at work. They may thus feel under pressure to conceal their maternal identity in the workplace because they fear that, through revealing signs of motherhood, they may be regarded as unreliable or uncommitted to their jobs. The Second Shift Working mothers may be further disadvantaged because, as Hochschild has observed, mothers often continue to bear the burden of domestic labor at home, in addition to their paid work. Unless mothers are in lesbian relationships, most carry the lion’s share of housework, regardless of whether they are cohabiting and no matter how many hours of paid work they undertake, while fathers continue to be allocated the role of “helper.” Employed mothers—even if they work part-time as opposed to full-time hours—often find themselves working very long days, carrying a double load of paid work and domestic chores. As a consequence, the free time remaining to most employed mothers is significantly less than that of their male partners. Even today, while some men may be inter-

Work/Life Balance



ested in establishing involved relationships with their children, few are motivated to take responsibility for the least attractive aspects of household labor. It appears, then, that many working mothers are faced with a triple bind as they struggle not only to be good employees and good mothers but also to manage the lion’s share of the housework. In addition, although mothers may now be said to have “choice” about whether to enter the labor market, it is arguable that the Institution of Motherhood remains oppressive to women. This is because women continue to feel under pressure to fulfill social expectations regarding good motherhood, while at the same time coping with the gender pay gap and limited career opportunities in the labor market. See Also: Childcare; Domestic Workers; Equal Pay; Gender Roles, Cross-Cultural; Working Mothers; Work/ Life Balance. Further Readings Gatrell, Caroline J. Embodying Women’s Work. Maidenhead, U.K.: Open University Press, 2008. Gatrell, Caroline J. Hard Labor: The Sociology of Parenthood. Maidenhead, U.K.: Open University Press, 2005. Hochschild, A. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New York: Henry Holt, 1997. Lyness, K. S., et al. “Work and Pregnancy: Individual and Organizational Factors Influencing Organizational Commitment, Timing of Maternity Leave, and Return to Work.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 41/7–8 (1999). Padavic, I. and B. Reskin. Women and Men at Work. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002. Rich, A. Of Woman Born, Motherhood as Experience and Institution, London: Virago, 1977. Caroline J. Gatrell Lancaster University Management School

Work/Life Balance Work/life balance is the precarious art of men’s and women’s balancing act of their multiple roles and responsibilities associated with engagement in paid work and unpaid activities, such as family care, com-

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munity service, professional development, and selfcare. This also involves mechanisms that employers enact to help employees effectively handle work/life pressures so that they can be more productive and achieve their goals. Women, many of whom were mothers, entering the workforce in increasing numbers in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States and Canada created a need for greater emphasis on supports requisite to maintaining the status quo in businesses and homes. Thus, women in the workforce likely were the impetus for the term work/life balance. Employers found that working women needed child care, maternity leave, and flexible schedules more than their traditional male workers. Beginning in the 1980s and gaining momentum ever since, work/life balance has become a term frequently used to describe the combination of the two critical spheres in working men’s and women’s lives— work and home. This is likely due to technological advancements that elevated work and family pressures. With the increase of dual-earner households, due in part to growing economic constraints and social demands and greater emphasis on quality life outside of work, work/life balance reflects an aspiration of all working people, regardless of whether or not they are married or have children. Most adults want jobs that support their work/life balance. Possibly in response to the new stresses working adults faced post–World War II that emerged from men’s and women’s engagement in the labor force, businesses took notice and provided potential stress solutions, which evolved into workplace best practices in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Stress management strategies gained popularity, while work hours and on-the-job demands increased significantly over the last six decades. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for adults to be working 50 hours or more a week and traveling greater distances for work, which is not counted in their work hours. The Stress Effect Around the 1970s, stress became a popular, and frequently overused, household and workplace term. This was the result of the rapid rate of change coupled with technological advancements that brought about a new hurried pace of life. For many, trying to do more with less and for less, without the level of job

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security that workers found prior to the recessions of the late 20th century, added another layer of pressure to their already challenging jobs. Research indicates that many workers report their job stress resulted in health problems. It is well documented that stress can manifest into more serious health problems that pose long-term consequences for the whole family. As a result, there has been a rise in rates of absenteeism and a decrease in productivity, as well as direct medical costs of stress-related conditions, which are estimated to cost over $150 billion each year. Stress is the essence of imbalance. The daily hassles and busyness of our lives that cause stress simultaneously throw us off balance. Traffic delays, long checkout lines, crashing hard drives, and pending layoffs can wreak havoc on the physical and mental health of working people. Over a 10-year period, beginning in the late 1980s, the percentage of people reporting greater stress as a result of trying to balance their work and home lives increased by more than 20 percent. Similarly, work/life conflict, defined as a disagreement between an individual’s work and family/life roles, is becoming increasingly problematic, especially as reported by men. Work/life conflict can be seen as the impetus for individual stress, as well as for the attention businesses pay to work/life balance. Corporations’ response to the rise in employee stress is to offer stress management interventions, including lunch-and-learn series on topics related to stress and management techniques, workshops on meditation, yoga, breathing, relaxation, time management, and offering onsite massages and demonstrations designed to build resilience to stress. Time Shortage One of the biggest limitations to work/life balance in a hurried society is time. Consequently, adults often short-change themselves in order to spare time for tasks. An unfortunate example can be found with engagement in health-promoting behaviors. Health behavior is responsible for 60 percent of health status, so it is imperative that adults not sacrifice their self-care. Daily, adults trade exercise for early evening meetings, grab fast food to eat at their desks in order to keep working, skip hours of sleep to prepare reports at home until late in the evening when their families have gone to bed, cancel doctor appointments in lieu of missing work deadlines, and suf-

fer from headaches and back pain in the absence of occupational stress management. The cumulative effect of this lifestyle adds up to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, feeling overwhelmed, and increased susceptibility to colds and flu. Unmanaged, these symptoms can lead to cardiovascular disease, cancers, osteoporosis, depression, diabetes, and compromised immune systems. Although more time cannot be added to the day, more time can be found within a day by making conscious choices, goal setting, advanced planning, placing restrictions on work, and practicing work/life balance. What’s Involved in Realizing Work/Life Balance Although work/life balance may be an individual goal, awareness by employers of work/life needs, issues, and practices is paramount to individual’s attainment of some semblance of balance. Full balance may be idealistic; it may exceed most people’s reach. However, there are several things that employers can do to support their employees as they strive for a smooth integration of their roles and responsibilities. Consistent with an individualistic approach, there is not a one-size approach to work/life balance. Despite the fact that work/life balance is more an individual issue with an affective relationship to the workplace than it is a workplace issue that affects the individual, workplaces stand to gain a competitive advantage through implementation of work/life initiatives, such as recruitment and retention strategies, increases in morale, productivity, satisfaction, and commitment. However, true work/life balance will be achieved when employers’ and employees’ efforts are complementary. Trends in Workplace Support Workforce demands for work/life balance motivate employers to integrate initiatives designed to support their employees. Businesses are gaining momentum in responding to their employees’ needs for work/life balance, although the response varies greatly from one business to another. It is in style to be considered a “family-friendly workplace.” This designation not only acknowledges employees’ work and personal/family responsibilities but provides a respectful response via policies, programs, and practices that allow employees to meet their expectations while enhancing their health and quality of life. The following is a short list



of examples of support options workplaces often offer employees: childcare, elder care, information and referral, flexible work schedules, paid parental leave, retirement planning, education and training, tuition reimbursement or credits, concierge services (i.e., dry cleaning, prepared meals, banking), health insurance, fitness centers, and health education. Workplace Culture and Climate Offering employees a menu of options is only one step toward changing workplace culture and climate. Merely making work/life/family-friendly options available does not equate with high utilization among employees, even if they want and need the options. Studies have shown that supervisors’ support of work/life options is indicative of employee utilization. In studies where supervisors made negative comments in relation to employees’ request for information about work/life policies, employees were less likely to take advantage of policies, primarily out of fear of retribution, a hostile work environment, and being typecast as needing assistance to perform. Overcoming these casualties of workplace culture and climate are essential for work/life initiatives to be successful. Collaboration among stakeholders, nurturing existing alliances, and building new partnerships are keys to making changes that will last and achieve their desired outcomes: improved work/ life balance for employees and employees effectively handling work/life demands so that they can be more productive at work and in other aspects of life. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Childcare; Depression; Elder Care; Heart Disease; Parental Leave; Part-Time Work; Working Mothers. Further Readings Eisen, Katherine P., George J. Allen, Mary Bollash, and Linda S. Pescatello. “Stress Management in the Workplace: A Comparison of a Computer-Based and an In-Person Stress-Management Intervention.” Computers in Human Behavior, v.24/2 (2008). Goetzel, Ron Z., et al. “Promising Practices in Employer Health and Productivity Management Efforts: Findings From a Benchmarking Study.” Journal of Environmental Medicine, v.49/2 (2007). Harrington, Brad and Douglas T. Hall. Career Management & Work/Life Integration: Using Self-Assessment to

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Navigate Contemporary Careers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2008. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. “Work-Life Balance in Canadian Workplaces.” http:// www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/lp/slipa/wlb/01home.shtml (accessed May 2009). Partnership for Prevention. Healthy Workforce 2010: An Essential Health Promotion Sourcebook for Employers, Large and Small. Washington, DC: Partnership for Prevention, 2001. Michele Vancour Southern Connecticut State University

World Health Organization The World Health Organization, also known as WHO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that has the authority to direct and coordinate matters of global health. Established by constitution on April 7, 1948 (now known as World Health Day), and following principles of the UN, its stated goal is to achieve the highest possible level of health for the world’s population. This is an especially difficult task since, by its constitution, WHO understands that “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Currently, WHO has two key measures of its performance: women’s health and health in Africa. Governed by the World Health Assembly, comprising 34 executive members with expertise in the health field, WHO’s delegates from 193 member states meet once a year at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with the intent to promote health for all, regardless of social position or geographic location. Employing a broadened understanding of health to include social and economic determinants, WHO operates from a multifaceted, six-point agenda to promote global health for global good. Health Objectives The first two points of the six are health objectives, including the promotion of socioeconomic development and the fostering of health security from the emergence of epidemics. The first of the second two

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World Health Organization mate change, environmental and humanitarian emergencies, and human rights and health law. Understanding, also, that certain groups and geographical regions, due to ecology, climate, history, and politics, have more access to resources than others, it is recognized that sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest global burden of disease. As such, improvements in the health status of people of this region is also used as a key measure of WHO’s performance. Women’s health, as another key measure of WHO’s performance, also reflects the health of a nation, in part, through the rate of maternal mortality. Linking both key performance measures, it is important to note that Africa has the highest global rate of maternal mortality. A women’s lifetime risk of dying during or around the time of childbirth is almost 500 times higher than for a woman in the developed world. Africa also accounts for two-thirds of the people living with HIV, approximately 61 percent being women. WHO recognizes that when women’s health status improves, the health status of households and communities improves, as does income level, which is another determinant of health.

A child receives a poliomyelitis vaccination and immunization implemented by the World Health Organization in Ethiopia.

points, operating as a poverty reduction strategy, is the strengthening of health systems, and the second involves research to better set priorities, define strategies, and measure results. The last two points of the six-point agenda involve operational approaches to enhance collaboration and partnerships and reform to improve efficiency and effectiveness at national and international levels. Employing a political economy of health approach, WHO is engaged in many projects, including but not limited to those involving public health, globalization, disease surveillance, health promotion and safety, cli-

See Also: Global Feminism; Health, Mental and Physical; HIV/AIDS: Africa; Maternal Mortality; Poverty. Further Readings MacLean, Sandra Jean, Sherri Brown, and Pieter Fourie. Health for Some: The Political Economy of Global Health Governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Staples, Amy L. S. The Birth of Development: How the World Bank, Food And Agriculture Organization, and World Health Organization Have Changed the World 1945–1965 (New Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations). Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006. World Health Organization. “Data and Statistics.” http:// www.who.int/research/en (accessed November 2009). Deborah Davidson York University

X Xtreme Sports Xtreme sports, which emerged during the 1960s and 1970s when women athletes were struggling for positioning in mainstream traditional sports, are also often referred to as “alternative,” “extreme,” “x,” “gravity,” “lifestyle,” and “adventure” sports. The term extreme encompasses various activities, many of which are often dangerous, involve significant risk, and occur in the wilderness or outdoors. An effective system of classification denotes where the events take place: snow, ice, rock, raging water, air, and skate parks. Female athletes participated frequently in early versions of extreme sports. The sports celebrate freedom and liberty, as female participants epitomized strength, individuality, and courage. Extreme sports can provide women with an alternative identity compared with traditional sports, and therefore women can experience empowerment via their participation. In 2003, there was heightened participation in extreme sports for women; for instance, snowboarding, kayaking, and paintball were the three fastestgrowing sports for U.S. women. Despite rapid growth in the United States, Queenstown, New Zealand, calls itself the “Adventure Sports Capital of the World” and the birthplace of bungee jumping. In recent years, women’s participation has increased in extreme sports; however, taking physical risk in sports remains primarily a masculine

endeavor. Women were often criticized for taking unnecessary risks through participation in sport by the medical community and mainstream society. And it was believed that women were not adequately biologically equipped to handle such activities. The discourse surrounding mountaineer Alison Hargreaves’s suitability to participate in high-risk mountaineering demonstrates the tensions female athletes face when participating in extreme sports. Despite being one of the top climbers in the world, she was criticized severely in media reports following her death on K2 Mountain in 1995 for risking her life because she was a mother. The common belief was that mothers should not risk their bodies, and lives, to perform dangerous physical activities. Each extreme sport has its own history, environment, geography, identity, development patterns, equipment, physical requirements, and therefore gender constructions and relations. Consequently, some extreme sports are believed to be more male dominated than others. Women athletes are treated with respect among fellow extreme participants when considered “one of the boys”—if they can keep up with the big jumps and daring moves. Ultimately, extreme sports are defined by male standards. The X Games The X Games showcase extreme sports and are considered the Olympic Games of the extreme sport world. The games were created in the early 1990s in 1595

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The Winter X Games are one of the most extreme winter sporting competitions in the world and attract athletes from around the globe. Female snowboarders have competed in the X Games since they were launched in 1997.

the United States and attract a worldwide audience. The Summer X Games include events such as Bike Stunts, Moto X, Speed Climb, Wakeboard, Bungee Jumping, Skysurfing, Skateboard Street, Aggressive In-line Skate, and Downhill BMX. The Winter X Games showcase Snowmobiling, Ice Climbing, Ski Boarding, Snowboarding, and Ski Slopestyle. Female snowboarders have been included in the X Games since its inauguration in 1997; however, female skateboarders and freestyle skiers did not make the program until 2002 and 2005, respectively. For athletes who consider themselves part of the counterculture that the X Games produces, a gold medal at the X Games in snowboarding holds more significance than gold from the Olympics.

Extreme Athletes in Advertising and Media Male and female participants of extreme sports are marketed differently; furthermore, extreme female athletes are often sexualized in the media and in advertising campaigns. Males attempt to demonstrate their masculinity through participation in extreme activities, whereas female participants attempt to showcase and prove that they are not in fact “typical women.” Most women X Game athletes try not to act like stereotypical women because they want to be accepted in the sport and attempt to demonstrate that they can handle the required physical exertion as well as the male participants. There have been numerous feature films that showcase the extreme sporting culture. In most cases, the female subject is missing, and if she



does appear, her role is typically not as one of the main “stars.” Generally, fellow male outdoor enthusiasts comment that she is as good as her male counterpart. Therefore, the male standard is what ability is measured and compared to for all participants. Athletes interviewed in the films note that sometimes the only way to differentiate between male and female athletes is the woman’s ponytail bouncing around in the wind. Most extreme sports require head protection gear, and consequently one of the main distinguishing characteristics between male and female athletes in extreme sports is the length and style of hair. Despite the struggles and tension that women can experience with their participation in extreme sports, they continue to make important strides to solidify their position among the daring of the popular extreme sporting culture.

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See Also: Cowboy Action Shooting; Roller Derby; Sports, Women in; Stereotypes of Women. Further Readings Beal, Becky. “Alternative Masculinity and its Effects on Gender Relations in the Subculture of Skateboarding.” Journal of Sport Behaviour, v.19/3 (1996). McNamee, Mike, ed. Philosophy, Risk and Adventure Sports. London: Routledge, 2007. Olsen, Marilyn. Women Who Risk: Profiles of Women in Extreme Sports. New York: Hatherleigh Press, 2001. Rinehart, Robert E. and Synthia Snydor, eds. To the Extreme: Alternative Sports, Inside and Out. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003. Charlene Weaving St. Francis Xavier University

Y Yates, Andrea Andrea (Kennedy) Yates, born July 2, 1964, is known for killing her five children, who ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years. She methodically drowned them in the family bathtub in their suburban home in Houston, Texas, on June 20, 2001. After wrapping the bodies in sheets and placing them on the bed, she called the police and confessed. Yates was psychotic at the time of the murders, but she claims that her major motive was altruistic. She was under the delusion that killing her children by sending them to God would save them from evil. She told investigators that she was not an appropriate mother and that her children were not “developing correctly.” Since they “could never be saved” and were doomed to “perish in the fires of hell,” she felt she had no choice but to kill them. Yates was an excellent student, graduating as valedictorian from high school. She earned a college degree in nursing and worked in that capacity until her first child was born. Yates married Russell “Rusty” Yates, a computer programmer for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in 1993. Though Yates was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, she recanted her beliefs when she and Russell became involved in a very small, cultlike church that espoused a form of fundamentalist Christianity. A few years before Yates killed her children, she was hospitalized several times for psychosis, halluci-

nations, self-harm, and suicide attempts. In fact, Yates was diagnosed with postpartum depression after the birth of her first child. Against medical advice but due to her husband’s religious beliefs, which insisted on unregulated conception, Yates continued to have babies at approximately 18-month intervals. Her husband’s Christian beliefs also required home schooling of the children. In March 2002, Yates was found guilty of murder, and she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. However, upon appeal in July 2006, it was ruled that Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity. She was moved to a highsecurity mental health facility, where she received medical treatment. She has since been moved to a low-security mental hospital. Filicide is ultimately a family issue and should be understood within this context. The role of other caregivers in filicide, including families and friends who surround the mother and children, has yet to be adequately studied. In the case of Yates, it is possible the deaths might not have occurred had people responded to her mental condition. See Also: Contraception, Religious Approaches to; Fundamentalist Christianity; Mothers in Prison; Postpartum Psychosis; Prisoners, Female. Further Readings Crittenden, P. McKinsey. Raising Parents: Attachment Parent and Child Safety. Devon, UK: Willan, 2008.

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Friedman, Susan Hatters, et al. “Child Murder by Mothers: A Critical Analysis of the Current State of Knowledge and a Research Agenda.” American Journal of Psychiatry, v.162/9 (2005). Freidman, Susan Hatters and Phillip J. Resnick. “Child Murder by Mothers: Patterns and Prevention.” World Psychiatry, v.6 (2007). Koenen, Mark A. and John W. Thompson Jr. “Filicide— Historic Review and Prevention of Child Death By Parent.” Infant Mental Health Journal, v.29/1 (2008). McKee, Geoffrey R. Why Mothers Kill: A Forensic Psychologist’s Case Book. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. McLellan, Faith. “Mental Health and Justice: The Case of Andrea Yates.” The Lancet, v.368 (2006). Meyer, C. L., et al. Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms From Susan Smith to Prom Mom. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Mugavin, Marie. “A Meta-Synthesis of Filicide Classification Systems: Psychosocial and Psychodynamic Issues in Women Who Kill Their Children.” Journal of Forensic Nursing, v.1 (2005). Oberman, Michelle and Cheryl L. Meyer. Mothers Who Kill: Interviews from Prison. New York: New York University Press, 2008. O’Malley, S. Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Resnick, Phillip J. “Child Murder by Parents: A Psychiatric Review of Filicide.” American Journal of Psychiatry, v.126/3 (1969). Denise Vallance York University

Yemen Yemen is a Middle Eastern country with a coastline on the Gulf of Aden and shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Oman. The per capita gross domestic product is $2,500; almost half (45.2 percent) of the population lives below the poverty line. Most of the population of 22.9 million are Arabs, and Islam is the predominant religion. Although the law specifies equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, in reality women suffer pervasive discrimination in part as a result of social customs, as well as Shari`a-based law. Polygamy is

After veterinary training, a heavily veiled woman in Yemen now takes care of animals throughout her village.

legal, and female genital mutilation, although outlawed, is still practiced. In 2009, the World Economic Forum rated Yemen as the most unequal in terms of gender of the 134 countries studied. On a scale from 0 (inequality) to 1 (perfect equality), Yemen ranked 0.461 overall; it has held the last place among countries studied since 2006. On health and survival, Yemen scores 0.980 (first), on educational attainment 0.615 (133rd), on economic participation and opportunity 0.233 (134th), and on political empowerment 0.016 (133rd). Only 39 percent of Yemeni women are literate (vs. 76 percent of men), and although 65 percent of Yemeni girls are enrolled in primary school, only 26 percent are enrolled in secondary school and 5 percent in tertiary education. Twenty-three percent of women are in the labor force versus 67 percent of men. Women hold 15 percent of professional and technical jobs and make up only 4 percent of legislators, senior officials, and managers.

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The general standard of maternity care provided in Yemen is poor, with only 20 percent of births attended by trained personnel. Both the infant and maternal mortality rates are high, at 75 per 1,000 live births and 430 per 1,000 live births, respectively. Abortion is illegal except to save the mother’s life, and only 23 percent of married women report using birth control. Save the Children ranks Yemen nearly last among 40 Tier III or Least Developed Countries on matters relating to women and children. In 2009, Yemen ranked 35th on Save the Children’s Mothers’ Index, 39th on the Womens’ Index, and 28th on the Children’s Index. See Also: Female Genital Surgery, Geographical Distribution; Islam; Poverty; Shari`a Law. Further Readings Hausman, Ricardo, et al. The Global Gender Gap Report 2009. Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009. Save the Children. “State of the World’s Mothers 2009: Investing in the Early Years.” http://www.savethe children.org/publications/?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_hd _pub (accessed February 9, 2009). U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Yemen.” (February 25, 2009). http://www.state.gov /g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119130.htm (accessed February 2010). Sarah Boslaugh Washington University School of Medicine

Yoga Yoga, derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, means “yoke” or “union.” The practice of yoga uses a variety of movements, breathing exercises, meditation, and relaxation techniques to help the practitioner to achieve union (balance) between the mind, body, and spirit. Although yoga is an ancient tradition that can be traced back thousands of years, modern yoga has morphed into a variety of new styles that incorporate classical and contemporary philosophies and methods. Yoga today may be practiced as a form of religion, lifestyle, leisure, or fitness. However, many modern practitioners (70 percent of whom are

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women) do yoga specifically to improve their health. Yoga has become so popular as a health modality, with about 17 million practitioners in the United States alone, that doctors are starting to recommend yoga to their patients. Yoga as a Spiritual Practice With Hindu and Tantric heritage, yoga exists on a continuum of physicality and spirituality (mindfulness) that is inviting to people from diverse religious and agnostic backgrounds. As a spiritual practice, the highest intention of yoga involves what Georg Feuerstein calls the ultimate reality, or Parama-Shiva, which is the totality of existence among being, consciousness, and bliss. Meditative yoga practitioners view the everyday experience of self-awareness as the closest approximation human beings have to the unfathomable reality of existence, something thought to be inherently auspicious. The connection between the individual and the universal contributes to a sense of contentment that is closely associated with reaching higher states of consciousness, expanding awareness of oneself and the present, and producing enhanced physical states known to calm the nervous system while invigorating and purifying the body. The effects of yoga on overall health and well-being are at the center of numerous clinical research studies. Health Effects of Yoga Clinical health researchers study the mechanisms of human disease and the many types of therapeutic interventions used to treat and prevent them. This research has found that yoga has both preventative and therapeutic benefits for the body and the mind. Clinical trials consistently reveal evidence that yoga improves or enhances a variety of physical and mental conditions. The hundreds of yoga postures (asanas) in combination with breathing techniques affect the musculoskeletal system by strengthening and toning muscles, improving flexibility and joint mobility, easing back pain, improving steadiness and posture, increasing circulation, and deepening breath capacity. A frequently cited article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that a yoga-based regimen was more effective than wrist splinting for relieving carpal tunnel syndrome. Yoga has also been found to lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, improve digestion and elimination, and aid in weight loss.

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Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have been studying the effects of mind-body practices such as yoga on cancer patients. They found that those who practiced yoga throughout treatment had better sleep quality and improved physical function and were better able to find meaning in their illness. Movement through yoga postures contracts and stretches muscles and moves organs around, thereby increasing the circulation of lymph (a fluid rich in white blood cells that helps to improve the body’s immune response to fight infection and disease). Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, director of the Integrative Medicine Program at MD Anderson, argues that mind-body modalities work on another level: what people think and how they feel impact stress hormones, the immune system, and overall quality of life. Thus, mind-body processes such as yoga have the potential to increase body awareness in ways that improve health and well-being. Americans spend almost $6 billion a year on yoga classes, equipment, clothing, workshops, videos, books, and more. While modern yoga has indeed become a consumer market, the practice of yoga as a mind-body modality is increasingly used to enhance allopathic medicine and improve health. Some researchers suggest that a complete conception of health involves viewing the person holistically, as a psychophysical (i.e., spiritually embodied) being. See Also: Cancer, Women and; Diet and Weight Control; Fitness; Health, Mental and Physical; Medical Research,

Gender Issues in; Mental Health Treatment, Access to; New Age Religion. Further Readings Carlson, L., et al. “One Year Pre-Post Intervention FollowUp of Psychological, Immune, Endocrine and Blood Pressure Outcomes of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Breast and Prostate Cancer Outpatients.” Brain Behavior and Immunity, v.21/8 (2007). Cohen, L., J. Gerner, and W. B. Baile. “Complementary Programs for Patients With Cancer: Implications for Quality of Life, Treatment Response, and Survival.” The Lancet Oncology, v.1 (2000). Feuerstein, G. The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice. Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press, 1998. Fields, Gregory. Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga, Ayurveda, and Tantra. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Garfinkel, M., et al. “Yoga-Based Intervention for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.” Journal of the American Medical Association, v.280/18 (1998). Hart, C. E. and B. L. Tracy. “Yoga as Steadiness Training: Effects on Motor Variability in Young Adults.” Journal of Strength Conditioning Research, v.22/5 (2008). McCall, T. Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing. New York: Bantam, 2007. Mittra, D. Asanas: 608 Yoga Poses. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2003. Gayle Sulik Independent Scholar

Z Zaimont, Judith Lang Judith Lang Zaimont is a U.S. composer whose work has received international acclaim. Her earliest success was as a performer, and she has established an impressive reputation as a scholar and teacher. However, she defines herself in terms of her more than 100 compositions. She is also creator and editor-inchief of the critically acclaimed multivolume book The Musical Woman: An International Perspective. Critics have noticed varied elements in her music, but she considers herself a romantic with a particular affinity for language, which often serves to inspire her compositions. Performer Versus Composer Born November 8, 1945, in Memphis, Tennessee, Zaimont grew up in Queens, New York. She began her musical training at age 5, and by the time she was 11, she was composing her first pieces for the piano. A year later, she received a scholarship to study at Julliard. At the same time, she and her younger sister proved successful as duo-pianists, making their Carnegie Hall debut in 1963. Performing was a more lucrative choice, but Zaimont determined at 16 that she would focus on composition. She received a B.A. in music from Queens College in 1966, the same year she won the BMI Young Composer Award. The Lang sisters performed through 1967, but Judith had decided that by interest and temperament she was

a composer. She received a master of arts degree in composition from Columbia University in 1978. Critics have praised the lyricism of her work and her use of color and idiom and have noted influences ranging from Debussy and Ravel to Stravinsky. Working in most musical genres, she has composed symphonies, oratorios, opera, a wide variety of chamber works, and solo music for string and wind instruments, piano, and organ. She is particularly well known for her sensitivity to textual nuance and has drawn inspiration from Jewish sacred texts; from poets as varied as Shakespeare, Blake, and Baudelaire; and from ethnic works by Native Americans. A Guggenheim Fellow, she has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Composers Forum, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. Zaimont’s music has been performed across the United States and around the world. Distinguished Teaching Career Her distinguished 35-year teaching career includes service on the faculties of Queens College and Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of Music, Adelphi University, and the University of Minnesota (1992– 2005), where she was a professor of composition and a scholar of the College of Liberal Arts. An interest in the history of women in music led her to propose the monumental The Musical Woman: An International Perspective (3 volumes, Greenwood Press, 1989). Her editorship of these volumes led to a research grant 1603

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from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Pauline Alderman Award for outstanding scholarship on women in music. Zaimont retired from full-time teaching in 2005, but she continues to serve as a clinician and lecturer, to record her music, and to compose. She has said that all parts of her identity—wife, mother, thinker, scholar, and teacher—are connected to who she is as a composer. Ever innovative, in 2009, she and her husband, the painter Gary Zaimont, collaborated on videos that utilized her music and his art. See Also: Arts, Women in the (21st Century Overview); Classical Music, Women in; Education, Women in. Further Readings Heintze, James R. and Michael B. Saffle, eds. Reflections on American Music: The Twentieth Century and the New Millennium: A Collection of Essays Presented in Honor of the College Music Society. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2000. Judith Lang Zaimont. http://www.jzaimont.com (accessed June 2010). LePage, Jane Weiner. Women Composers, Conductors, and Musicians of the Twentieth Century: Selected Biographies, vol. 2. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1983. Wylene Rholetter Auburn University

Zambia Located in southern Africa, Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia before its independence was established in 1964. Over the following decades, Zambia was hit with economic woes, prolonged drought, and political corruption. Although relative political stability has been restored, the nation’s economic troubles continue. Zambia has a per capita income of only $1,500 and an unemployment rate of 50 percent. Eighty-six percent of the population lives in poverty. This is partly because 85 percent of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, and much of that is in subsistence farming. Only 35 percent of the population is urbanized.

More than 99 percent of Zambians belong to various African groups. Between half and three-quarters are Christian; most of the others are either Muslim or Hindu. Zambians speak a variety of tribal dialects, and there is no single official language. Historically, the lives of Zambian women have been governed by the customs of individual tribes. Because of dowries paid to a bride’s family, wives are considered the joint property of a husband and his family. Human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and poverty are the most pervasive social problems, and they affect virtually every aspect of life. Women’s groups are active in trying to improve the status of women through education and improved opportunities. Following implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, Zambia made a conscious effort to integrate women into both government and business, but realities have fallen short of goals. By 2008, there were 23 women in parliament, three in the cabinet, and three on the supreme court. Fertility and Infant Mortality Zambia has the eighth-highest infant mortality rate (101.2 deaths per 1,000 live births) in the world. Female infants (96.28 deaths per 1,000 live births) have a higher survival rate than male infants (105.97 deaths per 1,000 live births). That advantage narrows over time, and life expectancy for women (38.73 years) is only slightly higher than that of men (38.53). The median age is 17.2 years for women and 16.9 years for men. High mortality rates are highly correlated to Zambia’s having the seventh-highest adult prevalence of HIV/AIDS (15.2 percent) in the world and a very high risk of contracting bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, schistosomiasis, and rabies. In some areas, Zambians also have a very high risk of contracting malaria and plague. Zambian women have a fertility rate of 5.15 children each—the 27th-highest rate in the world. Literacy is comparatively high, at 86.8 percent for men and 74.8 percent for women, but both men and women generally attend school for no more than seven years. The minimum marriage age is 16 years, and early marriages frequently take place immediately after females reach puberty—sometimes without the bride’s consent. According to a 2004 United Nations report, almost a fourth of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years are married, divorced, or widowed. In 2003,

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approximately 16 percent of married women lived in polygamous marriages, which have become rare among educated, urban women. In the past, a widow was assured of only a fifth of her husband’s property, whereas husbands inherited all of a wife’s property. A landmark decision in 2006 granted women equal property rights. According to tradition, husbands are the heads of families, and they typically gain custody when a customary marriage is terminated. Many people are blaming the new independence of Zambian women for rising divorce rates. Feminists argue that the change is instead the result of women who are afraid of contracting HIV/AIDS no longer being willing to tolerate persistent unfaithfulness. Female-headed households now make up about a fourth of all households, but many women are placed in that position when husbands or grown children die from HIV/AIDS, leaving them to raise children and grandchildren alone. Women have been the unwitting victims of HIV/AIDS as a result of their husbands or partners having multiple sex partners. Feminists have accused the government of not doing enough to educate women about HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment. Some reports indicate that half of all Zambian women have been the victims of violence, generally involving domestic violence, which is not specifically illegal. Few cases are reported because of traditional and cultural inhibitions. Campaigns to raise public awareness have done little to check domestic violence. Although rapists are often sentenced to hard labor in Zambia, there are no laws against spousal rape. Prostitution is illegal, and police regularly round up street prostitutes. Sexual harassment, which is prevalent, is not illegal. See Also: Domestic Violence; HIV/AIDS, Africa; Poverty. Further Readings Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Central Intelligence Agency. “The World Factbook: Zambia.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the -world-factbook/geos/za.html (accessed June 2010). Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

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Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Social Institutions and Gender Index. “Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Zambia.” http://genderindex .org/country/zambia (accessed June 2010). Tripp, Ail Mari, et al. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. U.S. Department of State. “2008 Human Rights Report: Zambia.” http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008 /af/119031.htm (accessed June 2010). Zimba, Jack and To Benedict. “Women Have to Cope as AIDS, Economic Woes Afflict Zambia.” Women in Action, v.1/10 (2003). Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe is a landlocked African country north of South Africa with a population of 11.4 million. Formerly known as Southern Rhodesia, Zimbabwe is one of the most troubled countries in the world. From 1980 to 2008, Zimbabwe was governed by one-party rule under Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF. In late 2008, Mugabe agreed to share power with the opposition party leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Under Mugabe’s rule, the country has suffered a shattered economy, hyperinflation, and widespread poverty and unemployment. As of September 2009, most schools and hospitals in Zimbabwe are closed or dysfunctional, and a cholera epidemic that began in August 2008 has taken a toll on thousands in the country. As of July 2009, Zimbabweans have been migrating in droves to the neighboring countries of South Africa and Botswana in search of better economic conditions. In their passage to these neighboring countries, Zimbabwean women have been preyed on by men who offer themselves as guides but who are actually rapists. Because of the turbulent economic and social conditions, the average life expectancy for a Zimbabwean woman is only 34 years, and 13 percent of children born in Zimbabwe are expected to die before the age of 5 years.

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Zimbabwean women living in a traditional rural town without 21st-century conveniences. Women in Zimbabwe are not recognized as civil individuals on their own and are only granted rights through their husbands.

Within the longer history of Zimbabwe, women have been discriminated against in fields such as education, politics, healthcare, and the inheritance of property. Contemporary commentators attribute the lower status of women in Zimbabwean society to the traditional image of the African woman, which is to be docile, retiring, hardworking, obedient to men, and not draw attention to themselves in public. However, far from being obedient and docile, Zimbabwean women have played extremely important roles in struggles against oppression in the country’s history. Zimbabwean African women were portrayed as substantive dangers by British colonial officials in the first Chimurenga (Struggle) of 1896– 97, when Zimbabwean Africans resisted the takeover of their ancestral lands. Zimbabwean women also played a key role in the underground struggle against Ian Smith’s white minority rule in the second Chimurenga.

Discrimination The discrimination Zimbabwean women face is from a combination of colonial and national policies, which do not recognize women as civil individuals on their own but rather as entities dependent on their husbands. After coming into power, Mugabe began an extremely controversial land redistribution policy, which sought to expropriate white-owned commercial farms to benefit landless African farmers. Problems involved with the redistribution process, as well as a severe drought, have been blamed for Zimbabwe’s catastrophic economic descent. However, Zimbabwean women also experienced discrimination within this policy. The state only recognized a woman’s rights to her land through her husband, meaning that the woman could suffer the entire loss of land rights in the case of divorce. In addition, wives in Zimbabwean society are expected to be obedient and respectful, as their hus-



bands have paid a lobola, or “bride price,” for them. This lobola has come to indicate that the bride is seen as her husband’s family’s property. In cases where the husband dies, the bride’s in-laws may take away her children or expect her to marry a member of her deceased husband’s family. Ultimately, Zimbabwean women have traditionally faced powerful discrimination in the country in many critical arenas, and with the country’s present state, they may be subject to even more troubles in coming years. See Also: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; Rape, Incidence of; South Africa; Stereotypes of Women.

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Further Readings Barclay, Philip. Zimbabwe: Years of Hope and Despair. London: Bloomsbury, 2010. Goebel, Allison. Gender and Land Reform. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s, 2005. Lyons, Tanya. Guns and Guerilla Girls. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2004. Rogers, Douglas. The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe. Bancyfelin, UK: Crown House Publishing, 2009. Staunton, Irene. Women Writing Zimbabwe. Harare, Zimbabwe: Weaver Press, 2008. Adeline Koh Richard Stockton College

Glossary

Abortion The termination of a pregnancy either involuntarily (miscarriage) or voluntarily as a result of medical or surgical procedures or the administration of drugs. Voluntary terminations are most likely to occur in cases where pregnancies are unwanted because of rape, incest, fetal abnormality, or endangerment to maternal health, or through family-planning decisions. Affirmative Action Programs first initiated as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society initiative in the 1960s as a means of remedying social inequities. For women, this has often meant quotas that stipulate a certain percentage of jobs, promotions, contracts, educational opportunities, and so forth, be reserved for females. African-Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) Indigenous to Africa, it is spread by tsetse flies infected with the trypanosome brucei rhodesiense parasite. Symptoms include redness and soreness around the infected area, fever, severe headaches, irritability, extreme fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, skin rashes, and aching muscles. In latter stages, it can produce

confusion, personality changes, and various neurological problems. If left untreated, it can prove fatal. AIDS Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the most advanced stage of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It occurs when extreme loss of CD4 cells leaves a person’s immune system open to deadly infections, resulting in cancers, debilitating illnesses, brain and central nervous system damage, and extensive weight loss. While there is no cure for AIDS, effective treatment therapies have slowed the progression of the disease and slashed the number of fatalities originally associated with an AIDS diagnosis. Alimony Payment rendered as support to a former spouse, most often a former wife. The amount is generally based on income and lifestyles of involved parties. In some cases, alimony payments are allotted only on a temporary basis. In others, they continue until one of the former spouses dies or the recipient remarries. Since alimony laws are generated at lower-government levels, there may be vast differences in the administration of alimony within a single country. 1609

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Animal Contact Diseases Animal contact diseases are transmitted to humans by contact with infected animals. While these diseases may be contracted in public settings such as fairs, farm tours, and petting zoos, most cases occur in extremely poor countries where animals fail to receive proper attention and nutrition and where poverty and malnutrition make populations more susceptible to disease. The most common animal contact disease is rabies. Anorexia Nervosa An eating disorder that may cause a person to starve herself/himself to death as a result of becoming obsessively afraid of being perceived as fat. The individual’s definition of “fat” and self-perception of their size may have no basis in reality. The vast majority of sufferers are female, and the disease is particularly prevalent among young girls who are overly concerned with appearance and determined to fit into acceptable norms. Assisted Reproductive Technology The process by which eggs and sperm are fertilized in a laboratory setting to prepare them for eventual implantation in the womb of a prospective mother. Beauty Myth in Advertising Based on the concept first defined in Naomi Wolf ’s 1991 publication, Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, which argues that impossible images of beauty perpetrated by advertisers have led to an epidemic of eating disorders among young women. These women (and sometimes men) try to remake themselves in the likeness of ultrathin models or celebrities who are vastly different from the female norm. The most common forms of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and compulsive overeating. Beijing Conference on Women Held in Beijing, China, and sponsored by the Commission on the Status of Women, the 1995 world conference led to major reforms in laws around the world as countries attempted to improve the lives of women and remove barriers to their achieving legal, if not social, equality. Compliance with the Beijing Platform for Action is still being closely monitored.

Beijing Platform for Action Developed during the landmark Beijing Conference on Women of 1995, signatory countries that have committed to raising the status of women continue to implement reforms in 12 key areas: women and poverty, education and training of women, women and health, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment, and the girl-child. Bioethics The interdisciplinary study of the moral and ethical implications of medical and biological advances. For feminists, bioethics has involved organized protest of human rights violations occurring in the name of medical research, such as those conducted in Nazi Germany in the 1940s and the effect of withholding treatment from African American males with syphilis in Tuskegee, Alabama, during the Great Depression. Bioethical training has become mandatory for many health professionals. Birth Control Methods of avoiding pregnancy by preventing the fertilization of a female’s eggs by male sperm. Methods generally involve the use of male condoms to reduce the chance of sperm coming into contact with eggs, hormonal therapies such as the birth control pill or the Depo-Provera shot that reduces the chance of eggs being fertilized by preventing ovulation, medical and barrier devices such as the intrauterine device (IUD) and the diaphragm that prevent contact between sperm and eggs, fertility awareness that allows couples to abstain from intercourse during fertile periods, and sterilization procedures such as tubal ligations (female) and vasectomies (males) that render individuals infertile. Bisexuality Physical attraction to one’s own sex as well as to the opposite sex. Bisexuality is distinct from heterosexuality, in which individuals are attracted only to the opposite sex, and from homosexuality, the sexual orientation in which individuals are attracted only to members of their own sex.



Bulimia Nervosa An eating disorder that causes a person to engage in binge-and-purge episodes designed to ensure that ingested food does not turn into fat. The sufferer may produce this effect by inducing vomiting or taking laxatives. Most bulimics are young females consumed with reaching a highly individualized perception of the “ideal female.” Chastity Generally, the term chastity refers to the state of sexual abstention. For women, it has historically meant that they were expected to enter into marriage in a virginal state because women who had experienced sexual intercourse were considered “spoiled goods.” In Today’s world, females may choose to be chaste, eschewing sexual intercourse without marriage for moral or personal reasons, or chastity may be forced upon them in countries, where even the suspicion of being unchaste can result in imprisonment or death by stoning. Child Abuse Physical, psychological, or emotional mistreatment that negatively affects the well-being of minors. Experts often classify child abuse into emotional abuse consisting of humiliation, bullying, limited contact, or rejection; neglect in which a caregiver fails to meet a child’s basic needs; and physical abuse that ranges from intentional harm to overzealous punishment. Child abuse in any form may lead to troubled social relationships, low self-esteem, and the inability to control or express emotions. Child Custody A legally binding determination governing which parent obtains physical and legal control over minors when parents are separated or divorced or when a parent cannot care for a child because of death, physical or mental incapacitation, or being deemed unfit. In contemporary times, many parents share physical support, with children dividing their time between both parents. In some cases, a child may become a ward of the state and be placed in foster care or be put up for adoption. In some countries governed by Islamic law, fathers are automatically given custody of children, even though small children may remain with their mothers for stipulated periods.

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Child Support Payments made to a custodial parent by a noncustodial parent that are designed to help cover basic costs involved in childrearing. When parents share custody, child support may be paid by a former spouse to the parent with the lower income. Child support generally ceases when a child reaches maturity, gets married, or joins the military, although some parents may continue to support children who are attending college at the time they reach maturity status. Childbirth The act of giving birth, which is generally considered routine in industrialized nations where women and their newborns have access to highly trained medical professionals and sophisticated medical technologies. In developing countries, however, it may be lifethreatening because women do not always have access to even basic care during pregnancy and delivery. Childcare Arrangements for caring for minors during the temporary absence of a parent or guardian. It may be provided informally by relatives, friends, neighbors, or at-home providers, or it may be offered by trained professionals operating licensed facilities that are required to meet health and safety standards established by governing bodies. Some countries offer government-subsidized facilities. In developed nations, child or “early” care has evolved into preparation for formalized education in public or private schools. Clitoridectomy A form of female genital mutilation often performed as a rite of passage in African countries, despite governmental bans on the practice. It consists of the surgical removal of the clitoris and all or part of the labia and may be carried out by individuals without medical training on girls as young as 2 years of age. Females who have undergone clitoridectomies may no longer be able to reach orgasm, and many experience lifelong health problems. Compulsive Overeating An eating disorder defined by an individual’s addiction to food. It has been hypothesized that sufferers eat to cope with daily stresses and fill perceived voids in their lives.

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Contraceptives See Birth Control. Cougar An older woman who pursues relationships with younger men, generally males in their 20s. Customary Killings See Honor Killings. Dengue Fever A viral disease spread by mosquitoes in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, South and Central America, and Australia. Symptoms include sudden high fevers, rashes, headaches, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and joint and muscle aches. No specific treatment exists, but fevers and aches are treated with Tylenol. Aspirin is contraindicated. Diarrhea, Bacterial Bacterial diarrhea occurs in the small intestine as a result of ingesting food or water infected with campylobacter jejuni bacteria. Symptoms include abdominal cramps, fever, and watery or bloody diarrhea. The condition is particularly prevalent in poor, rural areas of developing countries where people lack stable access to potable water and basic sanitation. It always poses a risk of dehydration, particularly in small children or those with fragile immune systems. Diarrhea, Protozoal A viral infection caused by consuming food or water infected with giardia lamblia. Unlike the sudden onset of bacterial diarrhea, protozoal diarrhea has an incubation period of 10 to 14 days after ingesting the infected nutrient. Symptoms also include fever and nausea, and treatment involves an antibiotic regimen. In poor developing countries with limited access to healthcare, the condition can be life threatening because of the risk of dehydration, particularly in small children and those whose immune systems are already impaired. Dilation and Curettage A medical procedure used as a diagnostic, and occasionally as a remedial, tool in cases of abnormal menstrual bleeding or after an incomplete miscarriage. During the procedure, the uterus is temporarily enlarged so that it can be scraped for the purposes

of taking tissue samples for testing. When it is used as a method of abortion, instruments are inserted to scrape the fetus and surrounding tissue away from the uterus. Dilation and Extraction Sometimes referred to as D & X, Intact D & X, Intrauterine Cranial Decompression, or Partial Birth Abortion, dilation and extraction is an abortion method used to extract fetuses after the 21st week of gestation. A laminaria is inserted into the vagina to cause the cervix to dilate and the water to break within three days. At that time, the fetus is removed vaginally. Divorce The legal dissolution of a marriage in any society, but laws concerning that dissolution and arrangements for child custody and division of property vary greatly according to both civil and religious customs. Domestic Labor Employment in the home or service industry that is characterized by drudgery, long hours, and little pay. Many domestics, who work in homes or care-related service jobs, are filled by foreign-born women who are forced to leave their families at home in order to eke out an income sufficient to support themselves and send remittances home to support their families. Domestic Violence Violent patterns of behavior that are directed toward a spouse or partner, consisting of physical attacks, coercion, threats, intimidation, isolation, and emotional, sexual, or economic abuse. Violence against other members of a household is generally classified according to other categories, such as child or elder abuse. Ecofeminism The application of feminism to environmental issues, which is based on the notion that environmental abuse disproportionally affects women and children, particularly those who are poor, nonwhite, or living in the global south. Electoral Quotas The practice of requiring that a stipulated percentage of legislative seats be reserved for women and/or minori-

Glossary



ties. Many countries now designate seats that can be filled only by women, while others recruit women into political office through party quotas that require that a certain portion of a party ticket be female. Empty Nest Syndrome The condition in which women who have devoted their lives to mothering become lonely, grief stricken, and depressed once all of their children have left home. Divorce rates rise among couples experiencing the empty nest syndrome because of a real or perceived lack of commonalities. Epidural A frequently used method of dulling pain during childbirth by inserting medication into the spinal column. Ethnic Cleansing According to a United Nations commission, it is “the planned deliberate removal from a specific territory, persons of a particular ethnic group by force or intimidation, in order to render that area ethnically homogenous.” Crimes classified under the broad category of ethnic cleansing include murder, torture, rape, and displacement. Ethnicity Based on the Greek word ethnos meaning tribe or nation, ethnicity connotes shared traditions and cultures. Family Law The branch of law that deals with family issues such as adoption of children, child custody and visitation rights, alimony and child support, divorce, and inheritance. Family courts are often created specifically to deal with these issues. Family Leave Guaranteed and protected time away from a job to allow employees to care for a newborn or adopted child or a family member with a serious illness. It may be either paid or unpaid. Family Planning The practice of consciously planning if and when to have children. This decision is carried out through the use of birth control methods that vary in effectiveness.

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Female Clustering The tendency of females to cluster in jobs, such as teaching and nursing, that use the nurturing skills common among females. Female-dominated fields tend to be lower paying and have less status attached to them than those fields in which males dominate. Female Genital Cutting See Female Genital Mutilation. Female Genital Mutilation The removal of all or parts of external female genitalia for cultural or religious purposes. The practice, which is generally performed on African females ranging in age from infancy to 15 years, can immediately result in severe bleeding and urinary difficulties. Later in life, it interferes with sexual fulfillment and can cause miscarriage, delivery complications, or deaths of newborns. Femicide The murder of females carried out as a hate crime or as the result of cultural practices that allow males to govern the lives and/or the so-called morality of female family members. The African HIV/AIDS epidemic that has victimized women and “honor killings” are often cited as examples. Femininity Traits generally associated with being female. There has been much debate about whether such traits are the result of biology (nature) or socialization (nurture). Feminization of Poverty A term coined in the 1970s by sociologist Diana Pearce to describe the concentration of women, particularly those heading up single-parent households, in impoverished segments of societies around the globe. Children who live with impoverished mothers often lack the basic necessities of life. Fertility Drugs Drugs used to increase the likelihood of becoming pregnant. The use of such drugs may increase the likelihood of multiple births. Fertility Rate, Total The average rate at which a female gives birth over the course of her childbearing years. Women in highly

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developed countries tend to have considerably fewer children than those living in poor developing countries, and many countries now have population growth rates so low that they do not reproduce themselves. Food Security The ability of a country to grow or import safe and nutritious food supplies that satisfy its needs and to provide population-wide access to those supplies. Front Pay Used in cases where plaintiffs have brought successful lawsuits against former employers, it is monetary compensation intended to replace lost income between the time a judgment is handed down and reinstatement or in lieu of reinstatement. It is not subject to damage caps. Gay Although in common usage the term is used to describe homosexual males, the word also encompasses lesbians, women who are sexually attracted to their own sex. Gay Rights Legal recognition of the right of homosexuals to be treated equally and without prejudice in society and in courts of law. Gazf Used in Islamic countries such as Pakistan to connote false accusations of zina, which is generally defined as having sexual intercourse outside marriage. Gender According to contemporary usage, the term is used to describe the cultural and social aspects of being male and female to make them distinct from the biological descriptions of male and female.

more likely than men to be discriminated against, the term is often used synonymously with sexism. It is most often used to explain limited opportunities in employment. The fact that most countries have banned the practice in theory has not prevented the actual discrimination of women globally. Gender Gap The measurable differences in the ways that men and women cast their votes in democratic elections. In the United States, this means that in recent decades women are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates than Republican candidates because of the Democratic Party’s general support for women’s issues. Gender Sensitive Awareness of the social differences between males and females and using that knowledge to develop policies designed to mitigate inequalities that arise. Gestational Diabetes Mellitus A condition that can occur in pregnant women due to the development of glucose intolerance. It is generally treated with diet, but some cases require the use of insulin. It usually disappears after the pregnancy ends, but there is concern that mothers who have experienced gestational diabetes mellitus may be more susceptible to developing Type 2 diabetes. Global South The countries of Africa, Central and Latin America, and parts of Asia. These developing nations are generally the poorest in the world, and the lives of their many residents are constantly threatened by political, social, and economic upheaval.

Gender Development Index A statistical measurement used by the United Nations to qualify the differences in the quality of life between males and females in countries around the world.

Globalization The process of integrating the economic, social, and cultural characteristics of the countries of the world. It is most often used to describe worldwide economic interdependence. Many feminist scholars argue that the process has been detrimental to women since it has led to a marked increase in political instability and violence against women.

Gender Discrimination The practice of denying equal opportunity to one sex to the advantage of the other. Since women are

Guerrilla Warfare The process by which independent or semi-independent forces attack or harass enemies, and sometimes



civilians, by sniping, surprise raids, sabotage, and the like. Guerrilla groups contribute to political instability in many parts of the world, and women and children are their most vulnerable victims. In some cases, rape has become a weapon of war for guerrilla soldiers. Head Scarves A piece of clothing that traditional Muslim women wear to cover all or part of the head to indicate compliance with the commandments of Allah. In some countries, women are forbidden by law to venture outside their homes without these coverings. In nonMuslim countries, head scarves are worn for a variety of reasons that range from decoration to use by chemotherapy patients. Heavily Indebted Poor Countries A group of 41 countries that have low per capita incomes and high foreign debts that interfere with commitment to social welfare programs. Countries that qualify for this status are eligible for financialassistance packages from the World Bank and other creditors. Hepatitis A An infection contracted by contact with the hepatitis A virus (HAV), which may occur through ingesting fecally contaminated food or water. Unlike more serious forms of hepatitis, hepatitis A is not chronic, and patients generally recover in one or two weeks. A vaccination is available. Hepatitis C An infection that may result in chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, or liver cancer that is caused by coming into contact with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) through contaminated blood. It is of particular concern to current and former drug users; some recipients of clotting factor concentrates, blood transfusions, or solid organ transplants; persons with HIV/AIDS; healthcare workers; and babies born to mothers with HCV. Hepatitis E A nonchronic disease of the liver caused by contact with the hepatitis E virus (HEV) in fecally contaminated food or water. It is common in poor countries that lack access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. There is no vaccination for the disease.

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Heterosexual One who is exclusively sexually attracted to members of the opposite sex. HIV The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) occurs when an infected immune systems fails to fulfill its intended role because white blood cells known as CD4 have begun producing thousands of immuneattacking viral copies. HIV is most often transmitted through unprotected vaginal or anal sex, blood transfusions, needle sharing, and mother-to-child transmissions during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. It may also be spread through oral sex, or rarely through accidental needle pricks as health workers deal with infected persons. In its most advanced stage, HIV results in AIDS. Homosexual One who is exclusively sexually attracted to members of one’s own sex. Honor Killings The murder of female family members by males bent on reclaiming the family honor in response to real or perceived moral infractions, particularly those concerning participating in sex outside of marriage. They are most common in the Middle East and southern Asia. Human Poverty Index A measurement used by the United Nations to indicate the quality of life in a given country based on life expectancy, childhood malnutrition, literacy, and access to healthcare and potable water. Human Trafficking The practice of removing individuals from their homelands by kidnapping, enticement, or coercion and forcing them to work in foreign countries. Most of the victims are women and children, and many are forced into prostitution or enslaved by their so-called employers. Hysterectomy The process of surgically removing the uterus and sometimes the cervix, ovaries, or fallopian tubes, rendering a female infertile. It is generally a response

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Glossary

to cancer, fibroid growth, severe endometriosis, or a prolapsed uterus. In Vitro Fertilization Type of fertility assistance in which eggs are removed from a woman’s uterus and fertilized by sperm in a petri dish. The sperm may come from a woman’s partner or from a donor. The fertilized eggs may be implanted in the uterus of an egg donor or in a surrogate if the woman is unable to maintain a pregnancy. They may also be frozen for future use. Infant Mortality Rate The number of deaths among children under 1 year of age that occur in a given country in comparison to every 1,000 live births that occur annually. It is one of the strongest quality of life indicators, and the poorest countries predictably have the highest infant mortality rates. Infibulation The most dangerous, extensive, and invasive form of female genital mutilation, consisting of removing the clitoris and all or part of the labia before stitching up the vagina so that only a small opening is left to allow for the release of urine and menstrual flow. Even though the practice is banned throughout Africa today, in some countries, the majority of females continue to be subjected to this practice, which is often performed by individuals with no medical training. Inheritance Rights The rights of individuals to take possession of property handed down to them through wills or legal procedures resulting from the death of someone. In many Islamic countries, women, including widows, are allowed to inherit only a portion of what males inherit because of the assumptions that males are responsible for extended families, and that females are looked after by males. In some countries, females have inheritance rights in theory, but those rights are limited in practice. Intersex An individual who has physical characteristics of more than one sex, resulting from a congenital and atypical combination of sex-determining chromosomes.

Intrauterine Device A birth control device that prevents pregnancy by the insertion of a plastic or metal barrier formed into a coil, loop, triangle, or T-shape. Islamic Feminism Feminism that promotes women’s rights and social justice as understood and derived from the Qur’an. Lassa Fever An acute viral illness caused by contact with the lassa virus, which is spread by infected rodents. It is endemic to areas of western Africa, where it has sometimes caused epidemics, resulting in widespread morbidity and death. Leptospirosis A disease resulting from exposure to leptospira bacteria due to contact with water contaminated by the urine of infected animals. It may be accompanied by high fevers, severe headaches, chills, muscle aches, and vomiting, or there may be no symptoms at all. Untreated cases may lead to kidney disease, meningitis, liver failure, or respiratory distress. It is most common in areas with limited access to safe water supplies. Lesbian Named after Sappho, the Poetess of Lesbo, the term is used to describe women who are sexually attracted to their own sex. Literacy Refers to the ability to read and write. The most common measure of literacy is the percentage of individuals over the age of 15 who meet this requirement in relation to the total population of the relevant age group. Differences in male and female literacy are a major indicator of the social status of women within a given country. Machismo Spanish word indicating an exaggerated sense of masculinity that is generally accompanied by the tendency to dominate females. Malaria A serious and recurrent infection endemic to many developing countries that is caused by exposure to cer-



tain mosquitoes appearing in tropical climates. Symptoms include chills, fever, and an enlarged spleen. Marginalization The process of being forced outside the mainstream of society to be treated as less important than those classified as the “norm.” Feminists contend that throughout history women have been marginalized, and their rights have been subsumed to those of men. Marriage, Forced Marital unions that are instigated by parents or guardians without the consent of both parties involved in the union. In many countries, child-brides are required to marry men in their 40s or 50s who may already have several wives. Masculinity Characteristics associated with the male gender that often connote strength, power, and independence. Maternal Mortality The death of a pregnant woman or a death that occurs within 42 days of the termination of a pregnancy from pregnancy-related causes. Maternal death rates, which are a major quality-of-life indicator, are based on the number of relevant deaths in relation to every 100,000 live births that occur during the designated period. Matriarchy A social system in which the female is head of the family and/or social groups such as clans or tribes. Under matriarchal inheritance laws, property is handed down through a mother’s family rather than the more typical system in which property remains in the hands of a father’s family. Even in societies where inheritance is matriarchal, society may operate according to patriarchal dictates. Meningococcal Meningitis A bacterial infection that affects the thin lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. It is spread through contact with a person with the disease. While it occurs throughout the world, it is most common in what has been identified as the meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa. Half of all untreated cases end in death. Vaccines are available, including a new one that specifically targets the African strain.

Glossary

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Mifepristone Also known as the “abortion pill” or RU-486, mifepristone, which is sold under the brand name Mifeprex, is an abortion-inducing drug used in conjunction with misoprostol to precipitate abortions in cases where a woman is less than eight weeks pregnant. After the mifepristone is taken, the cervix dilates and causes a miscarriage within hours. Millennials Also referred to as the “millennial generation,” millennials are individuals born in the decades between 1980 and 2000. Millennium Development Goals The eight goals initiated by the United Nations at the beginning of the 21st century with the intention of improving the quality of life around the globe. They target areas such as poverty, education, and HIV/ AIDS, and they have proved particularly beneficial to women and children, who have been the most common victims of poverty and marginalization. “Missing Women” Phrase coined by Indian humanitarian and economist Amartya Sen to explain the phenomenon that millions of women have been denied existence in countries of Asia because of sex-selective abortion, infanticide, or death by malnutrition. Mommy Track A career track in which mothers may choose to advance at a slower than normal pace in order to spend more time with their families by participating in flexible work hours, job sharing, telecommuting, or working out of their homes. Mommy Wars The controversial current debate over whether mothers who choose to stay at home with their children have sold out the women of the Second Wave, who revived the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Natural Childbirth A method in which a woman experiences childbirth without the aid of drugs. In most cases, the woman and her birthing coach, generally her husband or partner, have attended classes that prepare them for

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Glossary

the event by learning breathing exercises and methods of focusing pain outside the body. Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) Voluntary groups of citizens who unite at local, state, national, and international levels to form nonprofit agencies designed to promote particular interests and provide information and support for relevant parties. Even though they are not affiliated with any government, such NGOs must be licensed in order to operate. Ovulation The point at which the egg is released from the ovary in response to hormone signals, preparing the egg for fertilization by a male sperm. This generally occurs about two weeks after the beginning of the last menstrual cycle. Partial-Birth Abortion See Dilation and Extraction. Patriarchy A social system founded on the premise that males are superior physically and intellectually and should, therefore, have authority over females and children. In modern society, most countries have instituted constitutional and legal measures to address the inequities caused by patriarchy, but religious and cultural inequities continue to favor males over females. Perestroika The political and economic system instituted in the Soviet Union in the 1980s by Mikhail Gorbachev that employed decentralization and restructuring to bring about a less restrictive system of government and the ultimate dissolution of the Soviet Union. Plague A highly contagious and often fatal illness that is contracted by coming into contact with the Yersinia pestis bacterium. It is most often transmitted to humans by fleas that have become infected through contact with infected rodents, particularly rats. Symptoms include chills, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. Postpartum Depression A type of depression that is particular to the postpartum period. While it is common for new mothers

to feel some depression as hormone levels drop, this condition is marked by prolonged feelings of sadness and inadequacy accompanied by crying and insomnia. Celebrities such as Brooke Shields and Marie Osmond have done much to bring this condition into public awareness. Poverty Level The point at which an individual lacks sufficient income to obtain basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. Each country establishes its own poverty level relative to its overall standard of living. In developing countries, international organizations and donor countries play a significant role in narrowing the gap in global poverty levels. Poverty Reduction Policies and programs designed to reduce the number of individuals who lack access to basic life necessities and address the reasons for that status from economic, political, social, and human rights perspectives. Postnatal Care Healthcare provided to new mothers for a period of up to six weeks to ensure that there are no complications following delivery. Maternal mortality tends to be much higher in countries where few women receive postnatal care as opposed to those in industrialized nations where virtually all women receive such care. Prenatal Care Healthcare that pregnant women receive on a regular basis to monitor their health and the development of the growing fetus. Instances of pregnancy complications and fetal malformation are more common in developing countries where routine pre-natal care is less common. Property Rights The right of individuals to own and inherit property in their own names. While most nations of the world have addressed inequities inherent in patriarchal systems that banned married women from owning property, many Islamic countries continue to adhere to the principle that males have greater familial obligations and are more deserving of property than females.



Glossary

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Rabies A viral infection transmitted through direct or indirect contact with infected wild animals, particularly by bats and raccoons. If left untreated, it can lead to brain inflammation, confusion, seizures, paralysis, coma, and even death. Treatment includes a regimen of Rabies Immunoglobulin shots and antibiotics. The rabies vaccine is recommended only for individuals who regularly come in contact with wild animals.

Sexual Harassment Behaviors that constitute unwanted sexual advances or demands for sexual favors or any action of a sexual nature that creates a hostile working or learning environment. While sexual harassment of males by females does occur, most victims of sexual harassment are female. Many countries have passed laws that make employers liable if they know sexual harassment is occurring and take insufficient steps to stop it.

Reproductive Health The condition in which all parts of the human body connected to sexual activity and reproduction are functioning properly and receiving medical assistance when necessary.

Sexual Tourism The practice of traveling to another country for the express purpose of having sex with prostitutes, particularly with child prostitutes. Many children and adult women engaged in the sexual tourism industry have been taken forcibly from their home countries or tricked into thinking they were being given legitimate jobs in their adopted countries.

Reproductive Rights The right of all individuals to have access to information about family planning and birth control methods of choice. For women, it also means the right to receive proper care during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Rift Valley Fever A potentially lethal viral zoonosis transmitted to humans through contact with the blood or organs of infected animals or by ingesting food products derived from infected animals. It can also be spread by bites from fleas that have come in contact with infected animals. Early in the 21st century, outbreaks occurred in Kenya and Somalia. Schistosomiasis Also known as bilharzia, it is a parasitic disease that is transmitted by trematode flatworms found in freshwater snails. The parasite has the capability of penetrating human skin when individuals enter water containing infected snails. Depending on the type, it can lead to damage to the urinary or intestinal systems. It occurs in developing countries where residents lack sustained access to safe water and improved sanitation. Security Moms Term coined by politician Joe Biden to identify postSeptember 11 mothers whose main concern is the safety of their children in a world rife with violence and terrorism.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases A set of 20 types of diseases that are transmitted through sexual contact with an infected partner. The most common of these diseases are herpes, syphilis, gonorrhea, and HIV/AIDS. Sexually active individuals, particularly those who are not involved in monogamous relationships, are encouraged to use condoms during sexual intercourse, since other forms of birth control do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Social Welfare Organized assistance provided to citizens by the government as a means of ensuring a basic standard of living and promoting quality of life. Social welfare states generally develop a wide spectrum of programs designed to address the needs of particular groups, such as those providing financial assistance to the poor and elderly or to mothers of young children. Sonogram A diagnostic tool used to determine the gestational age of a fetus and identify potential problems such as ectopic pregnancies and multiple births. It is also used to determine the sex of an unborn infant. Sterilization The process of rendering someone infertile. The most common forms of female sterilization are tubal

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Glossary

ligations and hysterectomies, while vasectomies are the most common form for males. All of these methods are considered permanent. Suction Aspiration A method of first-trimester abortion in which the fetus and placenta are suctioned away from the uterus using a suction device connected to a cannula. It may be used in conjunction with abortion-producing drugs. Sustainable Development Commonly defined according to a definition originating with the Brundtland Commission in 1987, it is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In practice, this means promoting environmental responsibility so that nations can support themselves without exhausting or irrevocably damaging essential resources such as rainforests and rivers that affect future generations. Transgender Identifying with a sexual identity that does not conform to one’s biological sex. Transsexuals may see themselves as being born into the wrong body, and some choose to have themselves surgically transformed into the other sex. They are not always sexually attracted to the same sex, as are homosexuals.

through ingesting food and water that have been contaminated by a carrier, who may not be actively suffering from the disease. Symptoms include high fevers, headaches, coughing, intestinal hemorrhaging, and spotty skin. In contemporary times, only those who live in countries that do not provide stable access to clean water and proper sanitation are vulnerable to the disease. Vasectomy The voluntary process in which a male’s spermcarrying tubes are cut, tied, or cauterized to remove the possibility of their being able to fertilize an egg. Vectorborne Diseases A disease transmitted to humans or animals by a vector, such as a mosquito or tick. Anyone living in a hot and humid climate is more susceptible than others to contracting such diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that half of the world’s population is infected, but residents of developing countries are at particular risk. Veil A variety of head coverings worn by Muslim women according to the principle of hijab, which states that women appearing in public must be dressed modestly. Veils may cover only the head and/or face, or they may extend to other parts of the body.

Transitional Democracies Generally refers to the former Communist nations that began the process of democratization after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Women in transitional democracies initially lost ground after the fall of Communism, but they are now in the process of recovering that lost status.

Violence Against Women Any violent act directed toward the female sex that leads to physical, emotional, or sexual harm or suffering. Examples of gender-related violence include but are not limited to rape, sexual intimidation or abuse, trafficking, forced and child marriages, deprivations of liberty, and honor killings.

Tubal Ligation A voluntary process in which a female undergoes sterilization by having her fallopian tubes blocked to prevent eggs from being fertilized during sexual intercourse.

Virginity Testing The practice of exposing young African girls to various tests to determine whether or not they are sexually active. In the past, it was intended to coerce girls into remaining virginal before marriage. It has been resumed in contemporary times as a means of HIV/ AIDS prevention. Because the virginity tests are highly inefficient and intrusive, many young girls are humiliated, and some are falsely accused of being sexually active.

Typhoid Fever Sometimes referred to as enteric fever, it is an acute and highly infectious disease that is caused by coming into contact with the salmonella typhi bacillus



Wage Gap The statistical difference between male and female earnings, which is prevalent throughout the world. The wage gap is indicative of lower female salaries, clustering in female-dominated occupations, and greater limitations on job opportunities and advancement for females, particularly for mothers in the workplace. Water Contact Diseases Diseases contracted through swimming or wading in freshwater sources such as lakes or rivers that have been contaminated by feces infected with pathological microorganisms. Such diseases are common in developing countries where safe drinking water and basic sanitation is not always easily obtainable. Waterborne Diseases Diseases that result from drinking water that has been contaminated by human or animal feces containing infected microorganisms. Examples include cholera, dengue fever, and schistosomiasis, all of which are common in developing countries with poor access to safe drinking water.

Glossary

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XX Chromosome The genetic marker or chromsome that produces females. Female eggs are only capable of producing X chromosomes. XY Chromosome The genetic marker that produces males. The male sperm is capable of carrying either the X or Y chromosome, and contrary to historical belief and the actions of kings who divorced their wives or had them killed for not producing sons, it is the sperm rather than the egg that determines the sex of a fetus. Zina Used in Islamic nations such as Pakistan to describe sex outside of marriage. It includes both premarital sex and adultery. Because male guardians have the right to oversee the morality of female charges, women can be imprisoned or even stoned to death on unsubstantiated accusations of zina. Elizabeth Rholetter Purdy Independent Scholar

Resource Guide

Books Albright, Madeleine. Madam Secretary: A Memoir. New York: Miramax Books, 2003. Albright, Madeleine. The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Albright, Madeleine. Read My Pins: Stories From a Diplomat’s Jewel Box. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Ali, Laila. Reach!: Finding Strength, Spirit and Personal Power. New York: Hyperion Books, 2003. Arnett, J. J. Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006. Arrom, Sylvia. The Women of Mexico City. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985. Banet-Weiser, S., C. Chris and A. Freitas. Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Barletta, Marti. Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment. Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2006. Becker, Susan D. The Origins of the Equal Rights Amendment: American Feminism Between the Wars. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.

Belknap, J. The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice. Belmont, MA: Thomson Wadsworth Publishers, 2007. Berlage, Gai I. Women in Baseball: The Forgotten History. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994. Berry, Mary Frances. Why ERA Failed: Politics, Women’s Rights, and the Amending Process of the Constitution. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1986. Block, Jennifer. Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2007. Boles, Janet K. The Politics of the Equal Rights Amendment: Conflict and the Decision Process. New York: Longman Inc., 1979. Bordo, Susan. Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images From Plato to O.J. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (BWHBC). Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century: A Book by and For Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. Boxer, M. J. When Women Ask the Questions: Creating Women’s Studies in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. 1623

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Breneman, Anne R. and Rebecca A. Mbuh. Women in the New Millennium: The Global Revolution. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2006. Brenton, Sam and Reuben Cohan. Shooting People: Adventures in Reality TV. London: Verso, 2003. Brodsky, Anne E. With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. New York: Routledge, 2004. Brooks, Kim, ed. Justice Bertha Wilson: One Woman’s Difference. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press, 2009. Bullard, Robert D. Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices From the Grassroots. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1993. Cahn, Naomi. Test Tube Families: Why the Fertility Market Needs Legal Regulation. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Caiazza, A. and A. Barret. Engaging Women in Environmental Activism: Recommendations for Rachel’s Network. Washington, DC: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2003. Chaka-Makhooane, Lisebo. Sexual Violence in Lesotho: The Realities of Justice for Women. Maseru: Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, 2002. Cline, Foster W. and Jim Fay. Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility. Colorado Springs: Pinon Press, 1990. Clover, Carol. Men, Women and Chain Saws. London: BFI, 1992. Cockburn, Cynthia. From Where We Stand: War, Women’s Activism, and Feminist Analysis. London: Zed Books, 2007 Cohen, Marilyn. No Girls in the Clubhouse: The Exclusion of Women From Baseball. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Cohen, R. and S. Rai. Global Social Movements, London: Continuum International, 2004. Cole, Luke and Sheila Foster. From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2001. Comez, Michael. Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Cooper, Bruce S., ed. Homeschooling in Full View: A Reader. Charlotte, NC: Information Age, 2005.

Critchlow, Donald T. Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman’s Crusade. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. Crittenden, Patricia McKinsey. Raising Parents: Attachment Parent and Child Safety. Devon, England: Willan Publishing, 2008. Darling, Pamela W. New Wine: The Story of Women Transforming Leadership and Power in the Episcopal Church. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1994. Davidson, M. and R. J. Burke, eds. Women in Management, London: Paul Chapman, 1994. Davie, Sharon L. University and College Women’s Centers: A Journey Toward Equity. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. Denov, M. Perspectives on Female Sex Offending. London: Ashgate, 2004. Dhurvarajan, Vanaja and Jill Vickers. Gender, Race and Nation. Toronto: University Press, 2002. Eaton, H. and L. A. Lorentzen. Ecofeminism and Globalization: Exploring Culture, Context and Religion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Edward, H. Clark Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for Girls. Boston: James R. Osgood & Company, 1874. Escoffery, David S. How Real is Reality TV?: Essays on Representation and Truth. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2006. Ewen, Stuart. Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture. New York: McGraw Hill, 1976. Fallon, Kathleen M. Democracy and the Rise of Women’s Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Fand, Roxanne J. The Dialogic Self: Reconstructing Subjectivity in Woolf, Lessing, and Atwood. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1999. Ferree, Myra Marx and Beth B. Hess. Controversy and Coalition: The New Feminist Movement Across Three Decades of Change. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995. Feuerstein, G. The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice. Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press, 1998. Fields, Sarah K. Female Gladiators: Gender, Law, and Contact Sports in America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005.



Fonow, Mary Margaret. Union Women: Forging Feminism in the United Steelworkers of America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. Freedman, Marc. Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. New York: Public Affairs, 2007. Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell Publishing, 1983. Friedman, James. Reality Squared: Televisual Discourse on the Real. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Gaard, Greta Claire. Ecological Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. Gardner, Andrea. The 30 Second Seduction: How Advertisers Lure Women through Flattery, Flirtation, and Manipulation. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2008. Gatrell, Caroline J. Embodying Women’s Work. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 2008. Gatrell, Caroline J. Hard Labour: The Sociology of Parenthood. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 2005. Ginsberg, Alice E. The Evolution of American Women’s Studies: Reflections on Triumphs, Controversies, and Change. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Glynn, Kevin. Tabloid Culture: Trash Taste, Popular Power, and the Transformation of American Television. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000. Goebel, Allison. Gender and Land Reform. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2005. Gordon, L. Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990. Greenberg, Karen and Joshua L. Dratel. The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Guerrilla Girls, Inc. Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. New York: Penguin, 2003. Gullette, Margaret Morganroth. Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997. Gutmann, Matthew C. The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Resource Guide

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Hafner, Katie. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. Hawthorne, S. and R. Klein, eds. Cyberfeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity. Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 1999. Hazel, Dann. Witness: Gay and Lesbian Clergy Report From the Front. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000. Hern, Warren M. Abortion Practice. Boulder, CO: Alpenglo Graphics, 1990. Hill, Annette. Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. New York: Routledge, 2005. Hochschild, Arlie. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New York: Henry Holt, 1997 Horsey, Kirsty and Hazel Biggs Human Fertilisation and Embryology: Reproducing Regulation. New York: Routledge-Cavendish, 2007. Hossain, Sara, and Lynn Welchman. Honour: Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women. London: Zed Books, 2005. Howe, Florence The Politics of Women’s Studies: Testimony of 30 Founding Mothers. New York: The Feminist Press, 2000. Hull, K. Same-Sex Marriage: The Cultural Politics of Love and Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Husseini, Rana. Murder in the Name of Honour. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2009. Inness, Sherry A. Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Inness, Sherry A. Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Jacobs, James B. and Kimberly Potter. Hate Crimes: Criminal and Identity Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, eds. Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Jacobsen, Joyce. The Economics of Gender, Third Edition. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell/Wiley, 2007. Jain, Devaki and Pam Rajput. Narratives From the Women’s Studies Family: Recreating Knowledge. New Delhi, India: Sage, 2003.

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Resource Guide

Johnson, Erika. Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband: Russian-American Internet Romance. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. Johnson, Janet Elise. Gender Violence in Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. Johnson, Linda and Andrea Learned. Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy and How to Increase Your Share of this Crucial Market. New York: American Management Association, 2004. Kaplan, Laura. The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Kavka, Misha. Reality Television, Affect and Intimacy: Reality Matters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Keddie, Nikki R. Women in the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. Kilbourne, Jean. Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. New York: Touchstone, 1999. LaDuke, Winona. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. LaDuke, Winona. Last Standing Woman. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press, 1997. LaDuke, Winona. Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005. LaDuke, Winona. The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press, 2002. Lancioni, J. Fix me Up: Essays on Television Dating and Makeover. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. Leach, William. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Lessing, Doris. The Cleft. London: Harper Perennial, 2008. Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York: Free Press, 2005. Lewin, E. Recognizing Ourselves: Ceremonies of Lesbian and Gay Commitment. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Littig, B. Feminist Perspectives on Environment and Society. London: Pearson Education, 2001. Luebke, Barbara F. and Mary Ellen Reilly. Women’s Studies Graduates: The First Generation. New York: Teachers College Press, 1995.

Lyons, Tanya. Guns and Guerilla Girls. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2004.   MacLean, Sandra Jean Health for Some: The Political Economy of Global Health Governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Mansbridge, Jane J. Why We Lost the ERA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920–1940. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. Mathews, Donald G. and Jane Sherron De Hart. Sex, Gender, and the Politics of ERA: A State and a Nation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. McCann, Carole Ruth and Seung-Kyung Kim. Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2003. McClelland, A. E. The Education of Women in the United States: A Guide to Theory, Teaching and Research. New York: Garland Publishing, 1992. McCoughey, Martha and Neal King. Reel Knockouts: Violent Women in the Movies. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. McKee, Geoffrey R. Why Mothers Kill: A Forensic Psychologists Case Book. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. McNamee, Mike. Philosophy, Risk and Adventure Sports. London: Routledge, 2007. Meyer, Cheryl L. and Overman, Michelle. Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms From Susan Smith to the “Prom Mom.” New York: New York University Press, 2001. Meyer, Mary K. and Elisabeth Prügl. Gender Politics in Global Governance. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Miller, Russell. Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy. London: Corgi, 1985. Mojadidi, Sedika. Motherland Afghanistan. New York: Icarus Films, 2006. Morgen, Sandra. Into Our Own Hands: The Women’s Health Movement in the United States, 1969– 1990. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Mungello, D. E. Drowning Girls in China: Female Infanticide Since 1650. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. Munro, Anne. Women, Work and Trade Unions. New York: Routledge, 1999.



Murray, Susan and Laurie Ouellette. Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Neft, N. and A. D. Levine. Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries. New York: Random House, 1997. Oberman, Michelle and Cheryl L. Meyer. When Mothers Kill: Interviews From Prison. New York: New York University Press, 2008. O’Farrell, Brigid. Rocking the Boat: Union Women’s Voices, 1915–1975. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. O’Malley, Susan. Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Ouellette, Laurie and James Hay. Better Living Through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008. Pearsall, Marilyn. The Other Within Us: Feminist Explorations of Women and Aging. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. Pool, Gail. Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007. Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York: Viking Press, 1985. Powell, G. N. and L. M. Graves. Women and Men in Management. London: Sage, 2003. Queen Latifah. Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman. New York: William Morrow, 1998. Rich, Adrienne Of Woman Born, Motherhood as Experience and Institution London: Virago, 1977. Ring, Jennifer. Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don’t Play Baseball. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Ruzek, Sheryl Burt. The Women’s Health Movements: Feminist Alternatives to Medical Control. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1978. Schubart, Rikke. Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970–2006. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. 2007. Scott, Joan Wallach. Women’s Studies on the Edge. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008. Senjen, R. and J. Guthrey. The Internet for Women. Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 1996. Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of their Own: British Women Novelists From Brontë to Lessing. London: Virago, 1993.

Resource Guide

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Skaine, Rosemarie. Women of Afghanistan in the Post-Taliban Era: How Lives Have Changed and Where They Stand Today. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Skaine, Rosemarie. Women Political Leaders in Africa. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. Solomon, B. M. In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986. Spacks, Patricia Meyer. The Female Imagination: A Literary and Psychological Investigation of Women’s Writing. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1976. Sturgeon, Noel. Ecofeminist Natures. New York: Routledge, 1997. Tasker, Y. Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema. New York: Routledge, 1993. Taylor, Y. Lesbian and Gay Parenting: Securing Social and Educational Capital. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Torjesen, Karen Jo. When Women Were Priests: Women’s Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity. San Francisco: Harper San Franscisco, 1993. Tripp, Ail Mari. African Women’s Movements: Changing Political Landscapes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Weeks, John R. Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues. 10th ed. Belmont, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. Wiegman, Robyn. Women’s Studies on Its Own: A Next Wave Reader in Institutional Change. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Williamson, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising. New York: Marion Boyars, 1984. Winkler, Gary. Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs That Shocked the World. Keyser, WV: Bad Apple Books, 2009. Witter, Lisa and Lisa Chen. The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them. San Francisco: BarrettKoehler Publishers, 2008. Zuckerman, M. A History of Popular Women’s Magazines in the United States, 1792–1995. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

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Resource Guide

Journals Advancing Women in Leadership Journal Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse American Journal of Public Health Archives of Women’s Mental Health Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal British Journal of Industrial Relations Camera Obscura Canadian Journal of Women and the Law Contemporary Women’s Writing Corvy Women Writers on the Web Journal Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies European Journal of Women’s Studies Family Planning Perspectives Feminism & Nonviolence Studies Journal Feminism & Psychology Feminist Collections Feminist Economics Feminist Theory Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies Gender, Technology and Development Gender and Development Gender & Society GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies Hypathia Indian Journal of Gender Studies International Journal of Social Welfare International Journal of the Legal Profession Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes Journal of Contemporary Ethnography Journal of Economic Literature Journal of Feminist Legal Studies Journal of Gang Research Journal of Gender Issues Journal of International Women’s Studies Journal of Police Science and Administration Journal of Policy Analysis and Management Journal of Popular Culture Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless Journal of South Asia Women Studies Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering Journal of Women in Culture and Society Journal of Women’s Health Journal of Women’s History Ms. Magazine

Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Disease Social Science Quarterly Violence Against Women Womanist Theory and Research Women & Performance Internet About-Face www.about-face.org Abuse Aware abuseaware.com Advancing Women www.advancingwomen.org African Women’s Development Fund www.awdf.org AGORA: Women in Science www.agora.forwomeninscience.com All Women Count www.allwomencount.net American Association of University Women www.aauw.org American Business Women’s Association www.abwa.org American Women lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml Association for Women’s Rights in Development www.awid.org Bridge—Mainstreaming Gender Equality www.bridge.ids.ac.uk Campaign for Female Education www.camfed.org Catholics for Choice www.catholicsforchoice.org Center for Gender & Refugee Studies cgrs.uchastings.edu Center for Women’s Global Leadership www.cwgl.rutgers.edu CHANGE: Center for Health and Gender Equity www.genderhealth.org CODEPINK www.codepink4peace.org Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw Council of Women World Leaders www.cwwl.org Digital Women www.digital-women.com



Dykes on Bikes www.dykesonbikes.org EMILY’s List www.emilyslist.org ENAWA: European and North American WomenAction www.enawa.org Ending Violence against Women and Girls www.unfpa.org/swp/2000/english/ch03.html Equality Now www.equalitynow.org/english FaithTrust Institute www.faithtrustinstitute.org Family Research Council www.frc.org Feminism and Women’s Studies feminism.eserver.org Feminist Majority Foundation feminist.org Feminists for Life www.feministsforlife.org Forum for African Women Educationalists www.fawe.org Gender Equity in Sports bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/ge Gender Policy Review gender-policy.tripod.com/journal General Union of Palestinian Women www.gupw.net Girl Geeks www.girlgeeks.org Girls Inc. www.girlsinc.org Global Fund for Women www.globalfundforwomen.org Global Peace Initiative for Women www.gpiw.org Global Sister: The Global Women’s Movement www.globalsister.org Granny Peace Brigade www.grannypeacebrigade.org Green Belt Movement www.greenbeltmovement.org Guerrilla Girls www.guerrillagirls.com Human Rights Campaign www.hrc.org

Resource Guide Independent Women’s Forum www.iwf.org Institute for Women’s Policy Research www.iwpr.org/index.cfm International Center for Research on Women www.icrw.org International Center for Transitional Justice www.ictj.org International Museum of Women www.imow.org International Planned Parenthood Federation www.ippf.org International Women’s Day www.internationalwomensday.com International Women’s Development Agency www.iwda.org.au/au International Women’s Health Coalition www.iwhc.org International Women’s Rights Action Watch www1.umn.edu League of Women Voters www.lwv.org The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center www.gaycenter.org MADRE www.madre.org Million Mom March www.millionmommarch.org Minerva Center www.minervacenter.com Mothers Against Drunk Driving www.madd.org Ms. Foundation for Women www.ms.foundation.org NARAL www.naral.org National Center for Lesbian Rights www.nclrights.org National Center on Women and Aging www.heller.brandeis.edu/national/ind.html National Council for Research on Women www.ncrw.org National Council of Women’s Organizations www.womensorganizations.org National First Ladies’ Library www.firstladies.org

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Resource Guide

National Organization for Women www.now.org National Partnership for Women & Families www.nationalpartnership.org National Women’s Law Center www.nwlc.org National Women’s Political Caucus www.nwpc.org National Women’s Studies Association www.nwsa.org 9to5 www.9to5.org Nobel Women’s Initiative www.nobelwomensinitiative.org Online Women’s Business Center www.onlinewbc.gov Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq www.equalityiniraq.com Our Bodies Ourselves: Information on Women’s Health & Sexuality www.ourbodiesourselves.org Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays www.pflag.org Rachel’s Network www.rachelsnetwork.org Radical Women www.radicalwomen.org Refugee Women’s Network www.riwn.org Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan www.rawa.org Self Employed Women’s Association www.sewa.org The Sister Fund www.sisterfund.org Sisterhood Is Global Institute sigi.org STEM Coalition nstacommunities.org/stemedcoalition Stop Family Violence www.stopfamilyviolence.org Take Back the Night www.takebackthenight.org Third Wave Foundation www.thirdwavefoundation.org

Tibetan Women’s Association www.tibetanwomen.org/ Title IX www.titleix.info United Nations Development Fund for Women www.unifem.org United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women www.un.org/womenwatch/daw United Nations Womenwatch www.un.org/womenwatch U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission www.eeoc.gov U.S. Office of Global Women’s Issues www.state.gov/s/gwi V-Day: A Global Movement to End Violence Against Women and Girls Worldwide www.vday.org White House Council on Women and Girls www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cwg WidowNet www.fortnet.org Women Employed www.womenemployed.org/index.jsp Women in Black www.womeninblack.org Women in Farm Economy www.worldfooddayusa.org Women for Afghan Women www.womenforafghanwomen.org Women for Women International www.womenforwomen.org Women Leaders Online www.wlo.org Women Make Movies www.wmm.com Women Online Worldwide www.wowwomen.com Women Without Borders www.women-without-borders.org Women’s Aid www.womensaid.ie Women’s Environment and Development Organization www.wedo.org Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press www.wifp.org



Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom www.wilpf.org Women’s National Democratic Club www.democraticwoman.org Women’s Ordination Conference www.womensordination.org

Resource Guide Women’s Organization of Iran fis-iran.org/en/women/organization Women’s Policy, Inc. www.womenspolicy.org Young Women’s Project www.youngwomensproject.org

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Appendix Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing, China — September 1995

Action for Equality, Development and Peace Editors’ Note: The Fourth World Conference on Women, resulting in the Beijing Declaration, is the most recent worldwide call for the empowerment of women. In 2010, plans were underway for a Fifth Wold Conference on Women.

© United Nations, 1995. Reproduced with permission.

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Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action* The Fourth World Conference on Women,

Having met in Beijing from 4 to 15 September 1995,

1. Adopts the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which are annexed to the present resolution; 2. Recommends to the General Assembly of the United Nations at its fiftieth session that it endorse the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as adopted by the Conference.

* Adopted at the 16th plenary meeting, on 15 September 1995; for the discussion, see chapter V.

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Annex I BEIJING DECLARATION 1. We, the Governments participating in the Fourth World Conference on Women, 2. Gathered here in Beijing in September 1995, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, 3. Determined to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity, 4. Acknowledging the voices of all women everywhere and taking note of the diversity of women and their roles and circumstances, honouring the women who paved the way and inspired by the hope present in the world’s youth, 5. Recognize that the status of women has advanced in some important respects in the past decade but that progress has been uneven, inequalities between women and men have persisted and major obstacles remain, with serious consequences for the well-being of all people, 6. Also recognize that this situation is exacerbated by the increasing poverty that is affecting the lives of the majority of the world’s people, in particular women and children, with origins in both the national and international domains, 7. Dedicate ourselves unreservedly to addressing these constraints and obstacles and thus enhancing further the advancement and empowerment of women all over the world, and agree that this requires urgent action in the spirit of determination, hope, cooperation and solidarity, now and to carry us forward into the next century. We reaffirm our commitment to: 8. The equal rights and inherent human dignity of women and men and other purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the Declaration on the Right to Development; 9. Ensure the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;

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Appendix 10. Build on consensus and progress made at previous United Nations conferences and summits -on women in Nairobi in 1985, on children in New York in 1990, on environment and development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, on human rights in Vienna in 1993, on population and development in Cairo in 1994 and on social development in Copenhagen in 1995 with the objective of achieving equality, development and peace; 11. Achieve the full and effective implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women; 12. The empowerment and advancement of women, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, thus contributing to the moral, ethical, spiritual and intellectual needs of women and men, individually or in community with others and thereby guaranteeing them the possibility of realizing their full potential in society and shaping their lives in accordance with their own aspirations. We are convinced that: 13. Women’s empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace; 14. Women’s rights are human rights; 15. Equal rights, opportunities and access to resources, equal sharing of responsibilities for the family by men and women, and a harmonious partnership between them are critical to their well-being and that of their families as well as to the consolidation of democracy; 16. Eradication of poverty based on sustained economic growth, social development, environmental protection and social justice requires the involvement of women in economic and social development, equal opportunities and the full and equal participation of women and men as agents and beneficiaries of people-centred sustainable development; 17. The explicit recognition and reaffirmation of the right of all women to control all aspects of their health, in particular their own fertility, is basic to their empowerment; 18. Local, national, regional and global peace is attainable and is inextricably linked with the advancement of women, who are a fundamental force for leadership, conflict resolution and the promotion of lasting peace at all levels; 19. It is essential to design, implement and monitor, with the full participation of women, effective, efficient and mutually reinforcing gender-sensitive policies and programmes,

Appendix



including development policies and programmes, at all levels that will foster the empowerment and advancement of women; 20. The participation and contribution of all actors of civil society, particularly women’s groups and networks and other non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations, with full respect for their autonomy, in cooperation with Governments, are important to the effective implementation and follow-up of the Platform for Action; 21. The implementation of the Platform for Action requires commitment from Governments and the international community. By making national and international commitments for action, including those made at the Conference, Governments and the international community recognize the need to take priority action for the empowerment and advancement of women. We are determined to: 22. Intensify efforts and actions to achieve the goals of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women by the end of this century; 23. Ensure the full enjoyment by women and the girl child of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and take effective action against violations of these rights and freedoms; 24. Take all necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and the girl child and remove all obstacles to gender equality and the advancement and empowerment of women; 25. Encourage men to participate fully in all actions towards equality; 26. Promote women’s economic independence, including employment, and eradicate the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women by addressing the structural causes of poverty through changes in economic structures, ensuring equal access for all women, including those in rural areas, as vital development agents, to productive resources, opportunities and public services; 27. Promote people-centred sustainable development, including sustained economic growth, through the provision of basic education, life-long education, literacy and training, and primary health care for girls and women; 28. Take positive steps to ensure peace for the advancement of women and, recognizing the leading role that women have played in the peace movement, work actively towards general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, and support negotiations on the conclusion, without delay, of a universal and multilaterally and

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Appendix effectively verifiable comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty which contributes to nuclear disarmament and the prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all its aspects; 29. Prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls; 30. Ensure equal access to and equal treatment of women and men in education and health care and enhance women’s sexual and reproductive health as well as education; 31. Promote and protect all human rights of women and girls; 32. Intensify efforts to ensure equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all women and girls who face multiple barriers to their empowerment and advancement because of such factors as their race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, or disability, or because they are indigenous people; 33. Ensure respect for international law, including humanitarian law, in order to protect women and girls in particular; 34. Develop the fullest potential of girls and women of all ages, ensure their full and equal participation in building a better world for all and enhance their role in the development process. We are determined to: 35. Ensure women’s equal access to economic resources, including land, credit, science and technology, vocational training, information, communication and markets, as a means to further the advancement and empowerment of women and girls, including through the enhancement of their capacities to enjoy the benefits of equal access to these resources, inter alia, by means of international cooperation; 36. Ensure the success of the Platform for Action, which will require a strong commitment on the part of Governments, international organizations and institutions at all levels. We are deeply convinced that economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development, which is the framework for our efforts to achieve a higher quality of life for all people. Equitable social development that recognizes empowering the poor, particularly women living in poverty, to utilize environmental resources sustainably is a necessary foundation for sustainable development. We also recognize that broad-based and sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development is necessary to sustain social development and social justice. The success of the Platform for Action will also require adequate mobilization of resources at the national and international levels as well as new and additional resources to the developing countries from all available fund-



Appendix ing mechanisms, including multilateral, bilateral and private sources for the advancement of women; financial resources to strengthen the capacity of national, subregional, regional and international institutions; a commitment to equal rights, equal responsibilities and equal opportunities and to the equal participation of women and men in all national, regional and international bodies and policy-making processes; and the establishment or strengthening of mechanisms at all levels for accountability to the world’s women; 37. Ensure also the success of the Platform for Action in countries with economies in transition, which will require continued international cooperation and assistance; 38. We hereby adopt and commit ourselves as Governments to implement the following Platform for Action, ensuring that a gender perspective is reflected in all our policies and programmes. We urge the United Nations system, regional and international financial institutions, other relevant regional and international institutions and all women and men, as well as non-governmental organizations, with full respect for their autonomy, and all sectors of civil society, in cooperation with Governments, to fully commit themselves and contribute to the implementation of this Platform for Action.

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Annex II

PLATFORM FOR ACTION

Contents

Chapter Paragraphs I. MISSION STATEMENT II. GLOBAL FRAMEWORK III. CRITICAL AREAS OF CONCERN IV. STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND ACTIONS A. Women and poverty B. Education and training of women C. Women and health D. Violence against women E. Women and armed conflict F. Women and the economy G. Women in power and decision-making H. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women I. Human rights of women J. Women and the media K. Women and the environment L. The girl child V. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS A. National level B. Subregional/regional level C. International level VI. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS A. National level B. Regional level C. International level

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Chapter I

MISSION STATEMENT 1. The Platform for Action is an agenda for women’s empowerment. It aims at accelerating the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women1 and at removing all the obstacles to women’s active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making. This means that the principle of shared power and responsibility should be established between women and men at home, in the workplace and in the wider national and international communities. Equality between women and men is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and is also a necessary and fundamental prerequisite for equality, development and peace. A transformed partnership based on equality between women and men is a condition for people-centred sustainable development. A sustained and long-term commitment is essential, so that women and men can work together for themselves, for their children and for society to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. 2. The Platform for Action reaffirms the fundamental principle set forth in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,2 adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, that the human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. As an agenda for action, the Platform seeks to promote and protect the full enjoyment of all human rights and the fundamental freedoms of all women throughout their life cycle. 3. The Platform for Action emphasizes that women share common concerns that can be addressed only by working together and in partnership with men towards the common goal of gender* equality around the world. It respects and values the full diversity of women’s situations and conditions and recognizes that some women face particular barriers to their empowerment. 4. The Platform for Action requires immediate and concerted action by all to create a peaceful, just and humane world based on human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the principle of equality for all people of all ages and from all walks of life, and to this end, recognizes that broad-based and sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development is necessary to sustain social development and social justice. 5. The success of the Platform for Action will require a strong commitment on the part of Governments, international organizations and institutions at all levels. It will also require adequate mobilization of resources at the national and international levels as well as new and additional resources to the developing countries from all available funding mechanisms, including multilateral, bilateral and private sources for the advancement of women; financial resources to strengthen the capacity of national, subregional, regional

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Appendix and international institutions; a commitment to equal rights, equal responsibilities and equal opportunities and to the equal participation of women and men in all national, regional and international bodies and policy-making processes; and the establishment or strengthening of mechanisms at all levels for accountability to the world’s women.

* For the commonly understood meaning of the term “gender”, see annex IV to the present report.

Appendix



Chapter II

GLOBAL FRAMEWORK 6. The Fourth World Conference on Women is taking place as the world stands poised on the threshold of a new millennium. 7. The Platform for Action upholds the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women3 and builds upon the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, as well as relevant resolutions adopted by the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly. The formulation of the Platform for Action is aimed at establishing a basic group of priority actions that should be carried out during the next five years. 8. The Platform for Action recognizes the importance of the agreements reached at the World Summit for Children, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development and the World Summit for Social Development, which set out specific approaches and commitments to fostering sustainable development and international cooperation and to strengthening the role of the United Nations to that end. Similarly, the Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, the International Conference on Nutrition, the International Conference on Primary Health Care and the World Conference on Education for All have addressed the various facets of development and human rights, within their specific perspectives, paying significant attention to the role of women and girls. In addition, the International Year for the World’s Indigenous People,4 the International Year of the Family,5 the United Nations Year for Tolerance,6 the Geneva Declaration for Rural Women,7 and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women8 have also emphasized the issues of women’s empowerment and equality. 9. The objective of the Platform for Action, which is in full conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, is the empowerment of all women. The full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women is essential for the empowerment of women. While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.9 The implementation of this Platform, including through national laws and the formulation of strategies, policies, programmes and development priorities, is the sovereign responsibility of each State, in conformity with all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the significance of and full respect for various religious and ethical values, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions of individuals and their communities should contribute

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Appendix to the full enjoyment by women of their human rights in order to achieve equality, development and peace. 10. Since the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, held at Nairobi in 1985, and the adoption of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, the world has experienced profound political, economic, social and cultural changes, which have had both positive and negative effects on women. The World Conference on Human Rights recognized that the human rights of women and the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sex are priority objectives of the international community. The World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed the solemn commitment of all States to fulfil their obligations to promote universal respect for, and observance and protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, other instruments related to human rights and international law. The universal nature of these rights and freedoms is beyond question. 11. The end of the cold war has resulted in international changes and diminished competition between the super-Powers. The threat of a global armed conflict has diminished, while international relations have improved and prospects for peace among nations have increased. Although the threat of global conflict has been reduced, wars of aggression, armed conflicts, colonial or other forms of alien domination and foreign occupation, civil wars, and terrorism continue to plague many parts of the world. Grave violations of the human rights of women occur, particularly in times of armed conflict, and include murder, torture, systematic rape, forced pregnancy and forced abortion, in particular under policies of ethnic cleansing. 12. The maintenance of peace and security at the global, regional and local levels, together with the prevention of policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing and the resolution of armed conflict, is crucial for the protection of the human rights of women and girl children, as well as for the elimination of all forms of violence against them and of their use as a weapon of war. 13. Excessive military expenditures, including global military expenditures and arms trade or trafficking, and investments for arms production and acquisition have reduced the resources available for social development. As a result of the debt burden and other economic difficulties, many developing countries have undertaken structural adjustment policies. Moreover, there are structural adjustment programmes that have been poorly designed and implemented, with resulting detrimental effects on social devel-



Appendix opment. The number of people living in poverty has increased disproportionately in most developing countries, particularly the heavily indebted countries, during the past decade. 14. In this context, the social dimension of development should be emphasized. Accelerated economic growth, although necessary for social development, does not by itself improve the quality of life of the population. In some cases, conditions can arise which can aggravate social inequality and marginalization. Hence, it is indispensable to search for new alternatives that ensure that all members of society benefit from economic growth based on a holistic approach to all aspects of development: growth, equality between women and men, social justice, conservation and protection of the environment, sustainability, solidarity, participation, peace and respect for human rights. 15. A worldwide movement towards democratization has opened up the political process in many nations, but the popular participation of women in key decision-making as full and equal partners with men, particularly in politics, has not yet been achieved. South Africa’s policy of institutionalized racism apartheid -has been dismantled and a peaceful and democratic transfer of power has occurred. In Central and Eastern Europe the transition to parliamentary democracy has been rapid and has given rise to a variety of experiences, depending on the specific circumstances of each country. While the transition has been mostly peaceful, in some countries this process has been hindered by armed conflict that has resulted in grave violations of human rights. 16. Widespread economic recession, as well as political instability in some regions, has been responsible for setting back development goals in many countries. This has led to the expansion of unspeakable poverty. Of the more than 1 billion people living in abject poverty, women are an overwhelming majority. The rapid process of change and adjustment in all sectors has also led to increased unemployment and underemployment, with particular impact on women. In many cases, structural adjustment programmes have not been designed to minimize their negative effects on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups or on women, nor have they been designed to assure positive effects on those groups by preventing their marginalization in economic and social activities. The Final Act of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations10 underscored the increasing interdependence of national economies, as well as the importance of trade liberalization and access to open, dynamic markets. There has also been heavy military spending in some regions. Despite increases in official development assistance (ODA) by some countries, ODA has recently declined overall. 17. Absolute poverty and the feminization of poverty, unemployment, the increasing fragility of the environment, continued violence against women and the widespread exclusion of half of humanity from institutions of power and governance underscore the need to continue the search for development, peace and security and for ways of assuring

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Appendix people-centred sustainable development. The participation and leadership of the half of humanity that is female is essential to the success of that search. Therefore, only a new era of international cooperation among Governments and peoples based on a spirit of partnership, an equitable, international social and economic environment, and a radical transformation of the relationship between women and men to one of full and equal partnership will enable the world to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. 18. Recent international economic developments have had in many cases a disproportionate impact on women and children, the majority of whom live in developing countries. For those States that have carried a large burden of foreign debt, structural adjustment programmes and measures, though beneficial in the long term, have led to a reduction in social expenditures, thereby adversely affecting women, particularly in Africa and the least developed countries. This is exacerbated when responsibilities for basic social services have shifted from Governments to women. 19. Economic recession in many developed and developing countries, as well as ongoing restructuring in countries with economies in transition, have had a disproportionately negative impact on women’s employment. Women often have no choice but to take employment that lacks long-term job security or involves dangerous working conditions, to work in unprotected home-based production or to be unemployed. Many women enter the labour market in under-remunerated and undervalued jobs, seeking to improve their household income; others decide to migrate for the same purpose. Without any reduction in their other responsibilities, this has increased the total burden of work for women. 20. Macro and micro-economic policies and programmes, including structural adjustment, have not always been designed to take account of their impact on women and girl children, especially those living in poverty. Poverty has increased in both absolute and relative terms, and the number of women living in poverty has increased in most regions. There are many urban women living in poverty; however, the plight of women living in rural and remote areas deserves special attention given the stagnation of development in such areas. In developing countries, even those in which national indicators have shown improvement, the majority of rural women continue to live in conditions of economic underdevelopment and social marginalization. 21. Women are key contributors to the economy and to combating poverty through both remunerated and unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the workplace. Growing numbers of women have achieved economic independence through gainful employment. 22. One fourth of all households world wide are headed by women and many other households are dependent on female income even where men are present. Female-maintained households are very often among the poorest because of wage discrimination, occupa-



Appendix tional segregation patterns in the labour market and other gender-based barriers. Family disintegration, population movements between urban and rural areas within countries, international migration, war and internal displacements are factors contributing to the rise of female-headed households. 23. Recognizing that the achievement and maintenance of peace and security are a precondition for economic and social progress, women are increasingly establishing themselves as central actors in a variety of capacities in the movement of humanity for peace. Their full participation in decision-making, conflict prevention and resolution and all other peace initiatives is essential to the realization of lasting peace. 24. Religion, spirituality and belief play a central role in the lives of millions of women and men, in the way they live and in the aspirations they have for the future. The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is inalienable and must be universally enjoyed. This right includes the freedom to have or to adopt the religion or belief of their choice either individually or in community with others, in public or in private, and to manifest their religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching. In order to realize equality, development and peace, there is a need to respect these rights and freedoms fully. Religion, thought, conscience and belief may, and can, contribute to fulfilling women’s and men’s moral, ethical and spiritual needs and to realizing their full potential in society. However, it is acknowledged that any form of extremism may have a negative impact on women and can lead to violence and discrimination. 25. The Fourth World Conference on Women should accelerate the process that formally began in 1975, which was proclaimed International Women’s Year by the United Nations General Assembly. The Year was a turning-point in that it put women’s issues on the agenda. The United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985) was a worldwide effort to examine the status and rights of women and to bring women into decision-making at all levels. In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which entered into force in 1981 and set an international standard for what was meant by equality between women and men. In 1985, the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace adopted the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, to be implemented by the year 2000. There has been important progress in achieving equality between women and men. Many Governments have enacted legislation to promote equality between women and men and have established national machineries to ensure the mainstreaming of gender perspectives in all spheres of society. International agencies have focused greater attention on women’s status and roles. 26. The growing strength of the non-governmental sector, particularly women’s organizations and feminist groups, has become a driving force for change. Non-governmen-

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Appendix tal organizations have played an important advocacy role in advancing legislation or mechanisms to ensure the promotion of women. They have also become catalysts for new approaches to development. Many Governments have increasingly recognized the important role that non-governmental organizations play and the importance of working with them for progress. Yet, in some countries, Governments continue to restrict the ability of non-governmental organizations to operate freely. Women, through nongovernmental organizations, have participated in and strongly influenced community, national, regional and global forums and international debates. 27. Since 1975, knowledge of the status of women and men, respectively, has increased and is contributing to further actions aimed at promoting equality between women and men. In several countries, there have been important changes in the relationships between women and men, especially where there have been major advances in education for women and significant increases in their participation in the paid labour force. The boundaries of the gender division of labour between productive and reproductive roles are gradually being crossed as women have started to enter formerly male-dominated areas of work and men have started to accept greater responsibility for domestic tasks, including child care. However, changes in women’s roles have been greater and much more rapid than changes in men’s roles. In many countries, the differences between women’s and men’s achievements and activities are still not recognized as the consequences of socially constructed gender roles rather than immutable biological differences. 28. Moreover, 10 years after the Nairobi Conference, equality between women and men has still not been achieved. On average, women represent a mere 10 per cent of all elected legislators world wide and in most national and international administrative structures, both public and private, they remain underrepresented. The United Nations is no exception. Fifty years after its creation, the United Nations is continuing to deny itself the benefits of women’s leadership by their underrepresentation at decision-making levels within the Secretariat and the specialized agencies. 29. Women play a critical role in the family. The family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened. It is entitled to receive comprehensive protection and support. In different cultural, political and social systems, various forms of the family exist. The rights, capabilities and responsibilities of family members must be respected. Women make a great contribution to the welfare of the family and to the development of society, which is still not recognized or considered in its full importance. The social significance of maternity, motherhood and the role of parents in the family and in the upbringing of children should be acknowledged. The upbringing of children requires shared responsibility of parents, women and men and society as a whole. Maternity, motherhood, parenting and the role of women in procreation must not be a basis for discrimination nor restrict the full participation of women in society. Recognition should also be given to the important role often played by women in many countries in caring for other members of their family.



Appendix 30. While the rate of growth of world population is on the decline, world population is at an all-time high in absolute numbers, with current increments approaching 86 million persons annually. Two other major demographic trends have had profound repercussions on the dependency ratio within families. In many developing countries, 45 to 50 per cent of the population is less than 15 years old, while in industrialized nations both the number and proportion of elderly people are increasing. According to United Nations projections, 72 per cent of the population over 60 years of age will be living in developing countries by the year 2025, and more than half of that population will be women. Care of children, the sick and the elderly is a responsibility that falls disproportionately on women, owing to lack of equality and the unbalanced distribution of remunerated and unremunerated work between women and men. 31. Many women face particular barriers because of various diverse factors in addition to their gender. Often these diverse factors isolate or marginalize such women. They are, inter alia, denied their human rights, they lack access or are denied access to education and vocational training, employment, housing and economic self-sufficiency and they are excluded from decision-making processes. Such women are often denied the opportunity to contribute to their communities as part of the mainstream. 32. The past decade has also witnessed a growing recognition of the distinct interests and concerns of indigenous women, whose identity, cultural traditions and forms of social organization enhance and strengthen the communities in which they live. Indigenous women often face barriers both as women and as members of indigenous communities. 33. In the past 20 years, the world has seen an explosion in the field of communications. With advances in computer technology and satellite and cable television, global access to information continues to increase and expand, creating new opportunities for the participation of women in communications and the mass media and for the dissemination of information about women. However, global communication networks have been used to spread stereotyped and demeaning images of women for narrow commercial and consumerist purposes. Until women participate equally in both the technical and decision-making areas of communications and the mass media, including the arts, they will continue to be misrepresented and awareness of the reality of women’s lives will continue to be lacking. The media have a great potential to promote the advancement of women and the equality of women and men by portraying women and men in a non-stereotypical, diverse and balanced manner, and by respecting the dignity and worth of the human person. 34. The continuing environmental degradation that affects all human lives has often a more direct impact on women. Women’s health and their livelihood are threatened by pollution and toxic wastes, large-scale deforestation, desertification, drought and depletion of the soil and of coastal and marine resources, with a rising incidence of environmentally related health problems and even death reported among women and girls. Those

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Appendix most affected are rural and indigenous women, whose livelihood and daily subsistence depends directly on sustainable ecosystems. 35. Poverty and environmental degradation are closely interrelated. While poverty results in certain kinds of environmental stress, the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries, which are a matter of grave concern and aggravate poverty and imbalances. 36. Global trends have brought profound changes in family survival strategies and structures. Rural to urban migration has increased substantially in all regions. The global urban population is projected to reach 47 per cent of the total population by the year 2000. An estimated 125 million people are migrants, refugees and displaced persons, half of whom live in developing countries. These massive movements of people have profound consequences for family structures and well-being and have unequal consequences for women and men, including in many cases the sexual exploitation of women. 37. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, by the beginning of 1995 the number of cumulative cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was 4.5 million. An estimated 19.5 million men, women and children have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since it was first diagnosed and it is projected that another 20 million will be infected by the end of the decade. Among new cases, women are twice as likely to be infected as men. In the early stage of the AIDS pandemic, women were not infected in large numbers; however, about 8 million women are now infected. Young women and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. It is estimated that by the year 2000 more than 13 million women will be infected and 4 million women will have died from AIDS-related conditions. In addition, about 250 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases are estimated to occur every year. The rate of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, is increasing at an alarming rate among women and girls, especially in developing countries. 38. Since 1975, significant knowledge and information have been generated about the status of women and the conditions in which they live. Throughout their entire life cycle, women’s daily existence and long-term aspirations are restricted by discriminatory attitudes, unjust social and economic structures, and a lack of resources in most countries that prevent their full and equal participation. In a number of countries, the practice of prenatal sex selection, higher rates of mortality among very young girls and lower rates of school enrolment for girls as compared with boys suggest that son preference is curtailing the access of girl children to food, education and health care and even life itself. Discrimination against women begins at the earliest stages of life and must therefore be addressed from then onwards.



Appendix 39. The girl child of today is the woman of tomorrow. The skills, ideas and energy of the girl child are vital for full attainment of the goals of equality, development and peace. For the girl child to develop her full potential she needs to be nurtured in an enabling environment, where her spiritual, intellectual and material needs for survival, protection and development are met and her equal rights safeguarded. If women are to be equal partners with men, in every aspect of life and development, now is the time to recognize the human dignity and worth of the girl child and to ensure the full enjoyment of her human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the rights assured by the Convention on the Rights of the Child,11 universal ratification of which is strongly urged. Yet there exists worldwide evidence that discrimination and violence against girls begin at the earliest stages of life and continue unabated throughout their lives. They often have less access to nutrition, physical and mental health care and education and enjoy fewer rights, opportunities and benefits of childhood and adolescence than do boys. They are often subjected to various forms of sexual and economic exploitation, paedophilia, forced prostitution and possibly the sale of their organs and tissues, violence and harmful practices such as female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, incest, female genital mutilation and early marriage, including child marriage. 40. Half the world’s population is under the age of 25 and most of the world’s youth -more than 85 per cent -live in developing countries. Policy makers must recognize the implications of these demographic factors. Special measures must be taken to ensure that young women have the life skills necessary for active and effective participation in all levels of social, cultural, political and economic leadership. It will be critical for the international community to demonstrate a new commitment to the future -a commitment to inspiring a new generation of women and men to work together for a more just society. This new generation of leaders must accept and promote a world in which every child is free from injustice, oppression and inequality and free to develop her/his own potential. The principle of equality of women and men must therefore be integral to the socialization process.

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Chapter III

CRITICAL AREAS OF CONCERN 41. The advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and should not be seen in isolation as a women’s issue. They are the only way to build a sustainable, just and developed society. Empowerment of women and equality between women and men are prerequisites for achieving political, social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all peoples. 42. Most of the goals set out in the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women have not been achieved. Barriers to women’s empowerment remain, despite the efforts of Governments, as well as non-governmental organizations and women and men everywhere. Vast political, economic and ecological crises persist in many parts of the world. Among them are wars of aggression, armed conflicts, colonial or other forms of alien domination or foreign occupation, civil wars and terrorism. These situations, combined with systematic or de facto discrimination, violations of and failure to protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women, and their civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, including the right to development and ingrained prejudicial attitudes towards women and girls are but a few of the impediments encountered since the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, in 1985. 43. A review of progress since the Nairobi Conference highlights special concerns -areas of particular urgency that stand out as priorities for action. All actors should focus action and resources on the strategic objectives relating to the critical areas of concern which are, necessarily, interrelated, interdependent and of high priority. There is a need for these actors to develop and implement mechanisms of accountability for all the areas of concern. 44. To this end, Governments, the international community and civil society, including non-governmental organizations and the private sector, are called upon to take strategic action in the following critical areas of concern: • The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women • Inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to education and training • Inequalities and inadequacies in and unequal access to health care and related services • Violence against women

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Appendix • The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women, including those living under foreign occupation • Inequality in economic structures and policies, in all forms of productive activities and in access to resources • Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels • Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of women • Lack of respect for and inadequate promotion and protection of the human rights of women • Stereotyping of women and inequality in women’s access to and participation in all communication systems, especially in the media • Gender inequalities in the management of natural resources and in the safeguarding of the environment • Persistent discrimination against and violation of the rights of the girl child

Appendix



Chapter IV

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND ACTIONS 45. In each critical area of concern, the problem is diagnosed and strategic objectives are proposed with concrete actions to be taken by various actors in order to achieve those objectives. The strategic objectives are derived from the critical areas of concern and specific actions to be taken to achieve them cut across the boundaries of equality, development and peace -the goals of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women -and reflect their interdependence. The objectives and actions are interlinked, of high priority and mutually reinforcing. The Platform for Action is intended to improve the situation of all women, without exception, who often face similar barriers, while special attention should be given to groups that are the most disadvantaged. 46. The Platform for Action recognizes that women face barriers to full equality and advancement because of such factors as their race, age, language, ethnicity, culture, religion or disability, because they are indigenous women or because of other status. Many women encounter specific obstacles related to their family status, particularly as single parents; and to their socio-economic status, including their living conditions in rural, isolated or impoverished areas. Additional barriers also exist for refugee women, other displaced women, including internally displaced women as well as for immigrant women and migrant women, including women migrant workers. Many women are also particularly affected by environmental disasters, serious and infectious diseases and various forms of violence against women. A. Women and poverty 47. More than 1 billion people in the world today, the great majority of whom are women, live in unacceptable conditions of poverty, mostly in the developing countries. Poverty has various causes, including structural ones. Poverty is a complex, multidimensional problem, with origins in both the national and international domains. The globalization of the world’s economy and the deepening interdependence among nations present challenges and opportunities for sustained economic growth and development, as well as risks and uncertainties for the future of the world economy. The uncertain global economic climate has been accompanied by economic restructuring as well as, in a certain number of countries, persistent, unmanageable levels of external debt and structural adjustment programmes. In addition, all types of conflict, displacement of people and environmental degradation have undermined the capacity of Governments to meet the basic needs of their populations. Transformations in the world economy are profoundly changing the parameters of social development in all countries. One significant trend has been the increased poverty of women, the extent of which varies from region to region. The gender disparities in economic power-sharing are also an important con-

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Appendix tributing factor to the poverty of women. Migration and consequent changes in family structures have placed additional burdens on women, especially those who provide for several dependants. Macroeconomic policies need rethinking and reformulation to address such trends. These policies focus almost exclusively on the formal sector. They also tend to impede the initiatives of women and fail to consider the differential impact on women and men. The application of gender analysis to a wide range of policies and programmes is therefore critical to poverty reduction strategies. In order to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, women and men must participate fully and equally in the formulation of macroeconomic and social policies and strategies for the eradication of poverty. The eradication of poverty cannot be accomplished through anti-poverty programmes alone but will require democratic participation and changes in economic structures in order to ensure access for all women to resources, opportunities and public services. Poverty has various manifestations, including lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure a sustainable livelihood; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increasing morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision-making and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in all countries -as mass poverty in many developing countries and as pockets of poverty amidst wealth in developed countries. Poverty may be caused by an economic recession that results in loss of livelihood or by disaster or conflict. There is also the poverty of low-wage workers and the utter destitution of people who fall outside family support systems, social institutions and safety nets. 48. In the past decade the number of women living in poverty has increased disproportionately to the number of men, particularly in the developing countries. The feminization of poverty has also recently become a significant problem in the countries with economies in transition as a short-term consequence of the process of political, economic and social transformation. In addition to economic factors, the rigidity of socially ascribed gender roles and women’s limited access to power, education, training and productive resources as well as other emerging factors that may lead to insecurity for families are also responsible. The failure to adequately mainstream a gender perspective in all economic analysis and planning and to address the structural causes of poverty is also a contributing factor. 49. Women contribute to the economy and to combating poverty through both remunerated and unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the workplace. The empowerment of women is a critical factor in the eradication of poverty. 50. While poverty affects households as a whole, because of the gender division of labour and responsibilities for household welfare, women bear a disproportionate burden, attempting to manage household consumption and production under conditions of increasing scarcity. Poverty is particularly acute for women living in rural households.



Appendix 51. Women’s poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources, including credit, land ownership and inheritance, lack of access to education and support services and their minimal participation in the decision-making process. Poverty can also force women into situations in which they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation. 52. In too many countries, social welfare systems do not take sufficient account of the specific conditions of women living in poverty, and there is a tendency to scale back the services provided by such systems. The risk of falling into poverty is greater for women than for men, particularly in old age, where social security systems are based on the principle of continuous remunerated employment. In some cases, women do not fulfil this requirement because of interruptions in their work, due to the unbalanced distribution of remunerated and unremunerated work. Moreover, older women also face greater obstacles to labour-market re-entry. 53. In many developed countries, where the level of general education and professional training of women and men are similar and where systems of protection against discrimination are available, in some sectors the economic transformations of the past decade have strongly increased either the unemployment of women or the precarious nature of their employment. The proportion of women among the poor has consequently increased. In countries with a high level of school enrolment of girls, those who leave the educational system the earliest, without any qualification, are among the most vulnerable in the labour market. 54. In countries with economies in transition and in other countries undergoing fundamental political, economic and social transformations, these transformations have often led to a reduction in women’s income or to women being deprived of income. 55. Particularly in developing countries, the productive capacity of women should be increased through access to capital, resources, credit, land, technology, information, technical assistance and training so as to raise their income and improve nutrition, education, health care and status within the household. The release of women’s productive potential is pivotal to breaking the cycle of poverty so that women can share fully in the benefits of development and in the products of their own labour. 56. Sustainable development and economic growth that is both sustained and sustainable are possible only through improving the economic, social, political, legal and cultural status of women. Equitable social development that recognizes empowering the poor, particularly women, to utilize environmental resources sustainably is a necessary foundation for sustainable development. 57. The success of policies and measures aimed at supporting or strengthening the promotion of gender equality and the improvement of the status of women should be based

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Appendix on the integration of the gender perspective in general policies relating to all spheres of society as well as the implementation of positive measures with adequate institutional and financial support at all levels. Strategic objective A.1. Review, adopt and maintain macroeconomic policies and development strategies that address the needs and efforts of women in poverty

Actions to be taken 58. By Governments: a. Review and modify, with the full and equal participation of women, macroeconomic and social policies with a view to achieving the objectives of the Platform for Action; b. Analyse, from a gender perspective, policies and programmes including those related to macroeconomic stability, structural adjustment, external debt problems, taxation, investments, employment, markets and all relevant sectors of the economy -with respect to their impact on poverty, on inequality and particularly on women; assess their impact on family well-being and conditions and adjust them, as appropriate, to promote more equitable distribution of productive assets, wealth, opportunities, income and services; c. Pursue and implement sound and stable macroeconomic and sectoral policies that are designed and monitored with the full and equal participation of women, encourage broad-based sustained economic growth, address the structural causes of poverty and are geared towards eradicating poverty and reducing gender-based inequality within the overall framework of achieving people-centred sustainable development; d. Restructure and target the allocation of public expenditures to promote women’s economic opportunities and equal access to productive resources and to address the basic social, educational and health needs of women, particularly those living in poverty; e. Develop agricultural and fishing sectors, where and as necessary, in order to ensure, as appropriate, household and national food security and food self-sufficiency, by allocating the necessary financial, technical and human resources; f. Develop policies and programmes to promote equitable distribution of food within the household; g. Provide adequate safety nets and strengthen State-based and community-based support systems, as an integral part of social policy, in order to enable women living in poverty to withstand adverse economic environments and preserve their livelihood, assets and revenues in times of crisis; h. Generate economic policies that have a positive impact on the employment and income of women workers in both the formal and informal sectors and adopt specific measures to address women’s unemployment, in particular their long-term unemployment; i. Formulate and implement, when necessary, specific economic, social, agricultural and related policies in support of female-headed households;



Appendix j. Develop and implement anti-poverty programmes, including employment schemes, that improve access to food for women living in poverty, including through the use of appropriate pricing and distribution mechanisms; k. Ensure the full realization of the human rights of all women migrants, including women migrant workers, and their protection against violence and exploitation; introduce measures for the empowerment of documented women migrants, including women migrant workers; facilitate the productive employment of documented migrant women through greater recognition of their skills, foreign education and credentials, and facilitate their full integration into the labour force; l. Introduce measures to integrate or reintegrate women living in poverty and socially marginalized women into productive employment and the economic mainstream; ensure that internally displaced women have full access to economic opportunities and that the qualifications and skills of immigrant and refugee women are recognized; m. Enable women to obtain affordable housing and access to land by, among other things, removing all obstacles to access, with special emphasis on meeting the needs of women, especially those living in poverty and female heads of household; n. Formulate and implement policies and programmes that enhance the access of women agricultural and fisheries producers (including subsistence farmers and producers, especially in rural areas) to financial, technical, extension and marketing services; provide access to and control of land, appropriate infrastructure and technology in order to increase women’s incomes and promote household food security, especially in rural areas and, where appropriate, encourage the development of producer-owned, market-based cooperatives; o. Create social security systems wherever they do not exist, or review them with a view to placing individual women and men on an equal footing, at every stage of their lives; p. Ensure access to free or low-cost legal services, including legal literacy, especially designed to reach women living in poverty; q. Take particular measures to promote and strengthen policies and programmes for indigenous women with their full participation and respect for their cultural diversity, so that they have opportunities and the possibility of choice in the development process in order to eradicate the poverty that affects them. 59. By multilateral financial and development institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and regional development institutions, and through bilateral development cooperation: a. In accordance with the commitments made at the World Summit for Social Development, seek to mobilize new and additional financial resources that are both adequate and predictable and mobilized in a way that maximizes the availability of such resources and uses all available funding sources and mechanisms with a view to contributing towards the goal of poverty eradication and targeting women living in poverty;

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Appendix b. Strengthen analytical capacity in order to more systematically strengthen gender perspectives and integrate them into the design and implementation of lending programmes, including structural adjustment and economic recovery programmes; c. Find effective development-oriented and durable solutions to external debt problems in order to help them to finance programmes and projects targeted at development, including the advancement of women, inter alia, through the immediate implementation of the terms of debt forgiveness agreed upon in the Paris Club in December 1994, which encompassed debt reduction, including cancellation or other debt relief measures and develop techniques of debt conversion applied to social development programmes and projects in conformity with the priorities of the Platform for Action; d. Invite the international financial institutions to examine innovative approaches to assisting low-income countries with a high proportion of multilateral debt, with a view to alleviating their debt burden; e. Ensure that structural adjustment programmes are designed to minimize their negative effects on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and communities and to assure their positive effects on such groups and communities by preventing their marginalization in economic and social activities and devising measures to ensure that they gain access to and control over economic resources and economic and social activities; take actions to reduce inequality and economic disparity; f. Review the impact of structural adjustment programmes on social development by means of gender-sensitive social impact assessments and other relevant methods, in order to develop policies to reduce their negative effects and improve their positive impact, ensuring that women do not bear a disproportionate burden of transition costs; complement adjustment lending with enhanced, targeted social development lending; g. Create an enabling environment that allows women to build and maintain sustainable livelihoods. 60. By national and international non-governmental organizations and women’s groups: a. Mobilize all parties involved in the development process, including academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and grass-roots and women’s groups, to improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty programmes directed towards the poorest and most disadvantaged groups of women, such as rural and indigenous women, female heads of household, young women and older women, refugees and migrant women and women with disabilities, recognizing that social development is primarily the responsibility of Governments; b. Engage in lobbying and establish monitoring mechanisms, as appropriate, and other relevant activities to ensure implementation of the recommendations on poverty eradication outlined in the Platform for Action and aimed at ensuring accountability and transparency from the State and private sectors; c. Include in their activities women with diverse needs and recognize that youth organizations are increasingly becoming effective partners in development programmes;

Appendix



d. In cooperation with the government and private sectors, participate in the development of a comprehensive national strategy for improving health, education and social services so that girls and women of all ages living in poverty have full access to such services; seek funding to secure access to services with a gender perspective and to extend those services in order to reach the rural and remote areas that are not covered by government institutions; e. In cooperation with Governments, employers, other social partners and relevant parties, contribute to the development of education and training and retraining policies to ensure that women can acquire a wide range of skills to meet new demands; f. Mobilize to protect women’s right to full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate Strategic objective A.2. Revise laws and administrative practices to ensure women’s equal rights and access to economic resources Actions to be taken 61. By Governments: a. Ensure access to free or low-cost legal services, including legal literacy, especially designed to reach women living in poverty; b. Undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and to ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technologies; c. Consider ratification of Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) as part of their efforts to promote and protect the rights of indigenous people. Strategic objective A.3. Provide women with access to savings and credit mechanisms and institutions Actions to be taken 62. By Governments: a. Enhance the access of disadvantaged women, including women entrepreneurs, in rural, remote and urban areas to financial services through strengthening links between the formal banks and intermediary lending organizations, including legislative support, training for women and institutional strengthening for intermediary institutions with a view to mobilizing capital for those institutions and increasing the availability of credit; b. Encourage links between financial institutions and non-governmental organizations and support innovative lending practices, including those that integrate credit with women’s services and training and provide credit facilities to rural women.

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Appendix 63. By commercial banks, specialized financial institutions and the private sector in examining their policies: a. Use credit and savings methodologies that are effective in reaching women in poverty and innovative in reducing transaction costs and redefining risk; b. Open special windows for lending to women, including young women, who lack access to traditional sources of collateral; c. Simplify banking practices, for example by reducing the minimum deposit and other requirements for opening bank accounts; d. Ensure the participation and joint ownership, where possible, of women clients in the decision-making of institutions providing credit and financial services. 64. By multilateral and bilateral development cooperation organizations: a. Support, through the provision of capital and/or resources, financial institutions that serve low-income, small-scale and micro-scale women entrepreneurs and producers, in both the formal and informal sectors. 65. By Governments and multilateral financial institutions, as appropriate: Support institutions that meet performance standards in reaching large numbers of low-income women and men through capitalization, refinancing and institutional development support in forms that foster self-sufficiency. 66. By international organizations: Increase funding for programmes and projects designed to promote sustainable and productive entrepreneurial activities for income-generation among disadvantaged women and women living in poverty. Strategic objective A.4. Develop gender-based methodologies and conduct research to address the feminization of poverty

Actions to be taken 67. By Governments, intergovernmental organizations, academic and research institutions and the private sector: a. Develop conceptual and practical methodologies for incorporating gender perspectives into all aspects of economic policy-making, including structural adjustment planning and programmes; b. Apply these methodologies in conducting gender-impact analyses of all policies and programmes, including structural adjustment programmes, and disseminate the research findings. 68. By national and international statistical organizations: a. Collect gender and age-disaggregated data on poverty and all aspects of economic activity and develop qualitative and quantitative statistical indicators to facilitate the assessment of economic performance from a gender perspective;

Appendix



b. Devise suitable statistical means to recognize and make visible the full extent of the work of women and all their contributions to the national economy, including their contribution in the unremunerated and domestic sectors, and examine the relationship of women’s unremunerated work to the incidence of and their vulnerability to poverty. B. Education and training of women 69. Education is a human right and an essential tool for achieving the goals of equality, development and peace. Non-discriminatory education benefits both girls and boys and thus ultimately contributes to more equal relationships between women and men. Equality of access to and attainment of educational qualifications is necessary if more women are to become agents of change. Literacy of women is an important key to improving health, nutrition and education in the family and to empowering women to participate in decision-making in society. Investing in formal and non-formal education and training for girls and women, with its exceptionally high social and economic return, has proved to be one of the best means of achieving sustainable development and economic growth that is both sustained and sustainable. 70. On a regional level, girls and boys have achieved equal access to primary education, except in some parts of Africa, in particular sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Asia, where access to education facilities is still inadequate. Progress has been made in secondary education, where equal access of girls and boys has been achieved in some countries. Enrolment of girls and women in tertiary education has increased considerably. In many countries, private schools have also played an important complementary role in improving access to education at all levels. Yet, more than five years after the World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990) adopted the World Declaration on Education for All and the Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs,12 approximately 100 million children, including at least 60 million girls, are without access to primary schooling and more than two thirds of the world’s 960 million illiterate adults are women. The high rate of illiteracy prevailing in most developing countries, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa and some Arab States, remains a severe impediment to the advancement of women and to development. 71. Discrimination in girls’ access to education persists in many areas, owing to customary attitudes, early marriages and pregnancies, inadequate and gender-biased teaching and educational materials, sexual harassment and lack of adequate and physically and otherwise accessible schooling facilities. Girls undertake heavy domestic work at a very early age. Girls and young women are expected to manage both educational and domestic responsibilities, often resulting in poor scholastic performance and early drop-out from the educational system. This has long-lasting consequences for all aspects of women’s lives.

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Appendix 72. Creation of an educational and social environment, in which women and men, girls and boys, are treated equally and encouraged to achieve their full potential, respecting their freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, and where educational resources promote non-stereotyped images of women and men, would be effective in the elimination of the causes of discrimination against women and inequalities between women and men. 73. Women should be enabled to benefit from an ongoing acquisition of knowledge and skills beyond those acquired during youth. This concept of lifelong learning includes knowledge and skills gained in formal education and training, as well as learning that occurs in informal ways, including volunteer activity, unremunerated work and traditional knowledge. 74. Curricula and teaching materials remain gender-biased to a large degree, and are rarely sensitive to the specific needs of girls and women. This reinforces traditional female and male roles that deny women opportunities for full and equal partnership in society. Lack of gender awareness by educators at all levels strengthens existing inequities between males and females by reinforcing discriminatory tendencies and undermining girls’ selfesteem. The lack of sexual and reproductive health education has a profound impact on women and men. 75. Science curricula in particular are gender-biased. Science textbooks do not relate to women’s and girls’ daily experience and fail to give recognition to women scientists. Girls are often deprived of basic education in mathematics and science and technical training, which provide knowledge they could apply to improve their daily lives and enhance their employment opportunities. Advanced study in science and technology prepares women to take an active role in the technological and industrial development of their countries, thus necessitating a diverse approach to vocational and technical training. Technology is rapidly changing the world and has also affected the developing countries. It is essential that women not only benefit from technology, but also participate in the process from the design to the application, monitoring and evaluation stages. 76. Access for and retention of girls and women at all levels of education, including the higher level, and all academic areas is one of the factors of their continued progress in professional activities. Nevertheless, it can be noted that girls are still concentrated in a limited number of fields of study. 77. The mass media are a powerful means of education. As an educational tool the mass media can be an instrument for educators and governmental and non-governmental institutions for the advancement of women and for development. Computerized education and information systems are increasingly becoming an important element in learning and the dissemination of knowledge. Television especially has the greatest impact on young people and, as such, has the ability to shape values, attitudes and perceptions of

Appendix



women and girls in both positive and negative ways. It is therefore essential that educators teach critical judgement and analytical skills. 78. Resources allocated to education, particularly for girls and women, are in many countries insufficient and in some cases have been further diminished, including in the context of adjustment policies and programmes. Such insufficient resource allocations have a long-term adverse effect on human development, particularly on the development of women. 79. In addressing unequal access to and inadequate educational opportunities, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes, so that, before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively. Strategic objective B.1. Ensure equal access to education Actions to be taken 80. By Governments: a. Advance the goal of equal access to education by taking measures to eliminate discrimination in education at all levels on the basis of gender, race, language, religion, national origin, age or disability, or any other form of discrimination and, as appropriate, consider establishing procedures to address grievances; b. By the year 2000, provide universal access to basic education and ensure completion of primary education by at least 80 per cent of primary school-age children; close the gender gap in primary and secondary school education by the year 2005; provide universal primary education in all countries before the year 2015; c. Eliminate gender disparities in access to all areas of tertiary education by ensuring that women have equal access to career development, training, scholarships and fellowships, and by adopting positive action when appropriate; d. Create a gender-sensitive educational system in order to ensure equal educational and training opportunities and full and equal participation of women in educational administration and policy-and decision-making; e. Provide -in collaboration with parents, non-governmental organizations, including youth organizations, communities and the private sector -young women with academic and technical training, career planning, leadership and social skills and work experience to prepare them to participate fully in society; f. Increase enrolment and retention rates of girls by allocating appropriate budgetary resources; by enlisting the support of parents and the community, as well as through campaigns, flexible school schedules, incentives, scholarships and other means to minimize the costs of girls’ education to their families and to facilitate parents’ ability to choose education for the girl child; and by ensuring that the rights of women and girls to freedom of conscience and religion are respected in educational institu-

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Appendix tions through repealing any discriminatory laws or legislation based on religion, race or culture; g. Promote an educational setting that eliminates all barriers that impeded the schooling of pregnant adolescents and young mothers, including, as appropriate, affordable and physically accessible childcare facilities and parental education to encourage those who are responsible for the care of their children and siblings during their school years, to return to or continue with and complete schooling; h. Improve the quality of education and equal opportunities for women and men in terms of access in order to ensure that women of all ages can acquire the knowledge, capacities, aptitudes, skills and ethical values needed to develop and to participate fully under equal conditions in the process of social, economic and political development; i. Make available non-discriminatory and gender-sensitive professional school counselling and career education programmes to encourage girls to pursue academic and technical curricula in order to widen their future career opportunities; j. Encourage ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights13 where they have not already done so. Strategic objective B.2. Eradicate illiteracy among women

Actions to be taken 81. By Governments, national, regional and international bodies, bilateral and multilateral donors and non-governmental organizations: a. Reduce the female illiteracy rate to at least half its 1990 level, with emphasis on rural women, migrant, refugee and internally displaced women and women with disabilities; b. Provide universal access to, and seek to ensure gender equality in the completion of, primary education for girls by the year 2000; c. Eliminate the gender gap in basic and functional literacy, as recommended in the World Declaration on Education for All (Jomtien); d. Narrow the disparities between developed and developing countries; e. Encourage adult and family engagement 8in learning to promote total literacy for all people; f. Promote, together with literacy, life skills and scientific and technological knowledge and work towards an expansion of the definition of literacy, taking into account current targets and benchmarks. Strategic objective B.3. Improve women’s access to vocational training, science and technology, and continuing education Actions to be taken 82. By Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, international and non-governmental organizations, including women’s and youth organizations, and educational institutions:

Appendix



a. Develop and implement education, training and retraining policies for women, especially young women and women re-entering the labour market, to provide skills to meet the needs of a changing socio-economic context for improving their employment opportunities; b. Provide recognition to non-formal educational opportunities for girls and women in the educational system; c. Provide information to women and girls on the availability and benefits of vocational training, training programmes in science and technology and programmes of continuing education; d. Design educational and training programmes for women who are unemployed in order to provide them with new knowledge and skills that will enhance and broaden their employment opportunities, including self-employment, and development of their entrepreneurial skills; e. Diversify vocational and technical training and improve access for and retention of girls and women in education and vocational training in such fields as science, mathematics, engineering, environmental sciences and technology, information technology and high technology, as well as management training; f. Promote women’s central role in food and agricultural research, extension and education programmes; g. Encourage the adaptation of curricula and teaching materials, encourage a supportive training environment and take positive measures to promote training for the full range of occupational choices of non-traditional careers for women and men, including the development of multidisciplinary courses for science and mathematics teachers to sensitize them to the relevance of science and technology to women’s lives; h. Develop curricula and teaching materials and formulate and take positive measures to ensure women better access to and participation in technical and scientific areas, especially areas where they are not represented or are underrepresented; i. Develop policies and programmes to encourage women to participate in all apprenticeship programmes; j. Increase training in technical, managerial, agricultural extension and marketing areas for women in agriculture, fisheries, industry and business, arts and crafts, to increase income-generating opportunities, women’s participation in economic decision-making, in particular through women’s organizations at the grass-roots level, and their contribution to production, marketing, business, and science and technology; k. Ensure access to quality education and training at all appropriate levels for adult women with little or no education, for women with disabilities and for documented migrant, refugee and displaced women to improve their work opportunities. Strategic objective B.4. Develop non-discriminatory education and training

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Actions to be taken 83. By Governments, educational authorities and other educational and academic institutions: a. Elaborate recommendations and develop curricula, textbooks and teaching aids free of gender-based stereotypes for all levels of education, including teacher training, in association with all concerned–publishers, teachers, public authorities and parents’ associations; b. Develop training programmes and materials for teachers and educators that raise awareness about the status, role and contribution of women and men in the family, as defined in paragraph 29 above, and society; in this context, promote equality, cooperation, mutual respect and shared responsibilities between girls and boys from pre-school level onward and develop, in particular, educational modules to ensure that boys have the skills necessary to take care of their own domestic needs and to share responsibility for their household and for the care of dependants; c. Develop training programmes and materials for teachers and educators that raise awareness of their own role in the educational process, with a view to providing them with effective strategies for gender-sensitive teaching; d. Take actions to ensure that female teachers and professors have the same opportunities as and equal status with male teachers and professors, in view of the importance of having female teachers at all levels and in order to attract girls to school and retain them in school; e. Introduce and promote training in peaceful conflict resolution; f. Take positive measures to increase the proportion of women gaining access to educational policy-and decision-making, particularly women teachers at all levels of education and in academic disciplines that are traditionally male-dominated, such as the scientific and technological fields; g. Support and develop gender studies and research at all levels of education, especially at the postgraduate level of academic institutions, and apply them in the development of curricula, including university curricula, textbooks and teaching aids, and in teacher training; h. Develop leadership training and opportunities for all women to encourage them to take leadership roles both as students and as adults in civil society; i. Develop appropriate education and information programmes with due respect for multilingualism, particularly in conjunction with the mass media, that make the public, particularly parents, aware of the importance of non-discriminatory education for children and the equal sharing of family responsibilities by girls and boys; j. Develop human rights education programmes that incorporate the gender dimension at all levels of education, in particular by encouraging higher education institutions, especially in their graduate and postgraduate juridical, social and political science curricula, to include the study of the human rights of women as they appear in United Nations conventions; k. Remove legal, regulatory and social barriers, where appropriate, to sexual and reproductive health education within formal education programmes regarding women’s health issues;



Appendix l. Encourage, with the guidance and support of their parents and in cooperation with educational staff and institutions, the elaboration of educational programmes for girls and boys and the creation of integrated services in order to raise awareness of their responsibilities and to help them to assume those responsibilities, taking into account the importance of such education and services to personal development and self-esteem, as well as the urgent need to avoid unwanted pregnancy, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, and such phenomena as sexual violence and abuse; m. Provide accessible recreational and sports facilities and establish and strengthen gender-sensitive programmes for girls and women of all ages in education and community institutions and support the advancement of women in all areas of athletics and physical activity, including coaching, training and administration, and as participants at the national, regional and international levels; n. Recognize and support the right of indigenous women and girls to education and promote a multicultural approach to education that is responsive to the needs, aspirations and cultures of indigenous women, including by developing appropriate education programmes, curricula and teaching aids, to the extent possible in the languages of indigenous people, and by providing for the participation of indigenous women in these processes; o. Acknowledge and respect the artistic, spiritual and cultural activities of indigenous women; p. Ensure that gender equality and cultural, religious and other diversity are respected in educational institutions; q. Promote education, training and relevant information programmes for rural and farming women through the use of affordable and appropriate technologies and the mass media -for example, radio programmes, cassettes and mobile units; r. Provide non-formal education, especially for rural women, in order to realize their potential with regard to health, micro-enterprise, agriculture and legal rights; s. Remove all barriers to access to formal education for pregnant adolescents and young mothers, and support the provision of child care and other support services where necessary. Strategic objective B.5. Allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementation of educational reforms Actions to be taken 84. By Governments: a. Provide the required budgetary resources to the educational sector, with reallocation within the educational sector to ensure increased funds for basic education, as appropriate; b. Establish a mechanism at appropriate levels to monitor the implementation of educational reforms and measures in relevant ministries, and establish technical assistance programmes, as appropriate, to address issues raised by the monitoring efforts.

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Appendix 85. By Governments and, as appropriate, private and public institutions, foundations, research institutes and non-governmental organizations: a. When necessary, mobilize additional funds from private and public institutions, foundations, research institutes and non-governmental organizations to enable girls and women, as well as boys and men on an equal basis, to complete their education, with particular emphasis on under-served populations; b. Provide funding for special programmes, such as programmes in mathematics, science and computer technology, to advance opportunities for all girls and women. 86. By multilateral development institutions, including the World Bank, regional development banks, bilateral donors and foundations: a. Consider increasing funding for the education and training needs of girls and women as a priority in development assistance programmes; b. Consider working with recipient Governments to ensure that funding for women’s education is maintained or increased in structural adjustment and economic recovery programmes, including lending and stabilization programmes. 87. By international and intergovernmental organizations, especially the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, at the global level: a. Contribute to the evaluation of progress achieved, using educational indicators generated by national, regional and international bodies, and urge Governments, in implementing measures, to eliminate differences between women and men and boys and girls with regard to opportunities in education and training and the levels achieved in all fields, particularly in primary and literacy programmes; b. Provide technical assistance upon request to developing countries to strengthen the capacity to monitor progress in closing the gap between women and men in education, training and research, and in levels of achievement in all fields, particularly basic education and the elimination of illiteracy; c. Conduct an international campaign promoting the right of women and girls to education; d. Allocate a substantial percentage of their resources to basic education for women and girls. Strategic objective B.6. Promote life-long education and training for girls and women

Actions to be taken 88. By Governments, educational institutions and communities: a. Ensure the availability of a broad range of educational and training programmes that lead to ongoing acquisition by women and girls of the knowledge and skills required for living in, contributing to and benefiting from their communities and nations;

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b. Provide support for child care and other services to enable mothers to continue their schooling; c. Create flexible education, training and retraining programmes for life-long learning that facilitate transitions between women’s activities at all stages of their lives. C. Women and health* * The Holy See expressed a general reservation on this section. The reservation is to be interpreted in terms of the statement made by the representative of the Holy See at the 4th meeting of the Main Committee, on 14 September 1995 (see chap. V of the present report, para. 11).

89. Women have the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The enjoyment of this right is vital to their life and well-being and their ability to participate in all areas of public and private life. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Women’s health involves their emotional, social and physical well-being and is determined by the social, political and economic context of their lives, as well as by biology. However, health and well-being elude the majority of women. A major barrier for women to the achievement of the highest attainable standard of health is inequality, both between men and women and among women in different geographical regions, social classes and indigenous and ethnic groups. In national and international forums, women have emphasized that to attain optimal health throughout the life cycle, equality, including the sharing of family responsibilities, development and peace are necessary conditions. 90. Women have different and unequal access to and use of basic health resources, including primary health services for the prevention and treatment of childhood diseases, malnutrition, anaemia, diarrhoeal diseases, communicable diseases, malaria and other tropical diseases and tuberculosis, among others. Women also have different and unequal opportunities for the protection, promotion and maintenance of their health. In many developing countries, the lack of emergency obstetric services is also of particular concern. Health policies and programmes often perpetuate gender stereotypes and fail to consider socio-economic disparities and other differences among women and may not fully take account of the lack of autonomy of women regarding their health. Women’s health is also affected by gender bias in the health system and by the provision of inadequate and inappropriate medical services to women. 91. In many countries, especially developing countries, in particular the least developed countries, a decrease in public health spending and, in some cases, structural adjustment, contribute to the deterioration of public health systems. In addition, privatization of health-care systems without appropriate guarantees of universal access to affordable health care further reduces health-care availability. This situation not only directly affects the health of girls and women, but also places disproportionate responsibilities on

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Appendix women, whose multiple roles, including their roles within the family and the community, are often not acknowledged; hence they do not receive the necessary social, psychological and economic support. 92. Women’s right to the enjoyment of the highest standard of health must be secured throughout the whole life cycle in equality with men. Women are affected by many of the same health conditions as men, but women experience them differently. The prevalence among women of poverty and economic dependence, their experience of violence, negative attitudes towards women and girls, racial and other forms of discrimination, the limited power many women have over their sexual and reproductive lives and lack of influence in decision-making are social realities which have an adverse impact on their health. Lack of food and inequitable distribution of food for girls and women in the household, inadequate access to safe water, sanitation facilities and fuel supplies, particularly in rural and poor urban areas, and deficient housing conditions, all overburden women and their families and have a negative effect on their health. Good health is essential to leading a productive and fulfilling life, and the right of all women to control all aspects of their health, in particular their own fertility, is basic to their empowerment. 93. Discrimination against girls, often resulting from son preference, in access to nutrition and health-care services endangers their current and future health and well-being. Conditions that force girls into early marriage, pregnancy and child-bearing and subject them to harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, pose grave health risks. Adolescent girls need, but too often do not have, access to necessary health and nutrition services as they mature. Counselling and access to sexual and reproductive health information and services for adolescents are still inadequate or lacking completely, and a young woman’s right to privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent is often not considered. Adolescent girls are both biologically and psychosocially more vulnerable than boys to sexual abuse, violence and prostitution, and to the consequences of unprotected and premature sexual relations. The trend towards early sexual experience, combined with a lack of information and services, increases the risk of unwanted and too early pregnancy, HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as unsafe abortions. Early child-bearing continues to be an impediment to improvements in the educational, economic and social status of women in all parts of the world. Overall, for young women early marriage and early motherhood can severely curtail educational and employment opportunities and are likely to have a long-term, adverse impact on the quality of their lives and the lives of their children. Young men are often not educated to respect women’s self-determination and to share responsibility with women in matters of sexuality and reproduction. 94. Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that



Appendix people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant. In line with the above definition of reproductive health, reproductive health care is defined as the constellation of methods, techniques and services that contribute to reproductive health and well-being by preventing and solving reproductive health problems. It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations, and not merely counselling and care related to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases. 95. Bearing in mind the above definition, reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national laws, international human rights documents and other consensus documents. These rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents. In the exercise of this right, they should take into account the needs of their living and future children and their responsibilities towards the community. The promotion of the responsible exercise of these rights for all people should be the fundamental basis for government-and community-supported policies and programmes in the area of reproductive health, including family planning. As part of their commitment, full attention should be given to the promotion of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and particularly to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality. Reproductive health eludes many of the world’s people because of such factors as: inadequate levels of knowledge about human sexuality and inappropriate or poor-quality reproductive health information and services; the prevalence of high-risk sexual behaviour; discriminatory social practices; negative attitudes towards women and girls; and the limited power many women and girls have over their sexual and reproductive lives. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable because of their lack of information and access to relevant services in most countries. Older women and men have distinct reproductive and sexual health issues which are often inadequately addressed. 96. The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect

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Appendix for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behaviour and its consequences. 97. Further, women are subject to particular health risks due to inadequate responsiveness and lack of services to meet health needs related to sexuality and reproduction. Complications related to pregnancy and childbirth are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity of women of reproductive age in many parts of the developing world. Similar problems exist to a certain degree in some countries with economies in transition. Unsafe abortions threaten the lives of a large number of women, representing a grave public health problem as it is primarily the poorest and youngest who take the highest risk. Most of these deaths, health problems and injuries are preventable through improved access to adequate health-care services, including safe and effective family planning methods and emergency obstetric care, recognizing the right of women and men to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant. These problems and means should be addressed on the basis of the report of the International Conference on Population and Development, with particular reference to relevant paragraphs of the Programme of Action of the Conference.14 In most countries, the neglect of women’s reproductive rights severely limits their opportunities in public and private life, including opportunities for education and economic and political empowerment. The ability of women to control their own fertility forms an important basis for the enjoyment of other rights. Shared responsibility between women and men in matters related to sexual and reproductive behaviour is also essential to improving women’s health. 98. HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, the transmission of which is sometimes a consequence of sexual violence, are having a devastating effect on women’s health, particularly the health of adolescent girls and young women. They often do not have the power to insist on safe and responsible sex practices and have little access to information and services for prevention and treatment. Women, who represent half of all adults newly infected with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, have emphasized that social vulnerability and the unequal power relationships between women and men are obstacles to safe sex, in their efforts to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The consequences of HIV/AIDS reach beyond women’s health to their role as mothers and caregivers and their contribution to the economic support of their families. The social, developmental and health consequences of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases need to be seen from a gender perspective. 99. Sexual and gender-based violence, including physical and psychological abuse, trafficking in women and girls, and other forms of abuse and sexual exploitation place girls and



Appendix women at high risk of physical and mental trauma, disease and unwanted pregnancy. Such situations often deter women from using health and other services. 100. Mental disorders related to marginalization, powerlessness and poverty, along with overwork and stress and the growing incidence of domestic violence as well as substance abuse, are among other health issues of growing concern to women. Women throughout the world, especially young women, are increasing their use of tobacco with serious effects on their health and that of their children. Occupational health issues are also growing in importance, as a large number of women work in low-paid jobs in either the formal or the informal labour market under tedious and unhealthy conditions, and the number is rising. Cancers of the breast and cervix and other cancers of the reproductive system, as well as infertility affect growing numbers of women and may be preventable, or curable, if detected early. 101. With the increase in life expectancy and the growing number of older women, their health concerns require particular attention. The long-term health prospects of women are influenced by changes at menopause, which, in combination with life-long conditions and other factors, such as poor nutrition and lack of physical activity, may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Other diseases of ageing and the interrelationships of ageing and disability among women also need particular attention. 102. Women, like men, particularly in rural areas and poor urban areas, are increasingly exposed to environmental health hazards owing to environmental catastrophes and degradation. Women have a different susceptibility to various environmental hazards, contaminants and substances and they suffer different consequences from exposure to them. 103. The quality of women’s health care is often deficient in various ways, depending on local circumstances. Women are frequently not treated with respect, nor are they guaranteed privacy and confidentiality, nor do they always receive full information about the options and services available. Furthermore, in some countries, over-medicating of women’s life events is common, leading to unnecessary surgical intervention and inappropriate medication. 104. Statistical data on health are often not systematically collected, disaggregated and analysed by age, sex and socio-economic status and by established demographic criteria used to serve the interests and solve the problems of subgroups, with particular emphasis on the vulnerable and marginalized and other relevant variables. Recent and reliable data on the mortality and morbidity of women and conditions and diseases particularly affecting women are not available in many countries. Relatively little is known about how social and economic factors affect the health of girls and women of all ages, about the provision of health services to girls and women and the patterns of their use of such services, and about

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Appendix the value of disease prevention and health promotion programmes for women. Subjects of importance to women’s health have not been adequately researched and women’s health research often lacks funding. Medical research, on heart disease, for example, and epidemiological studies in many countries are often based solely on men; they are not gender specific. Clinical trials involving women to establish basic information about dosage, sideeffects and effectiveness of drugs, including contraceptives, are noticeably absent and do not always conform to ethical standards for research and testing. Many drug therapy protocols and other medical treatments and interventions administered to women are based on research on men without any investigation and adjustment for gender differences. 105. In addressing inequalities in health status and unequal access to and inadequate healthcare services between women and men, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes, so that, before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects for women and men, respectively. Strategic objective C.1. Increase women’s access throughout the life cycle to appropriate, affordable and quality health care, information and related services

Actions to be taken 106. By Governments, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and employers’ and workers’ organizations and with the support of international institutions: a. Support and implement the commitments made in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, as established in the report of that Conference and the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development15 and the obligations of States parties under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other relevant international agreements, to meet the health needs of girls and women of all ages; b. Reaffirm the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, protect and promote the attainment of this right for women and girls and incorporate it in national legislation, for example; review existing legislation, including health legislation, as well as policies, where necessary, to reflect a commitment to women’s health and to ensure that they meet the changing roles and responsibilities of women wherever they reside; c. Design and implement, in cooperation with women and community-based organizations, gender-sensitive health programmes, including decentralized health services, that address the needs of women throughout their lives and take into account their multiple roles and responsibilities, the demands on their time, the special needs of rural women and women with disabilities and the diversity of women’s needs arising from age and socio-economic and cultural differences, among others; include women,



Appendix especially local and indigenous women, in the identification and planning of healthcare priorities and programmes; remove all barriers to women’s health services and provide a broad range of health-care services; d. Allow women access to social security systems in equality with men throughout the whole life cycle; e. Provide more accessible, available and affordable primary health-care services of high quality, including sexual and reproductive health care, which includes family planning information and services, and giving particular attention to maternal and emergency obstetric care, as agreed to in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development; f. Redesign health information, services and training for health workers so that they are gender-sensitive and reflect the user’s perspectives with regard to interpersonal and communications skills and the user’s right to privacy and confidentiality; these services, information and training should be based on a holistic approach; g. Ensure that all health services and workers conform to human rights and to ethical, professional and gender-sensitive standards in the delivery of women’s health services aimed at ensuring responsible, voluntary and informed consent; encourage the development, implementation and dissemination of codes of ethics guided by existing international codes of medical ethics as well as ethical principles that govern other health professionals; h. Take all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful, medically unnecessary or coercive medical interventions, as well as inappropriate medication and over-medication of women, and ensure that all women are fully informed of their options, including likely benefits and potential side-effects, by properly trained personnel; i. Strengthen and reorient health services, particularly primary health care, in order to ensure universal access to quality health services for women and girls; reduce ill health and maternal morbidity and achieve world wide the agreed-upon goal of reducing maternal mortality by at least 50 per cent of the 1990 levels by the year 2000 and a further one half by the year 2015; ensure that the necessary services are available at each level of the health system and make reproductive health care accessible, through the primary health-care system, to all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later than the year 2015; j. Recognize and deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern, as agreed in paragraph 8.25 of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development;14 k. In the light of paragraph 8.25 of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, which states: “In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning. All Governments and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations are urged to strengthen their commitment to women’s health, to deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion16 as a major public health concern and to reduce the recourse to abortion through expanded and improved family-planning services. Prevention of unwanted pregnancies must always

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Appendix be given the highest priority and every attempt should be made to eliminate the need for abortion. Women who have unwanted pregnancies should have ready access to reliable information and compassionate counselling. Any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process. In circumstances where abortion is not against the law, such abortion should be safe. In all cases, women should have access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion. Post-abortion counselling, education and family-planning services should be offered promptly, which will also help to avoid repeat abortions”, consider reviewing laws containing punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortions; l. Give particular attention to the needs of girls, especially the promotion of healthy behaviour, including physical activities; take specific measures for closing the gender gaps in morbidity and mortality where girls are disadvantaged, while achieving internationally approved goals for the reduction of infant and child mortality -specifically, by the year 2000, the reduction of mortality rates of infants and children under five years of age by one third of the 1990 level, or 50 to 70 per 1,000 live births, whichever is less; by the year 2015 an infant mortality rate below 35 per 1,000 live births and an under-five mortality rate below 45 per 1,000; m. Ensure that girls have continuing access to necessary health and nutrition information and services as they mature, to facilitate a healthful transition from childhood to adulthood; n. Develop information, programmes and services to assist women to understand and adapt to changes associated with ageing and to address and treat the health needs of older women, paying particular attention to those who are physically or psychologically dependent; o. Ensure that girls and women of all ages with any form of disability receive supportive services; p. Formulate special policies, design programmes and enact the legislation necessary to alleviate and eliminate environmental and occupational health hazards associated with work in the home, in the workplace and elsewhere with attention to pregnant and lactating women; q. Integrate mental health services into primary health-care systems or other appropriate levels, develop supportive programmes and train primary health workers to recognize and care for girls and women of all ages who have experienced any form of violence especially domestic violence, sexual abuse or other abuse resulting from armed and non-armed conflict; r. Promote public information on the benefits of breast-feeding; examine ways and means of implementing fully the WHO/UNICEF International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, and enable mothers to breast-feed their infants by providing legal, economic, practical and emotional support; s. Establish mechanisms to support and involve non-governmental organizations, particularly women’s organizations, professional groups and other bodies working to



Appendix improve the health of girls and women, in government policy-making, programme design, as appropriate, and implementation within the health sector and related sectors at all levels; t. Support non-governmental organizations working on women’s health and help develop networks aimed at improving coordination and collaboration between all sectors that affect health; u. Rationalize drug procurement and ensure a reliable, continuous supply of high-quality pharmaceutical, contraceptive and other supplies and equipment, using the WHO Model List of Essential Drugs as a guide, and ensure the safety of drugs and devices through national regulatory drug approval processes; v. Provide improved access to appropriate treatment and rehabilitation services for women substance abusers and their families; w. Promote and ensure household and national food security, as appropriate, and implement programmes aimed at improving the nutritional status of all girls and women by implementing the commitments made in the Plan of Action on Nutrition of the International Conference on Nutrition,17 including a reduction world wide of severe and moderate malnutrition among children under the age of five by one half of 1990 levels by the year 2000, giving special attention to the gender gap in nutrition, and a reduction in iron deficiency anaemia in girls and women by one third of the 1990 levels by the year 2000; x. Ensure the availability of and universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation and put in place effective public distribution systems as soon as possible; y. Ensure full and equal access to health-care infrastructure and services for indigenous women. Strategic objective C.2. Strengthen preventive programmes that promote women’s health Actions to be taken 107. By Governments, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the mass media, the private sector and relevant international organizations, including United Nations bodies, as appropriate: a. Give priority to both formal and informal educational programmes that support and enable women to develop self-esteem, acquire knowledge, make decisions on and take responsibility for their own health, achieve mutual respect in matters concerning sexuality and fertility and educate men regarding the importance of women’s health and well-being, placing special focus on programmes for both men and women that emphasize the elimination of harmful attitudes and practices, including female genital mutilation, son preference (which results in female infanticide and prenatal sex selection), early marriage, including child marriage, violence against women, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, which at times is conducive to infection with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse, discrimination against girls and women in food allocation and other harmful attitudes and practices related to the life,

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Appendix health and well-being of women, and recognizing that some of these practices can be violations of human rights and ethical medical principles; b. Pursue social, human development, education and employment policies to eliminate poverty among women in order to reduce their susceptibility to ill health and to improve their health; c. Encourage men to share equally in child care and household work and to provide their share of financial support for their families, even if they do not live with them; d. Reinforce laws, reform institutions and promote norms and practices that eliminate discrimination against women and encourage both women and men to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour; ensure full respect for the integrity of the person, take action to ensure the conditions necessary for women to exercise their reproductive rights and eliminate coercive laws and practices; e. Prepare and disseminate accessible information, through public health campaigns, the media, reliable counselling and the education system, designed to ensure that women and men, particularly young people, can acquire knowledge about their health, especially information on sexuality and reproduction, taking into account the rights of the child to access to information, privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent, as well as the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents and legal guardians to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in conformity with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; ensure that in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child are a primary consideration; f. Create and support programmes in the educational system, in the workplace and in the community to make opportunities to participate in sport, physical activity and recreation available to girls and women of all ages on the same basis as they are made available to men and boys; g. Recognize the specific needs of adolescents and implement specific appropriate programmes, such as education and information on sexual and reproductive health issues and on sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, taking into account the rights of the child and the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents as stated in paragraph 107 (e) above; h. Develop policies that reduce the disproportionate and increasing burden on women who have multiple roles within the family and the community by providing them with adequate support and programmes from health and social services; i. Adopt regulations to ensure that the working conditions, including remuneration and promotion of women at all levels of the health system, are non-discriminatory and meet fair and professional standards to enable them to work effectively; j. Ensure that health and nutritional information and training form an integral part of all adult literacy programmes and school curricula from the primary level; k. Develop and undertake media campaigns and information and educational programmes that inform women and girls of the health and related risks of substance



Appendix abuse and addiction and pursue strategies and programmes that discourage substance abuse and addiction and promote rehabilitation and recovery; l. Devise and implement comprehensive and coherent programmes for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, a condition that predominantly affects women; m. Establish and/or strengthen programmes and services, including media campaigns, that address the prevention, early detection and treatment of breast, cervical and other cancers of the reproductive system; n. Reduce environmental hazards that pose a growing threat to health, especially in poor regions and communities; apply a precautionary approach, as agreed to in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development,18 and include reporting on women’s health risks related to the environment in monitoring the implementation of Agenda 21;19 o. Create awareness among women, health professionals, policy makers and the general public about the serious but preventable health hazards stemming from tobacco consumption and the need for regulatory and education measures to reduce smoking as important health promotion and disease prevention activities; p. Ensure that medical school curricula and other health-care training include gendersensitive, comprehensive and mandatory courses on women’s health; q. Adopt specific preventive measures to protect women, youth and children from any abuse -sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence, for example -including the formulation and enforcement of laws, and provide legal protection and medical and other assistance. Strategic objective C.3. Undertake gender-sensitive initiatives that address sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health issues Actions to be taken 108. By Governments, international bodies including relevant United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors and non-governmental organizations: a. Ensure the involvement of women, especially those infected with HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases or affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, in all decisionmaking relating to the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; b. Review and amend laws and combat practices, as appropriate, that may contribute to women’s susceptibility to HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, including enacting legislation against those socio-cultural practices that contribute to it, and implement legislation, policies and practices to protect women, adolescents and young girls from discrimination related to HIV/AIDS; c. Encourage all sectors of society, including the public sector, as well as international organizations, to develop compassionate and supportive, non-discriminatory HIV/ AIDS-related policies and practices that protect the rights of infected individuals;

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Appendix d. Recognize the extent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in their countries, taking particularly into account its impact on women, with a view to ensuring that infected women do not suffer stigmatization and discrimination, including during travel; e. Develop gender-sensitive multisectoral programmes and strategies to end social subordination of women and girls and to ensure their social and economic empowerment and equality; facilitate promotion of programmes to educate and enable men to assume their responsibilities to prevent HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases; f. Facilitate the development of community strategies that will protect women of all ages from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases; provide care and support to infected girls, women and their families and mobilize all parts of the community in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic to exert pressure on all responsible authorities to respond in a timely, effective, sustainable and gender-sensitive manner; g. Support and strengthen national capacity to create and improve gender-sensitive policies and programmes on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, including the provision of resources and facilities to women who find themselves the principal caregivers or economic support for those infected with HIV/AIDS or affected by the pandemic, and the survivors, particularly children and older persons; h. Provide workshops and specialized education and training to parents, decision makers and opinion leaders at all levels of the community, including religious and traditional authorities, on prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and on their repercussions on both women and men of all ages; i. Give all women and health workers all relevant information and education about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS and pregnancy and the implications for the baby, including breast-feeding; j. Assist women and their formal and informal organizations to establish and expand effective peer education and outreach programmes and to participate in the design, implementation and monitoring of these programmes; k. Give full attention to the promotion of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and, in particular, to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality; l. Design specific programmes for men of all ages and male adolescents, recognizing the parental roles referred to in paragraph 107 (e) above, aimed at providing complete and accurate information on safe and responsible sexual and reproductive behaviour, including voluntary, appropriate and effective male methods for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases through, inter alia, abstinence and condom use; m. Ensure the provision, through the primary health-care system, of universal access of couples and individuals to appropriate and affordable preventive services with respect to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and expand the provision of counselling and voluntary and confidential diagnostic and treatment services for women; ensure that high-quality condoms as well as drugs for the treatment of



Appendix sexually transmitted diseases are, where possible, supplied and distributed to health services; n. Support programmes which acknowledge that the higher risk among women of contracting HIV is linked to high-risk behaviour, including intravenous substance use and substance-influenced unprotected and irresponsible sexual behaviour, and take appropriate preventive measures; o. Support and expedite action-oriented research on affordable methods, controlled by women, to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, on strategies empowering women to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and on methods of care, support and treatment of women, ensuring their involvement in all aspects of such research; p. Support and initiate research which addresses women’s needs and situations, including research on HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases in women, on women-controlled methods of protection, such as non-spermicidal microbicides, and on male and female risk-taking attitudes and practices. Strategic objective C.4. Promote research and disseminate information on women’s health Actions to be taken 109. By Governments, the United Nations system, health professions, research institutions, non-governmental organizations, donors, pharmaceutical industries and the mass media, as appropriate: a. Train researchers and introduce systems that allow for the use of data collected, analysed and disaggregated by, among other factors, sex and age, other established demographic criteria and socio-economic variables, in policy-making, as appropriate, planning, monitoring and evaluation; b. Promote gender-sensitive and women-centred health research, treatment and technology and link traditional and indigenous knowledge with modern medicine, making information available to women to enable them to make informed and responsible decisions; c. Increase the number of women in leadership positions in the health professions, including researchers and scientists, to achieve equality at the earliest possible date; d. Increase financial and other support from all sources for preventive, appropriate biomedical, behavioural, epidemiological and health service research on women’s health issues and for research on the social, economic and political causes of women’s health problems, and their consequences, including the impact of gender and age inequalities, especially with respect to chronic and non-communicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases and conditions, cancers, reproductive tract infections and injuries, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence, occupational health, disabilities, environmentally related health problems, tropical diseases and health aspects of ageing;

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Appendix e. Inform women about the factors which increase the risks of developing cancers and infections of the reproductive tract, so that they can make informed decisions about their health; f. Support and fund social, economic, political and cultural research on how genderbased inequalities affect women’s health, including etiology, epidemiology, provision and utilization of services and eventual outcome of treatment; g. Support health service systems and operations research to strengthen access and improve the quality of service delivery, to ensure appropriate support for women as health-care providers and to examine patterns with respect to the provision of health services to women and use of such services by women; h. Provide financial and institutional support for research on safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods and technologies for the reproductive and sexual health of women and men, including more safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods for the regulation of fertility, including natural family planning for both sexes, methods to protect against HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and simple and inexpensive methods of diagnosing such diseases, among others; this research needs to be guided at all stages by users and from the perspective of gender, particularly the perspective of women, and should be carried out in strict conformity with internationally accepted legal, ethical, medical and scientific standards for biomedical research; i. Since unsafe abortion16 is a major threat to the health and life of women, research to understand and better address the determinants and consequences of induced abortion, including its effects on subsequent fertility, reproductive and mental health and contraceptive practice, should be promoted, as well as research on treatment of complications of abortions and post-abortion care; j. Acknowledge and encourage beneficial traditional health care, especially that practised by indigenous women, with a view to preserving and incorporating the value of traditional health care in the provision of health services, and support research directed towards achieving this aim; k. Develop mechanisms to evaluate and disseminate available data and research findings to researchers, policy makers, health professionals and women’s groups, among others; l. Monitor human genome and related genetic research from the perspective of women’s health and disseminate information and results of studies conducted in accordance with accepted ethical standards. Strategic objective C.5. Increase resources and monitor follow-up for women’s health

Actions to be taken 110. By Governments at all levels and, where appropriate, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, especially women’s and youth organizations: a. Increase budgetary allocations for primary health care and social services, with adequate support for secondary and tertiary levels, and give special attention to the repro-

Appendix



ductive and sexual health of girls and women and give priority to health programmes in rural and poor urban areas; b. Develop innovative approaches to funding health services through promoting community participation and local financing; increase, where necessary, budgetary allocations for community health centres and community-based programmes and services that address women’s specific health needs; c. Develop local health services, promoting the incorporation of gender-sensitive community-based participation and self-care and specially designed preventive health programmes; d. Develop goals and time-frames, where appropriate, for improving women’s health and for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programmes, based on gender-impact assessments using qualitative and quantitative data disaggregated by sex, age, other established demographic criteria and socio-economic variables; e. Establish, as appropriate, ministerial and inter-ministerial mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of women’s health policy and programme reforms and establish, as appropriate, high-level focal points in national planning authorities responsible for monitoring to ensure that women’s health concerns are mainstreamed in all relevant government agencies and programmes. 111. By Governments, the United Nations and its specialized agencies, international financial institutions, bilateral donors and the private sector, as appropriate: a. Formulate policies favourable to investment in women’s health and, where appropriate, increase allocations for such investment; b. Provide appropriate material, financial and logistical assistance to youth non-governmental organizations in order to strengthen them to address youth concerns in the area of health, including sexual and reproductive health; c. Give higher priority to women’s health and develop mechanisms for coordinating and implementing the health objectives of the Platform for Action and relevant international agreements to ensure progress. D. Violence against women 112. Violence against women is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development and peace. Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. The longstanding failure to protect and promote those rights and freedoms in the case of violence against women is a matter of concern to all States and should be addressed. Knowledge about its causes and consequences, as well as its incidence and measures to combat it, have been greatly expanded since the Nairobi Conference. In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture. The low social and economic status of women can be both a cause and a consequence of violence against women.

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Appendix 113. The term “violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. Accordingly, violence against women encompasses but is not limited to the following: a. Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, nonspousal violence and violence related to exploitation; b. Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution; c. Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs. 114. Other acts of violence against women include violation of the human rights of women in situations of armed conflict, in particular murder, systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy. 115. Acts of violence against women also include forced sterilization and forced abortion, coercive/forced use of contraceptives, female infanticide and prenatal sex selection. 116. Some groups of women, such as women belonging to minority groups, indigenous women, refugee women, women migrants, including women migrant workers, women in poverty living in rural or remote communities, destitute women, women in institutions or in detention, female children, women with disabilities, elderly women, displaced women, repatriated women, women living in poverty and women in situations of armed conflict, foreign occupation, wars of aggression, civil wars, terrorism, including hostagetaking, are also particularly vulnerable to violence. 117. Acts or threats of violence, whether occurring within the home or in the community, or perpetrated or condoned by the State, instil fear and insecurity in women’s lives and are obstacles to the achievement of equality and for development and peace. The fear of violence, including harassment, is a permanent constraint on the mobility of women and limits their access to resources and basic activities. High social, health and economic costs to the individual and society are associated with violence against women. Violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men. In many cases, violence against women and girls occurs in the family or within the home, where violence is often tolerated. The neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and rape of girl children and women by family members and other members of the household, as well as incidences of spousal and non-spousal abuse, often go unreported and are thus difficult to detect. Even



Appendix when such violence is reported, there is often a failure to protect victims or punish perpetrators. 118. Violence against women is a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of women’s full advancement. Violence against women throughout the life cycle derives essentially from cultural patterns, in particular the harmful effects of certain traditional or customary practices and all acts of extremism linked to race, sex, language or religion that perpetuate the lower status accorded to women in the family, the workplace, the community and society. Violence against women is exacerbated by social pressures, notably the shame of denouncing certain acts that have been perpetrated against women; women’s lack of access to legal information, aid or protection; the lack of laws that effectively prohibit violence against women; failure to reform existing laws; inadequate efforts on the part of public authorities to promote awareness of and enforce existing laws; and the absence of educational and other means to address the causes and consequences of violence. Images in the media of violence against women, in particular those that depict rape or sexual slavery as well as the use of women and girls as sex objects, including pornography, are factors contributing to the continued prevalence of such violence, adversely influencing the community at large, in particular children and young people. 119. Developing a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to the challenging task of promoting families, communities and States that are free of violence against women is necessary and achievable. Equality, partnership between women and men and respect for human dignity must permeate all stages of the socialization process. Educational systems should promote self-respect, mutual respect, and cooperation between women and men. 120. The absence of adequate gender-disaggregated data and statistics on the incidence of violence makes the elaboration of programmes and monitoring of changes difficult. Lack of or inadequate documentation and research on domestic violence, sexual harassment and violence against women and girls in private and in public, including the workplace, impede efforts to design specific intervention strategies. Experience in a number of countries shows that women and men can be mobilized to overcome violence in all its forms and that effective public measures can be taken to address both the causes and the consequences of violence. Men’s groups mobilizing against gender violence are necessary allies for change. 121. Women may be vulnerable to violence perpetrated by persons in positions of authority in both conflict and non-conflict situations. Training of all officials in humanitarian and human rights law and the punishment of perpetrators of violent acts against women would help to ensure that such violence does not take place at the hands of public officials in whom women should be able to place trust, including police and prison officials and security forces.

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Appendix 122. The effective suppression of trafficking in women and girls for the sex trade is a matter of pressing international concern. Implementation of the 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others,20 as well as other relevant instruments, needs to be reviewed and strengthened. The use of women in international prostitution and trafficking networks has become a major focus of international organized crime. The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, who has explored these acts as an additional cause of the violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls, is invited to address, within her mandate and as a matter of urgency, the issue of international trafficking for the purposes of the sex trade, as well as the issues of forced prostitution, rape, sexual abuse and sex tourism. Women and girls who are victims of this international trade are at an increased risk of further violence, as well as unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection, including infection with HIV/AIDS. 123. In addressing violence against women, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes so that before decisions are taken an analysis may be made of their effects on women and men, respectively. Strategic objective D.1. Take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women

Actions to be taken 124. By Governments: a. Condemn violence against women and refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination as set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women; b. Refrain from engaging in violence against women and exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons; c. Enact and/or reinforce penal, civil, labour and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish and redress the wrongs done to women and girls who are subjected to any form of violence, whether in the home, the workplace, the community or society; d. Adopt and/or implement and periodically review and analyse legislation to ensure its effectiveness in eliminating violence against women, emphasizing the prevention of violence and the prosecution of offenders; take measures to ensure the protection of women subjected to violence, access to just and effective remedies, including compensation and indemnification and healing of victims, and rehabilitation of perpetrators; e. Work actively to ratify and/or implement international human rights norms and instruments as they relate to violence against women, including those contained in



Appendix the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,21 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,13 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,13 and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;22 f. Implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, taking into account general recommendation 19, adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at its eleventh session;23 g. Promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes related to violence against women; actively encourage, support and implement measures and programmes aimed at increasing the knowledge and understanding of the causes, consequences and mechanisms of violence against women among those responsible for implementing these policies, such as law enforcement officers, police personnel and judicial, medical and social workers, as well as those who deal with minority, migration and refugee issues, and develop strategies to ensure that the revictimization of women victims of violence does not occur because of gender-insensitive laws or judicial or enforcement practices; h. Provide women who are subjected to violence with access to the mechanisms of justice and, as provided for by national legislation, to just and effective remedies for the harm they have suffered and inform women of their rights in seeking redress through such mechanisms; i. Enact and enforce legislation against the perpetrators of practices and acts of violence against women, such as female genital mutilation, female infanticide, prenatal sex selection and dowry-related violence, and give vigorous support to the efforts of nongovernmental and community organizations to eliminate such practices; j. Formulate and implement, at all appropriate levels, plans of action to eliminate violence against women; k. Adopt all appropriate measures, especially in the field of education, to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, and to eliminate prejudices, customary practices and all other practices based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of either of the sexes and on stereotyped roles for men and women; l. Create or strengthen institutional mechanisms so that women and girls can report acts of violence against them in a safe and confidential environment, free from the fear of penalties or retaliation, and file charges; m. Ensure that women with disabilities have access to information and services in the field of violence against women; n. Create, improve or develop as appropriate, and fund the training programmes for judicial, legal, medical, social, educational and police and immigrant personnel, in order to avoid the abuse of power leading to violence against women and sensitize such personnel to the nature of gender-based acts and threats of violence so that fair treatment of female victims can be assured; o. Adopt laws, where necessary, and reinforce existing laws that punish police, security forces or any other agents of the State who engage in acts of violence against women

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Appendix in the course of the performance of their duties; review existing legislation and take effective measures against the perpetrators of such violence; p. Allocate adequate resources within the government budget and mobilize community resources for activities related to the elimination of violence against women, including resources for the implementation of plans of action at all appropriate levels; q. Include in reports submitted in accordance with the provisions of relevant United Nations human rights instruments, information pertaining to violence against women and measures taken to implement the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women; r. Cooperate with and assist the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women in the performance of her mandate and furnish all information requested; cooperate also with other competent mechanisms, such as the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on torture and the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on summary, extrajudiciary and arbitrary executions, in relation to violence against women; s. Recommend that the Commission on Human Rights renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women when her term ends in 1997 and, if warranted, to update and strengthen it. 125. By Governments, including local governments, community organizations, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, the public and private sectors, particularly enterprises, and the mass media, as appropriate: a. Provide well-funded shelters and relief support for girls and women subjected to violence, as well as medical, psychological and other counselling services and free or low-cost legal aid, where it is needed, as well as appropriate assistance to enable them to find a means of subsistence; b. Establish linguistically and culturally accessible services for migrant women and girls, including women migrant workers, who are victims of gender-based violence; c. Recognize the vulnerability to violence and other forms of abuse of women migrants, including women migrant workers, whose legal status in the host country depends on employers who may exploit their situation; d. Support initiatives of women’s organizations and non-governmental organizations all over the world to raise awareness on the issue of violence against women and to contribute to its elimination; e. Organize, support and fund community-based education and training campaigns to raise awareness about violence against women as a violation of women’s enjoyment of their human rights and mobilize local communities to use appropriate gender-sensitive traditional and innovative methods of conflict resolution; f. Recognize, support and promote the fundamental role of intermediate institutions, such as primary health-care centres, family-planning centres, existing school health services, mother and baby protection services, centres for migrant families and so forth in the field of information and education related to abuse;



Appendix g. Organize and fund information campaigns and educational and training programmes in order to sensitize girls and boys and women and men to the personal and social detrimental effects of violence in the family, community and society; teach them how to communicate without violence and promote training for victims and potential victims so that they can protect themselves and others against such violence; h. Disseminate information on the assistance available to women and families who are victims of violence; i. Provide, fund and encourage counselling and rehabilitation programmes for the perpetrators of violence and promote research to further efforts concerning such counselling and rehabilitation so as to prevent the recurrence of such violence; j. Raise awareness of the responsibility of the media in promoting non-stereotyped images of women and men, as well as in eliminating patterns of media presentation that generate violence, and encourage those responsible for media content to establish professional guidelines and codes of conduct; also raise awareness of the important role of the media in informing and educating people about the causes and effects of violence against women and in stimulating public debate on the topic. 126. By Governments, employers, trade unions, community and youth organizations and non-governmental organizations, as appropriate: a. Develop programmes and procedures to eliminate sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women in all educational institutions, workplaces and elsewhere; b. Develop programmes and procedures to educate and raise awareness of acts of violence against women that constitute a crime and a violation of the human rights of women; c. Develop counselling, healing and support programmes for girls, adolescents and young women who have been or are involved in abusive relationships, particularly those who live in homes or institutions where abuse occurs; d. Take special measures to eliminate violence against women, particularly those in vulnerable situations, such as young women, refugee, displaced and internally displaced women, women with disabilities and women migrant workers, including enforcing any existing legislation and developing, as appropriate, new legislation for women migrant workers in both sending and receiving countries. 127. By the Secretary-General of the United Nations: Provide the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women with all necessary assistance, in particular the staff and resources required to perform all mandated functions, especially in carrying out and following up on missions undertaken either separately or jointly with other special rapporteurs and working groups, and adequate assistance for periodic consultations with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and all treaty bodies.

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Appendix 128. By Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations: Encourage the dissemination and implementation of the UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women and the UNHCR Guidelines on the Prevention of and Response to Sexual Violence against Refugees. Strategic objective D.2. Study the causes and consequences of violence against women and the effectiveness of preventive measures

Actions to be taken 129. By Governments, regional organizations, the United Nations, other international organizations, research institutions, women’s and youth organizations and non-governmental organizations, as appropriate: a. Promote research, collect data and compile statistics, especially concerning domestic violence relating to the prevalence of different forms of violence against women, and encourage research into the causes, nature, seriousness and consequences of violence against women and the effectiveness of measures implemented to prevent and redress violence against women; b. Disseminate findings of research and studies widely; c. Support and initiate research on the impact of violence, such as rape, on women and girl children, and make the resulting information and statistics available to the public; d. Encourage the media to examine the impact of gender role stereotypes, including those perpetuated by commercial advertisements which foster gender-based violence and inequalities, and how they are transmitted during the life cycle, and take measures to eliminate these negative images with a view to promoting a violence-free society. Strategic objective D.3. Eliminate trafficking in women and assist victims of violence due to prostitution and trafficking Actions to be taken 130. By Governments of countries of origin, transit and destination, regional and international organizations, as appropriate: a. Consider the ratification and enforcement of international conventions on trafficking in persons and on slavery; b. Take appropriate measures to address the root factors, including external factors, that encourage trafficking in women and girls for prostitution and other forms of commercialized sex, forced marriages and forced labour in order to eliminate trafficking in women, including by strengthening existing legislation with a view to providing better protection of the rights of women and girls and to punishing the perpetrators, through both criminal and civil measures; c. Step up cooperation and concerted action by all relevant law enforcement authorities and institutions with a view to dismantling national, regional and international networks in trafficking;

Appendix



d. Allocate resources to provide comprehensive programmes designed to heal and rehabilitate into society victims of trafficking, including through job training, legal assistance and confidential health care, and take measures to cooperate with non-governmental organizations to provide for the social, medical and psychological care of the victims of trafficking; e. Develop educational and training programmes and policies and consider enacting legislation aimed at preventing sex tourism and trafficking, giving special emphasis to the protection of young women and children. E. Women and armed conflict 131. An environment that maintains world peace and promotes and protects human rights, democracy and the peaceful settlement of disputes, in accordance with the principles of non-threat or use of force against territorial integrity or political independence and of respect for sovereignty as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, is an important factor for the advancement of women. Peace is inextricably linked with equality between women and men and development. Armed and other types of conflicts and terrorism and hostage-taking still persist in many parts of the world. Aggression, foreign occupation, ethnic and other types of conflicts are an ongoing reality affecting women and men in nearly every region. Gross and systematic violations and situations that constitute serious obstacles to the full enjoyment of human rights continue to occur in different parts of the world. Such violations and obstacles include, as well as torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, summary and arbitrary executions, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, all forms of racism and racial discrimination, foreign occupation and alien domination, xenophobia, poverty, hunger and other denials of economic, social and cultural rights, religious intolerance, terrorism, discrimination against women and lack of the rule of law. International humanitarian law, prohibiting attacks on civilian populations, as such, is at times systematically ignored and human rights are often violated in connection with situations of armed conflict, affecting the civilian population, especially women, children, the elderly and the disabled. Violations of the human rights of women in situations of armed conflict are violations of the fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Massive violations of human rights, especially in the form of genocide, ethnic cleansing as a strategy of war and its consequences, and rape, including systematic rape of women in war situations, creating a mass exodus of refugees and displaced persons, are abhorrent practices that are strongly condemned and must be stopped immediately, while perpetrators of such crimes must be punished. Some of these situations of armed conflict have their origin in the conquest or colonialization of a country by another State and the perpetuation of that colonization through state and military repression. 132. The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949, and the Additional Protocols of 197724 provide that women shall especially be pro-

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Appendix tected against any attack on their honour, in particular against humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution or any form of indecent assault. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, states that “violations of the human rights of women in situations of armed conflict are violations of the fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law”.25 All violations of this kind, including in particular murder, rape, including systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy require a particularly effective response. Gross and systematic violations and situations that constitute serious obstacles to the full enjoyment of human rights continue to occur in different parts of the world. Such violations and obstacles include, as well as torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or summary and arbitrary detention, all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, denial of economic, social and cultural rights and religious intolerance. 133. Violations of human rights in situations of armed conflict and military occupation are violations of the fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law as embodied in international human rights instruments and in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto. Gross human rights violations and policies of ethnic cleansing in war-torn and occupied areas continue to be carried out. These practices have created, inter alia, a mass flow of refugees and other displaced persons in need of international protection and internally displaced persons, the majority of whom are women, adolescent girls and children. Civilian victims, mostly women and children, often outnumber casualties among combatants. In addition, women often become caregivers for injured combatants and find themselves, as a result of conflict, unexpectedly cast as sole manager of household, sole parent, and caretaker of elderly relatives. 134. In a world of continuing instability and violence, the implementation of cooperative approaches to peace and security is urgently needed. The equal access and full participation of women in power structures and their full involvement in all efforts for the prevention and resolution of conflicts are essential for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security. Although women have begun to play an important role in conflict resolution, peace-keeping and defence and foreign affairs mechanisms, they are still underrepresented in decision-making positions. If women are to play an equal part in securing and maintaining peace, they must be empowered politically and economically and represented adequately at all levels of decision-making. 135. While entire communities suffer the consequences of armed conflict and terrorism, women and girls are particularly affected because of their status in society and their sex. Parties to conflict often rape women with impunity, sometimes using systematic rape as a tactic of war and terrorism. The impact of violence against women and violation of the human rights of women in such situations is experienced by women of all ages, who suffer displacement, loss of home and property, loss or involuntary disappearance of close



Appendix relatives, poverty and family separation and disintegration, and who are victims of acts of murder, terrorism, torture, involuntary disappearance, sexual slavery, rape, sexual abuse and forced pregnancy in situations of armed conflict, especially as a result of policies of ethnic cleansing and other new and emerging forms of violence. This is compounded by the life-long social, economic and psychologically traumatic consequences of armed conflict and foreign occupation and alien domination. 136. Women and children constitute some 80 per cent of the world’s millions of refugees and other displaced persons, including internally displaced persons. They are threatened by deprivation of property, goods and services and deprivation of their right to return to their homes of origin as well as by violence and insecurity. Particular attention should be paid to sexual violence against uprooted women and girls employed as a method of persecution in systematic campaigns of terror and intimidation and forcing members of a particular ethnic, cultural or religious group to flee their homes. Women may also be forced to flee as a result of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons enumerated in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol, including persecution through sexual violence or other gender-related persecution, and they continue to be vulnerable to violence and exploitation while in flight, in countries of asylum and resettlement and during and after repatriation. Women often experience difficulty in some countries of asylum in being recognized as refugees when the claim is based on such persecution. 137. Refugee, displaced and migrant women in most cases display strength, endurance and resourcefulness and can contribute positively to countries of resettlement or to their country of origin on their return. They need to be appropriately involved in decisions that affect them. 138. Many women’s non-governmental organizations have called for reductions in military expenditures world wide, as well as in international trade and trafficking in and the proliferation of weapons. Those affected most negatively by conflict and excessive military spending are people living in poverty, who are deprived because of the lack of investment in basic services. Women living in poverty, particularly rural women, also suffer because of the use of arms that are particularly injurious or have indiscriminate effects. There are more than 100 million anti-personnel land-mines scattered in 64 countries globally. The negative impact on development of excessive military expenditures, the arms trade, and investment for arms production and acquisition must be addressed. At the same time, maintenance of national security and peace is an important factor for economic growth and development and the empowerment of women. 139. During times of armed conflict and the collapse of communities, the role of women is crucial. They often work to preserve social order in the midst of armed and other conflicts. Women make an important but often unrecognized contribution as peace educators both in their families and in their societies.

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Appendix 140. Education to foster a culture of peace that upholds justice and tolerance for all nations and peoples is essential to attaining lasting peace and should be begun at an early age. It should include elements of conflict resolution, mediation, reduction of prejudice and respect for diversity. 141. In addressing armed or other conflicts, an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes should be promoted so that before decisions are taken an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively. Strategic objective E.1. Increase the participation of women in conflict resolution at decision-making levels and protect women living in situations of armed and other conflicts or under foreign occupation

Actions to be taken 142. By Governments and international and regional intergovernmental institutions: a. Take action to promote equal participation of women and equal opportunities for women to participate in all forums and peace activities at all levels, particularly at the decision-making level, including in the United Nations Secretariat with due regard to equitable geographical distribution in accordance with Article 101 of the Charter of the United Nations; b. Integrate a gender perspective in the resolution of armed or other conflicts and foreign occupation and aim for gender balance when nominating or promoting candidates for judicial and other positions in all relevant international bodies, such as the United Nations International Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda and the International Court of Justice, as well as in other bodies related to the peaceful settlement of disputes; c. Ensure that these bodies are able to address gender issues properly by providing appropriate training to prosecutors, judges and other officials in handling cases involving rape, forced pregnancy in situations of armed conflict, indecent assault and other forms of violence against women in armed conflicts, including terrorism, and integrate a gender perspective into their work. Strategic objective E.2. Reduce excessive military expenditures and control the availability of armaments Actions to be taken 143. By Governments: a. Increase and hasten, as appropriate, subject to national security considerations, the conversion of military resources and related industries to development and peaceful purposes; b. Undertake to explore new ways of generating new public and private financial resources, inter alia, through the appropriate reduction of excessive military expendi-



Appendix tures, including global military expenditures, trade in arms and investment for arms production and acquisition, taking into consideration national security requirements, so as to permit the possible allocation of additional funds for social and economic development, in particular for the advancement of women; c. Take action to investigate and punish members of the police, security and armed forces and others who perpetrate acts of violence against women, violations of international humanitarian law and violations of the human rights of women in situations of armed conflict; d. While acknowledging legitimate national defence needs, recognize and address the dangers to society of armed conflict and the negative effect of excessive military expenditures, trade in arms, especially those arms that are particularly injurious or have indiscriminate effects, and excessive investment for arms production and acquisition; similarly, recognize the need to combat illicit arms trafficking, violence, crime, the production and use of and trafficking in illicit drugs, and trafficking in women and children; e. Recognizing that women and children are particularly affected by the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel land-mines: i. Undertake to work actively towards ratification, if they have not already done so, of the 1981 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, particularly the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby Traps and Other Devices (Protocol II),26 with a view to universal ratification by the year 2000; ii. Undertake to strongly consider strengthening the Convention to promote a reduction in the casualties and intense suffering caused to the civilian population by the indiscriminate use of land-mines; iii. Undertake to promote assistance in mine clearance, notably by facilitating, in respect of the means of mine-clearing, the exchange of information, the transfer of technology and the promotion of scientific research; iv. Within the United Nations context, undertake to support efforts to coordinate a common response programme of assistance in de-mining without unnecessary discrimination; v. Adopt at the earliest possible date, if they have not already done so, a moratorium on the export of anti-personnel land-mines, including to non-governmental entities, noting with satisfaction that many States have already declared moratoriums on the export, transfer or sale of such mines; vi. Undertake to encourage further international efforts to seek solutions to the problems caused by antipersonnel land-mines, with a view to their eventual elimination, recognizing that States can move most effectively towards this goal as viable and humane alternatives are developed; f. Recognizing the leading role that women have played in the peace movement: i. Work actively towards general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control;

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Appendix ii. Support negotiations on the conclusion, without delay, of a universal and multilaterally and effectively verifiable comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty that contributes to nuclear disarmament and the prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in all its aspects; iii. Pending the entry into force of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty, exercise the utmost restraint in respect of nuclear testing. Strategic objective E.3. Promote non-violent forms of conflict resolution and reduce the incidence of human rights abuse in conflict situations

Actions to be taken 144. By Governments: a. Consider the ratification of or accession to international instruments containing provisions relative to the protection of women and children in armed conflicts, including the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949, the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) and to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II);24 b. Respect fully the norms of international humanitarian law in armed conflicts and take all measures required for the protection of women and children, in particular against rape, forced prostitution and any other form of indecent assault; c. Strengthen the role of women and ensure equal representation of women at all decision-making levels in national and international institutions which may make or influence policy with regard to matters related to peace-keeping, preventive diplomacy and related activities and in all stages of peace mediation and negotiations, taking note of the specific recommendations of the Secretary-General in his strategic plan of action for the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (1995-2000) (A/49/587, sect. IV). 145. By Governments and international and regional organizations: a. Reaffirm the right of self-determination of all peoples, in particular of peoples under colonial or other forms of alien domination or foreign occupation, and the importance of the effective realization of this right, as enunciated, inter alia, in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,2 adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights; b. Encourage diplomacy, negotiation and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, in particular Article 2, paragraphs 3 and 4 thereof; c. Urge the identification and condemnation of the systematic practice of rape and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment of women as a deliberate instrument of war and ethnic cleansing and take steps to ensure that full assistance is provided to the victims of such abuse for their physical and mental rehabilitation; d. Reaffirm that rape in the conduct of armed conflict constitutes a war crime and under certain circumstances it constitutes a crime against humanity and an act of genocide



Appendix as defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide;27 take all measures required for the protection of women and children from such acts and strengthen mechanisms to investigate and punish all those responsible and bring the perpetrators to justice; e. Uphold and reinforce standards set out in international humanitarian law and international human rights instruments to prevent all acts of violence against women in situations of armed and other conflicts; undertake a full investigation of all acts of violence against women committed during war, including rape, in particular systematic rape, forced prostitution and other forms of indecent assault and sexual slavery; prosecute all criminals responsible for war crimes against women and provide full redress to women victims; f. Call upon the international community to condemn and act against all forms and manifestations of terrorism; g. Take into account gender-sensitive concerns in developing training programmes for all relevant personnel on international humanitarian law and human rights awareness and recommend such training for those involved in United Nations peace-keeping and humanitarian aid, with a view to preventing violence against women, in particular; h. Discourage the adoption of and refrain from any unilateral measure not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, that impedes the full achievement of economic and social development by the population of the affected countries, in particular women and children, that hinders their well-being and that creates obstacles to the full enjoyment of their human rights, including the right of everyone to a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being and their right to food, medical care and the necessary social services. This Conference reaffirms that food and medicine must not be used as a tool for political pressure; i. Take measures in accordance with international law with a view to alleviating the negative impact of economic sanctions on women and children. Strategic objective E.4. Promote women’s contribution to fostering a culture of peace Actions to be taken 146. By Governments, international and regional intergovernmental institutions and nongovernmental organizations: a. Promote peaceful conflict resolution and peace, reconciliation and tolerance through education, training, community actions and youth exchange programmes, in particular for young women; b. Encourage the further development of peace research, involving the participation of women, to examine the impact of armed conflict on women and children and the nature and contribution of women’s participation in national, regional and international peace movements; engage in research and identify innovative mechanisms for

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Appendix containing violence and for conflict resolution for public dissemination and for use by women and men; c. Develop and disseminate research on the physical, psychological, economic and social effects of armed conflicts on women, particularly young women and girls, with a view to developing policies and programmes to address the consequences of conflicts; d. Consider establishing educational programmes for girls and boys to foster a culture of peace, focusing on conflict resolution by non-violent means and the promotion of tolerance. Strategic objective E.5. Provide protection, assistance and training to refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women

Actions to be taken 147. By Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and other institutions involved in providing protection, assistance and training to refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme, as appropriate: a. Take steps to ensure that women are fully involved in the planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all short-term and long-term projects and programmes providing assistance to refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women, including the management of refugee camps and resources; ensure that refugee and displaced women and girls have direct access to the services provided; b. Offer adequate protection and assistance to women and children displaced within their country and find solutions to the root causes of their displacement with a view to preventing it and, when appropriate, facilitate their return or resettlement; c. Take steps to protect the safety and physical integrity of refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women during their displacement and upon their return to their communities of origin, including programmes of rehabilitation; take effective measures to protect from violence women who are refugees or displaced; hold an impartial and thorough investigation of any such violations and bring those responsible to justice; d. While fully respecting and strictly observing the principle of non-refoulement of refugees, take all the necessary steps to ensure the right of refugee and displaced women to return voluntarily to their place of origin in safety and with dignity, and their right to protection after their return; e. Take measures, at the national level with international cooperation, as appropriate, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, to find lasting solutions to questions related to internally displaced women, including their right to voluntary and safe return to their home of origin;



Appendix f. Ensure that the international community and its international organizations provide financial and other resources for emergency relief and other longer-term assistance that takes into account the specific needs, resources and potentials of refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women; in the provision of protection and assistance, take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women and girls in order to ensure equal access to appropriate and adequate food, water and shelter, education, and social and health services, including reproductive health care and maternity care and services to combat tropical diseases; g. Facilitate the availability of educational materials in the appropriate language -in emergency situations also -in order to minimize disruption of schooling among refugee and displaced children; h. Apply international norms to ensure equal access and equal treatment of women and men in refugee determination procedures and the granting of asylum, including full respect and strict observation of the principle of non-refoulement through, inter alia, bringing national immigration regulations into conformity with relevant international instruments, and consider recognizing as refugees those women whose claim to refugee status is based upon the well-founded fear of persecution for reasons enumerated in the 1951 Convention28 and the 1967 Protocol29 relating to the Status of Refugees, including persecution through sexual violence or other gender-related persecution, and provide access to specially trained officers, including female officers, to interview women regarding sensitive or painful experiences, such as sexual assault; i. Support and promote efforts by States towards the development of criteria and guidelines on responses to persecution specifically aimed at women, by sharing information on States’ initiatives to develop such criteria and guidelines and by monitoring to ensure their fair and consistent application; j. Promote the self-reliant capacities of refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women and provide programmes for women, particularly young women, in leadership and decision-making within refugee and returnee communities; k. Ensure that the human rights of refugee and displaced women are protected and that refugee and displaced women are made aware of these rights; ensure that the vital importance of family reunification is recognized; l. Provide, as appropriate, women who have been determined refugees with access to vocational/professional training programmes, including language training, small-scale enterprise development training and planning and counselling on all forms of violence against women, which should include rehabilitation programmes for victims of torture and trauma; Governments and other donors should contribute adequately to assistance programmes for refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women, taking into account in particular the effects on the host countries of the increasing requirements of large refugee populations and the need to widen the donor base and to achieve greater burden-sharing;

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Appendix m. Raise public awareness of the contribution made by refugee women to their countries of resettlement, promote understanding of their human rights and of their needs and abilities and encourage mutual understanding and acceptance through educational programmes promoting cross-cultural and interracial harmony; n. Provide basic and support services to women who are displaced from their place of origin as a result of terrorism, violence, drug trafficking or other reasons linked to violence situations; o. Develop awareness of the human rights of women and provide, as appropriate, human rights education and training to military and police personnel operating in areas of armed conflict and areas where there are refugees. 148. By Governments: a. Disseminate and implement the UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women and the UNHCR Guidelines on Evaluation and Care of Victims of Trauma and Violence, or provide similar guidance, in close cooperation with refugee women and in all sectors of refugee programmes; b. Protect women and children who migrate as family members from abuse or denial of their human rights by sponsors and consider extending their stay, should the family relationship dissolve, within the limits of national legislation. Strategic objective E.6. Provide assistance to the women of the colonies and non-self-governing territories

Actions to be taken 149. By Governments and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations: a. Support and promote the implementation of the right of self-determination of all peoples as enunciated, inter alia, in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action by providing special programmes in leadership and in training for decision-making; b. Raise public awareness, as appropriate, through the mass media, education at all levels and special programmes to create a better understanding of the situation of women of the colonies and non-selfgoverning territories. F. Women and the economy 150. There are considerable differences in women’s and men’s access to and opportunities to exert power over economic structures in their societies. In most parts of the world, women are virtually absent from or are poorly represented in economic decision-making, including the formulation of financial, monetary, commercial and other economic policies, as well as tax systems and rules governing pay. Since it is often within the framework of such policies that individual men and women make their decisions, inter alia, on how to divide their time between remunerated and unremunerated work, the



Appendix actual development of these economic structures and policies has a direct impact on women’s and men’s access to economic resources, their economic power and consequently the extent of equality between them at the individual and family levels as well as in society as a whole. 151. In many regions, women’s participation in remunerated work in the formal and nonformal labour market has increased significantly and has changed during the past decade. While women continue to work in agriculture and fisheries, they have also become increasingly involved in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and, in some cases, have become more dominant in the expanding informal sector. Due to, inter alia, difficult economic situations and a lack of bargaining power resulting from gender inequality, many women have been forced to accept low pay and poor working conditions and thus have often become preferred workers. On the other hand, women have entered the workforce increasingly by choice when they have become aware of and demanded their rights. Some have succeeded in entering and advancing in the workplace and improving their pay and working conditions. However, women have been particularly affected by the economic situation and restructuring processes, which have changed the nature of employment and, in some cases, have led to a loss of jobs, even for professional and skilled women. In addition, many women have entered the informal sector owing to the lack of other opportunities. Women’s participation and gender concerns are still largely absent from and should be integrated in the policy formulation process of the multilateral institutions that define the terms and, in cooperation with Governments, set the goals of structural adjustment programmes, loans and grants. 152. Discrimination in education and training, hiring and remuneration, promotion and horizontal mobility practices, as well as inflexible working conditions, lack of access to productive resources and inadequate sharing of family responsibilities, combined with a lack of or insufficient services such as child care, continue to restrict employment, economic, professional and other opportunities and mobility for women and make their involvement stressful. Moreover, attitudinal obstacles inhibit women’s participation in developing economic policy and in some regions restrict the access of women and girls to education and training for economic management. 153. Women’s share in the labour force continues to rise and almost everywhere women are working more outside the household, although there has not been a parallel lightening of responsibility for unremunerated work in the household and community. Women’s income is becoming increasingly necessary to households of all types. In some regions, there has been a growth in women’s entrepreneurship and other self-reliant activities, particularly in the informal sector. In many countries, women are the majority of workers in non-standard work, such as temporary, casual, multiple part-time, contract and homebased employment.

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Appendix 154. Women migrant workers, including domestic workers, contribute to the economy of the sending country through their remittances and also to the economy of the receiving country through their participation in the labour force. However, in many receiving countries, migrant women experience higher levels of unemployment compared with both non-migrant workers and male migrant workers. 155. Insufficient attention to gender analysis has meant that women’s contributions and concerns remain too often ignored in economic structures, such as financial markets and institutions, labour markets, economics as an academic discipline, economic and social infrastructure, taxation and social security systems, as well as in families and households. As a result, many policies and programmes may continue to contribute to inequalities between women and men. Where progress has been made in integrating gender perspectives, programme and policy effectiveness has also been enhanced. 156. Although many women have advanced in economic structures, for the majority of women, particularly those who face additional barriers, continuing obstacles have hindered their ability to achieve economic autonomy and to ensure sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their dependants. Women are active in a variety of economic areas, which they often combine, ranging from wage labour and subsistence farming and fishing to the informal sector. However, legal and customary barriers to ownership of or access to land, natural resources, capital, credit, technology and other means of production, as well as wage differentials, contribute to impeding the economic progress of women. Women contribute to development not only through remunerated work but also through a great deal of unremunerated work. On the one hand, women participate in the production of goods and services for the market and household consumption, in agriculture, food production or family enterprises. Though included in the United Nations System of National Accounts and therefore in international standards for labour statistics, this unremunerated work particularly that related to agriculture -is often undervalued and under-recorded. On the other hand, women still also perform the great majority of unremunerated domestic work and community work, such as caring for children and older persons, preparing food for the family, protecting the environment and providing voluntary assistance to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and groups. This work is often not measured in quantitative terms and is not valued in national accounts. Women’s contribution to development is seriously underestimated, and thus its social recognition is limited. The full visibility of the type, extent and distribution of this unremunerated work will also contribute to a better sharing of responsibilities. 157. Although some new employment opportunities have been created for women as a result of the globalization of the economy, there are also trends that have exacerbated inequalities between women and men. At the same time, globalization, including economic integration, can create pressures on the employment situation of women to adjust to new



Appendix circumstances and to find new sources of employment as patterns of trade change. More analysis needs to be done of the impact of globalization on women’s economic status. 158. These trends have been characterized by low wages, little or no labour standards protection, poor working conditions, particularly with regard to women’s occupational health and safety, low skill levels, and a lack of job security and social security, in both the formal and informal sectors. Women’s unemployment is a serious and increasing problem in many countries and sectors. Young workers in the informal and rural sectors and migrant female workers remain the least protected by labour and immigration laws. Women, particularly those who are heads of households with young children, are limited in their employment opportunities for reasons that include inflexible working conditions and inadequate sharing, by men and by society, of family responsibilities. 159. In countries that are undergoing fundamental political, economic and social transformation, the skills of women, if better utilized, could constitute a major contribution to the economic life of their respective countries. Their input should continue to be developed and supported and their potential further realized. 160. Lack of employment in the private sector and reductions in public services and public service jobs have affected women disproportionately. In some countries, women take on more unpaid work, such as the care of children and those who are ill or elderly, compensating for lost household income, particularly when public services are not available. In many cases, employment creation strategies have not paid sufficient attention to occupations and sectors where women predominate; nor have they adequately promoted the access of women to those occupations and sectors that are traditionally male. 161. For those women in paid work, many experience obstacles that prevent them from achieving their potential. While some are increasingly found in lower levels of management, attitudinal discrimination often prevents them from being promoted further. The experience of sexual harassment is an affront to a worker’s dignity and prevents women from making a contribution commensurate with their abilities. The lack of a family-friendly work environment, including a lack of appropriate and affordable child care, and inflexible working hours further prevent women from achieving their full potential. 162. In the private sector, including transnational and national enterprises, women are largely absent from management and policy levels, denoting discriminatory hiring and promotion policies and practices. The unfavourable work environment as well as the limited number of employment opportunities available have led many women to seek alternatives. Women have increasingly become self-employed and owners and managers of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises. The expansion of the informal sector, in many countries, and of self-organized and independent enterprises is in large part due to

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Appendix women, whose collaborative, self-help and traditional practices and initiatives in production and trade represent a vital economic resource. When they gain access to and control over capital, credit and other resources, technology and training, women can increase production, marketing and income for sustainable development. 163. Taking into account the fact that continuing inequalities and noticeable progress coexist, rethinking employment policies is necessary in order to integrate the gender perspective and to draw attention to a wider range of opportunities as well as to address any negative gender implications of current patterns of work and employment. To realize fully equality between women and men in their contribution to the economy, active efforts are required for equal recognition and appreciation of the influence that the work, experience, knowledge and values of both women and men have in society. 164. In addressing the economic potential and independence of women, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes so that before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively. Strategic objective F.1. Promote women’s economic rights and independence, including access to employment, appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources

Actions to be taken 165. By Governments: a. Enact and enforce legislation to guarantee the rights of women and men to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value; b. Adopt and implement laws against discrimination based on sex in the labour market, especially considering older women workers, hiring and promotion, the extension of employment benefits and social security, and working conditions; c. Eliminate discriminatory practices by employers and take appropriate measures in consideration of women’s reproductive role and functions, such as the denial of employment and dismissal due to pregnancy or breast-feeding, or requiring proof of contraceptive use, and take effective measures to ensure that pregnant women, women on maternity leave or women re-entering the labour market after childbearing are not discriminated against; d. Devise mechanisms and take positive action to enable women to gain access to full and equal participation in the formulation of policies and definition of structures through such bodies as ministries of finance and trade, national economic commissions, economic research institutes and other key agencies, as well as through their participation in appropriate international bodies; e. Undertake legislation and administrative reforms to give women equal rights with men to economic resources, including access to ownership and control over land and

Appendix



other forms of property, credit, inheritance, natural resources and appropriate new technology; f. Conduct reviews of national income and inheritance tax and social security systems to eliminate any existing bias against women; g. Seek to develop a more comprehensive knowledge of work and employment through, inter alia, efforts to measure and better understand the type, extent and distribution of unremunerated work, particularly work in caring for dependants and unremunerated work done for family farms or businesses, and encourage the sharing and dissemination of information on studies and experience in this field, including the development of methods for assessing its value in quantitative terms, for possible reflection in accounts that may be produced separately from, but consistent with, core national accounts; h. Review and amend laws governing the operation of financial institutions to ensure that they provide services to women and men on an equal basis; i. Facilitate, at appropriate levels, more open and transparent budget processes; j. Revise and implement national policies that support the traditional savings, credit and lending mechanisms for women; k. Seek to ensure that national policies related to international and regional trade agreements do not have an adverse impact on women’s new and traditional economic activities; l. Ensure that all corporations, including transnational corporations, comply with national laws and codes, social security regulations, applicable international agreements, instruments and conventions, including those related to the environment, and other relevant laws; m. Adjust employment policies to facilitate the restructuring of work patterns in order to promote the sharing of family responsibilities; n. Establish mechanisms and other forums to enable women entrepreneurs and women workers to contribute to the formulation of policies and programmes being developed by economic ministries and financial institutions; o. Enact and enforce equal opportunity laws, take positive action and ensure compliance by the public and private sectors through various means; p. Use gender-impact analyses in the development of macro and micro-economic and social policies in order to monitor such impact and restructure policies in cases where harmful impact occurs; q. Promote gender-sensitive policies and measures to empower women as equal partners with men in technical, managerial and entrepreneurial fields; Reform laws or enact national policies that support the establishment of labour laws to ensure the protection of all women workers, including safe work practices, the right to organize and access to justice. Strategic objective F.2. Facilitate women’s equal access to resources, employment, markets and trade

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Appendix

Actions to be taken 166. By Governments: a. Promote and support women’s self-employment and the development of small enterprises, and strengthen women’s access to credit and capital on appropriate terms equal to those of men through the scaling-up of institutions dedicated to promoting women’s entrepreneurship, including, as appropriate, non-traditional and mutual credit schemes, as well as innovative linkages with financial institutions; b. Strengthen the incentive role of the State as employer to develop a policy of equal opportunities for women and men; c. Enhance, at the national and local levels, rural women’s income-generating potential by facilitating their equal access to and control over productive resources, land, credit, capital, property rights, development programmes and cooperative structures; d. Promote and strengthen micro-enterprises, new small businesses, cooperative enterprises, expanded markets and other employment opportunities and, where appropriate, facilitate the transition from the informal to the formal sector, especially in rural areas; e. Create and modify programmes and policies that recognize and strengthen women’s vital role in food security and provide paid and unpaid women producers, especially those involved in food production, such as farming, fishing and aquaculture, as well as urban enterprises, with equal access to appropriate technologies, transportation, extension services, marketing and credit facilities at the local and community levels; f. Establish appropriate mechanisms and encourage intersectoral institutions that enable women’s cooperatives to optimize access to necessary services; g. Increase the proportion of women extension workers and other government personnel who provide technical assistance or administer economic programmes; h. Review, reformulate, if necessary, and implement policies, including business, commercial and contract law and government regulations, to ensure that they do not discriminate against micro, small and medium-scale enterprises owned by women in rural and urban areas; i. Analyse, advise on, coordinate and implement policies that integrate the needs and interests of employed, self-employed and entrepreneurial women into sectoral and inter-ministerial policies, programmes and budgets; j. Ensure equal access for women to effective job training, retraining, counselling and placement services that are not limited to traditional employment areas; k. Remove policy and regulatory obstacles faced by women in social and development programmes that discourage private and individual initiative; l. Safeguard and promote respect for basic workers’ rights, including the prohibition of forced labour and child labour, freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively, equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value and non-discrimination in employment, fully implementing the conventions of the International Labour Organization in the case of States Parties to those conven-



Appendix tions and, taking into account the principles embodied in the case of those countries that are not parties to those conventions in order to achieve truly sustained economic growth and sustainable development. 167. By Governments, central banks and national development banks, and private banking institutions, as appropriate: a. Increase the participation of women, including women entrepreneurs, in advisory boards and other forums to enable women entrepreneurs from all sectors and their organizations to contribute to the formulation and review of policies and programmes being developed by economic ministries and banking institutions; b. Mobilize the banking sector to increase lending and refinancing through incentives and the development of intermediaries that serve the needs of women entrepreneurs and producers in both rural and urban areas, and include women in their leadership, planning and decision-making; c. Structure services to reach rural and urban women involved in micro, small and medium-scale enterprises, with special attention to young women, low-income women, those belonging to ethnic and racial minorities, and indigenous women who lack access to capital and assets; and expand women’s access to financial markets by identifying and encouraging financial supervisory and regulatory reforms that support financial institutions’ direct and indirect efforts to better meet the credit and other financial needs of the micro, small and medium-scale enterprises of women; d. Ensure that women’s priorities are included in public investment programmes for economic infrastructure, such as water and sanitation, electrification and energy conservation, transport and road construction; promote greater involvement of women beneficiaries at the project planning and implementation stages to ensure access to jobs and contracts. 168. By Governments and non-governmental organizations: a. Pay special attention to women’s needs when disseminating market, trade and resource information and provide appropriate training in these fields; b. Encourage community economic development strategies that build on partnerships among Governments, and encourage members of civil society to create jobs and address the social circumstances of individuals, families and communities. 169. By multilateral funders and regional development banks, as well as bilateral and private funding agencies, at the international, regional and subregional levels: a. Review, where necessary reformulate, and implement policies, programmes and projects, to ensure that a higher proportion of resources reach women in rural and remote areas; b. Develop flexible funding arrangements to finance intermediary institutions that target women’s economic activities, and promote self-sufficiency and increased capacity in and profitability of women’s economic enterprises;

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Appendix c. Develop strategies to consolidate and strengthen their assistance to the micro, small and medium-scale enterprise sector, in order to enhance the opportunities for women to participate fully and equally and work together to coordinate and enhance the effectiveness of this sector, drawing upon expertise and financial resources from within their own organizations as well as from bilateral agencies, Governments and non-governmental organizations. 170. By international, multilateral and bilateral development cooperation organizations: Support, through the provision of capital and/or resources, financial institutions that serve low-income, small and micro-scale women entrepreneurs and producers in both the formal and informal sectors. 171. By Governments and/or multilateral financial institutions: Review rules and procedures of formal national and international financial institutions that obstruct replication of the Grameen Bank prototype, which provides credit facilities to rural women. 172. By international organizations: Provide adequate support for programmes and projects designed to promote sustainable and productive entrepreneurial activities among women, in particular the disadvantaged. Strategic objective F.3. Provide business services, training and access to markets, information and technology, particularly to low-income women

Actions to be taken 173. By Governments in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and the private sector: a. Provide public infrastructure to ensure equal market access for women and men entrepreneurs; b. Develop programmes that provide training and retraining, particularly in new technologies, and affordable services to women in business management, product development, financing, production and quality control, marketing and the legal aspects of business; c. Provide outreach programmes to inform low-income and poor women, particularly in rural and remote areas, of opportunities for market and technology access, and provide assistance in taking advantage of such opportunities; d. Create non-discriminatory support services, including investment funds for women’s businesses, and target women, particularly low-income women, in trade promotion programmes; e. Disseminate information about successful women entrepreneurs in both traditional and non-traditional economic activities and the skills necessary to achieve success, and facilitate networking and the exchange of information;

Appendix



f. Take measures to ensure equal access of women to ongoing training in the workplace, including unemployed women, single parents, women re-entering the labour market after an extended temporary exit from employment owing to family responsibilities and other causes, and women displaced by new forms of production or by retrenchment, and increase incentives to enterprises to expand the number of vocational and training centres that provide training for women in non-traditional areas; g. Provide affordable support services, such as high-quality, flexible and affordable childcare services, that take into account the needs of working men and women. 174. By local, national, regional and international business organizations and non-governmental organizations concerned with women’s issues: Advocate, at all levels, for the promotion and support of women’s businesses and enterprises, including those in the informal sector, and the equal access of women to productive resources. Strategic objective F.4. Strengthen women’s economic capacity and commercial networks Actions to be taken 175. By Governments: a. Adopt policies that support business organizations, non-governmental organizations, cooperatives, revolving loan funds, credit unions, grass-roots organizations, women’s self-help groups and other groups in order to provide services to women entrepreneurs in rural and urban areas; b. Integrate a gender perspective into all economic restructuring and structural adjustment policies and design programmes for women who are affected by economic restructuring, including structural adjustment programmes, and for women who work in the informal sector; c. Adopt policies that create an enabling environment for women’s self-help groups, workers’ organizations and cooperatives through non-conventional forms of support and by recognizing the right to freedom of association and the right to organize; d. Support programmes that enhance the self-reliance of special groups of women, such as young women, women with disabilities, elderly women and women belonging to racial and ethnic minorities; e. Promote gender equality through the promotion of women’s studies and through the use of the results of studies and gender research in all fields, including the economic, scientific and technological fields; f. Support the economic activities of indigenous women, taking into account their traditional knowledge, so as to improve their situation and development; g. Adopt policies to extend or maintain the protection of labour laws and social security provisions for those who do paid work in the home;

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Appendix h. Recognize and encourage the contribution of research by women scientists and technologists; i. Ensure that policies and regulations do not discriminate against micro, small and medium-scale enterprises run by women. 176. By financial intermediaries, national training institutes, credit unions, non-governmental organizations, women’s associations, professional organizations and the private sector, as appropriate: a. Provide, at the national, regional and international levels, training in a variety of business-related and financial management and technical skills to enable women, especially young women, to participate in economic policy-making at those levels; b. Provide business services, including marketing and trade information, product design and innovation, technology transfer and quality, to women’s business enterprises, including those in export sectors of the economy; c. Promote technical and commercial links and establish joint ventures among women entrepreneurs at the national, regional and international levels to support communitybased initiatives; d. Strengthen the participation of women, including marginalized women, in production and marketing cooperatives by providing marketing and financial support, especially in rural and remote areas; e. Promote and strengthen women’s micro-enterprises, new small businesses, cooperative enterprises, expanded markets and other employment opportunities and, where appropriate, facilitate the transition from the informal to the formal sector, in rural and urban areas; f. Invest capital and develop investment portfolios to finance women’s business enterprises; g. Give adequate attention to providing technical assistance, advisory services, training and retraining for women connected with the entry to the market economy; h. Support credit networks and innovative ventures, including traditional savings schemes; i. Provide networking arrangements for entrepreneurial women, including opportunities for the mentoring of inexperienced women by the more experienced; j. Encourage community organizations and public authorities to establish loan pools for women entrepreneurs, drawing on successful small-scale cooperative models. 177. By the private sector, including transnational and national corporations: a. Adopt policies and establish mechanisms to grant contracts on a non-discriminatory basis; b. Recruit women for leadership, decision-making and management and provide training programmes, all on an equal basis with men; c. Observe national labour, environment, consumer, health and safety laws, particularly those that affect women.



Appendix Strategic objective F.5. Eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment discrimination Actions to be taken 178. By Governments, employers, employees, trade unions and women’s organizations: a. Implement and enforce laws and regulations and encourage voluntary codes of conduct that ensure that international labour standards, such as International Labour Organization Convention No. 100 on equal pay and workers’ rights, apply equally to female and male workers; b. Enact and enforce laws and introduce implementing measures, including means of redress and access to justice in cases of non-compliance, to prohibit direct and indirect discrimination on grounds of sex, including by reference to marital or family status, in relation to access to employment, conditions of employment, including training, promotion, health and safety, as well as termination of employment and social security of workers, including legal protection against sexual and racial harassment; c. Enact and enforce laws and develop workplace policies against gender discrimination in the labour market, especially considering older women workers, in hiring and promotion, and in the extension of employment benefits and social security, as well as regarding discriminatory working conditions and sexual harassment; mechanisms should be developed for the regular review and monitoring of such laws; d. Eliminate discriminatory practices by employers on the basis of women’s reproductive roles and functions, including refusal of employment and dismissal of women due to pregnancy and breast-feeding responsibilities; e. Develop and promote employment programmes and services for women entering and/or re-entering the labour market, especially poor urban, rural and young women, the self-employed and those negatively affected by structural adjustment; f. Implement and monitor positive public-and private-sector employment, equity and positive action programmes to address systemic discrimination against women in the labour force, in particular women with disabilities and women belonging to other disadvantaged groups, with respect to hiring, retention and promotion, and vocational training of women in all sectors; g. Eliminate occupational segregation, especially by promoting the equal participation of women in highly skilled jobs and senior management positions, and through other measures, such as counselling and placement, that stimulate their on-the-job career development and upward mobility in the labour market, and by stimulating the diversification of occupational choices by both women and men; encourage women to take up non-traditional jobs, especially in science and technology, and encourage men to seek employment in the social sector; h. Recognize collective bargaining as a right and as an important mechanism for eliminating wage inequality for women and to improve working conditions;

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Appendix i. Promote the election of women trade union officials and ensure that trade union officials elected to represent women are given job protection and physical security in connection with the discharge of their functions; j. Ensure access to and develop special programmes to enable women with disabilities to obtain and retain employment, and ensure access to education and training at all proper levels, in accordance with the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities;30 adjust working conditions, to the extent possible, in order to suit the needs of women with disabilities, who should be assured legal protection against unfounded job loss on account of their disabilities; k. Increase efforts to close the gap between women’s and men’s pay, take steps to implement the principle of equal remuneration for equal work of equal value by strengthening legislation, including compliance with international labour laws and standards, and encourage job evaluation schemes with gender-neutral criteria; l. Establish and/or strengthen mechanisms to adjudicate matters relating to wage discrimination; m. Set specific target dates for eliminating all forms of child labour that are contrary to accepted international standards and ensure the full enforcement of relevant existing laws and, where appropriate, enact the legislation necessary to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child and International Labour Organization standards, ensuring the protection of working children, in particular, street children, through the provision of appropriate health, education and other social services; n. Ensure that strategies to eliminate child labour also address the excessive demands made on some girls for unpaid work in their household and other households, where applicable; o. Review, analyse and, where appropriate, reformulate the wage structures in femaledominated professions, such as teaching, nursing and child care, with a view to raising their low status and earnings; p. Facilitate the productive employment of documented migrant women (including women who have been determined refugees according to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees) through greater recognition of foreign education and credentials and by adopting an integrated approach to labour market training that incorporates language training. Strategic objective F.6. Promote harmonization of work and family responsibilities for women and men

Actions to be taken 179. By Governments: a. Adopt policies to ensure the appropriate protection of labour laws and social security benefits for part-time, temporary, seasonal and home-based workers; promote career development based on work conditions that harmonize work and family responsibilities;

Appendix



b. Ensure that full and part-time work can be freely chosen by women and men on an equal basis, and consider appropriate protection for atypical workers in terms of access to employment, working conditions and social security; c. Ensure, through legislation, incentives and/or encouragement, opportunities for women and men to take job-protected parental leave and to have parental benefits; promote the equal sharing of responsibilities for the family by men and women, including through appropriate legislation, incentives and/or encouragement, and also promote the facilitation of breast-feeding for working mothers; d. Develop policies, inter alia, in education to change attitudes that reinforce the division of labour based on gender in order to promote the concept of shared family responsibility for work in the home, particularly in relation to children and elder care; e. Improve the development of, and access to, technologies that facilitate occupational as well as domestic work, encourage self-support, generate income, transform gender-prescribed roles within the productive process and enable women to move out of low-paying jobs; f. Examine a range of policies and programmes, including social security legislation and taxation systems, in accordance with national priorities and policies, to determine how to promote gender equality and flexibility in the way people divide their time between and derive benefits from education and training, paid employment, family responsibilities, volunteer activity and other socially useful forms of work, rest and leisure. 180. By Governments, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, trade unions and the United Nations, as appropriate: a. Adopt appropriate measures involving relevant governmental bodies and employers’ and employees’ associations so that women and men are able to take temporary leave from employment, have transferable employment and retirement benefits and make arrangements to modify work hours without sacrificing their prospects for development and advancement at work and in their careers; b. Design and provide educational programmes through innovative media campaigns and school and community education programmes to raise awareness on gender equality and non-stereotyped gender roles of women and men within the family; provide support services and facilities, such as on-site child care at workplaces and flexible working arrangements; c. Enact and enforce laws against sexual and other forms of harassment in all workplaces. G. Women in power and decision-making 181. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to take part in the Government of his/her country. The empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of women’s social, economic and political status is essential for the achievement of both transparent and accountable government and administration and sustainable development in all areas of life. The power relations that prevent

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Appendix women from leading fulfilling lives operate at many levels of society, from the most personal to the highly public. Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning. Equality in political decision-making performs a leverage function without which it is highly unlikely that a real integration of the equality dimension in government policy-making is feasible. In this respect, women’s equal participation in political life plays a pivotal role in the general process of the advancement of women. Women’s equal participation in decision-making is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy but can also be seen as a necessary condition for women’s interests to be taken into account. Without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women’s perspective at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace cannot be achieved. 182. Despite the widespread movement towards democratization in most countries, women are largely underrepresented at most levels of government, especially in ministerial and other executive bodies, and have made little progress in attaining political power in legislative bodies or in achieving the target endorsed by the Economic and Social Council of having 30 per cent women in positions at decision-making levels by 1995. Globally, only 10 per cent of the members of legislative bodies and a lower percentage of ministerial positions are now held by women. Indeed, some countries, including those that are undergoing fundamental political, economic and social changes, have seen a significant decrease in the number of women represented in legislative bodies. Although women make up at least half of the electorate in almost all countries and have attained the right to vote and hold office in almost all States Members of the United Nations, women continue to be seriously underrepresented as candidates for public office. The traditional working patterns of many political parties and government structures continue to be barriers to women’s participation in public life. Women may be discouraged from seeking political office by discriminatory attitudes and practices, family and child-care responsibilities, and the high cost of seeking and holding public office. Women in politics and decision-making positions in Governments and legislative bodies contribute to redefining political priorities, placing new items on the political agenda that reflect and address women’s gender-specific concerns, values and experiences, and providing new perspectives on mainstream political issues. 183. Women have demonstrated considerable leadership in community and informal organizations, as well as in public office. However, socialization and negative stereotyping of women and men, including stereotyping through the media, reinforces the tendency for political decision-making to remain the domain of men. Likewise, the underrepresentation of women in decision-making positions in the areas of art, culture, sports, the media, education, religion and the law have prevented women from having a significant impact on many key institutions.



Appendix 184. Owing to their limited access to the traditional avenues to power, such as the decisionmaking bodies of political parties, employer organizations and trade unions, women have gained access to power through alternative structures, particularly in the non-governmental organization sector. Through non-governmental organizations and grass-roots organizations, women have been able to articulate their interests and concerns and have placed women’s issues on the national, regional and international agendas. 185. Inequality in the public arena can often start with discriminatory attitudes and practices and unequal power relations between women and men within the family, as defined in paragraph 29 above. The unequal division of labour and responsibilities within households based on unequal power relations also limits women’s potential to find the time and develop the skills required for participation in decision-making in wider public forums. A more equal sharing of those responsibilities between women and men not only provides a better quality of life for women and their daughters but also enhances their opportunities to shape and design public policy, practice and expenditure so that their interests may be recognized and addressed. Non-formal networks and patterns of decision-making at the local community level that reflect a dominant male ethos restrict women’s ability to participate equally in political, economic and social life. 186. The low proportion of women among economic and political decision makers at the local, national, regional and international levels reflects structural and attitudinal barriers that need to be addressed through positive measures. Governments, transnational and national corporations, the mass media, banks, academic and scientific institutions, and regional and international organizations, including those in the United Nations system, do not make full use of women’s talents as top-level managers, policy makers, diplomats and negotiators. 187. The equitable distribution of power and decision-making at all levels is dependent on Governments and other actors undertaking statistical gender analysis and mainstreaming a gender perspective in policy development and the implementation of programmes. Equality in decision-making is essential to the empowerment of women. In some countries, affirmative action has led to 33.3 per cent or larger representation in local and national Governments. 187. National, regional and international statistical institutions still have insufficient knowledge of how to present the issues related to the equal treatment of women and men in the economic and social spheres. In particular, there is insufficient use of existing databases and methodologies in the important sphere of decision-making. 188. In addressing the inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels, Governments and other actors should promote an active

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Appendix and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes so that before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively. Strategic objective G.1. Take measures to ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making

Actions to be taken 190. By Governments: a. Commit themselves to establishing the goal of gender balance in governmental bodies and committees, as well as in public administrative entities, and in the judiciary, including, inter alia, setting specific targets and implementing measures to substantially increase the number of women with a view to achieving equal representation of women and men, if necessary through positive action, in all governmental and public administration positions; b. Take measures, including, where appropriate, in electoral systems that encourage political parties to integrate women in elective and non-elective public positions in the same proportion and at the same levels as men; c. Protect and promote the equal rights of women and men to engage in political activities and to freedom of association, including membership in political parties and trade unions; d. Review the differential impact of electoral systems on the political representation of women in elected bodies and consider, where appropriate, the adjustment or reform of those systems; e. Monitor and evaluate progress in the representation of women through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative and qualitative data on women and men at all levels in various decision-making positions in the public and private sectors, and disseminate data on the number of women and men employed at various levels in Governments on a yearly basis; ensure that women and men have equal access to the full range of public appointments and set up mechanisms within governmental structures for monitoring progress in this field; f. Support non-governmental organizations and research institutes that conduct studies on women’s participation in and impact on decision-making and the decision-making environment; g. Encourage greater involvement of indigenous women in decision-making at all levels; h. Encourage and, where appropriate, ensure that government-funded organizations adopt non-discriminatory policies and practices in order to increase the number and raise the position of women in their organizations; i. Recognize that shared work and parental responsibilities between women and men promote women’s increased participation in public life, and take appropriate measures to achieve this, including measures to reconcile family and professional life;



Appendix j. Aim at gender balance in the lists of national candidates nominated for election or appointment to United Nations bodies, specialized agencies and other autonomous organizations of the United Nations system, particularly for posts at the senior level. 191. By political parties: a. Consider examining party structures and procedures to remove all barriers that directly or indirectly discriminate against the participation of women; b. Consider developing initiatives that allow women to participate fully in all internal policy-making structures and appointive and electoral nominating processes; c. Consider incorporating gender issues in their political agenda, taking measures to ensure that women can participate in the leadership of political parties on an equal basis with men. 192. By Governments, national bodies, the private sector, political parties, trade unions, employers’ organizations, research and academic institutions, subregional and regional bodies and non-governmental and international organizations: a. Take positive action to build a critical mass of women leaders, executives and managers in strategic decision-making positions; b. Create or strengthen, as appropriate, mechanisms to monitor women’s access to senior levels of decision-making; c. Review the criteria for recruitment and appointment to advisory and decision-making bodies and promotion to senior positions to ensure that such criteria are relevant and do not discriminate against women; d. Encourage efforts by non-governmental organizations, trade unions and the private sector to achieve equality between women and men in their ranks, including equal participation in their decision-making bodies and in negotiations in all areas and at all levels; e. Develop communications strategies to promote public debate on the new roles of men and women in society, and in the family as defined in paragraph 29 above; f. Restructure recruitment and career-development programmes to ensure that all women, especially young women, have equal access to managerial, entrepreneurial, technical and leadership training, including on-the-job training; g. Develop career advancement programmes for women of all ages that include career planning, tracking, mentoring, coaching, training and retraining; h. Encourage and support the participation of women’s non-governmental organizations in United Nations conferences and their preparatory processes; i. Aim at and support gender balance in the composition of delegations to the United Nations and other international forums. 193. By the United Nations: a. Implement existing and adopt new employment policies and measures in order to achieve overall gender equality, particularly at the Professional level and above, by the year 2000, with due regard to the importance of recruiting staff on as wide a geograph-

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Appendix ical basis as possible, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations; b. Develop mechanisms to nominate women candidates for appointment to senior posts in the United Nations, the specialized agencies and other organizations and bodies of the United Nations system; c. Continue to collect and disseminate quantitative and qualitative data on women and men in decision-making and analyse their differential impact on decision-making and monitor progress towards achieving the Secretary-General’s target of having women hold 50 per cent of managerial and decision-making positions by the year 2000. 194. By women’s organizations, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, social partners, producers, and industrial and professional organizations: a. Build and strengthen solidarity among women through information, education and sensitization activities; b. Advocate at all levels to enable women to influence political, economic and social decisions, processes and systems, and work towards seeking accountability from elected representatives on their commitment to gender concerns; c. Establish, consistent with data protection legislation, databases on women and their qualification for use in appointing women to senior decision-making and advisory positions, for dissemination to Governments, regional and international organizations and private enterprise, political parties and other relevant bodies. Strategic objective G.2. Increase women’s capacity to participate in decision-making and leadership

Actions to be taken 195. By Governments, national bodies, the private sector, political parties, trade unions, employers’ organizations, subregional and regional bodies, non-governmental and international organizations and educational institutions: a. Provide leadership and self-esteem training to assist women and girls, particularly those with special needs, women with disabilities and women belonging to racial and ethnic minorities to strengthen their self-esteem and to encourage them to take decision-making positions; b. Have transparent criteria for decision-making positions and ensure that the selecting bodies have a gender-balanced composition; c. Create a system of mentoring for inexperienced women and, in particular, offer training, including training in leadership and decision-making, public speaking and selfassertion, as well as in political campaigning; d. Provide gender-sensitive training for women and men to promote non-discriminatory working relationships and respect for diversity in work and management styles; e. Develop mechanisms and training to encourage women to participate in the electoral process, political activities and other leadership areas.

Appendix



H. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women 196. National machineries for the advancement of women have been established in almost every Member State to, inter alia, design, promote the implementation of, execute, monitor, evaluate, advocate and mobilize support for policies that promote the advancement of women. National machineries are diverse in form and uneven in their effectiveness, and in some cases have declined. Often marginalized in national government structures, these mechanisms are frequently hampered by unclear mandates, lack of adequate staff, training, data and sufficient resources, and insufficient support from national political leadership. 197. At the regional and international levels, mechanisms and institutions to promote the advancement of women as an integral part of mainstream political, economic, social and cultural development, and of initiatives on development and human rights, encounter similar problems emanating from a lack of commitment at the highest levels. 198. Successive international conferences have underscored the need to take gender factors into account in policy and programme planning. However, in many instances this has not been done. 199. Regional bodies concerned with the advancement of women have been strengthened, together with international machinery, such as the Commission on the Status of Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. However, the limited resources available continue to impede full implementation of their mandates. 200. Methodologies for conducting gender-based analysis in policies and programmes and for dealing with the differential effects of policies on women and men have been developed in many organizations and are available for application but are often not being applied or are not being applied consistently. 201. A national machinery for the advancement of women is the central policy-coordinating unit inside government. Its main task is to support government-wide mainstreaming of a gender-equality perspective in all policy areas. The necessary conditions for an effective functioning of such national machineries from the grass-roots upwards; a. Location at the highest possible level in the Government, falling under the responsibility of a Cabinet minister; b. Institutional mechanisms or processes that facilitate, as appropriate, decentralized planning, implementation and monitoring with a view to involving non-governmental organizations and community organizations from the grass-roots upwards; c. Sufficient resources in terms of budget and professional capacity; d. Opportunity to influence development of all government policies.

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Appendix 202. In addressing the issue of mechanisms for promoting the advancement of women, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes so that, before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively. Strategic objective H.1. Create or strengthen national machineries and other governmental bodies

Actions to be taken 203. By Governments: a. Ensure that responsibility for the advancement of women is vested in the highest possible level of government; in many cases, this could be at the level of a Cabinet minister; b. Based on a strong political commitment, create a national machinery, where it does not exist, and strengthen, as appropriate, existing national machineries, for the advancement of women at the highest possible level of government; it should have clearly defined mandates and authority; critical elements would be adequate resources and the ability and competence to influence policy and formulate and review legislation; among other things, it should perform policy analysis, undertake advocacy, communication, coordination and monitoring of implementation; c. Provide staff training in designing and analysing data from a gender perspective; d. Establish procedures to allow the machinery to gather information on governmentwide policy issues at an early stage and continuously use it in the policy development and review process within the Government; e. Report, on a regular basis, to legislative bodies on the progress of efforts, as appropriate, to mainstream gender concerns, taking into account the implementation of the Platform for Action; f. Encourage and promote the active involvement of the broad and diverse range of institutional actors in the public, private and voluntary sectors to work for equality between women and men. Strategic objective H.2. Integrate gender perspectives in legislation, public policies, programmes and projects Actions to be taken 204. By Governments: a. Seek to ensure that before policy decisions are taken, an analysis of their impact on women and men, respectively, is carried out; b. Regularly review national policies, programmes and projects, as well as their implementation, evaluating the impact of employment and income policies in order to guarantee that women are direct beneficiaries of development and that their full contribution to development, both remunerated and unremunerated, is considered in economic policy and planning;



Appendix c. Promote national strategies and aims on equality between women and men in order to eliminate obstacles to the exercise of women’s rights and eradicate all forms of discrimination against women; d. Work with members of legislative bodies, as appropriate, to promote a gender perspective in all legislation and policies; e. Give all ministries the mandate to review policies and programmes from a gender perspective and in the light of the Platform for Action; locate the responsibility for the implementation of that mandate at the highest possible level; establish and/or strengthen an inter-ministerial coordination structure to carry out this mandate, to monitor progress and to network with relevant machineries. 205. By national machinery: a. Facilitate the formulation and implementation of government policies on equality between women and men, develop appropriate strategies and methodologies, and promote coordination and cooperation within the central Government in order to ensure mainstreaming of a gender perspective in all policy-making processes; b. Promote and establish cooperative relationships with relevant branches of government, centres for women’s studies and research, academic and educational institutions, the private sector, the media, non-governmental organizations, especially women’s organizations, and all other actors of civil society; c. Undertake activities focusing on legal reform with regard, inter alia, to the family, conditions of employment, social security, income tax, equal opportunity in education, positive measures to promote the advancement of women, and the perception of attitudes and a culture favourable to equality, as well as promote a gender perspective in legal policy and programming reforms; d. Promote the increased participation of women as both active agents and beneficiaries of the development process, which would result in an improvement in the quality of life for all; e. Establish direct links with national, regional and international bodies dealing with the advancement of women; f. Provide training and advisory assistance to government agencies in order to integrate a gender perspective in their policies and programmes.

Strategic objective H.3. Generate and disseminate genderdisaggregated data and information for planning and evaluation Actions to be taken 206. By national, regional and international statistical services and relevant governmental and United Nations agencies, in cooperation with research and documentation organizations, in their respective areas of responsibility:

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Appendix a. Ensure that statistics related to individuals are collected, compiled, analysed and presented by sex and age and reflect problems, issues and questions related to women and men in society; b. Collect, compile, analyse and present on a regular basis data disaggregated by age, sex, socio-economic and other relevant indicators, including number of dependants, for utilization in policy and programme planning and implementation; c. Involve centres for women’s studies and research organizations in developing and testing appropriate indicators and research methodologies to strengthen gender analysis, as well as in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the goals of the Platform for Action; d. Designate or appoint staff to strengthen gender-statistics programmes and ensure coordination, monitoring and linkage to all fields of statistical work, and prepare output that integrates statistics from the various subject areas; e. Improve data collection on the full contribution of women and men to the economy, including their participation in the informal sector(s); f. Develop a more comprehensive knowledge of all forms of work and employment by: i. Improving data collection on the unremunerated work which is already included in the United Nations System of National Accounts, such as in agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture, and other types of non-market production activities; ii. Improving measurements that at present underestimate women’s unemployment and underemployment in the labour market; iii. Developing methods, in the appropriate forums, for assessing the value, in quantitative terms, of unremunerated work that is outside national accounts, such as caring for dependants and preparing food, for possible reflection in satellite or other official accounts that may be produced separately from but are consistent with core national accounts, with a view to recognizing the economic contribution of women and making visible the unequal distribution of remunerated and unremunerated work between women and men; g. Develop an international classification of activities for time-use statistics that is sensitive to the differences between women and men in remunerated and unremunerated work, and collect data disaggregated by sex. At the national level, subject to national constraints: i. Conduct regular time-use studies to measure, in quantitative terms, unremunerated work, including recording those activities that are performed simultaneously with remunerated or other unremunerated activities; ii. Measure, in quantitative terms, unremunerated work that is outside national accounts and work to improve methods to assess its value, and accurately reflect its value in satellite or other official accounts that are separate from but consistent with core national accounts; h. Improve concepts and methods of data collection on the measurement of poverty among women and men, including their access to resources;



Appendix i. Strengthen vital statistical systems and incorporate gender analysis into publications and research; give priority to gender differences in research design and in data collection and analysis in order to improve data on morbidity; and improve data collection on access to health services, including access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, maternal care and family planning, with special priority for adolescent mothers and for elder care; j. Develop improved gender-disaggregated and age-specific data on the victims and perpetrators of all forms of violence against women, such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, incest and sexual abuse, and trafficking in women and girls, as well as on violence by agents of the State; k. Improve concepts and methods of data collection on the participation of women and men with disabilities, including their access to resources. 207. By Governments: a. Ensure the regular production of a statistical publication on gender that presents and interprets topical data on women and men in a form suitable for a wide range of nontechnical users; b. Ensure that producers and users of statistics in each country regularly review the adequacy of the official statistical system and its coverage of gender issues, and prepare a plan for needed improvements, where necessary; c. Develop and encourage the development of quantitative and qualitative studies by research organizations, trade unions, employers, the private sector and non-governmental organizations on the sharing of power and influence in society, including the number of women and men in senior decision-making positions in both the public and private sectors; d. Use more gender-sensitive data in the formulation of policy and implementation of programmes and projects. 208. By the United Nations: a. Promote the development of methods to find better ways to collect, collate and analyse data that may relate to the human rights of women, including violence against women, for use by all relevant United Nations bodies; b. Promote the further development of statistical methods to improve data that relate to women in economic, social, cultural and political development; c. Prepare a new issue of The World’s Women at regular five-year intervals and distribute it widely; d. Assist countries, upon request, in the development of gender policies and programmes; e. Ensure that the relevant reports, data and publications of the Statistical Division of the United Nations Secretariat and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women on progress at the national and international levels are transmitted to the Commission on the Status of Women in a regular and coordinated fashion.

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Appendix 209. By multilateral development institutions and bilateral donors: Encourage and support the development of national capacity in developing countries and in countries with economies in transition by providing resources and technical assistance so that countries can fully measure the work done by women and men, including both remunerated and unremunerated work, and, where appropriate, use satellite or other official accounts for unremunerated work. I. Human rights of women 210. Human rights and fundamental freedoms are the birthright of all human beings; their protection and promotion is the first responsibility of Governments. 211. The World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed the solemn commitment of all States to fulfil their obligation to promote universal respect for, and observance and protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, other instruments relating to human rights, and international law. The universal nature of these rights and freedoms is beyond question. 212. The promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms must be considered as a priority objective of the United Nations, in accordance with its purposes and principles, in particular with the purpose of international cooperation. In the framework of these purposes and principles, the promotion and protection of all human rights is a legitimate concern of the international community. The international community must treat human rights globally, in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis. The Platform for Action reaffirms the importance of ensuring the universality, objectivity and non-selectivity of the consideration of human rights issues. 213. The Platform for Action reaffirms that all human rights -civil, cultural, economic, political and social, including the right to development -are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, as expressed in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights. The Conference reaffirmed that the human rights of women and the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by women and girls is a priority for Governments and the United Nations and is essential for the advancement of women. 214. Equal rights of men and women are explicitly mentioned in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations. All the major international human rights instruments include sex as one of the grounds upon which States may not discriminate. 215. Governments must not only refrain from violating the human rights of all women, but must work actively to promote and protect these rights. Recognition of the importance



Appendix of the human rights of women is reflected in the fact that three quarters of the States Members of the United Nations have become parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. 216. The World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed clearly that the human rights of women throughout the life cycle are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. The International Conference on Population and Development reaffirmed women’s reproductive rights and the right to development. Both the Declaration of the Rights of the Child31 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child11 guarantee children’s rights and uphold the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of gender. 217. The gap between the existence of rights and their effective enjoyment derives from a lack of commitment by Governments to promoting and protecting those rights and the failure of Governments to inform women and men alike about them. The lack of appropriate recourse mechanisms at the national and international levels, and inadequate resources at both levels, compound the problem. In most countries, steps have been taken to reflect the rights guaranteed by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in national law. A number of countries have established mechanisms to strengthen women’s ability to exercise their rights. 218. In order to protect the human rights of women, it is necessary to avoid, as far as possible, resorting to reservations and to ensure that no reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or is otherwise incompatible with international treaty law. Unless the human rights of women, as defined by international human rights instruments, are fully recognized and effectively protected, applied, implemented and enforced in national law as well as in national practice in family, civil, penal, labour and commercial codes and administrative rules and regulations, they will exist in name only. 219. In those countries that have not yet become parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human rights instruments, or where reservations that are incompatible with the object or purpose of the Convention have been entered, or where national laws have not yet been revised to implement international norms and standards, women’s de jure equality is not yet secured. Women’s full enjoyment of equal rights is undermined by the discrepancies between some national legislation and international law and international instruments on human rights. Overly complex administrative procedures, lack of awareness within the judicial process and inadequate monitoring of the violation of the human rights of all women, coupled with the underrepresentation of women in justice systems, insufficient information on existing rights and persistent attitudes and practices perpetuate women’s de facto inequality. De facto inequality is also perpetuated by the lack of enforcement of, inter alia, family, civil, penal, labour and commercial laws or codes, or administrative

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Appendix rules and regulations intended to ensure women’s full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. 220. Every person should be entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy cultural, economic, political and social development. In many cases women and girls suffer discrimination in the allocation of economic and social resources. This directly violates their economic, social and cultural rights. 221. The human rights of all women and the girl child must form an integral part of United Nations human rights activities. Intensified efforts are needed to integrate the equal status and the human rights of all women and girls into the mainstream of United Nations system-wide activities and to address these issues regularly and systematically throughout relevant bodies and mechanisms. This requires, inter alia, improved cooperation and coordination between the Commission on the Status of Women, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Commission on Human Rights, including its special and thematic rapporteurs, independent experts, working groups and its Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Commission for Social Development, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other human rights treaty bodies, and all relevant entities of the United Nations system, including the specialized agencies. Cooperation is also needed to strengthen, rationalize and streamline the United Nations human rights system and to promote its effectiveness and efficiency, taking into account the need to avoid unnecessary duplication and overlapping of mandates and tasks. 222. If the goal of full realization of human rights for all is to be achieved, international human rights instruments must be applied in such a way as to take more clearly into consideration the systematic and systemic nature of discrimination against women that gender analysis has clearly indicated. 223. Bearing in mind the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development14 and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action2 adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, the Fourth World Conference on Women reaffirms that reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. It also includes their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents. 224. Violence against women both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment by women of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Taking into account the Declaration on



Appendix the Elimination of Violence against Women and the work of Special Rapporteurs, gender-based violence, such as battering and other domestic violence, sexual abuse, sexual slavery and exploitation, and international trafficking in women and children, forced prostitution and sexual harassment, as well as violence against women, resulting from cultural prejudice, racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia, pornography, ethnic cleansing, armed conflict, foreign occupation, religious and anti-religious extremism and terrorism are incompatible with the dignity and the worth of the human person and must be combated and eliminated. Any harmful aspect of certain traditional, customary or modern practices that violates the rights of women should be prohibited and eliminated. Governments should take urgent action to combat and eliminate all forms of violence against women in private and public life, whether perpetrated or tolerated by the State or private persons. 225. Many women face additional barriers to the enjoyment of their human rights because of such factors as their race, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability or socio-economic class or because they are indigenous people, migrants, including women migrant workers, displaced women or refugees. They may also be disadvantaged and marginalized by a general lack of knowledge and recognition of their human rights as well as by the obstacles they meet in gaining access to information and recourse mechanisms in cases of violation of their rights. 226. The factors that cause the flight of refugee women, other displaced women in need of international protection and internally displaced women may be different from those affecting men. These women continue to be vulnerable to abuses of their human rights during and after their flight. 227. While women are increasingly using the legal system to exercise their rights, in many countries lack of awareness of the existence of these rights is an obstacle that prevents women from fully enjoying their human rights and attaining equality. Experience in many countries has shown that women can be empowered and motivated to assert their rights, regardless of their level of education or socio-economic status. Legal literacy programmes and media strategies have been effective in helping women to understand the link between their rights and other aspects of their lives and in demonstrating that costeffective initiatives can be undertaken to help women obtain those rights. Provision of human rights education is essential for promoting an understanding of the human rights of women, including knowledge of recourse mechanisms to redress violations of their rights. It is necessary for all individuals, especially women in vulnerable circumstances, to have full knowledge of their rights and access to legal recourse against violations of their rights. 228. Women engaged in the defence of human rights must be protected. Governments have a duty to guarantee the full enjoyment of all rights set out in the Universal Declara-

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Appendix tion of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by women working peacefully in a personal or organizational capacity for the promotion and protection of human rights. Non-governmental organizations, women’s organizations and feminist groups have played a catalytic role in the promotion of the human rights of women through grass-roots activities, networking and advocacy and need encouragement, support and access to information from Governments in order to carry out these activities. 229. In addressing the enjoyment of human rights, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes so that, before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively. Strategic objective I.1. Promote and protect the human rights of women, through the full implementation of all human rights instruments, especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Actions to be taken 230. By Governments: a. Work actively towards ratification of or accession to and implement international and regional human rights treaties; b. Ratify and accede to and ensure implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women so that universal ratification of the Convention can be achieved by the year 2000; c. Limit the extent of any reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; formulate any such reservations as precisely and as narrowly as possible; ensure that no reservations are incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention or otherwise incompatible with international treaty law and regularly review them with a view to withdrawing them; and withdraw reservations that are contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women or which are otherwise incompatible with international treaty law; d. Consider drawing up national action plans identifying steps to improve the promotion and protection of human rights, including the human rights of women, as recommended by the World Conference on Human Rights; e. Create or strengthen independent national institutions for the protection and promotion of these rights, including the human rights of women, as recommended by the World Conference on Human Rights; f. Develop a comprehensive human rights education programme to raise awareness among women of their human rights and raise awareness among others of the human rights of women;



Appendix g. If they are States parties, implement the Convention by reviewing all national laws, policies, practices and procedures to ensure that they meet the obligations set out in the Convention; all States should undertake a review of all national laws, policies, practices and procedures to ensure that they meet international human rights obligations in this matter; h. Include gender aspects in reporting under all other human rights conventions and instruments, including ILO conventions, to ensure analysis and review of the human rights of women; i. Report on schedule to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women regarding the implementation of the Convention, following fully the guidelines established by the Committee and involving non-governmental organizations, where appropriate, or taking into account their contributions in the preparation of the report; j. Enable the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women fully to discharge its mandate by allowing for adequate meeting time through broad ratification of the revision adopted by the States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 22 May 1995 relative to article 20, paragraph 1,32 and by promoting efficient working methods; k. Support the process initiated by the Commission on the Status of Women with a view to elaborating a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women that could enter into force as soon as possible on a right of petition procedure, taking into consideration the Secretary-General’s report on the optional protocol, including those views related to its feasibility; l. Take urgent measures to achieve universal ratification of or accession to the Convention on the Rights of the Child before the end of 1995 and full implementation of the Convention in order to ensure equal rights for girls and boys; those that have not already done so are urged to become parties in order to realize universal implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the year 2000; m. Address the acute problems of children, inter alia, by supporting efforts in the context of the United Nations system aimed at adopting efficient international measures for the prevention and eradication of female infanticide, harmful child labour, the sale of children and their organs, child prostitution, child pornography and other forms of sexual abuse and consider contributing to the drafting of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child; n. Strengthen the implementation of all relevant human rights instruments in order to combat and eliminate, including through international cooperation, organized and other forms of trafficking in women and children, including trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, pornography, prostitution and sex tourism, and provide legal and social services to the victims; this should include provisions for international cooperation to prosecute and punish those responsible for organized exploitation of women and children;

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Appendix o. Taking into account the need to ensure full respect for the human rights of indigenous women, consider a declaration on the rights of indigenous people for adoption by the General Assembly within the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People and encourage the participation of indigenous women in the working group elaborating the draft declaration, in accordance with the provisions for the participation of organizations of indigenous people. 231. By relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the United Nations system, all human rights bodies of the United Nations system, as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, while promoting greater efficiency and effectiveness through better coordination of the various bodies, mechanisms and procedures, taking into account the need to avoid unnecessary duplication and overlapping of their mandates and tasks: a. Give full, equal and sustained attention to the human rights of women in the exercise of their respective mandates to promote universal respect for and protection of all human rights -civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, including the right to development; b. Ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the World Conference on Human Rights for the full integration and mainstreaming of the human rights of women; c. Develop a comprehensive policy programme for mainstreaming the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system, including activities with regard to advisory services, technical assistance, reporting methodology, gender-impact assessments, coordination, public information and human rights education, and play an active role in the implementation of the programme; d. Ensure the integration and full participation of women as both agents and beneficiaries in the development process and reiterate the objectives established for global action for women towards sustainable and equitable development set forth in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development;18 e. Include information on gender-based human rights violations in their activities and integrate the findings into all of their programmes and activities; f. Ensure that there is collaboration and coordination of the work of all human rights bodies and mechanisms to ensure that the human rights of women are respected; g. Strengthen cooperation and coordination between the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission for Social Development, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the United Nations human rights treaty monitoring bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other organizations of the United Nations system, acting within their mandates, in the promotion of the human



Appendix rights of women, and improve cooperation between the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Centre for Human Rights; h. Establish effective cooperation between the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other relevant bodies, within their respective mandates, taking into account the close link between massive violations of human rights, especially in the form of genocide, ethnic cleansing, systematic rape of women in war situations and refugee flows and other displacements, and the fact that refugee, displaced and returnee women may be subject to particular human rights abuse; i. Encourage incorporation of a gender perspective in national programmes of action and in human rights and national institutions, within the context of human rights advisory services programmes; j. Provide training in the human rights of women for all United Nations personnel and officials, especially those in human rights and humanitarian relief activities, and promote their understanding of the human rights of women so that they recognize and deal with violations of the human rights of women and can fully take into account the gender aspect of their work; k. In reviewing the implementation of the plan of action for the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004), take into account the results of the Fourth World Conference on Women. Strategic objective I.2. Ensure equality and non-discrimination under the law and in practice Actions to be taken 232. By Governments: a. Give priority to promoting and protecting the full and equal enjoyment by women and men of all human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origins, property, birth or other status; b. Provide constitutional guarantees and/or enact appropriate legislation to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex for all women and girls of all ages and assure women of all ages equal rights and their full enjoyment; c. Embody the principle of the equality of men and women in their legislation and ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle; d. Review national laws, including customary laws and legal practices in the areas of family, civil, penal, labour and commercial law in order to ensure the implementation of the principles and procedures of all relevant international human rights instruments by means of national legislation, revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex and remove gender bias in the administration of justice; e. Strengthen and encourage the development of programmes to protect the human rights of women in the national institutions on human rights that carry out pro-

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Appendix grammes, such as human rights commissions or ombudspersons, according them appropriate status, resources and access to the Government to assist individuals, in particular women, and ensure that these institutions pay adequate attention to problems involving the violation of the human rights of women; f. Take action to ensure that the human rights of women, including the rights referred to in paragraphs 94 to 96 above, are fully respected and protected; g. Take urgent action to combat and eliminate violence against women, which is a human rights violation, resulting from harmful traditional or customary practices, cultural prejudices and extremism; h. Prohibit female genital mutilation wherever it exists and give vigorous support to efforts among non-governmental and community organizations and religious institutions to eliminate such practices; i. Provide gender-sensitive human rights education and training to public officials, including, inter alia, police and military personnel, corrections officers, health and medical personnel, and social workers, including people who deal with migration and refugee issues, and teachers at all levels of the educational system, and make available such education and training also to the judiciary and members of parliament in order to enable them to better exercise their public responsibilities; j. Promote the equal right of women to be members of trade unions and other professional and social organizations; k. Establish effective mechanisms for investigating violations of the human rights of women perpetrated by any public official and take the necessary punitive legal measures in accordance with national laws; l. Review and amend criminal laws and procedures, as necessary, to eliminate any discrimination against women in order to ensure that criminal law and procedures guarantee women effective protection against, and prosecution of, crimes directed at or disproportionately affecting women, regardless of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, and ensure that women defendants, victims and/or witnesses are not revictimized or discriminated against in the investigation and prosecution of crimes; m. Ensure that women have the same right as men to be judges, advocates or other officers of the court, as well as police officers and prison and detention officers, among other things; n. Strengthen existing or establish readily available and free or affordable alternative administrative mechanisms and legal aid programmes to assist disadvantaged women seeking redress for violations of their rights; o. Ensure that all women and non-governmental organizations and their members in the field of protection and promotion of all human rights civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, including the right to development -enjoy fully all human rights and freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all other human rights instruments and the protection of national laws; p. Strengthen and encourage the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabili-

Appendix



ties,30 paying special attention to ensure non-discrimination and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by women and girls with disabilities, including their access to information and services in the field of violence against women, as well as their active participation in and economic contribution to all aspects of society; q. Encourage the development of gender-sensitive human rights programmes. Strategic objective I.3. Achieve legal literacy Actions to be taken 233. By Governments and non-governmental organizations, the United Nations and other international organizations, as appropriate: a. Translate, whenever possible, into local and indigenous languages and into alternative formats appropriate for persons with disabilities and persons at lower levels of literacy, publicize and disseminate laws and information relating to the equal status and human rights of all women, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,33 the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Declaration on the Right to Development34 and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, as well as the outcomes of relevant United Nations conferences and summits and national reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; b. Publicize and disseminate such information in easily understandable formats and alternative formats appropriate for persons with disabilities, and persons at low levels of literacy; c. Disseminate information on national legislation and its impact on women, including easily accessible guidelines on how to use a justice system to exercise one’s rights; d. Include information about international and regional instruments and standards in their public information and human rights education activities and in adult education and training programmes, particularly for groups such as the military, the police and other law enforcement personnel, the judiciary, and legal and health professionals to ensure that human rights are effectively protected; e. Make widely available and fully publicize information on the existence of national, regional and international mechanisms for seeking redress when the human rights of women are violated; f. Encourage, coordinate and cooperate with local and regional women’s groups, relevant non-governmental organizations, educators and the media, to implement programmes in human rights education to make women aware of their human rights;

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Appendix g. Promote education on the human and legal rights of women in school curricula at all levels of education and undertake public campaigns, including in the most widely used languages of the country, on the equality of women and men in public and private life, including their rights within the family and relevant human rights instruments under national and international law; h. Promote education in all countries in human rights and international humanitarian law for members of the national security and armed forces, including those assigned to United Nations peace-keeping operations, on a routine and continuing basis, reminding them and sensitizing them to the fact that they should respect the rights of women at all times, both on and off duty, giving special attention to the rules on the protection of women and children and to the protection of human rights in situations of armed conflict; i. Take appropriate measures to ensure that refugee and displaced women, migrant women and women migrant workers are made aware of their human rights and of the recourse mechanisms available to them. J. Women and the media 234. During the past decade, advances in information technology have facilitated a global communications network that transcends national boundaries and has an impact on public policy, private attitudes and behaviour, especially of children and young adults. Everywhere the potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution to the advancement of women. 235. More women are involved in careers in the communications sector, but few have attained positions at the decision-making level or serve on governing boards and bodies that influence media policy. The lack of gender sensitivity in the media is evidenced by the failure to eliminate the gender-based stereotyping that can be found in public and private local, national and international media organizations. 236. The continued projection of negative and degrading images of women in media communications -electronic, print, visual and audio -must be changed. Print and electronic media in most countries do not provide a balanced picture of women’s diverse lives and contributions to society in a changing world. In addition, violent and degrading or pornographic media products are also negatively affecting women and their participation in society. Programming that reinforces women’s traditional roles can be equally limiting. The world-wide trend towards consumerism has created a climate in which advertisements and commercial messages often portray women primarily as consumers and target girls and women of all ages inappropriately. 237. Women should be empowered by enhancing their skills, knowledge and access to information technology. This will strengthen their ability to combat negative portrayals of women internationally and to challenge instances of abuse of the power of an increas-



Appendix ingly important industry. Self-regulatory mechanisms for the media need to be created and strengthened and approaches developed to eliminate gender-biased programming. Most women, especially in developing countries, are not able to access effectively the expanding electronic information highways and therefore cannot establish networks that will provide them with alternative sources of information. Women therefore need to be involved in decision-making regarding the development of the new technologies in order to participate fully in their growth and impact. 238. In addressing the issue of the mobilization of the media, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in policies and programmes. Strategic objective J.1. Increase the participation and access of women to expression and decisionmaking in and through the media and new technologies of communication Actions to be taken 239. By Governments: a. Support women’s education, training and employment to promote and ensure women’s equal access to all areas and levels of the media; b. Support research into all aspects of women and the media so as to define areas needing attention and action and review existing media policies with a view to integrating a gender perspective; c. Promote women’s full and equal participation in the media, including management, programming, education, training and research; d. Aim at gender balance in the appointment of women and men to all advisory, management, regulatory or monitoring bodies, including those connected to the private and State or public media; e. Encourage, to the extent consistent with freedom of expression, these bodies to increase the number of programmes for and by women to see to it that women’s needs and concerns are properly addressed; f. Encourage and recognize women’s media networks, including electronic networks and other new technologies of communication, as a means for the dissemination of information and the exchange of views, including at the international level, and support women’s groups active in all media work and systems of communications to that end; g. Encourage and provide the means or incentives for the creative use of programmes in the national media for the dissemination of information on various cultural forms of indigenous people and the development of social and educational issues in this regard within the framework of national law; h. Guarantee the freedom of the media and its subsequent protection within the framework of national law and encourage, consistent with freedom of expression, the positive involvement of the media in development and social issues.

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Appendix 240. By national and international media systems: Develop, consistent with freedom of expression, regulatory mechanisms, including voluntary ones, that promote balanced and diverse portrayals of women by the media and international communication systems and that promote increased participation by women and men in production and decision-making. 241. By Governments, as appropriate, or national machinery for the advancement of women: a. Encourage the development of educational and training programmes for women in order to produce information for the mass media, including funding of experimental efforts, and the use of the new technologies of communication, cybernetics space and satellite, whether public or private; b. Encourage the use of communication systems, including new technologies, as a means of strengthening women’s participation in democratic processes; c. Facilitate the compilation of a directory of women media experts; d. Encourage the participation of women in the development of professional guidelines and codes of conduct or other appropriate self-regulatory mechanisms to promote balanced and non-stereotyped portrayals of women by the media. 242. By non-governmental organizations and media professional associations: a. Encourage the establishment of media watch groups that can monitor the media and consult with the media to ensure that women’s needs and concerns are properly reflected; b. Train women to make greater use of information technology for communication and the media, including at the international level; c. Create networks among and develop information programmes for non-governmental organizations, women’s organizations and professional media organizations in order to recognize the specific needs of women in the media, and facilitate the increased participation of women in communication, in particular at the international level, in support of South-South and North-South dialogue among and between these organizations, inter alia, to promote the human rights of women and equality between women and men; d. Encourage the media industry and education and media training institutions to develop, in appropriate languages, traditional, indigenous and other ethnic forms of media, such as story-telling, drama, poetry and song, reflecting their cultures, and utilize these forms of communication to disseminate information on development and social issues. Strategic objective J.2. Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media

Actions to be taken 243. By Governments and international organizations, to the extent consistent with freedom of expression:



Appendix a. Promote research and implementation of a strategy of information, education and communication aimed at promoting a balanced portrayal of women and girls and their multiple roles; b. Encourage the media and advertising agencies to develop specific programmes to raise awareness of the Platform for Action; c. Encourage gender-sensitive training for media professionals, including media owners and managers, to encourage the creation and use of non-stereotyped, balanced and diverse images of women in the media; d. Encourage the media to refrain from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting them as sexual objects and commodities, rather than presenting them as creative human beings, key actors and contributors to and beneficiaries of the process of development; e. Promote the concept that the sexist stereotypes displayed in the media are gender discriminatory, degrading in nature and offensive; f. Take effective measures or institute such measures, including appropriate legislation against pornography and the projection of violence against women and children in the media. 244. By the mass media and advertising organizations: a. Develop, consistent with freedom of expression, professional guidelines and codes of conduct and other forms of self-regulation to promote the presentation of non-stereotyped images of women; b. Establish, consistent with freedom of expression, professional guidelines and codes of conduct that address violent, degrading or pornographic materials concerning women in the media, including advertising; c. Develop a gender perspective on all issues of concern to communities, consumers and civil society; d. Increase women’s participation in decision-making at all levels of the media. 245. By the media, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, in collaboration, as appropriate, with national machinery for the advancement of women: a. Promote the equal sharing of family responsibilities through media campaigns that emphasize gender equality and non-stereotyped gender roles of women and men within the family and that disseminate information aimed at eliminating spousal and child abuse and all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence; b. Produce and/or disseminate media materials on women leaders, inter alia, as leaders who bring to their positions of leadership many different life experiences, including but not limited to their experiences in balancing work and family responsibilities, as mothers, as professionals, as managers and as entrepreneurs, to provide role models, particularly to young women; c. Promote extensive campaigns, making use of public and private educational programmes, to disseminate information about and increase awareness of the human rights of women;

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Appendix d. Support the development of and finance, as appropriate, alternative media and the use of all means of communication to disseminate information to and about women and their concerns; e. Develop approaches and train experts to apply gender analysis with regard to media programmes. K. Women and the environment 246. Human beings are at the centre of concern for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature. Women have an essential role to play in the development of sustainable and ecologically sound consumption and production patterns and approaches to natural resource management, as was recognized at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the International Conference on Population and Development and reflected throughout Agenda 21. Awareness of resource depletion, the degradation of natural systems and the dangers of polluting substances has increased markedly in the past decade. These worsening conditions are destroying fragile ecosystems and displacing communities, especially women, from productive activities and are an increasing threat to a safe and healthy environment. Poverty and environmental degradation are closely interrelated. While poverty results in certain kinds of environmental stress, the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries, which is a matter of grave concern, aggravating poverty and imbalances. Rising sealevels as a result of global warming cause a grave and immediate threat to people living in island countries and coastal areas. The use of ozone-depleting substances, such as products with chlorofluorocarbons, halons and methyl bromides (from which plastics and foams are made), are severely affecting the atmosphere, thus allowing excessive levels of harmful ultraviolet rays to reach the Earth’s surface. This has severe effects on people’s health such as higher rates of skin cancer, eye damage and weakened immune systems. It also has severe effects on the environment, including harm to crops and ocean life. 247. All States and all people shall cooperate in the essential task of eradicating poverty as an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, in order to decrease the disparities in standards of living and better meet the needs of the majority of the people of the world. Hurricanes, typhoons and other natural disasters and, in addition, the destruction of resources, violence, displacements and other effects associated with war, armed and other conflicts, the use and testing of nuclear weaponry, and foreign occupation can also contribute to environmental degradation. The deterioration of natural resources displaces communities, especially women, from income-generating activities while greatly adding to unremunerated work. In both urban and rural areas, environmental degradation results in negative effects on the health, well-being and quality of life of the population at large, especially girls and women of all ages. Particular attention and recognition



Appendix should be given to the role and special situation of women living in rural areas and those working in the agricultural sector, where access to training, land, natural and productive resources, credit, development programmes and cooperative structures can help them increase their participation in sustainable development. Environmental risks in the home and workplace may have a disproportionate impact on women’s health because of women’s different susceptibilities to the toxic effects of various chemicals. These risks to women’s health are particularly high in urban areas, as well as in low-income areas where there is a high concentration of polluting industrial facilities. 248. Through their management and use of natural resources, women provide sustenance to their families and communities. As consumers and producers, caretakers of their families and educators, women play an important role in promoting sustainable development through their concern for the quality and sustainability of life for present and future generations. Governments have expressed their commitment to creating a new development paradigm that integrates environmental sustainability with gender equality and justice within and between generations as contained in chapter 24 of Agenda 21.19 249. Women remain largely absent at all levels of policy formulation and decision-making in natural resource and environmental management, conservation, protection and rehabilitation, and their experience and skills in advocacy for and monitoring of proper natural resource management too often remain marginalized in policy-making and decisionmaking bodies, as well as in educational institutions and environment-related agencies at the managerial level. Women are rarely trained as professional natural resource managers with policy-making capacities, such as land-use planners, agriculturalists, foresters, marine scientists and environmental lawyers. Even in cases where women are trained as professional natural resource managers, they are often underrepresented in formal institutions with policy-making capacities at the national, regional and international levels. Often women are not equal participants in the management of financial and corporate institutions whose decision-making most significantly affects environmental quality. Furthermore, there are institutional weaknesses in coordination between women’s nongovernmental organizations and national institutions dealing with environmental issues, despite the recent rapid growth and visibility of women’s non-governmental organizations working on these issues at all levels. 250. Women have often played leadership roles or taken the lead in promoting an environmental ethic, reducing resource use, and reusing and recycling resources to minimize waste and excessive consumption. Women can have a particularly powerful role in influencing sustainable consumption decisions. In addition, women’s contributions to environmental management, including through grass-roots and youth campaigns to protect the environment, have often taken place at the local level, where decentralized action on environmental issues is most needed and decisive. Women, especially indigenous women, have particular knowledge of ecological linkages and fragile ecosystem man-

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Appendix agement. Women in many communities provide the main labour force for subsistence production, including production of seafood; hence, their role is crucial to the provision of food and nutrition, the enhancement of the subsistence and informal sectors and the preservation of the environment. In certain regions, women are generally the most stable members of the community, as men often pursue work in distant locations, leaving women to safeguard the natural environment and ensure adequate and sustainable resource allocation within the household and the community. 251. The strategic actions needed for sound environmental management require a holistic, multidisciplinary and intersectoral approach. Women’s participation and leadership are essential to every aspect of that approach. The recent United Nations global conferences on development, as well as regional preparatory conferences for the Fourth World Conference on Women, have all acknowledged that sustainable development policies that do not involve women and men alike will not succeed in the long run. They have called for the effective participation of women in the generation of knowledge and environmental education in decision-making and management at all levels. Women’s experiences and contributions to an ecologically sound environment must therefore be central to the agenda for the twenty-first century. Sustainable development will be an elusive goal unless women’s contribution to environmental management is recognized and supported. 252. In addressing the lack of adequate recognition and support for women’s contribution to conservation and management of natural resources and safeguarding the environment, Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes, including, as appropriate, an analysis of the effects on women and men, respectively, before decisions are taken. Strategic objective K.1. Involve women actively in environmental decision-making at all levels

Actions to be taken 253. By Governments, at all levels, including municipal authorities, as appropriate: a. Ensure opportunities for women, including indigenous women, to participate in environmental decision-making at all levels, including as managers, designers and planners, and as implementers and evaluators of environmental projects; b. Facilitate and increase women’s access to information and education, including in the areas of science, technology and economics, thus enhancing their knowledge, skills and opportunities for participation in environmental decisions; c. Encourage, subject to national legislation and consistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity,35 the effective protection and use of the knowledge, innovations and practices of women of indigenous and local communities, including practices relating



Appendix to traditional medicines, biodiversity and indigenous technologies, and endeavour to ensure that these are respected, maintained, promoted and preserved in an ecologically sustainable manner, and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge; in addition, safeguard the existing intellectual property rights of these women as protected under national and international law; work actively, where necessary, to find additional ways and means for the effective protection and use of such knowledge, innovations and practices, subject to national legislation and consistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity and relevant international law, and encourage fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovation and practices; d. Take appropriate measures to reduce risks to women from identified environmental hazards at home, at work and in other environments, including appropriate application of clean technologies, taking into account the precautionary approach agreed to in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development;18 e. Take measures to integrate a gender perspective in the design and implementation of, among other things, environmentally sound and sustainable resource management mechanisms, production techniques and infrastructure development in rural and urban areas; f. Take measures to empower women as producers and consumers so that they can take effective environmental actions, along with men, in their homes, communities and workplaces; g. Promote the participation of local communities, particularly women, in identification of public service needs, spatial planning and the provision and design of urban infrastructure. 254. By Governments and international organizations and private sector institutions, as appropriate: a. Take gender impact into consideration in the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development and other appropriate United Nations bodies and in the activities of international financial institutions; b. Promote the involvement of women and the incorporation of a gender perspective in the design, approval and execution of projects funded under the Global Environment Facility and other appropriate United Nations organizations; c. Encourage the design of projects in the areas of concern to the Global Environment Facility that would benefit women and projects managed by women; d. Establish strategies and mechanisms to increase the proportion of women, particularly at grass-roots levels, involved as decision makers, planners, managers, scientists and technical advisers and as beneficiaries in the design, development and implementation of policies and programmes for natural resource management and environmental protection and conservation; e. Encourage social, economic, political and scientific institutions to address environmental degradation and the resulting impact on women.

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Appendix 255. By non-governmental organizations and the private sector: a. Assume advocacy of environmental and natural resource management issues of concern to women and provide information to contribute to resource mobilization for environmental protection and conservation; b. Facilitate the access of women agriculturists, fishers and pastoralists to knowledge, skills, marketing services and environmentally sound technologies to support and strengthen their crucial roles and their expertise in resource management and the conservation of biological diversity. Strategic objective K.2. Integrate gender concerns and perspectives in policies and programmes for sustainable development

Actions to be taken 256. By Governments: a. Integrate women, including indigenous women, their perspectives and knowledge, on an equal basis with men, in decision-making regarding sustainable resource management and the development of policies and programmes for sustainable development, including in particular those designed to address and prevent environmental degradation of the land; b. Evaluate policies and programmes in terms of environmental impact and women’s equal access to and use of natural resources; c. Ensure adequate research to assess how and to what extent women are particularly susceptible or exposed to environmental degradation and hazards, including, as necessary, research and data collection on specific groups of women, particularly women with low income, indigenous women and women belonging to minorities; d. Integrate rural women’s traditional knowledge and practices of sustainable resource use and management in the development of environmental management and extension programmes; e. Integrate the results of gender-sensitive research into mainstream policies with a view to developing sustainable human settlements; f. Promote knowledge of and sponsor research on the role of women, particularly rural and indigenous women, in food gathering and production, soil conservation, irrigation, watershed management, sanitation, coastal zone and marine resource management, integrated pest management, land-use planning, forest conservation and community forestry, fisheries, natural disaster prevention, and new and renewable sources of energy, focusing particularly on indigenous women’s knowledge and experience; g. Develop a strategy for change to eliminate all obstacles to women’s full and equal participation in sustainable development and equal access to and control over resources; h. Promote the education of girls and women of all ages in science, technology, economics and other disciplines relating to the natural environment so that they can make informed choices and offer informed input in determining local economic, scientific



Appendix and environmental priorities for the management and appropriate use of natural and local resources and ecosystems; i. Develop programmes to involve female professionals and scientists, as well as technical, administrative and clerical workers, in environmental management, develop training programmes for girls and women in these fields, expand opportunities for the hiring and promotion of women in these fields and implement special measures to advance women’s expertise and participation in these activities; j. Identify and promote environmentally sound technologies that have been designed, developed and improved in consultation with women and that are appropriate to both women and men; k. Support the development of women’s equal access to housing infrastructure, safe water, and sustainable and affordable energy technologies, such as wind, solar, biomass and other renewable sources, through participatory needs assessments, energy planning and policy formulation at the local and national levels; l. Ensure that clean water is available and accessible to all by the year 2000 and that environmental protection and conservation plans are designed and implemented to restore polluted water systems and rebuild damaged watersheds. 257. By international organizations, non-governmental organizations and private sector institutions: a. Involve women in the communication industries in raising awareness regarding environmental issues, especially on the environmental and health impacts of products, technologies and industry processes; b. Encourage consumers to use their purchasing power to promote the production of environmentally safe products and encourage investment in environmentally sound and productive agricultural, fisheries, commercial and industrial activities and technologies; c. Support women’s consumer initiatives by promoting the marketing of organic food and recycling facilities, product information and product labelling, including labelling of toxic chemical and pesticide containers with language and symbols that are understood by consumers, regardless of age and level of literacy.

Strategic objective K.3. Strengthen or establish mechanisms at the national, regional and international levels to assess the impact of development and environmental policies on women Actions to be taken 258. By Governments, regional and international organizations and non-governmental organizations, as appropriate: a. Provide technical assistance to women, particularly in developing countries, in the sectors of agriculture, fisheries, small enterprises, trade and industry to ensure the

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Appendix continuing promotion of human resource development and the development of environmentally sound technologies and of women’s entrepreneurship; b. Develop gender-sensitive databases, information and monitoring systems and participatory action-oriented research, methodologies and policy analyses, with the collaboration of academic institutions and local women researchers, on the following: i. Knowledge and experience on the part of women concerning the management and conservation of natural resources for incorporation in the databases and information systems for sustainable development; ii. The impact on women of environmental and natural resource degradation, deriving from, inter alia, unsustainable production and consumption patterns, drought, poor quality water, global warming, desertification, sealevel rise, hazardous waste, natural disasters, toxic chemicals and pesticide residues, radioactive waste, armed conflicts and its consequences; iii. Analysis of the structural links between gender relations, environment and development, with special emphasis on particular sectors, such as agriculture, industry, fisheries, forestry, environmental health, biological diversity, climate, water resources and sanitation; iv. Measures to develop and include environmental, economic, cultural, social and gender-sensitive analyses as an essential step in the development and monitoring of programmes and policies; v. Programmes to create rural and urban training, research and resource centres that will disseminate environmentally sound technologies to women; c. Ensure the full compliance with relevant international obligations, including where relevant, the Basel Convention and other conventions relating to the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes (which include toxic wastes) and the Code of Practice of the International Atomic Energy Agency relating to the movement of radioactive waste; enact and enforce regulations for environmentally sound management related to safe storage and movements; consider taking action towards the prohibition of those movements that are unsafe and insecure; ensure the strict control and management of hazardous wastes and radioactive waste, in accordance with relevant international and regional obligations and eliminate the exportation of such wastes to countries that, individually or through international agreements, prohibit their importation; d. Promote coordination within and among institutions to implement the Platform for Action and chapter 24 of Agenda 21 by, inter alia, requesting the Commission on Sustainable Development, through the Economic and Social Council, to seek input from the Commission on the Status of Women when reviewing the implementation of Agenda 21 with regard to women and the environment.

Appendix



L. The girl child 259. The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that “States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or status” (art. 2, para. 1).11 However, in many countries available indicators show that the girl child is discriminated against from the earliest stages of life, through her childhood and into adulthood. In some areas of the world, men outnumber women by 5 in every 100. The reasons for the discrepancy include, among other things, harmful attitudes and practices, such as female genital mutilation, son preference -which results in female infanticide and prenatal sex selection -early marriage, including child marriage, violence against women, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, discrimination against girls in food allocation and other practices related to health and well-being. As a result, fewer girls than boys survive into adulthood. 260. Girls are often treated as inferior and are socialized to put themselves last, thus undermining their self-esteem. Discrimination and neglect in childhood can initiate a lifelong downward spiral of deprivation and exclusion from the social mainstream. Initiatives should be taken to prepare girls to participate actively, effectively and equally with boys at all levels of social, economic, political and cultural leadership. 261. Gender-biased educational processes, including curricula, educational materials and practices, teachers’ attitudes and classroom interaction, reinforce existing gender inequalities. 262. Girls and adolescents may receive a variety of conflicting and confusing messages on their gender roles from their parents, teachers, peers and the media. Women and men need to work together with children and youth to break down persistent gender stereotypes, taking into account the rights of the child and the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents as stated in paragraph 267 below. 263. Although the number of educated children has grown in the past 20 years in some countries, boys have proportionately fared much better than girls. In 1990, 130 million children had no access to primary school; of these, 81 million were girls. This can be attributed to such factors as customary attitudes, child labour, early marriages, lack of funds and lack of adequate schooling facilities, teenage pregnancies and gender inequalities in society at large as well as in the family as defined in paragraph 29 above. In some countries the shortage of women teachers can inhibit the enrolment of girls. In many cases, girls start to undertake heavy domestic chores at a very early age and are expected to manage both educational and domestic responsibilities, often resulting in poor scholastic performance and an early drop-out from schooling.

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Appendix 264. The percentage of girls enrolled in secondary school remains significantly low in many countries. Girls are often not encouraged or given the opportunity to pursue scientific and technological training and education, which limits the knowledge they require for their daily lives and their employment opportunities. 265. Girls are less encouraged than boys to participate in and learn about the social, economic and political functioning of society, with the result that they are not offered the same opportunities as boys to take part in decision-making processes. 266. Existing discrimination against the girl child in her access to nutrition and physical and mental health services endangers her current and future health. An estimated 450 million adult women in developing countries are stunted as a result of childhood proteinenergy malnutrition. 267. The International Conference on Population and Development recognized, in paragraph 7.3 of the Programme of Action,14 that “full attention should be given to the promotion of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and particularly to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality”, taking into account the rights of the child to access to information, privacy, confidentiality, respect and informed consent, as well as the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents and legal guardians to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in conformity with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. Support should be given to integral sexual education for young people with parental support and guidance that stresses the responsibility of males for their own sexuality and fertility and that help them exercise their responsibilities. 268. More than 15 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth each year. Motherhood at a very young age entails complications during pregnancy and delivery and a risk of maternal death that is much greater than average. The children of young mothers have higher levels of morbidity and mortality. Early child-bearing continues to be an impediment to improvements in the educational, economic and social status of women in all parts of the world. Overall, early marriage and early motherhood can severely curtail educational and employment opportunities and are likely to have a long-term adverse impact on their and their children’s quality of life. 269. Sexual violence and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, have a devastating effect on children’s health, and girls are more vulnerable than boys to the consequences of unprotected and premature sexual relations. Girls often face pressures to



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engage in sexual activity. Due to such factors as their youth, social pressures, lack of protective laws, or failure to enforce laws, girls are more vulnerable to all kinds of violence, particularly sexual violence, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, trafficking, possibly the sale of their organs and tissues, and forced labour. 270. The girl child with disabilities faces additional barriers and needs to be ensured nondiscrimination and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.30 271. Some children are particularly vulnerable, especially the abandoned, homeless and displaced, street children, children in areas in conflict, and children who are discriminated against because they belong to an ethnic or racial minority group. 272. All barriers must therefore be eliminated to enable girls without exception to develop their full potential and skills through equal access to education and training, nutrition, physical and mental health care and related information. 273. In addressing issues concerning children and youth, Governments should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes so that before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on girls and boys, respectively. Strategic objective L.1. Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child Actions to be taken 274. By Governments: a. By States that have not signed or ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, take urgent measures towards signing and ratifying the Convention, bearing in mind the strong exhortation made at the World Conference on Human Rights to sign it before the end of 1995, and by States that have signed and ratified the Convention, ensure its full implementation through the adoption of all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures and by fostering an enabling environment that encourages full respect for the rights of children; b. Consistent with article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,11 take measures to ensure that a child is registered immediately after birth and has the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents; c. Take steps to ensure that children receive appropriate financial support from their parents, by, among other measures, enforcing child-support laws; d. Eliminate the injustice and obstacles in relation to inheritance faced by the girl child so that all children may enjoy their rights without discrimination, by, inter alia, enacting,

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Appendix as appropriate, and enforcing legislation that guarantees equal right to succession and ensures equal right to inherit, regardless of the sex of the child; e. Enact and strictly enforce laws to ensure that marriage is only entered into with the free and full consent of the intending spouses; in addition, enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage and raise the minimum age for marriage where necessary; f. Develop and implement comprehensive policies, plans of action and programmes for the survival, protection, development and advancement of the girl child to promote and protect the full enjoyment of her human rights and to ensure equal opportunities for girls; these plans should form an integral part of the total development process; g. Ensure the disaggregation by sex and age of all data related to children in the health, education and other sectors in order to include a gender perspective in planning, implementation and monitoring of such programmes. 275. By Governments and international and non-governmental organizations: a. Disaggregate information and data on children by sex and age, undertake research on the situation of girls and integrate, as appropriate, the results in the formulation of policies, programmes and decision-making for the advancement of the girl child; b. Generate social support for the enforcement of laws on the minimum legal age for marriage, in particular by providing educational opportunities for girls. Strategic objective L.2. Eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against girls

Actions to be taken 276. By Governments: a. Encourage and support, as appropriate, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations in their efforts to promote changes in negative attitudes and practices towards girls; b. Set up educational programmes and develop teaching materials and textbooks that will sensitize and inform adults about the harmful effects of certain traditional or customary practices on girl children; c. Develop and adopt curricula, teaching materials and textbooks to improve the selfimage, lives and work opportunities of girls, particularly in areas where women have traditionally been underrepresented, such as mathematics, science and technology; d. (d) Take steps so that tradition and religion and their expressions are not a basis for discrimination against girls. 277. By Governments and, as appropriate, international and non-governmental organizations: a. Promote an educational setting that eliminates all barriers that impede the schooling of married and/or pregnant girls and young mothers, including, as appropriate, afford-

Appendix



able and physically accessible child-care facilities and parental education to encourage those who have responsibilities for the care of their children and siblings during their school years to return to, or continue with, and complete schooling; b. Encourage educational institutions and the media to adopt and project balanced and non-stereotyped images of girls and boys, and work to eliminate child pornography and degrading and violent portrayals of the girl child; c. Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which result in harmful and unethical practices such as prenatal sex selection and female infanticide; this is often compounded by the increasing use of technologies to determine foetal sex, resulting in abortion of female foetuses; d. Develop policies and programmes, giving priority to formal and informal education programmes that support girls and enable them to acquire knowledge, develop selfesteem and take responsibility for their own lives; and place special focus on programmes to educate women and men, especially parents, on the importance of girls’ physical and mental health and well-being, including the elimination of discrimination against girls in food allocation, early marriage, violence against girls, female genital mutilation, child prostitution, sexual abuse, rape and incest. Strategic objective L.3. Promote and protect the rights of the girl child and increase awareness of her needs and potential Actions to be taken 278. By Governments and international and non-governmental organizations: a. Generate awareness of the disadvantaged situation of girls among policy makers, planners, administrators and implementors at all levels, as well as within households and communities; b. Make the girl child, particularly the girl child in difficult circumstances, aware of her own potential, educate her about the rights guaranteed to her under all international human rights instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, legislation enacted for her and the various measures undertaken by both governmental and non-governmental organizations working to improve her status; c. Educate women, men, girls and boys to promote girls’ status and encourage them to work towards mutual respect and equal partnership between girls and boys; d. Facilitate the equal provision of appropriate services and devices to girls with disabilities and provide their families with related support services, as appropriate. Strategic objective L.4. Eliminate discrimination against girls in education, skills development and training Actions to be taken 279. By Governments:

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Appendix a. Ensure universal and equal access to and completion of primary education by all children and eliminate the existing gap between girls and boys, as stipulated in article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child;11 similarly, ensure equal access to secondary education by the year 2005 and equal access to higher education, including vocational and technical education, for all girls and boys, including the disadvantaged and gifted; b. Take steps to integrate functional literacy and numeracy programmes, particularly for out-of-school girls in development programmes; c. Promote human rights education in educational programmes and include in human rights education the fact that the human rights of women and the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights; d. Increase enrolment and improve retention rates of girls by allocating appropriate budgetary resources and by enlisting the support of the community and parents through campaigns and flexible school schedules, incentives, scholarships, access programmes for out-of-school girls and other measures; e. Develop training programmes and materials for teachers and educators, raising awareness about their own role in the educational process, with a view to providing them with effective strategies for gender-sensitive teaching; f. Take actions to ensure that female teachers and professors have the same possibilities and status as male teachers and professors. 280. By Governments and international and non-governmental organizations: a. Provide education and skills training to increase girls’ opportunities for employment and access to decision-making processes; b. Provide education to increase girls’ knowledge and skills related to the functioning of economic, financial and political systems; c. Ensure access to appropriate education and skills-training for girl children with disabilities for their full participation in life; d. Promote the full and equal participation of girls in extracurricular activities, such as sports, drama and cultural activities. Strategic objective L.5. Eliminate discrimination against girls in health and nutrition

Actions to be taken 281. By Governments and international and non-governmental organizations: a. Provide public information on the removal of discriminatory practices against girls in food allocation, nutrition and access to health services; b. Sensitize the girl child, parents, teachers and society concerning good general health and nutrition and raise awareness of the health dangers and other problems connected with early pregnancies; c. Strengthen and reorient health education and health services, particularly primary health care programmes, including sexual and reproductive health, and design quality

Appendix



health programmes that meet the physical and mental needs of girls and that attend to the needs of young, expectant and nursing mothers; d. Establish peer education and outreach programmes with a view to strengthening individual and collective action to reduce the vulnerability of girls to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, as agreed to in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and as established in the report of that Conference, recognizing the parental roles referred to in paragraph 267 of the present Platform for Action; e. Ensure education and dissemination of information to girls, especially adolescent girls, regarding the physiology of reproduction, reproductive and sexual health, as agreed to in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and as established in the report of that Conference, responsible family planning practice, family life, reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infection and AIDS prevention, recognizing the parental roles referred to in paragraph 267; f. Include health and nutritional training as an integral part of literacy programmes and school curricula starting at the primary level for the benefit of the girl child; g. Emphasize the role and responsibility of adolescents in sexual and reproductive health and behaviour through the provision of appropriate services and counselling, as discussed in paragraph 267; h. Develop information and training programmes for health planners and implementors on the special health needs of the girl child; i. Take all the appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children, as stipulated in article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.11 Strategic objective L.6. Eliminate the economic exploitation of child labour and protect young girls at work Actions to be taken 282. By Governments: a. In conformity with article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,11 protect children from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development; b. Define a minimum age for a child’s admission to employment in national legislation, in conformity with existing international labour standards and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including girls in all sectors of activity; c. Protect young girls at work, inter alia, through: i. A minimum age or ages for admission to employment; ii. Strict monitoring of work conditions (respect for work time, prohibition of work by children not provided for by national legislation, and monitoring of hygiene and health conditions at work);

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Appendix iii. Application of social security coverage; iv. Establishment of continuous training and education; d. Strengthen, where necessary, legislation governing the work of children and provide for appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure effective enforcement of the legislation; e. Use existing international labour standards, including, as appropriate, ILO standards for the protection of working children, to guide the formulation of national labour legislation and policies. Strategic objective L.7. Eradicate violence against the girl child

Actions to be taken 283. By Governments and, as appropriate, international and non-governmental organizations: a. Take effective actions and measures to enact and enforce legislation to protect the safety and security of girls from all forms of violence at work, including training programmes and support programmes, and take measures to eliminate incidents of sexual harassment of girls in educational and other institutions; b. Take appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the girl child, in the household and in society, from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse; c. Undertake gender sensitization training for those involved in healing and rehabilitation and other assistance programmes for girls who are victims of violence and promote programmes of information, support and training for such girls; d. Enact and enforce legislation protecting girls from all forms of violence, including female infanticide and prenatal sex selection, genital mutilation, incest, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, child prostitution and child pornography, and develop age-appropriate safe and confidential programmes and medical, social and psychological support services to assist girls who are subjected to violence. Strategic objective L.8. Promote the girl child’s awareness of and participation in social, economic and political life Actions to be taken 284. By Governments and international and non-governmental organizations: a. Provide access for girls to training, information and the media on social, cultural, economic and political issues and enable them to articulate their views; b. Support non-governmental organizations, in particular youth non-governmental organizations, in their efforts to promote the equality and participation of girls in society. Strategic objective L.9. Strengthen the role of the family* in improving the status of the girl child * As defined in para. 29 above.



Appendix Actions to be taken 285. By Governments, in cooperation with non-governmental organizations: a. Formulate policies and programmes to help the family, as defined in paragraph 29 above, in its supporting, educating and nurturing roles, with particular emphasis on the elimination of intra-family discrimination against the girl child; b. Provide an environment conducive to the strengthening of the family, as defined in paragraph 29 above, with a view to providing supportive and preventive measures which protect, respect and promote the potential of the girl child; c. Educate and encourage parents and caregivers to treat girls and boys equally and to ensure shared responsibilities between girls and boys in the family, as defined in paragraph 29 above.

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Chapter V

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS 286. The Platform for Action establishes a set of actions that should lead to fundamental change. Immediate action and accountability are essential if the targets are to be met by the year 2000. Implementation is primarily the responsibility of Governments, but is also dependent on a wide range of institutions in the public, private and non-governmental sectors at the community, national, subregional/regional and international levels. 287. During the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985), many institutions specifically devoted to the advancement of women were established at the national, regional and international levels. At the international level, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and the Committee to monitor the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women were established. These entities, along with the Commission on the Status of Women and its secretariat, the Division for the Advancement of Women, became the main institutions in the United Nations specifically devoted to women’s advancement globally. At the national level, a number of countries established or strengthened national mechanisms to plan, advocate for and monitor progress in the advancement of women. 288. Implementation of the Platform for Action by national, subregional/regional and international institutions, both public and private, would be facilitated by transparency, by increased linkages between networks and organizations and by a consistent flow of information among all concerned. Clear objectives and accountability mechanisms are also required. Links with other institutions at the national, subregional/regional and international levels and with networks and organizations devoted to the advancement of women are needed. 289. Non-governmental and grass-roots organizations have a specific role to play in creating a social, economic, political and intellectual climate based on equality between women and men. Women should be actively involved in the implementation and monitoring of the Platform for Action. 290. Effective implementation of the Platform will also require changes in the internal dynamics of institutions and organizations, including values, behaviour, rules and procedures that are inimical to the advancement of women. Sexual harassment should be eliminated. 291. National, subregional/regional and international institutions should have strong and clear mandates and the authority, resources and accountability mechanisms needed for the tasks set out in the Platform for Action. Their methods of operation should ensure efficient and effective implementation of the Platform. There should be a clear commit-

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Appendix ment to international norms and standards of equality between women and men as a basis for all actions. 292. To ensure effective implementation of the Platform for Action and to enhance the work for the advancement of women at the national, subregional/ regional and international levels, Governments, the United Nations system and all other relevant organizations should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective, inter alia, in the monitoring and evaluation of all policies and programmes. A. National level 293. Governments have the primary responsibility for implementing the Platform for Action. Commitment at the highest political level is essential to its implementation, and Governments should take a leading role in coordinating, monitoring and assessing progress in the advancement of women. The Fourth World Conference on Women is a conference of national and international commitment and action. This requires commitment from Governments and the international community. The Platform for Action is part of a continuing process and has a catalytic effect as it will contribute to programmes and practical outcomes for girls and women of all ages. States and the international community are encouraged to respond to this challenge by making commitments for action. As part of this process, many States have made commitments for action as reflected, inter alia, in their national statements. 294. National mechanisms and institutions for the advancement of women should participate in public policy formulation and encourage the implementation of the Platform for Action through various bodies and institutions, including the private sector, and, where necessary, should act as a catalyst in developing new programmes by the year 2000 in areas that are not covered by existing institutions. 295. The active support and participation of a broad and diverse range of other institutional actors should be encouraged, including legislative bodies, academic and research institutions, professional associations, trade unions, cooperatives, local community groups, non-governmental organizations, including women’s organizations and feminist groups, the media, religious groups, youth organizations and cultural groups, as well as financial and non-profit organizations. 296. In order for the Platform for Action to be implemented, it will be necessary for Governments to establish or improve the effectiveness of national machineries for the advancement of women at the highest political level, appropriate intra-and inter-ministerial procedures and staffing, and other institutions with the mandate and capacity to broaden women’s participation and integrate gender analysis into policies and programmes. The first step in this process for all institutions should be to review their objectives, pro-

Appendix



grammes and operational procedures in terms of the actions called for in the Platform. A key activity should be to promote public awareness and support for the goals of the Platform for Action, inter alia, through the mass media and public education. 297. As soon as possible, preferably by the end of 1995, Governments, in consultation with relevant institutions and non-governmental organizations, should begin to develop implementation strategies for the Platform and, preferably by the end of 1996, should have developed their strategies or plans of action. This planning process should draw upon persons at the highest level of authority in government and relevant actors in civil society. These implementation strategies should be comprehensive, have time-bound targets and benchmarks for monitoring, and include proposals for allocating or reallocating resources for implementation. Where necessary, the support of the international community could be enlisted, including resources. 298. Non-governmental organizations should be encouraged to contribute to the design and implementation of these strategies or national plans of action. They should also be encouraged to develop their own programmes to complement government efforts. Women’s organizations and feminist groups, in collaboration with other non-governmental organizations, should be encouraged to organize networks, as necessary, and to advocate for and support the implementation of the Platform for Action by Governments and regional and international bodies. 299. Governments should commit themselves to gender balance, inter alia, through the creation of special mechanisms, in all government-appointed committees, boards and other relevant official bodies, as appropriate, as well as in all international bodies, institutions and organizations, notably by presenting and promoting more women candidates. 300. Regional and international organizations, in particular development institutions, especially INSTRAW, UNIFEM and bilateral donors, should provide financial and advisory assistance to national machinery in order to increase its ability to gather information, develop networks and carry out its mandate, in addition to strengthening international mechanisms to promote the advancement of women through their respective mandates, in cooperation with Governments. B. Subregional/regional level 301. The regional commissions of the United Nations and other subregional/ regional structures should promote and assist the pertinent national institutions in monitoring and implementing the global Platform for Action within their mandates. This should be done in coordination with the implementation of the respective regional platforms or plans of action and in close collaboration with the Commission on the Status of Women, taking

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Appendix into account the need for a coordinated follow-up to United Nations conferences in the economic, social, human rights and related fields. 302. In order to facilitate the regional implementation, monitoring and evaluation process, the Economic and Social Council should consider reviewing the institutional capacity of the United Nations regional commissions within their mandates, including their women’s units/focal points, to deal with gender issues in the light of the Platform for Action, as well as the regional platforms and plans of action. Consideration should be given, inter alia, and, where appropriate, to strengthening capacity in this respect. 303. Within their existing mandates and activities, the regional commissions should mainstream women’s issues and gender perspectives and should also consider the establishment of mechanisms and processes to ensure the implementation and monitoring of both the Platform for Action and the regional platforms and plans of action. The regional commissions should, within their mandates, collaborate on gender issues with other regional intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, financial and research institutions and the private sector. 304. Regional offices of the specialized agencies of the United Nations system should, as appropriate, develop and publicize a plan of action for implementing the Platform for Action, including the identification of time-frames and resources. Technical assistance and operational activities at the regional level should establish well-identified targets for the advancement of women. To this end, regular coordination should be undertaken among United Nations bodies and agencies. 305. Non-governmental organizations within the region should be supported in their efforts to develop networks to coordinate advocacy and dissemination of information about the global Platform for Action and the respective regional platforms or plans of action. C. International level 1. UNITED NATIONS 306. The Platform for Action needs to be implemented through the work of all of the bodies and organizations of the United Nations system during the period 1995-2000, specifically and as an integral part of wider programming. An enhanced framework for international cooperation for gender issues must be developed during the period 1995-2000 in order to ensure the integrated and comprehensive implementation, follow-up and assessment of the Platform for Action, taking into account the results of global United Nations summits and conferences. The fact that at all of these summits and conferences, Governments have committed themselves to the empowerment of women in different areas, makes coordination crucial to the follow-up strategies for this Platform for Action. The Agenda for Development and the Agenda for Peace should take into account the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women.



Appendix 307. The institutional capacity of the United Nations system to carry out and coordinate its responsibility for implementing the Platform for Action, as well as its expertise and working methods to promote the advancement of women, should be improved. 308. Responsibility for ensuring the implementation of the Platform for Action and the integration of a gender perspective into all policies and programmes of the United Nations system must rest at the highest levels. 309. To improve the system’s efficiency and effectiveness in providing support for equality and women’s empowerment at the national level and to enhance its capacity to achieve the objectives of the Platform for Action, there is a need to renew, reform and revitalize various parts of the United Nations system. This would include reviewing and strengthening the strategies and working methods of different United Nations mechanisms for the advancement of women with a view to rationalizing and, as appropriate, strengthening their advisory, catalytic and monitoring functions in relation to mainstream bodies and agencies. Women/gender units are important for effective mainstreaming, but strategies must be further developed to prevent inadvertent marginalization as opposed to mainstreaming of the gender dimension throughout all operations. 310. In following up the Fourth World Conference on Women, all entities of the United Nations system focusing on the advancement of women should have the necessary resources and support to carry out follow-up activities. The efforts of gender focal points within organizations should be well integrated into overall policy, planning, programming and budgeting. 311. Action must be taken by the United Nations and other international organizations to eliminate barriers to the advancement of women within their organizations in accordance with the Platform for Action. General Assembly 312. The General Assembly, as the highest intergovernmental body in the United Nations, is the principal policy-making and appraisal organ on matters relating to the follow-up to the Conference, and as such, should integrate gender issues throughout its work. It should appraise progress in the effective implementation of the Platform for Action, recognizing that these issues cut across social, political and economic policy. At its fiftieth session, in 1995, the General Assembly will have before it the report of the Fourth World Conference on Women. In accordance with its resolution 49/161, it will also examine a report of the Secretary-General on the follow-up to the Conference, taking into account the recommendations of the Conference. The General Assembly should include the follow-up to the Conference as part of its continuing work on the advancement of women. In 1996, 1998 and 2000, it should review the implementation of the Platform for Action.

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Economic and Social Council 313. The Economic and Social Council, in the context of its role under the Charter of the United Nations and in accordance with General Assembly resolutions 45/264, 46/235 and 48/162, would oversee system-wide coordination in the implementation of the Platform for Action and make recommendations in this regard. The Council should be invited to review the implementation of the Platform for Action, giving due consideration to the reports of the Commission on the Status of Women. As coordinating body, the Council should be invited to review the mandate of the Commission on the Status of Women, taking into account the need for effective coordination with other related commissions and Conference follow-up. The Council should incorporate gender issues into its discussion of all policy questions, giving due consideration to recommendations prepared by the Commission. It should consider devoting at least one high-level segment before the year 2000 to the advancement of women and implementation of the Platform for Action with the active involvement and participation, inter alia, of the specialized agencies, including the World Bank and IMF. 314. The Council should consider devoting at least one coordination segment before the year 2000 to coordination of the advancement of women, based on the revised system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women. 315. The Council should consider devoting at least one operational activities segment before the year 2000 to the coordination of development activities related to gender, based on the revised system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, with a view to instituting guidelines and procedures for implementation of the Platform for Action by the funds and programmes of the United Nations system. 316. The Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) should consider how its participating entities might best coordinate their activities, inter alia, through existing procedures at the inter-agency level for ensuring system-wide coordination to implement and help follow up the objectives of the Platform for Action. Commission on the Status of Women 317. The General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, in accordance with their respective mandates, are invited to review and strengthen the mandate of the Commission on the Status of Women, taking into account the Platform for Action as well as the need for synergy with other related commissions and Conference follow-up, and for a system-wide approach to its implementation. 318. As a functional commission assisting the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on the Status of Women should have a central role in monitoring, within the United Nations system, the implementation of the Platform for Action and advising the Council thereon. It should have a clear mandate with sufficient human and financial resources,



Appendix through the reallocation of resources within the regular budget of the United Nations to carry the mandate out. 319. The Commission on the Status of Women should assist the Economic and Social Council in its coordination of the reporting on the implementation of the Platform for Action with the relevant organizations of the United Nations system. The Commission should draw upon inputs from other organizations of the United Nations system and other sources, as appropriate. 320. The Commission on the Status of Women, in developing its work programme for the period 1996-2000, should review the critical areas of concern in the Platform for Action and consider how to integrate in its agenda the follow-up to the World Conference on Women. In this context, the Commission on the Status of Women could consider how it could further develop its catalytic role in mainstreaming a gender perspective in United Nations activities. Other functional commissions 321. Within their mandates, other functional commissions of the Economic and Social Council should also take due account of the Platform for Action and ensure the integration of gender aspects in their respective work. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other treaty bodies 322. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in implementing its responsibilities under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, should, within its mandate, take into account the Platform for Action when considering the reports submitted by States parties. 323. States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are invited, when reporting under article 18 of the Convention, to include information on measures taken to implement the Platform for Action in order to facilitate the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in monitoring effectively women’s ability to enjoy the rights guaranteed by the Convention. 324. The ability of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to monitor implementation of the Convention should be strengthened through the provision of human and financial resources within the regular budget of the United Nations, including expert legal assistance and, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 49/164 and the decision made by the meeting of States parties to the Convention held in May 1995, sufficient meeting time for the Committee. The Committee should increase its coordination with other human rights treaty bodies, taking into account the recommendations in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.

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325. Within their mandate, other treaty bodies should also take due account of the implementation of the Platform for Action and ensure the integration of the equal status and human rights of women in their work. United Nations Secretariat Office of the Secretary-General 326. The Secretary-General is requested to assume responsibility for coordination of policy within the United Nations for the implementation of the Platform for Action and for the mainstreaming of a system-wide gender perspective in all activities of the United Nations, taking into account the mandates of the bodies concerned. The Secretary-General should consider specific measures for ensuring effective coordination in the implementation of these objectives. To this end, the Secretary-General is invited to establish a high-level post in the office of the Secretary-General, using existing human and financial resources, to act as the Secretary-General’s adviser on gender issues and to help ensure system-wide implementation of the Platform for Action in close cooperation with the Division for the Advancement of Women. Division for the Advancement of Women 327. The primary function of the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development is to provide substantive servicing to the Commission on the Status of Women and other intergovernmental bodies when they are concerned with the advancement of women, as well as to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. It has been designated a focal point for the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women. In the light of the review of the mandate of the Commission on the Status of Women, as set out in paragraph 313 above, the functions of the Division for the Advancement of Women will also need to be assessed. The SecretaryGeneral is requested to ensure more effective functioning of the Division by, inter alia, providing sufficient human and financial resources within the regular budget of the United Nations. 328. The Division should examine the obstacles to the advancement of women through the application of gender-impact analysis in policy studies for the Commission on the Status of Women and through support to other subsidiary bodies. After the Fourth World Conference on Women it should play a coordinating role in preparing the revision of the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women for the period 1996-2001 and should continue serving as the secretariat for inter-agency coordination for the advancement of women. It should continue to maintain a flow of information with national commissions, national institutions for the advancement of women and non-governmental organizations with regard to implementation of the Platform for Action.



Appendix Other units of the United Nations Secretariat 329. The various units of the United Nations Secretariat should examine their programmes to determine how they can best contribute to the coordinated implementation of the Platform for Action. Proposals for implementation of the Platform need to be reflected in the revision of the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women for the period 1996-2001, as well as in the proposed United Nations medium-term plan for the period 1998-2002. The content of the actions will depend on the mandates of the bodies concerned. 330. Existing and new linkages should be developed throughout the Secretariat in order to ensure that the gender perspective is introduced as a central dimension in all activities of the Secretariat. 331. The Office of Human Resources Management should, in collaboration with programme managers world wide, and in accordance with the strategic plan of action for the improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (1995-2000), continue to accord priority to the recruitment and promotion of women in posts subject to geographical distribution, particularly in senior policy-level and decision-making posts, in order to achieve the goals set out in General Assembly resolutions 45/125 and 45/239 C and reaffirmed in General Assembly resolutions 46/100, 47/93, 48/106 and 49/167. The training service should design and conduct regular gender-sensitivity training or include gendersensitivity training in all of its activities. 332. The Department of Public Information should seek to integrate a gender perspective in its general information activities and, within existing resources, strengthen and improve its programmes on women and the girl child. To this end, the Department should formulate a multimedia communications strategy to support the implementation of the Platform for Action, taking new technology fully into account. Regular outputs of the Department should promote the goals of the Platform, particularly in developing countries. 333. The Statistical Division of the Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis should have an important coordinating role in international work in statistics, as described above in chapter IV, strategic objective H.3. International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women 334. INSTRAW has a mandate to promote research and training on women’s situation and development. In the light of the Platform for Action, INSTRAW should review its work programme and develop a programme for implementing those aspects of the Platform for Action that fall within its mandate. It should identify those types of research and research methodologies to be given priority, strengthen national capacities to carry out women’s studies and gender research, including that on the status of the girl child, and

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Appendix develop networks of research institutions that can be mobilized for that purpose. It should also identify those types of education and training that can be effectively supported and promoted by the Institute.

United Nations Development Fund for Women 335. UNIFEM has the mandate to increase options and opportunities for women’s economic and social development in developing countries by providing technical and financial assistance to incorporate the women’s dimension into development at all levels. Therefore, UNIFEM should review and strengthen, as appropriate, its work programme in the light of the Platform for Action, focusing on women’s political and economic empowerment. Its advocacy role should concentrate on fostering a multilateral policy dialogue on women’s empowerment. Adequate resources for carrying out its functions should be made available. Specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system 336. To strengthen their support for actions at the national level and to enhance their contributions to coordinated follow-up by the United Nations, each organization should set out the specific actions they will undertake, including goals and targets to realign priorities and redirect resources to meet the global priorities identified in the Platform for Action. There should be a clear delineation of responsibility and accountability. These proposals should in turn be reflected in the system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women for the period 1996-2001. 337. Each organization should commit itself at the highest level and, in pursuing its targets, should take steps to enhance and support the roles and responsibilities of its focal points on women’s issues. 338. In addition, specialized agencies with mandates to provide technical assistance in developing countries, particularly in Africa and the least developed countries, should cooperate more to ensure the continuing promotion of the advancement of women. 339. The United Nations system should consider and provide appropriate technical assistance and other forms of assistance to the countries with economies in transition in order to facilitate solution of their specific problems regarding the advancement of women. 340. Each organization should accord greater priority to the recruitment and promotion of women at the Professional level to achieve gender balance, particularly at decisionmaking levels. The paramount consideration in the employment of the staff and in the determination of the conditions of service should be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity. Due regard should be paid to the



Appendix importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible. Organizations should report regularly to their governing bodies on progress towards this goal. 341. Coordination of United Nations operational activities for development at the country level should be improved through the resident coordinator system in accordance with relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, in particular General Assembly resolution 47/199, to take full account of the Platform for Action. 2. Other international institutions and organizations 342. In implementing the Platform for Action, international financial institutions are encouraged to review and revise policies, procedures and staffing to ensure that investments and programmes benefit women and thus contribute to sustainable development. They are also encouraged to increase the number of women in high-level positions, increase staff training in gender analysis and institute policies and guidelines to ensure full consideration of the differential impact of lending programmes and other activities on women and men. In this regard, the Bretton Woods institutions, the United Nations, as well as its funds and programmes and the specialized agencies, should establish regular and substantive dialogue, including dialogue at the field level, for more efficient and effective coordination of their assistance in order to strengthen the effectiveness of their programmes for the benefit of women and their families. 343. The General Assembly should give consideration to inviting the World Trade Organization to consider how it might contribute to the implementation of the Platform for Action, including activities in cooperation with the United Nations system. 344. International non-governmental organizations have an important role to play in implementing the Platform for Action. Consideration should be given to establishing a mechanism for collaborating with non-governmental organizations to promote the implementation of the Platform at various levels.

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Chapter VI

FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS 345. Financial and human resources have generally been insufficient for the advancement of women. This has contributed to the slow progress to date in implementing the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women. Full and effective implementation of the Platform for Action, including the relevant commitments made at previous United Nations summits and conferences, will require a political commitment to make available human and financial resources for the empowerment of women. This will require the integration of a gender perspective in budgetary decisions on policies and programmes, as well as the adequate financing of specific programmes for securing equality between women and men. To implement the Platform for Action, funding will need to be identified and mobilized from all sources and across all sectors. The reformulation of policies and reallocation of resources may be needed within and among programmes, but some policy changes may not necessarily have financial implications. Mobilization of additional resources, both public and private, including resources from innovative sources of funding, may also be necessary. A. National level 346. The primary responsibility for implementing the strategic objectives of the Platform for Action rests with Governments. To achieve these objectives, Governments should make efforts to systematically review how women benefit from public sector expenditures; adjust budgets to ensure equality of access to public sector expenditures, both for enhancing productive capacity and for meeting social needs; and achieve the gender-related commitments made in other United Nations summits and conferences. To develop successful national implementation strategies for the Platform for Action, Governments should allocate sufficient resources, including resources for undertaking gender-impact analysis. Governments should also encourage non-governmental organizations and private-sector and other institutions to mobilize additional resources. 347. Sufficient resources should be allocated to national machineries for the advancement of women as well as to all institutions, as appropriate, that can contribute to the implementation and monitoring of the Platform for Action. 348. Where national machineries for the advancement of women do not yet exist or where they have not yet been established on a permanent basis, Governments should strive to make available sufficient and continuing resources for such machineries. 349. To facilitate the implementation of the Platform for Action, Governments should reduce, as appropriate, excessive military expenditures and investments for arms production and acquisition, consistent with national security requirements.

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Appendix 350. Non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other actors of civil society should be encouraged to consider allocating the resources necessary for the implementation of the Platform for Action. Governments should create a supportive environment for the mobilization of resources by non-governmental organizations, particularly women’s organizations and networks, feminist groups, the private sector and other actors of civil society, to enable them to contribute towards this end. The capacity of non-governmental organizations in this regard should be strengthened and enhanced. B. Regional level 351. Regional development banks, regional business associations and other regional institutions should be invited to contribute to and help mobilize resources in their lending and other activities for the implementation of the Platform for Action. They should also be encouraged to take account of the Platform for Action in their policies and funding modalities. 352. The subregional and regional organizations and the United Nations regional commissions should, where appropriate and within their existing mandates, assist in the mobilization of funds for the implementation of the Platform for Action. C. International level 353. Adequate financial resources should be committed at the international level for the implementation of the Platform for Action in the developing countries, particularly in Africa and the least developed countries. Strengthening national capacities in developing countries to implement the Platform for Action will require striving for the fulfilment of the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of the gross national product of developed countries for overall official development assistance as soon as possible, as well as increasing the share of funding for activities designed to implement the Platform for Action. Furthermore, countries involved in development cooperation should conduct a critical analysis of their assistance programmes so as to improve the quality and effectiveness of aid through the integration of a gender approach. 354. International financial institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the regional development banks, should be invited to examine their grants and lending and to allocate loans and grants to programmes for implementing the Platform for Action in developing countries, especially in Africa and the least developed countries. 355. The United Nations system should provide technical cooperation and other forms of assistance to the developing countries, in particular in Africa and the least developed countries, in implementing the Platform for Action. 356. Implementation of the Platform for Action in the countries with economies in transition will require continued international cooperation and assistance. The organizations



Appendix and bodies of the United Nations system, including the technical and sectoral agencies, should facilitate the efforts of those countries in designing and implementing policies and programmes for the advancement of women. To this end, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank should be invited to assist those efforts. 357. The outcome of the World Summit for Social Development regarding debt management and reduction as well as other United Nations world summits and conferences should be implemented in order to facilitate the realization of the objectives of the Platform for Action. 358. To facilitate implementation of the Platform for Action, interested developed and developing country partners, agreeing on a mutual commitment to allocate, on average, 20 per cent of official development assistance and 20 per cent of the national budget to basic social programmes should take into account a gender perspective. 359. Development funds and programmes of the United Nations system should undertake an immediate analysis of the extent to which their programmes and projects are directed to implementing the Platform for Action and, for the next programming cycle, should ensure the adequacy of resources targeted towards eliminating disparities between women and men in their technical assistance and funding activities. 360. Recognizing the roles of United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies, in particular the special roles of UNIFEM and INSTRAW, in the promotion of the empowerment of women, and therefore in the implementation of the Platform for Action within their respective mandates, inter alia,in research, training and information activities for the advancement of women as well as technical and financial assistance to incorporate a gender perspective in development efforts, the resources provided by the international community need to be sufficient and should be maintained at an adequate level. 361. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the United Nations system in its efforts to promote the advancement of women and to enhance its capacity to further the objectives of the Platform for Action, there is a need to renew, reform and revitalize various parts of the United Nations system, especially the Division for the Advancement of Women of the United Nations Secretariat, as well as other units and subsidiary bodies that have a specific mandate to promote the advancement of women. In this regard, relevant governing bodies within the United Nations system are encouraged to give special consideration to the effective implementation of the Platform for Action and to review their policies, programmes, budgets and activities in order to achieve the most effective and efficient use of funds to this end. Allocation of additional resources from within the United Nations regular budget in order to implement the Platform for Action will also be necessary.

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Notes

1/ Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, Nairobi, 15-26 July 1985 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.85.IV.10), chap. I, sect. A. 2/ Report of the World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, 14-25 June 1993 (A/CONF.157/24 (Part I)), chap. III. 3/ General Assembly resolution 34/180, annex. 4/ General Assembly resolution 45/164. 5/ General Assembly resolution 44/82. 6/ General Assembly resolution 48/126. 7/ A/47/308-E/1992/97, annex. 8/ General Assembly resolution 48/104. 9/ Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, Report of the World Conference on Human Rights ..., chap. III, para. 5. 10/ See The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations: The Legal Texts (Geneva, GATT secretariat, 1994). 11/ General Assembly resolution 44/25, annex. 12/ Final Report of the World Conference on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs, Jomtien, Thailand, 5-9 March 1990, Inter-Agency Commission (UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank) for the World Conference on Education for All, New York, 1990, appendix 1. 13/ General Assembly resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex. 14/ Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5-13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. 15/ Report of the World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, 6-12 March 1995 (A/CONF.166/9), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. 16/ Unsafe abortion is defined as a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards or both (based on World Health Organization, The Prevention and Management of Unsafe Abortion, Report of a Technical Working Group, Geneva, April 1992 (WHO/MSM/92.5)). 17/ Final Report of the International Conference on Nutrition, Rome, 5-11 December 1992 (Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1993), Part II. 18/ Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigenda), resolution 1, annex I. 19/ Ibid., resolution 1, annex II. 20/ General Assembly resolution 317 (IV), annex. 21/ General Assembly resolution 217 A (III). 22/ General Assembly resolution 39/46, annex. 23/ Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/47/38), chap. I. 24/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287. 25/ Report of the World Conference on Human Rights ..., chap. III, sect. II, para. 38. 26/ See The United Nations Disarmament Yearbook, vol. 5: 1980 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.81.IX.4), appendix VII. 27/ General Assembly resolution 260 A (III), annex. 28/ United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, No. 2545. 29/ Ibid., vol. 606, No. 8791. 30/ General Assembly resolution 48/96, annex. 31/ General Assembly resolution 1386 (XIV). 32/ See CEDAW/SP/1995/2. 33/ General Assembly resolution 2106 A (XX), annex. 34/ General Assembly resolution 41/128, annex. 35/ United Nations Environment Programme, Convention on Biological Diversity (Environmental Law and Institutions Programme Activity Centre), June 1992.

Index

Note: Volume numbers are in boldface. Article titles and their page numbers are in boldface.

A AAUW. See American Association of University Women (AAUW) abduction, 1:26 Abdul, Paula, 1:61 Aborigines, 1:109 Brazil, 1:228–229 Canada, 1:216 See also Australian Aboriginal artists; indigenous religions, global; indigenous women’s issues; indigenous women’s rights, Bolivia; Kngwarreye, Emily Kame abortion, 4:1609 abortion, access to, 1:l, 1:liii, 1:lviii, 1:lix–lxi, 1:1–6 Armenia, 1:87 Belgium, 1:146 Bolivia, 1:174 Bulgaria, 1:201 Cameroon, 1:214 clinic violence, 1:5

cost, 1:4 Cyprus, 1:368–369 doctor shortage/distance factor, 1:4–5 Dominica, 1:420 Gabon, 2:593–594 India, 1:1 international, 1:1–2 Jordan, 2:792 legal changes, 1:1–2 legislation, 1:5 liberalized access, 1:2–3 Malawi, 2:882 Mexico, 2:945 Monaco, 2:973 Nicaragua, 1:3 partial-birth abortion, 1:4 Philippines, 3:1092 Portugal, 3:1124 protests, 1:5 Romania, 3:1257 San Marino, 3:1274 1777

1778

Index

Seychelles, 3:1340 Switzerland, 3:1431 Thailand, 3:1450 United States/individual state laws, 1:3–4 U.S. Supreme Court on, 1:4 Uzbekistan, 4:1507 Yemen, 4:1601 See also Hyde Amendment; National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL); Roe v. Wade abortion, ethical issues of, 1:liv, 1:6–9 autonomy/motherhood/bodily integrity, 1:8 debate, 1:8–9 in contemporary society, 1:8–9 responsibility/legal considerations, 1:7–8 abortion, late, 1:9–10 defining, 1:9 methods, 1:9 risks, 1:9 abortion laws, international, 1:lxi, 1:3, 1:10–13 Albania, 1:11 at-will abortion, 1:11 Australia, 1:12 Barbados, 1:12 Belgium, 1:11 Chile, 1:11, 1:280 El Salvador, 1:11 Ethiopia, 1:12 France, 1:11 Malawi, 1:11 Malta, 1:11 preservation of physical/mental health, 1:12 saving life of pregnant woman, 1:11–12 socioeconomic grounds, 1:12 Swaziland, 1:9 treaties, 1:12 under specific circumstances, 1:11 Zambia, 1:11, 1:12 abortion laws, United States, 1:13–15 federal/state funding, 1:13

global “gag rule,” 1:13 new laws/restrictions, 1:14 nongovernmental organizations and, 1:13 protecting right to choose, 1:14–15 restrictions for minors, 1:13–14 “trigger laws,” 1:14 U.S. Congress, 1:13–15 U.S. Supreme Court, 1:13–14 abortion methods, 1:15–17 dilation and curettage (D&C), 1:16 dilation and evacuation (D&E), 1:10, 1:15–16 ergot, 1:15 history, 1:15 hypertonic saline solution, 1:16 Laminaria japonicum, 1:16 mid-20th-century developments, 1:16–17 modern, 1:15–16 prostaglandin, 1:10, 1:16 RU-486, 1:xlix, 1:4, 1:5, 1:14, 1:17 serial multiple laminaria, 1:16 slippery elm, 1:15 traumatic/life threatening, 1:15 vacuum aspiration, 1:15, 1:17 See also hysterectomies; post-abortion trauma syndrome (PAS) abortion pill, 1:xlix, 1:14. See also Mifepristone; RU-486 Abrams, Abiola, 3:1225 Abs Diet, 1:396 absent referent, 1:68 Abu Ghraib, 1:17–18 abuse investigations, 1:18 executions, 1:17 hooding, 1:17 scandal/scrutiny, 1:17–18 torture, 1:17 See also Baghdad Central Prison abuse, 1:89 Abu Ghraib, 1:18 Benin, 1:149



Sudan human rights, 3:1410–1411 See also addiction and substance abuse; child abuse, perpetrators of; child abuse, victims of; clergy abuse/pedophilia; elder abuse Abzug, Bella, 1:299, 3:1018, 4:1570–1571 Academy Awards, 1:xlix, 1:lii, 1:liii, 1:lv, 1:lvi, 1:lvii, 1:lix, 1:lx, 1:lxii, 1:62, 2:558–559. See also film actors, female; film directors, female: Europe; film directors, female: International; film directors, female: Latin America; film directors, female: United States; film production, women in Accord Alliance, 1:242 ACE (American Cinema Editors), 2:570 Achakzai, Sitara, 1:lxi achievement gap, 3:1285 Ackerman, Chantal, 2:560 Acosta, Ruben, 1:134 Acquaro, Kimberlee, 3:1224 action heroes, female, 1:18–20 Dana Scully, 1:19 Ellen Ripley, 1:19 in films, 1:19 Latino heroines, 1:19 on television, 1:19 patriarchy and, 1:19 “phallic women,” 1:19 Princess Fiona, 1:19 Sarah Connor, 1:19 “tough girls,” 1:19 Trinity, 1:19 Wonder Woman, 1:19 activism, 3:1437 bisexuality, 1:158–159 cancer, environmental factors and, 1:219–220 conflict zones, 1:328 education, women in, 1:454 feminism on college campuses, 2:536 “grass-skirt,” 3:1071 Islam, 2:774–775

Index

1779

Japan, 2:787 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) history, 2:852–853 lesbians, 2:846 Pakistan, 3:1065 peace movement, 3:1084 Vanuatu, 4:1511–1512 Wadud, Amina, 4:1533–1534 Women’s Resource Centers, 4:1583 See also antiactivism; environmental activism, grassroots; social justice activism; Steinem, Gloria; Tamang, Stella; Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) Adair, Gwen, 3:1390 Adams, Amy, 1:lvii Adams, Carol, 1:67, 1:68, 1:445, 2:646 ADD (attention deficit disorder), 1:55 Addams, Jane, 2:534, 3:1018, 3:1061, 4:1487, 4:1505, 4:1577 addiction and substance abuse, 1:20–23 alcohol, 1:20–21 barriers to treatment, 1:22–23 cannabis, 1:21 cocaine, 1:21 cognitive support, 1:23 Hispanic Americans, 1:21 lesbians, 1:21 prevalence, 1:20 research, 1:21–22 risk factors, 1:21 sexual orientation, 1:21 successful treatment, 1:23 treatment, 1:21–22 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), 3:1014 Adichie, Chimamanda Ngoz, 1:lix Adlington, Rebecca, 3:1048 administrative assistants/office managers, 1:23–25

1780

Index

as executive support, 1:24 job requirements, 1:24 qualifications, 1:24 responsibilities, 1:24 to alpha male, 1:24 work schedule, 1:24 adolescence, 1:25–27 consumption, 1:26 in conflict zones, 1:26–27 in Western society, 1:26 self-definition, 1:26 Adolescence (Hall, S.), 1:25 adoption, 1:27–30 Baby Emma, 1:30 “best-fit” model, 1:28 contentious issues in, 1:29–30 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1:338 embryo, 1:29 global/interstate laws, 1:30 history, 1:27–29 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), 1:28–30 modern, 1:29 open/closed, 1:29 transracial, 1:29 See also lesbian adoption Adorno, Theodor, 2:514 adultery, 1:lxi Advancement of Women and Human Rights, 1:lxi advertising, aimed at women, 1:30–33 altruists, 1:31 baby boomers, 1:32 capturing attention, 1:32 cause marketing, 1:33 conveying message, 1:32–33 creatives, 1:31 devouts, 1:31 fun seekers, 1:31 gender stereotypes, 1:31

Generation X, 1:32 Generation Y, 1:32 Internet, 1:32–33 intimates, 1:31 major market, 1:30–31 market segmentation, 1:31–32 perceptual differences, 1:31 strivers, 1:31 transparent marketing, 1:32 xtreme sports, 4:1596–1597 advertising, female professionals in, 1:33–36 “boys club” atmosphere and, 1:35 progressive era, 1:34 second wave of feminism, 1:34–35 sexist stereotypes, 1:34 advertising, portrayal of women in, 1:36–39 cultural images, 1:38 focus on unattainable appearance, 1:36–37 gender stereotypes, 1:36–37 idealized life, 1:36 negative impact on female self-esteem, 1:38 objectification/subjectification, 1:38 “social tableaux advertisements,” 1:36, 1:38 Advertising Hall of Fame, 1:34 Advertising Women of New York, 1:34 advocacy childlessness as choice organizations, 1:275–276 disability definitions, 1:404 rape crisis centers, 3:1211–1212 sex workers, 3:1314–1315 United Nations conventions, 4:1494–1495 See also gay and lesbian advocacy AfDB (African Development Bank), 1:207 affirmative action/equal opportunity, 1:39–42, 3:1167–1168, 4:1609 four-fifths rule, 1:41 good faith efforts, 1:41 history, 1:39–40 institutional design/enforcement, 1:40–41



outlook, 1:41–42 professions by gender, 3:1167–1168 research, 1:41 Affordable Health Care for America Act, 1:lxii Afghan Idol, 1:237 Afghanistan, 1:liv, 1:lv, 1:lxi, 1:42–44 education, 1:43 healthcare, 1:44 poverty, 1:43 recent history, 1:42 security/violence, 1:42–43 AFL (American Federation of Labor), 4:1487 African American Muslims, 1:44–46 Nation of Islam (NOI), 1:45 offshoots, 1:45 African Americans, 1:xlix, 1:lii, 1:liv, 1:lv, 1:lvii, 1:lviii, 1:lxi, 1:lxii, 1:lxiii animal trainers, female, 1:70 bulimia, 1:26 National Black Women’s Health Project, 4:1573 Negro League, 1:lvii suicide and race, 3:1412 woman of color, 2:537 womanist theology, 4:1560–1561 See also black churches African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 1:278 African Development Bank (AfDB), 1:207 African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), 1:163–164 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ), 1:163 African Union, 1:liii, 1:liv African-Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), 4:1609 AFT (American Federation of Teachers), 3:1441 Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 1:39 ageism, 1:46, 2:793

Index

1781

aging, attitudes toward, 1:46–48, 1:89 positive developments, 1:48 stereotypes, 1:46–47 television and, 1:47 Aglukark, Susan, 1:216 agriculture gardening as urban, 2:597–598 Rwanda, 3:1264 São Tomé and Principe, 3:1275 See also Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE) Aguilera, Nerve Cot, 3:1149 Ahmed, Sara, 2:845 Ahrentzen, Sherry, 1:85 Ahtila, Eya-Liisa, 1:90 AIDS, 4:1609, See also entries on HIV/AIDS Aids and Its Metaphors (Leibovitz), 2:838 Akerman, Chantal, 2:564 Akhtar, Shamshad, 1:449 Al Awadhi, Lulwa, 1:122 Al Bedwawi, Ebtisam Ali Rashid, 2:804 Al G. Barnes Circus, 1:69 Al Khalifa, Haya Rashed, 1:lvii Albania, 1:49–50 abortion access, 1:1–2 abortion laws, international, 1:11 economic/health metrics, 1:49 infant mortality, 1:49 Kanun code, 1:49 rape, 1:49 women’s rights, 1:49 Albarracn, Pilar, 1:90 al-Adawiya, Aisha H. L., 1:45 Al-Bishr, Badriya, 1:237 Albright, Madeleine, 1:50–51, 1:57 alcohol addiction and substance abuse, 1:20–21 suicide rates, 3:1416–1417 See also Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

1782

Index

Alcott, Louisa May, 1:lvii Alenier, Vanessa, 2:840 Alexander Technique, 1:267 al-Faiz, Norah, 1:51–52 Algeria, 1:lvi, 1:52–53 domestic violence, 1:52 Family Code, 1:52 infant mortality, 1:53 life-expectancy, 1:53 prostitution, 1:53 rape, 1:53 Shari`a family laws, 1:52 trafficking, 1:52 al-Ghafur, Salemah Abd, 1:45 al-Huwaider, Wajeha, 1:51 Ali, Laila, 1:53–54, 1:181 Ali, Muhammad, 1:45, 1:53, 1:54, 1:181 Ali, Noble Drew, 1:44 Alias, 1:19 Alien, 1:19 Alimo-Metcalfe, Beverly, 2:888 alimony, 4:1609 Alison, Dorothy, 2:847 All My Children, 3:1363 All-American Girl, 1:285 Allen, Dede, 2:570 Allen, Richard, 1:163, 1:164 Allen, Woody, 1:378 Allende, Isabel, 3:1027 Allende, Salvador, 1:279 Alliance of Arab Women, 1:80 Ally McBeal, 2:530 Almada, Natalia, 2:566 Almanac of the Chronicle of Higher Education, 1:307–308 Al-Marashi, Ibrahim, 1:237 Al-Nisaiyat, 1:79 alpha male, 1:24 al-Qaeda, 1:li, 1:52, 3:1436–1437 Alsanea, Rajaa, 1:237

Alsop, Marin, 1:294 alternative education, 1:54–56 analysis, 1:56 gender equality in, 1:54–55 altruists, 1:31 Amanpour, 1:56–57 Amanpour, Christiane, 1:56–58 Amaral, Suzana, 2:567 Amaral, Tata, 2:567 Amati, Giovani, 1:113 Amaya Micaela Flores, 3:1251 Amazing Peace (Angelou), 1:lviii AMBER Alert, 1:58–59 Ambrosia, Alessandra, 3:1419 Ambuhl, Megan, 1:18 AME (African Methodist Episcopal Church), 1:163–164 Amer, Ghada, 1:90 American Association of University Professors, 1:307–308 American Association of University Women (AAUW), 1:54, 1:59–60, 1:247, 1:456, 3:1021, 3:1285 members/branches, 1:59 mission, 1:59 projects, 1:60 publications, 1:59 Website, 1:60 American Astronomical Society, 1:96 American Cinema Editors (ACE), 2:570 American Diabetes Foundation, 1:54 American Federation of Labor (AFL), 4:1487 American Federation of Teachers (AFT), 3:1441 American Girl Dolls, 1:60–61, 2:624 American Gladiators, 1:54 American Idol, 1:61–62 American Institute of Architects, 1:83 American Medical Journal, 1:157 American Muslim Mission, 1:45



American Psychiatric Association (APA), 3:1182–1183 American Samoa, 1:25, 1:62–63 domestic violence, 1:63 infant mortality, 1:62 population growth, 1:62 standard of living, 1:63 American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), 2:570 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 1:39 America’s Next Top Model, 1:124–125, 1:233, 3:1419 Americorps Bill, 1:48 Ames, Jonathan, 1:158 AMEZ (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church), 1:163 Amin, Qasim, 1:79 Amish children, 1:64 gender roles, 1:64 homemaking/childbearing, 1:63–64 Ordnung, 1:64 rumspringa, 1:64 Ammann, Jakob, 1:63 Amnesty International, 1:241, 1:276, 1:277 Amritanandamayi Devi, Mata (“Amma”). See Mata Amritanandamayi Math Anderson, Amy Bishop, 1:lxii Anderson, Pamela, 1:217 Andorra, 1:64–65 abortion access, 1:65 divorce, 1:65 healthcare, 1:65 infant mortality, 1:65 life expectancy, 1:64 same-sex marriage, 1:65 suffrage, 1:65 Andreasen, Nancy Coover, 3:1183 Ang Lee, 1:19 Angelou, Maya, 1:lviii

Index

1783

Angels Fall (Roberts), 1:lix Anglican Church, 1:25, 1:66. See also priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican Anglican Communion, 1:65–66 Anglin, Jack, 1:353 Angola, 1:66–67 domestic violence, 1:66–67, 1:67 HIV/AIDS, 1:66–67 infant mortality, 1:66 Joint Gender Programme, 1:67 Mulheres Vivendo, 1:67 oil/diamonds, 1:66 Organization of Angolan Women, 1:67 Rede Mulher, 1:67 animal consumption, 1:68 animal contact diseases, 4:1609 animal ethics, 1:67–68 animal rights, 1:67–69 animal consumption, 1:68 animal ethics, 1:67–68 commercial uses, 1:68–69 criticism, 1:69 animal trainers, female, 1:69–70 anime, 1:70–71 Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery, L. M.), 1:217 Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2:917 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 1:307 anorexia nervosa, 1:392–393, 1:440–441, 4:1610 Another World, 3:1363 Ansari, Anouseh, 1:95 Antarctica, 1:li Anthony, Susan B., 1:67, 1:72, 1:84, 2:543, 4:1576 antiactivism, 1:72–73. See also activism anti-bullying, 1:56 antifeminism, 1:71–75 individualism antiactivism, 1:72–73 man-hating, 1:72

1784

Index

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and, 1:73–74 war against boys, 1:72 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75–76 domestic violence, 1:75 HIV/AIDS, 1:75 living conditions, 1:75 marriage, 1:75 rape, 1:75 sexual violence, 1:75 suffrage, 1:75 trafficking, 1:75 antipollution, 1:196 anxiety disorders, 1:76–79 Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), 1:76–77 Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), 1:77 panic disorders, 1:78–79 phobia, 1:77–78 Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), 1:78 symptoms, 1:76 See also complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD); post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Anzaldúa, Gloria, 1:250–251 APA (American Psychiatric Association), 3:1182–1183 Applebaum, Anne, 1:liv Aquino, Corazon, 2:668 Arab feminism, 1:79–81 Alliance of Arab Women, 1:80 Arab Women’s Publishing House, 1:80 Arab Women’s Solidarity Association, 1:80 Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, 1:80 contributors/organizations/outlets, 1:79–80 Egyptian Feminist Union, 1:80 incumbent/emerging, 1:81 Iraqi Women’s Union, 1:81 nationalism and, 1:79

New Woman’s Group, 1:80 pan-Arab, 1:79–80 Society for the Daughter of the Earth, 1:80 Western feminism and, 1:79 Women’s Awakening Club, 1:81 Arab Women’s Publishing House, 1:80 Arab Women’s Solidarity Association, 1:80 Arafat, Yasser, 1:57 Arango, Marta, 1:482 Arber, Agnes Robertson, 1:152 Arbus, Diane, 3:1095 archery, 1:81–82 China, 1:82 Olympic Games, 1:82 South Korea, 1:82 United States, 1:82 architecture, women in, 1:82–85 advancing female architects, 1:83–84 Ahrentzen, Sherry, 1:85 Brown, Denise Scott, 1:84–85 Hadid, Zaha, 1:84 Lin, Maya, 1:85 Native Americans, 1:83 Sejima, Kazuyo, 1:85 Torre, Susan, 1:85 Argentina, 1:lxi, 1:85–86 alcohol, 1:20–21 healthcare, 1:86 HIV/AIDS, 1:86 infant mortality, 1:85 literacy, 1:86 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 1:86 Armenia, 1:86–87 abortion access, 1:87 birth/fertility rate, 1:86–87 bisexuality, 1:161 life expectancy, 1:87 literacy, 1:86 trafficking, 1:87 Armitage, Karole, 1:373



Armstrong, Billy Joe, 1:160 Armstrong, Helen, 1:166 Armstrong, Neil, 1:94 Arnesen, Liv, 1:li Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen, 1:25 Arnold, Ramona, 2:832 art criticism: gender issues, 1:88–89 artfem.tv, 1:lx arts, women in (21st century overview), 1:89–93 digital multimedia art, 1:90–92 sites of, 1:90 themes, 1:92 Arvidsson, Adam, 2:517 Arzner, Dorothy, 2:563, 2:570 As the World Turns, 3:1363 ASC (American Society of Cinematographers), 2:570 asexuality, 1:157 Ash, Mary Kay, 1:400 Asian Americans, 3:1412 Asian Society Museum, 1:89 Askin, Kelly, 2:540 assisted reproductive technology, 4:1610 Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, 1:80 Association for Women in Psychology (AWP), 3:1182 Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), 1:lii, 1:93–94 aims, 1:93 funding, 1:93 programs/initiatives, 1:93 Association of Women in Architecture, 1:83 Astell, Mary, 2:543 astronauts, female, 1:94–95 Ansari, Anouseh, 1:95 Bondar, Roberta Lynn, 1:95 Collins, Eileen, 1:94 Fisher, Anna, 1:94

Index Haignere, Claudie, 1:95 Kondakova, Yelena, 1:94 Lucid, Shannon, 1:94 Mukai, Chiaki, 1:95 Nyberg, Karen, 1:95 Payette, Julie, 1:95 Resnik, Judith, 1:94 Ride, Sally, 1:l, 1:94 Russia, 1:94–95 Seddon, Margaret Rhea, 1:94 Sharman, Helen Patricia, 1:95 space race, 1:94 Stott, Nicole, 1:95 Sullivan, Kathryn, 1:94 Tereshkova, Valentina, 1:94 United States, 1:94–95 Whitson, Peggy, 1:lviii, 1:94 Williams, Sunita, 1:94 women in space, 1:94–95 Yi So-Yeon, 1:lx, 1:95 astronomy, women in, 1:95–97 Australia, 1:96 Bulgaria, 1:96 Denmark, 1:96 France, 1:96 Germany, 1:96 Hungary, 1:96 Ireland, 1:96 understanding women’s place, 1:96–97 United Kingdom, 1:96 United States, 1:96 Athey, Susan Carleton, 1:448 Atkins, Anna, 1:152 attainment, college degree, 1:97–100 associated benefits, 1:99–100 countries, degrees, 1:100 gender gap, 1:98 literacy, 1:98 participation rates, 1:97–98 Poland, 1:97

1785

1786

Index

recent trends, 1:98–99 research, 1:97–99 value of postsecondary education, 1:99 attainment, elementary school completion, 1:100–103 hindrances to enrollment and completion, 1:101 international efforts toward gender equity, 1:101–102 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and, 1:100 attainment, graduate degree, 1:103–105 history of women in education, 1:103 problems, 1:104–105 recent trends, 1:103–104 attainment, high school completion, 1:105–107 research, 1:106 statistics, 1:106 attention deficit disorder (ADD), 1:55 attorneys, female, 1:107–109 achieving equity, 1:107 Australia, 1:109 Germany, 1:109 United Kingdom, 1:108–109 United States, 1:108 worldwide, 1:108–109 Atwood, Margaret, 1:217 Augustus, Seimone, 1:131 Auriemma, Geno, 1:305 Austen, Jane, 3:1026, 3:1255 Austin, Regina, 2:540 Austin, Tracy, 3:1447 Australia, 1:109–111 Aborigines, 1:109 abortion access, 1:3 abortion laws, international, 1:12 alcohol, 1:20 astronomy, women in, 1:96 attorneys, female, 1:109

computer science, women in, 1:325 domestic violence, 1:110 infant mortality, 1:109 life-expectancy, 1:47 literacy, 1:110 rape, 1:110 witchcraft, 4:1556–1557 women’s issues, 1:110 Australian Aboriginal artists, 1:111–112 Jingalu, Melissa Craig, 1:111 Kngwarreye, Emily Kame, 1:112 Loy, Abie, 1:112 Morgan, Sally, 1:111 Nalingu, Joanne Currie, 1:111 Napangardi, Dorothy, 1:112 Pwerle, Emily, 1:111–112 Tyalmuty, Helen McCarthy, 1:111–112 Wilson, Regina, 1:112 Australian Academy of Science, 1:96 Austria, 1:112–113 education, 1:112 employment, 1:112 gender gap, 1:112–113 life expectancy, 1:113 auto racing, 3:1082–1083 auto racing, Formula One, 1:113–114 auto racing, NASCAR, 1:114–115 autonomy, 1:8 Autry, Jackie, 3:1442 Avatar, 1:lxii Avery, Byllye, 4:1573 Avian flu, 1:463 aviation, women in, 1:115–116 Beckman, Trish, 1:115–116 Crea, Vivien, 1:115–116 Darcy-Hennemann, Suzanna, 1:115–116 Earhart, Amelia, 1:115 Galloway, Diana, 1:115 Grant, Stephanie, 1:115 Jones, Rachelle, 1:115



Malachowski, Nicole, 1:115 Mills, Alice du Pont, 1:115 Raiche, Bessica, 1:115 recognition, 1:115–116 Rogers, Robin, 1:115 Sullivan, Kathy, 1:115–116 Vacher, Polly, 1:115 Aviator, The, 1:lv Avon, 1:400 AWID. See Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) AWP (Association for Women in Psychology), 3:1182 AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), 3:1014 Azerbaijan, 1:116–117 bridal kidnapping, 1:117 divorce, 1:117 domestic violence, 1:117 family voting, 1:116–117 rape, 1:117 sexism, 1:117 suffrage, 1:116 B baad, 1:43 Babashoff, Shirley, 1:l Baby Boom, The (Burkett), 1:276 baby boomers, 1:32, 1:46, 1:48, 1:73, 1:252 Baby Emma, 1:30 Bacall, Lauren, 2:558 Bachelet, Alberto, 1:119 Bachelet, Michelle, 1:lvii, 1:119–120, 1:280, 2:670–671 Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women (Faludi), 1:73 Backlash Against Welfare Mothers (Reese), 3:1135–1136 Badu, Erykah, 3:1245 Baehr v. Lewin, 1:291

Index Baez, Joan, 3:1243 BAFTA Awards, 1:196 Bagby, Ihsan, 1:45 Baghdad Central Prison, 1:17–18 Bahamas, 1:121 HIV/AIDS, 1:121 literacy, 1:121 Bahrain, 1:liii, 1:lxi, 1:121–122 education, 1:122 life expectancy, 1:122 literacy, 1:122 suffrage, 1:122 women’s rights, 1:122 baile de debutantes, 1:25 Bailey, Cathryn, 1:68 Bailul, Oksana, 2:556 Baker, Ella, 1:165 Baker, Josephine, 1:160 Baker v. State, 1:291 Bakken, Jill, 1:lii Balch, Emily Green, 3:1018, 1061, 4:1577 Balmori, Diana, 2:827 Bancroft, Ann, 1:li Bancroft, John, 1:157 Bandaranaike, Sirimavo, 2:668 Bangladesh, 1:122–124 domestic violence, 1:124 education, 1:123 infant mortality, 1:123 literacy, 1:123 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 1:123–124 occupational segregation, 1:123 women’s rights, 1:124 Bank Street College of Education, 1:55 Banks, Tyra, 1:124–125, 3:1419 Bansak, Cynthia, 1:447 Barbados, 1:125–126 abortion laws, international, 1:12 birth rates, 1:125

1787

1788

Index

Creole culture, 1:125 domestic violence, 1:125 education, 1:125 gender gap, 1:125–126 life expectancy, 1:125 Barbie dolls, 1:126–128 50th anniversary, 1:127 Francie doll, 1:128 Ken doll, 1:126 popular culture and, 1:127–128 unveiling, 1:126 Website, 1:128 Bardot, Brigitte, 2:558, 2:559 bariatric surgery, 1:128–130 Barnes, Djuna, 1:160 Barnum, P. T., 1:135 Barr, Roseanne, 1:314–315 Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise, 1:lx, 1:130, 1:153 Barrino, Fantasia, 1:61–62 Barris, Chuck, 3:1214 Barro, Robert, 1:97–99 Barry, James, 1:425 Barry, Linda, 1:227 Barrymore, Drew, 1:160 Bartky, Sandra, 2:516 Bartlett, Katherine, 2:540 Bartoli, Marion, 1:lix, 1:294 Baseball Hall of Fame, 1:lvii Basic Instinct, 1:160 basketball, college, 1:131–132 conflict/controversy, 1:131–132 decade to remember, 1:131 new stars, 1:131–132 UConn, 1:131 See also Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Bassett, Angela, 2:558 Bassi, Laura, 3:1101 Bassin, Alana, 2:657 Bat Mitzvah, 1:25

Bat Shalom, 1:132–133 battered child syndrome, 1:257 Baumgardner, Jennifer, 1:157, 1:159, 1:378, 2:517 BBC, 1:57 BCT (Behavioral Cognitive Therapy), 1:76–77 beach volleyball/volleyball, 1:133–135 invention, 1:133 Olympic debut, 1:133 Beardsley, Eleanor, 2:794 Beasley, Sandra, 3:1109 Beautiful Mind, A, 1:li beauty myth, 1:136, 4:1610 beauty pageants, 1:135–137 beauty myth, 1:136 controversies/critiques, 1:135–136 opportunities/choice/empowerment, 1:136 beauty pageants (babies/young children), 1:137–139 history, 1:137 impacts, 1:138 United States, 1:137–138 beauty standards, cross-cultural, 1:139–144 appearance diversity, 1:144 cross-cultural alterations, 1:142–143 ethnic surgery, 1:143–144 globalization of ideals, 1:141 otherness, 1:141–142 pressure on women, 1:139 social resistance, 1:144 Bechdel, Alison, 1:227, 2:847 Beckman, Trish, 1:115–116 Becoming Fearless . . . in Love, Work, and Life (Huffington, A.), 2:729 Becoming Visible (Firestein), 1:159 Bee, Susan, 1:91 Beecher, Catharine Esther, 2:688, 4:1566 Beers, Charlotte, 1:35 Begin, Karin, 1:405 Behar, Joy, 1:314

Index



Behavioral Cognitive Therapy (BCT), 1:76–77 Behn, Aphra, 3:1025 Behr-Sigel, Elisabeth, 3:1054–1055 Beijing Conference on Women, 1:lvi, 1:1, 1:336– 337, 3:1018, 4:1610, 4:1631–1774 Beijing Platform for Action, 1:336–337, 4:1610, 4:1631–1774 Bel Canto: A Novel (Patchett), 1:lii Belarus, 1:144–145 bisexuality, 1:161 divorce, 1:145 domestic violence, 1:145 employment, 1:144–145 HIV/AIDS, 1:145 infant mortality, 1:145 marriage, 1:145 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 1:145 poverty, 1:144–145 quota system, 1:145 rape, 1:145 Belenky, Mary, 1:104 Belgium, 1:145–146 abortion access, 1:146 abortion laws, international, 1:11 gender equality, 1:146 gross domestic product (GDP), 1:146 healthcare, 1:146 infant mortality, 1:146 literacy, 1:146 poverty, 1:146 suffrage, 1:146 Belize, 1:146–148 divorce, 1:147 domestic violence, 1:147 gender gap, 1:146 marriage, 1:146 nuclear families, 1:147 unemployment, 1:148 women in workforce, 1:147–148 Bell, Jocelyn, 1:96, 3:1283

Bell, Peter, 1:448 Bella Books, 2:542 Belmore, Rebecca, 1:90 Beloved (Morrison), 2:978 Belperson, Suzanne, 2:789 Beltrán, Mary, 1:19 Bender, Leslie, 2:540 Benedict XVI, 1:295 Benin, 1:148–149 abuse, 1:149 domestic violence, 1:148 education, 1:148 exploitation, 1:149 gender-based violence, 1:149 poverty, 1:148 vidomegon, 1:148 Benjamin, Henry, 3:1474 Benjamin, Media, 1:305 Bennet, Joyce, 3:1149 Bentinck, William, 3:1421 Berba, Alexis, 1:70 berdache, 3:1481 Bergen, Candice, 1:lx Berger, Peter, 2:528, 2:904 Bergman, Ingrid, 2:558 Berksoy, Semiha, 1:90 Bernhard, Sandra, 1:160, 1:315 Bernstein, Leonard, 1:160 Berry, Halle, 1:li, 1:350, 2:559 Besson, Luc, 1:19 “best-fit” model, 1:28 “betrothal at birth,” 2:885 Betty, Kathy, 3:1443 Bevacqua, Maria, 3:1434 Beyonce, 2:695 Bezic, Sandra, 2:556 Bhatia, Balwinder Kaur, 3:1350 Bhatt, Ela, 3:1293 Bhutan, 1:149–150 abortion access, 1:2

1789

1790

Index

Gross National Happiness (GNH), 1:149 International Women’s Day, 1:149 national dress, 1:149 National Women’s Association of Bhutan (NWAB), 1:150 Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women (RENEW), 1:150 Bhutto, Benazir, 1:150–151, 2:668, 3:1065 Bhutto, Nusrat, 1:151 Bhutto, Zulifikar Ali, 1:150 Bi Any Other Name, 1:159 Biber, Stanley, 1:180 bicuriousness, 1:160 Bidwell, Violet, 3:1442 Bielinsky, Fabian, 2:566 Bigelow, Kathryn, 1:lxii, 2:562, 2:565, 2:569, 2:570 Bilas, Frances, 1:323 binge eating, 1:441 bioethics, 4:1610 biology, women in, 1:152–154 barriers, 1:154 female research, 1:154 Nobel prizes, 1:152–153 pioneers, 1:152 Bionic Woman, The, 1:19 biopiracy, 1:488 biphobia, 1:159–160 Bird, Sue, 1:131 birth control, 4:1610 birth defects, environmental factors and, 1:155–156 affecting change, 1:156 defined, 1:155–156 importance, 1:155 Birthing for Within, 1:267 BirthWorks, 1:267 bisexual erasure, 1:159–160 Bisexual Resource Center, 1:158 Bisexual Resource Guide, 1:158

bisexuality, 1:156–162, 4:1610 activism, 1:158–159 Armenia, 1:161 Belarus, 1:161 biphobia, 1:159–160 bisexual erasure, 1:159–160 Canada, 1:162 Cyprus, 1:161 defined, 1:157 facing discrimination, 1:161–162 history, 1:157–158 in popular culture, 1:160 Latvia, 1:161 Macedonia, 1:161 Moldova, 1:161 Poland, 1:161 practical aspects, 1:160–161 relationship to other sexual identity categories, 1:159 Turkey, 1:161 United States, 1:162 Bisexual Option, The (Klein), 1:158 Bivens, Carolyn Vesper, 2:631 Blaché, Alice Guy, 2:559, 2:562, 2:568 Black, Hugo, 3:1247 black churches, 1:162–165 African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), 1:163–164 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ), 1:163 black liberation and, 1:164 Church of God in Christ (COGIC), 1:163 civil rights and, 1:164 Glide United Methodist Church, 1:164 history, 1:162–164 megachurches, 1:164 Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, 1:164 Potter’s House, 1:164 Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 1:164



Trinity United Church of Christ, 1:164 womanism, 1:165 women in, 1:164–165 World Changing Church, 1:164 black liberation, 1:164 Black separatism, 1:45 Black Water (Oates), 3:1041 Blackburn, Elizabeth H., 1:lxi, 1:153 Blackmun, Burger, 3:1248 Blackstone, Kathryn R., 3:1029 Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 1:289 Blaine, Barbara, 1:296 Blair, Bonnie, 1:li Blanc, Louis, 4:1568 Blanchett, Cate, 1:lv Blechman, Lani, 1:156 Blee, Kathleen, 2:816–817 Block, Melissa, 2:794 blogs and the blogosphere, 1:165–168, 3:1225 feminist publishing, 2:542 Gawker, 1:167 Huffington Post, 1:167 reality television, 3:1215 Reverse Cowgirl, 1:167 September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and, 1:166 social justice activism, 3:1369 social platform, 1:166 topics, 1:166–167 See also Facebook; Internet; MySpace; Twitter; Websites; YouTube Blonde (Oates), 3:1041 Blondie, 3:1244 Blood, Robert O., 2:725 Bly, Nellie, 2:795 BMI (body mass index), 1:128–129 Bobek, Nicole, 2:556 bodhisattvas, 1:284 bodily integrity, 1:8 body art, 1:168–170 normative techniques, 1:168–169

Index politicized, 1:169 self-actualization and, 1:169–170 body image, 1:170–174 consequences of unhealthy, 1:172 facial feminization surgery, 1:171 gender reassignment surgery, 1:171 idealized, 1:171 ideals origins, 1:170–171 perpetrators, 1:172 Queer Theory, 1:173 results of poor, 1:172–173 track and field, women in, 3:1464 women’s magazines, 4:1578–1579 body mass index (BMI), 1:128–129 Body and the Screen, The (White, M.), 2:764 bohiya, 4:1513 Bolivia, 1:lxii, 1:174–175 abortion access, 1:174 alcohol, 1:20 gross domestic product (GDP), 1:174 indigenous women’s rights, 2:746–747 life expectancy, 1:174 poverty, 1:174 Bollywood, 1:175–176 censors, 1:175 diversification, 1:176 international acclaim, 1:176 roots, 1:175 Bombardier, liana, 3:1345 Bondar, Roberta Lynn, 1:95, 1:217 Bonner, DeWanna, 4:1580 Bonney, Anne, 1:425 Bonvicini, Monica, 1:90 Booker Prize, 3:1028 bookworm, 1:56 Boorse, Dorothy, 1:359 Boorstin, Daniel J., 1:230, 1:232–233 Boosler, Elayne, 1:314 Booth, John Wilkes, 1:lii Bordallo, Madeleine Z., 2:648

1791

1792

Index

Bordo, Susan, 1:38, 1:231, 2:516, 3:1187 Boreman, Linda, 3:1118 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1:57, 1:176–177 gender discrimination, 1:177 genocide, 1:177 sexual violence, 1:177 Boston Bisexual Network, 1:158 Boston Globe, 4:1510 Boston Marriage (Mamet), 2:845 botox, 1:177–178 Botswana, 1:178–180 diamonds, 1:179 gender equality, 1:179 marital power, 1:179 tourism, 1:179 Boulmerka, Hassiba, 1:lx Bourgeois, Louise, 1:90 Bourke-White, Margaret, 3:1095 Bowers, Marci, 1:180 Bowie, David, 1:160 boxing, 1:181–182. See also Ali, Laila current status, 1:182 mainstream culture and, 1:181–182 Million Dollar Baby, 1:182 Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), 1:182 Olympic Games, 1:182 Women Boxing Archive Network, 1:53 BPWA (Business and Professional Women’s Association), 1:210 Bradfield, Elizabeth, 3:1109 Bradley method, 1:267 Bradstreet, Anne, 3:1110 Brady, James S., 1:182 Brady, James S., Jr., 1:183 Brady, Sarah, 1:182–183 Brancheau, Dawn, 1:70 Brando, Marlon, 1:160 Brashares, Ann, 1:lvi Bratz dolls, 1:183–184 Braudy, Leo, 1:231

Brazil, 1:184–187, 1:228–229 Aborigines, 1:228–229 alcohol, 1:20 domestic violence, 1:186 education, 1:186 employment, 1:186 immigration/health, 1:184–185 politics, 1:186–187 sexual libertinage, 1:184 trafficking, 1:186 BRCA 1, 1:218 BRCA 2, 1:218 breast cancer, 1:33, 1:89, 1:187–192 age/screening/mortality reduction, 1:190–191 Breast Cancer Action, 1:219 classification controversy, 1:188–189 Denmark, 1:379 Ductile Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), 1:189–191 incidence/morality/risk, 1:187–188 Lobular Carcinoma In Situ (LCIS), 1:189–191 overdiagnosis/overtreatment, 1:191–192 research, 1:190–191 Breast Cancer Action, 1:219 breast ironing, 1:26 breast reduction/enlargement surgery, 1:192–194 breast augmentation, 1:192 implants, 1:193 risks/side effects, 1:193–194 techniques, 1:193 breastfeeding protection, 1:li Breath of Snow and Ashes, A (Gabaldon), 1:lviii Breitz, Candice, 1:90 Brian, Amy, 2:848 Brickhill, Joan, 1:373 Brico, Antonia, 1:294 bridal kidnapping, 1:26 Azerbaijan, 1:118 Georgia, 2:613 Kyrgyzstan, 2:820



bride price East Timor, 1:438 property rights, 3:1174–1175 Zimbabwe, 4:1607 bridewealth, 2:898, 3:1174. See also bride price “bridezillas,” 1:194–195, 1:234, 3:1215 Bridget Jones Diary, 1:72–73, 3:1222 Bright, Suzie, 1:167 Bright Sided (Ehrenreich), 1:465 Brigitte, 4:1578–1579 Brinkley, Christie, 3:1419 Brisco, Valerie, 1:lii Britten, Karen, 1:296 Brizendine, Louann, 1:154 Brock, Rochelle, 4:1560 Brockovich, Erin, 1:195–196, 1:486 Brockovich Research & Consulting, 1:196 Brock-Utne, Birgit, 3:1061 Brodskey, Judith K., 1:91 Brontë, Anne, 3:1026 Brontë, Charlotte, 3:1026, 3:1255 Brontë, Emily, 3:1026 Brooks, Geraldine, 1:lvii Brown, Antoinette, 2:969 Brown, Dan, 1:371 Brown, Denise Scott, 1:84–85 Brown, Jeffrey A., 1:19 Brown, Trisha, 1:372 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1:164, 1:292 Brownmiller, Susan, 2:536, 2:540 Bruguera, Tania, 1:90 Brundtland, Gro Harlem, 1:196–197, 1:487, 2:667, 3:1024. See also Norway Brundtland Commission, 1:197 Brunei Darussalam, 1:198–199 domestic violence, 1:198 education, 1:198 infant mortality, 1:198 Bryant, Anita, 3:1327

Index Buchanan, NiCole, 3:1183 Buck, Joan Juliet, 1:lx Buck, Linda, 1:liv, 1:153 Budapest, Zsuzanna, 4:1551 Buddhism, 1:199–201 Chinese religions, 1:283–285 enlightenment, 1:199 gender and, 1:200–201 Kuan-yin, 1:199 lesbian/gay clergy, 2:842–843 Mahayana, 1:199 ordination, 1:200 Sakyaditha, 1:201 schools, 1:199–200 Tantric, 1:200 Theravada, 1:199 Vajrayana, 1:199–200 Bueno, Maria Esther, 1:lv Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1:19 Bulgaria, 1:201–202 abortion access, 1:201 alcohol, 1:20 astronomy, women in, 1:96 employment, 1:201–202 GDP, 1:201 healthcare, 1:201 bulimia nervosa, 1:26, 1:441, 4:1610–1611 Bulloch, Sandra, 1:lxii bullying, 3:1335–1336 bullying in the workplace, 1:202–204 harassment, 1:202–203 life-long pattern of victimization, 1:203 Norway, 1:203 options to reduce, 1:203 research, 1:203 Burjanadze, Nino, 1:liii, 1:lviii Burkett, Elinor, 1:276 Burkina Faso, 1:204 domestic violence, 1:204 female genital surgery (FGS), 1:204

1793

1794

Index

forced marriage, 1:204 levirate, 1:204 literacy, 1:204 Burney, Fanny, 3:1025 Burroughs, Nannie Helen, 1:164 Burton, Pamela, 2:827 Burundi, 1:205–206 genocide, 1:205 HIV/AIDS, 1:206 poverty, 1:206 prostitution, 1:206 rape, 1:206 sexual violence, 1:206 Burwell, Dollie, 1:486 Busch, Elizabeth Kaufer, 2:530 Bush, George W., 1:lv, 1:35, 1:40, 1:74, 3:1107, 3:1289 business, women in, 1:23–24, 1:206–210 associations, 1:210 diversification, 1:208 microfinancing, 1:209–210 obstacles, 1:208–209 statistics, 1:207–208 Business and Professional Women’s Association (BPWA), 1:210 Butalia, Urvashi, 2:807–808 Butler, Brett, 1:314 Butler, Connie, 1:91 Butler, Judith, 2:535 Butler, Robert, 1:46 Byatt, A. S., 3:1027 Byrd, James, Jr., 2:730 C Cabral, Camille, 3:1468 caesarean sections, rates of, 1:211–212, 1:265–266, 1:269–270 factors in increase, 1:211–212 positive/negative outcomes, 1:212 Cagney and Lacey, 1:19

Calame, Ingrid, 1:89 Calderón, Sila Maria, 3:1189 Caldicott, Helen, 1:486 Caldwell, Kia Lilly, 2:537 Califia, Patrick, 1:158 California Birth Defects Monitoring Program (CBDMP), 1:155–156 Callaghan, Cathy, 2:545 Calmy-Rey, Micheline, 1:liii Calyx Journal, 2:541 Cambodia, 1:212–213 abortion access, 1:2 domestic violence, 1:212 education, 1:212–213 employment, 1:213 family, 1:212 gender gap, 1:213 marriage, 1:212 suffrage, 1:213 Cameron, James, 1:lxii Cameroon, 1:213–214 abortion access, 1:214 domestic violence, 1:214 GDP, 1:213 HIV/AIDS, 1:214 literacy, 1:214 rape, 1:214 trafficking, 1:214 CAMFED. See Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) “camgirl,” 1:234 Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), 1:lx, 1:214–215 Campbell, Angela, 3:1115 Campbell, Kim, 1:216 Campbell, Naomi, 3:1419 Camper, Jennifer, 1:227 Canada, 1:lv, 1:215–217 aboriginal/visible minority women, 1:216 alcohol, 1:20



bisexuality, 1:162 computer science, women in, 1:325 economic/social factors, 1:215–216 first wave feminism, 1:216 HIV/AIDS, 2:704 holidays, 1:207 politics, 1:216 second wave feminism, 1:216 women of note, 1:216–207 Women’s Court of Canada (CCC), 2:805 cancer, environmental factors and, 1:217–220 activism, 1:219–220 contributors, 1:218–219 heredity, 1:218 lifestyle, 1:217–218 prevention/detection, 1:219 research, 1:219 cancer, women and, 1:lix, 1:lxi, 1:220–224 cervical cancer, 1:223–224 global burden, 1:220 HIV/AIDS, 1:223–224 National Cancer Institute, 1:218 north/south disparities, 1:221–222, 1:221–224 rates of, 1:220–221 smoking and, 1:222–223 stomach cancer, 1:223 visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), 1:221 See also breast cancer Candomblé, 1:224–225 origins, 1:224–225 slavery and, 1:225 women as spiritual leaders, 1:225 cannabis, 1:21 Can’t Buy My Love (Kilbourne), 1:37 Cape Verde, 1:225–226 gender violence, 1:226 Institute for Gender Equity (ICEG), 1:226 women’s rights, 1:226 Caplan, Paula, 3:1184

Index

1795

Capriati, Jennifer, 3:1447 Captains of Consciousness (Ewen), 1:37 CAR. See Central African Republic (CAR) Carangi, Cia, 3:1419 cardiac diseases, 1:lix Cardinal, Tantoo, 1:216 “care chains,” 2:955 “care drain,” 2:955 career barriers, 2:950–951 careers computer science, women in, 1:324–325 earth science, women in, 1:437–438 economics, women in, 1:447–448 goals, childlessness, and, 1:275 See also midlife career change; nontraditional careers, U.S. Carey, Benedict, 1:156 Carey-Harper, Rachel, 2:536 Carnevale, Anthony, 1:99 Caroline, Charles, 2:789 Carr, Emma Perry, 1:245 Carri, Albertina, 2:566 Carry Me Home (McWhorter), 1:lii Carson, Johnny, 1:378 Carson, Rachel, 1:l, 1:153, 1:219, 1:486, 4:1505 Carter, A. P., 1:353 Carter, Jimmy, 1:40, 1:355, 3:1327 Carter, June, 1:354 Carter, Maybelle, 1:353–354 Carter, Nell, 1:160 Carter, Sara, 1:353 cartoonists, female, 1:227–228 diversity/representation/authorship, 1:227 future directions, 1:228 Carver, Chris, 1:l CAS. See cowboy action shooting (CAS) Casaro Nascimento, Adir, 1:228–229 Casey, Susan, 3:1367

1796

Index

Cash, June Carter, 1:lvi Castillo Ana, 1:251 Castree, Genevieve, 1:227 Cather, Willa, 1:357 Catholics for Choice (CFC), 1:229–230 contributions/campaigns, 1:230 issues, 1:229 patriarchal establishment, 1:230 Cattrall, Kim, 1:350 Cauldwell, Benjamin, 3:1474 cause marketing, 1:33 Cavani, Liliana, 2:564 CBDMP (California Birth Defects Monitoring Program), 1:155–156 CBS, 1:17 CCC (Women’s Court of Canada), 2:805 CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 1:liii, 1:153 CEDAW. See Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Ceil, Ben, 1:70 Celebrity (Rojek), 1:231 Celebrity and Power (Marshall), 1:231 Celebrity Register, 1:230 celebrity women, 1:230–234 ancient traditions, 1:231 books, 1:230–231 Conrad, Lauren, 1:233 consumerism, 1:233 Hilton, Paris, 1:230–231 human pseudo-event, 1:230, 1:232 identity and, 1:231–32 journalistic devices on, 1:232–233 role of media, 1:233–234 scholarship, 1:233 Spears, Britney, 1:232 stereotypes, 1:233 See also film actors, female; Fonda, Jane; Lady Gaga; Madonna; Nicks, Stevie, Queen Latifah;

Parton, Dolly; Stewart, Martha; supermodels; Walters, Barbara; Winfrey, Oprah cell division, 1:lxi cell phones, 1:33 censorship, 1:234–238 advertising, 1:234 authors, 1:237 film industry, 1:237–238 fine art, 1:236–237 music, 1:234–235 Websites, 1:236, 1:237 women’s attire, 1:234 Center for Reproduction Law and Policy, v. Bush, 3:1378 Center for the Education of Women, 1:308 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1:liii, 1:130, 1:153 Central African Republic (CAR), 1:238–239 discrimination, 1:238 education, 1:238 female genital surgery (FGS), 1:238 gender gap, 1:239 HIV/AIDS, 1:238–239 maternal death, 1:239 polygamy, 1:238 women’s rights, 1:238 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1:97 CFC. See Catholics for Choice (CFC) Chabad movement, 1:239–240 family life, 1:240 women’s participation, 1:239–240 Chabon, Michael, 1:158 Chad, 1:240–241 abortion access, 1:2 child marriage, 1:241 female genital surgery (FGS), 1:241 fertility rate, 1:241 GDP, 1:241 infant mortality, 1:241



life expectancy, 1:241 polygamy, 1:241 rape, 1:241 sexual violence, 1:241 trafficking, 1:241 Chaddock, C. G., 1:157 chadri, 4:1513 Chalice and the Blade, The (Eisler), 1:444 Challenge America With Erin Brockovich, 1:196 Chamorro, Violeta, 2:668–669 Chanel, Coco, 2:789 Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 2:666 Chapman, Tracy, 3:1245 Charlemagne Prize, 1:197 Charles, Mary Eugenia, 1:420 Charlie’s Angels, 1:19 Charmed, 1:lviii Chartered Institute of Building, 1:83 Chase, Cheryl, 1:241–242 Chast, Roz, 1:227 chastity, 4:1611 chastity pledges, 1:242–244 emergence, 1:243 popularity/support/criticism, 1:243–244 chatrooms, 1:244–245 chauvinism, 2:835 Chávez, César, 1:249, 3:1396 Chawla, Kalpana, 3:1350 Checker, Chubby, 1:373 Chemical & Engineering News, 1:246 chemistry, women in, 1:245–247 Carr, Emma Perry, 1:245 Daly, Marie, 1:245 Lyon, Mary, 1:245 professions, 1:245–247 studies, 1:245 Cherkasova, Maria, 1:488 Cheruit, Madeleine, 2:789 Chesler, Phyllis, 3:1183 Chez Panisse, 4:1542

Index

1797

Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook, The (Waters), 4:1542 Chicago, Judy, 1:88, 1:247–249, 2:805 feminist art education, 1:248–249 works, 1:248 See also Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago) Chicana feminism, 1:249–251 contemporary challenges, 1:250–251 early, 1:249–250 chief executive officers, female, 1:251–254 conclusion, 1:254 historical perspective, 1:252–253 in 21st century, 1:253–254 Child, Susan, 2:828 child abuse, perpetrators of, 1:254–257 abusive parents characteristics, 1:255–256 general characteristics, 1:254–255 sexual abusers characteristics, 1:256–257 child abuse, victims of, 1:257–261, 4:1611 characteristics, 1:258 history, 1:260 long-term outcomes, 1:259–260 short-term outcomes, 1:258–259 treatment, 1:260 child custody, 4:1611 child labor, 1:261–264 child types, 1:262–263 consequences, 1:263 data collection limitations, 1:262 debates, 1:263–264 gender disaggregated statistical estimates, 1:262 interventions, 1:263 Laos, 2:829 limitations of official definitions, 1:261–262 risk factors, 1:263 World Health Organization (WHO) and, 1:263 child marriage Chad, 1:241 children’s rights, 1:277 Côte d’lvoire, 1:350

1798

Index

child molesters, 3:1310 child pornography, 3:1310–1311 child prostitution, 3:1310–1311 child support, 4:1611 childbirth, home versus hospital, 1:89, 1:264–266 cesarean, 1:265–266 medicalization, 1:265 childbirth, medication in, 1:266–268 epidural, 1:266–268 narcotic analgesics, 1:266–267 natural childbirth and, 1:267–268 childbirth methods, cross-cultural, 1:268–271, 4:1611 cesarean sections, 1:269–270 diverging from technocratic model, 1:270–271 technocratic model, 1:268–269 childcare, 1:272–274, 4:1611 centers, 1:272–273 family, 1:272 issues/debates, 1:273 Saint Kitts and Nevis, 3:1267 women’s economic independence and, 1:273–274 Childfree Network, 1:75 childlessness as choice, 1:274–276 advocacy organizations, 1:275–276 career goals and, 1:275 Childfree Network, 1:75 “colleague-friendly parenting,” 1:276 No Kidding!, 1:75 role of contraception, 1:274–275 children Amish, 1:64 Argentina National Council on Children and Families, 1:86 consequences of divorce, 1:408–409 domestic violence (DV) and, 1:413 Saudi Arabia, 3:1278 Save the Children, 1:348, 3:1327, 3:1431

soccer, children’s, 3:1364–1365 Swaziland, 3:1423 Syria, 3:1431 toys, gender-stereotypic, shaping, 3:1462 Uzbekistan, 4:1507 welfare and, 4:1547 Yemen, 4:1601 See also beauty pageants (babies/young children); child marriage; children’s rights; family; infant mortality; trafficking, women and children children’s rights, 1:liii, 1:276–279 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 1:278 Amish, 1:64 child marriage, 1:277 education, 1:277 exploitation, 1:276 female genital mutilation (FGM), 1:277 HIV/AIDS, 1:277 honor killings, 1:277 infanticide, 1:277 Kenya, 1:277 prostitution, 1:277 safety, 1:277 thoughts on, 1:276–277 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1:277–278 women’s rights and, 1:279 Chile, 1:lvii, 1:119–120, 1:279–280 abortion laws, international, 1:11, 1:280 earthquake, 1:lxii employment, 1:280 politics, 1:280 women’s rights, 1:280 Chilton, Bruce, 3:1063 China, 1:281–283 archery, 1:82 education, 1:282 employment, 1:282–283



family, 1:282 infanticide, 2:751 trafficking, 1:282 women’s rights, 1:281–282 Chinchilla, Laura, 1:lxii, 1:348, 2:668 Chinese religions, 1:283–285 Buddhism, 1:283–285 Christianity, 1:284 Confucianism, 1:283–285 Daoism, 1:283–285 Chisholm, Lynne, 1:25 Cho, Margaret, 1:160, 1:285–286, 1:315 “choose life” license plates, 1:14 Cho Show, The, 1:286 Christ, Carol, 2:544 Christensen, Helena, 3:1419 Christian Identity, 1:286–287 soldiers of God, 1:287 Website, 1:287 women’s subservience, 1:287 Christianity, 1:287–291 Chinese religions, 1:284 contraception, religious approaches to, 1:331 dialogue/difference, 1:290 Ghana, 2:615 God language, 1:289–290 menstruation, rituals surrounding, 2:932 moral issues, 1:290 scripture interpretation, 1:289 theology, 1:289 women’s roles, 1:288–289 World Council of Churches (WCC), 1:290 Christoferson, Carla, 3:1443 chromium 6, 1:195 chronic life stressors, 1:21 Chronicle of Higher Education, 1:307 Chung, Connie, 2:792, 2:794 Chung, Jen, 1:167 Church, Ellen, 2:577

Index

1799

Church of God in Christ (COGIC), 1:163 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. See Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), 1:97 Ciavatta, Valeria, 1:liii, 3:1273 CIO (Congress of Industrial Unions), 4:1487 Cisneros, Sandra, 3:1027 civil rights, 1:164 Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1:liv, 1:39, 1:82, 1:252, 2:831 Civil Rights Act of 1991, 1:39–40 civil unions, 1:291–293 court battles/decisions, 1:291–292 defined, 1:291 domestic partnership, 1:291–292 Registered Partnership Act of 1989, 1:292 separate but equal system, 1:292 Claiming Disability (Linton), 2:862 Claims to Fame (Gamson), 1:231 Clarenbach, Kay, 3:996 Clark, Lynn Schofield, 1:26 Clarke, Gillian, 1:432 Clarke University, 1:324 Clarkson, Kelly, 1:61–62 Classic of Filial Piety, 1:284 classical music, women in, 1:293–295 composers, 1:294 performers, 1:293–294 scholarship, 1:295 See also Zaimont, Judith Lang Cleft, The (Lessing), 2:850–851 Cleghorne, Ellen, 1:314 Clement, Grace, 1:68 Clendaniel, Nancy, 3:1095 clergy abuse/pedophilia, 1:295–297 continuing patterns, 1:296–297 long-term consequences, 1:297 Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), 1:296

1800

Index

Clifford, Anne M., 1:359, 2:544 Clifton, Lucille, 3:1110 Clijsters, Kim, 3:1447 climate change as a women’s issue, 1:197, 1:297–300 causes/effects, 1:298–299 Green Belt Movement, 1:299, 3:1017–1018 policy, 1:299 Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), 1:299 See also Tuvalu Clinchy, Blythe, 1:104 Cline, Foster W., 2:681 Cline, Patsy, 1:353–354 Clinton, Bill, 1:40, 1:51, 1:57, 1:58, 3:1052, 3:1327, 3:1367 Clinton, Hillary Rodham, 1:xlix, 1:lix, 1:lxi, 1:51, 1:300–302, 1:475, 4:1497 First Lady of Arkansas, 1:300 First Lady of United States, 1:300–301 presidential campaign, 1:301 Secretary of State, 1:301–302 Clinton, Kate, 1:315 clitoridectomy, 4:1611 closed adoption, 1:29 Clover, Carol, 1:19, 3:1360 Club of Madrid, 1:197 CLUW (Coalition of Labor Union Women), 4:1487 CNN, 1:56–58 coaches, female, 1:302–304 gender barriers, 1:304 Lieberman, Nancy, 1:304 Mulkey, Kim, 1:303–304 Randolph, Natalie, 1:304 Stringer, C. Vivian, 1:303–304 Summit, Pat, 1:303 Sundhage, Pia, 1:303–304 support for, 1:302–303 Van Derveer, Tara, 1:303–304

coaches of women’s teams, 1:304–305 Auriemma, Geno, 1:305 Dorrance, Anson, 1:305 resources, 1:305 Stringer, C. Vivian, 1:305 Summit, Pat, 1:305 support, 1:305 Van Derveer, Tara, 1:305 Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations, 3:1019 Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), 4:1487 Cobain, Kurt, 1:160 cocaine, 1:21 Cocks, Heather, 1:167 CODEPINK, 1:305–306 methods, 1:306 protest targets, 1:306 COGIC (Church of God in Christ), 1:163 Cohen, Bonnie Bainridge, 1:374 Cohen, Lorenzo, 4:1602 Cohen, Sasha, 2:556 Cohen, Stephen, 4:1511 Colbert, Claudette, 2:558 Colborn, Theo, 1:445 Cold Mountain, 1:liii cold war, 1:94 Cole, Doris, 1:83 Collar Laundry Union, 4:1486 “colleague-friendly parenting,” 1:276 college and university faculty, 1:306–309 American Association of University Professors, 1:307–308 institution type, 1:306–307 institutional policies, 1:308–309 parental status, 1:307 rank, 1:307 College Art Association, 1:89 Collins, Eileen, 1:94 Collins, Patricia Hill, 4:1559



Colombia, 1:309–310 abortion access, 1:2 education, 1:309 gender gap, 1:309 healthcare, 1:309 life expectancy, 1:309 Color Purple, The (Walker, A.), 1:62, 4:1535 Columbia Journalism Review, 1:228 Comas-Diaz, Lillian, 3:1183 combat, women in, 1:310–313 current developments, 1:312 debates over roles, 1:312–313 gender constrictions, 1:313 historical review, 1:310–312 comedians, female, 1:314–316 character, 1:315 stand-ups, 1:314–315 writers, 1:315–316 Comet, Catherine, 1:294 comfort food, 1:74 coming out, 1:316–317 appropriate versus inappropriate, 1:316–317 sexual orientation and race, 3:1324 social conventions, 1:317 Comiskey, Grace, 3:1442 Commission on the Status of Women, 1:lvi Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 1:149 communism, 1:lviii, 1:1 community colleges, 1:316–317 family/work balance, 1:318 women in, 1:316–317 community defense/resistance, 1:319–320 grassroot links, 1:319 nonviolent defense, 1:319 Community of Imam W. S. Muhammad, 1:45 community protection laws, 3:1311–1312 Comoros, 1:320–321 employment, 1:320 infant mortality, 1:320

Index

1801

life expectancy, 1:320 rape, 1:320 unwritten restrictions, 1:320 complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), 1:259 compulsive overeating, 4:1611 computer games, 1:321–323 design/marketing, 1:321–322 gender socialization, 1:322 interest/participation, 1:322 computer science, women in, 1:323–326 Australia, 1:325 Canada, 1:325 careers, 1:324–325 education, 1:324–325 ENIAC, 1:323 history, 1:323–324 India, 1:325 Malaysia, 1:325 Netherlands, 1:325 New Zealand, 1:325 pipeline issues, 1:325 South Africa, 1:325 stereotypes, 1:325–326 United Kingdom, 1:325 United States, 1:325 UNIVAC, 1:323 Web design, 1:325 Whirlwind, 1:323 Comstock, Anthony, 3:1118 Cone, James, 1:164 Confirmation, 1:25 conflict zones, 1:326–328 displacement, 1:327 gender violence and, 1:327 HIV/AIDS and, 1:327 military, 1:326–327 peace/activism and, 1:328 stay-at-home, 1:327 traditional, 1:326

1802

Index

Confucianism, 1:25, 1:199, 1:283–285 Congo, 1:lxi, 1:328–329 GDP, 1:328–329 gender discrimination, 1:329 HIV/AIDS, 1:328 Congo, Democratic Republic of the (DR Congo), 1:329–330 civil war, 1:329 healthcare, 1:329 HIV/AIDS, 1:329 rape, 1:329 Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO), 4:1487 Congressional Gold Medals, 1:lxii Connelly, Jennifer, 1:li Conrad, Emilie, 1:374 Conrad, Lauren, 1:233 consciousness raising (CR), 2:532 conservatism, 3:1113–1114 Constant Gardener, The, 1:lvi consumerism, 1:233 contraception, religious approaches to, 1:330–332 Christianity, 1:331 Hinduism, 1:331 Islam, 1:331 Judaism, 1:331 Roman Catholic Church, 1:330 women’s autonomy and, 1:332 See also fertility contraception methods, 1:332–335. barrier, 1:333 classifications, 1:333 diaphragms, 1:334 female condoms, 1:334 hormonal, 1:334 intrauterine devices (IUDs), 1:334 lactational amenorrhoea method (LAM), 1:333 male condoms, 1:333–334

natural, 1:333 selecting, 1:332–333 withdrawal, 1:333 World Health Organization (WHO) on, 1:332 See also fertility Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 1:12, 1:49, 1:60, 1:145, 1:179, 1:204, 1:207, 1:335–338, 2:538, 2:801, 2:814, 2:885, 3:1091, 3:1092, 3:1174, 3:1295, 4:1485, 4:1492–1493, 4:1495, 4:1511 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1:336–337 committees, 1:336 historical background, 1:335 structure/effect, 1:335–336 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1:338–339 adoption, 1:338 general components, 1:338–339 Conway, Curtis, 1:54 Conway, Curtis Muhammad, 1:54 Cook, Suzan Johnson, 1:165 Coolidge, Martha, 2:569 Cooney, Joan Ganz, 1:lx Cooper, Cynthia, 4:1580 Coppola, Francis Ford, 1:340 Coppola, Sofia, 1:340, 2:569 Cori, Gerti, 1:152 Cornelius, Vida, 1:35 Cornell, 1:324 Cornum, Rhonda, 1:340–341 Cortesio, Ria, 3:1390 cosmeceuticals, 1:345–346 cosmetic surgery, 1:341–344 challenges, 1:344 controversy, 1:342–343 defined, 1:341 gender/race/ethnicity in, 1:343–344



popular culture and, 1:344 types, 1:342–343 cosmetics industry, 1:345–348 cosmeceuticals, 1:345–346 marketing/hucksterism, 1:346–347 products, 1:345–346 racism and, 1:347–348 for women of color, 1:347–348 Cosmopolitan, 4:1578 cosmopolitan feminism, 2:629 Costa Rica, 1:lxii, 1:348–349 alcohol, 1:20 discrimination, 1:348 divorce, 1:348 employment, 1:348 GDP, 1:348 healthcare, 1:348 social climate, 1:348–349 standard of living, 1:348 Côte d’lvoire, 1:349–350 child marriage, 1:350 discrimination, 1:350 domestic violence, 1:350 female genital mutilation (FGM), 1:349 forced marriage, 1:350 infant mortality, 1:349 rape, 1:350 Cotera, Marta, 1:250 Cotillard, Marion, 1:lix Cougar: A Guide for Older Women Dating Younger Men (Gibson), 1:350 “cougars,” 1:350–351, 3:1215, 4:1612 defined, 1:350 origination, 1:350 social connotations, 1:350–351 Coughlin, Natalie, 3:1048 Coulter, Ann, 2:794 Council of Europe, 3:1072–1073 Council of Women World Leaders, 1:197, 1:351–352

Index

1803

meetings, 1:351–352 mission, 1:351 programs, 1:352 country and western music, women in, 1:352–354 Carter family, 1:353 Cline, Patsy, 1:353–354 current, 1:354 early development, 1:352 first women of, 1:352 Wells, Kitty, 1:353–354 Couric, Katie, 1:lvii, 1:354–355 Cournoyea, Nellie, 1:216 Court, Margaret, 3:1447 Covenant, Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), 1:286 Coventry, Kristy, 3:1048 cowboy action shooting (CAS), 1:355–356 development, 1:355 events, 1:355–356 prizes, 1:356 Single Action Shooting Society (SASS), 1:356–357 Cowell, Simon, 1:61 cowgirls, 1:356–357 Mulhall, Lucille, 1:356 Oakley, Annie, 1:356 Cowings, Patricia S., 3:1183 Cox, Ana Marie, 1:166 CPCs. See crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) CPTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder), 1:259 CR (consciousness raising), 2:532 crafting industry, 1:358 Craven, Wes, 3:1359 Crawford, Cindy, 3:1419 Crawford, Joan, 1:160, 2:558 Crawford, Mary, 2:537 CRC. See Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

1804

Index

Crea, Vivien, 1:115–116 Creation Care movement (evangelical), 1:359 creatives, 1:31 Credle, Susan, 1:35 Creigh, Harper, 1:355 Cresson, Edith, 2:585, 2:667 CRF. See critical race feminism (CRF) Crick, Francis, 3:1283 crime victims, female, 1:360–362 “male gaze,” 1:362 response to crime, 1:361 scale of issue, 1:360–361 survivors, 1:362 crisis pregnancy, 1:4 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), 1:362–363 establishment, 1:362 objectional tactics, 1:363 pro-life movement and, 3:1170–1171 Crispin, Jessa, 1:166 critical race feminism (CRF), 1:363–364 Croatia, 1:364–365 GDP, 1:365 gender gap, 1:365 literacy, 1:365 Crocker, Erin, 1:114 Crossman, Brenda, 2:845 Cruise, Jennifer, 3:1255 Cruz, Penélope, 1:lx CSA (Covenant, Sword, and the Arm of the Lord), 1:286 Cuarón, Alfonso, 2:566 Cuba, 1:366 alcohol, 1:20 Federation of Cuban Women (FCW), 1:366 GDP, 1:366 sex trade, 1:366 “cult of thinness,” 1:393 Cunitz, Maria, 1:96 Cuomo, Chris, 1:446 Curie, Marie, 1:152, 3:1102, 3:1281

“Curse of Ham,” 1:162 Customized Body, The (Polhemus), 1:169 Cuthbert, Betty, 1:lii Cutler, Amy, 1:89 Cutler, Jessica, 1:166 CWG. See White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG) cyberfeminism, 1:89 Cyberfeminism (Hawthorne/Klein), 2:763 cyber-stalking and Internet harassment, 1:367–368 defined, 1:367 outer aspects of life, 1:367–368 women as stalkers, 1:368 Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology, The (Todd), 1:157 Cyprus, 1:368–369 abortion access, 1:368–369 bisexuality, 1:161 domestic violence, 1:369 education, 1:369 infant mortality, 1:369 life expectancy, 1:369 women’s rights, 1:369 Cyrus, Miley, 1:230, 1:243 CZ. See Czech Republic (CZ) Czech Republic (CZ), 1:lxiii, 1:369–370 domestic violence, 1:370 employment, 1:370 gender gap, 1:370 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 1:370 women’s rights, 1:370 D da Silva, Luiz Inácio Lula, 1:186 Da Vinci Code, The, 1:371–372 Daddy’s Girl, 1:54 DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell), 2:847–848 Daily News Egypt, 2:616 Dalai Lama, 1:201



Dalton, Clare, 2:540 Daly, Marie, 1:245 Daly, Mary, 1:445 DALYs (disability adjusted life years), 1:220 Danadjieva, Angela, 2:827 dance, women in, 1:372–374 art dance, 1:372 organizations, 1:374 somatics/health and, 1:374 Dancing with the Stars, 1:54, 373 Daniele, Graciela, 1:373 Danticat, Edwidge, 3:1027 Daoism, 1:283–285 Dar ul-Islam, 1:45 Darby, Joseph, 1:17 Darcy-Hennemann, Suzanna, 1:115–116 Darwin, Charles, 1:152 “date rape,” 1:7 dating violence, 1:374–378 consequences, 1:377 correlates, 1:377 defined, 1:375 gender and, 1:376–377 in same sex relationships, 1:377 prevalence, 1:376 understanding, 1:376 Davenport, Lindsay, 1:l, 1:lii, 1:lvi Davis, Angela, 2:847 Davis, Bette, 2:558 Davis, Carolyn, 3:996 Davis, Christina, 3:1109 Davis, Ellen F., 1:359 Davis, Gail, 1:356 Davis, Geena, 1:82 Davis, Gray, 2:228 Davis, Wartha, 2:724 Day I Became a Woman, The 1:237 Dayley, Janet, 3:1255 D&C (dilation and curettage), 1:16 DCI (Development Corporation Ireland), 1:207

Index DCIS (Ductile Carcinoma In Situ), 1:189–191 D&E (dilation and evacuation), 1:10, 1:15–16 de Beauvoir, Simone, 2:845, 3:1187–1188 de Chamorro, Violeta, 3:1009–1010 de Corral, Mara, 1:90 de Coubertin, Pierre, 3:1048–1049 De Filippis, Maria Teresa, 1:113 de Kirchner, Cristina Fernandez, 2:669 de la Cruz, Juana Inés, 2:944 De La Hoya, Oscar, 1:181 de Pizan, Christine, 2:543 de Rossi, Portia, 1:378 de Souza, Filipa, 2:846 de Vos, Anna Marie, 2:841 Deal, Kim, 3:1244 Dean, Carl, 3:1079 Dean, Christopher, 1:lii Dean, Tacita, 1:90 Death of Nature, The (Merchant), 1:444 d’Eaubonne, Françoise, 1:444, 1:483, 1:487 DeBartolo, Denise, 3:1443 debt bondage, 1:26 Decoding Advertisements (Williamson), 1:36 Dede, Sanité, 4:1528 Dees-Thomases, Donna, 2:968 DeGeneres, Ellen, 1:61, 1:68, 1:314–315, 1:378–379, 2:847 del Po, Teresa, 3:1409 Delaria, Lea, 1:315 DeLauro, Rosa, 1:474 Demeulemeester, Ann, 2:789 deMille, Agnes, 1:373 Deneuve, Catherine, 2:558 Deng Xiaoping, 1:284 dengue fever, 4:1612 Denmark, 1:379–380 astronomy, women in, 1:96 breast cancer, 1:379 employment, 1:379 schools, 1:55

1805

1806

Index

Department of Human Resources v. Hobbs, 1:liii depression, 1:380–385 classification/symptoms, 1:380–381 cognitive behavior and, 1:382–383 controversies, 1:384–385 etiology, 1:381 treatments, 1:383–384 women and, 1:381–382 World Health Organization (WHO) and, 1:380 Derenk, Maya, 2:561 Desai, Anita, 3:1027 Desert Storm, 3:1158–1159 Desperate Housewives, 2:530 Deste Center for Contemporary Arts, 1:liii, 1:90 Development Corporation Ireland (DCI), 1:207 Devereux, George, 1:15 Devi, Amrita, 1:486 Devil Wears Prada, The, 3:1222 devouts, 1:31 DGA (Director’s Guild of America), 2:570 diabetes, 1:385–387 American Diabetes Foundation, 1:54 causes/symptoms, 1:386–387 pregnancy-induced, 1:9 types, 1:385–386 See also gestational diabetes mellitus Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), 1:76–78, 1:256, 1:380, 1:387–389 criticism, 1:388–389 mental health standard, 1:387–388 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), critiques of, 1:389–390 Diamond, Ameera, 1:70 Diamond, Irene, 2:646 Diamond, Lisa M., 1:159 diarrhea, bacterial, 4:1612 diarrhea, protozoal, 4:1612

Dias Diogo, Luísa, 2:983 Diaz, Cameron, 2:559 Dibaba, Tirunesh, 3:1047 Dick, Andy, 1:158 Dickinson, Emily, 3:1110 Dickinson, Janice, 3:1419 diet and weight control, 1:390–395 continuation by women, 1:393–394 “cult of thinness,” 1:393 “fear of fat,” 1:392–394 history, 1:390–392 “misunderstood hunger,” 1:394 in non-Western societies, 1:394 pathology of eating, 1:392–393 See also eating disorders diet industry, 1:395–397 National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), 1:397 new paradigm, 1:397 programs/products, 1:395–396 risks/ineffectiveness, 1:396–397 Dietrich, Marlene, 1:160, 2:558 DiFranco, Ani, 1:160, 3:1244–1245 digital multimedia art, 1:90–92 dilation and curettage (D&C), 1:16, 4:1612 dilation and evacuation (D&E), 1:10 dilation and extraction, 4:1612 Dill, Karen E., 1:322 Diller, Phyllis, 1:314 Dinner Party, The (Judy Chicago), 1:398–399. See also Chicago, Judy Diogo, Luisa, 1:liv DioGuardi, Kara, 1:61 Dion, Celine, 1:217 dioxin, 1:10 direct sales, 1:399–401 Avon, 1:400 female authority/woman-to-woman, 1:400 Mary Kay, 1:400–401



passion parties, 1:401 social responsibility, 1:401 Tupperware, 1:400–401 Director’s Guild of America (DGA), 2:570 Dirie, Waris, 1:401–402 disability adjusted life years (DALYs), 1:220 disability definitions, 1:402–405 categories, 1:403 eugenic theory, 1:403 rights advocacy, 1:404 disc jockeys, 1:405–406 queer radio, 1:405–406 21st century shockettes, 1:405 virtual radio, 1:406 Discovery, 1:94 Discovery Communications, 1:lxiii discrimination, 1:lv Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 1:39 bisexuality, 1:161–162 Central African Republic (CAR), 1:238 Costa Rica, 1:348 Côte d’lvoire, 1:350 Ireland, 2:772 job, 1:lxi Jordan, 2:792 judges, women as, 2:802–803 part-time work, 3:1082 Serbia, 3:1297 Singapore, 3:1351–1352 Suriname, 3:1420 Taliban, 3:1437 transgender, 3:1469 Zimbabwe, 4:1605–1606 See also Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); gender discrimination; sexual orientation–based legal discrimination: United States; sexual orientation–based legal discrimination: outside United States; sexual

Index

1807

orientation–based social discrimination: outside United States disenfranchisement, 1:lvii disorders of sex development (DSD), 1:242, 2:767 diversification Bollywood, 1:176 business, women in, 1:208 Division for the Advancement of Women, 1:lvi divorce, 1:406–409, 4:1612 Andorra, 1:65 Azerbaijan, 1:118 Belarus, 1:145 Belize, 1:147 causes, 1:407 consequences for children, 1:408–409 consequences for women, 1:407–408 Costa Rica, 1:348 Fiji, 2:557 history, 1:406–407 Zambia, 4:1605 See also marriage Dixon, Jay, 3:1256 Dixon, Maggie, 1:131 DIY (do-it-yourself ), 1:89 Djibouti, 1:409–410 domestic violence, 1:409 female genital mutilation (FGM), 1:409 HIV/AIDS, 1:409 infant mortality, 1:409 literacy, 1:409 DNA, 1:lxi Dobson, James, 2:578–579, 3:1327 Doe v. Bolton, 1:3, 3:1247 do-it-yourself (DIY), 1:89 Dole, Bob, 3:1367 Dollar, Creflo, 1:164 domestic partnership, 1:291–292 domestic violence, 1:89, 1:410–415 Algeria, 1:52

1808

Index

American Samoa, 1:63 Angola, 1:66, 1:66–67 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75 Australia, 1:110 Azerbaijan, 1:118 Bangladesh, 1:124 Barbados, 1:125 Belarus, 1:145 Belize, 1:147 Benin, 1:148 Brazil, 1:186 Brunei Darussalam, 1:198 Burkina Faso, 1:204 Cambodia, 1:212 Cameroon, 1:214 children and, 1:413 Côte d’lvoire, 1:350 Cyprus, 1:369 Czech Republic (CZ), 1:370 Djibouti, 1:409 Dominican Republic, 1:422 Egypt, 1:464 Estonia, 1:498 Finland, 2:574–575 gender-based, 1:411 Georgia, 2:613 Guinea-Bissau, 2:656 health and, 1:412–413 Hungary, 2:732 India, 2:739–740 international scope, 1:411–412 Israel, 2:778 Italy, 2:781–782 Kazakhstan, 2:810–811 Kiribati, 2:815 Kuwait, 2:819 Latvia, 2:830 Lesotho, 2:849 Lithuania, 2:863–864 Maldives, 2:885

Mauritius, 2:913 methodological issues, 1:414 Micronesia, 2:949 Montenegro, 2:974 Mozambique, 2:983 Papua New Guinea, 3:1070 Peru, 3:1090 Saint Lucia, 3:1268 São Tomé and Principe, 3:1275 services, 1:413–414 South Africa, 3:1379 Sudan, 3:1411 Suriname, 3:1420 Sweden, 3:1427 terminology, 1:410–411 Tonga, 3:1458–1459 Turkey, 3:1478 Vietnam, 4:1517–1518 domestic violence centers, 1:415–417 current, 1:416–417 history, 1:415–416 themes/debates, 1:416 domestic workers, 1:417–420, 4:1612 characteristics, 1:417 International Labor Organization (ILO) and, 1:419 trade unions and, 1:419 working conditions, 1:418–419 Dominica, 1:420–421 abortion access, 1:420 gross domestic product (GDP), 1:420 healthcare, 1:420 literacy, 1:420 Dominican Republic, 1:lxii, 1:421–422 domestic violence (DV), 1:422 education, 1:422 employment, 1:421–422 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 1:422 prostitution, 1:422 Donahue, 1:159



Donaldson, Stephen, 1:158 Donovan, Josephine, 1:68 Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), 2:847–848, 3:1327–1328 Dora the Explorer, 1:l, 1:422–423 Dorrance, Anson, 1:305, 3:1366 Dothard v. Rawlinson, 3:1154 Douglas, Pamela, 2:570 Douglas, Susan, 3:1397 doulas, 1:423–424 coining, 1:423 techniques/practices, 1:424 Dove, Rita, 3:1109 Dow, Bonnie, 1:276 Dow Jones v. Department of Justice, 3:1378 Downer, Carol, 4:1573 dowry, 2:898, 3:1174–1175 Doyle Dane Bernbach, 1:34, 1:35 DR Congo. See Congo, Democratic Republic of the (DR Congo) drag kings, 1:424–426 current, 1:425 defined, 1:424 historical, 1:425 International Drag King Community Extravaganza (IDKE), 1:425 Dratch, Rachel, 1:315 Dreamgirls, 1:lvii Drexler, Melissa, 2:752 Drif-Bitat, Zohra, 1:426–427 drought, 1:427–428 drug trade, 1:428–438 criminal issues, 1:430 international, 1:429–430 production/processing, 1:429 street-level markets, 1:429 See also addiction and substance abuse DSD. See disorders of sex development (DSD) DSM. See Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

Index du Châtelet, Emilie, 2:909, 3:1102 Duchemion, Angelique Marie Joseph, 2:584 Duchesne, Rosa Philippine, 2:688 Duckworth, Tammy, 1:430–431 Ductile Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), 1:189–191 Due Process Clause, 1:13 Duffo, Esther, 1:449 Duffy, Carol Ann, 1:431–433, 3:1110 Dulac, Germaine, 2:560, 2:563 Dumas, Marlene, 1:90 Dunford, Mary, 1:296 DuPlessis, Rachel Blau, 3:1109 DuPont, 1:246 Duras, Marguerite, 2:560, 2:563 Durkheim, Emile, 2:528 Dusoulier, Clotilde, 1:167 “Dutch Case,” 3:1006–1007 DV. See domestic violence (DV) Dworkin, Andrea, 2:536, 2:539 Dykes on Bikes, 1:433 Dykman, Janet, 1:82 Dynamic God, A (Mairs), 2:881 dysthymia in minority population, 1:434 E Eagle Forum, 1:435–436 causes/controversies, 1:435–436 founding, 1:435 Earhart, Amelia, 1:115 Early Show, The 1:54 Earnhardt, Dale, Jr., 1:114 Earth Hall of Fame Kyoto Award, 1:197 earth science, women in, 1:436–438 careers, 1:437–438 studies, 1:436–437 EarthKam, 1:l East Timor, 1:438–439 bride price, 1:438 education, 1:438

1809

1810

Index

polygamy, 1:438 sexual harassment, 1:438 Eastwood, Clint, 1:182 Eastwood, Mary, 3:996 eating disorders, 1:89, 1:173, 1:439–442 anorexia nervosa, 1:440–441 binge eating, 1:441 bulimia nervosa, 1:441 common in women, 1:439–440 conforming to societal norms, 1:441–442 diagnosis, 1:440 See also diet and weight control Eaton, Bridgette, 1:166 Ebadi, Shirin, 1:liii, 1:442–444, 2:769, 3:1018 eBay, 1:324 Eckhart, Aaron, 1:196 ecofeminism, 1:67, 1:444–446, 1:483, 4:1612 conceptual/empirical interconnections, 1:444–445 critiques, 1:446 environmental issues, women and, 1:487 epistemological interconnections, 1:446 historical/causal interconnections, 1:444 linguistic/symbolic/literary interconnections, 1:445 political/ethical interconnections, 1:446 socioeconomic interconnections, 1:445 spiritual/religious interconnections, 1:445–446 Ecofeminism in Latin America (Ress), 1:446 Ecofeminist Natures (Sturgeon), 1:446 Ecofeminist Philosophy (Warren, K.), 1:444 economic governance, 1:lxi Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), 3:1016–1017 economics, women in, 1:447–450 careers, 1:447–448 contributors, 1:448–449 students, 1:447 ECOSOC. See Economic and Social Council

ECRW (Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights), 2:616 Ecuador, 1:lxii, 1:450–451 gender gap, 1:450–451 healthcare, 1:450–451 infant mortality, 1:450 poverty, 1:451 ECUSA (Episcopal Church in the United States), 3:1280 Edelman, Marian Wright, 3:1090 Edelson, Mary Beth, 1:91 Ederle, Gertrude, 3:1430 Edgeworth, Maria, 3:1025 education children’s rights, 1:277 computer science, women in, 1:324–325 engineering, women in, 1:475–476 history of women in, 1:103 Islam in America, 2:776 See also alternative education; attainment, college degree; attainment, elementary school completion; attainment, graduate degree; attainment, high school completion; college and university faculty; community colleges; educational attainment, effect of unpaid labor on; fields of study; women’s colleges education, women in, 1:451–454 achievement/participation, 1:452 activism on, 1:454 experiences, 1:452–453 historical context, 1:451–452 theoretical perspectives, 1:453–454 educational administrators, college and university, 1:455–456 gender gap, 1:455 perceptions of female, 1:455–456 educational administrators, elementary and high school, 1:456–458 gendering of teachers/leaders, 1:457



leadership preparation programs, 1:457–458 women’s methods, 1:458 educational attainment, effect of unpaid labor on, 1:458–460 household labor, 1:458–459 research, 1:459 educational opportunities/access, 1:460–462 Afghanistan, 1:43 Austria, 1:112 Bahrain, 1:122 Bangladesh, 1:123 Barbados, 1:125 Benin, 1:148 Brazil, 1:186 Brunei Darussalam, 1:198 Cambodia, 1:212–213 Central African Republic (CAR), 1:238 China, 1:282 Colombia, 1:309 Cyprus, 1:369 Dominican Republic, 1:422 East Timor, 1:438 Egypt, 1:463 El Salvador, 1:465–466 Gambia, 2:595 gender, 1:461 Ghana, 2:615 Guyana, 2:658 Hungary, 2:732 Iraq, 2:770 Israel, 2:778–779 Jamaica, 2:784–785 Japan, 2:787–788 Liberia, 2:856 Lichtenstein, 2:857 Malaysia, 2:884 Maldives, 2:885 Mali, 2:886 Mauritania, 2:912 Moldova, 2:971

Index

1811

Oman, 3:1051 Panama, 3:1069 Peru, 3:1090 Philippines, 3:1092 Portugal, 3:1125 Puerto Rico, 3:1188–1189 race, 1:460–461 Russia, 3:1262 Saint Kitts and Nevis, 3:1267 Samoa, 3:1273 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), 1:462 Sierra Leone, 3:1347–1348 Singapore, 3:1351 Slovenia, 3:1361 socioeconomic status, 1:460 South Korea, 3:1381 Spain, 3:1384 Tajikistan, 3:1433 Tanzania, 3:1438–1439 Togo, 3:1458 Tunisia, 3:1476–1477 Uzbekistan, 4:1507 Yemen, 4:1600 See also “girl-friendly” schools; Global Campaign for Education; women’s colleges EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission), 1:39–42 Egypt, 1:xlix, 1:liii, 1:462–463 Avian flu, 1:463 domestic violence, 1:464 educational opportunities/access, 1:463 female genital mutilation (FGM), 1:464 honor killings, 1:462 infant mortality, 1:463 life expectancy, 1:463 prostitution, 1:464 rape, 1:464 Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECRW), 2:616

1812

Index

Egyptian Feminist Union, 1:80 Ehrenreich, Barbara, 1:464–465 Eilberg, Amy, 3:1197 Eisenstadt v. Baird, 4:1573 Eisler, Riane, 1:444 Eisner Award, 1:227 El Moutawakel, Nawal, 1:lix El Salvador, 1:465–466 abortion access, 1:1, 1:3 abortion laws, international, 1:11 educational opportunities/access, 1:465–466 employment, 1:465–466 gender gap, 1:466 life expectancy, 1:466 ELCI (Environmental Liaison Center International), 1:484 elder abuse, 1:466–468 financial, 1:466–467 gender differences, 1:467–468 physical/sexual, 1:467 elder care, 1:468–470 controversies/critiques, 1:468–469 prospective/empowerment, 1:469–470 quality, 1:470 Elders, Joycelyn, 1:470–471 Eldredge, Todd, 2:556 elections, 1:liv electoral quotas, 4:1612 elementary educators, 1:471–474 beginnings/professional preparation, 1:472 feminization of teaching, 1:473–474 work of, 1:472–473 Elion, Gertrude, 1:153 Eliot, George, 3:1026 Elisara, Le’ala, 1:62 Elisara, Tricia O’Connor, 1:359 Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 1:91, 1:92 Elizabeth II, 1:lvii, 1:58, 4:1489

Elkins, Caroline, lvii Ellenberg, Harriet, 2:541 Elliott, Missy, 2:695 Emad, Mitra C., 1:19 embryo, 1:7, 1:9, 1:29 Emergence: Labeled Autistic (Grandin), 2:640 Emerson, Claudia, 1:lvii, 3:1110 EMILY’s List, 1:474–475 Emmy Awards, 1:124 employment Austria, 1:112 Belarus, 1:144–145 Brazil, 1:186 Bulgaria, 1:201–202 Cambodia, 1:213 Chile, 1:280 China, 1:282–283 Comoros, 1:320 Costa Rica, 1:348 Czech Republic (CZ), 1:370 Denmark, 1:379 El Salvador, 1:465–466 Ethiopia, 1:500 Fiji, 2:557 Germany, 1:614–615 Honduras, 2:720 Hungary, 2:731 Ireland, 2:772 Israel, 2:780 Italy, 2:781 Jamaica, 2:784–785 Japan, 2:787–788 Poland, 3:1111–1112 Samoa, 3:1273 Seychelles, 3:1340 Slovenia, 3:1362 South Korea, 3:1380 Spain, 3:1384 Switzerland, 3:1430 Tajikistan, 3:1433



United Kingdom, 4:1490 United States, 4:1497–1498 welfare and, 4:1546–1547 empowerment beauty pageants, 1:136 elder care, 1:469–470 feminism, 1:209 Green Belt Movement, 2:646, 3:1017–1018 Internet dating, 2:765 misogyny versus, 3:1118–1119 empty nest syndrome, 4:1613 enforcement clause, 1:l engineering, women in, 1:475–478 education, 1:475–476 policy, 1:476–477 professions, 1:476 research, 1:477 theoretical approaches, 1:476 Women into Science and Engineering (WISE), 1:476 England, Lynndie, 1:18, 1:478 ENIAC, 1:323 enlightenment, 1:199 Enquist, Sue, 1:lx Ensler, Eve, 1:160, 1:478–479, 2:536, 4:1509–1510 entrepreneurs, 1:207, 1:210, 1:480–483 Arango, Marta, 1:482 barriers/successes, 1:482 country comparisons, 1:481 Kunder, Farah Khan, 1:482 Maathai, Wangari, 1:482 major contributors, 1:480 Manning, Margaret, 1:482 microentrepreneurs, 1:480–481 motivation/characteristics, 1:481–482 Sabanci, Guler, 1:482 Winfrey, Oprah, 1:482 environmental activism, grassroots, 1:483–485 concerns, 1:483–484

Index

1813

Environmental Liaison Center International (ELCI), 1:484 global, 1:484–485 Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), 1:485, 3:1018 Women’s Environment Network (WEN), 1:484 Women’s International Policy Action Committee (IPAC), 1:485 women’s roles, 1:484 Environmental Culture (Plumwood), 3:1108 Environmental Design Research Association, 1:85 environmental issues, women and, 1:liv, 1:486–489 ecofeminism, 1:487 environmental justice, 1:487–488 global south versus global north, 1:488–489 government and, 1:487 in postsocialist states, 1:488 environmental justice, 1:487–488, 1:489–490 international struggles, 1:490 movements, 1:489–490 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 1:156 EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), 1:156 epidural, 1:266–268, 4:1613 Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA), 3:1280 Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), 1:39–42 Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, 1:39–30, 2:831 equal opportunity. See affirmative action/equal opportunity equal pay, 1:490–493 indicators/trends, 1:491–492 mainstreaming/welfare policies, 1:492–493 solutions for ensuring, 1:492 who is paid less?, 1:491 Equal Pay Act of 1963, 1:39, 2:831 Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), 1:493–495 hearings, 1:493

1814

Index

opposition, 1:495 recent analyses, 1:495 support for, 1:494–495 equality, 1:12 Equatorial Guinea, 1:496–497 HIV/AIDS, 1:496 infant mortality, 1:496 polygamy, 1:496 poverty, 1:496 rape, 1:496 ERA. See Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Erdrich, Louise, 1:lvii Erin Brockovich, 1:xlix Eritrea, 1:497–498 HIV/AIDS, 1:497 infant mortality, 1:497 polygamy, 1:497 rape, 1:497–498 Ernie Pook’s Comeek, 1:227 erotica. See pornography/erotica Eskridge, William, 1:291 Espin, Olivia, 3:1183 Estonia, 1:498–499 domestic violence, 1:498 life expectancy, 1:498 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 1:498 trafficking, 1:498 women’s rights, 1:498 Estrich, Susan, 2:540 Etheridge, Melissa, 2:847 ethic of care, 1:68 Ethiopia, 1:499–500 abortion access, 1:2 abortion laws, international, 1:12 employment, 1:500 gender roles, 1:500 partner violence, 1:lxiii poverty, 1:500 ethnic cleansing, 4:1613 ethnic surgery, 1:143–144

ethnicity, 4:1613 in cosmetic surgery, 1:343–344 suicide rates, 3:1416 eugenic theory, 1:403 eugenics, 1:9, 3:1401–1402 European Union (EU), 3:1073–1074 Evangelical Protestantism, 1:500–503 gender dynamics/family formation, 1:501–502 numbers in United States, 1:501 politics, 1:502–503 youth culture, 1:502 Evangelion, 1:71 Evangelista, Linda, 3:1419 Evanovich, Janet, 1:lviii Evans, Dale, 1:356 Evans, Janet, 1:lii Evans, Jodie, 1:305 Evans, Joni, 1:lx Evans, Tony, 1:164 Evans-Pritchard, E. E., 2:897 Evert, Chris, 3:1447 Everything I Possess I Carry With Me (Müller), 1:lxi Ewen, Stuart, 1:37 Executive Order 8802, 1:39 Executive Order 10925, 1:39 Executive Order 11246, 1:39–40 exercise science, 1:503–504 kinesiology, 1:503–504 sports medicine, 1:504 See also fitness exhibitionism, 3:1311 exploitation Benin, 1:149 children’s rights, 1:276 HIV/AIDS: Africa, 2:697–698 Women Exploited by Abortion (WEBA), 3:1172 F FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances), 1:5, 1:14, 3:1052



Facebook, 1:33, 3:1225, 3:1369 Facial Feminization Surgery, 1:171 factory farms, 1:68 faculty, adjunct and contingent, 2:505–506 Fair, Lilith, 3:1245 Fair Pay Restoration Act, 1:lxi fair trade, 2:506–507 changing conventional trade, 2:507 women/practices and, 2:507–508 Fairbanks, Mabel, 1:lii Fake, 1:71 Falkland Islands, 1:lxi Falleta, JoAnn, 1:294 Faludi, Susan, 1:73, 2:540 Falwell, Jerry, 3:1327 family, 1:liii, 1:52 Cambodia, 1:212 China, 1:282 community colleges balance, 1:318 family planning, 1:lx–lxi, 1:13 family voting, 1:116–117 homeschooling, 2:715 Indonesia, 2:747–748 Japan, 2:787–788 Laos, 2:828–829 Madagascar, 2:875 Maldives, 2:884 midlife career change factors, 2:950 nuclear, 1:147 physicians, female, links, 3:1100 property rights, 3:1175 Russia, 3:1262–1263 Samoa, 3:1273 Saudi Arabia, 3:1278 Senegal legal code, 3:1295 Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), 1:508–509 leaders, not homemakers, 2:508 programs/goals, 2:508–509

Index

1815

family and consumer sciences, 2:509–510 Family Code, 1:52 family law, 4:1613 family leave, 4:1613 Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), 1:liii, 1:308, 3:1014, 3:1074–1075. See also Parental Leave Act family planning, 4:1613. See also Planned Parenthood Family Research Council, 2:510–511 actions, 2:510 Christian Right, 2:510 values, 2:511 Website, 2:510 family values, 1:278 famine, 2:511–514 defined, 2:511 economic aspects, 2:513 health aspects, 2:513–514 HIV/AIDS and, 2:513–514 social aspects, 2:512–513 Fariman, Lida, 3:1345 Farm Midwifery Center, 1:270, 4:1574 Farnsworth, Elizabeth, 1:120 Farrakhan, Khadijah, 1:45 Farrakhan, Louis, 1:45 Farrow, Mia, 2:558 fascism, 3:1114 FASD. See Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) fashion industry, theoretical controversies, 2:514–518 brands and, 2:516–517 feminist thought and, 2:517 male gaze, 2:515–516 Fassinger, Polly A., 2:728 fatherlessness, 2:518–519 defined, 2:518 negative consequences, 2:518–519 fatwa, 1:151

1816

Index

Faust, Drew Gilpin, 1:lviii, 2:519–520 accomplishments, 2:519–520 honors/awards, 2:520 FAWE. See Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Fay, Jim, 2:681 FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 3:1203 FCCLA. See Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) FCEM (Les Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales), 1:210 FCW (Federation of Cuban Women), 1:366 FDA (Food and Drug Administration), 1:xlix, 2:918 “fear of fat,” 1:392–394 fecundity, 2:521–522 Federal Council, 1:lvii, 1:lix Federation of Cuban Women (FCW), 1:366 Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers, 4:1572 Feigelson, Mimi, 3:1198 Feinberg, Leslie, 2:522–523 Feldman, Sandra, 3:1441 Fell, Margaret, 2:543 Felt, Christopher, 1:23–24 Female Brain, The (Brizendine), 1:154 Female Chauvinist Pigs (Levy, Ariel), 1:38 female circumcision, 1:26, 2:526 female clustering, 4:1613 female deities, 4:1613 female genital cutting, 2:526 female genital mutilation (FGM), 4:1613 Burkina Faso, 1:204 Central African Republic (CAR), 1:238 Chad, 1:241 Côte d’lvoire, 1:349 Djibouti, 1:409 Egypt, 1:464

female genital surgery, terminology and critiques of, 2:525–526 Guinea, 2:654 Guinea-Bissau, 2:655 Sudan, 3:1410 Togo, 3:1458 female genital surgery, geographical distribution, 2:523–524 female genital surgery, terminology and critiques of, 2:524–527 female circumcision, 2:526 female genital cutting, 2:526 female genital mutilation (FGM), 2:525–526 female genital surgery, types of, 2:527–528 medical procedures, 2:528 traditional, 2:527–528 female genital surgery (FGS), 1:277 Gambia, 2:594–595 Senegal, 3:1297 femicide, 1:lix, 1:lxi, 4:1613 Feminine Forever (Wilson, R.), 2:924 Feminine Mystique, The (Friedan), 1:34, 1:37, 3:996–997 “femininity,” social construction of, 2:528–531, 4:1613 evolving concepts, 2:529–530 millennials, 2:530–531 feminism, 1:lvi, 1:lxi, 1:22 cosmopolitan, 2:629 cyberfeminism, 1:89 empowerment, 1:209 girlie, 3:1453–1454 Muslim, 2:776 Orthodox Judaism, 3:1056 physics, women in, 3:1102 pornography/erotica and, 3:1121–1124 power, 3:1453 Virgin Mary and, 4:1523 See also antifeminism; Arab feminism;



Chicana feminism; critical race feminism; ecofeminism; first wave feminism; global feminism; Iranian feminism; Islamic feminism; second wave feminism; third wave feminism; transnational feminist networks; vegetarian feminism feminism, American, 2:532–535 academy and, 2:533–534 language and, 2:534 research, 2:534–535 theoretical trends, 2:534–535 wave metaphor and, 2:532–533 See also Abzug, Bella; Steinem, Gloria Feminism, Marxism, Method, and State (Mackinnon), 2:537 feminism on college campuses, 2:535–537 activism, 2:536 identity, 2:536–537 Websites, 2:536 women’s studies, 2:535–53 Feminism or Death (d’Eaubonne), 1:444 Feminist Art Project, The (TFAP), 1:91 feminist jurisprudence, 2:537–540 defined, 2:537–538 international, 2:538–539 promoting equal, 2:539–240 Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), 2:540–541 conferences/meetings, 2:541 founding, 2:540–541 feminist publishing, 2:541–542. See also novelists, female; Women’s Review of Books feminist theology, 2:542–545 herstory, 2:543–544 types/forms, 2:544–545 Feminists for Life (FFL), 2:545–546 activities/organizations, 2:545–546 formation, 2:545 ideological justification, 2:546 femocrats, 3:1012 Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 1:li

Index

1817

fertility, 2:546–549, 4:1614 Armenia, 1:86–87 Chad, 1:241 Finland, 2:574 Greece, 1:644 increasing, 2:548 international issues, 2:547–549 Kuwait, 2:818 Liberia, 2:856 Malta, 2:886 Mauritius, 2:913 Monaco, 2:973 Oman, 3:1051 research, 2:547–548 Russia, 3:1261 Sweden, 3:1426 Syria, 3:1431 Turkey, 3:1478 Turkmenistan, 3:1479 Tuvalu, 3:1480 in vitro fertilization, 4:1616 women’s role in government change, 2:856 Zambia, 4:1604–1605 See also contraception, religious approaches to; contraception methods; infertility, incidence of; infertility, treatments for fertility drugs, 4:1614 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), 2:549–551 costs, 2:550 difficulties of victims, 2:551 history, 2:550 prevalence, 2:549–550 response, 2:550 social/cultural reactions, 2:550–551 fetal impairment, 1:11 fetus, 1:6, 1:8, 1:9, 1:10, 1:13 Feuchtenberger, Anke, 1:227 Fey, Tina, 1:315

1818

Index

FFL. See Feminists for Life (FFL) FGM. See female genital mutilation (FGM) FGS. See female genital surgery (FGS) fiber arts, women in, 2:552–553 exhibitions, 2:552–553 methods/materials, 2:552 Field, Michael, 3:1110 Fields, Totie, 1:314 fields of study, 2:553–554 Fighting Childhood Hunger, 1:54 figure skating, 2:554–557 challenges/successes, 2:556 judging, 2:555–556 Olympic Games, 2:554–555 Fiji, 1:liii, 2:557 divorce, 2:557 employment, 2:557 gender gap, 2:557 infant mortality, 2:557 literacy, 2:557 Fillious, Mary, 1:34 film actors, female, 2:558–559 compensation equality, 2:559 goodwill ambassadors, 2:558 See also Trotta, Margarethe von film directors, female: Europe, 2:559–561 film directors, female: international, 2:562–563 current, 2:564–565 gender disparity, 2:562–563 independent/art house/avant-garde films, 2:563–564 film directors, female: Latin America, 2:565–567 film festivals, 2:567 growing numbers, 2:566 film directors, female: United States, 2:567–569 advancements, 2:569 budgets/releases, 2:568 history, 2:568–569 film production, women in, 2:569–571

pioneers, 2:569–570 union membership, 2:570 Final Justice, 1:196 financial independence of women, 2:571–573 developing countries, 2:572–573 industrialized countries, 2:571–572 microfinance and, 2:573 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and, 2:572–573 financial self-sustainability, 1:209 Findlen, Barbara, 3:1452 Fineman, Martha, 2:540 Finland, 1:xlix, 2:573–575 domestic violence, 2:574–575 fertility, 2:574 gender equality, 2:574–575 Finnbogadóttir, Vigdís, 1:351, 2:667–668 Finney, Albert, 1:196 Fiorina, Carly, 1:253, 1:324 Firestein, Beth, 1:159 first wave feminism, 1:216 Fisher, Anna, 1:94 Fisher, Sarah, 1:114 fitness, 2:575–576 benefits, 2:576 menopausal/postmenopausal women, 2:576 pregnant women, 2:576 premenopausal women, 2:576 risks/recommendations, 2:576 See also exercise science; gymnastics; pilates; running/marathons; sports, women in; xtreme sports, yoga FitzGerald, Kyriaki, 3:1054 Five Percenters, 1:45 Flanders, Laura, 2:795 Flannery, David, 2:577 Flannery, Sarah, 2:576–577 Flavor Unit Entertainment, 3:1192 FLDS. See Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS)



flight attendants, 2:577–578 Flowers, Vonetta, 1:lii FMF. See Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) FMLA. See Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Focus on the Family, 2:578–580, 3:1327 communication resources, 2:579 media and, 2:579 Foldes, Pierre, 1:180 Fonda, Jane, 2:558, 2:559, 2:580–581 Fonssagrives, Lisa, 3:1419 Fontaine, Anne, 2:564 Fontana, Lavinia, 3:1409 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, 2:917 Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 2:918 food security, 4:1614 Forbes magazine, 1:lxi, 1:58, 1:115 forced marriage Burkina Faso, 1:204 Côte d’lvoire, 1:350 Forche, Carolyn, 3:1109 Ford, Betty, 4:1537 Ford, Gerald, 4:1537 Fortes, Meyer, 2:897 Fortune Forum, 2:922 44 Cranberry Point (Macomber), 1:lvi Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), 1:581–582 achievements, 1:582 objectives goals, 1:582 programs, 1:582 Fosse, Bob, 1:373 Foster, Sherrin, 2:545 foster mothers, 2:582–584 interracial, 2:583 non-kin, 2:583 voluntary, 2:583–584 Foucalt, Michel, 2:516 Founding Circle of Rachel’s Network, 1:l Fourier, Charles, 4:1568

Index

1819

Fourteenth Amendment, 1:l, 1:13 Fourth World Conference on Women, 1:1, 2:547, 3:1302 Fowler, April, 1:53 Foxworth, Jo, 1:34 France, 1:lviii, 2:584–586 abortion access, 1:1 abortion laws, international, 1:11 alcohol, 1:20 astronomy, women in, 1:96 gender gap, 2:586 politics, 2:585–586 rape, 2:586 women’s rights movement, 2:584–585 See also secularity law, France France, Bill, Sr., 1:114 Frank, Ray, 3:1197 Franke, Katherine, 2:540 Franke, Nikki Tomlinson, 1:lii Franklin, Rosalind, 3:1283 Franz, Philomena, 3:1251 Fraser, Dawn, 3:1430 Frazier, Joe, 1:53 Frazier-Lyde, Jacqui, 1:53 FRC. See Family Research Council (FRC) Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE), 1:5, 1:14, 3:1052 Freedom of Choice Act, 1:liv, 1:14, 2:586–587 introduction, 2:586–587 opponents, 2:587 “freedom of conscience” legislation, 2:587–589 constitutional legislations/recent laws, 2:588 marketplace practices, 2:588 Freeman, Morgan, 1:lx, 1:182 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The, 1:124 Freud, Sigmund, 1:158 Friedan, Betty, 1:34, 1:37, 3:996–997 Friends of Lulu, 1:228

1820

Index

Friesen, Patty, 1:359 From Patriarchy to Empowerment (Moghadam), 1:237 front pay, 4:1614 Frot-Coutaz, Cecile, 2:916 Fudge, Ann, 1:35 Fuller, Simon, 1:61 fun seekers, 1:31 Fundamentalist Christianity, 1:589–590 origination, 1:589 southern Baptists/women and, 1:590 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints (FLDS), 2:590–592 polygamy, 2:590–591 women’s roles, 2:591 fungal infections, 1:lxi Fusco, Coco, 1:89 Fusion Cuisine International Exhibit, 1:liii G Gaard, Greta, 1:445 Gabaldon, Diana, 1:lviii Gabon, 1:lxi, 2:593–594 abortion access, 2:593–594 HIV/AIDS, 2:593 infant mortality, 2:593 life expectancy, 2:593 literacy, 2:593 GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), 1:76–77 Gädel Prize, 1:324 Gaffney, Mo, 1:315 galas, 1:25 Gale, Tristan, 1:lii Galica, Divina, 1:113 Galileo, 1:96 Galindo, Regina Jos, 1:90 Galloway, Diana, 1:115 Gambia, 1:lvii, 2:594–595 educational opportunities/access, 2:595 female genital surgery (FGS), 2:594–595

gender discrimination, 2:594 life expectancy, 2:595 Game of Silence, The (Erdrich), 1:lvii Gamma Gammi Chi, 1:45 Gamson, Joshua, 1:231 Gandhi, Indira, 2:668 Gandhi, Mahatma, 3:1396 Gandhi, Rajiv, 1:lv Gandhi, Sonia, 1:liv–lv, 1:595–596 Gao, Min, 1:liv Garbo, Greta, 1:160, 2:558 Garbus, Liz, 3:1224 Garcia, Anne, 2:564 Garcia-Navarro, Lourdes, 2:794 Gardasil, 1:219, 2:596–597 gardening, 2:597–598 community supported, 2:598 poverty and, 2:598 urban agriculture, 2:597–598 Gardiner, Linda, 4:1584 Gardner, Ava, 2:558 Gardner, Gerald, 4:1551, 4:1557 Garland, Judy, 2:558 Garofalo, Janeane, 1:315 Garrels, Anne, 2:794 Gary, Tracy, 4:1571 Gaskell, Elizabeth, 3:1026 Gaskin, Ida May, 1:270 Gates, Bill, 1:355 Gawker, 1:167 Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), 1:161 gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (GLBTI), 1:316 gay and lesbian advocacy, 2:598–601 struggles/emerging issues, 2:601 successful, 2:600–601 tactics, 2:600 gay clergy. See lesbian/gay clergy gay rights, 4:1614



gay-bashing, 1:56 gays, 1:71, 4:1614 Gazf, 4:1614 GDP. See gross domestic product (GDP) geek, 1:56 gender bias, 1:25 Buddhism and, 1:200–201 in cosmetic surgery, 1:343–344 dating violence and, 1:376–377 fluidity, 1:157 identity, 2:887–888 military leadership, women in, 2:963 in professional education, 3:1162 gender, defined, 2:601–603, 4:1614 biological determinism, 2:602 gender/feminist debate, 2:602–603 theoretic reflection/social research, 2:603 gender development index, 4:1614 gender discrimination, 1:l, 1:lxii, 4:1614 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1:177 Congo, 1:329 Gambia, 2:594 gender dysphoria, 2:603–604, 3:1473 gender equality, 1:lxii, 1:101–102 Belgium, 1:146 Botswana, 1:179 Finland, 2:574–575 infant mortality, 3:1477 Jamaica, 2:785 Lichtenstein, 2:857 Luxembourg, 2:868–869 Malawi, 2:883 Malta, 2:886 New Zealand, 3:1008 Nigeria, 3:1012–1013 Norway, 1:197 Swaziland, 3:1423 Turkey, 3:1477–1478 Wadud, Amina, 4:1534

Index

1821

gender gap, 1:20, 4:1614 attainment, college degree, 1:98 Austria, 1:112–113 Barbados, 1:125–126 Belize, 1:146 Cambodia, 1:213 Central African Republic (CAR), 1:239 Colombia, 1:309 Croatia, 1:365 Czech Republic (CZ), 1:370 Ecuador, 1:450–451 educational administrators, college and university, 1:455 El Salvador, 1:466 Fiji, 2:557 France, 2:586 Greece, 1:645 Madagascar, 2:875 Moldova, 2:971 Mongolia, 2:973–974 Paraguay, 3:1071 representation of women in government, U.S., 3:1128–1129 Syria, 3:1431 Uganda, 4:1484 United Kingdom, 4:1490–1491 Venezuela, 4:1515 women in military, 2:962 gender identity disorder, 3:1473 Gender Links, 1:179 gender quotas in government, 2:604–606 international/European instruments, 2:605–606 percentages, 2:606 gender reassignment surgery (GRS), 1:171, 2:606–609 cost/expectations, 2:607–608 types, 2:606–607 gender roles, 1:64 Amish, 1:64

1822

Index

Ethiopian, 1:500 masculinity, social construction of, 2:904 migrant workers, 2:956 multiverses, 2:988 gender roles, cross-cultural, 2:609–612 cross-national comparison, 2:610–611 intergovernmental monitoring, 2:610 new contexts, 2:611 theoretical terms/problems, 2:609–610 gender sensitive, 4:1614 gender socialization, 1:322 gender stereotypes advertising, aimed at women, 1:31 advertising, portrayal of women in, 1:36–37 gender studies, 1:71 gender violence, 1:149 Cape Verde, 1:226 conflict zones and, 1:327 gendered wage gap, 3:1166–1167 genderfuck, 1:157, 1:159 genderqueer, 1:157, 1:159 General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW), 2:612–613 Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), 1:76–77 Generation X, 1:32 Generation Y, 1:32 genocide Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1:177 Burundi, 1:205 Rwanda, 3:1264 Georgia, 1:liii, 1:lviii, 2:613–614 domestic violence, 2:613 kidnapping, 2:613 women’s rights, 2:613 Gerestant, Mildred, 1:425 Germany, 1:lvi, 1:614–615 alcohol, 1:20 astronomy, women in, 1:96 attorneys, female, 1:109 employment, 1:614–615

healthcare, 1:615 infant mortality, 1:615 gestational diabetes mellitus, 4:1614 Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuality Around the World, 1:158 GFS. See “girl-friendly” schools (GFS) Ghana, 2:615–616 Christianity, 2:615 educational opportunities/access, 2:615 infant mortality, 2:615 gho, 1:149 Ghost, 1:lvii Ghost in the Shell, The, 1:71 Ghozlan, Engy Ayman, 2:616–617 GI Jane, 1:19 Gibbs, Lois, 1:486, 2:617–618 Gibson, Valerie, 1:350 Gil, Rosa Maria, 2:609 Gilead (Robinson), 1:lvi Giliani, Alessandra, 1:152 Gill, Harpreet, Kaur, 3:1350 Gill, Rosalind, 1:38 Gilligan, Carol, 1:469, 2:539–540, 2:891, 3:1061 Gilman, Charlote Perkins, 1:448 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 2:534 Gilman, Sander, 1:343 Gilmore, David, 2:905 Gilmore, Kate, 1:89 Ginsburg, Ruth Bader, 2:540, 2:618–619, 3:1248 Ginther, Donna, 1:448 girl gangs, 2:619–621 gang life, 2:620 risk factors, 2:620 Girl Scouts, 2:621–622 “girl-friendly” schools (GFS), 2:622–623 girlie feminism, 3:1453–1454 Girls in Pants (Brashares), 1:lvi Girls Inc., 2:623–624 Girls of Riyadh (Alsanea), 1:237 Girl’s Rodeo Association (GRA), 3:1246



Giroud, Françoise, 2:585 Gish, Lillian, 2:558, 2:570 Glamour, 4:1578 glass ceiling, 2:624–626, 2:795 Glass Ceiling Commission, 1:40 inequalities for women in management, 2:625–626 research, 2:625 Glasspool, Mary, 1:66, 2:844 GLBTI (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or intersex), 1:316 Glennie, Evelyn, 1:294 Glide United Methodist Church, 1:164 Global Anglican Future Conference, 1:66 Global Campaign for Education, 2:626–627 global feminism, 2:627–629 agenda, 2:627–628 issues/methods/tenets, 2:628–629 See also cosmopolitan feminism Global “Gag Rule,” 1:13, 2:628–630. See also Mexico City Policy global politics, 1:197 global south, 4:1614 global warming, 1:89 GlobalHue, 1:35 globalization, 4:1614–1615 beauty standards, cross-cultural, 1:141 sweatshops, 3:1424–1425 GNH (Gross National Happiness), 1:149 Gnostic Gospels, The, 3:1062–1063 Goade, Sally, 3:1256 Goddess Movement, 4:1551. See also Wicca/Goddess spirituality God’s Warriors, 1:57 Goeppert-Mayer, Maria, 3:1102 Going Rogue (Palin), 3:1068 Gold, Leslie, 1:405 Goldberg, Steven, 2:828 Goldberg, Whoopi, 1:lvii, 1:lx, 1:315, 2:558 Goldberger, Nancy, 1:104

Index

1823

Golden Globe Awards, 1:196, 2:559 Golden Notebook, The (Lessing), 1:lviii–lix Goldstein, Nikki, 2:530 Goldstine, Adele, 1:323 Goldwasser, Shafi, 1:324 golf, 2:630–632 building a brand, 2:631–632 Ladies Professional Golf Players Association (LPGA), 2:631 Professional Golf Association (PGA), 1:liii Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA), 2:630 Golovion, Tatiana, 3:1447 Goltz, Pat, 2:545 Gomez, Marga, 1:315 Gompers, Samuel, 4:1487 Gomperts, Rebecca, 1:632–633 Gone with the Wind, 1:lvii Gonzalez v. Carthart, 1:14 Good Fight, A (Brady, S.), 1:183 “good ol’ girls’ network,” 1:l Goodall, Jane, 1:liv Goodman, Amy, 2:795 Goodman, Kathy, 3:1443 Goodman-Thau, Eveline, 3:1198 Goody, Jade, 2:633–634, 3:1215 Google, 1:367 Goolagong-Crawley, Evonne, 3:1447 Gordimer, Nadine, 3:1028 Gordon, Jeff, 1:114 Gordon, Kim, 3:1244 Gorris, Marleen, 2:561 Gorrow, Teena R., 3:1464 Gould, Shane, 1:lviii Goulden, Marc, 1:307 government, women in, 2:634–638 effective presence, 2:635–636 environmental issues, women and, 1:487 examples of working women, 2:636 gender quotas in government, 2:604–606

1824

Index

government by women, 2:635–636 government for women, 2:636–637 policy outputs, 2:637 substantive representation, 2:636 women’s agenda, 2:634–635 GRA (Girls Rodeo Association), 3:1246 Graff, E. J., 2:845 Graham, Katherine, 1:251 Graham, Richard, 3:996 Grameen Bank of Bangladesh (GB), 2:637–638 Grandin, Temple, 2:638–640 academic achievements, 2:639–640 publications, 2:640 grandmothers, 2:640–643 care/support for grandchildren, 2:641–642 grandchild involvement, 2:640–641 grandchild relationship, 2:641 raising grandchildren, 2:642 Graner, Charles, 1:18 Granny Peace Brigade, 2:643–644 Grant, Linda, 1:xlix Grant, Stephanie, 1:115 Grass Is Singing, The (Lessing), 1:lviii–lix “grass-skirt activism,” 3:1071 Gray, Elizabeth Dodson, 1:445 Grebmeier, Jackie, 3:1284 Greece, 1:liii, 1:644–645 fertility, 1:644 gender gap, 1:645 social mobility, 1:645 women in private life, 1:644–645 Green Belt Movement, 1:299, 2:645–647, 2:871, 3:1017–1018 empowering women, 2:646 inspiring other campaigns, 2:646 See also Maathai, Wangari Greider, Carol, 1:lxi, 1:lxii, 1:153 Grenada, 2:647 Grenville, Kate, 1:li

Grier, Pam, 1:19 Griffin, Kathy, 1:314 Griggs v. Duke Power Company, 2:831 Grimké, Angelina Weld, 3:1110 Gripoix, Madame, 2:789 Griswold v. Connecticut, 3:1247, 4:1573 Gross, Marjorie, 1:315 gross domestic product (GDP) Belgium, 1:146 Bolivia, 1:174 Bulgaria, 1:201 Cameroon, 1:213 Chad, 1:241 Congo, 1:328–329 Costa Rica, 1:348 Croatia, 1:365 Cuba, 1:366 Dominica, 1:420 Jamaica, 2:784 Malta, 2:886 New Zealand, 3:1008 Oman, 3:1050 Seychelles, 3:1339 Trinidad and Tobago, 3:1474 Virgin Islands, U.S. (USVI), 4:1521 Gross National Happiness (GNH), 1:149 GRS. See gender reassignment surgery (GRS) Gruen, Lori, 1:68, 1:446 Grybauskaité, Dalia, 1:lxi Guam, 2:647–648 life expectancy, 2:648 poverty, 2:648 Guantanomo Bay prison, 1:18 Guarini, Carmen, 2:566 Guatemala, 1:lix, 2:648–650, 2:743 priests/healers/midwives/weavers, 2:649 women’s cooperatives, 2:650 women’s rights, 2:649–650



guerrilla fighters, female, 2:650–652 emancipation, 2:652 geographic/temporal distribution, 2:651 motivation for struggles, 2:651–652 roles, 2:652 Guerrilla Girls, 1:l, 1:228, 2:652–654 founding, 2:652–653 modus operandi, 2:653 operation fronts, 2:653 guerrilla warfare, 4:1615 Guiding Light, 3:1363 Guiliani, Rudolph, 1:74 Guinea, 2:654–655 female genital mutilation (FGM), 2:654 HIV/AIDS, 2:654 infant mortality, 2:654 prostitution, 2:655 women’s rights, 2:654 Guinea-Bissau, 2:655–656 domestic violence, 2:656 female gender mutilation (FGM), 2:655 HIV/AIDS, 2:655 infant mortality, 2:655 life expectancy, 2:655 poverty, 2:655 Guinness, Alec, 1:160 Gulag: A History (Applebaum), 1:liv Gulf Cooperation Council, 1:liii Gumbel, Bryant, 1:355 Gumińska, Maria, 1:488 gun control, 1:182–183, 2:656–657 attitudes toward guns, 2:656–657 support for, 2:656 Gun Control Act, 1:183 Gunn, David, 3:1051 GUPW. See General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) Gustafson, Kathryn, 2:827 Guthrey, Jane, 2:764

Index Guttmacher, Alan, 3:1108 Guyana, 2:657–658 educational opportunities/access, 2:658 quality of life, 2:658 gwallye, 1:25 gymnastics, 2:658–660 artistics, 2:659 health/injuries, 2:660 Olympic Games, 2:659 rhythmic, 2:659–660 H Haack, Magie, 1:359 Hacker, Marilyn, 1:160, 3:1109 Haddock, Doris (“Granny D.”), 1:l, 1:lxiii Hadid, Zaha, 1:84 Haffadh, Nada, 1:122 Hagerman, Amber, 1:58 Haggerty-Brennan, Babbette, 1:70 Haignere, Claudie, 1:95 Haiti, 2:661–662 earthquake, 1:lxii politics, 2:661–662 poverty, 2:661–662, 2:662 Hale, Brenda, 1:109 Haley, Margaret, 3:1441 Half of a Yellow Sun (Adichie), 1:lix Halkes, Catharina, 2:543 Hall, Cindy, 1:69 Hall, Janis, 2:827 Hall, Stanley, 1:25 Halpern, Diane, 3:1183 Hamer, Fannie Lou, 1:165 Hamil, Dorothy, 2:556 Hamilton, Cynthia, 1:446 Hamilton, Linda, 1:19 Hamilton, Scott, 2:556 Handler, Chelsea, 1:314 Handler, Ruth, 1:126 Hanisch, Carol, 2:532

1825

1826

Index

Hanna, Erin Saiz, 4:1581 Hansberry, Lorraione, 1:160 Haraway, Donna, 1:446 Harden, Marcia Gay, 1:xlix Hardin, Marie, 3:1465 Harding, Tonya, 2:555, 3:1049 Hardt, Marah, 1:359 Hardwicke, Catherine, 2:562 Harlan, John Marshall, 3:1247 Harlow, Jean, 2:558 Harman, Sabrina, 1:18 Harris, Barbara, 1:65, 3:1149 Harris, Emmylou, 1:354 Harris, Leslie, 2:568 Harrison, Verna, 3:1054–1055 Harry Potter books, 1:liv, 1:lvi, 1:237 Harry Potter films, 1:lxii Hart, Evelyn, 1:216 Harvard University, 1:lviii Harvey, Susan Ashbrook, 3:1054 Hatch, Orrin, 4:1576 hate crimes, 2:662–665, 2:730. defined, 2:663 legislation, 2:664 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), 2:664–665 See also Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA), 2:730 hate speech and bias on college campuses, 2:665–667 examples, 2:665–666 legal standpoint, 2:666 punishable by legal means, 2:666-667 Hatoum, Mona, 1:90 Having Words (Brown, D. S.), 1:84 Hawthorne, Susan, 2:763 Hayden, Sara, 1:276 Hayden, Sophie, 1:84 Hays Code, 2:565 Hayworth, Rita, 2:558

H’Doubler, Margaret, 1:373 Head, Bessie, 1:179 head scarves, 4:1615. See also veil heads of state, female, 2:667–671 ceremonial leaders versus, 2:667–668 climbing political ladder, 2:669–671 family legacy, 2:668–669 public perceptions, 2:671 Healing Our Mother Earth (HOME), 1:487 health, mental and physical, 1:12, 2:671–675 Brazil, 1:184–185 defining women’s, 2:671–672 domestic violence (DV), and, 1:412–413 gymnastics, 2:660 healthcare and, 2:674–675 improving, 2:675 Israel, 2:779–780 Japan, 2:787–788 mental conditions affecting women/girls, 2:673 Pakistan, 3:1065 physical conditions affecting women/girls, 2:672–673 polygamy, cross-culturally considered, 3:1116–1117 prostitution, legal, 3:1178 Russia, 3:1262–1263 Sudan, 3:1410 United Kingdom, 4:1490–1491 United States, 4:1499–1500 veterinarians, female, 4:1516 Vietnam, 4:1517–1518 violence and, 2:673–674 yoga and, 4:1601–1602 See also World Health Organization (WHO) health insurance issues policies/programs, 2:677 women and, 2:676–677 healthcare, 1:lxii, 1:12, 1:21 Afghanistan, 1:44 Andorra, 1:65



Argentina, 1:86 Belgium, 1:146 Bulgaria, 1:201 Colombia, 1:309 Congo, Democratic Republic of the (DR Congo), 1:329 Costa Rica, 1:348 Dominica, 1:420 Ecuador, 1:450–451 Germany, 1:615 health, mental and physical, 2:674–675 heterosexism and, 2:684 Honduras, 2:720 Panama, 3:1068 Puerto Rico, 3:1188–1189 Slovenia, 3:1362 Spain, 3:1384 Togo, 3:1458 Virgin Islands, U.S. (USVI), 4:1521 hearing loss, 1:48 heart disease, 2:677–679 symptoms/diagnosis, 2:678–679 treatment/prevention, 2:679 types/causes, 2:677–678 heavily indebted poor countries, 4:1615 Heche, Anne, 1:160 Hedison, Alexandra, 1:378 Hefner, Christie, 2:679–680 Heilbrun, Carolyn G., 2:799 Heinz, Teresa, 3:1091 “helicopter parents,” 2:681–682 Hello Kitty, 2:682–683 Henderson, Lynne, 2:540 Hendrick, Rick, 1:114 Henin, Justine, 1:lii, 1:lviii, 3:1447 Hennen, Peter, 2:535 Hepatitis A, 4:1615 Hepatitis C, 4:1615 Hepatitis E, 4:1615 Hepburn, Audrey, 2:558

Index

1827

Hepburn, Katharine, 1:lv, 2:558 Herek, Gregory, 2:716 Hernandez, Aileen, 3:996 Hernández, Paula, 2:566 Hernandez-Montiel v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1:161 Herodotus, 1:81 heteronormativity, 1:171 heterosexism, 2:683–685, 3:1335 healthcare and, 2:684 language, 2:683–684 resisting in popular culture, 2:684–685 heterosexuality, 2:685–688, 3:1335, 4:1615 historical context, 2:686–687 research, 2:687 Hewlett-Packard, 1:253, 1:324 Hidden Half, The, 1:237 Hiesey, Elane, 3:1062 Higdon, Jennifer, 1:294 high school teachers, 2:688–690 demographics, 2:688–689 gendering of education, 2:689–690 history, 2:688 Higuchi, Hisako (“Chako”), 1:lx Hill, Anita, 3:1452 Hill, Faith, 1:354 Hills, The, 1:233 Hilton, Paris, 1:230–231 Hindu female gurus and living saints, 2:690–692 ashrams, 2:690–691 characteristics, 2:691 current, 2:691–692 history, 2:691 Hinduism, 2:692–694 contraception, religious approaches to, 1:331 lesbian/gay clergy, 2:842–843 women in, 2:692 women in current world, 2:693–694 women throughout history, 2:692–693

1828

Index

hip hop, 2:694–695 controversy, 2:694 landscape, 2:695 success in, 2:695 Hipple, Steven, 2:505 Hispanic Americans, 1:l, 1:lxi addiction and substance abuse, 1:21 suicide and race, 3:1412 See also Chicana feminism Historian, The (Kostova), 1:lvi HIV/AIDS, 1:lvi, 1:lix, 1:7, 1:26, 1:101–102, 1:130, 1:197, 4:1615 cancer, women and, 1:223–224 Catholics for Choice (CFC), 1:230 Central African Republic (CAR), 1:238–239 children’s rights, 1:277 conflict zones and, 1:327 famine and, 2:513–514 origin, 1:lx sex education, cross-culturally compared, 3:1302 See also rape and HIV HIV/AIDS: Africa, 2:695–698 Angola, 1:66–67 Botswana, 1:178–179 Burundi, 1:206 Cameroon, 1:214 Congo, 1:328 Congo, Democratic Republic of the (DR Congo), 1:329 Côte d’lvoire, 1:349 culture of silence, 2:697 Djibouti, 1:409 Eritrea, 1:497 exploitative relationships, 2:697–698 feminization, 2:697 Gabon, 2:593 Guinea, 2:654 Guinea-Bissau, 2:655 Kenya, 2:811 Lesotho, 2:849

Liberia, 2:855–856 Malawi, 2:883 Mauritania, 2:912 Mauritius, 2:913 psychological factors, 2:697 Rwanda, 3:1264 Sierra Leone, 3:1347–1348 South Africa, 3:1379–1380 Sub-Saharan epidemics, 2:696–697 Swaziland, 3:1423 Tanzania, 3:1438 Togo, 3:1458 treatment, 2:698 Uganda, 4:1483 violence, 2:698 women’s vulnerability, 2:697 Zambia, 4:1604–1605 HIV/AIDS: Asia, 2:698–702 incidence/prevalence/trends/patterns, 2:699– 700 policy implications, 2:701 Vietnam, 4:1517 vulnerability, 2:700–701 HIV/AIDS: Europe, 2:702–704 Belarus, 1:145 drivers, 2:703 geographic regions/incidence levels, 2:702 Latvia, 2:830 Lithuania, 2:863 prevention/intervention, 2:703–704 HIV/AIDS: North America, 2:704–706 Bahamas, 1:121 Canada, 2:704 Caribbean, 2:705 case numbers, 2:704–705 Central America, 2:705 Mexico, 2:705 prevention, 2:705 prisoners, female (U.S.), 3:1156 United States, 2:704–705



HIV/AIDS: Oceania, 2:706–708 Australasia, 2:706 Melanesia, 2:706–707 Micronesia, 2:707 Polynesia, 2:707 HIV/AIDS: South America, 2:708–711 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75 Argentina, 1:86 Brazil, 1:186 contributing factors, 2:709–710 Equatorial Guinea, 1:496 incidence/trends/patterns, 2:708–709 treatment/prevention/policy, 2:709–710 Hochschild, Arlie Russell, 2:727, 4:1590 Hoff, Diana, 1:l Hogan, Hulk, 1:54 Holl, Diane, 1:114 Holladay, Wilhelmina Cole, 3:996 Hollywood Reporter, 2:916 Holocaust, 2:663 Holonen, Tarja, 1:xlix Holt, John, 2:714 Holyfield, Evander, 1:181 Holzer, Jenny, 1:90, 2:711–712 Homan, Casey, 3:1465 HOME (Healing Our Mother Earth), 1:487 Homeiser, Rosemary, 2:724 homemakers and Social Security, 2:712–713 homemaking, 2:713–714 defined, 2:713 outside home opportunities, 2:713–714 homeschooling, 2:714–716 choice in, 2:715 family involvement, 2:715 homophobia, 2:716–718, 3:1335 hostility/harassment, 2:716–717 research, 2:717 stigmas/stereotyping, 2:716 traditional roles, 2:717 homosexuality, 3:1325, 4:1615

Index

1829

homosexuality, religious attitudes toward, 2:718–719 features, 2:719 orientations, 2:718–719 Honduras, 2:719–721 employment, 2:720 healthcare, 2:720 marriage, 2:720 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 2:720 Hong Kong, 1:47 honor killings, 1:lv, 1:26, 2:721–722, 4:1615 accepting attitudes, 2:721 children’s rights, 1:277 common reasons, 2:721 Egypt, 1:462 Palestine, 3:1067 perpetrators, 2:721–722 religion and, 2:722 honor suicide, 1:27, 2:721, 2:722–723 dishonor and, 2:723 family secrecy, 2:723 hooding, 1:17 Hopkins, Sharon, 1:114 Hopper, Grace Murray, 1:323 Horkheimer, Max, 2:514 hormone replacement therapy (HRT), 2:924–925 horse racing, women in, 2:724–725 Hourihan, Meg, 1:166 Hours, The, 1:lii House of Flying Daggers, 1:19 household decision-making, 2:725–726 classifications, 2:725 conflicts/power and, 2:726 research, 2:725–726 underlying roles, 2:725–726 household division of labor, 2:726–728 data collection/research, 2:727 influences on, 2:727 perception of fairness/satisfaction, 2:727–728

1830

Index

How Children Fail (Holt), 2:714 How Schools Shortchange Girls, 1:54, 1:60 Howe, Fanny, 3:1110 HPCA (Hate Crimes Prevention Act), 2:730 HPV (human papillomavirus), 2:596 vaccine, 1:26, 3:1236 HRC. See Human Rights Campaign (HRC) HRT (hormone replacement therapy), 2:924–925 Hudood Ordinance, 4:1615 Hudson, Jennifer, 1:lvii, 1:61–62 Huerta, Dolores, 1:249 Huffington, Arianna, 1:167, 2:228–731 Huffington, Michael, 2:228 Huffington Post, 1:167, 2:728, 2:729 Hughes, Howard, 1:lv Hughes, Sarah, 1:lii Hull, E. M., 3:1255 Hull, Lynne, 1:91 human papillomavirus (HPV), 2:596 vaccine, 1:26, 3:1236 human poverty index, 4:1616 human pseudo-event, 1:230, 1:232 human rights, 1:lxi, 1:197 Human Rights Watch, 1:276, 1:277 maquiladoras, 2:895 Myanmar, 2:990 Sudan, 3:1410–1411 Togo, 3:1457–1458 United Nations conventions, 4:1494 United Nations Human Rights Council, 1:52 Women’s Human Rights, 1:liv Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 2:730 Human Rights Watch, 1:276, 1:277 humanitarianism, 3:1471–1472 Hungary, 2:731–732 abortion access, 1:3 astronomy, women in, 1:96 domestic violence, 2:732 educational opportunities/access, 2:732

employment, 2:731 politics, 2:731–732 prostitution, 2:732 rape, 2:732 women’s rights, 2:732 Hunt, Helen LaKelly, 4:1571 Hunt, Linda, 2:558 Hunter, Nan, 2:540 Hunter-Gault, Charlayne, 2:794 hunting, 2:733–734 Hurdood Ordinance, 1:lvii Hurricane Katrina, 1:lv, 1:299 Hurt Locker, The, 1:lxii Hurtado, Aida, 3:1183 Hussein, King, 3:1193 Hussein, Saddam, 1:17–18, 2:770 Hutchins, Loraine, 1:159 Huxtable, Ada Louise, 4:1505 Hwang, Jane, 3:1149 Hyde, Janet, 1:447 Hyde Amendment, 1:3, 1:13, 1:15, 4:1573 hyeremesis gravidarum, 1:9 hymenoplasty, 3:1237 Hypatia, 2:909, 3:1101 hypertonic saline solution, 1:16 HypnoBirthing, 1:267 hysterectomies, 2:734–736, 4:1616 after-effects, 2:736 global, 2:735 reasons, 2:735–736 simple, 2:734 hysterotomy, 1:10 I “I Have a Dream” speech, 1:164 I Kissed a Girl, 1:160 IANSA. See International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) Iarule, Jill, 1:104 IAU (International Astronomical Union), 1:95



ICBL (International Campaign to Ban Landmines), 2:825 ICEG (Institute for Gender Equity), 1:226 Iceland, 1:lxi, 2:737–738 marriage, 2:737 standard of living, 2:737–738 suffrage, 2:738 ICPD. See International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Idea of Perfection, The (Grenville), 1:li identity bisexuality, 1:159 celebrity women, 1:231–32 feminism on college campuses, 2:536–537 gender, 2:887–888 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), 2:853 lesbian interlocking, 2:846 nursing, 3:1033–1035 pornography/erotica and, 3:1123 queer theory and, 3:1194 same-sex marriage and, 3:1272 See also Christian Identity IDGA (International Game Developers Association), 1:321 IDKE (International Drag King Community Extravaganza), 1:425 IEDs (improvised explosive devices), 2:825 If You Give a Pig a Party (Numeroff ), 1:lvii IFC (International Finance Corporation), 1:207 IFWE (International Federation of Women Entrepreneurs), 1:210 Ige, Barbara, 2:536 ILGA (Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association), 1:161 ILO. See International Labor Organization (ILO) I’m the One That I Want, 1:286 Image, The (Boorstin), 1:230 IMF. See International Monetary Fund (IMF) immigration, 1:161, 1:184–185

Index

1831

Imperial Reckoning (Elkins), 1:lvii imperialism, 3:1471 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 2:825 Imus, Don, 1:131 In Code (Flannery, S./Flannery, D.), 2:577 In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (Walker, A.), 4:1559, 4:1561 in vitro fertilization, 4:1616 incest, 1:lix, 1:7, 1:12 Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), 2:738–739 India, 1:liv–lv, 2:739–741 abortion, access to, 1:1 alcohol, 1:20 arranged marriages, 2:901 computer science, women in, 1:325 demographics, 2:739 domestic violence, 2:739–740 government/social movements, 2:740 infanticide, 2:751 nuns, Buddhist, 3:1029 rural/urban economics, 2:741 social/cultural issues, 2:739–740 See also Kali for Women: feminist publishing in India; Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA) indigenous religions, global, 2:741–744 as global traditions, 2:741–742 postcontact persistence of, 2:742–743 women as active agents in, 2:743 women in the diaspora, 2:743 indigenous women’s issues, 2:744–746 international instruments related to, 2:744–745, 2:744–746 legally binding documents, 2:745 indigenous women’s rights, Bolivia, 2:746–747 Indira Gandhi Prize, 1:197 individualism, 1:72–73 Indonesia, 1:li, 1:lviii, 1:lxi, 2:747–749 family, 2:747–748

1832

Index

trafficking, 2:748 women’s rights, 2:748–749 Indrawati, Mulyani, 1:449 Indy Japan 300, 1:lx infant mortality, 2:749–751, 4:1616 Albania, 1:49 Algeria, 1:53 American Samoa, 1:62 Andorra, 1:65 Angola, 1:66 Argentina, 1:85 Australia, 1:109 Bangladesh, 1:123 Belarus, 1:145 Belgium, 1:146 Brunei Darussalam, 1:198 Chad, 1:241 Comoros, 1:320 Côte d’lvoire, 1:349 Cyprus, 1:369 differential mortality rates, 2:749–750 Djibouti, 1:409 Ecuador, 1:450 Egypt, 1:463 Equatorial Guinea, 1:496 Eritrea, 1:497 Fiji, 2:557 Gabon, 2:593 gender equality, 3:1477 Germany, 1:615 Ghana, 2:615 Guinea, 2:654 Guinea-Bissau, 2:655 historical change, 2:749 Jordan, 2:792 Kiribati, 2:815 Kuwait, 2:818 Latvia, 2:829–830 life expectancy, 2:872 Lithuania, 2:863–864

Macedonia, 2:872 Madagascar, 2:875 Malta, 2:886–887 Mauritania, 2:911 Morocco, 2:976–977 Nauru, 3:1003 New Zealand, 3:10089 Nicaragua, 3:1009 North Korea, 3:1023 Norway, 3:1024 Palestine, 3:1067 predicting future, 2:750 Saint Lucia, 3:1268 Saudi Arabia, 3:1278 Sudan, 3:1410 Sweden, 3:1426 Tunisia, 3:1477 Turkmenistan, 3:1479 Vanuatu, 4:1511 women’s status and, 2:750–751 Zambia, 4:1604–1605 infanticide, 2:751–753 being held responsible, 2:752–753 children’s rights, 1:277 China, 2:751 India, 2:751 United States, 2:752 infertility, incidence of, 2:753–754 causes, 2:754 diagnosis, 2:753 effects, 2:754 rates, 2:754 See also fertility infertility, treatments for, 2:754–756 implications, 2:755–756 options, 2:755 success rates, 2:755 infibulation, 4:1616 Ingraham, Laura, 2:794 inheritance rights, 3:1458, 4:1616



injustice resistance movements, 3:1372 Inness, Sherry, 1:19 Institute for Gender Equity (ICEG), 1:226 Institute of Greatly Endangered Rare Species (TIGERS), 1:69 intact dilation, 1:l, 1:liii, 1:14 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 1:lxi intergender, 1:159 International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), 2:756–757 formation, 2:756 small arms face, 2:756–757 International Association of Gay and Lesbian Judges, 2:804 International Association of Police Chiefs, 2:832 International Astronomical Union (IAU), 1:95 International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), 2:825–286 International Committee of the Red Cross, 1:17 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), 1:80, 2:757–758 gender equality, 2:757 recognition, 2:757–758 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1:12 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 1:12 International Drag King Community Extravaganza (IDKE), 1:425 International Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (IFWE), 1:210 International Finance Corporation (IFC), 1:207 International Game Developers Association (IDGA), 1:321 International Labour Organization (ILO), 1:207, 1:261 domestic workers and, 1:419 on parental leave, 3:1072 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2:758–761 approaching millennium, 2:760–761

Index

1833

policy reform, 2:759–760 structural adjustment, 2:758–759 International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), 3:1106–1107 International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition (ISRRC), 3:1303 International Space Station, 1:lviii, 1:94 International Swimming Hall of Fame, 1:lii International Tennis Hall of Fame, 1:l International Trade Center (ITC), 1:207 International Women’s Day (IWD), 2:761–762, 4:1576 International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, 1:l, 1:li, 1:lii, 1:liv, 1:lv, 1:lvi, 1:lviii, 1:lix, 1:lx International Women’s Tribune Center, 3:1017 International Women’s Year, 3:1017 Internet, 2:762–764 advertising, aimed at women, 1:32–33 collectives, 2:763–764 galactic network, 2:763 resources, 2:764 See also blogs and blogosphere; cyber-stalking and Internet harassment; pedophilia online; Websites Internet dating, 2:764–766 gender inequalities, 2:765–766 sites as sources of empowerment, 2:765 Internet for Women, The (Senjen/Guthrey), 2:764 interpersonal violence (IPV), 1:410 Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri), 1:xlix intersex, 2:766–767, 4:1616 contemporary views, 2:767 controversies, 2:767 Disorders of Sexual Development, 2:767 Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), 1:241–242 Interstate Commerce Clause, 1:l intimate partner violence (IPV), 1:415, 3:1336. See also domestic violence intimates, 1:31

1834

Index

intimidation, 1:26 intrauterine devices (IUDs), 1:334, 4:1616 IPAC (Women’s International Policy Action Committee), 1:485 iPods, 1:33 IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation), 3:1106–1107 IPV (interpersonal violence), 1:410, 3:1336 IPV (intimate partner violence), 1:415 Iran, 1:27, 2:767–769 temporary marriage, 2:768 women’s rights, 2:768–769 Iranian feminism, 2:769–770 Iraq, 1:liii, 1:lv, 1:17, 1:81, 2:770–771 educational opportunities/access, 2:770 Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority, 1:liii Iraqi Women’s Union, 1:81 Operation Iraqi Freedom, 3:1159 poverty, 2:770 See also Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) Ireland, 2:771–772 astronomy, women in, 1:96 discrimination, 2:772 employment, 2:772 religion, 2:771 women’s movement, 2:771–772 Isaacs, Susan, 1:92 Ishiuchi, Miyako, 1:90 Islam, 2:772–775, 4:1616 contraception, religious approaches to, 1:331 controversy/activism, 2:774–775 lesbian/gay clergy, 2:842–843 stereotyping with veil, 4:1514 teachings regarding women, 2:774 women as polarizing symbols, 2:773–774 women’s changing status, 2:774 Islam in America, 2:775–777 demographics, 2:775–776

education, 2:776 hijab, 2:776 Muslim feminism, 2:776 politics, 2:776–777 popular culture, 2:776–777 theology/practice, 2:776 Islamic feminism, 2:777–778, 4:1616. See also Wadud, Amina ISNA. See Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) isolation, 1:26 Israel, 1:lxii, 2:778–780 domestic violence, 2:778 educational opportunities/access, 2:778–779 employment, 2:780 health, 2:779–780 military service, 2:778–779 politics, 2:780 women in military, 2:957 ISRRC (International Sexual and Reproductive Rights Coalition), 3:1303 Italy, 2:780–782 domestic violence, 2:781–782 employment, 2:781 legal/economic challenges, 2:781 ITC (International Trade Center), 1:207 Itzik, Dalia, 1:lviii IUDs (intrauterine devices), 1:334 Ivers, Julia Crawford, 2:568 IWD. See International Women’s Day (IWD) IWF. See Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) J J. Walter Thompson Agency, 1:34, 1:35 Jacir, Emily, 1:90 Jackson, Lisa F., 3:1224 Jackson, Randy, 1:61 Jackson, Sherman, 1:45 Jackson, Shirley Ann, 2:783–784 Jackson, Trina, 1:156



Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, 1:lv Jackson-Nelson, Marjorie, 1:l, 1:li Jacobs, Jane, 4:1505 Jafarova, Novella, 1:118 Jahumpa-Ceesay, Fatoumata, 1:lvii Jakes, T. D., 1:164 Jamaica, 2:784–785 educational opportunities/access, 2:784–785 employment, 2:784–785 gender equality, 2:785 gross domestic product (GDP), 2:784 sports, 2:785 Jameson, Jenna, 3:1118–1119 Jamieson, Helen Varley, 1:91 Jamieson, Penny, 1:65 Jamison, Judith, 2:785–786 Jamsheer, Ghada, 1:122 Japan, 2:786–788 abortion access, 1:2 activism, 2:787 alcohol, 1:20 educational opportunities/access, 2:787–788 employment, 2:787–788 family, 2:787–788 health, 2:787–788 life-expectancy, 1:47 partner violence, 1:lxiii politics, 2:786–787 JCW (Jerusalem Center for Women), 1:133 Jean, Michaëlle, 1:lv, 1:216 Jelimo, Pamela, 3:1047 Jelinek, Elfriede, 1:liv Jennings, Elizabeth Jean, 1:323 Jensen, Elizabeth, 1:447 “Jersey Girls,” 1:74 Jerusalem Center for Women (JCW), 1:133 Jett, Joan, 3:1244 Jetter, Alexis, 1:486 jewelry design, women in, 2:788–789 Jewish law, 2:797–798

Index jihad, 4:1616 Jim Crow laws, 3:1240 Jingalu, Melissa Craig, 1:111 Jingjing, Guo, 2:789–790 Jinnah, Fatima, 3:1065 Joan of Arc, 3:1158 job discrimination, 1:lxi Johnson, Andrea, 4:1581 Johnson, Janet Elise, 3:1263 Johnson, Jimmy, 1:114 Johnson, Norine, 3:1183 Johnson, Seba, 4:1522 Johnson, Sheila, 3:1442 Johnson, Shoshana, 3:1159 Johnson, Sonia, 2:790–791 Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen, 1:lvii, 2:670 Joint Gender Programme, 1:67 Jolie, Angelina, 1:160, 2:558, 3:1222 Jonas Brothers, 1:243 Jones, Rachelle, 1:115 Jones-Ferrette, LaVerne, 4:1522 Joo Hyun-Jung, 1:82 Joplin, Janis, 1:160 Jordan, 2:791–792, 3:1193 abortion access, 2:792 discrimination, 2:792 infant mortality, 2:792 literacy, 2:792 trafficking, 2:792 See also Queen Noor of Jordan Jordan, June, 1:160 Jorquera, Valerie, 1:114 Jo’s boys (Alcott), 1:lvii Journal of Bisexuality, 1:158 journalists, broadcast media, 2:792–795 alternative broadcasts, 2:794–795 cable, 2:793–794 market share/commercial appeal, 2:793 public television/radio, 2:794 See also Walters, Barbara

1835

1836

Index

journalists, print media, 2:795–797 divides in subjects/writing, 2:795–796 statistics in reporting, 2:796–797 war reporting, 2:796 women’s pages, 2:796 women’s style, 2:796 See also Vincent, Norah Joyner-Kersee, Jackie, 1:liv Judaism, 1:25, 2:797–800 conservative/reform movements, 2:798–799 contraception, religious approaches to, 1:331 Jewish law, 2:797–798 lesbian/gay clergy, 2:843 patriarchy, 2:799–800 treatment of women, 2:799 See also Orthodox Judaism judges, women as, 2:800–805 beyond formal/institutionalized judging, 2:805 commonalities/differences, 2:801–802 commonalities/divergences, 2:801 discrimination, 2:802–803 effects of judgments, 2:804–805 outsiders, 2:803–804 Juicy Mother, 1:227 Julie and Julia (film), 1:lvii Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (Powell), 1:lvii Juskus, Kendra Langdon, 1:359 K Kagan, Elena, 1:lxiii Kahlo, Frida, 1:160, 3:1409 Kahn, Shulamit, 1:448 Kali for Women: feminist publishing in India, 2:807–808 Kanka, Megan, 2:920–921 Kanter, Dee, 3:1390 Kanter, Rosabeth, 1:48 Kanun code, 1:49

Kaplan, Karen, 1:35 Kaplan, Mordecai, 2:799 Karim-Rushdan, al-Hajjah Khalilah, 1:45 Karina, Anna, 2:559 Karpinski, Janis, 1:18, 2:808–809 Kauffman, Ross, 2:564 Kay, Herma, 2:540 Kay, Jackie, 1:432 Kayibanda, Gregoire, 3:1263 Kazakhstan, 2:809–811 domestic violence, 2:810–811 trafficking, 2:810–811 Kearney, Beverly, 1:lv Kearney, Meg, 3:1109 Keenan, Kerry, 1:35 Kelber, Mim, 1:299, 3:1018, 4:1570 Keleti-Biro, Agnes, 1:1:li Keller, Sister Mary Kenneth, 1:323–324 Kelly, Grace, 2:558 Kennedy, John F., 1:39, 1:134, 1:355, 4:1497 Kennedy, Les France, 1:115 Kenya, 2:811–812 children’s rights, 1:277 HIV/AIDS: Africa, 2:811 politics, 2:811–812 See also School Fee Abolition Initiative (Kenya) Kepler, Johannes, 1:96 Kerchner, Charles, 3:1441 Kerr, Miranda, 3:1419 Kerrigan, Nancy, 2:556, 3:1049 Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, 1:292 Ketner, Linda, 2:847 Kgomo, Frans, 2:841–842 Khalsa, Snatam Kaur, 3:1350 Khan, M., 1:209 khimar, 4:1513 Kidd, Michael, 1:373 Kidd, Sue Monk, 1:lvi



Kidman, Nicole, 1:lii, 2:558 Kiger, Kris, 1:35 Kilbourne, Jean, 1:37–38 Kim Nam-Soon, 1:82 Kim Soo-Nyung, 1:82 Kim, Yu-Na, 1:lxiii, 2:556, 2:813 Kimmel, Michael, 1:56 Kimsooja, 1:90 kinesiology, 1:503–504 King, Billie Jean, 1:lxiii, 3:1446 King, Carole, 3:1243 King, Florence, 1:160 King, Karen, 3:1063 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1:55, 1:164 King, Ynestra, 1:446, 2:646 Kingdom, Dorothy, 1:175 King-Hammond, Leslie, 1:91 Kingston, Maxine Hong, 1:lx Kinsey, Alfred, 1:157–159 kira, 1:149 Kirchner, Cristina Fernández de, 1:lviii, 2:813–814 Kirchner, Néstor, 1:lviii Kiribati, 2:814–815 domestic violence, 2:815 infant mortality, 2:815 KKK. See Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Klapp, Judy, 1:323 Klein, Fritz, 1:158 Klein, Joe, 3:1289 Klein, Renate, 2:763 Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, 1:158 Klum, Heidi, 3:1419 Knapp, Caroline, 1:394 Kngwarreye, Emily Kame, 1:112, 2:815–816 Knight, Henrietta, 2:725 Knights of Labor (KOL), 4:1486 KOL (Knights of Labor), 4:1486 Kolhatkar, Sonali, 2:795 Kondakova, Yelena, 1:94 Koome, Martha, 2:803

Index

1837

Kopich, Julia, 3:1441 Koplovitsz, Kay, 2:916 Kopple, Barbara, 2:564, 3:1224 Kostova, Elizabeth, 1:lvi Kovacheva, Syka, 1:25 Kovalevskaya, Sofia, 2:909 Krafft-Ebbing, Richard Von, 2:686 Kramer, Mildred, 1:323 Krasner, Lee, 1:xlix Krentz, Jayne Ann, 3:1255 Kroc, Joan, 3:1090, 3:1442 Kroc, Ray, 3:1442 Kroes, Doutzen, 3:1419 Krone, Julie, 1:l, 2:724 Kruger, Barbara, 1:90 Krull, Gertrude, 3:1095 Ku Klux Klan (KKK), 1:286, 2:816–817, 2:663 current, 2:816–817 women’s roles, 2:816 Kullman, Ellen, 1:246 Kumar, Uttam, 1:176 Kumari, living goddess in Nepal, 2:817–818 Kunder, Farah Khan, 1:482 Kuras, Ellen, 2:570 Kusama, Yayoi, 1:169 Kuwait, 1:liii, 1:lv, 1:lviii, 2:818–819 citizenship, 2:819 domestic violence, 2:819 fertility, 2:818 infant mortality, 2:818 women’s rights, 2:818–819 Kuznetsova, Svetlana, 3:1447 Kwan, Michelle, 1:li, 2:556 Kyoto Protocol, 1:299 Kyrgyzstan, 2:819–821 bridal kidnapping, 2:820 politics, 2:820 rape, 2:820 women’s equality, 2:819–820

1838

Index

L La Vie en Rose, 1:lix Lackman, Conway, 2:725 Lacroix, Christian, 1:160 lactational amenorrhoea method (LAM), 1:333 Ladies Home Journal, 3:1407, 4:1578 LaDuke, Winona, 1:446, 2:823–824 Lady Gaga, 2:824–825, 3:1225 Lafayette, Leslie, 1:275 LAGB (laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding), 1:128 Laguiller, Arlette, 2:585 Lahiri, Jhumpa, 1:xlix Lake-Tack, Louise, 1:75 Lakoff, George, 1:55 Lalande, J. K., 3:1101 LAM (lactational amenorrhoea method), 1:333 Lamaze technique, 1:267 Laminaria japonicum, 1:16 Lanasa, John M., 2:725 land mines, 2:825–826 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 2:825 International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), 2:825–286 nature/community effects, 2:826 Land of Desire (Leach), 1:37 landscape architecture, women in, 2:826–828 achievements, 2:827 battling old boy’s club, 2:827 struggles to combine work/family, 2:827–828 Landsdowne, Helen, 1:34 lang, k. d., 1:354, 2:847 Lange, Dorothea, 3:1095, 3:1409 Lange, Jessica, 2:558 Lansing, Sherry, 1:48, 2:570 Laos, 2:828–829 child labor, 2:829 family, 2:828–829 poverty, 2:829

suffrage, 2:829 women’s rights, 2:828 laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB), 1:128 laparoscopy, 1:128, 3:1404 laparotomy, 3:1404 Lasegue, Charles, 1:392 Lassa fever, 4:1616 Late Wife (Emerson, C.), 1:lvii Latino heroines, 1:19 Latvia, 2:829–830 bisexuality, 1:161 domestic violence, 2:830 HIV/AIDS, 2:830 infant mortality, 2:829–830 mixed history of progress, 2:829–830 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 2:829 rape, 2:830 trafficking, 2:829 Lauder, Estee, 1:252 Laurent, Bo. See Chase, Cheryl Laurie, Annie, 2:795 Lauzen, M., 2:562, 2:917 Laveau, Marie, 4:1528 Law, Sylvia, 2:540 law enforcement, women in, 2:830–833 challenges, 2:831–833 Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, 2:831 history, 2:830–831 policy implications, 2:833 laws adoption, 1:30 community protection, 3:1311–1312 Jewish, 2:797–798 Jim Crow, 3:1240 NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws), 3:993–995 polygamy, cross-culturally considered, 3:1114–1115



sexual harassment, 3:1316–1317 “trigger,” 1:14 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 2:921 See also abortion laws, international; abortion laws, United States; Megan’s Law; secularity law, France; Shari`a Law Laxon, Sheila, 2:724 LCIS (lobular carcinoma in situ), 1:189–191 Le Gendre, Esther, 3:1475 Leach, William, 1:37 League of Women Voters, 2:833–834 Leakey, Mary, 1:153 Lebanon, 2:835 culture of chauvinism, 2:835 women’s movement, 2:835 Lebowitz, Fran, 1:74 Ledbetter, Lilly, 1:lxi, 2:836–837, 2:859–860. See also Lilly Ledbetter Act Lee, Debra, 2:916 Lee, Harper, 1:lix Lee, Jarena, 1:164 Lee, Jhong-Wha, 1:97–99 Lee, Nikki S., 1:89 Lee Sung-Jin, 1:82 Legally Blonde, 3:1222 Leginska, Ethel, 1:294 Lehrer, Jim, 1:120 Leiber, Judith, 2:789 Leibovitz, Annie, 2:837–838, 3:1095, 3:1409 Leigh, Vivien, 2:558 Leonard, Sugar Ray, 1:54 leptospirosis, 4:1617 Les Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales (FCEM), 1:210 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), 1:405, 1:433, 2:598–601, 2:683–684, 2:718–719, 3:1327–1328, 3:1333, 3:1337 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ). See LGBTQ.

Index

1839

lesbian adoption, 2:839–842 legal challenges worldwide, 2:840–842 research, 2:839 supportive practices, 2:840 tensions/barriers, 2:839–840 lesbian/gay clergy, 2:842–844 Buddhism, 2:842–843 Hinduism, 2:842–843 Islam, 2:842–843 Judaism, 2:843 Protestant denominations, 2:843–844 Sikhism, 2:842–843 lesbians, 2:844–847, 4:1617 activism, 2:846 defined, 2:844–843 interlocking identities, 2:846 popular culture, 2:846–847 visibility, 2:845–846 lesbians in the military, 2:847–848 Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), 2:847–848 increased harassment, 2:848 Lesotho, 2:848–850 domestic violence, 2:849 HIV/AIDS, 2:849 women’s rights, 2:848–849 Lessing, Doris, 1:lviii–lix, 2:850–851, 3:1027, 3:1028 Leuthard, Doris, 1:lvii Levy, Andrea, 1:liv Levy, Ariel, 1:38, 3:1464 Lewes, G. H., 3:1026 LGBT. See lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) LGBTQ, 1:lxi, 1:124–125, 1:158–160, 1:161, 2:851–855 activism history, 2:852–853 addiction and substance abuse, 1:21 adoption, 1:28–30 globalizing, 2:853–854 questioning identities, 2:853

1840

Index

transnational/assumption of progress, 2:854 worldwide, 2:852 L’Heureux-Dubé, Claire, 2:804 Li Du, 3:1345 liberalism, 3:1113–1114 Liberating Women, The (Amin), 1:79 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), 1:326 Liberia, 1:lvii, 2:855–856, 3:1357–1358 educational opportunities/access, 2:856 fertility, 2:856 HIV/AIDS, 2:855–856 See also Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson liberty, 1:12 Lichterman, Ruth, 1:323 Lieberman, Nancy, 1:304 Liechtenstein, 2:856–857 educational opportunities/access, 2:857 gender equality, 2:857 literacy, 2:857 Lieten, G. K., 1:261 life expectancy, 1:47 Algeria, 1:53 Andorra, 1:64 Armenia, 1:87 Austria, 1:113 Bahrain, 1:122 Barbados, 1:125 Bolivia, 1:174 Chad, 1:241 Colombia, 1:309 Comoros, 1:320 Cyprus, 1:369 Egypt, 1:463 El Salvador, 1:466 Estonia, 1:498 Gabon, 2:593 Gambia, 2:595 Guam, 2:648 Guinea-Bissau, 2:655 Macedonia, 2:872

Malawi, 2:882 Malaysia, 2:884 Namibia, 3:991 North Korea, 3:1023 Panama, 3:1069 Saint Lucia, 3:1268 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 3:1269 Spain, 3:1383 Sudan, 3:1410 Turkmenistan, 3:1479 Tuvalu, 3:1480 Uganda, 4:1484 Zimbabwe, 4:1605 life expectancy, international comparisons of, 2:857–859 developed countries, 2:858 developing countries, 2:858 influences, 2:859 least developed countries, 2:859 measurement, 2:859 Life Is Not a Fairy Tale (Barrino), 1:61–62 Lifetime, 4:1565–1566 Lil’ Kim, 2:695 Lilly Ledbetter Act, 2:859–861 guidelines, 2:860 success, 2:860 See also Ledbetter, Lilly Lim, Shirley, 2:628 Lima, Adriana, 3:1419 Lin, Maya, 1:85, 2:827, 2:861–862 Lincoln, Abraham, 1:lii Lindhop, Clare, 2:724 Linton, Simi, 2:862–863 Lippman, Laura, 1:lix Liswood, Laura, 1:351, 2:668 literacy, 4:1617 Argentina, 1:86 Armenia, 1:86 attainment, college degree, 1:98 Australia, 1:110



Bahamas, 1:121 Bahrain, 1:122 Bangladesh, 1:123 Belgium, 1:146 Burkina Faso, 1:204 Cameroon, 1:214 Croatia, 1:365 Djibouti, 1:409 Dominica, 1:420 Fiji, 2:557 Gabon, 2:593 Jordan, 2:792 Lichtenstein, 2:857 Luxembourg, 2:868–869 Mali, 2:886 Malta, 2:886 Mariana Islands, Northern, 2:896 Norway, 3:1024 Oman, 3:1051 Paraguay, 3:1071 San Marino, 3:1273 Sudan, 3:1410 Switzerland, 3:1430 Trinidad and Tobago, 3:1474 Turkey, 3:1478 Turkmenistan, 3:1479 Yemen, 4:1600 Lithuania, 1:lxi, 2:863–864 domestic violence, 2:863–864 HIV/AIDS, 2:863 infant mortality, 2:863–864 trafficking, 2:864 women’s rights, 2:863 Little League, 2:864–865 Little Men (Alcott), 1:lvii Little Women (Alcott), 1:lvii Littleton, Christine A., 2:540 Liu, Lucy, 2:558 Living Dolls, The Making of a Child Beauty Queen, 1:138

Index

1841

Living Downstream (Steingraber), 1:219 Living Wage for College Women, The, 1:60 lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS), 1:189–191 locavorism/slow food movement, 2:865–866 coining, 2:865 critiques, 2:865–866 growth of, 2:866 Loden, Barbara, 2:563 Loftus, Elizabeth, 3:1183 Lombard, Carole, 2:558 Longeauz y Vásquez, Enriqueta, 1:250 Lonza, Maria, 4:1515 Look Both Ways (Baumgardner), 1:159 Loren, Sophia, 2:558 Loring, Rosalind, 3:996 Los Angeles Times, 4:1510 Lotringer, Sylvere, 2:562 Love, Courtney, 1:160 Love Canal, 2:866–868 chemicals/municipal waste, 2:867 health emergency, 2:867–868 homes/schools on, 2:867 Lovelace, Augusta Ada, 1:323, 2:909 Loveless, 1:71 Low, Juliette Gordon, 2:621 Loy, Abie, 1:112 LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Players Association), 2:631 LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), 1:326 Lucas, Tad, 3:1245 Lucid, Shannon, 1:94 Luckmann, Thomas, 2:528, 2:904 Lupino, Ida, 2:568 Luxembourg, 2:868–869 gender equality, 2:868–869 literacy, 2:868–869 Luzzi, Mondino de, 1:152 Lynch, Jessica, 3:1159 Lynch, Mary B., 4:1581

1842

Index

Lynn, Loretta, 1:353–354 Lyon, Mary, 1:245, 2:688 Lysacek, Evan, 2:556 M Maathai, Wangari, 1:liv, 1:299, 1:482, 1:488, 2:645–646, 2:871–872, 3:1018, 1085 Green Belt Movement, 2:871, 3:1017 political life, 2:871–872 Macapagal-Arroyo, Gloria, 1:li MacArthur, Ellen, 1:lvi Macedonia (FRYOM), 2:872–873 bisexuality, 1:161 infant mortality, 2:872 national statistics, 2:872 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 2:872 suffrage, 2:872 MacGregor, Sherilyn, 1:446 Machel, Graça, 2:983 Machikio Hasegawa, 2:892 machismo/marianismo, 2:873–875, 4:1617 behavior/power, 2:874 origins/history, 2:873–874 Mackenzie, Catriona, 1:7 MacKinnon, Catherine, 1:68, 2:537 Macomber, Debbie, 1:lvi Madagascar, 2:875–876 family, 2:875 gender gap, 2:875 infant mortality, 2:875 MADD. See Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Maddow, Rachel, 2:876–877 Maddox, Rose, 1:353 Madonna, 1:233, 1:350, 2:877–878 MADRE, 2:878–879 mission, 2:879 projects, 2:878–879 Website, 2:878

Magoulick, Mary, 1:19 Mahmud, Shagir Karima, 3:1414 mail-order brides, 2:879–880 stereotypical assumptions, 2:879–880 supporting/challenging assumptions, 2:880 trafficking and, 2:880 Mairs, Nancy, 2:880–881 Makar, Nancy Hogshead, 1:lv Make Music for Me, 1:70 Makhmalbaf, Samira, 1:237 Malachowski, Nicole, 1:115 malaria, 1:lix, 4:1617 Malawi, 2:882–883 abortion access, 2:882 abortion laws, international, 1:11 gender equality, 2:883 HIV/AIDS, 2:883 life expectancy, 2:882 poverty, 2:883 Malaysia, 2:883–884 computer science, women in, 1:325 educational opportunities/access, 2:884 ethnic conditions, 2:883 improvements, 2:884 life expectancy, 2:884 Malcolm, Ellen, 1:475 Malcolm X, 1:45 Maldives, 2:884–885 domestic violence, 2:885 educational opportunities/access, 2:885 family, 2:884 poverty, 2:885 Male Brain, The (Brizendine), 1:154 male gaze, 1:362, 2:515–516 male sterilization, 3:1404–1405 Mali, 2:885–886 abortion access, 1:2 “betrothal at birth,” 2:885 educational opportunities/access, 2:886 literacy, 2:886



La Malinche, 2:944 Malkin, Michelle, 2:794 Malta, 2:886–887 abortion laws, international, 1:11 fertility, 2:886 gender equality, 2:886 gross domestic product (GDP), 2:886 infant mortality, 2:886–887 literacy, 2:886 Malveaux, Suzanne, 2:793 Mamet, David, 2:845 mammography, 1:190–191 management, women in, 2:887–889 roles/traits, 2:888–889 solidarity/diversity, 2:889 underlying patterns of gender identity, 2:887–888 workplace structures/advancement strategies, 2:888 management styles, gender theories, 2:889–891 differences, 2:890 leadership, 2:890 skills, 2:890–891 values, 2:891 Mandela, Nelson, 1:197 Mandlikova, Hana, 3:1447 Mandrell, Barbara, 1:354 Manford, Jeanne, 3:1076 manga, 1:70–71, 2:891–893 decline, 2:892 slow opening to women cartoonists, 2:891–892 man-hating, 1:72 Manifesta (Baumgardner), 1:159 Manigault-Stallworth, Omarosa, 3:1215 Mankiller, Wilma, 2:893–894 Manley, Effa, 1:lvii Manning, Edward, 3:1159 Manning, Hazel, 3:1475 Manning, Margaret, 1:482 Mansfield, Jayne, 2:558

Index Mao Asada, 2:555 Mao Tse-tung, 1:143, 1:281, 1:285 maquiladoras, 2:894–896, 3:1424 defined, 2:894 human rights, 2:895 wage slavery, 2:894–895 worker/environmental protection, 2:895 marathons. See running/marathons March (Brooks), 1:lvii March of Dimes, 1:155 Marchand, Roland, 1:36–37 Marconi, Guglielmo, 2:763 marginalization, 3:1183, 4:1561, 4:1617 Maria Paradox, The (Gil/Vazquez), 2:609 Mariana Islands, Northern, 2:896–897 garment industry, 2:896 literacy, 2:896 trafficking, 2:896 marianismo. See machismo/marianismo Marie Claire, 4:1578–1579 marriage, 2:897–899 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75 Belarus, 1:145 Belize, 1:146 bridewealth, 2:898 Cambodia, 1:212 commonality/diversity in defining, 2:897 dowry, 2:898 Honduras, 2:720 Iceland, 2:737 Mongolia, 2:973 physicians, female, links, 3:1100 rape and, 3:1207–1208 re-examining, 2:897–898 restrictions, 2:898 Russia, 3:1261 Saudi Arabia, 3:1278 sexual issues, 2:898–899 Somalia, 3:1375 United Kingdom, 4:1490

1843

1844

Index

United States, 4:1500–1501 See also divorce; family; mistresses; same-sex marriage marriages, arranged, 2:899–902, 4:1617 changes in social valuation, 2:901 India, 2:901 Mauritania, 2:911 Websites, 2:901 Marshall, Kathleen, 1:373 Marshall, P. David, 1:231 Marshall Islands, 2:902 Martel, Lucrecia, 2:566 Martha Stewart Living, 3:1407 Martin, Christie, 1:182 Martin, Darnell, 2:564, 2:568 Martin, Judith, 1:lx Martin, Steve, 1:378 Martin, Valerie, 1:liii Martinez, Rosa, 1:90 Mary Kay, 1:400–401 Mary Magdalene, 2:902–903, 2:970 “masculinity,” social construction of, 2:904–906, 4:1617 challenges to, 2:906 cross-cultural constructions, 2:905 gender roles, 2:904 women’s roles, 2:905–906 Masna, Princess, 1:198 Mason, Mary Ann, 1:307 Masry & Vititoe, 1:195 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1:324 masturbation, 1:18 Mata Amritanandamayi Math, 2:906–907 matai, 1:63 maternal death, 1:2, 1:239, 4:1617 maternal mortality (MM), 2:907–908, 3:1140–1141 direct/underlying causes, 2:907–908 responses/continuing priorities, 2:908

mathematics, women in, 2:908–911 biological/psychological/sociological explanations, 2:910 gender differences, 2:909–910 male domination, 2:909 “ways of knowing,” 2:910–911 Matheny, Amy, 1:405 matriarchy, 3:1340, 4:1617 Matrix, 1:19 Matsuda, Mari, 2:540 Mattel, 1:60, 1:127–128, 1:184, 2:624 Matthews, Victoria, 3:1149 Mau Mau, 1:lvii Mauchly, Mary, 1:323 Mauresmo, Amelie, 1:lviii Mauritania, 2:911–913 arranged marriages, 2:911 educational opportunities/access, 2:912 HIV/AIDS, 2:912 infant mortality, 2:911 rape, 2:912 Mauritius, 2:913–914 domestic violence, 2:913 fertility, 2:913 HIV/AIDS, 2:913 politics, 2:913 social indicators, 2:913 Max, Tucker, 2:665–666 Max Planck Institute, 1:153 Mayers, Ruby, 1:175 Mayle, Peter, 3:1307 Maynard, Hannah, 3:1094 Mbete, Baleka, 1:liv, 1:lix McAleese, Mary, 2:772 McArdle, Megan, 1:166 McBride, Martina, 1:354 McCartney, Linda, 2:914, 3:1095 McCartney, Paul, 2:914 McCartney, Stella, 2:914–915 McClain, Johnny, 1:54



McClain, Linda, 2:540 McClintock, Barbara, 1:153 McCloud, Aminah Beverly, 1:45 McConnell, David Hall, 1:400 McCormick, Patricia, 1:lix McCorvey, Norma, 2:915–916 MCCS. See Metropolitan Community of Churches (MCCs) McDaniel, Hattie, 1:lvii, 2:558 McDonald, Heather, 1:315 McEntire, Reba, 1:354 McFadden, Cynthia, 1:lx, 2:793 McGinnis, Vera, 3:1245 McGrath, Judy, 2:916 McIntosh, Winsome, 1:l, 3:1198–1199 McKay, Heather, 1:liv McKenzie, Vashti Murphy, 1:165 McLagan, Meg, 3:1224 McLauchlin, Cecelia, 1:296 McNulty, Kathleen, 1:323 McRobbie, Angela, 1:73 McWhorter, Diane, 1:lii McWilliams, James E., 2:865 MDG (Millennium Development Goals), 1:149, 3:1018 Mead, George Herbert, 2:528 Mead, Margaret, 1:25, 1:160 Mechanics Trade Association, 4:1486 media chief executive officers, female, 2:916–917 disparities, 2:917 new approach, 2:916–917 research, 2:917 Media Institute of Southern Africa, 1:179 Medicaid, 1:4, 1:13 medical research, gender issues in, 2:917–920 current/future, 2:919–920 health issues, 2:918–919 history/changes by research bodies, 2:917–918 Mediterranean Diet, 1:396 megachurches, 1:164

Index

1845

Megan’s Law, 2:920–922 effectiveness, 2:921–922 sexual offenders’ reporting, 2:920–921 Mehaydali, San’a, 3:1413 Mehta, Deepa, 2:846 Mehta, Renu, 2:922–923 Meir, Golda, 2:669–670 MELA (Mothers of East Los Angeles), 1:487 Melia, Janet, 1:114 “men in disguise,” 1:19 meningococcal meningitis, 4:1617 Menkel-Meadow, Carrie, 2:540 Menon, Ritu, 2:807–808 menopause, medical aspects of, 2:923–925 coping with symptoms, 2:924 hormone replacement therapy (HRT), 2:924–925 nutrition, 3:1036 physical symptoms, 2:923–924 menopause, social aspects of, 2:925–927 attitudes toward menopause, 2:925–926 menopause in popular culture, 2:926 more positive view, 2:927 menstruation, 1:89, 2:927–930 better attitudes/affirming views, 2:930 cultural differences, 2:928 “feeling shameful,” 2:929 learning facts, 2:929–930 perception differences, 2:928–929 premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), 2:928 premenstrual syndrome (PMS), 2:928 symptoms, 2:927–928 toxic shock syndrome (TSS), 2:929 menstruation, rituals surrounding, 2:931–932 Christianity, 2:932 Godlike powers/parallels, 2:931–932 mental health treatment, access to, 2:932–935 for minority women, 2:934–935 services for women, 2:933 willingness to seek treatment, 2:933–934

1846

Index

World Health Organization (WHO) on, 2:933–934 mental health treatment, bias in, 2:935–937 diagnosis, 2:935–936 drug therapy, 2:936–937 psychological therapy, 2:936 mental illness, incidence rates of, 2:937–939 mentoring, 2:940 military leadership, women in, 2:964–965 science education for girls, 3:1285–1286 Merchant, Carolyn, 1:444, 2:646 Merill and Baker Agency, 1:34 Merkel, Angela, 1:lxi, 1:615, 2:670, 2:941 Mermaid Chair, The (Kidd), 1:lvi Merritt, Jesalyn, 1:166 Meshkini, Marziyeh, 1:237 Messager, Annette, 1:90 Metropolitan Community Church, 2:941–942 Mew, Charlotte, 3:1110 Mexico, 1:lxi, 2:942–945 abortion access, 1:3, 2:945 alcohol, 1:20 HIV/AIDS, 2:705 iconic women, 2:944 politics, 2:944–945 Spanish conquest/effects, 2:943–944 Mexico City Policy, 1:13, 2:629 Meyers, Nancy, 2:564 MGA Entertainment, 1:183–184 Michael Clayton, 1:lix Michelman, Kate, 2:945–946 Michelotti, Maria Domenica, 3:1273 Michiko Ishimuri, 1:486 micro and small enterprise (MSE), 1:206 microcredit, 2:946–948 bank as grassroots unit, 2:946–947 positive outcomes/challenges, 2:947–948 traditional aid versus, 2:946

microentrepreneurs, 1:480–481 microfinance, 2:573 microfinancing, 1:209–210 Micronesia, 2:948–949 domestic violence, 2:949 reproductive issues, 2:949 social structure, 2:948–949 women’s roles, 2:948–949 midlife career change, 2:949–951 career barriers, 2:950–951 challenges, 2:950 family factors, 2:950 flexibility in, 2:949–950 shaping holistic careers, 2:950–951 Midori Ito, 2:555 midwifery, 2:951–954, 4:1574 benefits to mother/baby, 2:953 globally, 2:953–954 legislation, 2:954 principles/history, 2:951–952 research, 2:954 Mies, Maria, 2:646 Mifepristone, 1:14, 1:17, 4:1617 migrant workers, 2:954–956 “care chains,” 2:955 “care drain,” 2:955 defined, 2:954 gender roles, 2:956 labor environment, 2:955–956 motivations, 2:954–955 Mikulski, Barbara, 4:1576 Milani, Tahmineh, 1:237 military, women in the, 2:956–963 Asia, 2:960 current issues, 2:960–961 Europe/NATO, 2:959–960 future aspirations, 2:962–963 gender gap, 2:962 Israel, 2:957 sexual harassment/assault, 2:961–962



South America, 2:960 United States, 2:957–959 See also post-traumatic stress disorder in female military military leadership, women in, 2:963–965 gender and, 2:963 historic changes, 2:963 men versus, 2:964 mentoring, 2:964–965 military sexual trauma (MST), 3:1131–1132 military stationed in Muslim countries, 2:965–966 restrictions, 2:966 in war zones, 2:966 Mill, John Stuart, 3:1026 Millennial Generation, 2:966–968 Generation X, 2:966–967 Generation Y outside of United States, 2:967 priorities, 2:967 Millennium Development Goals (MDG), 1:149, 1:155, 3:1018, 4:1617–1618 Miller, Dena, 1:91 Miller, E. G., 1:494 Miller, Marisa, 3:1419 Miller, Pamela, 1:297 Miller, Shannon, 1:lx Miller v. California, 3:1117, 3:1119 Millet, Kate, 2:540 Milliat, Alice, 3:1048–1049 Million Dollar Baby, 1:182 Million Mom March, 2:968 Mills, Alice du Pont, 1:115 Minh-ha, Trinh T., 2:563, 2:805 ministry, Protestant, 2:969–970 Minow, Martha, 2:540 Mir spacestation, 1:94 Mirren, Helen, 1:lvii misogyny, 3:1118–1119 “missing women,” 4:1618

Index mistresses, 2:970–971 historical evolution, 2:970–971 modern variations, 2:971 “misunderstood hunger,” 1:394 Mitchell, Andrea, 2:794 Mitchell, Joni, 3:1243, 3:1244 mixed martial arts (MMA), 1:182 Mladjenovic, Lepa, 2:846 MM. See maternal mortality (MM) MMA (mixed martial arts), 1:182 Modelski, Tania, 3:1255 Moghadam, Valentine, 1:237 Mohammad, Warith Deen, 1:45 Mohanty, Chandra, 1:488 Moldova, 2:971–972 bisexuality, 1:161 educational opportunities/access, 2:971 gender gap, 2:971 suffrage, 2:972 mommy track, 4:1618 mommy wars, 4:1618 Monaco, 2:972–973 abortion access, 2:973 fertility, 2:973 Monahan, Jay, 1:355 Money, John, 2:766–767 Mongan Method, 1:267 Mongella, Gertrude Ibengwe, 1:liv Mongolia, 2:973–974 gender gap, 2:973–974 marriage, 2:973 nomadic environment, 2:973 Mo’Nique, 1:lxii Monroe, Marilyn, 2:558 Monster, 1:liii Monster’s Ball, 1:li Montag, Heidi, 3:1215 Montaginier, Luc, 1:lx Montalcini, Rita, 1:153 Montenegro, 2:974–975

1847

1848

Index

domestic violence (DV), 2:974 patriarchy, 2:974 poverty, 2:974 trafficking, 2:975 Montgomery, Linda, 1:315 Montgomery, Lucy Maud, 1:217 Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1:164 Montreynaud, Florence, 2:585 Moodie, Geraldine, 3:1094 Moore, Demi, 1:19, 1:350, 2:559 Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA), 1:44 Moraes, Tetê, 2:567 Moraga, Cherrie, 1:251 Moral Majority, 3:1327 moral reasoning, 1:8 Morales, Evo, 1:lxii Moretti, Franco, 3:1025 Morgan, Jessica, 1:167 Morgan, Sally, 1:111 Morgan, Sandra, 4:1572–1573 Morgan, William G., 1:133 Morganti, Fausta, 3:1273 Mori, Mariko, 1:90 Mormon Church/Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2:975–976 Morocco, 1:liv, 1:lix, 2:976–977 infant mortality, 2:976–977 politics, 2:977 Morosky, Elena, 2:537 Morrison, Toni, 2:977–978, 3:1028 Mosewich, Amber D., 3:1464 Moss, Carrie-Anne, 1:19 Moss, Kate, 3:1419 Moss, Kristin, 2:657 motherhood, 1:8 United States, 4:1500–1501 working mothers, 4:1589 Mothers Against Choice, 2:979 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), 2:979–980

media impact, 2:980 philanthropy/charities, 2:980 mothers in prison, 2:980–982 mothering infants, 2:981–982 parenting from prison, 2:982 reproductive health, 2:981 Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), 1:487 Mott, Lucretia, 2:543 Mozambique, 1:liv, 2:982–983 domestic violence, 2:983 liberation/constitution, 2:983 Ms. magazine, 2:541, 2:983–985, 3:1042 content/online presence, 2:984–985 history, 2:984 slogan, 2:984 MSE (micro and small enterprise), 1:206 MST (military sexual trauma), 3:1131–1132 MSTA (Moorish Science Temple of America), 1:44 MTV, 1:233, 2:985–986 Mueller, Lisel, 3:1110 Muhammad, Ava, 1:45 Muhammad, Clara (“Mother”), 1:45 Muhammad, Donna Farradhan, 1:45 Muhammad, Elijah, 1:45 Muhammad, Tynetta, 1:45 Muhammad, W. D. Fard, 1:45 Mujerista theology, 2:986–987 Mukai, Chiaki, 1:95 Mulcahy, Anne, 1:254 Mulhall, Lucille, 1:356, 3:1245–1246 Mulheres Vivendo, 1:67 Mulkey, Kim, 1:303–304 Mulkey-Robertson, Kim, 1:131 Mullaney, Kate, 4:1486 Müller, Herta, 1:lxi, 3:1257 Muller, Susan M., 3:1464 multiverses, gender stereotypes in, 2:987–989 beyond gender roles, 2:988 pursuits, 2:988 Mulvey, Laura, 1:37, 2:515, 2:560, 2:564



Munro, Alice, 1:217 Murdoch, Iris, 3:1027 Murdock, Margaret Thompson, 3:1345 Murphy, Brianne, 2:570 Murphy, Patrick D., 1:445 Murray, Anne, 1:354 Murray, Pauli, 3:996 Muskie, Edward, 1:50 Muslim feminism, 2:776 Mustapha, Ayesha, 1:45 Muther, Catherine, 3:1091 Mutola, Maria, 2:983 Mutter, Anne-Sophie, 1:294 My Body Politic (Linton), 2:862 My Place (Morgan), 1:111 Myanmar, 2:989–990 human rights, 2:990 poverty, 2:989 MySpace, 3:1225 N NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance), 1:397 Nabhan, Gary Paul, 2:865 Nadelson, Carol, 3:1182 NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children), 1:272 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), 2:894, 2:944, 3:1424 Najimy, Kathy, 1:315 Nalingu, Joanne Currie, 1:111 Namibia, 3:991–992 life expectancy, 3:991 women’s associations, 3:991 nannies, 3:992–993 Napangardi, Dorothy, 1:112 NARAL (National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws), 3:993–995 history/structure, 3:993–994 leadership/staff, 3:994

Index

1849

narcotic analgesics, 1:266–267 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), 1:94, 1:95, 3:1241 NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), 3:1083 Nash, Alicia, 1:li Nash, John, 1:li Nasser, Gamal Abdel, 1:79 Nation, The, 4:1510 Nation of Gods, 1:45 Nation of Islam (NOI), 1:45 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1:94, 1:95, 3:1241 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), 3:1083 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 1:272 National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL). See NARAL National Association of Working Women. See 9to5 National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), 1:397 National Black Women’s Health Project, 4:1573 National Book Award, 1:lx, 3:1110 National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), 3:1110 National Cancer Institute, 1:218 National Center for Health Statistics, 1:157 National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), 1:416 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), 1:lvi, 1:302–303 National Council for Women, 1:xlix National Council on Children and Families, 1:86 National Education Association (NEA), 3:1441 National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 1:159 National Institutes of Health (NIH), 2:918 National Labor Union (NLU), 4:1486 National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1:lx, 1:91, 3:995–996

1850

Index

National Network for Childcare (NNCC), 1:272 National Organization for Women (NOW), 3:996–999 contemporary issues, 3:998–999 foundation, 3:997–998 history, 3:996–999 women’s studies and, 4:1586 National Organization for Women v. Scheidler, 1:14 National Rifle Association (NRA), 1:182, 2:657 National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), 3:1169 National Science Foundation (NSF), 1:154, 1:245, 1:306 National Security Advisor, 1:xlix National Security Council, 1:50 National Survey on Violence Experienced Swaziland, 3:1423 National Women’s Association of Bhutan (NWAB), 1:150 National Women’s History Project, 4:1576 National Women’s Movement, 3:1420 National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC), 3:999–1000 National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), 3:1000–1001, 4:1586 nationalism Arab feminism and, 1:79 political ideologies, 3:1114 Native American religion, 3:1001–1003 community-based, 3:1001 connection to nature, 3:1002–1003 Native Americans, 1:lvii, 1:13 architecture, women in, 1:83 suicide and race, 3:1411–1412 Native Guard (Trethewey), 1:lix NATO. See North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) natural childbirth, 1:267–268, 4:1618 Nauru, 3:1003–1004 infant mortality, 3:1003 women’s issues, 3:1003

Navdanya, 3:1004–1005 Navratilova, Martina, 1:l Nawfal, Hind, 1:80 NBC Universal Sports, 1:lxiii NBCC (National Book Critics Circle), 3:1110 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), 1:lvi, 1:302–303 NCADV (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence), 1:416 NCDs (noncommunicable diseases), 1:220 NCLB. See No Child Left Behind (NCLB) NEA (National Education Association), 3:1441 Negro League, 1:lvii neoliberalism, 3:1471 Nepal, 1:lxi, 3:1005–1006 abortion access, 1:2 government/constitution, 3:1006 quality of life, 3:1005 See also Tamang, Stella Ner-David, Haviva, 3:1198 nerd-bashing, 1:56 Netanyahu, Benjamin, 1:355 Netherlands, 3:1006–1007 computer science, women in, 1:325 “Dutch Case,” 3:1006–1007 third wave feminism, 3:1007 women’s/gender studies, 3:1006–1007 Netrebko, Anna, 1:294 Nevins, Sheila, 1:lx New Age Religion, 3:1007–1008 New Hampshire primary, 1:lix New Woman’s Group, 1:80 New York Times, 1:156–157, 4:1510, 4:1542 New Yorker, 1:17, 1:227–228 New Zealand, 3:1008–1009 computer science, women in, 1:325 gender equality, 3:1008 gross domestic product (GDP), 3:1008 infant mortality, 3:10089 Newark Eagles, 1:lvii



Newkirk, Ingrid, 1:67 Newman, Troy, 3:1052 News-Hour, 1:120 Newsweek, 1:159 Newton, Isaac, 2:909 Newton, Maud, 1:166 NGOs. See nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) Nguyen v. INS, 1:li Nicaragua, 1:lix, 3:1009–1010 abortion access, 1:1, 1:3 disadvantaged groups, 3:1009–1010 infant mortality, 3:1009 Nichols, Jennifer, 1:82 Nicholson, Catherine, 2:541 Nickel and Dimed (Ehrenreich), 1:464–465 Nicks, Stevie, 3:1010–1011 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest, 1:liv Nieto-Gómez, Anna, 1:250 Nieznalska, Dorota, 1:237 Niger, 3:1011 Nigeria, 1:lix, 3:1012–1013 alcohol, 1:20 gender equality, 3:1012–1013 women’s movement, 3:1012–1013 Nightingale, Florence, 2:909 Nightlight Christian Adoptions, 3:1362 NIH (National Institutes of Health), 2:918, 2:920 Nikita, 1:19 Nin, Anais, 1:160 Nineteenth Amendment, 2:833, 3:1441 9to5, 3:1013–1014 goals, 3:1014 grassroots level, 3:1013 guidebooks, 3:1013–1014 niqab, 4:1513 Nishizawa, Ryne, 1:85 niswiyya, 1:79 Nix, Amy, 4:1526

Index

1851

Nixon, Cynthia, 1:160, 2:840 NLU (National Labor Union), 4:1486 NNCC (National Network for Childcare), 1:272 No Child Left Behind (NCLB), 3:1014–1015 critics, 3:1015 reforms, 3:1015 supporters, 3:1014–1015 No Kidding!, 1:75 Nobel Prize, 1:liii, 1:liv, 1:lviii–lix, 1:lxi, 1:lxii, 1:96, 1:130, 1:152–153, 2:850, 2:871, 3:1283, 3:1393 Nochlin, Linda, 1:88, 1:91, 1:92 Noether, Emmy, 2:909, 3:1102 NOI (Nation of Islam), 1:45 noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), 1:220 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 1:liii, 1:lx–lxi, 1:75, 2:626, 3:1015–1020, 4:1618 abortion laws, United States, and, 1:13 Argentina, 1:86 attainment, elementary school completion, and, 1:100 Bangladesh, 1:123–124 Belarus, 1:145 Czech Republic (CZ), 1:370 Dominican Republic, 1:422 Estonia, 1:498 feminist, 1:80 financial independence of women and, 2:572–573 historical development of women’s NGOs, 3:1017 Honduras, 2:720 in international politics, 3:1016–1017 Latvia, 2:829 Macedonia, 2:872 Millennium Development Goals and NGOs, 3:1018 NGO networks and coalitions, 3:1018–1019 Panama, 3:1069

1852

Index

Suriname, 3:1420 United Nations global women’s conferences and NGOs, 3:1017 women’s NGOs and the Nobel Peace Prize, 3:1018 See also Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) nontraditional careers, U.S., 3:1020–1022 fields, 3:1021 research, 3:1021 nonviable fetus, 1:13 Noonan, Peggy, 1:lx, 1:74 Noor, Queen. See Queen Noor of Jordan Nooyi, Indra, 3:1022–1023 Norman, Jessye, 1:294 Norris, Michelle, 2:794 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 2:894, 2:944, 3:1424 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 1:51, 1:312, 2:959–960, 4:1489 North Korea, 3:1023–1024 infant mortality, 3:1023 life expectancy, 3:1023 religion, 3:1023 reproduction rights, 3:1023 women in office, 3:1024 Norville, Deborah, 1:355 Norway, 3:1024–1025 Act on Gender Equality, 1:197 bullying in the workplace, 1:203 five-track method, 1:56 infant mortality, 3:1024 literacy, 3:1024 rape, 3:1024 trafficking, 3:1024 Notari, Elvira, 2:561 Novac, Franc, 1:16 Novaro, Maria, 2:566 novelists, female, 3:1025–1028 female novel 1920 onward, 3:1026–1027

feminine novel 1840–1880, 3:1026 feminist novel 1880–1920, 3:1026 hyphenated origins, 3:1027 postcolonial, 3:1027–1028 post–World War II, 3:1027 pre-1840, 3:1025–1026 See also feminist publishing; Morrison, Toni; romance novels; Walker, Alice NRA (National Rifle Association), 1:182, 2:657 NRLC (National Right to Life Committee), 3:1169 N’s Student Body, The, 1:54 NSF. See National Science Foundation (NSF) Nsiah-Jefferson, Laurie, 2:540 Ntakatsane, Limakatso, 2:850 nuclear families, 1:147 Numeroff, Laura Joffe, 1:lvii Nunez-Tesheira, Karen, 3:1475 nuns, Buddhist, 3:1028–1029 India, 3:1029 orientation, 3:1028 nuns, Roman Catholic, 3:1029–1031 enclosure, 3:1029–1030 feminist spirit, 3:1030 lives of service, 3:1030–1031 vocation decline, 3:1031 See also priesthood, Roman Catholic nurses, 3:1031–1035 education/credentials, 3:1032–1033 history of nursing, 3:1032 nursing as care work, 3:1033 nursing identity, 3:1033–1035 representation, 3:1034 shortage, 3:1034–1035 “nurturant parent” model, 1:55 Nussbaum, Martha, 2:629 Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane, 1:153 nutrition, 3:1035–1037 diseases associated with poor, 3:1037 menopause, 3:1036



puberty, 3:1036 reproduction, 3:1036 for women, 3:1036 nutrition in pregnancy, 3:1038–1040 food safety, 3:1039 food-related complications, 3:1039 key nutrients, 3:1038–1039 weight management, 3:1038 NWAP (National Women’s Association of Bhutan), 1:150 NWPC. See National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) NWSA. See National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Nyad, Diana, 1:lviii Nyberg, Karen, 1:95 O O Pioneers (Cather), 1:357 Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, 1:164 Oakley, Annie, 1:356 Oates, Joyce Carol, 3:1027, 3:1041–1042 Obama, Barack, 1:lx–lxi, 1:18, 1:48, 1:51, 1:253, 2:730, 2:848, 4:1547, 4:1554 Obama, Michelle, 1:lxi, 3:1042–1044, 3:1277, 4:1554 First Lady, 3:1042–1043 trail blazer, 3:1042 O’Beirne, Kate, 1:74 obesity, 1:48, 1:129 objectification, 1:38 obscenity, 3:1119 Observatory on Violence Against Women, 3:1384 obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), 1:77, 3:1044–1045 occupational segregation, 1:123 OCD. See obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) Ochoa, Maria, 2:536 Ochs, Robyn, 1:158–159 O’Connor, Christy, 2:537

Index

1853

O’Connor, John Jay, III, 3:1046 O’Connor, Sandra Day, 1:357, 3:1045–1046 O’Connor, Sinéad, 3:1245 O’Day, Molly, 1:353 O’Donnell, Patricia, 2:828 O’Donnell, Rosie, 1:314–315, 2:840, 2:847 OECD. See Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs), 1:40–42 Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva Switzerland, 1:lx office managers. See administrative assistants/ office managers Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), 1:40–42 O’Gorman, Colm, 1:295 Oh, Sandra, 1:217 O’hanrahan, Inka, 3:996 O’Hara, Catherine, 1:217 Oher, Michael, 1:lxii Ohno, Apolo, 1:li Old Mistresses (Parker/Pollock), 1:88 Olds, Sharon, 3:1109 Olgilvy & Mather Worldwide, 1:35 Olin, Ferris, 1:91 Oliver, Patsy Ruth, 1:486 Oliveros, Pauline, 1:294 Olsen, Frances, 2:540 Olstrom, Elinor, 1:449 Olympic Games, 1:l, 1:li, 1:lii, 1:liv, 1:lviii, 1:lix, 1:lx, 1:lxiii, 1:182 Olympics, Summer, 3:1046–1048 continued inequity, 3:1047–1048 gymnastics, 2:659 running/marathons, 3:1258 separate competitive spaces/social expectations, 3:1047 shooting team, 3:1239 swimming, 3:1429–1430

1854

Index

track and field, 3:1465 weightlifting, 4:1544–1545 Olympics, Winter, 3:1048–150 early years, 3:1048–1049 figure skating, 2:554–555 gender stereotyping/events, 3:1049 social reform/impact, 3:1049 Oman, 1:liii, 3:1050–1051 educational opportunities/access, 3:1051 fertility, 3:1051 gross domestic product (GDP), 3:1050 literacy, 3:1051 On Beauty (Smith, Z.), 1:lvii Onassis Foundation, 1:197 Ondo, Miki, 2:556 O’Neal, Tatum, 2:559 open adoption, 1:29 OperaBabes, 1:294 Operation Iraqi Freedom, 3:1159 Operation Rescue, 3:1051–1052 Opie, Catherine, 1:89 Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), 1:lxiii Oprah Winfrey Show, The. 1:378 oral sex, 1:18 Orange Award, 1:xlix, 1:li, 1:lii, 1:liii, 1:liv, 1:lvi, 1:lvii, 1:lix, 1:lx, 3:1028 Orarzad, Rahraw, 1:89 Ordnung, 1:64 O’Reilly, Nereida Rivera, 4:1522 Orenstein, Gloria, 2:646 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 1:98–99, 1:106, 1:207, 4:1489 Organization of Angolan Women, 1:67 Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), 3:1052–1053 Oriental Orthodox Church, 1:25 Ormsby, Mary, 1:296 Orthodox Churches, 3:1053–1055 historic roles of women, 3:1053–1054

ordination, 3:1054–1055 women seeking fuller participation, 3:1054 Orthodox Judaism, 3:1055–1056 agunah and, 3:1056 feminism, 3:1056 issues, 3:1056 Osborne, Joan, 1:160 OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), 2:664–665 Oslin, K. T., 1:354 Ostriker, Alicia, 3:1109 Ostrom, Elinor, 1:lxi O’Sullivan, Kenny, 4:1487 Ota Fusae, 2:786 Otto, Kristin, 3:1430 Our Bodies, Ourselves, 3:1057–1058, 4:1573 medical data/testimonies, 3:1057 transforming doctor-patient relationships, 3:1058 updated, 3:1057 Our Common Future, 1:197 Our Sound Is Our Wound (Winkett), 4:1555 Our Stolen Future (Colborn/Steingraber), 1:445 Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (Steinem), 3:1397 Ouzounian, Gascia, 1:294 Over the Hill Gang, 1:48 overpopulation, 3:1058–1060 ovulation, 4:1618 Owen, Ann, 1:447 Owen, Robert, 4:1568 Owens, Dana Elaine. See Queen Latifah OWFI. See Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), 1:lxiii Oxygen Media, 4:1565–1566 P Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 1:195–196 pacifism, female, 3:1061–1062



Pagels, Elaine, 3:1062–1063 Paglia, Camille, 1:74, 1:160, 3:1063–1064 Pakistan, 1:lvii, 1:150–151, 3:1064–1065 activism, 3:1065 health, 3:1065 sexual issues, 3:1065 women’s position, 3:1064–1065 See also Hudood Ordinance Palacios, Monica, 1:315 Palau, 3:1066 Palestine, 3:1066–1067 citizenship, 3:1067 honor killings, 3:1067 infant mortality, 3:1067 Palin, Sarah, 1:lvii, 1:lx, 3:1067–1078 Palmer, Violet, 3:1390 Panama, 3:1068–1069 educational opportunities/access, 3:1069 healthcare, 3:1068 life expectancy, 3:1069 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 3:1069 Panchita’s House: domestic worker’s rights in Lima, Peru, 3:1069–1070 panic disorders, 1:78–79 pap smears, 1:219 Papua New Guinea, 3:1070–1071 domestic violence, 3:1070 “grass-skirt activism,” 3:1071 Paraguay, 3:1071–1072 gender gap, 3:1071 literacy, 3:1071 parental leave, 3:1072–1074 Council of Europe on, 3:1072–1073 in European Union (EU), 3:1073–1074 International Labour Organization (ILO) on, 3:1072 U.S. legislative procedures, 3:1073 Parental Leave Act, 3:1074–1075. See also Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Parenting with Love and Logic (Foster/Fay), 2:681

Index

1855

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), 3:1075–1077 formation, 3:1075–1076 goal, 3:1077–1077 Park Sung-Hyun, 1:82 Parker, Candace, 1:131, 4:1580 Parker, Lesley H., 3:1286 Parker, Rozsika, 1:88 Parker, Sarah Jessica, 2:530 Parks, Susan-Lori, 1:lii Partial Birth Ban Abortion Act, 1:liii, 1:lviii partial-birth abortions, 1:4 partner rights, 3:1077–1079 current, 3:1079 defined, 3:1078–1079 worldwide, 3:1078 partner violence, 1:lxii Japan, 1:lxiii United States, 1:liii Parton, Dolly, 1:354, 3:1079–1080 part-time work, 3:1080–1082 advantages/disadvantages, 3:1081 discrimination, 3:1082 global instruments on, 3:1081–1082 incidence, 3:1081 PAS. See post-abortion trauma syndrome (PAS) Pasja (Nieznalska), 1:237 PASO (People Against Sex Offenders), 1:58 passion parties, 1:401 Pastan, Linda, 3:1110 Patchett, Ann, 1:lii paternity, 1:li Patil, Pratibha, 1:lviii, 2:668 patriarchy, 1:19, 3:1476, 4:1618 Montenegro, 2:974 Serbia, 3:1297 Patrick, Danica, 1:lx, 1:113, 1:114, 3:1082–1083 Patterson, Meredith L., 1:166 Paul, Alice, 1:493

1856

Index

Pauley, Jane, 2:792 Payette, Julie, 1:95 Payson, Joan, 3:1442 peace movement, 3:1083–1086 activism, 3:1084 notable activists, 3:1085 United Nations (UN) and, 3:1084–1085 See also Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Peck, Cecelia, 3:1224 pedophilia. See clergy abuse; pedophilia online pedophilia online, 3:1086–1087 Pellegrini, Federica, 3:1048 Pelosi, Nancy, 1:liii, lviii, 3:1087–1088, 4:1497 Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, 1:liv Pentagon, 1:li People Against Sex Offenders (PASO), 1:58 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 1:67–69, 2:914 People magazine, 4:1578 Pepper, Wendy, 3:1215 Perestroika, 4:1618 Peretti, Elsa, 2:789 perpetrators, female, 3:1088–1090 description of cross-culture, 3:1088–1089 policy implications, 3:1090 research, 3:1089–1090 risk factors, 3:1089–1090 Perry, Gill, 1:88 Perry, Katy, 1:160 Persepolis, 1:227 “personal is political, the,” 1:89 Peru, 3:1090–1091 alcohol, 1:20 domestic violence, 3:1090 educational opportunities/access, 3:1090 poverty, 3:1090 See also Panchita’s House: domestic worker’s rights in Lima, Peru

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), 1:67–69, 2:914 Pfeiffer, Sacha, 1:296 PFLAG. See Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) PGA (Professional Golf Association), 1:liii Phair, Liz, 3:1245 “phallic women,” 1:19 Phelps, Danica, 1:lvii philanthropists, female, 3:1091–1092 global groups, 3:1092 types of philanthropy, 3:1091 Philippines, 1:li, 3:1092–1093 abortion access, 3:1092 educational opportunities/access, 3:1092 politics, 3:1093 Philips, Deborah, 3:1256 Phillips, Irna, 3:1363 Phillips, Layli, 4:1559, 4:1561 Phillips, Richard, 1:237 Phipps, Cyrille, 3:1224 phobia, 1:77–78 PhotoBucket, 3:1225 Photographer’s Life, A (Leibovitz), 2:838 photography, women in, 3:1093–1095 physical force, 1:26 physician assistants, female, 3:1096–1097 physician specialties, 3:1097–1099 intra-occupational sex segregation, 3:1098 women’s entrance, 3:1098 physicians, female, 3:1099–1101 differences/future, 3:1100–1101 links with family/marriage, 3:1100 numbers in field/subfield, 3:1099–1100 physics, women in, 3:1101–1103 establishing gender sensitive practice, 3:1103 feminism, 3:1102 gender bias, 3:1102–1103 history, 3:1101–1102 statistics, 3:1102



Piaf, Edith, 1:160 Piano Teacher, The (Jelinek), 1:liv Picasso, Paloma, 2:789 Pickford, Mary, 2:558, 2:570 Pierce, Mary, 3:1447 Pigs at the Trough (Huffington, A.), 2:729 Pilaf, Edith, 1:lix pilates, 3:1104 Pillay, Navanethem, 2:803 Pinedo, Isabel Cristina, 3:1360 pink, advertising and, 3:1104–1105 Pinochet, Augusto, 1:279 Pitts-Taylor, Victoria, 1:169 plague, 4:1618 Plan B, 3:1105–1106 Planned Parenthood, 3:1106–1108 Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), 3:1106–1107 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1:3, 1:13–14, 3:1107, 3:1248 Plaskow, Judith, 2:544 Plato, 2:688 Platt, Julia Barlow, 1:152 Plumwood, Val, 1:445, 3:1108–1109 PMDD. See premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) PMS. See premenstrual syndrome (PMS) Poehler, Amy, 1:315 poets, female, 3:1109–1111 Poggioli, Sylvia, 2:794 Pogrebin, Letty Cottin, 2:541 Pokey, Chapman, 1:131 Poland, 3:1111–1112 abortion access, 1:1 alcohol, 1:20 attainment, college degree, 1:97 bisexuality, 1:161 employment, 3:1111–1112 politics, 3:1111–1112 Polhemus, Ted, 1:169

Index

1857

political ideologies, 3:1112–1114 conservatism, 3:1113–1114 defined, 3:1112 fascism, 3:1114 hostile, 3:1114 liberalism, 3:1113–1114 nationalism, 3:1114 socialism, 3:1113–1114 political metaphors, 1:55 politics Brazil, 1:186–187 Canada, 1:216 Chile, 1:280 Estonia, 1:498 France, 2:585–586 Haiti, 2:661–662 Hungary, 2:731–732 Islam in America, 2:776–777 Israel, 2:780 Japan, 2:786–787 Kenya, 2:811–812 Kyrgyzstan, 2:820 Mauritius, 2:913 Mexico, 2:944–945 Morocco, 2:977 Philippines, 3:1093 Poland, 3:1111–1112 Puerto Rico, 3:1189 Russia, 3:1263 Somalia, 3:1375 South Korea, 3:1381 Sweden, 3:1426 Tanzania, 3:1439 Ukraine, 4:1485 United States, 4:1498–1499 Pollard v. E. I. Dupont Nemours Company, 1:li Pollitt, Katha, 1:74, 2:540 Pollock, 1:xlix Pollock, Griselda, 1:88 Pollock, Jackson, 1:xlix

1858

Index

polyandry, 3:1114 polygamy Central African Republic (CAR), 1:238 Chad, 1:241 defined, 3:1114 East Timor, 1:438 Equatorial Guinea, 1:496 Eritrea, 1:497 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints (FLDS), 2:590–59, 2:590–591 Senegal, 3:1296 polygamy, cross-culturally considered, 3:1114–1117 affluent, 3:1116 health and, 3:1116–1117 international law and, 3:1114–1115 interventive, 3:1116 practices, 3:1115–1117 research, 3:1116 polygyny, 3:1114, 3:1340 Turkmenistan, 3:1479 Uganda, 4:1483 Polykoff, Shirley, 1:34 Ponce de Leon, Charles L., 1:231 Pondexter, Cappie, 4:1580 Ponsot, Marie, 3:1109 Pop Idol, 1:61 POPIN (United Nations Population Information Network), 1:1 Popular Alliance of Democrats, 1:liii popular culture Barbie dolls, 1:127–128 bisexuality, 1:160 cosmetic surgery, 1:344 heterosexism, 2:684–685 Islam in America, 2:776–777 lesbians, 2:846–847 menopause in, 2:926 pornography, portrayal of women in, 3:1117–1120

historical look, 3:1118 impact on young women, 3:1119–1120 misogyny versus empowerment, 3:1118–1119 obscenity versus free speech, 3:1119 pornography/erotica, 3:1121–1124 feminism and, 3:1123 instructional/educational, 3:1124 legal issues, 3:1122 race/sexual identity and, 3:1123 safety concerns, 3:1122 Women Against Pornography (WAP), 3:1123 pornography produced by women, 3:1120–1121 Porter, Cole, 1:160 Portugal, 3:1124–1125 abortion access, 1:3 educational opportunities/access, 3:1125 poverty, 3:1125 Posse Comitatus, 1:286 post-abortion trauma syndrome (PAS), 3:1125–1126, 3:1171–1172 Postema, Pam, 3:1390 post-natal care, 4:1619 postpartum depression, 3:1126–1129, 4:1618 diagnosis, 3:1128 risk factors, 3:1127–1128 symptoms, 3:1126–1127 treatment, 3:1128 postpartum psychosis (PPP), 3:1129 Postrel, Virginia, 1:166 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 1:78, 1:259, 1:412 post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in female military, 3:1129–1132 diagnosing, 3:1130–1131 research, 3:1130 underreporting MST, 3:1131 underreporting/uneven participation, 3:1130 Potter’s House, 1:164



Poumele, Claire, 1:62 Poundstone, Paula, 1:314 poverty, 1:89, 3:1132–1135 Afghanistan, 1:43 alleviation, 1:209 Belarus, 1:144–145 Belgium, 1:146 Benin, 1:148 Bolivia, 1:174 Burundi, 1:206 demographics and, 3:1132–1133 Ecuador, 1:451 Equatorial Guinea, 1:496 Ethiopia, 1:500 future, 3:1134 gardening and, 2:598 gender disparity/ethnic disadvantages, 3:1133–1134 Guam, 2:648 Guinea-Bissau, 2:655 Haiti, 2:661–662, 2:662 human poverty index, 4:1616 Iraq, 2:770 Laos, 2:829 Malawi, 2:883 Maldives, 2:885 Montenegro, 2:974 Myanmar, 2:989 Peru, 3:1090 Portugal, 3:1125 Puerto Rico, 3:1188 Rwanda, 3:1264 São Tomé and Principe, 3:1275 Serbia, 3:1297 Suriname, 3:1420 Uganda, 4:1483 United States, 4:1498 welfare and, 4:1546 women’s cooperatives fighting, 4:1569–1570

Index

1859

poverty, “feminization” of, 1:201, 3:1135–1138, 4:1613 future prospects, 3:1137 global comparisons, 3:1136–1137 United States, 3:1135–1136 poverty level, 4:1618–1619 poverty reduction, 4:1619 Powell, Julie, 1:lvii, 1:166 Power, Nancy Goslee, 2:827 power feminism, 3:1453 Power of Gardens (Power), 2:827 PPFA (Planned Parenthood Federation of America), 3:1106–1107 PPP. See postpartum psychosis (PPP) Precious, 1:lxii, 3:1222 pregnancy, 1:lix, 1:1, 1:6–7, 1:89, 3:1138–1143 becoming pregnant, 3:1138–1139 cultural differences, 3:1141–1142 fertility rates, 3:1139 maternal mortality (MM), 3:1140–1141 non-marital childbearing, 3:1140 subjective experience, 3:1142–1143 symptoms, 1:9 teen pregnancy, 3:1139–1140 termination of, 1:10 trimesters, 1:9 unwanted, 1:8, 1:26 See also crisis pregnancy; crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) pregnancy-induced diabetes, 1:9 premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), 2:928, 3:1143–1144 premenstrual syndrome (PMS), 2:928, 3:1144–1146 causes, symptoms, and treatments, 3:1145–1146 defined, 3:1144 prenatal care, 3:1146–1149, 4:1619 global maternal care, 3:1148 research, 3:1146–1148 Prentice, Jessica, 2:865

1860

Index

priesthood, Episcopalian/Anglican, 3:1149–1150 church divisions, 3:1150 women bishops, 3:1149 women priests, 3:1149 See also Schori, Katharine Jefferts; Winkett, Canon Lucy priesthood, Roman Catholic, 3:1150–1152 biblical arguments, 3:1150 historical arguments, 3:1150–1151 Holy Orders, 3:1151 papal response, 3:1151–1152 Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), 3:1152 See also nuns, Roman Catholic; Roman Catholic Church; Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) Prime Tanning Corporation, 1:196 PrimeTime, 1:48 Princess Mononke, 1:71 Princeton, 1:308 prison administration, 3:1152–1154 job satisfaction, 3:1153–1154 position types, 3:1153 prison guards, female (U.S.), 3:1153–1155 prisoners, female (U.S.), 3:1155–1158 challenges, 3:1155–1156 demographics, 3:1155 HIV/AIDS, 3:1156 policy, 3:1157 prison subculture, 3:1156–1157 research, 3:1157 See also Yates, Andrea prisoners of war, female, 3:1158–1160 Confederacy/Union spies, 3:1158 Desert Storm, 3:1158–1159 forced conscription, 3:1159–1160 Joan of Arc, 3:1158 Operation Iraqi Freedom, 3:1159 sexual slavery, 3:1159–1160 World War II, 3:1158

Pritzker Prize, 1:84–85 privacy, 1:12 pro-choice, 1:3, 1:6–8. See also National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) professional education, 3:1160–1163 expectations/experiences, 3:1162–1163 gender in, 3:1162 international partnering, 3:1161–1162 trends, 3:1160–1161 Professional Golf Association (PGA), 1:liii professions by gender, 3:1163–1168 affirmative action/equal opportunity, 3:1167–1168 domestic work/alienated housewife, 3:1164 gendered wage gap, 3:1166–1167 international perspective, 3:1165–1166 professional trajectories, 3:1167 segregation/integration, 3:1165 Progressive Muslims (U.S.), 3:1168–1169 pro-life movement, 1:4–5, 1:6–7, 1:9, 3:1169–1172 changing public perception, 3:1171 crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), 3:1170–1171 direct action in, 3:1170 positioning abortion as race issue, 3:1171 post-abortion trauma syndrome (PAS) and, 3:1171–1172 secular focus, 3:1172 Websites, 3:1171 Women Exploited by Abortion (WEBA), 3:1172 prom, 3:1173–1174 Property: A Novel (Martin), 1:liii property rights, 3:1174–1176, 4:1619 collision of family/state/market, 3:1175 dowry/bride price, 3:1174–1175 global challenges/progress, 3:1174 Proposal, The, 1:73 prostaglandin preparations, 1:10, 1:16



prostitution, 1:26 Algeria, 1:53 Burundi, 1:206 child, 3:1310–1311 children’s rights, 1:277 Dominican Republic, 1:422 Egypt, 1:464 Guinea, 2:655 Hungary, 2:732 Zambia, 4:1605 prostitution, legal, 3:1176–1179 debates on, 3:1177–1178 gender relations and, 3:1178–1179 health/safety issues, 3:1178 international approaches, 3:1176–1177 prostitution in combat zones, 3:1179–1180 Protection of Women’s Rights Bill, 1:lvii Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, 1:liii, 1:12 psychological disorders by gender, rates of, 3:1180–1181 age-related changes, 3:1180 cultural aspects, 3:1180–1181 explanations, 3:1181 psychology/psychiatry, women in, 3:1181–1184 American Psychiatric Association (APA), 3:1182–1183 Association for Women in Psychology (AWP), 3:1182 bringing attention to marginalized voices, 3:1183 critics of practices, 3:1183–1184 early women in, 3:1181–1182 impact on services, 3:1284 professional organizations, 3:1182–1183 prominent in fields, 3:1183 training/advancement, 3:1182 psychotropic medications, 3:1184–1185 Ptacek, Karla, 1:91

Index

1861

PTSD. See post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) puberty, 3:1186–1188 defined, 3:1186 psychosocial consequences, 3:1187–1188 stages, 3:1187 Puenzo, Lucia, 2:566 Puerto Rico, 3:1188–1189 educational opportunities/access, 3:1188–1189 healthcare, 3:1188–1189 politics, 3:1189 poverty, 3:1188 sports, 3:1189 Pulitzer Prize, 1:xlix, 1:lii, 1:liv, 1:lvi, 1:lvii, 1:lix, 1:294, 3:1028 purdah, 3:1278 purity balls, 3:1189–1190 Push (Sapphire), 1:lxii, 3:1222 Pussycat Dolls, 1:73 Pwerle, Emily, 1:111–112 Pythagoras, 2:688 Q Qatar, 1:liii, 3:1191 quality of life Guyana, 2:658 Nepal, 3:1005 Quant, Mary, 2:789 Quarles, Chester, 1:286–287 Queen, Carol, 1:160 Queen, The, 1:lvii Queen Latifah, 2:695, 3:1192, 3:1224, 3:1245 Queen Noor of Jordan, 3:1193 queer, 1:71 queer radio, 1:405–406 queer theory, 1:173, 3:1194–1195 heteronormative strategy, 3:1195 identity and, 3:1194 prominence, 3:1194

1862

Index

Quill Award, 1:lvi, 1:lvii, 1:lviii, 1:lix quinceañeras, 1:25, 3:1195–1196 economics and, 3:1196 Roman Catholic elements, 3:1195 R rabbis, female, 3:1197–1198 rabbinical seminaries, 3:1197–1198 Reform Movement, 3:1198 rabies, 4:1619 race in cosmetic surgery, 1:343–344 educational opportunities/access, 1:460–462 suicide and, 3:1411–1412 Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats: A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (Ray), 1:lviii Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Get Real Meals (Ray), 1:lvi Rachel’s Network (RN), 3:1198–1199 racism, 1:254, 1:347–348 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 1:14 Radcliffe, Anne, 3:1026 Raden, Margaret, 2:540 Raiche, Bessica, 1:115 “Rainbow Europe Country Index,” 1:161 Rainey, Ma, 1:160 Rajaram, Shireen S., 1:45 Ramsey, Jon Benet, 1:138 Randall, Housk, 1:169 Randolph, Natalie, 1:304 rape, cross-culturally defined, 3:1199–1202 discourse on, 3:1200–1201 internationally debates, 3:1201–1202 rape, incidence of, 1:lix, 1:1, 1:7, 1:12, 1:43, 1:89, 3:1202–1205 Albania, 1:49 Algeria, 1:53 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75 Australia, 1:110

Azerbaijan, 1:118 Belarus, 1:145 Burundi, 1:206 Cameroon, 1:214 Chad, 1:241 Comoros, 1:320 Congo, Democratic Republic of the (DR Congo), 1:329 Côte d’lvoire, 1:350 “date rape,” 1:7 Egypt, 1:464 Equatorial Guinea, 1:496 Eritrea, 1:497–498 France, 2:586 Hungary, 2:732 international scope, 3:1204 Kyrgyzstan, 2:820 Latvia, 2:830 male sex offenders, 3:1310 Mauritania, 2:912 Norway, 3:1024 São Tomé and Principe, 3:1276 Sudan, 3:1411 victim justice, 1:lxi rape, legal definitions of, 3:1205–1208 behavior and, 3:1205 blurred boundaries, 3:1207 in marriage, 3:1207–1208 sexual assault versus, 3:1206–1207 rape, prosecution rates of, 3:1208–1209 rape and HIV, 3:1209–1210 rape crisis centers, 3:1210–1212 advocacy for change, 3:1211–1212 immediate support, 3:1211 rape in conflict zones, 3:1212–1213 rape trauma syndrome (RTS), 3:1213–1214 rape crisis movement, 3:1213–1214 revisions in rape-as-crisis model, 3:1213–1214 Raphael, Dana, 1:423 Rashidi, Anahita, 1:45



Rask, Kevin, 1:447 Rathbun-Nealy, Melissa, 3:1159 R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 2:666 Raven, Abbe, 2:916 RAWA. See Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) Ray, Amy, 2:847 Ray, Bob, 3:1224 Ray, Rachael, 1:lvi, 1:lviii Ray, Satjajit, 1:176 rBGH (Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone), 1:68 Read, Mary, 1:425 Reader, Soran, 1:8 Reader, The ,1:lx Reagan, Ronald, 1:13, 1:182 Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 3:1427 reality television, 3:1214–1216 stereotypes of women in reality shows, 3:1215 21st-century success, 3:1215 wide-ranging genre, 3:1214 Realizing Rights and, 3:1243 Reardon, Betty, 3:1061 Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), 1:68 Rede Mulher, 1:67 Redgrave, Vanessa, 2:558 Reed, Julia, 1:lx Reed, Ruth, 1:83 Reed v. Reed, 2:538 Reese, Ellen, 3:1135–1136 Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing, 1:l refugees, 1:liii Reggis, Pamela, 3:1256 Registered Partnership Act of 1989, 1:292 Rehaag, Sean, 1:161 Reed, Lou, 1:160 Reilly, Maura, 1:91 religion, women in, 3:1216–1219 authority, 3:1217

Index

1863

feminist theology, 3:1218 identity, 3:1217 paganism, 3:1219 sexuality and gender, 3:1216 religious fundamentalism, cross-cultural context of, 3:1219–1221 defining fundamentalism, 3:1219–1220 women and, 3:1220–1221 Rene v. MGM Grand Hotel, 3:1318 RENEW (Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women), 1:150 representation of women, 3:1221–1225 documentaries, 3:1224 film roles, 3:1222–1223 new media, 3:1225 television, 3:1223–1224 representation of women in government, international, 3:1225–1128 government quotas, 3:1127–1128 proportional systems, 3:1226–1127 representation of women in government, U.S., 3:1128–1230 descriptive representation, 3:1128 gender gap, 3:1128–1129 media, 3:1129 political participation, 3:1129 stereotypes, 3:1129 reproductive and sexual health rights, 3:1230–1234, 4:1619 contraception/abortion, 3:1231–1232 global scenario, 3:1231 North Korea, 3:1023 policy directions, 3:1234 population control perspectives, 3:1233–1234 Roman Catholic Church and, 3:1254 Tanzania, 3:1438 reproductive cancers, 3:1234–1236 HPV vaccine, 3:1236 ovarian cancer, 3:1235–1236 uterine cancer, 3:1235

1864

Index

research addiction and substance abuse, 1:21–22 affirmative action/equal opportunity, 1:41 attainment, college degree, 1:97–99 attainment, high school completion, 1:106 biology, women in, 1:154 breast cancer, 1:190–191 bullying in the workplace, 1:203 cancer, environmental factors and, 1:219 effect of unpaid labor on educational attainment, 1:458 engineering, women in, 1:477 feminism, American, 2:534–535 fertility, 2:547–548 glass ceiling, 2:625 heterosexuality, 2:687 homophobia, 2:717 household decision-making, 2:725–726 household division of labor, 2:727 lesbian adoption, 2:839 media chief executive officers, female, 2:917 midwifery, 2:954 nontraditional careers, 3:1021 perpetrators, female, 3:1089–1090 polygamy, cross-culturally considered, 3:1116 prenatal care, 3:1146–1148 prisoners, female (U.S.), 3:1157 PTSD in female military, 3:1130 science, women in, 3:1282–1283 sexual harassment, 3:1318–1319 women’s health clinics, 4:1572–1573 yoga, 4:1601–1602 Research Foundation for Science, 3:1343 Resnik, Judith, 1:94 Resolution 1325, 1:xlix Resolution 1820, 1:lx Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women (RENEW), 1:150

Responsibility for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1:lx Ress, Mary Judith, 1:446 Reuther, Rosemary Radford, 1:445 Reverse Cowgirl, 1:167 revirginization, 3:1236–1237 hymenoplasty, 3:1237 physical, 3:1237 spiritual, 3:1236 Revolution From Within (Steinem), 3:1397 Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), 3:1237–1238 Revolve, 3:1238–1239 Rheingold, Howard, 2:763 Rhode, Deborah L., 2:540 Rhode, Kim, 3:1239–1240 Rhys, Jean, 1:420, 3:1027 Rice, Condoleezza, 1:xlix, 1:lv, 3:1240 Rich, Adrienne, 2:686, 3:1109, 4:1589–1590 Richards, Amy, 2:517 Richardson, Dorothy, 3:1027 Richardson, Samuel, 3:1255 RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), 1:14 Ride, Sally, 1:l, 1:94, 3:1241–1242 Riefenstahl, Leni, 2:560 Rift Valley fever, 4:1619 Riggen, Patricia, 2:566, 2:567 rights abortion, 1:liv, 1:14–15 to life, 1:12 See also animal rights; children’s rights; human rights; Panchita’s House: domestic worker’s rights in Lima, Peru; partner rights; property rights; voting rights; women’s rights Rihanna, 2:695 Rijker, Lucia, 1:181 Ringgold, Faith, 3:1409 Riordan, Teresa, 1:347



Riot Grrrl, 1:91, 3:1244 Rist, Pipilotti, 1:90 Rivers, Joan, 1:314 RN. See Rachel’s Network (RN) Road, Cristy C., 2:685 Road Home, The (Tremain), 1:lx Robbins, Jerome, 1:373 Roberts, Cokie, 2:794 Roberts, Julia, 1:xlix, 1:196, 2:559 Roberts, Nora, 1:lix Roberts, Robin, 2:793 Robinson, Gene, 2:844 Robinson, Joan, 1:448 Robinson, Marilynne, 1:lvi Robinson, Mary, 2:636, 2:667–668, 2:772, 3:1242–1243 Realizing Rights and, 3:1243 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 3:1242 Rochlin, Martin, 2:687 rock music, women in, 3:1243–1245 late 1960s-early 1970s, 3:1243–1244 1980s, 3:1244 sexuality and, 3:1244–1245 rodeo, 3:1245–1246 Roe v. Wade, 1:3, 1:6, 1:13–14, 1:362, 2:586–587, 2:915, 3:998, 3:1169, 3:1231, 3:1247–1249, 4:1573 decision aftermath, 3:1248 road to Supreme Court, 3:1247–1248 See also Doe v. Bolton; Griswold v. Connecticut Rogers, Ginger, 2:558 Rogers, Robin, 1:115 Rogers, Rosemary, 3:1255 Rogombé, Rose Francine, 1:lxi Roha, Marília, 2:567 Rojek, Chris, 1:231 role models science education for girls, 3:1285–1286 Torres, Dara, 3:1459

Index

1865

Rolf, Ida, 1:374 roller derby, 3:1249–1250 Roma “Gypsy” women, 3:1250–1252 Roman Catholic Church, 1:3, 1:25, 1:85, 3:1252–1254 clergy abuse, 3:1253–1254 contraception, religious approaches to, 1:330 quinceañera elements, 3:1195 reproductive rights and, 3:1254 Slovakia, 3:1361 women/lay ministry, 3:1252–1253 See also Catholics for Choice (CFC); nuns, Roman Catholic; priesthood, Roman Catholic; Santería; Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) romance novels, 3:1254–1256 genre development, 3:1255 marketing, 3:1255 reception, 3:1255–1256 See also novelists, female Romania, 3:1256–1257 abortion access, 3:1257 gender-based affirmative actions, 3:1256 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 4:1487, 4:1505 Roosevelt, Theodore, 1:28, 1:39 Rope, Jenni, 1:227 Roper Starch Worldwide, 1:31 Rose of Versailles, The, 1:19, 1:71 Rosenberg, Martin, 1:92 Rosenbloom, Carroll, 3:1442 Rothblum, Esther, 3:1183 Rousseff, Dilma, 1:186 Rowland, Pleasant T., 1:60 Rowling, J. K., 1:liv, 1:lvi, 1:lxii, 1:237 Roy, Gabrielle, 1:217 Roy, Ram Mohan, 3:1421 Royal Institute of British Architects, 1:83 Royal Society, 1:152, 1:197 Royalle, Candida, 3:1123

1866

Index

RTS. See rape trauma syndrome (RTS) Rubin, Darius John, 1:57 Rubin, James, 1:57 Ruddick, Sara, 3:1061 Rudner, Rita, 1:314 Rudolph, Maya, 1:315 RU-486, 1:xlix, 1:4, 1:5, 1:14, 1:17, 3:1257–1258. See also abortion pill; Mifepristone Ruiz-Conforto, Tracie Lehuanani, 1:l, 1:lii Rukeyser, Muriel, 2:542 Rumsfeld, Donald, 1:74 rumspringa, 1:64 running/marathons, 3:1258–1259 controversies, 3:1259 history, 3:1258 Olympics, summer, 3:1258 women in, 3:1258–1259 Runyan, Marla, 1:l rural women, 3:1259–1261 international instruments concerning, 3:1260–1261 United Nations on, 3:1261 Russia, 1:lviii, 3:1261–1263 alcohol, 1:20 astronauts, female, 1:94–95 educational opportunities/access, 3:1262 family, 3:1262–1263 fertility, 3:1261 health, 3:1262–1263 marriage, 3:1261 politics, 3:1263 social concerns, 3:1262–1263 Rust v. Sullivan, 1:13 Rwanda, 1:li, 3:1263–1265 agriculture, 3:1264 genocide, 3:1264 HIV/AIDS, 3:1264 poverty, 3:1264 Tutsis/Hutus, 3:1263 Ryan, Kay, 3:1110

Ryan, Mary, 1:297 Ryan’s Hope, 3:1364 S Saarinen, Leena, 1:91 Sabanci, Guler, 1:482 Sabir-Gillette, Margaret, 1:45 Sablikova, Martina, 1:lxiii Sacks, Oliver, 2:640 SAD (social anxiety disorder), 1:78 Safe Drinking Water Act, 1:155 SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild), 2:570 Sagan, Leontine, 2:561 Sahadi, Jenine, 1:70 Sahar, Lima, 1:237 Sailor Moon, 1:71 Saint Kitts and Nevis, 3:1267–1268 childcare, 3:1267 educational opportunities/access, 3:1267 Saint Lucia, 3:1268 abortion access, 1:2 domestic violence, 3:1268 infant mortality, 3:1268 life expectancy, 3:1268 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 3:1268–1269 life expectancy, 3:1269 suffrage, 3:1269 Saint-Marie, Buffy, 1:216 Sakyaditha, 1:201 Saliers, Emily, 2:847 Salleh, Ariel, 1:445 Salles, Walter, 2:566 Sally Ride Science, 1:l, 3:1241 Samadian, Seifollah, 1:89 same-sex marriage, 3:1269–1272 Andorra, 1:65 citizenship and, 3:1270–1272 evolution, 3:1269–1270 identity and, 3:1272



Samoa, 3:1272–1273 educational opportunities/access, 3:1273 employment, 3:1273 extended families, 3:1273 San Marino, 3:1273–1274 abortion access, 3:1274 literacy, 3:1273 suffrage, 3:1273 Sanchez-Vicario, Aranxta, 3:1447 Sand, George, 1:425 Sander, Helke, 2:560, 2:564 Sanders, Cheryl J., 1:165 Sandler, Marion, 1:251 Sanger, Margaret, 1:252, 3:1106–1107 Saniro Corporation, 2:682 Santería, 3:1274–1275 São Tomé and Principe, 3:1275–1276 agriculture, 3:1275 domestic violence, 3:1276 poverty, 3:1275 rape, incidence of, 3:1276 Sapphire, 1:lxii, 3:1222 Sarandon, Susan, 2:558 Sarkozy, Carl Bruni, 3:1276–1277 Sarkozy, Nicolas, 3:1276 SARS, 1:197 SASS (Single Action Shooting Society), 1:356–357 Sasso, Sandy EIsenberg, 3:1197 Satrapi, Marjane, 1:227 Saudi Arabia, 1:liii, 1:lvi, 1:51, 3:1277–1279 children, 3:1278 family, 3:1278 infant mortality, 3:1278 marriage, 3:1278 mosques, 3:1278 purdah, 3:1278 women as “perpetual minors,” 3:1278 Savage, Harley, 1:li Save the Children, 1:348, 3:1327, 3:1431 Sawyer, Diane, 2:792–793

Index

1867

Sayman, Donna M., 4:1526 Scales, Ann C., 2:539 Scales-Trent, Judy, 2:540 Scares, Valeska, 1:90 Schiaparelli, Elsa, 2:789 Schiebinger, Londa, 3:1281 Schiff, Stacy, 1:xlix Schiffer, Claudia, 3:1419 S-CHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program), 1:lii, 1:14 Schisgall, David, 3:1224 schistosomiasis, 4:1619 Schlafly, Phyllis, 1:435–436, 1:495 Schlessinger, Laura, 1:405 Schneemann, Carolee, 1:169 Schneider, Elizabeth M., 2:540 Schneider, Sidney R., 3:1464 Schoener, Gary, 1:297 School Fee Abolition Initiative (Kenya), 3:1279–1280 background/establishment, 3:1279 sharing information for further success, 3:1230 Schor, Mira, 1:91 Schori, Katharine Jefferts, 1:66, 3:1149, 3:1280–1281 Schott, Marge, 3:1442 Schreiner, Oliver, 3:1026 Schubart, Rikke, 1:19 Schuster, Jack, 2:505 Schwartz, Martha, 2:827 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), 1:462, 2:909, 3:1285–1286 science, women in, 3:1281–1285 barriers, 3:1282–1283 current patterns, 3:1282 historical exclusion, 3:1281–1282 research, 3:1282–1283 theoretical perspectives, 3:1283–1285 See also Villa-Komaroff, Lydia

1868

Index

science education for girls, 3:1285–1287 achievement gap, 3:1285 curriculum/pedagogy, 3:1286 international science achievement, 3:1286–1287 mentoring, 3:1285–1286 role models, 3:1285–1286 stereotyping, 3:1285–1286 SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), 1:164 Scott O’Dell Award, 1:lvii Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG), 2:570 Seager, Joni, 1:446 Seashore, Carl E., 1:294 SeaWorld, 1:70 Second Self, The (Turkle), 2:763 Second Sex, The (de Beauvoir), 3:1187 Second Summer of the Sisterhood (Brashares), 1:lvi second wave feminism, 1:293, 1:295, 2:532, 2:563 advertising, female professionals in, 1:34–35 Canada, 1:216 women’s cable networks, 4:1565 Secret Life of Bees, The 1:62 Secretary of State, 1:lxi secularity law, France, 3:1287–1289 assimilation issues, 3:1288 separation of church/state, 3:1287–1288 “security moms,” 3:1289, 4:1619 Seddon, Margaret Rhea, 1:94 segregation, 1:lii physician specialties, 3:1098 professions by gender, 3:1165 Sejima, Kazuyo, 1:85 Sekhon, Jagir, 3:1350 Seles, Monica, 3:1447 self-concern, 1:8 self-defense, armed, 3:1289–1291 social/cultural contexts, 3:1280–1281 victims/imminent harm, 3:1280

self-defense, unarmed, 3:1291–1293 advocates, 3:1292–1293 avoidance/prevention, 3:1292 training, 3:1293 self-determination, 1:8 Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA), 3:1293–1294 formation, 3:1293 in rural areas, 3:1294 self-esteem, 1:38 Self-Exposure (Ponce de Leon), 1:231 self-mutilation, 3:1294–1295 Semenya, Caster, 3:1464 Sen, Aparna, 2:564 Senegal, 3:1295–1297 family legal code, 3:1295 polygamy, 3:1296 urban rural divide, 3:1296–1297 Senjen, Rye, 2:764 September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 1:li, 3:1436 antifeminism and, 1:73–74 bogs and, 1:166 SequentialTart, 1:228 Serbia, 3:1297–1298 discrimination, 3:1297 patriarchy, 3:1297 poverty, 3:1297 trafficking, 3:1297 serial multiple laminaria, 1:16 Setterfield, Diane, 1:lix Seventeen, 1:159 SEWA. See Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA) Sex and the City, 1:62, 2:530 Sex Crimes and the Vatican, 1:295 sex education, abstinence-only, 3:1298–1299 legal landscape, 3:1298 tenets/effects, 3:1298–1299



sex education, comprehensive, 3:1299–1301 accomplishing change, 3:1300–1301 broad perspective, 3:1300 gender expectations, 3:1301 sex education, cross-culturally compared, 3:1301–1305 continuously adapting, 3:1305 defining sex, gender, education, 3:1304–1305 global frameworks, 3:1302–1303 HIV/AIDS, 3:1302 local/cultural challenges, 3:1303–1304 urgency/health needs, 3:1301 sex education in the home, 3:1305–1307 conservative/liberal approaches, 3:1306 mechanisms for, 3:1306–1307 sex offenders, female, 3:1308–1309 common characteristics, 3:1308–1309 need for information/understanding, 3:1308 sex offenders, male, 3:1309–1312 child molesters, 3:1310 child pornography/child prostitution, 3:1310–1311 community protection laws, 3:1311–1312 exhibitionism, 3:1311 myths, 3:1311 noncontact offenses, 3:1311 rapists, 3:1310 treatment, 3:1312 voyeurism, 3:1311 sex selection, 1:9 sex workers, 3:1312–1315 advocacy, 3:1314–1315 discourses, 3:1313–1314 reasons for engaging in, 3:1314 Thailand, 3:1449–1450 sexism, 1:67 Azerbaijan, 1:118 stereotypes, 1:34 sexting, 3:1315–1316 sexual assault, 1:12

Index

1869

rape versus, 3:1206–1207 women in military, 2:961–962 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (Kinsey), 1:158 sexual demands, 1:lxi Sexual Fluidity (Diamond), 1:159 sexual harassment, 1:liv, 1:49, 3:1316–1319, 4:1619 in academic research, 3:1318–1319 bullying in the workplace, 1:202–203 conclusion, 3:1319 East Timor, 1:438 hostile/abusive working environments, 3:1317–1318 in law/public policy, 3:1316–1317 “reasonable woman” standard, 3:1317 South Korea, 3:1381–1382 Tonga, 3:1458–1459 women in military, 2:961–962 sexual libertinage, 1:184 Sexual Offender Act of 1994, 2:920 sexual orientation, 3:1319–1321 global, 3:1320–1321 history of idea, 3:1320 Western conceptions, 3:1321 sexual orientation: scientific theories of causation, 3:1321–1323 genetic theories, 3:1322 parental influence, 3:1322 social/environmental theories, 3:1322 sexual orientation and race, 3:1323–1324 coming out, 3:1324 white label, 3:1323–1324 sexual orientation–based legal discrimination: outside United States, 3:1325–1326 sexual orientation–based legal discrimination: United States, 3:1236–1238 changing political/social climate, 3:1237–1238 historical timeline, 3:1236–1237 sexual orientation–based social discrimination: outside United States, 3:1328–1330

1870

Index

documented violations, 3:1329 international instruments on, 3:1329–1330 national legislation, 3:1330 sexual orientation–based social discrimination: United States, 3:1330–1333 defining behavior, 3:1332 gender differences, 3:1332–1333 in military, 3:1332 in workforce, 3:1331 sexual orientation–based violence: outside United States, 3:1333–1335 consequences for young, 3:1333–1334 international instruments on, 3:1334 national legislation, 3:1334–1335 sexual orientation–based violence: United States, 3:1335–1337 bullying, 3:1335–1336 seeking help, 3:1336–1337 sexual assault, 3:1336 Sexual Personae (Paglia), 3:1063–1064 Sexual Politics of Meat, The (Adams, C.), 1:68, 1:445 sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), 1:180 sexual slavery, 3:1159–1160 sexual tourism, 4:1620 sexual violence, 1:lxii, 1:43, 1:415 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1:177 Burundi, 1:206 Chad, 1:241 sexuality, 1:89 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), 3:1337, 4:1620 sexually transmitted infections (STIs), 3:1337–1339 complications in pregnancy, 3:1338–1339 risks, 3:1339 syphilis, 3:1338 Seychelles, 3:1339–1340 abortion access, 3:1340

employment, 3:1340 gross domestic product (GDP), 3:1339 matriarchy, 3:1340 SFAI. See School Fee Abolition Initiative (Kenya) Shannon, Molly, 1:315 Shannon, Rachelle, 3:1051 Sharapova, Maria, 1:lv, 3:1447 Sha’rawi, Huda, 1:79 Shari`a Law, 1:liii, 1:52, 2:802, 2:911, 3:1340–1341, 3:1410, 3:1477, 4:1620 Sharif, Nawaz, 1:151 Sharman, Helen Patricia, 1:95 Sharon, Ariel, 1:355 Shaw, Norah Zuniga, 1:373 She Went to War (Cornum), 1:341 Shepard, Jean, 1:353 Shepard, Judy, 3:1341–1342 Shepard, Matthew, 2:730 Sherman, Aliza, 1:167 Sherman, Stacy, 3:1224 Shirong, Li, 1:83–84 Shiva, Vandana, 1:445, 1:488, 2:646, 3:1004–1005, 3:1342–1343 publications, 3:1342–1343 Research Foundation for Science, 3:1343 Shoemaker, Carolyn, 3:1343–1344 shooting sports, women in, 3:1345 Showalter, Elaine, 3:1025, 3:1346–1347 Shrek, 1:19 Shriver, Lionel, 1:lvi Shyfter, Guita, 2:566 Siegel, Robert, 2:794 Sierra, Kathy, 1:167 Sierra Leone, 3:1347–1348 educational opportunities/access, 3:1347–1348 “gender bills,” 3:1348 HIV/AIDS, 3:1347–1348 UN peacekeeping forces, 3:1348 Sigler, Hollis, 1:89 Signoret, Simone, 2:558



Sigurðardóttir, Jóhanna, 1:lxi, 3:1348–1349 Sikander, Shazia, 1:90 Sikhism, 2:842–843 Sikhism, 3:1349–1351 practice/scriptures, 3:1349–1350 women’s positions in, 3:1350–151 Silent Spring (Carson), 1:l, 1:219, 1:486 Silent Spring Institute, 1:219 Silkwood, Karen, 1:486 Silver Ring Thing (SRT), 1:243 Silveria, Maria do Carmo Trovoada, 1:lv Silverman, Sarah, 1:314 Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, 3:1378 Simmons, Guendolyn Zohara, 1:45 Simon, Joan, 2:560 Simonetti, Ellen, 1:167 Simpson, Carole, 2:792 Simpson, Mark, 2:905 Singapore, 3:1351–1352 discrimination, 3:1351–1352 educational opportunities/access, 3:1351 “miracle economy,” 3:1351 Single Action Shooting Society (SASS), 1:356–357 single mothers, 3:1352–1355 difficulty in defining lone parent, 3:1352–1353 economic disadvantages, 3:1354–1355 extended families/social isolation, 3:1353–1354 households of, 3:1353 single-sex education, 3:1355–1356 “singletons”/single by choice, 3:1356–1357 Singular, Stephen, 2:590 Sinister Wisdom, 2:541 Sioux, Siouxsie, 3:1244 Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson, 2:856, 3:1357–1358 indigenous roots, 3:1357 political roots, 3:1357–1358 Sistach, Marisa, 2:566 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Brashares), 1:lvi 60 Minutes, 1:57

Index

1871

60 Minutes II, 1:17 skinheads, 1:286 Skinner, Joan, 1:374 slasher movies, 3:1359–1360 slavery, 1:162, 1:225, 3:1027 Sleeth, Emma, 1:359 Sleeth, Nancy, 1:359 Slepian, Barnett, 3:1052 Slick, Grace, 3:1243 slippery elm, 1:15 Slovakia, 3:1360–1361 Roman Catholic Church, 3:1361 women’s movement, 3:1360–1361 Slovenia, 3:1361–1362 educational opportunities/access, 3:1361 healthcare, 3:1362 Slow Food Movement. See locavorism/Slow Food Movement Slowpoke Comics, 1:228 Small Island (Levy), 1:liv Smeal, Eleanor, 2:541–542 Smith, Bill, 1:296 Smith, Kiki, 1:90 Smith, Liz, 1:lx Smith, Louise, 1:114 Smith, Nicole, 1:99 Smith, Peter, 1:203 Smith, Stacy, 2:562 Smith, Susan, 2:752 Smith, Vicki, 1:91 Smith, Zadie, 1:lvii smoking, 1:222–223 SNAP (Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests), 1:296 SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), 1:164 Snider, Stacey, 2:916 “snowflake babies,” 3:1362–1363 Snyder, Frances Elizabeth, 1:323 Snyder-Fink, Molly, 1:91

1872

Index

soap operas, cross-culturally considered, 3:1363–1364 current issues/society, 3:1363–1364 female characters, 3:1364 Soare, Monica, 2:565 sob sisters, 2:795 Sobule, Jill, 1:160 soccer, children’s, 3:1364–1365 soccer, professional, 3:1365–1367 collegiate level, 3:1366 defining game, 3:1367 inception of women’s soccer, 3:1366 move to suburbs, 3:1366 significance, 3:1366–1367 soccer moms, 3:1367–1368 social anxiety disorder (SAD), 1:78 social being, 1:25 Social Construction of Reality, The (Berger/ Luckmann), 2:528, 2:904 social justice activism, 3:1368–1371 accomplishments, 3:1371 art/craft-themed, 3:1370–1371 blogs and blogosphere, 3:1369 consciousness-raising, 3:1369 economic, 3:1369–1370 environmental, 3:1370 Websites, 3:1369 social justice theory, 3:1371–1373 global theory, 3:1372–1373 injustice resistance movements, 3:1372 modern justice approaches, 3:1372 social responsibility, 1:401 “social tableaux advertisements,” 1:36, 1:38 social welfare, 4:1620 socialism, 3:1113–1114 Society for the Daughter of the Earth, 1:80 Socrates, 2:688 Soderbergh, Steven, 1:195–196 Sold (McCormick), 1:lix Solomon, Suniti, 3:1373–1374

Solomon Islands, 3:1374 Solomonoff, Julia, 2:566 Somalia, 3:1375–1376 marriage, 3:1375 politics, 3:1375 women’s rights, 3:1375 Somerville, Mary, 2:909 Sommers, Christina Hoff, 1:55–56, 1:72, 1:74 Sommers, Daria, 3:1224 Sommers, Elaine, 1:374 Song of Solomon (Morrison), 2:978 Soni, Rebecca, 3:1048 sonogram, 4:1620 Sontag, Susan, 1:74 Sorenson, Jen, 1:228 Sörenstam, Annika, 1:liii, 3:1376–1377 Sotomayor, Sonya, 1:lxi, 3:1377–1378 Souders, Tressie, 2:568 South Africa, liii, 1:iv, 1:lvi, 1:lix, 3:1378–1380 abortion access, 1:2 computer science, women in, 1:325 domestic violence, 3:1379 South Korea, 1:lx, 1:lxiii, 3:1380–1382 archery, 1:82 educational opportunities/access, 3:1381 employment, 3:1380 politics, 3:1381 sexual harassment, 3:1381–1382 women’s rights, 3:1380 South Beach Diet, 1:396 Southern Baptist Convention, 3:1382–1383 Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 1:164 Soyuz TMA-12, 1:lx space race, 1:94 Spacek, Sissy, 1:lix Spade, Kate, 2:517 Spain, 3:1383–1384 educational opportunities/access, 3:1384 employment, 3:1384



healthcare, 3:1384 life expectancy, 3:1383 life-expectancy, 1:47 public policies, 3:1383 Sparks, Jordin, 1:61, 1:243 Sparks, Muriel, 3:1027 Speaker of the House, 1:lviii Spears, Britney, 1:232 speciesism, 1:67 Spirited Away, 1:71 Spitzer, Robert, 2:846 sports, women in, 3:1384–1387 access/opportunity, 3:1386–1387 ancient games, 3:1384–1385 gaining momentum, 3:1386 health hazards, 3:1386 shift in attitudes, 3:1385–1386 Virgin Islands, U.S. (USVI), 4:1522 See also Visser, Lesley; Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA); specific sports sports announcers, female, 3:1387–1388 Sports Illustrated, 1:182, 3:1388–1389 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, 3:1388–1389 sports medicine, 1:504 sports officials, female, 3:1389–1391 gender barriers, 3:1390 next generation, 3:1390–1391 Sprinkle, Annie, 1:169, 3:1225 Sputnik, 1:94 Sri Lanka, 1:20, 3:1391 SRS (sexual reassignment surgery), 1:180 SRT (Silver Ring Thing), 1:243 St. John, Lara, 1:294 St. John, Mia, 1:182 St. Vincent Millay, Edna, 1:160 Stahl, Lesley, 1:lx, 2:792 Stamberg, Susan, 2:794 standard of living American Samoa, 1:63 Andorra, 1:64

Index

1873

Costa Rica, 1:348 Iceland, 2:737–739 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1:67, 1:72, 1:289, 2:543, 4:1576 Stanwyck, Barbara, 1:160 Starhawk, 1:305, 3:1392 Stark, Mabel, 1:69 Starr, Martha, 1:447 Staša Zajović, Stanislava, 3:1393 State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), 1:lii, 1:14 statistics attainment, high school completion, 1:106 business, women in, 1:207–208 child labor, 1:262 journalists, print media, 2:796–797 Macedonia, 2:872 National Center for Health Statistics, 1:157 physics, women in, 3:1102 suicide and race, 3:1412 teen pregnancy, 3:1443–1444, 3:1443–1445 stay-at-home mothers, 3:1393–1395 challenging expectations, 3:1394–1395 ideal of, 3:1394 STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), 3:1337 Steffen, Britta, 3:1048 Stein, Achva Benzinberg, 2:827 Steinberg, Jerry, 1:275 Steinem, Gloria, 2:540, 2:930, 3:1396–1397, 4:1571 Steiner, Leslie Morgan, 1:167 Steingraber, Sandra, 1:219, 1:445 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), 1:462, 2:909 stem cell research, 1:9 STEM Coalition, 3:1397–1398 activities, 3:1398 education, 3:1398 Stenberg v. Carhart, 1:l, 1:14

1874

Index

stereotypes, 1:233 aging, attitudes toward, 1:46–47 celebrity women, 1:233 computer science, women in, 1:325–326 homophobia, 2:716 Olympics, winter, 3:1049 representation of women in government, U.S., 3:1129 science education for girls, 3:1285–1286 sexist, 1:34 with veil, 4:1514 See also gender stereotypes; toys, genderstereotypic stereotypes of women, 3:1398–1401 choices, 3:1400–1401 gender stereotypes, 3:1399 younger generational thinking, 3:1401 sterilization, involuntary, 3:1401–1403 concerns, 3:1402 eugenics, 3:1401–1402 taking advantage of vulnerable, 3:1403 sterilization, voluntary, 3:1403–1405, 4:1620 counseling, 3:1403–1404 laparoscopy, 3:1404 laparotomy, 3:1404 male sterilization, 3:1404–1405 transcervical procedures, 3:1404 Stermitz, Evelin, 1:lx Stern, Davie, 3:1442 Stern, Robert, 1:83 steroid use, 3:1405–1406 Stessin, Valerie, 3:1197 Stevens, Nettie Marie, 1:152 Stewart, Martha, 1:231, 1:252, 1:253, 3:1406–1407 negative publicity, 3:1407 publishing, 3:1406–1407 schooling, 3:1406 Stewart, Mary, 3:1255

Stiles, Jackie, 1:131 Stipe, Michael, 1:160 STIs. See sexually transmitted infections (STIs) Stone, Lucy, 1:67, 1:84 Stone, Rachel, 1:359 Stone, Ruth, 3:1110 Stone, Sharon, 2:558 stoning, 1:lxi Stop Violence Against Women, 3:1420 Stoppiello, Dawn, 1:372 Stott, Nicole, 1:95 Stowe, Catherine Beecher, 1:509 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 3:1027 Streep, Meryl, 1:lvii, 1:166, 2:559 “strict father” model, 1:55–56 Stringer, C. Vivian, 1:lviii, 1:303–304, 1:305 strivers, 1:31 Strohl, Jeff, 1:99 Stroman, Susan, 1:373 Strug, Kerri, 3:1047 Stuart, Moira, 2:793 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1:164 studio arts, women in, 3:1407–1409 education sources, 3:1408 future, 3:1408–1409 reasons for pursuing, 3:1407–1408 Stupak-Pitts Amendment, 1:lxii, 1:15 Sturgeon, Noël, 1:446 sturm und drang art movement, 1:25 subjectification, 1:38 subRosa, 1:89 suction aspiration, 4:1620 Sudan, 3:1409–1411 domestic violence, 3:1411 female genital mutilation (FGM), 3:1410 health, 3:1410 human rights abuses, 3:1410–1411 infant mortality, 3:1410



life expectancy, 3:1410 literacy, 3:1410 rape, incidence of, 3:1411 suffrage, 1:lii, 1:liii, 1:lvi, 1:lvii, 1:lxi Andorra, 1:65 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75 Azerbaijan, 1:116–117 Bahrain, 1:122 Belgium, 1:146 Cambodia, 1:213 Iceland, 2:738 Laos, 2:829 Macedonia, 2:872 Moldova, 2:972 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 3:1269 San Marino, 3:1273 Tonga, 3:1458 Uganda, 4:1484 Venezuela, 4:1515 See also voting rights suicide and race, 3:1411–1412 African Americans, 3:1412 Alaskan Natives, 3:1411–1412 Asian Americans, 3:1412 Hispanics, 3:1412 international statistics/responses, 3:1412 Native Americans, 3:1411–1412 suicide bombers, female, 3:1413–1414 suicide methods, 3:1414–1416 drowning, 3:1415 drug overdose, 3:1415 hanging/strangulation/suffocation, 3:1415 jumping, 3:1415 poison/firearms, 3:1414–1415 prevention/reporting, 3:1415 self-immolation, 3:1415 suicide rates, 3:1416–1417 alcohol, 3:1416–1417 country/community, 3:1417 ethnicity, 3:1416

Index

1875

gender differences, 3:1416 theory/reporting, 3:1417 Sukarnoputri, Megawati, 1:li, 2:749 Suleman, Nadya “Octomom,” 3:1215, 3:1418 Sullivan, Kathy, 1:94, 1:115–116 Sulochana, 1:175. See also Mayers, Ruby Summitt, Pat, 1:lvi, 1:lxii, 1:131, 1:303, 1:305 Sumners, Rosalyn, 2:556 Sundhage, Pia, 1:303–304 Sunni Family Law, 1:lxi superbrides, 1:195 supermodels, 3:1418–1419 Supremacists, The (Schlafly), 1:436 Suriname, 3:1420–1421 discrimination, 3:1420 domestic violence, 3:1420 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), 3:1420 poverty, 3:1420 sex trade, 3:1420 Survey of Earned Doctorates, 1:306 Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), 1:296 Susan G. Komen Foundation, 1:217–218 sustainable development, 4:1620 suttee, 3:1421 Suu Kyi, Aung San, 2:989, 3:1062, 3:1085, 3:1421–1422 detention, 3:1422 political life, 3:1422 release from house arrest, 3:1422 Swallow, Ellen, 1:486 Swank, Hilary, 1:lv, 1:182 Swartz, Mary, 1:296 Swaziland, 3:1423–1424 abortion access, 1:2 abortion laws, international, 1:9 children, 3:1423 gender equality, 3:1423 HIV/AIDS, 3:1423

1876

Index

sweatshops, 3:1424–1426 globalization and, 3:1424–1425 social pressure, 3:1425–1426 Sweden, 3:1426–1427 domestic violence, 3:1427 fertility, 3:1426 infant mortality, 3:1426 life-expectancy, 1:47 politics, 3:1426 women’s rights, 3:1426 Sweet Honey in the Rock, 3:1427–1428 “sweet 16 parties,” 1:25 swimming, 3:1428–1430 as competitive sport, 3:1429 Olympic Games, 3:1429–1430 See also Torres, Dara Swinton, Tilda, 1:lix Switzer, Katherine, 3:1259 Switzerland, 1:liii, 1:lvii, 1:lix, 3:1430–1431 abortion access, 1:1, 1:3, 3:1431 employment, 3:1430 life-expectancy, 1:47 literacy, 3:1430 Swoopes, Sheryl, 4:1580 Syal, Sabba Saleem, 1:89 Sykes, Wanda, 1:314–315 Sylvestre, Charles, 1:296 syphilis, 3:1338 Syria, 3:1431–1432 children, 3:1431 fertility, 3:1431 gender gap, 3:1431 trafficking, 3:1431 Szostak, Jack W., 1:lxi T Taguba, Antonio, 1:18 Taikon, Katarina, 3:1251 Taikon, Rosa, 3:1251 Tajikistan, 3:1433–1434

educational opportunities/access, 3:1433 employment, 3:1433 society, 3:1433 Take Back the Night, 3:1434–1435 current marches, 3:1435 exclusions, 3:1435 history, 3:1434–1435 Take It From Me! (Brockovich), 1:196 Talbott, Edith, 2:534 Talbott, Marion, 2:534 Talented Mr. Ripley, The, 1:160 Taliban, 1:lxi, 1:42, 3:1436–1437 discrimination, 3:1437 initial concept, 3:1436–1437 Tamang, Stella, 3:1437–1338 Tamiris, Helen, 1:373 Tan, Amy, 3:1027 Tandy, Jessica, 2:558 Tanner, James, 3:1187 Tanner Scale, 3:1187 Tanzania, 1:liv, 3:1438–1439 co-op farms, 3:1439 educational opportunities/access, 3:1438–1439 HIV/AIDS, 3:1438 politics, 3:1439 reproductive and sexual health rights, 3:1438 Taoism, 1:199 Tardos, Eva, 1:324 Tasker, Yvonne, 1:19 Taub, Nadine, 2:540 Taurasi, Diana, 4:1580 Taylor, Barbara Brown, 1:359 Taylor, Charles, 2:856 Taylor, Elizabeth, 2:558 Taylor, Harriet, 3:1093 Taylor-Corbett, Lynne, 1:373 Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri, 3:1439–1440 crossover successes, 3:1440 recitals/solo concerts, 3:1440 Tea, Michelle, 2:685



teachers’ unions, 3:1440–1442 current issues, 3:1441–1442 women’s advancement, 3:1441 team owners, female, 3:1442–1443 Tebo, Tim, 3:1171 Techamaunvivit, Pim, 1:167 teen pregnancy, 3:1443–1446 social problems, 3:1445 statistics, 3:1443–1444, 3:1443–1445 television aging, attitudes toward, 1:47 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), 4:1580 See also reality television Temple, Shirley, 2:558 Tenneson, Joyce, 3:1095 tennis, 3:1446–1447 image concerns, 3:1446–1447 institutional/cultural practices, 3:1447 See also Williams, Serena; Williams, Venus Tenuta, Judy, 1:314 Tequila, Tila, 3:1215 Tereshkova, Valentina, 1:94 termination of pregnancy, 1:10 Terminator 2, 1:19 Terror Dream, The (Faludi), 1:73 terrorists, female, 3:1447–1449 female bombers, 3:1448 martyrs, 3:1449 typical recruit, 3:1447–1448 Terry, Randall, 3:1051 TFAP (The Feminist Art Project), 1:91 TFN. See transnational feminist networks (TFN) Thailand, 3:1449–1450 abortion access, 1:1, 3:1450 sex workers, 3:1449–1450 Tharp, Twyla, 1:373 Thatcher, Margaret, 2:670, 3:1450–1451, 4:1488 “Iron Lady,” 3:1451 reform/policy agendas, 3:1450–1451

Index

1877

Theodore, Lee, 1:373 Theron, Charlize, 1:liii Thill, Kathryn P., 1:322 third wave feminism, 1:159, 2:533, 3:1451–1454 beginnings, 3:1452–1453 coining, 3:1451 girlie feminism, 3:1453–1454 intersectionality, 3:1454 Netherlands, 3:1007 power feminism, 3:1453 See also first wave feminism; second wave feminism Third World Prize, 1:197 Thirteenth Tale (Setterfield), 1:lix Thomas, Helen, 2:796, 3:1454–1455 Thomas, Marlo, 1:lx Thomas, Sarah, 3:1390 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal, 1:197 Thompson, Tina, 4:1580 Thoreau, Henry David, 2:865 Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame, 1:l Three Essays on Sexuality (Freud), 1:158 Thurman, Uma, 3:1222 Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), 3:1455–1456 Tiefenthaler, Jill, 1:447 Tier 2 Watch List, 1:87 Tietze, Christopher, 1:16 TIGERS (The Institute of Greatly Endangered Rare Species), 1:69 Tiller, George, 1:5, 3:1052 Time magazine, 1:52, 3:1289, 3:1356–1357 time to pregnancy (TTP), 2:521 Timor-Leste, 1:lii Tintoretto, Marietta Robusti, 3:1409 Titanic, 1:lxii Title IX, 1:lv, 3:1456–1457 controversies, 3:1456–1457 effect on female veterinarians, 4:1516 beyond sports, 3:1457

1878

Index

vocational and trade school faculty and, 4:1526 Tizuka Yamasaki, 2:567 TLW (True Love Waits), 1:243 To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee, H.), 1:lix Todd, Robert B., 1:157 Togo, 3:1457–1458 abortion access, 1:1 educational opportunities/access, 3:1458 female genital mutilation (FGM), 3:1458 healthcare, 3:1458 HIV/AIDS, 3:1458 human rights, 3:1457–1458 Tomasevic, Jelena, 1:90 Tomlin, Lily, 1:lx, 1:315 Tonga, 3:1458–1459 domestic violence, 3:1458–1459 foreign aid, 3:1458 inheritance, 3:1458 sexual harassment, 3:1458–1459 suffrage, 3:1458 Topdog/Underdog, 1:lii Torre, Susan, 1:85 Torres, Dara, 3:1430, 3:1459–1460 professional activities, 3:1459 role model, 3:1459 Torvill, Jayne, 1:lii Totenberg, Nina, 2:794 Touchy, Leigh Anne, 1:lxii “tough girls,” 1:19 Toxic Links Coalition, 1:219 toxic shock syndrome (TSS), 2:929 toxic waste, as women’s issue, 3:1460–1461 long-term exposure, 3:1460–1461 work/activities, 3:1461 Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, 1:489 toys, gender-stereotypic, 3:1461–1463 differences by age cohort, 3:1462–1463 play patterns/social skills, 3:1463

shaping children, 3:1462 See also Barbie dolls; Bratz dolls track and field, women in, 3:1465–1466 body image, reshaping actions, controversy, 3:1464 media bias, 3:1464–1465 Olympic winners, 3:1465 trade unions, 1:419 trading of girls, 1:26 trafficking, women and children, 1:26, 3:1465–1467, 4:1616 Algeria, 1:52 Antigua and Barbuda, 1:75 Armenia, 1:87 Brazil, 1:186 Cameroon, 1:214 Chad, 1:241 China, 1:282 combating, 3:1467 Estonia, 1:498 global problem, 3:1466–1467 Indonesia, 2:748 Jordan, 2:792 Kazakhstan, 2:810–811 Latvia, 2:829 Lithuania, 2:864 mail-order brides and, 2:880 Mariana Islands, Northern, 2:896 Montenegro, 2:975 Norway, 3:1024 Serbia, 3:1297 Syria, 3:1431 Vietnam, 4:1517 Trafficking Victim’s Protection Act, 1:87 Trahey, Jane, 1:34 transgender, 3:1468–1469, 4:1620 characteristics, 3:1468–1469 discrimination/intolerance, 3:1469 technology, 3:1469 transitional democracies, 4:1620



transnational feminist networks (TFN), 3:1469–1473 achievements, 3:1472 feminism against fundamentalisms, 3:1471 feminism against neoliberalism, 3:1471 feminism against war/imperialism, 3:1471 humanitarianism, 3:1471–1472 strategies, 3:1470 transparent marketing, 1:32 transracial adoption, 1:29 transsexuality, 3:1473–1464 transvestite, 3:1474 Treat, Mary Lua Adelia Davis, 1:152 Tremain, Rose, 1:lx Trethewey, Natasha, 1:lix, 3:1110 “trigger laws,” 1:14 Trinidad and Tobago, 3:1474–1475 gross domestic product (GDP), 3:1474 literacy, 3:1474 maternity leave, 3:1475 Trinity United Church of Christ, 1:164 Trio, Eroica, 1:294 Triple Crown, 1:l Trotta, Margarethe von, 3:1474–1476 Trouillot, Ertha Pascal, 2:804 True Love Waits (TLW), 1:243 TSS (toxic shock syndrome), 2:929 tsunami, 1:lv, 1:lxii Tsvangirai, Morgan, 4:1605 TTP (time to pregnancy), 2:521 tubal ligation, 4:1620 Tucker, Tanya, 1:354 tudong, 1:198 Tunisia, 3:1476–1477 educational opportunities/access, 3:1476–1477 infant mortality, 3:1477 promising changes, 3:1476–1477 Tupper, Earl, 1:400 Tupperware, 1:400–401

Index Turkey, 1:liv, 1:lv, 3:1477–1478 alcohol, 1:20 bisexuality, 1:161 domestic violence, 3:1478 fertility, 3:1478 gender equality, 3:1477–1478 literacy, 3:1478 Turkle, Sherry, 2:763 Turkmenistan, 3:1478–1479 fertility, 3:1479 infant mortality, 3:1479 life expectancy, 3:1479 literacy, 3:1479 polygyny, 3:1479 road fatalities, 3:1479 Turlington, Christy, 3:1419 Turner, Henry McNeal, 1:164 Turner, Lana, 2:558 Turner, Leuga, 1:62 Tutu, Desmond, 1:197 Tuvalu, 3:1479–1480 climate change, 3:1479 economic/environmental shocks, 3:1480 farming/fishing, 3:1480 fertility, 3:1480 life expectancy, 3:1480 TWA. See Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) Twain, Shania, 1:216–217, 1:354 Twelve Sharp (Evanovich), 1:lviii Twiggy, 3:1419 Twitter, 1:230, 3:1225 Twitter Revolution, 1:27 “two-spirit,” 3:1480–1481 berdache, 3:1481 coining, 3:1481 Tyalmuty, Helen, McCarthy, 1:111–112 Tyler, Carol, 1:227 Tyler, Liv, 2:558 Tyler, Robin, 1:315

1879

1880

Index

typhoid fever, 4:1620–1621 Tyra Banks Show, The 1:124 Tyra’s Beauty Inside and Out (Banks), 1:124 TZONE foundation, 1:125 U UAE. See United Arab Emirates (UAE); United Arab Emirates (UAE) Uchida, Mitsuko, 1:294 UConn, 1:131 UFT (United Federation of Teachers), 3:1441 Uganda, 4:1483–1485 alcohol, 1:20 gender gap, 4:1484 HIV/AIDS, 4:1483 polygyny, 4:1483 poverty, 4:1483 public health issues, 4:1483–1484 Ugly Truth, The, 1:73 Ukraine, 4:1485–1486 alcohol, 1:20 politics, 4:1485 work/life conditions, 4:1485–1486 UN. See United Nations (UN) UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA), 1:207 Unbearable Weight (Bordo), 1:231, 2:516, 3:1187 Unborn Victims of Violence Act, 1:liv underrepresentation, 1:21 Underwood, Carrie, 1:61–62 UNDP. See United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) UN-ECA (UN Economic Commission for Africa), 1:207 UNESCO. See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) UNFPA. See United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) UNGA (United Nations General Assembly), 1:lvii

UNICEF. See United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) UNIFEM. See United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) unions, 4:1486–1487. See also specific unions United Arab Emirates (UAE), 1:liii, 1:lvii, 4:1488 United Democratic Party National Organization of Women (UPNOW), 1:148 United Federation of Teachers (UFT), 3:1441 United Kingdom, 4:1488–1491 alcohol, 1:20 astronomy, women in, 1:96 attorneys, female, 1:108–109 computer science, women in, 1:325 employment, 4:1490 gender gap, 4:1490–1491 health, 4:1490–1491 marriage, 4:1490 maternal rights, 4:1490 religion, 4:1489 women and independence, 4:1489–1490 women in government, 4:1489 United Nations (UN), 1:20–21, 3:1348 United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, 1:lxiii United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 1:261, 1:276, 2:622, 2:807, 3:1013 United Nations conferences on women, 4:1491–1494 establishing, 4:1491–1492 impact, 4:1492 results, 4:1492–1493 See also Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) United Nations conventions, 4:1494–1495 advocacy, 4:1494–1495 human rights, 4:1494 milestones, 4:1495



See also Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1:277–278 United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 1:lix, 1:lxii, 1:207, 1:225–226, 3:1013, 4:1496–1497 alliances, 4:1497 establishment, 4:1496 goals/activities, 4:1496–1497 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 1:207, 3:1269 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 1:96, 1:98, 1:100 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1:197 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1:299 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), 1:lvii United Nations Human Development Report, 1:148 United Nations Human Rights Council, 1:52 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 1:lx–lxi, 1:206–207, 3:1303 United Nations Population Information Network (POPIN), 1:1 United Nations Security Council, 1:xlix, 1:lx United States, 1:lii, 4:1497–1502 abortion access, 1:3–4 abortion rights, 1:liv alcohol, 1:20 archery, 1:82 astronauts, female, 1:94–95 astronomy, women in, 1:96 attorneys, female, 1:108 beauty pageants (babies/young children), 1:137–138 bisexuality, 1:162 breastfeeding protection, 1:li

Index

1881

computer science, women in, 1:325 employment, 4:1497–1498 Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA), 3:1280 Evangelical Protestantism, 1:501 family values, 1:278 health, 4:1499–1500 HIV/AIDS, 2:704–705 infanticide, 2:752 life expectancy, 1:47 marriage, 4:1500–1501 media, 4:1501 motherhood, 4:1500–1501 parental leave, 3:1073 partner violence, 1:liii politics, 4:1498–1499 poverty, 4:1498 poverty, feminization of, 3:1135–1136 Progressive Muslims, 3:1168–1169 wealth, 4:1498 women in military, 2:957–959 See also abortion laws, United States; representation of women in government, U.S.; sexual orientation–based legal discrimination: United States; sexual orientation–based violence: United States UNIVAC, 1:323 University of Alabama, 1:lxii University of California, Berkeley, 1:308 University of Michigan, 1:308 University of Southern California, 1:lx University of Tennessee, 1:lvi, 1:lxii University of Texas, 1:lv UniverSoul Circus, 1:70 unpaid labor, 4:1502–1504 controversies/criticism, 4:1503 future challenges, 4:1503–1504 opportunities/choice, 4:1503 UNPOW (United Democratic Party National Organization of Women), 1:148

1882

Index

urban planning, women in, 4:1504–1505 cities built by men, 4:1504–1505 design, 4:1505 transport/safety/community services, 4:1505 urbanization, 1:123 Uruguay, 4:1576 U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, 1:17 U.S. Congress, 1:liii, 1:4, 1:5, 1:18 abortion laws, United States, 1:13–15 U.S. Department of Justice, 1:59, 1:415 U.S. Department of Labor, 1:39–40, 1:253, 3:1021 U.S. Digest of Education Studies, 1:306 U.S. Figure Skating Championship, 1:li U.S. House of Representatives, 1:liii Speaker of the House, 1:lviii U.S. Labor Department, 1:24 U.S. Senate, 1:xlix U.S. Supreme Court, 1:l, 1:li, 1:liii, 1:liv, 1:lv, 1:lviii, 1:lxi, 1:lxiii, 1:10, 1:18, 1:164, 2:538, 2:666, 2:801, 3:1169 on abortion access, 1:4 abortion laws, United States, 1:13–14 See also Ginsburg, Ruth Bader; O’Connor, Sandra Day; Roe v. Wade; specific cases U.S. Tennis Open, 1:li Us Weekly, 4:1578 USA Track and Field Championships, 1:l USVI. See Virgin Islands, U.S. (USVI) uterine rupture, 1:10, 1:15 Uzbekistan, 4:1506–1508 abortion access, 4:1507 children, 4:1507 educational opportunities/access, 4:1507 V Vacher, Polly, 1:115 vacuum aspiration, 1:15, 1:17 Vadim, Annette, 2:559

Vadim, Roger, 2:559 Vagina Monologues, The (Ensler), 4:1509–1510 Vaitautolu-Langford, Evelyn, 1:62 Valenti, Jessica, 1:167 Valentine, Jean, 3:1110 Van Clief-Stefanon, Lyrae, 3:1109 Van Derveer, Tara, 1:303–304, 1:305 van Hemessen, Catharina, 3:1409 van Leeuwen, Fred, 3:1441 Van Trees, James, 2:568 vanden Heuvel, Katrina, 2:796, 4:1510–1511 vanhojen tanssit, 1:25 Vanuatu, 4:1511–1512 feminist activism, 4:1511–1512 infant mortality, 4:1511 Varda, Agnes, 2:560 Vardalos, Nia, 2:564 Variety, 2:916 Vasconcelos, Joana, 1:90 vasectomy, 4:1621. See also sterilization, voluntary VAWA. See Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) Vazquez, Carmen Inoa, 2:609 V-Day, 4:1509–1510 vectorborne diseases, 4:1621 vegetarian feminism, 4:1512–1513 veil, 4:1513–1514, 4:1621 bohiya, 4:1513 chadri, 4:1513 khimar, 4:1513 Muslim stereotyping, 4:1514 niqab, 4:1513 origin/meaning, 4:1513–1514 types, 4:1513 See also head scarves, Secularity Law, France Veil, Simone, 2:585 Venezuela, 4:1514–1515 gender gap, 4:1515



social problems, 4:1515 suffrage, 4:1515 Vera (Schiff ), 1:xlix Vesna, Victoria, 1:91 veterinarians, female, 4:1515–1517 health concerns, 4:1516 salary differentials, 4:1516 Title X effect, 4:1516 VIA (visual inspection with acetic acid), 1:221 Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 1:lx victimization, 1:203 Vidal, Gore, 1:160 vidomegon, 1:148 Vietnam, 4:1517–1518 domestic violence, 4:1517–1518 health, 4:1517–1518 HIV/AIDS, 4:1517 trafficking, women and children, 4:1517 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 2:861 Villa-Komaroff, Lydia, 4:1518–1519 Villepreaux, Jeanne, 1:152 Vincent, Norah, 4:1519–1520 violence abortion access, 1:5 abortion clinic, 1:5 Afghanistan, 1:42–43 Unborn Victims of Violence Act, 1:liv See also dating violence; domestic violence (DV); gender violence; partner violence; sexual orientation–based violence: outside United States; sexual orientation–based violence: United States; sexual violence violence against women, 4:1621 Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA), 1:l, 1:416, 4:1520–1521 grant programs, 4:1520–1521 shift in federal approach, 4:1520 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 2:921

Index

1883

Virgin Islands, U.S. (USVI), 4:1521–1522 birth control, 4:1521 gross domestic product (GDP), 4:1521 healthcare, 4:1521 sports, women in, 4:1522 Virgin Mary, 4:1522–1523 feminism and, 4:1523 scripture/dialogue, 4:1522 theology, 4:1522–1523 Virgin of Guadalupe, 2:944, 4:1523–1524 virginity testing, 1:lvi, 4:1621 Virtual Community, The (Rheingold), 2:763 Visser, Lesley, 3:1387, 4:1525 visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), 1:221 vocational and trade school faculty, 4:1525–1526 requirements/criteria, 4:1526 Title IX and, 4:1526 volleyball. See beach volleyball/volleyball Vollstedt, Linda, 1:liv von Bingen, Hildegard, 1:96, 1:152 von Trotta, Margarethe, 2:560 Vonn, Lindsay, 1:lxiii Voodoo, 2:743, 4:1527–1529 Mama Lola, 2:743 religion/practice, 4:1527–1528 women in, 4:1528–1529 Votaw, Ty, 2:631 voting rights, 4:1529–1532 countries disallowing, 4:1530 difficulties exercising, 4:1531–1532 women in political life, 4:1529–1530 See also suffrage Voyer, Cathy, 1:292 voyeurism, 3:1311 W Wade, Virginia, 3:1447 Wadud, Amina, 1:45, 4:1533–1534 activism, 4:1533–1534

1884

Index

gender equality, 4:1534 publications, 4:1533–1534 WAFSP (Women’s Air Force Service Pilots), 1:94 wage gap, 4:1621 Wagner, Jane, 1:lx Wagner, Paula, 2:916 Wahhabism, 4:1534–1535 Waits, Kathleen, 2:540 Wake exhibit, 1:lvii Walk the Line, 1:lvi Walker, Alice, 1:160, 3:1027, 3:1452, 4:1535–1536, 4:1559, 4:1561 novels, 4:1535–1536 paths to self-knowledge, 4:1535–1536 Walker, C. J., 1:252 Walker, Kara, 3:1409, 4:1536–1537 Walker, Melaine, 3:1047 Walker, Rebecca, 1:160, 3:1452 Walkerdine, Valerie, 2:910 Wallace, Chrissy, 1:114 Wallace, Rusty, 1:114 Wallström, Margot, 1:351 Walters, Barbara, 2:792–793, 4:1537–1538 Walther, Andreas, 1:25 WAP (Women Against Pornography), 3:1123 WAPVM (Women Against Violence in Pornography and the Media), 3:1434 war, 1:89 WAR (Women Against Rape), 3:1434 war against boys, 1:72 War Against Boys, The (Sommers), 1:55 war babies, 1:26 war rape, 1:26 Ward, Mary, 3:1030 Ward v. Canada, 1:161 Waring, Marilyn, 2:847 Warner, Margaret Garrard, 2:794 Warren, Chet, 1:296 Warren, Karen J., 1:444, 1:487

wars of national liberation, women in, 4:1538–1539 Washington Post, 4:1510 Washingtonienne (Cutler), 1:166 WASME (World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises), 1:210 water, as women’s issue, 4:1539–1541 government responsibility/privatized, 4:1540–1541 new resources, 4:1541 water contact diseases, 4:1621 Water Wars (Shiva), 1:488 waterborne diseases, 4:1621 Waters, Alice, 4:1541–1542 Watson, Emma, 2:559 Watson, James, 3:1283 wave metaphor, 2:532–533 WCC (World Council of Churches), 1:290 We Need to Talk about Kevin (Shriver), 1:lvi We Were the Mulvaneys (Oates), 3:1041 wealth bridewealth, 2:898 United States, 4:1498 Weaver, Sigourney, 1:19 WEBA (Women Exploited by Abortion), 3:1172 Weber, Lois, 2:559, 2:563, 2:569–570 Websites American Association of University of Women (AAUW), 1:60 arranged marriages, 2:901 artfem.tv, 1:lx Barbie dolls, 1:128 censorship, 1:236, 1:237 Christian Identity, 1:287 clergy abuse/pedophilia, 1:296 crafting industry, 1:358 Family Research Council (FRC), 2:510 feminism on college campuses, 2:536 feminist publishing, 2:542 Guerrilla Girls, 1:l



MADRE, 2:878 Ms. magazine, 2:984–985 pro-life movement, 3:1171 social justice activism, 3:1369 Women on the Web, 1:lx See also blogs and blogosphere; Facebook; Google; Internet; MySpace; Twitter; YouTube Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 1:13, 3:1248 wedding industry, 4:1542–1545 markets, 4:1543 traditions, 4:1543–1544 See also “bridezillas” WEDGE. See Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE) WEDO (Women’s Environment and Development Organization), 1:299, 1:485, 3:1018 Weems, Renita, 1:165 Weight Watchers, 1:393 weightlifting, 4:1544–1545 bodybuilding, 4:1545 Olympics, 4:1544–1545 See also fitness Weinberg, George, 2:716 Weiss, Carol, 3:1085 Weisstein, Naomi, 1:160 Weisz, Paloma Varga, 1:90 Weisz, Rachel, 1:lvi Weitz & Luxenberg, 1:196 welfare, 4:1545–1547 children and, 4:1547 employment and, 4:1546–1547 poverty and, 4:1546 reform, 4:1545–1546 See also social welfare Wells, Alice Stebbins, 2:831 Wells, Ida B., 1:252 Wells, Kitty, 1:353–354 Wells, Mary, 1:lx, 1:34

Index

1885

WEN (Women’s Environment Network), 1:484 Wenjun Guo, 3:1345 Wertheimer, Linda, 2:794 Wertmüler, Lina, 2:569 Wescoff, Marlyn, 1:323 West, Jessamyn, 1:166 West, Mae, 2:558 West, Robin, 2:540 Westenhoefer, Suzanne, 1:315 Weston, Marcy, 3:1390 Westwood, Vivienne, 2:789 WEtv, 4:1565–1566 WGA (Writer’s Guild of America), 2:570 What I Lived For (Oates), 3:1041 What It Is, 1:227 What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business (Felt), 1:23–24 What the Dead Know (Lippman), 1:lix When I Lived in Modern Times (Grant), 1:xlix When Men Become Gods (Singular), 2:590 Where Did I Come From? (Mayle), 3:1307 Where Have All the Parents Gone?, 1:57 Where the Girls Are, 1:60 Where the Water Meets the Sky, 1:lx Whirlwind, 1:323 White, Michele, 2:764 White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG), 4:1547–1548 white supremacy, 4:1548–1549 Whiterad, Rachel, 1:90 Whiting, Edmund, 1:17 Whitman, Meg, 1:324 Whitson, Peggy, 1:lviii, 1:94 WHO. See World Health Organization (WHO) WiB. See Women in Black (WiB) Wicca/Goddess spirituality, 3:1392, 4:1549–1551 Goddess Movement, 4:1551 yearly festivities, 4:1549–1550 See also witchcraft: worldwide

1886

Index

Wide Sargasso Sea (Rhys), 1:420 Widmer-Schlumpf, Evaline, 1:lix widows, 4:1551–1553 demographics of, 4:1552 in developing world, 4:1552–1553 Wie, Michelle, 1:lviii WIFE. See Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE) WIG (Women in Games), 1:321 Wiggins, Candice, 1:131 Wilber, Doreen, 1:82 Wilde, Liz, 1:405 Wilke, Hannah, 1:169 Wilkins, Maureen, 3:1283 Willard, Emma, 2:688 Williams, Alison, 1:82 Williams, Betty, 3:1018 Williams, Cecil, 1:164 Williams, Joan, 2:540 Williams, Jody, 3:1018, 1085 Williams, Karen, 1:315 Williams, Michelle, 3:1442 Williams, Rowan, 1:66 Williams, Serena, 1:li, 1:liv, 1:lv, 1:lx, 1:lxiii, 3:1447, 4:1553 Williams, Sunita, 1:94 Williams, Venetia, 2:725 Williams, Venus, 1:l, 1:li, 1:lii, 1:liv, 1:lvi, 1:lix, 1:lx, 3:1447, 4:1553 Williams, Wendy, 1:405, 2:540 Williamson, Judith, 1:36 Willis, Alasdhair, 2:914 WILPF. See Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Wilson, Bertha, 2:804 Wilson, Desire, 1:113 Wilson, Diane, 1:305 Wilson, Regina, 1:112 Wilson, Robert, 2:924 Wilson, Robin, 1:307

Wimbledon, 1:l, 1:lii, 1:liv, 1:lv, 1:lvi, 1:lviii, 1:lix, 1:lx Winestead, Lizz, 1:315 Winfrey, Oprah, 1:lxiii, 1:231, 1:253, 1:482, 3:1090, 4:1554–1555 business independence, 4:1554 philanthropy, 4:1554–1555 Winkett, Canon Lucy, 4:1555–1556 in public spotlight, 4:1555–1556 publications, 4:1555 Winn, Sally, 2:545 Winslett, Kate, 1:lx, 2:559 Winterson, Jeanette, 3:1027 WIPI (Women in Photography International), 3:1095 WISE (Women into Science and Engineering), 1:476 Wishik, Heather, 2:540 witchcraft: worldwide, 4:1556–1558 Africa, 4:1557–1558 Arabic peninsula, 4:1558 Asia, 4:1558 Latin America, 4:1557 North America/Australia/Europe, 4:1556–1557 See also Wicca/Goddess spirituality Witherspoon, Reese, 1:lvi, 2:559 Withington, Eliza, 3:1094 Witt, Katarina, 1:lvi, 2:556 WMM. See Women Make Movies (WMM) WNBA. See Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) WOC. See Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) Wolf, Naomi, 1:346 Wolfe, Donald M., 2:725 Wolgast, Elizabeth, 2:540 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 2:529 woman of color, 2:537 womanism, 1:165, 4:1559–1560 afrocentric/feminist theory, 4:1560



core themes, 4:1559–1560 four dimension of womanist theory, 4:1559 womanist theology, 4:1560–1662 African Americans, 4:1560–1561 marginalized groups, 4:1561 Woman’s Trade Union League (WTUL), 4:1487 Women (Leibovitz), 2:838 Women Against Pornography (WAP), 3:1123 Women Against Rape (WAR), 3:1434 Women Against Violence in Pornography and the Media (WAVPM), 3:1434 Women Boxing Archive Network, 1:53 Women Exploited by Abortion (WEBA), 3:1172 Women in Black (WiB), 4:1562–1563 Women in Games (WIG), 1:321 Women in Photography International (WIPI), 3:1095 Women into Science and Engineering (WISE), 1:476 Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE), 4:1563–1564 Women Make Movies (WMM), 4:1564–1565 Women of Ground Zero, 1:74 Women on the Web, 1:lx Women on Waves (WoW), 2:632 Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WAFSP), 1:94 Women’s Awakening Club, 1:81 Women’s Best Friend (Haggerty-Brennan), 1:70 Women’s Business Group, 3:1420 women’s cable networks, 4:1565–1566 Lifetime, 4:1565–1566 Oxygen Media, 4:1565–1566 second wave feminism, 4:1565 WEtv, 4:1565–1566 Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice, 3:1019 women’s colleges, 4:1566–1568 current, 4:1568 purpose benefits, 4:1567–1568 women’s cooperatives, 4:1568–1570 achievements, 4:1570

Index

1887

fighting poverty, 4:1569–1570 forms/outreach, 4:1569 Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE), 1:207 Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), 1:299, 1:485, 4:1570–1571, 3:1018 Women’s Environment Network (WEN), 1:484 Women’s Funding Network, 4:1571–1572 women’s health clinics, 4:1572–1575 free-standing birth centers, 4:1574 global issues, 4:1575 innovations, 4:1572–1573 planned parenting/abortion/contraception, 4:1573 professional agendas/institutionalization, 4:1574–1575 research, 4:1572–1573 self-help gynecology, 4:1573–1574 Women’s History Month, 4:1575–1577 origins, 4:1576 recognizing accomplishments, 4:1576 Women’s Human Rights, 1:liv Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, 3:1019 Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), 3:1019, 1026, 4:1577–1578 founding, 4:1577 members, 4:1577 Women’s International Policy Action Committee (IPAC), 1:485 Women’s Leaders’ Network, 1:210 Women’s Legal Rights Project, 1:49 women’s magazines, 4:1578–1579 body image concerns, 4:1578–1579 celebrity gossip, 4:1578 fashion/lifestyle, 4:1579 online, 4:1578 See also specific magazines women’s movement Ireland, 2:771–772

1888

Index

Lebanon, 2:835 Nigeria, 3:1012–1013 Slovakia, 3:1360–1361 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), 1:302, 4:1579–1580 college basketball, 4:1579–1580 television debut, 4:1580 Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), 4:1580–1582 controversies, 4:1581 moving forward, 4:1581 Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), 3:1152 Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA), 2:630 Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA), 3:1246 Women’s Professional Soccer League, 1:302 Women’s Resource Centers, 4:1582–1584 activism, 4:1583 current, 4:1583 themes/trends, 4:1582–1583 Women’s Review of Books, 4:1584–1585 women’s rights, 1:li, 1:liii, 1:liv, 1:lv, 1:lviii, 1:lxi Albania, 1:49 Bahrain, 1:122 Bangladesh, 1:124 Cape Verde, 1:226 Central African Republic (CAR), 1:238 children’s rights and, 1:279 Chile, 1:280 China, 1:281–282 Cyprus, 1:369 Czech Republic (CZ), 1:370 Estonia, 1:498 France, 2:584–585 Georgia, 2:613 Guatemala, 2:649–650 Guinea, 2:654 Hungary, 2:732 Indonesia, 2:748–749

Iran, 2:768–769 Kuwait, 2:818–819 Laos, 2:828 Lesotho, 2:848–849 Lithuania, 2:863 Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, 1:liii Somalia, 3:1375 South Korea, 3:1380 Sweden, 3:1426 Women’s Human Rights, 1:liv Women’s Legal Rights Project, 1:49 Women’s Rights Monitoring Group, 1:118 See also Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID); children’s rights; human rights Women’s Rights Monitoring Group, 1:118 Women’s Sports Foundation, 1:54 women’s studies, 4:1585–1587 alliances, 4:1586 feminism on college campuses, 2:535–53 ferment of 1960s, 4:1585 National Organization for Women (NOW) and, 4:1586 National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), 4:1586 positions in discipline, 4:1585–1586 progress, 4:1586–1587 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), 3:1446 Women’s Thrift Cooperatives (WTCs), 4:1587–1588 Won by Love (McCorvey), 2:915–916 Wonder Woman, 1:19 Wong, Andrea, 2:916 Wong-Staal, Flossie, 1:153 Wood, Julia, 1:276 Woodiwiss, Kathleen, 3:1255 Woodruff, Judy, 2:794 Woodward, Helen, 1:34 Woolf, Virginia, 1:lii, 3:1026



working mothers, 4:1588–1591 challenges, 4:1590 current, 4:1589–1590 double burden, 4:1590–1591 historical overview, 4:1588–1589 motherhood institution, 4:1589 work/life balance, 4:1591–1593 realizing, 4:1592 stress effect, 4:1591–1592 time shortage, 4:1592 workplace culture/climate, 4:1593 workplace support, 4:1592–1593 World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, 3:1018 World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME), 1:210 World Bank, 1:98 World Changing Church, 1:164 World Community of Islam, 1:45 World Council of Churches (WCC), 1:290 World Ecology Award, 1:197 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report, 1:85, 1:86, 1:146 World Health Organization (WHO), 1:lxii–lxii, 1:20, 1:197, 1:220, 1:269, 2:859, 3:1302, 4:1593–1594 child labor and, 1:263 on contraception methods, 1:332 depression and, 1:380 establishment, 4:1593 on mental health treatment, access to, 2:933–934 objectives, 4:1593–1594 World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), 1:180, 2:603–604 World Trade Center, 1:li World War II, 3:1158 WoW (Women on Waves), 2:632 WOW (Women’s Ordination Worldwide), 3:1152 WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health), 1:180, 2:603–604

Index

1889

WPGA (Women’s Professional Golf Association), 2:630 WPRA (Women’s Professional Rodeo Association), 3:1246 Wrazidlo, Leah, 3:1391 Wright, Jeremiah, 1:164 Wright, Johnny, 1:353 Wright, Marjorie, 1:lvi Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), 2:570 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), 3:1446 WTCs. See Women’s Thrift Cooperatives (WTCs) WTUL (Woman’s Trade Union League), 4:1487 Wuomos, Aileen, 1:liii Wynette, Tammy, 1:354 Wynne, Kathleen, 2:847 X X, Malcolm, 1:45 X Games, 4:1595–1596 Xena: Princess Warrior, 1:19 X-Files, The, 1:19 xtreme sports, 4:1595–1597 athletes/advertising/media, 4:1596–1597 X Games, 4:1595–1596 XX chromosome, 4:1621 XY chromosome, 4:1621 Y Yalow, Rosalyn, 1:153 Yamaguchi, Kristi, 2:556 yang, 1:284 Yates, Andrea, 1:l, 1:lviii, 2:752, 4:1599–1600 Yearbook of International Organizations, 3:1016 Yemen, 4:1600–1601 abortion access, 4:1601 children, 4:1601 educational opportunities/access, 4:1600 literacy, 4:1600 Yeoh, Michelle, 3:1222 Yi So-Yeon, 1:lx, 1:95

1890

Index

yin, 1:284 Ying Chen, 3:1345 Yo Gabba Gabba, 1:54 yoga, 4:1601–1602 derivation, 4:1601 health effects, 4:1601–1602 research, 4:1601–1602 spiritual practice, 4:1601 Yonath, Ada E., 1:lxii Young, Ella Flagg, 3:1441 Young, Roger Arliner, 1:152 Young and Rubicam, 1:35 Young and the Restless, 3:1363–1364 Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), 1:416 YouTube, 1:233, 3:1225, 3:1369 “yo-yo-ization,” 1:25 YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education, 3:1373 Yun Mi-Jin, 1:82 Yun Ok-Hee, 1:82 Yunus, Mohammad, 2:637–638 YWCA. See Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Z Zach Feuer Gallery, 1:lvii, 1:89 Zafferani, Rosa, 3:1273 Zaharias, Babe, 3:1377 Zahn, Paula, 2:794 Zaimont, Judith Lang, 4:1603–1604 performer/composer, 4:1603 teaching career, 4:1603–1604

Zambia, 1:lx, 4:1604–1605 abortion laws, international, 1:11, 1:12 divorce, 4:1605 fertility, 4:1604–1605 HIV/AIDS, 4:1604–1605 infant mortality, 4:1604–1605 property rights, 4:1605 prostitution, 4:1605 Zayak, Elaine, 2:556 Zellweger, Renée, 1:liii Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust (ZTCT), 1:361 zero-tolerance policies, 1:56 Zetterling, Mai, 2:561 Zhang Ziyi, 1:19 Zheng Jie, 3:1447 Zia, Khaleda, 2:669 Zimbabwe, 4:1605–1607 bride price, 4:1607 discrimination, 4:1605–1606 life expectancy, 4:1605 migration, 4:1605 zina, 1:43, 4:1621 zines, 1:91 Zinta, Priety, 3:1443 Zolciak, Kim, 3:1215 ZTCT (Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust), 1:361 Zucker, Alyssa, 2:536–537 Zvoraneva, Vera, 3:1447 Zwilich, Ellen Taaffe, 1:294 zygote, 1:7



Photo Credits

1891

Photo Credits Volume 1: Photos © Donald Woodman: 248, 398; Photo © Larry Utley: 425; Photo © Hay Festival: 432; Morgue File: 7, 63, 127, 147, 281; iStockphoto: 20, 58, 123, 163, 168, 205, 236, 357; Photos.com: 28, 47, 77, 111, 134, 140, 181, 200, 222, 246, 267, 288, 293, 339, 375, 382, 403, 412, 440, 457; StockXChnge: 43 (Yan Boechat), 179 (Fuji Salisbury), 345 (Griszka Niewiadomski), 469; Southborough Historical Society: 36; USAID: 421 (Maria De Moya), 450, 459, 461, 499; Wikimedia: 57 (Remy Steinegger), 83, 120, 195, 197, 248 (Brett Matthews), 226, 261 (Zouavman Le Zouave), 301, 365, 443; Southborough Historical Society: 36; U.S. Department of State: 50; U.S. Army: 324; U.S. Department of Defense: 150, 311 (Ryan Rholes); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 153; Library of Congress: 87, 494; National Aeronautics and Space Administration: 95; National Cancer Institute: 189; National Institutes of Health: 471; Yorck Project: 391. Volume 2: Photo © Jean Haskell: 643; Greenbelt Movement: 646 (Mia MacDonald); Morgue File: 740; iStockphoto: 512, 515, 550, 773, 798, 812, 841, 892, 943, 989; Photos.com: 659, 689, 748, 779, 934; Dreamstime.com: 555 (Olga Besnard), 599; StockXChnge: 731, 784 (Hans Dampf ), 787, 832, 900; USAID: 525, 581, 613, 649 (Maureen TaftMorales), 700, 709, 792, 810, 820, 855 (Edith C. Bawn), 875, 882, 885, 947, 972; Wikimedia: 507 (Adam C. Baker), 543, 574, 591, 595, 639 (Steve Jurvetson); 669, 680 (Jeremy Pepper), 720, 729, 761, 794 (Martyna Borkowski), 803 (Antônio Cruz), 817, 825, 836, 861, 908 (Jean Louis Audebaud), 912, 921 (Bill Whittaker), 931, 952; U.S. Supreme Court: 618 (Steve Petteway); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 919 (James Gathany); Environmental Protection Agency: 867; Library of Congress: 533, 543 (right), 621, 631; U.S. Department of Defense: 958 (Scott T. Sturkol); World Bank: 745 (Yosef Hadar), 768 and 849 (Curt Carnemark); Yorck Project: 903. Volume 3: Photo © Tim Ruggles: 1249; Morgue File: 1271; iStockphoto: 1050, 1145, 1186, 1274, 1287, 1292, 1331, 1341, 1379, 1385, 1425, 1444; Photos.com: 1059, 1100, 1107, 1127, 1147, 1203, 1208, 1246, 1257, 1415; StockXChnge: 1065, 1094, 1133, 1173; Southborough Historical Society: 1232, 1360, 1381 (Joy Curilan), 1402; USAID: 1005, 1012, 1264, 1296 (Sega Dicko), 1347, 1410, 1434, 1439, 1479; Wikimedia: 995, 1004 (Elke Wetzig), 1028, 1076, 1087, 1115, 1176, 1196, 1313, 1350, 1367 (David Herrmann), 1376, 1428, 1468; Online Burma/ Myanmar Library: 1422; World Economic Forum: 1022 (Remy Steinegger); White House Photo: 1043 (Joyce N. Boghosian), 1277 (Chuck Kennedy); U.S. Air Force: 1451; U.S. Army: 1159 (Lacey Justinger); U.S. Department of Defense: 1068 (Karima Turner), 1080, 1358; U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center: 1344; Library of Congress: 1045, 1151, 1396; National Aeronautics and Space Administration: 1241; National Science Foundation, 1284; EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images: 1420. Volume 4: iStockphoto: 1550; Photos.com: 1567, 1589, 1596, 1606; USAID: 1484, 1507, 1517, 1524, 1527, 1600; Wikimedia: 1537, 1554; Women’s Ordination Conference: 1581; NARA: 1571; United Nations: 1493 (Eskinder Debebe); World Health Organization: 1494, 1540, 1594 (P. Virot); Library of Congress: 1576; National Institutes of Health: 1499.